66 ["coronation, to the observance and keeping of his own "laws." But to obviate all doubts and difficulties concerning this matter, it is expressly declared by statute 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, "that the laws of England are the birthright of the people thereof; and all the kings and queens who shall ascend the throne of this realm ought "to administer the government of the same according to "the said laws and all their officers and ministers ought "to serve them respectively according to the same: and "therefore all the laws and statutes of this realm, for "securing the established religion, and the rights and liber"ties of the people thereof, and all other laws and statutes "of the same now in force, are ratified and confirmed "accordingly." : And, as to the terms of the original contract between king and people, these may be said to be now couched in the coronation oath, which, by the statute 1 W. & M. sess. 1, c. 6, is to be administered to every king and queen who shall succeed to the imperial crown of these realms, by one of the archbishops or bishops of the realm, in the presence of all the people, who on their parts do reciprocally take the oath of allegiance to the crown. This coronation oath is conceived in the following terms: The archbishop or bishop shall say,-"Will you so"lemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this "kingdom of England, and the dominions thereto belong"ing, according to the statutes in parliament agreed on, "and the laws and customs of the same?" The king or queen shall say, "I solemnly promise so to do."-Archbishop or bishop, "Will you to your power cause law and "justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?" King or queen, "I will."—Archbishop or bishop, "Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, "the true profession of the gospel, and the protestant re"formed religion established by the law? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to "the churches committed to their charge, all such rights and D D. 2. ["privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, "or any of them?"-King or queen, " All this I promise to "do."-- After this the king or queen, laying his or her hand upon the holy Gospels, shall say, "The things which I have "here before promised I will perform and keep; so help "me God:" and then shall kiss the book. This is the form of the coronation oath, as it is now prescribed by our laws; the principal articles of which appear to be at least as antient as the Mirror of Justices (ƒ), and even as the time of Bracton (g); but the wording of it was changed at the Revolution, because (as the statute alleges) the oath itself had been framed in doubtful words and expressions, with relation to antient laws and constitutions at this time unknown (h). However, in what form soever it be conceived, this is most indisputably a fundamental and original express contract; though doubtless the duty of protection is impliedly as much incumbent on the sovereign before coronation, as after; in the same manner as allegiance to the king becomes the duty of the subject immediately (f) Cap. 1, s. 2. (h) In the old folio abridgment of the statutes, printed by Lettou and Machlinia in the reign of Edward the sixth (says Blackstone, vol. i. p. 235, in notis), there is preserved a copy of the old coronation oath, which, as the book is extremely scarce, shall be here transcribed :"Ceo est le serement que le roy jurre a soun coronement: que il gardera et meintenera les droitez et lez franchisez de seynt esglise grauntez auncienment dez droitez roys Christiens dEngletere, et quil gardera toutez sez terrez, honoures et dignitees, droiturelæ et franks del coron du roialme dEngletere, en tout maner dentierte sans null maner damenusement, et lez droitez dispergez, dilapidez ou perduz de la corone a soun poiair reappeller en launcien estate, et quil gardera le peas de seynt esglise et al clergie et al people de bon accorde, et quil face faire en toutez sez jugementez owel et droit justice oue discrecion et misericorde, et quil grauntera a tenure lez leyes et custumez du roialme, et a soun poiair les face garder et affirmer que lez gentez du people avont faitez et esliez, et les malveys leyz et custumes de tout oustera, et ferme peas et establie al people de soun roialme en ceo garde esgardera a soun poiair: come Dieu luy aide."-Tit. Sacramentum Regis, fol. m. ij.) Blackstone adds that Prynne has also given us a copy of the coronation oaths of Richard the second (Signal Loyalty, ii. 246); Edward the sixth (ibid. 251); James the first and Charles the first (ibid. 269). [on the descent of the crown, before he has taken the oath of allegiance, or whether he ever takes it at all.] The present form of the coronation oath expresses (we may observe) [all the duties that a monarch can owe to his people: viz. to govern according to law; to execute judgment in mercy ; and to maintain the established religion.] And, with respect to the last of these three branches, we may further notice some auxiliary provisions. 1. That by the Bill of Rights, 1 W. & M. sess. 2. c. 2, and the Act of Settlement, 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, every king and queen regnant of the age of twelve years, either at their coronation, or on the first day of the first parliament, (whichever event shall first happen,) upon the throne in the house of peers, shall repeat and subscribe the declaration against Popery, according to 30 Car. II. st. 2, c. 1. 