claim to speak on behalf of the commonalty of the realm;1 and the election was shortly afterwards confirmed by the adhesion of the great body of the baronage, clerical and lay. In the second of Stephen's charters his title to the throne is somewhat elaborately set forth: 'Dei gratià, assensu cleri et populi in regem Anglorum electus, et a Willelmo Cantuariensi archiepiscopo et sanctae Romanae ecclesiae legato consecratus, et ab Innocentio sanctae Romanae sedis pontifice confirmatus.' Henry I., in a letter to Anselm notifying his accession to the throne, had in like manner declared himself 'nutu Dei a clero et a populo Angliae electus. Both kings founded their title on the choice of the people. The confirmation by the Pope was probably regarded, in Stephen's case, as a tacit condonation of the breach of their oaths by the King, prelates, and barons, who had all sworn to the late King Henry to support his daughter's claim.

At the time of Stephen's death, on the 25th Oct., 1154, Henry II. Henry, Duke of Normandy, was absent from England. P. 154He returned on the Sth December, and after an interregnum of nearly two months, was elected and crowned King on the 19th of the same month. He succeeded without opposition, not by hereditary descent, but by virtue of the recent compact of Wallingford, ratified by the assent and homage of the baronage. The kingship was gradually passing out of the elective stage and becoming more feudal

1 6

Cumque. . . cum paucissimo comitatu applicuisset, ad ipsam totius regionis reginam metropolim, maturato itinere, Londonias devenit. . . Majores igitur natu, consultuque quique provectiores concilium coegere, deque regni statu pro arbitrio suo utilia in commune providentes, ad regem eligendum unanimiter conspiravere. . . . Id quoque sui esse juris, suique specialiter privilegii, ut si rex ipsorum quoquo modo obiret, alius suo provisu in regno substituendus e vestigio succederet.' Gesta Stephani, p. 3. See also Chron. A. Sax. A. D. 1135; and Will. Malmesb. Hist. Nov. i. § 11. Statutes of the Realm-Charters of Liberties, p. 3.

3 See Anselm's Letters, lib. iii., Ep. 41.

"Anno a partu

Ab omnibus electus est.'-Rob. de Monte, A. D. 1154. Virginis MCLIV. Henricus Henrici majoris ex filia olim Imperatrice nepos, post mortem regis Stephani a Normannia in Angliam veniens, haereditarium regnum suscepit, conclamatus ab omnibus; et consecratus mystica unctione in regem, concrepantibus per Angliam turbis, Vivat Rex.'-Will. Newb. ii.

Supra, p. 86.

Richard I.

in character. Obtaining homage from all the feudatories was thought to give a secure title. The election became, as it were, feudalized in form, and to a great extent in spirit also. The action of Henry I., in exacting homage and fealty, first to his son William and then to his daughter and grandson, has already been noticed. In a similar manner Stephen, in 1152, endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to secure the recognition of his son Eustace as heir to the throne; and Henry II. early procured the baronage to do homage, first to his young son William and then to his son Henry. But he took a further and, as it turned out, most unfortunate step. Not satisfied with the homage of the baronage, which might be regarded as a prospective election, he borrowed from the practice of France and the Empires of the East and West the expedient of crowning the son during the lifetime of the father. The young Henry was twice solemnly crowned; on the first occasion in 1170, alone, and again, two years later, in company with his wife, daughter of Lewis VII. of France. Under the sinister guidance of his father-in-law he soon assumed the position of a rival and an enemy, rather than of an heir-apparent.

