Sections showing the Increase of London since the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. Outline Plan, showing the extent of London in the reigns of King Henry VIII. and Queen Victoria. through the rural districts was no doubt proportional. | standing that some one cottage be here and there erected At this time there must have been a great flow of population from the agricultural to the manufacturing districts, as the latter were making increased demands on the strength of the nation; yet it appears that the produce both of the tilled ground and of pasturage was steadily increasing. The small cottagers, who had probably been but poor farmers, being now gradually of late which is to little purpose. Of cities and towns either utterly decayed, or more than a quarter or half diminished, though some one be a little increased here and there-of towns pulled down for sheep-walks and no more but the lordships now standing in them, beside those that William Rufus pulled down-I could say somewhat" Our evidence, however, for the increase of the population is incontestable; and the wages for ordinary labour seems to have been quite double its old amount in this century. It may be interesting to record some of the salaries of the period. In the household of the Earl of Northumberland, in 1511, the principal priest of the chapel received £5 a year; a chaplain graduate, £3 6s. 8d.; a chaplain, not a graduate, £2; a minstrel, £4; a serving-boy, 13s. 4d.; all these being lodged and fed in addition. In 1500 a mason received 4d. a day, and 2d. for diet. In 1575 a master mason received 1s. a day, and a common labourer 8d. In 1601 a master mason had 1s. 2d. a day, and a labourer, 10d. The long continuance of internal peace had increased the population from two millions and a half in the commencement of the fifteenth century, to six millions and a half at the end of the sixteenth; but the increase 623 king's highness' noble progenitors, kings of this realm, and this high court of Parliament hath often and with great travail gone about and assayed with godly acts and statutes to repress; yet until this our time it hath not had that success which hath been wished; but-partly by foolish pity and mercy of them which should have seen the said godly laws executed, partly by perverse natures and long-accustomed idleness of the persons given to loitering-the said godly statutes hitherto hath had small effect, and idle and vagabond persons hath been suffered to remain and increase, and yet so do." "If," continues the Act," they should be punished by death, whipping, imprisonment, or with other corporal pain, it were not without their desert, for the example of others and to the benefit of the commonwealth; yet if they could be brought to be of trade, of commerce, and of tillage, had not been able to absorb a tithe of the homeless and destitute people who had been increasing since the abolition of villanage and the destruction of the monasteries, which had fed swarms of them. We have had occasion to show that these vagabond tribes overran the country like a flood, "vagabonds, rogues, and sturdy beggars" carrying terror and crime everywhere. Henry VIII., Harrison tells us, in the course of his reign, hanged of robbers, thieves, and vagabonds, no fewer than 72,000, and Elizabeth, toward the latter part of her reign, sent 300 or 400 of them annually to the gallows. We find a statute of the first year of Edward VI. containing the following:-" Idleness and vagabondry is the mother and root of all thefts, robberies, and all evil acts and other mischiefs, and the multitude of people given thereto hath always been here within this realm very great and more in number, as it may appear, than in other regions; the which idleness and vagabondry all the made profitable and do service, it were much to be wished and desired." Such words would lead us to conclude that they were about to adopt conciliatory measures with regard to this troublesome class, but we find on the contrary the harshest enactments put in execution. Thus, every person found idle and wandering without any effort to find work was to be considered a vagabond, and was liable to be seized by any one and forced to labour, for which he was to receive only his daily food. If he attempted to run away, he was to be branded on the breast with the letter "V" and made the slave of his owner for two years. If he made a second attempt for liberty, he was to be branded on the forehead or cheek with the letter "S" and made his master's slave for ever; while a third effort at escape was punishable by death. The severity of this law prevented its being properly executed, and caused its repeal in two years. After various futile enactments, Henry VIII., in 1530, gave the sick and impotent permission to beg; and in 1535 the magistrates and the clergy were ordered to make collections for their relief. These were the first approaches to a poor-law, and in the