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
might afterwards sail out of abundant care for his Son Henry had him Crowned in his life time which through French Counsels put the Son upon insisting on the Rights of Kingship to the great clamity of the Nation tho' the Subjects swore Allegiance to him with an express Salvo for the Allegiance due to his Father Which whatever some have thought or affirm'd was the only Salvo in the Scotch Kings homage according to ancient custom for the Crown of Scotland To H. 2. succeeded his eldest surviving Son Richard but was not accounted King upon the death of his Father Authors say he was to be promoted to be King by Hereditary Right which is far from being King by Hereditary Right But as the former usage explains such words he deserved to be elected and made King in which sense one of the Authors who lived at the time immediately explains himself mentioning his Coronation Oath after the solemn and due election as well of the Clergy as People Before this he was at first only Earl of Poictou and then Duke of Normandy but not till he had been solemnly invested with the Sword of that Dukedom And Bromton informs us that he accepted the Crown upon condition of keeping his Coronation Oath without undertaking which the Archbishop charged him not to assume the Royal Dignity He going to the holy Wars after his being Crown'd his Brother John would have seiz'd the Government as vacant but had no tollerable pretence the War having been carried on with a National Consent Upon this it was adjudged by a Common-Council of the Kingdom that John should be disseiz'd of all that he held in England which might extend to such right or expectancy as he had in the Crown Notwithstanding which upon Richard's death the great Question came upon the Stage whether the Crown ought ordinarily to go according to the right of Proximity or of Representation The right of Proximity was in John Brother to King Richard this was the Right which the English seem'd to think most agreeable to the Constitution of this Monarchy and is according to the Custom of Normandy for Succession to that Dukedom and as Cujacius supposes of most Nations Foreigners were for Arthur of Brittain as having the right of Representation being the Son of John's elder Brother and this was the Right according to the custom of Brittain in France But as to the Law of England it appears by Glanvil's account of the Law as it was taken in the time of H. 2. that even for the Descent of private Inheritances it was doubtful whether they ought to go to the Grandson by the eldest Son who died in the Father's life time or to his next surviving Son If indeed the eldest Son had in the Father's life time done homage to the Chief Lord for his Father's Inheritance this was held to remove the doubt And Glanvil afterwards says upon the Question between Uncle and Nephew that the condition of the Possessor is the better According to which King John having obtained Possession of the Crown had it rightfully and Arthur had no right to turn him out John being beyond-sea at his Brother's death sent over the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshal of England to sollicit for his being admitted to the Throne These Great Men with the assistance of the Chief Justice of England prevailed upon many to swear Allegiance to John and in a Convention at Northampton those Persons were Sponsors for John's doing right to all men upon which condition or in confidence of his performing what had been undertaken in his name the Earls and Barons swore Fidelity to him against all Men yet after this he was formally elected in a full Convention of the States where the Archbishop declares it as matter known to 'em all that no man ought to succeed an other to the Kingdom upon any previous reason unless unanimously elected by the whole Realm c. But if any one of the Royal Stock was more deserving than others his election ought to be consented to the more promptly and readily Notwithstanding what had pass'd in favour of John in the Convention the Archbishop at the time of the Coronation calls him but Earl King John not only took the Oath appointed by the standing Ritual which declares every King of England to be elected but assumed the Royal Dignity as his Predecessor did with the express condition of keeping his Oath Having broken this Contract and notoriously departed from that end for which according to the Confessors Law expresly sworn to by him he had been constituted or created King in making War upon his People with Foreign Forces with which he exercis'd inhuman barbarities and as much as in him lay alienating his Imperial Crown to the Pope he in the Judgment of the Court of France as well as of the States and People of England fell from his Royal Dignity the Throne was become vacant and during the vacancy the Administration devolved upon the States whereupon they resolved to