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II  it 


■■* 


THE   WORKS 


OF 


FRANCIS    BACON. 


LIBRARY         <j> 

ST.     ALPHONSVS    SEMIJ^RY 
WOODSTOCK,    ONTAjfe) 


,  t  b  e  I  o  i 


THE 


WORKS 


OF 


FRANCIS    BACON, 

BARON  OF  VERULAM,   VISCOUNT  ST.  ALBANS 
LORD  HIGH  CHANCELLOR  OF  ENG 


(Eollecteti  ana  25Utte 


BY 


JAMES     SPEDDING, 


OF   TRINITY   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDG 


ROBERT    LESLIE     ELLIS,  W. 

LATE   FELLOW   OF   TRINITY   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE; 


DOUGLAS    DENON    HEATH, 

BARRISTER-AT-LAW ;     LATE   FELLOW   OF  TRINITY    COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE. 

VOLUME   XL 

BEING 

VOL.  I.  OF  THE  LITERARY  AND  PROFESSIONAL  WORKS. 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED    BY    BROWN    AND    TAGGARD. 


M  DCCC  LX. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE  : 

STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED    BY 

H.   0.   HOUGHTON. 


PREFACE 


Among  the  Harleian  manuscripts  in  the  British 
Museum,  there  is  a  volume  bearing  the  following 
title  :  —  "  The  Writings  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  Knt., 
the  King's  Solicitor  General,  in  Morality,  Policy,  and 
History."  It  is  only  half  filled,  and  contains  nothing 
but  essays.  We  may  infer  however  from  the  title- 
page  that  it  was  at  that  time  Bacon's  intention  to 
gather  his  writings  of  that  class  into  a  separate  col- 
lection ;  and  I  suppose  that  if  it  had  been  continued 
and  completed  according  to  that  intention,  it  would 
have  contained  all  such  pieces  as  are  here  collected 
under  the  title  of  Literary  Works ;  by  which  I  mean 
works  which  were  intended  to  take  their  place  among 
books  ;  as  distinguished  from  writings  of  business,  which 
though  they  may  be  collected  into  books  afterwards, 
were  composed  without  reference  to  anything  beyond 
the  particular  occasion  to  which  they  relate.  The 
Philosophical  Works  contained  in  the  first  three  vol- 
umes of  this  edition  belong  of  course  to  this  class  ; 
and  next  to  them  in  order  of  importance  come  the 


vi  PREFACE. 

Historical,  Moral,  and  Political  Works,  of  which  this 
volume  contains  the  most  considerable. 

For  the  particular  history  of  each  piece,  and  the 
manner  in  which  I  have  dealt  with  it,  I  refer  to  the 
several  prefaces.  Those  which  are  written  in  Latin, 
are  followed  by  English  translations ;  for  which,  as 
indeed  for  everything  in  this  volume,  I  am  alone  and 
entirely  responsible. 

The  engraving  which  stands  as  frontispiece  is  a  very 
correct  representation  of  a  bust  belonging  to  the  Earl 
of  Verulam,  to  whose  kindness  I  am  indebted  for  per- 
mission to  have  a  drawing  made  of  it  for  this  purpose, 
as  well  as  for  the  facilities  given  to  the  artist.  It  is  a 
colored  bust  in  terra-cotta,  and  is  one  of  a  set  of  three, 
done  in  the  same  style  and  material,  and  apparently 
by  the  same  hand ;  said  to  be  portraits  of  Sir  Nicholas 
Bacon,  Anne,  his  second  wife,  and  their  son  Francis, 
when  twelve  years  old.  I  regret  that  I  could  not  learn 
anything  more  about  them.  They  must  have  been 
done  about  the  year  1572,  by  an  artist  of  no  ordinary 
skill,  and  have  probably  been  at  Gorhambury  ever 
since.  They  show,  among  other  things,  that  Bacon's 
likeness  was  to  his  mother  ;  a  fact,  I  believe,  not  other- 
wise known. 

J.  S. 


CONTENTS 

OP 

THE  ELEVENTH  VOLUME. 


LITERARY  WORKS. 

History  of  the  Reign  of  King  Henry  Vn.      .        .11 

Appendix  I. —  Great  Councils 367 

U. — Perkin  Warbeck's  Proclamation    .         .374 
III.  —  Character  of  Henry  VII.  from  the  Latin 

Translation 379 

The  Beginning  of  the   History  of  the  Reign  of 
King  Henry  VIH.         . 391 

The  Beginning  of  the  History  of  Great  Britain    399 

In  Felicem  Memoriam  Elizabeths,  Anglic  Reginjs  41 1 

The  same  translated  into  English   .        .        .         .        .443 


THE 


LITEKAEY  AND  PKOFESSIONAL  WOEKS 


OF 


FRANCIS     BACON. 


LITERARY   WORKS. 


PKEFACE 


HISTORY  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII. 


The  history  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh 
was  the  first  work  composed  by  Bacon  after  his  fall ; 
the  fruit  of  his  first  few  months  of  leisure.  The  sub- 
ject indeed  of  which  it  forms  the  opening  chapter  — 
viz :  a  History  of  England  from  the  Union  of  the  Roses 
to  the  Union  of  the  Crowns  —  was  one  which  he  had 
long  before  pointed  out  as  eminently  worth  handling ; 
but  until  the  time  when  he  saw  his  retirement  from 
public  life  inevitable,  and  that  (to  use  his  own  words) 
"being  no  longer  able  to  do  his  country  service  it 
remained  to  him  to  do  it  honour,"  he  does  not  seem 
to  have  thought  of  undertaking  any  part  of  it  himself. 
And  though  it  may  appear  from  a  letter  to  the  king 
that  he  had  conceived  the  purpose  as  early  as  the  21st 
of  April  1621,  when  he  was  in  the  middle  of  his 
troubles,  it  is  not  before  the  4th  of  June,  when  he  was 
released  from  the  Tower,  —  hardly  perhaps  before  the 
22nd,  when  he  returned  to  Gorhambury, — that  he  can 
be  supposed  to  have  commenced  the  work.  By  the 
end  of  the  following  October,  or  thereabouts,  he  had 


14  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

finished  this  portion  of  it  in  its  present  form,  and  sent 
a  fair  transcript  to  the  king.  It  may  be  regarded  there- 
fore as  the  labour  of  a  long  vacation. 

To  say  that  such  a  work  was  executed  in  four  or 
five  months  by  a  man  who  was  excluded  (except  dur- 
ing the  last  six  weeks)  from  London,  where  all  the 
unpublished  materials  were,  is  to  say  that  it  is  in  many 
ways  imperfect.  The  original  records  of  the  time  had 
not  been  studied  by  any  man  with  a  genius  for  writing 
history,  nor  gathered  into  a  book  by  any  laborious  col- 
lector. The  published  histories  were  full  of  inaccu- 
racies and  omissions,  which  it  was  impossible  to  correct 
or  supply  without  much  laborious  research  in  public 
archives  and  private  collections.  The  various  studies 
of  his  civil  life  had  made  him  acquainted  no  doubt 
with  many  things  illustrative  of  his  subject  ;  but 
for  these  he  must  have  trusted  to  the  fidelity  of  his 
memory.  What  Sir  Robert  Cotton  could  supply  was 
liberally  communicated  ;  but  Cotton  House  was  within 
the  forbidden  precinct,  and  any  man  who  has  attempted 
this  kind  of  work  knows  how  imperfect  a  substitute 
another  man's  eyes  and  judgment  are  for  his  own.  For 
the  rest  of  his  raw  material  he  must  have  trusted  en- 
tirely to  the  published  histories  then  extant ;  to  Fabyan, 
who  furnished  only  a  naked  and  imperfect  chronicle  of 
London  news ;  to  Polydore  Vergil,  who  supplied  a 
narrative,  continuous  indeed  and  aspiring  to  be  his- 
torical, but  superficial  and  careless  and  full  of  errors ; 
to  Hall  and  Holinshed,  who  did  little  more  than  trans- 
late and  embellish  Polydore  ;  to  Stowe,  whose  inde- 
pendent and  original  researches  had  only  contributed 
a  few  additional  facts  and  dates  ;  and  to  Speed,  whose 
history,  though  enriched  with  some  valuable  records 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  15 

and  digested  with  a  more  discriminating  judgment  than 
had  been  brought  to  the  task  before,  was  yet  composed 
for  the  most  part  out  of  the  old  materials,  and  retained 
almost  all  the  errors. 

From  these  imperfect,  unskilful,  and  inaccurate  out- 
lines, aided  by  the  fruits  of  his  own  former  reading 
and  observation,  by  a  learned  acquaintance  with  the 
statutes  of  the  realm,  and  by  such  original  documents 
as  Sir  Robert  Cotton  could  supply,  to  educe  a  living 
likeness  of  the  man  and  the  time,  to  detect  the  true 
relations  of  events,  and  to  present  them  to  the  reader 
in  their  proper  succession  and  proportions,  was  the 
task  which  he  now  undertook. 

In  this,  which  under  such  conditions  was  all  he  could 
attempt,  he  succeeded  so  well  that  he  has  left  later  his*- 
torians  little  to  do.  Subsequent  researches  have  but 
confirmed  and  illustrated  the  substantial  truth  of  his 
history  in  all  its  main  features.  The  portrait  of  Henry 
as  drawn  by  him  is  the  original,  more  or  less  faithfully 
copied,  of  all  the  portraits  which  have  been  drawn 
since.  The  theory  of  the  events  of  Henry's  reign  as 
formed  and  expounded  by  him  has  been  adopted  by 
every  succeeding  historian  as  the  basis  of  his  narrative. 
Those  who  have  most  slighted  his  authority  have  not 
the  less  followed  his  guidance  and  drawn  their  light 
from  him.  Those  who  have  aspired  to  correct  his 
work  have  only  turned  a  likeness  into  a  caricature  and 
history  into  invective.  The  composition  bears  indeed 
some  traces  of  the  haste  with  which  it  was  written : 
but  if  that  be  the  best  history  which  conveys  to  a 
reader  the  clearest  conception  of  the  state  and  progress 
of  affairs  during  the  period  of  which  it  treats,  not  one 
of  the  histories  of  Henry  the  Seventh  that  have  been 


16  PEEFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

written  since  can  bear  a  comparison  with  this.  The 
facts  he  was  obliged,  for  the  reasons  above  stated,  to 
take  and  leave  almost  as  he  found  them  ;  but  the  effect 
of  his  treatment  of  them  was  like  that  of  bringing  a 
light  into  a  dark  room :  the  objects  are  there  as  they 
were  before,  but  now  you  can  distinguish  them. 

In  superintending  a  new  edition  of  this  history  I 
have  aimed  chiefly  at  four  things.  1st,  to  obtain  a 
correct  text.  2nd,  to  ascertain  as  far  as  possible 
whether  the  statements  in  the  text  are  accurate ;  and 
to  point  out  in  foot-notes  all  inaccuracies,  however 
trivial.  3rd,  to  supply  omissions,  where  they  seemed 
important.  And  lastly,  to  notice  all  passages  in  which 
the  Latin  translation  (which  was  prepared  under 
Bacon's  own  eye  some  years  after)  varies  in  meaning 
from  the  original  English. 

1.  For  the  text,  there  are  only  two  authorities  of 
any  value  :  the  original  manuscript,  which  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  king  in  the  autumn  of  1621,  and  is 
preserved  (all  but  a  few  leaves)  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum ;  and  the  original  edition,  which  was  printed  in 
the  following  March.  Which  of  these  two  is  the  best 
authority,  it  is  not  easy  to  decide.  The  print,  as  being 
the  later,  may  be  supposed  to  have  the  last  corrections. 
But  the  manuscript,  as  having  certainly  been  looked 
over  and  corrected  by  Bacon  himself  (which  it  is  not 
certain  that  the  proof-sheets  were),  may  be  supposed 
to  have  the  fewest  errors.  I  do  not  know  how  far  it 
was  usual  in  those  days  for  the  author  to  meddle  with 
his  work  after  it  was  in  the  printer's  hands ;  but  in  this 
case,  from  a  careful  comparison  of  the  two,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  that  where  the  print  varies  from  the 
manuscript,  it  is  generally  by  mistake.     It  is  from  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  17 

manuscript  therefore  that  I  have  printed  the  text.  The 
various  readings  of  the  printed  copy  I  have  quoted  in 
the  notes :  neglecting  however  all  varieties  of  mere 
form,  such  as  the  introduction  of  capital  letters,  of 
italics,  and  of  inverted  commas  ;  which,  as  there  is  no 
direction  for  them  in  the  manuscript,  I  ascribe  to  the 
printer's  fancy  and  the  typographical  fashion  of  the 
day.  In  the  division  of  the  paragraphs  I  have  also 
silently  followed  the  manuscript ;  without  noticing  the 
places  where  the  printed  copy  gives  a  different  one, 
unless  there  be  a  doubt  which  is  right.  The  spelling 
is  modernised  throughout:  and  I  have  used  my  own 
judgment  as  to  the  punctuation ;  —  observing  always 
the  spirit  and  intention  of  the  punctuation  in  the 
manuscript. 

This  manuscript  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum ;  Additional  MSS.  vol.  7084.  It  is  a  fair  tran- 
script in  a  very  clear  hand.  Bacon's  own  pen  may  be 
recognised  here  and  there  throughout,  sometimes  in 
the  alteration  of  a  stop,  sometimes  in  the  insertion  of  a 
parenthesis,  sometimes  in  the  correction  of  a  letter, 
sometimes  in  the  interlineation  of  two  or  three  words. 
A  few  leaves  are  wanting,  which  are  noticed  in  the 
places. 

