Man who shall with me carefully compare Records Histories Law-Books Charters and Authentick Manuscripts from before the fixation of the Monarchy downwards The most antient uncontested Authority of this kind which is allowed us even by the Scotch Writers who think themselves concerned to blemish our Antiquities is the Venerable Bede who died in the year 735. He speaking of the coming of the Picts into the Northern Parts of Britanny says The Scotch gave them Wives on condition that when any Controversie arose they should chuse themselves a King of the Female Stock of Kings rather than of the Male. Whereby it appears what was his Judgment of the Successions where they have seemed most fond of an Inherent Right of Birth But as to England where a King has lest three Sons Bede calls them all Heirs Accordingly he more than once mentions Brothers reigning together as Sighard and Frede among the East-Saxons while the West-Saxon Kingdom was govern'd by several petty Kings in distinct Divisions These Kings probably at that time were Tributary or Feudatory Kings under the Mercian Kingdom for in the year 730 I find King Aetilbalt stiles himself not only King of the Mercians but also of all the Counties which by the general name are call'd South-Angles subscribing King of Britanny And in the same year I find an Offa who stiles himself King of the Mercians and also of the other Nations where ever round about By reason of the Inheritance of Crowns belonging to several Sons of Kings the Kings were so numerous that Bede mentions two Brothers Crown'd Kings even of the Isle of Wight But when any were Constituted Kings to the setting aside all the old Regnant Family of that particular Kingdom the Persons so constituted were according to Bede Strangers or doubtful by way of distinction from Lawful Kings And yet all the Kings of the several Kingdoms were descended from Woden from which Common-Stock they all took their Qualifications for an Election as afterwards the West-Saxon Kings did from Cerdic then from Ina and after that from Egbert But generally I take it regard was had to that part or branch of Woden's Family which was the regnant Family within the particular Kingdom where one of that branch was advanced according to that Charter of an Offa where he is stiled King of the Mercians descended from the Mercian Royal Stock About which time I find two Kings of Kent Sigered and Eadberht governing in severalty These 't is likely were Brothers but Eadberht who became King of all Kent upon Sigered's death or amotion was constituted King and Prince by the whole County This was above 60 years before the Foundation of the Monarchy was laid by the West-Saxon King Ina. Tho most of the Moderns and many of the Ancients lay it as late as Egbert's time the Confessors Laws received and sworn to by William the I. and following Kings say of Ina he was elected King throughout England and first obtained the Monarchy since the coming of the English into Britanny His qualification for an Election the Saxon Cronicle places in a Descent from Cerdic But Malmsbury assures us he was advanced rather for his Merit than his being of the Successive or Inheritable Family and that from him to Brictric the Kings were far out of the Royal Line That Brictric was truly elected appears not only in his bare qualification from the Stock of Cerdic but as he was immediate Successor to Kenwolf elected upon the like qualification and in whose Reign it was ordained in a National and Legantine Council that no man suffer the assent of Wicked men to prevail but that Kings be lawfully elected by the Priests and Elders of the People where 't is manifest that lawfully does not limit the Election to any other Rule than what follows in that Law viz. to avoid electing Persons born in Adultery or Incest The Person lawfully Elected is there called Heir of the Country Where Heir is plainly used in the Sense both of the Civil and of our Common Law for the Person that comes duely to the Inheritance in this sense all that have been elected Kings have been held to succeed by Hereditary Right And thus in numbers of Charters in the Saxon Times and after Private Inheritances are granted to Men to leave to what Heir they please to the Church and its Sacred Heirs and to the Barons or Citizens of London and their Heirs To Brictric the first West-Saxon King after the Peoples Right to Elect had been declared by National Authority succeeded Egbert who derived after several degrees pass'd from Ina's Brother It may well be thought that he was Elected with a Consent no less full and formal than was held essential to his Grants of Lands one of which was with the License and Consent of all his Nation and the unanimity of all the Great men Egbert was alive in the year 838 tho' Historians generally suppose him to have died two years before His Sons Ethelstan the Eldest and Ethelwolf were Kings in his life time As I might prove by several Charters but shall here mention but two one in the year 827. where an Ethelstan subscribes as Monarch of all Britanny an other An. 836. where Egbert grants with the Consent of his Son Ethelwolf King of Kent In the year 838. Ethelwolf succeeded Egbert in the Kingdom of West-Saxony by a manifest Election his eldest Brother Ethelstan being then alive and continuing the Monarch or chief King of all Britanny Besides the Evidences above that there was not at that time such a fix'd rule of descent in the West-Saxon Royal Family as made the Kings eldest Son to be King or to have a certain and indefesible Right to be King may appear by the Law or Custom of that Kingdom mentioned by Asser and Nicolas of Gloster and others not to suffer the King's Wife to be called Queen or to sit near her Husband which seems to have occasioned the Ritual for the Consecrating the Wife in consortium regalis thori for the consortship of the Royal Bed Till she was so Consecrated which was to be in a Convention of the States or coming from it she had no more right to the Kings Bed than a Concubine Of this doubtless W. 1. was aware when he expressed a desire to have his Wife Crowned with him Certain it is that the Sons of Kings begotten on Conubines after they had been elected or adopted by the States were always held to have succeeded as Rightfully and to have been as legitimate Heirs as the Sons begotten in Wedlock the Mother's being Queen and by consequence the legitimation of the issue and capacity to inherit the Crown having depended upon the will of the States But that in Ethelwolf's time the word Elected was duely applied
incapacity from his Bastardy Besides his Wife Maud was descended from a Daughter of King Alfred married to Baldwin Earl of Flanders upon which account a Commentator on the Grand Custumary of Normandy held him to be the first or chief Heir Edward Son to Edmund Ironside was at one time designed by the Confessor for his Successor if he could prevail with the Nation to consent but that Edward dying before the Confessor his Son being a Minor seems never then to have been thought of Harold's design was covert nor does he appear to have been a Pretender till the Confessor lay upon his death-bed But Duke William had long been promis'd his Cousin King Edward's interest in order whereunto we may well believe he in the year 1651. came over to England and doubtless to ingratiate him to the Nation was by the Confessor carried up and down the Kingdom In the year 1657. or 1658. the design was brought to bear and in a Great Council of the whole Nation William was declared Successor or as the Law received by him has it agreeing with a Charter pass'd in Parl. 15. of his Reign was adopted Heir or as another Charter has it Edward instituted him adopted Heir That this Adoption or Institution of an Heir to the Crown was with a Consent truly National I shall elsewhere have occasion to prove at large at present shall only observe that the above-cited Law says that Edward caused the Kingdom to swear to William that Wilnot Earl Godwin's Son and Hacun his Grandson were sent Hostages to William to secure the future Allegiance of that Family that Robert Archbishiop of Canterbury and Harold were successively with the Duke to assure him of his being declared Heir to the Crown which Harold swore to endeavour to preserve to William But notwithstanding the Nations and his own Oath while the Nobility and People were at the Confessor's Funeral at Westminster Harold got a Party together at Lambeth where as some have it he set the Crown upon his own Head The mad Englishman as a contemporary Writer has it would not stay to see what the Publick Election would appoint Harold's Possession whatever it was prov'd very short lasting but nine Months nor was he ever fully recogniz'd or submitted to by the States or the Body of the Nation he never held any Parliament or Convention of the States which I take to be the reason that no Charter of his is