his badge) was violently rased and plucked down from every sign and place where it might be espied: so ill was his life, that men wished the memory of him to be buried with his carrion corpse."

Born A.D. 1456; Reigned 24 years (1485-1509). Family.-1. Henry was the son of Edmund, Earl of Richmond, and Margaret, the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV., and had four children, Arthur, who died in 1502, Henry VIII., Margaret, and Mary.

Henry had no hereditary claim to the crown, for though the offspring of John of Gaunt by Catherine Swynford had been pronounced legitimate by Parliament, they had been declared incapable of ever succeeding to the throne. Even if this had not been the case, Henry's claim would have been inferior to that of several members of the York family.

Chronicle.-2. To inaugurate his accession, Henry made his uncle Jasper, Duke of Bedford; Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby; and Sir Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon.

Bedford had been his guardian; Stanley had turned the scale in his favour at the battle of Bosworth; Courtenay was the son-in-law of Edward IV.

Shortly after Henry ascended the throne, Parliament settled the crown upon him, and his heirs. The estates of the most notorious York adherents were then confiscated; and the Lancastrians, who had been disgraced in the preceding reign, were restored to their possessions and dignities. At the request of the Lords and Commons, Henry married Elizabeth in 1486, thereby uniting the two great rival houses. But this step did not terminate the old contention. The antipathy of Henry to the York faction, and his never

ceasing persecution of it, led to several insurrections, which greatly disturbed his otherwise peaceful reign. The first of these took place in 1486, and was headed by Lord Lovell. It was speedily crushed, and Lovell fled to Flanders.

Flanders was at this time under the government of Margaret, sister of Edward IV., a woman who was ever ready to plot against the new sovereign, and whose court was always open to Yorkist refugees.

3. Within a few months of this event, another attempt was made by the Yorkists, at the bottom of which lay a bold imposture. A lad, named Lambert Simnell, was taught by a designing priest to personate the character of the young Earl of Warwick, son of the late Duke of Clarence, who was at this time a prisoner in the Tower. The impostor was taken to Ireland, where the Yorkists were very popular, and his claims were immediately recognised by the Lord-Deputy, the Earl of Kildare. The Earl of Lincoln, nephew of Edward IV., Lovell, and other nobles, soon joined his standard; and the conspirators were still further strengthened by a body of troops sent over by Margaret, under Martin Schwartz, a German. In 1487, Simnell was crowned at Dublin as Edward VI. He then crossed over with an army into England, and gave battle to the royal troops at Stoke, near Newark. The latter were victorious; Lincoln and Schwartz were slain, and Simnell was taken prisoner. Henry treated him as the innocent tool of a designing faction, and gave him a menial post in the royal kitchen. The priest was imprisoned, and was "heard of no more."

Lovell is supposed to have fled from the field of battle, and to have perished in a dungeon beneath his family seat. Here, at least, about two centuries ago, the remains of a man were discovered, who had evidently died of starvation.

4. The great vice of Henry's nature was avarice; to gratify which, he resorted to many illegal courses. The most trivial offences, and the most heinous, were

alike punished by fines; and, although benevolences had been pronounced illegal in the late reign, they were again revived.

Cardinal Morton, the king's adviser, was the suggester of this illegal proceeding; and the instructions, which he gave the commissioners were most ingenious. "If," said he, "the persons applied to for the benevolence live frugally, tell them that their parsimony must necessarily have enriched them; if their method of living be hospitable, tell them they must necessarily be opulent on account of their great expenditure." This dilemma was familiarly known as "Morton's Fork."

5. At this time a struggle was going on between Charles VIII., King of France, and Francis, Duke of Brittany, and the latter appealed to Henry for assistance. The nation was generally in favour of Francis, and granted liberal supplies for his support; but as soon as the money was secured, Henry neglected to send the required aid. When Francis died, the struggle was resumed by his daughter Anne, and fresh supplies were granted to render her assistance; but these were similarly misapplied. The consequence was that Charles VIII. overran Brittany, and compelled Anne to become his wife. Henry then regretted his shortsighted policy, and proposed an invasion of France, 1491. Money was again raised; and, to encourage the nobility to join in the enterprise, a law was passed, enabling them to sell their lands without paying the customary fines to the king. In 1492 the English army crossed over to Calais; but before the armies could meet, a treaty of peace was concluded, which is said to have been drawn up before Henry quitted England. It stipulated, that Henry should withdraw his army, and receive in return 745,000 crowns in ready money, and an annual pension of 25,000 more.