The  printed  copy  is  a  tall  quarto  of  248  pages,  with 
the  following  title,  The  Historie  of  the  Baigne  of  King 
Henry  the  Seventh,  written  by  the  Right  Honourable 
Francis  Lord  Verulam,  Viscount  St.  Alban.  London. 
Printed  by  W.  Stansby  for  Matthew  Lownes  and  Wil- 
liam Barret,  1622.  A  portrait  of  Henry,  with  sceptre 
and  ball,  is  prefixed ;  harshly  engraved  by  John  Payne  ; 
with  the  inscription  cor  regis  inscrutabile.  The  face, — 
thoughtful,  anxious,  lean,  and  furrowed,  —  seems  to  be 


18  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

the  original  of  the  comely,  grave,  well-fed  gentleman 
with  whom  we  are  familiar  in  Vertue's  engraving. 
The  book  was  printed  and  ready  for  publication  on  the 
20th  of  March  1621-2  ;  and  "  the  printer's  fingers 
itched  to  be  selling." a  Some  delay  seems  to  have  been 
caused  by  a  scruple  of  the  Bishop  of  London  ;  but  it 
was  published  soon  after.2 

2.  In  order  to  detect  inaccuracies,  I  have  endeav- 
oured (besides  consulting  the  more  recent  histories) 
to  determine,  wherever  I  could  do  so  from  authentic 
sources,  the  exact  dates  of  the  transactions  related  ;  and 
where  I  have  found  them  inconsistent  with  the  narra- 
tive, or  have  otherwise  detected  or  seen  reason  to 
suspect  any  error,  I  have  noticed  the  fact ;  not  confin- 
ing myself  to  cases  in  which  the  error  seems  to  be  of 
consequence ;  but  correcting  positive  misstatements  of 
every  kind ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  say  of  any  fact  that 
it  is  of  no  consequence,  unless  you  could  know  how  it 
may  be  combined  with  other  facts  and  what  inferences 
it  may  be  made  to  support. 

3.  With  regard  to  the  supply  of  omissions,  on  the 
contrary,  I  have  taken  pains  to  distinguish  the  impor- 
tant from  the  unimportant.  Clearness  of  narrative 
depends  upon  nothing  more  than  upon  the  rejection  of 
what  is  immaterial ;  and  innumerable  particulars  were 
no  doubt  omitted  by  Bacon  on  purpose.  Nevertheless 
many  facts  have  come  to  light  since  Bacon's  time 
which  he  would  have  introduced  into  his  narrative  if 
he  had  been  aware  of  them  ;  and  whatever  has  seemed 


1  See  a  letter  from  Meautys,  which  appears  to  have  been  written  on  that 
day. 

2  It  was  out  on  the  6th  of  April.     See  a  letter  from  Rev.  Joseph  Mead 
to  Sir  Martin  Stuteville.  —  Court  and  Times  of  James  I.,  vol.  ii.  p.  303. 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  19 

to  me  to  be  of  this  nature,  I  have  not  hesitated  to  in- 
troduce in  the  notes.  So  that  I  hope  this  history  may 
now  be  recommended  not  only  as  the  richest,  clearest, 
and  liveliest  narrative,  and  in  general  effect  the  most 
faithful  portraiture,  of  the  time  (which  with  all  its 
defects  it  always  was)  ;  but  also  as  the  most  complete 
in  details  and  the  most  accurate  in  information. 

4.  Lastly,  with  regard  to  the  Latin  translation. 
This  edition  being  intended  especially  for  English 
readers,  it  has  not  been  thought  desirable  to  increase 
its  size  and  cost  by  reprinting  translations  which  were 
intended  only  for  foreigners  ;  and  which,  being  for  the 
most  part  mere  translations,  no  English  reader  would 
prefer  to  the  original.  It  was  to  be  remembered  how- 
ever that  they  were  made  either  by  Bacon  himself  or 
under  his  eye  and  direction  ("  Historiam  Henrici  Sep- 
timi,  quam  etiam  in  Latinum  verti"  is  his  own  ex- 
pression in  the  dedication  prefixed  to  the  Sermones 
Fideles)  ;  and  therefore  that  where  they  differ  in 
meaning  or  effect  more  than  the  different  idiom  of  the 
language  seems  to  require,  the  Latin  must  pass  for  the 
later  and  better  authority.  I  have  therefore  compared 
the  two  sentence  by  sentence,  and  wherever  I  have 
found  that  the  Latin  version  contains  any  meaning  that 
is  not  fully  or  exactly  represented  by  the  English,  — 
that  it  explains  an  obscure,  decides  a  doubtful,  or 
corrects  an  inaccurate  expression,  —  I  have  quoted  the 
Latin  words. 

This  I  think  is  all  I  need  say  in  explanation  of  my 
own  part  in  the  revision  and  elucidation  of  this  work. 
A  few  words  as  to  the  character  of  the  work  itself. 
For  it  will  be  seen  that,  while  admitting  and  account- 


20  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY   OF 

ing  for  its  imperfections,  I  have  ascribed  to  it  a  sub- 
stantial excellence  far  higher  than  it  has  credit  for; 
and  I  may  be  expected  to  give  a  reason  for  dissenting 
from  the  popular  judgment,  supported  as  it  is  by  some 
eminent  authorities. 

In  so  far  as  the  difference  is  a  matter  of  taste,  I  can 
only  say  that  since  the  proper  object  of  history  is  to 
reproduce  such  an  image  of  the  past  that  the  actors 
shall  seem*  to  live  and  the  events  to  pass  before  our 
eyes,  that  style  of  historical  composition  should  be  the 
best  in  which  this  is  most  completely  accomplished  ; 
and  that  I  have  met  with  no  history  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Seventh,  nor  indeed  of  any  other  English 
king,  in  which  such  an  effect  is  produced  in  a  degree 
at  all  comparable  to  this.  Indeed  if  the  question  could 
be  made  to  turn  upon  that  point,  I  almost  think  that 
such  would  be  the  general  opinion.  But  it  is  true  that 
during  the  last  century  popular  taste  in  this  kind  of 
composition  ran  another  way ;  forsaking  the  model  of 
Thucydides,  in  whose  pages  the  events  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war  still  live  as  fresh  as  those  which  we  follow 
day  by  day  in  the  newspapers ;  and  declining  to  that 
of  the  Annual  Register,  where  the  events  of  1848,  so 
strange,  so  interesting,  so  agitating,  as  we  read  of  them 
while  they  were  passing,  may  be  seen  laid  up  in  1849 
as  dead  and  dry  as  mummies.  In  so  far  as  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  taste,  Bacon's  history,  tried  by  such  a  standard, 
must  of  course  fail. 

It  is  not  however  to  a  difference  of  taste  merely,  that 
the  low  place  which  it  holds  in  popular  estimation  must 
be  attributed.  It  is  connected  no  doubt  with  a  veiy 
prevalent,  though  a  very  erroneous,  impression,  that  it 
is  not  a  true  portraiture  of  the  time  ;  that  it  was  written 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  21 

with  other  objects  than  those  of  a  faithful  historian ; 
written  not  to  reproduce  a  true  image  of  Henry  the 
Seventh,  but  to  flatter  the  humour  of  James  the  First 
by  drawing  such  a  picture  of  his  ancestor  as  should 
indirectly  reflect  honour  on  himself.  I  do  not  know 
into"  whose  imagination  this  idea  first  entered,  but  it 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  most  modern  criticisms,  and  is 
set  forth  at  large  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh  in  a  note 
appended  to  the  second  volume  of  his  History  of 
England,  in  Lardner's  Cabinet  Cyclopaedia.  The 
question  being  too  serious  to  be  passed  over,  and  the 
authority  too  respectable  to  be  overruled  without  show- 
ing reasons,  I  shall  quote  his  note  at  length. 

"  Lord  Bacon  was  the  man  of  highest  intellect  among  the  writers 
of  history ;  but  he  was  not  the  greatest  historian.  History  ought 
to  be  without  passion  ;  but  if  it  be  without  feeling,  it  loses  the  in- 
terest which  bestows  on  it  the  power  of  being  useful.  The  narra- 
tive of  human  actions  would  be  thrown  aside  as  a  mere  catalogue 
of  names  and  dates,  if  it  did  not  maintain  its  sway  by  inspiring  the 
reader  with  pity  for  the  sufferer,  with  anger  against  the  oppressor, 
and  with  earnest  desires  for  the  triumph  of  right  over  might.  The 
defects  of  Bacon's  nature  conspired  with  the  faults  of  his  concep- 
tion of  history  to  taint  his  work  with  lukewarm  censure  of  false- 
hood and  extortion,  with  a  cool  display  of  the  expedients  of 
cunning,  and  with  too  systematic  a  representation  of  the  policy  of 
a  monarch  in  whose  history  he  chose  to  convey  a  theory  of  king- 
craft and  the  likeness  of  its  ideal  model.  A  writer  who  has  been 
successful  in  unravelling  an  intricate  character  often  becomes 
indulgent  to  the  man  whose  seeming  inconsistencies  he  has  ex- 
plained, and  may  at  length  regard  the  workings  of  his  own  inge- 
nuity with  a  complacency  which  prevails  over  his  indignation. 
Aristotle,  who  first  attempted  a  theory  of  usurpation,  has  escaped 
the  appearance  of  this  fault,  partly  because  sensibility  is  not  ex- 
pected, and  would  displease  in  a  treatise  on  government.  Machi- 
avel  was  unhappily  too  successful  in  silencing  his  abhorrence  of 
crimes ;  but  this  fault  is  chiefly  to  be  found  in  "  The  Prince,'" 
which  is  a  treatise  on  the  art  of  winning  and  keeping  tyrannical 


22  PREFACE   TO  THE  HISTORY   OF 

power;  which  was  destined  by  the  writer  neither  to  instruct 
tyrants  nor  to  warn  nations  against  their  arts,  but  simply  to  add 
the  theory  of  these  arts  to  the  stock  of  human  knowledge ;  as  a 
philosophical  treatise  on  poisons  might  be  intended  only  to  explain 
their  nature  and  effects,  though  the  information  contained  in  it 
might  be  abused  by  the  dealer  in  poison,  or  usefully  employed  for 
cure  or  relief  by  the  physician. 

"  Lord  Bacon  displayed  a  much  smaller  degree  of  this  vice,  but 
he  displayed  it  in  history,  where  it  is  far  more  unpardonable.  In 
the  singular  passage  where  he  lays  down  the  theory  of  the  ad- 
vancement of  fortune  (which  he  knew  so  well  and  practised  so 
ill),  he  states  the  maxim  which  induced  the  Grecian  and  Italian 
philosophers  to  compose  their  dissertations,  '  that  there  be  not 
anything  in  being  or  action  which  should  not  be  drawn  into  con- 
templation or  doctrine.'  He  almost  avows  an  intention  of  em- 
bodying in  the  person  of  his  hero  (if  that  be  the  proper  term)  too 
much  of  the  ideal  conception  of  a  wary,  watchful,  unbending 
ruler,  who  considers  men  and  affairs  merely  as  they  affect  him 
and  his  kingdom  ;  who  has  no  good  quality  higher  then  prudence  ; 
who  is  taught  by  policy  not  to  be  cruel  when  he  is  secure,  but 
who  treats  pity  and  affection  like  malice  and  hatred,  as  passions 
which  disturb  his  thoughts  and  bias  his  judgment.  So  systematic 
a  purpose  cannot  fail  to  distort  character  and  events,  and  to  divest 
both  of  their  power  over  feeling.  It  would  have  been  impossible 
for  Lord  Bacon,  if  he  had  not  been  betrayed  by  his  chilling 
scheme,  to  prefer  Louis  XL  to  Louis  XII.,  and  to  declare  that 
Louis  XL,  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  and  Henry  VII.,  were  the 
'  three  magi  among  the  kings  of  the  age;'  though  it  be  true  that 
Henry  was  the  least  odious  of  the  three  royal  sages. 

"  It  is  due  in  the  strictest  justice  to  Lord  Bacon  not  to  omit,  that 
the  history  was  written  to  gratify  James  I.,  to  whom  he  was  then 
suing  for  bitter  bread,  who  revised  it,  and  whom  he  addressed  in 
the  following  words :  —  'I  have  therefore  chosen  to  write  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIL,  who  was  in  a  sort  your  forerunner;  and  whose 
spirit  as  well  as  his  blood  is  doubled  upon  your  majesty.'  Bacon 
had  just  been  delivered  from  prison  :  he  had  passed  his  sixtieth 
year,  and  was  galled  by  unhonoured  poverty.  What  wonder  if 
in  these  circumstances  even  his  genius  sunk  under  such  a  patron 
and  such  a  theme  ! "  l 

1  Lardner's  Cyclopaedia,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  362. 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  23 

Now  setting  aside  for  the  present  the  general  ques- 
tion as  to  the  spirit  in  which  history  ought  to  be  writ- 
ten, and  the  particular  question  as  to  the  spirit  in 
which  this  history  is  written,  upon  both  which  points  I 
shall  have  a  word  to  say  presently,  let  us  first  consider 
the  more  positive  and  definite  imputations  contained  in 
the  foregoing  passage.  That  Bacon  wrote  the  book  to 
gratify  James ;  that  in  order  to  gratify  James  he  rep- 
resented Henry  as  a  model  of  king-craft ;  and  that 
the  systematic  purpose  of  so  representing  Henry  as  a 
model  of  king-craft  "  distorted  character  and  events  ; " 
—  this  is  what  the  charge  amounts  to.  And  it  is 
important  to  know  how  far  it  is  true.  For  if  it  were 
so,  to  set  about  detecting  and  rectifying  historical  in- 
accuracies would  be  a  mere  waste  of  time  and  a  mis- 
taking of  the  proper  duty  of  an  editor.  In  that  case 
the  book  as  a  history  would  be  merely  worthless.  It 
would  be  curious  only  as  a  record  of  Bacon's  idea  — 
or  rather  of  what  he  supposed  to  be  James's  idea  — 
of  a  model  king,  and  should  be  treated  accordingly. 

