reporters and most Confident Asserters of the undoubted truth of the matter and they boldly took upon them to presage that the Queen was with Child of a Boy that was to finish the settlement of their Church in England as Certainly as if they had seen the Foetus perfectly formed in her Womb or rather as if they had been privy to the Plot of a Supposititious Boy and had their Cue in the Management of it Their manner of talk and boasting increased the general suspition we knew that sort of Priests maintained the vilest wickednesses to be lawful for their Church's service and that they have been notorious for impostures and Forgeries of all sorts they once Forged an Eternal Gospel as they called it to support the Orders of the Mendicant Fryers and if we may believe some of themselves they have a Father Titler in some rich Convents to forge titles to any mans land adjoying to theirs when the Convents have a mind to them those Priests contrived Queen Marys great belly for a counterfeit Heir to the Crown to have Carried on their Catholick cause and as great publick Triumph and solemn Prayers for her Belly were made at Rome and in all Popish Countries as have been made in our Queens Case but their design was unluckily crossed when her Deliverance was Expected and their Joys and Prayers vanished in smoak Some of those Priests were the Agents for the Bloody and unnatural Usurpation of our King Richard the third A Priest Preached at Paul's Cross to make the People believe that King Edward 4. his elder Brother whose Sons King Richard had Murthered was a Bastard not the lawful Son of Rich. D. of York and that Richard was the true Legitimate Son and had been a long time wronged of the Crown belonging to him It was a Priest's invention and management to set up Lambert Symnel a Bakers Son against King H. 7. Counterfeiting him to be Earl of Warwick and laying claim to the Crown and was Proclaimed King in Ireland and marched into England with a good Army to maintain his Pretence and by the like advice Perkin Warbeck another Counterfeit was set up against the same H. 7. by Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy to be Richard the younger Son of Ed. 4. and made such a considerable party in Ireland and was so received and assisted in Scotland that he bid fair for the Crown and we could not forget what a cheating trick the Jesuits invented and practised of later years about procuring an Heir to a Crown that is become their chief support in Europe The Remembrance of these and many other wicked frauds of the Romish Priests of the like import to change the Successions of Crowns to serve their Church and seeing them so busie and industrious to prepossess the Peoples minds with an opinion that the Queen had a great belly and that it was a Son when it was impossible in Nature to be known if she had been then really pregnant these things we say put together confirmed our suspitions that they acted a part as they were influenced and that a Counterfeit Son might be resolved on to be set up for Prince of Wales as common same confidently reported The Collections and Observations we have since made of the things that occurred during the Queens supposed pregnancy and about her pretended Delivery of this Son have made the truth of the matter so plain in our apprehensions that now we no more suspect but conclude and believe this pretended Prince of Wales to be a meer Counterfeit and we hold it our Duty to Your Highnesses to our Country and to the whole Protestant Interest this Child being set up against all these to set before you all the Memorials we have taken in the whole matter several of us at least having been very near the Court during the whole Transaction We crave leave to put Your Highnesses in mind that before we can convincingly set forth the special and particular Facts and Circumstances that we have remarked in this matter 't is necessary that we first remember and evince the truth of some general Conclusions about the Proofs and Evidences whereby a true Judgment ought to be made of this supposed Prince and if your Highnesses shall be clearly satisfied in the truth of those Conclusions whereof we cannot doubt you may be fully convinced by them alone without further hesitation or Inquiry that this supposed Prince of Wales cannot be justly judged by any kind of Rules of Justice or Law whatsoever to be in truth born of the Queen The first certain Conclusion to be remembred is this That by the Universal Rules of Justice and Equity any Child of our Queens that was expected or hoped to be the Heir of the Crown of three Kingdoms and to postpone or set aside an undoubted Heiress apparent and also the right Expectance of a warlike Prince and divers Princesses of the Blood we say such a Child ought to have been attested to be born of the Body of the Queen of the personal certain knowledg of proper Witnesses suitable to the case and concern in so great a number and of such unspotted fame undoubted Authority and perfect indifferency that the Proofs of its Birth could never have been reasonably drawn into doubt or question either in England or any other Christian Kingdoms or States A Son of the Queens Body had naturally and really made an entry in the moment of his Birth upon the apparent right of her Royal Highness She had thereby rightfully ceased to be Heiress apparent to the Crown and no Rules of natural Civil Justice nor the Law of any Civil Government will allow or suffer entries to be made and persons to be outed of the Rights they apparently had in Judgment of Law without sufficient proof either of right Paramount to the others or a determination of those former Rights apparent Our English Laws and special Statutes for that purpose abhor any Entry upon the apparent legal Right of another either of the Will of the King or of any Subject the Admission of such a Practice is absolutely destructive of Property and all Civil Justice and Government it dissolves the whole Civil Government and turns all into the confused course of natural Right wheresoever a Civil Government and Property is established on Entry of Will upon the Legally apparent Right of others without sufficient Manifestation of their own greater or better Rights is directly contrary to Gods Eternal Law and that of all Righteousness amongst men Upon these certain infallible Foundations we build our Conclusion That this supposed Prince of Wales Born of the Body of the Queen ought by the Laws of England the Fundamental Rules of all Civil Justice and Government and by the unalterable Laws of God to be manifestly proved by them that pretend it beyond all possible Contradiction in such manner as is described and specified in the preceding Conclusion and such proofs ought to have been publickly divulged and made
Excluded she brought forth a Prince that was afterwards chosen Emperor Frederic the 2 d. If it were needful we could shew Your Highness that the Honour and Security of our Royal Family of England with the peace and safety of the Kingdom were intended in the Constitution of our Legal Monarchy in such manner that the Kings should not have Power at their will to Change the Succession or by any means prevent the Descent of the Crown to the next in Blood. But if the Kingdom should believe his Majesties Affirmation of this supposed Princes Birth without proof thereof according to the Laws and Customs of England the next Succession were really and actually thereby put out of the Legal Course and referred to the will of the King which is in effect to make the Crown Patrimonial whereas by the Laws and Customs of England the Right to the Crown descends to the next of Blood and the Successor is most properly to be stiled the Heir of the Kingdoms by force of the Kingdoms Laws and cannot be defeated of the Succession by any Act of the Predecessor if therefore the King should gain so vast a power by imposing on the People to believe his Attestation of this supposed Princes Birth 't is manifest that natural Justice as well as the Law of England makes it of no force or effect to the prejudice of her Royal Highness in her Esteem of being the Heiress apparent to the Crown We believe the Jesuits and other maintainers of this supposed Prince will claim as is their common practice against these our Laws whose force detects and defeats their Impostures they will pretend that 't is unreasonable to expect a Testimony of his Birth from such Witnesses and in such manner as are herein described exclusive of all Roman Catholicks but the reason and wisdom of these Laws are irresistible and its a great Circumstance shewing their guilt that they are displeased with the Laws that prevent Falsehood and Impostures and require proofs of Facts as clear as the Sun. The just and innocent are never offended at any Law that provide for Truth and Righteousness they cannot but be conscious to themselves that it was more easie to have provided such Witnesses as our Laws requires of a Princes Birth then to have had such as they provided that would Counterfeit to be Spectators and be content as 't is now said they were to see nothing of the Fact of which they were to be published to the Kingdom to have been the knowing Eye Witnesses 'T is notorious that the presence of ten of the Protestant Nobility of either Sex and other persons of Eminent Quality might have been as easily procured as one of the Catholicks if it had been intended to deal justly and fairly with the Kingdom and they know that the Protestants throwout Europe not the Papists wanted and desired satisfaction about the Queens great Belly and her delivery the suspitions of a Counterfeit Prince were strong amongst them and decryed by all the Papists they knew the Friends and those of Consanguinity with her Royal Hss were as ready to attend if they had been called as any Catholick whatsoever and they were not ignorant that Custom Law and Natural Justice required that Convenient notice should have been given to her Royal Highness above all others of the Expected time of the Queens Delivery that such Noble Matrons as she had thought Necessary might have been sent to have Continually attended near her Majesty and to have been impartial Witnesses of the Birth beyond Exception they understood the custom of calling Embassadors to be present at the Queen Delivery and that a Common fame of a designed Imposture was spread in forraign Protestant Countries and that there were Envoys and Publick Ministers from some of them Especially that the Dutch had an Embassador there and Expected to have been called they know that those Provisions for legal unquestionable proof of the Birth that was pretended have been no hindrance of the presence or assistance of as many Papists of each Sex as Her Majesty had desired and she might have as intirely depended upon their only help if it had been her pleasure as if those lawful Witnesses had not been present The Popish Councils delude his Majesty if they perswade him that any pleas of Inadvertency Neglect or Ignorance can satisfy the Kingdom instead of the proofs in the Case that the Custom and Laws of England require 't is a Rule of our Law that none shall make advantage of their own lachez that is their Failers or neglects of what they ought to have done less evidence is never to be accepted in our course of Judicature because the Party concerned was negligent in seeking it or ignorant when he might have known his duty We presume Your Highness in reading this may be satisfyed in the Truth of our first Preliminary Conclusion which is necessary to be always remembred in order to a just Judgment to be made of this supposed Prince of Wales and of the things proper to be done by Your Highness by reason or occasion of his pretences we doubt not Your Highness will clearly perceive what you may in justice demand of his Majesty in the Case preserving nevertheless a most pious sense of a fillial Duty We may more remember Your Highness that as the case now appears no acknowledgment of that pretended Prince can justly be required of Your Highness by his Majesty It s contrary to Justice and our Laws that her Royal Highness should depart from her place and claim of Heiress apparent to the Crown and resign it to a Child who is not yet lawfully witnessed to have been born of the Queen VVe therefore put your Highness in remembrance of a second Conclusion fit to be premised in this Case as an absolute certainty to be insisted on that is That neither the Laws of England nor any natural or Civil Justice do require of your Highness any kind of Testimonies or proofs that the pretences of this supposed Prince of Wales are false and feigned or that he was not born of the Queen Whosoever claims to be the natural and legitimate Son of any Family it s wholly and solely incumbent on him to prove it by the Laws and Customs of all Civil Governments and by the manifest Light of Nature those two Rules of the Civil Law are adopted by all Countries into their courses of Judicature Qualem quis se facit pro fundamento intentionis suae talem se debet probare and Filius qui petit haereditatem tanquam filius debet probare filiationem if Sonship or other quality or relation be the ground of a demand that Foundation must be always proved by the demandant if he that pretends to be Heir by his Birth to any inheritance fails of such sufficient Witnesses as the respective Laws of Countries require to prove his proximity of Blood there needs no Testimony on the part of those that deny his Linal Descent
