HKB
plenus intellectis, quasdam ipsarum de concilio procerum predictorum delevimus, quasdam permisimus, et quasdam correximus, et etiam quasdam alias adjungendas et statuendas decrevimus, et eas, &c. observari volumus in forma subscripta._"
And then goes on to prescribe and establish a whole code of laws for the principality, in the style of a sole legislature, and concludes,
Et ideo vobis mandamus, quod premissa de cetero in omnibus firmiter observatis. Ita tamen quod quotiescunque, et quandocunque, et ubicunque, nobis placuerit, possimus predicta statuta et coram partes singulas declarare, interpretari, addere sive diminuere, pro nostro libito voluntatis, et prout securitati nostrae et terrae nostrae predictae viderimus expedire.
Here is then a conquered people submitting to a system of laws framed by the mere will of the conqueror, and agreeing to be forever governed by his mere will. This absolute monarch, then, might afterwards govern this country, with or without the advice of his English lords and commons.
To shew that Wales was held before the conquest of Lewellyn, of the king of England, although governed by its own laws, hear lord Coke, Inst. 194, in his commentary on the statute of Westminster. "At this time, viz. in 3 Ed. 1. Lewellyn was a prince or king of Wales, who held the same of the king of England, as his superior lord, and owed him liege homage and fealty; and this is proved by our act, viz: that the king of England was superior dominus, i. e. sovereign lord of the kingdom, or principality of Wales."
Lord Coke, in 4 Inst. 239, says "Wales was sometime a realm, or kingdom, (realm from the French word royaume, and both a regno) and governed per suas regulas," and afterwards, "but jure feudali, the kingdom of Wales was holden of the crown of England, and thereby, as Bracton saith, was sub potestate regis. And so it continued until the 11th year of king Edward 1st. when he subdued the prince of Wales, rising against him, and executed him for treason." "The next year, viz. in the 12th year of king Edward 1. by authority of parliament, it is declared thus, speaking in the person of the king, as ancient statutes were wont to do, divina providentia," &c. as in the statute Walliae, before recited. But here is an inaccuracy, for the statutum Walliae was not an act of parliament, but made by the king with the advice of his officers of the army, by his sole authority, as the statute itself sufficiently shews. "Note," says lord Coke, "diverse monarchs hold their kingdoms of others jure feudali, as the duke of Lombardy, Cicill, Naples, and Bohemia of the empire, Granado, Leons of Aragon, Navarre, Portugal of Castile; and so others."