Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	edward_n	king_n	richard_n	4,511	5	9.3432	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37313	The debate at large, between the House of Lords and House of Commons, at the free conference, held in the Painted Chamber, in the session of the convention, anno 1688 relating to the word, abdicated and the vacancy of the throne in the Common's vote.	England and Wales. Parliament. House of Lords.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1695 (1695)	Wing D506; ESTC R14958	49,640	162

difference is plain that where-ever the Monarchy is Hereditary upon the Ceasing of him in possession the Throne is not Vacant where it is Elective 't is Vacant Earl of C n. I would speak one word to that Record which Mr. S s mentioned and which the Lord that spake last hath given a plain Answer unto by making that difference which is the great Hinge of the matter in debate between Hereditary and Elective Kingdoms But I have something else to say to that Record First It is plain in that Case King Richard the Second had absolutely resigned renounced or call it what you please Abdicated in Writing under his own Hand What is done then After that the Parliament being then sitting they did not think it sufficient to go upon because that Writing might be the Effect of Fear And so not voluntary thereupon they proceed to a formal Deposition upon Articles and then comes in the Claim of Hen. IV After all this Was not this an Election He indeed saith That he was not the next Heir and claimed it by Descent from Henry the Third yet he that was really the next Heir did not appear which was the Earl of Maroh so that Henry the Fourth claimed it as his indubitable Right being the next Heir that then appeared But Gentlemen I pray consider what follow'd upon it All the Kings that were thus taken in we say Elected but the Election was not of God's Approbation scarce passed any one Year in any of their Reigns without being disturbed in the possession Yet I say he himself did not care to owe the Crown to the Election but Claimed it as his Right And it was a plausible Pretence and kept him and his Son though not without interruption upon the Throne But in the time of his Grandson Henry the Sixth there was an utter Overthrow of all his Title and Possession too For if you look into the Parliament Roll 1 Edw. 4. the Proceedings against King Richard the Second as well as all the rest of the Acts during the Usurpation as that Record rightly calls it are annul'd repeal'd revok'd revers'd and all the words imaginable used and put in to set those Proceedings aside as illegal unjust and unrighteous And pray what was the Reason That Act deduceth down the Pedigree of the Royal Line from Henry the Third to Richard the Second who dy'd without Issue and then Henry the Fourth saith the Act Usurped but That the Earl of March upon the Death of Richard the Second and consequently Edward the Fourth from him was undoubted King by Conscience by Nature by Custom and by Law The Record is to be seen at length as well as that 1 Hen. 4. and being a later Act is of more Authority And after all this I pray consider it well the Right Line is restored and the Usurpation condemned and repealed Besides Gentlemen I hope you will take into your consideration what will become of the Kingdom of Scotland if they should differ from us in this Point and go another way to work then will that be a divided Kingdom from ours again You cannot but remember how much Trouble it always gave our Ancestors while it continued a divided Kingdom and if we should go out of the Line and invest the Succession in any point at all I fear you will find a Disagreement there and then very dangerous Consequences may ensue Sir R H d. My Lords The Proceedings and Expressions of the House of Commons in this Vote are fully warranted by the President that hath been cited and are such as wherein there has been no interruption of the Government according to the Constitution The late King hath by your Lordships concession done all those things which amount to an Abdication of the Government and the Throne 's being thereby Vacant And had your Lordships concurred with us the Kingdom had long e're this been setled and every body had peaceably followed their own business Nay had your Lordships been pleased to express your selves clearly and not had a mind to speak ambiguously of it we had saved all this Trouble and been at an end of Disputing Truly my Lords this Record that hath been mentioned of Henry the Fourth I will not say is not a President of Election for the Arch-Bishop stood up and looked round on all sides and asked the Lords and Commons Whether they would have him to be King and they asserted as the words of the Roll are That He should Reign over them And so it is done at every Coronation As to his Claim they did not so much mind that for they knew that he Claimed by Descent and Inheritance when there was a known Person that had a Title before him For that which a Noble Lord spoke of touching the Publick Acts that have been done since the King left us I may very well say we think them legally done and we do not doubt but that Power which brought in another Line then upon the Vacancy of the Throne by the Leasion of Richard the Second is still according to the Constitution residing in the Lords and Commons and is legally sufficient to supply the Vacancy that now is That Noble Lord indeed said That your Lordships might not only with the Commons advise the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Administration and joyn with us in the other things but that you might have done it of your selves as being in the absence of the King the Great Council of the Nation My Lords I shall not say much to that point your Lordships Honours Privileges are great and your Councils very worthy of all Reverence and Respect But I would ask this Question of any Noble Lord that is here Whether had there been an Heir to whom the Crown had quietly descended in the Line of Succession and this Heir certainly known your Lordships would have assembl'd without his calling or would have either Administer'd the Government your selves or advised the Prince of Orange to have taken it upon him I doubt you had been pardon me to say it all guilty of High-Treason by the Laws of England if a known Successor were in possession of the Throne as he must be if the Throne were not Vacant From thence my Lords your Lordships see where the Difficulty lyes in this matter and whence it ariseth because you would not agree the Throne to be Vacant when we know of none that possess it We know some such thing hath been pretended to as an Heir Male of which there are different Opinions and in the mean time we are without a Government and Must we stay till the Truth of the matter be found out What shall we do to preserve our Constitution while we are without a safe or legal Authority to act under the same according to that Constitution and in a little time it will perhaps through the distraction of our Constitution be utterly irremediable I do not deny but that your Lordships have very great Hardships