known to England and the World before his Patrons ought to have entred in his name upon her Royal Highnesses Right in the Judgment of our Laws to be stiled and reputed the Heiress apparent to the Crown of England and to assume to him that Honour and Glory which her Highness justly had in England and all the Kingdoms and States of Europe to be apparently the next Successor to the Crown of England Questionless all the Civilized Kingdoms in the World that are Hereditary have pursued these principles of Justice and Reason in their common Custom to have their Princes born in the presence of the Princes of the Blood the chiefest Men of Religion and the greatest Nobles and Officers in the highest Trusts for the Kingdom and the Ambassadors and Ministers of foreign Kingdoms and States That the Heirs o those great Inheritances might be so known and manifest that it might not be possible for any Controversies to arise about their Births and their being the Lineal Heirs of the Respective Kingdoms Whensoever Rights of any kind are obtained meerly by virtue of Birth those that claim them are bound to prove by Witnesses suitable to the Respective Circumstances of every Case the reality of their pretended Birth at their Peril of being justly excluded from the Rights they demand yet Justice does not always require the like Witnesses and clearness of Testimony about the Birth of all common Persons the Circumstances of their cases being so different that Witnesses of such qualities and in such a number as may be sufficient proof for the birth of one Heir may justly be judged insufficient for the birth of another But the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales was attended with such Circumstances that Justice required that his Birth of the Queen should have been testified by a plenty of such Witnesses as their proof might have amounted to the highest degree of Certainty that is possible to be built upon humane Testimony doubtless the Circumstances of his pretended Birth were very extraordinary It was generally reputed and believed that the Queen's sicknesses and infirmities had disabled her to bring forth a living Child The famous Physician Dr. Willis shewed that opinion to his Brethren of one of her Children when her Majesty was much stronger saying there were mala stamina vitae and the popular opinion therein was confirmed by several years experience It was notorious that two hundred to one throughout the Kingdom did not believe the report that her Majesty was with Child notwithstanding all that was said of it by the King and the Queen and the Prayers injoyned thereupon That her Majestys pregnancy was as little believed in foreign Protestant Countries as in England and Pamphlets were published in several Countries as well as in England that declared the Report of the Queens being with Child to be nothing more than an Artifice of the Jesuits by those hopes of a Popish Successor to the Crown to encourage their Catholicks in their Designs and to gain Proselytes It was publickly known that there was a jealousie in the greatest part of the Kingdom that the Popish Councils had designed to impose upon them a counterfeit Prince of Wales There were also Circumstances about the Birth of this supposed Prince of another sort and no less important It was the general opinion that the Security or Danger of the Profession of the Protestant Religion not only in England but in all the Kingdoms and States of Europe would be the certain consequence of her Majesties bearing or not bearing a Prince of Wales The Birth of such a Prince was to be a great diminution of many Princes and Princesses in their Expectancy and Right to the Succession to the three Crowns and threatned England with the Danger and Misery of falling under an Infant Prince in name and in truth under the Domination of Rome All these special Circumstances attending the birth of this supposed Prince of Wales being of such nature import and number as the like never met together before in the Expectations of the birth of any Prince in the world In this Case Natural Justice common to all Nations and the practical reason of the special Customary Law of England in the proof of Matters of fact we say both universal Justice and the Peculiar Law of England required indispensibly that there should have been such proper proof that this supposed Prince was born of the Queen as was answerable unto all the special Circumstances in the case such proof as had comprehended the objections that might arise from every of them as fully as was possible in the nature of the things that the testimony of his birth might have been sufficient to have satisfied the most jealous and distrustful about it in our own and foreign Countreys and to have removed all the prejudices against it that were known to have been spread far and near by Common fame It was absolutely necessary in Justice Law and Prudence to have had such proof of his birth as our precedent conclusion hath asserted that is That there had been Testimony of it of personal and absolutely certain knowledg Women to have testified their Personal sight and perception of that very individual Child coming naturally out of the Queens womb and men to have witnessed their immediate free and full sight and inspection of that very Child by the womens assistance in his pure natural nakedness with all the known marks and tokens of his being just separated from the womb and from those other things that are natural to the birth of a Child the effects of such separation being there visible and impossible to be hidden such Testimony is always provided for in the birth of every Prince of the blood in France tho never so remote from the Crown That the witnesses of those matters had been fit and proper witnesses suitable to the greatness of the Persons and things that might be in question and to the vast Extensive Consequence that may ensue thereupon Nature or the first light from God Created in the minds of mankind dictated the equity of those Roman imperial Laws that appointed those which asserted filiation or marriage to prove them by fit or proper and most unquestionable witnesses most of the Writers about those Laws serve themselves therein of these Words severally which we will for shortness put together Matrimonium filiationem qui asserunt debent probare per testes idoneos omni Exceptione majores they that alledg a marriage or a Child being by virtue whereof they claim ought to prove it by witnesses that are above or beyond all possible Exception in this case there ought to have been such fit witnesses that nothing could have been objected against them in any respect either by Englishmen or Foreigners That the witnesses that Law and Prudence required of both sexes had been fit and proper in respect of their years or age that the women had been Matrons whose gravity and sobriety were fit
the mouth of Publick fame or to have shewed the justly jealous Subjects that there were such fit and proper Witnesses that a Prince was now born of the Queen as were unquestionable without any possible exception whose truth and faithfulness might be relied upon securely Justice also required for full security that there had been competent and sufficient numbers of those fit and proper Witnesses at least that there had been so many of them as were able to obviate all ways and practices of deceit that it could not have been supposed to be possible that a Fraud had been put upon them This sort of Caution is always just and necessary in the Birth of our Princes but in the present case there could have been no honest end intention or pretence to have confin'd themselves to a small number of Witnesses of a fact wherein a Kingdom known to be filled with just suspitions of an Imposture to be put upon them were to be satisfied meerly by the Witnesses averrment and a Noble Princess also to be excluded from being Heiress apparent to the Crown Our Laws require Witnesses of Facts answerable to the Nature and Circumstances of them and always require ample Testimonies when the Parties that are obliged to prove them had it in their powers and choice without charge or burden to themselves to have multiplied their Witnesses to what number they had pleased and could not be ignorant of the usefulness or necessity of it and yet more especially if the fact were such whereby Great Benefit was to accrue to them and Answerable Loss unto others in such a Case it would much abate the strength of the proof in the course of the Law if there were such a small number of Witnesses as might leave room for any objection or the least doubt of the fact The ancient Roman Imperial Laws in the Cases of Subjects when there was a Posthumus to be born that might exclude another Heir apparent We say those Laws in common natural Equity to prevent a supposititious Child appointed thirty days notice to be given to the apparent Heir and all others whose Right was concerned of the Expected time of her Travel and delivery that on the behalf of the Heir apparent Women might be sent to be present to see the Birth of the Child that might become the Heir that Law confined the number to five free Women to be sent allowing her that was to be delivered to have also five Women of her own chusing and no more so that the number to be present at her delivery should not exceed Ten besides two Midwives and six Maid Servants that were no Witnesses This Rule was set down positively in the Empire as the Dictate of natural Equity and Prudence and although England hath no positive written Law that prescribes any set number of Friends to be sent in such a case by the Heir apparent to see the Birth of such a Child yet the Custom and Practice is in every such case tho' no Fraud be suspected to give notice to the next Heir and that some of their Friends are customarily sent to what number they please to be present at the Birth of the Child that may be an Heir to the Exclusion of another That practice with us is not of Favour but of Legal Right our Common Law generally Binds all that set up a claim to any thing that another hath to give such Notice of his pretence as is needful to make his just defence if he can and to prove the Fact whereby he claims by such a number of Witnesses as may put the Truth of it out of doubt to the Court of Judicature but that number in the Course of our Law is greater or smaller according to the Cause that appears of jealousy or distrust of the Truth of the Fact pretended These Rules of our Law and the Reasons of them fully include the case of a Pretence of a Child to be born to exclude an Heir apparent and if there were many known grounds of suspition in any such case that it was designed to set up a supposititious Child and a notorious Common fame of it and no notice were given of the time expected of the Childs Birth hoped to be Heir to the then Heir apparent or to any that had expectances of the Inheritances We say in such a case by the Rules and Practices of our Laws a small number of Witnesses of the Birth of a Child ought not to be believed since they that should claim for such a Child might by due notice to the Parties concerned have had such Witnesses as had put the Childs Birth beyond all question Certainly by the reason of our Common Law there ought to be a much greater number of Witnesses of the Birth of every of our Princes than of the Birth of the Subjects Heirs but our Law requires that the Birth of this pretended Prince of Wales should have been proved by a greater number of Witnesses than was ever needful heretofore in the case of a Prince there ought to have been so many fit and proper Persons present at his pretended Birth that it might have been manifest to all that had heard it that the Eyes of so many Witnesses of such Condition Knowledg and Judgment could not have been deceived in what they had testified to have known and seen the number ought to have been so considerable that there could have been no reasonable Suspition that so many of both Sexes and of various Dignities Honours and Interests and some of them of Consanguinity with the former Heiress apparent had made a Confederacy amongst themselves to abuse the Kingdom with a Counterfeit Prince and that so many had kept each others Counsel in a Fraud and Falshood so odious and injurious It had been common Prudence as well as Justice to the Realm that the Witnesses of the Birth had been very many that amongst such a Number some of them might have been known in one part of the Kingdom and others in another Part and that some of their Names and Qualities might have been known in Foreign Countries and for that Reason the Ministers of Foreign Princes according to Custom ought to have been some of the Witnesses the Peoples knowledg of the Names Qualities or Persons of the Witnesses had much conduced to their fuller assurance of the Truth it would have appeared to them incredible and almost impossible that the Integrity of such and so many Witnesses could have been attacked either separately or jointly But on the contrary seeing Custom and Law required a good number of fit and proper Witnesses to have made up a Testimony of the Birth of a Prince that might have been truely said to have been omni Exceptione majus above all possible Objections against it and seeing the wit of Man cannot invent a reason why the King and the Patrons of this pretended Prince of Wales did not provide such ample and unquestionable Testimonies that he was born of
