290 The Period of Constitution Making
In several respects conditions were exceptional in the
Lancastrian period, conditions reflected in such writings
as Portescue's, but it is not too much to say that the lines
of development just sketched had brought forth limited
monarchy in England.
The bitter faction fights which led to the Wars of the
Roses, bringing out the rival claims to the throne of
Lancaster and York, did much to develop and clarify
ideas about primogenitary succession, especially the
matter of female transmission of title. "When in 1460
the Duke of York laid his pedigree before the lords with
a formal demand for the crown, legitimism makes its
first appearance in English history/*1 The principle of
heredity which had long obtained in private law now
became the rule for the royal title, and on this basis the
Yorkist line came to the throne in 1461.2 They were
legitimists and were recognised as such,3 and there was,
as might be expected, a greater manifestation of inde-
pendence and security. Yet the Yorkist sovereigns did
not act as if they were without limitation, however much
the logic of their position might have countenanced such
action. How things would have gone had they remained
on the throne it is hard to say. As it was, their short and
troubled tenure did not break the principle of limited
monarchy, and it is certain that civil wars and weak or
bad kings had, by 1485, so hurt the central power that
England's greatest need was a strong and able royal line.
The overthrow of Richard III. and the succession of
Henry of Richmond as a distinctly parliamentary sov-
ereign, with a most slender hereditary title and to the
prejudice of many more legitimate claimants, would
* Maitland, C. H. £., p. 194.
a Under stress of circumstance in 1328, when recognition of female
transmission would have brought the English Edward to her throne,
France took the opposite view, and transmission of the royal title through
the male line only was the rule as long as monarchy lasted.
* The language of the parliamentary recognition of the Duke of York as
lass to the throne and of the act validating the acts of the Lancastrian
sovereigns brings out dearly the legitimacy of their claim. A. and $.,
documents 128,129.