Man who shall with me carefully compare Records Histories Law-Books Charters and Authentick Manuscripts from before the fixation of the Monarchy downwards The most antient uncontested Authority of this kind which is allowed us even by the Scotch Writers who think themselves concerned to blemish our Antiquities is the Venerable Bede who died in the year 735. He speaking of the coming of the Picts into the Northern Parts of Britanny says The Scotch gave them Wives on condition that when any Controversie arose they should chuse themselves a King of the Female Stock of Kings rather than of the Male. Whereby it appears what was his Judgment of the Successions where they have seemed most fond of an Inherent Right of Birth But as to England where a King has lest three Sons Bede calls them all Heirs Accordingly he more than once mentions Brothers reigning together as Sighard and Frede among the East-Saxons while the West-Saxon Kingdom was govern'd by several petty Kings in distinct Divisions These Kings probably at that time were Tributary or Feudatory Kings under the Mercian Kingdom for in the year 730 I find King Aetilbalt stiles himself not only King of the Mercians but also of all the Counties which by the general name are call'd South-Angles subscribing King of Britanny And in the same year I find an Offa who stiles himself King of the Mercians and also of the other Nations where ever round about By reason of the Inheritance of Crowns belonging to several Sons of Kings the Kings were so numerous that Bede mentions two Brothers Crown'd Kings even of the Isle of Wight But when any were Constituted Kings to the setting aside all the old Regnant Family of that particular Kingdom the Persons so constituted were according to Bede Strangers or doubtful by way of distinction from Lawful Kings And yet all the Kings of the several Kingdoms were descended from Woden from which Common-Stock they all took their Qualifications for an Election as afterwards the West-Saxon Kings did from Cerdic then from Ina and after that from Egbert But generally I take it regard was had to that part or branch of Woden's Family which was the regnant Family within the particular Kingdom where one of that branch was advanced according to that Charter of an Offa where he is stiled King of the Mercians descended from the Mercian Royal Stock About which time I find two Kings of Kent Sigered and Eadberht governing in severalty These 't is likely were Brothers but Eadberht who became King of all Kent upon Sigered's death or amotion was constituted King and Prince by the whole County This was above 60 years before the Foundation of the Monarchy was laid by the West-Saxon King Ina. Tho most of the Moderns and many of the Ancients lay it as late as Egbert's time the Confessors Laws received and sworn to by William the I. and following Kings say of Ina he was elected King throughout England and first obtained the Monarchy since the coming of the English into Britanny His qualification for an Election the Saxon Cronicle places in a Descent from Cerdic But Malmsbury assures us he was advanced rather for his Merit than his being of the Successive or Inheritable Family and that from him to Brictric the Kings were far out of the Royal Line That Brictric was truly elected appears not only in his bare qualification from the Stock of Cerdic but as he was immediate Successor to Kenwolf elected upon the like qualification and in whose Reign it was ordained in a National and Legantine Council that no man suffer the assent of Wicked men to prevail but that Kings be lawfully elected by the Priests and Elders of the People where 't is manifest that lawfully does not limit the Election to any other Rule than what follows in that Law viz. to avoid electing Persons born in Adultery or Incest The Person lawfully Elected is there called Heir of the Country Where Heir is plainly used in the Sense both of the Civil and of our Common Law for the Person that comes duely to the Inheritance in this sense all that have been elected Kings have been held to succeed by Hereditary Right And thus in numbers of Charters in the Saxon Times and after Private Inheritances are granted to Men to leave to what Heir they please to the Church and its Sacred Heirs and to the Barons or Citizens of London and their Heirs To Brictric the first West-Saxon King after the Peoples Right to Elect had been declared by National Authority succeeded Egbert who derived after several degrees pass'd from Ina's Brother It may well be thought that he was Elected with a Consent no less full and formal than was held essential to his Grants of Lands one of which was with the License and Consent of all his Nation and the unanimity of all the Great men Egbert was alive in the year 838 tho' Historians generally suppose him to have died two years before His Sons Ethelstan the Eldest and Ethelwolf were Kings in his life time As I might prove by several Charters but shall here mention but two one in the year 827. where an Ethelstan subscribes as Monarch of all Britanny an other An. 836. where Egbert grants with the Consent of his Son Ethelwolf King of Kent In the year 838. Ethelwolf succeeded Egbert in the Kingdom of West-Saxony by a manifest Election his eldest Brother Ethelstan being then alive and continuing the Monarch or chief King of all Britanny Besides the Evidences above that there was not at that time such a fix'd rule of descent in the