of King Aelfred by Pact and Bargain between him and Guthrum enjoyed East-Saxony or Essex and the Country of the East-Angles and a far greater part of this Nation as many think And in this King Ethelred's Reign Swane King of Denmark with a great Army invaded and made himself Master of the whole Nation forcing Ethelred and his Wife Emmy Sister to Richard second Duke of Normandy with their two Sons Edward and Alfred into that Country But Ethelred had a former Wife Elgive Daughter of Duke Thored By her he had many Sons of whom Edmond called Ironside being the third Aethelstan and Egbert dying without Issue by the Election of the Londoners and West-Saxons succeeded his Father in the Kingdom Florence of Worcester says again after the death of Ethelred the Bishops Abbots Duces quicque Nobiles Angliae met and chose Cnute the Son of Swane but the Londoners and that part of the Nobility which was with them by one consent made Edmund King After several Battels fought for the Sovereignty of the Kingdom between these two Pretenders and their Adherents being weary on both sides they were persuaded to part the Kingdom between them which was done But not long after Edmund died at London The Arch-Traytor Edric after he had caused Edmund's Brother Edwy to be murdered advised Cnute to kill his two Sons also Edward and Edmund But he thinking it a great scandal and disgrace to him that they should be killed in England sent them to his Friend and Confederate the King of Sweves to be slain who not complying with his desire sent them to Solomon King of Hungary to be preserved where Edmund died and Edward married Agatha Daughter to Henry the Roman Emperor by whom he had Edgar Aetheling Edmund Christiana who all died without Issue and Margaret Queen of Scotland whose Daughter Maud was married to Henry the First After the death of Cnute the Londoners as Ingulph of Croyland and William of Malmsbury do report chose Harold but the English had a mind to chuse Edward the Son of Ethelred or at least Hardecnute the Son of Cnute by Emme his Wife the Widow of King Ethelred who was then in Denmark and that he coming over the Kingdom was divided between them and taking Possession of his Share returned into Denmark and that Harold in his absence made himself Master of the whole Kingdom who living only four Years after his death both English add Danes sent for Hardecnute into Denmark to succeed him The Author of the Encomium of Emme says Cnute gave both this and his other Kingdoms to his Son Harde-Cnute by Emme Edward by the Policy Power and Industry chiefly of Earl Goodwin and Livingus Bishop of Worcester was made King at London and was anointed King at Winchester by the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and almost all the Bishops in England He being in England at the time of the death of his half-Brother Harde-Cnute was in a great streight not knowing what to do and thinking to retire into Normandy as he was advised by the Normans applied himself unto Earl Godwin who minded him whose Son he was and of his Right to the Kingdom aud agreeing to marry his Daughter Edgith and to other Conditions propounded to him being forced by necessity to consent thereto Godwin a Council being immediately called by his Reasons and Rhetorick made him King Gul. Gemeticensis saith Hardecnutus reliquit Edwardum fratrem totius regni Haeredem Harde-Cunte left Edward his Brother Heir of the whole Kingdom Ailred Abbot of Rievalle tells an idle Tale in the Life and Miracles of Edward the Confessor that his Father King Ethelred being solicitous about a Successor though he had at that time two Sons Edmund Irorside and Alfred yet in a great Convention of Bishops and Noble Men before him and a great Concourse of ordinary People by the Prescience and Direction of God Almighty this Edward was chosen King while he was in his Mother 's Womb. Praebet electioni Rex consensu laeti praebent proceres Sacramentum inasitato Miraculo in ejus fidelitate jurarunt qui utrum nasceretur ignorarunt The King consents to the Election and the Noble-Men joyfully and by reason of an unusual Miracle swear Fealty to him before they knew whether ever he would be born He is the only Author of this Legend that I know of and do think it a little too gross to be believed Edward the Confessor designed his Nephow Prince Edward the Son of Edmund Ironside for Ins Successor and in the thirteenth Year of his Reign nine Years before he died sent for him out of Hungary where he then was in Banishment but in a short time after he died at London Anno Dom. 1057. Clito Edwardus Regis Eadmundi ferret lateris filius ut ei mandarat suus Patruus Rex Edwardus de Hungaria quo multo anno in exilium missus fuerat Angliam venit decreverat