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A05353 A treatise concerning the defence of the honour of the right high, mightie and noble Princesse, Marie Queene of Scotland, and Douager of France with a declaration, as wel of her right, title, and interest, to the succession of the croune of England: as that the regiment of women is conformable to the lawe of God and nature. Made by Morgan Philippes, Bachelar of Diuinitie, An. 1570.; Defence of the honour of the right highe, mightye and noble Princesse Marie Quene of Scotlande and dowager of France Leslie, John, 1527-1596. 1571 (1571) STC 15506; ESTC S106704 132,510 314

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and intent of the said law Now in case these two causes and cōsiderations wil not satisfie th Aduersarie we wil adioine therevnto a third which he shal neuer by any good and honest shift auoid And that is the vse and practise of the Realme as wel in the time foregoing the said statute as afterward We stand vpon the interpretation of the cōmon law recited and declared by the said statute And how shal we better vnderstand what the law is therein then by the vse and practise of the said lawe For the best interpretation of the lawe is custome But the Realme before the statute admitted to the Croune not only kings children and others of the first degre but also of a farther degre and such as were plainely borne out of the Kings allegeance The soresaid vse and practise appeareth as wel before as sithens the time of the Conquest Among other King Edward the Confessour being destitute of a lawful Heire within the Realme sent into Hūgary for Edward his Nephew surnamed Outlaw son to King Edmūd called Irōside after many yeres of his exile to returne into Englād to th' intent the said Outlaw should inherite this Realme whiche neuerthelesse came not to effect by reason the said outlaw died before the said king Edward his Vncle. After whose death the said king apointed Eadgar Etheling sonne of the said Outlaw being his next cosen and heire as he was of right to the Croune of Englād And for that the said Eadgar was but of yong and tender yeares and not able to take vpō him so great a gouernement the said king cōmitted the protection as wel of the yong Prince as also of the Realm to Harold Earle of Kent vntil suche time as the said Eadgar had obteined perfit age to be hable to weld the state of a King Which Harold neuerthelesse cōtrary to the trust supplanted the said yong Prince of the Kingdome and put the Croune vpon his own head By this it is apparent that foraine birth was not accōpted of before the time of the Cōquest a iust cause to repel and reiect any man being of the next proximitie in blood frō the Title of the Croune And though the said king Edward the Cōfessors wil and purpose toke no such force and effect as he desired and the law craued yet the like succession toke place effectuously in king Stephen and king Hēry the secōd as we haue already declared Neither wil th' Aduersaries shift of foramers borne of father and mother which be not of the kings alegeāce help him forasmuch as this clause of the said statut is not to be applied to the kings childrē but to others as appeareth in the same statute And these two kings Stephē and Henrie the 2. as they were borne in a forain place so their fathers and mothers wer not of the kings allegeāce but mere Aliens and strāgers And how notorious a vaine thing is it that th' Aduersarie would perswade vs that the said K. Henrie the secōd rather came in by force of a cōposition then by the proximitie and nearenes of blood I leaue it to euery man to cōsider that hath any maner of feling in the discours of the stories of this realm The cōpositiō did procure him quietnes and rest for the time with a good and sure hope of quiet and peaceable entrance also after the death of King Stephen and so it followed in deede but ther grew to him nomore right therby then was due to him before For he was the true heir to the Croune as appeareth by Stephen his Aduersaries owne confession Henry the firste maried his daughter Mathildis to Henry the Emperour by whome he had no childrē And no dout in case she had had any children by th'Emperour they should haue ben heires by succession to the Croune of England After whose death she retourned to her father yet did King Henry cause all the Nobilitie by an expresse othe to embrace her after his death as Queene and after her her children Not long after she was maried to Ieffrey Plantagenet a Frenchman borne Earle of Aniowe who begat of her this Henry the second being in France Whervpon the said King did reuiue and renue the like othe of allegeāce aswel to her as to her sonne after her With the like false persuasiō the Adueruersarie abuseth him selfe and his Reader touching Arthur Duke of Britanie Nephew to King Richard the first As though forsooth he were iustly excluded by Kinge Iohn his vncle by cause he was a forainer borne If he had said that he was excluded by reason the vncle ought to be preferred before the Nephewe though it should haue ben a false allegation and plaine against the rules of the lawes of this Realme as may wel appeare among other thinges by King Richard the second who succeded his grādfather king Edward the third which Richard had diuerse worthie and noble vncles who neither for lacke of knowledge coulde be ignorant of the right neither for lacke of frendes courage and power be enforced to forbeare to chalenge their title and interest yet should he haue had some countenance of reason and probabilitie bicause many arguments and the authoritie of many learned and notable Ciuilians doo concurre for the vncles right before the Nephewe But to make the place of the natiuitie of an inheritour to a kingdom a sufficiēt barre against the right of his blood it seemeth to haue but a weake and slender holde and grounde And in our case it is a most vnsure and false ground seeing it is moste true that King Richard the first as we haue said declared the said Arthur borne in Britanie and not son of a King but his brother Geffreys sonne Duke of Britanie heire apparent his vncle Iohn yet liuing And for such a one is he taken in al our stories And for such a one did all the worlde take him after the said King Richard his death neither was King Iohn taken for other then for an vsurper by excluding him and afterward for a murtherer for imprisoning him and priuily making him away For the which facte the French King seased vpon al the goodly Coūtries in France belonging to the King of England as forfeited to him being the chiefe Lorde By this outragious deede of King Iohn we lost Normandie withall and our possibilitie to the inheritance of all Britanie the right and Title to the said Britanie being dewe to the said Arthur and his heires by the right of his mother Constance And though the said king Iohn by the practise and ambition of Quene Elenour his mother and by the special procurement of Huberte then Archebishop of Caunterburie and of some other factious persons in Englād preuēted the said Arthur his nephew as it was easy for him to do hauing gotten into his handes al his brother Richardes treasure by sides many other rentes then in England and the said Arthur being an infante
only Of the like weight is his other cōsideration imaginīg and surmising this statute to be made bicause the King had so many occasiōs to be so oft ouer the sea with his spouse the Queene As though diuers Kings before him vsed not often to passe ouer the seas As though this were a personal statute made of special purpose and not to be takē as a declaratiō of the cōmon law Which to say is most directly repugnant and contrary to the letter of the said statute Or as though his children also did not very often repaire to outward Countries as Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster that maried Peters the King of Castiles eldest daughter by whose right he claimed the Croune of Castile as his brother Edmūd Erle of Cambridge that maried the yongest daughter as Lionell Duke of Claraunce that maried at Milaine Violāt daughter and heir to Galeatius Duke of Milan But especially Prince Edwarde whiche moste victoriously toke in battaile Iohn the French King and brought him into England his prisoner to the great triumphe and reioysing of the Realme whose eldest sonne Edward that died in short time after was borne beyond the seas in Gascome and his other sonne Richard that succeded his grandfather was borne at Burdeaux as these noble King Edwardes sonnes maried with forainers so did they geue out their daughters in mariage to foraine Princes as the Duke of Lancaster his daughter Philippe to the king of Portingale and his daughter Catherin to the King of Spaine and his Neece Iohan daughter to his sonne Earle of Somerset was ioyned in mariage to the King of Scottes Iohan daughter to his brother Thomas of Wodstocke Duke of Gloucester was Queene of Spaine and his other daughter Marie Duchesse of Britannie Now by this mans interpretation none of the issue of al these noble Women could haue enioyed the Croune of England when it had fallen to them though they had bene of the neerest roial blood after the death of their Auncestours Which surely had bene against the auncient presidentes and examples that we haue declared and against the common Lawe the whiche muste not be thought by this Statute any thing taken away but only declared and against al good reason also For as we would haue thought this Realme greatly iniured if it had ben defrauded of Spaine or any of the foresaid coūtreies being deuolued to the same by the foresaid Mariages as we thincke our self at this day iniured for the withholding of France so the issue of the foresaide noble womē might and would haue thought them hardly and iniuriously handled yf any such case had happened Neither suche friuolous interpretation and gloses as this man nowe frameth and maketh vppon the statute woulde then haue serued nor nowe wil serue But of all other his friuolous and folish ghessing vpon the clause of the statute for Infantes de Roy there is one most fond of al. For he would make vs beleue such is the mans skil that this statute touching Infantes de Roy was made for the great doubte more in them then in other personnes touching their inheritance to their Auncestours For being then a Maxime saieth he in the lawe that none could inherite to his Auncestours being not of father and mother vnder the obedience of the King seing the King him selfe could not be vnder obedience it plainely seemed that the Kinges children were of farre worse condition then others and quite excluded And therefore he saith that this statute was not to geue them any other priuilege but to make them equall with other And that therefore this statute touching the Kinges children is rather in the superficial parte of the worde then in effecte Nowe among other thinges he saieth as we haue shewed before that this word Infantes de Roy in this statute mentioned must be taken for the children of the first degree whiche he seemeth to proue by a note taken out of M. Rastal But to this we answer that this mā swetely dreamed when he imagined this fonde and fantasticall exposition And that he shewed him selfe a very infante in law and reason For this was no Maxime or at lest not so certaine before the making of this statute whiche geueth no new right to the Kinges children nor answereth any doubt touching them and their inheritance but saith that the law of the Croune of England is and alwaies hath bene which lawe saith the King say the Lordes say the Commons we allowe and affirme for euer that the Kinges children shal be hable to inherite the Landes of their Auncesters where●oeuer they be borne Al the doubt was for other persons as appeareth euidētly by the tenour of the statute whether by the cōmon law they being borne out of the allegeance were heritable to their Auncestours And it appeareth that th' Aduersary is driuē to the hard wal when he is faine to catch hold vpon a selie poore marginal note of M. Rastal of the Kinges childrē and not of the Kings childrens children Which yet nothing at al serueth his purpose touching this statute But he or the Printer or who so euer he be as he draweth out of the text many other notes of the matter therin cōprised so vpō these Frēch wordes Les enfants de Roy he noteth in the Margēt The Kings childrē but how far that word reacheth he saieth neither more nor lesse Neither it is any thing preiudicial to the said Queenes right or Title whether the said wordes Infants ought to be takē strictly for the first degree or farther enlarged For if this statute toucheth only the succession of the Kings children to their Auncestours for other inheritāce and not for the Cround as most men take it and as it may be as we haue said very wel takē and allowed then doth this supposed Maxime of forain borne that seemeth to be gathered out of this statute nothing anoy or hinder the Queene of Scotlandes Title to the Croune as not therto apperteining On the other side if by the inheritance of the kings childrē the Croune also is meant yet neither may we enforce the rule of foraine borne vpō the kings children which are by the●presse wordes of the statute excepted neither enforce the word In●●●s to the first degree only for such reasons presidents and examples and other prouffes largely by vs before set forth to the cōtrarie seing that the right of the Croune falling vpō them they may wel be called the kings Childrē or at the lest the childrē of the Croune Ther is also one other cause why though this statute reach to the Croune and may and ought to be expoūded of the same the said Queene is out of the reach and cōpasse of the said statute For the said statute can not be vnderstanded of any persons borne in Scotlande or Wales but onely of persons borne beyond the sea out of the allegeance of the King of England that is to wrtte France Flandres and such like For England
one rule as a general Maxime is obiected against her And yet the same rule is so vntruely set forth that I can not wel agree that it is any rule or Maxime of the cōmon law of this Realm of Englād Your pretēsed Maxime is whosoeuer is born out of the realm of Englād and of father and mother not being vnder the obediēce of the King of England cannot be capable to inherite any thing in England Which rule is nothing true but altogether false For euery stranger and Alien is hable to purchace the inheritance of landes within this Realme as it may appeare in 7. 9. of king Edward the fourth and also in 11. 14. of king Hērie the fourth And although the same purchace is of some men accounted to be to the vse of the King yet vntil such time as the king be intitled therevnto by matter of Record the inheritance remaineth in the Alien by the opinion of al men And so is a very Alien capable of inheritance within this Realme And then it must nedes fal out very plainly that your general Maxime where vpon you haue talked and bragged so muche is now become no rule of the common law of this Realme And if it be so then haue you vttered very many wordes to smal purpose But yet let vs see fartther whether there be any rule or Maxime in the cōmon Law that may seeme any thing like to that rule wherevppon any matter may be gathered against the Title of the said Marie Queene of Scotland There is one rule of the cōmon Lawe in wordes somewhat like vnto that whiche hath ben alleaged by the Aduersaries Which rule is set forth and declared by a statute made anno 25. of King Edward the third Which statute reciting the doubt that then was whether infants borne out of the allegeance of England should be hable to demaund any heritage within the same allegeance or no it was by the same statute ordeined that al infantes inheritours which after that time should be borne out of the allegeance of the King whose father and mother at the time of their birth were of the feaith and allegeāce of the King of England should haue and enioy the same benefittes and aduantages to haue and carie heritage within the said allegeance as other heires should Whervpon it is to be gathered by dew and iust construction of the statute and hath bene heretofore cōmonly taken that the cōmon law alwaies was and yet is that no person borne out of the allegeāce of the King of England whose father and mother were not of the same allegeāce should be able to haue or demaund any heritage within the same allegeance as heire to any person Which rule I take to be the same supposed Maxime which the Aduersaries do meane But to stretch it generally to al inheritances as the Aduersaries woulde seeme to do by any reasonable meanes can not be For as I haue said before euery strāger and Alien borne may haue and take inheritance as a purchaser And if an Alien do marie a woman inheritable the inheritance therby is both in the Alien and also in his wife and the Alien thereby a purchaser Noman doubteth but that a Denizon may purchase landes to his owne vse but to inherit landes as heire to any person within the allegeāce of England he can not by any meanes So that it seemeth very plaine that the said rule bindeth also Denyzōs and doth only extend to Descētes of inheritance and not to the hauing of any landes by purchase Now wil we then consider whether this rule by any reasonable construction can extende vnto the Lady Marie the Queene of Scotland for and cōcerning her Title to the Croune of England It hath bene said by the Aduersaries that she was borne in Scotland which realm is out of the allegeāce of England her father and mother not being of the same allegeance And therfore by the said rule she is not inheritable to the Croune of this Realm Although I might at the beginning very wel and orderly deny the consequent of your argumēt yet for this time we wil first examine the Antecedent whether it be true or no and then consider vpon the consequent That the Queene of Scotland was borne in Scotlād it must nedes be graūted but that Scotland is out of the allegeāce of Englād though the said Quene and al her subiects of Scotland wil stourly affirme the same yet ther is a great nūber of men in Eng and both lerned and others that be not of that opiniō being lead and persuaded therto by diuers histories Registers Recordes and Instruments of Homage remaining in the treasurie of this Realm wherin is metioned that the Kings of Scotland haue acknowledged the King of Englād to be the superiour Lord ouer the Realme of Scotland and haue done homage and fealtie for the same Which thing being true notwithstanding it be cōmonly denied by al Scotsmen then by the lawes of this realme Scotlād must nedes be accōpted to be within the allegeance of Englād And although sins the time of King Henry the sixt none of the Kinges of Scotlande haue done the said seruice vnto the Kinges of England yet that is no reason in our lawe to say that therefore the Realme of Scotland at the time of the birth of the said Ladie Marie Queene of Scotlande being in the thirtie and fourth yeare of the raigne of our late Souereigne Lorde King Henrie the eight was out of the allegeance of the kinges of England For the law of this Realm is very plain that though the Tenant do not his seruice vnto the Lorde yet hath not the Lord thereby lost his Seignorie For the lande still remaineth within his Fee and Seignorie that notwithstanding But peraduenture some wil obiecte and say that by that reason France should likewise be said to be within the allegeance of England forasmuch as the possession of the Croune of France hath bene within a litle more then the space of one hundred yeares now last past laufully vested in the kinges of Englād whose right and title stil remaineth To that obiectiō it may be answered that there is a great difference betwene the right and title which the Kings of Englād claime to the Realme of Fraunce and the right and title which they claime to the Realme of Scotlande Although it be true that the Kinges of Englande haue bene lawfully possessed of the Croune of France yet during such time as they by vsurpation of others are dispossessed of the saide Realme of France the same Realme by no meanes can be said to be within their allegeance especially considering how that syns the time of vsurpation the people of France haue wholy forsaken their allegeance and subiection which they did owe vnto the Kings of Englande and haue geuen and submitted them selues vnder the obedience and allegeance of the vsurpers But as for the Realme of Scotlande it is otherwise For
