A.D.1496-1503. MARRIAGE OF MARGARET. 251 the house of York remained. Men, on the contrary, felt higher indignation at seeing a young prince sacrificed, not to law and justice, but to the jealous politics of two subtle and crafty tyrants. § 8. Two years later (Nov. 14, 1501) the king had the satisfaction of completing a marriage which had been projected and negotiated during the course of seven years; Arthur being now near 16 years of age, Catherine 18. But this marriage proved in the issue unprosperous. The young prince a few months after sickened and died, much regretted by the nation (April 2, 1502). Henry, desirous to continue his alliance with Spain, and also unwilling to restore Catherine's dowry, which was 200,000 ducats, obliged his second son Henry, a boy of 11 years of age, whom he created Prince of Wales, to be contracted to the infanta; an event which was afterward attended with the most important consequences. The same year another marriage was celebrated, which was also, in the next age, productive of great events; the marriage of Margaret, the king's eldest daughter, with James, King of Scotland. But amid these prosperous incidents the king met with a domestic calamity which made not such impression on him as it merited his queen died in childbed (1503), and the infant did not long survive her. The situation of the king's affairs, both at home and abroad, being now in every respect very fortunate, he gave full scope to his natural propensity; and avarice, which had ever been his ruling passion, being increased by age and encouraged by absolute authority, broke all restraints of shame or justice. He had found two ministers, Empson and Dudley, perfectly qualified to second his rapacious and tyrannical inclinations, and to prey upon his defenseless people. These instruments of oppression were both lawyers; the first of mean birth, of brutal manners, of an unrelenting temper; the second better born, better educated, and better bred, but equally unjust, severe, and inflexible. By their knowledge of law these men, whom the king made barons of the Exchequer, were qualified to pervert the forms of justice, to the oppression of the innocent; and the most iniquitous extortions were practiced under legal pretenses. The chief means of oppression employed by these ministers were the penal statutes, which, without consideration of rank, quality, or services, were rigidly put in execution against all men; spies, informers, and inquisitors were rewarded and encouraged in every quarter of the kingdom; and no difference was made whether the statute were beneficial or hurtful, recent or obsolete, possible or impossible to be executed. The sole end of the king and his ministers was to amass money, and bring every one under the lash of their authority. The Parliament was so overawed, that at this very time, during the great est rage of Henry's oppressions, the Commons chose Dudley their speaker, the very man who was the chief instrument of his iniquities (1504). By these arts of accumulation, joined to a rigid frugality in his expense, the king so filled his coffers, that he is said to have possessed in ready money the sum of 1,800,000 pounds; a treasure almost incredible, if we consider the scarcity of money in those times. § 9. The remaining years of Henry's reign present little that is memorable. The Archduke Philip, on the death of his motherin-law, Isabella, proceeded by sea, with his wife Joanna, to take possession of Castile, but was driven by a violent tempest into Weymouth (1506). The king availed himself of this event to detain Philip in a species of captivity, and to extort from him a promise of the hand of his sister Margaret, with a large dowry. Nor was this the only concession which Henry wrung from Philip as the price of his liberty. He made him promise that his son Charles should espouse his daughter Mary, though that prince was already affianced to a daughter of the King of France. He also negotiated a new treaty of commerce with the Flemings, much to the advantage of the English. But perhaps the most ungenerous part of the king's conduct on this occasion was his obliging Philip to surrender. Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, nephew of Edward IV., and younger brother of the Earl of Lincoln, who had perished at the battle of Stoke. The Earl of Suffolk, having incurred the king's resentment, had taken refuge in the Low Countries. Philip stipulated indeed that Suffolk's life should be spared; but Henry committed him to the Tower, and, regarding his promise as only personal, recommended his successor to put him to death. Shortly afterward Henry's health declined; and he began to cast his eye toward that future existence which the iniquities and severities of his reign rendered a very dismal prospect to him. To allay the terrors under which he labored, he endeavored, by distributing alms and founding relig ious houses, to make atonement for his crimes, and to purchase, by the sacrifice of part of his ill-gotten treasures, a reconciliation with his offended Maker. He ordered, by a general clause in his will, that restitution