his Heirs and if he should die without Issue Vt reciperent Comitem Johannem fratrem Richardi Regis in Regem Dominum That they would receive Earl John the Brother of King Richard for their King and Lord and swore Fealty to him against all Men saving their Fealty to his Brother King Richard Two Years afterward confederating with the King of France against his Brother and being assisted by him he returned into England and brought many Strangers with him and coming to London demanded the Kingdom of the Arch-Bishop of Roven who was then Justiciary and the other Justiciaries of England Fidelitates Hominum Angliae affirming the King of England his Brother was dead But not believing him they and the other great Men of the Kingdom rejected him Then swelling with Fury he fortified his Castles and places of Strength and seized the Crown-Lands Many came in unto him but being deceived they were punished according to their deserts And for these and other Treasons committed the Year following as combining with the King of France and offering great Sums of Money to the Emperor to keep King Richard in Prison and making new Disturbances in the Nation Per Commune Consilium Regni Definitum est quod Comes Johannes dissaifiretur de omnibus Tenementis suis in Anglia By the Common Council of the Kingdom it was decreed he should be disseized of all he held of the King in England And presently all his Castles were besieged and taken from him Yet for all this the next Year King Richard pardoned his Brother John and restored to him the Earldom of Moreton or Mortaigne the Honour of Eye and Earldom of Glocester except the Castles and for his other Earldoms and Lands allowed him Yearly eight thousand Pounds of Anjou-Money And in the last Year of his Reign Cum Rex de vita desperaret divisit Johanni fratri suo Regnum Angliae omnes alias terras suas fecit fieri praedicto Johanni fidelitates ab illis qui aderant praecepit ut traderentur ei Castella sua tres partes Thesauris sui When the King despaired of Life he devised to his Brother John the Kingdom of England and all other his Lands and made all present swear Fealty to him and commanded that his Castles and three parts of his Treasure should be delivered to him Richard being dead John stayed in Normandy where by Walter Arch-Bishop of Roven he was girt with the Sword of that Dutchy April 25. on St. Mark 's Day and sent Hubert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Pope's Legat and William Marshal Earl of Strigvil into England to keep the Peace together with Jeffrey Fitz-Peter Justitiary of England and other Barons of the Kingdom Qui fecerunt homines regni tam de Civitatibus quem de Burgis Comites Barones libere tenentes jurare fidelitatem pacem Johanni Normannorum Duci filii Henrici Regis filii Matildis Imperatricis contra omnes homines Who made the Homagers of England as well of Cities as Burroughs and Earls Barons and free Tenants to swear Fealty and Peace to John Duke of Normandy the Son of King Henry the Son of Maud the Empress against all Men. Notwithstanding this all the Bishops Earls and Barons which had Castles Manned Victualled and stored them with Arms. But Hubert the Arch-Bishops William Marshal and Jeffrey Fitz-Peter Justiciary of England met at Northampton and called before them those which they most doubted David Brother to the King of Scots Richard Earl of Clare Ranulph Earl of Chester William Earl of Tutesbury and Walran Earl of Warwick Roger Constable of Chester William de Mowbray and many other Earls and Barons to whom they promised and engaged that John Duke of Normandy should restore to every Man his Right if they would keep Faith and Peace with him Súb hac igitur Conventione supradicti Comites c. According to this Agreement the said Earls and Barons swore Fealty and faithful Service to John Duke of Normandy against all Men. This was done while he was in Normandy On the 25th of May following Duke John crossed the Seas from Normandy into England and the next day came to London and there were convened in Expectation of him Hubert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury John Arch-Bishop of Dublin William Bishop of London Gilbert of Rochester John of Norwich Hugh of Lincoln Eustace of Ely Godfrid of Winchester Henry of Exeter Sefrid of Chichester Jeffrey of Coventry Savaric of Bath Herbert of Salisbury Philip of Durham Roger of St. Andrews in Scotland Henry of Landaff Bishops Robert Earl of Leicester Richard Earl of Glare William of Tutesbury Hamelin de Warenn William of Salisbury William de Strigvil Walran of Warwick Roger Bigot William de Arundell Ranulph de Cestre Earls and many Barons And then Hubert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Consecrated and Crowned the said John Duke of Normandy King of England in the Church of St. Peter at Westminster on the 27th of May being Ascension Day Not one word here of any Election by but only a Submission from the Barons Spiritual and Temporal to King John and a Recognition that he was their