AN INQUIRY Into the Remarkable Instances of History and Parliament Records used by the Author of the Vnreasonableness of a new Separation on Account of the Oaths whether they are faithfully cited and applied THE Author of this Discourse makes Enquiry into two things to clear what he hath before delivered Page 12. 1st How far the Discharge or Release from a Person who hath Right and is concerned is necessary to those who take the Oaths of Allegiance to another Person in Possession of the Crown 2dly How far our Saviour's Rule holds in this Case The Theological part of this Discourse I wholly pretermit and leave it to Divines the Historical is only that I shall enquire into And before I enter upon this Enquiry I shall Note First That the Saxons were a miscellaneous People joyned with the Francks in Piracy and Rapine who made Descents wherever they could upon the Coasts of Gallia Flanders and Britain as Ammianus Marcellinus lib. 27. c. 7. and l. 28 c. 7. Bede in his History fol 58. col 2. adds the Jutes and Angles to those who came or were invited into England Mr. Selden adds to these the Danes and Frisons in his Chronology at the end of Janus and most certainly under the names of Saxons were comprehended several other People such as joyned with them in Rapine and Piracy or such as they had subdued which by the Conquering Romans or Neighbour Nations had been forced for their own safety into Islands Bogs and Morasses upon and near the Coasts of the German Sea from the River Eydor in Juteland to the Elve and from thence to the Rhine and Scheld and it may not want probability that the Heptarchy was here erected by the Leaders of seven different sorts of People Robbers and Pillagers under the names of Saxons Such as they were when they came they remain'd especially during the Heptarchy always Invading Plundering and Burning one anothers Countries frequently killing and murthering their Kings Earls or Chief Governours or those one another So as I think very Judicious Men would not look for Authentick and Well-grounded Precedents in the History of these times where things were always in a Flux without permanent settlement or amongst the barbarous Usages of these rude illiterate People unless in such Cases as may have a great appearance of Truth and are reported or confirmed by the unanimous consent of their Historians The order of Succession was certain in the West Saxon Kingdom after Egbert brought the greatest part of the Heptarchy under his Power and Government Yet from the various Expressions of the ancient Writers of the Saxon Story concerning the Succession an unwary Reader would think that the Saxons agreed not in one Rule of Succession or that they had no Rule at all but whoever considers with understanding what those Historians say will find they pursued a sure Rule of Succession as much and as often as those times would permit which was either Right and Proximity of Blood or the Nomination and Appointment of a Successor by the Precedent King which Nomination by the Saxon Kings before the Danes came in mostly happened in the Minority or Nonage of their Children and that only in the turbulent State of the Nation in turbulento Reipublicae tempore which was thought and allowed a sufficient Cause for the Father to prefer his Brothers Son before his own Vit. Aelfred fol. 9. sect 10. lin 4. c. or a Bastard before his lawful Issue ut pater fratris filium proprio vel etiam Nothum anteferret Germano And by the following Instances it will plainly appear That the Saxons did in their owning of Subjection and Submission to their Princes acknowledge both Proximity of Blood and Nomination by their Kings often both together sometimes only one of them but never followed any other Rule nor did the People in the Saxon Monarchy set up any King themselves in any formal or pretended Assembly of the Nation Of both Titles in the same Person there are these three Examples before the Danes Conquest Egbert the first Saxon Monarch had two Sons Ethelwolth and Aethelstan the Eldest succeeded him in the Kingdom of the West Saxons and he gave to his other Son Aethelstan what he had subdued or his Conquests who died obscurely it not being known what end he came to Malmsb. de Gest Reg. Ang. f. 20. a. n. 30. Ethelwolphus West-Saxonum regno contentus caetera quae pater subjugaverat Appendicia Aethelstano filio contradidit Qui quanto quo fine defecerit incertum The Saxon Chronology Ann. Dom. 836. hath it thus Ethelwolphus Occidentalium Saxonum regnum capessit Feng to Weg-Sexana Rice the Common expression for Succession in that Language filio autem suo Aethelstano Cantuariorum Saxonum Orientalium Suthregientium Suth Saxonum regnum donavit Florence of Worcester in the same year thus Cujus post mortem meaning Egbert Ethelulphus filius suus in West-Saxonia regnare coepit suumque filium Aethelstanum Cantuariis East-Saxonibus Suth-Regiis Suth-Saxonibus regem perfecit Egbert made his