It  seems  to  me  however  that  the  hypothesis  is  not 
only  uncalled  for,  but  utterly  untenable. 

That  he  "  wrote  the  book  to  gratify  James  I."  is 
indeed  in  one  sense  true  enough.  He  wanted  to  do 
some  service  which  James  would  appreciate,  and  he 
knew  that  a  good  history  of  so  important  a  reign  was 
one  of  the  best  services  he  could  perform,  and  one  the 
most  certain  to  be  appreciated.  But  it  is  plain  that 
Sir  J.  Mackintosh  meant  something  more  than  this  ; 
and  if  he  meant,  as  I  presume  he  did,  that  Bacon 
chose  the  subject  because  it  gave  him  an  opportunity  for 
flattering  James,  —  I  would  first  ask,  why  anybody 
should   think    so?     Is  it  not  the  very  same   subject 


24  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

which  at  least  fifteen  years  before  he  had  wished  some 
one  else  to  undertake  for  the  simple  purpose  of  supply- 
ing a  main  defect  in  our  national  literature  ? 1  Did 
not  the  defect  still  remain  ?  And  was  he  not  now  at 
leisure  to  undertake  the  subject  himself?  Why  then 
seek  any  further  for  his  motive  in  choosing  it  ? 

But  suppose  he  did  choose  the  subject  for  the  pur- 
pose of  flattering  James,  how  did  he  propose  to  treat 
it,  so  as  to  produce  that  effect  ?  By  setting  up  Henry 
the  Seventh  (we  are  told)  as  the  model  of  a  king  ! 
Now  Henry  was  in  his  entire  character  and  in  all  his 
ways,  both  as  a  man  and  as  a  king,  the  very  contrast 
and  opposite  to  James  himself.  Both  indeed  professed 
to  love  peace ;  and  both  were  constant,  without  being 
uxorious,  to  their  wives.  But  there  the  resemblance 
ends.  In  all  other  respects,  to  set  up  either  as  the 
model  of  what  a  king  should  be  is  little  less  than  to 
point  out  the  other  as  the  model  of  what  a  king  should 
not  be.  Neither  was  this  a  difficulty  inherent  in  the 
subject.  For  however  obvious  and  ineffaceable  those 
features  of  Henry's  character  may  appear  to  us,  which 
mark  him  as  so  peculiarly  the  opposite  of  James,  we 
are  to  remember  that  we  read  it  by  the  light  which 
Bacon  himself  threw  upon  it ;  that  it  was  Bacon  him- 
self who  brought  them  to  light,  —  brought  them  to 
light  in  this  very  history  for  the  first  time.  Henry's 
character  as  drawn  by  preceding  historians  might  have 
been  used  for  purposes  of  flattery  well  enough.  u  He 
was  a  Prince,"  says  Stowe,  reporting  the  substance, 


1  See  his  "  Letter  to  the  Lord  Chancellor  touching  a  History  of  Brit- 
ain;" the  original  of  which,  preserved  at  Bridgwater  House,  is  dated 
2  April,  1605.  —  Collier's  Descriptive  Catalogue,  p.  17.  See  also  Ad- 
vancement of  Learning,  the  Second  Book,  paragraph  5. 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  25 

without  the  flourishes,  of  what  he  found  in  Hall  and 
Polydore,  "  of  marvellous  wisdom,  policy,  justice,  tem- 
perance, and  gravity,  and  notwithstanding  many  and 
great  occasions  of  trouble  and  war  he  kept  his  realm 
in  ri,ght  good  order,  for  the  which  he  was  greatly  rev- 
erenced of  foreign  princes."  Such  a  passage  would 
have  been  a  very  fair  foundation  in  fact  for  a  fancy- 
portrait  of  a  great  and  wise  king.  A  man  combining 
in  himself  all  the  cardinal  virtues  and  reigning  in 
a  continued  succession  of  victorious  achievements  in 
peace  and  war  (so  history  reported  him)  might  easily 
by  a  less  skilful  hand  than  Bacon's,  using  a  very  little 
of  the  novelist's  or  rhetorician's  licence,  have  been 
turned  into  a  handsome  likeness  of  James  —  or  of  any- 
body else.  And  who  can  believe  that  if  Bacon  had 
been  really  studying,  not  to  draw  the  man  as  he  was, 
but  to  produce  such  a  representation  of  him  as  should 
seem  to  reflect  honour  upon  his  descendant,  he  would 
have  introduced  into  the  portrait  those  traits  of  cold- 
ness, reserve,  suspicion,  avarice,  parsimony,  party- 
spirit,  partiality  in  the  administration  of  justice  when 
he  was  himself  interested,  finesse  which  was  not  policy, 
strength  of  will  which  blinded  judgment,  closeness  and 
darkness  which  bred  danger ;  —  traits  which  are  now 
inextricably  interwoven  with  our  idea  of  the  man  ;  but 
for  traces  of  which  the  pages  of  Fabyan,  of  Polydore 
Vergil,  of  Hall,  of  Holinshed,  and  of  Stowe,  will  be 
searched  in  vain  ?  If  it  were  necessary  to  believe  that 
in  introducing  such  features  into  the  portrait  he  was 
thinking  to  gratify  James  at  all,  we  must  suppose  that 
it  was  not  by  raising  Henry  to  an  ideal  eminence 
which  did  not  belong  to  him,  but  by  degrading  him 
from  that  ideal  eminence  which  he  enjoyed ;  and  there- 


26  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

by  relieving  the  reigning  Solomon  from  his  great  rival 
for  that  title.  But  the  thing  seems  to  me  altogether 
incredible. 

If  it  be  urged  on  the  other  hand  that  the  character 
of  Henry  as  interpreted  by  Bacon,  however  unlike  it 
may  be  to  James,  is  not  so  unlike  Bacon  himself ;  and 
that  he  was  therein  delineating  his  own  ideal ;  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  many  of  the  peculiarities  which  he 
detects  and  points  out  in  Henry's  mind  and  ways,  are 
noticed  as  weaknesses  and  errors,  derogatory  to  his 
judgment  and  injurious  to  his  fortunes.  Many  of  his 
difficulties,  for  instance,  are  attributed  to  the  shortness 
of  his  foresight,  which  prevented  him  from  seeing  dis- 
tant dangers  in  time  to  prevent  them.  Who  can  sup- 
pose that  that  entered  into  Bacon's  idea  of  a  politic 
king  ?  His  "  settled  determination  to  depress  all  em- 
inent persons  of  the  house  of  York,"  might  perhaps, 
upon  Machiavel's  principle  that  in  order  to  secure 
a  conquest  it  is  necessary  to  extirpate  the  reigning 
family,  have  been  reconciled  with  the  proposed  ideal. 
But  Bacon  expressly  notices  it  as  an  error  in  his 
policy  arising  from  a  weakness  in  his  mind  ;  and  the 
cause  in  fact  of  almost  all  his  troubles.  The  severity 
of  his  exactions  again  is  excused  by  Polydore  Vergil 
as  a  politic  art  to  keep  turbulent  subjects  in  obedience. 
Bacon  imputes  it  to  a  vice  of  his  nature  in  coveting  to 
accumulate  treasure,  and  represents  it  as  procuring  him 
the  hatred  of  his  people  to  such  a  degree  that  his  state 
was  insecure  even  in  the  height  of  his  felicity.  In  the 
matter  of  Brittany,  Bacon  represents  him  as  outwitted 
by  the  French  king :  and  how  ?  not  (as  Polydore 
would  have  it)  from  reposing  too  much  trust  in  the 
promises  of  his  confederates  ;  but  simply  because  the 


THE  KEIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  27 

French  king  understood  the  case,  and  he  did  not.  His 
system  of  secret  espionage  is  indeed  justified,  as  neces- 
sary to  protect  him  against  secret  machinations ;  but 
the  darkness  and  closeness  with  which  he  conducted  all 
his  affairs  is  censured,  as  creating  general  diffidence 
and  alarm  which  bred  danger.  His  discountenancing 
of  the  nobility,  which  has  been  regarded  by  some  his- 
torians as  a  stroke  of  profound  policy  to  which  the  sub- 
sequent settlement  of  the  kingdom  was  chiefly  owing, 
is  considered  by  Bacon  "  as  one  of  the  causes  of  his 
troublesome  reign."  And  generally  the  many  dif- 
ficulties with  which  he  had  to  contend  are  expressly 
mentioned  as  not  inherent  in  the  case,  but  as  the  con- 
sequence of  "  some  grand  defects  and  main  errors  in 
his  nature,  customs,  or  proceedings."  Nay,  the  sum 
total  of  his  achievements  is  evidently  regarded  by 
Bacon  as  hardly  worthy  of  him  ;  and  the  short-coming 
is  ascribed  not  to  any  want  of  opportunity  or  untow- 
ardness  of  fortune,  but  to  a  deficiency  in  himself,  — 
a  deficiency  fatal  to  all  heroic  pretensions,  —  a  want 
of  worthier  aims.  "  If  the  king  (he  says)  did  no 
greater  matters,  it  was  long  of  himself;  for  what  he 
minded  he  compassed."  Who  can  suppose  that  in 
such  a  representation  he  meant  "  to  convey  a  theory 
of  king-craft  and  the  likeness  of  its  ideal  model  "  ? 

But  we  are  told  that  he  almost  owns  as  much  him- 
self—  "  almost  avows  an  intention  of  embodying  in  the 
person  of  his  hero  too  much  of  the  ideal  conception  " 
&c.  &c.  Where  such  an  avowal  is  to  be  found  we  are 
not  informed  ;  and  I  cannot  myself  discover  any  pas- 
sage in  which  he  speaks  of  what  he  intends  to  do. 
When  he  speaks  of  what  he  has  done,  he  certainly 
makes  an  avowal  of  a  very  different  kind.     "  I  have 


28  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY   OF 

not  flattered  him  "  (he  says  in  his  dedicatory  letter), 
"  but  took  him  to  the  life,  as  well  as  I  could,  sitting  so 
far  off  and  having  no  better  light."  And  certainly 
this  is  the  short  and  true  account  of  the  whole  matter. 
Whoever  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  this  history 
with  those  that  went  before,  will  be  convinced  that  the 
portrait  of  Henry  is  a  true  study  from  nature,  and  one 
of  the  most  careful,  curious,  and  ingenious  studies  of 
the  kind  ever  produced.  It  is  important  too  that  this 
should  be  understood  ;  because  upon  this  it  is  that  the 
main  interest  of  the  work  depends.  For  it  must  be 
confessed  that  Henry's  reign,  though  entertaining  from 
the  bustle  and  variety  of  incidents,  and  important  for 
some  of  its  results,  includes  but  few  matters  which  for 
themselves  are  much  worth  remembering.  The  sub- 
jects of  all  those  negotiations  and  treaties  retain  no 
interest  for  us.  The  wars  and  the  warriors  have  alike 
passed  and  left  no  trace.  The  story  of  Perkin  War- 
beck  has  the  interest  only  of  a  great  romance.  The 
laws  did  indeed  print  their  footsteps  deeper  ;  but  the 
progress  of  knowledge  and  the  changes  of  time  have 
gone  over  them  too,  and  they  remain  only  as  curiosi- 
ties of  the  past.  But  as  the  memory  runs  back  along 
the  surface  of  English  history  from  the  last  of  the 
Georges  to  the  first  of  the  Plantagenets,  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Seventh  still  presents  one  conspicuous  ob- 
ject; —  an  example  of  a  king  who  was  also  prime 
minister ;  a  king,  not  indeed  of  ideal  wisdom  or  virtue, 
but  yet  of  rare  sagacity,  industry,  and  courage,  who  for 
twenty-three  years  really  governed  the  country  by  his 
own  wit  and  his  own  will.  Bacon  has  accordingly 
treated  the  history  of  his  reign  as  a  history  of  the 
administration   of  affairs   in   England   from    1485    to 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY   VII.  29 

1509,  and  represented  Henry  as  what  he  really  was 
during  all  that  time,  the  sole  and  real  minister,  con- 
ducting in  person  the  affairs  of  each  several  depart- 
ment. 

In  what  spirit  he  has  executed  the  work,  what  kind 
of  moral  impression  the  narrative  is  made  to  suggest,  is 
a  question  difficult  to  answer,  because  different  readers 
will  be  differently  affected  by  it.  I  would  only  say 
that  those  readers  who,  like  Sir  James  Mackintosh, 
rise  from  the  perusal  of  the  narrative  full  of  passion- 
ate pity  for  the  oppressed,  and  resentment  against  the 
oppressor  so  vehement  that  it  overflows  even  upon  the 
innocent  historian  whose  faithful  report  has  excited  it, 
are  the  last  persons  who  ought  to  complain  of  the 
writer  for  telling  his  story  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  pro- 
duce such  impressions.  If  strong  disapprobation  and 
dislike  of  Henry  be  the  feeling  which  his  history  prop- 
erly written  ought  to  excite,  there  is  scarcely  a  writer 
that  has  touched  the  subject  since  who  may  not  be 
called  as  an  unconscious  witness  that  Bacon's  history 
has  in  that  respect  done  its  office.  We  do  not  blame  a 
painter  for  flattery  because  he  does  not  write  under  his 
picture  "  this  is  the  portrait  of  an  ugly  man  ;  "  enough 
if  he  paints  him  as  he  sees  him.  Why  blame  a  histo- 
rian because,  content  with  describing  his  hero  as  he 
is,  he  abstains  from  calling  him  names  ? 

