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
REFLECTIONS UPON A Treasonable Opinion Industriously promoted Against SIGNING the National Association AND The Entring into it prov'd to be the Duty of all the Subjects of this KINGDOM Hoc quidem perspicuum est eos ad imperandum deligi solitos quorum de justitiâ magna esset opinio multitudinis adjuncto verò ut iidem etiam prudentes haberentur nihil erat quod homines his auctoribus non posse consequi se arbitrarentur Civ de of lib. 2. LONDON Printed and Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1696. To His Excellency CHARLES Duke of SHREWSBURY one of the Lords Justices of England and one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State c. May it please your Excellency SINCE among the many subjects of just Praise which make up Excellency's distinction it is not the least that the true Religion and Loyalty are known to have been chosen with a Judgment properly your own my ambition could not carry me to a fitter Patron for Truths which are to encounter a strong Pre-possession in Men taught to object novelty against this Revolution tho' with as little cause of triumph as the Papists have for their question where was the Protestant Church before Luther As your Excellency's wise and vigorous discharge of Offices of the highest Trust and Consequence under our only rightful Sovereign King WILLIAM revives to France the noted Terrors in the name of Talbot permit me from thence to take an Omen of Success against Arguments supported by the French Interest and Power more than by any colour of reason Yet they who oppose the Right of the present Government having pretended to seeming Authorities I have used that method which I hope may be proper for their conviction giving a short view of what upon the various Exigencies of the Publick in all Ages of this Monarchy has been the uniform Judgment and regular Practice of Conventions of the States and Parliaments of this Kingdom in concurrence with several glorious Preservers of the English Liberties But that I may use an Authority sufficient in it self to justifie our present Settlement I beg leave to appeal to Excellency's early and eminent Example which will weigh more with Persons acquainted with so illustrious a Character than any Argument from pass'd Times And yet what I here offer being for the most part the Result of the Collective Wisdom of the Nation may not be wholly undeserving of your Excellency's Patrondge nor can I apprehend that you will refuse these Fundamental Truths the benefit of being recommended to the World under so Great a Name which tho' it will set my faults in the clearer light if your Excellency shall be thought to bear with 'em cannot but moderate the Censures against Your Excellency's most devoted humble Servant W. Atwood REFLECTIONS UPON A Treasonable Opinion c. THE Enemies of the Peace of these Realms having handed about a Paper as the Opinion of a certain florid Gentleman of the long Robe eminent for making New Treasons and whose Authority is said to have prevailed with several to refuse Signing the Associatlon for the defence of His Majesty's Sacred Person and Rightful Authority I shall offer what I conceive a sufficient Antidote to the Poyson he would spread with all his affected softness The words of the Opinion as they have occurr'd to me are these By the Statute of Hen. 7. the Subjects are Indemnified in taking an Oath or Fighting for a King de Facto But the Association is not within the Statute but an Overt Act of Treason against the King de Jure and Punishable as such when he shall be restored In refuteing the pernicious Errors contained in this Opinion I shall evince First That according to the best Authorities of them who suppose that there may be a King de Jure as distinguished from a King in Fact the Right of the supposed King de Jure is not such as makes any Act against him to be Treason nor is he King or has any Right against the King in Possession or his Issue Secondly That an Association for the Defence of the King's Person and Right is within the purview of the Stat. 11 H. 7. and that as plainly as an Oath of Allegianee Thirdly That it is not supposed or implyed in that Act that there was or might be a King de Jure while an other was King in Fact but that according to that Act the King for the time being is the onely Rightful King Fourthly That the Statute 11 H. 7. is not introductory of any new Law in this matter Fifthly That his Present Majesty is the only King de Jure and that the late King neither is nor of Right ought to be King Sixthly That according to this Gentleman 's own Law he is Guilty of High-Treason against our Sovereign Lord the King 1. The Lord Coke upon the Statute of Treason 25 E. 3. referring in the Margin to the Statute 11 H. 7. says This is to be understood of a King in Possession of the Crown and Kingdom For if there be a King Regnant in Possession altho' he be Rex de Facto and not de Jure yet he is Seignior le Roy within the purview of this Statute and the other who hath the Right and is out of Possession is not within this Act. Sir Mathew Hale says what in substance agrees with the Lord Coke A King says he speaking of the Statute 25 E. 3. de Facto and not de Jure is a King withing that Act and Treason against him is punishable tho' the right Heir get the Crown Indeed both those Great Men seem to suppose or admit that there might be one who had or at some time or other might have a sort of Right notwithstanding another's being so fully King that a Conspiracy to Kill or Depose him would be Treason But it is to be consider'd 1. That the Lord Coke does not suppose that there may be a King de Jure while another is King in Fact unless this supposition is warranted by the Statute 11 H. 7. which as I shall prove it is not 2. The Statute which in both their Judgments regards only the King Regnant makes it Treason to Conspire the Death of the King 's Eldest Son or to violate his Eldest Daughter for the last of which the Lord Coke assigns this Reason That for default of Issue Male she only is Inheritable to the Crown So that the supposed King de Jure appears to be barred not only by the Possession of the King in Fact but even by that Right which is Vested in his Son or Daughter before either of them have Possession And indeed That Right which ordinarily would descend to the Eldest Son of the King Regnant is truly explanatory of all that will be found to have belonged to one who since E. 4. of the elder branch of the Royal Stock got Possession has often been call'd King de Jure tho' as will appear in
