22 III. HEN. VII. the king live for ever!" 20. The parliament first CHAP. granted a subsidy, and then enacted the inheritance of the crown to be "in the most royal person of king REIGN OF Harry VII. and the heirs of his body, and on none other." The attainders of his friends were reversed,' and similar measures were retorted on the chief supporters of Richard.23 A general amnesty was then wisely proclaimed to all others who should submit themselves, and swear fealty within forty days. A great number came from their sanctuaries, and accepted the offered grace." He made his uncle Pembroke, duke of Bedford; and Stanley, earl Derby; and Chandos, a gentleman of Bretagne, earl of Bath. He raised sir Giles Daubeny and Willoughby to the baronial peerage; and restored Buckingham's eldest son to his father's dukedom and possessions. He named a numerous privy council from his most valued or important adherents; but, tho kind to them all, he selected those to be his confidential ministers and friends, who had been his earliest and most continuous assistants and advisers." They who had 20 Parl. Rolls, 6. p. 267. 21 Ib. 268-70. This statute vested a new parliamentary right in his posterity, and took it away from Edward's line; for, if Elizabeth had died childless, this act fixed it in Henry's issue by any other wife. Ib. 273. As the king himself had been attainted, it was consulted, by the judges, what was to be done in this respect. They unanimously agreed, That the crown takes away all defects and stops in blood; and that, from the time the king assumed the crown, the fountain was cleared, and all attainders and corruptions of blood discharged.' But the records of the attainders against him were ordered, by parliament, to be destroyed. Bacon's Hist. 581. Parl. Rolls, p. 275-8. The attainders of Richard's supporters were much censured, as these gentlemen were obliged to obey his military summons, as king, on pain of forfeiting their own lands or lives. Croyl. 581. Pol. V. 566. Graft. 855. Stillington, the bishop who had assisted to make Edward V. illegitimate, was at first imprisoned at York, sore crased, by reason of his trouble.' Drake's Ebor. 123. But he obtained a pardon. 35 Pol. Virg. 567. Bray, to whose activity and prudence Henry owed V. HEN. VII. 1485. BOOK served Richard, and at last betrayed him, were rather rewarded than trusted by Henry; and it was proREIGN OF bably from this reason, that lord Stanley, while allowed to remain constable of England, was not placed in his household, nor much befriended, tho, for the sake of his mother, the king occasionally visited him. The chamberlainship was presented to sir William, who had really given Henry the victory and the crown. Anxious to adopt such measures as should improve the kingdom, in laws, institutions and manners, he endeavored to raise hopes in all, that a better order of things would be established, whereever the national welfare required the melioration.26 He introduced a new means of personal safety, by appointing, like the king of France, a body guard of fifty archers;" and tho he delayed his covenanted marriage with Elizabeth, perhaps deliberating on the policy of preferring the heiress of Bretagne, till the nation became uneasy, he yielded at length to the general desire of extinguishing all future civil wars of rival dynasty, by uniting her line with his own, in their marriage on the 18th of January 1486. Bonfires, dancing, songs and banquets, pervaded the so much, was made Sir Reginald, and appointed one of his privy council. Throughout his reign, Morton, Fox, Bray, and Daubeny, seem to have been his most trusted advisers. 26 Pol. Virg. 567. Hall, 425. Graft. 857. It was at the end of autumn in this year, that the new kind of sickness came on in England, called The Sweating Sickness. It began with a burning perspiration, with such a violent heat in the head and stomach, that the sufferers could bear no clothes. It was very mortal; but they who survived and transpired for twenty-four hours usually escaped. In eight days, two lord mayors and six aldermen became victims to it. Graft. 857, 8. Pol. V. 567, 8. was Their name, yeomen of the guard,' was not new. The king w too wise not to soften an obnoxious measure, by connecting it with existing titles. The novelty was, in the personal appropriation of them to the royal security, and in their fixed locality about his apartments. Their state effect has occasioned them to be continued in the dresses of their first institution. 