Passing  from  the  particular  to  the  general  question, 
there  is  no  doubt  a  real  and  considerable  difference 
between  Bacon's  conception  of  the  proper  office  of  his- 
tory and  Mackintosh's.  According  to  Bacon,  "  it  is 
the  true  office  of  history  to  represent  the  events  them- 
selves, together  with  the  counsels  ;  and  to  leave  the 
observations  and  conclusions  thereupon  to  the  liberty 


30  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

and  faculty  of  every  man's  judgment."  *  According 
to  Mackintosh,  history  so  written  "  loses  the  interest 
which  bestows  on  it  the  power  of  being  useful :  "  it 
must  "  maintain  its  sway  "  by  inspiring  feelings  of  pity, 
anger,  &c. 

Now  that  the  reader,  in  order  to  derive  any  benefit 
from  history,  must  feel  as  he  reads,  Bacon  I  suppose 
would  not  have  denied  ;  but  he  would  have  said  that 
the  reader  should  be  able  to  feel  without  being  told 
when  and  how ;  that  when  an  object  of  emotion  is 
truly  represented  to  a  capable  mind,  the  emotion  will 
follow  of  itself;  that  a  man  who  is  affected  by  the 
sight  of  good  and  bad  in  nature,  will  be  affected  in  the 
same  way  when  he  sees  them  in  a  book  ;  that  if  he  be 
not,  it  is  for  want  not  of  epithets  and  exclamations  and 
notes  of  admiration  in  the  history,  but  of  moral  sen- 
sibility in  himself,  and  he  should  be  referred  to  the 
preacher  or  moralist  for  his  cure  before  he  comes  to 
the  secular  historian.  The  duty  of  the  historian, 
being  first  of  all  to  set  forth  the  truth  of  the  case  upon 
which  judgment  is  to  pass,  bears  a  very  close  analogy 
to  the  duty  of  the  judge  in  summing  up.  The  sum- 
ming up  of  the  judge  is  truly  the  history  of  the  case  ; 
it  is  meant  not  only  to  inform  the  jury  as  to  the  facts, 
but  also  to  guide  their  judgment.  Now  we  see  that  in 
performing  this  part  of  his  duty  the  judge  is  expected 
carefully  to  abstain  from  all  expressions  which  address 
themselves  to  the  feelings  of  the  jury  as  distinguished 
from  their  judgment ;  which  are  calculated  "  to  inspire 
pity  for  the  sufferer,  anger  against  the  oppressor,  or 
earnest  desires  for  the  triumph  of  right  over  might." 
The  common  sense  of  Englishmen  (guided  in  this  case 

i  Adv.  of  Learn,  the  Second  Book,  paragraph  7. 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY   VII.  31 

more  perhaps  than  in  any  other  by  real  earnestness 
and  sincerity)  has  established  this  as  a  rule  ;  the  clear 
purposes  of  justice  manifestly  requiring  that  such  feel- 
ings should  not  be  allowed  to  mix  with  the  considera- 
tion of  the  case,  but  be  left  to  follow  the  judgment ; 
as  (if  the  case  be  truly  judged)  they  inevitably  will. 
And  the  historian  would  do  well  to  remember,  what- 
ever his  personal  feelings  may  be,  that  his  is  the  part, 
not  of  the  counsel  on  either  side,  but  (as  I  said)  of  the 
judge  when  he  is  expounding  the  case  to  the  jury  so 
that  they  may  be  best  able  to  come  to  a  just  opinion 
on  it. 

Or  if  this  example  be  objected  to  as  not  strictly 
parallel,  (because  the  purposes  of  justice  are  satisfied 
if  the  jury  come  to  a  correct  opinion  as  to  the  fact, 
whereas  the  purposes  of  history  require  that  a  correct 
opinion  as  to  the  fact  should  be  followed  by  just  feel- 
ings as  to  the  right  and  the  wrong,)  and  if  an  example 
be  called  for  of  some  real  history  maintaining  its 
proper  sway  over  the  reader's  feelings  without  the  aid 
of  epithets,  exclamations,  or  comments  to  direct  and 
stimulate  his  sensibility ;  it  is  enough  to  say  that  in 
that  book  which  all  who  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians  are  bound  to  acknowledge  as  the  highest 
authority,  the  most  odious  of  all  treasons,  the  most 
unjust  of  all  judgments,  the  most  pathetic  of  all  tales 
of  martyred  innocence,  is  related  four  times  over  with- 
out a  single  indignant  comment  or  a  single  vitupera- 
tive expression. 

I  have  dwelt  on  these  points  longer  perhaps  than  I 
need  have  done  in  so  plain  a  case.  But  the  error  of 
supposing  that  Bacon's  history  was  written  to  flatter 
Henry  has  done  much  mischief.     Almost  all  our  mod- 


32  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

ern  historians,  in  trying  to  correct  the  supposed  flat- 
tery, have  in  fact  spoiled  the  likeness,  and  so  in  effect 
blotted  out  of  that  chapter  of  our  history  the  very 
thing  which  was  most  memorable  in  it. 

In  speaking  of  the  character  of  Henry  as  described 
by  the  writers  who  preceded  Bacon,  it  will  be  seen 
that  I  have  quoted  Stowe,  and  said  nothing  of  Speed, 
whose  history  was  published  in  1609,  some  years  after 
Stowe's  death.  But  the  truth  is,  that  though  Bacon's 
history  of  Henry's  reign  was  not  written  till  1621, 
he  had  drawn  up  a  slight  sketch  of  Henry's  character 
many  years  before,  of  which  Speed  had  a  copy,  and 
knew  the  value  and  made  the  right  use.  He  quotes 
it  at  the  outset  of  his  history  of  this  reign  ;  "  being 
fit,"  as  he  says,  "  to  be  set  in  front  to  his  actions,  as 
certain  lights  of  the  mind  by  which  to  discern  the 
fountain  of  counsels  and  causes."  As  far  therefore  as 
the  character  of  Henry  is  concerned,  and  so  much  of 
the  interpretation  of  his  actions  as  depends  upon  a 
true  insight  into  his  character,  Speed  is  not  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  historians  who  preceded  Bacon. 

The  sketch  I  speak  of  concludes  a  short  historical 
fragment,  entitled,  The  History  of  the  reigns  of  K. 
Henry  the  VIII,  K.  Edward,  Q.  Mary,  and  part  of  Q. 
Elizabeth,  of  which  there  is  a  fair  MS.  in  the  Har- 
leian  collection  (532.  fo.  45.)  The  name  of  the 
writer  is  not  given  ;  but,  even  without  Speed's  au- 
thority, who  quotes  it  as  "  fragm.  MS.  of  Sr.  Fr. 
B."  there  would,  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  it  is 
Bacon's.  It  was  afterwards  printed,  very  inaccurately, 
in  the  Cabala,  Ed.  1663,  p.  254.,  but  without  any 
suspicion  as  to  the  author ;  and  it  is  rather  singular 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  66 

that,  being  extant  in  so  common  a  book,  it  has  never 
been  claimed  or  noticed  by  any  of  Bacon's  numerous 
editors  and  commentators.  It  contains  indeed  little 
that  may  not  be  found  elsewhere  in  his  works,  yet  like 
all  his  other  fragments  and  rudiments  it  is  well  worth 
preserving  ;  and  there  is  no  fitter  place  for  it  than 
at  the  end  of  this  preface.  It  was  written,  it  will 
be  seen,  while  Elizabeth  was  still  reigning ;  and  his 
intention  then  was  to  begin  with  the  accession  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  or  rather  perhaps  with  a  sketch 
of  the  condition  in  which  Henry  the  Seventh  left  the 
kingdom.  The  idea  of  beginning  with  the  accession 
of  Henry  the  Seventh  occurred  to  him  afterwards  in 
1605  ;  as  may  be  seen  by  comparing  his  well  known 
letter  to  Lord  Chancellor  Egerton,  which  was  writ- 
ten on  the  2nd  of  April  in  that  year,  with  the  passage 
on  the  same  subject  in  the  Advancement  of  Learning. 

The  History  of  the  reign  of  K.  Henry  the  Eighth,  K. 
Edward,  Q.  Mary,  and  part  of  the  reign  of  Q.  Eliz- 
abeth. 

The  books  which  are  written  do  in  their  kinds  rep- 
resent the  faculties  of  the  mind  of  man  ;  Poesy  his 
imagination  ;  Philosophy  his  reason  ;  and  History  his 
memory.  Of  which  three  faculties  least  exception  is 
commonly  taken  to  memory ;  because  imagination 
is  oftentimes  idle,  and  reason  litigious.  So  likewise 
History  of  all  writings  deserveth  least  taxation,  as 
that  which  holdeth  least  of  the  author,  and  most  of 
the  things  themselves.  Again,  the  use  which  it 
holdeth  to  man's  life,  if  it  be  not  the  greatest,  yet 
assuredly  is  the  freest  from  any  ill  accident  or  quality. 


34  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

For  those  which  are  conversant  much  in  poets,  as 
they  attain  to  great  variety,  so  withal  they  become 
conceited  ;  and  those  that  are  brought  up  in  philoso- 
phy and  sciences  do  wax  (according  as  their  nature 
is)  some  of  them  too  stiff  and  opinionate,  and  some 
others  too  perplexed  and  confused.  Whereas  History 
possesseth  the  mind  of  the  conceits  which  are  •  nearest 
allied  unto  action,  and  imprinteth  them  so,  as  it  doth 
not  alter  the  complexion  of  the  mind  neither  to  irres- 
olution nor  pertinacity.  But  this  is  true,  that  in  no 
sort  of  writings  there  is  a  greater  distance  between 
the  good  and  the  bad,  no  not  between  the  most  excel- 
lent poet  and  the  vainest  rhymer,  nor  between  the 
deepest  philosopher  and  the  most  frivolous  schoolmen, 
than  there  is  between  good  histories  and  those  that 
bear  the  same  or  the  like  title.  In  which  regard, 
having  purposed  to  write  the  History  of  England  from 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  K.  Heniy  the  eighth 
of  that  name  near  unto  the  present  time  wherein  Q. 
Elizabeth  reigneth  in  good  felicity,  I  am  delivered  of 
the  excuse  wherewith  the  best  writers  of  history  are 
troubled  in  their  proems,  when  they  go  about  with- 
out breaking  the  bounds  of  modesty  to  give  a  reason 
why  they  should  write  that  again  which  others  have 
written  well  or  at  least  tolerably  before.  For  those 
which  I  am  to  follow  are  such  as  I  may  rather  fear 
the  reproach  of  coming  into  their  number,  than  the 
opinion  of  presumption  if  I  hope  to  do  better  than 
they.  But  in  the  mean  time  it  must  be  considered, 
that  the  best  of  the  ancient  histories  were  contrived 
out  of  divers  particular  Commentaries,  Relations,  and 
Narrations,  which  it  was  not  hard  to  digest  with  or- 
nament, and  thereof  to  compound  one  entire  Story. 


THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII.  35 

And  as  at  the  first  such  writers  had  the  ease  of  other's 
labours,  so  since  they  have  the  whole  commendation ; 
in  regard  these  former  writings  are  for  the  most  part 
lost,  whereby  their  borrowings  do  not  appear.  But 
unto  me  the  disadvantage  is  great,  finding  no  public 
memories  of  any  consideration  or  worth,  in  sort  that 
the  supply  must  be  out  of  the  freshness  of  memory 
and  tradition,  and  out  of  the  acts,  instruments,  and 
negotiations  of  state  themselves,  together  with  the 
glances  of  foreign  histories  ;  which  though  I  do  ac- 
knowledge to  be  the  best  originals  and  instructions  out 
of  which  to  write  an  history,  yet  the  travel  must  be 
much  greater  than  if  there  had  been  already  digested 
any  tolerable  chronicle  as  a  simple  narration  of  the 
actions  themselves,  which  should  only  have  needed 
out  of  the  former  helps  to  be  enriched  with  the  coun- 
sels and  the  speeches  and  notable  particularities.  And 
this  was  the  reason  why  I  mought  not  attempt  to  go 
higher  to  more  ancient  times,  because  those  helps  and 
grounds  did  more  and  more  fail ;  although  if  I  be  not 
deceived  I  may  truly  affirm  that  there  have  no  times 
passed  over  in  this  nation  which  have  produced  greater 
actions,  nor  more  worthy  to  be  delivered  to  the  ages 
hereafter.  For  they  be  not  the  great  wars  and  con- 
quests (which  many  times  are  the  works  of  fortune 
and  fall  out  in  barbarous  times)  the  rehearsal  whereof 
maketh  the  profitable  and  instructing  history ;  but 
rather  times  refined  in  policies  and  industries,  new 
and  rare  variety  of  accidents  and  alterations,  equal 
and  just  encounters  of  state  and  state  in  forces  and 
of  prince  and  prince  in  sufficiency,  that  bring  upon 
the  stage  the  best  parts  for  observation.  Now  if  you 
look  into  the  general  natures  of  the  times  (which  I 


36  PREFACE  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 

have  undertaken)  throughout  Europe,  whereof  the 
times  of  this  nation  must  needs  participate,  you  shall 
find  more  knowledge  in  the  world  than  was  in  the 
ages  before,  whereby  the  wits  of  men  (which  are  the 
shops  wherein  all  actions  are  forged)  are  more  fur- 
nished and  improved.  Then  if  you  shall  restrain 
your  consideration  to  the  state  of  this  monarchy,  first 
there  will  occur  unto  you  changes  rare,  and  altogether 
unknown  to  antiquity,  in  matters  of  religion  and  the 
state  ecclesiastical.  Then  to  behold  the  several  reigns, 
of  a  king  that  first,  or  next  the  first,  became  abso- 
lute in  the  sovereignty :  of  a  king  in  minority :  of  a 
queen  married  to  a  foreigner:  and  lastly  of  a  queen 
that  hath  governed  without  the  help  either  of  a  mar- 
riage, or  of  any  mighty  man  of  her  blood :  is  no  small 
variety  in  the  affairs  of  a  monarchy,  but  such  as  per- 
haps in  four  successions  in  any  state  at  any  time  is 
hardly  to  be  found.  Besides  there  have  not  wanted 
examples1  within  the  compass  of  the  same  times 
neither  of  an  usurpation,  nor  of  rebellions  under  heads 
of  greatness,  nor  of  commotions  merely  popular,  nor 
of  sundry  desperate  conspiracies  (an  unwonted  thing 
in  hereditary  monarchies),  nor  of  foreign  wars  of  all 
sorts;  invasive,  repulsive  of  invasion,  open  and  de- 
clared, covert  and  underhand,  by  sea,  by  land,  Scot- 
tish, French,  Spanish,  succors,  protections,  new  and 
extraordinary  kinds  of  confederacies  with  subjects. 
Generally  without  question  the  state  of  this  nation 
never  had  a  larger  reach  to  import  the  universal 
affairs  of  Europe;  as  that  which  was  in  the  former 
part  of  the  time  the  counterpoise  between  France 
and  Spain,  and  in  the  latter  the  only  encounter  and 

i  This  -word  is  omitted  in  the  MS.  and  supplied  from  the  Cabala. 