or the Laws of England Our Laws require and demand an entry to be made upon all Intruders into the Rights or Inheritances of another there ought to be legal Interruptions made of all wrongful Possessions however obtained A long permission of an illegitimate Child to pass for a legitimate Heir is of dangerous consequence to the true Heir of an Inheritance 't is a known Rule both in our English Laws and the Civil Laws Tacens longo tempore praesumitur consentire he that remains long without answering any thing to an Intruders claim seems to allow it We crave pardon that we must freely tell your Hss that it hath been our astonishment that your Hss have been so long silent and have deferred to make your just demand and that you have so long suffered her R. Hss Chaplains to pray publickly for this supposed Prince of Wales Your Hss Heart cannot desire the God of Truth and Righteousness to prosper such an Invasion of your own and the Kingdoms Rights nor to bless the Impostor as such being set up tho an Innocent Child to be a Tool in the hands of others to destroy the Protestant Profession your Hss claims to the greatest Inheritance and the best Civil Government known in the World. We believe your Hss to be true Christians that tremble in the Worship and Prayers before the Eternal Majesty and therefore hope such a shew of owning him will not be longer suffered to be acted before the great God that searcheth all the hearts of Princes and Subjects If your Hss shall first make this 〈…〉 and Satisfaction therein be not given by the maintainers of the supposed Prince 〈…〉 al Justice and our Laws dictate that your Hss demand a retraction by the 〈…〉 all Christian Kingdoms and States of the false News they have published of the Birth of a Prince of Wales and their Vindication of her R. Hss Right apparent to the next Succession of the Crown When a wrongful Claimer to be Heir of any Inheritance cannot prove his true Descent the Court wherein he sues his Claim not only rejects and damns his false Pretences but openly declares the Counterfeit Tricks or Forgeries that they observe to have been attempted to support the false Claim and our Laws enable the Heir that hath been disturbed to demand by his Action against the false Pretender Satisfaction for the Scandal of his lawful Title and our Laws further require his prosecution for Justice against all the known Confederates in that intended Wrong and Fraud for their several Crimes therein committed We are sensible that most Catholic Princes have a prejudice to us in the Rights we claim as English Protestants not knowing our Laws and Liberties and we have therefore proposed these two Demands to be first in order made by your Hss in the behalf of her R. Hss and the Kingdom that we might convince them that we have Reason and Justice according to their own Laws and Rules of Right to seek your Hss Protection against the King's Practices as they yet appear in forcing us to stoop to a Counterfeit Prince and to change the Succession of the Crown and the whole Government your Hss having therein a joint Concern with us and our Laws and Nature it self call upon you to defend your own and the Kingdom 's Right to preserve the Succession of the Crown as it is by the Laws established which the King had no pretence of Power to Change. But we must also humbly fly to your Hss to protect us against the horrible destruction made by the King of all our Laws for the Reformation of our Christian Religion and our Security against the open professed and mortal Enemies of our Liberties therein the King having declared to the World that those Laws shall never hereafter be put in Execution and to make our Case therein desperate hath caused his Judges to justify him in what he hath done We must also pray your Hss help against his Invasion of all our Civil Rights and Fundamental Liberties and his utter subversion of the Free Government of England by its ancient Customs and Laws We cannot doubt but your Hss will be convinced by this Memorial that we have not complained of our Oppressions until they are become intolerable nor sought any Relief save from God alone until your Highnesses justly expected inheritance and the very being of our Civil Government are in the most extream danger of utter ruine We are and have been truly Loyal to the King and never refused obedience to any of his legal Commands or any whatsoever that could consist with all our other Duties to God and our fellow Subjects We have been content to suffer personal wrongs and manifest Injustice and considered the Corruption of Men that abuses and particular wrongs will happen in all Governments and ought patiently to be born whilst the Fundamentals of Civil Government and Justice are sacredly preserved Our Christian Charity taught us that 't is better that a few suffer wrongs than to hazard for their just Relief more effusion of Blood or other Mischiefs than can be recompensed by their obtaining Right We know the Jesuites crafts might have clouded the Justice that might have been demanded in particular Cases and we have therefore staid until the Justice of what we pray is become demonstrable unto all that are not corruptly and wilfully blind or led blindfold by the Jesuites or Romish Priests We are sensible that the King hath used the Name of the Royal Authority and Prerogative in all the lawless powers that he hath exercised and we durst not pray your Hss aid against his doings if there could be reasonably any doubt or question whether the things he hath done and daily doth might be authorized by the Royal Powers and high Prerogatives which belong to the Kings of England 'T is most unquestionable that the Noble English Monarchy and Government had a legal Foundation and was and is established upon Customs Franchises and Laws peculiar to the English Nation It was always free and independent upon all the Powers and Potentates on Earth the Kings and the People are and of right were always free and absolute to bind themselves by their own Laws made by their joynt consent and not otherwise they could never be bound by any others than themselves save only by the Laws of the most high God. A King of England ceaseth to act by the English Kingly Authority or as a King of England if he yield up himself or his Subjects to be bound or subjected to any other Laws Canons or Jurisdictions than such as are made or freely received by the mutual agreement of the King and the representative Body of the Realm in Parliament 'T is declared in the St. 16 R. 2.5 that the Crown of England had been so free at all times that it hath been in Subjection to no Realm and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome
Licensed and Entred According to Act of Parliament AN ACCOUNT OF THE REASONS OF THE Nobility and Gentry's Invitation Of His HIGHNESS the PRINCE of ORANGE INTO ENGLAND Being a MEMORIAL from the English Protestants Concerning their GRIEVANCES With a Large Account of the Birth of the Prince of WALES Presented to their HIGHNESSES The PRINCE and PRINCESS of ORANGE LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew and Jonathan Robinson in St. Paul's Church-yard 1688. A MEMORIAL FROM THE ENGLISH PROTESTANTS FOR THEIR HIGHNESSES THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF ORANGE IT cannot be unknown to Your Highness that the Protestants of England that are Faithful to the Principles and Doctrines of their Religion and to the just Established legal Government are in divers kinds most intollerably vexed and oppressed by the Popish Contrivances and Practices covered with the pretences and name of Authority That Illegal things are daily imposed upon them in their several Stations and Places which they are convinc'd in their Consciences can never be justified unto God or the Kingdom and yet they are pressed upon them without regard to their Consciences by loss of their Offices and Imployments and many other threatned Effects of the Kings displeasure That many of their legal Liberties Benefits and Means of subsistence in their Churches and Colledges are taken from them by meer Will and Pleasure and Processes and Prosecution by arbitrary Commissioners are threatned and begun against great numbers of them without their guilt of the least Offence or Transgression against any of the Laws of this Realm That they are debarred and spoyled of the due free Election of their Magistrates and Officers in their Cities and Towns and pretended Officers and Magistrates are imposed upon them and turned out and put in at the Kings absolute Will as they are found ready to comply with and serve the Popish Design either ignorantly or corruptly That several of the Bodies Politick of their Cities and Towns are declared to be dissolved at the Kings Pleasure to terrify and subjugate the minds of all the rest and the Citizens and Burgesses are thereby Disfranchised and Divested of all their good Customs Freedoms and Priviledges if they cannot in Conscience comply with Illegal Commands and will not treacherously surrender their legal Rights and Priviledges unto the Kings Will. That the legal securities provided by the Kings and Kingdom in Parliament against the dangers of their Religion and Liberties are by the Kings absolute Command thrown aside and made useless by pretence of his Power to dispence with those penal Laws notwithstanding the Subjects Right in them for the protection and safety of their Religion Liberties and Lives whereby the very Foundation of all the Subjects Rights and Properties is undermined and shaken and a New Claim is set up and maintained that the Subjects have no Right Property or security against the Will and Pleasure of their Kings That by colour of such a dâ—spensing Power the trust of the Kingdoms Defence and Safety by military Powers is put into such hands as are made incapable of them by many express Laws of the Kings and Kingdoms in Parliament which justly give the Protestants sad apprehensions of imminent dangers seeing themselves put into the Power of those that publickly profess to be in Union and Communion with the Church of Rome that openly declare themselves to be the mortal Enemies to all Protestants and that they are bound upon peril of their Salvation to seek their Destruction if they shall continue constant to the Protestant Profession That contrary to the express Laws of the Realm lately declared in Parliament an Army of Papists and Mercenaries is maintained and dispersed through the Kingdom in full Peace to the great disquiet and terror of the Pretestants and they are in divers ways constrained to receive these Soldiers into their Houses to sojourne there against their Wills whereby they are deprived of their Peace and Security in their Families and of their Converse with their Neighbours and Friends and of the advantages they might make in their ways of living That the King hath barred and forbidden the execution of the Ancient Laws of the Realm against divers sorts of Treasons and other most hainous Crimes and all the Statutes now known to have been made from age to age for 500 Years past in