CHAPTER II.

HENRY THE SEVENTH.

'The King, to speak of him in terms equal to his deserving, was one of the best sort of wonders, a wonder for wise men. He had parts, both in his virtues and his fortune, not so fit for a commonplace as for observation.'-Lord Bacon, Life and Reign of Henry VII.

THE battle of Bosworth Field put an end to the long and destructive contest which had wasted the blood, and disfigured the fair face of England, in the quarrel between the Houses of York and Lancaster. Such a contention is little less disgraceful to mankind than it would have been to have made the white and red roses the subject, instead of the symbols, of hostility, and affords but too much ground for the assertion of a democratic writer, that hereditary right has caused as long and as sanguinary wars as elective monarchy.

Henry, who was crowned in the field of battle, lost no time in proving he was as well able to keep, as to acquire a throne. He immediately summoned a parliament, and obtained from them the passing of a statute, not declaring that he was lawful heir to the crown; not asserting the right of conquest, or of election; but enacting that the inheritance of the crown should rest, remain, and abide in the king.' He procured this statute to be confirmed by the Pope's bull. In the same spirit of peace and moderation he caused many exceptions to be inserted in the Acts for attainting the adherents of King Richard. A few years afterwards he procured a law to be passed, declaring that no one should be called in question for obeying a king de facto. He

thus quieted the minds of his subjects, and added more to the stability of his government than he could possibly have done by displaying what Bacon calls the wreath of five,-to wit, his own descent, and that of his queen, the claim of conquest, and the authorities, parliamentary and papal. Among these titles, that of the House of York seems to have given him little satisfaction, and he took care not to crown his queen for a considerable time after his marriage. Indeed, it is certain that, whether from prejudice or policy, his Lancastrian partialities influenced his conduct during the whole of his reign.

One of Henry's first endeavours was to procure a law to prevent conspiracies among the great, and riots among the people. In a parliament assembled in the third year of his reign, Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the kingdom, spoke the following words: His Grace (i. e. the King) saith, that it is not the blood spilt in the field that will save the blood in the city; nor the marshal's sword that will set this kingdom in perfect peace; but that the true way is to stop the seeds of sedition and rebellion at the beginnings, and for that purpose to devise, confirm, and quicken good and wholesome laws against riots and unlawful assemblies of people, and all combinations and confederacies of them by liveries, tokens, and other badges of factious dependence; that the peace of the land may by these ordinances, as by bars of iron, be soundly bound in and strengthened, and all force, both in court, country, and private houses, be suppressed.'

The chief law passed by Parliament with the view here explained, was an Act confirming the authority of the Star Chamber in certain cases. The Star Chamber, composed of prelates, peers, counsellors, and judges, had an undefined jurisdiction without the intervention of a jury over many offences not capital, and over actions proving a

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design to commit offences not actually committed. 'But that which was principally aimed at by this Act,' says Lord Bacon, was force and the two chief supports of force, combination of multitudes, and maintenance or headship of great persons.' The danger to liberty, of entrusting power so large and arbitrary to persons named by the Crown, does not appear to have struck any one at this time; and Lord Bacon is lavish in his praises of the Star Chamber, calling it one of the sagest and noblest institutions of this kingdom. But long civil war induces a people to surrender liberty for peace, as long peace induces them to encounter even civil war for liberty. One of the next Acts of the Parliament was the sanction of an arbitrary tax. This species of tax, known by the name of Benevolence, had been raised by Edward IV., without the consent of Parliament, and abolished by Richard III. in a very remarkable statute. It was now revived by Act of Parliament on the occasion of a war with France. But the real object was to amass money; for Henry had scarcely landed in France when he concluded a peace by which he was to receive 745,000 ducats (about £186,000 sterling) and a tribute of 25 crowns yearly.

This reign was much disturbed by rebellion. Attachment to the House of York, and the burthen of taxes, seem to have been the chief causes of discontent. Bacon attributes an insurrection in the North to respect for the memory of Richard III.,-a proof that his government, in that part of the kingdom at least, had not been very oppressive.

The chief end of Henry's administration was to restrain the inordinate power of the great barons. Two laws enacted for this purpose, the one facilitating the sale of entailed lands by what is called breaking an entail, and another suppressing retainers, were, with other statutes, and the extensive authority

given to the Star Chamber, eminently conducive to the object for which they were framed. In thus directing his policy, Henry adopted views prompted indeed by his own jealous temper, but which ultimately were beneficial to his country. The course of justice became steady, disorders were suppressed, the tranquillity of the whole country was secured; and the Commons, being no longer oppressed by feudal power, or distracted by domestic war, were enabled to acquire, first wealth, then importance, and lastly freedom. Bacon, it is true, attributes many of the disturbances which still afflicted the country during this reign to the neglect and distrust of the nobility shown by the King. But the fault, if it were one, was on the right side. Had not Henry governed his nobles with a strong hand, a powerful oligarchy might have perpetuated in this country the barbarous licence of Poland. The arts, the letters, and the strength of the kingdom, under the sway of Elizabeth, are in great part to be attributed to the policy of her grandfather.

The last years of Henry were disgraced by the cruel and arbitrary exactions of which Empson and Dudley were the vile and execrated instruments. His successor, with a generous magnanimity not uncommon in the world, gave up the offenders, and profited by the offence; sent the collectors to the scaffold, and kept the money in his treasury.

CHAPTER III.

HENRY THE EIGHTH.

When love could teach a monarch to be wise,

And gospel light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.'-Gray.

THE reign of Henry the Eighth is justly esteemed the most arbitrary in our annals. Yet it affords many curious precedents of the authority of Parliament. One of the first of these is the Act granting tonnage and poundage. The King had levied these duties for some time by his own prerogative. But in the sixth year of his reign he met with resistance, and was obliged to apply to Parliament for their sanction. The Act that was passed is curious. It condemns those who had resisted, but at the same time grants to the King, de novo, the duties of tonnage and poundage. Upon the whole, this precedent, though inconsistent with itself, makes against the power assumed by the Crown. For if the King had the right to raise those duties, the Act would have been merely declaratory. The making a new enactment proves, with whatever terms it might be qualified, that the King was not previously entitled by his prerogative to levy tonnage and poundage, and that his orders on this subject might be resisted with impunity. So, indeed, the Act seems to have been understood; for at the commencement of the four following reigns, we find the duties in question regularly granted by Parliament, in the first year of the reign*.

* Statutes 1 Edw. VI. c.13, 1 Mary, st. 2, c. 18, 1 Eliz. c. 20, 1 James, c. 33. By all these

Acts, tonnage and poundage are granted for life. They are all amongst the last Acts of the