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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	margaret_n	4,538	5	11.4865	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49781	The right of primogeniture, in succession to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland as declared by the statutes of 24 E.3 cap 2. De Proditionibus, King of England, and of Kenneth the third, and Malcolm Mackenneth the second, Kings of Scotland : as likewise of 10 H.7 made by a Parliament of Ireland : with all objections answered, and clear probation made : that to compass or imagine the death, exile, or disinheriting of the King's eldest son, is high treason : to which is added, an answer to all objections against declaring him a Protestant successor, with reasons shewing the fatal dangers of neglecting the same.	Lawrence, William, 1613 or 14-1681 or 2.	1681 (1681)	Wing L691; ESTC R1575	180,199	230

truth in what the Flatterers of Kenneth boast that by this means the Govetousness and Slaughters of Kindred are avoided Neither are the Treacheries of Guardians less to be feared to the Children of Kings left in Minority than of their Kindred wherefore now the Tyrant being fallen who Ravished our Liberty let us valiantly resume the same and his Law Enacted by force and assented to by fear if it be a Law and not rather a selling us for Slaves let us abrogate and repeal the same and Restore again our Ancient Fundamental Laws which brought forth this Kingdom of nothing and from so small beginnings not only advanced to such an height as is inferiour to none of our Neighbours but when cast down hath again raised the same to its former Strength and let us imbrace the present opportunity while it offers it self which if once Elapsed we may in vain seek again The People are by this perswaded and the Twelfth day after the Funeral of Kenneth he is chosen King Anno Domini 994. And was after Slain in Battel in the Town of Vaumond in Louthian in the Second Year of his Reign And though Milcolumbus or Malcolm the second Son of Kenneth the Third who was so tormented in Conscience for Poysoning the first Son of his Brother Duffus to get an Act to Intayl the Grown to his own Posterity made no Conscience to kill Grinius another Son of the same Duffus in Battel Malcolm Son of Kenneth revives and confirms the Law making the Kingdom hereditary and having by the Success gotten the Power of the Sword into his hand in the Same manner as his Father Kenneth had by force Enacted again by force confirmed at the Same Scone by Parliament the Act of Intayl of the Crown to the Issue of Kenneth Buchanan 196. Yet doth Buchanan the same Historian p. 200 201 censure this Act of changing the Ancient Law of Election by Parliament of the Brother or any other person more fit than the Son to be Injust Imprudent and Infortunate Objections against the Reviver 1. Injust 1. Injustice Because he saith Italex enervat vires consilij publici sine quo nullus Legitimus dominatus potest consistere Such a Law enervates the Strength of Parliaments without which no Lawful Government can be for all Government is either by Conquest or Contract As to Conquest there is none demanded or acknowledged on Such a Title As to Contract there can be none without a Parliament who are the Representative of the People to contract for them 2. Imprudent ● Imprudence Because Propinquorum in eos qui Regno potiuntur insidias et Regnantium adversus eos quos et natura et lex voluit ●●ique esse Charissimos suspitiones nesarias quas narrationis or do Exphrabit tot priorum Seci●●orum clades cum illis collatae calamitatibus quae Alexandri tertij interitum sunt consecutae Leves prae ijs tolerabiles videri possunt The Treacheries of Kindred against those who enjoy the Kingdom and the wicked Suspitions of those who Reign against them who by the Bonds of Nature and Law they ought to esteem most dear as this discourse in order shall declare And the Slaughters of so many former Ages compared with the Calamities which hereby followed the death of Alexander the Third were light and tolerable Note Alexander the Third began his Reign Anno Domini 1649. he Married first Margaret Daughter to Henry the Third King of England by whom he had Alexander the Prince David and Margaret who married Hangonamus or as some call him Ericus Son to Magnus 4th King of Norway who bare him a Daughter commonly called the Maiden of Norway The Maiden of Norway had United England and Scotland if she had lived Skene And concerning this Lady of Norway saith Buchanan Lib. 8. p. 241. Edvardus Anglorum Rex gnarus suae sororis neptem Regis Norvegiae filiam unam Ex Alexandri posteris esse superstitem Eandemque Regni Scotorum Legitimam Heredem Legatos ad eam deposcendam filio suo in Scotiam misit c. Edward the First King of England knowing his Neice the Daughter of the King of Norway to be the only Remaining Issue of Alexander the