THE  REIGN  OF   HENRY   VII.  37 

opposition  against  Spain.  Add  hereunto  the  new  dis- 
coveries and  navigations  abroad,  the  new  provisions 
of  laws  and  precedents  of  state  at  home,  and  the  acci- 
dents memorable  both  of  state  and  of  court ;  and 
there  will  be  no  doubt  but  the  times  which  I  have 
chosen  are  of  all  former  times  of  this  nation  [the 
fittest1]  to  be  registered  ;  if  it  be  not  in  this  respect, 
that  they  be  of  too  fresh  memory,  which  point  I 
know  very  well  will  be  a  prejudice,  as  if  this  story 
were  written  in  favour  of  the  time  present.  But  it 
shall  suffice  unto  me,  without  betraying  mine  own 
name  and  memory  or  the  liberty  of  a  history,  to  pro- 
cure this  commendation  to  the  time  with  posterity, 
namely,  that  a  private  man  living  in  the  same  time 
should  not  doubt  to  publish  an  history  of  the  time 
which  should  not  carry  any  show  or  taste  at  all  of 
flattery ;  a  point  noted  for  an  infallible  demonstration 
of  a  good  time. 

King  Henry,  the  seventh  of  that  name,  after  he  had 
lived  about  fifty-two  years,  and  thereof  reigned  twenty- 
three  and  some  months,  deceased  of  a  consumption  the 
22nd  day  of  April,  in  the  palace  which  he  had  built 
at  Ritchemount,  in  the  year  of  our  Redemption  1509.2 
This  king  attained  unto  the  crown,  not  only  from  a 
private  fortune,  which  mought  endow  him  with  mod- 
eration, but  also  from  the  fortune  of  an  exiled  man, 
which  had  quickened  in  him  all  seeds  of  observation 
and  industry.  His  times  were  rather  prosperous  than 
calm,  for  he  was  assailed  with  many  troubles,  which 

1  These  words  are  supplied  from  the  Cabala. 

2  Both  the  MS.  and  the  copy  in  the  Cabala  have  1504:  an  error  prob- 
ably of  the  transcriber :  4  carelessly  written  being  very  like  9. 


38  PREFACE   TO   THE  HISTORY   OF 

he  overcame  happily ;  a  matter  that  did  no  less  set 
forth  his  wisdom  than  his  fortune  ;  and  yet  such  a 
wisdom  as  seemed  rather  a  dexterity  to  deliver  himself 
from  dangers  when  they  pressed  him,  than  any  deep 
foresight  to  prevent  them  afar  off.  Jealous  he  was 
over  the  greatness  of  his  Nobility,  as  remembering 
how  himself  was  set  up.  And  much  more  did  this 
humour  increase  in  him  after  he  had  conflicted  with 
such  idols  and  counterfeits  as  were  Lambert  Symnell 
and  Perkin  Warbeck  :  the  strangeness  of  which  dan- 
gers made  him  think  nothing  safe.  Whereby  he  wta 
forced  to  descend  to  the  employment  of  secret  espials 
and  suborned  conspirators,  a  necessary  remedy  against 
so  dark  and  subtle  practices ;  and  not  to  be  repre- 
hended, except  it  were  true  which  some  report,  that 
he  had  intelligence  with  confessors  for  the  revealing 
of  matters  disclosed  in  confession.  And  yet  if  a  man 
compare  him  with  the  kings  his  concurrents  in  France 
and  Spain,  he  shall  find  him  more  politic  than  Lewis 
the  Twelfth  of  France,  and  more  entire  and  sincere 
than  Ferdinando  of  Spain,  upon  whom  notwithstand- 
ing he  did  handsomely  bestow  the  envy  of  the  death 
of  Edward  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Warwick.  Great 
and  devout  reverence  he  bare  unto  religion,  as  he  that 
employed  ecclesiastical  men  in  most  of  his  affairs  and 
negotiations  ;  and  as  he  that  was  brought  hardly  and 
very  late  to  the  abolishing  of  the  privilege  of  sanctu- 
aries in  case  of  treason,  and  that  not  before  he  had 
obtained  it  by  way  of  suit  from  Pope  Alexander  ; 
which  sanctuaries  nevertheless  had  been  the  forges  of 
most  of  his  troubles.  In  his  government  he  was  led 
by  none,  scarcely  by  his  laws,  and  yet  he  was  a  great 
observer  of   formality  in   all   his   proceedings,   which 


THE   REIGN  OF   HENRY  VII.  39 

notwithstanding  was  no  impediment  to  the  working 
of  his  will ;  and  in  the  suppressing  and  punishing  of 
the  treasons  which  during  the  whole  course  of  his 
reign  were  committed  against  him,  he  had  a  very- 
strange  kind  of  interchanging  of  very  large  and  un- 
expected pardons  with  severe  executions  ;  which  (his 
wisdom  considered)  could  not  be  imputed  to  any 
inconstancy  or  inequality,  but  to  a  discretion,  or  at 
least  to  a  principle  that  he  had  apprehended,  that  it 
was  good  not  obstinately  to  pursue  one  course,  but  to 
try  both  ways.  In  his  wars,  he  seemed  rather  confi- 
dent than  enterprising,  by  which  also  commonly  he 
was  not  the  poorer ;  but  generally  he  did  seem  inclin- 
able to  live  in  peace,  and  made  but  offers  of  war  to 
mend  the  conditions  of  peace ;  and  in  the  quenching 
of  the  commotions  of  his  subjects  he  was  ever  ready 
to  achieve  those  wars  in  person,  sometimes  reserving 
himself,  but  never  retiring  himself,  but  as  ready  to 
second.  Of  nature  he  coveted  to  accumulate  treasure, 
which  the  people  (into  whom  there  is  infused  for  the 
preservation  of  monarchies  a  natural  desire  to  dis- 
charge their  princes,  though  it  be  with  the  unjust 
charge  of  their  counsellors  and  ministers,)  did  impute 
unto  Cardinal  Morton  and  Sir  Reignold  Bray,  who 
(as  it  after  appeared)  as  counsellors  of  ancient  au- 
thority with  him,  did  so  second  his  humour  as  they 
tempered  and  refrained  it.  Whereas  Empson  and 
Dudley  that  followed  (being  persons  that  had  no  rep- 
utation with  him,  otherwise  than  the  servile  following 
of  his  own  humour)  gave  him  way  and  shaped  him 
way  to  those  extremities,  wherewith  himself  was 
touched  with  remorse  at  his  death,  and  which  his 
successor   disavowed.      In   expending   of  treasure   he 


40         PREFACE   TO  HIST.   OF  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VII. 

never  spared  charge  that  his  affairs  required,  and  in 
his  foundations  was  magnificent  enough,  but  his  re- 
wards were  very  limited  ;  so  that  his  liberality  was 
rather  upon  his  own  state  and  memory  than  towards 
the  deserts  of  others.  He  chose  commonly  to  employ 
cunning  persons,  as  he  that  knew  himself  sufficient  to 
make  use  of  their  uttermost  reaches,  without  danger 
of  being  abused  with  them  himself. 


Here  the  MS.,  which  is  in  a  fair  Roman  hand,  care- 
fully written  and  punctuated,  ends  in  the  middle  of 
the  page,  without  any  remark,  and  without  any  ap- 
pearance of  being  finished,  — just  as  if  the  transcriber 
had  left  off  at  the  end  of  a  sentence,  intending  to  go 
on.  I  have  no  reason  however  to  suppose  that  Bacon 
proceeded  any  further  with  the  work.  His  increasing 
business  as  a  lawyer,  and  perhaps  also  an  increasing 
apprehension  of  the  magnitude  of  his  undertakings  in 
philosophy,  led  him  probably  to  relinquish  it.  The 
fragment  remains  however  to  show  that  his  conception 
of  the  character  of  Henry  in  all  its  principal  features 
was  formed  in  his  earlier  life  and  under  another  sover- 
eign ;  and  therefore  if  it  stands  in  need  of  excuse,  we 
must  seek  for  it  elsewhere  than  in  the  circumstances 
suggested  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  For  my  own 
part,  I  am  satisfied  with  the  conjecture  that  he  thought 
it  the  true  conception. 


THE 


HISTORIE   OF    THE  EAIGNE 


KING    HENRY    THE    SEVENTH 


WRITTEN    BY   THE    RIGHT    HONOURABLE 


FRANCIS  LORD  VERULAM,  VISCOUNT  ST.  ALBAN. 


LONDON : 

Printed  by  W.  Stansby,  for  Matthew  Lownes  and  William  Barret. 

1622. 


MOST  ILLUSTRIOUS  AND  MOST  EXCELLENT   PRINCE 

CHARLES, 

PK1NCE  OF  WALES,  DUKE  OF  CORNWALL,  EARL  OF  CHESTER, 

ETC. 


It  may  please  your  Highness, 

In  part  of  my  acknowledgment  to  your 
Highness,  I  have  endeavoured  to  do  honour  to  the 
memory  of  the  last  King  of  England  that  was  ances- 
tor to  the  King  your  father  and  yourself;  and  was 
that  King  to  whom  both  Unions  may  in  a  sort  refer : 
that  of  the  Roses  being  in  him  consummate,  and  that 
of  the  Kingdoms  by  him  begun.  Besides,  his  times 
deserve  it.  For  he  was  a  wise  man,  and  an  excellent 
King ;  and  yet  the  times  were  rough,  and  full  of 
mutations  and  rare  accidents.  And  it  is  with  times 
as  it  is  with  ways.  Some  are  more  up-hill  and  down- 
hill, and  some  are  more  flat  and  plain  ;  and  the  one 
is  better  for  the  liver,  and  the  other  for  the  writer. 
I  have  not  flattered  him,  but  took  him  to  life  as  well 
as  I  could,  sitting  so  far  off,  and  having  no  better 
light.  It  is  true,  your  Highness  hath  a  living  pattern, 
incomparable,  of  the  King  your  father.  But  it  is  not 
amiss  for  you  also  to  see  one  of  these  ancient  pieces. 
God  preserve  your  Highness. 

Your  Highness's  most  humble 
and  devoted  servant, 

FRANCIS   ST.  ALBAN. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   REIGN 


OF 


KING    HENRY    THE    SEVENTH 


After  that  Richard,  the  third  of  that  name,  king 
in  fact  only,  but  tyrant  both  in  title  and  regiment,  and 
so  commonly  termed  and  reputed  in  all  times  since, 
was  by  the  Divine  Revenge,  favouring  the  design  of 
an  exiled  man,  overthrown  and  slain  at  Bosworth 
Field ; *  there  succeeded  in  the  kingdom  the  Earl  of 
Richmond,  thenceforth  styled  Henry  the  Seventh. 
The  King  immediately  after  the  victory,  as  one  that 
had  been  bred  under  a  devout  mother,  and  was  in  his 
nature  a  great  observer  of  religious  forms,  caused  Te 
deum  laudamus  to  be  solemnly  sung  in  the  presence  of 
the  whole  army  upon  the  place,  and  was  himself  with 
general  applause  and  great  cries  of  joy,  in  a  kind  of 
militar  2  election  or  recognition,  saluted  King.  Mean- 
while the  body  of  Richard  after  many  indignities  and 
reproaches  (the  dirigies  and  obsequies  of  the  common 

1  August  22nd,  1485. 

2  Militar  is  the  reading  of  the  original  edition:  and  is  the  form  of  the 
word  which  Bacon  always,  I  believe,  employed.  He  sometimes  spells  it 
militare,  sometimes  militar,  but  I  think  never  militarie. 