West-Saxon Royal Family as made the Kings eldest Son to be King or to have a certain and indefesible Right to be King may appear by the Law or Custom of that Kingdom mentioned by Asser and Nicolas of Gloster and others not to suffer the King's Wife to be called Queen or to sit near her Husband which seems to have occasioned the Ritual for the Consecrating the Wife in consortium regalis thori for the consortship of the Royal Bed Till she was so Consecrated which was to be in a Convention of the States or coming from it she had no more right to the Kings Bed than a Concubine Of this doubtless W. 1. was aware when he expressed a desire to have his Wife Crowned with him Certain it is that the Sons of Kings begotten on Conubines after they had been elected or adopted by the States were always held to have succeeded as Rightfully and to have been as legitimate Heirs as the Sons begotten in Wedlock the Mother's being Queen and by consequence the legitimation of the issue and capacity to inherit the Crown having depended upon the will of the States But that in Ethelwolf's time the word Elected was duely applied
true lawful and undoubted Heir and Universal Successor to the Crown and Kingdoms of England and France and all the King's Dominions whatsoever and wheresoever beyond the Sea and also has right of universally succeeding the King in the said Crown Kingdoms and Dominions To have to him and the Heirs Male of his Body and in default of such Issue so in remainder to his Brothers In an other Charter pass'd in that Parliament the Inheritance or Hereditation of the Crown is entail'd upon the King and the Heirs Male of his Body then to his four Sons and the Heirs Male of their Bodies successively It seems the next year some doubts arose upon these different Settlements that 5o. then remaining upon Record therefore they cancel and make void the Letters Patent of the Entail 5o. and change and amend that Settlement which they seem to have thought defective 1. In only declaring the Prince Heir Apparent and Inheritable to the Crown which was no more than to declare him before others qualified to succeed if the States should Elect him 2. In declaring him Inheritable only to the Crown of England without mentioning its appurtenances seeming to think that in Grants of this Nature nothing would pass by implication But to prevent all ambiguities they being as is said in that Record met in a Parliament according to the Custom of the Kingdom for divers Matters and Things concerning the King and his Kingdom The King with common Consent of the Kingdom Enacts That a new Patent be Sealed constituting Prince Henry Heir Apparent to succeed the King in his Crown Realms and Dominions to have them with all their appurtenances after the King's Decease to him and the Heirs of his Body and so in remainder to his three Brothers successively whereby they had a larger Estate than by the Entail 7º which was to Heirs Male Thus by Virtue of one or more Settlements by Authority of Parliament H. 5. succeeded and yet it was thought a great instance of the confidence the States had in him that in a Convention or Assembly holden according to Ancient Custom in which they treated about creating a new King some of the Nobility immediately Swore Allegiance to him before he had been declared King But it is to be observed that whereas his Father died the 20th of March he is said to be created King on the 5th of April Death cutting off the course of his Glories his Infant Son H. 6. came in under the Parliamentary Entail but the Administration was held to have fallen upon the States who accordingly after having declared H. 6. King in full Parliament pass'd a Patent constituting Humfry Duke of Gloster Protecter of the Realm John Duke of Bedford Regent of France and Henry Beaufort Bishop of Winchester and Thomas Beaufort Duke of Exeter Governors of the young Prince The Death of the brave Duke of Bedford occasioned not only the loss of France but the raising the Family of York to a pretence which in all probability had been buried to this day had not H. 6ths treacherous Ministers put him upon making Richard Duke of York Regent of France after being High Constable of England and Lieutenant of Ireland With these advantages Duke Richard set up under a Mask of Popularity as if he only sought redress of grievances while himself was the only National Calamity As nothing but success could give him any colour of Title he was forced to conceal his Ambition even from his own Party till 26 H. 6 yet after that acknowledged and swore to H. 6ths Right and confirm'd it with the Sacrament which Solemnities were to be subservient to his imaginary Divine Right Tho' by his Frauds and Perjuries he often came within the prospect of a Crown 38 H. 6. he was deservedly Attainted of High-Treason and an Association with an Oath was voluntarily enter'd into by the Lords wherein every one severally acknowledges H. 6. to be his most redoubted Lord and rightwish or Rightful by Succession born to Reign over him and all the Kings Liege People that he will do his utmost for the We le and surety of the King's Person of his most Royal Estats and the very conservation and continuance of his most high Authority Preheminence and Prerogative and for the preservation of the Queen and of Prince Edward his Right redoubted Lord the Prince that after the King's Death he will take and accept the Prince for his Sovereign Lord and after