CHAP.III
Popular
misconcep-
tions
on this
subject
how people's eyes are blinded on this subject. It is not uncommon to hear people talk about the times before and shortly after the Norman Conquest as if the Act for the Settlement of the Royal Succession had already been in force in those days. It is strange to hear a number of princes, both before and since the Conquest, popularly spoken of as "usurpers," merely because they came to the Crown in a different way from that which modern law and custom prescribe. It is strange that people who talk in this way, commonly forget that their own principle, so far this as it proves anything, proves a great deal more than they intend. If Harold, Stephen, John,[1]were usurpers, Ælfred and Eadward the Confessor were usurpers just as much. Ælfred and Eadward, no less than John, succeeded by election, to the exclusion of nephews whom the modern law of England would look upon as the undoubted heirs of the Crown. All this sounds very strange to the historic mind; but it may, in some cases, be the result of simple ignorance. It is stranger still to hear others talk as if hereditary succession, according to some particular theory of it,[2] was a divine and eternal law which could not be
- ↑ The infamy of John's reign in no way affects his right to the Crown, which was perfectly good. It does not appear that Arthur of Britanny, who is commonly spoken of as having a better right, had any partizans in England at all.
- ↑ What is hereditary right? If hereditary succession be a divine and eternal law, we should at least be told what that law is. But the laws of those nations which admit hereditary succession differ infinitely as to the rule of succession which they enforce. The succession of the eldest son does not rest either on any divine precept or on any general consent of mankind. If William Rufus was not the eldest son of William the Conqueror, neither was Solomon the eldest son of David. If Robert had a party in his favour, so had Adonijah. Many a monarchy, from that of the Carolingian Empire down to the smallest German Duchies, has been dealt with according to a sort of gavelkind, and there seems no reason in the nature of things why a Crown might not go by borough-English. The English law allows the succession of females, the French law forbids it. The Turkish law gives the succession to the eldest male of the royal family, whatever be his degree of kindred to the last Sultan. The plain truth is that, whether there be
