1628: Serjeant Bramston's Five Knights Case

1483 Words3 Pages

1. INTRODUCTION
In 1628, the British parliament faced a lot of difficult and complex questions in regards to sovereignty which was due to King Charles I overstepping his boundaries as a King, with his actions surrounding the Five Knights’ Case. The king, historically is the Supreme Lord of the courts and has never been a part of the jurisdiction and has a lot of powers vested in him. The questions that arose in the minds of the parliamentarians in light of the case in hand was to understand the extent of the royal’s prerogative to exercise these. Due to the king overstepping his powers, both the houses decided to enact the Petition of Rights,1628 which was a major English constitutional document that clearly set out specific subjects which …show more content…

To grant bail to the five knights for there was no cause for imprisonment. The Habeas Corpus writ needs to be answered with the cause of the imprisonment as per the law.
2. If the law claims remand and imprisonment after the explanation to false imprisonment, it shall be abided by but an explanation needs to be provided as per the writ of Habeas Corpus.
3. If the explanation is declined it would be a restraining the knights of their liberties perpetually and would be in violation to the laws of Magna Carta and Statute 28 EDw.3, c.3 which states that a man must not be restrained and be ripped off the benefits of law which are inherent in him.

The arguments presented by Mr. Selden in favour of Sir Edmund Hampden:
1. There is no basis for restraining the liberty of the accused against unlawful imprisonment.
2. No man can be imprisoned justly without a cause for under Magna Carts, cap29 – the statute states that every man would enjoy his liberty better than he doth ... out of the very body of this Act of Parliament, besides the explanation of other statutes, it appears, 'Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur nisi per legem

Open Document