incapacity from his Bastardy Besides his Wife Maud was descended from a Daughter of King Alfred married to Baldwin Earl of Flanders upon which account a Commentator on the Grand Custumary of Normandy held him to be the first or chief Heir Edward Son to Edmund Ironside was at one time designed by the Confessor for his Successor if he could prevail with the Nation to consent but that Edward dying before the Confessor his Son being a Minor seems never then to have been thought of Harold's design was covert nor does he appear to have been a Pretender till the Confessor lay upon his death-bed But Duke William had long been promis'd his Cousin King Edward's interest in order whereunto we may well believe he in the year 1651. came over to England and doubtless to ingratiate him to the Nation was by the Confessor carried up and down the Kingdom In the year 1657. or 1658. the design was brought to bear and in a Great Council of the whole Nation William was declared Successor or as the Law received by him has it agreeing with a Charter pass'd in Parl. 15. of his Reign was adopted Heir or as another Charter has it Edward instituted him adopted Heir That this Adoption or Institution of an Heir to the Crown was with a Consent truly National I shall elsewhere have occasion to prove at large at present shall only observe that the above-cited Law says that Edward caused the Kingdom to swear to William that Wilnot Earl Godwin's Son and Hacun his Grandson were sent Hostages to William to secure the future Allegiance of that Family that Robert Archbishiop of Canterbury and Harold were successively with the Duke to assure him of his being declared Heir to the Crown which Harold swore to endeavour to preserve to William But notwithstanding the Nations and his own Oath while the Nobility and People were at the Confessor's Funeral at Westminster Harold got a Party together at Lambeth where as some have it he set the Crown upon his own Head The mad Englishman as a contemporary Writer has it would not stay to see what the Publick Election would appoint Harold's Possession whatever it was prov'd very short lasting but nine Months nor was he ever fully recogniz'd or submitted to by the States or the Body of the Nation he never held any Parliament or Convention of the States which I take to be the reason that no Charter of his is to be seen nor have I met with any mention of one They who fought for him against William were judged Traytors and their Estates forfeited and it is rightly observ'd by the Lord Coke that in Demesday Harold who usurped the Crown of England after the decease of King Edward the Confessor is never named per nomen Regis sed per nomen Comitis Haroldi Wherefore he leaves him out of his Lift of our Kings William according to some Authors was encouraged to his attempt from the consideration that Harold was neither of the Saxon nor Danish Royal Stock When William Landed he claimed the Crown from his Cousins Gift with the consnt of the Nobility of the Kingdom confirmed by Oath and lays his qualification in being thought the most deserving of all that were nearly related to the Confessor Harold had nothing to plead against that but the suggestion that the Crown had not been setled by a Consent sufficiently formal that it was made without a Convention and Law of the Senate and People which 't is no wonder that he should pretend tho' there were never so formal an Election Notwithstanding the Right with which the Norman Duke Landed he proffered to submit to what the English should decree and therefore to a new election if they thought fit Upon Harold's death some of the English who dreaded the consequence of receiving William after a bloody Battle set up Edgar Atheling for King who tho' but the second degree from a Bastard and tho' his Father never had Possession was look'd upon as the true Heir of the Crown that is the Person of the last Regnant Branch of the Royal Family who ordinarily would have succeeded by common consent of the States if of sufficient Merit and reasons of State or other obligations did not interpose But the learned Monk Guitmond who could bot but know the constitution in this matter held him to be but one Heir among many of the Line of the Royal Family However the generallity of the Clergy thought themselves bound to maintain the Title with which King William Landed and that'twas Rebellion to oppose him yet before his being received for King he at Berkhamsted made a League or Contract with the People headed by the Great Earls Edwin and Morcar who came up with the Forces from the North which had never been in the Battle against the Duke Part of the League made with the People of England was that he should be Crown'd as the manner of the English Government requires at his Coronation the consent of the People was ask'd in the due and accustomed manner and the account Historians give of the Oath he then took shews it to be that which stood in the Saxon Ritual After which he more than once received and swore to that Body of the Common-Law of England which had obtain'd the name of King Edward's Laws which as has been observ'd declare the end for which a King is Constituted and that he loses the Name or ceases to be King when he answers not that end Indeed Dr. Brady who is as free with his Conquerors Memory as with the Liberties of England which he calls the Grants and Concessions of the King of this Nation will have it that William the I. regarded his Oath only in the beginning of his Reign and that by notorious violations of his contract with the People of England he acquired the Right of a Conqueror and thereby put an end to the ancient Constitution of this Monarchy and those Liberties and Priviledges of the Subject which manifestly appear to have been of elder date than the Monarchy Upon which if one would return the Freedom of his Censures against others it might be said that this was not only to make the then King the Successor of a Conqueror but with a prospect of applying the Rights which he ascribes to a supposed Qonquest to justifie what should be practised upon the late intended Conquest of this Nation That the Judgment and Practice of William the I. was very contrary to the Doctor 's Imaginations will be proved by numerous Instances and that it was so as to that part of the Constitution which concerns the Succession to the Crown appears by that King's Death-bed Declaration which some would set up for a will disposing of the Crown at that very time when he owns that it is not his to give
