Man who shall with me carefully compare Records Histories Law-Books Charters and Authentick Manuscripts from before the fixation of the Monarchy downwards The most antient uncontested Authority of this kind which is allowed us even by the Scotch Writers who think themselves concerned to blemish our Antiquities is the Venerable Bede who died in the year 735. He speaking of the coming of the Picts into the Northern Parts of Britanny says The Scotch gave them Wives on condition that when any Controversie arose they should chuse themselves a King of the Female Stock of Kings rather than of the Male. Whereby it appears what was his Judgment of the Successions where they have seemed most fond of an Inherent Right of Birth But as to England where a King has lest three Sons Bede calls them all Heirs Accordingly he more than once mentions Brothers reigning together as Sighard and Frede among the East-Saxons while the West-Saxon Kingdom was govern'd by several petty Kings in distinct Divisions These Kings probably at that time were Tributary or Feudatory Kings under the Mercian Kingdom for in the year 730 I find King Aetilbalt stiles himself not only King of the Mercians but also of all the Counties which by the general name are call'd South-Angles subscribing King of Britanny And in the same year I find an Offa who stiles himself King of the Mercians and also of the other Nations where ever round about By reason of the Inheritance of Crowns belonging to several Sons of Kings the Kings were so numerous that Bede mentions two Brothers Crown'd Kings even of the Isle of Wight But when any were Constituted Kings to the setting aside all the old Regnant Family of that particular Kingdom the Persons so constituted were according to Bede Strangers or doubtful by way of distinction from Lawful Kings And yet all the Kings of the several Kingdoms were descended from Woden from which Common-Stock they all took their Qualifications for an Election as afterwards the West-Saxon Kings did from Cerdic then from Ina and after that from Egbert But generally I take it regard was had to that part or branch of Woden's Family which was the regnant Family within the particular Kingdom where one of that branch was advanced according to that Charter of an Offa where he is stiled King of the Mercians descended from the Mercian Royal Stock About which time I find two Kings of Kent Sigered and Eadberht governing in severalty These 't is likely were Brothers but Eadberht who became King of all Kent upon Sigered's death or amotion was constituted King and Prince by the whole County This was above 60 years before the Foundation of the Monarchy was laid by the West-Saxon King Ina. Tho most of the Moderns and many of the Ancients lay it as late as Egbert's time the Confessors Laws received and sworn to by William the I. and following Kings say of Ina he was elected King throughout England and first obtained the Monarchy since the coming of the English into Britanny His qualification for an Election the Saxon Cronicle places in a Descent from Cerdic But Malmsbury assures us he was advanced rather for his Merit than his being of the Successive or Inheritable Family and that from him to Brictric the Kings were far out of the Royal Line That Brictric was truly elected appears not only in his bare qualification from the Stock of Cerdic but as he was immediate Successor to Kenwolf elected upon the like qualification and in whose Reign it was ordained in a National and Legantine Council that no man suffer the assent of Wicked men to prevail but that Kings be lawfully elected by the Priests and Elders of the People where 't is manifest that lawfully does not limit the Election to any other Rule than what follows in that Law viz. to avoid electing Persons born in Adultery or Incest The Person lawfully Elected is there called Heir of the Country Where Heir is plainly used in the Sense both of the Civil and of our Common Law for the Person that comes duely to the Inheritance in this sense all that have been elected Kings have been held to succeed by Hereditary Right And thus in numbers of Charters in the Saxon Times and after Private Inheritances are granted to Men to leave to what Heir they please to the Church and its Sacred Heirs and to the Barons or Citizens of London and their Heirs To Brictric the first West-Saxon King after the Peoples Right to Elect had been declared by National Authority succeeded Egbert who derived after several degrees pass'd from Ina's Brother It may well be thought that he was Elected with a Consent no less full and formal than was held essential to his Grants of Lands one of which was with the License and Consent of all his Nation and the unanimity of all the Great men Egbert was