Third and Lawful Heir to the Crown of Scotland he sent his Ambassadours into Scotland to ask her in Marriage for his Son They when they Argued much in the Publique Gonvention of the Publique Benefit which would ensue such Marriage they found the Minds of the Scots not Dis-inclined from that affinity for Edward was a man of great Courage and of great Power and Ambition of greater And the glory of his Valour in the Holy Warr while his Father was alive and in Subduing Wales after his death shone bright Neither could they ever Remember the Scotish and English name to have been nearer Conjoyned than under the Last Kings Neither could old Hostility be more Commodiously abolished then if there were an Union made of both Nations upon Honest and Equal Conditions The Marriage was therefore Readily Assented unto and Conditions added by Mutual assent of both That the Scots should so long use their own Laws and Magistrates till such Children should be born of the same as were able to Reign And if none should happen to be procreated or being born should dye before their Lawful age Then the Kingdom of Scotland should go to the next of the Blood-Royal Things being thus Agreed Michael or as others mention Daevid Wemes and Michael Scot two Knights of Fife of great Repute for their Prudence with their Country in those Times were sent Embassadors to Norway but they because Margaret for that was the Young Ladies Name dyed before their Arrival returned home sad and nothing done by whose immature death there arose such Controversie as vehemently shook England and almost destroyed the Name of the Scots For to go on with the History as he and other Writers Relate it not withstanding this new Act of Intayling the Crown Ten Competitors arose to the Crown of Scotland notwithstanding the Act of Reviver making the same hereditary there arose Ten Competitors for the Succession Erick King of Norway Florence Earl of Holland Robert Bruce Earl of Anandale John de Baliol Lord of Galloway John de Hastings Lord of Abergaveny John Cumyn Lord of Badenair Patrick de Dunbar Earl of March John de Vesey Nicholas de Hues William de Ross All or the most part of them alledging themselves descended from David Earl of Huntingdon Younger Brother to William King of Scots and Great Uncle to the late King Alexander But the Principal and most Potent Factions which contended were that of Balyol and Bruce On which saith Sir Richard Baker Hist 96. broke out the Mortal Dissention between the Two Nations which consumed more Christian Blood and continued longer And the Wars between the Factions of Baliol and Bruce then any Quarrel we read of ever did between any Two People in the

First Because the Exiling or Disinheriting the King's eldest Son indangers the King himself Secondly Because to compass the Exile compasseth the Death of the eldest Son by depriving him of the King's Protection and exposing him to Poison or Assassination of his Enemies and to compass to Disinherit him is a manifest design to destroy him without which his Inheritance cannot be taken from him as Matth. 21.38 They said amongst themselves this is the Heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance And they caught him and cast him out of the Vinyard and slew him Object 8 Obj. 8. The Son of a King born after he is King is to be prefer'd in Succession before the Son of a King born while he is Prince And of this there are many Examples as Henry the First being the youngest Son of William the Conqueror Born when a Prince and born when a King standing in Competition for the Crown of England against Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Brother made this one of his Objections That Robert was born when his Father was but a Duke but Henry was born when his Father was a King and therefore obtained the Kingdom against Robert his eldest Brother And it is recited by Grot. de Jur. Bel. Pac. p. 171. That the like passed in Persia between Cyrus and Arsica in Judea between Antipater the Son of Herod the Great and his Brother in Hungary when Geissa obtained the Kingdom in Germany between Otto the First and Henry though not without Arms and likewise the same Question was between Xerxes and his Brother Atabarzanes and between Artaxerxes Mnemon and Cyrus the Sons of Darius and Parisatis Artaxerxes being the elder but born during the Private fortune of Darius and the like happened between Bajazet and Zemez contending for the Turkish Empire and many others Answ These were put to the Tryal of Battel and for the greatest part the eldest Son had the Success but if it had been otherwise the Event of War is no Rule of Justice and if it had been without War yet where there is a standing Act of Parliament Judicandum est Legibus non Examplis And this Act of Parliament was made to prevent the present and all other Accidents which might happen to disturb the Peace of Succession of the Kingdom and