sure, as "being rather just than legal, and adapted for commerce with barbarians.† more magnanimous than provident." Mon- He related on his return, that he had sailarchs and ministers seldom change the ed to the north-westward as far as the laws spontaneously on general grounds of coast of Labrador, in the sixty-eighth depolicy. The greater part of them can gree of north latitude, and that he had seldom be roused by any stimulant weaker coasted the vast territories to the souththan a present and urgent interest to un- ward of the gulf of Florida. Whether dertake innovation, from which they too Cabot, or Columbus himself, or Amerigo much dread unforeseen evils. In this case Vespucci, a Florentine, was the first Euthe popularity of the measure among the ropean who saw the continent since called nobility for saving their estates from for- America, has been disputed with a zeal feiture, was probably one of the motives of which often burns most fiercely in quesits adoption. There can hardly be any tions seemingly the least adapted to kindle doubt that the apprehension of danger to passionate controversy. the king himself, if he survived the queen, The commercial treaty between Engfrom the prince of Wales, or from any one land and Burgundy, in 1496, called "the of the numerous body who, being legiti- great intercourse," is not only an importmate descendants of the Plantagenets, had ant event in the history of the most indusbetter claims than he to inherit the crown, trious and opulent of the Transalpine states, was another and probably a very prevalent but deserves attention, as foreboding those motive for passing the law. revolutions in the state of society both in After all, perhaps, it was chiefly owing Europe and America, with which the great to the ruling passion of the king's public importance ascribed to such negotiations life, a furious zeal against the partisans of now shows that the world was pregnant. the house of York. This act of parliament A reciprocal liberty of trading in all comtacitly condemned their distinction between modities to each other's ports without passactual and legitimate kings, and satisfied port or license, and of fishing on the coasts his revenge for the insult which had been of either party, was stipulated. They agreed offered to all the Lancastrian princes by to protect each other from wrong by pirates. branding them as usurpers. All ship-masters were required to find seIt might, perhaps, be plausibly stated by curity that they shall not commit piracy the advocates of Perkin, that this act, pass- against the contracting parties. The ships ed in 1494, is a testimony to the import- of one party, driven by storm or enemies ance of the pretender, and affords a proof into the havens of the other, were entitled that Henry entertained fears from him, to protection during their stay, and may which can only be explained reasonably by freely depart when they please. The lia suspicion, if not a conviction, of his le- centious practice of pillaging ships wreckgitimacy. The other causes, however, seemed on their coast was restrained till a year to be adequate; and it appears to be a more shall elapse from the time of the wreck. natural inference, to consider as proofs of The privileges of the traders of one nation Henry's contempt for the title of the pre- on the land of the other were secured. The tender, that such a law was then passed, arrest of foreign debtors was regulated. and that not long after Perkin was pardon- The importation into either country of the ed, and might have probably lived as long goods of its enemy was forbidden. An atas Simnel, if it had not been convenient to tempt was even made to abolish one branch use his death as one of the means of bring-of that species of private war which civiling Warwick to destruction. ized nations even at this day carry on. It Henry, prompted by the marvellous tales was stipulated that no letters of marque or of gold and silver in America, which the reprisal should be granted to individuals, Spanish adventurers had spread over Eu- till after due warning to the sovereign of rope, commissioned a Venetian mariner, the wrong-doer, and "that all such letters Sebastian Cabot, who was settled in Bristol, shall now be recalled, unless it be otherto fit out a small squadron for the discovery, wise determined by a congress of both conquest, and occupation, of the lands be- parties." yond the western ocean, inhabited by heathens and infidels, and till these times

unknown to Christians.*

Some of the articles of this treaty, which mitigate the excesses of war, indicate, if not a sense of justice, which must be equal Unaided as he was by the niggardly and universal, at least a sense of common king, it was not until 1497 that Cabot suc- interest, which is the road to the higher ceeded in fitting out one ship from Bristol, principle. No other transaction had before and three small vessels from London, fraught with some gross and slight wares

* Rymer, xii. 595. 5th March, 1496.

t Bacon, iii. Macpherson's Hist. of Commerce, ii. 2.

