Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A29884
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The case of allegiance to a king in possession
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Browne, Thomas, 1654?-1741.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing B5183; ESTC R1675
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63,404
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76
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him much trouble already and was likely to create him more when Perkin Warbeck was up yet he was resolved to stand or fall by it and studied only how to secure himself in his unjust Possession and rather then depart from what he had done already to the disherison of one Family he was content to make a Law which effectually disinherits his own Children or any other Lawful King or Heir of the Crown if they are so unhappy as to have an Vsurper step before them into the Throne or dispossess them when they are in it Yet both these Statutes fully discover the Wisdom and Policy of the Legislator for they carry in them the fairest shew and colour of equity and justice but serve in reality to the contrary design What more just then that the Inheritance of the Crown should be rest remain and abide in the King if it were lawfully vested in him already and what more true and easie for a King lawfully possessed of the Crown to call to his remembrance then that his Subjects owe him Allegiance and by vertue of it are bound to fight for him against a Rebellion or Vsurpation and ought not to be attainted for it by any subsequent King or Parliament This in the Preamble of the Stat. 11. of Hen. 7. And nothing can be more agreeable to all Laws Reason and good Conscience if it be meant of the rightful King regnant But if it be meant as really it was by King Henry at least of the King for the time being as such whether rightful King or no It is Absolutely false within the Practice as well as Memory of King Henry 7. who himself had attainted Richard 3 d. the then King for the time being and those that fought for him in Bosworth Field and should not have forgot to repeal that Statute whereby they stood attainted when he remembred that it was against all Laws Reason and good Conscience to attaint any Man for Serving in the Wars under the King for the time being It appears therefore that this Law was not made bona fide and such a Law may ensnare and impose upon the Consciences of the Subjects but is not fit to direct or oblige them Unless we can conceive that his Saying he remembred it to be so for the time past when he knew it to be otherwise is enough to make it to be so for the future I have considered as fairly and impartially as I could the Grounds whereupon some now give it for Law that Allegiance is due only to a King in Possession I shall add one or two Arguments against this Position And First Allegiance is not due only to a King in Possession because England is an hereditary Monarchy where there is no Interregnum but the Right Heir of the Crown is actually King at the very moment when his Predecessor dyes And yet it may be a considerable time before he can take upon him the Exercise of the Government as suppose he be in a Foreign Country If therefore he be actully King before he can be in Possession of the Exercise of the Government then the Nation are his Subjects before he is King in Possession in the sense of this question and consequently he has a right to their Allegiance though not yet King in Possession But to this some would answer by a distinction of a twofold a Consident for the taking of the Oath of Allegiance 32. right ARight to the Possession of the Crown and a Right to the Allegiance of the Subjects The Right to the Possession of the Crown they would say descends to the Right Heir immediately upon his Predecessor's decease and in that Sense he is actually King But the Right to the Subjects Allegiance is annexed to the Possession of the Crown and therefore does not accrue to the Heir of the Crown till he is in Possession And for this distinction they produce some kind of Authority from the form of Expression in the Act of recognition b Bagott's Case 6. E. 4. p. 9. 10. of Edward the 4 ths Right to the Crown where he is declared to have been in right from the death of the Noble Prince his Father Richard Duke of York who was slain at the Battel of Wakefield Dec. 30. 1460. very just King of the Realm yet because he did not take upon him to use the said Right and Title to the said Realm till on the 4 th of March following and then entred into the Exercise of the Royal Estate c. and to the Reign and Government of the said Realm From thence is dated his being in lawful Possession of the same Realm with the Royal Power Preheminence Estate and Dignity belonging to the Crown thereof and his being lawfully Seized and Possessed of the Crown of England in his said Right and Title and from thenceforth to have to him and his Heirs all Mannors Castles Honours Services Gifts of Offices Prerogatives c. To this may be replyed First Other Parliaments express themselves in a manner inconsistent with this distinction So most fully the Parliament a Sess 2. c. 4. 1. Mar. By and immediately after whose Edw. 6ths Decease the Imperial Crown of this Realm with all Dignities Dominions Honours Preheminences Prerogatives Stiles Authorities and Jurisdictions to the same united annexed or belonging did not only descend remain and come unto our most dread Sovereign Lady the Queen's Majesty but also the same was then immediately and lawfully invested deemed and judged in Her Highness's most Royal Person by the due course of Inheritance and by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm Nevertheless the same her Highness's most lawful Possession was for a time disturbed and disquieted by the Traiterous Rebellion and Usurpation of the Lady Jane Dudley c. This is Prefaced in that Act as the Ground whereupon the Queen and her Parliament saw a necessity of confirming those Recognizances Bonds c. That bore date as in the First Year of the Reign of Queen Jane viz. Because though Queen Mary was not yet in Possession by the Lady Jane's Vsurpation yet all Authority and jurisdiction being invested in her Person any thing under the Name of Queen Jane wanted a just and lawful Authority I may add to this the Recognition of b 1 Jac. c. 1. King James 1 st where the Parliament declares that immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Queen Elizabeth the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come unto his most Excellent Majesty Secondly I have sufficiently proved above c Sup. p. that Treason lay always against our Kings even before they were in Possession And if so then a Right to the Allegiance of the Subjects is not a consequent of Possession but antecedent to it I may add to the Proofs brought above the resolution of all the Judges in King