hauing and following of this law as we haue said vnlesse to omitte other thinges ye would bind our Kinges also to receaue the Deuteronomie at the hāds of the Leuitical Tribe as that ye say that God gaue here a lawe to the Iewes to make or choose a King and so consequently al your illations out of this place seeme to be of smal force For to say the trueth as God neither gaue them this or any other lawe for choosing of a King nor did bid or will them to choose a King so did the people most greeuously offend God in demanding a King. For though by the iudgement of Aristotle and other Philosophers Monarchie wel and orderly vsed is the best kinde of al other Regiments which God doth also wel like yet would he haue no such magistrate among the Iewes But as he chose them for his propre peculier and selecte people and ruled them as wel in the Desert as in Iudea by a seueral peculier and distinct order and Gouernement from other Nations and after suche wonderful and miraculous sort as the like was neuer harde of in any Regiment by sides so would he also reserue to him selfe only the said Supremacie and Monarchie Neither was he a litle angrie with the Iewes nor they committed any smal fault but as it were renounced and reiected Gods owne Monarchie in crauing a King as holy Scripture plainely and openly testifiet Non●ie inquit reiecerunt sed me ne regnem super eos And the people afterwardes acknowledged their fault Addidimus vniuersis peccatis nostris malum vt peteremus nobu Regem God therefore did not bidde them or wil them to choose a King but forknowing long before by his eternall forsight what they would do though contrarie to his blessed wil and pleasure did in this as in other matters beare with their weakenes and condescended vnto the same and fortold them in the said 17. Chapter that in case they would needes haue a King of what kind and sort he should be And therefore immediatly before the wordes that ye recite thou shalt make him a King ouer them is this texte Cum ingressus fuer is terram quam Dominus Deus dabit tibi possederis illam hab●●auerisque in illa dixeris constituam super me Regem sicut habent omnes per circuitum Nationes ●um constitues c. And when thou shalt come into the lād which the Lord thy God geueth thee and shalt possesse yea and dwel therein if thou say I wil set a King ouer me like as all the Nations that are about me then thou shalt make him King ouer thee whome c. Whiche wordes making for the illustratiō of this place ye haue omitted Wherfore as this place serueth nothing for any absolute election of a King the second which you seeme especially to regard and ground your selfe vpon so doth it as we haue shewed as litle relieue you to prooue therby your conclusions especially against the ordinarie successiō either of a straūger or of a woman that ye would gather and conclude out of the same Thus haue we sufficiently answered the place of Deuteronomie for this one purpose Th' other two autorities may be much more easely answered The people meant nothing els by their said wordes spoken to Dauid but that they were the seede of Abraham Isaac and Iacob as wel as he and intended with true and sincere hartes vnfainedly to agnise him as their chiefe Lord and Soueraigne For at that time the Tribe of Iuda only whereof King Dauid came by lineal descent did acknowledge him as king Now the residue which before helde with Saules sonne did also incorporate and vnite themselues to the said kingdome If this man looke wel vpon the matter he shal find I trowe that the Queene of Scotland may as wel cal her selfe the bones and fleshe of the Noble Princes of England as this people cal them selues the bones and sheshe of King Dauid But yet the great terrible battering Cannon Athalia is behind She being in possessession of the kingdome seuen yeares was iustly thrust out by cause she was an Alien We may then saith this man iustly denie the Queene of Scotland the right of that which if she had in possession she should not iustly enioy Yet Sir if the Queene of Scotland be no Alien as we haue said then is your Cannon shot more feareful then dangerous We deny not but that Athalia was lawfully deposed but we beseche you to tell vs your Authours name that doth assigne the cause to be suche as you alleage Surely for my part after diligent searche I finde no such Authour Trueth is it that Iosephus writeth as ye doe that she descended by the mothers side of the Tyrians and Sidonians yet neuerthelesse he assigneth no such cause as ye doe And as ye are in this your preatie poisoned pamflet the first I trow of al Christian men I wil not except either Latin or Greke vnlesse it be some fantastical fonde and new vpstart Doctour as M. Knoxe or some the like neither Iew Chaldee nor Arabian that hath thus straungely glosed and deformed this place of holie Scripture against the ordinarie succession of women Princes so are you the first also of all other Diuines or Lawiers throughout the world that hath set forth this new fonde foolishe lawe that the Kings childe must be counted an Alien whose father and mother are not of the same and one Coūtrie If the French or Spanish King chaunce to mar●e an English woman or the King of England to marie a French a Spanish or any other Country woman their Children by this new Lycurgus are Aliens and so consequently in al other Nations al such are haue ben and shal be Aliēs by this your new oracle For what other cause shew you that this Athalia was an Alien but by cause her mother was an Alien genus ducēs say you à Tyrijs Sydo●iis coming by lineal descent by the mothers side from the Tyrians and Sydonians King Achas maried her mother doughter to Ithobal King of the said Tyrians and Sydonians This Athalia whom Iosephus cal leth Gotholio Achas daughter maried Iorā King of uda her brother called also Ioram being king of Israel after the decease of his father Achas So then ye see that this Athalia was nomore an Alien among the Iewes then ●●ing Edbalde Baldus was the sonne of Bertha a Frēch womā and of King Ethelbertus the first Christian King of th' English nation no more then was the noble King Edward the third borne of a French woma ●more then Queene Marie was no more ●en should haue bene the issue of the said Q. Marie in case she had had any by the king ●f Spaine I perceaue that your felowes that ●ould faine make King Stephen King Hē●e the second and Arthur Neuew to King ●ichard the first Aliens had but rude dul ●nd grosse heades in comparison of
albe it for a time she did dissemble and forbeare outwardly to shewe and vtter her most inward hart and affectionate loue vpon most ●●st and good respects As the manner and practise of prouident and moste louing parentes oftentimes is toward their deare children for the better reclaiming of the wandering mind and wauering wil of the youthful vnaduised gentlemā And therefore hearing and aduertised that he was repentant and sorowfull and that he desired her presence she without delay thereby to renew quickē and refresh his sprites and to comfort his hart to the amendment and repayring of his helth lately by sicknes sore impaired hasted with such spede as she cōueniētly might to see and visit him at Glasco Whereas also at diuers other places especially at Edenborough she from time to time most louingly enterteined and most tenderly cherished him euer euen to the very last houre that euer she saw him Whereby it did to al men most euidently appeare that al maner of displeasure or variance whatsoeuer your coniectural surmises suppose to haue bene betwene them or your seditious practises and ambitious procedinges had sowen in their stomakes and minds was not only now we● aswaged and fully appeased but vtterly for euer quenched as being altogether forgottē and troden to your muche misliking and great discomfort vnder foote of them both neuer to be renewed againe But for as much as these men do wel perceiue that if this be true whiche is in deede so certeinely true that they them selues are for the manifest euidence thereof euen driuen and for●● to acknowledge and confesse the same then their great Samsons post of discorde and debate wherewith they would vnderproppe and vpholde al their traiterous procedings as also this their mischieuous accusation and greeuous crimination the which they had fully now conceiued and brought as they hoped to perfection by the mischieuous driftes of their shrewd wily diuelish disposed braines against her would faile them and fal to the ground For this consideration I say they nowe measuring these most commendable doings of the very vertuouse and well meaning Queene by their owne depe and dubble dissembling crafty nature their former drifte failing them began to lay a new foundation to build their long conceaued treasons on and say that al this curtesy fauour loue and amitie was but a set matter on her part and coulorable shew and a dissembled drift and fained pretense by her colorably conueied vpon none other purpose but to flatter and entice him to Edenborough to his bane which say thei appereth by her own leters It irketh and greeueth them to the very harte to heare of the reconciliation and therefore they toyle and tumble from 〈◊〉 kinde of lying Rhetorike to an other euen quite contrary For as before they founde great fault with her for estranging her fauour from him so now at the last they mislike at her great trauaile taken in her progresse to visit and cumfort him iudging and reputing al her dutiful kindnes as hypocritical and counterfeited dissimulation Wherin by their malitious construing and wrong interpreting of wel and cōmendable doing they represent the natural disposition and froward inclination of the Diuel who hath that name for that he is willingly and of purpose a malitious false reporter and accuser As for the letters they take hold on and slander her for we shal hereafter examine them what weight they beare Wel then if ther were such a reconciliatiō made betwen them as I haue said to be as there is litle or no cause at al why any man should thinke that the Queene was priuie or ware of the means of his death so may it seme but mere superfluous for vs either to rehearse what surmised difference were betwene them or to confute the falsitie of al such allegations namely seeing that in some thereof they charge the most innocent Quene with their owne most lewd naughty and wicked deuises and detestable practises As for an example and proufe thereof the Earle Murray and his counsaile perceauing that for a time the Queene seemed not wel to like of her husbandes doinges albe it whatsoeuer her said misliking were it was as is aforesaid for the loue of him in respect of his owne profit and commoditie being very desirous to bring home againe their cōfederated mate th' Earle Morton who then was in banishmēt and remained in England for the slaughter of Dauid her Secretarie without whose presence and present aduice their fetching practises were halfe maimed and lacked force to take effect were earnest suters that if she would pardon him they would procure a diuorse betwene them wherto she would not agree But what haue these good men now done thinke ye in this part Surely they haue plaied the said pageant with this innocent Susan as the two wicked Iudges did play with the other former Susan They lay hard to her charge their owne naughty and wicked counsel and deuise It were therefore but a vaine and lost labour for vs to stay and tarie long vpon the confutation of their owne craftie malicious inuentions and procedinges in procuring an alienation of the Queenes minde from her deare and wel beloued husband or vpon any other alienation whatsoeuer it so being that they them selues can not denie but that there folowed a good pacification and reconciliation betwene them We wil consequently therfore consider the second principal point of our discourse For they say that they haue a sufficiēt prouf to iustifie the chiefest part of their accusation A proper iustification pardie This this is their ioly witnesse this is their singuler iewel whereby they set much store the value whereof in their eyesight they repute and accompt as of an inestimable treasure This most necessary witnesse they haue alwares attendant at hand and ready at a beck to serue their turne at a pinche when nede requireth for al their purposes and attēpts If ye doubt of the veritie of any parte of their accusations this witnesse though ye neuer sawe nor heard of any suche thing wil ful faire bleate it out and make al things according to their mind as cleare as Cristal or as the bright shining sonne So that if this witnesse once faileth them then al their accusation faileth them therewith and by and by quaileth And soothly this witnesse yet al this notwithstanding what else is it but a blind and deafe and a dōme testimonie of certaine obscure letters written and indited as they most falsly and as vainely auouche and hitherto were neuer able to proue by the Queene to the Earle Bothwel It is forsooth a boxe of letters taken from one Doughleysh who was executed for the Lorde Darleyes death the Earles man forsooth whiche letters he receiued at Edenborough of one Sir Iames Balfoure to conuey to his Master Thus say they But we say to you as is sayd in Terence Non sunt haec satis diuisa temporibus The very time if nothing else were