enim Rex illum post se Regni haeredem constituere sed ex quo venit parvo post tempore vita decessit Londoniae After the death of Edward the Confessor Harold Throno Regio se intrusit And as Ailredus before cited hath it Quidam Edgarum Adeling cui Regnum Jure haereditario debebatur Regem constituere moliuntur sed quia puer tanto honore minus idoneus videbatur Haraldus Comes de genere perditorum cujus erat mens astutior crumena faecundior miles copiosior sinistro omine Regnum obtinuit Some endeavoured to make Edward Atheling King to whom the Kingdom belonged by Hereditary Right But because he was a Child and seemed not fit for so great Honour Earl Hurold a crafty Traytor being better furnished with Money and Soldiers by sinister Fater obtained the Kingdom To the same purpose Henry of Huntington says Quidam Anglorum Eadgar Adeling permovere volebant in Regem Haraldus vero viribus genere fretus Regni Diadema invasit That is Some of the English would have had Edgar Atheling King but Harold being well furnished with Forces and assisted by his Kindred invaded the Crown f. 210. b. n. 10. From the various Expressions of the antient Writers of the Saxon Story concerning the Succession an unwary Reader would think the Saxons agreed not in one Rule of Succession or that they had no Rule at all But whoever considers with understanding what here is said will find they had and pursued a sure Rule of Succession which was either Right of Blood or the Nomination and Appointment of the preceding King as we hinted before which Nomination by the Saxon Kings mostly happened in the Minority or Nonage of their Children and that only was thought and allowed Cause sufficient for the Father to prefer his Brother's Son before his own or a Bastard before his lawful Issue For by the subsequent Instances it will plainly appear that the Saxons did in their
commanded that King Edward's Laws should be observed with such Amendments as his Father had amended them And further says that very many great Men sent for Duke Robert over and promised him the Crown and Kingdom and coming they did some of them adhere to him and others dissembling their Kindness and Affection stayed with King William until they had an opportunity of shewing it But the Bishops the Common Soldiers and English stuck close to King Henry by whose means he raised a very great Army and were ready to fight for him when they came to an Agreement by the Mediation of the wise Men of both Parties Eadmer tells us that most of the great Men either did or were ready to revolt from King Henry but Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who had given him great Assistance in raising his Army upon great Promises made that all the Church-Affairs should be left to his direction and disposing and that he would for ever after obey the Decrees and Commands of the Pope procured the great Men to assemble and then so wheedled and cajoled them and their Army that he altered theit Intentions And it was from his Fidelity and Industry that Henry lost not the Kingdom This King Henry was a plain right down Usurper he had no pretence of Donation no Testamentary Right from his Father and therefore as Malmsbury shews us more particularly he was advanced by a Faction there being only five great Men Robert Fitz-Haymon Richard de Redvers Roger Bigot Henry Earl of Warwick and Robert Earl of Mellent his Brother all Normans that favoured him and by the contrivance of Henry Earl of Warwick he was elected King All others sent privately to Duke Robert to come and be their King or openly reproached Henry This was an excellent Election made by a Faction and an Army and perhaps with a bawling multitude after them and indeed there could be no other Election than such an one as this for Rufus was slain in New Forest on the 2d of August being Thursday and Henry was Crowned on the 5th of August being Sunday So that it was impossible for all that were or ought to be concerned in such an Election all the Kingdom over to have notice meet and dispatch that Business in two days time These Historians lived at the very time these things were done It is true he says in his own Charter That he was Crowned King by the Common Council of the Barons of England Sciatis me misericordia Dei Communi Concilio Baronum Regni Angliae ejusdem Regni Regem Coronatum esse And he must say this or nothing for no other Pretence or Title he could have and there never was any other Usurper in his Circumstances but must say so or some other thing to make out a Title King Stephen in his Charter of Liberties says He was elected A Clero Populo King John in his Charter of Fees of the Seal affirmed himself right Heir to the Crown when Arthur Duke of Britain and his Sister Eleanor