elect a new King and sent a solemn Embassy to the King of France to send over his Son Lewis to be King of England whose wife was John's Sisters Daughter But the chief inducement to this Election seems to have been that expectation in which they were not deceived that the Foreigners would desert John for Lewis Tho they promised to Crown him King they seeing great grounds to dislike his French Temper and Conduct kept him upon his good behaviour without a Crown And having found by the dying Confession of one of his confederates that he had sworn if he came to be once Crowned King he would treat the English as Rebels to their former Prince they soon sent this Probationer packing yet did not hold John to be King After John's death many of the greatest interest in England while Lewis was here and Elianor Prince Arthur's Sister alive in Bristol Castle who according to the vulgar notion ought to have been Queen John's Son but were far from thinking him King upon the death of his Father or from repenting of what they had done to the Father but they thought it adviseable to cut off Lewis his expectation of the Crown to which end the Martial of England Summons a Convention to Glocester where he tells the States that tho' they had justly prosecuted the Father for his evil deeds yet that Infant was innocent because he is the Son of a King and our future Lord and Successer of the Kingdom let us Constitute him our King At last all as with one voice cried thrice let him be made King Here 't is evident that he was not accounted King till Constituted or made and was but a future Lord and agreeably to this Matthew Paris
King of Denmark Landing with an additional Force this with Ethelred's sloath and unacceptableness to his own People drove him to an Abdication Upon Swane's death the English invited back the Abdicated King on condition he would govern better than he had done for which his Son Edward undertook Ethelred returning as an Author who lived about the time has it a contract was established between the King and his People and firm friendship and it was enacted with an Oath that there never more should be a Danish King in England After this Cnute the Son of Swane laid claim to the Crown of England as a Saxon as well as Dane deriving from King Ethelbald who doubtless was that Son of an elder Brother of King Alfred who oppos'd Edward the elder Notwithstanding this tho' the Danes elected Cnute the English adhered to Ethelred Upon whose death they chose his Son Edmund Ironside who as appears by the stream of ancient Authorities was a Bastard Upon i Edmund's death Cnute was Crown'd King of England by the Election of all and according to Florence of Woster he swore to be Faithful Lord as the People did to be Leige Subjects At Cnute's death his two Sons Harold who was a Bastard or rather Spurious and Hardecnute his legitimate Son by Ethelred's Widow were by Leofric and all the Nobility on the North-side of the River Thomes elected Kings over all England as partners in Power and co-heirs But Duke Godwin and other Noblemen in West-Saxony opposed and prevailed It appears by an Author who wrote in the Confessor's Time and whose words are transcrib'd by several that they prevailed for the total rejection of Hardecnute because he made not sufficient haste to take the Administration upon him Therefore Harold who however would have been King of Mercia and the Northumbrian Kingdom was elected over all England by the Princes and all the People or as an other of like antiquity has it is elected King by all the People of England Upon Harold's death and not before Hardecnute was received in what manner appears by the then standing Ritual for the Coronation of Kings But Emmae's Sons by Ethelred Alured and Edw. as Malms observes were despised almost by all rather through the remembrance of their Fathers sloathfulness than by reason of the Power of the Danes Yet they two without preference of one before the other were accounted Heirs of the Kingdom and accordingly Cnute while he was in fear of the then Duke of Normandy offer'd half his Kingdom to Edward and his Brother Alured Upon Hardecnute's death Earl Godwin was chosen Administrator or Protector of the Kingdom during the vacancy and till a fit Person should be elected King Godwin summons a Convention of the States where he nominated Ethelred's only surviving Son by Emma whom the Saxons call'd Elgive After some debates all consented to the election of Edward He being so elected was in the sense of those times Heir of the Kingdom to the last Possessor Hardecnute his Brother by the half blood And yet it is observable that according to a Charter of Edward's pass'd in Parliament at the latter end of his Reign the Hereditary Succession was hazarded by the Danes that is according to what I before observ'd the Anglo-Saxon regnant branch of the Royal Family was kept back and was likely never to have been restored 'T