Page:The history of the Norman conquest of England, its causes and its results.djvu/152



how people's eyes are blinded on this subject. It is not uncommon to hear people talk about the times before and shortly after the Norman Conquest as if the Act for the Settlement of the Royal Succession had already been in force in those days. It is strange to hear a number of princes, both before and since the Conquest, popularly spoken of as "usurpers," merely because they came to the Crown in a different way from that which modern law and custom prescribe. It is strange that people who talk in this way, commonly forget that their own principle, so far this as it proves anything, proves a great deal more than they intend. If Harold, Stephen, John, were usurpers, Ælfred and Eadward the Confessor were usurpers just as much. Ælfred and Eadward, no less than John, succeeded by election, to the exclusion of nephews whom the modern law of England would look upon as the undoubted heirs of the Crown. All this sounds very strange to the historic mind; but it may, in some cases, be the result of simple ignorance. It is stranger still to hear others talk as if hereditary succession, according to some particular theory of it, was a divine and eternal law which could not be