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A26178 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. Atwood, William, d. 1705? 1696 (1696) Wing A4179; ESTC R16726 61,345 70

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been intended or implied by that Statute that there was or could be any other King besides the King for the time being For 1. To take it in that sense would be to make the Statute fight against it self and not only to admit that he were but a King not the King but to require the Subjects to fight for and against one and the same Person 4. H. 7. And his Parliament could not be thought to admit that he was an Usurper or a King contrary to Law or Right But H. 7. certainly intended to provide for the indempnity of those that should pay Allegiance to him as well as of those that should pay Allegiance to future Kings for the time being And indeed upon some of the Words it may seem doubtful whether the enacting part was intended to reach beyond his time and whether any other Sovereign Lord for the time being was intended but he who was at that time But if in relation to the King whose Parliament passed this Act the King for the time being was supposed to be the only Lawful and Rightful King it must be so taken in relation to all other Kings for the time being if either the enacting Part or the Preamble extend to ' em 5. If this Act should carry a plain implication that some other besides the King for the time being was the King of Right this would be so far from being for the Security of the King for the time being as must have been then intended as well as the indemnity of his Subjects that it must needs have the like effect with their Discourses who will have it that the present Government is not Rightful but yet that a sort of Allegiance is due to it because of God's Authority tho' contrary to Right Whenever these Men speak out it appears that they allow no Authority to the King for the time being but what is derived from the Tacit or implied Consent of their King of Right But this Jesuitism was not thought of at the making of that Statute 6. I desire to know what Person besides H. 7. was so much as imagined to be Rightful King or Queen of England when that Act was made However whether it can be thought that in the Judgment of that Parliament any Person besides H. 7. had Right to the Crown after a former Parliament had Ordained Established and Enacted that the Inheritance of the Crown of England and France should be stand and remain in King H. 7. and the Heirs of his Body and in no other Person That they held this Settlement to have been duely and righfully made and that without any relation to his marrying the supposed Heiress to the Crown appears by three other Acts of the same Parliament One of which attaints R. 3. for traiterously conspiring against their Sovereign Leige Lord H. 7. Another indempnifies Men for Trespass or taking Goods in maintenance of the Title of H. 7. for the time that his Banner was displaied against Richard late Duke of Gloucester Usurper of the Realm Another goes farther and indemnifies them who came from beyond-Sea with H. 7. or were in Sanctuary or Hidel for his Quarrel and Title and speaks of the Battle against his Enemies in recovering and obtaining his Just Title and Right to his Realm of England Wherein H. 7 ths Right and R. 3 ds Usurpation consisted shall afterwards be considered 7. When the Parliament 11 H. 7. speaks only of the King or Prince or Sovereign Lord for the time being without giving any discription whereby it should be known who is the Prince unless what relates particularly to H. 7. It must be presumed that no King is intended but he that was the Sovereign or Leige Lord in the Eye and Reputation of Law which as appears by the Case of R. 3. an Usurper continuing so was not then taken to be But who ever was in the Possession of the Throne without Usurpation was always lawful and rightful King 8. It cannot be thought the Parliament 11 H. 7. would have made an Act directly contrary to three others of the same Reign but they would have expresly repealed the former Acts or have offered some reason to palliate or colour their Proceedings to the contrary But take the Statute of 11 H. 7. in this Lawyers Sense only with an Exception that as to the Matter in Question it was a Declaratory Law as the words plainly shew and it will farther appear and it is evident that the Statutes against R. 3. and indemnifying them that acted for H. 7. before the displaying his Banner as well as after while R. 3. was in Possession of the Throne were contrary to this Lawyer 's Sense of the Statute 11 H. 7. according to which they who assisted H. 7. must have acted contrary to their Duty of Allegiance to the King for the time being Wherefore it plainly follows that R. 3. was not King for the time being according to the true meaning of the Statute 11 H. 7. and yet H. 6. who was of the younger House was in his time the only King for the time being in the Judgment of that very Parliament which supposes R. 3. not to have been so as appears