Chap. VIII. OFMANC HESTER. 251 vantes, the fon of Cuneda followed him regularly in the fove- reignty of the Ordovices, and Trenmor Trathal Comhal and Fingal, father fon grand-fon and great-grand- foil, fucceffively inherited the monarchy of Morven for their patrimony u . And it is exprefly declared by the Britons of themfelves, that they were ufed to be governed' by women as well as men, and by the Romans concerning them, that their monarchies devolved equally in fiicceffion upon the daughters and the fons of royal- ty 1# i Thus was Boadicia the queen of the Iceni and Cartiiman- dua the queen of the Brigantes, and both in their own right * But this hereditary fiicceffion appears plainly not to have been abfolute and inviolable. % It was certainly defeafible among the Saxons, as I <hall evince hereafter * It was defeafible, I apprehend, among all the earlier monarchies of the world. And it was certainly defeafible among the Britons. The law. of fuc- ceffion however was infringible, not by the general interpofi- tion of the people, but by the particular .prerogative of the no-
- bles or by the (ingle authority of the king, or rather by the
concurrence of the king and the nobles together.. Such it ap- pears in the earlieft mftitutions of the Welch and in the corre- spondent cuftoms of the Irifh. In that very remarkable com- pilation of laws which was made by Howel Dha a little before the middle of the tenth century **, and which is principally compofed of the cuftoms exifting ; previoufly among the Welch Britons**, we find the Jong's fon brother or nephew to have been the cuftomary inheritor of the crown, and the reigning monarch or die nobles to have felefted the particular perfon a> . And in the moft antient cuftoms of the Irifh Britons we fee the , hereditary fucceffion very frequently fuperfeded by the rule of Taiiiftry; a member of the royal family being adopted at dif- cretion by the ndbles, atld denbttitnated by the law the Tanift or the fecond m dignity **. l ' l ■ ' The monarrhfes bf Britain were as little abfolute in them* lelves' as the lucceffion to them was indefeafible kTke natuip. The, Britons were not unacquainted,* though hiftory ; ha$ newr «fu$)ofe& ttifcttt trf :l bo 'A&mMy ^oquain«e«, <#ith that ^r&pereft •*• J * ; K k a > reftraint