46  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY  VII. 

people  towards  tyrants)  was  obscurely  buried.  For 
though  the  King  of  his  nobleness  gave  charge  unto 
the  friars  of  Leicester  to  see  an  honourable  interment 
to  be  given  to  it,  yet  the  religious  people  themselves 
(being  not  free  from  the  humours  of  the  vulgar) 
neglected  it;  wherein  nevertheless  they  did  not  then 
incur  any  man's  blame  or  censure.  No  man  think- 
ing any  ignominy  or  contumely  unworthy  of  him,  that 
had  been  the  executioner  of  King  Heniy  the  Sixth 
(that  innocent  Prince)  with  his  own  hands  ;  the  con- 
triver of  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  his 
brother ;  the  murderer  of  his  two  nephews  (one  of 
them  his  lawful  King  in  the  present,  and  the  other 
in  the  future,  failing  of  him)  ;  and  vehemently  sus- 
pected to  have  been  the  impoisoner  of  his  wife,  there- 
by to  make  vacant  his  bed  for  a  marriage  within  the 
degrees  forbidden.1  And  although  he  were  a  Prince 
in  militar  virtue  approved,  jealous  of  the  honour  of 
the  English  nation,  and  likewise  a  good  law-maker 
for  the  ease  and  solace  of  the  common  people  ;  yet 
his  cruelties  and  parricides  in  the  opinion  of  all  men 
weighed  down  his  virtues  and  merits  ;  and  in  the 
opinion  of  wise  men,  even  those  virtues  themselves 
were  conceived  to  be  rather  feigned  and  affected 
things  to  serve  his  ambition,  than  true  qualities  in- 
generate  in  his  judgment  or  nature.  And  therefore 
it  was  noted  by  men  of  great  understanding  (who 
seeing  his  after-acts  looked  back  upon  his  former  pro- 
ceedings) that  even  in  the  time  of  King  Edward  his 
brother  he  was  not  without  secret  trains  and  mines 
,  to   turn  envy  and  hatred  upon  his  brother's  govern- 

1  i.  e.  with  Elizabeth,  eldest  daughter  of  Edward  IV.     The  Latin  trans- 
lation has  incestuosas  cum  nepti  nuplias. 


HISTORY    OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  47 

ment ;  as  having  an  expectation  and  a  kind  of  divina- 
tion, that  the  King,  by  reason  of  his  many  disorders, 
could  not  be  of  long  life,  but  was  like  to  leave  his 
sons  of  tender  years  ;  and  then  he  knew  well  how  easy 
a  step  it  was  from  the  place  of  a  Protector  and  first 
Prince  of  the  blood  to  the  Crown.  And  that  out 
of  this  deep  root  of  ambition  it  sprang,  that  as  well  at 
the  treaty  of  peace  that  passed  between  Edward  the 
Fourth  and  Lewis  the  Eleventh  of  France,  concluded 
by  interview  of  both  Kings  at  Piqueny,  as  upon  all 
other  occasions,  Richard,  then  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
stood  ever  upon  the  side  of  honour,1  raising  his  own 
reputation  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  King  his  brother, 
and  drawing  the  eyes  of  all  (especially  of  the  nobles 
and  soldiers)  upon  himself;  as  if  the  King  by  his  vo- 
luptuous life  and  mean  marriage  were  become  effemi- 
nate, and  less  sensible  of  honour  and  reason  of  state 
than  was  fit  for  a  King.  And  as  for  the  politic  and 
wholesome  laws  which  were  enacted  in  his  time,  they 
were  interpreted  to  be  but  the  brocage  of  an  usurper,2 
thereby  to  woo  and  win  the  hearts  of  the  people,  as 
being  conscious  to  himself  that  the  true  obligations  of 
sovereignty3  in  him  failed  and  were  wanting.  But 
King  Henry,  in  the  very  entrance  of  his  reign  and 
the  instant  of  time  when  the  kingdom  was  cast  into 
his  arms,  met  with  a  point  of  great  difficulty  and  knot- 
ty to  solve,  able  to  trouble  and  confound  the  wisest 
King  in  the  newness  of  his  estate  ;  and  so  much  the 
more,  because  it  could  not  endure  a  deliberation,  but 

1  Pacem  pro  viribus  impugnasset,  et  a  parte  honoris  stetisset. 

2  Jnescationes  et  lenocinia :  baits  and  panderings. 

8  Verum  obedientice  subditorum  vinculum :  jits  scilicet  ad  regnum  legiti- 
mum  ;  the  true  bond  which  secures  the  obedience  of  subjects  —  a  right  to 
the  throne. 


48  HISTOKY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

must  be  at  once  deliberated  and  determined.  There 
were  fallen  to  his  lot,  and  concurrent  in  his  person, 
three  several  titles  to  the  imperial  crown.  The  first, 
the  title  of  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  with  whom,  by  prece- 
dent pact 1  with  the  party  that  brought  him  in,  he  was 
to  marry.  The  second,  the  ancient  and  long  disputed 
title  (both  by  plea  and  arms)  of  the  house  of  Lancas- 
ter, to  which  he  was  inheritor  in  his  own  person.2 
The  third,  the  title  of  the  sword  or  conquest,  for  that 
he  came  in  by  victory  of  battle,  and  that  the  king  in 
possession  was  slain  in  the  field.  The  first  of  these 
was  fairest,  and  most  like  to  give  contentment  to  the 
people,  who  by  two-and-twenty  years  reign  of  King 
Edward  the  Fourth  had  been  fully  made  capable 3  of 
the  clearness  of  the  title  of  the  White  Rose  or  house 
of  York  ;  and  by  the  mild 4  and  plausible  reign  of  the 
same  King  towards  his  latter  time,  were  become  af- 
fectionate to  that  line.  But  then  it  lay  plain  before 
his  eyes,  that  if  he  relied  upon  that  title,  he  could  be 
but  a  King  at  courtesy,  and  have  rather  a  matrimonial 
than  a  regal  power ;  the  right  remaining  in  his  Queen, 
upon  whose  decease,  either  with  issue  or  without  issue, 


1  Such  pact  implying  that  it  was  in  her  right  he  should  reign ;  as  is 
more  fully  expressed  in  the  Latin  translation.  "  Primus  erat  tilulus 
reginas  sum  Elizabethm :  cut  etiam  accesserat  pactum  illud,  quo  se  proceribus 
quorum  auxiliis  regnum  adeplus  est  obstrinxerat,  de  nuptiis  cum  ilia  contra- 
kendis,  quod  ilium  in  jure  ejus  regnaturum  haud  obscure  subinnuebaV 

2  In  the  Latin  translation  this  expression  is  materially  qualified.  Qua- 
rum  alteri,  Lancastrian  scilicet,  ipse  se  pro  hmrede  gerebat :  to  which  he 
considered  himself  as  heir. 

8  Opinionem  penitus  imbiberant. 

4  Sir  T.  Meautys,  in  a  letter  to  Bacon  of  7th  Jan.  1621-2,  mentions,  as 
one  of  the  verbal  corrections  made  in  the  MS.  by  the  King,  "  mild  instead 
of  debonnaire."  This  is  probably  the  place.  Compare  the  expression 
in  Perkin's  proclamation  further  on,  "  the  blessed  and  debonair  govern- 
ment of  our  noble  father  King  Edward  in  his  last  times." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  49 

he  was  to  give  place  and  be  removed.  And  though 
he  should  obtain  by  Parliament  to  be  continued,1  yet 
he  knew  there  was  a  very  great  difference  between  a 
King  that  holdeth  his  crown  by  a  civil  act  of  estates, 
andone  that  holdeth  it  originally  by  the  law  of  nature 
and  descent  of  blood.  Neither  wanted  there  even  at 
that  time  secret  rumours  and  whisperings,  (which  after- 
wards gathered  strength  and  turned  to  great  troubles) 
that  the  two  young  sons  of  King  Edward  the  Fourth, 
or  one  of  them,  (which  were  said  to  be  destroyed  in 
the  Tower,)  were  not  indeed  murdered  but  conveyed 
secretly  away,  and  were  yet  living:  which,  if  it  had 
been  true,  had  prevented  the  title  of  the  Lady  Eliza- 
beth. On  the  other  side,  if  he  stood  upon  his  own 
title  of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  inherent  in  his  person, 
he  knew  it  was  a  title  condemned  by  Parliament,  and 
generally  prejudged  in  the  common  opinion  of  the 
realm,  and  that  it  tended  directly  to  the  disinherison 
of  the  line  of  York,  held  then  the  indubiate  2  heirs  of 
the  crown.  So  that  if  he  should  have  no  issue  by  the 
Lady  Elizabeth,  which  should  be  descendants  of  the 
double  line,  then3  the  ancient  flames  of  discord  and 
intestine  wars,  upon  the  competition  of  both  houses, 
would  again  return  and  revive. 

As  for  conquest,  notwithstanding  Sir  William  Stan- 
ley, after  some  acclamations  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field, 
had  put  a  crown  of  ornament  4  (which  Richard  wore 
in  the  battle  and  was  found  amongst  the  spoils)  upon 

1  Licet  magna  spes  subesset  quod  comitiorum  suffragiis  regnum  in  persona 
sua  durante  vita  sua  continuare  et  stabilire  posset. 

2  So  in  original. 

8  The  original  edition  has  when,  which  is  manifestly  wrong. 
4  Non  imperialem  Mam,  sed  quam  omamenti  et  ominis  causa  Ricardus 
secum  in  helium  attulerat. 


50  HISTOEY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

King  Henry's  head,  as  if  there  Avere  his  chief  title  ; 
yet  he  remembered  well  upon  what  conditions  and 
agreements  he  was  brought  in  ;  and  that  to  claim  as 
conqueror  was  to  put  as  well  his  own  party  as  the  rest 
into  terror  and  fear ;  as  that  which  gave  him  power  of 
disannulling  of  laws,  and  disposing  of  men's  fortunes 
and  estates,  and  the  like  points  of  absolute  power 
being  in  themselves  so  harsh  and  odious,  as  that  Wil- 
liam himself,  commonly  called  the  Conqueror,  howso- 
ever he  used  and  exercised  the  power  of  a  conqueror 
to  reward  his  Normans,  yet  he  forbare  to  use  that 
claim  in  the  beginning,1  but  mixed  it  with  a  titulary 
pretence,  grounded  upon  the  will  and  designation  of 
Edward  the  Confessor.  But  the  King,  out  of  the 
greatness  of  his  own  mind,  presently  cast  the  die  ; 
and  the  inconveniences  appearing  unto  him  on  all 
parts,  and  knowing  there  could  not  be  any  interreign 
or  suspension  of  title,  and  preferring  his  affection  to 
his  own  line  and  blood,  and  liking2  that  title  best 
which  made  him  independent,  and  being  in  his  nature 
and  constitution  of  mind  not  very  apprehensive  or 
forecasting  of  future  events  afar  off,  but  an  entertainer 
of  fortune  by  the  day,  resolved  to  rest  upon  the  title 
of  Lancaster  as  the  main,  and  to  use  the  other  two, 
that  of  marriage  and  that  of  battle,  but  as  supporters, 
the  one  to  appease  secret  discontents,  and  the  other  to 
beat  down  open  murmur  and  dispute  ;  not  forgetting 
that  the  same  title  of  Lancaster  had  formerly  main- 
tained a  possession  of  three  descents  in  the  crown  ; 


1  Verbo  tamen  abstinuerit,  neque  hoc  jure  se  regnum  tenere  unquam  pro- 
fessus  sit,  sed  Mud  titulari  quodam  prcetextu  velaverit. 

2  In  the  translation  it  is  put  thus:  Sive  amori  ergafamiliam  worn  reliqua 
posthdbens.  sive  tfc. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  51 

and  might  have  proved  a  perpetuity,  had  it  not  ended 
in  the  weakness  and  inability  of  the  last  prince. 
Whereupon  the  King  presently  that  very  day,  being 
the  two  and  twentieth  of  August,  assumed  the  style 
or  King  in  his  own  name,  without  mention  of  the 
Lady  Elizabeth  at  all,  or  any  relation  thereunto.  In 
which  course  he  ever  after  persisted :  which  did  spin 
him  a  thread  of  many  seditions  and  troubles.  The 
King,  full  of  these  thoughts,  before  his  departure  from 
Leicester,  despatched  Sir  Robert  Willoughby  to  the 
castle  of  Sheriff-Hutton,  in  Yorkshire,  where  were  kept 
in  safe  custody,  by  King  Richard's  commandment, 
both  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  King  Edward,1 
and  Edward  Plantagenet,  son  and  heir  to  George 
Duke  of  Clarence.  This  Edward  was  by  the  King's 
warrant  delivered  from  the  constable  of  the  castle  to 
the  hand  of  Sir  Robert  Willoughby ;  and  by  him 
with  all  safety  and  diligence  conveyed  to  the  Tower 
of  London,  where  he  was  shut  up  close  prisoner. 
Which  act  of  the  King's  (being  an  act  merely  of 
policy  and  power)  proceeded  not  so  much  from  any 
apprehension  he  had  of  Dr.  Shaw's  tale  at  Paul's 
Cross  for  the  bastarding  of  Edward  the  Fourth's 
issues,  in  which  case  this  young  gentleman  was  to 
succeed,2  (for  that  fable  was  ever  exploded,)  but  upon 
a  settled  disposition  to  depress  all  eminent  persons  of 
the  line  of  York.  Wherein  still  the  King,  out  of 
strength  of  will  or  weakness  of  judgment,  did  use  to 
shew  a  little  more  of  the  party  than  of  the  king. 


