Ages. Break-up affect; and not limited to England. Over of system of Middle the whole continent of Europe its manifeftations might be seen. The fyftem of the Middle Ages was everywhere breaking up. The fway of a feudal chiefdom, in all modifications of its form still fitful and turbulent, was ending; Kingcraft and there was rifing, to take its place, a predominance of kingship in perfonal attributes, a calm concentrated individual cunning, or, as it was called in after years, when it had loft the fubtle qualities that juftified the name, a Kingcraft, which in two great monarchies was destined to overpower Freedom, and in the third to fall before it. fucceeds. Its chief The tres magi of kings, renowned for poffefprofeltors. fion of this fupreme craft, have been celebrated by Lord Bacon. Louis the Eleventh had arisen in France, and Ferdinand in Spain; yet the leffon for which Machiavelli waited was incom plete, until Henry Tudor took poffeffion of the French, English throne. To the French and Spanish Spanish, kings, with ftanding armies at their back to and Englifh kings. filence their States General and their Cortes, the task of tyranny was not very difficult; but an infular kingdom, protected from its neighbours by the fea, had no pretence to indulge in fuch a fovereign luxury as the profeffional Soldier, and the more difficult problem awaited our English king of predominating over parliament by sheer Refults in force of the prerogative. Favoured by circumEngland. ftances, it fucceeded for a time; but it left to a later time that forced readjustment of the balance, which, by raising parliament far above the prerogative, preferved for us finally the old Conftitution of the realm. § II. THE TUDORS. 1485. fucceffion. fettle THOUGH the laft living representative of the Henry house of Lancaster, Henry Tudor was not its VII. legitimate heir; but from his marriage with the heiress of the house of York, he derived a ftrong title. His own diffatisfaction with Uneafiit nevertheless, and his uneafy defire to fur- nefs as to round it with other guarantees, are among the indications of a ftate of feeling in England, at the time, which further distinguishes the pofition of Henry the Seventh from that of the other of the tres magi. The act of fettlement paffed by the two Houses upon his acceffion, taking great pains to avoid either the affertion or contradiction of any pretenfions of lineal descent, had created ftrictly a parliamentary title; but Parliahe afterwards obtained a refcript from Pope mentary Innocent the Third, fetting forth all the other conditions on which he defired it to be known that the crown of England alfo belonged to him. It was his, according to this document, by right of war, by notorious and indisputable hereditary fucceffion, by the wifh and election of all the prelates, nobles, and commons of the realm, and by the act of the three eftates in Parliament affembled; but nevertheless, to put an end to the bloody wars caused by the Pope's rival claims of the house of York, and at the refcript on Henry's urgent request of the three eftates, he had title: confented to marry the eldest daughter and true heir of Edward the Fourth: and now, therefore, the fupreme Pontiff, being called to confirm the difpenfation neceffary to fuch mar F ment. Innoreal tranf lated for the people. riage, declared the meaning of the act of settlement paffed by Parliament to be, that Henry's iffue, whether by Elizabeth, or, in cafe of her death, by any fubfequent marriage, were to inherit the throne. More remarkable than the refcript itself, however, were the means taken to carry it directly to the claffes it was meant to addrefs. It is the firft fimilar document of which we have any evidence that it was tranflated into English and circulated in a popular form throughout England. A printed in broadfide containing it, printed by Caxton, is one of the most interesting of modern difcoby Caxton veries in matters of this kind. and first broadfide Lord Boling broke's view of the Such indications may at least fatisfy us that Henry Tudor would not very gravely have refented the description which has been given of him by Lord Bolingbroke, as a creature of the people raised to the throne to cut up roots of faction, to restore public tranquillity, the reign. and to establish a legal government on the ruins of tyranny. The fame writer, however, who doubts if he fucceeded in this defign, is undoubtedly wrong when he supposes that he failed in establishing what by all the customs of historical courtesy must be called a legal government. It is not of courfe to be difguifed that in fpite of many great principles afferted in it, and advantages achieved, his reign was not in its immediate courfe favourDefection able to liberty. But the fact, as little to be of parlia- queftioned, that during its continuance, rifings in the Commonalty were far more frequent than remonstrances in the Commons, and that upon questions where the people proved moft Loffes to public liberty. ment. stubborn, parliament generally was most compliant, fufficiently fhows that the defection did not so much lie with the people themselves, as with their proper leaders in the State. It Maintewas nevertheless the peculiarity of Henry's nance of legal defpotifm, as diftinguished from that of his forms. more violent predeceffors, that he bottomed it strongly on the precedents and language of law, fcreening the violation of liberty by artful employment of its forms; and though this may have made the defpotifm more odious while it lafted, it established more certainly a limit to its duration. Relatively to what is Peculicalled the State, circumftances had thrown an arity of overbalance of power into the hands of Henry; defpotism. but to the mafs of the people, these very circumstances rendered him unconsciously the inftrument of great focial and political change. The pofition he occupies in hiftory, and the rights he exercised, began and ended with his race. Tudor focial Everything at once fhowed figns of deep Indicaand permanent alteration. The immediate tions of refult of the battle of Bofworth, which left change. victory in the hands of Henry and the smaller baronial faction of the Lancasters, was the commencement of a fyftem by which the more numerous nobles of the oppofite faction. were as much as poffible depreffed, by which fevere ftatutes against the further prevalence of armed retainers were freshly enacted or revived, restrictions on the devifing of land in effect removed, and all things directed towards Power an ultimate transfer of the old baronial strength changing into entirely new channels. Poverty itself hands. for a Poor Law. became the herald and forerunner of change. While large numbers of the baronial vaffals took refuge in the towns, increasing their power and privileges, large numbers unhappily Neceffity till remained upon the foil; and thefe, no longer neceffary for the shows of pomp or the realities of war, fuffered the worst horrors of deftitution, were driven to its last resources, became incendiaries or thieves, overran the land as beggars, and, in the end, rendered neceffary that great focial revolution, which took the name of a Poor Law in the reign of Elizabeth. Houfe of 29 in Of the fhattered ariftocracy of England only twenty-nine representatives prefented themnumber. felves when Henry called his firft Parliament, and feveral of thefe were recent creations. Doubtless it was well, for the ultimate advance of liberty, that the old feudal power had thus been fo completely fubdued, and the way by fuch means prepared for the decifive struggle with the Stuarts; but for the immediate progrefs of liberty, it was certainly lefs beneficial. Commons The Houfe of Commons, fuddenly wanting weakened in an old and habitual fupport, was too ready an inftrument for the mere ufe and convenience of the King; and to avail themselves, in fuch circumstances, of every attainable advantage and turn it to the best account, in each cafe holding it for religion that craft might fuperfede force, conftituted the very art and Influences genius of the tres magi. But though fuch circumstances worked well for the Mage upon the English throne, he did not, with all his craft, penetrate influences around him that were by weak nefs in Lords. unfeen. |