to be seen nor have I met with any mention of one They who fought for him against William were judged Traytors and their Estates forfeited and it is rightly observ'd by the Lord Coke that in Demesday Harold who usurped the Crown of England after the decease of King Edward the Confessor is never named per nomen Regis sed per nomen Comitis Haroldi Wherefore he leaves him out of his Lift of our Kings William according to some Authors was encouraged to his attempt from the consideration that Harold was neither of the Saxon nor Danish Royal Stock When William Landed he claimed the Crown from his Cousins Gift with the consnt of the Nobility of the Kingdom confirmed by Oath and lays his qualification in being thought the most deserving of all that were nearly related to the Confessor Harold had nothing to plead against that but the suggestion that the Crown had not been setled by a Consent sufficiently formal that it was made without a Convention and Law of the Senate and People which 't is no wonder that he should pretend tho' there were never so formal an Election Notwithstanding the Right with which the Norman Duke Landed he proffered to submit to what the English should decree and therefore to a new election if they thought fit Upon Harold's death some of the English who dreaded the consequence of receiving William after a bloody Battle set up Edgar Atheling for King who tho' but the second degree from a Bastard and tho' his Father never had Possession was look'd upon as the true Heir of the Crown that is the Person of the last Regnant Branch of the Royal Family who ordinarily would have succeeded by common consent of the States if of sufficient Merit and reasons of State or other obligations did not interpose But the learned Monk Guitmond who could bot but know the constitution in this matter held him to be but one Heir among many of the Line of the Royal Family However the generallity of the Clergy thought themselves bound to maintain the Title with which King William Landed and that'twas Rebellion to oppose him yet before his being received for King he at Berkhamsted made a League or Contract with the People headed by the Great Earls Edwin and Morcar who came up with the Forces from the North which had never been in the Battle against the Duke Part of the League made with the People of England was that he should be Crown'd as the manner of the English Government requires at his Coronation the consent of the People was ask'd in the due and accustomed manner and the account Historians give of the Oath he then took shews it to be that which stood in the Saxon Ritual After which he more than once received and swore to that Body of the Common-Law of England which had obtain'd the name of King Edward's Laws which as has been observ'd declare the end for which a King is Constituted and that he loses the Name or ceases to be King when he answers not that end Indeed Dr. Brady who is as free with his Conquerors Memory as with the Liberties of England which he calls the Grants and Concessions of the King of this Nation will have it that William the I. regarded his Oath only in the beginning of his Reign and that by notorious violations of his contract with the People of England he acquired the Right of a Conqueror and thereby put an end to the ancient Constitution of this Monarchy and those Liberties and Priviledges of the Subject which manifestly appear to have been of elder date than the Monarchy Upon which if one would return the Freedom of his Censures against others it might be said that this was not only to make the then King the Successor of a Conqueror but with a prospect of applying the Rights which he ascribes to a supposed Qonquest to justifie what should be practised upon the late intended Conquest of this Nation That the Judgment and Practice of William the I. was very contrary to the Doctor 's Imaginations will be proved by numerous Instances and that it was so as to that part of the Constitution which concerns the Succession to the Crown appears by that King's Death-bed Declaration which some would set up for a will disposing of the Crown at that very time when he owns that it is not his to give
true lawful and undoubted Heir and Universal Successor to the Crown and Kingdoms of England and France and all the King's Dominions whatsoever and wheresoever beyond the Sea and also has right of universally succeeding the King in the said Crown Kingdoms and Dominions To have to him and the Heirs Male of his Body and in default of such Issue so in remainder to his Brothers In an other Charter pass'd in that Parliament the Inheritance or Hereditation of the Crown is entail'd upon the King and the Heirs Male of his Body then to his four Sons and the Heirs Male of their Bodies successively It seems the next year some doubts arose upon these different Settlements that 5o. then remaining upon Record therefore they cancel and make void the Letters Patent of the Entail 5o. and change and amend that Settlement which they seem to have thought defective 1. In only declaring the Prince Heir Apparent and Inheritable to the Crown which was no more than to declare him before others qualified to succeed if the States should Elect him 2. In declaring him Inheritable only to the Crown of England without mentioning its appurtenances seeming to think that in Grants of this Nature nothing would pass by implication But to prevent all ambiguities they being as is said in that Record met in a Parliament according to the Custom of the Kingdom for divers Matters and Things concerning the King and his Kingdom The King with common Consent of the Kingdom Enacts That a new Patent be Sealed constituting Prince Henry Heir Apparent to succeed the King in his Crown Realms and Dominions to have them with all their appurtenances after the King's Decease to him and the Heirs of his Body and so in remainder to his three Brothers successively whereby they had a larger Estate than by the Entail 7º which was to Heirs Male Thus by Virtue of one or more Settlements by Authority of Parliament H. 5. succeeded and yet it was thought a great instance of the confidence the States had in him that in a Convention or Assembly holden according to Ancient Custom in which they treated about creating a new King some of the Nobility immediately Swore Allegiance to him before he had been declared King But it is to be observed that whereas his Father died the 20th of March he is said to be created King on the 5th of April Death cutting off the course of his Glories his Infant Son H. 6. came in under the Parliamentary Entail but the Administration was held to have fallen upon the States who accordingly after having declared H. 6. King in full Parliament pass'd a Patent constituting Humfry Duke of Gloster Protecter of the Realm John Duke of Bedford Regent of France and Henry Beaufort Bishop of Winchester and Thomas Beaufort Duke of Exeter Governors of the young Prince The Death of the brave Duke of Bedford occasioned not only the loss of France but the raising the Family of York to a pretence which in all probability had been buried to this day had not H. 6ths treacherous Ministers put him upon making Richard Duke of York Regent of France after being High Constable of England and Lieutenant of Ireland With these advantages Duke Richard set up under a Mask of Popularity as if he only sought redress of grievances while himself was the only National Calamity As nothing but success could give him any colour of Title he was forced to conceal his Ambition even from his own Party till 26 H. 6 yet after that acknowledged and swore to H. 6ths Right and confirm'd it with the Sacrament which Solemnities were to be subservient to his imaginary Divine Right Tho' by his Frauds and Perjuries he often came within the prospect of a Crown 38 H. 6. he was deservedly Attainted of High-Treason and an Association with an Oath was voluntarily enter'd into by the Lords wherein every one severally acknowledges H. 6. to be his most redoubted Lord and rightwish or Rightful by Succession born to Reign over him and all the Kings Liege People that he will do his utmost for the We le and surety of the King's Person of his most Royal Estats and the very conservation and continuance of his most high Authority Preheminence and Prerogative and for the preservation of the Queen and of Prince Edward his Right redoubted Lord the Prince that after the King's Death he will take and accept the Prince for his Sovereign Lord and after him the Issue of his Body lawfully begotten for want of such Issue any other Issue of the Body of the King that he will never give Aid Assistance or Favour to any thing contrary to the premises and that he will put himself in his due undelayed devoir with his Body Goods Might Power Counsel and Advertisement to resist withstand and subdue all that should presume to do contrary to the premises or any of them