which ſhip-money was a fatal inſtance) the king, at the petition of his queen Henrietta Maria, iſſued out his writ for levying it; but afterwards purchaſed it of his conſort at the price of ten thouſand pounds; finding it, perhaps, too trifling and troubleſome to levy. And when afterwards, at the reſtoration, by the abolition of the military tenures, and the fines that were conſequent upon them, the little that legally remained of this revenue was reduced to almoſt nothing at all, in vain did Mr Prynne, by a treatiſe which does honour to his abilities as a painful and judicious antiquarian, endeavour to excite queen Catherine to revive this antiquated claim.
Another antient perquiſite belonging to the queen conſort, mentioned by all our old writers[1], and, therefore only, worthy notice, is this: that on the taking of a whale on the coaſts, which is a royal fiſh, it ſhail be divided between the king and queen; the head only being the king’s property, and the tail of it the queen’s. “De ſturgione obſervetur, quod rex illum habebit integrum: de balena vero ſufficit, ſi rex habeat caput, et regina caudam.” The reaſon of this whimſical diviſion, as aſſigned by our antient records[2], was, to furniſh the queen’s wardrobe with whalebone.
But farther: though the queen is in all reſpects a ſubject, yet, in point of the ſecurity of her life and perſon, ſhe is put on the ſame footing with the king. It is equally treaſon (by the ſtatute 25 Edw. III.) to compaſs or imagine the death of our lady the king’s companion, as of the king himſelf: and to violate, or defile, the queen conſort, amounts to the ſame high crime; as well in the perſon committing the fact, as in the queen herſelf, if conſenting. A law of Henry the eighth[3] made it treaſon alſo for any woman, who was not a virgin, to marry the king without informing him thereof: but this law was ſoon after repealed; it treſpaſſing too ſtrongly, as well on natural juſtice, as female mo-
