dore, commonly called Owen Tudor; yet, by the name of Katherine queen of England, maintained an action against the bishop of Carlifle. And fo, the queen dowager of Navarre marrying with Edmond earl of Lancaster, brother to king Edward the firft, maintained an action of dower (after the death of her fecond hufband) by the name of queen of Navarre. THE prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and alfo his royal confort, and the princess royal, or eldest daughter of the king, are likewife peculiarly regarded by the laws. For, by ftatute 25 Edw. III, to compass or confpire the death of the former, or to violate the chastity of either of the latter, are as much high treason as to conspire the death of the king, or violate the chastity of the queen. And this upon the fame reafon, as was before given; because the prince of Wales is next in fucceffion to the crown, and to violate his wife might taint the blood royal with bastardy: and the eldest daughter of the king is alfo alone inheritable to the crown, on failure of iffue male, and therefore more respected by the laws than any of her younger fisters; infomuch that upon this, united with other (feodal) principles, while our military tenures were in force, the king might levy an aid for marrying his eldest daughter, and her only. The heir apparent to the crown is ufually made prince of Wales and earl of Chefter, by fpecial creation, and inveftiture; but, being the king's eldeft fon, he is by inheritance duke of Cornwall, without any new creation ". THE rest of the royal family may be confidered in two different lights, according to the different fenfes in which the term, royal family, is ufed. The larger fenfe includes all thofe, who are by any poffibility inheritable to the crown. Such, before the revolution, were all the defcendants of William the conqueror; who had branched into an amazing extent, by intermarriages with the antient nobility. Since the revolution and act of fettlement, it means the proteftant iffue of the princefs Sophia; now comparatively few in number, but which in process of time may possibly be as largely d & Rep. 1. Seld. tit. of hon. 2. 5. diffused. c 2 Inft. 50. VOL. I. P diffufed. The more confined fenfe includes only those, who are within a certain degree of propinquity to the reigning prince, and to whom therefore the law pays an extraordinary regard and refpect: but, after that degree is paft, they fall into the rank of ordinary subjects, and are seldom confidered any farther, unless called to the fucceffion upon failure of the nearer lines. For, though collateral confanguinity is regarded indefinitely, with respect to inheritance or fucceffion, yet it is and can only be regarded within some certain limits in any other respect, by the natural constitution of things and the dictates of positive law. THE younger fons and daughters of the king, and other branches of the royal family, who are not in the immediate line of fucceffion, were therefore little farther regarded by the antient law, than to give them to a certain degree precedence before all peers and public officers, as well ecclefiaftical as temporal. This is done by the ftatute 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10. which enacts that no perfon, except the king's children, fhall prefume to fit or have place at the fide of the cloth of eftate in the parliament chamber; and that certain great officers therein named fhall have precedence above all dukes, except only fuch as fhall happen to be the king's fon, brother, uncle, nephew (which fir Edward Cokef explains to fignify grandfon or nepos) or brother's or fifter's fon. Therefore, after thefe degrees are past, peers or others of the blood royal are intitled to no place or precedence except what belongs to them by their perfonal rank or dignity. Which made fir Edward Walker complain, that by the hafty creation of prince Rupert to be duke of Cumberland, and of the earl of Lenox to be duke of that name, previous to the creation of king Charles's fecond fon, James, to be duke of York, it might happen that their grandfons would have precedence of the grandfons of the duke of York. INDEED, under the defcription of the king's children hisgråndfons are held to be included, without having recourse to fir Ed See effay on collateral confanguinity, in Law-tracts, 4to. Oxon. 1771. f 4 Inft. 362. g Tracts, p. 301. ward Coke's interpretation of nephew: and therefore when his late majefty king George II created his grandson Edward, the fecond fon of Frederick prince of Wales deceased, duke of York, and referred it to the houfe of lords to fettle his place and precedence, they certified that he ought to have place next to the late duke of Cumberland the then king's youngest fon; and that he might have a feat on the left hand of the cloth of eftate. But when, on the acceffion of his prefent majefty, thofe royal perfonages ceafed to take place as the children, and ranked only as the brother and uncle, of the king, they alfo left