This Association not being General throughout the Kingdom had no great effect not so much from any belief the Nation had of Richard's being injured as from the burdens a Treacherous Ministry induced a weak Prince to lay upon the Subjects This made the Commons of Kent invite over from abroad the Duke and his Party who had fled from Justice then the Tide turn'd and the King became wholly in the power of the Duke of York under whose awe and influence a Parliament was call'd where he laid claim to the Crown with circumstances which one would think were enough to give any Man a face of Title and yet his pretended Divine Right countenanc'd by Providence was mightily qualify'd by the courage of the Parliament and their regard to the Constitution of this Monarchy His claim was as Son to Ann Daughter to Roger Mortimer Son and Heir to Philippa Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence third Son to E. 3. whereas H. 6. descended from John of Gaunt the 4th and eldest surviving Son After Debate among the Lords upon this matter these Objections were agreed upon against Richard's pretence of Title 1. The Oaths they had taken to the King their Sovereign Lord. 2. Acts of Parliament made in divers Parliaments of the King's Progenitors of Authority sufficient to defeat any manner of Title to be made to any Person 3. Several Entails made to Heirs Male 4. That Richard did not bear Lionel's Arms. 5. That H. 4. took upon him the Crown not as Conqueror but right Inheritor to H 3. All that is urged materially against this for Richard is 1. That Oaths do not bind against God's Law and that requires Truth and Justice to be maintain'd but this being a Spiritual matter he refers to any Judge Spiritual 2. That there was but one Entail of the Crown 7 H. 4. but that this was void against the right Inheritor of the Crown according to God's law and all Natural laws 3. It could
says they assembled in order to exalt Henry the King 's eldest Son to be King of England He took the Coronation Oath more han once and at one of his Coronations had the Confessor's Sword carried before him by the Earl of Chester one of the Earls Palatine of England for a sign that that Sword was not to be born in vain He having trod in his Father's steps the States were likely to have made good their solemn denunciation 17th of his Reign of deposing him in a Common-Council of the whole Kingdom and creating a new King which as appears by Bracton a very learned Judge in that Reign was no more than the then known Law of the Kingdom Various were the events of a long Civil War in which at last the death of the great Darling of the Church and People the then Hereditary High Steward of England and the bravery of Henry's Son gave him the victory which they who were on his side and his own experience of the consequence of his former Counsels kept withing some bounds of moderation Henry to secure the Succession to his eldest Son Edward had before that success caused many and particularly the Citizens of London to swear to his Son as Successor And after that it should seem that a Parliament had made a Settlement of the Crown For in the 55th of his Reign a Writ was sent to London the execution of which was return'd into the Parliament that year at Winchester and 't is probable the like had been throughout England in pursuance of which Writ the Mayor Barons Citizens and University of the Commons swore Allegiance to the King after him to his eldest Son Edward then to his Son John after that to the right Heirs of the Crown of England which not being to the Heirs of either of those Persons plainly left the Inheritance as I have shewn it was from the beginning Upon the Father's death the Clergy and Laity flock'd to Westminster where they declared or received for King Edward then beyond-sea in the Holy War so called Soon after this as I take it a great Convention of the States was holden in his name there a Chancellor was chosen and other Provisions made for the Peace of the Kingdom in Edward's absence the Writ which they issued out requiring the Subjects in general to swear Allegiance to E. 1. says the Government was devolved upon him by Hereditary Succession and the Will of the Nobility and the Fidelity performed or Allegiance sworn to him Agreeably to which Walsingham says they recognized Edward their Leige Lord and ordained him Successor of his Father's honour Tho' he was a very gallant Prince yet having taken ill advice being to cross the Seas he upon a Pedestal at Westminster-Hall Gate with the Archbishop of Canturbury and the Earl of Warwick by his side publickly ask'd forgiveness of his People entreated 'em to receive him again at his return and if he died to Crown his Son King which they who were then assembled consented to How much it was then known to concern a King to keep to his part of the Contract as he would have his People continue bound appears by two great Authorities in our Law of that time Fleta who as to this matter transcribes Bracton almost verbatim and the Mirrour of Justices which speaks of the first Institution of Kings among us by Election for what End they were Elected and what they were to expect if they answered not that End E. 2. as Walsingham informs us succeeded not so much by Hereditary Right as by the unanimous Assent of the Nobility and Great Men. He was for misgovernment formally depos'd or Abdicated from the Regal Dignity as Walsingham has it and his Son Edward was Substituted or Elected in his stead The Son indeed tho he had headed Forces against his Father seem'd to scruple accepting the Crown without his Fathers consent And ex post Facto after Edw. 2d had been deposed and his Son Elected with a threat that if he refused they would Elect sombody else the Father took some comfort at the Election of his Son and as much as in him lay consented The Son it must be own'd in a Writ cited by Dr. Brady says his Father amoved himself by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other Nobles and also of the Commonalâ—y of the whole Kingdom Which being onely in Writs Issued out of the Chancery can be of no Force to limit or explain that Act of the States And was but a civility or complement from the Son to the Father What the States judged in the matter will be very plain from the following account in a contemporary Author King Edward remaining in Custody at Kenelworth a General Council of the whole Clergy and People of England was Summon'd viz. of every City and every County and Borough a certain number of Persons to Treat and Ordain with the Great Men of the State of the King and Kingdom In which Council at the cry of the whole People unanimously persevering in that cry that King Edward II. should be Deposed from the Throme of the Kingdom becuase from the beginning of his Reign to this day he had misbehaved himself in his Government had Ruled his People wickedly had dissipated Lands Castles and other things belonging to the Crown had by perverse Judgment unjustly adjudged Noblemen to Death had advanced the Ignoble and had done many things contrary to the Oath taken at his Coronation Walter Archbishop of Canterbury pronouncing Articles of this kind by assent and consent of all King Edward 2. is wholly deposed and Edward his eldest Son advanced to be King of England And it is Ordained that from thenceforth he should not be called King but Edward of Karnarvan the King's Father And immediately Messengers were sent from the Council to the said Edward the King's Father to notifie to him what had been done and to read to him the Articles upon which he had been deposed He answer'd he was detained in custody nor could contradict their Ordinances but said he would bear all patiently And it is observable that a Statute of the Kingdom 1 E. 3. justifies the taking Arms against E. 2. while he was in Possession of the Throne and indemnifies all Persons for the pursuit of the said King and taking and withholding his body E. 3. who knew that himself came in by and election of the States being aware that if he should die before any Provision were made about the Succession the Controversie concerning the Right of Proximity and that of Representation would be revived between his eldest surviving Son and Grandson by the eldest who died in his life time obtained an Act of Parliament whereby Richard his Grandson by his eldest and best beloved Son was declared or made very