King And all this related by Hoveden in all probability an Eye-witness of this Translation Indeed Matthew Paris who died Anno Dom. 1259. was then either unborn or so young as not with Judgment to take sufficient notice of this Affair relates it thus Congregatis in adventu ejus Archiepiscopis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus atque aliis omnibus qui ejus Coronationi interesse debuerant Archiepiscopus stans in medio omnium dixit audite universi noverit discretio vestra quod nullus proevia ratione alii succedere habet Regnum nisi ab universitate Regni unanimiter invocata Spiritus Gratia electus secundum morum suorum eminentiam praeelectus ad exemplum fimilitudinis Saul primi Regis inuncti quem praeposuit Dominus populo suo non Regis filium nec de Regali stirpe procreatum similiter post eum David Jesse silium Hunc quia strenuum aptum Dignitati Regiae illum quia sanctum humilem ut sic qui cunctos in regno supereminet strenuitate omnibus praefit potestate regimine verum si quis ex stirpe Regis defuncti aliis prepolleret pronius promptius in electionem ejus est consentiendum Haec idcirco diximus pro inclyto Comite Johanne qui praesens est frater illustrissimi nameri Richardi jam defuncti qui haerede caruit ab eo egrediente qui providus strenuus manifeste nobilis quem nos invocata Spiritus Sancti Gratia ratione tam meritorum quom Sanguinis Regii unanimiter elegimus universi nec ausi erant alii super his adhuc ambigere scientes quod Archiepiscopus sine causa hoc non sic diffiniverat verum Comes Johannes omnes hoc
be true he was Testamentary Heir and had a Testamentary Right and in that Right he was made King But be this story true or false his Advancement to the Throne was as followeth Notwithstanding all the Nobility and amongst them King Stephen himself had sworn Fealty to Maud the Empress yet by the Interest of his Brother Henry Bishop of Winchester and the Pope's Legat without which he could have done nothing he was made King he brought off Roger Bishop of Salisbury a great and powerful Prelate also William de Pout-Arch Keeper of King Henry's Treasure which was 100000 l. in Money And by his own Dexterity the Artifice of his Brother and Roger Bishop of Salisbury and the advantage of this Money he inclined the minds of the Noble Men much towards him and to secure himself raised an Army mostly of Flemings and Britains At his Coronation were only three Bishops the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Winchester and Salisbury no Abbots and few Noble-men I think this looks not like an Election yet he in his Charter of Liberties which he chiefly granted to the Church says he was elected by the Assent of the Clergy and Laity and confirmed by the Pope Afterwards Stephen using the Bishops roughly lost his Brother Henry's favour who by his Legantine Power called a Council of the Clergy at Winchester to consult of the Peace of the Kingdom Where they conclude that the Right of chusing and ordaining Kings chiefly belonged to them And therefore having first called upon God they chose Maud the Empress Queen Ad Cleri ius potissimum spectat principem eligere ordinare invocata itaque in auxilium Divinitate filiam Regis in Angliae Normanni aeque Dominam eligimus c. But not long after being displeased with Maud he entred into a Confederacy against her and as Legat called another Council at Westminister in which was read the Pope's Bull in favour of Stephen who was then advanced to the Throne again And the Kingdom being wasted and destroyed with continual Wars the Arch-Bishop this Legat and the Bishops mediate a Peace between Stephen and Henry Duke of Anjou Son to the Empress by which it was agreed that Stephen should adopt Henry his Son who after his death should enjoy the Crown and Stephen quietly to wear it during his Life c. Which Agreement is most fully and clearly related by Matthew of Westminister Rex Stephanus omni horede viduatus praeter solummodo Ducem Henricum recognovit in Conventu Episcoporum aliorum de Regno optimatum quod Dux Henricus jus haereditarium in Regnum Angliae habebat Dux benigne concessit ut Rex Stephanus tota vita sua suum Regnum pacifice possideret Ita tamen confirmatum est quod ipse Rex Episcopi tunc praesentes cum caeteris Regni optimatibus jurarent quod Dux Henricus post mortem Regis si illum superviverct Regnum sine aliqua contradictione obtineret that is King Stephen not having an Heir except only Duke Henry did acknowledge in an Assembly of the Bishops and other Chief Men of the Kingdom That Duke Henry had the Hereditary Right to the Kingdom of England and the Duke kindly granted that King Stephen should during his life peaceably enjoy his Kingdom The Agreement was so confirmed that the King himself and the Bishops then present with the rest of the best Men of the Kingdom sware that Duke Henry after the death of the King if he should out-live him should enjoy the Kingdom without all contradiction This Accord afforded Quiet and Tranquillity both to Henry and the Nation with certain Confidence of enjoying the Kingdom after the death of Stephen which he did But as to his Right and Title it added nothing to that it being Hereditary for he was acknowledged the true Heir by his Adversary Stephen in the presence of the Bishops and the best Men of the Kingdom who all likewise acknowledged it by owning the Accord and swearing to observe it On the 24th of October the Year following King Stephen died and on the 19th of December following Henry was Crowned at Westminster by Theobald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And Maud the Empress being satisfied with the Enthroning of her Son quitted her Pretensions King Henry the Second dying in France July 7. 