UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

MODERN HISTORY.

PERIOD THE ELEVENTH.

FROM THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR OF THE ROSES TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE ENGLISH

MONARCHY.

1485 TO 1649-164 YEARS.

REIGN CLIX.

HENRY VII., KING OF ENGLAND.

FIRST OF THE FAMILY OF TUDOR, OR UNITED HOUSE OF YORK AND LANCASTER.

1485 TO 1509-24 YEARS.

PERSONAL HISTORY.-Henry's claim to the crown was his descent from John of Gaunt ; but it was a highly defective one, since he came from the issue of that prince's illegitimate family. John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, was natural son of John of Gaunt by Catherine Swinford; his son, John Beaufort, was the first duke of Somerset, and had a daughter Margaret, who married Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, Henry VII.'s father, son of Sir Owen Tudor, by Katharine, widow of Henry V., and daughter of Charles VI. of France. Henry VII. was born at Pembroke 1457, and was in person tall, slender, and well-shapen; of a grave aspect, and saturnine complexion. He inherited a natural fund of sagacity, which study and experience materially improved; and was remarkable for coolness and presence of mind when surrounded by difficulty and danger. His leading vice was avarice: yet was he a wise legislator, temperate in habits, and attentive to religious duties. His master-passions were the fear of deposition, and the love of wealth. Urged by the former, he put the earl of Warwick to death, lest he should avail himself of his superior claim to the crown; and actuated by the latter, numerous indeed were the mean and unjust actions of which he was guilty. In entering upon a war, he always stipulated with his allies that they should bear the cost, or obtained a larger subsidy than was needful from the parliament, or a tax from his people. His ministers, Empson and Dudley, were noted for their ingenuity in raising supplies: not an offence, real or alleged,

MIA OL

2

HENRY VII.-1485-1509.

[MODERN

but was compensated by a fine. Personally on one occasion, Henry, after having enjoyed the splendid hospitality of the earl of Oxford, accused his noble host of keeping more servants, in the shape of retainers, than the law allowed, and scrupled not to fine him accordingly 15,000 merks. But something like remorse for these tyrannical modes of raising money seized him at the close of life; and he ordered large sums to be distributed among the poor, hospitals to be founded, and restitution to be made wherever wrong had been done. Though himself extremely unamiable as a man, and rapacious and oppressive as a sovereign, the reign of Henry VII. was, upon the whole, beneficial to his country. Being conducted upon pacific principles, it put a period to many disorders, and gave an opportunity to the nation to flourish by its internal resources. His policy of depressing the feudal nobility, which proportionably exalted the middle ranks, was also highly salutary; and it was especially advanced by the statute which allowed the breaking of entails, and the alienation of landed estates. Many other beneficial arrangements also date from this reign, which, however, was very arbitrary; and the power lost by the aristocracy, for a time gave an undue preponderance to that of the crown. In the reign of Henry VII., indeed, chiefly originated that almost idolatrous notion of prerogative, which was more or less entertained by English sovereigns, until finally adjusted by the revolution of 1688. Henry married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV., by whom he had seven children. Those who lived to maturity were four: Margaret, married first James IV. king of Scotland, then Archibald earl of Angus, and thirdly, lord Methvin; Arthur, who married Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but soon after died; Henry VIII.; Mary, married first Louis XII. of France, and then Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. From this last marriage descended lady Jane Grey, and from the union of Margaret with the earl of Angus descended lady Arabella Stuart, both eventually claimants of the throne. From the marriage of the same Margaret with James IV. of Scotland, descended, in a direct line, James I. of England.

POLITICAL HISTORY.- Long live King Henry the Seventh!' resounded from all parts of the battle-field, when it was found that Richard had fallen. Whether Richmond's claim were defective or not, was not now questioned; and the earl, adopting the high distinction so spontaneously awarded him, proceeded by easy marches to London, which he entered in a close coach, to the surprise and disappointment of the crowds awaiting his arrival. His claim being at once acknowledged by the parliament, he was crowned in a few days after (being in his 29th year), and in the next year espoused the princess Elizabeth, to the great satisfaction of the nation. Henry, however, was of a jealous temper; and loving his own family of Lancaster better than his wife's, he regarded this joy of the people as a proof of their preference for the rival house of York, and was never very cordial with his queen.

