Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A29172
|
The great point of succession discussed with a full and particular answer to a late pamphlet, intituled, A brief history of succession, &c.
|
Brady, Robert, 1627?-1700.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing B4191; ESTC R19501
|
63,508
|
40
|
speak not Reason For what Power hath the State to elect while any that is living hath Right to succeed But such a Successor is not the Duke of Lancaster as descended from * So call'd from a Cross he used to wear upon his Back Edmund Crouchback the Elder Son of King Henry the Third tho' put by the Crown for Deformity of his Body For who knows not the Falseness of this Allegation Seeing it is a thing notorious that this Edmund was neither the Elder Brother nor yet Crook-back'd but of a goodly Personage and without any Deformity And your selves cannot forget a thing so lately done who it vvas that in the Fourth year of King Richard vvas declared by Parliament to be Heir to the Crovvn in case King Richard should die without Issue But why then is not that Claim made because Silent Leges inter Arma what disputing of Titles against the stream of Power But however it is extreme injustice that King Richard should be condemned without being heard or once allowed to make his Defence And now my Lords I have spoken thus at this time that you may consider of it before it be too late for as yet it is in your Power to undo that justly which you have unjustly done Thus spoke that Loyal and Good Prelate but to little purpose though there was neither Protestation nor Exception made against this Speech which certainly there would have been had there not been as much Truth as Boldness in vvhat he said And tho' Henry the Fourth did afterwards get the Inheritance of the Crown and Realm of England setled upon himself for Life and the Remainder entailed upon his four Sons by Name and the Issue of their Bodies yet that cannot at all make for my Adversaries purpose since it amounted to no more than a Confirmation of him in the Throne or if it did vve may vvell suppose that a Prince that vvas conscious to himself hovv unjustly he had gain'd his Crown would not be very unwilling to take such a way tho' in derogation to his Prerogative to secure himself if possible tho' not out of an Opinion that they could give him a better Right than they had but because 't is natural to suppose they would upon any occasion be ready to defend what they so solemnly had enacted Come we next to Henry the Fifth who this Gentleman says was Elected But how notoriously false that Assertion of his is will appear from hence that first there was no Parliament called till after his Coronation and in the next place that if the Act of Parliament made in the Seventh Year of Henry the Fourth had so great a Force and Vertue as he says it had it was needless nor can he prove any such thing from that careless and negligent Historian Polydore For Concilium Principum with him does not always signifie a Parliament as any one that has read him which I dare say he never did will perceive nor does his Phrase creare Regem import any more than the King's Coronation besides 't is most untrue which he affirms that Allegiance was never sworn before his Time till after a King was Crowned For the contrary appears from King John and Edward the First Nay 't is undeniably true that the Kings of England have exercised all manner of Royal Jurisdiction precedent to all Ceremony or any Formality whatsoever and that the Death of one King has in that very Moment given Livery and Seisin of the Royalty to the next Heir and by vertue of that Richard the First as a Mark of his Sovereignty immediately on his Father's Death restor'd the Earl of Leicester to his whole Estate Henry the Fifth being dead he was without any Opposition admitted to the Throne although but an Infant but in the Thirty Ninth Year of this King in open Parliament Richard Duke of York the true and rightful Heir to the Crown of England and France made his Challenge and Demand of it as being next Heir to Lionell Duke of Clarence Elder Brother to John of Gaunt from whom descended the House of Lancaster but to this Claim of his it was answered by the King's Friends That the same Crowns were by Act of Parliament Entailed upon Henry the Fourth and the Heirs of his Body from whom King Henry the Sixth did lineally descend * Rot. Parl. 39 H. 6. n. 10. c. The which Act say they as it is in the Record is of Authority to defeat any manner of Title made to any Person To which the Duke of York answerably replies That if King Henry the Fourth might have obtained and enjoyed the said Crowns of England and France by title of Inheritance Descent or Succession he neither needed nor would have desired or made them to be granted to him in such wise as they be by the said Act the which taketh no place nor is of any Force or Effect mind that against him that is Right Inheritor of the said Crowns as it accordeth with God's Laws and all Natural Laws And this Claim and Answer of the Duke of York is expresly acknowledged and recognized by this Parliament to be Good True Just Lawful and Sufficient and 't is agreed that Henry shall hold the Crown during his Life and the Duke of York in the mean time to be reputed and proclaimed Heir Apparent So that we have here as much as can be desired a Parliament not only declaring that a Title to the Crown ought to derive it self only from the Laws of God and Nature and not from any Civil Sanction and acknowledging in at the Bargain that it is beyond the Reach of any Humane Legislative Power to debar and exclude any one that justly claims by such a Right But to â— proceed upon Edward the Fourth's coming to the Crown a Parliament conven'd in the first year of his Reign does acknowledge and recognize his Title in these words as the * Rot. Parl. 1 Ed. 4. n. 8. c. Record has it Knowing also certainly without doubt and ambiguity that by Gods Law and Law of Nature He h. e. Edward the Fourth and none other is and ought to be true right-wise and natural Liege and Sovereign Lord. And that he was in Right from the Death of the said Noble and Famous Prince his Father very just King of the same Realm of England So here again we have another Parliament of the same mind with the last and I doubt not but we shall meet with more of 'em e're we have done When King Edward the Fourth was droven out of his Kingdom by Henry the Sixth 't is true the Crown was again entail'd if it may be properly so call'd upon him and his Heirs c. but still the proceeding was grounded upon the same Bottom with the former Here our Pamphleteer is pleased to make this drowsie Observation that both the Families of York and Lancaster claim'd a Title by Act of Parliament 't is true the latter did because they