Son and Daughter to his Elder Brother Jeffrey were then living and they were both vain Affirmations as will appear in their several stories Some later Historians than these as Matthew Paris who wrote above an hundred Years after them Mat. Westminster and Hen. de Knighton and Brompton who wrote at least two hundred and fifty Years after them all say he was elected But only Knighton amongst them all tells us the most considerable reason why Robert his elder Brother was rejected Robertus says he semper contrarius adeo innaturalis extiterat Baronibus Regni Angliae quod plenario consensu consilio totius Communitatis Regni IMPOSUERUNT EI ILLEGITIMITATEM QUOD NON FUERAT PROCREATUS DE LEGITIMO THORO WILLIELMI CONQUESTORIS UNDE UNANIMI assensu suo ipsum refutaverunt pro rege omnino recusaverunt Hen. frem in Regem erexerunt Robert was always averse and so harsh to the Barons of England that they by full Consent and Advice voted him Illegitimate because he was not begotten lawfully by William the Conqueror and for that reason by unanimous Assent they refused him and set up Henry his Brother to be their King From this Passage of Knighton we see the Community or Baronage of all England fixed the Right of Succession in the Legitimate Right of Blood and therefore this King his two elder Brothers being dead without Issue desired to secure the Succession unto his Lawful Issue by Right of Blood To that end all Freemen of England and Normandy of what Order and Dignity soever and of whatsoever Lord they held or were Fendataries to were forced to do Homage and swear Fealty to his Son William then but twelve Years old And in the twenty seventh of his Reign he caused all the great Men of England after the death of his Sons William and Richard to recognize Maud the Empress his Daughter Queen to whom the only Lawful Succession was due from her Grandfather Uncle and Father that were Kings and from her Mother many Generations In the thirty first of King Henry he and his Daughter coming into England at a great Meeting of the Nobility or Parliament at Northampton those which before had sworn Fealty renewed their Oaths to her and those which had not done it before then did it Paris tells us that the Clergy and Great or Noble Men made Conditions with Henry who promised them what is before related and in that gave them satisfaction But as all Usurpers ever did so he changed his Mind and his Canting Speech had no other effects than to enslave them for with a seared and cahterized Conscience he had obtained the Kingdom and usurped upon his Brother Robert who had manifest Right impudently violating the Laws and Promises by which he had drawn in all Men to serve him and afterward taking him Prisoner caused his Eyes to be pulled out and kept him in Prison twenty four Years until he died King Henry having thus provided for the Security of his Daughter Maud being asked in his Sickness by Robert Duke of Gloucester and the Noble Men that then were with him about a Successor Filiae omnem terram suam citra ultra mate Legitima perenni successione adjucavit Adjudged his Daughter his Lawful Successor in all his Territories Radulphus de Diceto Dean of Saint Paul's who died Anno Dom. 1210. says that Hath Bigot Steward of the King's Houshold made speed out of Normandy where the King died into England and made Oath before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that King Henry upon his Death-bed upon some differences which happened between him and his Daughter the Empress did dis-inherit her and made Stephen Earl of Boloign his Heir Whereupon William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury giving too much credit to the words of the Steward consecratcd Stephen Earl of Mortaigne King at Westminster If this story
and her Council secretly thought of her own Personal Title Yet upon the Treaty or Marriage with the Duke of Anjon in the Answer to the sixth Article delivered by the French Ambassador it is declared that the Succession in her Kingdoms was and ought to be Hereditary according to nearness in Blood The words are Liberi ex hoc matrimonio prognati in materna haereditate succedent in regnis secundum jura consuetudines regnorum viz. primogenitus filius in Coronam quam Regina mater habet si nulli extabunt filii Masculi filioe si extabunt viz prima sola maxima natu c. Atque idem ut fiat in hoereditate paterna loequum est quomodo consuetudines locorum id ferent intelligi parest That is The Children begotten of this Marriage shall succeed in the Mothers Inheritance in the Kingdoms according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdoms that is to say The First born Son shall enjoy the Crown which the Queen Mother hath And if there be no Issue Male the