him the Issue of his Body lawfully begotten for want of such Issue any other Issue of the Body of the King that he will never give Aid Assistance or Favour to any thing contrary to the premises and that he will put himself in his due undelayed devoir with his Body Goods Might Power Counsel and Advertisement to resist withstand and subdue all that should presume to do contrary to the premises or any of them This Association not being General throughout the Kingdom had no great effect not so much from any belief the Nation had of Richard's being injured as from the burdens a Treacherous Ministry induced a weak Prince to lay upon the Subjects This made the Commons of Kent invite over from abroad the Duke and his Party who had fled from Justice then the Tide turn'd and the King became wholly in the power of the Duke of York under whose awe and influence a Parliament was call'd where he laid claim to the Crown with circumstances which one would think were enough to give any Man a face of Title and yet his pretended Divine Right countenanc'd by Providence was mightily qualify'd by the courage of the Parliament and their regard to the Constitution of this Monarchy His claim was as Son to Ann Daughter to Roger Mortimer Son and Heir to Philippa Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence third Son to E. 3. whereas H. 6. descended from John of Gaunt the 4th and eldest surviving Son After Debate among the Lords upon this matter these Objections were agreed upon against Richard's pretence of Title 1. The Oaths they had taken to the King their Sovereign Lord. 2. Acts of Parliament made in divers Parliaments of the King's Progenitors of Authority sufficient to defeat any manner of Title to be made to any Person 3. Several Entails made to Heirs Male 4. That Richard did not bear Lionel's Arms. 5. That H. 4. took upon him the Crown not as Conqueror but right Inheritor to H 3. All that is urged materially against this for Richard is 1. That Oaths do not bind against God's Law and that requires Truth and Justice to be maintain'd but this being a Spiritual matter he refers to any Judge Spiritual 2. That there was but one Entail of the Crown 7 H. 4. but that this was void against the right Inheritor of the Crown according to God's law and all Natural laws 3. It could
Treason during her Life and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels after her death to deny the Power of Parliament to limit and bind the Crown and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof and a penalty is set upon them who should affirm that any but the Issue of the Queen's Body had right to succeed after her For any one who expected the Crown to pretend to it while she lived is made disability during life only but by a subsequent Statute approving and explaining the voluntary Association of the Subjects that year every such Person is excluded and disabled for ever And tho' at the time of giving judgment against Mary Queen of Scots it was declared to be without prejudice to her Son that could not hinder the operation of the Law upon that Statute and I would gladly know how he could have any right since he had no pretence as a special Heir under any Parliamentary Settlement then in force Upon the Queen's Treaty of Marriage 14º of her Reign with the French King's Brother she declared that she could not grant without the assent of the States of the Realm that he should be Crowned after the Marriage In an information in the Exchequer 21º of her Reign upon which judgement was given with the advice of the Judges of both Benches Lands are said after the death of E 6. to have come to Queen Mary as his Sister and Heir as in right of the Crown and so from her to Queen Elizabeth In both which instances according to the judgment of that time the rightful Possession of the Crown made them Heirs to their respective Predecessors notwithstanding the half Blood of both and the continuing illegitimacy of one of them That J. 1. could not rightfully succeed that glorious Queen without an election by the States of the Kingdom had been declared with sufficient Authority in her time and in the time of H. 8 th and without such Declaration would appear by the observing how the Law stood and was taken in all former times But whatever right was ascribed to him after he got Possession his Party here found it requisite to set up a will or nomination of Queen Elizabeth to facilitate his accession to the Throne Then with a new strain of Loyalty Judges Lawyers and Juries concurred in making attempts to prevent his coming to the Crown Treason the like of which withal its Circumstances had not been known in any Age of this Monarchy Tho' there had been Treason against W. 1. before his actual admittance to the Crown it was as has appeared above after a National Settlement upon him by name and this was the case of the unfortunate Lady Jane and others who set l er up against Queen Mary Yet that complement to J. 1. was but suitable to the flattering Act of Recognition 1º of his Reign according to the Preamble of which immediately upon the decease of Queen Elizabeth the Crown did by Inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to him as lineally descended from Margaret Daughter to However that Parliament made no Law in the Matter and by good luck left the constitution as they found it for they made no Settlement of the Crown only offered that recognition as the first Fruits of