alive in the year 838 tho' Historians generally suppose him to have died two years before His Sons Ethelstan the Eldest and Ethelwolf were Kings in his life time As I might prove by several Charters but shall here mention but two one in the year 827. where an Ethelstan subscribes as Monarch of all Britanny an other An. 836. where Egbert grants with the Consent of his Son Ethelwolf King of Kent In the year 838. Ethelwolf succeeded Egbert in the Kingdom of West-Saxony by a manifest Election his eldest Brother Ethelstan being then alive and continuing the Monarch or chief King of all Britanny Besides the Evidences above that there was not at that time such a fix'd rule of descent in the West-Saxon Royal Family as made the Kings eldest Son to be King or to have a certain and indefesible Right to be King may appear by the Law or Custom of that Kingdom mentioned by Asser and Nicolas of Gloster and others not to suffer the King's Wife to be called Queen or to sit near her Husband which seems to have occasioned the Ritual for the Consecrating the Wife in consortium regalis thori for the consortship of the Royal Bed Till she was so Consecrated which was to be in a Convention of the States or coming from it she had no more right to the Kings Bed than a Concubine Of this doubtless W. 1. was aware when he expressed a desire to have his Wife Crowned with him Certain it is that the Sons of Kings begotten on Conubines after they had been elected or adopted by the States were always held to have succeeded as Rightfully and to have been as legitimate Heirs as the Sons begotten in Wedlock the Mother's being Queen and by consequence the legitimation of the issue and capacity to inherit the Crown having depended upon the will of the States But that in Ethelwolf's time the word Elected was duely applied
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
and true Allegiance to King William will be wiser than the Law not only declared by this Act of Parliament but by several in former Reigns and with a gross Jesuitical evasion without any colour of foundation in Law or Reason pretend that they have sworn to K. William only as King in Fact but that another was rightful King at the same time This groundless and wicked distinction appears to have engaged some Men in an horrid and barbarous Plot against his Majesty's Person and Government tho' they had sworn to be true and faithful to him and it seems by the case of Sir John Perkins that neither he nor his Casuists thought the Oath to King William any departure from the Allegiance to King James nor the design of Assassinating King William any breach of the Oath to him Since therefore the deceit has taken rise from the supposition that the late King continues King of Right together with the general terms of the Oath which are pretended to leave a latitude for this illegal and nonsensical supposition and an Oath more explicit has been artfully kept off a voluntary Declaration that his present Majesty King William is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms as it is fully warranted by the fundamental constitution of this Government is at this time become a necessary duty when it is evident to the World what they who are of a contrary Opinion will act as they have opportunity But to engage to stand by and assist each other in the defence of His Majesty's Person and Government is not more a consequence of the declaring him rightful and lawful King than it is implied in the Oath of Allegiance appointed by the Act of Parliament which settles the Crown and however the Common-Law Oath and the legal sense of Allegiance manifestly require it If any who have taken the Oath of Allegiance to his present Majesty scruple to associate because of the declaring His Majesty to be rightful and lawful King it is evident that they prevaricated when they swore If they questioned the legality of entring into this before there was a positive Law for it 't is certain they have been little acquainted with the Common-Law Oath of Allegiance and the warrantable Presidents of former times according to which the late Act late Act which enjoyns some to Sign the Association not only gives it Sanction for the future but with express relation to its being voluntarily enter'd into by great numbers of His Majesty's Subjects declares that it is good and lawful And any Man who impartially weighs what I have laid together from Records and other Authentick Memorials of pass'd times must own that it is with full and indubitable Authority enacted That if any person or persons shall maliciously by Writing Printing Preaching Teaching or advised speaking utter publish or declare that His present Majesty is not the lawful and rightful King of these Realms or that