Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A29172
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The great point of succession discussed with a full and particular answer to a late pamphlet, intituled, A brief history of succession, &c.
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Brady, Robert, 1627?-1700.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing B4191; ESTC R19501
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63,508
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40
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which his ipse dixi was a Law to cut that Gordian Knot asunder which he was not able to unty But it is time now to examine the palpable contradictions of those several mad and extravagant Acts that he made and first in the * Stat. 25. H. 8. c. 22. 25th year of his Reign after he was Divorced from Queen Katherine and had married Queen Anne The Parliament having in the Preamble to the following Act declared what great miseries and how many troubles had befallen this Realm by reason of the ambiguity of the several Titles to the Crown do think themselves bound in duty by a Declaration of the true Heir to avoid the causes of such Distractions for the future It is therefore Enacted and Ordained That the Kings Marriage with the late Queen Katherine is void as directly contrary to the Laws of God and therefore not dispensable with by the Pope or any Humane Power whatsoever They therefore bastardize Mary and declare the Marriage between his Majesty and Queen Anne to be just and lawful and that the Children of their two Bodies begotten shall be and are legitimate and then in default of Issue Male entail the Crown upon the Lady Elizabeth c. and every one by the Sanctimony of an Oath is bound to the observation and performance of this And the next Parliament does Enact a particular Oath for that purpose whereby every one is bound to bear Faith Truth and Obedience only to the King's Majesty and to his Heirs of his Body of his most Dear and entirely beloved lawful Wife Queen Anne begotten or to be begotten But mark what follows a few years after 't is Enacted St. 28. H. 8. c. 7. That the people shall forswear themselves the late Marriage is declared unlawful null and void the Lady Elizabeth is Bastardized as the Lady Mary was in the former Parliament and the King's Marriage with Queen Jane is acknowledged consonant to the Law of God the Crown entailed upon their Issue and for failure of them the King is impowred to dispose of the Crown to whom he please by his Letters Patents or his last Will and the whole Nation was obliged by the Sanctimony of an Oath to the observation of this Law So that you have at once not only Swearing backward and forward but the Crown made Elective if Act of Parliament can make it so which had always hitherto been Hereditary which so many unbiassed Parliaments had declared was due to the next Heir by Inherent Birth-right and by the Laws of God and Nature a Title sure unimpeachable by any Civil Power and all this in open defiance of all Equity Justice and Common Reason on purpose to dis-inherit the House of Scotland which as much as Humane Power could do it was by this Act done and to advance his Bastard Son Henry Fitz-Roy whom he most entirely loved to the Throne But not yet content to put a period to his extravagancy in the 35th year of his Reign he caus'd it to be Enacted That after his Death and the Death of Prince Edward without Issue the Crown should be to the Lady Mary and the Heirs of her Body but subject to such Conditions as the King should limit by his Letters Patents or by his last Will and if the Lady Mary performed not those Conditions that then the Crown should go to the Lady Elizabeth and if the Lady Elizabeth neglected to perform such Conditions then it should go to such other person as the King should appoint And he was again impowred by his Letters Patents or last Will to grant the Remainder or Reversion of the Crown to what person he should appoint and the whole Nation is again bound to the observation thereof By an Oath But surely no man will argue from these contradictory and wild Acts that the King and Parliament have any power to limit and alter the Succession since if we believe those Parliaments I have before mentioned 39 H. 6. 1 E. 4.1 R. 3. we shall find that to be removed beyond the reach of any mortal Arm and reserved to the only disposal of Him by whom Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice And certainly we have as much reason to believe them as can be rationally expected since 't is very natural for those that assume so much power to themselves as they did to screw it up when their hands are in to the highest pin for 't is not likely that they if they could have found the least shadow of Evidence to the contrary would out of a Complement to God Almighty have thrown back that Power into his hands which he had once pleased to bestow upon and invest in them Nor need we at all wonder to find a Prince of King Henry's Spirit and Native greatness of mind fall so beneath his usual Majesty in such things since perhaps no Prince can be met withall in whom there concenter'd a greater number of odd and anomalous Circumstances which did incline him to crave in Aid of his Parliament for he being one that would sacrifice every thing to his Humour Lust or Revenge he was forced to take this course to remove all the Letts that stood in his way as far as Humane Power could carry them Therefore I am persuaded these Acts of Parliament ought no more to be urged as Precedents for us to guide our selves by than his Arbitrary and Illegal Methods of bringing those that had the misfortune to fall into his hatred to the Block without being once heard or suffer'd to make their defence And as these are not permitted to be drawn into practice tho' done by the Legislative Power as well as the other because of their manifest injustice and illegality I cannot for my Life see why the other should 't is a Riddle beyond my skill to unfold I shall pass by some of this Gentleman's Paragraphs as not worh insisting upon and come to his Proofs drawn from Queen Elizabeth's Reign and indeed 't is in an Act made the 13th of that Princess that the whole Party place their main strength but I hope I shall be able to make it appear if every Circumstance be duly considered that induced that Glorious Queen to do some things that tended highly to the manifest derogation of her Prerogative which at other times she was so tender of that nothing can be gather'd from thence which will really do any service to my Adversaries Opinion For if as all Casuists hold those Oaths and Promises which are extorted by fear or force are not Obligatory I cannot tell why those things which by meer necessity upon those very accounts she was compell'd to as well for the preservation of her Body Natural as Politick should be denied the priviledge of being dissolved upon that very score that other things of the same Nature are And that they were no other things than what I have before mentioned that caused this Great Queen to fall beneath her self and court her people