their Faith to him and his Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever which if it had been a Settlement would amount to no more than what had been usual in former times for Parliaments to make a branch of the Royal Family a new head of future Successions but by this any one of the Issue or Posterity stood fair for an election Yet possibly the Parliament had not been so forward with these Fruits of their Loyalty but for his Speech to 'em wherein he says Every King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe the Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereto And a King governing in a settled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off governing according to his Laws In which case the King's conscience may speak to him as the poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon either govern according to your Law or be no King The Parliament take him at his word and grafting upon it say His Majesty hath vouchsafed to express many ways how far it is and ever shall be from his Royal and Sincere Care and Affection to the Subjects of England to alter or innovate the Fundamental and ancient Laws Priviledges and good Customs of this Kingdom whereby not only his Legal Authority but the Peoples security of Lands Livings and Priviledges both in general and particular are preserved and maintained And by the abolishing or altering of the which it is impossible but that present confusion will fall upon the whole state and frame of this Kingdom Where in as modest terms as they could they bid the King at his peril to violate the Fundamental Laws on which his regal Authority depended as well as their Rights and Priviledges But that King soon forgot upon what terms he had been received King and getting the leading Clergy on the side of his Divine Right it pass'd at that time as the Doctrine of the Church of England While this fit of Loyalty lasted C. 1. succeeded as by inherent Birthright without any formal recognition which then began to be thought needless The occasions of the War between him and his Parliament I shall not enquire into but shall content my self with Dean Sherlock's concession who as he will not dispute the lawfullness of resisting the King's Authority and whether it were lawful for the Parliament to take Arms against the King to desend the Laws and Liberties of their Country admits that they had a right to keep the King within the boundaries of Law these C. 1. apparently broke and where there is no Tribunal on Earth to appeal to the Dean allows use of the Sword But whatever was the consequence of that War there has been no reason for the Pulpits to sound to loud and long as they have done with denunciations of God's wrath but indeed the Clergies against this Kingdom for what hapned in a War for which the Parliament and People who would not have carried the Point so far as it unhappily went are not to answer C. 1. dying a deplorable death the Nation was left without the exercice of any Legal Government till the Restoration of C. 2. who was accounted King from the death of his Father But by what Law or in what respect is worth enquiry and will it appear 1. That the supposed Maxim that the King never dies is of very late and doubtful Authority in comparison with those which shew that no Man was or ought to be accounted King till he had been formally recognized 2. Yet tho' this should be true when any Prince succeeds in vertue of
be justify'd by Record that H. 4ths saying was not true Upon which 't is observable 1. That Richard's answer goes upon a manifest begging the Question and supposing that he had a Right which could not be barred by Act of Parliament 2. That the Lords having mentioned several Entails upon Heirs Male we are to believe that there was then upon Record the Entail upon Heirs Male in the time of E. 3. pleaded by Judge Fortescue in defence of the Title of his King H. 6. This we are the rather to believe because there was but one Entail upon Heirs male in H. 4ths reign nor is Richard's denial any argument against this it appearing that he thought it sufficient for him to affirm any thing and this was to pass for Truth and Law Thus he denies that there had been any Entail but 7º H. 4. forgetting that which had been made 5º and was amended 8 H. 4. and so very much did he mistake that he supposed the Entail 7º to be upon the Heirs of the Body when it was upon Heirs male of the Body 3. What the Lords say of Richard's not bearing Lionel's Arms confirms another objection against him made by Judge Fortescue from the Barstardy of Philippa born while Lionel was beyond the four Seas and never own'd by him nor did she or her descendants till the time of this claim bear the Arms of that Family 4. Richard's Right of Descent admitting there had been no Illegitimacy is laid as a Right in Nature but either this must be as the Laws of the Land guide the course of Nature or otherwise we must go back in search of this Right if not as far as Adam yet to some descendant from the eldest House of the Saxon Royal Family to such at least as could derive their Pedigree from some House elder than King Alfred's which may be done at this day Besides if we should look back to a Right in Nature all the Kings descendants from H. 2. from whom Duke Richard came as well as H. 6. must have been Usurpers H. 2ds Children having being begotten on another Man's Wife who had been Divorced for her Adultery and therefore