Henry's first proceeding was a progress through the kingdom, wherein he awed many insurgent parties, and executed Sir Humphrey Stafford, a factious leader; and he had scarcely reached London on his return, when he received intelligence of an insurrection in Ireland, under one calling himself earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence who had been drowned in the Tower. The king had no difficulty in proving the Irish claimant a cheat, since, having the real earl of Warwick in custody in the Tower (in detaining whom he had unjustly followed the wicked policy of Richard III.), he paraded that unhappy prince on horseback through the streets of London, to undeceive the populace; and he sent the queen-dowager, who was supposed to have aided in the trick, to the nunnery of Bermondsey, and seized her lands and

revenue. When the impostor landed in Lancashire with an army of German veterans, supplied by Margaret, widow of Charles the Bold, Henry met him at Stoke, in Nottinghamshire, and having routed his forces, took him prisoner. The pretended earl was a baker's son, named Lambert Simnel, whom a priest of Oxford, one Simon, had tutored to undertake the task of deception. Simon, being in holy orders, was imprisoned for life, instead of being summarily put to death; and Simnel, who was found to be a weakminded youth, was made a scullion, and afterwards a falconer, in the royal service. To divert the nation from the question of his title, Henry, having allowed the queen to be solemnly crowned, sent troops under lord Brooke to assist the duke of Britanny (at whose court he had been brought up) in his contest with Charles VIII. of France; but when the dispute had been terminated by the marriage of Charles with the young duchess, he landed at Calais, 1492, with 30,000 men, and claimed the crown of France as his hereditary right. Charles was weak enough to purchase the independence of his kingdom for 40,000l. of our present money, and a yearly pension of 25,000 crowns; and Henry, having thus satisfied his avarice, speedily withdrew his troops.

A new domestic calamity befel the king in 1492. The duchess of Burgundy, who had warmly supported the imposture of Simnel, publicly stated her conviction that her nephew, the duke of York (the prince murdered with his brother Edward V.) was still alive; and secretly thereupon sent Perkin, the son of Warbec, a renegade Jew, into Ireland, who was received as the true Richard Plantagenet, by the unanimous voice of the credulous people of that island. When Henry soon after saw the king of France give colour to this second imposture by entertaining young Warbec at Paris, and the duchess of Burgundy by honouring him with the romantic title of her white rose, he made Tyrrel and Dighton, who had been present at the murder of the princes, prove that fact to the world; and executed Sir William Stanley, as being the chief English agent in the plot. He also forced James IV. of Scotland to drive the impostor from his court, where he had married the king's relative, lady Catherine Gordon, and headed a Scottish irruption into Northumberland, 1497; and when at length the pretender appeared in arms in Cornwall, with the title of Richard IV., he came upon him while laying siege to Exeter, seized him at Beaulieu, and conducted him in mock triumph to London, where, after being some time imprisoned in the Tower, he was executed, together with the much injured Edward earl of Warwick, 1499, for planning the escape of himself and that innocent prince. Warwick was the last legitimate male heir of the house of Plantagenet, and had been 15 years in the Tower as a prisoner, simply on account of the jealousy of Richard and Henry. At length firmly seated on the throne, Henry gained a high character for wisdom; and among the princes who sought his friendship and alliance was Ferdinand of Aragon, a ruler in crafty and cautious policy very much like himself. After a long negotiation, Henry brought about a match between the infanta Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand, and his eldest son Arthur; and on the death of the latter, in order to retain the dowry of the princess, he caused his remaining son Henry to marry her, by papal dispensation-an event which, in the sequel, produced the Reformation in England. His eldest daughter he married to James IV. of Scotland, with a cautious eye to the union of sovereignty that might arise therefrom. In the midst of such labours to advance his family, he abated not his favourite pursuit of money-making; employing two lawyers, Empson and Dudley, who, by penal statutes, and all sorts of extortion and chicanery, levied fines upon the subject in all directions, in order that their royal master, with insatiable avarice and meanness, might profit by their rapacity. Henry, however, made some good use

of this treasure, by the advance of sums of money to merchants, without interest, in order to enable them to carry on lucrative enterprises, and promote an extension of commerce. It was owing merely to accident that Columbus did not engage in his service, instead of that of Ferdinand; for he had sent him an invitation to his court, which the capture of his brother by pirates prevented from arriving in time. He then employed Sebastian Cabot, who, under his auspices, discovered Newfoundland, and part of the American continent.

