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desty. If however the queen be accused of any species of treason, she shall (whether confort or dowager) be tried by the house of peers, as queen Ann Boleyn was in 28 Hen.VIII.

THE husband of a queen regnant, as prince George of Denmark was to queen Anne, is her subject; and may be guilty of high treason against her: but, in the instance of conjugal fidelity, he is not fubjected to the same penal restrictions. For which the reason seems to be, that, if a queen confort is unfaithful to the royal bed, this may debase or bastardize the heirs to the crown; but no such danger can be confequent on the infidelity of the husband to a queen regnant.

A QUEEN dowager is the widow of the king, and as fuch enjoys most of the privileges belonging to her as queen confort. But it is not high treason to confpire her death; or to violate her chaftity, for the fame reason as was before alleged, because the fucceffion to the crown is not thereby endangered. Yet still, pro dignitate regali, no man can marry a queen dowager without special licence from the king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and goods. This fir Edward Coke tells us was enacted in parliament in 6 Hen. IV, though the statute be not in print. But she, though an alien born, shall still be intitled to dower after the king's demise, which no other alien is. A queen dowager, when married again to a fubject, doth not lose her regal dignity, as peeresses dowager do their peerage when they marry commoners. For Katherine, queen dowager of Henry V, though she married a private gentleman, Owen ap Meredith ap Theodore, commonly called Owen Tudor; yet, by the name of Katherine queen of England, maintained an action against the bishop of Carlifle. And so the queen of Navarre marrying with Edmond, brother to king Edward the first, maintained an action of dower by the name of queen of Navarre,

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THE prince of Wales, or heir apparent to the crown, and also his royal confort, and the princess royal, or eldest daughter of the king, are likewife peculiarly regarded by the laws. For, by statute 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 confpire the death of the king, or violate the chaftity of the queen. And this upon the fame reason, as was before given; because the prince of Wales is next in succession to the crown, and to violate his wife might taint the blood royal with bastardy: and the eldest daughter of the king is also alone inheritable to the crown, in failure of issue male, and therefore more respected by the laws than any of her younger sisters; 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 usually made prince of Wales and earl of Chester, by special creation, and investiture; but, being the king's eldeft son, he is by inheritance duke of Cornwall, without any new creation d.

THE younger fons and daughters of the king, who are not in the immediate line of fucceffion, are little farther regarded by the laws, than to give them precedence before all peers and public officers as well ecclefiaftical as temporal. This is done by the statute 31 Hen.VIII. c. 10. which enacts that no person, except the king's children, shall prefume to fit or have place at the fide of the cloth of estate in the parliament chamber; and that certain great officers therein named shall have precedence above all dukes, except only fuch as shall happen to be the king's son, brother, uncle, nephew (which fir Edward Coke explains to fignify grandfon or nepos) or brother's or fister's fon. 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

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the education and care of all the king's grandchildren while minors, and the care and approbation of their marriages, when grown up, did belong of right to his majesty as king of this realm, during their father's life'. And this may fuffice for the notice, taken by law, of his majesty's royal family.

f Fortesc. Al. 401-440.

Dd 2

CHAPTER THE FIFTH,

OF THE COUNCILS BELONGING TO THE KING,

T

HE third point of view, in which we are to confider the king, is with regard to his councils. For, in order to affift him in the discharge of his duties, the maintenance of his dignity, and the exertion of his prerogative, the law hath affigned 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 use, when there is no parliament in being. Accordingly Bracton, speaking of the nobility of his time, says they might properly be called "confules, a confulendo; reges enim “ tales fibi afsociant ad confulendum." And in our law books it is laid down, that peers are created for two reasons; 1. Ad confulendum, 2. Ad defendendum regem : for which reasons the law gives them certain great and high privileges; such as freedom from arrests, &c, even when no parliament is fitting: because the law

a Co. Litt. 110. 1.1. c. 8.

C

7 Rep. 34. 9 Rep. 49. 12 Rep. 96.

intends,

intends, that they are always assisting the king with their counsel for the commonwealth; or keeping the realm in safety by their prowess and valour.

INSTANCES of conventions of the peers, to advise the king, have been in former times very frequent; though now fallen into disuse, by reason of the more regular meetings of parliament. Sir Edward Coked gives us an extract of a record, 5 Hen. IV, concerning an exchange of lands between the king and the earl of Northumberland, wherein the value of each was agreed to be settled by advice of parliament (if any should be called before the feast of St Lucia) or otherwise by advice of the grand council (of peers) which the king promises to assemble before the faid feaft, in cafe no parliament shall be called. Many other instances of this kind of meeting are to be found under our antient kings : though the formal method of convoking them had been so long left off, that when king Charles I in 1640 issued out writs under the great feal to call a great council of all the peers of England to meet and attend his majesty at York, previous to the meeting of the long parliament, the earl of Clarendon mentions it as a new invention, not before heard of; that is, as he explains himself, so old, that it had not been practiced in fome hundreds of years. But, though there had not so long before been an instance, nor has there been any fince, of assembling them in so folemn a manner, yet, in cases of emergency, our princes have at several times thought proper to call for and confult as many of the nobility as could easily be got together: as was particularly the cafe with king James the second, after the landing of the prince of Orange; and with the prince of Orange himself, before he called that convention parliament, which afterwards called him to the throne.

BESIDES this general meeting, it is usually looked upon to be the right of each particular peer of the realm, to demand an audience of the king, and to lay before him, with decency and

1 Inst. 11C.

• Hift. b. 2,

respect,

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