Son Aethelstan King of Essex Kent Surrey and Sussex After whose death the whole Kingdom came into the hands of Aethelwulph * Testam Aelfred in Asser Meneven f 22. n. 20. Malm. f. 22. a. n. 20. b. n. 30. chron Saxon. Anno 854. Aethelwulph notwithstanding his Sons by Proximity of Blood were his Heirs and also Heirs to one another yet gave his Kingdom of the West Saxons to Ethelbald his Eldest Son Ethelred his third Aelfred his fourth Son successively and gave to his second Son Ethelbert Essex Kent Surry Sussex Ethelhald lived but five years and Aethelbert succeeded him in the whole Kingdom as next Brother Vt justum erat says Asser f. 4. n. 40. Flor. Worcest and Simon of Durham Anno. 860. †Chon Saxon. Anno. 860. Aethelbaldus autem Quinquennium regnabat Feng Aethelbryht to Eallum Tham Rice his Brother Ethelbertus autem totum fratris sui regnum capessit * Flor. Wigoâ—n Anno. 866 871. After whom his two younger Brothers Aethelâ—ed and Aelfred were possessed of the Kingdom successively This Historian calls this Testament or Will Epistola haereditaria †Id. Anno. 975. So King Edward possessed the Kingdom after his Father King Edgar both by Proximity of Blood as his Eldest Son and by his Fathers Donation and Command Edwardum ut pater ejus praeceperat eligerunt c. Flor. Wig. Anno. 975. From Egbert the First Saxon Monarch to Ethelred the last Saxon King by Proximity and right of Blood for the space of 216 years we do not often find the words Elected or Election and where they do occur they are bound and limited by Proximity of Blood or Nomination of the Successor by the Predecessor and as they are used they signifie only Recognition of or Submission to him that was said to be Elected Secondly The Danes a promiscuous People as the Saxons were Danes Norwegians Goths Sweves Frisons
Malms l. 1. c. 2. f. 8. a. n. 10. cujus affinitate fultus Egbertum solum Regalis Prosapiae Superstitem quem validissimum suis Vtilitatibus metuebat Obicem Franciam fugandum curavit nam ipse Brithricus caeteri infra Inam Reges licet Natalium splendore gloriantes quippe qui de Cerdicio originem traherent non parum tamen alienâ regiae stirpis exorbitaverant illo igitur expulso securo resolvi coeperat otio c. Supported by the Affinity of Offa he caused Egbert the only Survivor of the Royal Race to fly into France fearing he would be a great check to his Affairs for Brithric himself and the other Kings since Ina altho they might glory in the splendor of their Births as deriving their Origin from Cerdic yet they were not a little out of the way from the line of the Royal Progeny When Egbert was expelled the Kingdom he began to live securely c. From this Observation of Malmsbury's as the Author calls it if it be one the lineal Succession before Ina which might be here set forth if needful is as much proved as no lineal Succession after him and notwithstanding the several Usurpations that had been between the Reign of Ceadwally or Ina and Egbert who was much feared by Brithric as being the only Survivor and of right Successor of the Royal Line and therefore banished into France the lineal Succession in the West-Saxon Kingdom was in time revived and continued in the Saxon Monarchy which he founded as will appear in the further Enquiry into the Author's other Saxon Instances This if it had been fairly cited could not have been useful to him but he took what served his turn and left out the rest The Words of the Author p. 14. Aethelulphus King of the West-Saxons went to Rome Matt. West A. D. 854. 867. and there crowned Alfred his youngest Son King and married the King of France's Daughter in his return and made her Queen against the Laws for which reason he was excluded his Kingdom his eldest Son and Alston Bishop of Shireburn being at the top of this Act of Exclusion and he came back only upon the terms of receiving his Son into a Share of the Kingdom which shews that they looked on the Laws as the measure of Allegiance and where those were openly broken that it was in their power to transfer it HISTORY Rex Occidentalium Saxonum Aethelulphus cum honore maximo Romam profectus c. Aethelulphus King of the West Saxons went with great honour to Rome carrying with him his younger Son Alfred whom he loved beyond all his other Sons that he might be instructed by Pope Leo in Manners and Religion where he stay'd a year with his Son and caused him to be crowned King by the Pope and after few days returning to his Country he brought with him Judith Daughter to Charles King of France whom he had married But in the mean time while the King was beyond Sea there was a Conspiracy of certain great Men formed against him the chief of the Conspiracy were Aethelbald his eldest Son and Alston Bishop of Shireburn and Landulph Earl of Somersetshire who had resolved that upon his return he should never be received to the Government for which they had two causes One for that he had caused his younger Son Alfred