changing of the Monarchy from an Hereditary to an Elective E. of N m. After this long Debate pray let us endeavour to come as near as we can to an Agreement We have proposed some Questions about which my Lords desired to be satisfied You Gentlemen have not been pleased to give an Answer to them and we have no great Hopes of getting one from you as this Debate seems to be managed On your part you have declared That you do acknowledge the Monarchy is Hereditary and Successive in the Right Line then I cannot see how such an Acknowledgment consists with the Reasons you give for your Vacancy for I cannot imagine how a Kingdom can be an Hereditary Kingdom and that King who hath Children now in being at the time of his forsaking the Government can have the Throne Vacant both of him and his Children The Course of Inheritance as to the Crown of England is by our Law a great deal better provided for and runs stronger in the right Line of Birth than of any other Inheritance No Attainder of the Heir of the Crown will bar the Succession to the Throne as it doth the Descent to any common person The very Descent by Order of Birth will take away any such Defect And so was the Opinion of the great Lawyers of England in the Case of Henry the seventh Then cannot I apprehend how any Act of the Father's can bar the Right of the Child I do not mean that an Act of Parliament cannot do it I never said so nor thought so but I say no Act of the Father's alone can do it since even the Act of the Son which may endanger an Attainder in him cannot do it so careful is the Law of the Royal Line of Succession This is declar'd by many Acts of Parliament and very fully and particularly by that Statute 25 Henry the Eighth Cap. 22 entituled An Act concerning the King's Succession where the Succession of the Crown is limited to the King's Issue-Male first then Female and the Heirs of their Bodies one after another by course of Inheritance according to their Ages as the Crown of England hath been accustomed and ought to go in such Cases If then the King hath done any thing to divest himself of his own Right it doth not follow thence that That shall exclude the Right of his Issue and then the Throne is not Vacant as long as there are any such Issue for no Act of the Father can Vacant for himself and Children Therefore if you mean no more than but the divesting his own Right I desired you would declare so And then suppose the Right gone as to him yet if it descend to his Lineal Successor it is not Vacant And I told you One Reason my Lord 's did stand upon against agreeing to the Vacancy was Because they thought your Vote might extend a great deal further than the King 's own Person But your all owning it to be a Lineal Inheritance and this Vacancy methinks do not by any means consist You declare you never meant to alter the Constitution then you must preserve the Succession in its ancient course So I did hear a worthy Gentleman conclude it to be your Intention to do But by what methods can it be done in this Case by us I desire to be satisfied in a few things about this very matter I desire first to know Whether the Lords and Commons have Power by themselves to make a binding Act or Law And then I desire to know Whether according to our ancient Legal Constitution every King of England by being seated on the Throne and possessed of the Crown is not thereby King to him and his Heirs And without an Act of Parliament which we alone cannot make I know not what Determination we can make of his Estate It has been urged indeed That we have in Effect already agreed to what is contain'd in this Vote by Voting That it is inconsistent with our Religion and Laws to have a Popish Prince to Rule over us But I would fain know Whether they that urge this think that the Crown of Spain is Legally and Actually excluded from the Succession by this Vote No Man sure will undertake to tell me That Vote of either House or both Houses together can Alter the Law in this or any other point But because I am very desirous that this Vote should have its Effect I desire that every thing of this Nature should be done in the antient usual Method by Act of Parliament GOD forbid that since we are happily deliver'd from the Fears of Popery and Arbitrary Power we should assume any such Power to our selves What Advantage should we then give to those who would quarrel with our Settlement for the Illegality of it Would not this which we thus endeavour to crush break forth into a Viper For that Record of 1. Henry the Fourth I acknowledge the words of the Royal Seat being Vacant are us'd But since you your selves tell us of it That Henry the Fourth did claim by Inheritance from his Grandfather that methinks may come up to what I would have the declared sence of both Houses upon this Question to wit The Throne might be Vacant of Richard the Second but not so Vacant but the claim of the immediate Successor was to take place and not be excluded but entirely preserved And Richard the Second seems to have had the same Opinion by delivering over his Signet to them Our Laws know no Inter regnum but upon the Death of the Predecessor the next Heir is in uno eodem instanti It was so Resolv'd even in Richard the Second's own Case for at his Grandfather's Death it was a Question Whether King Richard the Second or the Eldest Son of his Grandfather then living should succeed and it was Resolved That he ought to have it because of his Right of Inheritance which is the more remarkable because of the contest And when Richard the Third usurped his Crown to make his Claim good to the Right of Inheritance he Bastardized his own Nephews And so it was in all the Instances of the Breaches that were made upon the Line of Succession which were some Seven but all illegal for such was the Force of the Laws that the Usurpers would not take the Crown upon them unless they had some specious pretence of an Hereditary Title to it That which I would have Avoided by all means is the Mischievous Consequences that I fear will ensue upon this Vacancy of the Throne to wit the utter Overthrow of the whole Costitution of our Government For if it be so and the Lords and Commons only remain as parts of it Will not this make the King one of the Three Estates Then is he the Head of the Commonwealth all united in one Body under him And if the Head be taken away and the Throne Vacant by what Laws or Constitutions is it that we retain Lords and Commons For they are