and true Allegiance to King William will be wiser than the Law not only declared by this Act of Parliament but by several in former Reigns and with a gross Jesuitical evasion without any colour of foundation in Law or Reason pretend that they have sworn to K. William only as King in Fact but that another was rightful King at the same time This groundless and wicked distinction appears to have engaged some Men in an horrid and barbarous Plot against his Majesty's Person and Government tho' they had sworn to be true and faithful to him and it seems by the case of Sir John Perkins that neither he nor his Casuists thought the Oath to King William any departure from the Allegiance to King James nor the design of Assassinating King William any breach of the Oath to him Since therefore the deceit has taken rise from the supposition that the late King continues King of Right together with the general terms of the Oath which are pretended to leave a latitude for this illegal and nonsensical supposition and an Oath more explicit has been artfully kept off a voluntary Declaration that his present Majesty King William is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms as it is fully warranted by the fundamental constitution of this Government is at this time become a necessary duty when it is evident to the World what they who are of a contrary Opinion will act as they have opportunity But to engage to stand by and assist each other in the defence of His Majesty's Person and Government is not more a consequence of the declaring him rightful and lawful King than it is implied in the Oath of Allegiance appointed by the Act of Parliament which settles the Crown and however the Common-Law Oath and the legal sense of Allegiance manifestly require it If any who have taken the Oath of Allegiance to his present Majesty scruple to associate because of the declaring His Majesty to be rightful and lawful King it is evident that they prevaricated when they swore If they questioned the legality of entring into this before there was a positive Law for it 't is certain they have been little acquainted with the Common-Law Oath of Allegiance and the warrantable Presidents of former times according to which the late Act late Act which enjoyns some to Sign the Association not only gives it Sanction for the future but with express relation to its being voluntarily enter'd into by great numbers of His Majesty's Subjects declares that it is good and lawful And any Man who impartially weighs what I have laid together from Records and other Authentick Memorials of pass'd times must own that it is with full and indubitable Authority enacted That if any person or persons shall maliciously by Writing Printing Preaching Teaching or advised speaking utter publish or declare that His present Majesty is not the lawful and rightful King of these Realms or that the late King James or the pretended Prince of Wales hath any Right or Title to the Crown of these Realms or that any other person or persons hath or have any right or title to the same otherwise than according to an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of His present Majesty and the late Queen Intituled An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and settling the Succession of the Crown such person or persons being thereof lawfully Convicted shall incur the danger and penalty of Praemunire To imagine that after all this the late King either is or ought to be King is to flight all Authorities Ancient as well as Modern Which leads me to the Nature of our Lawyer 's offence who before the Act for the Security of His Majesty's Person and Government held the Signing the Association to be an Overt-Act of Treason against the King de Jure which as has appeared above tends manifestly to depose and unking His present Majesty as in the Eye of the Law there is but one King and he is the only King de Jure Besides this Gentleman admits That by the Statute 11 H. 7. Allegiance is due to a King in Fact and that the Oath of Allegiance was to be taken to him nor can pretend that there ever till of late was any other Oath but what expresly obliged to the Defence of the King and Kingdom against all Men therefore in consequence of his own Notion he must grant that to contend that there may be Treason against any other but the King for the time being is to suppose two contrary Allegiances and therein to depart from that Allegiance which was due even by his own interpretation of the Statute 11 H. 7. But it being evident that by that Statute and the whole course of the Common Law there is but one King I need not tell him the Crime of publishing a written Opinion manifestly importing an endeavour to Depose him If this had been delivered only in Words it is well known who used his Oratory to make words alone Treason within the Statute 25 E. 3. for which I may refer him to the Trial of the now Earl of Macclesfield in the beginning of the late King's Reign and to the Author of the Magistracy and Government Vindicated But as the Opinion was written he may well know from what late Authority Soribere est agere is become a Maxim or Proverbial Nor can he deny the Words to be within the reason of what the Court held in Flower 's Case of a Man's affirming the King to be a Bastard or that another had better Tittle to the Crown because it may draw the Subjects from their Allegiance and beget Mutiny in the Realm or Owen's Case of declaring it Lawful to kill the King being Excommunicated by the Pope both which not to mention more of the like kind were adjudged High-Treason According to the Print of the later Case it would seem that Words alone made the Treason ' but it appears by a MS. Report of one who had been Attorney General and afterwards Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas that Owen's Subscribing his Confession of what he had publickly declared was given in Evidence as the Overt-Act But if any Lawyer who has labour'd to make Treason of Words alone or Writing alone without Publication or Signing an Association to defend the King for the time being against one who had been King but is not should appear not only to have Written or Signed the Opinion above after a Discourse shewing to what Persons it related but to have publish'd this and to have Solicited Men not to Subscribe the Association upon those or the like topicks should he be Convicted of High-Treason against our Sovereign Lord the King it would be difficult not to apply that of the Poet Nec lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire suâ None can the Justice of that Law deny By which who strain'd it against others dye FINIS The
to English Kings and upon what qualification may farther appear by an Author of the Saxon time who speaking of Eastengle where Sr. Edmund was Crownd King two or three years before Ethelwolf's death says Over this Province reigned the most holy Eadmund descended from the Noble Stock of the Ancient Saxons c. who coming from Kings his Ancestors being eminent for his vertue with the unanimous favour of all the People of the Province is not so much elected by reason of * the Succession or Inheritance of the Stock as he is forced to reign over them With in this time Ethelwolf's eldest Son reigned in his Father's life time and retained West-Saxony to his share whilst the bigotted Father having withdrawn to Rome tho' animo revertendi was held to have abdicated and with much ado prevailed with his Son and the People to let him be an underling King of an inferior Kingdom Besides other objections to any right of descent from him according to a good Authority his elder Brother Ethelstan survived However one or more Acts of Parliament in his life time had provided for three Successions after him as appears by the Will of his fourth Son Alfred made in the Presence and with the Consent of all West-Saxony That Will recites what Dr. Brady calls Ethelwolf's Will but was a Charter passed in a General Council for Alfred is express that the Inheritance of King Ethelwolf came to him by Charter thereof made in a general Council at Langedene Yet that Charter was but recommendatory to a future relection for Ethelbert who is not named in Alfred's Account of that Settlement was upon the Fathers death ordained King of several of the Kingdoms and succeeded his Uncle Ethelstan in Kent Alfred's Will shews that by the Parliamentary Settlement of the Crown he was to be Partner in Power when his Brother Ethered should succeed for which he appeals to the Testimony of all West-Saxony accordingly they are both represented as Kings at the same time Alfred was Ethelwolf's fourth Son which soever therefore of his three Brothers left Sons every one of 'em according to the vulgar notion had Right to the Crown before him and yet that great and good Prince in the last Publick Act of his Life expresses a satisfaction in that Inheritance which God and the Princes with the Elders of the People mercifully and bountifully gave him That Will shews that he had two Nephews then alive Athelm and Ethelbalt who were not regarded in the Succession but Alfred was upon his Brother Ethered's death elected by all the Saxons To Alfred succeeded his Son Edward by a manifest Election having Cousin Germans of at least one Elder House Ethelbald or Ethelwold who was one of them was a Competitour with Edward and was elected by the Danes Ethelwerd who himself descended from Ethered's Elder