relation to the Popes and Romish Priests Powers and Practises are suspended tho' the Experience of the Papists in all those Ages shewed those Powers and Practices to be so mischievous and dangerous that they often complained in Parliament they feared the Destruction of the Kingdom by them His Majesty also so Controuls the Courts of Law in the Course wherein Justice ought to be administred that the Judges tho' they have highly served the Popish Designs are turned out of their Places Honours and Pensions if they dare but suffer the Laws justly to acquit those whom the King would have condemned as appears amongst divers other Instances by his late displacing Judge Holloway and Judge Powell upon the legal acquittal of the seven Bishops We need not shew to your Highness more particular Instances of our Oppression since 't is notorious that there is a publick attempt authorized by the King to subvert the very Foundation of the whole Civil legal Government of the Kingdom that is the Peoples free Election in the Customary Established Course by Counties Cities and Boroughs of their Deputies to Act and Consent for them in Parliament unto all Laws to be made and repealed The truly Noble Monarchy was founded on equal Freedom and the Civil Government of England was always of right truly free because no Laws or Authorities ever bound the Persons and Properties of the Kingdom save only those wherein the Kings and all the Subjects freely agreed every Subjects free consent being deemed by our Laws to be given personally as by his Deputies to the Enacting and Repealing of every Law. Therefore the Statutes of old in affirmance of the common Custom of England declared that Elections should be free from all interruptions and interpositions by the King or the Pope and the Kings have bound themselves by the Statutes no way to disturb any Electors in making their free Elections No Commands Promises or Threats no Prayers nor Solicitations ought to be made unto the Electors by the King or Pope or any others the Peoples Deputies say the Laws are to be chosen Freely and Indifferently without pre-ingagement of the Electors or fear of displeasing the King and without promises of Favour or Rewards to them They are to be indifferent at the Time and Place of Election and in such manner to proceed notwithstanding any Request or Command to the contrary otherwise the Elections are void and null But we are not able to number the various kinds of Attempts and Practises to overturn this Foundation of our Government There have been infinite Endeavours and Artifices openly used to destroy
Succession of the Crown We must with sorrow shew your Hss that they have so far prosecuted this their Design against our Government that they have rendred it impossible to have a Legal Free Parliament Elected and returned in the present State of the Cities and Boroughs the Sherifs and Officers and the Condition of the Electors great Numbers of them are quite barred of their Freedom and indifferency to elect which our Law requires by the declared Displeasure of the King and the threatned and certain loss of their Offices and Imployments and Benefits if they accept not of such for their Trustees as have unworthily resolved or promised to Vote against our Established Laws as the King will have them without hearing the Reasons about them by the Kingdom in Parliament and as we believe without knowing the Intent and Purpose of the Laws they promise to abrogate 'T is not now practicable to have the Legal Free Consent of the Kingdom unto the making or repealing of any Laws without which they cannot be obligatory until there be a just Restoration of the Customs and Liberties of the Cities and Boroughs which have been illegally and treacherously surrendred or unduly wrested from them and legal Magistrates shall be duly chosen to execute Writs for Elections and make Returns until there be a Revocation of the Kings terrifying Declaration of the unfitness for Parliament and publick Imployments of all that will not help to finish his great Work begun of destroying all our Penal Laws for preventing the Popish Practices against the Rights of the Crown and the Realm Nor until there be an absolute Renunciation of all the Promises Ingagements and Subscriptions of the Electors for Parliament taken by His Majesties Orders and Ministers to restrain their Freedom and Indifferency in their Elections Thus the cunning and Malice of our Popish Adversaries have cut off all our Legal Means of relief by the Free Common Councils of the Kingdom whilst they lay close siege to take our Bodies and Souls captive We need not remember your Highnesses that these Attempts and Endeavours to subvert our Liberty in our Religion and Government is a part of that general Design that was formed and concluded on many years since in the most Seccret Councils of the Popish Princes chiefly managed by the Jesuits to root out of all Europe the profession of the Protestant Reformed Religion and the Peoples Liberties We will not mention the notorious actual Prosecutions of that Popish Resolution in several Kingdoms and Dominions nor the treacherous Falseness of those Princes in their Treaties Agreements and Oaths nor the Oppressions and Bloodshed and all kinds of Unrighteousness that have been practised by them in Order to that general great Design The instance alone of the French King is enough to be named instead of all because he hath owned and published to the whole World his part in that Design and by comparing the Violences Banishments and Murders done upon the Protestants at the same time by other Popish Princes as they were able with his publick Confessions of his long laid Design we may make a true judgment of the whole The French King by his Edict of 1685. hath declared that he entred into that Design from his coming to the Crown and it appears by the Edict then prepared and agreed by his Council of Conscience that all his renewed Edicts in the Protestants Favour his acknowledging and registring in Parliament their great Services for him and his Advancement of many of them to the highest Dignities Military and Civil in his Kingdom were done to flatter and deceive them he calls God to be Wiâ—ness of his Designs and Resolutions at that time to abolish their Religion by degrees and that he only attended his fit opportunity for that great Work as it s called by our King and by that Edict In that interim of his seeming kindness to the Protestants and solemn professions to them and some of the Protestant Princes for their observing faithfully the Law and Edict of Nants that was like the French Protestants great Charter there were all possible secret Contrivances and Practices to prepare for that great Work especially in England that hath long been the head of the Reformed Religion and the Chief terror of the French King and the Popish World he shewed his fear of the People of England when he barbarously banished his now Majesty and the late King in their distress rather then displease Cromwel he therefore applyed his principal Councils and Endeavours to distract and weaken the Protestants of England and to perswade and assist the late King covertly to increase and strengthen the Popish Party for that end his dearest Confessor the Jesuite le Chaiz was ordered to correspond with Mr. Coleman that was then Secretary to his now Majesty and the Letters Confessed by him before thousands shewed that the Matter proposed was to root out of the World the Protestant Religion under the name of the Northern Heresie and ten times more of the particulars of that wretched design had appear'd if all Mr. Colemans latest Letters for two years and a half that were brought to Whitehal and many culled out of the rest had not been there supressed and kept from the sight of the Parliament yet Mr. Coleman on his Tryal confidently avowed before all the People that design of Subverting the Protestant Religion and that he was only a subordinate Minister in it It appears by those Letters that the French Kings Money was to manage that Work and the Letters brought into Parliament by the now Lord Mountage acknowledged by the late King to be written by his order prove to the world that the late King was content to become the French Kings Pensioner for five hundred thousand pound per annum to keep off the meeting of Parliaments we had then discovered the increase of Popery and the danger of the Protestant Religion and had thereupon formed the Parliaments Test and were preparing other Laws for security against the Popish Designs It hath also been manifest to the world that all kind of Devices and Artifices that the Jesuits Councils could invent were about the same years used to pervert the Faith and Religion of the United Provinces or to betray them into the French Kings Power or at least a dependance upon him 'T is now notorious to the world that an agreement was made between the French King and his late Majesty of England to subdue and divide those Provinces that they might no more be either a Support or refuge for the Protestants We crave pardon for our boldness that we humbly appeal to your Highness whether your Integrity and Constancy in the Protestant Religion and your Fidelity to your Countries Freedom were not about those years vainly attached by those two Kings or at least by one of them and whether the Piety Generosity and brave scorn and indignation expressed at their proposals did not fix an Enmity in
to attract some decent reverence from the men of like quality in their Exposing to them nakedly the works of nature as was unavoidably necessary That they had been fit and proper in regard of their sufficiency of knowledg and understanding in the matters of Child-bearing such as knew by Experience all those works of Nature in what manner the Mothers ought to be and are Customarily treated in their real travel and Child-bearing and immediately after it and what are the natural Symptoms in the Mother that Accompanie the real bringing forth of a Child before it hath been its natural time of nine Months in the womb and at its due natural time and also the signs of a Child perfectly grown in the womb or brought to light before its time of perfection it was of necessity that the witnesses had been of such knowledg and experience in all these Matters or so sufficiently informed about them by others of skill and faithfulness that it might have been Evident to the Kingdom that such witnesses could not be imposed upon deluded or deceived by any Cunning Artifices to believe this pretended Prince to have been born of the Queen if he were in truth supposititious and Counterfeit The General Rules of our Canon Law required that the Witnesses had been publickly known to the Kingdom by their Persons or their Names their Interests Concerns or Imployments our Fundamental Laws have taken care that all matters of Fact should be decided by Juries of the Neighbourhood where the Facts are done that the Witnesses that testifie them may be known to the Jurors and Fraud is always suspected if persons unknown to the Neighbourhood of the Facts be produced to witness them unless there be manifest reason for their knowledg of the Fact better than those that were near to the place and known to the Jurors The reason of our Law is of impregnable force in the case of the supposed Prince that the Witnesses of his Birth should be persons publickly known on whose knowledg truth and credit the whole Kingdom and the Christian World should rely in a matter of such vast consequence Obscure unknown persons never publickly named or heard of in this or any foreign Kingdom and above all obscure foreigners French or Italians or others ought not to be deemed fit or competent Witnesses to satisfie the Kingdom in this Fact indeed when Circumstances are considered it will be evident that their pretended Testimony ought to be rejected and if it be offered it justly puts a prejudice upon their pretences in regard there was a whole Kingdom besides all the Eminent Ministers of Foreign Princes and States out of which Witnesses might have been selected that were publickly known and heard of by all the People and the necessity of it was never so manifest in any case it being known to his Majesty and his whole Court that the Queens being with Child was not generally believed either in England or Foreign Countries Common Justice required that the Witnesses had been fit and proper in respect of their high distinguishing Quality either that they had been dignified with some of the highest Ecclesiastical Dignities as Arch-bishops or Bishops or had been by Birth or Creation of the degree of the greatest Nobility of the Kingdom or that