by God's Law could not Marry again nor does it appear that the Divorce was from the Contract Or if this Matter should admit of Debate such of our Kings as descended from an other common Ancestor King John must have been Usurpers not only by reasonof John's suppos'd Usurpation upon Arthur of Brittain and his Sister but in that his Children were begotten on an other Man's Wife who does not seem ever to have been divorced and besides according to the Law of Nature it would seem that John had a former Wife in being For he was divorced from her only for their being third Cousins as H. 2 ds Wife was from her first Husband as they were Cousins in the 4 th Degree If the first Marriages in both cases were void or voidable it could have been only by the Laws of the Romish Church but if those Laws shall make a natural right by governing the course of descents much more shall the Laws of particular Countries If by the Law of Nature Duke Richard meant that which the consent of Nations has made to pass for the dictates of nature according to Cujacius this Law of Nature is for the right of Proximity which John of Gaunt from whom H. 6. descended had to his Father before R. 2. and H. 4 John of Gaunt's Son had before the Son of Lionel's Daughter supposing her legitimate And by that Law it should seem that Males are ordinarily to be preferred before Females tho' their Vertues have often rais'd 'em to Empire Farther yet if by this he meant the Law of reasonable nature what shadow of reason can be assigned why the eldest Issue of a King 's eldest Child whether that Issue be an Infant or void of understanding or humanity ought universally to succeed to Crowns before the King 's eldest surviving Son whatever be his Merits or the exigencies of the Publick And why should not a moral incapacity in this sense be a natural one But if the Great Lawyer Fortescue who as may be seen by the Rolls of the King's Bench was Chief Justice there from before Richard pretended to the Crown and to the end of H. 6 ths Reign may be allowed to speak the Sense of the Learned in that Time they held the Power of the Prince to flow or be derived from the People according to which it must have been taken to be more according to natural right that the People who appointed the Succession in any Family should govern and vary it as they saw occasion than that from their pitching upon a Person or Family they should be for ever debarred from doing justice to the demerits of one and to the merits of another in that very Family I am sure the learned Grotius who distinguishes lineal Succession from Hereditary says an Hereditary Kingdom is one which was made so by the Peoples free consent And in such Kingdoms he supposes several Rules of Succession by guessing at or presuming the will of the People If Duke Richard would have admitted the Law of the Land to govern the course of Descents and Successions to the Crown then 't is evident beyond contradiction that H. 6. came in by a legal and natural course of Descent and however according to laudable custom from the beginning of this Monarchy Acts of Parliament may alter that course However the timerous Lords without concurrence in that matter of the stouter Commons agreed that the Duke's Title could not be defeated and yet thought not themselves discharged from their Oaths to H. 6. unless he would consent to the mean or expedient they found out which was for the King to keep his Estate and Dignity Royal during his life and the Duke and his Heirs to succeed him in the same To this both the King and Duke consented but neither the King 's Right to the Possession nor the Duke 's to the reversion arose from their private agreement but from the Authority of Parliament according to which the King had as much right to the Possession as the Duke to the reversion And it remains as the judgment even of that Parliament whatever force or awe were over it that Richard Duke of York had no right to the Possession and neither was King nor of right ought to be King till H. 6. should die or cease to be King Nay even E. 4 ths Judges owned that H. 6. was not a meer Usurper because the Crown was entailed to him by Parliament As a just judgment upon Richard's pretence of Title contrary not only to the National but Divine Authority giving sanction to the Laws of the Kingdom and his own Oaths he died within sight of the Promised Land But soon after
his death his Son Edward having less to answer for and success to recommend him to the People upon more specious pretences succeeded H. 6. by a manifest election Tho' he and his Father had upon the agreement established in Parliament sworn to be true to H. 6. during his life or till he should freely quit his Crown the dread of their Arms got a liberty for 'em to enter their protestations that this was upon the express condition that the King performed his part but if he should compass or imagine the death or destruction of the Duke or his Blood should forfeit the Crown And indeed it seems that the first acts of Hostility after this agreement were committed by the Queen and others of the King's Party who in attempting to rescue him out of the custody of the Duke of York put an end to his pretensions with his life But his Son Edward having routed the Earl of Pembroke and other the King 's Loyal Subjects in a Battle near Ludlow march'd up to London where he was received with joy on the 28 th of February Then he calls a Great