House says of Edward Indeed the then Successor of the Monarchy Edward Son of the above-mentioned King is Crowned after him He being of the Royal Stem was Elected by the Nobility at Whitsuntide one hundred years being pass'd since his Ancestor Egbert had his present Dominion Where the Right of the Saxon Crown to the Monarchy or Primacy for even Edward had no more was laid in perscription but his Right to the Crown in an Election upon a qualification from the Royal Stem Edward's Son and Successor Athelstan was a Bastard tho' Dr. Brady would have the contrary believ'd from Malmsbury's tenderness in the Matter least it should diminish that King's Glory The Saxon Cronicle mentioning the Father's death in Mercia says Ethelstan was elected King by the Mercians Huntingdon says in Mercia whither they might have flock'd from other Kingdoms To Athelstan succeeded his Father's eldest lawfully begotten Son Edmund Tho' Edmund had Sons Eadred his Brother succeeded and that as an Author of those Times affirms in the Right of a Brother And an Author of like antiquity whose words are transcribed by others since the reputed Conquest says The next Heir Eadred took upon him the Natural or Hereditary Kingdom by succeeding his Brother Where the Uncle is plainly accounted the next Heir fit to Reign And yet the Enquirer and Dr. Brady absurdly suppose that Eadred was only Tutor Curator Regent or Protector of the young Princes and Kingdom Which was far from the meaning of that ancient Author who blames the eldest of those Princes for pretending to succeed his Uncle before he had been elected tho' both with Clergy and Laity one Elected supplied the Numbers and Names of the Kings that is no Man was accounted King who was not Elected speaks of the day of the common Election what Authority the States exercised over him for his egregious folly on that day and his being cast off by the Northern Part of the Nation because he foolishly administer'd the Government committed to or entrusted with him He being forsaken by an Universal Conspiracy or Agreement they says that Author the Lord so dictating Elected his Brother Edgar After Eadwig's death the same Author says Edgar took his Kingdom upon him being Elected by the People of both Kingdoms as equal Heir to both As an other Author has it he was elected by all the People of England To Edgar succeeded his eldest Son Edward the Martyr who whatever many of the Moderns and some of the Ancients may have thought was undoubtedly a Bastard which is not only shewn by an Author of the Time but is confirmed by the Brother Ethelred's Charter which informs us that the Election of the States preferred his Brother as the Charter has it The Great Men of both Orders elected my Brother King and gave me Livery of the Lands belonging to the Kings Sons which plamly proves that Edward was a Bastard the Private Inheritance having fallen to the Father's younger Son However this is an undeniable President of an Election and yet for the reason above it may well be said that Edward was left Heir of his Father's Kingdoms as well as Vertues which Historians since the time of W. 1. transcribed from one of the Writers of Sr. Dunstan's Life That Ethelred who succeeded the Martyr was truly elected appears beyond contradiction by the Ritual of his Coronation which requires that the King being elected by the Bishops and the Plebs or Commonalty take his Coronation Oath after the Oath taken the People are solemnly ask'd whether they will have him to be King they answer we will and grant they pray to God to bless his Servant whom they have elected King and in an other place they pray God to bless this purely elected Prince To this time the Danes possessed great part of England and Swane
be justify'd by Record that H. 4ths saying was not true Upon which 't is observable 1. That Richard's answer goes upon a manifest begging the Question and supposing that he had a Right which could not be barred by Act of Parliament 2. That the Lords having mentioned several Entails upon Heirs Male we are to believe that there was then upon Record the Entail upon Heirs Male in the time of E. 3. pleaded by Judge Fortescue in defence of the Title of his King H. 6. This we are the rather to believe because there was but one Entail upon Heirs male in H. 4ths reign nor is Richard's denial any argument against this it appearing that he thought it sufficient for him to affirm any thing and this was to pass for Truth and Law Thus he denies that there had been any Entail but 7º H. 4. forgetting that which had been made 5º and was amended 8 H. 4. and so very much did he mistake that he supposed the Entail 7º to be upon the Heirs of the Body when it was upon Heirs male of the Body 3. What the Lords say of Richard's not bearing Lionel's Arms confirms another objection against him made by Judge Fortescue from the Barstardy of Philippa born while Lionel was beyond the four Seas and never own'd by him nor did she or her descendants till the time of this claim bear the Arms of that Family 4. Richard's Right of Descent admitting there had been no Illegitimacy is laid as a Right in Nature but either this must be as the Laws of the Land guide the course of Nature or otherwise we must go back in search of this Right if not as far as Adam yet to some descendant from the eldest House of the Saxon Royal Family to such at least as could derive their Pedigree from some House elder than King Alfred's which may be done at this day Besides if we should look back to a Right in Nature all the Kings descendants from H. 2. from whom Duke Richard came as well as H. 6. must have been Usurpers H. 2ds Children having being begotten on another Man's Wife who had been Divorced for her Adultery and therefore by God's Law could not Marry again nor does it appear that the Divorce was from the Contract Or if this Matter should admit of Debate such of our Kings as descended from an other common Ancestor King John must have been Usurpers not only by reasonof John's suppos'd Usurpation upon Arthur of Brittain and his Sister but in that his Children were begotten on an other Man's Wife who does not seem ever to have been divorced and besides according to the Law of Nature it would seem that John had a former Wife in being For he was divorced from her only for their being third Cousins as H. 2 ds Wife was from her first Husband as they were Cousins in the 4 th Degree If the first Marriages in both cases were void or voidable it could have been only by the Laws of the Romish Church but if those Laws shall make a natural right by governing the course of descents much more shall the Laws of particular Countries If by the Law of Nature Duke Richard meant that which the consent of Nations has made to pass for the dictates of nature according to Cujacius this Law of Nature is for the right of Proximity which John of Gaunt from whom H. 6. descended had to his Father before R. 2. and H. 4 John of Gaunt's Son had before the Son of Lionel's Daughter supposing her legitimate And by that Law it should seem that Males are ordinarily to be preferred before Females tho' their Vertues have often rais'd 'em to Empire Farther yet if by this he meant the Law of reasonable nature what shadow of reason can be assigned why the eldest Issue of a King 's eldest Child whether that Issue be an Infant or void of understanding or humanity ought universally to succeed to Crowns before the King 's eldest surviving Son whatever be his Merits or the exigencies of the Publick And why should not a moral incapacity in this sense be a natural one But if the Great Lawyer Fortescue who as may be seen by the Rolls of the King's Bench was Chief Justice there from before Richard pretended to the Crown and to the end of H. 6 ths Reign may be allowed to speak the Sense of the Learned in that Time they held the Power of the Prince to flow or be derived from the People according to which it must have been taken to be more according to natural right that the People who appointed the Succession in any Family should govern and vary it as they saw occasion than that from their pitching upon a Person or Family they should be for ever debarred from doing justice to the demerits of one and to the merits of another in that very Family I am sure the learned Grotius who distinguishes lineal Succession from Hereditary says an Hereditary Kingdom is one which was made so by the Peoples free consent And in such Kingdoms he supposes several Rules of Succession by guessing at or presuming the will of the People If Duke Richard would have admitted the Law of the Land to govern the course of Descents and Successions to the Crown then 't is evident beyond contradiction that H. 6. came in by a legal and natural course of Descent and however according to laudable custom from the beginning of this Monarchy Acts of Parliament may alter that course However the timerous Lords without concurrence in that matter of the stouter Commons agreed that the Duke's Title could not be defeated and yet thought not themselves discharged from their Oaths to H. 6. unless he would consent to the mean or expedient they found out which was for the King to keep his Estate and Dignity Royal during his life and the Duke and his Heirs to succeed him in the same To this both the King and Duke consented but neither the King 's Right to the Possession nor the Duke 's to the reversion arose from their private agreement but from the Authority of Parliament according to which the King had as much right to the Possession as the Duke to the reversion And it remains as the judgment even of that Parliament whatever force or awe were over it that Richard Duke of York had no right to the Possession and neither was King nor of right ought to be King till H. 6. should die or cease to be King Nay even E. 4 ths Judges owned that H. 6. was not a meer Usurper because the Crown was entailed to him by Parliament As a just judgment upon Richard's pretence of Title contrary not only to the National but Divine Authority giving sanction to the Laws of the Kingdom and his own Oaths he died within sight of the Promised Land But soon after
