pardon It is only to my purpose to say that Stephen contented himself with the ordinary Oath of Allegiance tho Maud was his Competitor and put no Nobleman or Commoner upon adjuring her or hers by name tho he were sensible that they must prove continual Thorns in his side and upon those Apprehensions as soon as he was settled in his Throne he passed over with an Army into France with purpose only of subduing Geofry of Anjou her Husband prospexerat'enim saith Tho Wikes 1136 quod si Imperatrix prolem de corpore suo generaret bella sibi minime defutura knowing full well that if she had Children he must look for little quiet But Children she had and you know how troublesome this Woman with her Son and Brother Robert were to him for many Years the many Miserie 's this poor Kingdom endured under the time of their Dissensions for in most Wars a Country finds but little difference between Friends and Enemies and the Agreement made at last betwixt them I will not insist on any of these Matters King Stephen took all usual care to secure the Crown to himself and his Posterity but it went no farther than to take the common Oath of Allegiance to himself and in 1152 to cause the same to be taken to Eustace his Son For so Annales Waverleienses 1152 Apud Londoniam Eustachio Filio R. Stephani fide jurejurando Universi Comites Barones Angliae se subdiderunt He would have had him crowned but the Clergy by order of the Pope opposed it strongly and he could not carry his Point as Gervasius tells us in Stephano 1131. p. In the Year 1152 died Stephen's Wife and in 1153 Eustace his Son a stomachful young Prince so that Stephen consum'd almost with Care and Grief and finding himself decay and his Adversary young Henry daily increasing in Riches and the Favour of the People began to incline to Peace which was agreed upon you know on condition that Stephen should continue King during his natural Life and Henry to succeed him and that William Stephen's only remaining Son should be possessed of all his Father's Estate whilst a private Subject but he liv'd not long to enjoy it dying in King Henry's Service at the Siege of Tholouse in the Year 1159 Stephen himself went before him dying in the Year 1154. leaving Peace the greatest and most wanted Blessing to this distracted Kingdom Consider Sir I pray whether an Oath of Abjuration was not full as seasonable in this King Stephen's Case as it can possibly be in any others and then I will go on Henry II being possessed of the Throne took the usual Oath of Fidelity from his Subjects without any manner of Regard had to William Stephen's Son who served him four Years and died at last as I have said in 1159. He reigned thirty five years and endured great Troubles and Afflictions from an untoward Queen and most ungracious Children the Eldest of which called Henry sometimes called Secundus sometimes Tertius sometimes Junior and Minor he caused to be crowned King whilst himself lived and quickly found good reason to repent him of such favour But having no competitor for the Crown his Troubles are nothing to my purpose since he could have no occasion for an Oath of Abjuration and therefore I have done with him when I have observed to you that notwithstanding the Oath the Nation took in general to his Mother Maud her self yet Henry succeeded Stephen without any manner of notice taken of her Polydor Virgil makes her present at the Treaty of Agreement but mentions no Cession or yielding up her Right no Historian I have seen takes any notice of her at all and yet undoubtedly she took all those pains in her Wars with Stephen for her self and upbraided Stephen and all his Followers with Perjury and yet she appears no ways concerned in the Treaty nor makes any manner of Declaration that she absolved them of their Oaths to her or that she was willing they should transfer their Allegiance to her Son Perhaps they took these things for granted because she put in no new Claim at that time all that we know further of her is that she died as some say in the 13th or as others in the 14th Year of her Son Henry's Reign who died hlmself in 1189 and left his Crown and Kingdom uncontested to Richard I who was his Eldest Son then living He was a brave Prince and according to the superstitious humour of those times engaged in the Recovery of the Holy Sepulchre out of the hands of Infidels where he performed Wonders and was accounted one of the Religious Heroes of that Age. But certainly he was very ill paid at home for these his glorious Pains abroad by John his Brother Most of our common Historians are mistaken in representing these matters and confound Actions done at different times I shall take a little pains to set them in better order and that in short from Roger Hoveden Walt. Hemingford and John Brompton c. When Richard went into the East he left the Government of England in the hands of William Longchamp Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Ely who for ought appears managed it with great Fidelity to the