weak and ill-founded claim to the throne, when he was joined there by the earl of Oxford, who had been twelve years in the castle of Hammes," in strong prison, miserably kept, and diligently looked to." James Blount, the captain of that castle, and sir John Fortescue, the porter of the town of Calais (perhaps the very person to whom Oxford had surrendered himself at St. Michael's Mount), were among those who thought it wiser to brave king Richard's power than live in constant fear of his suspicions; and, making common cause with their late prisoner, they offered their aid to Richmond, having secured Hammes for him. Oxford was the most important adherent whom Richmond could possibly have obtained, not only because of his "high nobility" and experience in war, but because of his character, and constant fidelity to the house of Lancaster; for Richmond well understood that such as, having adhered to the white rose formerly, proffered their services to him now, were actuated either by personal enmity toward king Richard, or by fear lest they should become the victims of his suspicious tyranny. All things now favoured him. Deceived either by self-confidence or the treachery of his advisers, Richard supposed there was no danger of invasion, and recalled the ships of war which he had appointed to keep the narrow seas: Richmond sailed, therefore, without fear of meeting any opposition upon his passage, and landed at Milford Haven with only 2000 men. The king then felt that a prince who is dreaded by all about him is in danger from all. "Not a few noble personages, who inwardly hated him worse than a toad or a serpent, resorted to him with all their power and strength, wishing and working his destruction." He met with the fate which he deserved in the battle of Bosworth, and the crown was transferred from the Plantagenets to the house of Tudor.* * Holinshed, 427, 428. 434. CHAP. IX. FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VII. TO THE DEATH A. D. THE " great minishment and decay of the navy, and the 1485. idleness of the mariners," were represented to Henry VII.'s first parliament; and it was affirmed that, unless reformation were made therein, "this noble realm, within short process of time," would not be of ability and power to defend itself. An act*, therefore, was passed, that the wines of Guienne and Gascony should be imported in none but English, Irish, or Welsh ships, manned by English, Irish, or Welsh men, for the more part, or men of Calais, or of the marches of the same. This act was repeated in the fourth year of Henry's reign, and Toulouse woad was included in the enactment; it was also ordained that no natives should freight an alien ship "with any manner of merchandise," either for export or importation, if sufficient freight were to be had in English vessels, on pain of forfeiture, one half to the king, the other to the seizers. In a subsequent act, the commons stated how of time that no mind is, the navy passing the Straits of Morocco, and so to diverse ports in those parts, had been maintained, to the great increase of merchants and mariners, especially by lading of malmsey in the port of Candy; but that recently the Venetians, to whom that port pertained, had, for the maintenance of themselves and their navy and mariners, laid a new impost there of four gold ducats (amounting to 18s.), upon every butt of malmsey, over and above all other customs and charges afore that time used; this was represented as a great hurt, requiring a special remedy: and the remedy devised was, * 1 Hen. 7. c. 8. † 4 Hen. 7. c. 10. DECLINE OF BARONIAL POWER, 143 to impose the same charge upon every butt imported by merchant strangers, to require that each butt should contain 126 gallons, or be abated in its price in proportion as it fell short of this quantity, and to fix 47. as the maximum price at which any such butt of such wine should be sold. This act was to endure so long as the Venetians exacted their impost, and no longer * ; "Henry," says lord Bacon, "being a king that loved wealth and treasure, he could not endure to have trade sick, nor any obstruction to continue in the gate-vein which disperseth that blood." Henry VII., like his contemporary Louis XI., Ferdinand of Spain, and Joam II. of Portugal, was a sovereign whose character was suited to the times that formed it. The spirit of chivalry had passed away: its pomp and circumstance survived; but it no longer influenced the actions of kings, nor in any degree affected the affairs of nations. Wider views were now entertained, and schemes of cooler policy pursued, in which there was not so certainly more wisdom, as there was less generosity. In our own country the change was felt throughout all the higher ranks of society. That destruction of the great baronial power which the sword and the axe had begun during the struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, was