raise Civil Wars which it could not do without all other Sons and Heirs to the eldest Son and there being no other Son mentioned in the Letter of the Statute but the eldest and not a word of Distinction whether born before or after the Father's obtaining the Kingdom Vbi lex non distinguit ibi nec nos distinguere debemus for then the same mischiefs would insue beforementioned of extending a Statute of Treason by Equity which leaves Treason arbitrary to every Judge who will assume to declare it beyond the Letter and to insert as many kinds of Sons and Heirs as he pleased which would make the Law and all the Care and Wisdom of it in ascertaining the Son Heir to be of no Effect and leave the Kingdom in a dangerous Condition that every Prince Married in his Father's life-time and having then some Children and after his Father's Death others might occasion a Civil War who should succeed to the Crown when he died Object 9 Obj. 9. The next Objection That the King 's eldest Son is not yet Declared Prince of Wales or Prince of the Scots The Original of this Title used to be given to the eldest Sons of the Kings of England was from Henry the Third who gave his eldest Son Edward who was afterward King Edward the First on his Marriage to Elianor the Daughter of Spain amongst other Principalities in France England and Ireland likewise that of Wales Hinc natum ut deinceps unusquisque Rex qui secutus est filium majorem natu principem Walliae facere consuevit And in continuance of this Custom Anno 1610. Prince Henry the eldest Son of King James was solemnly created Prince of Wales by his Father As to the Title designing the Prince of Scotland to be next Successor or Heir apparent it seems to have been by their Investiture of Cumberland for saith Buchanan Rer. Scot. lib. 6. p. 175. That Constantine the Third in the Tenth year of his Reign Milcolumbo proximo Regis filio Cumbriam donavit qui honos velut Augurium Argumentum erat eum proxime regnaturum Ac deinceps in proximis aliquot Regibus id fuisse observaturum manifesta adversus veterem Comitiorum rationem fraude quae omnem Liberorum susfragiorum vim prope tollerit non minus quàm Coss●à Caesaribus Designatio Constantine the Third in the Tenth year of his Reign gave Cumberland to Malcoli● the Son of the last King which Honour was as it were the Inauguration or Sign of him who was next to succeed in the Kingdom and was after observed by some of the next Kings to that end to take away by Fraud the free Election by Parliament no less than did the Designations of the Consuls by the Caesars and after p. 189. he sath That Kenneth the Third being King by Election of the People to make the Kingdom Hereditary to his own Son Malcolm finding it an Impediment in his way that his Brother Duffus his Son Malcolm Cumbriae tum praefectus erat quam Regionem Scoti beneficio Regum Anglorum it a tenebant ut Cumbriae Praefectura velut omen Regni esset atque ita jam per aliquot aetates observatum erat was then Governor of Cumberland which Region the Scots held by Gift from the Kings of England to that intent that the Presidentship of Cumberland should be for a Sign who should be next Successor to the Kingdom and so for divers Ages the same hath accordingly been observed he to inherit his own Poisoned his Brother's Son and p. 190. he saith Milcolumbus regis filius in natura adhuc ad rerum administrationem aetate Cumbriae praefectus et princeps Scotorum est Declaratus quod nomen perinde est Scotis atque apud Gallos Delfinus apud priores Romanorum Imperatores Caesar apud posterio res Rex Romanorum quibus omnibus Successor superiori Magistratui dari intelligitur Malcolm the King's Son in an unripe Age for Publick Affairs is declared President of Cumberland and Prince of the Scots which Name is with the Scots Equipollent to the Daulphin amongst the French to Caesar amongst the Ancient Romans and amongst the Modern to the King of the Romans by all which Titles the Successor to the Superiour Magistracy is understood but notwithstanding for the most part this hath been the Custom yet it hath been likewise often omitted and Admit it had not yet there being no Law requiring it there is no pretence that such Omissions makes any incapacity in the Heir to succeed at Common Law or to be within this Statute for the Statute making no Distinction between the King 's eldest Son when