like aduise Now at the last cometh the Lorde Lindzay sent in Commissiō from their Coūsaile to present and offer vnto her the writinges who most greuously with feareful wordes and very cruel and sterne coūtenance thre●ned her that vnlesse she would therto subscribe she should lose her life But cal you this voluntarie yelding ou● and Resignation of the Croune A voluntary assignation of the regiment to you Earle Murray yea surely as free and voluntary a● a man with his owne hands casteth into the sea his goods in a maine and raging tempest freely and voluntarily sauing that peraduēture ye may replie and say that there is so much wil in him that he had rather bide the ●duenture of his goodes and riches then of his life being contented to redeeme the ●afegard of his life with the losse of his goodes And yet as voluntary as ye make it free and voluntary ye shal no more make it then ye shal be able to prooue that the peoples good wil was alienated from her as ye surmise For the procuring whereof ye haue by your craftie slaunderous leasinges and wretched practises done all the endeuour that your malitious and spitefull braines could inuent and serch out But surely your dooinges haue bene so gratious that if she had bene deadly hated before they might haue procured and gotten her a wonderful loue and fauour of the people againe And whereas she was euen as she wel deserued most entierly and tenderly beloued before now ye haue by these your so Tragical and Tyrānical procedings purchased to her such an augmentation and encrease of the same specially whē that the people amōg whom for a while some ye haue through your cou lorable craftie conueiances made to misdeme and haue somwhat the worse liking of her shal throughly and perfectly vnderstand and knowe your said wily policies as more and more daily they doe that she shalb● much beholding to you but no God hau● mercy to you therefore But now to procede and go forward with your louing loyal procedings towarde her ye neuer ceassed nor staied vntil ye had procured and obteined a coulorable Parlamēt whereby ye gotte your vsurped and vnnatural kingdome ratified and confirmed and not onely al your wicked practises already past but euen what mischiefe soeuer y● wold should afterward passe also against her quietnes and safetie And thus behold how these humble obedient and louing subiectes haue purchased and procured a Commiss●o long before hande the like whereof as ● suppose was neuer in the world heard of a fore in any whatsoeuer rude sauage and barbarous Nation or Countrey to slay kill and murther their owne Souereigne Queene and a most innocent Ladie at their owne willes and pleasure The which their saied Commission they had in this wise executed long ere this as it is credibly thought if God had not wonderfully eluded and miraculously frustrated this their mischeiuous malitious purpose and intent And yet is there one iniurie more that doth greeue and molest this good guiltlesse Ladie more then al these foretold villanous prāks plaied of them against her And surely not without iust cause of griefe For in dede it farre passeth and excedeth them al. And that is their shameful and most traiterous diffaming her being altogether innocent therein with the death of her husbande as though that she had suborned the Earle Bothwel therto and rewarded him therfore with the mariage of her owne body Here perchance they will say Mary this is our chief quarel in dede this was the marke we principally shotte at The great loue and zeale we beare to Iustice and the earnest desire we haue to purge and rid the Realme of the slander and infamie that ariseth therto by this horrible facte moueth and stirreth vs vp to seke by al meanes we can the punishing of the said Earle who was the cōmitter and chief perpetrator thereof If it so be surely there is vppon the sodaine commen vpon you a meruelous deuotion For why Were not ye and your band and Adherēts the chief and principa●● authours assisters fautours aiders and abetters for the clearing and iustifiyng of the said Bothwel accused and indited as gilty of the said murther what is it that maketh you now so hot that then were so cold By like the world and wether is anew changed and altered of late Yet tel vs we pray you in good earnest was your principal scope and zeale to apprehend th' Erle Bothwel Tel vs then a good cause why ye did dismisse him when you might haue had him at your pleasure Did not the forsaid Grange comming to the Queene from you speake to him also Did he not take him by the hand and wil him to depart assuring and telling him that no man should folow or pursue him Did not th' Erle remaine in the Countrey at hand many monethes after vntil the returning home of the Earle Murray And then for a face and coūtenance ther were made out to the seas certaine ships to apprehend him it being of you pretended that he was now become an arrant Pirate and Rouer vpon the sea Nay nay it was not he you so long sought after It was an other bird and her ye had fast in the cage and therefore ye permitted the Earle to flee whether he would But yee you say in your Accusation put vp to the Commissioners of England that as he was the chief executor of the said Lord Darleys death so she was of the foreknowledge and counsel yea and the mainteiner therof also And therefore she both stopped the inquisition of the facte and punishment of him and also matched her selfe in mariage with him I aske then as before of you why through the special sute and procurement of your faction he was acquited and set on cleare bord Why did you with a great number of the Nobilitie moue further and worke the said mariage as most metee and necessary for your Quene Why did you as by your hand writing it wilappeare proffer and promisse to him your faithful seruice and to her your loyal obeisance Why did none of all your factiō nor any other els either openly or priuately declare and detect this matter to your Queene before the pretended mariage Was there no time occasion and opportunitie to geue her warning thereof but by the terrible and feareful blast and soūd of the Martial trumpet For she good innocent Ladie hath vpō her honour protested and plainly declared the which her protestatiō also the disorderly ambitious and Tragical doinges of these rebellious and traiterous subiects do much helpe and confirme that afore her taking and inprisonmēt she neuer knew who were either principal or accessarie or by any meanes culpable and blame worthy concerning the said murther Touching the third point it is not worthy the cōfuting For these men knew right wel that the Queene had put her sonne safe and sure inough in the guarde and custodie of the Earle of Murray
For the haue in al these their worslipful procedinge against her made suche a hotchepoche suche a minglemangle suche a confuse an● disordered Chaos against Iustice and Nature that they them selues were the Accusers they them selues the witnesses they them selues the Iudges and examiners of her cause Is there any honest meaning and gentle natured harte that can once patiently abide and suffer to heare these their taunting and intolerable outragious inueyings and accusations especially of the Earles Murray and Murtō the Capiteines ringleaders and chief practitioners thereof against her to whome they are most depely bound aswel for high preferment vndeserued as for diuers pardons of death by manifolde treasons worthely deserued To whom the one of them is by nature and blood albe it base as a brother entierly conioyned And to whome they both ought to be with the rest as to their Irege Ladie most loially subiected Shal they now with the Lord Lindzay be admitted to staine and defile her honour to seeke her harts blood who long sithens had worthely lost ther ingrate chorlishe traiterouse blood if they had not ben preserued by her singuler and incredible clemencie Yet let vs cōsider their precise and most holy forme of Iudgement The Queene was disorderly and rebelliously apprehēded she was cast in prison not once heard to answer for her selfe most instantly and pitifully crauing audience She was forced and constrained by most vehement and iust feare to geue ouer her Croune and dimisse the regiment to the Earle Murray One great argument of the said constraint and compulsion among other is that she neuer readde such writinges as were offered to her to be by her subscribed nor entred into any couenant or talke for the maintenance of her liuing or safegard of her life Which thing she would neuer by any indifferent mans iudgement haue done if she had freely and voluntarily yelded vp her Regal Dignity Neither can the pretensed Parlamēt be preiudicial to her standing vpō no better nor surer groūd then vpon such as we haue rehearsed and vpon such worshipful letters missiue as are by them I can not tel more falsly or more fondly counterfeited Surely such Traitours as durst laye violent handes vppon their Queene and intrude them selues into the Regal Gouernement will make but smal ▪ curtesie in the faining and forging a letter thereby to worke their purposed mischiefe I would then father demaund of them what authoritie they had to somon and assemble a Parlament And whether this fact of hers supposing she were therein guilty deserueth in her being a Prince and considering how heinously the Lorde Darley had offended her and the Croune of Scotland such extreme punishment to be leuied vpon her for one simple murther especially by them that committed that shameful murther vpon her Secretarie that haue committed so many treasons and daily do committe so many horrible murthers vpō the Quenes true louing subiectes How many and how cruel and terrible deathes do such Traitours deserue We haue moreouer to demaund of them whereas they pretende a merueilous and a singuler zeale to religiō and holy Scripture and to measure al their doinges precisely by Scripture and order thereof what sufficient warrant they haue therein by their priuate authoritie to set violent handes vpon their annointed Prince I find ther that King Dauid was both an adultrer and also a murtherer I finde that God was highly displeased with him therfore Yet find I not that he was therefore by his subiectes deposed And here might I take occasion out of the sacred Scriptures to declaime and discours against your disordered doinges but that it is nedelesse and our matters otherwise growe long But yet consider ye with your selfe you the Earles Murray and Murton with your consociats that euen adiudging the Queene were culpable and in some fault as she is not in this matter whether it had not ben much better and more auaileable to your commō wealth and to the state thereof prudently to haue dissembled the matter as your forefathers haue heretofore done in a greater cause then this namely in Duke Robert the Gouernour Kings Roberts brother then to haue permitted your cōmon wealth to haue commen into so miserable and wretched a state as it is now fallē in and dayly like to be in worse case and worse I suppose it wil be found that it had ben a much better policie to haue reserued the punishment thereof to Gods owne rodde and iustice in this or in an other worlde then to haue taken from him that he hath reserued to his owne only iudgemēt and to haue geuen to the subiects of other Princes suche a wicked president that if these other subiectes treade fast vppon your steppes there wil shortly fewe Kinges and Princes haue any sure and fast holde of their Sceptre and Ro●al Dignitie We conclude then against you speake and doe the worste by her that ye can inuent that your proceedinges be not agreable or correspondent to law order and Iustice and therfore to be reuoked and adnulled We say that the common rule of the lawe ought here to take place Spoliatus ante omnia resti●uendus est vnlesse where all lawes aswel Gods as mans lawe doe fauour and preferre Princes causes with singuler priuileges and prerogatiues ye haue now espied out a newe law whereby Princes shal haue and enioye lesse benefits and preeminences in their owne defence then other priuate persons We say that for these and many other good and necessary considerations all is voide that ye haue busied your selues about We say that al your dooinges ought to be remoued reuersed and clearly annulled and the Queene wrongfully by you displaced to be restored to her state and former dignitie and honour Then let the whole matter be if there be any iuste cause before competent and meete Iudges to sitte vppon a Prince iustly and orderly heard and determined For as for you especially the Earle Marray and Murton ye are to be charged and chalenged byside al other iust exceptions euen as the principal inuentours mainteiners and workers of this shamefull and cruel murther for the whiche ye haue made al this hurly burly and as I may say stirred heauen and earth against your owne very natural Prince Neither may the Lord Lindzay be heard or suffred to intermedle against her if lawe take place for diuers his demerites among which he standeth charged aswel for that that he was one of the chiefe instrumentes in the slaughter of the Queenes Secretarie Dauid as also in the apprehending and imprisoning of her Grace But I much muse and merueyle how the Bisshoppe of Orkney for shame coulde so presumptuously and heynously inueigh and declaime before the Commissioners of Englande against his Maistresse pretensed mariage with the Earle Bothwell seeinge that he him selfe did celebrate the solemnitie thereof Who also was your onely Bifshop that was present at the Coronation of your newe erected king A man moste apte and ready to serue
good reason and lawe to stande at defence and onely to auoide as easely we may their obiections which principally and chiefly are grounded vpon the common lawes and Statutes of this Realme yet for the bettering and strengthening of the same we shal lay forth sundrie great and inuincible reasons cōioyned with good and sufficient authoritie of the law so approued and confirmed that the Aduersaries shal neuer be able iustly to impugne them And so that we trust after the reading of this Treatise and the effectes of the same wel digested no maner of scruple ought to remaine in any indifferent mans hart concerning her right and Title Whose expectation and conscience allthough we truste fully in this Discourse to satisfie and doubt nothing in the worlde of the righteousnes of our cause yet must we nedes confesse the manner and forme to entreate therof to be ful of difficultie and perplexity For such causes of Princes as they be seldome and rare so is it more rare and strange to finde them discoursed discussed and determined by any lawe or statute albe it nowe and then some statutes tende that waye Neither do our lawes nor the Corps of the Romaine and Ciuil law lightly meddle with the princelie gouernement but with priuate mens causes And yet this notwithstanding for the better iustification of our cause albe it I denie not but that by the cōmon law it muste be knowē who ought to haue the Croune and that the common lawe muste discerne the right aswel of the Croune as of subiectes yet I saye that there is a greate difference betwene the Kings right and the right of others And that the Title of the Croune of this Realme is not subiect to the rules and principles of the common lawe of this Realme as to be ruled and tryed after such order and course as the inheritance of priuate persons is by the same For the prous whereof let vs consider what the common lawe of this Realme is and how the rules thereof be grounded and do take place It is very manifeste and plaine that the common lawe of this Realme of England is no law writtē but grounded only vpon a common and generall custome throughout the whole realme as appeareth by the Treatise of the auncient and famous Writer of the lawes of the realme named Ranulphus de Glanuilla who wrote in the time of the noble King Henrie the second of the law and Custome of the realme of England being then and also in the time of the raigne of King Richarde the firste the chiefe Counsailour and Iustice of the same King and also by the famouse Iustice Fortescue in his booke whiche he wrote being Chauncellour of England De laudibus Legum Angltae And by 33. H. 6.51 and by E. 4.19 Whiche Custome by vsage and continuall practise heretofore had in the Kinges Courts within this Realme is only knowen and mainteined wherein we seeme much agreable to the olde Lacedemonians who many hundred yeres past most politikely and famously gouerned their common Wealth with lawe vnwritten whereas among the Athenians the writen lawes bare al the sway This thing being so true that with any reason or good authoritie it can not be denied then we are farther to consider whether the Kinges Title to the Croune can be examined tried and ordered by this common Custome or no. Yf ye say it may then must ye proue by some recorde that it hath bene so vsed otherwise ye only say it and nothing at all proue it For nothing can be said by lawe to be subiecte to any custome vnlesse the same hath ben vsed accordingly and by force of the same custom I am wel assured that you are not able to proue the vsage and practise thereof by any record in any of the Kings courts Yea I wil farther say vnto you and also proue it that there is no one rule general or special of the common lawe of this Realme which ye ●●ther haue shewed or can shewe that 〈◊〉 bene taken by any iuste construction to 〈◊〉 tende vnto or bind the King or his Crou●●● I wil not denie but that to declare and see forth the prerogatiue and Iurisdictiō of the King ye may shewe many rules of the lawe but to binde him as I haue sayde ye can shewe none Ye say in your booke that it is a Maxime in our lawe most manifest that who so euer is borne out of England and of father and mother not being of the obedience of the King of England can not be capable to inherite any thing in England Whiche rule being general without any wordes of exception ye also say must nedes extende vnto the Croune What you meane by your law I knowe not But if you meane as I thinke you do the common lawe of England I answere there is no such Maxime in the common lawe of this Realme of Englande as hereafter I shal manifestly proue But if it were for argumentes sake admitted for this time that it be a Maxime or general rule of the cōmon law of England yet to say that it is so general as that no exception can be taken against the same rule ye shewe your selfe either ignorant or els very carelesse of your creditte For it doth plainely appeare by the Statute of 25. E. 3. being a declaration of that rule of the Lawe whiche I suppose ye meane terming it a Maxime that that rule extendeth not vnto the Kinges children Whereby it moste euidently appeareth that it extendeth not generally to al. And if it extende not to binde the Kinges children in respect of any inheritance descended vnto them from any of their Auncestours it is an Argument à fortiori that it doth not extende to binde the King or his Croune And for a ful and short answere to your Authorities sette foorth in your marginall Notes as 5. Ed ward 3. tit Ayle 13. Ed war. 3. tit Bref 31. Edw. 3. tit Coson 42. Ed war. 3. fol. 2. 22. Henric. 6. fol. 42.11 Henric. 4. fol. 23. 24. Litleton ca. vilenage it may plainly appeare vnto all that will reade and pervse those Bookes that there is none of them al that doth so much as with a peece of a word or by any colour or shadow seeme to intende that the Title of the Croune is bounde by that your supposed general rule or Maxime For euerie one of the said Cases argued and noted in the said Booke are onely concerning the dishabilitie of an Alien borne and not Denizon to demaunde any landes by the lawes of the Realme by suite and action onely as a subiect vnder the King and nothing touching any dishabilitie to be laied to the King himselfe or to his subiectes Is there any controuersie about the Title of the Croune by reason of any such dishabilitie touched in any of these Bookes No verely not one worlde I dare boldely say As it may most manifestly appeare to them that wil reade and pervse
