Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/492

 472 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 45. It is uncertain whether the preamble was ever forced on Elizabeth's attention. The draft of it alone For she was married, as you know, to the Lord Herbert ; the marriage was performed and perfected by all necessary circumstances ; there was consent of parties, consent of parents, open solemnizing, continuance till lawful years of consent, and in the mean time, carnal copulation ; all which, save the last, are commonly known, and the last, which might be most doubtful, is known by confes- sion of them both. She herself hath earnestly acknowledged the same. Earl of Pembroke in Queen Mary's reign, against their wills, so that it cannot be legal. ' Afterwards, she by dalliance fell so carnal company with the Earl of Hertford, which was not descried till the bigness of her belly bewrayed her ill hap. The marriage between them was declared unlawful by the Bishop who examined it. 'The mother wicked and lasci- ~ious ; the issue bastarded. ' If she were next in the blood royal, her fault is so much the more to have so foully spotted the same. She can have no lawful children. Deut. xiii. 23 : It is written, ' a bastard and unlawful -born person may not bear rule in the church and commonweal : ' a law devised to punish the parents for their sins, so that such a mother ought in no case to be allowed to succeed. ' Next as to King Henry' swill : 4 He had no power to bequeath the crown, except so far as Parlia- ment gave him leave ; and Parlia- ment could only give him leave so far as the power of Parliament ex- tended. The words of the statute give him no absolute or unlimited power to appoint an unfit person to the crown, not capable of the same as unto a Turk, an infidel, an in- famous or opprobrious person, a fool or a madman. 1 But again, he had power to order the succession, either by Let- ters Patent, or by his will, signed with his own hand. ' He has not done it by Letters Patent ; of that there is no doubt. ' His will, there are witnesses [ sufficient, and some of them that subscribed the same testament can truly and plainly testify, that he did not subscribe. when the King was void of memory, or else when he was deceased, as indeed it happened, as more mani- festly appeared by open declaration made in Parliament by the late Lord Paget and others, that the King did not sign it with his own hand, and as it is plain and probable enough by the pardon obtained for one Wil- liam Clerke for putting the stamp tc the said will after the King was de- parted. ' As to the enrolment in Chancery,
 * A divorce was procured by the
 * The stamp might be appended