their extraordinary Worth had raised their Reputation and had been honoured with the great and eminent Offices of Trust in the Realm Our Laws are impartial to High and Low in hearing the Testimonies of Witnesses in every Case and therefore they duly consider both the Circumstances of every Fact to be proved and of every Witness and his Capacity to prove it Our Laws indeed judge not Truth and Integrity to be annexed and intailed to Dignity Nobility or Greatness yet they justly claim the Testimonies of persons of great Dignity in the Church or of Noble Birth and raised Knowledg and Fortunes and independent upon others as more free from exception which this Case requires than those that are of weak understandings without the advantage of excellent Breeding and Instruction or indigent and bound to depend upon Favour of others for their support like Nurses and Midwives and other Servants Therefore Caeteris paribus the Capacity and Probability of knowing the Facts and the Indifferency of Witnesses of High and Low degree being equal our Laws justly allow most Weight and Credit to the Testimony of dignified and noble Witnesses and they are therefore required to prove the Fact of a Prince's Birth whereupon depends the Right and Title to Kingdoms to exclude the apparent Right of one and to put another into possession of the same Our Laws presume Persons of such high degree to have greater sense and regard to Conscience more generosity and contempt of Falshood and more tenderness of their Honor than those of Low Condition and upon that presumption Noblemens Affirmations upon their Honor are in many Cases accepted by our Laws in lieu of their Oaths unto which all others are obliged in the same or like Cases and for that reason their Declarations of the Birth of a Prince without their making Oath thereof judicially have been as certainly relied upon by the Kingdom in the Descent of the Inheritance without Dispute as if they had sworn their knowledg in the forms of Justice There are also other circumstantial Reasons unto which our Laws have regard for the greatest value to be put upon the Testimony of the Nobility of both Sexes about the Birth of a Prince they are most accustomed to the presence and conversation of the King and Queen Such Ladies are justly presumed to be free from too great awful Distances Common to those of lower Quality and to have more Audacity and Confidence to make such near Approaches to the Queen in her Travel and bringing forth as are necessary that they may be ocular Witnesses that they have seen the Child in its very Birth and such Nobles are more bold and free to take such a searching view of the Child in its naked Naturals as may make them knowing Witnesses of its Birth and absolutely certain that they are not deluded with a Supposititious Child Such Noble Witnesses are also known to have greater Obligations upon them than others to prevent all possible Questions and Disputes that may arise by any uncertainties about the Succession to the Crown which may divide and destroy the Kingdom and their great Interest and Posterities their Conditions are Fortunes are supposed by our Laws to be above temptations by Bribes of Wealth or Honour to connive at falshood or to stoop to serve a Counterfeit Prince Upon all these Considerations the Witnesses of the Birth of every English Prince ought to be of such High and Noble Quality and it was known to have been infinitely more necessary that the reason of our Law had been exactly observed in the case of this Supposed Prince than ever it was since the foundation of the Kingdom there never was any such occasion to have stopped
the Queen when they could not be ignorant that it was the voice of common Fame in England and Foreign Countries that her Majesties Conception of a Child was meerly Fictitious and that a supposititious Prince was designed and seeing no Excuse or Pretence is published for the neglect or failure of such a Testimony of his birth we say the Circumstances of the Case being considered it 's most unjust to expect or demand of Your Highnesses or of the People of England or of Foreigners a belief and acknowledgment that this pretended Prince of Wales was born of the Queen As our Common Law informs us who are fit and proper Witnesses whose Testimonies ought to be received in this Case and in the proof of all Matters of Fact respectively so the same declares who are deemed to be unfit and disabled to be Witnesses in all the various and respective Questions of Fact it shews whose Testimonies ought not to be heard and much less believed in divers sorts of Facts that come into question If your Highness and the Kingdom be told of the presence of such persons to have been at the Birth of this pretended Prince as ought not by our Laws to be accounted Witnesses nor their averrments in the case to be heard by your Hss or the Kingdom and much less to be allowed to be of any Validity in the Common course of out Courts of Judicature if parties concerned to prove a Fact do knowingly offer for Witnesses such as our Laws reject in the Facts in question it turns to the prejudice of their other proof we are therefore obliged to acquaint your Highnesses with the Actions Qualities Respects and Circumstances that have disabled many by force of our Common Law to be heard as Witnesses of the Birth of this pretended Prince of Wales First Our Laws utterly disable all those to be heard in the Case that have received either gifts of Money or Honours or any other Reward or Benefits whatsoever for their pretended Assistance about his Birth or by reason or occasion of that pretence 't is the Common Practise of our Law that when a Witness is produced the adverse Party may examine him upon his Oath whether he hath had Money or other Reward or Gift directly or indirectly for or by reason of the matter in question or from the Party in whose behalf he is produced to testifie or from any of his Friends if he cannot acquit himself thereof by his Oath though it cannot be proved against him our Impartial Law deems such a person not only to be partial in the Case but corrupted and bribed and unworthy to be heard Our Law will not admit those to be Witnesses for the Birth of this supposed Prince of Wales that have any Promise Expectation or Hopes of any Advancement Office Place or Benefit by or under him if he shall be received and allowed by the Kingdom to be Prince of Wales they that cannot purge themselves by their Oaths from all such Promises Expectations and Hopes are not in the Judgment of our Law persons indifferent and unconcerned in the Event of the Matter in question nor fit to be heard as Witnesses their Testimonies being partly for themselves and their own Benefit and the allowance of such Testimonies in Judicature would in consequence subvert all Civil Justice and Government Our Law excludes all from being Witnesses to support the pretence of the supposed Prince of Wales as have such dependance on the Patrons and Maintainers of him that they are in danger of damage and loss by them of any kind if they should displease them in their Testimony Our Laws judg all such not to be free and of their own Right in the Case but bound to serve and please the Patrons of the Cause and therefore presume that they may be corrupted by fear of losing the Advantages they love if they should impartially declare the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth of the matter Our Laws seek to know the naked and entire Truth of all Facts that come into legal question or Contest and will not admit of any to be Witnesses of them unless they appear to be free from Fears of any Prejudice to themselves by speaking the Truth impartially We are inforced by the Concern of all the Protestants to speak more plainly than we would we must say that all that hold Offices of Profit and Honour during the Kings Will are by the Laws of England excluded out of the Number of fit and competent Witnesses about the Birth of this Child whom His Majesty hath proclaimed and maintains to be Prince of Wales our good Laws have regard to humane infirmities and will not put a temptation upon men to suffer them to be Witnesses in matters wherein they may damnifie themselves in the loss of their Offices if they happen to displease their Master in his concern in the case by testifying clearly the whole Truth of it they are not free in the Judgment of our Laws to speak the Truth without fear and for that reason are not to be received by the Kingdom as Witnesses in this Case Our Laws will never allow or suffer any to be Witnesses in this Case who are known or may be proved to have Enmity or Prejudice of any kind upon any account whatsoever to Her Royal Highness against whom most immediately this supposed Prince contends she having been most unquestionably the Heir apparent of the Crown and justly so remaining until the Kingdom shall be satisfied by a sufficient Number of lawful Witnesses that there is a Prince born whereby her claim to the next Succession shall be postponed The question of Fact to be decided by Witnesses is apparently between her Royal Highness and this supposed Prince and 't is a legal unanswerable and conclusive Exception against any to be received for Witnesses against her in his behalf that they are declared Enemies to her and the Professed Protestant Religion the destruction whereof they are bound in Conscience to endeavour and for that reason such known Enemies to her right of Succession to the Crown that their Church have decreed and declared her Right and the Right of all Protestants to any Authorities to be absolutely forfeited to the Papists for Protestant Heresie It cannot be denied that all that are sincerely Roman Catholicks and believe their own Church do judg Her Royal Highness to be an Excommunicated Heretick by their Church and that all Her Rights in possession and reversion are thereby confiscated and that they are all obliged by the Law of their Church in Conscience of their Religion and by the hope of Pardon of their sins to defeat and destroy by all ways and means in their Power all Her Pretensions to the Descent of the Crown upon her and to assist to the investing the Right to the Succession in a Roman Catholick We might here add that our English Papists are all in Vnion and Communion with the Pope as appears by his Nuntio in
London and he is by the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm declared the Publick or Common Enemy of the Kingdom near two hundred years before Henry the Eighth T is manifest that the English Papists are declared Enemies to Her Royal Highnesses Right in this Case between her and the pretended Prince of Wales and therefore by the Laws of England they cannot be Witnesses of the Fact in question neither ought their Testimonies therein to be offered to the Kingdom to Delude the People The Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses in the cause of their Enemy that it denies to give credit to what they may testifie in the cause of their Enemy with their dying Breath after they have received the Eucharist that is the General Conclusion of the Doctors of that Civil Law Inimicus etiamsi in articulo mortis constitutus accepisset Eucharistiam repellitur a testimonio causae sui inimici We mention this chiefly to shew that 't is not only by our English Laws that our Papists are rejected from being Witnesses of the Birth of this pretended Prince against Her Royal Highness but by the ancient approved Rules of the Civil Law which they generally acknowledg and by the Judgment of their own Doctors Herein are only set forth to Your Highnesses the Laws of England that you may justly insist upon as your Right to prevent the Church of Rome's Conspiracies against you we reflect not on the credit or truth of any Roman Catholick Lords or others in giving their Testimonies in Matters of private Interests wherein the cause of their Church is not in question and the Laws of their Church bind them not to either party but since they are bound in this case to be Enemies to Her Royal Highness our Law will not allow them to be believed to her prejudice and they must openly renounce that common Honesty to which they pretend if they offer themselves to the Kingdom to be competent Witnesses against Her in behalf of this pretended Prince when they are conscious to themselves that not only our Laws but Natural Justice and Equity abhors such a practice We must say with all due reverence and most humble submission that Our Laws will not allow that the Declaration or Testimony of His Majesty or the Queen should be accepted and believed in this case as lawful proof that this pretended Prince was born of the