King his Master but to the great dislike of John and his Adherents who made many grievous Complaints of his tyrannick Government and seem resolved to have him laid aside at any rate the thing that offended John at the bottom was this that the Chancellor being a Man of great Abilities and Power abetted and maintained the Right of Arthur of Brettany Son and Heir of Geofry elder Brother to John and sent underhand to the King of Scotland who was his great Uncle for his Protection and Assistance in case King Richard should do otherwise than well in the Holy-Land protesting moreover to him that by Letters directed to him from Sicily King Richard had appointed Arthur his Successor if he should die It is not very certain whether the Chancellor acted thus in favour of young Arthur out of a good Principle as knowing him the rightful Heir or with ambitious purpose of continuing in his great Authority and Regency as he was likely to do if a Child succeeded but whatever the Motive was to his asserting Arthur's Right his doing so must needs be enough to make Earl John his mortal Enemy The Chancellor was a warm and haughty Man and imprudently administred an Occasion of Commotion by commanding Girard de Camvilla to yield up to him the Castle of Lincoln who having had it committed to his care by the King refus'd to do it and immediately took part with John whose ambitious restless Temper took hold of this occasion to put himself in Arms and whilst the Chancellor was besieging Girard he seized on the two Castles of Nottingham and Tickill So that now they came to open Hostilities in which the Chancellor finding himself the weaker and knowing he had many Mens Persons about him whose
know of it is from W. Malmesbury who making mention of him adds Lib. 2. pag. 25. Qui post occisionem Haroldi à quibusdam in Regem electus est vario lusu Fortunae rotatus NUNC penè decrepitum diem ignobilis Ruri agit In the same place he says that David his Sister Margaret's Son was King of Scotland which was not before the Year 1124. So that he lived at least to the Age of Seventy if we allow him to be Twelve at the Death of Harold when he was thought unfit to Reign for want of years And yet in all the Reigns of these Three Kings William the First and Second and Henry the First there was no Oath of Abjuration no Renouncing to the Rightful Title of Edgar Atheling Each of these Princes receiv'd the Oath of Fealty and Allegiance from their Subjects and looked no farther after the Exclusion of Edgar than that Oath did naturally carry them which is far enough in all Conscience when honest People take it 1087. When William the Conqueror died he left the Duchy of Normandy to his eldest Son Robert Mezeray is mistaken when he makes the Father yield up the Duchy to the Son 1077 when he was reconciled to him upon his mounting him again upon his Horse when he had ignorantly met and overthrown him and England to his second Son William Rufus and to Henry his third Son a mighty Summ of Money with a Prophetical Presage That he would One Day come to greater Matters Rufus was then with his Father and before his Funeral Exequies were performed to secure himself the better of his appointed Succession slipt over into England and got himself Crowned King by Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury but he was hardly warm in his Seat before a great and deep Conspiracy was form'd against him in behalf of his elder Brother Robert contriv'd and carried on especially by Odo Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent his Uncle Geofrey Bishop of Constance and other great Lords intending to deliver up the King and Kingdom into the Hands of Robert This so startled and amazed Rufus that he thereupon calls all the English Men together and lays before them the Danger he was in promising the Redress of many present Grievances and ample Privileges to them and theirs upon their Assistance which they consented to give and accordingly by their Help he pursued and utterly defeated his Enemies and became thereby enabled to forget his fair Promises Robert in vain attempted to invade England being repulsed with great loss by the King's Ships and Seamen and William in his Turn made over for Normandy to do as much as Robert had design'd but by the Mediation of Great Men on both sides the Brothers came to an Agreement that such and such Places should be delivered to each the other and that whichsoever of the Brothers died first without Children the other should succeed him in all his Estates And to these Covenants twelve of the most considerable Men on each side were very solemnly sworn This was done 1090 and in 1094 the Brothers disagreed again and all the Fault was laid upon the King who again prepar'd for Normandy where each of them did a great deal of Mischief to each other till very luckily the Pope engag'd Duke Robert to take upon him the Croisade who being easily persuaded thereto as one who was always a light and giddy-headed Prince he sent to the King to acquaint