the late King James or the pretended Prince of Wales hath any Right or Title to the Crown of these Realms or that any other person or persons hath or have any right or title to the same otherwise than according to an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of His present Majesty and the late Queen Intituled An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and settling the Succession of the Crown such person or persons being thereof lawfully Convicted shall incur the danger and penalty of Praemunire To imagine that after all this the late King either is or ought to be King is to flight all Authorities Ancient as well as Modern Which leads me to the Nature of our Lawyer 's offence who before the Act for the Security of His Majesty's Person and Government held the Signing the Association to be an Overt-Act of Treason against the King de Jure which as has appeared above tends manifestly to depose and unking His present Majesty as in the Eye of the Law there is but one King and he is the only King de Jure Besides this Gentleman admits That by the Statute 11 H. 7. Allegiance is due to a King in Fact and that the Oath of Allegiance was to be taken to him nor can pretend that there ever till of late was any other Oath but what expresly obliged to the Defence of the King and Kingdom against all Men therefore in consequence of his own Notion he must grant that to contend that there may be Treason against any other but the King for the time being is to suppose two contrary Allegiances and therein to depart from that Allegiance which was due even by his own interpretation of the Statute 11 H. 7. But it being evident that by that Statute and the whole course of the Common Law there is but one King I need not tell him the Crime of publishing a written Opinion manifestly importing an endeavour to Depose him If this had been delivered only in Words it is well known who used his Oratory to make words alone Treason within the Statute 25 E. 3. for which I may refer him to the Trial of the now Earl of Macclesfield in the beginning of the late King's Reign and to the Author of the Magistracy and Government Vindicated But as the Opinion was written he may well know from what late Authority Soribere est agere is become a Maxim or Proverbial Nor can he deny the Words to be within the reason of what the Court held in Flower 's Case of a Man's affirming the King to be a Bastard or that another had better Tittle to the Crown because it may draw the Subjects from their Allegiance and beget Mutiny in the Realm or Owen's Case of declaring it Lawful to kill the King being Excommunicated by the Pope both which not to mention more of the like kind were adjudged High-Treason According to the Print of the later Case it would seem that Words alone made the Treason ' but it appears by a MS. Report of one who had been Attorney General and afterwards Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas that Owen's Subscribing his Confession of what he had publickly declared was given in Evidence as the Overt-Act But if any Lawyer who has labour'd to make Treason of Words alone or Writing alone without Publication or Signing an Association to defend the King for the time being against one who had been King but is not should appear not only to have Written or Signed the Opinion above after a Discourse shewing to what Persons it related but to have publish'd this and to have Solicited Men not to Subscribe the Association upon those or the like topicks should he be Convicted of High-Treason against our Sovereign Lord the King it would be difficult not to apply that of the Poet Nec lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire suâ None can the Justice of that Law deny By which who strain'd it against others dye FINIS The
Opinion No Treason against any King but the Regnant nor has any other Person Right against him or his Issue 3 Inst F. 7. a Hales's Pleas of the Crown p. 11. b Nota In the Act 1 H. 7. restoring H. 6. of the younger House His Eldest Son Edward who died in his life time is called Prince of Wales Rot. Parl. 1 H. 7. N. 16. c 3 Inst Proof of the 2d and 3d General Heads Stat. 11. H. 7. c. 1. Vid. Leges W. 1. c. 52. de fide obsequio erga Regem Cap. 58. Proof of the 3d. General Head Vid. Printed Stat. 1 H. 7. * Ret. Parl. 1 H. 7. n. 3. †Vid. Abridg. Stat. usque ad 15 H. 8. ‖ Stat. 1 H. 7. 