tutes of this realm, our moſt lawful and rightful ſovereign liege lady and queen; and that her highneſs is rightly, lineally, and lawfully deſcended and come of the blood royal of this realm of England; in and to whoſe princely perſon, and to the heirs of her body lawfully to be begotten, after her, the imperial crown and dignity of this realm doth belong.” And in the ſame reign, by ſtatute 13 Eliz. c. 1. we find the right of parliament to direct the ſucceſſion of the crown aſſerted in the moſt explicit words. “If any perſon ſhall hold, affirm, or maintain that the common laws of this realm, not altered by parliament, ought not to direct the right of the crown of England; or that the queen’s majeſty, with and by the authority of parliament, is not able to make laws and ſtatutes of ſufficient force and validity, to limit and bind the crown of this realm, and the deſcent, limitation, inheritance, and government thereof;—ſuch perſon, ſo holding, affirming, or maintaining, ſhall during the life of the queen be guilty of high treaſon; and after her deceaſe ſhall be guilty of a miſdemeſnor, and forfeit his goods and chattels.”
On the death of queen Elizabeth, without iſſue, the line of Henry VIII became extinct. It therefore became neceſſary to recur to the other iſſue of Henry VII, by Elizabeth of York his queen: whoſe eldeſt daughter Margaret having married James IV king of Scotland, king James the ſixth of Scotland, and of England the firſt, was the lineal deſcendant from that alliance. So that in his perſon, as clearly as in Henry VIII, centered all the claims of different competitors from the conqueſt downwards, he being indiſputably the lineal heir of the conqueror. And, what is ſtill more remarkable, in his perſon alſo centered the right of the Saxon monarchs, which had been ſuſpended from the conqueſt till his acceſſion. For, as was formerly obſerved, Margaret the ſiſter of Edgar Atheling, the daughter of Edward the outlaw, and granddaughter of king Edmund Ironſide, was the perſon in whom the hereditary right of the Saxon kings, ſuppoſing it not aboliſhed by the conqueſt, reſided. She married Malcolm king