Queen 't is sufficient for us that our Laws will not suffer our Kings to descend into the Place of Witnesses they will not admit them to testifie their own knowledg of the Facts in any case whatsoever Criminal or Civil but there is abundant reason also from Natural Equity and Civil Justice that the Kingdom should not receive and rely upon the King's Affirmation about the Birth of this supposed Prince their Majesties have publickly Espoused his Cause for their own in all respects and none on Earth Kings or Subjects may justly expect or be suffered to supply the Place of Witnesses in their own case since Civil Government is established if they might lawfully be their own proof for their cause they might as justly be Judges of their own proofs which in Consequence would turn up the Foundations of Civil Government one of its chiefest original intentions being to introduce a course of Justice that none might be their own Judges We would not speak thus plainly if it were justly avoidable we cast no Scandal hereby upon His Majesty nor any way come near the crime of detraction we barely relate the Law of England in this case of His Majesties Affirmation of the Birth of this pretended Prince that it hath not the force of legal proof or of the Testimony of one Legal Witness and His Majesty is obliged in Justice and Honour by his Office and Oath not to impose upon his Subjects to believe and rely upon his Affirmation or Word in this case nor on the Queen's that 's necessarily included in his he cannot desire the People diffusively to change their ancient customs and Laws to substitute their King's Words or Assertions in the room of sworn Legal Witnesses to prove the Matters of the Highest moment about the Government If the Kingdom should allow the Affirmation of their Kings to be sufficient to make a Lawful Prince of Wales without such Witnesses of his Birth as our Law requires they should consent to Change the ancient Constitution of the English Monarchy and so destroy the established Legal Security of their Freedom and Estates The Laws of England in this case are not dissonant from the Laws of other Kingdoms and the most absolute Empires the Civil Law now received in most Christian Kingdoms that was so adapted to absolute Government that it was one of its principles That Principis verbum pro lege habendum est the word of the Prince was to be taken for a Law we say that Law never ascribed absolute credit to the Prince's Affirmations of Matters of Fact wherein the Subjects Rights were concerned it passeth for a Rule of that Law in such cases Princeps indistincte non creditur the Emperour is not to be believed intirely without limitations and restrictions in his affirming Matters of Fact relating to his Subjects Legal Interest and Securities The Learned Doctors in that Law determine that the Emperor's Affirmation that a Subject hath committed Treason or Rebellion against him ought nor to be believed or taken for a proof they say expresly Regi fides non adhibetur si attestatur talem fuisse proditorem likewise if he pretends and declares a cause why he deprives any Subject or Feudatory of his Interest he is not to be believed there must be proof and the parties intended to be prejudiced must be cited and heard in their defence They generally resolve that when a King asserts or attests any thing to the prejudice of another he is not to be therein believed especially when his Affirmation is for his own advantage and to the Subjects damage or inconvenience These are their words Quando ex assertione Principis ipse Principaliter sentiret commodum subditi incommodum tum ipsi Principi non creditur The Emperor Henry the 6. of Germany had a due sense of the Justice and Reason of the Law herein about the year 1200. he did not Expect that the People should believe the Affirmations of himself and his Empress Constantia about the Birth of a Prince when there was a rumor and suspition that Constantia was past her age of Child-bearing and feigned a Great Belly he gave the People plentiful proof by Witnesses more than Reason required he prepared a most publick Place wherein she remained expecting her time of Delivery Ventre Custodito with publick Watchers or Keepers that no Supposititious Child might possibly be Conveyed to her and there in the sight of the People of the City and all the Matrons that would and could possibly approach her none being
The Course of the Law of England is known to most Englishman in the Tryal of all claims by Birth the claimant is always put to prove all that he sets forth of his Descent in his Declaration and the least defect of proof is fatal to his process if the Defendant perceives the piantiff to want sufficient legal Testimony of his Descent and Birth he never troubles the Court with proofs on his behalf 't is enough for him that denies the Descent pretended to shew the insufficiency of the Witnesses and their Testimony produced to prove it Your Highness is not obliged either by our Laws or Natural Justice to have VVitnesses to prove the pretended Prince of VVales to be an Impocture Her Royal Highness having been the legal acknowledged Heiress apparent of the Crown Unless such Lawful Witnesses that he was born of the Queen were known and published as did satisfie the Kingdom neither your Highness nor any Princes or States may in Justice acknowledg his pretences her Royal Highness ought to remain in the esteem of the Kingdom and of all Princes ann States as the Heiress apparent of the Crown at least until a Prince shall be legally known and declared and 't is a manifest wrong to your Highness to the Kingdom and to all the Protestants Interest to suffer this supposed Prince silently and submissively without publick Complaint of the wrong to assume the Name of Prince and Heir apparent to the Crown When the Popish League endeavoured to set aside the claim of your Highness's Ancestor Henry 4. to the Crown of France and proclaimed the Cardinal of Bulloign to be King he sent Agents to the Pope though he was then a Protestant and to all the Princes and States of Christendom to manifest himself to be the right lawful Heir of that Crown and the Venetian State to his vast advantage contested it with the Popes Nuncio that they ought so to acknowledg him because it appeared that he was the right Heir His Right indeed was to be King in possession but there is the like reason and justice to support her Royal Highness Title to the Crown in reversion since another is set up and declared throughout the World to be the right Heir of it immediately after his now Majesty 'T is undoubtedly just and reasonable for her to demand and expect that the pretenders Birth so much and so justly suspected should be made manifest to the Kingdom by Witnesses without exception according to the Law and Custom of England and to natural Equity It may be of dangerous consequence to suffer a false Opinion of him in the Kingdom and the world to gain strength by time and neglect yet neither Law nor Equity puts any burden of proof in the Case upon your Highness 't is only incumbent upon your Highness to declare the wrong to your selves and the Kingdom by the pretended Prince and to take care that no illegal imperfect or fallacious Testimony in the Case be invented or obtruded upon your selves and the Kingdom to support his pretences her Royal Highness claim and right to be the next in reversion after his now Majesty in the legal descent of the Crown ought to stand unshaken and unquestionable in the Judgment of our Law and the Kingdom notwithstanding any thing to the contrary that hath been hitherto lawfully published or declared We cannot doubt but 't is here made manifest that your Highness publick refusal to acknowledg this pretended Prince of Wales may be built upon such sure Foundations of Law and Justice as can never be overturned we would not therefore trouble your Highness with all the Circumstances of the Case which we have remarked in our Observations that make it to us not only improbable but incredible that he was born of the Queen Since 't is not possible for us to send Witnesses personally to prove to your Highness every circumstance that we have noted and 't is not just that Your Highness should take them up upon unknown Authority since we cannot in prudence subscribe our Names to this Memorial nor so much as the Names of our Witnesses to the Facts since the Proof of the Circumstances can never be a Foundation of positive unquestionable certainty but can only serve to make the Falsehood and Jesuitical contrivance in this imposture more infamous and odious since 't is undoubtedly Your Highness Interest never to depart from the manifest Principle of Law and Justice which put it wholly and entirely upon the Maintainers of the supposed Prince to prove him to be such as they pretend with the highest human certainty that can be acquired by Witnesses and to the Kingdoms full Satisfaction And since 't is notoriously know that above all others of the Roman Church the Jesuits which in this matter will most earnestly contend against Your Highness have the greatest effronted Confidence to deny and forswear Matters of Fact however certainly proved and known and they would be glad to have any thing offered in this Case that might give them room or a possibility for dispute and seeming doubtfulness of Fact that they might obscure the Truth and deceive some of the People with their Equivocal Affirmation and impertinent Cavils at Your Highness Witnesses or their Testimonies and their bold Asseverations of Falsehoods Upon all these Considerations we shall restrain from the relation of many very pregnant Circumstances that we had collected which if they were taken jointly in their natural Order and due Connexion would by their united force strongly induce impartial Judges to conclude that the Queen could not be the Mother of the supposed Prince We could give very great circumstantial assurances to Your Highness that there never was or appeared to be any reasonable natural grounds for a belief that her Majesty had Conceived a Child She never had the first most natural known and common sign of Conception her menses profluvium or Terms continued their usual uncertain Course as formerly during the whole time of her pretended great helly She did not conceal that it was with her after that manner of Women in her journey to Bath nor that they continued some days after the King left her there and all the industry used afterward to hide them in their Seasons proved in-effectual because those things come to the knowledge of more then were made privy to the whole Imposture designed Her Majesty having not that natural Sign of her Termes stopping whereby Women usually conclude themselves to have conceived from whence she could make a reckoning it seems by the Kings Speech in Council that their Majestys had both thought fit to publish her Conception to have been at the time of the Present made to the Lady's Image at Loretta upon the Kings return to the Queen at Bath It was then too soon for them to be provided of a supposititus Child and so might name any time they pleased of her Conception and then seek for a Child that might agree with it and it