Daughters if there be any shall succeed that is to say the Eldest first and alone c. And that it is just the Succession should obtain after the same manner in the Paternal Inheritance if the Custom of the places would allow it After the death of Queen Elizabeth the Act of Recognition made Upon King James his coming to the Crown doth not take notice of the Title raised by Act of Parliament to Henry the Seventh and the Heirs of his Body But declares that he was Lineally Rightfully and Lawfully descended of the Body of the most excellent Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of this most renowned King Henry the Seventh and the high and noble Prinress Queen Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of King Edward the Fourth The said Lady Margaret being eldest Sister of King Henry the Eighth Father of the High and Mighty Princess of famous Memory Elizabeth late Queen of England In consideration whereof the Parliament doth acknowledge King James their only Lawful and Rightful Leige Lord and Sovereign And further say as being bound thereunto both by the Laws of God and Man they do recognize and acknowledge that Immediately upon the Dissolution and Deceasy of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to His most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and SOLE HEIR of the Blood-Royal of this Realm as it is afore said And thereunto they do most humbly and faithfully submit and oblige themselves their Heirs and Posterities for ever until the last drop of their Bloods be spent What can be clearer than that the Succession to the Crown of England was always thought judged had taken and reputed to be from Nextness of Blood by the Opinion of all sober Men by Law and Custom by this and other Acts of Parliament and Statutes before cited This then being the true History and Case of Succession to the Crown of England and its being only founded upon Proximity of Blood the Author of the Brief History of Succession c. ought to have called it An History of Vsurpations Seditions and Rebellions It was written and intended for a purpose he will not own that is to shew that In the English Monarchy there is not Right of Succession but that Parliaments or Armies may set up whom they please This I confess hath been practised in this Nation and it was the main Cause of the War between the Families of Tork and Lancaster that proceeding from the Right of the one Patty and Possession of the other and the Contrarieties of Acts of Parliament was caused by the Alternate Victories of both But the doing of a thing makes it not lawful Repeated Wickedness or the frequent Repetition of Wiekedness gives no Authority to any one to commit that Wickedness as the frequency of Adulteries or Robberies doth not justifie either of them I think it 's no good Argument to say Edward the Second was deposed and murthered therefore Richard the Second might be deposed and murthered or That they were both deposed and murthered therefore Charles the First might be deposed and murthered or Because King Charles the First was deposed and murthered therefore King Charles the Second may be deposed and murthered Precedents are of force only in things lawful obscure or dubious but never in things unjust The Depositions and Murthers of Edward the Second and Richard the Second the Usurpations and unlawful Actions of Henry the Fourth and Richard the Third were in their own times condemned by all good Men even as the Actions of that Parliament began in 1641. in ours which I suppose is the reason why the Author of the Pamphlet brings not them in as a Precedent which would have served his turn better than all his other Instances But besides their impious Instances we ought to take notice of the Expressions of these Men of Jesuitical Principles They call Usurpation the Election of the People a Faction the Commonwealth the Actions of a few they impute to all They call Rebellion a just and judicial Proceeding often and open Perjury an orderly Revoking of a Sentence God's secret Judgment in permitting Injustice to prevail his owning and allowance thereof the Inconsistency and present Humour of the heedless Multitude who judge of things not by Reason or Justice but either by Opinion which commonly is partial or else by Report which is usually full of Incertainties and Errors the most part Doing because others Do all easie to be drawn in to serve any wicked and ambitious Men's Attempts they call the presumed Will and Consent of the People According to which say they the Succession of the Crown is to be directed And by these Arts they do very much impose upon their unwary Readers To this History of Succession belongs the Act of the Thirteenth of Elizabeth cap. 1. intituled An Act whereby certain Offences are made Treason which as many great and learned Persons think was upon the debate and making of it intended and designed to declare a Power in the Queen and her Successors for ever by Authority of Parliament to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of England and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof Sir Edward Coke says Many Acts of Parliament are hardly to be understood unless the History of that time be joyned thereunto This Parliament met April 2. 