is evident that it was not for Edward to carry this Point farther for besides the Danish Royal Family claiming from King Ethelbald and Fretheric Abbot of St. Albans in his time coming from the ancient Saxons and Danes and lineally descended from King Cnute there was the Historian Ethelwerd or his immediate Ancestor of the Family of King Ethered and in all probability there were several descendants either from Ethelstan Ethelwolfs elder Brother or from his Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert What was the known Law in the Confessor's time both as to the Succession and the continuing King besides the former Evidences appears beyond contradiction from that King's Laws according to which 1. The Monarchy was founded in election which explains in what Sense a King is there taken to be Constituted 2. If the King do not answer the end for which he had been Constituted not so much as the name of King shall continue in him 3. It receives as a Rule in all Kingdoms and particularly here the Judgment of Pope Zachary encouraging the Franks to depose their King Childeric With Edward the Confessor end the Saxon and Danish Successions of Kings Harold the Son of Earl Godwin as I shall shew never was King nor reputed King by any but his own Party Here I may observe 1. That Dr. Brady is mightily mistaken in his assertion that the Saxons did in their subjection owning of and submission to their Princs acknowledge both proximity of blood and nomination of their Princes often both sometimes only one of them but never followed any other rule 2. The chief rule of Succession upon the death or disability of any King was a proper election of a worthy Person of the Regnant Branch of the Royal Family 3. Dr. Bradie's notion that Elegerunt signifies no more than recognoverunt they acknowledged owned submitted unto him as their King is by no means true the recognition being manifestly subsequent to or in consequence of the election nor is any thing more plain than that the States did from the beginning of the Monarchy downwards rightfully declare an Heir to the Kingdom and then acknowledge his Right tho' neither next upon the Royal Line nor representing the next nor yet nominated by the Predecessor And indeed till a rare and noted instance in the case of Hen. 5. on whom the Crown had before been entailed in Parliament no Prince was known to have been formally recogniz'd till he had taken the Coronation Oath 4 If according to any good authority of the Saxon or Danish Times it should seem that any man came to the Crown by the Gift of his Predecessor it must have been made with such solemnity as was requisite even for the granting of Lands As that of Egbert's above-mentioned or Athelstan's in an Assembly of the Bishops Abbots Dukes or Earls and the Procurators or Representatives of the Country or an other before the Plebs or Commons or Edgar's in the open air with the privity of the Great or Wisemen of his whole Kingdom In the Confessor's life time there were three Competitors for the Crown Atheling's Father and Son to Edmund Ironside Harold who was High Steward of England and the most powerful of any Man tho' not his Fathers eldest Son and William Duke of Normandy Grand Nephew to Emma who had been Crown'd Queen of England nor as has appear'd above was William under any
incapacity from his Bastardy Besides his Wife Maud was descended from a Daughter of King Alfred married to Baldwin Earl of Flanders upon which account a Commentator on the Grand Custumary of Normandy held him to be the first or chief Heir Edward Son to Edmund Ironside was at one time designed by the Confessor for his Successor if he could prevail with the Nation to consent but that Edward dying before the Confessor his Son being a Minor seems never then to have been thought of Harold's design was covert nor does he appear to have been a Pretender till the Confessor lay upon his death-bed But Duke William had long been promis'd his Cousin King Edward's interest in order whereunto we may well believe he in the year 1651. came over to England and doubtless to ingratiate him to the Nation was by the Confessor carried up and down the Kingdom In the year 1657. or 1658. the design was brought to bear and in a Great Council of the whole Nation William was declared Successor or as the Law received by him has it agreeing with a Charter pass'd in Parl. 15. of his Reign was adopted Heir or as another Charter has it Edward instituted him adopted Heir That this Adoption or Institution of an Heir to the Crown was with a Consent truly National I shall elsewhere have occasion to prove at large at present shall only observe that the above-cited Law says that Edward caused the Kingdom to swear to William that Wilnot Earl Godwin's Son and Hacun his Grandson were sent Hostages to William to secure the future Allegiance of that Family that Robert Archbishiop of Canterbury and Harold were successively