to English Kings and upon what qualification may farther appear by an Author of the Saxon time who speaking of Eastengle where Sr. Edmund was Crownd King two or three years before Ethelwolf's death says Over this Province reigned the most holy Eadmund descended from the Noble Stock of the Ancient Saxons c. who coming from Kings his Ancestors being eminent for his vertue with the unanimous favour of all the People of the Province is not so much elected by reason of * the Succession or Inheritance of the Stock as he is forced to reign over them With in this time Ethelwolf's eldest Son reigned in his Father's life time and retained West-Saxony to his share whilst the bigotted Father having withdrawn to Rome tho' animo revertendi was held to have abdicated and with much ado prevailed with his Son and the People to let him be an underling King of an inferior Kingdom Besides other objections to any right of descent from him according to a good Authority his elder Brother Ethelstan survived However one or more Acts of Parliament in his life time had provided for three Successions after him as appears by the Will of his fourth Son Alfred made in the Presence and with the Consent of all West-Saxony That Will recites what Dr. Brady calls Ethelwolf's Will but was a Charter passed in a General Council for Alfred is express that the Inheritance of King Ethelwolf came to him by Charter thereof made in a general Council at Langedene Yet that Charter was but recommendatory to a future relection for Ethelbert who is not named in Alfred's Account of that Settlement was upon the Fathers death ordained King of several of the Kingdoms and succeeded his Uncle Ethelstan in Kent Alfred's Will shews that by the Parliamentary Settlement of the Crown he was to be Partner in Power when his Brother Ethered should succeed for which he appeals to the Testimony of all West-Saxony accordingly they are both represented as Kings at the same time Alfred was Ethelwolf's fourth Son which soever therefore of his three Brothers left Sons every one of 'em according to the vulgar notion had Right to the Crown before him and yet that great and good Prince in the last Publick Act of his Life expresses a satisfaction in that Inheritance which God and the Princes with the Elders of the People mercifully and bountifully gave him That Will shews that he had two Nephews then alive Athelm and Ethelbalt who were not regarded in the Succession but Alfred was upon his Brother Ethered's death elected by all the Saxons To Alfred succeeded his Son Edward by a manifest Election having Cousin Germans of at least one Elder House Ethelbald or Ethelwold who was one of them was a Competitour with Edward and was elected by the Danes Ethelwerd who himself descended from Ethered's Elder House says of Edward Indeed the then Successor of the Monarchy Edward Son of the above-mentioned King is Crowned after him He being of the Royal Stem was Elected by the Nobility at Whitsuntide one hundred years being pass'd since his Ancestor Egbert had his present Dominion Where the Right of the Saxon Crown to the Monarchy or Primacy for even Edward had no more was laid in perscription but his Right to the Crown in an Election upon a qualification from the Royal Stem Edward's Son and Successor Athelstan was a Bastard tho' Dr. Brady would have the contrary believ'd from Malmsbury's tenderness in the Matter least it should diminish that King's Glory The Saxon Cronicle mentioning the Father's death in Mercia says Ethelstan was elected King by the Mercians Huntingdon says in Mercia whither they might have flock'd from other Kingdoms To Athelstan succeeded his Father's eldest lawfully begotten Son Edmund Tho' Edmund had Sons Eadred his Brother succeeded and that as an Author of those Times affirms in the Right of a Brother And an Author of like antiquity whose words are transcribed by others since the reputed Conquest says The next Heir Eadred took upon him the Natural or Hereditary Kingdom by succeeding his Brother Where the Uncle is plainly accounted the next Heir fit to Reign And yet the Enquirer and Dr. Brady absurdly suppose that Eadred was only Tutor Curator Regent or Protector of the young Princes and Kingdom Which was far from the meaning of that ancient Author who blames the eldest of those Princes for pretending to succeed his Uncle before he had been elected tho' both with Clergy and Laity one Elected supplied the Numbers and Names of the Kings that is no Man was accounted King who was not Elected speaks of the day of the common Election what Authority the States exercised over him for his egregious folly on that day and his being cast off by the Northern Part of the Nation because he foolishly administer'd the Government committed to or entrusted with him He being forsaken by an Universal Conspiracy or Agreement they says that Author the Lord so dictating Elected his Brother Edgar After Eadwig's death the same Author says Edgar took his Kingdom upon him being Elected by the People of both Kingdoms as equal Heir to both As an other Author has it he was elected by all the People of England To Edgar succeeded his eldest Son Edward the Martyr who whatever many of the Moderns and some of the Ancients may have thought was undoubtedly a Bastard which is not only shewn by an Author of the Time but is confirmed by the Brother Ethelred's Charter which informs us that the Election of the States preferred his Brother as the Charter has it The Great Men of both Orders elected my Brother King and gave me Livery of the Lands belonging to the Kings Sons which plamly proves that Edward was a Bastard the Private Inheritance having fallen to the Father's younger Son However this is an undeniable President of an Election and yet for the reason above it may well be said that Edward was left Heir of his Father's Kingdoms as well as Vertues which Historians since the time of W. 1. transcribed from one of the Writers of Sr. Dunstan's Life That Ethelred who succeeded the Martyr was truly elected appears beyond contradiction by the Ritual of his Coronation which requires that the King being elected by the Bishops and the Plebs or Commonalty take his Coronation Oath after the Oath taken the People are solemnly ask'd whether they will have him to be King they answer we will and grant they pray to God to bless his Servant whom they have elected King and in an other place they pray God to bless this purely elected Prince To this time the Danes possessed great part of England and Swane
King of Denmark Landing with an additional Force this with Ethelred's sloath and unacceptableness to his own People drove him to an Abdication Upon Swane's death the English invited back the Abdicated King on condition he would govern better than he had done for which his Son Edward undertook Ethelred returning as an Author who lived about the time has it a contract was established between the King and his People and firm friendship and it was enacted with an Oath that there never more should be a Danish King in England After this Cnute the Son of Swane laid claim to the Crown of England as a Saxon as well as Dane deriving from King Ethelbald who doubtless was that Son of an elder Brother of King Alfred who oppos'd Edward the elder Notwithstanding this tho' the Danes elected Cnute the English adhered to Ethelred Upon whose death they chose his Son Edmund Ironside who as appears by the stream of ancient Authorities was a Bastard Upon i Edmund's death Cnute was Crown'd King of England by the Election of all and according to Florence of Woster he swore to be Faithful Lord as the People did to be Leige Subjects At Cnute's death his two Sons Harold who was a Bastard or rather Spurious and Hardecnute his legitimate Son by Ethelred's Widow were by Leofric and all the Nobility on the North-side of the River Thomes elected Kings over all England as partners in Power and co-heirs But Duke Godwin and other Noblemen in West-Saxony opposed and prevailed It appears by an Author who wrote in the Confessor's Time and whose words are transcrib'd by several that they prevailed for the total rejection of Hardecnute because he made not sufficient haste to