The Mother of Henry the 3d. pre-contracted when King John Married her So if the World had been so much given to slander the Legitimation of the King 's Eldest Son as it is now here had been a greater Exception against the Succession of the Crown to him than can be now in the least shadow pretended for Isabel being pre-contracted to a former Man was a Woman Prohibited by the Law of God to be Contracted or Married by another Man Yet did neither this nor his Minority nor the amazing Danger of a Foreign Enemy Landed assisted by the Native Nobles possessed of the Royal City and entred into the Bowels of the Kingdom Deter this Wise and Noble Parliament for making use of the Coronation of the King 's Eldest Son Coronation of the King 's eldest Son the best remedy against the Barons calling in the French as the best Remedy against it and to Commit his Guardianship to a Person of Courage and Council they Succeeded accordingly for Louys was beaten in a Battel at Lincoln by the Protector and sending back for Recruits into France which were with great Expedition there provided and sent with a Mighty Fleet which Fleet was likewise met and beaten by the English Fleet at Sea and the Army therein Vanquished by God's great Providence which News coming to the Ears of Lovys made him hopeless of any longer Subsistance here with Safety and thereupon makes a Composition for his passage home abjures his Claim to the Kingdom and returns to France But if Louys had prevailed here wi●● Security had the English Nobles had in his French Oath for within a little while after he had taken it he made spoil and plunder of all he could lay hands on Louys a Papist King breaks his French Oath to the Papist Subjects of England Friend or Foe which made many of the English he breaking his Oath to them to think themselves disobliged thereby from the Oath they had given him and to forsake his Party and more would have forsaken him had it not been for shame of Inconstancy and that he had their Hostages in France whom he would have on their Revolt Destroyed And to shew his Intention of perfecting his Perjury to the height if he could have got Power there was a constant Report and generally divulged concerning the Confession of the Viscount Melun a Frenchman who lying at the point of Death touch't with Compunction is said to reveal the Intention and Vow of Louys which was not only to Destroy the English Nobility but if he could the whole Nation Dan. Hist 148. The like Example is of the French Catholick more properly Papist Faith to the Nobility and People of Scotland Buchan Rer. Scot. Lib. 17. p. 156. where appears The French Papists were called into Scotland by the Scotch Papists to assist them against the Protestants there on Mutual Agreement on Oaths between the Papist of both Nations but when the French Army came they spoyl'd alike both Papist and Protestant And the French Garison at Leith destroy all with Fire and Sword as far as they could reach A French Papist King forsworn to the Papist Nobility of Scotland Clades autem Ex vastatione Agrorum non minus ad Papanos sine discrimine Scotorum Nobilitatem Extinguendam esse in corum autem praediis mille Catraphractos Equites Gallos collocari posse reliquam Multitudinem Servorum Loco habendam id Consilium literis ejus ad Gallum interceptis divulgatum mirum quantum Gallorum odium Jam aliis de Causis natum auxit Ambianus autem Episcopus non modo Romane Cause minus aequos sed etiam Gallorum partibus minus quam ipse Censebat aequum addictos in dicta causa agere rapere truci dare jubebat The Devastation of the Countrey about Leith by the French fell no less on the Papist than Protestant Labross advised that the whole Scottish Nobility was without any Difference made to be destroyed and a Thousand French Barbed Horse to be planted on their Estates and the rest of the Multitude to be kept for Slaves which Council his Letters being intercepted wherein he had sent the same to the French King after it was divulged 't is wonderful how it increased the hatred against the French which for other Causes was already sufficiently begun The Bishop of Amiens likewise without over hearing the Cause Commanded not only those who favoured not the Romish Religion but the French Cause as much as he would have them to be pursued taken by Force and Killed Henry the 3d. a Papist King forsworn to Papist Subjects To return again to England we left where King John having broken his Oath to the Nobility and Parliament being dead the same Oath of preserving the Laws and Liberties was again obtained of his Son Henry the Third who in the Barons Wars wanting Money a Tenth is granted him by the Clergy and a Scutage by the Layity of Three Marks of every Knights Fee yet with this Agreement That the often Confirmed Charter of Magna Charta and Charta Forestae should be again Rectified Confirmed and Sworn to and that in the most Solemn and Ceremonial manner as Religion or State could ever devise to do The Solemn manner of giving his Oath by Henry the Third to confirm his Subjects Liberties The King therefore with all the great Nobility of England all the Bishops and Chief Prelats in their Pontificalibus with burning Candles in their hands assemble to hear and pronounce the Terrible Sentence of by-Excommunication against the Infringers of the Charters and at the lighting of one of those Candles the King having received one in his hand gives it to a Prelate who stood by saying It