completed by Henry, who, in effecting an object so necessary for the safety of the crown and the tranquillity of the nation, displayed at the same time his foresight and his want of grateful feeling. this cause, as much as to any or all others, we may ascribe the practice, at this time so much complained of, of ejecting the yeomanry, and converting arable into pasture land. The great lords, whose importance no longer depended upon the force they could bring into the field, found that money was of more consequence to them than men, and they cleared their estates of what they now deemed superfluous tenants, with inhumanity as reckless as that of William the Conqueror when he depopulated the New Forest. One of the most sagacious *7 Hen. 7. c. 7. Το 66 of Englishmen has praised the wisdom with which Henry and the parliament endeavoured to check the progress of this evil. "Inclosures," he says, they would not forbid, for that had been to forbid the improvement of the patrimony of the kingdom; nor tillage they would not compel, for that was to strive with nature and utility but they took a course to take away depopulating inclosures and depopulating pasturage, and yet not by that name, or by any imperious express prohibition, but by consequence." This was done by an ordinance, that all houses of husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards, should be kept up for ever; the intent being, to "amortise a great part of the lands of the kingdom unto the hold and occupation of the yeomanry or middle people, of a condition between gentlemen and cottagers or peasants:" for this, it was thought, "did wonderfully concern the might and mannerhood of the kingdom, to have farms as it were of a standard sufficient to maintain an able body out of penury." Heretofore it had been considered as for the great surety of the king, and of the realm of England, that the Isle of Wight should be well inhabited with English people, for the defence as well of his avowed enemies of the realm of France, as of other parties." But now, in consequence of the new system for improving estates, "many towns and villages had been let down, and the fields diked and made pasture; and many dwelling places, farms, and farmholds, that of old time were wont to be in many several persons' holds and hands, and many several households kept in them, and thereby much people multiplied, and the same isle thereby well inhabited, were now engrossed by one man, by reason whereof the isle was desolate and not inhabited, but occupied with beasts and cattle; so that," said the act, “if hasty remedy be not provided, that isle cannot be long kept and defended, but open and ready to the hands of the king's enemies, which God forbid!" The remedy provided was, that no man should take more farms * Bacon's Works, iii. 234, 235. Montagu's edition. in the island than one, "of manors, lands and tenements, parsonages and tithes," the annual rent of which, collectively, should exceed ten marks.* Henry was too wise a man not to seek peace and ensue it, so long as a pacific course of policy could be pursued with safety and with honour: but the most peaceful state is at all times liable to have its tranquillity endangered by the measures of its neighbours ; and Henry, though disquieted in his kingdom by the pretensions, first of an impostor, and, secondly, of one, the truth or falsehood of whose claim to the character in which he appeared, the most critical investigation has only rendered doubtful, watched with proper jealousy the designs of France both on the side of Bretagne and of Flanders. His views upon this subject were laid before parliament by Morton, archbishop 1488. of Canterbury, then lord chancellor, in a speech remarkable for its moderation and wisdom. It represented that the French king was making hot war upon the duke of Bretagne, and that both parties had prayed the king's aid; and that he, after as much pains and cost to effect a peace as ever he took in any business, not being able to remove the prosecution of the war on the one side, nor the distrust caused by that prosecution on the other, had let fall the treaty, not as repenting, but despairing, of it. Wherefore he prayed the advice of his parliament, whether he should enter into an auxiliary and defensive war for the Bretons against France. "His grace," said the chancellor, "doth profess that he truly and constantly desireth to reign in peace; but his grace saith he will neither buy peace with dishonour, nor take it up at interest of danger to ensue; but shall think it a good change if it pleases God to change the inward troubles and seditions, wherewith he hath been hitherto exercised, into an honourable foreign war. As touching both the French king and the duke, they were the men with whom he was, of all other friends and allies, most bounden, the one having held over him * 4 Hen. 7. c. 16. |