by their reversing the Attainder of H. 6. and declaring the Act of Attainder to have been contrary to the Allegiance of the Subject against all right wiseness honour nature and duty inordinate seditious and slanderous and reversing the Attainders of others for their true and faithful Allegiance and Service to Hen. 6. and yet those Attainders were in a Parliament of a King by many supposed to be the only Person that had Right to be King and that after his being formally recognized by the States and then in Possession of the Power of the Kingdom Obj. But it may be objected if the Act 11 H. 7. was made only to indemnifie them that paid Allegiance to Rightful Kings there was no manner of need of it Answ 1. Many needless Statutes have been made in affirmance of the Common-Law out of abundant caution 2. It could not be needless to obviate mens fears upon pretences which might be set up against the King for the time being by removing the supposal that Allegiance could be due to any body else 3. The enacting part extends to indemnifie Men for what they out of Loyalty should do in time of War against the mind and will of the Prince for which the caution was but reasonable Effectually to prove that the Judgment of Hen. 7 ths Parliament That there could be but one Rightful King at a time except where they were Partners in Power is according to the fix'd and known Constitution of this Monarchy and that this manifests His present Majesty to be our only lawful and rightful Sovereign Lord and that the late King neither is nor of Right ought to be King I shall as briefly as well as I can give an Abstract of what will appear to any
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
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
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
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
King of Denmark Landing with an additional Force this with Ethelred's sloath and unacceptableness to his own People drove him to an Abdication Upon Swane's death the English invited back the Abdicated King on condition he would govern better than he had done for which his Son Edward undertook Ethelred returning as an Author who lived about the time has it a contract was established between the King and his People and firm friendship and it was enacted with an Oath that there never more should be a Danish King in England After this Cnute the Son of Swane laid claim to the Crown of England as a Saxon as well as Dane deriving from King Ethelbald who doubtless was that Son of an elder Brother of King Alfred who oppos'd Edward the elder Notwithstanding this tho' the Danes elected Cnute the English adhered to Ethelred Upon whose death they chose his Son Edmund Ironside who as appears by the stream of ancient Authorities was a Bastard Upon i Edmund's death Cnute was Crown'd King of England by the Election of all and according to Florence of Woster he swore to be Faithful Lord as the People did to be Leige Subjects At Cnute's death his two Sons Harold who was a Bastard or rather Spurious and Hardecnute his legitimate Son by Ethelred's Widow were by Leofric and all the Nobility on the North-side of the River Thomes elected Kings over all England as partners in Power and co-heirs But Duke Godwin and other Noblemen in West-Saxony opposed and prevailed It appears by an Author who wrote in the Confessor's Time and whose words are transcrib'd by several that they prevailed for the total rejection of Hardecnute because he made not sufficient haste to take the Administration upon him Therefore Harold who however would have been King of Mercia and the Northumbrian Kingdom was elected over all England by the Princes and all the People or as an other of like antiquity has it is elected King by all the People of England Upon Harold's death and not before Hardecnute was received in what manner appears by the then standing Ritual for the Coronation of Kings But Emmae's Sons by Ethelred Alured and Edw. as Malms observes were despised almost by all rather through the remembrance of their Fathers sloathfulness than by reason of the Power of the Danes Yet they two without preference of one before the other were accounted Heirs of the Kingdom and accordingly Cnute while he was in fear of the then Duke of Normandy offer'd half his Kingdom to Edward and his Brother Alured Upon Hardecnute's death Earl Godwin was chosen Administrator or Protector of the Kingdom during the vacancy and till a fit Person should be elected King Godwin summons a Convention of the States where he nominated Ethelred's only surviving Son by Emma whom the Saxons call'd Elgive After some debates all consented to the election of Edward He being so elected was in the sense of those times Heir of the Kingdom to the last Possessor Hardecnute his Brother by the half blood And yet it is observable that according to a Charter of Edward's pass'd in Parliament at the latter end of his Reign the Hereditary Succession was hazarded by the Danes that is according to what I before observ'd the Anglo-Saxon regnant branch of the