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IV.

REIGN OF

HEN. VII.

shook and disposed of the crown no more; tho va- СНАР. rious attempts were made against Henry to renew such anti-national disorders. He gave the English crown a permanent stability; and he meant to do so. One of his greatest aims was to rescue it out of the dictatorial tyranny, both of the nobility and the church establishment, who had each at various periods, chained, threatened, and subverted it; and to rest it on the general interests and affections and prosperity of the country. He considered the whole nation as one great family headed by himself; and he depressed the two classes that had so long maintained a disproportionate degree of power, to the prejudice of the universal improvement and comfort.

These plans necessarily produced much obloquy; yet even in his own days his merit was felt amid all the opposing interests and prejudices that attacked him; and he died with the epithet fixed upon him, of a second Solomon.22 He was so respected abroad, that three popes of Rome elected him before all the other reigning kings, as the "chief defensor" of christendom; and sent him by three successive embassies, three swords and caps of maintenance.? 23 He conquered his numerous enemies, "by his great policy and wisdom, more than by shedding of blood or cruel war.

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It was essential to his great public objects, that he should break down the power of the unruly aristocracy, which was reviving in new trunks and ramifications, from the injuries it had received during the civil wars. He saw, that one necessary means was,

22

Fabian, then alive, says, he may most congruly, above all earthly princes, be called the second Salomon, for his great sapience and acts.? P. 537.

23. Ib. 537.

24 lb.

V.

REIGN OF
HEN. VII.

BOOK to wean the minds of Englishmen from that love of war, to which their courage and activity of spirit made them at that time so peculiarly prone; and the education for which made his nobility too martial for the safety of the throne, and for the tranquillity of the kingdom. With this view, he not only professed to love and seek peace, and made it, as lord Bacon says, 25 the usual preface in his treaties, that when Christ came into the world, peace was sung by angels; and when he left it, he bequeathed peace as their great characteristic to all his followers; but he also caused his chancellor to give his parliament one of the wisest lectures on the only just causes of war, that it had ever, up to that time, heard.26

Henry was not averse to state, but he used it for its kingly effect and public utility, not for his personal exaltation." He made his royal ceremonials auxiliary to his great design of occupying, civilizing, and weakening his nobility; and weaning them from that turbulence, in which they had, till his reign, chiefly sought their consequence, and employed their time.28 The splendid exhibitions caused an emulous rivalry, which exhausted their means, but satisfied their vanity; and the joust and tournament which he patronized, the harmless semblance of war, and peaceful fountains of popular applause, gave them enough of the bustle and parade of military dress and display, to keep them from the reality, and to

25 Bacon, 635. 26 See it in Parl. Rolls, 6. p. 440. Grafton mentions, ' He so much abhorred pride and arrogance, that he was ever sharp and quick to them which were noted or spotted with that crime.' p. 948.

28 Grafton adds, "There was no man with him, though never so much in his favor, or having never so much authority, that either durst or could do any thing as his own phantasie did serve him, without the consent or agreement of the other.' Ib.

IV.

HEN. VII.

supersede the desire for its occurrence. Their tastes, CHAP. by this wise management, increased for peaceful grandeur and domestic comforts; and his reign REIGN OF may be considered as the completion of that transition of the warring baron to the pompous lord, which has since advanced to the elegant gentleman and highly cultivated mind.29

It was Henry's steady and determined pursuit of this great object, and the effective means which he adopted for attaining it, which has given that pecuniary reproach to his character, that has been so often repeated by misconception and by rote. It is as true of greatness as of war, that money is its sinews; therefore, when Henry caused the illegal actions of his nobility and gentry to be pursued and punished by fines, he took the most effectual way to disable and reduce them to that subordination which the common welfare demanded. It was their revenues which annexed to their arm and voice such multitudes of retainers, and which had so often enabled them to stand embattled against the crown. Hence, when lord Oxford, on receiving a visit from Henry, chose to display a military retinue, which alarmed the king, altho he was told that they were not usually attendant, but had been specially provided to do him honor; he wisely replied, altho to a friend, “My lord! I must not suffer my laws. to be broken in my presence-my attorney general

"The stately splendor in which he indulged his nobility and people, perhaps, more than himself, may be seen in his manner of holding his royal feasts at Christmas, 4 Lel. Col. 234-7; and at Easter, and St. George, and Whitsuntide, 238-248; on the queen's taking her chamber, at her lying-in; and on the creation of Arthur prince of Wales, 250; and the christening of the princess, 20-7; on the fiancial of this lady with the king of Scotland, 258-64; and on her departure from England, and marriage in Scotland, 265-300.

