not, however reluctantly, conclude that the service of the king's champion is become extinct, no exception of any kind having been made in the recent enactment?

very phrases of law which are commonly used in cases of appeal, &c. employed in describing the champion's challenge. Thus, in an ap❤ peal against Hamon le Stare, temp. Hen. III. the appellant " offert DISRATIONARE per corpus suum sicut curia consideraverit," &c. In the Claus Roll 1 Ric. II. and in others of later date, the champion "est prest par son corps ▲ DARRENIER meintenant qil ment come faus et come tretre," &c. Some add a quel jour et lieu que lui seront par ses jugges assignez." At the coronation of Henry IV. according to Fabian, the herald proclaimed that if any man would gainsay the king's title the champion was there "redy to wAGE with hym BATAYLE.” Further conformity is noticed in p. 282.

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P. 162.-Letter of Summons.

As the reader may be curious to see the antient form of a Summons to Coronation, I shall present, in the Appendix, that issued by Edward II. which is said to be the earliest on record. The degree of likeness in it to the modern form will be seen by comparison; it is important also to observe the resemblance which it bears to an ordinary parliamentary summons of the same age. This resemblance is indeed complete, except that after the words "Vobis mandamus" there is added in the parliamentary writ to bishops the clause "ex fide et dilectione quibus (or in fide quá) nobis tenemini," and in that to lay peers "in fide et homagio," &c.1

2

Of the writs in the Appendix, that entitled "De Rege Coronando was issued before the king's marriage, and does not mention the ladies of peers; but in that "De coronatione Regis et Reginæ celebranda" written from Dover on his return from France, and after his marriage, the attendance of the ladies is required. The writ Ad Vicecomites* is a valuable relique; it shows the importance which was attached to the ceremony of coronation, and demonstrates the right which the people enjoyed of old time to be present at the performance of it, by "knights, citizens, and burgesses" the representatives of their several orders.

1 See Dugdale's Perfect Copy of Summons in this and other reigns. 2 See Appendix to Book III. No. 6.

"The election of a king," saith Mr. Bacon, and the solemnization of such election by coronation, are spiritlesse motions without the presence of the people :" we here perceive how the people were legally and formally assembled 5.

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5 Hist. Disc. on the Gov. of England, part II. Preface. "It was usual," saith Mr. Petyt, at the coronations of our English kings to confirm, make, and ordain laws.”—Antient Right of the Commons, Preface p. 62. Selden takes notice that "at the coronation of Hen. I. clerus Angliæ et populus universus were summoned to Westminster, where divers lawes were both made and declared."-Tit. Hon. part II. cap. 5, xx. Compare Stransky, Resp. Boiem. cap. v. § 14.

The above circumstances will perhaps afford some authority for an opinion hazarded in the note on p. 20.

P. 182.-Recognition.

Ir hath been stated in the former part of this work that the ceremony of coronation is also a ceremony of national election. It may be affirmed with confidence that in the earliest times it was such in the fullest sense that is compatible with descent in a single family1; yet in order to account for the changes which have taken place in the formulary itself, and to explain the name under which this part of it now appears, it is necessary to add that when the feudal system of tenure and polity had arrived at perfection, another practice, unknown to former ages, was engrafted upon that of election, the character of which it materially altered, and the power of which it eventually destroyed.

Recognition is properly the acknowlegement of the heir to a feudal seignory, and of the legality of his claim to the inheritance. It is the act of the immediate vassals of the seignory, regulated by the known laws of succession. And were the kingdom merely to be regarded as a patrimonial estate this would be the only form necessary to give possession to the heir; but we learn from the most authentic records of feudal discipline no less than from the constant practice of feudal states, that where the character and office of SOVEREIGN was united to the rank and dignity of SEIGNIOR, it was not enough for the prince to receive the

See the Anglo-Saxon ceremonial referred to in the text, and printed in the Appendix.

? See especially the Assises of Jerusalem, cap, 288.

recognition of his chief tenants without at the same time obtaining the consent and approbation of his people 3. Still as the former, from the weight and influence of those engaged in it, became the leading and prominent act, and the latter but a concurrent one, we shall not have occasion to wonder if in the name and practice of Recognition the more antient right of Election be forgotten or obscured.

The natural tendency of a practice such as that we have described would necessarily be in favour of what is termed hereditary right, or rather, of a right independent of choice or control; we must not, however, conclude that a feudal recognition was a blind unconditional service, or that it was never withheld when the public safety required. The succession of our Norman kings will suggest the grounds of a different opinion; and proofs of a more explicit nature may be drawn from the history of other states *. In one point of view, however, it was more particularly favourable to the direct transmission of inheritance; it was not an uncommon thing for the prince in possession, in the anticipation of his decease, to obtain the recognition of his yassals in favour of his son. Such a measure, while it proves

3 The reader is referred for a fuller examination of this subject to the learned and ingenious Recherches sur l'Origine et la Nature des Inaugurations des Princes Souverains des Pays Bas, par M. Raepsaet. See also J. A. Van Thye Hannes De Inauguratione Principum Belgicorum, p. 45, &c.

4 "Le continuateur d'Edmond dit, en parlant de l'abandon ou délaissement fait de la seigneurie du Gâtinois au roi Philipe I. par Fouques Rechin, compte d'Anjou, que ce prince en jura les coutumes, et que les barons ne voulurent le reconnoitre qu'à celle condition."-Boulainvilliers, Lettres Histor. p. 311.