pelled to mount a scaffold at Westminster, and to read a paper by which he confessed himself to be an impostor. Warbeck afterwards contrived to have some communication with the earl of Warwick, his fellow prisoner, and a plan was concerted between them for their escape; but the plan being discovered, they were both executed. Perkin Warbeck was hanged at Tyburn, Nov. 23, 1499, and the earl of Warwick was beheaded on Tower Hill three days afterwards.

Henry, from this time till his death, was undisturbed either by tumulis at home or by wars abroad. He made many treaties of alliance and commerce with foreign countries, but he chiefly employed himself in amassing wealth, which he did in every possible way. He made many arbitrary and vexatious laws, and obliged those who infringed them in the slightest degree to pay heavy fines, or suffer imprisonment.

These rapacious schemes Henry carried on chiefly by the assistance of two lawyers, of the names of Empson and Dudley, whom he employed to entrap the rich and unwary. By these means, as well as by taxes and benevolences, he acquired immense wealth, not only in money, but also in plate and jewels. He kept it with the most anxious care, under his own lock and key, in secret apartments in the palace at Richmond.

The king's eldest daughter, Margaret, A. D. 1500. married James IV. of Scotland; and, in 1501, prince Arthur, his eldest son, married Catharine of Arragon, daughter of Ferdinard and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain; but in the following spring the young prince died, and Henry, unwilling to lose the marriage portion of the Spanish princess, married her to his other son, Henry, a boy of eleven years old. In 1503, the queen, Elizabeth of York, died.

A. D. 1506.

The archduke Philip of Austria, who had married the eldest sister of Catharine of Arragon, being on his way to Spain with his duchess, was

Did Warbeck escape from the Tower?

For what was Warbeck hanged?

What was the character of Henry's administration?

S

driven by contrary winds to land in England: and Henry, under pretext of showing him and the duchess extraordinary honor, detained them till he had extorted from Philip a promise to give him in marriage his sister, the duchess dowager of Savoy, with an enormous dower.

Henry also obliged Philip to make a commercial treaty, exceedingly advantageous to England, and prevailed with him to give up Edmund de la Pole a distressed nobleman of the house of York, who had taken refuge in the Austrian dominions. Philip complied most reluctantly with this last demand and Henry, when he had got all he wanted, suffered him and his duchess to depart.

Henry had scarcely got de la Pole into his power, when he became sensible that all his schemes of revenge, avarice, and ambition, were drawing to a close. A violent attack

of the gout gave him warning of his approaching end. He now devoted the remnant of his life to make preparations for the awful change he had to expect; but even his dying acts were tinctured by that money-loving spirit, which had governed his life. Amongst other things he ordered that two thousand masses should be said for him at sixpence a piece.

One or two of his bequests, however, exhibited something like a conscience, He ordered that restitution should be made to those persons from whom his agents Dudley and Empson had extorted more than the law could warrant. He also ordered the debts to be paid of all persons in London and Westminster who were imprisoned for 40s. or under. Having thus done every thing that fear and superstition suggested, he died at his palace at Richmond, April 21, 1509, in the 24th year of his reign, and the 54th of his age.

He married Elizabeth of York, and had two sons, and two daughters-Arthur, married Catharine of Arragon, and died young-Henry his successor;-Margaret, married, first, James IV. of Scotland, and, secondly, Douglas,

What marriage did Henry propose to make?

Whom did Philip of Austria give up to Henry VII. ?

What put a stop to all Henry's plans?

By what means did Henry amass wealth, and when did he die ?
Who were Henry the Seventh's children?

earl of Angus;-Mary, married, first, Louis XII. of France, and secondly, Brandon, duke of Suffolk.

The reign of Henry VII. was the dawn of what may properly be called English liberty; for though the Magna Charta had fenced in the nobles from the tyranny of the king, yet the great mass of the people were for a long time after exposed to the oppressions of the nobles: but now, the power of the nobility being much diminished by the long civil wars, the people began gradually to emerge from slavery.

Henry's policy also was to depress the nobles. He restricted the number of their retainers; and thus that idle race of people who had before passed their lives in following some great lord to the wars, or in hanging about his gates in time of peace, were driven to apply themselves to more industrious modes of life, and from helpless dependants became useful subjects.

Commerce too began to make a great alteration in the condition of persons in middle life; and Henry greatly facilitated their rise into consequence by lessening the strictness of entails, and so enabling the nobles to sell their estates, many of which thus came into the possession of rich commoners. With the change of property came a great change in the condition of all classes of people.

The land-owners found it advantageous to commute the service of their villeins for money, and made them pay rent for their lands and cottages; and thus from villeins they became tenants. It is very difficult to trace every step of the lowest orders of the people from villeinage, which at some periods was a state of mere slavery, to freedom. The progress was so various and so gradual, that the state of villeinage seemed to decline insensibly, and after this time we find no more mention made of it.

Military service to the great lords being abolished, the

Was civil liberty advanced in England during the reign of Henry VIL? How did Henry diminish the power of the nobles?

Did Henry change the tenure of property in England ?

How was service changed to rent?

Was the army establishment of England changed?

army of England became from this time an independent body. The officers and soldiers serving by their own consent, and being paid by the nation.

In this reign the Star Chamber was first instituted; an arbitrary court of law, in which the king used to attend in personas judge, and which was called the Star Chamber, from the decorations of the room in which the sittings were held.

Though Henry was a very unamiable man, yet in some respects his conduct as a king was beneficial to his country. His dislike to the nobles made him considerate of the lower orders, and his love of money made him encourage com. merce, and the navy. He built some four-masted ships, of a larger size than had ever been seen before.

Intelligence of the discoveries made by Columbus in the western hemisphere, disposed Henry to similar enterprises, and he fitted out a small fleet of ships, and sent them on a voyage of discovery, under the command of John Cabot, a Venetian merchant.

Cabot sailed in a north-west direction, and the first land he saw was what we now call Newfoundland, but which he called Prima Vista (first seen :) he next saw the island of St. John's and sailed to the south as far as Virginia, and then returned to England, where the king received him with great honour and knighted him.

What was the court of Star Chamber?

Were the English navy and commerce benefitted by Henry VII.?
Did Henry encourage maritime discovery?

How did Henry treat John Cabot?

Henry VIII. was in his nineteenth year when he ascended the throne. His understanding was shrewd and clear; he had received what was then thought a good edu cation, and had more learning than most princes of his time. The pretensions of the two rival families of York and Lancaster were united in his person, and he was the first king since Richard II. who had ascended the throne with an undisputed title to it. He enjoyed great popularity, his father had left him an enormous treasure, and the country was free both from foreign and from domestic wars. In short, no king of England had ever begun to reign under more prosperous circumstances.

For the first two years of this reign the political affairs of England prospered. Henry appointed a council of men of approved wisdom. He brought Dudley and Empson

When, and under what circumstances did Henry VIII. succeed to the throne of England?

What were the first measures of Henry's reign, and who became his hief counsellor ?