nny and
usurpation, and kept them from forming any conception of a legal and
regular monarchy, had rendered them entirely ignorant both of the
rights of PRIMOGENITURE, and a REPRESENTATION in succession;
inventions so necessary for preserving order in the lines of princes,
for obviating the evils of civil discord and of usurpation, and for
begetting moderation in that species of government, by giving security
to the ruling sovereign. These innovations arose from the feudal law,
which, first introducing the right of primogeniture, made such a
distinction between the families of the elder and younger brothers,
that the son of the former was thought entitled to succeed to his
grandfather, preferably to his uncles, though nearer allied to the
deceased monarch. But though this progress of ideas was natural, it
was gradual. In the age of which we treat, the practice of
representation was indeed introduced, but not thoroughly established;
and the minds of men fluctuated between opposite principles. Richard,
when he entered on the holy war, declared his nephew, Arthur, Duke of
Britany, his successor; and by a formal deed he set aside, in his
favour, the title of his brother John, who was younger than Geoffrey,
the father of that prince [a]. But John so little acquiesced in that
destination, that when he gained the ascendant in the English
ministry, by expelling Longchamp, the chancellor and great justiciary,
he engaged all the English barons to swear that they would maintain
his right of succession; and Richard, on his return, took no steps
towards restoring or securing the order which he had at first
established. He was even careful, by his last will, to declare his
brother John heir to all his dominions [b]; whether that he now
thought Arthur, who was only twelve years of age, incapable of
asserting his claim against John's faction, or was influenced by
Eleanor, the queen-mother, who hated Constantia, mother of the young
duke, and who dreaded the credit which that princess would naturally
acquire if her son should mount the throne. The authority of a
testament was great in that age, even where the succession of a
kingdom was concerned; and John had reason to hope that this title,
joined to his plausible right in other respects, would ensure him the
succession. But the idea of representation seems to have made, at this
time, greater progress in France than in England: the barons of the
transmarine provinces, Anjou, Main