with the Duke to assure him of his being declared Heir to the Crown which Harold swore to endeavour to preserve to William But notwithstanding the Nations and his own Oath while the Nobility and People were at the Confessor's Funeral at Westminster Harold got a Party together at Lambeth where as some have it he set the Crown upon his own Head The mad Englishman as a contemporary Writer has it would not stay to see what the Publick Election would appoint Harold's Possession whatever it was prov'd very short lasting but nine Months nor was he ever fully recogniz'd or submitted to by the States or the Body of the Nation he never held any Parliament or Convention of the States which I take to be the reason that no Charter of his is to be seen nor have I met with any mention of one They who fought for him against William were judged Traytors and their Estates forfeited and it is rightly observ'd by the Lord Coke that in Demesday Harold who usurped the Crown of England after the decease of King Edward the Confessor is never named per nomen Regis sed per nomen Comitis Haroldi Wherefore he leaves him out of his Lift of our Kings William according to some Authors was encouraged to his attempt from the consideration that Harold was neither of the Saxon nor Danish Royal Stock When William Landed he claimed the Crown from his Cousins Gift with the consnt of the Nobility of the Kingdom confirmed by Oath and lays his qualification in being thought the most deserving of all that were nearly related to the Confessor Harold had nothing to plead against that but the suggestion that the Crown had not been setled by a Consent sufficiently formal that it was made without a Convention and Law of the Senate and People which 't is no wonder that he should pretend tho' there were never so formal an Election Notwithstanding the Right with which the Norman Duke Landed he proffered to submit to what the English should decree and therefore to a new election if they thought fit Upon Harold's death some of the English who dreaded the consequence of receiving William after a bloody Battle set up Edgar Atheling for King who tho' but the second degree from a Bastard and tho' his Father never had Possession was look'd upon as the true Heir of the Crown that is the Person of the last Regnant Branch of the Royal Family who ordinarily would have succeeded by common consent of the States if of sufficient Merit and reasons of State or other obligations did not interpose But the learned Monk Guitmond who could bot but know the constitution in this matter held him to be but one Heir among many of the Line of the Royal Family However the generallity of the Clergy thought themselves bound to maintain the Title with which King William Landed and that'twas Rebellion to oppose him yet before his being received for King he at Berkhamsted made a League or Contract with the People headed by the Great Earls Edwin and Morcar who came up with the Forces from the North which had never been in the Battle against the Duke Part of the League made with the People of England was that he should be Crown'd as the manner of the English Government requires at his Coronation the consent of the People was ask'd in the due and accustomed manner and the account Historians give of the Oath he then took shews it to be that which stood in the Saxon Ritual After which he more than once received and swore to that Body of the Common-Law of England which had obtain'd the name of King Edward's Laws which as has been observ'd declare the end for which a King is Constituted and that he loses the Name or ceases to be King when he answers not that end Indeed Dr. Brady who is as free with his Conquerors Memory as with the Liberties of England which he calls the Grants and Concessions of the King of this Nation will have it that William the I. regarded his Oath only in the beginning of his Reign and that by notorious violations of his contract with the People of England he acquired the Right of a Conqueror and thereby put an end to the ancient Constitution of this Monarchy and those Liberties and Priviledges of the Subject which manifestly appear to have been of elder date than the Monarchy Upon which if one would return the Freedom of his Censures against others it might be said that this was not only to make the then King the Successor of a Conqueror but with a prospect of applying the Rights which he ascribes to a supposed Qonquest to justifie what should be practised upon the late intended Conquest of this Nation That the Judgment and Practice of William the I. was very contrary to the Doctor 's Imaginations will be proved by numerous Instances and that it was so as to that part of the Constitution which concerns the Succession to the Crown appears by that King's Death-bed Declaration which some would set up for a will disposing of the Crown at that very time when he owns that it is not his to give