Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/215

Ch. 3. Edgar, irnamed Atheling, (which ignifies in the Saxon language the firt of the blood royal) who was the on of Edward the outlaw, and grandon of Edmund Ironide; or, as Matthew Paris well exprees the ene of our old contitution, “” the Norman claimed the crown by virtue of a pretended grant from king Edward the confeor; a grant which, if real, was in itelf utterly invalid: becaue it was made, as Harold well oberved in his reply to William’s demand, “;” which alo very plainly implies, that it then was generally undertood that the king, with conent of the general council, might dipoe of the crown and change the line of ucceion. William’s title however was altogether as good as Harold’s, he being a mere private ubject, and an utter tranger to the royal blood. Edgar Atheling’s undoubted right was overwhelmed by the violence of the times; though frequently aerted by the Englih nobility after the conquet, till uch time as he died without iue: but all their attempts proved unuccesful, and only erved the more firmly to etablih the crown in the family which had newly acquired it. conquet then by William of Normandy was, like that of Canute before, a forcible transfer of the crown of England into a new family: but, the crown being o transferred, all the inherent properties of the crown were with it transferred alo. For, the victory obtained at Hatings not being a victory over the nation collectively, but only over the peron of Harold, the only right that the conqueror could pretend to acquire thereby, was the right to poes the crown of England, not to alter the nature of the government. And therefore, as the English laws till remained in force, he mut necearily take the crown ubject to thoe laws, and with all it’s inherent properties; the firt and principal