Dumont, Corps Diplom. iv. 30. 83. Rymer, xiii. 16. 132. Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, ii. 8.

so strongly evinced that Europe began to and her laws, to which the wisest men will recognize a reciprocity of rights and du- not be the most forward to apply the comties between states, and to reverence a code monplace arguments and opinions founded of rules and usages as much morally obli- on the ancient systems of Europe. gatory on nations as the ordinary maxims of private duty are on the conscience of individuals.

The hoard amassed by Henry, and "most of it under his own key and keeping in secret places at Richmond," is said to have The vast importance of a free and active amounted to near 1,800,000l., which, acexchange of all the products of human in- cording to our former conjectures, would be dustry manifestly appears, from this treaty, equivalent to about 16,000,000l.; an amount to have become an article in the political of specie so immense as to warrant a susbelief of some of the states, which had picion of exaggeration, in an age when been taught the value of traffic by experi- there was no control from public documents ence. When we now read such national on a matter of which the writers of history transactions, we feel our approach to those were ignorant. Our doubts of the amount mighty but then unobserved changes which amassed by Henry are considerably warwere about to raise the middle classes of ranted by the computation of Sir W. Petty, men to more influence than they had ever who, a century and a half later, calculated before enjoyed; to restore personal property the whole specie of England at only to that equality with real, of which the 6,000,0007. This hoard, whatever may feudal institutions had robbed it; in due have been its precise extent, was too great time to extend political importance to the to be formed by frugality, even under the lowest limits of liberal education; and at penurious and niggardly Henry. A system length to diffuse that education so widely of extortion was employed, which "the peoas to alter the seat of power, and to bring ple, into whom there is infused for the preinto question many opinions hitherto preva-servation of monarchies a natural desire to lent amongst statesmen. discharge their princes, though it be with That the rise of the pacific and industri- the unjust charge of their counsellors, did ous classes should coincide with the discov- impute unto cardinal Morton and Sir Regieries of a new continent and of eastern nald Bray, who, as it after appeared, as commerce, can only be thought accidental counsellors of ancient authority with him, by shallow observers of human affairs. did so second his humors as nevertheless When we consider the previous discov- they did temper them. Whereas Empson eries, the coincidence of the voyages of and Dudley, that followed, being persons Columbus with that of Gama, and with the that had no reputation with him, otherwise conclusion of the treaty now under consid- than by the servile following of his bent, eration, it appears evident that the growing did not give way only as the first did, but wealth of the trading body was the parent shaped his way to those extremities for of the passion for discovery, and the most which himself was touched with remorse important agent in the expeditions against at his death."* The means of exaction the new world. The attractions of roman- chiefly consisted in the fines incurred by tic adventure, the impulse of the fancy to slumbering laws, in commuting for money explore unknown lands, doubtless, added other penalties which fell on unknowing dignity to such enterprises, and some of offenders, and in the sale of pardons and the higher classes engaged in them with a amnesties. Every revolt was a fruitful portion of the warlike and proselytizing source of profit. When the great confisca spirit of crusaders. But the hope of new tions had ceased, much remained to be produce, and of exchanges more profitable, gleaned by true or false imputations of parwere the impelling motives of the discov- ticipation in treason. To be a dweller in a ery. The commercial classes were the first disaffected district, was, for the purposes of movers. The voyages first enriched them, the king's treasure, to be a rebel. No man and contributed in the course of three cen- could be sure that he had not incurred turies to raise them to a power of which no mulcts, or other grievous penalties, by some man can now either limit the extent or of those numerous laws which had so fallen foretell the remote consequences. As Amer- into disuse by their frivolous and vexatious ica was discovered by the same spirit which nature as to strike before they warned. It began to render all communities in their was often more prudent to compound by structure more popular, it is not singular money, even in false accusations, than to that she should herself most widen the basis brave the rapacity and resentment of the of government, and become the most demo- king and his tools. Of his chief instrucratical of states. That vast continent was ments, "Dudley was a man of good family, first settled for her rich commodities. She eloquent, and one that could put hateful is now contemplated at a higher stage of