better arts were not used to make that vissible sign and appearance of the growth of a Child in her womb we were satisfied by skilful Matrons of great Experience that attended on purpose to observe her Majesty Exactly that all the outward parts of her Body that incompass the womb were of the same proportion that they were at other times save only her belly which was exceedingly copped up and high that shewed like a great bellied Woman to them that looked upon her Majesty before but said they when we saw her Majesty walking and looked upon her behind and on each side we saw not the least appearance in her of a great bellied Woman we took care to have the fashion of her Majestys Body observed by skilful Women at several periods of time during her supposed pregnancy and once a very short time before her pretended Delivery and we had always the same accompt we have here faithfully given Your Highness We compared this Circumstance with another that we had marked whereof we had from time to time full assurance during all the four last Months time of her Majesties supposed being with Child those being the Months wherein usually all the circumambient parts of the Womb swell most we were very well informed that in all these Months Her Majesty contrary to her former usual course always withdrew from her Chamber and retired into her Cabinet or some other private room with two or three Italians when she changed her Linnen and would never permit any one of the Protestant Ladies of the Bedchamber to see her change her Linnen as they had constantly done Those two circumstances explained each other and plainly shewed that the natural naked and true shape of her Majesties Body as it was then was not to be seen by those that were not of the Confederacy in the intended Imposture those that were only capable of being lawful VVitnesses for her Majesty against common Fame if Fame had belyed her those were all excluded from a possibility of seeing whether her belly was truly and naturally great and a few foreigners of no Quality were only to keep the Secret of what Her Majesty was to make the copling belly Nothing can be more manifest then it is by all these Circumstances taken as they ought in connexion each with other that there hath nothing appeared of the natural plainness and simplicity that always accompany truth in the whole Demeanor of her Majesty from the time of her pretended Conceiving a Child to the very time of her feigned delivery of this supposed Prince of Wales all that hath been acted in the matter hath plainly imported Trick and Design to hide and smother Natures VVorks that ought to have been most freely exposed to the whole World if there had been any truth in the pretences that could have born the Light we may securely affirm to your Highness that in all the eight Months and four Days first reckoned to have been the time of her Majesties Pregnancy or from the time of her going to Bath in the new Reckoning there never hath been any of these constant natural signs in her Majesty that could afford to any understanding Man or Women a ground to believe that she conceived a Child The Progress towards finishing the intended Imposture of this Prince of Wales hath been answerable to its beginning In the preparation for her Majesties supposed Delivery there hath been no regard to the rules of natural Equity or Law or common 〈…〉 nor any appearance of that open freedom and naturally plain proceeding that ought to have shewn that they did not fear the Kingdom or the World knowing the truth of all that should be done in that pretended natural work of Bearing a Child wherein the whole Kingdom and so much of the World was concerned if the Customs and Laws of England or natural Equity had been consulted in the Circumstances of the Case about the preparations needful for her Majesties expected deliverance of a Prince the first of all Advises had certainly been to give early notice to your Highness and to others in the nearest possibility or expectance of succeeding to the Crown of the time of her expected travel and deliverance of a Prince and of the place of her residence at such time That proper Noble Matrons and others might have prepared themselves and attended there and have been present in their behalf which might have suppressed and silenced for ever by their Testimonies all Suspitions of Fraud or Imposture But 't is not only undeniable that no such notice was given either to her Royal Highness or to any of Consanguinity with her nor to any other of the Noble Matrons of England but such Artificers were used as might most conceal the time and intended Place of her pretended Travel such feigned time of her supposed Conception was published by the King and Queen that neither her Royal Highness nor any of the Nobility could possibly foresee the time when the Comedy that is now said to have been acted was to begin The Place where her Majesty was intended to lye in was kept in such uncertainty and often published so variously sometimes that it should be at Richmond sometimes at Windsor another time at Hampton-Court that none of the Nobles of either Sex that were of the Kindred and Friends of the Heir Apparent nor of the Protestant Nobility could know how to prepare themselves for attendance on her Majesty as was their duty to Their Majesties Her Royal Highness and the Kingdom As the Publication of the place was often changed as if a surprise in the place was designed so at last such a sudden and seeming hasty Resolution was taken a day or two before her pretended Delivery that her lying in should be at St. James's tho none expected the time to be near by above three Weeks that Commands were given for preparing her Lodgings there so hastily that when her Majesty said on the Friday She would lye there on Saturday and it was told her it was not possible her Lodgings should be ready She then said She would lie there on the floor It was hoped by all the Protestants that the Princess of Denmark would have been a faithful watcher for her own sake when the time of her Majestys deliverance of her great belly should come tho she had not been able or she durst not give them advice of the occurrences in the time of her Majestys supposed pregnancy it was thought that she could not be avoided but she would be present to see what was brought forth whether any thing or nothing but care was taken that advise should be given her when she wanted astringent Medecines to go to the loosening Waters of the Bath to keep her fourscore Miles distant till the pretended Prince should be born At the first Notice we had of her Majesties passionate Declaration that She would lie at St. James's on the Saturday Night we could not conjecture that there was to be
a pretended Prince brought forth on the Sunday nor was there any Whispers of it or the least natural Feigned or Counterfeit sign of fore-running Pains of a Woman whose time of Travel approacheth Her Majesty was late in the Night at Cards and no appearance of an indisposition then nor is any pretended to have been in the Night but we learned by the Event on the Sunday the reason of Her Majestys fixed and immoveable Resolution to lie at Saint James's on the Saturday Night she was to seem to bring forth a Prince on the Sunday There was a cunning contrivance to chuse a fit time of that day it was to be between the hours of nine and ten in the Morning that all or most of the Protestant Ladies might be at Church and the Trick be over before their return and that the Midwife Mrs. Labady and the Favourite Mrs. Tourain might have Freedom and Secrecy as they had to act their Parts in the bringing forth of a supposititious Prince The Room also that was chosen wherein the Trick was to be acted was fit for the purpose and contrary to the Rules of Common Prudence in a Case suspected for setting up a supposititious Child and ought to have been avoided if their meaning had been just and good there was a private Door within the Rail of the Bed into a Room from whence a Child might be secretly brought and put into the Bed unseen by any that should attend in the Queen's Room tho at the feet of the Bed none of them coming into the Rail and by that Door the three Confidents the Midwife Mrs. Labady and Mrs. Tourain brought into her Majesties Bed what they pleased unseen If they had wanted no secret conveyance by that Door common Prudence required that they had nailed or sealed it up to avoid confirming and increasing the Kingdoms just and known Jealousies of imposing upon them a Counterfeit Prince when it should be known that there were such secret ways as made it so easy to be done by Confederation undiscerned by others that were in the Room but it appeared by the Event that the privy Door was so necessary for the designed Imposture that all the Transactions of it were managed by that Door as is well known to all those Lords of the Council that were brought for a shew not to see any thing that was done but only to be seen in the Bed-Chamber with His Majesty that their Names might be published to the People as if they had been Witnesses of the Queens being delivered of this pretended Prince The Civil Law provided as a Rule of common natural Equity that when a Woman was to be delivered of a Posthume Child that might defeat another appearing Heir that the Chamber wherein she was to be delivered should have but one Door and if there were more that they should be sealed up with the Seals of both Parties and that Keepers should be set at the single Door and no Woman suffered to enter until she was searched in all kinds that no Child might be conveyed to the Woman in her real or supposed Travel and tho' we have no express Statute that gives direction in such Cases yet our Common Law abhors all appearance of Fraud about Inheritances and 〈…〉 pointed 〈◊〉 of the most able Neighbours to judg of all the Signs and Appearances of Fraud an 〈…〉 Heirs who may also judg upon presumptive Evidence and reject any pretended Hell where they see signs of Fraud and Imposture whereupon to ground their Judgment and every one must at his peril take care that there be no grounds of suspicion given of a supposititious Heir We have faithfully shewed Your Highness what were the Preparations for her Majesties supposed time of Travel wherein there appeared no Marks of an Intiention to deal uprightly and openly with her Royal Highness as Heiress apparent of the Crown and with the Subjects of the Kingdom nor were there any natural signs that Her Majesty really feared or expected the common Sorrows Pains and Danger of a Woman in Travel or made any sutable Provisions We cannot learn that there were in readiness so much as the usual Instruments of Midwives whereupon they commonly place all Women of Quality in their time of Travel that such Assistance may be given them by the Matrons and Midwives as is not possible to be given on their Knees which is the common Posture of meaner Women and least of all as they lie in their Bed which is seldom used until the length of the Travel and Failures of Strength enforce it There being many natural Reasons for the Posture of the Womens Bodies helping them in their Travel Amongst other suitable Provisions it had been certainly fit that a Colledg of Physicians had been called to attend somewhere near to Her Majesty if She had not known there could be no need of them and had not been sure there could be no hour of danger to her self in a feigned Travel nor any sudden need of Physicians Advice or help to a strong lively supposed Prince that was intended then to be brought forth As all the Preparations for her Majesties supposed time of Travel discovered to knowing and observing People that there was no reality in her pretences made of a great Belly so the Fiction and Fraud was made more manifest when the Trick came to be acted Her Majesty lying in Bed with all the Curtains round close drawn all that was provided belonging naturally to a Child and intended to be used by them in their bringing forth the supposititious Prince being prepared and ready within the inner Chamber then Her Majesty's feigned Travel began and all these things were by the help of the Midwife Mrs. Labady and Mrs. Tourain the Confederates brought through the Door in the Wall by the Queen Bed and put between her Sheets that is a Child and all that naturally attends a Birth Then the Midwife and the Confidents seemed very busy about Her Majesty in the Dark none seeing what they did and being afraid as appeared by the Midwife's Words that the Child which was prepared to sleep to prevent its crying before it was got into the Bed should be stifled by the Closeness of the Bed they were forced to hasten the Queen's pretended Delivery even beyond what was reasonably to be believed notwithstanding all that could be said of the Lady of Loretto or any other Saints Assistance therefore the Queens supposed Deliverance was in very short time But nothing appeared in Her Majesty like the real natural Travel of a Woman in Child-bearing there were none of the usual natural Signs in Her Majesty of being in real Travel which cannot be hidden there was no appearance of an approaching Travel by various intermitting Pangs usually very great by the Infants struggling to free it self of the Womb no shew of the Pains naturally and gradually increasing as more of the Ligatures came to be broken or rent whereby every Infant is safely retained