becomes not me who am no Priest to hold this Candle my heart shall be a greater Testimony and withal laid his hand spread on his Breast the whole time the Sentence was Read which was thus pronounced Authoritate Dei Omnipotentis c. which done he caused the Charter of King John his Father granted by his free Consent to be likewise openly Read in the end having thrown away their Candles which lay smoaking on the ground they cryed out So let them who incur this Sentence be extinct and stink in Hell And the King with a loud voice said As God me help I will as I am a Man a Christian a Knight a King Crowned and Anointed inviolably observe all these things And therewithal the Bells rung out and all the people shouted for Joy Dan. Hist 169. but his Oath came to nothing Henry the 3d. secretly Absolved from his Oath to his Subjects by the Pope for he secretly sent to the Pope for his Absolution from them and the Pope for Money by his Apostolick Sentence Absolves the King from his Oath to his Subjects whence insued great Wars and Miseries in the Land Bac. Hist. 86. and though Magna Charta was in his time granted yet he never kept it but

injoyed near Threescore years after Had Antonio been allowed equal Judges or the Law of God been the Rule of their Judgment or had he been allowed to have pleaded the Law of the Land and Custom of both Portugal or Spain for Natural Sons to succeed the Crown he needed not have looked for more Examples of Natural Children than those from whom King Philip himself derived his many Spanish Kingdoms and according to the Customs of Portugal Don Antonio a Natural Son Crowned King of Portugal Don Antonio was on the Death of Henry chosen and Crowned King of Portugal at Lisbon their chief City till Philip sent the Duke of Alva thither with a greater Army than the Portuguese had put Don Antonio to flight Overcome by Philip flyes to England whom the People had Elected King and within Seventeen Days subdued all Portugal Don Antonio thereon flyes into England where he is kindly received of Queen Elizabeth as descended of English Blood and of the House of Lancaster and having entertained him here divers years his Title of being right Heir to the Crown of Portugal is so far approved by the Queen and Council Queen Elizabeth approves his Title as right Heir to Portugal and the Protestant Doctrine That she gave leave to Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake to undertake an Expedition at their own private Charges requiring nothing of her but a few Ships of War who took along with them Don Antonio the Heir of the Kingdom of Portugal and of Souldiers Eleven Thousand and of Seamen about Fifteen Hundred And setting Sail from Plimouth the Fifth day of April they arrived at the Groyne of Galizia whereof with great Valour they took first the Lower Town and afterwards the Higher and after Sailing towards Portugal they met Robert Earl of Essex who without the Queens leave had put to Sea after two days they arrive at Penycha a Town of Portugal which they took and left the Castle to Don Antonio And from thence they march by Land towards Lisbon Threescore Miles off the Foot Companies led by Norris whom Drake promised to follow with the Fleet being come to the West Suburbs of Lisbon they found no body there but a few poor disarmed Portugals who cryed out God save King Antonio The day following the Spaniards made a Sally in which Skirmish Bret Caresly and Carre three stout Commanders were Slain yet did the Earl of Essex drive the Spaniards to the very Gates of the City And now having tarried here two Days and no likelihood of the Portugals revolting which Don Antonio had hoped but was not probable that the strict hand of the King of Spain then in full Possession on them should give them that Liberty sinding fresh Supplies to come into the Town their own Army Sickly Victuals and Powder failing and what was most of all Sir Francis Drake not bringing the great Ordnance as he promised They departed from the Suburbs of Lisbon towards Caseais a little Town at the Mouth of the River Tagus which Town Drake had taken this mean while who excused his not coming to Lisbon by reason of the Flats he must have passed and the Castle of St. Julian Fortified with Fifty Pieces of great Ordnance Near this Place they found Threescore Hulks of the Hans-Towns of Germany Laden with Corn and all manner of Munition which they took as good Prize towards their Charges in regard the Queen had forbidden them to carry Victual and Munition to the Spaniard From hence they sailed to Virgo a Forlorn Town by the Sea side and Pillaging all along that Quarter returned for England having lost in the Voyage Soldiers and Marriners about Six thousand yet not so much by the Enemy as eating strange Fruit and Distemper of the Climate on which I shall only further observe That Kingdoms are not so easily got again as they are lost and that the