James’s extravagances have seriously depleted the royal…
1610 CE
James’s extravagances have seriously depleted the royal treasury; his attempts to replenish it without Parliamentary consent brings him into conflict with that body.
Salisbury proposes the Great Contract of 1610, in which James is to receive a fixed income in return for abolishing his feudal revenues, but he is unable to secure its passage.
Edward Coke, chief justice of England's Court of Common Pleas, decides Dr. Bonham's Case, thus affirming the supremacy of the common law, which limits the power of Parliament as well as the king.
In the case, the Royal College of Physicians had convicted and imprisoned Thomas Bonham for practicing medicine without a license.
When Bonham challenges his imprisonment, Coke rules that the Royal College lacks the authority under its charter and a parliamentary statute to imprison for practicing without a license.
Among other things, Coke rules that the provision of the charter allowing imprisonment must be read strictly to prevent loss of liberty ("reason requireth that same be taken strictly for the liberty of the Subject"), and Coke also notes that the College cannot be a judge in a case to which it is a party.