Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/224

208 tutes of this realm, our mot lawful and rightful overeign liege lady and queen; and that her highnes is rightly, lineally, and lawfully decended and come of the blood royal of this realm of England; in and to whoe princely peron, and to the heirs of her body lawfully to be begotten, after her, the imperial crown and dignity of this realm doth belong.” And in the ame reign, by tatute 13 Eliz. c. 1. we find the right of parliament to direct the ucceion of the crown aerted in the mot explicit words. “If any peron hall hold, affirm, or maintain that the common laws of this realm, not altered by parliament, ought not to direct the right of the crown of England; or that the queen’s majety, with and by the authority of parliament, is not able to make laws and tatutes of ufficient force and validity, to limit and bind the crown of this realm, and the decent, limitation, inheritance, and government thereof;—uch peron, o holding, affirming, or maintaining, hall during the life of the queen be guilty of high treaon; and after her deceae hall be guilty of a midemenor, and forfeit his goods and chattels.” the death of queen Elizabeth, without iue, the line of Henry VIII became extinct. It therefore became neceary to recur to the other iue of Henry VII, by Elizabeth of York his queen: whoe eldet daughter Margaret having married James IV king of Scotland, king James the ixth of Scotland, and of England the firt, was the lineal decendant from that alliance. So that in his peron, as clearly as in Henry VIII, centered all the claims of different competitors from the conquet downwards, he being indiputably the lineal heir of the conqueror. And, what is till more remarkable, in his peron alo centered the right of the Saxon monarchs, which had been upended from the conquet till his acceion. For, as was formerly oberved, Margaret the iter of Edgar Atheling, the daughter of Edward the outlaw, and granddaughter of king Edmund Ironide, was the peron in whom the hereditary right of the Saxon kings, uppoing it not abolihed by the conquet, reided. She married Malcolm king of