year 1562 Queen Elizabeth passed an Act making parochial assessments for the poor compulsory. The poor-law, therefore, in reality dates from that period; but in the year 1601, the celebrated Act of the 43rd of Elizabeth organised and completed that system of employing and maintaining the destitute poor, which has remained for ever the law of England. more remarkable than any which had gone before it, and which, with all its dark and repulsive features, was the gloomy dawn of the glorious day which we now enjoy. It was an age in which the whole system of society was in a state of convulsion, in which whatever was antiquated, contracted, or rotten, was severed and thrown down; and the seeds of a thousand new things thrown into the upturned soil, already showed those vigorous germs and shoots which have ever since been growing and ripening into a country and a moral and political condition which Such was the sixteenth century in England; a period have no parallel. INDEX. NOTE.-The dates affixed to the names, thus ( ), represent in the case of the English Sovereigns the period of the reign, and in other cases Buckingham's Flood, 32 Burgundy, Duke of (1471-1477), 1, 2, 10-13 Cabot, Sebastian (1498), 117 Cacafuego, captured by Sir Francis Drake, 526 Calais, meeting of Henry VII. and the Archduke Philip at (1506), siege of (1558), 387-88 Campeggio, Cardinal (1528), 191-197 Carberry Hill, battle of (1567), 444 Carew, Sir George, lost in the Mary Rose (1545), 281 Castille, King and Queen of, in England (1506), 112-13 Castro, Alphonso di, inveighing against religious persecution Catholic rebellion in the reign of Edward VI. (1549), 317-20 Cecil, Sir William, Lord Burleigh (1558-1598), 393-5, 405-6, 408-9, Babington, Sir Anthony, his conspiracy against the life of Elizabeth Clarence, Duke of, murdered (1478), 14, 15 Bocher, Joan, burnt for heresy (1551), 329 Boleyn, Anno (1527-1536), 184-91, 194, 196, 197, 201, 207-14, 216, Sir Thomas (1519), 148 Bonivet, Admiral (1524), 147, 172 Bonner, Bishop (1546-1559), 290, 308, 348, 350, 375-80, 394, 398 Bothwell, Earl of (1566-1567), 431-3, 436-49, 451-52 Bourbon, Duke of (1524), 170-176, 179, 181-182 Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (1514), 136, 137 Bridgewater, battle of (1549), 320 Brittany, Duke of, ingratitude of Henry VII. to, 85-87 Claude, queen of Francis I. (1520), 152-154 Clifton Downs, battle of (1549), 320 Cloth of Gold, Field of the (1520), 150-154 Coligny, Admiral (1549), 323 Constitution and Laws (1399-1485), 40-45 Costume of the People of England (1399-1485), 68-72 Covenanters, Scottish (1558), 400-407 Culpepper, Thomas, cousin of Catherine Howard (1541), 260-61 Darnley, Lord, husband of Mary Queen of Scots (1564-1567), 424-33, Davison (1586-1587), 518, 519, 521-24 Dee, Dr., famous astrologer (1559-1567), 395, 435-6, 563 "Defender of the Faith," title given to Henry VIII. (1527), 183 "Devise, the Secret" (1543), 274 Drake, Sir Francis (1572-96), 525-27, 530-2, 536-37 Dudley, Earl of Warwick (1549), 323 Lord Guildford (1553-1554), 338, 356, 366, 368 Edinburgh Castle, siege of (1573), 485 University founded (1582), 583 Edward IV. (1471-1483); lands in England, 2; proclaimed king, 2; - V. (1483); enters London, 22; declared illegitimate, 25; · VI. (1547-1553); ascends the throne, 299; his letter to the Effingham, Lord Howard of (1588), 527-33 Elizabeth, Queen (1558-1603); ascends the throne, 393, corona- Empson and Dudley, punishment of, 118-19 Essex, Walter Devereux, Earl of (1589-1601), 536-557 Exchange, Royal, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham (1571), 472 Felton, John, executed (1570), 470 Fennington Bridge, battle of (1549), 320 Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's, burnt (1555), 376 Fisher, Bishop (1535), 218-219 Fitzmaurice, brother of the Earl of Desmond (1579), 491 Framlingham Castle, head-quarters of Queen Mary (1553), 342 II. of France, husband of Mary Queen of Scots (1559-1560), Furniture and decoration (1485-1603), 603-604 Gaston de Foix (1512), 123 Gardiner, Stephen (1527-1557), 188, 203, 233, 264, 291-93, 383 Gowrie Conspiracy (1601), 560 Grace, the pilgrimage of (1536), 236-238 Grange, Kirkaldy of (1546), 288 Harrington, Sir John (1599), 552 Havre, siege of, by the French (1564), 420 VII. (1485-1509), ascends the throne, 74; his marriage, · VIII. (1509-1547), ascends the throne, 117; marries Catherine Hentzner, German traveller, his description of Queen Elizabe Grey, Lady Catherine, excites the indignation of Elizabeth (1561), Kirk-of-Field, murder of Lord Darnley at (1567), 437-40 417 Lady Jane (1551-1554), 338-368 Grindall, Bishop (1575-1583), 493 Guise, Mary of (1538), 267 Gutenberg, inventor of printing (1445), 48, 49 Hampton Court, 203 Knevet, Sir Anthony (1546), 291 Knox, John (1547-1561), 303, 399-408, 411, 416 Lambert, John, trial of (1539), 245 Latimer, Hugh (1534-1555), 215, 310, 355, 377-80 Launoy, Cornelius, an alchemist, imprisoned (1567), 435 |