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
come without a manifest departure from their avowed Principles and therefore to keep to them they must give up the only colourable Authority for their notion of King de jure and de facto And they must yield that there is not the least shadow of pretence from what was held in those times that there was a King of right at the very time that an other was in fact it going no farther than that the Person who was King ought not to have been King but while he was King the other was none 7. The judgment of E. 4 ths first Parliament whatever hard names they gave that Family on which they trampled was so far from being an Authority as has been pretended against the receiving his present Majesty upon the late King's breach of the Original or Common-Law Contract confirmed by several declaratory Statutes of the Kingdom and the solemn Oaths of our Kings that it is express for the eviction and amotion of one King upon his breach of a contract establish'd in Parliament and the setting up an other by an election And it is observable that the Act 1º E. 4. which confirms several judicial and other Acts of such as it calls Kings only in fact says other than by Authority of any Parliament holden in their times plainly admitting that Authority to be sufficient in it self H. 6. coming again into Power because of a Possession with such a consent of the People as made E. 4. King was formally again elected at the Tower and in H. 7 ths time was adjudged to have had his attainder purged by his re-adeption of Power which seems not to have been till he had been re-elected Then H. 6. calls a Parliament where he in his turn attaints the Adherents of E. 4. and as we are to believe himself but the Record of that having been cancelled and the Rolls loss'd it appears not whether it was for any Act committed before H. 6 ths re-adeption of Power The Tide again turning for E. 4. all the Acts of that Parliament are reversed and declared or made void from the time that he had been declared he was held to have continued the Possession of the Regal Dignity tho' with-held from the exercice of the Power and therefore H. 6. from the first admission of E. 4. to the Crown was accounted no King and his Parliament to be but a pretenced Parliament E. 4 ths usage of H. 6. was repaid to his Sons by their Uncle R. 3. some will have it that he made them away as indeed is intimated in the Act attainting R. 3. but 't is certain that they were bastardized in a Convention whose Acts were by Parliament after Richard was admitted King declared for truth and not to be doubted and there are Authorities to induce the Belief that Edward's Sons were really Bastards by reason of the Father's pre-contract however the Convention declared that they were not fit to Reign because they were Infants and their Mother ignoble and married clandestinely without the knowing and assent of the Lords George Duke of Clarence the next Brother to E. 4. having been attainted in a Parliament of E. 4. they having singular confidence in Richard's particular merit have chosen in all that in them is and by that their certain writing choose him their King and Sovereign Lord to whom they know of certain it appertaineth of Inheritance to be chosen And observing that tho' the Learned in the Laws and Customs know his Title to be good the most part of the People is not sufficiently learned in the Laws and Customs they declare that the Court of Parliament is of such Authority and the People of this Land of such a disposition as experience teacheth that Manifestation and Declaration of any Truth or Right made by the three States of the Realm assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same maketh before all other things most faith and certain quieting of mens minds and removing the occasion of doubts and seditious language Therefore by the Authority of that Parliament it is pronounced and declared that their Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very undoubted King as well by right of Consanguinity and Inheritance as by lawful Election Consecration and Coronation And they Enact Establish Pronounce Decree and Declare Edward the King 's eldest Son Heir Apparent to him and his Heirs of his Body Any Man who compares that Act at large with the former Presidents must see that it was penn'd with great Wisdom and regard to the Constitution of the Monarchy And tho' out of an usual complement to the prevailing side R. 3. has generally been represented as a Monster in Person and Nature the learned Buck has made it doubtful which was the most deserving in all things R. 3. or H. 7. Certain it is that tho' the Crown had by Authority of Parliament been settled in remainder after H. 6. upon Duke Richard and his Heirs and that Duke's Grand-daughter was alive and marriageable in the Reign of R. 3. her suppos'd Right gave him no disturbance and his Possession was very quiet till he disobliged the Duke of Bucks who was the great Instrument in setting him up by rejecting his Claim to be High-Constable of England which was an Authority dangerous to be trusted in the hands of so popular a Man nor could the Duke and his Faction expect to succeed in their conspiracy without the support of French Forces and accordingly applied themselves to Henry Earl of Richmond afterwards H. 7. with whom the Duke of Brittany had for some years kept even E. 4. in awe Henry was glad of the opportunity and to strengthen his Interest agrees with some of his Party to marry the Daughter of E. 4. but was far from making any claim in her right It is very probable that one of E. 4 ths Sons was then alive be that as it will as appears by the Statutes 1 H. 7. cited above his Parliament held that he landed with Title and R. 3. being deserted and slain in the Field of Battle that opposition to Henry was by Authority of Parliament adjudged Treason against the Sovereign Lord of this Land and H. 7 th was held to have recovered his right After this when H. 7. meets his first Parliament he with his own Mouth tells the Commons in full Parliament that his accession to the Right and Crown of England was as well by just Title of Inheritance as by God's true judgment in giving him the victory over his enemy in the Field In which bating the Settlement in the time of the Confessor H. 7. claim'd as W. 1. did by the Inheritance of consanguinity and that Success which gave him the preference before others of the same Blood especially since that enemy whom he subdued was held to be an Usurper This 't is evident that he was accounted before H. 7. Landed But if