1571. 13 Eliz. and was dissolved May 29. following This Parliament we see was holden in the beginning of the Year 1571. Some Years before but most especially in the Year1570 immediately preceding there had been many Practices and Seditious and Treasonable Contrivances against Queen Elizabeth by Foreign as well as Domestick Enemies By the Pope and
State and Subjects of the Realm which thing all dutiful faithful and loving Subjects ought and will with all careful Study and Zeal consider foresee and provide for By the neglecting and passing over whereof with winking Eyes there might happen to grow the Subversion and Ruine of the Quiet and most happy State and present Government of this Realm which God defend Therefore it was Enacted Declared and Established That if any Person or Persons whatsoever within the Realm or without should compass imagine invent devise or intend the Death or Destruction or any Bodily harm tending to Death Destruction Maym or Wounding of the Person of Queen Elizabeth or to Deprive or Depose her of or from the Stile Honour or Kingly Name c. or to levy War against her Majestie within the Realm or without or to move or stir any Forreigners or Strangers with Force to Invade this Realm or if any Person of Persons whatsoever shall maliciously and advisedly declare and publish That Queen Elizabeth during her Life is not or ought not to be Queen of England c. or That any other Person or Persons ought of Right to be King or Queen of the said Realm or That shall maliciously and advisedly set forth and affirm That Queen Elizabeth is an Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Vsurper That then all and every such said Offence and Offences shall be taken deemed and declared by the Authority of this Act and Parliament to be High Treason And be it also Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every Person and Persons of what Degree Condition Place Nation or Estate whatsoever they be which shall at any time in the Life of Queen Elizabeth in any wiâ—e claim pretendi utter declare affirm or publish themselves or any of them or any other than Queen Elizabeth to have Right or Title to have and enjoy the Crown of England during or in her Life-time or shall usurp the same Crown or Royal Style Title and Dignity during or in her Life-time or shall hold and affirm That she had not Right to hold and enjoy the said Crown or shall not after demand effectually acknowledge her to be in Right true and lawful Queen They and every of them so offending shall be utterly disabled during their Natural Lives onely to have or enjoy the Crown or Realm of England or the Style Title or Dignity thereof at any time in Succession Inheritance or otherwise after the Decease of the Queen as if such Person were naturally dead Any Law Custom Pretence or Matter whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted That if any Person shall during the Queens Majesties Life maintain hold and affirm any Right in Succession Inheritance or Possibility in or to the Crown or Realm of England or the Rights thereof to be in any such Claimer Pretender Vtterer Declarer Affirmer Vsurper Publisher or Not-acknowledger shall be a High Traytor and suffer and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason And for the Confirmation and making good what had in this Law been hitherto Enacted as much as might be it was further Enacted That if any Person should in any wise hold and affirm or maintain That the Common Laws of this Realm not altered by Parliament ought not to direct the Right of the Crown of England or That our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth with and by Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof or That this present Statute or any part thereof or any other Statute to be made by the Authority of the Parliament of England with the Royal Assent of the Queen for Limitting of the Crown or any Statute for Recognizing the Right of the said Crown and Realm to be justly and lawfully in the most Royal Person of the Queen is not are not or shall not or ought not to be for ever of good and sufficient force and validity to bind limit restrain and govern all Persons their Rights and Titles that in any wise