the heirs of his body:” thereby providing for the future, and at the ſame time acknowleging his preſent poſſeſſion; but not determining either way, whether that poſſeſſion was de jure or de facto merely. However he ſoon after married Elizabeth of York, the undoubted heireſs of the conqueror, and thereby gained (as ſir Edward Coke[1] declares) by much his beſt title to the crown. Whereupon the act made in his favour was ſo much diſregarded, that it never was printed in our ſtatute books.
Henry the eighth, the iſſue of this marriage, ſucceeded to the crown by clear indiſputable hereditary right, and tranſmitted it to his three children in ſucceſſive order. But in his reign we at ſeveral times find the parliament buſy in regulating the ſucceſſion to the kingdom. And, firſt, by ſtatute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 12. which recites the miſchiefs, which have and may enſue by diſputed titles, becauſe no perfect and ſubſtantial proviſion hath been made by law concerning the ſucceſſion; and then enacts, that the crown ſhall be entailed to his majeſty, and the ſons or heirs males of his body; and in default of ſuch ſons to the lady Elizabeth (who is declared to be the king’s eldeſt iſſue female, in excluſion of the lady Mary, on account of her ſuppoſed illegitimacy by the divorce of her mother queen Catherine) and to the lady Elizabeth’s heirs of her body; and ſo on from iſſue female to iſſue female, and the heirs of their bodies, by courſe of inheritance according to their ages, as the crown of England hath been accuſtomed and ought to go, in caſe where there be heirs female of the ſame: and in default of iſſue female, then to the king’s right heirs for ever. This ſingle ſtatute is an ample proof of all the four poſitions we at firſt ſet out with.
But, upon the king’s divorce from Ann Boleyn, this ſtatute was, with regard to the ſettlement of the crown, repealed by ſtatute 28 Hen. VIII. c. 7. wherein the lady Elizabeth is alſo, as well as the lady Mary, baſtardized, and the crown ſettled on the king’s children by queen Jane Seymour, and his future wives; and, in
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 37.