take the Administration upon him Therefore Harold who however would have been King of Mercia and the Northumbrian Kingdom was elected over all England by the Princes and all the People or as an other of like antiquity has it is elected King by all the People of England Upon Harold's death and not before Hardecnute was received in what manner appears by the then standing Ritual for the Coronation of Kings But Emmae's Sons by Ethelred Alured and Edw. as Malms observes were despised almost by all rather through the remembrance of their Fathers sloathfulness than by reason of the Power of the Danes Yet they two without preference of one before the other were accounted Heirs of the Kingdom and accordingly Cnute while he was in fear of the then Duke of Normandy offer'd half his Kingdom to Edward and his Brother Alured Upon Hardecnute's death Earl Godwin was chosen Administrator or Protector of the Kingdom during the vacancy and till a fit Person should be elected King Godwin summons a Convention of the States where he nominated Ethelred's only surviving Son by Emma whom the Saxons call'd Elgive After some debates all consented to the election of Edward He being so elected was in the sense of those times Heir of the Kingdom to the last Possessor Hardecnute his Brother by the half blood And yet it is observable that according to a Charter of Edward's pass'd in Parliament at the latter end of his Reign the Hereditary Succession was hazarded by the Danes that is according to what I before observ'd the Anglo-Saxon regnant branch of the Royal Family was kept back and was likely never to have been restored 'T is evident that it was not for Edward to carry this Point farther for besides the Danish Royal Family claiming from King Ethelbald and Fretheric Abbot of St. Albans in his time coming from the ancient Saxons and Danes and lineally descended from King Cnute there was the Historian Ethelwerd or his immediate Ancestor of the Family of King Ethered and in all probability there were several descendants either from Ethelstan Ethelwolfs elder Brother or from his Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert What was the known Law in the Confessor's time both as to the Succession and the continuing King besides the former Evidences appears beyond contradiction from that King's Laws according to which 1. The Monarchy was founded in election which explains in what Sense a King is there taken to be Constituted 2. If the King do not answer the end for which he had been Constituted not so much as the name of King shall continue in him 3. It receives as a Rule in all Kingdoms and particularly here the Judgment of Pope Zachary encouraging the Franks to depose their King Childeric With Edward the Confessor end the Saxon and Danish Successions of Kings Harold the Son of Earl Godwin as I shall shew never was King nor reputed King by any but his own Party Here I may observe 1. That Dr. Brady is mightily mistaken in his assertion that the Saxons did in their subjection owning of and submission to their Princs acknowledge both proximity of blood and nomination of their Princes often both sometimes only one of them but never followed any other rule 2. The chief rule of Succession upon the death or disability of any King was a proper election of a worthy Person of the Regnant Branch of the Royal Family 3. Dr. Bradie's notion that Elegerunt signifies no more than recognoverunt they acknowledged owned submitted unto him as their King is by no means true the recognition being manifestly subsequent to or in consequence of the election nor is any thing more plain than that the States did from the beginning of the Monarchy downwards rightfully declare an Heir to the Kingdom and then acknowledge his Right tho' neither next upon the Royal Line nor representing the next nor yet nominated by the Predecessor And indeed till a rare and noted instance in the case of Hen. 5. on whom the Crown had before been entailed in Parliament no Prince was known to have been formally recogniz'd till he had taken the Coronation Oath 4 If according to any good authority of the Saxon or Danish Times it should seem that any man came to the Crown by the Gift of his Predecessor it must have been made with such solemnity as was requisite even for the granting of Lands As that of Egbert's above-mentioned or Athelstan's in an Assembly of the Bishops Abbots Dukes or Earls and the Procurators or Representatives of the Country or an other before the Plebs or Commons or Edgar's in the open air with the privity of the Great or Wisemen of his whole Kingdom In the Confessor's life time there were three Competitors for the Crown Atheling's Father and Son to Edmund Ironside Harold who was High Steward of England and the most powerful of any Man tho' not his Fathers eldest Son and William Duke of Normandy Grand Nephew to Emma who had been Crown'd Queen of England nor as has appear'd above was William under any
might afterwards sail out of abundant care for his Son Henry had him Crowned in his life time which through French Counsels put the Son upon insisting on the Rights of Kingship to the great clamity of the Nation tho' the Subjects swore Allegiance to him with an express Salvo for the Allegiance due to his Father Which whatever some have thought or affirm'd was the only Salvo in the Scotch Kings homage according to ancient custom for the Crown of Scotland To H. 2. succeeded his eldest surviving Son Richard but was not accounted King upon the death of his Father Authors say he was to be promoted to be King by Hereditary Right which is far from being King by Hereditary Right But as the former usage explains such words he deserved to be elected and made King in which sense one of the Authors who lived at the time immediately explains himself mentioning his Coronation Oath after the solemn and due election as well of the Clergy as People Before this he was at first only Earl of Poictou and then Duke of Normandy but not till he had been solemnly invested with the Sword of that Dukedom And Bromton informs us that he accepted the Crown upon condition of keeping his Coronation Oath without undertaking which the Archbishop charged him not to assume the Royal Dignity He going to the holy Wars after his being Crown'd his Brother John would have seiz'd the Government as vacant but had no tollerable pretence the War having been carried on with a National Consent Upon this it was adjudged by a Common-Council of the Kingdom that John should be disseiz'd of all that he held in England which might extend to such right or expectancy as he had in the Crown Notwithstanding which upon Richard's death the great Question came upon the Stage whether the Crown ought ordinarily to go according to the right of Proximity or of Representation The right of Proximity was in John Brother to King Richard this was the Right which the English seem'd to think most agreeable to the Constitution of this Monarchy and is according to the Custom of Normandy for Succession to that Dukedom and as Cujacius supposes of most Nations Foreigners were for Arthur of Brittain as having the right of Representation being the Son of John's elder Brother and this was the Right according to the custom of Brittain in France But as to the Law of England it appears by Glanvil's account of the Law as it was taken in the time of