to be crowned at Rome and postpon'd and excluded his other Sons the second was That he had despised all English Women and married a Stranger Moreover the Conspirators had heard that contrary to the Custom and Statutes of the West-Saxon Kings he called the King of France's Daughter whom he had lately married Queen and caused her to sit by him at the Table and eat with him which the West Saxon Nation did not permit nor that she should be called Queen but the King's Wife Haec autem infamia ab Eadburga Offae Regis filiâ ejusdem generis reginâ exorta est Quae Virum suum Brithricum â—eneno perdidit c. The occasion of which non permission arose from Eadburg the Daughter of Offa a Queen of the same sort who destroyed her Husband with Poyson and sitting by the King was wont to accuse all the Noblemen of the Kingdom and those she could not accuse she killed by Poyson Therefore for the lewdness of the Queen all conspired that they would never permit a King to reign over them Qui in praedictis culpabilis inveniretur who should be found culpable in what hath been said Revertente tandem a Roma Aethelulfo Rege Pacifico praedictus filius ejus Aethelbaldus conceptam nequitiam ad effectum producere attentavit sed Deus omnipotens id fieri non permisit c. When the peaceable King Aethelulph return'd from Rome his Son Aethelbald attempted to effect his wicked Contrivance but God would not permit it for to prevent a more than Civil War between Father and Son by the ineffable Clemency of the King the Confederacy of all the Nobles and Bishops was broken he dividing the Kingdom of the West Saxons between himself and Son which before was undivided so as his Son possessed the East part and the Father the West part Et cum tota regni Nobilitas pro Rege decertare filium a Jure regni depellere vellent si Pater id fieri permisisset ipse mentis nobilitate ab avaritiae sese vitio excludens filii sui concupiscentiae satisfecit sicque ubi Pater justo Dei Iudicio regnare debuerat illic filius pertinax iniquus regnavit and when as the whole Nobility of the Kingdom would have fought for the King and forced his Son from the right of the Kingdom if his Father would have permitted it to be done but he being free from all Covetousness satisfied the unruly Appetite of his Son and so where the Father ought to have reigned by the just Sentence of God the obstinate and wicked Son reigned This Story Mat. Westm had from Flor. of Worcester †A. D. 675. tho it is not in the last altogether so formal * f. 21. b. n. 50. l. 22. a. n. 10. 20. Malmsbury likewise hath it tho not intirely But the Saxon Chronology hath nothing of it nay rather it hath something contrary to it * A. D. 854. Eodem anno Aethelwulfus rex magno cum honore Romam perrexit ibique per Menses Duodecim moratus est cui mox domum redeunti Carolus Francorum Rex filiam suam in Reginam dedit hinc posteà ad populum suum reversus est qui mirificè laetabatur sed post biennium ex quo a Francis redierat defunctus est corpus autem Wintoniae sepultum jacet In the Year 854. Aethelwulph went in great Pomp to Rome where he staid Twelve Months To whom as he returned home Charles King of France gave him his Daughter for his Queen Afterwards when he returned to his People they rejoyced wonderfully within Two Years after he died
were his Saxon and Danish Instances and whatever appears by those Instances to have been done was done by a Party as hath been shewn from undoubted History and not by Representatives of the Nation yet such Party or Parties he calls the States of the Realm as his Tutor Robert Parsons the Jesuit alias Doleman hath taught him especially in the 4th 7th 8th and 9th Chapters of the first part of his Conference about the Succession to the Crown of England where are to be found all the Author 's Saxon and Danish Instances urged and applied in the same manner and to the same purpose as they are in this Author and also his two Norman Instances that of Maud the Empress Hen. 2 and King Stephen the other of the two Houses of Tork and Lancaster in his Second Part of the Conference cap. 2. and 3. and likewise in Mr. Pryns first Part of the Sovereignty of Parliament and Kingdom p. 7 8 9. and the two Norman Instances p. 94 95. Mr. Pryn followed Doleman who says all Kings that take Coronation Oaths are Elected Conf. of Success part 1. cap. 5. and all Invaders or Intruders that set up themselves by the help of a Party only were Elected and set up by the States or Commonwealth Those Parties the Jesuit calls the State or Commonwealth Mr. Pryn calls Parliament or Kingdom in the very same Instances but this Author is best pleased with the Jesuits Expressions and useth them most frequently But if he had consider'd what Mr. Pryn hath written since the year 1648. and in that year against his own former Notions and Opinions about the Sovereignty of Parliament and Kingdom c. especially his Plea for the House of Lords his four Parts of a brief