Council of Peers to whom he opens his claim upon the King's breach of the Articles After the Lords had considered of the matter they determined by Authority of the said Council that forasmuch as King Henry contrary to his Oath Honor and Agreement had violated and infringed the order taken and enacted in the last Parliament and also because he was insufficient to rule the Realms and unprofitable to the Common-wealth he was therefore by the aforesaid Authority deprived and dejected of all Kingly Honor and Regal Sovereignty and incontinent Edward Earl of March was by the Lords in the said Counseil assembled named elected and admitted for King and Governour of the Realm After this the same day the consent of the common People was ask'd in St. John's Fields where a great number were assembled The Lords being informed of the consent of the Commons acquainted the said Earl with their election and admission and the loving assent of the Commons The next day he went to Westminster where his Title and Claim to the Crown was declared 1. As Son and Heir to Richard his Father right Inheriter to the same 2. By Authority of Parliament 3. And forfeiture committed by H. 6. The Commons being again demanded if they would admit and take the said Earl as their Sovereign Lord all with one voice cried yea yea which agreement concluded he was then proclaimed Here it is observable 1. That Edward did not claim upon any Title Prior to the Settlement in Parliament 39 H. 6. and therefore in effect claimed as adopted Heir to H. 6. as H. 2. had been to King Stephen 2. He alledges against H. 6. forfeiture by breach of the Contrac̄t establish'd in Parliament and a Moral incapacity in him to Reign 3. Notwithstanding this he does not set up as King before a solemn judgment pronounced against H. 6. and in favour of him and the formallity of a publick election 4. It appears that tho' he came to London and was possessed of the head and strength of the Kingdom and Hen. 6. had in effect abdicated he who according to the modern notion of the Successionaries should have been King upon the death of his Father was not King nor so reputed by his own Party till all those accustomed ceremonies were over the last of which was on the 4 th of March Now if it shall prove that in the judgment of King Edward's own Parliament his right ot turn H. 6. out of Possession was founded in H. 6 ths breach of the Contract establish'd in Parliament that E. 4. was not King till the 4 th of March and that no Act committed against him before that day was Treason nor was there or could there be Treason against his Father who never had been King then it will appear that some consent or election of the States or People was essentially necessary to make a King even of one who had or at least was suppos'd to have all the right that descent could give him and that the other King must have forfeited or ceased to be King before such right could be duely claimed But 1. The Act of Parliament declaring E. 4 ths Title is held to be a restitution to the same so that the very Title or Right was as if it had been extinguished 2. It is in that Act particularly insisted on that H. 6. had declared before witness that he would not keep the contract established in Parliament and is expresly charged with the breach of it 3. E. 4. is adjudged to have been in lawful Possession of the Realm upon the 4 th of March and on that day lawfully seized and possessed But not before and then the exercice of the Royal Estate by E. 4. and amotion of H. 6. are declared rightwise lawful and according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm 4. That Act says the Crown ought to have descended to Edward's Ancestor and after his decease to the next Heir of Blood if the same Usurpation had not been committed Wherefore according to that Act the Crown did not descend to any one of Mortimer's Family while the Person who they supposed to have usurped the Crown or any descendant from him kept Possession 5. Edward's Parliament held his Father to have been no more than Duke of York and tho' in the Act attainting H. 6. he is charged with the Murder of Richard Duke of York the first Treasonable Fact in H. 6. and others is laid in levying War on the 29 th of March and imagining to depose their Sovereign Lord Edward who had been declared King on the 4 th of that March and H. 6 ths forfeiture is laid in acting against his Faith and Allegiance to his Sovereign Lord whereby they plainly shew that as there could be no Treason against the Duke of York because he was never received for Sovereign Lord neither could there have been any against E. 4. unless he had been so received 6. If any now will own his present Majesty to have right by Law and yet refuse to declare him rightful King They go no farther then E. 4. and his Party did even after his Possession in relation to such as they held to be Usurpers And should such Men add that neither has the late King any right as it is probable that they mean that he has no right making him King they therein would still keep to that President But then if they would exactly follow that they must believe that the late King cannot be duely restored to the Regal Dignity till he should be received by the election or consent of the States or Body of the People nor could that be rightfully done unless his present Majesty in a legal sense ceased to be King before such election or consent Thus far I am sure they cannot