Disinheriting of the Natural Heir of the Crown of Portugal was the cause of the seizure and Conquest by the Spaniard of that Kingdom Foreign Princes when the Successor is uncertain will stir up so many antiquated Genealogies Antiquated Genealogies used to be raked up by Foreign Princes that every one may pretend a right to the Crown and it hath been already mentioned that there were no less than Five or Six to the Crown of Portugal no less than Ten Titles Foreign and Domestick in Scotland in the time of Basiel and Bruce and no less than Sixteen in England before the Death of Queen Elizabeth and how far Papist Foreign Princes will go when they have none nearer to draw Genealogies as high as the Man in the Moon and when they have no substance to raise the Ghosts of Titles again from their old Purgatories nor Kif nor Kin to the last Possessors appears by the next Example Hacket endeavours to raise a Papist Title to the Crown Richard Hacket was sent from the English Fugitives beyond Sea in the Reign of Queen Eliz. to perswade Ferdinando Stanly E. of Derby Son to Henry newly Deceased to assume the Title of the Kingdom of England by right of Descent from Mary Daughter to Henry the Seventh and threatning him unless he undertook the Enterprize and withal concealed him the Abettor he should shortly die in a most wretched manner But the Earl fearing a Trap was laid for him revealed it and Hacket was thereon Condemned and Executed for Treason but this Fellow's Threatnings proved not vain four Months after for then the Earl being in the Flower of his Age was miserably Tormented and Vomited Stuff of a dark rusty Colour being thought to be Poisoned or Bewitched There was found in his Chamber a little Image of Wax with Hairs of the Colour of his Hair which some thought was done on purpose that men should not suspect him to be Poisoned his Vomit so stained the Silver Andirons that it could never be gotten out and his Body though put in Cere-Cloths and wrapped in Lead did so stink and putrifie that for long time none could endure to come near where he was Buried Bak. Hist 402. When good Correspondence between Queen Elizabeth and King James of Scotland gave the Papists small hopes that ever he would prove an Instrument to restore the Catholick Religion they begun thereupon to bethink themselves of some English Papist that might succeed the Queen but finding none of their own Sect a fit Person they fixed their thoughts on the Earl of Essex who always seemed a very moderate Man and him they advised to have some right to the Crown by Descent from Thomas of Woodstock King Edward the Third's Son But the English Fugitives were for the Infanta of Spain English Fugitives seek to se● up a Title for the Infanta of Spain and to exclude all Protestants from the Crown and desiring to set the King of Scots and the Earl of Essex at odds they set forth a Book which they Dedicated to Essex under the Name of Doleman but

that have insued by disinheriting of Primogeniture either wholly or by Division of Succession into several Kingdoms have been Infinite Amongst the Persians Cyrus the younger Brother by the assistance of Parisatis the Queen Mother contending for Succession against Artaxerxes the eldest raised such Wars and drew in such Foreign Forces of Greeks as the same ceased not till himself was slain by the Army of Artaxerxes The Civil Wars between Hircamus the eldest and Aristobulus the younger Son could not be ceased till Pompey by the Roman Power restored the Kingdom to Hircanus the eldest Disinheriting the eldest Son causeth Patricides Matricides and Fratricides How many Patricides or Matricides or Fratricides this hath caused appears as to the first two by the Examples of Alphonsus the Tenth King of Castile of Gabriel the younger Son of the Marquess of Salusse who by assistance of his Mother cast his elder Brother into Prison pretending he was out of his Wits who breaking out of Prison recovered his Principality and having chased out his Brother Coupt up his Mother in the same Prison wherein she had before Coupt him The like appears in several Persians Turks and Africans And for Fratricides which it causeth Bodin Lib. 6. cap. 5.735 736. saith Foolishly therefore do those Parents who overcomed with the flattery of their younger Sons and disinheriting the elder of their Kingdom have incensed their Children most cruelly to Murder one another so as did the Father of Atreus and Thyestes who willing to prefer the younger before the elder as more sit to manage Affairs of State so silled and foyled his House with many Tragedies And not to seek farther from home we have seen all this Realm on sire with Civil Wars for that Lewis the Devout at the intreaty of his second Wife had preferred Charles the Bald before Lothayr his elder Brother wherefore Pope Pius the Second did wisely in Rejecting the Request of Charles the 7th the French King desirous to