1189 his eldest Son and Heir Richard was by Walter Arch-Bishop of Roven girt with the Sword of the Dukedom of Normandy on the 20th of the same Month in the presence of the Bishops Earls and Barons of Normandy And before his coming into England every Free-man of the whole Kingdom by the Command of his Mother Alienor sware Fealty to Richard King of England Son of King Henry as to their Liege Lord against all Men. Afterwards coming to London Congregatis ibi Archiepiscopis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus copiosa Militum multitudine in occursum ejus quorum Consilio assensu ipse Dux 3. Nonas Septembris Consecratus Coronatus est apud Westmonasterium in Regem Angliae a Baldwino Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo c. The Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons and a copious multitude of Knights met him by whose Advice and Assent the Duke was Crowned King of England by Baldwin Arch-Bishop of Canterbury many other Bishops there named assisting Et omnibus fere Abbatibus Prioribus Comitibus Baronibus Angliae astantibus Almost all the Abbots Priors Earls and Barons of England being Spectators Ralph de Diceto then Dean of St. Paul's London who in the Vacancy of that Church and Bishoprick supplied the Office of the Bishop at King Richard's Coronation hath this passage Comes itaque Pictavorum Richardus HAEREDITARIO JURE PRAEMOVENDUS in Ragem post tam Cleri quam Populi solemnem debitam Electionem involutus est triplici Sacramento c. Therefore Richard Earl of Poictou being by Hereditary Right to be made King after the solemn and due Election as well of the Clergy as the Laity sware to three things Scilicet Quod opem impendet pro viribus ut Ecclesia Dei populusque Christianus veram pacem obtinent quod interdicet omnibus Rapacitatem quod in judiciis equitatem praecipiet misericordiam That is to say That he would use his utmost power that the Church of God and Christian People might enjoy true Peace That he would interdict Rapine to all Men That he would command Mercy and Equity to be done in Judgments What can this solemn and due Election signifie here what can it mean further than that Richard being King by Hereditary Right was so owned and recognized by the Clergy and Laity John in his Brother Richard's Life-time had a mind to be King and taking advantage or his Absence in the Holy Land and his Imprisonment in Germany practised with the Nobility and Londoners to that purpose The last sware faithful Service to their Lord King Richard and to
however the Lancastrians imposed upon the People For Edward was born June 16. 1239. and Edmund upon the 16th of January 1245. being Marcellus his Day six Years after Edward by that time he was a Year old was acknowledged the First-born of his Father his Brother Edmund not then born Per idem tempus Rex Cives Londinenses quinque portuum custodes multos alios fecit jurare fidelitatem ligantiam Edwardo primogenito suo In the Letter from the Loyal to the Rebellious Barons he is styled the First-born of King Henry Richardus Dei gratia Rex Romanorum semper Augustus Edwardus illustris Regis Angliae primogenitus c. And very frequently Matthew Paris who lived at this time and was Historiographer to his Father calls him his First-born So that there can be no doubt in History that he was the eldest Son for King Henry the Third had only these two Sons Edward and Edmund After the death of Edward the First his Son Edward the Second succeeded him and as Men of purely Commonwealth-Principles tell us he degenerating from so great a Father the People grew weary of his Irregular Arbitrary Government deposed him and chose Edward his Son to reign in his stead A plain Argument say they of the Peoples Power in chusing their Kings aud of limiting and binding the Succession But whoever reads this story will not find the ordinary People had much if any thing to do in this matter further than as they were excited to Tumults and Railing at the Government by many of the Popular Bishops and Barons for they always have been and ever will be Instruments of designing Men against the Government if by remissness thereof and easiness of Governors they be permitted This King was deposed and murdered by a wicked Confederacy and Rebellion of many Bishops and Barons And there is nothing to