Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A26178
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Reflections upon a treasonable opinion, industriously promoted, against signing the National association and the entring into it prov'd to be the duty of all subjects of this kingdom.
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Atwood, William, d. 1705?
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1696
(1696)
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Wing A4179; ESTC R16726
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61,345
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70
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might afterwards sail out of abundant care for his Son Henry had him Crowned in his life time which through French Counsels put the Son upon insisting on the Rights of Kingship to the great clamity of the Nation tho' the Subjects swore Allegiance to him with an express Salvo for the Allegiance due to his Father Which whatever some have thought or affirm'd was the only Salvo in the Scotch Kings homage according to ancient custom for the Crown of Scotland To H. 2. succeeded his eldest surviving Son Richard but was not accounted King upon the death of his Father Authors say he was to be promoted to be King by Hereditary Right which is far from being King by Hereditary Right But as the former usage explains such words he deserved to be elected and made King in which sense one of the Authors who lived at the time immediately explains himself mentioning his Coronation Oath after the solemn and due election as well of the Clergy as People Before this he was at first only Earl of Poictou and then Duke of Normandy but not till he had been solemnly invested with the Sword of that Dukedom And Bromton informs us that he accepted the Crown upon condition of keeping his Coronation Oath without undertaking which the Archbishop charged him not to assume the Royal Dignity He going to the holy Wars after his being Crown'd his Brother John would have seiz'd the Government as vacant but had no tollerable pretence the War having been carried on with a National Consent Upon this it was adjudged by a Common-Council of the Kingdom that John should be disseiz'd of all that he held in England which might extend to such right or expectancy as he had in the Crown Notwithstanding which upon Richard's death the great Question came upon the Stage whether the Crown ought ordinarily to go according to the right of Proximity or of Representation The right of Proximity was in John Brother to King Richard this was the Right which the English seem'd to think most agreeable to the Constitution of this Monarchy and is according to the Custom of Normandy for Succession to that Dukedom and as Cujacius supposes of most Nations Foreigners were for Arthur of Brittain as having the right of Representation being the Son of John's elder Brother and this was the Right according to the custom of Brittain in France But as to the Law of England it appears by Glanvil's account of the Law as it was taken in the time of H. 2. that even for the Descent of private Inheritances it was doubtful whether they ought to go to the Grandson by the eldest Son who died in the Father's life time or to his next surviving Son If indeed the eldest Son had in the Father's life time done homage to the Chief Lord for his Father's Inheritance this was held to remove the doubt And Glanvil afterwards says upon the Question between Uncle and Nephew that the condition of the Possessor is the better According to which King John having obtained Possession of the Crown had it rightfully and Arthur had no right to turn him out John being beyond-sea at his Brother's death sent over the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshal of England to sollicit for his being admitted to the Throne These Great Men with the assistance of the Chief Justice of England prevailed upon many to swear Allegiance to John and in a Convention at Northampton those Persons were Sponsors for John's doing right to all men upon which condition or in confidence of his performing what had been undertaken in his name the Earls and Barons swore Fidelity to him against all Men yet after this he was formally elected in a full Convention of the States where the Archbishop declares it as matter known to 'em all that no man ought to succeed an other to the Kingdom upon any previous reason unless unanimously elected by the whole Realm c. But if any one of the Royal Stock was more deserving than others his election ought to be consented to the more promptly and readily Notwithstanding what had pass'd in favour of John in the Convention the Archbishop at the time of the Coronation calls him but Earl King John not only took the Oath appointed by the standing Ritual which declares every King of England to be elected but assumed the Royal Dignity as his Predecessor did with the express condition of keeping his Oath Having broken this Contract and notoriously departed from that end for which according to the Confessors Law expresly sworn to by him he had been constituted or created King in making War upon his People with Foreign Forces with which he exercis'd inhuman barbarities and as much as in him lay alienating his Imperial Crown to the Pope he in the Judgment of the Court of France as well as of the States and People of England fell from his Royal Dignity the Throne was become vacant and during the vacancy the Administration devolved upon the States whereupon they resolved to elect a new King and sent a solemn Embassy to the King of France to send over his Son Lewis to be King of England whose wife was John's Sisters Daughter But the chief inducement to this Election seems to have been that expectation in which they were not deceived that the Foreigners would desert John for Lewis Tho they promised to Crown him King they seeing great grounds to dislike his French Temper and Conduct kept him upon his good behaviour without a Crown And having found by the dying Confession of one of his confederates that he had sworn if he came to be once Crowned King he would treat the English as Rebels to their former Prince they soon sent this Probationer packing yet did not hold John to be King After John's death many of the greatest interest in England while Lewis was here and Elianor Prince Arthur's Sister alive in Bristol Castle who according to the vulgar notion ought to have been Queen John's Son but were far from thinking him King upon the death of his Father or from repenting of what they had done to the Father but they thought it adviseable to cut off Lewis his expectation of the Crown to which end the Martial of England Summons a Convention to Glocester where he tells the States that tho' they had justly prosecuted the Father for his evil deeds yet that Infant was innocent because he is the Son of a King and our future Lord and Successer of the Kingdom let us Constitute him our King At last all as with one voice cried thrice let him be made King Here 't is evident that he was not accounted King till Constituted or made and was but a future Lord and agreeably to this Matthew Paris