H. 2. that even for the Descent of private Inheritances it was doubtful whether they ought to go to the Grandson by the eldest Son who died in the Father's life time or to his next surviving Son If indeed the eldest Son had in the Father's life time done homage to the Chief Lord for his Father's Inheritance this was held to remove the doubt And Glanvil afterwards says upon the Question between Uncle and Nephew that the condition of the Possessor is the better According to which King John having obtained Possession of the Crown had it rightfully and Arthur had no right to turn him out John being beyond-sea at his Brother's death sent over the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshal of England to sollicit for his being admitted to the Throne These Great Men with the assistance of the Chief Justice of England prevailed upon many to swear Allegiance to John and in a Convention at Northampton those Persons were Sponsors for John's doing right to all men upon which condition or in confidence of his performing what had been undertaken in his name the Earls and Barons swore Fidelity to him against all Men yet after this he was formally elected in a full Convention of the States where the Archbishop declares it as matter known to 'em all that no man ought to succeed an other to the Kingdom upon any previous reason unless unanimously elected by the whole Realm c. But if any one of the Royal Stock was more deserving than others his election ought to be consented to the more promptly and readily Notwithstanding what had pass'd in favour of John in the Convention the Archbishop at the time of the Coronation calls him but Earl King John not only took the Oath appointed by the standing Ritual which declares every King of England to be elected but assumed the Royal Dignity as his Predecessor did with the express condition of keeping his Oath Having broken this Contract and notoriously departed from that end for which according to the Confessors Law expresly sworn to by him he had been constituted or created King in making War upon his People with Foreign Forces with which he exercis'd inhuman barbarities and as much as in him lay alienating his Imperial Crown to the Pope he in the Judgment of the Court of France as well as of the States and People of England fell from his Royal Dignity the Throne was become vacant and during the vacancy the Administration devolved upon the States whereupon they resolved to elect a new King and sent a solemn Embassy to the King of France to send over his Son Lewis to be King of England whose wife was John's Sisters Daughter But the chief inducement to this Election seems to have been that expectation in which they were not deceived that the Foreigners would desert John for Lewis Tho they promised to Crown him King they seeing great grounds to dislike his French Temper and Conduct kept him upon his good behaviour without a Crown And having found by the dying Confession of one of his confederates that he had sworn if he came to be once Crowned King he would treat the English as Rebels to their former Prince they soon sent this Probationer packing yet did not hold John to be King After John's death many of the greatest interest in England while Lewis was here and Elianor Prince Arthur's Sister alive in Bristol Castle who according to the vulgar notion ought to have been Queen John's Son but were far from thinking him King upon the death of his Father or from repenting of what they had done to the Father but they thought it adviseable to cut off Lewis his expectation of the Crown to which end the Martial of England Summons a Convention to Glocester where he tells the States that tho' they had justly prosecuted the Father for his evil deeds yet that Infant was innocent because he is the Son of a King and our future Lord and Successer of the Kingdom let us Constitute him our King At last all as with one voice cried thrice let him be made King Here 't is evident that he was not accounted King till Constituted or made and was but a future Lord and agreeably to this Matthew Paris
says they assembled in order to exalt Henry the King 's eldest Son to be King of England He took the Coronation Oath more han once and at one of his Coronations had the Confessor's Sword carried before him by the Earl of Chester one of the Earls Palatine of England for a sign that that Sword was not to be born in vain He having trod in his Father's steps the States were likely to have made good their solemn denunciation 17th of his Reign of deposing him in a Common-Council of the whole Kingdom and creating a new King which as appears by Bracton a very learned Judge in that Reign was no more than the then known Law of the Kingdom Various were the events of a long Civil War in which at last the death of the great Darling of the Church and People the then Hereditary High Steward of England and the bravery of Henry's Son gave him the victory which they who were on his side and his own experience of the consequence of his former Counsels kept withing some bounds of moderation Henry to secure the Succession to his eldest Son Edward had before that success caused many and particularly the Citizens of London to swear to his Son as Successor And after that it should seem that a Parliament had made a Settlement of the Crown For in the 55th of his Reign a Writ was sent to London the execution of which was return'd into the Parliament that year at Winchester and 't is probable the like had been throughout England in pursuance of which Writ the Mayor Barons Citizens and University of the Commons swore Allegiance to the King after him to his eldest Son Edward then to his Son John after that to the right Heirs of the Crown of England which not being to the Heirs of either of those Persons plainly left the Inheritance as I have shewn it was from the beginning Upon the Father's death the Clergy and Laity flock'd to Westminster where they declared or received for King Edward then beyond-sea in the Holy War so called Soon after this as I take it a great Convention of the States was holden in his name there a Chancellor was chosen and other Provisions made for the Peace of the Kingdom in Edward's absence the Writ which they issued out requiring the Subjects in general to swear Allegiance to E. 1. says the Government was devolved upon him by Hereditary Succession and the Will of the Nobility and the Fidelity performed or Allegiance sworn to him Agreeably to which Walsingham says they recognized Edward their Leige Lord and ordained him Successor of his Father's honour Tho' he was a very gallant Prince yet having taken ill advice being to cross the Seas he upon a Pedestal at Westminster-Hall Gate with the Archbishop of Canturbury and the Earl of Warwick by his side publickly ask'd forgiveness of his People entreated 'em to receive him again at his return and if he died to Crown his Son King which they who were then assembled consented to How much it was then known to concern a King to keep to his part of the Contract as he would have his People continue bound appears by two great Authorities in our Law of that time Fleta who as to this matter transcribes Bracton almost verbatim and the Mirrour of Justices which speaks of the first Institution of Kings among us by Election for what End they were Elected and what they were to expect