Edgar, ſirnamed Atheling, (which ſignifies in the Saxon language the firſt of the blood royal) who was the ſon of Edward the outlaw, and grandſon of Edmund Ironſide; or, as Matthew Paris[1] well expreſſes the ſenſe of our old conſtitution, “Edmundus autem latusferreum, rex naturalis de ſtirpe regum, genuit Edwardum; et Edwardus genuit Edgarum, cui de jure debebatur regnum Anglorum.”
William the Norman claimed the crown by virtue of a pretended grant from king Edward the confeſſor; a grant which, if real, was in itſelf utterly invalid: becauſe it was made, as Harold well obſerved in his reply to William’s demand[2], “abſque generali ſenatus et populi conventu et edicto;” which alſo very plainly implies, that it then was generally underſtood that the king, with conſent of the general council, might diſpoſe of the crown and change the line of ſucceſſion. William’s title however was altogether as good as Harold’s, he being a mere private ſubject, and an utter ſtranger to the royal blood. Edgar Atheling’s undoubted right was overwhelmed by the violence of the times; though frequently aſſerted by the Engliſh nobility after the conqueſt, till ſuch time as he died without iſſue: but all their attempts proved unſucceſsful, and only ſerved the more firmly to eſtabliſh the crown in the family which had newly acquired it.
This conqueſt 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 ſo transferred, all the inherent properties of the crown were with it transferred alſo. For, the victory obtained at Haſtings not being[3] a victory over the nation collectively, but only over the perſon of Harold, the only right that the conqueror could pretend to acquire thereby, was the right to poſſeſs the crown of England, not to alter the nature of the government. And therefore, as the English laws ſtill remained in force, he muſt neceſſarily take the crown ſubject to thoſe laws, and with all it’s inherent properties; the firſt and