justifie this Rebellion Deposition and Murther in which our Anti-Monarchical Men instance so often as an Example to be followed but the meer doing of it And if a fact be therefore lawful only because it is done we have no need of Laws Lawyers or Officers of Justice to maintain plead for or defend it The truth is this King was not of so brisk a temper as his Father nor endowed with so much Courage he was more soft and easie and used too great and unseasonable Indulgence to such as he permitted to guide his Affairs and the Affairs of the Kingdom in his Name From hence many Rebellious Barons under pretence of the Honour of God and Holy Church the Honour of the King and Realm made Confederations to remove evil Counsellors reform the Court and to force the King to let them name all Judges the Chancellor Treasurer and other great Officers in Court Gascoigne Ireland and Scotland Thomas Duke of Lancaster one of those Commissioners and Ordainers was always the Head of these Confederacies who pretended great Affection to the King to the common profit of the Realm and great care to see these Ordinances cited in the Margin maintained in all points and many things amended in the King's Houshold Court and Realm At length this great Earl of Lancaster behaved himself very indecently towards the KIng and used him with much Scorn and Contempt until at last in the fifteenth of his Reign he and many of his Confederates brake out into open Rebellion at Burton upon Trent and flying before the King's Army Northward was with many others taken at Burrough-Bridge in York-shire and being tried by his Peers was adjudged to be Hanged Drawn and Quartered which Sentence was pardoned by the King and he was only beheaded The like Sentence had Warren de Insula William Toket Thomas Maudut Henry de Bradborn William Fitz-William and William Cheyne the Lord Roger Clifford the Lord John de Mounbray the Lord Henry Tyes the Lord Bartholomew de Badlesmere Joscelin de Invilla most of them Barons Propter Roberias Felonias resistentiam quam fecerunt contra Regem ad villam de Burton Occidentes Regis familiares Regis transitum prohibentes partem villae praedictae comburentes c. For Robberies and Felonies and the Resistance they made against the King at the Town of Burton killing the King's Friends and Servants and burning part of the Town upon their Retreat The Ordinances before-mentioned in number forty one were revoked and the Confederations and Tumultuous Barons and their Actions consured in a Parliament holden at York 15 Ed. 2. The Ordinances were revoked upon Examination of them before the Prelates Earls Barons amongst which were all the Ordiners then alive and the Commons of the Realm For that by the things which were ordained The King 's Royal Power was restrained in many things against the due Greatness of his Seigniory Royal and contrary to the State of the Crown And also for that in times past by such Ordinances and Provisions made by Subjects over the Power Royal of the Ancestors of the Lord the King Troubles and Wars came upon the Realm by which the Nation was in danger and it was accorded and established in the said Parliament by the Lord the King and by the said Prelates Earls and Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm at that Parliament assembled That all those things by the Ordiners ordained and contained in the said Ordinances from henceforth for the time to come should cease and lose their Force Vertue and Effect for euer And that from hence forward in no time no manner of Ordinances or Provisions made by the Subjects of the Lord the King or his Heirs by any Power or Commission whatsoever over and upon the Power Royal of the said Lord the King or his Heirs or against the State of the Crown shall be of no value or force But the things which shall be established for the Estate of the King and his Heirs and for the Estate of the Realm and People may be treated accorded and established in Parliament by the King and by the Assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and Communalty of the Realm Roger de Mortuo-Mari Lord of Wigmore submitted himself to the King which much weakned the Barons Forces before the Engagement at Burton and was sent to the Tower of London from whence he made his Escape after two Years Imprisonment in the seventeenth of this King's Reign and went over Sea to the King of France who at this time required the King of England to do him Homage for Gascoygn and other Territories he held of him in France But he delaying to do it and excusing himself by Messengers who prevailed not the King of France with an Army seized Gascoign and the County of Pontheu yet by the means of Edmund of Woodstock the King's Brother and other English Noble-men then in France a Truce was made with the King of France for a certain time until a Peace might be treated of
