daughters, Queen Mary and Queen Anne. It would have stood thus: Queen Mary and her issue; Queen Anne and her issue; King William and his issue. But we may remember, that Queen Mary was only nominally queen, jointly with her husband King William, who alone had the regal power; and King William was personally preferred to Queen Anne, though his issue was postponed to hers. Clearly therefore these princes were successively in possession of the crown by a title different from the usual course of descents. It was towards the end of King William's reign, when all hopes of any surviving issue from any of these princes died with the duke of Gloucester, that the king and parliament thought it necessary again to exert their power of limiting and appointing the succession, in order to prevent another vacancy of the throne; which must have ensued upon their deaths, as no farther provision was made at the revolution than for the issue of Queen Mary, Queen Anne, and King William. The parliament had previously, by the statute of 1 W. and M. st. 2, c. 2, enacted, that every person who should be reconciled to, or hold communion with, the see of Rome, should profess the popish religion, or should marry a papist, should be excluded, and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the crown: and that in such case the people should be absolved from their allegiance, and the crown should descend to such persons, being protestants, as would have inherited the same, in case the person so reconciled, holding communion, professing, or marrying, were naturally dead. To act therefore consistently with themselves, and at the same *time [*216] pay as much regard to the old hereditary line as their former resolutions would admit, they turned their eyes on the Princess Sophia, electress and dutchess dowager of Hanover, the most accomplished princess of her age (g). For, upon the impending extinction of the protestant posterity of Charles the first, the old law of legal descent directed them to recur to the descendants of James the first; and the Princess Sophia, being the youngest daughter of Elizabeth queen of Bohemia, who was the daughter of James the first, was the nearest of the ancient blood royal, who was not incapacitated by professing the popish religion. On her, therefore, and the heirs of her body, being protestants, the remainder of the crown, expectant on the death of King William and Queen Anne without issue, was settled by statute 12 and 13 W. III. c. 2. And at the same time it was enacted, that whosoever should hereafter come to the possession of the crown should join in the communion of the church of England as by law established. This is the last limitation of the crown that has been made by parliament and these several actual limitations, from the time of Henry IV. to the present, do clearly prove the power of the king and parliament to newmodel or alter the succession. And indeed it is now again made highly penal to dispute it: for by the statute 6 Ann. c. 7, it is enacted, that if any person maliciously, advisedly, and directly, shall maintain, by writing or printing, that the kings of this realm with the authority of parliament are not able to make laws to bind the crown and the descent thereof, he shall be guilty of high treason; or if he maintains the same by only preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, he shall incur the penalties of a præmunire. (g) Sandford, in his genealogical history, published A. D. 1677, speaking (page 535) of the prin cesses Elizabeth, Louisa, and Sophia, daughters of the queen of Bohemia, says, the first was reputed the most learned, the second the greatest artist, and the last one of the most accomplished ladies in Europe. The Princess Sophia dying before Queen Anne, the inheritance thus limited descended on her son and heir King George the first; and, having on the death of the queen taken effect in his person, from him it descended to his late majesty King George the second; and from him to his grandson and heir, our present gracious sovereign, King George the third. [*217] Hence it is easy to collect, that the title to the crown is at present hereditary, though not quite so absolutely hereditary as formerly and the common stock or ancestor, from whom the descent must be derived, is also different. Formerly the common stock was King Egbert; then William the conqueror; afterwards in James the first's time the two common stocks united, and so continued till the vacancy of the throne in 1688: now it is the Princess Sophia, in whom the inheritance was vested by the new king and parliament. Formerly the descent was absolute, and the crown went to the next heir without any restriction: but now, upon the new settlement, the inheritance is conditional; being limited to such heirs only, of the body of the Princess Sophia, as are protestant members of the church of England, and are married to none but protestants. And in this due medium consists, I apprehend, the true constitutional notion of the right of succession to the imperial crown of these kingdoms. The extremes, between which it steers, are each of them equally destructive of those ends for which societies were formed and are kept on foot. Where the magistrate, upon every succession, is elected by the people, and may by the express provision of the laws be deposed (if not punished) by his subjects, this may sound like the perfection of liberty, and look well enough when delineated on paper; but in practice will be ever productive of tumult, contention, and anarchy. And, on