those bookes And yet ye are not ashamed to note them as sufficient authorities for the maintenance of your euil purpose and intēt But as ye would seeme to vnderstand that your rule of dishabilitie is a general Maxime of the law so me thinketh ye should not be ignorant that it is also as general yea a more general rule and Maxime of the lawe that no Maxime or rule of the lawe can extende to binde the King or the Croune vnlesse the same be specially mentioned therein as may appeare by diuerse principles and rules of the lawe which be as general as is your sayd supposed Maxime and yet neither the King nor the Croune is by any of them bound As for example it is very plaine that the rule of the Tenante by the Curtesie is general without any exception at al. And yet the same bindeth not the Croune neither doth extende to geue any benefitte to him that shal marie the Queene of England As it was plainely agreed by all the lawiers of this Realme when King Philippe was married vnto Queene Marie although for the more suertie and plaine declaration of the intentes of King Philippe and Queene Marie and of al the states of this realme it was enacted that King Philip should not claime any Tytle to be Tenaunt by the Curtesie It is also a general rule that if a man dye seased of any landes in Fee simple without issue male hauing diuerse daughters the lande shall be equally diuided amonge the daughters Which rule the learned men in the lawes of this Realme agreed vpō in the lyfe of the late noble Prince Edwarde and also euery reasonable mā knoweth by vsage to take no place in the succession of the Croune For there the eldest enioyeth al as though she were issue male Likewise it is a general rule that the wife after the decease of her husband shal be endowed and haue the thirde parte of the best possessions of her husband And yet it is very clere that any Queene shal not haue the thirde parte of the landes belonging to the Croune as appeareth in 5. E. 3. Tit. praerogat 21. E. 3.9 28. H. 6. and diuers other bookes Bysides that the rule of Possessio fratris beinge generall neither hath bene or can be stretched to the inheritance of the Croune For the brother of the half blood shal succede and not the sister of the whole blood as may appeare by Iustice Moile as may be proued by King Etheldred brother and successor to King Edward the Martyr and by King Edwarde the Confessour brother to King Edmunde and diuers other who succeded in the Croune of England being but of the halfe blood As was also the late Queene Marie and is at this presente her sister who both in al recordes of our lawe wherein their seueral rightes and titles to the Croune are pleaded as by daily experience aswell in the Exchequer as also in all other Courtes is manifest doe make their conueiance as heires in blood th' one to the other which if they were cōmon or priuate persons they could not be allowed in lawe they as is wel knowen being of the halfe blood one to the other that is to wit begotten of one father but borne of sundrie mothers It is also a general rule in the lawe that the executour shal haue the good and Chattles of the testatour and not the heire And yet is it otherwise in the case of the Croune For there the successour shal haue them and not the executour as appeareth in 7. H. 4. by Gascoine It is likewise a general rule that a man attainted of felony or treason his heire through the corruption of blood without pardon and restitution of blood is vnable to take any landes by discente Whiche rule although it be general yet it extendeth not to the discente or succession of the Croune although the same Attainder were by acte of Parlamente as may appeare by the Attainder of Richarde Duke of Yorke and King Edward his son and also of King Henry the seuenth who were attainted by acte of Parlament and neuer restored and yet no dishabilitie thereby vnto Edwarde the fourth nor vnto Henry the seuenth to receaue the Croune by lawful succession But to this you would seeme to answere in your said booke saying that Hēry the seuenth notwithstanding his Attainder came to the Croune as caste vpon him by the order of the lawe forasmuch that when the Croune was caste vpon him that dishabilitie ceassed Wherein ye confesse directly that the Attainder is no dishabilitie at all to the succession of the Croune For although no dishabilitie can be alleaged in him that hath the Croune in possession yet if there were any dishabilitie in him before to receue and take the same by lawful succession then must ye say that he was not lawful King but an vsurper And therfore in confessing Henry the seuenth to be a lawful King and that the Croune was lawfully caste vppon him ye confesse directly thereby that before he was Kinge in possession there was no dishabilitie in him to take the Croune by lawful successiō his said Attainder notwithstanding which is as much as I would wish you to graunt But in conclusion vnderstanding your self that this your reason can not mainteine your intente you goe about an other way to helpe your self making a difference in the lawe betwene the case of Attainder and the case of foraine byrth out of the Kinges allogeāce saying that in the case of the Attainder neessitie doth enforce the succession of the Croune vpon the partie attaynted For otherwise ye say the Croune shall not descende to any But vpon the birth out of the Kinges allegance ye say it is otherwise And for proufe therof ye put a case of I.S. being seased of landes and hauing issue A. and B. A. is attainted in the life of I.S. his father and after I.S. dieth A. liuing vnrestored Nowe the lande shal not descende either to A. or B. but shal goe to the Lorde of the Fee by way of eschete Otherwise it had ben ye say if A. had ben borne beyond the sea I. S. breaking his allegeāce to the King and after I. S. cometh agayne into the Realme and hath issue B. and dieth for now ye say B. shal inherite his fathers Landes Yf the Croune had bene holden of any person to whome it might haue escheted as in your case of I.S. the lande did then peraduenture there had bene some affinitie betwene your said case and the case of the Croune But there is no such matter Bysides that ye muste consider that the King cometh to the Croune not onely by descente but also and chiefly by succession as vnto a corporation And therefore ye might easely haue sene a difference in your cases betwene the Kinges Maiestie and I.S. a subiecte And also betwene landes holden of a Lorde aboue and the Croune holden of no earthly Lorde but
of God almighty onely But yet for arguments sake I would faine knowe where you finde your differēce and what authoritie you can shew for the prouf thereof Ye haue made no marginal note of any authoritie and therefore vnlesse ye also saye that ye are Pythagoras I will not beleue your difference Wel I am assured that I can shew you good authoritie to the contrarie and that there is no difference in your cases Pervse I praie you 22. H. 6. And there may you see the opinion of Iustice Newton that there is no difference in your cases but that in both your cases the lande shall eschete vnto the Lorde And Prisote being then of Coūsayle with the party that claimed the lands by a descent wher the eldest sonne was borne beyond the seas durst not abide in law vpon the title This authoritie is against your difference and this authoritie I am wel assured is better then any that you haue shewed to proue your difference But if we shal admitte your difference to be according to the law yet your cases wherevnto you applie your difference are nothing like as I haue said before But to procede on in the proufe of our purpose as it doth appeare that neither the King nor his Croune is bound by these general rules which before I haue shewed so do I likewise say of al the residue of the general rules and Maximes of the lawe being in a manner infinite But to retourne againe vnto your onely supposed Maxime whiche you make so general concerning the dishabilitie of persons borne beyond the seas it is very plaine that it was neuer taken to extende vnto the Croune of this Realme of Englande as it may appeare by King Stephen and by King Henry the seconde who were both straungers and Frenchemen and borne out of the Kinges allegeance and neither were they Kinges children immediate nor their parentes of the allegeance and yet they haue bene alwaies accompted lawfull Kinges of England nor their title was by any man at any time defaced or comptrolled for any such consideration or exception of foraine birth And it is a worlde to see how you would shifte your handes from the said King Henry Ye say he came not to the Croune by order of the lawe but by capitulation for asmuch as his mother by whome he conueied his Title was then liuing Well admitte that he came to the Croune by capitulation during his mothers life yet this doth not proue that he was dishabled to receaue the Croune but rather proueth his abilitie And although I did also admit that he had not the Croune by order of the law during his mothers life yet after his mothers death no man hath hitherto doubted but that he was King by lawful succession and not against the lawes and Customes of this Realme For so might you put a doubt in al the Kinges of this Realme that euer gouerned sithens and driue vs to seake heires in Scotland or els where Whiche thing we suppose you are ouer wise to goe about Bysides this I haue hard some of the aduersaries for farther helpe of their intention in this matter saye that King Henry the second was à Queenes childe and so King by the rule of the commō law Truely I know he was an Emperesse childe but no Queene of Englandes childe For although Maude the Emperesse his mother had a right and a good title to the Croune and to be Queene of England yet was she neuer in possession but kepte from the possession by King Stephen And therefore King Henry the second can not iustly be saied to be a Queene of Englandes childe nor yet any Kinges childe vnlesse ye would intend the Kinges children by the wordes of Infantes de Roy c. to be children of farther degree and descended from the right line of the King so ye might say truely that he was the child of King Henry the first being in deede the sonne and heire of Maude the Emperesse daughter and heire of Kinge Henrie the first Whereby your saide rule is here fowly foiled And therefore ye would faine for the maintenance of your pretensed Maxime catche some holde vppon Arthur the sonne of Ieffrey one of the sonnes of the saide Henry the seconde Ye say then like a good and ioly Antyquarie that he was reiected from the Croune bycause he was borne out of the Realme That he was borne out of the Realme it is very true but that he was reiected frō the Croune for that cause it is very false Neither haue you any autoritie to proue your vaine opinion in this pointe For it is to be proued by the Cronicles of this Realme that King Richarde the first vncle vnto the sayd Arthur taking his iourney towarde Hierusalem declared the said Arthur as we haue declared before to be heire apparent vnto the Croune whiche would not haue ben if he had bene taken to be vnhable to receaue the Croune by reason of foraine birth And although King Iohn did vsurpe aswel vpon the saide King Richard the firste his eldest brother as also vpon the sayd Arthur thur his nephewe yet that is no prouf that he was reiected bycause he was borne out of the Realme Yf ye could proue that then had you shewed some reason and president to proue your intent whereas hytherto you haue shewed none at al nor I am wel assured shal neuer be able to shewe Thus may ye see gentle Reader that neither this pretensed Maxime of the lawe set forth by th' Aduersaries nor a great nomber more as general as this is whiche before I haue shewed can by any reasonable meanes be stretched to bind the Croune of Englād These reasons and authorities may for this time suffice to proue that the Croune of this Realme is not subiecte to the rules and the Principles of the common lawe neither can be ruled and tried by the same Whiche thing being true al the obiectiōs of the Aduersaries made against the title of Marie the Queene of Scotland to the succession of the Croune of this Realme are fully answered and thereby clearly wiped away Yet for farther arguments sake and to the ende we might haue al matters sifted to the vttermost and therby al things made plaine let vs for this tyme somewhat yeelde vnto the Aduersaries admitting that the Title of the Croune of this Realme were to be examined and tried by the rules and principles of the cōmon law and then let vs consider and examin farther whether ther be any rule of the cōmon law or els any statute that by good and iust construction can seeme to inpugne the said title of Marie the Queene of Scotland or no. For touching her lineal descente frō King Henry the seuēth and by his eldest daughter as we haue shewed there is no man so impudent to denie What is there then to be obiected among al the rules Maximes and iudgements of the cōmon law of this Realm Only
the Title whiche the Kinges of England haue claimed vnto the Realme of Scotland is not in the possession of the lande and Croune of Scotlande but onely vnto the seruice of homage and fealtie for the same And although the Kinges of Scotland sith the time of King Henry the eight haue intermitted to doe the said homage and fealtie vnto the Kinges of Englande yet for al that the Kinges of Scotland can not by any reason or lawe be called vsurpers And thus may ye see gentle Reader by the opinion of al indifferente men not lead by affection that the Realme of Scotlande hath bene and is yet within the allegeance and dominion of England And so is the Antecedent or first proposition false And yet that maketh no proufe that the Realme of France likewise should nowe be said to be within the allegeance of the Kings of England by reason of the manifest and apparent difference before shewed But what if your Antecedent were true and that we did agree both with the said Queene of Scotland and her subiectes and also with you that Scotland were out of the allegeance of England Yet it is very plaine that your consequent and conclusion can not by any meanes be true And that principally for three causes whereof one is for that neither the King not the Croune not being specially mētioned in the said rule or pretended Maxime can be intended to be within the meaning of the same Maxime as we haue before sufficiently proued by a great number of other suche like generall rules and Maximes of the lawes An other cause is for that the Croune can not be taken to be within the woordes of the said supposed Maxime and that for twoo respectes one is bycause the rule doth only dishable Aliens to demaunde any heritage within the allegeance of England Whiche rule can not be stretched to the demaunde of the Croune of Englād which is not with in the allegeance of England but is the very allegeance it selfe As for a like example it is true that al the landes within the Kinges dominion are holdē of the King either mediatly or immediately and yet it is not true that the Croune by whiche onely the King hath his Dominion can be said to be holdē of the King. For without the Croune there can be neither King nor allegeance And so long as the Croune resteth onely in demaund not being vested in any person ther is no allegeāce at al. So that the Croune can not be said by any meanes to be within the allegeance of England and therfore not within the wordes of the said rule or Maime The Title of the Croune is also out of the wordes and meaning of the same rule in an other respect and that is bycanse that rule doth only dishable an Alien to demaūd landes by descent as heire For it doth not extende vnto landes purchased by an Alien as we haue before sufficiently proued And then can not that rule extende vnto the Croune being a thing incorporate the right wherof doth not descend according to the common course of priuate inheritance but goeth by successiō as other corporatiōs do No man doubteth but that a Prior Alien being no denizon might alwaies in time of peace demaund land in the right of his corporatiō And so likewise a Deane or a Person being Aliens and no deniznos might demaund lande in respecte of their corporations not withstāding the said supposed rule or Maxime as may appeare by diuerse booke cases as also by the statute made in the time of King Richard the second And although the Croune hath alwaies gone according to the common course of a Descent yet doth it not properly descende but succede And that is the reason of the lawe that although the Kinge be more fauoured in all his doinges then any common person shal be yet can not the King by lawe auoide his grauntes and Letters Patentes by reason of his Nonage as other infantes may doe but shal alwaies be said to be of ful age in respect of his Croune euen as a Person Vicare or Deane or any other person incorporate shal be Whiche can not by any meanes be said in lawe to be within age in respect of their corporations although the corporation be but one yeare olde Bysides that the King can not by the law auoide the Letters Patentes made by any vsurper of the Croune vnlesse it be by act of Parlament no more then other persons incorporate shal auoide the grauntes made by one that was before wrongfully in their places and romes whereas in Descentes of inheritance the lawe is otherwise For there the heire may auoide al estates made by the disseafour or abatour or any other person whose estate is by lawe defeated Whereby it doth plainely appeare that the King is incorporate vnto the Croune and hath the same properly by succession and not by Descent onely And that is likewise an other reason to proue that the King and the Croune can neither be saide to be within the wordes nor yet with in the meaning of the said general rule or Maxime The third and most prncipall cause of all is for that in the said statute whervpon the said supposed rule or Maxime is gathered the children descendantes and descended of the blood royal by the wordes of Infantes de Roy are expresly excepted out of the said supposed rule or Maxime Whiche wordes the Aduersaries do much abuse in restrainīg and construing them to extende but to the first degree only whereas the same wordes may very wel beare a more large and ample interpretation And that for three causes and considerations First by the Ciuil lawe this word Liberi which the worde Infantes being the vsuall and original worde of the statute written in the Frenche tongue counteruaileth doth comprehende by proper and peculier signification not only the childrē of the first degree but other Descendants also in the law saying That he who is manumissed or made free shal not commence any Action against the children of the Patrone or manumissour without licence not onely the first degree but the other also is conteined The like is when the lawe of the twelue Tables saith The first place and roome of succession after the death of the parentes that die intestate is due to the children which successiō apperteineth as wel to degrees remoued as to the firste Yea in al causes fauourable as ours is this worde son Filius cōteineth the nephew though not by the propertie of the voice or speache yet by interpretation admittable in al such thinges as the law disposeth of As touching this worde Infantes in Frēch We say that it reacheth to other Descendāts as wel as the first degree Wherein I do referre me to suche as be expert in the said tongue We haue no one worde for the barenes of our English tōgue to coūterpaise the said French word Infantes or the Latin word
