Page:A short English constitutional history for law students (IA shortenglishcons00hamm).pdf/39

 The Englisli King is really elected by the people, who have a strong regard 10 the claims of primo- geniture. a. In Saxon times the Kings were elected by the Witan. Often an eldest son was passed over in favour of some other. But the successor to the Crown was always of the royal blood and family. . After William I. had established himself by Conquest he was elected by the Witan and duly crowned in Westminster Abbey. . Successive Kings always obtained the sanction of the Witan, or in later times Parliament, to their right. . Henry VIM. obtained from Parliament the power to make a bequest of the Crown by will. . The tight to succeed to the Throne at the present day is governed by the Act of Settle- ment; whereby the Crown was settled upon Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and her heirs, provision being expressly made that only those holding the Protestant faith were to succeed. Revenues of the Crow. There were two sources from which the Kings gained their revenue, a. b. Hereditary Crown lands. ‘Taxation: legal and illegal. The Norman Kings consulted their advisers before raising taxes, but this was really more a matter of forin than anything else. It was only very gradually that Parliament secured a hold aver the finances of the country and prevented the Crown from raising taxes arbitrarily. i. a The Magna Carta prohibited arbitrary taxation. “Aids” were sometimes refused to Henry III. and in the Charter of 1225 there appears for the first time the principle that grievances must be redressed before supplies are granied. ‘The Confirmatio Cartarum (1297) under Edward 1 forbade taxation not authorized by Parlia- ment: tallage was, however, not expressly in- - cluded, and Edward {. contmued to raise it.