In the mean time his Norman subjects in England, inconstant, warlike, independent, fierce by nature, fiercer by their conquest, could scarcely brook that subordination in which their safety consisted.
Burke characterizes the volatile nature of the Norman subjects in England.
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More from Edmund Burke
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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