6. Vid. Inf. Ret. Parl. 1 H. 7. n. 16. Restitutio H. 6. Obj. 3 d. Proof of the 4 th and 5 th General Heads Bede Lib. 1. cap. 1. Vbires veniret in dubium magis de foemineâ regum prosapiâ quam de masculinâ fibi eligerent a Lib. 5. c. 24. An. 725. b Lib. 4. c. 11. Susceperunt Subreguli regnum gentis divisum inter se tenuerunt annis circiter decem c Ib. c. 12. d An. 730. Cart. Orig. in Eib. Cot. e Bede Lib. 4. c. 26. Circiter an 685. Per aliquod spatium reges dubii vel externi disperdiderunt donec legitimus Rex Victred c. f Mon. 1. vol. f. 28. An. 764. g Ib. col 1. An. 762. Ib. col 2. alt cart h Cart. Orig. in Bib. Cot. i An. 699. k Leges Sâ—i Edw. Lamb. Arch. Bib. Cot. sub effig Claud. D. k Cron. Sax. nuper ed. Cujus prosapia oriunda est Cerdico l Malms f. 7. Quam successivae sobolis prosapia m Non parum lineâ Regiae stirpis exexorbitaverunt n Cron. Sax. p. 16 61. o Cron. Sax. Bromton col 770. super populum regnum elegerunt p Spelm. Conc. 1. vol. f. 291 292. q Fund Const 1. part f. 80. r Bracton l. 2. c. 29. Concil Calchuthense Legantinum Pananglicum An. 787. Haeres Patriae An. 800. vel Potius 801. s Cart. in Regist Ab. Bib. Cot. Claud. B. Cum licentià consensu totius gentis nostre c. t Few Historians take notice of him vid. tamen Bib. Cot. Domitian A. 8. Sax. Lat. which shews him to have been King of Kent Surrey and Suffex x Evid Ec. Cant. inter Decem script col 2220. y Bib. Cot. Julius D. 2. f. 125. a z Vid. Cart. Orig. in Bib. Cot. eod An. Egbert Ethelwolf acting together both Kings a Mon. 1. vol. f. 195. An. 843. Welding ealle Britone b Asser Men. ending with the life of King Alfred f. 156. c Nic. Gloc. in Bib. Cot. Caligula A. Ending with the life of Ethelwolf d Rituale in Bib. Cot. Coronat Ethelredi H. 1. e Pictav de Gestis ejus f. 205. f An. 855. g Bib. Cot. Tiber. B. Albas Floriacencis h Exantiq Sax. nobili prosapia oriundus c. Omnium comprovincialium i Exgeneris Successione i Asser Men. k Cron. de Mailros l Bradies Introd f. 359. m Asser Epistola haereditaria immo commendatoria n Append. vitae Alfredi o Ita Haereditas Aethelwolfis Rs. primei ad me devoluta est per cartam inde confectam in concilio nostro apud Langedene p Ethelwerdi Cron. f. 479. Ordinati sunt filii ejus c. q Cron. de Mailros f. 143. An. 160. An. 160. r Append. sup s Polycron R. Higden f. 255. S. Dun. f. 125. 126. An. 872. t Append. Sup. De haereditate quam Deus ac Principes cum senioribus populi misericorditer ac benigne dederunt s S. Dun. A ducibus presulibus totius gentis eligitur non solum ab ipsis verum etiam ab omni populo adoratur ut eis praeseset t Asserii Annales Huntindon u Vid. his Book dedicated to Maud Wife to W. 1. M S. in Bib. COT. Ed. Ipse stemmate regali a Primatis electus An. 925. or 924. x Mat. West f. 180. Selden's Notes upon Polyolb f. 211. MS. Lelandi Wendover MS. in Bib. Cot. y Cron. Sax. p. 11. Huntindon f. 204. Electus est Rex in Merce An. 944. z Bib. Cot. Vitel. D. 15. vita sti Dunstani Autore Osberno Dorob edit Inser script sub nomine Anglia sacra Successst in iure frarris a Bib. Cot. Cleopat B. 13. Alter autor vitae Sti. Dunstani Mox proximus haeres Eadredus c Vid. Enquiry said to be Dr. Bradies p. 14. and the Doctors Introd f. 364. d Bib. Cot. Sup. An. 955. Post hunc surrexit Eadwig regnandi gratiâ poliens licet in utraque plebe Regum numeros nomina suppleretelectus e Quoniam in commisso regimine insipienter egit f Ib. Hoc ita omnium conspiratione relicto elegere sibi Do. dictante c. g Ib. Et regnum ipsius velut aequus haeres abutroque populo electus h Bib. Cot. i An. 975. k Osbernas sup Vitellius A. 20. l Bib. Cot. Regist Magn. Abendoniae sub Effig Claud. B. f. 89. b Omnes utriusque ordinis Optimates ad regni gubernacula moderanda fratrem meum m Vid. Dr. Bradies use of this Introd f. 360. Eaduuardum elegerunt c. miho terras ad regios pertinentes filios in meos usus tradiderunt Ar. 979. * Bib. Cot. sub Effig Claudii A. 3. Ab Episcopis a plebe electus m Ib. volumus concedimus n Benedic domine hunc pure electum Principem Firmatum est pactum inter Regem populum suum firma amicitia jure jurando etiant statutum est ut nunquam amplius esset Rex Danus in Arglià o Bib. Cot. Domition A. 8. sup p An. 1015. or 1016. q Knighton f. 2320. Misit clameum c. r Malms f. 39. Dani Cnutonem eligunt s Internal vid. Argl. Saer Hist Maj. Winton ' Cujusdam Ducis fil nomine Algivam accepit in Concubinam exqua genuit filium nomine Edmundum Irâ—â—side Et t Cited and applied Spelmans Glos f. 277. Bib. Cot. Cleoâ— B. 13. De regno nominibus Regum Anglor c. De Edm. Irnenside Iste erat Bastardus a Ingulfas f. 58. b Leofric Comes tota nobilitas exparte Aquilonis fluminis Tamesiae elegerunt Haroldum Hardecnut fratrem ejus c. Edw. Conf. Vid. etiam ib. Cleop. A. 7. c Bib. Cot. Abbrev. Cron. fin ' temp Cron ' breve ad An. 1062. Haraldus Rex eligitur ab omni populo Angl. d Malms f. 43. e Vid. Scrip. Norm Eucomium Emmae Regno haereditatis vestrae privamini f Gemet f. 271. g M. S. cited in Monast 1. vol. Regni cura Reginae assensu Magnatum consilio Comiti Godwino commitritur donec qui digrus esset eligeretur Bib. Cot. Domit A. 13. Cron. Wint. h Gemet f. 271. Ipse autem