him with his Purpose to conclude a Peace and to borrow Money for that Expedition engaging his Dukedom for it to which the King assented readily and carried him the Money himself and took possession of his Pledge the Money came to six thousand six hundred sixty six pound of Silver And Robert behaved himself very honourably abroad where he continued till the death of King William 1100. In all these Quarrels and Conspiracies occasioned by D. Robert and his Partisans Rufus desired nor had no other Security of his Subjects than the Oath of Fealty and Allegiance which obliged them to be true to him without excluding or abjuring Robert and yet I take it Robert was a very formidable Competitor and that such an Oath was as necessary then as it ever was to this day Well this unfortunate Robert was again put by the Crown as well by his Absence as by the cunning Management of his younger Brother Henry who got so well into the good graces of the Lords and Bishops that he was crowned King before Duke Robert could return to make his Claim But see the Inconstancy of English-men Henry had made large Promises of amending all things that were amiss in the former Reigns and confirming the Liberties of the Church and a great many other good things and thereupon was received by all the Nobility and Clergy with gâ—eat Expressions ofJoy and Satisfaction and crowned by Maurice Bishop of London for Anselm had been driven away by W. Rufus But before they could have time to see whether King Henry would be as good as his Word they generally engaged in a Conspiracy to call in Robert and deliver up the Government to him some of the King's Ships went over to Robert and a great Conflux of People there was gathered to him when he landed at Portsmouth but before they came to try their Fortune in the Field of Battel an Accord was made between them by the mediation of some principal Men of both sides by which it was agreed upon that Robert should continue Duke of Normandy and Henry King of England paying his Brother yearly three thousand Marks that all Adherents to Robert should be clear'd and enjoy their Estates and that whichsoever of the two died Childless first the other should succeed in both the Kingdom and the Dutchy with some other Particulars which were all of them sworn to as before by twelve Great Men on each side This Agreement was made in 1101 and in a few years came to nothing for after many Depredations and Reprisals Skirmishes and taking and retaking of Towns in Normandy the fatal Battel was fought in 1106 where Robert was taken Prisoner and never after obtained his Liberty but having his Eyes put out a piece of Cruelty much in use in those days he lived and died at Cardiff a miserable Captive in the Year 1134 and was buried at Gloucester An unhappy Prince from the beginning to the End if we except two or three Years spent to his Honor in the Holy-Land But I have nothing to do with any thing relating to him but to remark that notwithstanding the great and continual Disturbance and Alarms he gave both William II and Henry yet neither of them took an Oath of Abjuration from the Nation and it is the more remarkable in Henry because that Robert had a Son called William a brave and noble Youth and a Prince of great Hopes and like enough to prove a strong Competitor to Henry's Children He was afterwards greatly favoured by the French King and married
after the Reduction of the Castles that held out in John's Favour summoned a Parliament at Nottingham such as the Parliament was then on the Thirtieth of March 1194. Trigesima Die mensis Martii feria quarta Ricardus Rex Angliae celebravit primum Concilii sui diem apud Nottingham as R. Hoveden pag. 737. where were present Elianor the King's Mother the two Archbishops David the King of Scotland's Brother the Bishops and the Barons And on the Day following the King demanded Justice should be done him on his Brother John who against his Oath of Allegiance had seised on his Castles destroyed his Countries both at home and abroad and Leagued against him with the King of France his Enemy And it was adjudged that Earl John should be cited to appear within Forty Days and stand to the Law and that if he did not Judicaverunt Comitem Johannem demeruisse regnum saith Hoveden Ipsum Fratrem suum Rex exhaeredavit Annal. Waverl An. 1194. Omne jus pristinum honorem impensum solenni judicio Procerum suorum abjudicavit saith J. Brompton from W. Hemingford whom he constantly Copies and Cites by the Name of Walter de Giseburn pag. 1278. lin 19. Judicio Procerum omni honore privavit saith H. Knighton l. 2. pag. 2408. But the Annales De Margan put out by the most excellently Learned Dr. Gale in 1691 go to my thinking a great way farther than all the rest The Passage is somewhat long but remarkable enough to make you amends for the Patience of Reading it Thus then in the Year M C XC IX After Richard's Death John his Brother in the Octaves of Easter having entred upon the Dukedom of Normandy coming over into England