A True and Exact HISTORY OF THE SUCCESSION OF THE CROWN OF ENGLAND Collected out of Records and the best Historians Written for the Information of such as have been deluded and seduced by the Pamphlet called The Brief History of the Succession c. pretended to have been written for the Satisfaction of the Earl of H. LONDON Printed for Cave Pulleyn in the Year MDCLXXXI A True and Exact History of the SVCCESSION of the CROWN of ENGLAND IN the Year 1594. Parsons the Jesuit or as Mr. Camden says He Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield under the name of R. Doleman wrote a Book entituled A Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England divided into two Parts The first pretended to have been the Discourse of a Civil Lawyer concerning Succession by Proximity of Blood in general contains for the most part in nine Chapters the very Principles of Sedition and Rebellion proved and maintained as is there also pretended by Examples and Texts of Holy Scripture Examples in France Spain Germany England and other Nations The English Examples and Instances generally are partially cited or mis-applied or not fully understood by the Author and are matter of fact only The Second Part is there said to be the Speech of a Temporal Lawyer about the particular Titles of all such as might pretend within England or without to the next Succession after Queen Elizabeth which according to his Account were ten or eleven yet this Author says if any body will believe him That this Treatise was wrote out of singular Affection and Devotion to that excellent Princess and with special care of her Safety It was dedicated to the Earl of Essex with design after the Queen of Scots was taken off to baffle the Title of King James who was her immediate Heir and either to fix it upon the Earl for whom he had made a Title or to promote a Contention between the King and him about it while by some means or other which was their main intention the Infanta of Spain by a far-fetch'd Title might obtain the Kingdom and thereby advance their own Purposes and Religion How justly this Book is censured by the Judicious Camden and branded with Perfidiousness and Design to delude and abuse the People raise Tumults and Seditions the Reader may see in the places cited in the Margin In the Year 1648. as a Preparative to the Deposition and Murther of King Charles the First there was published a Pamphlet and printed at London by Robert Ibbitson under the Title of Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliaments to proceed against their King for Mis-Government And the Heads in the Title Page upon which these Speeches are pretended to be made are in number nine and the very same verbatim with the Titles of Doleman's nine Chapters in his first Part of the Conference touching the Succession to the Crown and the Matter and words of the Speeches themselves almost in all things are the very same except the Transitions Connexions and some few not material passages which are left out From these Conferences of Doleman which by crafty Men were published by Retail in several Pamphlets Speeches Declarations pernicious Deductions c. and from the nine Speeches last mentioned all the Factions in the late times of Rebellion were furnished with Arguments Reasons Examples and Pretences for their Seditious Practices And the Suggestions of the Act for the Tryal of King Charles the First and the Materials of the long Speech Bradshaw made to declare the Grounds of the Sentence and aggravate the things laid to his charge by mis-applying both Law and History were borrowed from these Books as likewise was much of the most seditious part of Milton's Book entituled The Defence for the People of England Also in the Year 1655. at London was printed an Abstract of Parsons his Book containing the Substance and often the Words of it The Chapters being divided into several short Sections with Titles to each of them this bears the name of a Treatise concerning the broken Succession of the Crown of England To what end it was at that time published I cannot guess unless to set up a Foreign Title or make way for Oliver Cromwell's Kingship And how lately there hath come forth a Pamphlet under the name of A Brief History of the Succession collected out of the Records and most Authentick Historians for the Satisfaction of the Earl of H. Much or the Materials of this Pamphlet and most of the History contained in it concerning the Succession are taken out of the Jesuit's Book the Speeches and Abstract before mentioned but this Author's industry leads him further than Polydor Virgil who is mostly cited by his three Predecessors and sometimes Stowe and Hollinshead And for the making his Work more plausible and passable and more readily to be received by his ordinary Readers he takes very little notice of Polydor who pointed him to his Authors and Places but cites William of Malmsbury Henry of Pluntington Simeon Dunelm Ailredus Abbas Rievallensis Brompton and others ancient Writers in his Saxon Instances especially whose Words if faithfully cited would have been of no use to him for often in the middle of the Sentences and of Records he