and all other the
king's dominions, shall be _set and remain_[o] in the person of our
sovereign lord the king, and in the heirs of his body issuing;" and
prince Henry is declared heir apparent to the crown, to hold to him
and the heirs of his body issuing, with remainder to lord Thomas, lord
John, and lord Humphry, the king's sons, and the heirs of their bodies
respectively. Which is indeed nothing more than the law would have
done before, provided Henry the fourth had been a rightful king. It
however serves to shew that it was then generally understood, that the
king and parliament had a right to new-model and regulate the
succession to the crown. And we may observe, with what caution and
delicacy the parliament then avoided declaring any sentiment of
Henry's original title. However sir Edward Coke more than once
expressly declares[p], that at the time of passing this act the right
of the crown was in the descent from Philippa, daughter and heir of
Lionel duke of Clarence.

[Footnote o: _soit mys et demoerge._]

[Footnote p: 4 Inst. 37, 205.]

NEVERTHELESS the crown descended regularly from Henry IV to his son
and grandson Henry V and VI; in the latter of whose reigns the house
of York asserted their dormant title; and, after imbruing the kingdom
in blood and confusion for seven years together, at last established
it in the person of Edward IV. At his accession to the throne, after a
breach of the succession that continued for three descents, and above
threescore years, the distinction of a king _de jure_, and a king _de
facto_ began to be first taken; in order to indemnify such as had
submitted to the late establishment, and to provide for the peace of
the kingdom by confirming all honors conferred, and all acts done, by
those who were now called the usurpers, not tending to the disherison
of the rightful heir. In statute 1 Edw. IV. c. 1. the three Henrys are
stiled, "late kings of England successively in dede, and not of
ryght." And, in all the charters which I have met with of king Edward,
wherever he has occasion to speak of any of the line of Lancaster, he
calls them "_nuper de facto, et non de jure, reges Angliae_."

EDWARD IV left two sons and a daughter; the eldest of which sons, king
Edward V, enjoyed the regal dignity for a very short time, and was
then deposed by Richard his unnatural uncle; who immediately usurped
the royal dignity, having previously insinuated to the populace a
suspicion of bastardy i