Law ever since I cannot but wonder this Gentleman should go about to call in question the Judgment of so Many and so Great Lawyers by his Impertinent Cavils for 't was upon this Precedent that the Lord Keeper Bacon did advise Q. Elizabeth not to Repeal that Statute wherein she was made Illegitimate Nor was it upon the Account of any Attainder that the House of York forbore so long time to pursue their Claim to the Crown but want of Interest And when he tells us The King of France was the more inclined to send over his Son Lewis because King John was Attainted of Treason and so uncapable of taking the Crown he must certainly have forgot himself or he would not have made use of an Instance granting it to be true so contrary to his Purpose For it seems the English when he came to the Crown had but a very slender Opinion of such a Bar or else they would never have admitted him But the King of France was glad of any Pretence tho never so Ridiculous So that we see the Judges were not without Precedent to direct their Proceedings by and such a one if the Story be true as had the Approbation of the whole or greatest part of the Kingdom But that Objection which has most shew of Force is drawn from the Recognition of Richard the Third's Title which he takes a great deal of Pains to set off to the best Advantage But I think he might have spared his Pains if he had but considered that those Men that to Advance an Usurper to the Throne had contrary to their Knowledge declared all the Late King's Children to be Bastards would scarce stick at Declaring contrary to all Right and Justice which they had already so notoriously violated an Attainder of Treason to be of sufficient Force to debar the Issue of the Duke of Clarence who were not in a Condition to assert their Title for the Crown without considering the Truth of it And it is considerable that all those Acts made in Contradiction of one another were never heeded or esteemed by either Party or ever deter'd either the Heads of 'em from pursuing their Claim or the People from assisting them in it the End of all such Statutes was to vanish into Smoak and come to nothing and for the most part never to have the Honour of a Repeal Besides a Thing done in Tempestuous and Turbulent Times is not to Guide and Direct our Actions now especially since we have the Sense of so many several and different Parliaments and therefore the more Remarkable to the contrary wherein it is declared That the Succession of the Crown of England is inseparably Annexed to Proximity of Blood and That a Title of this Sublimity and Grandeur is not at all Impeachable even by Act of Parliament And besides the Parliament of 39. H. 6. doth make their Declaration to the manifest Prejudice of the King in Possession who was Ordained also by the same Accord then made to Reign over them during his Life and whom for that Reason it must be presum'd they would have favoured if they had found but the least colour so to have done And if the Actual Possession of the Throne as has been so often Recognized by our Antient Parliaments which were neither over-aw'd by a prevailing Faction nor seduced by the plausible Pretences of designing Demagogues be by the Law of God and Nature invested with the Soveraignty it does most evidently follow that the Heir Apparent or Next of Blood is by the same Laws entituled to the Crown and consequently the People have no more Right to Dis-inherit the One than to Depose the Other and doubtless it is the same Sin As to cause the Abortion of an Embryo and to take away the Life of a Child already Born are both alike Murder for both have an equal Right to Life tho they differ in the Time of the Enjoyment of it And so have the Possessor and the Heir to the Throne only One is actually Master of it and the Other in due Time must and ought so to be But to affirm sayes this Gentleman that the King and Parliament have not a Power to Change the Direct Order of Succession is to deny the Government a Power to Defend it self To this I Answer 'T is much more likely that altering the Course of the Legal Descent of the Crown is the more probable way of bringing us into Anarchy and Confusion Besides acording to his Notion of Self-preservation a Prince that Governs not according to the pleasure and good liking of the People may be Deposed or else they would be deprived of a power of preserving themselves A very peaceable Notion I assure you and such as would render every Government where it was admitted most extreamly Happy But it ought to be proved That the admitting of a Popish King would be an Infallible Cause of the Ruin of us all or else I much fear this adored principle of Self-preservation will not Justify the Exclusion of his R.H. For nothing less than absolute Necessity will authorize a Man to kill his Enemy as when he endeavours by violence to Rob him of his Life and 't is then only he can lawfully Kill him se Defendendo But that he should be allow'd to destroy any that out of a Groundless Jealousie he apprehends may do him a Prejudice is the Highest Degree of Madness and Destructive of all Humane Society For if it were allowed for one to Kill all he is afraid of we could expect nothing but Murders and Massacres nothing but unavoydable Confusion and Ruin 'T is convenient I grant to bind such as we have just Ground to be apprehensive of to their good Behaviour and tye up their Hands according to the Laws of the Land And certainly one would think this would be sufficient Security in the Case of his R.H. if too many of those that so zealously stickle for the Bill had not a deeper Design than that they give out even to Lay the Axe to the Root of Monarchy it self 'T is that they aim at and have such a Thirst to destroy under this specious pretence and set up their adored Idol their beloved Common-Wealth And if they had not this colour for their Proceedings I am very much afraid they would be guilty of some what worse Nor am I in this at all Uncharitable since this Gentleman has pag. 19. given a very excellent Hint to Justify such a Design For he tells us That the Crown is not a bare Inheritance but an Inheritance accompanying an Office of Trust that if a Mans Defects render him incapable of the Trust he has also Forfeited the Inheritance Can any thing be more full and plain May not upon this account the King in Possession be Removed as well as an Heir secluded So true is that Observation That all the Pamphlets writ upon this Subject tho they begin with the Duke yet constantly End with the King