weeks. Luckily for the English, Louis, though he had begun to give some attention to naval affairs *, had made no preparation for disputing the passage; and it was effected with the loss only of some small transports, which were captured by a single privateer. The army was more formidable than any which the conquerors of Cressy and Poictiers and Agincourt had led into France. Edward IV., whatever his military talents were, had always been a successful leader, for which cause his men had entire confidence in him; and so exhilarating were the thoughts of a French war to the English people, that the imposts which were raised for it were paid with cheerfulness. It was well for both

countries, though honourable for neither, that the king of France, who cared not by what means he could bring about his politic designs, was willing to purchase peace, and that the king of England, a reckless and dissolute man, preferred money to such glory as might be gained by a career of conquest. Louis feared, despised, flattered, and cajoled him, bribed his favourites, and outwitted his counsellors. The French were thus confirmed in their opinion, that though it was difficult to deal with the English in the field, they might always be outreached in negotiation †; and from that time, in all their treaties with England, their statesmen have felt as full a presumption of their own superiority, and generally as well founded, as English soldiers and sailors have always manifested in battle.

During the remainder of Edward's reign no thought

Comines says, "quand le roy nostre maistre eût entendu le fait de la mer, aussi bien qu'il entendoit le fait de la terre, jamais le roy Edouard ne fust passé, au moins au cette saison; mais il ne l'entendoit point; et ceux à qui il donnoit authorité sur le fait de sa guerre, y entendoient encores moins," p. 263. But it will be seen presently that Louis attended to the construction of ships of war.

"Jamais ne se mena traité entre les François et Anglois, que le sens des Francois et leur habilité ne se monstrat par dessus celle des Anglois; et ont les dits Anglois un mot commun, qu'autrefois m'ont dit, traitant avec eux; c'est, qu'aux batailles qu'ils ont eues avec les François, tousjours, ou le plus souvent, ils ont eu la gain; mais en tous traitez qu'ils ont eu à conduire avec eux ils y ont eu perte et dommage."- Comines. Coll. des Mém. t. xi. p. 180.

"Sans point de doute, comme j'ai dit ailleurs, les Anglois ne sont pas si subtils, en traitez et en appointemens, comme sont les François, et quelque chose qui l'on en die, ils vont assez grossement en besogne: mais il faut avoir un peu de patience, et ne débattre point coleriquement avec eux."

was taken for maintaining a naval force; and when Richard had made his way by wicked means to a crown, of which, if it had rightfully devolved to him, he would have been most worthy, so little could he attend to these means of defence, that when Richmond, on his first attempt against the usurper, sailed from Bretagne with a fleet of forty sail, the seas were wholly unguarded. He A. D. set forth with a prosperous wind; "but toward night 1483. the wind changed, and the weather turned, and so huge

and terrible a tempest so suddenly arose, that with the very power and strength of the storm the ships were disparkled, severed, and separated asunder. Some by force of weather were driven into Normandy, some were compelled to return again into Bretagne. Richmond himself, with only one other bark in his company, arrived off the entrance of Poole harbour, and not being deceived by invitation to look upon the soldiers who occupied the shore as his friends, "weighed up his anchor, halsed up his sails, and having a prosperous and streinable wind, and a fresh gale, sent even by God to deliver him from that peril, arrived safe in Normandy." The tempest which dispersed his fleet had been his preservation; for if he had effected a landing after the failure of his confederate Buckingham, the fortune of the Tudors would, in all human likelihood, never have obtained that ascendant which brought with it to this nation so much evil, and so much greater good.

*

But the measure of the Plantagenets' crimes was full. The house of York had taken vengeance for the wrongs of Richard II., upon the house of Lancaster; it was then divided against itself. The sins of Edward IV. were visited upon his children; those of Richard III. upon his own head. Of all the enemies whom this last of the Plantagenet kings had designed for destruction, Richmond alone survived; but the dreadful measures which the king had taken for his own security, drew after them more inevitable danger, for they turned from him the hearts of the people. Richmond was waiting at the French coast for a second opportunity of asserting his

*Holinshed, 419.

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 OF QUEEN MARY.

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 188.), 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, † 4 Hen. 7. c. 10.

* 1 Hen. 7. c. 8.

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 * r*; 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 in-. fluenced 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 baroníal 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. To 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