6. A second imposture was commenced about the same time, which was equally as unfortunate as the other. Perkin Warbeck, the son of a Flemish Jew, made his appearance at Cork, in 1491, and professed to be the Richard, Duke of York, who, it was generally believed, had been murdered in the Tower. He was

well received by the Irish; and after some stay among them, he repaired to France, where Charles VIII. recognised his claim, and, until peace was made with Henry, treated him with great kindness. He removed thence to the court of Margaret, who acknowledged him as her nephew, and named him "The White Rose of England." The Yorkist party in England now entered into communication with him; but their agent, Sir Robert Clifford, betrayed them to Henry; and Sir William Stanley, who was found amongst them, was sent to the block. In 1495 Warbeck landed a body of soldiers on the coast of Kent; they were defeated and taken prisoners, and he then returned to Flanders. Thence he went to Scotland, where James IV. gave him a hearty welcome, and bestowed on him the Lady Catherine Gordon in marriage. Some unimportant incursions in the North were made; but as James and Henry soon after concluded a treaty of peace, Warbeck was again obliged to seek a fresh place of refuge. In the hope of raising the Cornishmen, who had lately rebelled on account of the heavy taxation, he landed in Cornwall. Numbers joined his standard; but, on the approach of the royal army, his courage deserted him, and he took sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. From hence he was conveyed to London, where, in contempt of his claims, he was allowed very considerable liberty.

The Lady Catherine was appointed to a post at court, and Henry settled upon her an honourable allowance. "The name

of the White Rose, which had been given to her husband's false title, was continued in common speech to her true beauty."

An attempt at escape led to stricter confinement. He was sent to the Tower; and there he formed an acquaintance with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick. Together they formed a plot for their deliverance. It failed, and they were then both executed on the charge of treason.

Many attempts have been made to prove that Warbeck was really the son of Edward IV.; but none of them are wholly

satisfactory. Sir James Tyrrel acknowledged the murder of the two princes just before his execution; and Perkin thrice publicly confessed the falsity of his pretensions.

The death of the Earl of Warwick is the darkest stain on Henry's character. It is said that Ferdinand of Spain refused to marry his daughter Catherine to the English heir-apparent as long as Warwick lived; and that this was the reason of Henry's heartless atrocity. Catherine long after observed, referring to this event-"The divorce is a judgment of God, for that my former marriage was made in blood.”

7. Prince Arthur married Catherine of Arragon in 1501; but died the following year. In order that Henry might still retain her dowry, she was now betrothed to her brother-in-law, afterwards Henry VIII.

A papal dispensation was necessary to effect this; and, by false representations to the Pope, one was obtained. The young prince was declared to be anxious for the marriage, though in reality he was not; and war between England and Spain was declared to be inevitable, unless the alliance was effected.

Another marriage, equally politic, was that between the Princess Margaret and James IV., which eventually led to the union of England and Scotland.

This was anticipated at the time by the English nobles, who feared England might become a dependency of Scotland. Henry, however, saw more clearly. He remarked-" Scotland will become an accession to England, not England to Scotland; the greater will draw the less."

8. Henry died in 1509, leaving a sum in his treasury equal to about 16,000,000l. of present money.

This vast sum had been amassed by the most iniquitous means; unjust fines had been imposed; pardons had been sold, and the highest offices in Church and State granted to the highest bidders. Henry was greatly aided in his rapacity by Empson and Dudley, two law-officers of the crown.

Henry was a sagacious sovereign, but suspicious, cold-hearted, and rapacious. In this reign the practice of maintenance was abolished.

The following anecdote will serve to illustrate the mode in which the statute was enforced. Whilst on a visit to the Earl