hath cited he hath left out such Words and Matters as would have ruined the Design or his History A Paralel of his Words with the true Words of the Authors from whence he had them will be given at the latter end of this Treatise Hence we proceed to the Succession by a true History whereof Men will be able to judg what was the Government and how the Crown hath Hereditarily discended for many Ages in this Nation And though History is so deficient and the many Rencòuntèrs and Invasions of one another's Territories and Bickerings between the petty Kings and Governors of the Saxons in the time of the Heptarchy the Succession cannot be well made out yet though not in all we may be able to make out a Succession in the greatest and most Illustrious Kingdom of them which was that of the West-Saxions The Saxon Succession Egbert who is commonly said to be the first Saxon Monarch though he brought not the whole Heptarchy under his Power and Government succeeded Brihtric King of the West-Saxons The Words of the Saxon Chronicle are these only BEORHTRIC CYNING FORTHFERD ECGRYHT FENG to WEST-SEAXNA RICE Which words the Translator thus renders Beorhtricus Rex Occidentalium obiit Egbryhtus Occidentalium Saxonum Regnum Capessit And Florence of Worcester who strictly follows this Chronicle says Rex Occidentalium Saxonum Brihtricus obiit Egbertus successit that is Brihtric died and Egbert King of the West-Saxons took the Kingdom or succeeded him Simeon Dunelmensis says Defuncto Rege glorioso Brihtrico Occidentalis regni suscepit post ipsius obitum Regnum Impertum Egbertus Rex qui ex regali illius gentis prosapia
King of Spain Duke of Guise in France Duke D'Alva in the Netherlands the Fugitive English c. abroad And at home frequent Conspiracies to deliver the Queen of Scots out of Prison Attempts upon the Queen's Person the Rebellion in the North by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland the Match of the Duke of Norfolk with the Queen of Scots her Usurpation of the Crown of England with the Title and Arms thereof and the Bull of Pope Pius the Fifth by which he declared her a Heretick c. and impiously and without any Authority other than Papal Tyranny deprived her of her Title Dominions and Kingdoms and absolved all her Subjects from their Obedience and Allegiance All these but more particularly the Pope's Bull and the Conspiracy of Norfolk created much trouble in the mind of Queen Elizabeth And she sent to the Queen of Scots Cecyl and Sir Walter Mildmay to consult with her by what means most conveniently the Dissentions of Scotland might be compounded her self restored and Queen Elizabeth and her young Son safe and secure Amongst the Propositions made to obtain these ends these were two That the Queen of Scots should renounce her Title and Claim as long as Queen Elizabeth and the Children lawfully born of her Body should live That if the Queen of Scots should attempt any thing by her self or any other against Queen Elizabeth she should ipso facto forfeit all her Right and Title she claimed to England To which the Deputies of the Queen of Scots Lieutenants answered That the Title should be renounced as long as Queen Elizabeth lived And That the Queen of Scots should be excluded from all Right of Succession in England if she attempted any thing against the Queen of England ' s Right so as if the Queen of England would be likewise bound in some equivalent Penalty if she should attempt any thing against the Queen of Scots There was no Agreement upon these and other Propositions then made because the Scots-Deputies thought thorn too hard and severe and not to be assented unto without the greatest Inconveniencies imaginable And thence followed new Designs and Contrivances for the Relief of the Queen of Scots c. The Marriage of the Duke of Norfolk with the Queen of Scots was first propounded by her great Enemy the Regent Murray and afterwards carried on by the Earls of Arundel Northumberland Westmerland Sussex Pembroke and Southampton with many Barons and by the Earl of Leicester himself who with his own hand drew up Articles which he sent to the Queen of Scots in number six two whereof were That she should do nothing which might be prejudicial to the Queen of England or to the Children born of her in the Succession of the Kingdom of England That she should revoke her Assignment of the Kingdom of England to the Duke of Anjou The occasion of this Article was that Murray had reported that the Queen of Scots had made over her Title to England to the Duke of Anjou and that her Conveyance was confirmed at Rome which the Queen utterly denied And it was afterwards discovered to be an invention of Murray's to alienate Queen Elizabeths mind from her To obviate all these Mischiefs and Designs The Queen and her private Ministers the Earl of Leicester Lord Burleigh and Sir Francis Walsingham thought fit to improve the insinuation and Overture of a Match made by the Queen Mother of France but not very vigorously pursued untill the Year 1571. 