This sixteenth-century
illustration shows an imaginary meeting of King Edward I of England in
Parliament, with, at his sides, his vassals King Alexander III of Scotland
and Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of Wales, along with the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York, and before them the other Lords Spiritual sitting on
benches to his right and the Lords Temporal to his left and the judges of
the realm sitting on woolsacks |
The King to the venerable
father in Christ Robert, by the same grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate
of all England, greeting.
As a most just law (Etsi membra), established by the careful providence of sacred princes, exhorts and decrees that what touches all should be approved by all (ut quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur), so also, very evidently should common danger be met by means provided in common. You know sufficiently well, and it is now, as we believe, divulged through all regions of the world, how the king of France fraudulently and craftily deprives us of our land of Gascony, by withholding it unjustly from us. . . . September 1295 Letter was also written to all the bishops of England, 67 abbots, and the Masters of the Knights Templar and the Prior of the Hospitalers |