28 29 III. HEN. VII. metropolis. It seemed the consummation of the na- CHAP. tion's happiness. She was beautiful and gentle. But whether from her previous conduct, or from more REIGN OF personal causes than we can now discover, no cordial affection subsisted at first between her and Henry." The king sent for his two clerical friends, Morton and Fox, in whom he placed the highest confidence.30 Morton was appointed archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor; and Fox, a bishop and his privy seal. It was the sanguine belief of the nation, that the union with Elizabeth closed the fountain of all future factions. It would have done so if the conflict had been merely a personal contest; but the contending leaders being the representatives of the continuing hostile interests, the materials of commotion continued ready to explode, whenever any new man of influence chose to become turbulent. Of these hostile interests, many became embodied in attachment to the York family; because Henry, having come forward on a Lancastrian title, all that opposed government inclined to favor the antagonist line. The battle of Bosworth had destroyed the most distinguished adherents of Richard III. but left the animosity of his friends to the new sovereign, and his treacherous supporters, unabated. Yet the preceding tempests had swept away the men of most name and importance; and no person of active consequence existed at the moment of the new accession, disposed to resist the change, excepting lord Lovel. 28 Bern. And. MS. Dom. "Bacon, p. 582. Yet he settled on her a liberal dower (P. Rolls, v. 6;) and seems to have become more attached to her after she was separated from her mother, and had exhibited her own piety and maternal virtues. Morton was raised to the primacy on the death of cardinal Bourchier, (Pol. V. 575.) who was descended from Edward III. thro his son Thomas, duke of Gloucester. Croyl. 581. V. BOOK It has been seen that Catesby, by his dying will, recommended that this friend of Richard should be taken into Henry's favor. Instead of using this policy, the king excepted him out of the general amnesty. REIGN OF 1486. In the spring, Henry resolved, like Richard, to make a tour of popularity and policy to the northern counties.31 As they cherished so warmly the memory of Richard, this visit had the appearance of danger; and Lovel thought it would enable him to avenge his fallen master. He left his sanctuary, and attempted a sudden insurrection against Henry.32 The king, on horseback, nobly accompanied, proceeded by Waltham to Cambridge, where the University received him with honor; and passed on to Lincoln, where he kept his Easter, attending frequently at the cathedral during the solemnity. Turning off to Nottingham, he went, the next week, into Yorkshire, where the Stanleys took their leave of him; and he moved thro Doncaster to Pomfret.33 It was the plan of Lovel to destroy him by surprise. The king had heard that he was exciting disturbance, and had disregarded the rumor; but as the stately train was advancing towards York, the rebels suddenly appeared about Rippon and Middleham;" and if Henry had not been, at this crisis, joined at Barnesdale, by the earl of Northumberland, "with a right great and noble company," Lovel might have effected his purpose. The king was almost intercepted, when the earl appeared. He could only send, at the 35 There is a full account of Henry's progresses in the Harl. MS. No 7, 408. Hearne has printed the present one, from the pen of a tator, in his Leland's Collectanea, v. 4. p. 185. spec 32 Pol. Vir. 560. 33 Hearne, p. 186, III. moment, against the insurgents, 3000 men, several CHAP. armed only with leather instead of mail, under the duke of Bedford. But this nobleman, on consulting REIGN OF with his knightly companions, deeming it advisable HEN. VII. to allure them to submission, without a conflict that must be doubtful, sent to them an offer of grace and pardon to all who would lay down their arms. As their plan of surprise had failed, and had not been seconded, and they were too few to wage a protracted war with the king, they accepted the judicious proposal; and Lovel withdrew, in the night, into Lancashire, and afterwards sailed to Flanders, to Margaret, the dowager duchess of Burgundy," whose affection for her brother, Edward IV. led her to support all who chose to become inimical to Henry. The two Staffords, who had been co-operating with Lovel, were taken, and the elder one executed.38 36 The king approaching York, was received, three miles from its gates, by the corporation and citizens, on horseback; and near the walls, by processions of friars; and within the city, by the general assemblage from all the parish churches; the whole population vociferously acclaiming him." Pageants of crowned kings and minstrels were ready with their long speeches; and Solomon, David, and the Virgin, were also conjured up to welcome him. His devout attendances at the minster were followed by state banquets, which united the hearts of the subjects to their king; and he then crossed the country; and having, at 3 Pol. Virg. Grafton, 860. This was the Humphrey who had so actively assisted to surround Buckingham. The popular cry of the mervellous great nomber of men, women, and children, on foote, was, King Henry! king Henry! Our Lord preserve us that sweet and well-savored face.' Hearne, 187. |