her progress, for her prospects, her men,

* Bacon, iii. 409

business into good language. Empson, the it would be unnatural to treat as deserving son of a sieve-maker of Towcester, tri- praise, and which in him savored more of umphed in his deeds, putting off all other austere duty than of an easy, delightful, respects. They were privy-counsellors and and almost universal sentiment. His good lawyers, who turned law and justice into qualities were useful, but low; his vices wormwood and rapine."* They threw into were mean; and no personage in history of prison every man whom they could indict, so much understanding and courage is so and confined him, without any intention to near being despised. He was a man of prosecute, till he ransomed himself. They shrewd discernment, but of a mean spirit prosecuted the mayors and other magis- and a contracted mind. His love of peace, trates of the city of London for pretended if it had flowed from a purer source, would or trivial neglects of duty, long after the justly merit the highest praise, as one of time of the alleged offences; subservient the most important virtues of a ruler; but judges imposed enormous fines, and the in Henry it is deeply tinged by the mere king imprisoned during his own life some preference of craft to force, which characof the contumacious offenders. Alderman terizes his whole policy. In a word, he Hawes is said to have died heart-broken by had no dispositions for which he could be the terror and anguish of these proceed-admired or loved as a man. But he was ings. They imprisoned and fined juries not without some of the most essential of who hesitated to lend their aid when it was those qualities which commonly preserve a deemed convenient to seek it. To these, ruler from contempt, and, in general, best lord Bacon tells us, were added "other secure him against peril: activity, persecourses fitter to be buried than repeated."‡ verance, foresight, vigilance, boldness both Emboldened by long success, they at last martial and civil, conjoined with a wariness disdained to observe "the half face of jus- seldom blended with the more active qualtice," but summoning the wealthy and ities, eminently distinguished his unamiable timid before them in private houses, "shuf- but commanding character. fled up" a summary examination without a His religion, as far as we are informed, jury, and levied such exactions as were never calmed an angry passion, nor withmeasured only by the fears and fortunes of held him from a profitable wrong. He their victims. seems to have shown it chiefly in the suHenry, who had enjoyed sound health perstitious fears which haunted his deathduring his life, was, at the age of fifty-two, bed, when he made a feeble attempt to attacked by a consumption, which early in make amends for irreparable rapine by rethe distemper he deemed likely to prove storing what he could no longer enjoy, and fatal. He died on the 22d day of April, struggled to hurry through the formalities 1509, in the twenty-fourth year of a troub- of a compromise with the justice of Heaven lous but prosperous reign, in his palace at for his misdeeds.

CHAP. VIII.

HENRY VIII.

TO THE REFORMATION.

1509-1547.

Richmond, which he had himself built. He was interred in that beautiful chapel at Westminster which bears his name, and which is a noble monument of the architectural genius of his age. He was pacific though valiant, and magnificent in public works, though penurious to an unkingly excess in ordinary expenditure. The commendation bestowed on him, that "he was not cruel when secure," cannot be justifi- HENRY VIII. ascended the throne of Enged otherwise than as the general color of land on the 20th day of April, 1509. He his character, nor without exceptions which was the first prince for more than a centuwould allow a dangerous latitude to the ry who had ruled that kingdom with an uncare of personal safety. His sagacity and disputed title. Every other monarch since fortitude were conspicuous, but his pene- the deposition of Richard II. had been actrating mind was narrow, and in his wary counted an usurper by a portion of the peotemper firmness did not approach the bor-ple. Henry united in himself the titles of ders of magnanimity. Though skilled in York and Lancaster; he had no visible arms, he had no spirit of enterprise. competitor for the crown, nor was he disNo generosity lent lustre to his purposes; quieted by the shadow of a pretender; for no tenderness softened his rigid nature. the descendants of John of Gaunt through We hear nothing of any appearance of af- the royal families of the Spanish peninsula, fection, but that towards his mother, which never having disturbed England by setting up pretensions, cannot with propriety be called pretenders. Their claims, forgotten Ibid. perhaps by themselves, and obstructed by

* Bacon, iii. 380.

See examples in Bacon, iii. 404.
Bacon, iii. 381. § Ibid. 382.

VOL. I.