for her establishment will clearly appear to any one that considers the state of Affairs and the History of those Times the only true Touchstone to try matters of this Nature by For if we consider how questionable Her Birthright was then generally esteemed we cannot at all admire if for her own Interest and Security she attributed much more to an Act of Parliament than otherwise she would have done For tho' in the Act of Recognition 't is said that her Majesty is and in very deed and of most meer Right ought to be by the Laws of God Queen of this Realm yet the dubiousness of her Legitimacy and her being solemny Bastardiz'd by her own Father by Act of Parliament might very well necessitate her to call in the Aid and Assistance of her people for her defence and establishment since the greatest part of Europe did not only look upon the Title of Mary Queen of Scotland to be much the clearer and juster than Hers and therefore since Queen Elizabeth's Title depended so very much upon Statute Law the most part of the World allowing her no other and a great many too disputing the validity of that she was necessitated to make that as strong as possibly she could and therefore made it Treason for any one during her Life to affirm That Our Sovereign Lady the Queen's Majesty that now is with and by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient Force and Validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof which tho' as we shall afterwards endeavour to prove was not in their power to do yet she knew very well that her people would be very apt to defend what they had then so solemnly Enacted and so thereby she should gain her end viz. her Preservation which was the great thing she aimed at as appears by this that the punishment to be inflicted upon them that broke this Law was to abate very much of its rigor after her death for then it was but to be forfeiture of goods a certain Argument that it was only Temporary Enacted pro re nata for if the Reason of it did continue the same so ought surely the Punishment since they should alvvays stand and fall vvith one another tho' no doubt another tho' less considerable reason might be the Malaversions she inherited from her Father to the House of Scotland vvhich thereby she did certainly endeavor for ever to deprive of the Imperial Crown of England As evidently appears from this Clause in it viz. That every person or persons of what Degree and Nation soever they he shall during the Queens Life declare or publish that they have any Right to enjoy the Crown of England during the Queen's Life shall be dis-inabled to enjoy the Crown in Succession Inheritance or otherwise after the Queen's Death For this was most apparently contriv'd against Mary Queen of Scots and her Son K. James For since almost all Europe spoke openly of the greater Right that Mary had to the Crown than Elizabeth it might very probably be expected that not only as she thought so so she might upon an occasion offer'd not only speak but act up to her Persuasion and then by this Statute she was as much disabled as Statute could do it But besides all this I am inclin'd to believe there was something more in the bottom of it than this of the contrivance of that subtle and cunning Statesman the Earl of Leicester which I gather from this Clause That whoever shall affirm during the Queens Life either in Writing or in Print that any one is or ought to be the Queens Heir or Successor besides the NATURAL ISSUE OF HER BODY BEGOTTEN c. SHALL c. For in Law none are call'd the Natural Issue of any one but those that are Illegitimate Vit Eliz. Adeo ut sayes Camden tunc juvenis audiveram dictitantes verbum illud à Leicestrio in Legem ingestum eo consilio ut aliquem ipsius filium spurium pro reginae Sobole naturali Angles tandem aliquando obtruderet Insomuch that when I was a young man sayes he I have often heard it said that Leicester caused that expression to be foisted in that thereby he might have a pretence to impose one time or other upon the English one of his own Bastards for the Queens Natural Issue A Design truly not unlikely for him to have who always measured the Publick by his proper Interest and sacrificed every thing else to his own ends and then certainly it will never be denied but such an Act of Parliament was necessary to give colour of breaking so ancient and fundamental a Law of the Land as the advancing a Bastard must needs be How contrary to all the Obligations of Justice and Humanity the unfortunate Queen of Scots was treated by her Kinswoman Queen Elizabeth upon the pretended breach of a Statute made in the 27th of her Reign I shall not trouble my Reader or my Self with the recital of which rigorous proceeding as it was chiefly grounded upon her violent hatred to the House of Scotland so I could heartily wish for the Honour of that Great and Glorious Queen under whose Reign this Island so long and happily flourished were razed out the Annals of Time so that there might be nothing left to stain the Reputation of that otherwise unblemishable Princess But tho' the Mother had the misfortune to fall so ignominiously yet the Son King James had not the wisdom to strive fruitlesly against the Stream but prudently never gave an opportunity of finding a colour to resist him who never laid Claim to a Crown till Heaven call'd him to the Enjoyment of it But no sooner was he come into England but having call'd a Parliament his Title to the Crown is solemnly acknowledged and recognized in these words 1 Jac. c. 1. We being bound thereunto both by the Laws of God and man do with unspeakable Joy recognize and acknowledge That immediately upon the decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England c. did by inherent Birth-right lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever And now if King James came to the Crown by inherent Birth-right and undoubted Succession I cannot see any thing that makes more against this Gentleman than this for 't is plain the old Entail made by Henry the Seventh cannot be pretended because that Act was tho' not expresly yet tacitly effectually repeal'd by 28. H. 8. c. 7. 35 H. 8. c. 1. for King Henry could not have a power to appoint who he vvould for his Successor if that Act of Henry the Seventh remain'd in