rule and govern this Realm for lack of such Heirs then this Realm after your transitory life shall be destitute of a lawful Governor or else per case encumbred with such a Person that would covet to aspire to the same whom the Subjects of this Realm shall not find in their hearts to love dread and obediently serve as their Sovereign Lord. And all offenders against that Act their Abetters Maintainers Fautors Counsellors and Aiders were to be deemed and adjudged High Traytors to the Realm According to which it is very evident 1. That no Person would have had Right to succeed who was not within the express limitations then made or the future Provision by Virtue of the Authority of that Parliament 2. If any Person should aspire to succeed from a pretended Right of Proximity or the Settlement 1 H. 7. he would have been an Incumberer or Usurper of the Realm unless the Subjects should find in their Hearts or freely Consent to serve him as their Sovereign Lord that is till he should be elected King 3. That till the election of another King there would be a vacancy and whoever would pretend to be King till Elected was punishable as a Traytor to the Realm By Authority of the same Parliament the Illegitimations of Mary and Elizabeth are continued yet if the King and Prince Edward should die without Heirs of their Bodies the Crown was to go to the two Ladies successively but their respective interests to determine if they did not perform such Conditions as the King should appoint And in case of failure of Issue or in performance of the Conditions least the Realm should be destitute of a lawful Governor the Crown was to go as the King should appoint in such manner as is there directed The Settlement by Authority of Parliament 28 H. 8. was by the same Authority confirmed in substance 35º with a repetition of the inducement to place in the King a Power to appoint a Successor But whoever should have been so appointed or for want of such appointment elected by the Estates upon a vacancy according to a Statute 25 H. 8. and that above cited 1 H. 7. would have become a natural Lord. That what I have observed in Acts of Parliament in the time of H. 8. proceeded not from the prevalence of any Party or compliance with the King's humour but was the settled Judgment of the Learned of those times how much soever divided in other matters may appear by some passages between the Learned Sir Thomas Moore who had been Chancellor and Ryche then Solicitor General Sir Thomas being a Prisoner in the Tower for not owning the King's Supremacy Ryche to perswade him to comply used this argument If says he it should be enacted by Authority of Parliament that I should be King and that if any one should deny it it should be Treason would you say that I were not King For certain adds he in my conscience this would be no offence but you would be obliged to say so and to take me for King because your own consent was bound by the Act of Parliament Sir Thomas Answers it would be an offence if he should say he were not King because he should be bound by the Act for that he might give his consent to that matter This he said was a light case But what if a Parliament should enact That God should not be God Ryche replies It was impossible God should not be God But says he because your case from God is sublime I will propose to you this of an inferior Nature You know our King is constituted Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and why ought not you Master Moore so to affirm and take him as well as in the case above of my being made King In which case you grant that you would be obliged to affirm and take me to be King Moore says these were not like cases because a King may be made by Parliament and may be deprived by Parliament to which Act every Subject being present in Parliament may give his consent But to the case of the Primacy he cannot be obliged because to that he cannot give his consent in Parliament c. And it is observable that tho' this is set forth in the Indictment against Sir Thomas Moore it is only used as proof of his denying the Supremacy without any aggravation from what he says of the Power of a Parliament in the present Question E. 6. succeded H. 8. according to Parliamentary Settlements without any formal recognition Nor was Mary his half Sister who succeeded him recognized but her Parliament thought it for her Honour to take off her illegitimation tho' that was not necessary to give her a Right to the Crown nor did that Parliament use any expressions whereby they might seem to think so When she came to marry Philip King of Spain they fully asserted their rightful Power all the marriage Articles being settled by Authority of Parliament By that Philip is made an English King Another Parliament makes it forfeiture of Goods and Chattels and perpetual Imprisonment the first time and High-Treason the second after a former Conviction maliciously to maintain that either of them ought not to enjoy the Stile Honour and Kingly Name Her Right was founded upon the express limitation to her by Authority of Parliament and her Husband 's not in marrying her but the consent of Parliament Upon the same Right her half Sister Elizabeth succeeded her By that good Providence which so often appear'd for her Mary dying while a Parliament was sitting The States with general consent decreed Elizabeth to be proclaimed true and lawful Heir to the Crown according to the Act of Succession 35 H. 8. And in the Act of Recognition she is declared their rightful and lawful Sovereign Leige Lady and Queen Soon after this in a Letter written with her own hand to Ferdinand the Emperor she tells him that she by God's goodness succeeded her Sister by right of Inheritance and consent of her Subjects Tho' she had sufficient opportunity to have procured an Act of Parliament to take off her illegitimacy she seemed with wisdom to decline it 1. Because the Authority of Parliament under which she claimed was more generally acknowledged in those days in relation to the Succession of the Crown than in voiding or confirming Marriages which has been held a Spiritual Matter 2. To admit that she owed her Crown wholly to the Authority of Parliament could not but be more popular than to pretend to it by right of Blood In the 8 th and 9 th of her Reign the Lords addressed to her that a Successor might be appointed in Parliament least God should call the Queen without certainty of Succession and affirm that the not granting their request would leave the Realm without Government In the 13 th of her Reign it is made
