Constabularius: as also more fully in Rymer, vol.xi.
p.581.Here is a clause of it: "Et ulterius de uberiori gratia nostra eidem comiti de Rivers plenam potestatem damus ad cognoscendum et procedendum, in omnibus et singulis causis et negotiis, de et super crimine lesse majestatis, seu super occasione eseterisque causis quibuscunque per praefatum comitem de Rivers, ut constabularium Angliae----quae in curia constabularii Angliae ab antique, viz, tempore dicti domini Gtilielmi Conquaetoris, sen aliquo tempore citra, tractari, audiri examinari, aut decidi consueverant, aut jure debuerant aut clebeni, causasque et negotia praedicta cum omnibus et singulis emergentibus, incidentibus et connexis, audiendum, examinandum, et fine debito terminandum, etiam _summarie et de plano, sine strepitu et figura justitiae, sola facti veritate inspecta,_ ac etiam manu regia, si opportunum visum fuerit eidem comiti de Rivers, vices nostras, appellatione remots." The office of constable was perpetual in the monarchy; its jurisdiction was not limited to times of war, as appears from this patent, and as we learn from Spellman; yet its authority was in direct contradiction to Magna Charta; and it is evident, that no regular liberty could subsist with it.

It involved a full dictatorial power, continually subsisting in the state.

The only check on the crown, besides the want of force to support all its prerogatives, was, that the office of constable was commonly either hereditary or during life, and the person invested with it was, for that reason, not so proper an instrument of arbitrary power in the king.

Accordingly the office was suppressed by Henry VIII., the most arbitrary of all the English princes.

The practice, however, of exercising martial law still subsisted; and was not abolished till the Petition of Right under Charles I.This was the epoch of true liberty, confirmed by the restoration, and enlarged and secured by the revolution.] [Footnote 19: NOTE S, p.459.We shall give an instance.