if they answered not that End E. 2. as Walsingham informs us succeeded not so much by Hereditary Right as by the unanimous Assent of the Nobility and Great Men. He was for misgovernment formally depos'd or Abdicated from the Regal Dignity as Walsingham has it and his Son Edward was Substituted or Elected in his stead The Son indeed tho he had headed Forces against his Father seem'd to scruple accepting the Crown without his Fathers consent And ex post Facto after Edw. 2d had been deposed and his Son Elected with a threat that if he refused they would Elect sombody else the Father took some comfort at the Election of his Son and as much as in him lay consented The Son it must be own'd in a Writ cited by Dr. Brady says his Father amoved himself by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other Nobles and also of the Commonalâ—y of the whole Kingdom Which being onely in Writs Issued out of the Chancery can be of no Force to limit or explain that Act of the States And was but a civility or complement from the Son to the Father What the States judged in the matter will be very plain from the following account in a contemporary Author King Edward remaining in Custody at Kenelworth a General Council of the whole Clergy and People of England was Summon'd viz. of every City and every County and Borough a certain number of Persons to Treat and Ordain with the Great Men of the State of the King and Kingdom In which Council at the cry of the whole People unanimously persevering in that cry that King Edward II. should be Deposed from the Throme of the Kingdom becuase from the beginning of his Reign to this day he had misbehaved himself in his Government had Ruled his People wickedly had dissipated Lands Castles and other things belonging to the Crown had by perverse Judgment unjustly adjudged Noblemen to Death had advanced the Ignoble and had done many things contrary to the Oath taken at his Coronation Walter Archbishop of Canterbury pronouncing Articles of this kind by assent and consent of all King Edward 2. is wholly deposed and Edward his eldest Son advanced to be King of England And it is Ordained that from thenceforth he should not be called King but Edward of Karnarvan the King's Father And immediately Messengers were sent from the Council to the said Edward the King's Father to notifie to him what had been done and to read to him the Articles upon which he had been deposed He answer'd he was detained in custody nor could contradict their Ordinances but said he would bear all patiently And it is observable that a Statute of the Kingdom 1 E. 3. justifies the taking Arms against E. 2. while he was in Possession of the Throne and indemnifies all Persons for the pursuit of the said King and taking and withholding his body E. 3. who knew that himself came in by and election of the States being aware that if he should die before any Provision were made about the Succession the Controversie concerning the Right of Proximity and that of Representation would be revived between his eldest surviving Son and Grandson by the eldest who died in his life time obtained an Act of Parliament whereby Richard his Grandson by his eldest and best beloved Son was declared or made very
Heir to the Crown R. 2. following the example of E. 2. had the same fate of which the States of the Kingdom had some years before given him fair warning telling him they had an ancient Statute according to which they might with the common assent and consent of the People of the Realm abrogats him and advance somebody near of kin of the Royal Stock He not profiting by this admonition the States were some years after put to the exercice of their authority and having adjudged that he justly ought to be deposed the whole States appointed Commissioners for giving the Sentence of Deposition And a Record speaking of it says he was deposed for his demerits The Act of State for this says 't was as in like cases had been observed by the ancient custom of the Kingdom This being done Henry Duke of Lancuster as soon as the Kingdom was vacant rose out of his Seat and claim'd the Kingdom begin void His claim was al 's descandit be ryght lyne of the blode comeynge fro the gude Lord Henry therde The reason seems very plain why he claim'd from H. 3. his being the last inheritable blood which he could claim from not from R. 2. because deposed nor from E. 3. because of the forseiture of R. 2. declared or constituted his next Heir not from E. 2. because of his forfeiture nor from E. 1. becuase E. 2. had been his next Heir Hen. 4ths Descent from H. 3. was the qualification for an election This was not as has been supposed a strict right of Succession as he was the next Heir then appearing but he entituled himself to a preference before all other Descendants from that Blood as being a Deliverer of the Nation from Richard's tyranny he having with the help of his Kinsmen and Friends recovered the Kingdom which was upon the point of destruction through the defect of Government and violation of the Laws This induced the States and all the People unanimously to consent that Henry should fill the vacant Throne and they appointed all the Ceremonies of his Coronation But as far as proximity to the last King could infer a right he being Grandson to E. 3. had it before Mortimer descended from Lionel Duke of Clarence under whom the Family of York claim'd besides that H. 4. was undoubtedly the first on the Male line Tho' no Lay-man of knowledge and integrity can be thought at that time to have questioned those grounds upon which H. 4. was declared King yet since 't is hardly possible that there should be any Government which some will not be desirous to shake off as the Jews did the Theocrasy it can be no wonder that some would colour their ambition or malice under pretence of love to justice and that they should object want of right to disturb the most just and equal Government What was at the bottom of objections against H. 4ths Title will appear by the case of a true Head of the Church Militant Merk or Mark Bishop of Carlile who not being able as a Divine to make good his Argument against the receiving H. 4th for King was resolved to justifie it by dint of Sword after he was made King For in second of H. 4. he was indicted and tryed by a common Jury upon a special Commission for that he and other his Accomplices among which there were two bigotted Knights Blunt and Sely were leagued and confederated together with the Adversary and Enemy of England the French and thier Adherents traiterously to bring the said Adversary into the Land of England with intention to destroy the King and all his Leige People of the Kingdom and to new plant the Kingdom of England with our enemies of France that they in an hostile manner went up and down making great destruction and slaughter and without any Authority assuming to themselves Royal Power proclaim'd Richard to be King and that they would not suffer Henry to be their Lord or King To this Indictment the Bishop pleaded Church-Priviledge as an anointed Bishop which the Court over-ruled the the reason for which is very remarkable because the matters contained in the said Indictment concern the death of our Lord the King and the destruction of the whole Kingdom of England and consequently the manifest depression of the Church of England by