their feats on the fide of the cloth of eftate: so that when the duke of Gloucester, his majesty's fecond brother, took his feat in the house of peers', he was placed on the upper end of the earls' bench (on which the dukes ufually fit) next to his royal highness the duke of York. And in 1718, upon a question referred to all the judges by king George I, it was refolved by the opinion of ten against the other two, that the education and care of all the king's grandchildren while minors, did belong of right to his majefty as king of this realm, even during their father's life. But they all agreed, that the care and approbation of their marriages, when grown up, belonged to the king their grandfather. And the judges have more recently concurred in opinion, that this care and approbation extend alfo to the prefumptive heir of the crown; though to what other branches of the royal family the fame did extend they did not find precisely determined. The moft frequent inftances of the crown's interpofition go no farther than nephews and nieces; but examples are not want ↳ Lords' Journ. 24 Apr. 1760. i Ibid. 10 Jan. 1765. 590. 601-under Henry VIII, 13 Rym. 249.423:-under Edw. VI. 7 St. Tr. k Fortefc. Al. 401-440. 3. 8. For nephews and nieces; under Lords' Journ. 28 Feb. 1772. Henry III, Rym. 852:-under Edm See (befides the inftances cited in ward I, 2 Rym. 489 :-under Edward Fortefcue Aland) for brothers and fifters; III, 5 Rym. 561 :-under Richard II, under king Edward III, 4 Rym. 392. 7 Rym. 264: under Richard IIí, 403.411. 501. 508. 512. 549. 683:under Henry V, 9 Rym. 710, 711.741: -under Edward IV, ir Rym. 564, 565. 12 Rym. 232. 244:--under Henry VIII, 15 Rym. 26. 31. ing of it's reaching to more distant collaterals". And the ftatute 6.Henry VI before-mentioned, which prohibits the marriage of a queen dowager without the confent of the king, affigns this reason for it: "because the difparagement of the "queen fhall give greater comfort and example to other ladies "of eftate, who are of the blood royal, more lightly to difpa"rage themselves." Therefore by the ftatute 28 Hen. VIII. c. 18. (repealed, among other statutes of treafons, by 1 Edw. VI. c. 12.) it was made high treason for any man to contract marriage with the king's children or reputed children, his fifters or aunts ex parte paterna, or the children of his brethren or fifters; being exactly the fame degrees, to which precedence is allowed by the statute 31 Hen. VIII. before-mentioned. And now, by ftatute 12 Geo. III. c. 11. no defcendant of the body of king George II, (other than the iffue of princeffes married into foreign families) is capable of contracting matrimony, without the previous confent of the king fignified under the great feal; and any marriage contracted without fuch consent is void. Provided, that fuch of the faid defcendants, as are above the age of twenty-five, may after a twelvemonth's notice given to the king's privy council, contract and folemnize marriage without the confent of the crown; unless both houfes of parliament fhall, before the expiration of the faid year, exprefsly declare their difapprobation of such intended marriage. And all perfons folemnizing, affisting, or being present at, any fuch prohibited marriage, fhall incur the penaltics of the ftatute of praemunire. To great nieces; under Edward II. 3 Rym. 575. 644. To first cousins; under Edward III, 5 Rym. 177. To fecond, and third coufins; under Edward III, 5 Rym. 729-under Richard II, 7 Rym. 225: under Henry VI, 10 Rym. 322: ---- under Henry VII, 12 Ry. 529:-under queen Eliza- CHAPTER THE FIFTH. OF THE COUNCILS BELONGING TO THE KING. HE third point of view, in which we are to confider THE the king, is with regard to his councils. For, in order to aflift him in the discharge of his duties, the maintenance of his dignity, and the exertion of his prerogative, the law hath assigned him a diversity of councils to advise with. 1. THE first of these is the high court of parliament, whereof we have already treated at large. 2. SECONDLY, the peers of the realm are by their birth hereditary counsellors of the crown, and may be called together by the king to impart their advice in all matters of importance to the realm, either in time of parliament, or, which hath been their principal ufe, when there is no parliament in being. Accordingly Bracton', speaking of the nobility of his time, fays they might properly be called “confules, a "confulendo; reges enim tales fibi affociant ad confulendum.” And in our law books it is laid down, that peers are created for two reafons: 1. Ad confulendum, 2. Ad defendendum, regem: on which account the law gives them certain great and high privileges fuch as freedom from arrefts, &c, even when no parliament is fitting: because it intends, that they are always affifting the king with their counsel for the commonwealth, or keeping the realm in fafety by their prowefs and valour. : a Co. Litt, 110. b l. 1. c. 8. C 7 Rep. 34. 9 Rep. 49. 12 Rep. 96. P 3 INSTANCES |