and remaining beyond the sea in the custody of the said Constance yet of this fact being against al Iustice aswel the said Archbishop as also many of th' other did after most earnestly repent considering the cruel and the vniust putting to death of the said Arthur procured and after some Authours committed by the said Iohn himself Which most foul ād shamful act the said Iohn neded not to haue committed if by foraine birth the said Arthur had bē barred to inherit the Croune of England And much lesse to haue imprisoned that most innocent Ladie Elenor sister to the said Arthur in Bristow Castle wher she miserably ended her life if that gay Maxime would haue serued to haue excluded these two childrē bicause thei wer strāgers borne in the partes beyond the seas Yea it appeareth in other doings also of the said time and by the storie of the said Iohn that the birth out of the legeāce of England by father ād mother foram was not takē for a sufficiēt repulse and reiectiō to the right and title of the Croune For the Barōs of Englād being then at dissension with the said King Iohn and renoūcing their allegeance to him receaued Lewis the eldest sonne of Philip the Frēch king to be their King in the right of Blanch his wife whiche was a stranger borne albe it the lawful Neece of the said Richard and daughter to Alphonse king of Ca●til begotten on the bodie of Elenour his wife one of the daughters of king Henrie the second and sister to the said king Richard and king Iohn Which storie I alleage only to this purpose thereby to gather the opinion of the time that foraine birth was then thought no barre in the Title of the Croune For otherwise how could Lewis of Frāce pretēd title to the Croune in the right of the said Bblach his wife borne in Spaine These examples are sufficient I suppose to satisfie and content any man that is not obstinatly wedded to his own fond fantasies and froward friuolous imaginatiōs or otherwise worse depraued for a good sure and substantial interpretation of the cōmon law And it were not altogether from the purpose here to consider and weigh with what and how greuous plagues this Realme hath bene oft afflicted and scourged by reason of wrongful and vsurped titles I wil not reuiue by odious rehearsal the greatenes and number of the same plagues as wel otherwise as especially by the contention of the noble houses and families of York and Lancaster seeing it is so fortunately and almost within mans remēbrance extinct and buried I wil now put the gentle Reader in remembrance of those only with whose vsurping Titles we are nowe presently in hand And to begyn with the most aunciēt what became I pray you of Harold that by briberie and helpe of his kinred vsurped the Croune against the foresaid yong Eadgar who as I haue said and as the old monumēts of our Historiographers do plainly testifie was the true and lawful Heire Could he thinke you enioy his ambitious and naughty vsurping one whole entier yere No surely ere the first yeare of his vsurped reigne turned about he was spoiled and turned out both of Croune and his life withal Yea his vsurpation occasioned the conquest of the whole realme by Williā Duke of Normādie bastard sonne to Robert the sixt Duke of the same And may we thinke al safe and sound now from like danger if we should tread the said wrong steppes with Harolde forsaking the right and high way of law and iustice What shal I now speake of the cruel ciuil warres betwene King Stephen and King Henry the second whiche warres rose by reason of the said Henry was vniustly kept frō the Croune dew to his mother Maude and to him afterwardes The pitiful reigne of the said Iohn who doth not lament with the lamentable losse of Normandie Aquitaine and the possibilitie of the Dukedome of Britanie and with the losse of our other goodly possessions in France whereof the Croune of England was robbed and spoiled by the vnlawful vsurping of him against his nephew Arthur Wel let vs leaue these greuouse and lothsome remembrances and let vs yet seeke if we may finde any later interpretation either of the said statute or rather of the cōmon law for our purpose And lo the great goodnes and prouidence of God who hath if the foresaid exāples would not serue prouided a later but so good so sure so apt and mete interpretatiō for our cause as any reasonable hart may desire The interpretatiō directly toucheth our case which I meane by the mariage of the Lady Margaret eldest daughter to King Hēry the vij vnto Iames the fourth Kīg of Scotlād and by the opiniō of the said most prudēt Prince in bestowing his said daughter into Scotlād a ma ter sufficient inough to ouerthrow al those cauilling inuētiōs of the aduersarie For what time King Iames the fourth sent his ambassadour to king Hēry the seuēth to obteine his good wil to espouse the said Lady Margaret there were of his Counsaile not ignorant of the lawes and Customes of the Realme that did not wel like vpon the said Mariage saying it might so fal out that the right and Title of the Croune might be deuolued to the Lady Margaret and her childrē and the Realm therby might be subiect to Scotlād To the whiche the prudent and wise King answered that in case any such deuolution should happen it would be nothing preiudicial to England For England as the chief and principal and worthiest part of the I le should drawe Scotland to it as it did Normandie from the time of the Conqueste Which answere was wonderfully wel liked of al the Counsaile And so consequ●tly the mariage toke effect as appereth by Polydor the Historiographer of this Realm and such a one as wrote the Actes of the time by the instruction of the King him selfe I say then the worthy wise Salomon foreseeing that such deuolution might happen was an interpretour with his prudente and sage Counsaile for our cause For els they neaded not to reason of any such subiection to Scotlande if the children of the Ladie Margaret might not lawfully inherite the Croune of England For as to her husband we could not be subiect hauing him selfe no right by this mariage to the Title of the Croune of this Realme Wherevpon I may wel inferre that the said newe Maxime of these men whereby they would rule and ouer rule the succession of Princes was not knowen to the said wise King neither to any of his Counsaile Or if it were yet was it taken not to reache to his blood royall borne in Scotlande And so on euery side the Title of Quene Marie is assured So that now by this that we haue said it may easely be seen by what light and slender consideration the Aduersarie hath gone about to strayne the wordes Infantes or children to the first degree
Scotland and Wales be al within one Territorie and not diuided by any sea And al old Recordes of the law concerning seruice to be done in those two Countries haue these words Infra quatuor Maria within the fower seas which must nedes be vnderstād in Scotlād and Wales aswel as in Englād b●cause they be al within one continent cōpassed with fower seas And likewise be many auncient statutes of this Realm writrē in the Normā Frēch which haue these wordes deins les quatre mers that is within the fower seas Now cōcerning the statute the title of the same is of those that are born beyond the sea the doubt moued in the corps of the said statut is also of childrē born beyond the sea out of the allegeance with diuers other brāches of the statute tēding that way Wherby it seemeth that no part of the statute toucheth these that are born in Wales or Scot lād And albe it at this time and before in tho reigne of Edward the first Wales was fully reduced annexed and vnited to the prop●● Dothinion of England yet was it before subrected to the Croune and King of England as to the Lorde and S●igniour aswel as Scotland Wherefore if this statute had 〈◊〉 made before the time of the said Edwarde the 〈◊〉 it seemeth that it could not haue bene stretched to Wales no more then it can now to Scotland I doe not therefore a litle meruaile that euer this man for pure shame could finde in his harte so childishly to wrangle vpon this word Infantes and so openly to detorte depraue and corrupt the common lawe and the Actes of Parlament And thus may you see gentle Reader that nothing can be gathered either out of the said supposed general rule or Maxime or of any other rule or Principle of the lawe that by any good and reasonable construction can seeme to impugne the title of the said Ladie Marie now Queene of Scotland of and to the Croune of this Realme of England as is aforesaid We are therefore now last of al to consider whether there be any statute or Acte of Parlament that doth seeme either to take away or preiud●ce the title of the said Lady Marie And bycause touching the foresaid mentioned statute of the 25. yeare of King Edward the thirde being only a declaration of the common law we haue already sufficiently answered we wil passe it ouer and consider vppon the statute of 28. and 36. of King Henry the eight being the only shoteanker of al the Aduersaries whether there be any matter therein conteined or depending vpon the same that can by any meanes destroie or hurt the title of the said Ladie Marie Queene of Scotland to the successiō of the Croune of England It doth appeare by the said statute of 28. of King Henry the eight that there was authoritie geuen him by the same to declare limite appoint and assigne the succession of the Croune by his Letters Patentes or by his last Wil signed with his owne hande It appeareth also by the foresaid statute made 35. of the said King that it was by the same enacted that the Croune of this Realme should go and be to the said King and to the heires of his body lawfully begotten that is to say vnto his Highnes first son of his body betwene him and the Ladie Iane then his wife begotten and for default of such issue then vnto the Lady Marie his daughter and to the heires of her body lawfully begotten and for default of such issue then vnto the Ladie Elizabeth his daughter and to the heires of her body laufully begotten and for default of such issue vnto suche person or persons in remainder or reuersion as should please the said King Henry the eight and according to such estate and after such māner order and conditiō as should be expressed declared named and limited in his Letters Patentes or by his last Wil in writing signed with his owne hande By vertue of whiche said Acte of Parlament the Aduersaries doo alleage that the said late King Henry the eight afterward by his last Wil in writing signed with his owne hand did ordeine and appoint that if it happen the said Prince Edward Ladie Marie and Lady Elizabeth to dye without issue of their bodies lawfully begotten then the Croune of this Realme of Englande should goe and remaine vnto the heires of the bodie of the Ladie Francis his Neece and th' eldest daughter of the F●ēch Quene And for the defaulte of suche issue to the heires of the body of the Ladie Elenour his Neece seconde daughter to the Frenche Queene lawfully begotten And if it happened the said Ladie Elenor to dye without issue of her body lawfully begotten to remaine and come to the nexte rightfull heires Wherevpon the Aduersaries do inferre that the successiō of the Croune ought to go to the childrē of the said Ladie Frācis and to their heyres according to the said supposed Wil of our late Souereigne Lorde King Henry the eight and not vnto the Ladie Marie Queene of Scotlande that nowe is To this it is on the befalf of the said Lady Marie Queene of Scotland among other things answered that King Henry the eight neuer signed the pretēsed Wil with his own hand and that therfore the said Wil can not be any whit preiudicial to the said Queene Against which answere for the defence and vpholding of the saide Will it is replied by the Aduersaries first that there were diuers copies of his Wil found signed with his owne hande or at the leastwise enterlined and some for the most part writen with his owne hande out of the whiche it is likely that the original Wil commonly called King Henry the eightes Will was taken and fayer drawen out Then that there be great and vehement presumptions that for the fatherly loue that he bare to the cōmon wealth and for the auoiding of the vncerteintie of the successiō he welliked vpō and accepted the authoritie geuen him by Parlament and signed with his owne hande the said original Wil whiche had the said limitation and assignation of the Croune And these presumptions are the more enforced for that he had no cause why he should beare any affection either to the said Queene of Scotland or to the Lady Leneux and hauing withal no cause to be greaued or offended with his sisters the Frenche Queenes children but to put the matter quite out of al ambiguitie and doubte it appeareth they say that there were eleuen witnesses purposely called by the king who were presente at the signing of the said Wil and subscribed their names to the same Yea the chief Lordes of the Coūsaile were made and appointed executours of the said Wil and they and other had great Legacies geuen them in the said Wil which were paid and other thinges comprised in the Wil accomplished accordingly There passed also purchases and Letters Patentes betwene King Edwarde and the executors of
the said Wil and others for the execution and performance of the same Finally the said Testament was recorded in the Chancerie Wherfore they affirme tha● there ought no manner of doubt moue any man to the cōtrarie and that either we must graunt this Wil to be signed with his hand or that he made no Wil at al both must be graunted or both denied If any wil deny it in case he be one of the witnesses he shal impugne his owne testimonie if he be one of the executours he shal ouerthrow the foundatiō of al his doinges in procuring the said Wil to be inrolled and set forth vnder the great Seale And so by their dubblenes they shal make them selues no mete witnesses Nowe a man can not lightly imagine how any other bysides these two kind of witnesses for some of them and of the executors were such as were cōtinually wayting vpon the Kinges person may impugne this Wil and proue that the king did not signe the same But if any such impugne the Wil it would be cōsidered how many they are and what they are and it wil be very harde to proue negatiuam facti But it is euidente say they that there was neuer any such lawful proufe against the said Wil producted For if it had ben it would haue ben published in the Starrechamber preached at Poules Crosse declared by Acte of Parlament proclaimed in euery quarter of the Realme Yea admitting say they that it were proued that the said pretensed Wil lacked the Kinges hande yet neuerthelesse say they the very copies we haue spoken of being written and signed or at least interlined with his owne hande may be saide a sufficient signing with his owne hande For seing the scope and final purpose of the statute was to haue the succession prouided for and ascerteined whiche is sufficiently done in the said Wil and seing his owne hande was required but onely for eschewing euil and sinister dealing whereof there is no suspicion in this Will to be gathered what matter in the worlde or what difference is there when the King fulfilled and accomplisihed this gratiouse Acte that was loked for at his handes whether he signed the Will with his owne hande or no If it be obiected that the King was obliged and bound to a certaine precise order and forme which he could in no wise shift but that the Acte without it muste perish and be of no valewe then say they wee vndoe whole Parlamentes aswel in Queene Maries time as in King Henry the eightes time In Queene Maries time bycause she omitted the Style appointed by Parlamente Anno 〈◊〉 octaui●rice simo quinto In King Henries tyme by reason there was a statute that the Kinges royal assent may be geuen to an Acte of Parlamente by his Letters Patentes signed with his hande though he be not there personally And yet did the saied King supplie full ofte his confente by the stampe only This yet notwithstanding the said Parlamentes for the omission of these formes so exactely and precisely appointed are not destroyed and disannulled After this sorte in effecte haue the Aduersaries replied for the defence of the said pretensed Will. To this we wil make our reioynder and saye Firste that our principall matter is not to ioyne an islewe whether the saide Kinge made and ordeyned any sufficient Will or no. We leaue that to an other time But whether he made any Testament in suche order and forme as the statute requireth Wherefore if it be defectiue in the said forme as we affirme it to be were it otherwise neuer so good and perfect though it were exemplified by the great Seale and recorded in Chancerie and taken commonly for his W●ll and so accomplished it is nothing to the principal question It resteth then for vs to consider the weight of the Aduersaries presumptions whereby they would inforce a probabilitie that the Testament had the foresaide requisite forme Yet first it is to be cōsidered what presumptions and of what force and number do occurre to auoide and frustrate the Aduersaries presumptions and all other like We say then there occurre many likelyhoddes many presumptions many great and weightie reasons to make vs to thinke that as the king neuer had good and iuste cause to minde and enterprise suche an Acte as is pretended so likewise he did enterprise no such Acte in deede I deny not but that the● was such authoritie geuen him neither I de●y but that he might also in some honorable sort haue practised the same to the honour and wealth of the Realme and to the good cōtentation of the same Realm But that he had either cause or did exercise the said authoritie in suche strange and dishonorable sort as is pretended I plainely denie For being at the time of this pretensed Wil furnished and adorned with issue the late king Edward and the Ladies Marie and Elizabeth their state and succession being also lately by Acte of Parlament established what neede or likelyhod was there for the king then to practise such newe deuises as neuer did I suppose any king in this Realme before and fewe in any other byside And where they were practised commonly had infortunate and lamentable successe What likelyhode was there for him to practise such deuises especially in his later daies when wisdome the loue of God and his Realme should haue bene moste ripe in him that were likely to sturre vppe a greater fier of greeuouse contention and woful destruction in England then euer did the deadly factiō of the red Rose and the white lately by the incorporation and vnion of the house of Yorke and Lancaster in the person of his father through the mariage of Ladie Elizabeth eldest daughter of king Edwarde the fourth most happily extinguished and buried And though it might be thought or said that there would be no such eause of feare by reason the matter passed by Parlament yet could not he be ignorant that neither Parlamentes made for Henry the fourth or continuance of twoo Descentes whiche toke no place in geuing any Title touching the Croune in King Henry the sixt nor Parlamentes made for King R●chard the third nor Parlaments of attainder made against his father could either preiudice his fathers right or releaue other against such as pretended iust right and title And as he could not be ignorāt therof so it is not to be thought that he would abuse the great confidence put vppon him by the Parlament and disherite without any apparent cause the next royal blood and thinke all thinges sure by the colour of Parlament The litle force whereof against the right inheritour he had to his fathers and his owne so ample benefit so lately and so largely sene and felt And yet if he minded at any time to preiudice the said Lady Marie Queend of Scotland of al times he would not haue done it then when al his care was by al possible meanes to contriue and compasse a mariage
