y III, and has ever since
given title to the king's eldest son. And the county palatine, or
duchy, of Lancaster was the property of Henry of Bolinbroke, the son
of John of Gant, at the time when he wrested 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[m] and sir Edward Coke[n]
observe, "he knew he had the duchy of Lancaster by sure and
indefeasible 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[o], 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[p] and Lambard[q],
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[r].

[Footnote m: 215.]

[Footnote n: 4 Inst. 205.]

[Footnote o: 1 Ventr. 155.]

[Footnote p: 4 Inst. 206.]

[Footnote q: Archeion. 233.]

[Footnote r: If this notion of Lambard and Coke be well founded, 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.]

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[