it be truly considered his Usurpation if any must have consisted in the Tyrannical Exercice of his Power which the Duke of Bucks had urged to justify his Arms and not from the assuming it and that H. 7 th's Sovereignty was founded in that election of the Body of the People without a formal Convention which pitch'd upon him as a fit Person to deliver them from their real or imagin'd Yoke This will appear beyond contradiction from the proceedings of the Parliament upon his Claim and the moral impossibility of giving it any other colour However the Parliament took to it self full Authority in the matter and declaring their hopes that it might be to the pleasure of Almighty God the Wealth Prosperity and Security of this Realm by Authority of Parliament settles the Crown upon H. 7. and the Heirs of his Body exclusive of all others After which indeed they desire him to marry Eliz. E. 4th's Daughter that by God's Grace there might be issue of the Stock of their Kings but then special care is taken that neither the King or the Children by that marriage should be thought to derive any Title from her for tho' they by Authority of Parliament repeal her Bastardy declared 1º R. 3. they by the said Authority ordein that the then Act ne eny clause in the same be hurtful or prejudicial to the Act of stablishment of the Crown of England to the King and the Heirs of his Body begotten After this H. 7. obtains a Bull from the Pope which says the Kingdom belonged to him not only by right of War and notorious undoubted nearest Title of Succession but also by the election of the Prelates Peers Great Men Nobles and the Commons of all the Kingdom of England and by the known and decreed Statute and Ordinance of the three States of the said Kingdom of England in their Convention called a Parliament According to this tho' his Reign was held to have begun before he had been declared King it was as I shall have occasion to observe in other cases only by way of relation to that solemn Investiture without which he had never been King That his Right must have been derived from a plain Election is very evident for 1. He had been attainted in a Parliament of R. 3. and if the Royal Blood could not be so attainted but whenever a former King ceased to be King the Person so attainted standing next to the Crown should have his Attainder purged by the descent of the Crown then according to them of this Opinion the Earl of Warwick Son to George Duke of Clarence who had been attainted by Parliament in the Reign of his Brother E. 4. must have had the Right before H. 7. And yet if we regard the distinction between Proximity and Representation H. 7. was in that respect more truly the next Heir to the Crown But however the resolution of the Judges 1 H. 7. has been taken they held the disability to cease eo facto that he took upon him the Royal Dignity to be King nor by any imagined Right of Descent 2. At least one of the Children of E. 4. was alive when H. 7. came to the Crown 3. Tho' in truth it appears by the Statute reversing the Attainder of H. 6. to have been the judgment of H. 7th's Parliament that H. 6ths Family of which he was ought to be the reigning Family yet H. 7. had no pretence to preference in that Family but from his Merits and the People's Choice For 1. His own Mother who stood before him upon that Line was then alive 2. He came from a Bastard branch his Ancestor being the Bastard Son of John of Gaunt during former Marriages on both sides And tho' there was a legitimation 20 R. 2. that neither did nor was intended to extend to capacitate for the Royal Dignity However H. 7. is in an Act of Parliament called Natural Sovereign Leige Lord. Certain it is that he was never in his time or after Authoritatively declared or accounted King only in Fact and they who will take the distinction of King in Right and in Fact from the last Parliamentary Declaration in this matter before the Revolution must hold that till the restitution of the younger House which had been settled the Regnant Family for three Reigns successively all the Kings of the elder House were Kings only in Fact but not of Right And yet it is not to be thence inferred that while they of the elder House had possession they were to be accounted Usurpers for not standing first upon that Line which ought to have had the preference But when any Prince of either branch had Justice done to his Merits who would not say that he ought sooner to have been King H. 8th came in under the Authority of Parliament which had made H. 7th the Head of a new Succession as the Crown had been Entail'd upon him and his Issue And tho' H. 8th's Mother was Daughter to E. 4. whatever Dr. Brady suggests it has appeared above that particular care was taken by H. 7th's Parliament that the Crown should not be thought to descend by proximity of Blood but that the Right of Succession was to be derived from Parliamentary Authority It is beyond contradiction that in the judgment of H. 8th and his Parliaments the inheritance of the Crown was variable as Parliaments should determine and that no Man could rightfully succeed without such appointment By Authority of his Paliament 25o. the Marriage with Katherine Mother to Queen Mary was declared void and that with Ann Mother to Queen Elizabeth lawful and the Children made inheritable according to the course of Inhetances and laws of this Realm first to Males then to Females 't was made High-Treason by Writing Print Deed or Act to attempt any thing to the prejudice of that Settlement and the substance of an Oath was appointed afterwards made more express by another Statute repealing all Oaths to the contrary and engaging the Subjects in maintaining that Act of Succession to do against all manner of Persons of what estate degree or condition soever he be By Authority of Parliament 28 H. 8. the Marriages with Queen Katharine and Queen Ann are declared unlawful and the Children illegitimate and the Crown is settled upon the issue of the Body of Queen Jane E. 6ths Mother for want of such issue to such Person and Persons as the King should appoint by Virtue of the said Act. And it provides that if any should attempt to succeed contrary to that Settlement they should lose and forfeit all right Title and Interest that they may claim to the Crown as Heirs by Descent or otherwise The reason for reserving an appointment to the King is very remarkable because as the words of the Statute are If such Heirs should fail as God defend and no Provision made in your life who should