decisive victory of Bosworth (Aug. 22) established himself on the throne.

As this event was soon followed by his marriage with Elizabeth of York, Henry's accession is ordinarily spoken. of as the result of the support of the Yorkists, and a compromise of the claims of the two houses; but such was not his own view of it. Before the marriage he procured the settlement of the crown on himself and his heirs only; and in his will he speaks of " the crown which it pleased God to give us, with the victory of our enemy in our first field.”

Henry had been bred in adversity, but he had not learnt mercy. He entertained a deep hatred of the House of York, and laboured, but too successfully, to depress all its members and adherents. Insurrections were the consequence; he succeeded in suppressing them all, and, though not wanting in courage, was indebted far less to arms than to policy for the tranquillity which attended his later years. He more than once declared war against France and against Scotland, but never proceeded to hostilities, and is indeed generally suspected of fomenting the misunderstandings which arose as pretexts for subsidies, which he applied to his own purposes. The acquisition of treasure seems to have been his ruling passion, and he found ready instruments in two lawyers (Richard Empson and Edmund

He, as well as many of his adherents, had been long under attainder; the judges, however, prudently declared that his success purged that defect in him, and the parliament which shortly after assembled relieved the rest from their disabilities.

He held language to his first parliament, which implies that his victory was his real title to the crown; but he chose to put that victory as God's testimony to "his just hereditary title."

Dudley) who so dexterously perverted existing laws or revived obsolete ones, for the purposes of extortion, that the most innocent were obliged to pay enormous fines for imaginary offences to avoid utter ruin. Having lost his queen and eldest son, Henry engaged in various schemes for a new marriage, but the negotiations were delayed by his wish to obtain a rich portion; in the midst of his projects he was surprised by illness, when he turned his thoughts to works of piety and charity, founded monasteries and released debtors, and at length died at Richmond, April 21, 1509, and was buried in the sumptuous chapel at Westminster which bears his name, May 10.

By his wife, Elizabeth of York, (who was born in 1465 or 1466, and died Feb. 11, 1503,) he had three sons and four daughters :

:

1. Arthur, born at Winchester, Sept. 20, 1486, married Katherine of Arragon, Nov. 14, 1501, and dying April 2, 1502, was buried in Worcester Cathedral, April 27.

2. HENRY, became king.

3, 4, 5. Edmund, Elizabeth, and Katherine, died young.

6. Margaret, born Nov. 29, 1489, was married successively to James IV. of Scotland; to Archibald Douglas, earl of Angus; and to Henry Stuart, Lord Methven.

Empson was the son of a sieve-maker, but Dudley was a gentleman, of the family of Lord Dudley of Sutton. He had a grant of the wardship of Elizabeth, daughter of Grey, Lord Lisle, and married her, whence his son in after years obtained the titles of Lord Lisle and earl of Warwick.

His tomb was commenced at Windsor in 1501 or earlier, but it was removed to Westminster in 1503.

She was the grandmother of both Mary, queen of Scots, and her husband Darnley, and after a life of considerable vicissitude, died at Methven, near Perth, in 1541.

7. Mary, born in 1498, married first Louis XII. of France, and afterwards Charles Brandon, created duke of Suffolk; Lady Jane Grey was her grand-daughter by this latter marriage. She died June 25, 1533.

The royal arms and motto remained unchanged, but for supporters Henry VII. employed a red dragon and a white greyhound, sometimes the former being the dexter supporter, and sometimes the latter. For badges he used the hawthorn bush royally crowned, and the white greyhound courant; he also employed the red dragon and the dun cow as badges, as he claimed descent from Cadwallader and Guy of Warwick.

Henry's conduct throughout his reign was unworthy of the station to which his enterprise and abilities had

i In one instance (the Bishop's palace, Exeter) the supporters are both greyhounds.

j In commemoration, it is said, of King Richard's crown having been found in a bush on the field of battle.

raised him. No consideration of justice or mercy prevailed in his dealings with the adherents of the House of York; he devoted his whole soul to the acquisition, even by the vilest means, of treasure, which he guarded with all the jealousy of a miser under his own lock and key, though he lavishly disbursed it for the preparation of a pompous burial-place; he sacrificed those who in early life had rendered him the most important services; he had no friends, no confidants, but was his own minister, and all his transactions with foreign powers betray his dark, designing, treacherous and ungrateful character.

A.D. 1435. Henry, earl of Richmond, is proclaimed king by his partisans on the field of battle, Aug. 221. He enters London, August 27, and is crowned October 30.

His treatment of the sisters of his wife seems a proof of his settled purpose to depress their house, as they were all married much beneath their rank. Some modern writers have asserted that he shewed kindness and liberality to his queen, but the following among other entries in his Privy Purse Accounts are opposed to such a view:-

"1497, Feb. 1. Delivered to the queen's grace to pay her debts, which is to be repaid, £2,000.

"1502, April 29. To the queen's grace in loan upon certain plate, £500."

From another entry after her death (dated May 2, 1503), it would seem that the queen also obtained money from other parties, as a sum is noted as paid to redeem her pledges.

He also expended a portion on the restoration of the palaces at Richmond and Greenwich, and he founded a few Franciscan convents; yet these disbursements very little affected his hoard, and he died the richest prince in Christendom.

His regnal years are ordinarily computed from this day, but some of the statutes of his first parliament (those of attainder and resumption,) date his reign from August 21, the day before the battle.

The young earl of Warwickm is brought from Yorkshire, and confined in the Tower.

A parliament meets Nov. 7; the crown is settled on Henry and his heirs, "and none other," [1 Hen. VII. C. 1,] the attainders of the Lancastrians are reversed, and the duke of Norfolk, Lord Lovel, and other partisans of Richard III. attainted.

Wines from Gascony forbidden to be imported except in English, Irish, or Welsh vessels, [1 Hen. VII. c. 8].

A general pardon granted of all offences committed by Henry's adherents against those of Richard, [c. 6].

Beside these proceedings in parliament, Henry took several steps on his own sole authority. He revoked all crown grants made since the 34th of Henry VI. (14545), which placed the possessions of the Yorkists especially at his mercy; and having procured the attainder of the richest of Richard's friends, he granted a pardon to the rest. Many of them, however, distrusted him, and either remained in sanctuary or quitted England.

A.D. 1486. Henry marries Elizabeth of York, Jan. 18; she is not crowned until near the end of the next year.

m The son of the duke of Clarence, since whose death (in 1478) he had been kept in a kind of honourable custody at the castle of Sheriff Hutton.

The statute against Edward's queen was also repealed, but it does not appear that her dower lands were restored.

• In 1489 another statute was enacted [4 Hen. VII. c. 10], which prohibited the bringing of wine and woad in alien ships, or the employment of such ships by native merchants while native ships were to be had, thus establishing the principle of the Navigation Acts, so long regarded as the mainstay of British commerce, but now abrogated.