euidently tende to this ende and scope if a zealous minde to the common Wealth if prudence and wisdome did not rule and measure al these doinges but contrariewise partial affection and displeasure if this arbitrement putteth not away al contentions and striffes if the mind and purpose of the honorable Parlament be not satisfied if there be dishonorable deuises and assignmentes of the Croune in this Wil and Testament if there be a new Succession vnnaturally deuised finally if this be not a Testament and last Wil such as Modestinus defineth Testamentum est tusta voluntatus nostra sententia de eo quod quis post mortem suam fieti velit then though the Kinges hand were put to it the matter goeth not altogether so wel and so smothe But that there is good and great cause farther to consider and debate vpon it whether it be so or no let the indifferent when they haue wel thought vpon it iudge accordingly The Aduersaries them selues can not altogether denie but that this Testament is not correspondent to such expectation as men worthely should haue of it Whiche thing they do plainly confesse For in vrging their presumptions whereof we haue spokē and minding to proue that this wil whiche they say is commonly called King Henries Wil was no new Wil deuised in his sicknes but euen the very same wherof as they say were diuers olde copies they inferre these wordes saying thus For if it be a newe Wil then deuised who could thinke that either him selfe would or any man durst haue moued him to put therin so many thinges contrary to his honour Much lesse durst they themselues deuise any new successiō or moue him to alter it otherwise then they foūd it when they saw that naturally it could not be otherwise disposed Wherein they say very truely For it is certaine that not only the common lawe of this Realme but nature it selfe telleth vs that the Queene of Scotlād after the said Kinges children is the next and rightful Heire of the Croune Wherefore the King if he had excluded her he had done an vnnatural acte Ye wil say he had some cause to doo this by reason she was a forainer and borne out of the Realm Yet this notwithstanding he did very vnnaturally yea vnaduisedly inconsideratly and wrongfully and to the great preiudice and danger of his owne Title to the Croune of France as we haue already declared And moreouer it is wel to be weighed that reason and equitie and Ius Gentium doth require and craue that as the Kings of this Realme would thinke them selues to be iniuriously handled and openly wronged if they mariyng with the heires of Spaine Scotland or any other Countrey where the succession of the Croune deuolueth to the woman were shutte out and barred from theyr said right dewe to them by the wiues as we haue said so likewise they ought to thinke of women of their royal blood that marie in Scotland that they may wel iudge and take them selues much iniured vnnaturally and wrongfully dealt withall to be thruste from the succession of this Croune being thereto called by the nexte proximitie of the royal blood And such deuolutiōs of other Kingdoms to the Croune of England by foraine mariage might by possibilitie often times haue chaunced and was euen nowe in this our time very like to haue chanced for Scotland if the intended mariage with the Queene of Scotland that now is and the late King Edward the sixt with his longer life and some issue had takē place But now that she is no suche forainer as is not capable of the Croune we haue at large already discussed Yea I wil now say farther that supposing the Parlament minded to exclude her and might rightfully so doe and that the King by vertue of this statute did exclude her in his supposed Wil yet is she not a plaine forainer and incapable of the Croune For if the lawfull heires of the said Ladie Francis and of the Ladie Elenour should happē to faile which seeme now to faile at the least in the Ladie Katherin and her issue for whose title great sturre hath lately ben made by reason of a late sentence definitiue geuen against her pretensed mariage with the Earle of Herford then is there no stay or stoppe either by the Parlament or by the supposed Will but that she the said Queene of Scotlande and her Heires may haue and obteine their iust Title and claime For by the said pretensed Wil it is limited that for default of the lawfull Heyres of the said Ladre Francis and Elenour the Croune shall remaine and come to the next rightful Heires But if she shal be said to be a forainer for the time for the induction of farther argument then what saye the Aduersaries to my Ladie Leneux borne at Herbottel in England and from thirtene yeares of age brought vppe also in England and commonly taken and reputed as well of the King and Nobilitie as of other the lawefully Neece of the said King Yea to turne nowe to the other Sister of the King maried to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke and her children the Ladie Francis and the Ladie Elenour why are they also disherited Surely if there be no iust cause neither in the Lady Leneux nor in the other it seemeth the King hath made a plaine Donatiue of the Croune Whiche thinge whether he could doe or whether it be conformable to the expectation of the Parlament or for the Kinges honour or for the honour for the Realme I leaue it to the farther consideration of other Nowe what causes should moue the Kinge to shutte them out by his pretensed Will from the Title of the Croune I minde not nor neede not especially seeing I take no notice of any such Wil touching the limitation of the said Croune here to to prosecute or examine Yet am I not ignorant what impedimentes many doo talke of and some as well by printed as vnprinted Bookes doe write of Wherein I will not take vppon me any asseueration any resolution or iudgement Thus only will I propound as it were by the way of consideration duely and depely to be wayed and thought vpon that is for as muche as the benefitte of this surmised Wil tendeth to the extrusion of the Queene of Scotland and others altogether to the issue of the French Queene whether in case the King had no cause to be offended with his sisters the Frenche Queenes children as the Aduersaries them selues confesse he had not and that there was no lawful impediment in them to take the succession of the Croune it were any thing reasonable or euer was once meant of the Parlament that the King without cause should disherite and exclude them from the Title of the Croune On th' other side if ther were any such impediment whereof this surmised Wil geueth out a great suspicion it is to be considered whether it standeth with reason and iustice with the honour of the King and the
the said statutes And therefore in that respect the said Wil is insufficient in lawe And to aggrauate the matter farther ye shal vnderstand of great inconueniences and imminent dangers which as yet are likely to ensue if that supposed Wil should take place It is not vnknowen but that at the time of the making of the said Wil the said Ladie Francis had no issue male but onely three daughters betwene her and Henrie Duke of Suffolke Afterward in the time of our late soueraigne Ladie Queene Marie the said Duke of Suffolke was attainted and suffered accordingly After whose death the said Ladie Francis to her great dishonour and abasing of her selfe toke to husbande one Adrian Stokes who was before her seruant a man of very meane estate and vocation and had issue by him Which issue if it were a son and be also yet liuing by the wordes of the said supposed Wil is to inherite the Croune of this Realme before the daughters betwene her and the said late Duke of Suffolke begottē which thing was neither intended nor meant by the makers of the said Actes Who can with any reason or common sense thinke that al the states of the Realme assembled together at the said Parlament did meane to geue authoritie to King Henry the eight by his Letters Patēts or last Wil to disherit the Queene of Scotland lineally descended of the blood roial of this Realme and to appoint the sonne of Adrian Stokes then a meane seruing man of the Duke of Suffolks to be King and Gouernour ouer this noble Realme of Englād The inconueniences whereof as also of the like that might haue followed of the pretēsed Mariage of M. Keies the late Sergeante Porter I referre to the graue consideratiōs and iudgementes of the honorable and worshipful of this Realme Some peraduenture wil say that King Henry the eight meant by his Wil to dispose the Croune vnto the Heires of the body of the said Ladie Francis by the said Duke lawfully begotten and not vnto the heires by any other person to be begottē Which meaning although it might very hardly be gathered vpon the said supposed Wil yet can not the same be without as great inconueniences as the other For if the Croune should nowe remaine vnto the heires of the bodie of the said Ladie Francis by the said Duke begotten then should it remaine vnto two daughters ioyntly they both being termed and certainly accompted in law but one heire And by that meanes the state and gouernment of this Realme should be changed from the auncient Monarchie into the gouernement of many For the Title of the Ladie Francis being by way of remainder whiche is compted in law a ioynt purchase doth make all the issue female inheritable a like and cannot go according to the ancient law of a descēt to the Croune which is that the Croune by descent must go to the eldest daughter only as is aforesaid For great differēces be in law where one cometh to any Title by descent and where as a purchaser And also if th' one of those issues female dye then were her heire in the Title as a seueral tenant in tayle And so there should follow that so many daughters so many general Gouernors and so might their issue being heirs females make the gouernmēt grow infinite Which thing was most farre from the meaning of the makers of that Acte of Parlamēt What if the said King had by his last Wil disposed this realme into two or three parts diuiding the gouernement thereof to three persons to rule as seueral Kinges as for example Wales vnto one the Northe partes vnto an other the South partes vnto the third and by that meanes had miserably rent this Realme into partes Had this ben according to the entent and meaning of the said Acte of Parlament Or had it bene a good and sufficient limitation in law No verily I thinke no man of any reasonable vnderstanding wil so say And no more can he either say or thinke of the remainder limited vnto heires of the body of the said Lady Francis by the said supposed Wil. Now to cōplete and finish this our Treatise touching the Queene of Scotlāds Title to the fuccession of the Croune as we haue done so let vs freely and liberally graunt the Aduersaries that whiche is not true that is that the said supposed Wil was signed with the Kings owne hand Let the heires of the Lady Francis come forth in Gods name and lay forth to the world their demaūd and supposed right against the said Q. of Scotlandes interest The Quene on th' other side to fortifie and strēgthen her claime laieth forth to the open sight of al the worlde her ●ust title and interest signed and alwaies afore this time allowed not onely as with the Seales but with the othes also of al the Kings that euer wer in Englād takē at the time of their Coronation for the cōtinuance of the lawes of this noble Realme of England signed and allowed I say almost of al the world by sides yea signed with God and natures owne fingers Her right is as open and as clere as the bright Sonne Now to darken and shadow this glorious light what doe the heires of the said Ladie Francis or others bring forth to groūd their iust claime and demaūd vpō When al is done they are faine to rūne and catche holde vpon King Henry the eightes written Wil signed with his owne hande Wel let them take as good handfast thereon as they can but yet lette them shewe the said Queene the said original Wil. It is wel knowen that they themselues haue said that that to doe they can not Yet let them at least lay forth some authētical Record of the same It is also notorious that they can not If then the foundation of their claime being the Wil of such a Prince and of so late and fresh memorie made neither the original nor yet any good and worthy Recorde sufficiently authorised remaine of the same by what colour wil they exclude the saide Queene They must claime either by proximitie of blood or by Charter For the first nature hath excluded them Charter they haue none to shew They wil perchance crie out and complain of the losse and imbeaseling of the same and say that such a casualtie should not destroye and extinguish their right This were some thing perchance if it were in a priuate mās case It were somewhat if their demaūd did not destroy the cōmon law and the law of nature also It were somewhat if their supposed Charter were perished or by any frau dulēt meanes intercepted by the said Quene Vpon whom in this point it is not possible to fasten any the very least sinister suspiciō It were somewhat if they did not aspire to take gaine and lucre or if the Queene sought not to auoide dāmage For dāmage it is when any person is spoiled of any right due to him by law and reason And there is