Register of Parliament Writs his Animadversions upon Coke's 4th Institute and many other Writings and the Epistles to them He would never have Publisht such Instances baffled by him and many others If the States as he calls them had had upon the Consideration of Publick Good the Power he speaks of and that it was known and legal or if the Crown had according to the Constitution been at their Disposal supposing the Saxon Estates had freely chosen Canutus as he vainly Asserts what could prompt him to cause Edwin Flor. Wig. A. D. 1016. Edmond Ironside's Brother to be murder'd and to send his two Sons Edward and Edmond to the King of Sweves that they also might be murder'd And if the Succession had not been notoriously wholly and completely Hereditary what need he to have feared the Title and Succession of the Sons and Brother of Edmond if it had been true what the Author insinuates that he was legally Elected and upon account of the Publick Good Besides imposing Parties small Numbers and Factions upon his Readers and calling them the States he hath another pretty knack of imposing upon them by telling them Oaths made to foreign Kings such as the Danes were and forced upon the Nation by Foreign Armies was transferring of Allegiance as if the People then were wonderfully pleased and satisfied with their new Masters From these Instances and Topicks he might as well have proved that because this Nation hath been overrun and possest by Saxons and Danes with their miscellaneous Assistants therefore it may be expedient it should be so again They seem to be Arguments to encourage such another undertaking rather than any thing else After the Saxon Constitution he comes to the Norman and there makes only two Instances The words of the Author p. 20. The first Instance I shall bring is in the Case of the Oath taken to Maud the Daughter of Hen. 1. in the Thirty first year of his Reign and there is no question but he designed signed her to succeed him Malmsb. Hist novest l. 1. p. 100. 105. 2. legitima perenni successione as Malmsbury's words are but Stephen who had before sworn Allegiance to her watched his opportunity and by the help of a Party made by his Brother the Bishop of Winchester he was Crowned King and although at first Malmsbury saith but three Bishops and very few Noblemen joyned with him yet he soon after saith that most of them went into him and even Robert of Gloucester King Henry the first 's natutural Son took an Oath to him but with the Condition of his preserving his Honour and Covenants There are several things worth our observation in this affair with respect to the Oaths of Allegiance HISTORY Malmsb. f. 99. a. n. 30. Anno 27. Regni sui Rex Henricus Angliam venit mense Septembri adducens secum filiiam suam c. In the 27th year of his Reign King Henry came to England in the Month of September and brought with him his Daughter He called together at Christmas a great number of the Clergy and chief Men of the Kingdom at London and being much grieved he was like to have no Children by his Second Wife the â—uke of Lorrain's Daughter he was very thoughtful about a Successor and having a long time before deliberated about that matter Tunc in eodem Concilio omnes totius Angliae Optimates Episcopos etiam Abbateâ— sacramento adegit obstrinxit ut si ipsi sine haerede masculo decederet Matildam filiam suam quondam Imperatricem incunctanter sine ulla retractatione Dominam reciperent Then in the same Council he bound all the chief men of England the Bishops also and Abbats by Oath that if he should die without Heir Male they should forthwith without retraction or revoking their Oath receive his Daughter Maud late Empress for their Queen Having before told them what a great loss the Nation sustein'd by the death of his Son William to whom by right the Kingdom belonged and now that his Daughter survived to whom only the lawful Succession was due from her Grandfather Uncle and Father that were Kings and from the Stock of her Mother many Ages Ibid. n. 40. cui soli legitima debeatur successio ab avo avunculo patre regibus a materno genere multis retro seculis siquidem ab Egbirtho West-Saxonum rege c. For from Egbert King of the West-Saxons who first subdued the other Saxon Kings in the year 800 during the Reign of * The Historian doth not reckon the Danish Kings amongst them there were 14 Saxon Kings beside them Ibid. n. 50. b. lin 1. c. Ibid. f. 100. a. n. 40. Fourteen Kings unto the year 1043. when Edward the Confessor was Crowned King the Line of the Royal Blood never failed nor was there one wrong step or halt made in the Succession nec unquam ejusdem regalis sanguinis linea defecit nec in Successione regni claudicavit All Persons of any moment in this Council did take the Oath first William Archbishop of Canterbury then the other Bishops and Abbats The first of the Lay-men that took it was David King of Scors the next Stephen Earl of Mortaign and Bologn