was Crowned King on Ascension-Day at Westminster May 27. against the Judgment and Decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons and all the rest of the Great Men of England which they had passed at Nottingham in the Presence of King Richard his Brother where for the Treason he had acted against the King and Kingdom in Confederacy with the King of France he was disinherited and depriv'd abjudicatus which I cannot construe better not only of all the Lands he had in England but also of all Honors which he might hope for or expect to have from the Crown of England It was also decreed that he should be summoned to appear in such a space of time within the King's Courts to answer and defend himself if he could upon the War and Treason aforesaid Raised and Committed whilst his Brother was abroad and detain'd in Germany but he came not himself nor sent any other to answer for him Upon which Three Earls his Peers were sent to the Court of France there to convict him of the same Treason but neither did he make his appearance there or answer for himself And yet against this Judgment and Decree he is Crowned King William de Breuse together with his Faction pressing instantly for his Coronation In which Coronation all that were concerned offended grievously as well because John had no Right to the Kingdom Arthur his elder Brother's Son being then alive as also that if he had been Heir of the Kingdom yet by and for the above repeated Treason he had been deprived and difinherited This is a famous Passage and makes very much for a Bill of Exclusion at least if I mistake not and there was so much in it that when the Pope's Legat was dissuading the King of France from sending his Son Lewis into England as the Barons and Great Men had by express Messengers desir'd him to do and told him England then was S. Peter's Patrimony by the Resignation of King John the King of France told him that England never was John's to give as well because no King can give away his Kingdom without their Consent as also because he had forfeited all Right to the Crown if Right he had had by his Treasons against Richard of which he stood Convict and had had Sentence passed upon him as a Traitor by Hugh de Pudsey Bishop of Durham Thus Matth. Westm. tho Matth. Paris represents it a little otherwise But tho the King and Parliament proceeded to an Act of Exclusion yet they put no one upon abjuring John by Name They thought it enough to secure the present King by an Oath of Allegiance and to put by John from succeeding him but no one ever was constrain'd to swear he never should nor ought to be King They hurt John as much as they could by freeing the Subject from swearing to him but they intended not to hurt the Subjects by compelling them to swear against him Methinks there is great deal of Difference betwixt these two Points and that 's the Use I would have you make of this long Story which I will conclude when I have added That tho John afterwards did actually succeed his Brother Richard tho Arthur had been declared Successor to Richard tho it was the Opinion of all the World both abroad and at home that Arthur was the undoubted Heir of the Crown tho many Nobles sided with him tho he claim'd the Crown himself openly and gave John abundance of Trouble and alarm'd him daily yet did John never attempt to get him abjured by the Nation nor to secure himself any other way than by the common Oath of Allegiance He afterwards caught him and in all likelyhood ordered him to be made away privately but that was nothing to the People of England He died 't is thought about 1203 but his Sister Ellinor commonly called The Damosel of Britanny lived till after 1240. Tho she undoubtedly was the Heiress of the Crown if the Nation had regarded the Lineal and immediate Succession as much in those as in these latter Days which it is manifest they did not The long and troublesome Reign of Henry the Third the Times of Edward the First and Second afford me nothing to my present purpose They had no Rivals or Competitors to fear nor consequently any occasion of securing themselves by any Oath of Abjuration When Edward the Third was Crowned King upon the Deposition of his Father tho Edmond of Kent and others attempted to deliver him from his Imprisonment and re-instate him again yet the young King sought not his Safety and Establishment by any Oath of Abjuration of his Father It was enough that the several Estates of the Kingdom had by Deputies appointed for the purpose solemnly renounced their Allegiance to him and chosen his Son to Reign in his stead and taken the usual Oath of Allegiance to him this was then esteemed sufficient Security for the young King without concerning the whole Kingdom in an Oath of Abjuration And this was the Case of Henry the Fourth when Richard the Second was deposed the Crown was entail'd by Parliament on him and his Sons but there was no Abjuring Richard by an Oath to be taken by the Subjects The Estates of the Realm Deposed him very solemnly