he maketh as it it were a plaine demurre with vs in law that we haue pleaded our matters al this while in a wrong Court. For lo this matter by this sobre mans iudgement seemeth not triable either in the Arches or Consistorie of Poules by the Ciuil or Cannōlaw or in Westminster Hal by any law or Acte of Parlamēt This plee must be only mainteined with the recordes of holy Scripture but of his owne sobre braines interpretatiō only and holdē before himself and his new erected tribunal furnished and adorned with such quiet and sobre spirits as hiself is Th'infallible verity the high M ie of the sacred scriptures I do most hartly cōfesse and most humbly reuerence But yet if ye wil intrude your selfe and others with the promulging from your new Tribunal seate such and so strange paradoxes and sentences to the vtter ouerthrowing of al humaine policies and lawes yea to the present and and īminent danger not only of this of Scotland but also of al other whatsoeuer Queenes we must be bold to see what warrant and commission you haue and to examine and well to vew the same we must buckle with you and trie whether the autoritie of holy Scripture whiche is your only refuge wil vpholde and beare out your strange and stout conclusion The place then wherevpon he groūdeth him selfe is this Thow shalt make him King ouer thee whome thy Lorde thy God shal choose from amongst thy brethern him shalt thou make a King amongst them From this authoritie he fetcheth out al his high mystical and supernatural conclusions And first he excludeth the Queene of Scotland bycause she is an alien and not ex fratribus and therefore not chosen of god Wherevnto he addeth that the King must be suche as the people may say to him as the Israelites said to King Dauid Ecce ●s tuum caro tua nos sumus We are of one nation and blood Therevnto he adioyneth that it is assigned as one iuste cause why Athalia was turned out of her kingdome bycause she was alienigena an alien maternum genus ducens à Tyriis Sidoni●● These now are all the proufes deducted by this man out of holy Scripture For other hath he none why the Queene of Scotland being a stranger ought to be disherited and reiected from al such claime as she pretendeth to the Croune of England Now for answere and first to the 17. of Deuteronomie wherein as I wil not quarel with you for the shrewde meaning that perchaunce some man may probablie gather out of this Treatise and smal liking that ye haue to the Gouernment proceeding from succession onely so I plainly affirme first that we are not bound to the Ceremoniall or Iudicial or other preceptes of the Iewish law except the Decaloge farther then the Churche or Ciuil policie haue renued againe I say then farther that this authoritie of Deutronomie can not fitly serue your purpose for that it taketh place when the people chooseth a King and not when there is a lawful and ordinary Succession as was euen amongest the Iewes from King Dauides time Albe it he and King Saul before him came in by Gods and the peoples special election Wherefore I doe admit your Principle to be wel groūded vpon Scripture That the choise and election of Princes must be directed and measured by Gods Holy Worde wil and pleasure What then I would fame know by what Logike by what reason a mā may thus conclude we ought to choose no straunger to our Prince ergo a straunger though he be the iust and next inheritour to the Croune must be displaced The one d●pendeth of our owne free wil and election which we may measure and rule as we see good cause the other hangeth only vpō the disposition and prouidence of God. There we may pick out choice here we must take such as God sendeth There consent beareth the stroke here proximitie of blood beareth the sway There we offre no iniurie to any partie in accepting the one and leauing th' other here do we iniurie to god that doth send and to the partie that is by him sent And to say the trueth it is but a malaperte controlment of Gods owne direction and prouidence For in the former parte we be the choosers and must direct and gouerne our choise by reason and discretion by the merit and worthines of the person here al the choice al the voices are in Gods hād only As good right hath the infant in the swadling clothes as hath any man called at his perfect age and wisdom It is a true saying Christiani fimus we are made Christiā men● we are not borne Christiā men nō nascimur But in this case of successiō Reges nascūtur nō fium men are borne and not made kings Let this fellow therfore cōclude as strōgly as he cā or wil against the chosing of straūgers yet if he bring forth no place out of Scripture against the Successiō of a stranger claiming by proximitie of the blood Roial as farre as the man shoteth he shoteth to short to hit the marke But Lord what an ●lfauored short shote wil it be accōpted if she be found no straūger at al It is very probable that in this place the scripture meaneth of a mere foreiner and straunger such as were neither borne in Iewrie nor of the Iewishe blood For with suche Aliens they were forbidden also to couple in mariage by reason they were Idolatours and might thereby them selues be occasioned as they were oftentimes in deede to abandone and forsake their true and sincere Religion Such a stranger I am wel assured this Ladie is not to vs if she be any straunger at al. The Scottesmen and we be al Christians and of one Iland of one tonge and almost of one fashion and manners customes and lawes So that we can not in any wise accompt them amongest such kinde of straungers that this place of Moyses mentioneth namely the Ladie Marie the Quene of Scotland being not only in hart wel affectioned and minded to al Englishmen as hath by many experiments ben wel knowē but also by descent and Roial blood all English whiche she taketh from the noble Kinges longe before the Conquest and after the Conquest from the worthie Princes Henry the first and Edward the third and of late daies from the excellent Prince King Henry the seuenth and his daughter Ladie Margaret her grandmother Al which causes with some other in such number concurrant ought rather to inforce vs to thinke and to take her as no straunger to vs rather then to estraunge her from vs by the only place of her Natiuitie which is yet neuerthelesse within the fower seas and very nigh to England by Osbred bounding at Starling bridge Last of al touching the forsaid Chapter of Deuteronomie we affirme that it is vntrue that ye say aswel that this lawe of Gouernment bindeth our Kinges to the
burge who therby inioyed the Countie P●latine The like may be said of diuers oth● partes of the Germanical Empire yea a w● mā hath ruled and gouerned the said who Empire as it is euident in Agnes the wi● of the Emperour Henry the third duri● the time of the minoritie of her sonne H●rie the fourth And yet the same Empire ye wote wel passeth by choise and election and not by lineal succession of bloode ye● many hundereth yeares ere she was borne and in the florishing time of the olde Ro●maine Empire Mesa Varia grandmother to the Emperour Heliogabalus and Alexander Seuerus sate with the Senate at Rome heard and examined the weighty causes o● the Empire and set her hand also to suche thīgs as passed touchīg the publike affaires I do now adioyne the kingdom of Sicile and Naples in Italie of the whiche Italie Noah whom the prophane Writers cal Ianus made Crana his daughter ruler and Quene wher also Lauinia reigned after the death of Aeneas And as for Naples this presidēt of womanly Gouernment is not there only of later yeares in both the Queenes called Iohanne but euen from very auncient time which thing the stories do recorde in Amalasintha that gouerned after the death of her father King Theodoricus with her sonne Athalaricus The said Amalasintha was mother to Almaricus King of Spaine and after his death ruled her self the said Realme Let vs nowe adde farther the Dukedoms of Loraine and Mantua the kingdome of Swetia and Dania and of Noruegia whereof Margaret the daughter of Waldemarus was gouernesse and Quene the kingdom of Beame and of Hūgarie And to draw nere home the Realm also of Scotlād which realm hath denomination of a woman as their stories report as hath likewise Flaunders The like some of our stories report of Englād wherin I wil make no fast footing Now touching the feminine Success● to the right of the Croune of England it● no new found Succession and much le● vnnatural We reade in our Chronicles Queene Cordel the thirde heire and daug●ter of King Leyre the tēth King of Eritan● that restored her father to the kingdom● being deposed by her two other sisters W● reade that about three hundered fifty an● fiue yeares before the Natiuitie of Christ● Martia Proba during the nonage of he● sonne did gouerne this Realme ful politik●ly and wisely and established certaine lawe● called Leges Martianae There be aswel of our owne as of exterternal historiographers that for a most certeinty affirme that Helena the noble Constantine his mother was a Britaine and the only daughter and heire of Coelus King of Britanie and that the said Constantine was borne in Britanie Surely that his father Cōstantinus died in Britanie at Yorke and that the said Constantinus began his noble Victorious race of his most worthy Empire in Britany it is reported by auncient Writers and of great faith and credit And that likewise long before the said Helens time women bare the greatest sway both in warre ●nd peace and that the Britaine 's had womē or their Capteines in warfare Amōg other Cornelius Tacitus writeth thus His at●e allis inuicem instructi Voadica generis regij ●mina Duce neque enim sexum in Impertis ●scernunt sumpsêre vniuersi bellum We haue now already shewed of Henry he seconde who obteined the Croune by ●he mothers right Which said King by the Title of his wife and after him his Succes●ours Kings of England did inioy the Duke●omes of Aquitania and the Dukedome of Poiters as the said Kings Successour should ●aue done also as we haue shewed before the Dukedome of Britanie if Arthur King Richardes Neuew had not by the vsurping of King Iohn and his vnnatural crueltie died without issue And by what other right then by the womans inheritance dew to King Edward the third by his mother the Frenche Kings daughter doe the Kinges of this Realme beare the Armes and Title of the Kings of Frāce And though the Frēch men thinke their parte the better against vs it is not but vpō an old politike law of their owne as they say and not vpon any suche fonde ground as ye pretende that women Regiment is vnnatural Which Regimēt ye stoutly affirme to b● farre a sunder from any natural Regimēt ye● truely as farre as was the boies head frō the shoulders the last Bartholmew Faire at Lōdon which many a poore foole did beleeue to be true For as the boies head remained stil vpon his necke and shoulders though i● seemed by a light liuely legerdemaine to be a great way from the bodie so would you now cast a mist before our eies and make vs beleue that womans gouernmēt and nature be so diuided and sundred that they may i● no wise be lincked and coupled together But surely the French nation was neuer so vnwise to thinke this kind of Gouermēt repugnant to Nature or to Gods holy Word For then they would neuer haue suffered their Realme to haue ben so often gouerned and ruled by women in the time of the nonage or absence of their Kings As by Adela the mother of King Philip and by Blanche the mother of S. Lewis and by the wife of the late King Frauncis taken prisoner at Paura and by diuers others Neither should the said Adela and Blanche haue ben so cōmended of their said noble and worthy rule and ●uernmēt The said Frenchmē though by ●oli●ie they haue prouided to exclude fo●iners from the inheritance of the Croune 〈◊〉 they themselues holde at this day by ●e womās title and interest the Dukedom ●f Britanie with diuers other goodly pos●ssions And we haue shewed before how ●ewis the Dolphin of France made a Title 〈◊〉 the Croune of this Realme in the right ●f his wife Thus I haue as I suppose sufficiently proued that this kinde of Regimēt 〈◊〉 not against Nature by the auncient and ●ontinual practise of Asia Aphrica and Eu●●pa For the perfecting of the whiche laste ●●rte of Europa and of the whole three ●artes I ende with the notable Poet Virgils verses Filius huic fato Diuûm prolesque virilis Nulla fuit primaque oriens erepta iuuenta est Sola domum tantas seruabat filia sedes We knit vp therfore our conclusion against you after this sort That law and vsage cānot be compted against the law of nature or ius Gētiū which the most part of al coūtries and one great or notable part of the whol world doth and hath vsed but this lawe or vsage is such Ergo it is not against the law of Nature The Maior nedeth no proufe and fo● the proufe of the Minor we neede to imploy no farder labour then we haue already done Whervpon the consequēt must nede● be inferred that this law or vsage doth we● agree and stand with the law of nature The reason thereof is that it
ciuil gouermēt more or lesse be annexed and vnited to this inheritāce as it is not only in Empires and Kingdomes but in many Dukedōs Earldoms yea and Lordships also whether she shal be excluded from the said her inheritance If ye say yea then you say against Scripture If you say that the inheritance must remaine in her and the ciuil gouernment to others then say you against al reason against the vse manner and custom of the whole world it is but your own fond folish glosse Whervpō I do inferre that womanly gouernment is admitted not only by these exāples but euen by the very wordes rules and decrees of holy Scripture And so I trust you are or haue cause to be fully satisfied aswel touching your allegatiō that womāly Regimēt is against nature as also touchīg a brother to be chosen king And therfore I cōclude against you that neither the law of God nor of Nature nor yet reason vpon the which also you ground yourself doe reiect the said Queene Marie from the succession of the Croune of England You reason that where the people erect themself an Head of their owne kinde and Nation there nature assureth the people of natural gouernment and where a stranger carieth opinion of vnnatural tyranny it assureth the ruler of vnnatural subiection To a straunger is murmurre and rebellion threatned But now if this excellent Ladie and Princesse be no straunger and be of our owne kinred and of the auncient and late Roial bloud of this Realme as we haue declared then is your reason also withal auoided which may and doth oftētimes take place in more straungers cōming in by violent and forceable meanes But here as natural a man as you make your self ye seeme to goe altogether against reason and against nature also If Princes Children were to be counted strāgers and Aliens or to be suspected as enemies and Tyrantes succeding to their owne Progenitours inheritance it was an vnnatural parte and a great folie in the noble Kinges of this and of many other Realmes to geue out their daughters to foreine Princes in mariage And in steade of preferring and aduancing them by their mariage and procuring thereby frindship and amitie with other Princes to disable their said children from ther Auncestours inheritāces in those Coūtries from whence they originally proceded And as it seemeth by your kind of reasoning to purchase and procure byside to them thereby an opinion of enmitie and tyrannie This this I say is a frowarde and an vnnatural interpretation Nature moueth and driueth vs to think otherwise and that both a Prince wil fauour loue and cherishe the people from whence he fetcheth his roial blood and by whō he must now mainteine keepe and defende his roial estate and that the people likewise wil beare singuler loue and affection to such a one specially of such knowē Princely qualities as this noble Ladie is adorned withal Surely it is no more vnnatural to such a Prince descending from the anncient and late roial blood of the Kinges of England to beare rule in Englād and as it were to returne to the head and foūtaine from whence originally she sprāg then it is for al fluddes and riuers which as Homer saith flow out of the great Oceā sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reuert returne and reflow againe to the said Ocean This coherence coniunction copulatiō inclinatiō and fauour running interchangeably betwixt such a Prīce and the people is no more strāge to nature then is the cōiunction of the tree and the rote thereof then of the fountaine and the Riuer issewing frō thence then of the sonne and of the sonne beames and finally then is the coniunction betwixt the old auncient liuing grandmother and her yong and tendre daughter Neither do I wel know how I may better cal noble England then a liuing grandmother to this good gētle Ladie whō we I doe not doubt if euer God cal her to the Roial state therof shal not only find a louing and gratious Maistresse but a most deare and tendre good doughter For these and other cōsideratiōs the lawes of the Realm do not nor euer did estrāge such Princes from the successiō of the Croun of this realm which by reason of the said mutual inclination and beneuolēce of th' one to the other standeth with the law of God and nature and with al good reason And therfore your cōclusion is against Gods law Nature and al good reason Wherby you ful vngodly vnnaturally and vnreasonably do cōclude an exclusion of the Q. of Scotlād pretending her to be a strāger to that right that God Nature and reason and the true harts of al good natural English men do cal her vnto The which her said iust right title and interest we trust we haue now fully proued and iustified and sufficiētly repulsed the sundry obiectiōs of the aduersaries And as this being the principal ought to breede no doubt or scruple in any mā so many other folish fond and fantastical obiections not worthy of any answere that busie quarelīg heads do cast forth to disable her right or to disgrace her and bleamish either her honour or this happie vniō of both Realmes if God shal so dispose of it ought much lesse to moue any mā An happy vniō I cal it bicause it shal not only take away the long mortal enmitie the deadly hatred the most cruel and sharp warres that haue so many hundred yeares ben continewed betwixt our neighbours the Scotsmen and vs but shal so intierly consociate conioine and so honorably set foorth and aduaūce vs both and the whole Iland of Britanie as neither tonge cā expresse the greatnes of our felicitie and happines nor hart wish any greater The old enmitie hath trodden downe and kept vs both vnder foot and hath giuen occasion to the common enemie as the Danes and other to spoile vs both It hath caused for these thousand yeares and more so infinite and so ougly slaughters as it wil greeue and pitie any mans hart to remembre and yet neither to the great augmentatiō of our possessions at this day nor to their much losse they hauing lost nothing of their olde aunciene inheritance sauing Barwike only If this cōiunctiō once happē and if we be once vnited and knit together in one kingdome and dominion in one entier brotherly loue and amitie as we are already knit by neighbourhoode by tongue and almost by all manners fashions and behauiours then will al vnnatural and butcherly slaughter so lōg hitherto practised ceasse then wil rest quiet wealth and prosperitie increase at home then wil al outward Princes our frindes reioice and be comforted our enemies dread vs Then wil the honour fame and Maiestie of the Ilande of Albion daily growe more and more and her power and strength so greatly encrease as to the frinde wil be a good shield and to the enemie an horrible terrour Then shal the vtwarde enemie litle indāmage vs