which he claims to be priviledged all which is high and the greatest Treason and the Crime of laesa Majestas nor ought any man of right to pray in aid of the Law or to have it who commits such a Crime or intends to commit it c. His plea being thus over-ruled the Bishop pleaded not guilty but being convicted of the horrid matter contained in the Indictment it seems he did not think this a fit cause to die for and whether he merited a Pardon or no by sincere Repentance at least obtained one in which it is observable that he is called the late Bishop for this restitution to the Peace did not restore his Ecclesiastical Dignity He who is still called the late Bishop having a pardon sent him petitioned to be delivered out of Prison which was granted upon his finding Sureties for his good behaviour and four undertook that he should for the future behave himself well towards the King and his People Thus the fear of death reformed this stiff Prelate and made him engage to sit quietly under a Government which none but the Enemies to England and their Adherents endeavoured to subvert Still some were found calling themselves Englishmen who for the like ends with Merk would do their utmost to blemish H. 4ths Title this occasioned Oaths of Recognition thrice repeated 5o. of his Reign first at a Council of Worcester then at a Great Council at Westminster and after that in a full Parliament where the two former recognitions which were voluntary Associations were affirmed tho' as is there said there was no need of it By those Oaths they acknowledged the then King to be their Sovereign Leige Lord to obey him as their King and acknowledge the Prince his eldest Son as Heir apparent and inheritable to the Crown of England to him and the Heirs of his Body And for default of such Issue to his Brothers and their Issue successively and hereditably according to the Law of England to live and die against all People in the World The perjury of some and the doubts rais'd by others upon some of the expressions in the Act 5 H. 4. occasioned an other 7o. which by the Counsel and Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to wit the Prelates Great Men Peers and Clergy and also at the earnest Petition of the Commons and by Authority of the said Parliament declares that the King 's eldest Son shall be and is and ought hereafter and now to be
true lawful and undoubted Heir and Universal Successor to the Crown and Kingdoms of England and France and all the King's Dominions whatsoever and wheresoever beyond the Sea and also has right of universally succeeding the King in the said Crown Kingdoms and Dominions To have to him and the Heirs Male of his Body and in default of such Issue so in remainder to his Brothers In an other Charter pass'd in that Parliament the Inheritance or Hereditation of the Crown is entail'd upon the King and the Heirs Male of his Body then to his four Sons and the Heirs Male of their Bodies successively It seems the next year some doubts arose upon these different Settlements that 5o. then remaining upon Record therefore they cancel and make void the Letters Patent of the Entail 5o. and change and amend that Settlement which they seem to have thought defective 1. In only declaring the Prince Heir Apparent and Inheritable to the Crown which was no more than to declare him before others qualified to succeed if the States should Elect him 2. In declaring him Inheritable only to the Crown of England without mentioning its appurtenances seeming to think that in Grants of this Nature nothing would pass by implication But to prevent all ambiguities they being as is said in that Record met in a Parliament according to the Custom of the Kingdom for divers Matters and Things concerning the King and his Kingdom The King with common Consent of the Kingdom Enacts That a new Patent be Sealed constituting Prince Henry Heir Apparent to succeed the King in his Crown Realms and Dominions to have them with all their appurtenances after the King's Decease to him and the Heirs of his Body and so in remainder to his three Brothers successively whereby they had a larger Estate than by the Entail 7º which was to Heirs Male Thus by Virtue of one or more Settlements by Authority of Parliament H. 5. succeeded and yet it was thought a great instance of the confidence the States had in him that in a Convention or Assembly holden according to Ancient Custom in which they treated about creating a new King some of the Nobility immediately Swore Allegiance to him before he had been declared King But it is to be observed that whereas his Father died the 20th of March he is said to be created King on the 5th of April Death cutting off the course of his Glories his Infant Son H. 6. came in under the Parliamentary Entail but the Administration was held to have fallen upon the States who accordingly after having declared H. 6. King in full Parliament pass'd a Patent constituting Humfry Duke of Gloster Protecter of the Realm John Duke of Bedford Regent of France and Henry Beaufort Bishop of Winchester and Thomas Beaufort Duke of Exeter Governors of the young Prince The Death of the brave Duke of Bedford occasioned not only the loss of France but the raising the Family of York to a pretence which in all probability had been buried to this day had not H. 6ths treacherous Ministers put him upon making Richard Duke of York Regent of France after being High Constable of England and Lieutenant of Ireland With these advantages Duke Richard set up under a Mask of Popularity as if he only sought redress of grievances while himself was the only National Calamity As nothing but success could give him any colour of Title he was forced to conceal his Ambition even from his own Party till 26 H. 6 yet after that acknowledged and swore to H. 6ths Right and confirm'd it with the Sacrament which Solemnities were to be subservient to his imaginary Divine Right Tho' by his Frauds and Perjuries he often came within the prospect of a Crown 38 H. 6. he was deservedly Attainted of High-Treason and an Association with an Oath was voluntarily enter'd into by the Lords wherein every one severally acknowledges H. 6. to be his most redoubted Lord and rightwish or Rightful by Succession born to Reign over him and all the Kings Liege People that he will do his utmost for the We le and surety of the King's Person of his most Royal Estats and the very conservation and continuance of his most high Authority Preheminence and Prerogative and for the preservation of the Queen and of Prince Edward his Right redoubted Lord the Prince that after the King's Death he will take and accept the Prince for his Sovereign Lord and after him the Issue of his Body lawfully begotten for want of such Issue any other Issue of the Body of the King that he will never give Aid Assistance or Favour to any thing contrary to the premises and that he will put himself in his due undelayed devoir with his Body Goods Might Power Counsel and Advertisement to resist withstand and subdue all that should presume to do contrary to the premises or any of them This Association not being General throughout the Kingdom had no great effect not so much from any belief the Nation had of Richard's being injured as from the burdens a Treacherous Ministry induced a weak Prince to lay upon the Subjects This made the Commons