the other hand, divine indefeasible hereditary right, when coupled with the doctrine of unlimited passive obedience, is surely of all constitutions the most thoroughly slavish and dreadful. But when such an hereditary right, as our laws have created and vested in the royal stock, is closely interwoven with those liberties, which, we have seen in a former chapter, are equally the inheritance of the subject; this union will form a constitution, in theory the most beautiful of any, in practice the most approved, and, I trust, in duration the most permanent. It was the duty of an expounder of our laws to lay this constitution before the student in its true and genuine light it is the duty of every good Englishman to understand, to revere, to defend it. CHAPTER IV. OF THE KING'S ROYAL FAMILY. THE first and most considerable branch of the king's royal family, regarded by the laws of England, is the queen. The queen of England is either queen regent, queen consort, or queen dowager. The queen regent, regnant, or sovereign, is she who holds the crown in her own right; as the first (and perhaps the second) Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Anne; and such a one has the same powers, prerogatives, rights, dignities, and duties, as if she had been a king. This was observed in the entrance of the last chapter, and is expressly declared by statute 1 Mar. I. st. 3, c. 1, (1). But the queen consort is the wife of the reigning king; and she, by virtue of her marriage, is participant of divers prerogatives above other women (a). And, first, she is a public person, exempt and distinct from the king: and not, like other married women, so closely connected as to have lost all legal or separate existence so long as the marriage continues. For the queen is of ability to purchase lands, and to convey them, to make leases, to grant copyholds, and do other acts of ownership, without the concurrence of her lord; which no other married woman can do (b): a privilege as old as the Saxon æra (c). She is also capable of taking a grant from the king, which no other wife is from her husband; and in this particular she agrees with the Augusta, or piissima regina conjux divi imperatoris of the Roman laws; who, according to Justinian (d), was equally *capable of making a grant to, and receiving one from, the em- [*219] peror (2). The queen of England hath separate courts and offices distinct from the king's, not only in matters of ceremony, but even of law; and her attorney and solicitor general are entitled to a place within the bar of his majesty's courts, together with the king's counsel (e). She may likewise sue and be sued alone, without joining her husband (3). She may also have a separate property in goods, as well as lands, and has a right to dispose of them by will (4). In short, she is in all legal proceedings looked upon as a feme sole, and not as a feme covert; as a single, not as a married woman (f). For which the reason given by Sir Edward Coke is this: because the wisdom of the common law would not have the king, (whose continual care and study is for the public, and circa ardua regni,) to be troubled and disquieted on account of his wife's domestic affairs; and therefore it vests in the queen a power of transacting her own concerns, without the intervention of the king, as if she was an unmarried woman. The queen hath also many exemptions and minute prerogatives. For instance she pays no toll (g); nor is she liable to any amercement in any court (h). But in general, unless where the law has expressly declared her exempted, she is upon the same footing with other subjects; being to all intents and purposes the king's subject, and not his equal: in like manner as, in the imperial law, " Augusta legibus soluta non est" (i). The queen hath also some pecuniary advantages, which form her a dis (a) Finch. L. 86. (b) 4 Rep. 23. (c) Seld. Jan. Angl. 1, 42.* The instance meant, loc. citat, is where Ethelswith, wife to Burghred, king of the Mercians, granted a patent to Cuthwals.. (1) Mary being the first queen that had sat upon the English throne, this statute was passed, as it declares, for " the extinguishment of the doubt and folly of malicious and ignorant persons," who might be induced to think that a queen could not exercise all the prerogatives of a king. (2) So our kings may settle lands in jointure on their queen, who may accept the same, and dispose of the profits. Stat. 32 Hen. VIII. c. 51. Statutes of the Realm, printed by authority, not in the ordinary edition of the statutes. If the existence of this statute had been better known, the stat. 39, 40, G. III. c. 88, ◊ VOL. I. 26 (d) Cod. 5, 16, 26. (e) Seld. tit hon. 1, 6, 7. (f) Finch. L. 86. Co. Litt. 133. 