Royal Family was kept back and was likely never to have been restored 'T is evident that it was not for Edward to carry this Point farther for besides the Danish Royal Family claiming from King Ethelbald and Fretheric Abbot of St. Albans in his time coming from the ancient Saxons and Danes and lineally descended from King Cnute there was the Historian Ethelwerd or his immediate Ancestor of the Family of King Ethered and in all probability there were several descendants either from Ethelstan Ethelwolfs elder Brother or from his Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert What was the known Law in the Confessor's time both as to the Succession and the continuing King besides the former Evidences appears beyond contradiction from that King's Laws according to which 1. The Monarchy was founded in election which explains in what Sense a King is there taken to be Constituted 2. If the King do not answer the end for which he had been Constituted not so much as the name of King shall continue in him 3. It receives as a Rule in all Kingdoms and particularly here the Judgment of Pope Zachary encouraging the Franks to depose their King Childeric With Edward the Confessor end the Saxon and Danish Successions of Kings Harold the Son of Earl Godwin as I shall shew never was King nor reputed King by any but his own Party Here I may observe 1. That Dr. Brady is mightily mistaken in his assertion that the Saxons did in their subjection owning of and submission to their Princs acknowledge both proximity of blood and nomination of their Princes often both sometimes only one of them but never followed any other rule 2. The chief rule of Succession upon the death or disability of any King was a proper election of a worthy Person of the Regnant Branch of the Royal Family 3. Dr. Bradie's notion that Elegerunt signifies no more than recognoverunt they acknowledged owned submitted unto him as their King is by no means true the recognition being manifestly subsequent to or in consequence of the election nor is any thing more plain than that the States did from the beginning of the Monarchy downwards rightfully declare an Heir to the Kingdom and then acknowledge his Right tho' neither next upon the Royal Line nor representing the next nor yet nominated by the Predecessor And indeed till a rare and noted instance in the case of Hen. 5. on whom the Crown had before been entailed in Parliament no Prince was known to have been formally recogniz'd till he had taken the Coronation Oath 4 If according to any good authority of the Saxon or Danish Times it should seem that any man came to the Crown by the Gift of his Predecessor it must have been made with such solemnity as was requisite even for the granting of Lands As that of Egbert's above-mentioned or Athelstan's in an Assembly of the Bishops Abbots Dukes or Earls and the Procurators or Representatives of the Country or an other before the Plebs or Commons or Edgar's in the open air with the privity of the Great or Wisemen of his whole Kingdom In the Confessor's life time there were three Competitors for the Crown Atheling's Father and Son to Edmund Ironside Harold who was High Steward of England and the most powerful of any Man tho' not his Fathers eldest Son and William Duke of Normandy Grand Nephew to Emma who had been Crown'd Queen of England nor as has appear'd above was William under any
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 Commonal●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
come without a manifest departure from their avowed Principles and therefore to keep to them they must give up the only colourable Authority for their notion of King de jure and de facto And they must yield that there is not the least shadow of pretence from what was held in those times that there was a King of right at the very time that an other was in fact it going no farther than that the Person who was King ought not to have been King but while he was King the other was none 7. The judgment of E. 4 ths first Parliament whatever hard names they gave that Family on which they trampled was so far from being an Authority as has been pretended against the receiving his present Majesty upon the late King's breach of the Original or Common-Law Contract confirmed by several declaratory Statutes of the Kingdom and the solemn Oaths of our Kings that it is express for the eviction and amotion of one King upon his breach of a contract establish'd in Parliament and the setting up an other by an election And it is observable that the Act 1º E. 4. which confirms several judicial and other Acts of such as it calls Kings only in fact says other than by Authority of any Parliament holden in their times plainly admitting that Authority to be sufficient in it self H. 6. coming again into Power because of a Possession with such a consent of the People as made E. 4. King was formally again elected at the Tower and in H. 7 ths time was adjudged to have had his attainder purged by his re-adeption of Power which seems not to have been till he had been re-elected Then