The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-07-06 00:00:00

Scottish Union made the interests of the kingdoms
the same. Besides which he had only to refer their
Lordships, many of whom moat have been personally
engaged in them, to the debates of the first Regency in
the last reign, in time report on which Scolds precedenti
were mentioned and reasoned upon the same as English
precedents. There were two propositions in support of
his claim, which be begged their-Lordships to bear isrl
mind, and which he should sustain by farts. The first, !
the uniform esseciee of this right—viz. that no King
was ever crowned, who was there married, without his
Queen-Consort being crowned. This alone he thought
enfficient for his purpose. The second, that there never
was a Queen-Consort in these realms who slid not paw
take with her husband in this ceremony, subject, how-
ever, to some qualifications. With respect to the fine,
proposition, there was but one apparent exception, mud'
that he should satisfactorily explain. To the second
there were, perhaps, two or three seeming exceptions,
but these also be would satisfactorily explain. The est
of his argument was in the history of this eeretuny.—
Ile might content himself with going Isacluto the cons
quest, but he should go as far as history reached.---111
had been doubted whether, among the Saxons, the
Queens were crowned at all, and some historians as-
serted that it only took place in the latter period of the
Saxon times. He admitted that when Kings mere
crowned on the field of battle, amidst the shouts and
acclamations of their followers—if this was the origin
of the ceremony of the Coronation, the eery circum-
stances of the case prevented their Queens from being
crowned with them. There were also doubts on the
subject, because in 7 I, a law of the West Saxons
was passed, depriving Queens generally of all honours,
rights, dignities, &c. But the best Chroniclers con-
tended that this was a change introduced into the laws
of the country, in consequence of the murder which
Queen Ethelhurga had committed. Accordingly, in
536, Judith, the wife of Ethelwold, King of the West
Saxons, was crowned in France, and received afterwards
Royal honours in England. Selden says that the
Queens of the West Saxons were thenceforth crowned
like other Queens, which, Mr. Brome:harn said, assumed
that they enjoyed this right. After quoting a passage
from a manuscript, which Selden stated to be 600 years
oh!, in support of his position, he proceeded to sbew
that in all foreign countries, whether their laws mellowed
gmmeena to reign or not, they were uniformly crowned
with their husbands. In Prance there was this differ-
-I.IICP, that the King was crowned at one place, and the
Queen at another. He then returned to the practice in
England. Edward IV. was crowned in 1461 ; and in
1163, being then married to Elizabeth Woodville, was
Erntenemi with her immediately after the marriage. The
Cotton Manuscripts contain the order' issued for the
I 'orsmation of Edward IV. and Isis Consort ; that which
referred to the Queen, required that the same order
shonlil be taken " eimundu solo coronae)." Time eere-
ntony for the King's Coronations nus there laid down,
arel then separately that which was to be observed for
the Queen. Richard 111. and his Queen were crowned
together iu l-it,3; and this brought him down to the
period of Ilenry VII., upon whose reign and Coronation
it would he necessary for him to make more than one
observation. It was well known that that Prince held
the throne by the three-fold claim of marriage, conquest,
and descent. Lord Bacon remarked, that he (Henry
VII.) always considered descent as the principal claim,
and that he considered the other two as only casualties
compared with that of descent. lie had, as the same
writer observed, always placed descent as his shield, and
rompiest and marriage as his supporters. All his ad-
herents of the Lancaster party ripheid his pretensions on
the claim of descent. The King's claim de fi:eio was
constituted by Act of Parliament to be tic jure even
after. Not only Henry awl his adherents, but that which
was the only legitimate organ to which their Lordships
could attend, the Parliament, held the claim of descent
to be the hiehest of time three. Henry caused himself to
hr crowned, however, before he made any application to
Parliament, in I. Parliament sat ;few days after.
The Art was passel which entailed time Crown, limiting
the succession to Henry VII. and the direct heirs of his
body. Ile was declared to have a full and perfect right
to time Crown, amid no mention was made of the Princess
Elizabeth ; anal it was kept as a matter of doubt whether
she was to be Queen or not, his policy being to avoid
that marriage, if it were possible. It was even said that
be was in treaty for another Princess, and still he con-
tinued to defer celebrating the marriage as long as he
could. Ile was not married till l 4 6. A very remark-
able delay then took place in time Coronation of the
'peen, who was, it was to be observed, a Princess, and
the daughter of Edward IV. Great doubts were enter-
tained, and much discontent was excited by this delay.
She was attended and treated in all respects as Queen
.Consort. Now, the more jealous Ilenry had been of her
pretensions being mingled with his own, the more
aexiorts he was to avoid meeting Parliament until he
had confirmed his own claim, the more solicitous he had
been to drier the marriage, the more likely be was to
avoid doing ..ny thing after, which might seem to imply
even a notion of the Queen's rights with respect to the
Crown. She was always treated as the Queen Consort,
and Lord Bacon had remarked, that Henry's marriage
to line had occasioned much more triumph amid rejoicing
than his own entry or Coronation, which, his Lordship
farther remarked, the King rather anifored than liked.
Time delay of her Coronation was found to give great
umbrage. And here lie would strew what were time feel-
ings of the country, and especially of the Queen's party,
on the occasion, bar referring to a then living authority.
Margaret of York, aunt to Elizabeth, afterwards mar-
Heil to the Duke of liurgundy. had these remarks among
i••• reflections which she made upon the events of those
times. " Sbe could not," She said, " see without trouble.
that Henry refused to let Elizabeth he crowned (an
honour which no Queen of England had been debarred
of since the Conquest), and that the birth of a son had
not rendered him at all more indulgent or just in his
roneuet towards her." He could not appeal to a better
antiaority than that of an aged and Royal woman, the
aunt of the reignig Queen. the last fortress and prop of
the Lancaster*. redone of the rights which belonged to
her family. and fearful of any thing which appeared to
slight their claims. She hail passed the less active mo-
ments of her life in study and meditatinn on the history
of her family, conscious of all whirls bad transpired in
the course of that history, and especially of the facts
which connected her family with the Crown. There,
could be no better witness to show what had been the
!terse of former times, what understanding had existed
respecting the rights and usages of those times in refer-
ence to Queens of England. She maintained that Queen
Elizabeth ought to be crowned, as every other Queen
Consort had been before her. Henry the Seventh at
length yielded to public feeling. and the Queen was
crowned on time 23th November, 1467. Lord Bacon said
that it wu an old christening which had stood long for
godfathers, and his Lordship gave his readers to under-
stand that it went much against the King's stomach.—
The coronation was ordered in the very same form and
words in which two years and eight months before the
King's own coronation had been. Up to this period
from the Conquest there had been nineteen Kings
crowned. Of these eighteen were married before or
after the Coronation, and of these marriages the eighteen
Queens were all crowned. Assuming that Margaret,
second wife of itdward the First, was crowned (of which,
for reaming before give., there could be no doubt.) In-
dependent of that there were eighteen Queens
crowned—and these coronations had been solemnised
for Queens alone. About the same number had been so-
lemnized for King's alone. The state of the Church
during the whale of the subsequent period of that reign