may or might claim any Interest or Possibility in or to the Crown of England in Possession Remainder Inheritance Succession or otherwise howsoever Every such Person so holding affirming or mainteining during the Life of the Queens Majesty shall be judged a High Traytor c. And every Person so holding affirming and mainteining after the Decease of the Queen shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels This Statute was a peculiar Law made for the Preservation of Queen Elizabeths Person and Title and this last Enacting Clause and Paragraph was made to strengthen and confirm the former part of the Statute which was a Provision and Security against such Pretences and Practices as were ennumerated in the preceding Historical Account And if we consider how much if not altogether her Title to the Crown depended upon Statute-Law and how Questionable her Birth-right was generally reputed to be no man can much wonder if for her own advantage and safety she attributed more to an Act of Parliament than otherwise she would have done She was necessitated to take this course to establish her self against the Pretences of the Queen of Scots when her Birth-right could not do it it being very doubtful whether she was Legitimate considering the Proceedings in the Divorce of Queen Katherine Marriage of her Mother and her Mothers Confession to Archbishop Cranmer when the Statute was made for the declaring the Marriage null and void between Henry the Eighth and Anne Bolein by which Statute she was also solemnly Bastardized And although Queen Elizabeth at the entrance upon her Government was acknowledged to be rightly lineally and lawfully Descended from the Blood Royal of this Realm which if true had been a sufficient Title She being then the only remaining Issue of Henry the Eighth yet her right was recognized as depending upon the Lawes and Statutes of the Realm and by express mention of and reference to the Thirty fifth of Henry the eighth by which Statute the Crown was settled upon her and the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten in several places whereof she is by the King her Father implicitly reputed and declared illegitimate and the settlement in that Act is made to her as not being lawfully begotten or having right to inherit In the first of her Reign before cited when the Crown was declared to be vested in her and that Declaration and Recognition as also the Limitation and Declaration of the Succession of the Imperial Crown of this Realm mentioned and conteined in the Act of 35 Hen. 8. were to stand remain and be the Law of this Land for ever Which notwithstanding when Mary Queen of Scots had claimed the Crown by right of Inheritance and had spread abroad that Title unto it and also the Title of the House of Suffolk and other
Titles were whispered up and down the Act of 35 Hen. 8. or this Act of Recognition were not thought sufficient to secure the Queen Elizabeth Then was this Act in the Thirteenth of her Reign made meerly either to create or strengthen her Title and not to Exclude the Queen of Scots from the SUCCESSION unless she attempted any thing against her or laid Claim to the Crown which was also in its own nature a securing Clause to Queen Elizabeth But the great Clause of Security to Queen Elizabeth in this Act was that Clause by which it was made Treason for any man to affirm that she by Authority of Parliament could not make Lawes and Statutes to bind the Succession of the Crown or that this Act or other Lawes to be made by the Parliament of England by her Royal assent for limiting the Crown and recognizing the right to be lawfully and justly in her person is not are not or shall not or ought not to be for ever of good and sufficient force This Clause was levelled against the Opinion That the Queen of Scots had the best Title which began to spread and gain much credit as well amongst the Nobility as Commons By all which it is manifest this whole Act was but Temporary and therefore we may note with Pulton that it expired with Queen Elizabeth and it was no Act of Exclusion but a Law only to secure her Person and to make and confirm unto her a Title which without Statute-Law was in it self at least doubtful And the new Clause which was added That it should be High Treason during her Life for any Person to affirm she by Authority of Parliament had not Power to bind the Crown and Succession thereof or That the Right of the Crown and Realm was not justly and lawfully in her Royal Person cannot affect the Title of a lawful Successor by Inheritance nor be brought or made use of as a Precedent to exclude him from the Succession But it may be said There is a great Forfeiture inflicted upon every Person holding and