So far as we can gather from the reports of state trials, peers of the
realm were usually sentenced by those who tried them, with the
assent of the king. But in some instances no mention is made of
the assent of the king, as in the case of "Lionel, Earl of Middlesex,
Lord High Treasurer of England," in 1624, (four hundred years
after Magna Carta,) where the sentence was as follows:
"This High Court of Parliament doth adjudge, that Lionel, Earl of
Middlesex, now Lord Treasurer of England, shall lose all his
offices which he holds in this kingdom, and shall, hereafter, be
made incapable of any office, place, or employment in the state
and commonwealth. That he shall be imprisoned in the tower of
London, during the king's pleasure. That he shall pay unto our
sovereign lord the king a fine of 50,000 pounds. That he shall
never sit in Parliament any more, and that he shall never come
within the verge of the court." 2 Howell's Stale Trials, 1250.
Here was a peer of the realm, and a minister of the king, of the
highest grade; and if it were ever necessary to obtain the assent of
the king to sentences pronounced by the peers, it would unquestionably
have been obtained in this instance, and his assent would have appeared
in the sentence.
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