13 Eliz. and in the time of the Sitting of the Parliament of that Year though 't was not in that Assembly or their Journals taken notice of it being secretly managed by order of the Queen by her two then great Confidents the Earl of Leycester and the Lord Burleigh by the Mediation of Sir Francis Walsingham then Embassador in France Whether Leycester meant honestly and seriously in this Affair I cannot determine he made great Professions that he did the then Posture of Affairs being represented to him by Walsingham in a Letter dated from Paris May 14. 1571. in these Words MY very good Lord The Protestants here do so earnestly desire this Match and on the other side the Papists do so earnestly seek to impeach the same as it maketh me the more earnest in furthering of the same Besides when I particularly consider her Majesties Estate both at home and abroad so far forth as my poor Eye-sight can discern and how she is beset with Forreign Peril the Execution whereof stayeth only upon the Event of this Match I do not see how she can stand if this Matter break off No particular Respect as God is my Witness moveth me to write thus earnestly but only the Regard I have to God's Glory and Her Majesties Safety Your Lordships to command Fr. Walsingham How necessary this Match was at this time for the safety of the Queen and Nation we have the Opinion of this great Statesman and Minister with whom Leycester and Burleigh concurred in Opinion as appears by their several Letters relating to these Transactions And since the French in the Sixth Article delivered in by the French Ambassador the Thirteenth of April 1571. propounded the Succession to be secured to the Issue of this Marriage according to the Laws and Customs of the Realms to which Queen Elizabeth according to the common Opinion of the Understanding Men of those Times not having Right by Inheritance or Proximity of Blood might think by this Act of Parliament that in effect doth grant the general Surmise to make good her Title and by this way and means to notifie it to be according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm For the Duke of Anjou could not but have notice of the pretended Defectiveness of her Claim though not mentioned in the Treaty and therefore this might haply be done as much as could be to meet with and satisfie that Objection if it should be made and that this might be a private though none of the great Considerations of procuring and passing this Act. He that will but observe these Particulars of History and will take the pains to compare them with this Act may easily perceive it was made as a Provision against such things pretences and attempts for the future during Queen Elizabeths Reign as had then been done used and practised it being then doubted whether the Laws and Statutes of this Realm then in force were sufficient for the Preservation of the Queens Person The Title of the Act is An Act whereby certain Offences are made Treason And the Bill in the Commons Journal was called A Bill for Treasons The Preamble upon the Parliament-Roll is Forasmuch as it is of some doubted whether the Laws and Statutes of this Realm remaining at this present in force are vailable and sufficient enough for the Surety and Preservation of the Queens most Royal Person in whom consisteth all the Happiness and Comfort of the whole
Titles were whispered up and down the Act of 35 Hen. 8. or this Act of Recognition were not thought sufficient to secure the Queen Elizabeth Then was this Act in the Thirteenth of her Reign made meerly either to create or strengthen her Title and not to Exclude the Queen of Scots from the SUCCESSION unless she attempted any thing against her or laid Claim to the Crown which was also in its own nature a securing Clause to Queen Elizabeth But the great Clause of Security to Queen Elizabeth in this Act was that Clause by which it was made Treason for any man to affirm that she by Authority of Parliament could not make Lawes and Statutes to bind the Succession of the Crown or that this Act or other Lawes to be made by the Parliament of England by her Royal assent for limiting the Crown and recognizing the right to be lawfully and justly in her person is not are not or shall not or ought not to be for ever of good and sufficient force This Clause was levelled against the Opinion That the Queen of Scots had the best Title which began to spread and gain much credit as well amongst the Nobility as Commons By all which it is manifest this whole Act was but Temporary and therefore we may note with Pulton that it expired with Queen Elizabeth and it was no Act of Exclusion but a Law only to secure her Person and to make and confirm unto her a Title which without Statute-Law was in it self at least doubtful And the new Clause which was added That it should be High Treason during her Life for any Person to affirm she by Authority of Parliament had not Power to bind the Crown and Succession thereof or That the Right of the Crown and Realm