the death of the Lorde Darley before the Counsaile of Englād The causes vvhy the Earle Murray vvent about asvvel to make avvay the L. Darley as to depose the Queene The Earle Murray de clared the day before that the L Darley should be slaine Diuers assembles of the Earle Murray ād his adherents to consult vpon the slaughter of the L. Darley Indentures made and subscribed for the execution of the said purpose Diuers excuted in Scotland for the said murther vvhereof none could charge the Queene The Q. in a māner miraculously deliuered out of Lochleuen prison The Commissioners appointed in Englād to heare the Quene of Scotlād her maters vvel liked of her faid innocency and of her title to the succession of the Cioune An exhortation to the Earles Murray ād Murton ād others to reconcile thēselues to the Q. The Q. of Scotlād ful of mercy The ende of Rebels euer vnhappy Other Princes vvil not suffer the Quene of Scotland to be iniuried by her subiectes Man only hath the pierogatiue of vvit and reason among al earthlye creatures Men are most boūd to the preseruation of their Coūtrey A great cōmoditie to the cōmō vvealth to knovv the heire appa rente Why all the vvorld almost doth enbrace succession of Princes rather then election Flores histor anno 1057. Richardus Canonicus sanctae Trinit Lond. Flor. histo anno 1190. Polid li. 14 Polid li. 20 The Quene of Scottes is right heire apparent to the Croune of Englande Inst de iust iure §. fin The common lavve of this Realme is rather grounded vpon a general custom then any lavve vvritten In Prologo suo eiusdem li. fo 1. et 2. De dict Ra nulpho Glāuilla uide Giraldum Cambren in topogra de Wallia Fortescue de lau Leg. Angl. c. 17. ● E. 4.19.33 H. 6.51 Pinsons printe Inst de iure natura gēt ciuil §. ex non script 25. E. 3. The adue● sacies case pettineth to subiects only No Maxime of the lavve bindeth the Croune vnles the Croune specially be named Of the Tenante by the curtesy Nor that the landes shal be diuided among the daughters Not the vvife shall haue the third part 5. E. 3. Tit. praerog 21. E. 3.9 28. H. 6. Nor the rule o● Possessio fratris c. Nor that the executour shall haue the goods and Chattles of the res●atour 7. H. 4. sol 42. Nor that a traitour i vnable to take landes by discente and vvithout pardō An ansvvere to the Aduersary making a difference be tvvene Attainder ād the birth out of the allegeāce 22. H. 6. fol. 43. The suppo sed Maxime of the Aduersaries touching not Kinges borne beyond the sea as appeareth by King Stephen and King H. 2. The Aduersaries obiection touching King H. 2. auoided As touching Arthur King Richardes nephevve Vt autem pax ista summa dilectio tā multiplici quā arctiori uin culo connectatur praedictis curiae uestrae Magnatibus id ex parte u● stra tractātibus Domino disponente cōdiximus inter Arthurum egregiū D● cem Britāniae nepotē nostrum haeredem si forte sine prole obir● nos contig● rit filiā uestrā matrimonium contrahendum c. In tractatu paci● inter Richa 1. Tancredū Regem Si ciliae Vide Reg. Houeden Richardū Canonicum S. Trinitatis Londin A false Maxime set forth by the Aduersarie 7. E. 4. fo 28.9 E. 4. fo 5.11 H. 4 fo 25.14 H. 4. fo 10. the statute of Edvv. 3. An. 25. to ● cheth in●e ritāce not purchase ● H. 4. fo 25. Scotland is vvithin the allegeance of Englād The Lorde loseth not his seignorie though the tenāte doth not his seruice The causes vvhy the Croune cā not be cōprised vvithin the pretended Maxime Without the croune there can neither be King nor allegeance 40. E. 3. fol. 10. 13. E. 3. Tit. Bref 264.16 E. 3. iurans desait 166.17 E. 3. tit scire fac 7. A Deane a Person a Priour being an Alien may demande lande in the right of his corporation An 3. R. 2.6 C. 3. fo 21. tit droit 26. lib. Ass p. 54.12 li. Ass tit enfant 13. H ● fol. 14.7 E. 4. fol. 10.16 E. 3. iurans defait 9. H. 6. fol. 33.35 H. 6. so 35.5 E. 4 fol. 70.49 li. Ass A. 8● 22. H. 6. fo 31.13 H. ● so 14. The King is alvvaies at ful age in respecte of his Croune The Kings children are expresly excepted from the surmised Maxime ● Liberorū ff de uerbo rū signific L. Sed si de in ius uo cādo instit de haere ab intest L. Lucius ff de baered instit L. Iusta L. N●torū L. Liberorum de uerb signif L. 2. § s● mater ad S. C. Tertul L. Filius de S. C. Maced L. Senatus de ritu nug● L quod s● nepotes ff test cū notatis ibid. Infantes in Frenche coūteruaileth this vvorde liberi in lat The grand fathers cal their nephues sonnes L. Gall●● § Instituēs ff de liber E● post l. ff C. de impub. Al●is substan c 1. q. 4 Father and son cōpted in person ād flesh in maner one Great absurditie in excluding the true ād right successour for the place of his birth only An euasion auoided pretēding the priuilege of the Kīgs children not to be in respect of the Croune but of other lādes The royall blood beareth his honour vvith it vvhereso euer it be Vide Anto. Corsetum de potest et excell regi q. 106. Cōquerors glad to ioinevvith the ioyall blood Henry the first L. ● ff de legious Commonvse and p●●ctise the best interpretation of the lavv Eod● anno Rex cū in diebus suis processisset Aeldredā Vigornen sem Episco pum ad Regem Hunga riae trans mittens reuocauit inde filium fratris sui Edmundi Eduardum cū tota fa milia sua ut uel ipse uel filij eius sibi succederēt in regnum Flor. histor 1057. Flor histo ●066 Aelredus Regioual lens de reg Anglorum ad Regem Henr. 2. King Stephen and King H. ● The aduer saries fond imagination that King H. 2. should come to the croune by composition not by proximitie of blood Rex Stepha nus omni haerede ui duatus prae ter solummo do Ducem Henricum recognouit in conuentu Episcoporū aliorum de regno Optimatum quod Dux Hēr ius hae reditariū in regnū Angliae habebat Et Dux benigne concessit ut Rex Stepha nus tota uita sua suū regnū pacifice possideret Ita tamen confirmatum est pactū quod ipse Rex ipsttūe praesentes cum caeteris regni optimatibus iurarēt quod Dux Henr. post mortē Regu si illum superuiueret regnum sine aliqua contradictione obtincret Flor. histo An 1153. The like fond imagination touching King Richardes nephevv Diuersitie of opiniōs touching the vncle ād nephue vvhether of them ought to be preferred in the royall gouernement
The possions of the Croune of Englad that vvere beyondthe seas sealed into the Frenche kings hāds for the murther of Arthur Polid. 15. flor histor An. 120● Levvis the French Kings son claimed the Croune of this Realme in the Title of his vvise Pro hereditate uxoris meae scilicet neptis Regis loā usque ad mortem ●● necessitas exigeret decertabo Flor histo Anno 1216. Haroldus muneribu● genere fretꝰ regni diadema innasit H. Hunte hist Angli lib. 5 Cut regnū iure hereditario debebatur Palredus Rhie ual in histo R. Angliae ad H. 2. Cui de iure debebatur regnum An glorum Io. Lond. in Chron. Angliae Eadem uerba sunt in Math West mon. in flor hist a. 1066 What calamities sell to this Realm by the vsurping of King Harolde King Stephen and Iohn Rex Eduar dus misit c. ut uel ipse Eduar uel filius e ius sibi succederent c. Rich. Cicest uid Wil. Malmest de reg Angl. E. 2. c. 45. lib. 3. c. 5. Polid. 26. king H. 7 vvith his Counsaile is a good interpretor of our present cause The mariages of King E. 3. sonnes A fond imagination of the Aduersarie of the statute of 25. E. 3. There vvas no doubt made of the Kinges children borne beyonde the seas This statute toucheth not the Q. of Scotlād as one not borne beyond the seas Vide statuta Walliae in magna Charta Walesvvas vnder the allegeance of Englād before it vvas vnited to the Croune The statutes of King H. 8. touching the succession of the Croune An ansvves to the fore said statute The effect of the Aduersaries arguments for the exclusion of the Quene of Scotland by a pretensed vvil of King H. 8 An. H. 8.35 An. H. 8.33 21. An ansvvet by the vvay of reioinde● to the same Diuers presumptions and reasons agaīst this supposed vvil The supposed vvil is preiudicial to the Croune of Englande for the claime of the croune of France This supposed vvil geueth occasion of ambitious aspiring Succession to the Croune more vncertē bi the supposed vvil then before Much forgene and counterfeyting of Testamets Valerius Maximus dict et fact lib. 9. c. 4. In this supposed vvil is no condition for the mariage of the heires of the L. Francis as is for the Kinges ovvne daughters No order taken for the probate of the supposed vvil The enrollement in the chance rie is not a probate A great presumption against the supposed vvil for that the late pretensed Q. Iane did not vse the benefit of the same against the Q. of Scotland and others See the proclamation made the x. of Iulie the first yeare of her pretensed reigne Polid. lib. 8. The forgetie of this 〈…〉 〈◊〉 disclose● before the Parlament by the L. Paget A vvorthy deede for à Prince to cancell false Recordes Cicero 3. offic Sueton. de uiris illustrib Bed. lib. 3. histor Ecclesiast c. 1. L. tefliū ff de testibus L. Ob carnem ibid. No iust ●a●se to repel ●he testimonie of the L. Paget and others L. Fam●● ff ad 〈…〉 maies l. muliere ff de accusat Hovv a negatiue may be proued Gloss Doct. c. bo na de elect Hovv and vvhen the later testimonie is to be accepted before the former Why the stampe cānot counteruaile the Kings hand in this case Ioan Andr. in adit spe cul tit de requisit consul ad finem L. Sifundus ff de rebus corum●c de rebus Ecelesiae in 6. An ansvvere to the aduersaries touchinge Actes of Parlament alleaged to proue that the Kinges ovvne hād vvas not necessarie to the supposed vvil 18. E. 3. fol. 30. 3. H. 4. fol. 3. 11. 11. H. 4. fol. 67.9 H. 6. fo 6. 19. H. 6. fo 7. et 10 35. H. 6. fol. 12. 10. H. 6. fol. 26. 3. H. 6. fol. 8. 33. E. 3. fo 13. Vide Prisot 33. H. 6. fol. 39. 9. H. 6. fol. 35.35 H. 6. fol. 34.40 E. 3. fol. 2. 40. E. 3. fol. 35.21 E. 4. fol. 97.7 H. 7. fol. 15. 9. E. 4. fo 2. 22. E. 4. fo 47. 29. H. 6. fol. 6.29 lib. Assis P. 64. 27. H. 8. c. 10. 32. H. 3. c. 1. The supposed vvil cā not preiudice the Q of Scot lād though it had ben signed vvith the Kinges ovvne hād Ther must needes be some qualification and restrait of the general vvordes of the statute Matthae us Paristensis in Iohan. L. 1. ff qu● Testamenta facere The definition of a Testamēt L. fl pater ff Quae in frau credit L. fill famil ff de Donat. L. 1. c quae res pign l. obligatione ff de pigno c in genera de Regum iuris in 6. L. quidā ff de uerb s●g L. ut grada §. 1. de numer honor L. permittēdo cū notatis ff de iure dotiū In geuing general au thoritie that seemeth not to be comprised that the partie vvould not haue graunted being specially demaunded General voordes must be referred to hable persons L. 2. c. de Nopal L. fin § in computatione De iure deliber ibi notat Alciat in l. 1. de uerb significat 11. H. 4. fol. 72. 9. H. 6. fol. 24.11 H. 6. fol. 15. Non est par rati● lucra non capere damna sentire L. sin C. de co dicil L. Proculus ff de damno infect Insti de legat Si res L. qui ●ee● sare C. d● edendo §. commodum lust de indict L. st qui● i● aliquo documento C. de edend● An infamous libel made lately against the Queene of Scot. The Authour of the same seemeth litle to regarde touching the succession of the Croune any lavve but holy Scripture only He groundeh him self chefly vpon the 17. of Deuteron ● Samuel ● 2. Reg. 11. An ansvvere tou chinge the 17. of Deuteron Great difference be tvvixt successiō and clection August de merit remis pecc cont Pela li 3. c 8. 9. to 7 in quaest ex nouo Test ca. 8. to 4. Queene of Scotland no straunger 3. Politico 1. Reg. 8. 2. Reg. 12. An ansvvere to the 2. Samuel 5. Ioseph Iudaic An tiq lib. 9. cap. 6. A nevve fond and madde in terpretation vvho is an Aliē made by the Aduer sarie Ioseph ibi cap. 6. Athalia vvas no Aheamōg the levves Who is an Alien by Vlpian Who is an Alien by Vlpian L. 1. ff ad municip Matth. 12 Iosue 6. Dauid and Christ descend of Obed Ruthes sonne 4. Reg. 11. An ansvvere to the Aduer farre touching the lavve of Nature vvhich he vvresteth against vvomens gouernement L. 1. ff de iust iure l. ueluti l. ex hoc l. omnes cod Est enim nō scripta sed nata lex c. Cicero pro Milone The practise of Womens Regiment in Asia Aphrica and Europa Straebo ge● graph lib. 14. First in Asia Queene Artemesia Queene Ada. Solinus in collect lib. 67. Plinius lib. 6. cap. 20.
then shal we with our children after vs reape the pleasant fruites of this noble cōiunctiō wrought thus to our hādes by Gods good and gratious prouidence without expense force or slaughter which hitherto a numbre of our courageous wise and mightie Princes haue this thousand yeares and vpward sought for but in vaine as yet with so excessiue charges with so great paines and with so many and maine Armies and with the blood of so many of their subiectes Then shal we most fortunately see and most gloriously inioye a perfect and entier Monarchy of this I le of Britanie or Albion vnited and incorporated after a most merueilous sort and in the worthie and excellēt person of a Prince mete and capable of such a monarchie As in whose person by side her worthy noble and princely qualities not only the roial and vnspotted blood of the auncient and noble Kings of Scotlād but of the Normans and of th' English Kings withal as wel long before as sithēce the Cōquest yea and of the Britaine 's also the most auncient inhabitants and Lords of this Iland do wōderfully and as it were euen for such a notable purpose by the great prouidence of God most happily concurre The euident trueth whereof the said Queenes petigrue doth most plainly and openly set foorth to euery mans sight and eye Then I say may this noble Realme and Iland be called not Albion only but rather Olbion that is fortunate happy and blessed Which happy and blessed coniunction when it chaūceth if we vnthankfully refuse we refuse our health and welfare and Gods good blessing vpon vs we refuse our dewty to God who sendeth our dewty to the partie whom he sendeth and our dewty to our natiue Coūtrey to whom he sendeth such a person to be our Maistresse And such commodities and honour withal comming therby as I haue said to whole Albiō as a greater we cannot wishe And finally we shal procure and purchase as much as in vs lieth such disturbance of the common-wealth such vexatiōs troubles and warres as may tende to the vtter subuersion of this Realme from which dangers God of his great and vnspeakable mercie defend and pre serue vs. FINIS Hos tres libros à viris Catholicis ijsque eruditissimis lectos examinatos intellecto ab ijsdem librorum argumento vnà cum editionis necessarijs causis iudicaui meritò edendos esse Actum Louanij 6. Martij 1571. Thomas Gozaeus à Bellomonte sacrae Theologiae Professor authoritate Pontificis librorum approbator Errata Libri secundi Fol. Pa. Lin. Errata Correction 4 2 16 Ad And 10 1 18 vvorlde vvorde 11 2 14 good goodes 28 2 17 Bblach Blanch. 32 1 3 in Chauncerie In the Chauncerie 53 2 16 landes and testamentes lādes and tenemētes 58 2 24 laufully neece laufull neece 64 2 5 unto heires unto the heires 66 2 27 be produced be procured 67 1 17 put out vvrongfully Errata Libri tertij 9 1 2 Salomon Salmon 9 1 5 fasly safely 15 2 22 father Constantinus father Constantius Mē should be rather prone to absolue then to cōdemne It is nothing like that the Queene vvould haue sought the destruction of the Lord Darley by these meanes vvhen she might haue opēly put him to death by Iustice The Q. contrary to minde of her Nobles came into England The Q. enemies lay to her discord vvith the Lorde Darley vvhereof they vvere the authours The Q. vvas fully reconciled to the L. Darley before his death The adueriaties charge the Q vvith their ovvne vvicked deuises The Q. moued by them to make a diuorse vvith the L. Darley The accusation touching letters lent by her to the Earle Bothevvel The vnlikely tale of the Earle Both vvelles letters surmised to be sent to Master Balfoure In case the su●mised letters vvere sent by the Q they can make no good prouf against her L. sin e d● Probat What exquisite proufes be re quired in criminal causes The surmi sed letters neither haue superscriptiō of the vvriter nor subscription neitherany date neither signed nor sealed and the beater neuer knovvē He that vvas the surmised bearer at his death denied the same An easy thing to coūterfeit a mans hande These letters vvere fained and contriued by the Queenes Aduersaries An ansvver to the Aduersaries obiectiōs that the Queene did not mourne the death of the L. Darley L. Liberor ff de his qui notantur inf The consideration mouing ▪ or rather forcing the Quene to this pretensed m● riage The Aduersaries declaratiō before the Commissioners of England The causes that the Rebelles pretended at the beginning Ansvvere to the first The Lord Grange promised vpō his knees obedience in al the Rebelles names The Q. imprisoned at Lochleuē The Q. thretned to be ●id avvay if she vvould not renoūce her Croune The ansvvere to the secōd The Quenes ene mies dimissed the Earle Both vvel vvhē thei might haue takē him The Quenes enemies boūd by their haud vvriting to obey the E●le Bothvvel if he matied the Q. An ansvvere to the third The Prīce if he vvere at age vvold not like the en●mies doinges against his mother He vvas vnlavvfully crouned Why the confirmation of the Rebelles doinges made by an acte of Parlament is nothing vvorth The incōstancy of the Queenes enemies first pretēding before the Counsaile of Englād her voluntary dimission of the Croune and after vvard that she vvas deposed A strange doctrine of Maister knoxe against vvo mans Gouernment The Quenes enemies fondly triumph of their victory against her true subiectes In case the Queene vvere culpable yet are her enemies procedigs vnlavvful It is not inough to do a good thing vnlesse it be vvel done The lavv geueth exceptions to the Defendant against the Iudges the Accusers and vvitnesses C. Qui accusat non po L. Iniquum l. fin L. qui accusat ff de accusa A good argument that the Queene by cōpulsion dimissed the Croune The Duke Robert of Scotland Exceptiōs most iust against the Queenes accusers 〈…〉 ly against the Earle of Murray The great benefits emploied by the Q. vpon the said Earle He vvent about to entaile the Croune of the Realm to him self and the Stevvardes His tebell●● against the Q●ene His cōspiracy vvith them that slevve the Secretatie Dauid A charged pistilet set to the Queenes belly The Q. by her industrie cōueied her selfe avvay vvith the L. Darley The cause vvhy the Earle Murray hated the Lorde Darley The cause vvhy the Enemies did impute the slaughter to the Q. The vvorking of Murray in the time of his absence Murray and Mortō the heades of the cōspiracy against the L. Darley 2. Machab. 3. 4. Hect Boet. Lib. 11. The Earle of Murray resembled to Dunvvaldus that procured the slaughter of King Duffus in Scotland Idem li. 16. The like pa●te plaid by Duke Robert in Scotland The Earle Murray ād his felovves being driuen frō al other shiftes at lēgth laied to their Quene