ithout hesitation, accepted of the
magnificent present which was tendered him. He was come to the crisis
of his fortune; and being obliged suddenly to determine himself, amidst
great difficulties which he must have frequently revolved in his mind,
he chose that part which his ambition suggested to him, and to which he
seemed to be invited by his present success.

There were many titles on which Henry could found his right to the
crown; but no one of them free from great objections, if considered with
respect either to justice or to policy.

During some years, Henry had been regarded as heir to the house of
Lancaster by the party attached to that family; but the title of the
house of Lancaster itself was generally thought to be very ill founded.
Henry IV., who had first raised it to royal dignity, had never clearly
defined the foundation of his claim; and while he plainly invaded the
order of succession, he had not acknowledged the election of the people.
The parliament, it is true, had often recognized the title of the
Lancastrian princes; but these votes had little authority, being
considered as instances of complaisance towards a family in possession
of present power; and they had accordingly been often reversed during
the late prevalence of the house of York. Prudent men also, who had been
willing for the sake of peace to submit to any established authority,
desired not to see the claims of that family revived; claims which must
produce many convulsions at present, and which disjointed for the future
the whole system of hereditary right. Besides, allowing the title of the
house of Lancaster to be legal, Henry himself was not the true heir of
that family; and nothing but the obstinacy natural to faction, which
never without reluctance will submit to an antagonist, could have
engaged the Lancastrians to adopt the earl of Richmond as their head.
His mother indeed, Margaret, countess of Richmond, was sole daughter
and heir of the duke of Somerset, sprung from John of Gaunt, duke of
Lancaster: but the descent of the Somerset line was itself illegitimate,
and even adulterous. And though the duke of Lancaster had obtained
the legitimation of his natural children by a patent from Richard II.,
confirmed in parliament, it might justly be doubted whether this deed
could bestow any title to the crown: since in the patent itself all the
privileges conferred by it are fully enumerated, and the succession to
the kingdom is express