was not justly and lawfully in her Royal Person cannot affect the Title of a lawful Successor by Inheritance nor be brought or made use of as a Precedent to exclude him from the Succession But it may be said There is a great Forfeiture inflicted upon every Person holding and affirming after her Decease That Queen Elizabeth and a Parliament could not limit the Succession and fix the Crown upon her own Head This Clause could take no effect after her death and therefore was added to preserve her Memory from being defamed after her Death or slanderously charged with the hainous Crime of Vsurping the Crown which in must have been the inevitabble Consequence of affirming she and her Parliament could not limit the Succession For she valued much her Credit and Reputation and would seem to maintain still that he acted nothing against the Queen of Scots and therefore the Law is made in general Words against every Person or Persons whatsoever of what Degree Place Nation or Condition whatsoever that should affirm she was not in Right true and lawful Queen or that should claim the Crown c. In the Point of Succession she could never be brought expresly by Name to exclude the Queen of Scots or name any other Successor as is clear from these several Passages in Camden Dudley desirous by all means to oblige and obtain the Favour of the Queen of Scots accused the Lord Keeper Bacon to the Queen That he had intermedled against the Queen of Scots in the matter of Succession for which he lost the Queens Favour and was with much ado at last restored to it again by the Mediation of Cecil upon which our Author says Certainly the Queen never heard any thing more unwillingly than that the Right of Succession should be called in question or disputed The same Year Queen Elizabeth hearing of a Match like to be between the Queen of Scots and Henry Lord Darly to prevent it advertifed her by her Lieger Randolph That that Marriage was generally so dishked by all the English that she had Prorogued the Parliament to another time against the minds of her Council left the Estates of the Realm being incensed shou'd even for this cause Enact somewhat against her Right to the Succession Which that it might not be done afterwards she recommended Leycester unto her for a Husband whom chiefly for that Reason she had created Earl In the Year 1566 a Parliament was called to meet on the First of November They began to Debate roundly about the Succession and the Earls of Pembroke and Leycester and Duke of Norfolk thought that an Husband was to be imposed upon the Queen or a Successor publickly designed by Act of Parliament even against her will Whereupon they were excluded the Presence-Chambcr and denied Access to the Queen but they soon submitted themselves to her and obtained pardon Yet the Upper House did by the Lord Keeper Bacon advise move and pray her to Marry and to appoint a Successor if she or her Children should die without Issue But some in the Lower House handled these things more tumultuously Bell and Monson great Lawyers Dutton Paul Went worth and others who grated upon the Queens Authority too much and amongst other things maintained That Kings were bound to design a Successor At last they offered her far greater Subsidies than they were wont upon condition that she would design a certain Successor She absolutely refused that extraordinary Offer and accepted an ordinary Sum commending their Affection The last day of the Parliament she made a Speech and gave the busie Men a smooth Reprehension I find saith she that in this Parliament DISSIMVLATION hath walked up and down masked under the Vizor of LIBERTY and SVCCESSION Some of your Number there are that thought it LIBERTY to dispute of the SVCCESSION and that the Establishment of the same is absolutely to be granted or denied If I had granted it these Men had had their desire and had triumphed over me but if I had denied it they thought to have moved the Hatred of my People against me which my greatest Enemies could never yet do But their Wisdom was unseasonable and their Counsels over-hasty neither did they foresee the Event Yet hereby I easily perceived who inclined toward me and who were averse unto me c. Upon this Speech Camden makes this Remarque Thus a Woman's Wisdom suppressed these Commotions every day so qualified them shining clearer and clearer that very few besides such as were seditious and fearful were troubled about a Successor And certainly most men whatever they pretend have no more sense of Publick Matters than what concerns their own Private To these Testimonies of the Queens aversion to pass a Bill of Exclusion of the Q. of Scots may be added a very clear and convincing one out of the Journal of the House of Commons in the Fourteenth of her Reign after the passing this Act which is said so much to favour a Bill of Exclusion Mr. Treasurer of the Houshold Sir Francis Knolles from the Queen advised the House of Commons to go forwards against the Queen of Scots with a second Bill