of Kent invite over from abroad the Duke and his Party who had fled from Justice then the Tide turn'd and the King became wholly in the power of the Duke of York under whose awe and influence a Parliament was call'd where he laid claim to the Crown with circumstances which one would think were enough to give any Man a face of Title and yet his pretended Divine Right countenanc'd by Providence was mightily qualify'd by the courage of the Parliament and their regard to the Constitution of this Monarchy His claim was as Son to Ann Daughter to Roger Mortimer Son and Heir to Philippa Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence third Son to E. 3. whereas H. 6. descended from John of Gaunt the 4th and eldest surviving Son After Debate among the Lords upon this matter these Objections were agreed upon against Richard's pretence of Title 1. The Oaths they had taken to the King their Sovereign Lord. 2. Acts of Parliament made in divers Parliaments of the King's Progenitors of Authority sufficient to defeat any manner of Title to be made to any Person 3. Several Entails made to Heirs Male 4. That Richard did not bear Lionel's Arms. 5. That H. 4. took upon him the Crown not as Conqueror but right Inheritor to H 3. All that is urged materially against this for Richard is 1. That Oaths do not bind against God's Law and that requires Truth and Justice to be maintain'd but this being a Spiritual matter he refers to any Judge Spiritual 2. That there was but one Entail of the Crown 7 H. 4. but that this was void against the right Inheritor of the Crown according to God's law and all Natural laws 3. It could
come without a manifest departure from their avowed Principles and therefore to keep to them they must give up the only colourable Authority for their notion of King de jure and de facto And they must yield that there is not the least shadow of pretence from what was held in those times that there was a King of right at the very time that an other was in fact it going no farther than that the Person who was King ought not to have been King but while he was King the other was none 7. The judgment of E. 4 ths first Parliament whatever hard names they gave that Family on which they trampled was so far from being an Authority as has been pretended against the receiving his present Majesty upon the late King's breach of the Original or Common-Law Contract confirmed by several declaratory Statutes of the Kingdom and the solemn Oaths of our Kings that it is express for the eviction and amotion of one King upon his breach of a contract establish'd in Parliament and the setting up an other by an election And it is observable that the Act 1º E. 4. which confirms several judicial and other Acts of such as it calls Kings only in fact says other than by Authority of any Parliament holden in their times plainly admitting that Authority to be sufficient in it self H. 6. coming again into Power because of a Possession with such a consent of the People as made E. 4. King was formally again elected at the Tower and in H. 7 ths time was adjudged to have had his attainder purged by his re-adeption of Power which seems not to have been till he had been re-elected Then H. 6. calls a Parliament where he in his turn attaints the Adherents of E. 4. and as we are to believe himself but the Record of that having been cancelled and the Rolls loss'd it appears not whether it was for any Act committed before H. 6 ths re-adeption of Power The Tide again turning for E. 4. all the Acts of that Parliament are reversed and declared or made void from the time that he had been declared he was held to have continued the Possession of the Regal Dignity tho' with-held from the exercice of the Power and therefore H. 6. from the first admission of E. 4. to the Crown was accounted no King and his Parliament to be but a pretenced Parliament E. 4 ths usage of H. 6. was repaid to his Sons by their Uncle R. 3. some will have it that he made them away as indeed is intimated in the Act attainting R. 3. but 't is certain that they were bastardized in a Convention whose Acts were by Parliament after Richard was admitted King declared for truth and not to be doubted and there are Authorities to induce the Belief that Edward's Sons were really Bastards by reason of the Father's pre-contract however the Convention declared that they were not fit to Reign because they were Infants and their Mother ignoble and married clandestinely without the knowing and assent of the Lords George Duke of Clarence the next Brother to E. 4. having been attainted in a Parliament of E. 4. they having singular confidence in Richard's particular merit have chosen in all that in them is and by that their certain writing choose him their King and Sovereign Lord to whom they know of certain it appertaineth of Inheritance to be chosen And observing that tho' the Learned in the Laws and Customs know his Title to be good the most part of the People is not sufficiently learned in the Laws and Customs they declare that the Court of Parliament is of such Authority and the People of this Land of such a disposition as experience teacheth that Manifestation and Declaration of any Truth or Right made by the three States of the Realm assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same maketh before all other things most faith and certain quieting of mens minds and removing the occasion of doubts and seditious language Therefore by the Authority of that Parliament it is pronounced and declared that their Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very undoubted King as well by right of Consanguinity and Inheritance as by lawful Election Consecration and Coronation And they Enact Establish Pronounce Decree and Declare Edward the King 's eldest Son Heir Apparent to him and his Heirs of his Body Any Man who compares that Act at large with the former Presidents must see that it was penn'd with great Wisdom and regard to the Constitution of the Monarchy And tho' out of an usual complement to the prevailing side R. 3. has generally been represented as a Monster in Person and Nature the learned Buck has made it doubtful which was the most deserving in all things R. 3. or H. 7. Certain it is that tho' the Crown had by Authority of Parliament been settled in remainder after H. 6. upon Duke Richard and his Heirs and that Duke's Grand-daughter was alive and marriageable in the Reign of R. 3. her suppos'd Right gave him no disturbance and his Possession was very quiet till he disobliged the Duke of Bucks who was the great Instrument in setting him up by rejecting his Claim to be High-Constable of England which was an Authority dangerous to be trusted in the hands of so popular a Man nor could the Duke and his Faction expect to succeed in their conspiracy without the support of French Forces and accordingly applied themselves to Henry Earl of Richmond afterwards H. 7. with whom the Duke of Brittany had for some years kept even E. 4. in awe Henry was glad of the opportunity and to strengthen his Interest agrees with some of his Party to marry the Daughter of E. 4. but was far from making any claim in her right It is very probable that one of E. 4 ths Sons was then alive be that as it will as appears by the Statutes 1 H. 7. cited above his Parliament held that he landed with Title and R. 3. being deserted and slain in the Field of Battle that opposition to Henry was by Authority of Parliament adjudged Treason against the Sovereign Lord of this Land and H. 7 th was held to have recovered his right After this when H. 7. meets his first Parliament he with his own Mouth tells the Commons in full Parliament that his accession to the Right and Crown of England was as well by just Title of Inheritance as by God's true judgment in giving him the victory over his enemy in the Field In which bating the Settlement in the time of the Confessor H. 7. claim'd as W. 1. did by the Inheritance of consanguinity and that Success which gave him the preference before others of the same Blood especially since that enemy whom he subdued was held to be an Usurper This 't is evident that he was accounted before H. 7. Landed But if