Treason during her Life and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels after her death to deny the Power of Parliament to limit and bind the Crown and the Descent Limitation Inheritance and Government thereof and a penalty is set upon them who should affirm that any but the Issue of the Queen's Body had right to succeed after her For any one who expected the Crown to pretend to it while she lived is made disability during life only but by a subsequent Statute approving and explaining the voluntary Association of the Subjects that year every such Person is excluded and disabled for ever And tho' at the time of giving judgment against Mary Queen of Scots it was declared to be without prejudice to her Son that could not hinder the operation of the Law upon that Statute and I would gladly know how he could have any right since he had no pretence as a special Heir under any Parliamentary Settlement then in force Upon the Queen's Treaty of Marriage 14º of her Reign with the French King's Brother she declared that she could not grant without the assent of the States of the Realm that he should be Crowned after the Marriage In an information in the Exchequer 21º of her Reign upon which judgement was given with the advice of the Judges of both Benches Lands are said after the death of E 6. to have come to Queen Mary as his Sister and Heir as in right of the Crown and so from her to Queen Elizabeth In both which instances according to the judgment of that time the rightful Possession of the Crown made them Heirs to their respective Predecessors notwithstanding the half Blood of both and the continuing illegitimacy of one of them That J. 1. could not rightfully succeed that glorious Queen without an election by the States of the Kingdom had been declared with sufficient Authority in her time and in the time of H. 8 th and without such Declaration would appear by the observing how the Law stood and was taken in all former times But whatever right was ascribed to him after he got Possession his Party here found it requisite to set up a will or nomination of Queen Elizabeth to facilitate his accession to the Throne Then with a new strain of Loyalty Judges Lawyers and Juries concurred in making attempts to prevent his coming to the Crown Treason the like of which withal its Circumstances had not been known in any Age of this Monarchy Tho' there had been Treason against W. 1. before his actual admittance to the Crown it was as has appeared above after a National Settlement upon him by name and this was the case of the unfortunate Lady Jane and others who set l er up against Queen Mary Yet that complement to J. 1. was but suitable to the flattering Act of Recognition 1º of his Reign according to the Preamble of which immediately upon the decease of Queen Elizabeth the Crown did by Inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to him as lineally descended from Margaret Daughter to However that Parliament made no Law in the Matter and by good luck left the constitution as they found it for they made no Settlement of the Crown only offered that recognition as the first Fruits of their Faith to him and his Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever which if it had been a Settlement would amount to no more than what had been usual in former times for Parliaments to make a branch of the Royal Family a new head of future Successions but by this any one of the Issue or Posterity stood fair for an election Yet possibly the Parliament had not been so forward with these Fruits of their Loyalty but for his Speech to 'em wherein he says Every King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe the Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereto And a King governing in a settled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off governing according to his Laws In which case the King's conscience may speak to him as the poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon either govern according to your Law or be no King The Parliament take him at his word and grafting upon it say His Majesty hath vouchsafed to express many ways how far it is and ever shall be from his Royal and Sincere Care and Affection to the Subjects of England to alter or innovate the Fundamental and ancient Laws Priviledges and good Customs of this Kingdom whereby not only his Legal Authority but the Peoples security of Lands Livings and Priviledges both in general and particular are preserved and maintained And by the abolishing or altering of the which it is impossible but that present confusion will fall upon the whole state and frame of this Kingdom Where in as modest terms as they could they bid the King at his peril to violate the Fundamental Laws on which his regal Authority depended as well as their Rights and Priviledges But that King soon forgot upon what terms he had been received King and getting the leading Clergy on the side of his Divine Right it pass'd at that time as the Doctrine of the Church of England While this fit of Loyalty lasted C. 1. succeeded as by inherent Birthright without any formal recognition which then began to be thought needless The occasions of the War between him and his Parliament I shall not enquire into but shall content my self with Dean Sherlock's concession who as he will not dispute the lawfullness of resisting the King's Authority and whether it were lawful for the Parliament to take Arms against the King to desend the Laws and Liberties of their Country admits that they had a right to keep the King within the boundaries of Law these C. 1. apparently broke and where there is no Tribunal on Earth to appeal to the Dean allows use of the Sword But whatever was the consequence of that War there has been no reason for the Pulpits to sound to loud and long as they have done with denunciations of God's wrath but indeed the Clergies against this Kingdom for what hapned in a War for which the Parliament and People who would not have carried the Point so far as it unhappily went are not to answer C. 1. dying a deplorable death the Nation was left without the exercice of any Legal Government till the Restoration of C. 2. who was accounted King from the death of his Father But by what Law or in what respect is worth enquiry and will it appear 1. That the supposed Maxim that the King never dies is of very late and doubtful Authority in comparison with those which shew that no Man was or ought to be accounted King till he had been formally recognized 2. Yet tho' this should be true when any Prince succeeds in vertue of
a Settlement made in the Ancestor's life time it will not be so where there has been none as was the case of C. 2. 3. If one should in the eye of Law be King immediately upon the death of an other it would not follow that this would be by a strict right of descent but that after the being admitted King there should be a relation backwards to prevent the loss of any rights belonging to the Crown and thus it was plainly taken by the Chief Justices Dyer and Anderson who say that the King who is Heir or Successor may write and begin his Reign the same day that his Progenitor or Predecessor died And agreeably to this it was the resolution of all the Judges of the King's Bench in Elizabeth's time that a saving to a King and his Heirs shall go to a Successor of the Crown tho' not Heir to that King That J. 2. made too great haste to succeed his Brother C. 2. now at least Men will be apt to believe of whom I shall observe only in short 1. That he was within no Parliamentary Settlement of the Crown then in force 2. The best pretence J. 2. had of coming to the Crown without an immediate election must have been the Settlement 1º H. 7. But no shadow of reason can be assigned why the late Act of Settlement was not as rightful and with as true Authority as that 1º H. 7. 3. J. 2. being reconciled to the Sea of Rome which is High Treason by our Law and for which he had been convicted in his Brother's time if the Indictment had not been arbitrarily defeated was as much disabled from succeeding to the Crown as the Family of George Duke of Clarence by reason of that Duke's attainder 4. Admit the assuming the Royal Dignity had purged the former disability the continuing a Papist was a constant incapacity to be the Head of this Protestant Church and Kingdom rendring it impracticable for him to answer the end for which our Kings had been constituted 5. He was never duely invested with the Royal Dignity not having taken the appointed Coronation-Oath which for his sake was traiterously altered with an omission of the Rights of the People and an unjustifiable Salvo for Prerogative Nor was he ever fully recognized 6. By seizing the Customs and raising Taxes without Authority of Parliament dispensing with the Laws of the Kingdom raising and keeping a standing Army in the time of Peace and the like enormities he violated that constitution which should have made or kept him King and if he ever was King more than Harold the Son of Earl Godwin manifestly ceased to be King before his abdication 7. However it may have been at his first leaving the Kingdom without any other Government than what according to ancient Custom fell upon the States of the Kingdom he having since discovered a settled intention to destroy the People of England or the greater part of 'em by a Foreign Power with their Party here according to those Casuists who are most favourable to such rights as he has claimed from the time at least of his manifesting such intention he ceased to be King and His present Majesty having been regularly declared King the other is totally barred from all claim and colour of pretence How great a noise soever some make for him since his flight after their deseting him the greatest sticklers for his suppos'd rightful Authority being disappointed of their sanguine expectations warmly opposed his exercice of those rights to which their servillity had encouraged him the very Bishops who for his sake have set up