18

the formidable impediments of distance age, and hath a princely heart, and rather and language, were scarcely legible by than he will miss or want any part of his the keen eye of the most peering genealo- will or appetite, he will put the one half gist.* of his reign in danger. I warn you to be He was crowned at the age of eighteen; well advised what matter ye put in his a period of life which a bystander naturally head, for ye shall never put it out again."§ regards with indulgence, with hope, with a No historian has failed to relate what warm fellow-feeling in its joys. The cure was originally told by Paolo Sarpi, that of youthful disorders was intrusted to ex- Henry VII. educated his second son for perience; and though his youth unfitted the church, in order to provide for him him for the arduous duties of royalty, such amply without charge to the crown, "to considerations cannot consistently be allow- leave a passage open to ambition"|| (of ed to have much weight in an hereditary which a father more shrewd than fond algovernment. The prospect of the length ready perhaps descried the seeds), which, of his reign was enough to deter the timid with safety to the quiet of England, might and the selfish from incurring his displea- be thus turned towards the papal tiara. A sure, and disposed the greater number of writer, who did not allow his matchless courtiers and statesmen to vie with each acuteness as a metaphysician to disturb the other in eagerness for the favor of a master sense and prudence which are more valuwhom few of them could hope to survive. able qualities in an historian, has deplored The description of him, ten years after his the time wasted by the royal youth on the accession, by a Venetian minister in Lon- writings of Aquinas; rightly, if the acdon, shows the lively impression made on quirement of applicable knowledge be the grave personages by the gifts and graces sole purpose of education; but not so cerwith which nature had loaded the fortunate tainly true, if it rests on the supposition and not unaccomplished youth. "His ma- that any other study could have more jesty is about twenty-nine years of age, as strengthened and sharpened his reasoning handsome as nature could form him, above powers.

every other Christian prince; handsomer His council was composed, by the adby far than the king of France (Francis I., vice of the countess of Richmond, his only then in the flower of youth), he is exceed- surviving parent, from a judicious selection ing fair, and as well proportioned in every of his father's least obnoxious ministers. part as possible. He is an excellent musi- Archbishop Morton, chancellor; bishop Fox, cian and composer, an admirable horseman secretary; Surrey, the treasurer; Shrewsand wrestler, and possesses a good know-bury, the high steward; Somerset, the ledge of the French, Latin, and Spanish chamberlain; Lovel, Poynings, Marney, languages. On the days on which he goes and Darcy, with Ruthall, a doctor of civil to the chase he hears mass three times, on law. It is remarked as a singularity by other days he goes as often as five times. lord Herbert, that his council contained no He has daily service at vespers in the common lawyers; perhaps from the odium queen's chamber. He is uncommonly fond brought upon the profession by Dudley and of the chase, and never engages in it with- Empson, which alienated the king from out tiring eight or ten horses. He takes them during the early part of his reign, great delight in bowling; and it is the though he was always glad to find a prepleasantest sight in the world to see him text, if he could not discover a ground, for engaged in this exercise, with his fair skin his measures, in the common law. covered with a beautifully fine shirt. Affa- The solemnities of his father's funeral ble and benign, he offends none. He often being completed, he was to determine before said to the ambassador, I wish every one his coronation, whether he should fulfil the was content with his condition; we are nuptial engagement with his brother's wife, content with our islands.' He is very de- against which he had secretly protested, in sirous of preserving peace, and possesses order to reserve to himself the liberty of a great wealth." Yet even in his golden more active dissent in due season. It is age, closer and keener observers had re- hard to suppose that any serious deliberamarked, that "he is a prince of royal cour- tion should arise on the question of fulfilling sacred engagements to a blameless prinEngland, 248. 256. 260. John of Gaunt's eldest daugh- cess, the richly portioned daughter of a ter Philippa was queen of Portugal. His third daugh- powerful monarch, then probably the most ter Catharine was queen of Castile. Her grand- natural and useful ally of England. If any daughter Isabella was the wife of Ferdinand of

*Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of

Aragon. The heirs of these princesses may, perhaps, doubt then occurred of the validity of the be found in the houses of Braganza and Austria. marriage, the last moment for trying the Their blood flows in the veins of most of the reign

ing families of Europe.

† More exactly, twenty-eight.