H. 6. calls a Parliament where he in his turn attaints the Adherents of E. 4. and as we are to believe himself but the Record of that having been cancelled and the Rolls loss'd it appears not whether it was for any Act committed before H. 6 ths re-adeption of Power The Tide again turning for E. 4. all the Acts of that Parliament are reversed and declared or made void from the time that he had been declared he was held to have continued the Possession of the Regal Dignity tho' with-held from the exercice of the Power and therefore H. 6. from the first admission of E. 4. to the Crown was accounted no King and his Parliament to be but a pretenced Parliament E. 4 ths usage of H. 6. was repaid to his Sons by their Uncle R. 3. some will have it that he made them away as indeed is intimated in the Act attainting R. 3. but 't is certain that they were bastardized in a Convention whose Acts were by Parliament after Richard was admitted King declared for truth and not to be doubted and there are Authorities to induce the Belief that Edward's Sons were really Bastards by reason of the Father's pre-contract however the Convention declared that they were not fit to Reign because they were Infants and their Mother ignoble and married clandestinely without the knowing and assent of the Lords George Duke of Clarence the next Brother to E. 4. having been attainted in a Parliament of E. 4. they having singular confidence in Richard's particular merit have chosen in all that in them is and by that their certain writing choose him their King and Sovereign Lord to whom they know of certain it appertaineth of Inheritance to be chosen And observing that tho' the Learned in the Laws and Customs know his Title to be good the most part of the People is not sufficiently learned in the Laws and Customs they declare that the Court of Parliament is of such Authority and the People of this Land of such a disposition as experience teacheth that Manifestation and Declaration of any Truth or Right made by the three States of the Realm assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same maketh before all other things most faith and certain quieting of mens minds and removing the occasion of doubts and seditious language Therefore by the Authority of that Parliament it is pronounced and declared that their Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very undoubted King as well by right of Consanguinity and Inheritance as by lawful Election Consecration and Coronation And they Enact Establish Pronounce Decree and Declare Edward the King 's eldest Son Heir Apparent to him and his Heirs of his Body Any Man who compares that Act at large with the former Presidents must see that it was penn'd with great Wisdom and regard to the Constitution of the Monarchy And tho' out of an usual complement to the prevailing side R. 3. has generally been represented as a Monster in Person and Nature the learned Buck has made it doubtful which was the most deserving in all things R. 3. or H. 7. Certain it is that tho' the Crown had by Authority of Parliament been settled in remainder after H. 6. upon Duke Richard and his Heirs and that Duke's Grand-daughter was alive and marriageable in the Reign of R. 3. her suppos'd Right gave him no disturbance and his Possession was very quiet till he disobliged the Duke of Bucks who was the great Instrument in setting him up by rejecting his Claim to be High-Constable of England which was an Authority dangerous to be trusted in the hands of so popular a Man nor could the Duke and his Faction expect to succeed in their conspiracy without the support of French Forces and accordingly applied themselves to Henry Earl of Richmond afterwards H. 7. with whom the Duke of Brittany had for some years kept even E. 4. in awe Henry was glad of the opportunity and to strengthen his Interest agrees with some of his Party to marry the Daughter of E. 4. but was far from making any claim in her right It is very probable that one of E. 4 ths Sons was then alive be that as it will as appears by the Statutes 1 H. 7. cited above his Parliament held that he landed with Title and R. 3. being deserted and slain in the Field of Battle that opposition to Henry was by Authority of Parliament adjudged Treason against the Sovereign Lord of this Land and H. 7 th was held to have recovered his right After this when H. 7. meets his first Parliament he with his own Mouth tells the Commons in full Parliament that his accession to the Right and Crown of England was as well by just Title of Inheritance as by God's true judgment in giving him the victory over his enemy in the Field In which bating the Settlement in the time of the Confessor H. 7. claim'd as W. 1. did by the Inheritance of consanguinity and that Success which gave him the preference before others of the same Blood especially since that enemy whom he subdued was held to be an Usurper This 't is evident that he was accounted before H. 7. Landed But if
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
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