V.

BOOK venting those taxations which, tho often imposed under other sovereigns, had twice caused insurrecREIGN OF tions in the country.

HEN. VII.

That the king expressly acted on the principle of making the law the master of all, we see by the speech he caused to be made to the parliament, in January 1503, on the inestimable value to every state, of justice and law. The chancellor enforced on their attention, that justice was the queen of the virtues; that without it, kingdoms were but great dens of robbers; that all states were upheld by the laws, and that justice was their architect; that it was the most honorable, the most useful, and the most pleasant of all things. His eloquent oration, ending with this peroration from St. Austin; "Despise dungeons, despise bonds, despise exile, despise death-but let all men love justice:" is said to have had a wonderful effect in animating the distinguished hearers to an ardent attachment to this great social virtue.35

But it is not probable, from the usual effect of human imperfections, that the king could have always pursued his wisest objects, or had them enforced, in an unexceptionable manner. Misinformation, wrong judgments, fraud of others, occasional passion in himself, official harshness in executing right sentences, abuse of legal power in those who enforced it, would not unfrequently convert law into tyranny, and useful fines into oppressive exactions. Law is a weapon

which he did often show to such as had offended, and were amerced. For, such of his subjects as were fined by his justices, to their great impoverishing, he, at one time or another, did help, relieve, and set forward.' p. 949.

35 See the speech in Rolls Parl. 6. p. 520. Grafton notices, that 'He was an indifferent and sure justicier, by the which one thing he allured to him the hearts of many people, because they lived quietly and in rest, out of all oppression and molestation of the nobility and rich persons.'

IV.

HEN. VII.

ever liable to be misused; and severe are the wounds CHAP. of its unprincipled blows. Many grievances, therefore, must have accompanied Henry's legal inflic- REIGN OF tions; and the experience of human nature assures us, that the accumulation of treasure tends as much to increase the desire, as to lessen the indelicacy of the means of acquiring it. Hence, when it is said, that he allowed or encouraged Empson and Dudley, his lawyers, to indict "divers subjects accused of sundry crimes," to extort great fines; 36 and that they executed their commission with an insatiable and oppressive rapacity, that blemished his own character, some portion of their misconduct may be attributable to himself; to his regard rather to the pecuniary results, than to the justice of the prosecutions. He may have occasionally forgotten the Ciceronian maxim, which all ages concur to verify, that the Summum Jus, becomes also the Summa Injustitia.37

26 Bacon, 629. The king was reported to have left 1,800,000l. sterling in his treasury. Ib. 635.

37

Among the Harleian MS. in the British Museum, is one of the ac counts of Dudley, of the fines and dues he received, which we shall transcribe. It discovers one fact, not exclusively attributable to Henry, but belonging to the age; that a number of offices were purchased or paid for by money, which ought never to have been venal.

'Here followeth all such obligations and sums of money as sir Edmond Dudley have received of any person, for any fine or duty to be paid to the use of our sovereign, Henry VII. since the first time that I, the said Edmond, entered the service of our said sovereign, that is, the 9th September, 20 year; all which obligations and sums, I, said Edmond, have delivered to our said sovereign, and to John Heron, to the use of his highness. And so, at this quote day, the 24th January, the year aforesaid, there remains in my keeping and custody no obligation, and no sums. Churchwarden of St. Stephen's, Coleman street, in hand, 25. 251. by obligation.

Carell and his son, for their pardons, 1000 l. Recognizance, 900 l. 100 l. in money.

21 H. VII. City of London, for the confirmation of their liberties, 5000 marcs, by fine.

Several obligations for Richard Corson.

John Arundel, for his discharge of a certain sum claimed to be due.

Sir James Tyroll, 100 marcs.

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R. Buckhard,

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