272 TWO CHAPTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF 



aware that he reigned over a people, at that time, hated by the 

 English ; and therefore, however averse they might be to the domi- 

 nion of strangers, yet it was possible the national prepossession 

 would run strongly against his pretensions. Another serious cause 

 of apprehension was, that the will of Henry VIII., which had been 

 ratified by act of parliament, seemed to exclude the Scottish line. 

 For, after entailing the crown upon his own children, he settled it, 

 in default of their issue, upon Frances Brandon, Marchioness of 

 Dorset, and Eleanor, Countess of Cumberland, daughters of his 

 younger sister, Mary. In failure of their posterity, it Avas to go to 

 the next lawful heir, under which words must be implied the reign- 

 ing family of Scotland, descended from Margaret, wife of James 

 v., and eldest sister of Henry. As the descendants of Mary were 

 living at the decease of Elizabeth, political asperities, personal ani- 

 mosities, and local dissensions, might have operated powerfully to 

 prevent the scion of the house of Stuart from obtaining the sove- 

 reignty of England, had not sound policy determined that concord 

 between the two kingdoms, and their ultimate consolidation, were 

 most likely to be secured by the elevation of James to the British 

 throne* It is not wonderful, then, that, to countermine the ma- 

 chinations of Philip and his other Roman Catholic opponents, James 



* Higgons's unqualified invective here against Burnett is not likely to 

 have much weight with critics of sounder judgment and more candid dis- 

 positions, when they are reminded that the Bishop in his History of the 

 Reformation, with a view lo support the lawful claims of the House of Stuart, 

 seems favourable in a high degree to the opinions of Secretary Lethington, 

 the Bishop of Ross, and Sir James Craig, who deny the genuineness and autho- 

 rity of Henry's will. Assuming their reasoning to be connect on this point, 

 still it is quite clear that James ascended the throne of England in direct 

 contradiction to the order of succession appointed by several Acts of Parlia- 

 meut. In the Act, however, which recognised him, it is expressly said, such 

 was then the servile state of feeling towards him on the part of the popular 

 branch of the legislature, that " immediately on the dissolution and decease of 

 Elizabeth, late Queen of England, the imperial crown of England did, by inhe- 

 rent birth-right and lawful and undoubted succession descend and come to the 

 said King James." This bill for his recognition was read three times on the 

 same day in the House of Commons. See the Journal of that House 1st 

 Jacobi. His Majesty must have been highly flattered by this unprecedented 

 compliment. It is not generally known, that for nearly twelve months after 

 James's accession, the statutes then in force vested the legal right to the 

 throne in Lord Seymour, eldest son of the Earl of Hereford, by Lady Cathe- 

 rine Grey (sister of Lady Jane Grey), as heir of Mary, Duchess of Suflfblk, 

 the youngest sister of Henry the Eighth. — For this curious fact, see Sir 

 Harris Nicholas's Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey, p. cxxvi — cxlviii., 

 note. 



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