Ellis's Letters.

question was at that time come. Faith and incredible. It was, perhaps, intended to honor, if not law, required that actual ac- secure the delinquents by the excessive quiescence in its legality at that moment severity of the punishment. They were should be deemed to silence all such objec- suffered to remain in jail till August; but tions to it for ever. Ample time had been the people raised a loud and honest, but indeed allowed for a more thorough and fierce cry against the real crimes. There speedy examination of scruples, for the dis- are none who are held in such just conpensation of pope Julius II. had been in tempt by an arbitrary government as their England six years. own tools. The ministers, regarding the Henry and Catharine were finally joined lives of the extortioners as formally forfeitin wedlock on the 6th of June, 1509, about ed, thought the sacrifice of their heads a six weeks after his father's demise. They cheap mode of appeasing the multitude, were crowned on the 24th of the same who in reality demanded justice only, but, month, with a splendor which those who being ignorant of what was or ought to be are curious about the shows and manners law, gave occasion to the infliction of an of that age will find painted by the chron- unjust death for an imaginary crime on iclers.*

these great delinquents. The speedy reversal of the attainders, on the petitions of their sons, seems to show the general be lief of the groundlessness of the charge of conspiracy.

When Dudley and Empson were brought before the council, the latter is reported to have delivered a speech abounding in the ingenious turns of a rhetorician, but glaringly defective in whatever constitutes an Louis XII., otherwise a good prince, effective defence, and even without that re- though his character has been injured by semblance to it which dramatic propriety undue praise, was, like his predecessor, alwould require in the mouth of a man lured by visions of conquest in Italy, which earnestly contending for his life. The sub- was then called "the grave of the French."** stance of his speech consisted in a com- A regard to the principle of preventing a plaint that he was now prosecuted for obey-state from unjustly aggrandizing herself ing and causing others to obey the laws; to so as to endanger her neighbors both by which it was answered, "that he should be the example and by the fruits of triumphant brought to trial only for passing the bounds iniquity, had been in some degree pracof his commission, and for stretching laws tised among the subtle politicians of Italy in themselves very severe." From these before it attracted much attention from the charges, however, it was discovered that great transalpine monarchs, who were too no ingenuity could extract a capital accu- powerful, turbulent, and improvident to sation; and perhaps the ministers were think much of distant and uncertain danger. ashamed of bringing men to the scaffold The petty usurpers and declining commonfor acts at which they had themselves con- wealths of Italy, like those of ancient nived, if they did not share them with Greece, whose contracted territory daily their late colleagues. To obviate these in- exposed them to a surprise of their capital conveniences, it was thought fit to indict and the loss of their independence, were them for a conspiracy, during the last ill-under the necessity of jealously watching ness of Henry, to seize on London with an the slightest vibration in the scales of the armed force, and to assume the powers of balance. Their existence might be hazgovernment, as soon as his demise was arded by a moment's slumber. Among known. Of the conspiracy, which, if it them, therefore, the balancing policy bewere true, would certainly amount to trea- came the cause of some wars, and the preson, Dudley was convicted at London, on text of others. Under this color, Julian de the 16th of July, 1509, and Empson at la Rovere, a politic and ambitious pontiff, Northampton, on the first of October. found it easy to rouse the envy of the EuThey were attainted in the next parlia- ropean sovereigns against Venice for her ment. The bill of attainder passed the riches and grandeur, on which they looked house of peers in two days, without the with all the passions kindled in the minds appearance of dissent from one man, in an of freebooters by a view of the booty which assembly composed of thirty-six temporal glitters among the magnificent works of and forty-seven spiritual lords, under cir- industry. The code of Venetian policy cumstances when it is hard to suppose that was, indeed, as faithless and merciless as the majority did not consider the charge as the administration of the transalpine mon

* Hall. Holinshed.

† Lord Herbert, in Kennet, iii. 3-5. January 21. 1509-1510.

§ Lords' Journals, Feb. 21. 1510.

There were only about twenty-seven temporal lords present at the first parliament of Henry VIII.

¶ Billa restitut. pro heredibus Edmundi Dudley. Lords' Journals, i. 16. Empson's Petition. Id. 14.

**"Comines."-Few of La Tremoule's flourishing army returned to France in 1505, though a very small number perished by the sword. Guiccard. vi. tt Sismondi, Rep. Ital. xvii. 427.