Father to a Child to do a Service to their Church which is by their Doctrine so meritorious Your Highnesses will the better consider all these Circumstances mentioned if you will please to call to mind the Occasion and Time when this Design was first resolved on to set up a Prince to bar her R. H's of the immediate Succession to the Crown Be pleased to remember that 't is before observed that the going to the Bath and the visit to St. Winifreds Well and the Present made to the Lady were preparations for a Report of the Queen's being with Child and were all concluded upon about the end of August and beginning of September 1687 and then was your Highnesses compliance with the Popish Design despaired of The abstract of Mr. Steward's Letters to Mijn Heer Fagel which we just now find printed confirms all our Memorials in that Matter He was Pardoned and chosen by the King to have perswaded your Highnesses to a consent that the Penal Laws and Test should be repeal'd which had been a full establishment of Popery in his two first Letters of July he seeks to perswade your Hss that the King was resolved to preserve and observe the true right of Succession to the Crown and was very desirous of your Hss consent and concurrence in his Design and troubled to find them so averse from it in his next Letters of the same July he pressed that your Highnesses should have been disposed to hearken to a well-chosen Informer to be sent by his Majesty to perswade your concurrence with him and he presseth extreamly for a hasty Answer the new Councils for setting up a Supposititious Prince seem then to have been begun That Letter seems to threaten what we now see if your Highnesses refused he doubled his assurance to him that was to sollicit your Highnesses that if you were obstinate as they call it it will be fatal to the Dissenters and he feared productive of Ills yet unheard of And his Letter of August 5. seems to give your Highneesss your last time to chuse the Settlement of Popery or to resolve to be true to the Protestant Religion He says if your Highness did what was 〈…〉 he best Service to the Protestants the highest Obligation on his Majesty and the gre 〈…〉 of your own Interest that you could think on but if not then all is contrary There can be no other meaning in saying if your Highnesses refused all is contrary save only this that the Protestants should then have no Mercy from the Papists His Majesty would be so offended that he would become your Highnesses Enemy and it would be the loss of your Highnesses greatest Interest that you can think on which certainly could be no other than the just Expectancy of the three Kingdoms As these Letters threaten that the King would destroy your Highnesses greatest Interest if you refused so the attempt of it soon after appeared It 's now known that in September and October the Resolutions were taken to publish that the Queen was with Child but before it was publickly declared that is October 8. Mr. Steward says he would use no more Arguments to your Highnesses but he then laments your Highnesses loss of the time of compliance Alas said he that Providence should not be understood Then in Novemb. he speaks more plainly notwithstanding your Hss moderation towards the Papists and their Liberty was shewn by Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter he says that all hope of your Hss concurrence in the King's Design was quite given over and Men were become as cold in it here as your Hss were positive there And upon his new Conference with the King he not only shews the King's dislike of that Letter but says expresly That your Hss Answer was too long delay'd and that the King was quite over that matter There can be no other reasonable construction of this than that the King had then resolved of another way to prosecute the Popish Design and time hath now shewn and proved to the World that the way resolved on was to set up this Supposititious Prince for a Popish Successor These Letters by the help of time shew the Design when it was in Embrio and help to make a Judgment upon all the other Circumstances that we have mentioned and no doubt if an Evidence made up of all the Circumstances we have mentioned in their order and connexion were given to any impartial Judges it would be judged as strong a presumptive Evidence as ever was given and in the proceedings of our Laws against Criminals Judgment hath passed against the Lives of many upon far less Evidence this being as full as the nature of the thing can possibly suffer in your Hss and the Kingdom 's Case But notwithstanding this sort of Circumstantial Evidence be sufficiently forcible and convincing to disinterested Persons to prove this supposed Prince to be an Impostor and it may be more Circumstances of the same nature are known to your Highness yet we most humbly pray your Highness to wave insisting upon any of them as entirely as if you could neither prove nor knew more about this pretended Prince than common Fame hath proclaimed without contradiction It no ways belongs to your Highnesses nor to the Kingdom to prove the Falshood of his Pretences or any Circumstance about his Birth and it would be very prejudicial for your Highnesses to take upon you the burden of producing Witnesses and Proofs and admitting your Highnesses Adversaries to dispute their force and sufficiency when it belongs to them wholly and only to bring forth such lawful Witnesses in due numbers as may satisfy your Highnesses and the Kingdom of the Truth of their Pretences and 't is an infinite wrong to your Highnesses and the Kingdom that they have not done it long since if there had been a true Prince born of the Queen Since 't is the Kingdoms great concern as well as your Highnesses we are the bolder to propose that the Method of Defence against the publick Injury be made according to the known Laws and Customs of England that is That an open free demand be made in the name of her R. Hss as Heiress apparent of the Crown and in behalf of all the People of the Realm that there be forthwith declared and published to the Kingdom a sufficient Number for this Case of lawful Witnesses of either Sex such as the Laws of England and Natural Justice require in the Case who do testify that according to the usual practice of their respective Sexes at the Birth of Princes Heirs to Crowns they were Eye-Witnesses that the Child now called the Prince of Wales was naturally born of the Queen's Body 'T is but just regular and modest for your Hss to make that Demand and your insisting upon it to be done immediately without the least delay is no more than the Right of your Hss and the Kingdom as must be confessed by all that either know the Rules of natural Justice
to persons disabled to bear them by positive and direct Acts of Parliament made for that very purpose and declared to be for the peoples security nevertheless the King hath put most of the Offices of the Kingdom in the hands of those that are so disabled It s as certain it never was in the power of our Kings to dispossess at their Wills any of the subjects of those interests and profits which they had for their lives nor to Commission any to judge his Subjects finally in matters criminal or civil by their discretion without any regard to the Laws Customs and priviledges of the Realm These and many other powers 〈…〉 ight name to your Hss are not the actings of and English legal Monarch but an a 〈…〉 Persons the Liberties and Interests of the Subjects as if he alone had at least the Property paramount in all â—â—â—ir persons and their Interests which in all civil Governments belongs only to the Lawful Legislators and as if the people of England wâ—â—â— Tenant of his meer will to what they have and had no right nor Interest in their Laws Customs or Franchises nor 〈◊〉 Justice to demand the benefit of them Nothing can compleat his Majestys renuntiation of the Trusts and Obligation of the English Regal Office save only that he assume as he now doth actually to take from the Citys and Boroughs intirely all their Customs and Priviledges and free Election of their Magistrates confirmed to them expressely by the great Charter and many other Laws and that he deprive all the rest of the people of their Liberty to chuse such persons as they please according to the Statutes to Consent for them to the Laws that shall bind them their Estates and Lives as he hath declared he will and intends and is every day doing and then the antient rightful and Free English Government will be manifestly and intirely dissolved and Englishmen shall have no Legal right to their Estates their Wives and Children or their Lives There will be then no legal English Monarchy in England trusted by the Laws with high Royal Prerogatives for the joynt safety and benefit of the King and the subjects acknowledging themselves to be bound by an Oath to maintain the Customs Laws and Franchises of the Realm and to take continual care for the Execution of the Laws impartially for that purpose every man shall then have equal and eternal right to every hing as this King will and his Popish forces shall dispose of it and so long only as he shall please to continue in the same mind with the same force 'T is with bleeding hearts that in this manifest extream oppression and danger we beg your Highnesses aid to defend the rights of the Crown and the Realm There can be no question of your Hss right to defend the same the Legal Monarchy and Government by our antient Customs Laws and Franchises to save the antient Penal Laws against the Popes Vsurpations and the latter Laws for the Reformation of our Religion from Popery and to preserve the special Customs and Priviledges of the Cities and Boroughs as well as the General Customs of the Kingdom which our Customs and Laws only have vested in your Hss the next right Expectant of the English Crown and if no Prince shall be born Rege etiam renitente tho the King shall do all that 's possible for him to hinder you If you suffer them to be destroyed or to be disused and deemed to be of no force but as the King shall please by his Judges and Courts and by all that he shall possess of the Power of the Kingdom Your Highnesses claym and rights as Expectant of the Crown is in like manner destroyed and set aside and the whole arbitrary Magistracy serving his Will and all his Popish forces Foraigners and Natives will be ingaged in Interest and misguided Conscience to oppose your Highnesses claim by the Laws and Customs of England there will be indeed in the State to which the King hath brought the Kingdom no legal Magistrates nor Government in being and use unto which her Royal Highness can immediately succeed according to the Customs and Laws of England the Kingdom must be a confused Multitude and the strongest may subdue the rest to their Will. As your Highnesses have a right to save the Government by reason of your great Interest in it so all the People have an unquestionable right to seek your Highnesses Aid therein and 't is one of the principal Duties of the Christian Religion and will be one of the best outward Expressions of their Love to God and Jesus Christ to assist your Highness in all your righteous ways defending their Just Civil Government being instituted by God for preserving Justice among humane Societies The People that love their Neighbours and Countries as Christian Religion commands ought not carelesly nor irreligiously to suffer their Civil Government their Laws and all their Rights and Interest that their Country hold by them for themselves and Posterities to be destroyed by any Man's Will Superstition or Ambition He that was at first a Legal Supream Magistrate and ought to have been obeyed if he would have so continued tho he had done many Injustices to particular Persons he may cast off the Quality and Use of the Power of a Legal Supream Magistrate and use and exercise Power destructive to all the Legal Trusts and Office and then he devests himself of that Office and Trust of a lawful Magistracy unto which the Laws of God and the Kingdom require Obedience The ancient Kings of England acknowledged the Peoples Right to save their Free Government if any of the Kings themselves would have dishonorably parted with the Rights of the Crown and the Realm We mentioned the Letter of H. I. to the Pope and that great Prince Ed. I. on the like occasion of Power claymed by the Pope not only writ to the Pope to the same Effect as H. I. did but by his consent Letters were written to Pope Boniface by the Lords and Commons in Parliament wherein they told the Pope that they were bound by Oath to the Observation and Defence of their Liberty Customs and ancient Laws and would maintain them with all their Power and Force and that they neither did nor ever would could or ought to suffer the King tho he would to do or any ways attempt what the Pope desired contrary to their Customs since it would be to the Destruction of the Rights of the Crown of England and the Kingly Dignity and the Subversion of the Statutes of the Kingdom and Prejudice of their antient Liberties Customs and Laws Since then your Hss have an undoubted right to interpose between the King and us in your own and the Kingdoms behalf to save our ancient legal Government and in special our Laws for the Reformation of our Christian Religion we humbly offer that besides the former Demands about the supposed Prince your Hss will please to