8, 9, might not have been deemed expedient. tinct revenue: as, in the first place, she is entitled to an ancient perquisite called queen-gold, or aurum regine, which is a royal revenue, belonging to every queen consort during her marriage with the king, and due from every person who hath made a voluntary offering or fine to the king, amounting to ten marks or upwards, for and in consideration of any privileges, [*220] grants, licences, pardons, or other matter of royal favour conferred upon him by the king and it is due in the proportion of one tenth part more, over and above the entire offering or fine made to the king; and becomes an actual debt of record to the queen's majesty by the mere recording of the fine (k). As, if an hundred marks of silver be given to the king for liberty to take in mortmain, or to have a fair, market, park, chase, or free-warren: there the queen is entitled to ten marks in silver, or (what was formerly an equivalent denomination) to one mark in gold, by the name of queen-gold, or aurum regine (1). But no such payment is due for any aids or subsidies granted to the king in parliament or convocation; nor for fines imposed by courts on offenders, against their will; nor for voluntary presents to the king, without any consideration moving from him to the subject; nor for any sale or contract whereby the present revenues or possessions of the crown are granted away or diminished (m). The original revenue of our ancient queens, before and soon after the conquest, seems to have consisted in certain reservations or rents out of the demesne lands of the crown, which were expressly appropriated to her majesty, distinct from the king. It is frequent in domesday book, after specifying the rent due to the crown, to add likewise the quantity of gold or other renders reserved to the queen (n). These were frequently appropriated to particular purposes; to buy wood for her majesty's use (o), to purchase oil for her lamps (p), or to furnish her attire from head to foot (q), which was frequently very costly, as one single robe in the fifth [*221] year of Henry II. *stood the city of London in upwards of fourscore pounds (r). A practice somewhat similar to that of the eastern countries, where whole cities and provinces were specifically assigned to purchase particular parts of the queen's apparel (s). And, for a farther addition to her income, this duty of queen-gold is supposed to have been originally granted; those matters of grace and favour, out of which it arose, being frequently obtained from the crown by the powerful intercession of the queen. There are traces of its payment, though obscure ones, in the book of domesday, and in the great pipe-roll of Henry the first (t). In the reign of Henry the second the manner of collecting it appears to have been well understood, and it forms a distinct head in the ancient dialogue of the exchequer (u), written in the time of that prince, and usually attributed to Gervase of Tilbury. From that time downwards it was regularly claimed and enjoyed by all the queen consorts of England till the death of Henry VIII.; though, after the accession of the Tudor family, the collecting of it (k) Pryn. Aur. reg. 2. (1) 12 Rep. 21. 4 Inst. 358. (m) Ibid. Pryn. 6. Madox, Hist. Exch. 242. (n) Bedefordscire. Maner. Lestone redd. per annum rrii lib. &c.; ad opus reginæ ii uncias auri.— Herefordscire. In Lene, &e. consuetud. ut præpositus manerii veniente domina sua (regina) in maner. præsentaret ei xviii oras denar. ut esset ipsa lato animo. Pryn. Append to Aur. Reg. 2, 3. (0) Causa coadunandi lanam regine. Domesd. ibid. (p) Civitas Lundon. Pro oleo ad lampad. reginæ. (Mag. rot. pip. temp. Hen. II. ibid.) (g) Vicecomes Berkescire, zvi l. pro cappa reginæ. (Mag. rot. pip. 19.-22 Hen. II. ibid.) Civitas Lund cordubanario regina xz s. (Mag. rot. 2 Hen. II. Madox, Hist. Exch. 419.) (r) Pro roba ad opus regina, quater zx l. et vi s viii. d. (Mag. rot. 5 Hen. II. ibid. 250.) (8) Solere aiunt barbaros reges Persiarum ac Syrorum-uzoribus civitates attribuere, hoc modo; hac civitas mulieri redimiculum præbeat, hæc in collum, hæc in crines, &c. (Cic. in Verrem, lib. 3, cap. 33.) (1) See Madox, Disceptat. Epistolar. 74. Pryn. Aur. Reg. Append. 5. (u) Lib. 2, c. 26, seems to have been much neglected: and there being no queen consort afterwards till the accession of James I., a period of near sixty years, its very nature and quantity became then a matter of doubt; and, being referred by the king to the chief justices and chief baron, their report of it was so very unfavourable (v), that his consort Queen Anne (though she claimed it) yet never thought proper to exact it. In 1635, 11 Car. I., a time fertile of expedients for raising money upon dormant precedents in our old records (of which ship-money was a fatal instance,) the king, at the petition of his queen, Henrietta Maria, issued out his writ (w) 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 [*222] 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 antiquary, endeavour to excite Queen Catherine to revive this antiquated claim. Another ancient perquisite belonging to the queen consort, mentioned by all our old writers (x), and, therefore only, worthy notice, is this: that, on the taking of a whale on the coasts, which is a royal fish, it shall 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 ancient records (y), was, to furnish the queen's wardrobe with whalebone (5), (6). 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 (2) 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 (7), it trespassing too strongly as well on natural justice as female modesty. If, however, the queen be accused of any species of treason, she shall, (whether consort or dowager) be tried by the peers of parliament, as Queen Ann Boleyn was in 28 Hen. VIII. (8). son in the court of the lord high-steward. One of the charges against this unhappy queen was, that she had said, "that the king never had had her heart;" a declaration, if made, in which there was probably more truth than discretion; but this was adjudged to be a slander of her own issue, and therefore high treason, according to a statute which had been passed about two years before for her honour and protection. Harg. St. Tr. 11 vol. p. 10. Articles of impeachment were prepared against Queen Catherine Parr for heresy, in |