for heads under him of a separate Church not only disobeyed his positive commands in matters which at other times at least in things of the like nature they would have contended to belong to his Headship of the Church but they would have limited his Power little less than the 19 Propositions to C. 1. which they had long seem'd to abhor Some of their Party if not themselves joyn'd in solliciting his present Majesty to undertake our Deliverance and a certain Person who would be thought never to have departed from their Principles is said to have gone so far as to sign the invitation tho' upon second thoughts he desired to have his name scratch'd out The Bishops being required to sign an abhorrence of that enterprize absolutely refused it Their Archbishop was one of them who petitioned his present Majesty to take the Government upon him before the late King left England and Non-assistance to their jure Divino King was become as Catholick Doctrine as Non-resistance During this time the designs of the Party were kept secret but the People began to hope well of the Body of the English Clergy believing them by a wonderful providence to be reformed in their Principles of Government with which they had brought a scandal upon the Reformation But the Convention meeting to provide for the Peace and Settlement of the Nation it then appear'd that the mighty Zealots for the Monarchy were only for setting up themselves and in truth would have no Sovereignty but in the Church as they called their Faction for as they would not have his present Majesty to be King but a Regent or Officer for the interim till the late King should come to their terms neither did they truly own him for their King whom they neither would assist as Subjects nor consult in choosing a new Government However the Throne having according to former Presidents and the plain right of the Kingdom been declared vacant upon King's breach of the original contracts and abdication the Lords and Commons reciting many particulars of his misgovernment resolve that William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen and make a farther Settlement of the Crown They having accepted the Crown the Lords and Commons together with the Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm with full consent publish and proclaim William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland and in the Proclamation own a miraculous deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our preservation is due next under God to the resolution and conduct of His Highness the Prince of Orange whom God hath chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of an inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity A Parliament called soon after declares and enacts that they do recognize and acknowledge that Their Majesties are and of Right ought to be by the Laws of this Realm their Sovereign Liege Lord and Lady King and Queen of England c. in and to whose Princely Persons the Royal State Crown and Dignity of the said Realms with all Honours Prerogatives c. are fully rightfully and entirely Invested Incorporated United and Annexed Notwithstanding which many who have sworn to bear Faith
Opinion No Treason against any King but the Regnant nor has any other Person Right against him or his Issue 3 Inst F. 7. a Hales's Pleas of the Crown p. 11. b Nota In the Act 1 H. 7. restoring H. 6. of the younger House His Eldest Son Edward who died in his life time is called Prince of Wales Rot. Parl. 1 H. 7. N. 16. c 3 Inst Proof of the 2d and 3d General Heads Stat. 11. H. 7. c. 1. Vid. Leges W. 1. c. 52. de fide obsequio erga Regem Cap. 58. Proof of the 3d. General Head Vid. Printed Stat. 1 H. 7. * Ret. Parl. 1 H. 7. n. 3. †Vid. Abridg. Stat. usque ad 15 H. 8. ‖ Stat. 1 H. 7. 6. Vid. Inf. Ret. Parl. 1 H. 7. n. 16. Restitutio H. 6. Obj. 3 d. Proof of the 4 th and 5 th General Heads Bede Lib. 1. cap. 1. Vbires veniret in dubium magis de foemineâ regum prosapiâ quam de masculinâ fibi eligerent a Lib. 5. c. 24. An. 725. b Lib. 4. c. 11. Susceperunt Subreguli regnum gentis divisum inter se tenuerunt annis circiter decem c Ib. c. 12. d An. 730. Cart. Orig. in Eib. Cot. e Bede Lib. 4. c. 26. Circiter an 685. Per aliquod spatium reges dubii vel externi disperdiderunt donec legitimus Rex Victred c. f Mon. 1. vol. f. 28. An. 764. g Ib. col 1. An. 762. Ib. col 2. alt cart h Cart. Orig. in Bib. Cot. i An. 699. k Leges Sâ—i Edw. Lamb. Arch. Bib. Cot. sub effig Claud. D. k Cron. Sax. nuper ed. Cujus prosapia oriunda est Cerdico l Malms f. 7. Quam successivae sobolis prosapia m Non parum lineâ Regiae stirpis exexorbitaverunt n Cron. Sax. p. 16 61. o Cron. Sax. Bromton col 770. super populum regnum elegerunt p Spelm. Conc. 1. vol. f. 291 292. q Fund Const 1. part f. 80. r Bracton l. 2. c. 29. Concil Calchuthense Legantinum Pananglicum An. 787. Haeres Patriae An. 800. vel Potius 801. s Cart. in Regist Ab. Bib. Cot. Claud. B. Cum licentià consensu totius gentis nostre c. t Few Historians take notice of him vid. tamen Bib. Cot. Domitian A. 8. Sax. Lat. which shews him to have been King of Kent Surrey and Suffex x Evid Ec. Cant. inter Decem script col 2220. y Bib. Cot. Julius D. 2. f. 125. a z Vid. Cart. Orig. in Bib. Cot. eod An. Egbert Ethelwolf acting together both Kings a Mon. 1. vol. f. 195. An. 843. Welding ealle Britone b Asser Men. ending with the life of King Alfred f. 156. c Nic. Gloc. in Bib. Cot. Caligula A. Ending with the life of Ethelwolf d Rituale in Bib. Cot. Coronat Ethelredi H. 1. e Pictav de Gestis ejus f. 205. f An. 855. g Bib. Cot. Tiber. B. Albas Floriacencis h Exantiq Sax. nobili prosapia oriundus c. Omnium comprovincialium i Exgeneris Successione i Asser Men. k Cron. de Mailros l Bradies Introd f. 359. m Asser Epistola haereditaria immo commendatoria n Append. vitae Alfredi o Ita Haereditas Aethelwolfis Rs. primei ad me devoluta est per cartam inde confectam in concilio nostro apud Langedene p Ethelwerdi Cron. f. 479. Ordinati sunt filii ejus c. q Cron. de Mailros f. 143. An. 160. An. 160. r Append. sup s Polycron R. Higden f. 255. S. Dun. f. 125. 126. An. 872. t Append. Sup. De haereditate quam Deus ac Principes cum senioribus populi misericorditer ac benigne dederunt s S. Dun. A ducibus presulibus totius gentis eligitur non solum ab ipsis verum etiam ab omni populo adoratur ut eis praeseset t Asserii Annales Huntindon u Vid. his Book dedicated to Maud Wife to W. 1. M S. in Bib. COT. Ed. Ipse stemmate regali a Primatis electus An. 925. or 924. x Mat. West f. 180. Selden's Notes upon Polyolb f. 211. MS. Lelandi Wendover MS. in Bib. Cot. y Cron. Sax. p. 11. Huntindon f. 204. Electus est Rex in Merce An. 944. z Bib. Cot. Vitel. D. 15. vita sti Dunstani Autore Osberno Dorob edit Inser script sub nomine Anglia sacra Successst in iure frarris a Bib. Cot. Cleopat B. 13. Alter autor vitae Sti. Dunstani Mox proximus haeres Eadredus c Vid. Enquiry said to be Dr. Bradies p. 14. and the Doctors Introd f. 364. d Bib. Cot. Sup. An. 955. Post hunc surrexit Eadwig regnandi gratiâ poliens licet in utraque plebe Regum numeros nomina suppleretelectus e Quoniam in commisso regimine insipienter egit f Ib. Hoc ita omnium conspiratione relicto elegere sibi Do. dictante c. g Ib. Et regnum ipsius velut aequus haeres abutroque populo electus h Bib. Cot. i An. 975. k Osbernas sup Vitellius A. 20. l Bib. Cot. Regist Magn. Abendoniae sub Effig Claud. B. f. 89. b Omnes utriusque ordinis Optimates ad regni gubernacula moderanda fratrem meum m Vid. Dr. Bradies use of this Introd f. 360. Eaduuardum elegerunt c. miho terras ad regios pertinentes filios in meos usus tradiderunt Ar. 979. * Bib. Cot. sub Effig Claudii A. 3. Ab Episcopis a plebe electus m Ib. volumus concedimus n Benedic domine hunc pure electum Principem Firmatum est pactum inter Regem populum suum firma amicitia jure jurando etiant statutum est ut nunquam amplius esset Rex Danus in Arglià o Bib. Cot. Domition A. 8. sup p An. 1015. or 1016. q Knighton f. 2320. Misit clameum c. r Malms f. 39. Dani Cnutonem eligunt s Internal vid. Argl. Saer Hist Maj. Winton ' Cujusdam Ducis fil nomine Algivam accepit in Concubinam exqua genuit filium nomine Edmundum Irâ—â—side Et t Cited and applied Spelmans Glos f. 277. Bib. Cot. Cleoâ— B. 13. De regno nominibus Regum Anglor c. De Edm. Irnenside Iste erat Bastardus a Ingulfas f. 58. b Leofric Comes tota nobilitas exparte Aquilonis fluminis Tamesiae elegerunt Haroldum Hardecnut fratrem ejus c. Edw. Conf. Vid. etiam ib. Cleop. A. 7. c Bib. Cot. Abbrev. Cron. fin ' temp Cron ' breve ad An. 1062. Haraldus Rex eligitur ab omni populo Angl. d Malms f. 43. e Vid. Scrip. Norm Eucomium Emmae Regno haereditatis vestrae privamini f Gemet f. 271. g M. S. cited in Monast 1. vol. Regni cura Reginae assensu Magnatum consilio Comiti Godwino commitritur donec qui digrus esset eligeretur Bib. Cot. Domit A. 13. Cron. Wint. h Gemet f. 271. Ipse autem