It was only a few days before his death, on the 6th of A.D. 1189. July, 1189, that Henry II. had recognized his eldest surviving son, Richard Cœur-de-Lion, as his successor. Richard remained absent from England about five weeks, engaged in receiving investiture of the Duchy of Normandy (July 20th), and in concluding a treaty with Philip of France. In the meantime his mother, Queen Eleanor, issued a proclamation to the English calling upon all freemen to take the oath of allegiance to her son Richard as 'Lord of England. No opposition of any kind was made by prelates, barons, or people, and on the 3rd of September, three weeks after he had landed in England, Richard took the usual coronation oaths, and was duly anointed and crowned,

1 Bened. Abbas. ii. 74, 75. Et juret unusquisque liberorum hominum totius regni, quod fidem portabit domino Ricardo domino Angliae, filio domini regis Henrici et dominae Alienor reginae.'

with extraordinary splendour and formality, in the presence of the assembled archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, clergy, and a great multitude of knights." In the Annals of Dunstable he is said to have been 'elevated to the throne by hereditary right, after a solemn election by the clergy and people, words which indicate the mixed notion of hereditary right and popular choice which was then beginning to prevail.

Richard I. died without issue on the 8th April, 1199. John, After an interregnum of about six weeks' duration, his D. 1199 younger brother John, to whom the barons, by Richard's death-bed orders, had already sworn fealty,' succeeded to the throne, with a questionable title perfected by the election of the nation." Even in private inheritances the doctrine of representation, by which the issue of a deceased elder brother would exclude the succession of the surviving younger brother was as yet unsettled." In the succession to the Crown of England the doctrine had never hitherto obtained. Nearly two centuries had still to elapse before this stage in the growth of hereditary right was

1 ‘Deinde Ricardus Dux Normanniae venit Londonias, et congregatis ibi archiepiscopis et episcopis, comitibus et baronibus et copiesa militara multitudine, III nonas Septembris die Dominica . . . consecratus et coronatus est in regem Angliae.'-Bened. Abbas. ii. 78, 81.

Inde veniens in Angliam, haereditario jure promovendus in regem, post cleri et populi solemnem electionem, triplici involutus est sacramento Tunc dominus Cantuariensis divina celebravit ; et nocte sequenti plures Judaeorum occisi sunt, et plures rebus spoliati.' Ann. Dunstapl. A.D. 1189 (Annales Monastici, iii. p. 25). The earlier portion of the Annals of Dunstable down to 1201 appears to be principally derived from the Abbreviationes Chronicorum,' and the Imagines Historiarum' of Ralph de Diceto, the latter a valuable work. (Hardy, Catalogue of Brit. History, 1871.)

3

By the chroniclers Richard is termed Earl' from his father's death till his investiture as Duke of Normandy on July 20th, thenceforward Duke Richard' till his coronation on the 3rd of September, 1189, when he became for the first time 'Rex.' His regnal years are reckoned only from this date. The curious mistake of Allen (Royal Prerogative, p. 45), in asserting that there are public acts in Richard's name, dated in the first year of his reign, before his coronation had taken place, although exposed by Nicolas in his Chronology of History, was unfortunately allowed to remain uncorrected in the second edition of Allen's work published, after the author's death, in 1849.

'Cum autem rex de vita desperaret, divisit Johanni fratri suo regnum Angliae, et fecit fieri praedicto Johanni fidelitates ab illis qui aderant.'Hoveden, iv. 83.

5 Stubbs, Select Chart. Introductory Sketch, 29.

6 Glanvill, 1. vii. c. 3.

distinctly marked by the unopposed succession of Richard II. as heir to his grandfather. The claim of proximity of blood, which the uncle possessed, was much more obvious in early times than the subtle doctrine of representative primogeniture; and he was usually far better fitted by age, experience, and personal authority, to undertake the onerous duties of mediaeval royalty. In England there appears to have been an absence of any feeling in favour of the boy Arthur of Brittany, son of John's elder brother Geoffrey; while John's claim was supported by the deathbed recommendation of the late King, the influence of the queen-mother, and the adherence of a numerous and influential party among the barons. He was elected King without opposition, and crowned at Westminster on the 27th of May. At his election Archbishop Hubert, according to the account given by Matthew Paris, made a very remarkable speech, in which he declared the Crown to be absolutely elective, giving even to the members of the royal stock no preference unless founded on their own personal merit. The truth of this incident has been doubted by some; but from the mouth of a zealous partizan the speech is by no means improbable. The Archbishop, in fact, merely expressed, in very plain language indeed, what had

1 'No opposition was made to the accession of Richard the Second, but there seems to have been a strong notion in men's minds that John of Gaunt sought to displace his nephew. In earlier times, as the eldest and most eminent of the surviving sons of Edward the Third, John of Gaunt would probably have been elected without any thought of the claims of young Richard.'— Freeman, Growth of Eng. Const. 213.