2. That [by the act of union with Scotland, 5 Ann. c. 8, two preceding statutes are recited and confirmed; the one of the parliament of Scotland, the other of the parliament of England: which enact—the former, that every king at his accession shall take and subscribe an oath, to preserve the Protestant religion and Presbyterian church government in Scotland; the latter, that at his coronation he shall take and subscribe a similar oath, to preserve the settlement of the church of England within England, Ireland, Wales and Berwick, and the territories thereunto belonging.] [It is a maxim in the law, that protection and subjection are reciprocal (i);] and therefore we shall now pass from the duties of the sovereign to those which are owing to him from his people, and which are comprehended in the single word allegiance. [Allegiance is the tie or ligamen, which binds the subject to the sovereign, in return for that protection which the sovereign affords the subject. The thing itself, or substantial part of it, is founded in reason and the nature of government; the name and the form are derived to us from our Gothic ancestors. Under the feudal system, every owner of lands held, them in subjection to (i) Calvin's case, 7 Rep. 5 a. [some superior or lord, from whom or from whose ancestors the tenant or vassal had received them; and there was a mutual trust or confidence subsisting between the lord and vassal, that the lord should protect the vassal in the enjoyment of the territory he had granted him, and, on the other hand, that the vassal should be faithful to the lord, and defend him against all his enemies. This obligation on the part of the vassal was called fidelitas, or fealty; and an oath of fealty was required, by the feudal law, to be taken by all tenants to their landlord, which is couched in almost the same terms as our antient oath of allegiance (j), except that in the usual oath of fealty there was frequently a saving or exception of the faith due to a superior lord by name, under whom the landlord himself was perhaps only a tenant or vassal. But when the acknowledgment was made to the absolute superior himself, who was vassal to no man, it was no longer called the oath of fealty, but the oath of allegiance; and therein the tenant swore to bear faith to his sovereign lord in opposition to all men, without any saving or exception "contra omnes homines fidelitatem fecit (k).” Land held by this exalted species of fealty was called feudum ligium, a liege fee; the vassals homines ligii, or liegemen; and the sovereign their dominus ligius, or liege lord. And when sovereign princes did homage to each other, for lands held under their respective sovereignties, a distinction was always made between simple homage, which was only an acknowledgment of tenure (1); and liege homage, which included the fealty before mentioned, and the services consequent upon it. Thus when our Edward the third, in 1329, did homage to Philip the sixth of France, for his ducal dominions on that continent, it was warmly disputed of what species the homage was to be, whether liege or simple homage (m). But with us, in England, it becoming a settled principle of tenure that all lands (j) 2 Feud. 5, 6, 7; et vide sup. vol. 1. p. 176. (k) 2 Feud. 99. (1) Calvin's case, 7 Rep. 7. (m) 2 Cart. 401; Mod. Un. Hist. xxii. 420. [in the kingdom are holden of the king as the sovereign and lord paramount, no oath but that of fealty could ever be taken to inferior lords, and the oath of allegiance was necessarily confined to the person of the king alone. By an easy analogy, the term of allegiance was soon brought to signify all other engagements which are due from subjects to their prince, as well as those duties which were. simply and merely territorial. And the oath of allegiance, as administered for upwards of six hundred years (n), contained a promise "to be true and faithful to the king and "his heirs, and truth and faith to bear of life and limb "and terrene honour, and not to know or hear of any ill "or damage intended him without defending him there"from." Upon which Sir Matthew Hale (0) makes this remark, that it was short and plain, not entangled with long or intricate clauses or declarations, and yet was comprehensive of the whole duty from the subject to his sovereign. But at the Revolution, the terms of this oath being thought perhaps to favour too much the notion of non-resistance,] another form [was introduced by the convention parliament (p), which is more general and indeterminate than the former; the subject only promising "that he will be faithful and bear true allegiance" to the sovereign, without mentioning "his heirs," or specifying in the least wherein that allegiance consists (q);] and in the oath of allegiance as now administered, the style so introduced is still retained. In connection, however, with this oath should also be mentioned those of supremacy and of abjuration, both prescribed after the Revolution by acts in the reign of King William the third (r), but the forms of which as now administered have been settled by statutes of later reigns (s). (n) Mirror, c. 3, s. 35; Fleta, 3, 16; Britton, c. 29; Calvin's case, 7 Rep. 6 b. (0) 1 Hal. P. C. 63. (p) See 1 W. & M. sess. 1, c. 8. (q) The following is the present oath of allegiance, according to the form established by 1 Geo. 1, st. 2, c. 13—“ I, A. B., do sincerely pro"mise and swear, that I will be faith"ful and bear true allegiance to her "majesty Queen Victoria." (r) See 1 W. & M. sess. 1, c. 8, and 13 Will. 3, c. 6. (s) 1 Geo. 1, st. 2, c. 13; 6 Geo. 3, c. 53. |