Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/426

 406 OJihe King's Family and Councils. [Ch. XVII. England, should not be able to demand ' any inheritance' within the same ligeance or not, &c.' declares that the law of the Crown of England is and always hath been such, that the children of the Kings of England in whatsoever parts they be born, in England or elsewhere, be able and ought to bear the inheritance after the death of their ancestors" : which may perhaps be a legislative declaration of the law, not only as to the inheritance of the Crown, but also to other inheritances. However this may be, it seems to be clear at common law, that the King's children may inherit lands in England, wherever such children were born, and though they may in law be deemed aliens. In the 1 7 Edw. 3. the archbishop of Canterbury came into Parliament and demanded " si Ics enfans notre sen^ le roy born beyond the sea should inherit in England, because born out of the King's dominions and aliens:" and all the parliament agreed, let them be born where they would, they should in- herit (rt). Without any doubt the alienage if any of the eldest son would become extinct on his succeeding to the Crown on the death of his ancestor. The exact extent of the right of the Crown to regulate the education and morriages of the royal family underwent consi<» derable discussion in 1717, that is, on the commencement of the reign of Geo. I. [h). That sovereign proposed to the twelve judges the follov/ing question: " whether the educa- tion, and the care of the persons of his Majesty's grandchildren then in England, and of Prince Frederick, eldest son of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, when his Majesty should think fit to cause him to come into England, and the ordering the place of their abode, and appointing their governors, go^ vernesses and other instructors, attendants and servants, and the care and approbation of their marriages, when grown up, belonged of right to his Majesty, as king of the realm or not ? Whereupon ten of the judges were of opinion in the affirmative; relying principally on historical instances of the exercise of this prerogative in the case of marriages of the royal family, and on principles of policy and necessity, that this prerogative should exist in the King even in derogation of the rights of the father of the King's grandchildren : and they considered f«) Cotton, 38. Fortesc. Tl. 420. So though an alien born. Ante, 403. a Queen clowajcr i? entitled to dower, (*) Sec Fortctc. K. 401, &.c. 'f that