Henry's remaining days were spent in the suppression of rebellions against his authority, in one of which Sir James Tyrrel, the infamous director of the Tower murders, fell a sacrifice; and his health at length sank under a consumptive disorder, which terminated his existence at his favourite palace of Richmond, in the 53rd year of his age, April 22, 1509. His remains were deposited in the beautiful chapel he had built in Westminster Abbey; where his tomb is yet to be seen, surrounded by a magnificent screen of basaltic stone.

EVENTS.

were captured, and all three executed; | spective cities of the kingdom, and, but Henry ordered all the other prisoners to be released.

ORIGIN OF ENGLISH STANDING ARMIES.-It had been long the practice of the wealthy to provide liveries and badges for occasional servants, on whom their employers could call for support in their feuds and insurrections. As brawls, both private and public, were grievously increased under this system, and as moreover an army could easily be raised from such characters, to the injury of the king's peace, Henry not only laboured to abolish retainers, but made his first attempt at raising a paid standing army 1486; instituting the yeomen of the guard, a corps of 50 soldiers, whose duty it was to attend upon the royal person. As the troop also waited on the king at meals, giving forth the dishes from the buffette or sideboard, its members received the name of buffetiers, now corrupted into beef-eaters, whose habit is still to be seen in the dress of the warders at the respective fortresses of the kingdom.

THE STAR-CHAMBER was remodelled 1487, by Henry VII. It was a court of ancient origin, and consisted of certain lay and spiritual lords, and two judges of the courts of common law, who had power together to decide upon the punishment due to riots, perjuries, and misbehaviour of sheriffs; and at length, to grant monopolies, to issue proclamations at variance with the laws of the land, and to fine, imprison, and corporally punish such as questioned their proceedings: all without a jury. The oppression occasioned by so absolute a tribunal caused its abolition, to the great joy of the nation, by Charles I. The court derived its name from the Shtarrs (Hebrew, shetar, covenant), or ancient contracts concerning money and privileges, between the Jews and English kings; these having been kept in a part of the building where it was held.

with a mayor at their head, form a sort of imperium in imperio, were restrained in their powers by Henry VII.; so that no by-laws could be passed by them without the consent of three chief officers of state. It is evident that independent municipal bodies are beneficial; and that any course which would tend to destroy or even diminish their activity, would be reprehensible. The internal quiet of England has for centuries been attributable to the admirable working of these institutions. Forming as they do a middle security between toil and wealth, the poorest artizan may be come, by a course of industry and good conduct, the chief magistrate of his native city; and chosen, as he must have been, by those who were judges of his worth, he will possess the confidence and respect of its inhabitants. Should the ruling party in the state, (that is, the government,) be constituted the sole receptacle of municipal authority, the great consequent evils to be feared would be popular elections, and the advancement of men unqualified by general worth to hold the posts of honour.

DISCOVERY EXPEDITIONS.-In 1484 Martin Behem, in the service of John II. of Portugal, discovered Brazil, and sailed to the Straits of Magellan, which he accurately described in a chart printed 1486. The discovery of the passage by Magellan is dated 1519. Diaz, also employed by John II., discovered the Cape of Good Hope 1486; but did not double it, on account of the storms which prevailed, and which occasioned him to name it Cabo Tormentoso. Sebastian Cabot, for Henry VII., and Amerigo Vespucci, for Ferdinand of Spain, were the first Europeans to land on the American continent, and therefore to discover it, 1497; and in 1498, the great Columbus, in the service of Ferdinand, was the next to set foot thereon. The passage to India round REFORM OF MUNICIPAL CORPORA- the Cape was first prosecuted_by TIONS. These self-elected bodies of Vasco di Gama for Emanuel of Pormen, which rule all matters in the re-tugal, 1497, and followed up by Al