1  Whom  he  had  agreed  to  marry:  —  Edvardl  Jilia  ad  nuplias  Henrico 
dedinata. 

2  Proximus  fuisset  regni  hceres  :  would  have  been  next  heir  of  the 
Crown. 


52  HISTOEY   OF   KING  HENEY  VII. 

For  the  Lady  Elizabeth,  she  received  also  a  direction 
to  repair  with  all  convenient  speed  to  London,  and 
there  to  remain  with  the  Queen  dowager  her  mother  ; 
which  accordingly  she  soon  after  did,  accompanied 
with  many  noblemen  and  ladies  of  honour.  In  the 
mean  season  the  King  set  forwards  by  easy  journeys 
to  the  City  of  London,  receiving  the  acclamations  and 
applauses  of  the  people  as  he  went,  which  indeed  were 
true  and  unfeigned,  as  might  well  appear  in  the  veiy 
demonstrations  and  fulness  of  the  cry.  For  they 
thought  generally  that  he  was  a  Prince  as  ordained 
and  sent  down  from  heaven  to  unite  and  put  to  an 
end  the  long  dissensions  of  the  two  houses  ;  which 
although  they  had  had,  in  the  times  of  Henry  the 
Fourth,  Henry  the  Fifth,  and  a  part  of  Henry  the 
Sixth  on  the  one  side,  and  the  times  of  Edward  the 
Fourth  on  the  other,  lucid  intervals  and  happy  pauses  ; 
yet  they  did  ever  hang  over  the  kingdom,  ready  to 
break  forth  into  new  perturbations  and  calamities. 
And  as  his  victory  gave  him  the  knee,  so  his  purpose 
of  marriage  with  the  Lady  Elizabeth  gave  him  the 
heart  ;  so  that  both  knee  and  heart  did  truly  bow 
before  him. 

He  on  the  other  side  with  great  wisdom  (not  igno- 
rant of  the  affections  and  fears  of  the  people),  to  dis- 
perse the  conceit  and  terror  of  a  conquest,  had  given 
order  that  there  should  be  nothing  in  his  journey  like 
unto  a  warlike  inarch  or  manner  ;  but  rather  like  unto 
the  progress  of  a  King  in  full  peace  and  assurance.1 

He  entered  the  City  upon  a  Saturday,  as  he  had 
also  obtained  the  victory  upon  a  Saturday  ;  which  day 

1  Sed  potius  itineris  pacifici,  quali  reges  animi  causa  provincias  suas  pera- 
grantes  uti  solent.     "  Progress  "  is  used  in  its  technical  sense. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  53 

of  the  week,  first  upon  an  observation,  and  after  upon 
memory  and  fancy,  he  accounted  and  chose  as  a  day 
prosperous  unto  him. 

.The  mayor1  and  companies  of  the  City  received 
him  at  Shoreditch  ;  whence  with  great  and  honourable 
attendance,  and  troops  of  noblemen  and  persons  of 
quality,  he  entered  the  City  ;  himself  not  being  on 
horseback,  or  in  any  open  chair  or  throne,  but  in  a 
close  chariot ;  as  one  that  having  been  sometimes  an 
enemy  to  the  whole  state,  and  a  proscribed  person, 
chose  rather  to  keep  state  and  strike  a  reverence  into 
the  people  than  to  fawn  upon  them. 

He  went  first  into  St.  Paul's  Church,  where,  not 
meaning  that  the  people  should  forget  too  soon  that 
he  came  in  by  battle,  he  made  offertory  of  his  stand- 
ards, and  had  orizons  and  Te  Deum  again  sung  ;  and 
went  to  his  lodging  prepared  in  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don's palace,  where  he  stayed  for  a  time. 

During  his  abode  there,  he  assembled  his  counsel2 
and  other  principal  persons,  in  presence  of  whom  he 
did  renew  again  his  promise  to  marry  with  the  Lady 
Elizabeth.     This  he  did  the  rather,  because  having  at 

1  Major  in  original. 

2  In  the  edition  of  1622  this  word  is  in  this  place  spelt  counsetl :  in  other 
places  it  is  spelt  councell ;  which  is  almost  always  the  spelling  of  the  MS. 
According  to  modern  usage  it  would  of  course  be  spelt  here  council.  But 
the  modern  distinction  between  council  and  counsel,  councillor  and  counsel- 
lor, was  not  observed  in  Bacon's  time ;  at  least  not  marked  in  the  spelling. 
Some  wrote  both  words  with  an  s;  some  both  with  a  c;  some  either  with 
either.  But  the  rule  by  which  the  several  forms  of  the  word  are  appropri- 
ated to  its  several  meanings,  —  counsel  being  used  for  advice,  counsellor  for 
a  person  who  gives  advice,  council  for  a  board  of  counsellors,  councillor  for 
a  member  of  such  board,  —  this  rule  was  not  yet  established ;  and  as  it 
sometimes  happens  that  the  point  or  effect  of  the  sentence  depends  upon 
the  ambiguity,  and  is  lost  by  marking  the  distinction,  I  have  thought  it 
better  to  retain  the  same  form  in  all  cases :  and  I  have  chosen  that  form 
which  represents  in  modern  orthography  the  original  word. 


54  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

his  coming  out  of  Brittaine  given  artificially  for  serv- 
ing of  his  own  turn  some  hopes,  in  case  he  obtained 
the  kingdom,  to  marry  Anne,  inheritress  to  the  duchy 
of  Brittaine,  whom  Charles  the  Eighth  of  France  soon 
after  married,  it  bred  some  doubt  and  suspicion 
amongst  divers  that  he  was  not  sincere,  or  at  least 
not  fixed,  in  going  on  with  the  match  of  England  so 
much  desired :  which  conceit  also,  though  it  were  but 
talk  and  discourse,  did  much  afflict  the  poor  Lady 
Elizabeth  herself.  But  howsoever  he  both  truly  in- 
tended it,  and  desired  also  it  should  be  so  believed 
(the  better  to  extinguish  envy  and  contradiction  to 
his  other  purposes),  yet  was  he  resolved  in  himself 
not  to  proceed  to  the  consummation  thereof,  till  his 
coronation  and  a  Parliament  were  past.  The  one, 
lest  a  joint  coronation  of  himself  and  his  Queen  might 
give  any  countenance  of  participation  of  title  ;  the 
other,  lest  in  the  entailing  of  the  crown  to  himself, 
which  he  hoped  to  obtain  by  Parliament,  the  votes 
of  the  Parliament  might  any  ways  reflect  upon  her. 
About  this  time  in  autumn,  towards  the  end  of 
September,  there  began  and  reigned  in  the  city  and 
other  parts  of  the  kingdom  a  disease  then  new ; * 
which  by  the  accidents  and  manner  thereof  they 
called  the  sweating-sickness.  This  disease  had  a  swift 
course,  both  in  the  sick  body  and  in  the  time  and 
period  of  the  lasting  thereof.2  For  they  that  were 
taken  with  it,  upon  four-and-twenty  hours,  escaping 
were  thought  almost  assured.  And  as  to  the  time  of 
the  malice  and  reign  of  the  disease  ere  it  ceased,  it 

1  Morbus  qiddam  epidemicus,  tunc  temporis  novus ;  cui  ex  naturd  et  symp- 
tojnatibus  ejus,  cf  c. 

2  Tarn  in  morbi  ipsius  crisi,  quam  in  tempore  dwationis  ipsius. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  55 

began  about  the  one  and  twentieth  of  September,  and 
cleared  up  before  the  end  of  October;  insomuch  as 
it  was  no  hinderance  to  the  King's  coronation,  which 
was-  the  last  of  October  ;  nor  (which  was  more)  to 
the  holding  of  the  Parliament,  which  began  but  seven 
days  after.  It  was  a  pestilent  fever,  but  as  it  seemeth 
not  seated  in  the  veins  or  humours  ;  for  that  there 
followed  no  carbuncle,  no  purple  or  livid  spots,1  or 
the  like,  the  mass  of  the  body  being  not  tainted  ;  only 
a  malign  vapour  flew  to  the  heart,  and  seized  the  vital 
spirits  ;  which  stirred  nature  to  strive  to  send  it  forth 
by  an  extreme  sweat.  And  it  appeared  by  experience 
that  this  disease  was  rather  a  surprise  of  nature,  than 
obstinate  to  remedies,  if  it  were  in  time  looked  unto. 
For  if  the  patient  were  kept  in  an  equal  temper,  both 
for  clothes,  fire,  and  drink  moderately  warm,  with 
temperate  cordials,  whereby  nature's  work  were  neither 
irritated  by  heat  nor  turned  back  by  cold,  he  com- 
monly recovered.  But  infinite  persons  died  suddenly 
of  it,  before  the  manner  of  the  cure  and  attendance 
was  known.  It  was  conceived  not  to  be  an  epidemic 
disease,2  but  to  proceed  from  a  malignity  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  air,  gathered  by  the  predispositions  of 
seasons ; 3  and  the  speedy  cessation  declared  as  much. 

1  The  Latin  translation  adds  non  pustuke. 

2  The  word  epidemic  is  mentioned  by  Sir  T.  Meautys  as  one  of  the  ver- 
bal corrections  made  by  the  King  in  the  original  MS.  This  part  of  the 
MS.  is  unluckily  lost;  we  cannot  therefore  ascertain  whether  this  be  the 
place  where  that  word  was  introduced,  or  what  the  word  was  for  which  it 
was  substituted.  Bacon's  meaning  however  is  fully  explained  in  the 
Latin  translation,  in  which  it  has  already  been  described  as  an  epidemic 
disease.  Opinio  erat  morbum  istum  neutiquam  ex  epidemicis  Hits  qui  simul 
contagiosi  sunt  et  de  corpore  in  corpus  fluunt  fuisse :  sed  a  malignitate  quadam 
in  ipso  aere,  tfc.  Using  the  words  in  their  modern  sense,  we  should  say 
that  it  was  thought  not  to  be  a  contagious  but  an  epidemic  disease. 

«  The  translation  adds  "  and  frequent  and  unhealthy  changes  of 
weather." 


56  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

On  Simon  and  Jude's  Even  the  King  dined  with 
Thomas  Bourchier,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
Cardinal :  and  from  Lambeth  went  by  land  over  the 
bridge  to  the  Tower,  where  the  morrow  after  he  made 
twelve  knights-bannerets.  But  for  creations,  he  dis- 
pensed them  with  a  sparing  hand.  For  notwithstanding 
a  field  so  lately  fought  and  a  coronation  so  near  at  hand, 
he  only  created  three :  Jasper  Earl  of  Pembroke  (the 
King's  uncle)  was  created  Duke  of  Bedford  ;  Thomas 
the  Lord  Stanley  (the  King's  father-in-law)  Earl  of 
Derby  ;  and  Edward  Courtney  Earl  of  Devon  ;  though 
the  king  had  then  nevertheless  a  purpose  in  himself  to 
make  more  in  time  of  Parliament ;  bearing  a  wise 
and  decent  respect  to  distribute  his  creations,  some  to 
honour  his  coronation,  and  some  his  Parliament. 

The  coronation  followed  two  days  after,  upon  the 
thirtieth  day  of  October  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1485. 
At  which  time  Innocent  the  Eighth  was  Pope  of 
Rome  ;  Frederick  the  Third  Emperor  of  Almain ; 
and  Maximilian  his  son  newly  chosen  King  of  the 
Romans  ;  Charles  the  Eighth  King  of  France  ;  Fer- 
dinando  and  Isabella  Kings  of  Spain  ;  and  James  the 
Third  King  of  Scotland  :  with  all  of  which  kings  and 
states  the  King  was  at  that  time  in  good  peace  and 
amity.1  At  which  day  also  (as  if  the  crown  upon  his 
head  had  put  perils  into  his  thoughts)  he  did  institute 
for  the  better  security  of  his  person  a  band  of  fifty 
archers  under  a  captain  to  attend  him,  by  the  name 

i  There  seems  to  have  been  a  doubt  at  first  how  he  stood  with  regard 
to  Scotland;  for  on  the  25th  of  September,  1485,  commissions  were  issued 
to  the  Sheriffs  of  Northumberland,  Cumberland,  Westmoreland,  York- 
shire, and  Nottingham,  "  to  hold  in  array  the  men  of  those  counties  in 
readiness  for  an  anticipated  invasion  of  the  Scots,"  &c.  See  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls,  1  Hen.  VII.     Rolls  Chapel. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  57 

of  Yeomen-of-his-Guard :  and  yet  that  it  might  be 
thought  to  be  rather  a  matter  of  dignity,  after  the 
imitation  of  that  he  had  known  abroad,  than  any  mat- 
ter .of  diffidence  appropriate  to  his  own  case,  he  made 
it  to  be  understood  for  an  ordinance  not  temporary, 
but  to  hold  in  succession  for  ever  after. 

The  seventh  of  November  the  King  held  his  Par- 
liament at  Westminster,  which  he  had  summoned 
immediately  after  his  coming  to  London.  His  ends 
in  calling  a  Parliament  (and  that  so  speedily)  were 
chiefly  three.  First,  to  procure  the  crown  to  be 
entailed  upon  himself.  Next  to  have  the  attainders 
of  all  his  party  (which  were  in  no  small  number) 
reversed,  and  all  acts  of  hostility  by  them  done  in  his 
quarrel  remitted  and  discharged ;  and  on  the  other 
side,  to  attaint1  by  Parliament  the  heads  and  princi- 
pals of  his  enemies.  The  third,  to  calm  and  quiet  the 
fears  of  the  rest  of  that  party  by  a  general  pardon ; 2 
not  being  ignorant  in  how  great  danger  a  King  stands 
from  his  subjects,  when  most  of  his  subjects  are  con- 
scious in  themselves  that  they  stand  in  his  danger.3 

3  In  the  original  it  is  spelt  "  attaine;  "  probably  a  misprint. 

2  This  is  explained  in  the  translation  to  mean  such  a  general  pardon  as 
was  usual  after  a  Parliament.  Ut  inferioris  conditionis  homines  qui  Ri- 
chardo  adhceserant  (ne  forte  novis  motibus  materiam  prceberet)  remissionem 
generalem,  qualis  in  fine  comitiorum  a  rege  emanare  solet,  consequerentur. 
The  nature  of  this  general  pardon  is  further  explained  in  the  Index  vocab- 
ulorum  appended  to  the  translation.  It  is  defined,  indulgentia  Regis,  qua  et 
crimina  omnia  [exceptis  quae,  in  instrumento  remissionis  speciatim  recensentur) 
et  mulctaz,  aliceque  solutiones  Regi  debitce,  abolentur.  And  it  is  added  that  it 
may  proceed  either  from  the  King  alone  or  from  the  King  and  Parliament. 
Ilia  quandoque  a  Rege  solo  emanat,  quandoque  a  Rege  addita  auctoritate  Par- 
liamenti.  It  seems  that  Henry's  first  intention  was  to  take  the  latter 
method ;  but  that  he  changed  his  mind.     See  p.  62. 

