deſcend lineally to the iſſue of the reigning monarch; as it did from king John to Richard II, through a regular pedigree of ſix lineal generations. As in them, the preference of males to females, and the right of primogeniture among the males, are ſtrictly adhered to. Thus Edward V ſucceeded to the crown, in preference to Richard his younger brother and Elizabeth his elder ſiſler. Like them, on failure of the male line, it deſcends to the iſſue female; according to the antient Britiſh cuſtom remarked by Tacitus[1], “ſolent foeminarum ductu bellare, et ſexum in imperiis non diſcernere.” Thus Mary I ſucceeded to Edward VI; and the line of Margaret queen of Scots, the daughter of Henry VII, ſucceeded on failure of the line of Henry VIII, his ſon. But, among the females, the crown deſcends by right of primogeniture to the eldeſt daughter only and her iſſue; and not, as in common inheritances, to all the daughters at once; the evident neceſſity of a ſole ſucceſſion to the throne having occaſioned the royal law of deſcents to depart from the common law in this reſpect: and therefore queen Mary on the death of her brother ſucceeded to the crown alone, and not in partnerſhip with her ſiſter Elizabeth. Again: the doctrine of repreſentation prevails in the deſcent of the crown, as it does in other inheritances; whereby the lineal deſcendants of any perſon deceaſed ſtand in the ſame place as their anceſtor, if living, would have done. Thus Richard II ſucceeded his grandfather Edward III, in right of his father the black prince; to the excluſion of all his uncles, his grandfather’s younger children. Laſtly, on failure of lineal deſcendants, the crown goes to the next collateral relations of the late king; provided they are lineally deſcended from the blood royal, that is, from that royal ſtock which originally acquired the crown. Thus Henry I ſucceeded to William II, John to Richard I, and James I to Elizabeth; being all derived from the conqueror, who was then the only regal ſtock. But herein there is no objection (as in the caſe of common deſcents) to the ſucceſſion of a brother, an uncle, or other collateral relation, of the half blood; that is, where the relationſhip proceeds not from the ſame couple of anceſtors (which
- ↑ in vit. Agricolae.
