Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	king_n	kingdom_n	14,965	5	6.1241	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80453	A Copy of a letter concerning the election of a Lord Protector. Written to a member of Parliament.		1654 (1654)	Wing C6113; Thomason E818_20; ESTC R207400	26,756	39

a Kingdom that have engaged nor do think it farther necessary to erect an Heralds Office to register all that first ventured and acted in that Cause with their several discents and pedigrees then do they proceed partially according to their own rule making an unequal choice amongst those that have equally engaged Because equality of honor and preferment being due to that first equality of desert and engagement in the Father only how can it be forfeited by any accidentall inferiority or impediment in the Son hapning since Will they wave this supposition of equall engagement and claim due unto all Families and confine both the Electors and Elected unto some rank or order of men and so by an exact pair of Sizers cut a Nation into two equalities one that shall be equally and altogether uncapable of having voice or share in the Government and the other of being constantly and equally capable of both as in all elective Monarchies is practised then by the same rule of justice that they observe a distance and exclude those below from having an equality with them in some places of command or profit he that is uppermost of all may as I said exclude them again in that which is highest For it may well be presumed that he is as much above them of the highest rank of equality as they again are above those that are below If we look to the examples of Germany and Poland the two onely places where there is a soveraign Magistrate elected with any competent power we shall find that Germany hath scarcely made any choice but out of their four great Families of Franconia Swevia Bavaria and Austria still making choice of one of those Dukes for Emperor which they did not neither till there was a failer in the family of Charls the Great which was above them all And as for Poland their Stories tell us That they have had Forty persons successively Raigning of one and the same Family the like whereunto cannot be said of any hereditary Monarchy that I know of And Sir if you would be satisfied with presidents as well as Reason for this hereditary succession amongst our selves you shall finde it adjusted even from the Founders and Originals of our English Nation For did not those Armies of the Saxons that had holpen the people of this Land against their Enemies think it afterwards reasonable that since themselves had shared in most of the great places of Trust and Command and that also in the same way of approbation and hereditary right they found them possest by others before so also to settle their Generals and their Heires in that place and degree of power which was highest of all and this they did although in their own Nation that Office did then pass by Election And it will be also found that both Dane and Norman coming with their Armies afterwards did upon their success settle themselves and their Chieftains in like manner If we look abroad we shall finde Sir that as these Saxons did in England so the Francks another people of Germany did also settle their Leaders in the Kingdom of France and although they had called themselves Francks as impatient of the subjection of any other yet did they most willingly submit to the Head of their own party And mark those severall lines of Kings that have therein swayed and you will finde that the severall Families of Meroveus Charles the Great and of Capet were such as by their own policy and prowess and by the help of a powerfull party had bin advanced from the degree of Subjects to become absolute Kings upon the expulsion of those that were their former Masters and had the Title Nay look to Italy Spain France Germany Poland Hungary and all the world over and you shall still finde that in all those State-alterations that have been made by a prevailing party either domestick or foraign the Head and Leader of that party hath still had the Diademe or chief place of Authority setled on him and his Family Neither Goths Vandals Lombards Huns or any people whatever but acted accordingly and however they were Nations most fond of the name of Liberty as it is observed that all Northern people are and might also be otherwise governed at home yet in this case they still held it equitable that since themselves had every one by the conduct of their Chieftain bettered his Fortunes in possession of the Inheritances of persons of inferior Ranks so proportionally should their Generall be fetled in that which was highest And as the examples of Republicks or of elective Monarchies have been few and also inconsiderable either for eminence or durance in comparison of Monarchies and those hereditary which in most places hath always so continued without alteration whereas no one place that hath been Republick or Elective but what hath been longer and more eminent otherways so is it farther observable That when Greeks Romans Germans Poles or any other have erected Commonwealths or made their Princes elective it hath never been done after a Civill contest and where one party hath gotten the better of the other by way of conquest but was still done in peace and by an unanimous consent of the whole Nation and when there was no alteration of private mens Fortunes and conditions and where also there was a failer in the Line of their last conquering Prince at which time it is not to be supposed that the Nobles or Senators would in their parity one to another be content to submit to the constant Regiment of any third person and family amongst themselves For so in Greece they set up their Commonwealths when the Heraclidae that race of Kings amongst them that descended from their famous Warrior and defender Hercules became extinct And so they did in Germany and Poland upon failer of the Lines of Charlemain and Lechus Or else as in Rome where the whole people did joyn in that discontent and in seclusion of their Kings and had no precedent Civill war thereabouts or about the exercise of the Civill power For had it so been that side that had under a Cesar been victorious and thereupon seated themselves and families in the honors and possessions of the adverse party would certainly in honor and gratitude have made him and his issue Imperatores in the Civill State who had all that while been Imperatores in the Field And if we look to our Neighbors of the Low-Countries a People that our Nation hath no reason to reckon as gratefull to their Protectors yet we shall finde that they having in their Union against their King the King of Spain been victorious through the conduct and assistance of the Prince of Orange have thereupon confirmed unto the same Family the chief Office of Honor and Command heretofore executed among them Under which as they have hitherto thriven so is it highly probable that the seclusion thereof may prove the seclusion of all farther peace and happiness from that