Clarence, his third son; and John of Gant duke
of Lancaster, his fourth. By the rules of succession therefore the
posterity of Lionel duke of Clarence were entitled to the throne, upon
the resignation of king Richard; and had accordingly been declared by
the king, many years before, the presumptive heirs of the crown; which
declaration was also confirmed in parliament[l]. But Henry duke of
Lancaster, the son of John of Gant, having then a large army in the
kingdom, the pretence of raising which was to recover his patrimony
from the king, and to redress the grievances of the subject, it was
impossible for any other title to be asserted with any safety; and he
became king under the title of Henry IV. But, as sir Matthew Hale
remarks[m], though the people unjustly assisted Henry IV in his
usurpation of the crown, yet he was not admitted thereto, until he had
declared that he claimed, not as a conqueror, (which he very much
inclined to do[n]) but as a successor, descended by right line of the
blood royal; as appears from the rolls of parliament in those times.
And in order to this he set up a shew of two titles: the one upon the
pretence of being the first of the blood royal in the intire male
line, whereas the duke of Clarence left only one daughter Philippa;
from which female branch, by a marriage with Edmond Mortimer earl of
March, the house of York descended: the other, by reviving an exploded
rumour, first propagated by John of Gant, that Edmond earl of
Lancaster (to whom Henry's mother was heiress) was in reality the
elder brother of king Edward I; though his parents, on account of his
personal deformity, had imposed him on the world for the younger: and
therefore Henry would be intitled to the crown, either as successor to
Richard II, in case the intire male line was allowed a preference to
the female; or, even prior to that unfortunate prince, if the crown
could descend through a female, while an intire male line was
existing.

[Footnote l: Sandford's geneal. hist. 246.]

[Footnote m: Hist. C.L. c. 5.]

[Footnote n: Seld. tit. hon. 1. 3.]

HOWEVER, as in Edward the third's time we find the parliament
approving and affirming the right of the crown, as before stated, so
in the reign of Henry IV they actually exerted their right of
new-settling the succession to the crown. And this was done by the
statute 7 Hen. IV. c. 2. whereby it is enacted, "that the inheritance
of the crown and realms of England and France,