affirming after her Decease That Queen Elizabeth and a Parliament could not limit the Succession and fix the Crown upon her own Head This Clause could take no effect after her death and therefore was added to preserve her Memory from being defamed after her Death or slanderously charged with the hainous Crime of Vsurping the Crown which in must have been the inevitabble Consequence of affirming she and her Parliament could not limit the Succession For she valued much her Credit and Reputation and would seem to maintain still that he acted nothing against the Queen of Scots and therefore the Law is made in general Words against every Person or Persons whatsoever of what Degree Place Nation or Condition whatsoever that should affirm she was not in Right true and lawful Queen or that should claim the Crown c. In the Point of Succession she could never be brought expresly by Name to exclude the Queen of Scots or name any other Successor as is clear from these several Passages in Camden Dudley desirous by all means to oblige and obtain the Favour of the Queen of Scots accused the Lord Keeper Bacon to the Queen That he had intermedled against the Queen of Scots in the matter of Succession for which he lost the Queens Favour and was with much ado at last restored to it again by the Mediation of Cecil upon which our Author says Certainly the Queen never heard any thing more unwillingly than that the Right of Succession should be called in question or disputed The same Year Queen Elizabeth hearing of a Match like to be between the Queen of Scots and Henry Lord Darly to prevent it advertifed her by her Lieger Randolph That that Marriage was generally so dishked by all the English that she had Prorogued the Parliament to another time against the minds of her Council left the Estates of the Realm being incensed shou'd even for this cause Enact somewhat against her Right to the Succession Which that it might not be done afterwards she recommended Leycester unto her for a Husband whom chiefly for that Reason she had created Earl In the Year 1566 a Parliament was called to meet on the First of November They began to Debate roundly about the Succession and the Earls of Pembroke and Leycester and Duke of Norfolk thought that an Husband was to be imposed upon the Queen or a Successor publickly designed by Act of Parliament even against her will Whereupon they were excluded the Presence-Chambcr and denied Access to the Queen but they soon submitted themselves to her and obtained pardon Yet the Upper House did by the Lord Keeper Bacon advise move and pray her to Marry and to appoint a Successor if she or her Children should die without Issue But some in the Lower House handled these things more tumultuously Bell and Monson great Lawyers Dutton Paul Went worth and others who grated upon the Queens Authority too much and amongst other things maintained That Kings were bound to design a Successor At last they offered her far greater Subsidies than they were wont upon condition that she would design a certain Successor She absolutely refused that extraordinary Offer and accepted an ordinary Sum commending their Affection The last day of the Parliament she made a Speech and gave the busie Men a smooth Reprehension I find saith she that in this Parliament DISSIMVLATION hath walked up and down masked under the Vizor of LIBERTY and SVCCESSION Some of your Number there are that thought it LIBERTY to dispute of the SVCCESSION and that the Establishment of the same is absolutely to be granted or denied If I had granted it these Men had had their desire and had triumphed over me but if I had denied it they thought to have moved the Hatred of my People against me which my greatest Enemies could never yet do But their Wisdom was unseasonable and their Counsels over-hasty neither did they foresee the Event Yet hereby I easily perceived who inclined toward me and who were averse unto me c. Upon this Speech Camden makes this Remarque Thus a Woman's Wisdom suppressed these Commotions every day so qualified them shining clearer and clearer that very few besides such as were seditious and fearful were troubled about a Successor And certainly most men whatever they pretend have no more sense of Publick Matters than what concerns their own Private To these Testimonies of the Queens aversion to pass a Bill of Exclusion of the Q. of Scots may be added a very clear and convincing one out of the Journal of the House of Commons in the Fourteenth of her Reign after the passing this Act which is said so much to favour a Bill of Exclusion Mr. Treasurer of the Houshold Sir Francis Knolles from the Queen advised the House of Commons to go forwards against the Queen of Scots with a second Bill