Matt. Paris (ed. Wats.), p. 197. Archiepiscopus stans in medio omnium dixit, Audite universi. Noverit discretio vestra quod nullus praevia ratione ali succedere habet in regnum, nisi ab universitate regni unanimiter, invocata Sancti Spiritus gratia, electus, et secundum morum suorum eminentiam praeelectus, ad exemplum et similitudinem Saul primi regis inuncti, quem praeposuit Dominus populo suo, non regis filium nec de regali stirpe procreatum; similiter post eum David Jessae filium; hunc quia strenuum et aptum dignitati regiae, illum quia sanctum et humilem; ut sic qui cunctos in regno supereminet strenuitate, omnibus praesit et potestate et regimine. Verum si quis ex stirpe regis defuncti aliis praepolleret, pronius et promptius in electionem ejus est consentiendum. Haec idcirco diximus pro inclyto comite Johanne, qui praesens est frater illustrissimi regis nostri Ricardi jam defuncti, qui haerede caruit ab eo egrediente, qui providus et strenuus et manifeste nobilis, quem nos, invocata Spiritus Sancti gratia, ratione tam meritorum quam sanguinis regii unanimiter elegimus universi.'

been the theory of the constitution down to the time of Earl Harold, in whose person the theory was practically exemplified; and what, if we except the denial of any preference to members of the royal house, had actually been the ordinary practice both before and since the Conquest. In the preamble of a charter issued by John shortly after his accession he was careful to unite both his titles: 'Rex jure haereditario, et mediante tam cleri et populi consensu et favore.'

2

There was every probability that a justly incensed nation Henry III. would have compelled the House of Anjou to yield the D. 1216. throne of England to a new dynasty, when the death of John on the 19th of October, 1216, removed the chief cause of offence, and gave his family one more chance before it was too late. The young Henry was hastily crowned at Gloucester on the 28th of October, by the legate Gualo but he owed his kingdom to the energy and statesmanship of the Regent Pembroke, who, by timely concessions, secured, with much difficulty, the adhesion of the majority of the nation. Arthur of Brittany had left a sister Eleanor known as the 'Damsel of Brittany' who survived till 1241, but she seems never to have been regarded as having a claim to the succession."

Matthew Paris supposes that the Archbishop, warned of John's utter faithlessness, and foreseeing the troubles of his reign, wished to impress upon him and upon the people that as an elected king he must do his duty under pain of forfeiture. But the speech of Hubert was probably in itself nothing more than a declaration of John's fitness to be elected, the recollection of which would naturally recur to those who heard it when they found out how unfit he was to reign. The enunciation, however, of the elective character of the royal dignity is of importance whether it be due to the Archbishop or the historian.' -Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 515.

Foedera, i. 76.

3 Ann. Waverl. p. 286. At the coronation only Gualo the Legate, the bishops of Winchester, Worcester, Coventry, and Bath, and the earls of Chester, Pembroke, Ferrers, Wm. Brewer and Savary de Maulac were present: reliqui omnes comites et barones sequebantur Ludowicum. Nec multo post Gualo legatus concilium celebravit apud Bristollas in festivitate Sancti Martini, in quo coegit undecim episcopos Angliae et Walliae qui praesentes crant, et alios praelatos inferioris ordinis sed et comites et barones ac milites qui convenerant, Henrico regi fidelitatem jurare.'-Ibid.

+ Supra, p. 138.

Both Glanvill and Bracton were inclined to favour the claim of the nephew as against the uncle in the succession to private inheritances. But so long as Eleanor lived the casus regis seems to have been regarded as an obstacle in

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