have preferred Charles his younger Son before Lewis the Eleventh his elder Brother howbeit that the King had Reason so to do considering that Lewis had without any just occasion twice taken Arms against him so to have taken from him the Crown and to have taken the Scepter out of his hand And as Bodin saith of France he need not look far from home so may we say of England we need not look far from home for the said Events of disinheriting Primogeniture For what caused all those cruel Wars between the House of York and Lancaster from Generation to Generation whereby the English lost both all their Conquests and Hereditary Possessions in France and so many Princes of the Blood and Nobles and Commons were slain but that the Line of a younger Brother contended to be preferred before the Line of an elder And have not as bad Effects happen'd when the Successions of Kingdoms have been joyn'd or divided to more Sons or Heirs than one Division of Kingdoms or part of them or of the Treasure from the eldest to younger Sons destructive to Kingdoms The Father of Jugurtha made him and his two Brothers Associates but he killed his two Brothers and took all himself Constantine divided the Empire to his three Sons they destroyed each other till one had all James King of Aragon appointed Peter his eldest Son to be King of Aragon and James his younger Son to be King of Majorca yet afterwards the elder Brother took the younger Prisoner and in Prison starved him So it befell also the Children of Botislaus the Second King of Polonia who having divided the Kingdom unto his four Sons and having left nothing unto his fifth kindled such a fire of Sedition as could not be after quench't without much Blood of his Subjects So William the Conqueror left the Dutchy of Normandy to Robert his eldest and England to William Rufus and his youngest Son Henry a Pension Robert after the Death of Rufus raising a War to recover his Right of Primogeniture in England from his younger Brother lost the Battel was taken Prisoner by Henry and deprived of his Sight cast into Prison and there died miserably It had been safe therefore for the Preservation of his House and Kingdom to have left the Dominions intirely to the eldest and to have left not one only but both his younger Sons Pensions A multitude of other Examples there are of the ill success where Primogeniture is deprived not only of the whole but of any considerable-part or member of the Inheritance either in Land or Treasure which appears in the forementioned example of the Treasure and fenced Cities given to the younger Sons of Jehosophat therefore destroyed by the eldest Primogeniture not to have the same Prerogative in Private Families as in Kingdoms 2 Chro. 21.2 3 4. Which is to be intended only of Succession to Kingdoms And as to private Families both Equity and Policy is clean contrary and that there ought not to be left above a Scripture double Portion to the eldest where there are more than one which is agreeable with the Examples of most Nations Certificates introduce forein Laws and destroy the Laws of the Land 21. The Certificate Introduces foreign Laws and destroys Magna Charta and the Petition of Right The Foreign Laws it introduces on the Subjects as to Marriage Filiation and Succession and Religion and Liberty and Propriety all thereon depending have been already mentioned are the Imperial and French and of the Council of Trent That by the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple the Adulterous Children of the Wife shall disinherit the Natural Children of the Husband The Trent Law That all Marriages without that Ceremony shall be Null and void and the Children Illegitimate The French Foppery That Natural Children shall not be Natural Children Excommunication Penance Absolution Commutation-Money twice punishing for one Offence and many other Popish foreign Laws all which destroy Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and are inconsistent with the Protestant Religion Liberty and Propriety Praemunire incurred by Certificates 22. That the Certificate Episcopal Introducing such foreign Laws incurr a Praemunire is proved before in the Case of Cardinal Woolsey Lib. 1. cap. 5.37 38. High Treason incurred by Certificates 23. The Certificate if it imposes those Foreign Imperial Papal French or Trent Laws of Marriage or Filiation on the Succession of the Crown or Certifie the King's eldest Son not to be Heir contrary to this Statute of 25 E. 3. incurrs the Penalty of High Treason Certificates not to be traversed or diputed nor under Appeal 24. The Certificate though utterly false and unjust is neither Traversable nor admits Probation to the Contrary nor is under Appeal either of Fact or Law nor is he bound to give any Reason of it But Sie volo sic Jubeo stat pro Ratione voluntas Of which see more at large Lib. 2. p. 175 176 177 178 179. 25. The Certificate causeth