should be made to all those whom he had injured. He died of a consumption, at his favorite palace of Richmond (April 25, 1509), after a reign of 23 years and 8 months, and in the 52d year of his age. He was buried in the chapel he had built for himself at Westminster. The reign of Henry VII. was, in the main, fortunate for his people at home, He put an end to the civil wars with and honorable abroad. * *Henry VIII. put him to death after the lapse of a few years (1513), without alleging any new offense against him. A.D. 1509. HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 253 which the nation had long been harassed, he maintained peace and order in the state, he depressed the former exorbitant power of the nobility, and, together with the friendship of some foreign princes, he acquired the consideration and regard of all. The services which he rendered the people were derived, indeed, from his views of private advantage, rather than the motives of public spirit. Bacon compares him with Louis XI. of France and Ferdinand of Spain, and describes the three as "the tres magi of kings of those ages"-the great masters of kingcraft. Avarice was, on the whole, Henry's ruling passion; and he remains an instance, almost singular, of a man placed in a high station, and possessed of high talents for great affairs, in whom that passion predominated above ambition. * § 10. The Star Chamber, so called from the room in which it met, is usually said to have been founded in the reign of Henry VII.; but this is not strictly correct.* In 1495 the Parliament enacted that no person who should by arms or otherwise assist the king for the time being should ever after be attainted for such an instance of obedience. Such a statute could not of course bind future Parliaments; but, as Mr. Hallam observes (Constitutional Hist., chap. i.), it remains an unquestionable authority for the constitutional maxim, "that possession of the throne gives a sufficient title to the subject's allegiance, and justifies his resistance of those who may pretend to a better right." It was by accident only that the king had not a considerable share in those great naval discoveries by which the present age was so much distinguished. Columbus, after meeting with many repulses from the courts of Portugal and Spain, sent his brother Bartholomew to London, in order to explain his projects to Henry, and crave his protection for the execution of them. The king invited him over to England; but his brother, being taken by pirates, was detained in his voyage; and Columbus meanwhile, having obtained the countenance of Isabella, was supplied with a small fleet, and happily executed his enterprise. Henry was not discouraged by this disappointment; he fitted out Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian, settled in Bristol, and sent him westward (in 1498) in search of new countries. Cabot discovered the main land of America, Newfoundland, and other countries; but returned to England without making any conquest or settlement. * See Notes and Illustrations at the end of this book. EENRIOVS. VIII. DEI. GRA REX ANGL. FRANC. DOM. HYB + CHAPTER XIV. HENRY VIII. FROM HIS ACCESSION TO THE DEATH OF WOLSEY. § 1. Accession of HENRY VIII. Empson and Dudley punished. § 2. The King's Marriage. War with France. Wolsey Minister. § 3. Battle of Guinegate. Battle of Flodden. § 4. Peace with France. Louis XII. marries the Princess Mary. § 5. Greatness of Wolsey. He induces Henry to cede Tournay to France. Wolsey Legate. § 6. Election of the Emperor Charles V. Interview between Henry and Francis. Charles visits England. Field of the Cloth of Gold. § 7. Henry mediates between Charles and Francis. Execution of Buckingham. § 8. Henry styled "Defender of the Faith." Charles again in England. War with France. Scotch Affairs. Defeat of Albany. § 9. Supplies illegally levied. League of Henry, the Emperor, and the Duke of Bourbon. § 10. Battle of Pavia. Treaty between England and France. § 11. Discontent of the English. Francis recovers his Freedom. Sack of Rome. League with France. § 12. Henry's Scruples about his Marriage with Catherine. Anne Boleyn. Proceedings for a Divorce. § 13. Wolsey's Fall. § 14. Rise of Cranmer. Death of Wolsey. § 1. THE death of Henry VII. had been attended with as open and visible a joy among the people as decency would permit; and the accession of his son, Henry VIII., spread universally a declared and unfeigned satisfaction. Henry was now in his 19th year. The beauty and vigor of his person, accompanied with dexterity in every manly exercise, was farther adorned with a blooming and ruddy countenance, with a lively air, with the appearance of spirit and activity in all his demeanor. Even the vices of vehemence, ardor, and impatience, to which he was subject, and which afterward degenerated into tyranny, were considered only as faults, incident to unguarded youth, which would be corrected when time had brought him to greater moderation and maturity; and, as the contending titles of York and Lancaster were now at last fully united in his person, men justly expected from a prince obnoxious |