it be truly considered his Usurpation if any must have consisted in the Tyrannical Exercice of his Power which the Duke of Bucks had urged to justify his Arms and not from the assuming it and that H. 7 th's Sovereignty was founded in that election of the Body of the People without a formal Convention which pitch'd upon him as a fit Person to deliver them from their real or imagin'd Yoke This will appear beyond contradiction from the proceedings of the Parliament upon his Claim and the moral impossibility of giving it any other colour However the Parliament took to it self full Authority in the matter and declaring their hopes that it might be to the pleasure of Almighty God the Wealth Prosperity and Security of this Realm by Authority of Parliament settles the Crown upon H. 7. and the Heirs of his Body exclusive of all others After which indeed they desire him to marry Eliz. E. 4th's Daughter that by God's Grace there might be issue of the Stock of their Kings but then special care is taken that neither the King or the Children by that marriage should be thought to derive any Title from her for tho' they by Authority of Parliament repeal her Bastardy declared 1º R. 3. they by the said Authority ordein that the then Act ne eny clause in the same be hurtful or prejudicial to the Act of stablishment of the Crown of England to the King and the Heirs of his Body begotten After this H. 7. obtains a Bull from the Pope which says the Kingdom belonged to him not only by right of War and notorious undoubted nearest Title of Succession but also by the election of the Prelates Peers Great Men Nobles and the Commons of all the Kingdom of England and by the known and decreed Statute and Ordinance of the three States of the said Kingdom of England in their Convention called a Parliament According to this tho' his Reign was held to have begun before he had been declared King it was as I shall have occasion to observe in other cases only by way of relation to that solemn Investiture without which he had never been King That his Right must have been derived from a plain Election is very evident for 1. He had been attainted in a Parliament of R. 3. and if the Royal Blood could not be so attainted but whenever a former King ceased to be King the Person so attainted standing next to the Crown should have his Attainder purged by the descent of the Crown then according to them of this Opinion the Earl of Warwick Son to George Duke of Clarence who had been attainted by Parliament in the Reign of his Brother E. 4. must have had the Right before H. 7. And yet if we regard the distinction between Proximity and Representation H. 7. was in that respect more truly the next Heir to the Crown But however the resolution of the Judges 1 H. 7. has been taken they held the disability to cease eo facto that he took upon him the Royal Dignity to be King nor by any imagined Right of Descent 2. At least one of the Children of E. 4. was alive when H. 7. came to the Crown 3. Tho' in truth it appears by the Statute reversing the Attainder of H. 6. to have been the judgment of H. 7th's Parliament that H. 6ths Family of which he was ought to be the reigning Family yet H. 7. had no pretence to preference in that Family but from his Merits and the People's Choice For 1. His own Mother who stood before him upon that Line was then alive 2. He came from a Bastard branch his Ancestor being the Bastard Son of John of Gaunt during former Marriages on both sides And tho' there was a legitimation 20 R. 2. that neither did nor was intended to extend to capacitate for the Royal Dignity However H. 7. is in an Act of Parliament called Natural Sovereign Leige Lord. Certain it is that he was never in his time or after Authoritatively declared or accounted King only in Fact and they who will take the distinction of King in Right and in Fact from the last Parliamentary Declaration in this matter before the Revolution must hold that till the restitution of the younger House which had been settled the Regnant Family for three Reigns successively all the Kings of the elder House were Kings only in Fact but not of Right And yet it is not to be thence inferred that while they of the elder House had possession they were to be accounted Usurpers for not standing first upon that Line which ought to have had the preference But when any Prince of either branch had Justice done to his Merits who would not say that he ought sooner to have been King H. 8th came in under the Authority of Parliament which had made H. 7th the Head of a new Succession as the Crown had been Entail'd upon him and his Issue And tho' H. 8th's Mother was Daughter to E. 4. whatever Dr. Brady suggests it has appeared above that particular care was taken by H. 7th's Parliament that the Crown should not be thought to descend by proximity of Blood but that the Right of Succession was to be derived from Parliamentary Authority It is beyond contradiction that in the judgment of H. 8th and his Parliaments the inheritance of the Crown was variable as Parliaments should determine and that no Man could rightfully succeed without such appointment By Authority of his Paliament 25o. the Marriage with Katherine Mother to Queen Mary was declared void and that with Ann Mother to Queen Elizabeth lawful and the Children made inheritable according to the course of Inhetances and laws of this Realm first to Males then to Females 't was made High-Treason by Writing Print Deed or Act to attempt any thing to the prejudice of that Settlement and the substance of an Oath was appointed afterwards made more express by another Statute repealing all Oaths to the contrary and engaging the Subjects in maintaining that Act of Succession to do against all manner of Persons of what estate degree or condition soever he be By Authority of Parliament 28 H. 8. the Marriages with Queen Katharine and Queen Ann are declared unlawful and the Children illegitimate and the Crown is settled upon the issue of the Body of Queen Jane E. 6ths Mother for want of such issue to such Person and Persons as the King should appoint by Virtue of the said Act. And it provides that if any should attempt to succeed contrary to that Settlement they should lose and forfeit all right Title and Interest that they may claim to the Crown as Heirs by Descent or otherwise The reason for reserving an appointment to the King is very remarkable because as the words of the Statute are If such Heirs should fail as God defend and no Provision made in your life who should