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Badges of the Tudors.

HEN Henry of Richmond had succeeded in possessing himself of the English crown, he found no difficulty in procuring from Wales a duly authenticated pedigree, in which his descent from Caractacus and consequent right to the British sceptre was clearly shewna. English writers, however, are content to discover the first noted person of his family in a Welsh squire, named Owen Tudor (Tedder, or Theodore), whose handsome person procured him the alliance of Katherine of France, the relict of Henry V.; he lost his life in the Lancastrian cause, but his grandson became a king.

The Tudors ruled for nearly one hundred and twenty years (A.D. 1485-1603); changes of the most important nature were effected in their time, and mainly by the sovereigns themselves. Henry VII. gave its death-blow to the feudal system, and began to rear

The pedigree will be found in extenso in Powell's "History of Wales."

something like our present state of society in its stead"; the iron hand of Henry VIII. broke up monastic establishments, and by destroying the dependence of the Church of England on that of Rome, gave opportunity for the purification of the former from stains contracted by its long connexion with a Church " which hath erred, not only in living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith." These reformatory measures were carried on by the advisers of his son; and, though somewhat retarded by his daughter Mary, received their full and happy accomplishment from the hands of the last or her race, the famous Queen Elizabeth.

Though fierce political and religious dissensions disturbed the Tudor era, the nation made great advances in commerce and navigation; voyages to India were undertaken, and vigorous efforts made to share the riches of the New World. The mode of government, however, if less openly tyrannical, was more systematically oppressive than heretofore; but the patronage shewn, especially under Elizabeth, to literature, has enriched the period with names which can never die.

The badges of the Tudors are less various than those

The nobility had been greatly reduced in number by the civil war, and most of those who survived were in a state of poverty; Henry VII., professedly to relieve them, allowed them to dispose of their lands, free from the burdens of feudalism; much of the soil of the country thus came into the possession of merchants and traders, and a middle class sprang up, into whose hands the real power of the State has been gradually drawn; a change the importance of which it is impossible to over-estimate.

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The Tudors were such absolute rulers, and their parliaments and their judges so subservient, that new laws were made and old ones interpreted without regard to anything except meeting the wishes of the sovereign. Hence the forms of law were strictly observed in innumerable cases where every principle of justice was disregarded.

of their predecessors. Those of the house consist of the red and the white rose united in various ways; the portcullis, the badge of the Beauforts; and the fleur-delis, for their nominal realm of France: the white greyhound, the sun in splendour, and the thornless rose belong to individual rulers.

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MARGARET, daughter of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset, was born in the year 1441, and on the death of her father became the ward of William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, who endeavoured to unite her to his son John, (afterwards the husband of Elizabeth of York, sister of Edward IV.); but in 1455 she married Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, (son of Owen Tudor and Katherine of France,) who died in the following year, leaving her and her infant son Henry to the care of his brother Jasper, earl of Pembroke d.

This, her only child, was born, probably in the castle of Pembroke, in the year 1456, and as early as his fifth

The countess in 1459 married Sir Henry Stafford, a younger son of the duke of Buckingham, who died in 1481. In 1482 she married her third husband, Thomas, Lord Stanley, and survived until 1509. Though naturally an object of suspicion to the Yorkist princes, on account of her son, she was able to save herself from any serious consequences; her wealth was great, and she has left in each University numerous evidences of her pious charity.

year he experienced the calamities of the time, being attainted by the first parliament of Edward IV., apparently in revenge for the active part which his uncle Jasper had taken on the Lancastrian side. Jasper was a fugitive, and his castle and earldom were granted to William Herbert, who coming to take possession found there Margaret and her son, and, though in effect their keeper, treated them with kindness, and provided for the education of the child. Jasper made some unsuccessful attempts to recover his stronghold, and Herbert was captured and executed by insurgents; but it was not until 1470, upon the temporary restoration of Henry VI., that the young earl was set at liberty, presented to his royal kinsman, and sent to Eton College. His stay there was but short; Edward IV. returned, and Richmond and his uncle escaping by sea, were driven on the coast of Britanny, where they long remained in a position between guests and prisoners. As Henry grew to manhood he attracted the more particular attention of both friends and enemies. His personal character for ability and courage caused him to be recognised, without a shadow of hereditary claim, as the head of the Lancastrian exiles, and both Edward IV. and Richard III. endeavoured, by bribes to Landois, the minister of the duke of Britanny, to get him into their hands. He succeeded in foiling their schemes, and at length withdrew into France, where he was joined by the earl of Oxford (who had escaped from his prison at Hammes), Morton, bishop of Ely, and several of the Woodville party. first attempt to invade England (in October, 1483) was unsuccessful, but he renewed it in 1485, and by the one

His

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