the crown from king Richard II, and aſſumed the title of Henry IV. But he was too prudent to ſuffer this to be united to the crown, leſt, if he loſt one, he ſhould loſe the other alſo. For, as Plowden[1] and ſir Edward Coke[2] obſerve, “he knew he had the duchy of Lancaſter by ſure and indeſealible title, but that his title to the crown was not ſo aſſured: for that after the deceaſe of Richard II the right of the crown was in the heir of Lionel duke of Clarence, ſecond ſon of Edward III; John of Gant, father to this Henry IV, being but the fourth ſon.” And therefore he procured an act of parliament, in the firſt year of his reign, to keep it diſtinct and ſeparate from the crown, and ſo it deſcended to his ſon, and grandſon, Henry V, and Henry VI. Henry VI being attainted in 1 Edw. IV, this duchy was declared in parliament to have become forfeited to the crown[3] and at the ſame time an act was made to keep it ſtill diſtinct and ſeparate from other inheritances of the crown. And in 1 Hen. VII another act was made to veſt the inheritance thereof in Henry VII and his heirs; and in this ſtate, ſay ſir Edward Coke[4] and Lambard[5], viz. in the natural heirs or poſterity of Henry VII, did the right of the duchy remain to their days; a ſeparate and diſtinct inheritance from that of the crown of England[6].
The iſle of Ely is not a county palatine, though ſometimes erroneouſly called ſo, but only a royal franchiſe; the biſhop having, by grant of king Henry the firſt, jura regalia within the iſle of Ely, and thereby he exerciſes a juriſdiction over all cauſes, as well criminal, as civil[7].
- ↑ 215.
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 205.
- ↑ 1 Ventr. 155.
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 206.
- ↑ Archeion. 233.
- ↑ If this notion of Lambard and Coke be well founded, (which is not altogether certain) it might have become a very curious queſtion at the time of the revolution in 1688, in whom the right of the duchy remained after king James’s abdication, The attainder indeed of the pretended prince of Wales (by ſtatute 13 W. III. c. 3.) has now put the matter out of doubt. And yet, to give that attainder it’s full force in this reſpect, the object of it muſt have been ſuppoſed legitimate, elſe he had no intereſt to forfeit.
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 220.