3  In  the  MS.  the  sentence  stood  originally  thus,  —  "that  they  stand  in 
danger  from  him."  The  alteration  (which  I  think  is  no  improvement)  is 
not  in  the  transcriber's  hand  nor  in  Bacon's;  but  apparently  in  the  same 


58  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Unto  these  three  special  motives  of  a  Parliament  was 
added,  that  he  as  a  prudent  and  moderate  prince  made 
this  judgment,  that  it  was  fit  for  him  to  haste  to  let 
his  people  see  that  he  meant  to  govern  by  law,  how- 
soever he  came  in  by  the  sword ;  and  fit  also  to  re- 
claim them  to  know  him  for  their  King,  whom  they 
had  so  lately  talked  of  as  an  enemy  or  banished  man. 
For  that  which  concerned  the  entailing  of  the  crown 
(more  than  that  he  was  true  to  his  own  will,  that  he 
would  not  endure  any  mention  of  the  Lady  Elizabeth, 
no  not  in  the  nature  of  special  entail1),  he  carried  it 
otherwise  with  great  wisdom  and  measure.  For  he 
did  not  press  to  have  the  act  penned  by  way  of  decla- 
ration or  recognition  of  right ;  as  on  the  other  side 
he  avoided  to  have  it  by  new  law  or  ordinance  ;  but 
chose  rather  a  kind  of  middle  way,  by  way  of  estab- 
lishment, and  that  under  covert  and  indifferent  words ;  * 
that  the  inheritance  of  the  crown  should  rest,  remain,  and 
abide  in  the  King,  etc. :  which  words  might  equally 
be  applied,  That  the  crown  should  continue  to  him  ; 3 
but  whether  as  having  former  right  to  it  (which  was 
doubtful),  or  having  it  then  in  fact  and  possession 
(which  no  man  denied),  was  left  fair  to  interpretation 

in  which  the  direction  with  regard  to  the  omitted  passage  on  page  60 
is  written.  I  suppose  it  was  one  of  the  verbal  corrections  dictated  by  the 
King. 

From  this  place  to  the  foot  of  page  67,  I  have  corrected  the  text  from 
the  MS.     The  leaves  which  preceded  are  lost. 

1  Imo  nee  quod  minimum  erat  permittens,  ut  liberi  ex  ed  suscepii priini  ante 
omnes  succederent. 

2  Verbis  tectis  et  utringue  nutantibus. 

8  The  meaning  is  more  accurately  expressed  in  the  Latin  translation: 
Quce  verba  in  utrumque  sensum  trahi  poterant ;  Mud  commune  habentia,  ut 
scilicet  corona  in  eo  siabiliretur ;  sed  utrum,  tfc.  The  words  might  be  taken 
two  ways ;  but  either  way  they  must  be  taken  as  establishing  the  crown 
upon  him. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  59 

either  way.  And  again  for  the  limitation  of  the  en- 
tail, he  did  not  press  it  to  go  farther  than  to  himself 
and  to  the  heirs  of  his  body,  not  speaking  of  his  right 
heirs ; 1  but  leaving  that  to  the  law  to  decide  ;  so  as 
the  entail  might  seem  rather  a  personal  favour  to  him 
and  his  children,  than  a  total  disinherison  to  the  house 
of  York.  And  in  this  form  was  the  law  drawn  and 
passed.  Which  statute  he  procured  to  be  confirmed 
by  the  Pope's  Bull  the  year  following,  with  mention 
nevertheless  (by  way  of  recital)  of  his  other  titles 
both  of  descent  and  conquest.  So  as  now  the  wreath 
of  three  was  made  a  wreath  of  five.  For  to  the  three 
first  titles,  of  the  two  houses  or  lines  and  conquest, 
were  added  two  more ;  the  authorities  Parliamentary 
and  Papal. 

The  King  likewise  in  the  reversal  of  the  attainders 
of  his  partakers,  and  discharging  them  of  all  offences 
incident  to  his  service  and  succour,  had  his  will ;  and 
acts  did  pass  accordingly.  In  the  passage  whereof,  ex- 
ception was  taken  to  divers  persons  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  for  that  they  were  attainted,  and  thereby 
not  legal,  nor  habilitate  to  serve  in  Parliament,  being 
disabled  in  the  highest  degree ; 2  and  that  it  should  be 
a  great  incongruity  to  have  them  to  make  laws  who 
themselves  were  not  inlawed.  The  truth  was,  that 
divers  of  those  which  had  in  the  time  of  King  Richard 
been  strongest  and  most  declared  for  the  King's  party, 

1  Omissd  hceredum  generalium  Vientiane,  sed  Mud  legis  decisioni,  qualis  ex 
verbis  antedictis  elici  poterat,  subjiciebat. 

2  This  is  rather  fuller  and  clearer  in  the  Latin.  Cum  vero  Statutum  Mud 
essel  sub  incude,  intervenit  qucestio  juris  satis  subtilis.  Dubitatum  est  enim, 
utrum  suffragia  complurium  in  inferiori  consessu  tunc  existentium  valida  essent 
et  legitima,  eo  quod prodilionis  tempore  Richardi  damnati  fuissent ;  unde  inca- 
paces  et  inhabiles  redditi  essent  in  summo  gradu. 


60  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

were  returned  Knights  and  Burgesses  of  the  Parlia- 
ment ;  whether  by  care  or  recommendation  from  the 
state,  or  the  voluntary  inclination  of  the  people  ;  many 
of  which  had  been  by  Richard  the  Third  attainted  by 
outlawries,  or  otherwise.  The  King  was  somewhat 
troubled  with  this.  For  though  it  had  a  grave  and 
specious  show,  yet  it  reflected  upon  his  party.  But 
wisely  not  shewing  himself  at  all  moved  therewith,  he 
would  not  understand  it  but  as  a  case  in  law,  and 
wished  the  judges  to  be  advised  thereupon,  who  for 
that  purpose  were  forthwith  assembled  in  the  Ex- 
chequer-chamber l  (which  is  the  counsel-chamber  of 
the  judges),  and  upon  deliberation  they  gave  a  grave 
and  safe  opinion  and  advice,  mixed  with  law  and  con- 
venience ; 2  which  was,  that  the  knights  and  burgesses 
attainted  by  the  course  of  law  should  forbear  to  come 
into  the  house  till  a  law  were  passed  for  the  reversal  of 
their  attainders.  [But  the  judges  left  it  there,  and 
made  no  mention  whether  after  such  reversal  there 
should  need  any  new  election  or  no,  nor  whether  this 
sequestering  of  them  from  the  house  were  generally 
upon  their  disability,  or  upon  an  incompetency  that 
they  should  be  judges  and  parties  in  their  own  cause. 
The  point  in  law  was,  whether  any  disability  in  their 
natural  capacity  could  trench  to  their  politic  capacity, 
they  being  but  procurators  of  the  commonwealth  and 
representatives  and  fiduciaries  of  counties  and  bor- 
oughs ;  considering  their  principals  stood  upright  and 


1  The  index  vocabulorum  explains,  for  the  benefit  of  foreigners,  that  the 
exchequer  chamber  was  locus  in  qiiojudices  majores  conveniunt ;  cum  aut  a 
rege  consuluntur  ;  aut  propter  vota  cequalia  in  curiis  minoribus,  omnes  dtlibe- 
rant  et  suffragia  reddunt ;  aut  minorum  curiarum  judicia  relractant. 

2  Ex  legum  norma  el  cequitate  naturali  temperatam. 


HIST  OK  Y  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  61 

clear,  and  therefore  were  not  to  receive  prejudice  from 
their  personal  attainders.1] 

It  was  at  that  time  incidentally  moved  amongst  the 
judges  in  their  consultation,  what  should  be  done  for 
the  King  himself  who  likewise  was  attainted :  but  it 
was  with  unanimous  consent  resolved,  that  the  crown 
takes  away  all  defects  and  stops  in  blood  :  and  that 
from  the  time  the  King  did  assume  the  crown,  the 
fountain  was  cleared,  and  all  attainders  and  corruption 
of  blood  discharged.2  But  nevertheless,  for  honour's 
sake,  it  was  ordained  by  Parliament,  that  all  records 
wherein  there  was  any  memory  or  mention  of  the 
King's  attainder  should  be  defaced,  cancelled,  and 
taken  off  the  file. 

But  on  the  part  of  the  King's  enemies  there  were  by 
parliament   attainted,3  the   late  Duke    of   Gloucester, 

1  The  passage  within  brackets  is  taken  from  the  MS.;  where  it  is 
crossed  out;  and  against  the  last  sentence  is  written  in  the  margin,  in  a 
hand  which  I  do  not  know  (not  Bacon's,  as  it  is  supposed  to  be  by  Sir 
Frederic  Madden,  Archaeol.  27,  155),  "  This  to  be  altered,  as  his  Matie  told 
Mr.  Mewtus." 

Mr.  Meautys,  in  a  letter  to  Bacon,  7th  Jan.  1621-2,  says,  M  Mr.  Murray 
tells  me  that  the  King  hath  given  your  book  to  my  Lord  Brooke,  and  en- 
joined him  to  read  it,  commending  it  much  to  him,  and  then  my  Lord 
Brooke  is  to  return  it  to  your  Lp.,  and  so  it  may  go  to  the  press  when  your 
Lp.  please,  with  such  amendments  as  the  King  hath  made,  which  I  have 
seen,  and  are  very  few,  and  these  rather  words,  as  epidemic,  and  mild  in- 
stead of  debonnaire,  &c.  Only  that,  of  persons  attainted  enabled  to  serve 
in  Parliament  by  a  bare  reversal  of  their  attainders  without  issuing  any 
new  writs,  the  King  by  all  means  will  have  left  out."  This  is  what  Lord 
Campbell  alludes  to  where  he  says  that  James  made  Bacon  "  expunge  a 
legal  axiom,  '  that  on  the  reversal  of  an  attainder  the  party  attainted  is 
restored  to  all  his  rights.'  "  —  Lives,  iii.  122.  4th  ed. 

2  The  translation  adds  ut  Regi  opera  Parliamentarian  non  fuissei  opus. 

8  It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  act  of  attainder  the  21st  of  August  (the 
day  before  the  battle  of  Boswoi-th)  is  spoken  of  as  being  in  the  first  year 
of  Henry's  reign;  and  that,  a  few  lines  further  on,  the  22nd  of  August  ia 
called  "  the  said  22nd  day  of  the  said  month  then  following."  The  expres- 
sions are  plainly  irreconcilable ;  but  I  suppose  it  is  only  a  clerical  error  or 


62  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

calling  himself  Richard  the  Third,  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, the  Earl  of  Surrey,  Viscount  Lovell,  the  Lord 
Ferrers,  the  Lord  Zouch,  Richard  Ratcliffe,  William 
Catesby,  and  many  others  of  degree  and  quality.  In 
which  bilfs  of  attainders  nevertheless  there  were  con- 
tained many  just  and  temperate  clauses,  savings,  and 
provisoes  ;  well  shewing  and  fore-tokening  the  wisdom, 
stay,  and  moderation  of  the  King's  spirit  of  govern- 
ment. And  for  the  pardon  of  the  rest  that  had  stood 
against  the  King,  the  King  upon  a  second  advice 
thought  it  not  fit  it  should  pass  by  Parliament,1  the 
better  (being  matter  of  grace),  to  impropriate  the 
thanks  to  himself:  using  only  the  opportunity  of  a 
Parliament  time,  the  better  to  disperse  it  into  the  veins 
of  the  kingdom.  Therefore  during  the  Parliament  he 
published  his  royal  proclamation,  oifering  pardon  and 
grace  of  restitution  to  all  such  as  had  taken  arms  or 
been  participant  of  any  attempts  against  him,  so  as 
they  submitted  themselves  to  his  mercy  by  a  day,  and 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  him,  where- 
upon many  came  out  of  sanctuary,  and   many  more 

a  misprint,  and  that  "  the  said  22nd  day  of  the  said  month  "  should  have 
been  "  the  22nd  day  of  the  said  month,"  &c. 

The  author  of  the  Pictorial  History  of  England  (book  vi.  cap.  i.)  thinks 
that  the  date  of  Henry's  accession  was  thus  antedated  by  a  day,  because 
if  he  was  not  king  on  the  21st,  acts  done  on  the  21st  could  not  have  been 
treason  against  him.  The  truth  is,  it  mattered  little  by  what  fiction  the 
law  chose  to  bring  within  its  forms  a  case  in  itself  so  utterly  irreconcilable 
with  law  as  a  successful  rebellion  against  the  de  facto  king.  To  suppose 
that  Henry  had  assumed  the  crown  from  the  day  when  he  was  prepared  to 
contest  it  in  the  field,  was  perhaps  that  form  of  fiction  which  came  nearest 
to  the  truth. 

For  a  fuller  account  of  the  discrepant  evidence  as  to  the  commencement 
of  Henry's  regnal  year,  see  Sir  Harris  Nicolas's  Chronology  of  History,  pp. 
328-333. 

i  A  Parliarnentaria  auctoritate  promanaret.     See  note  2.  p.  57. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  63 

I 
came  out  of  fear,  no  less  guilty  than  those  that  had 

taken  sanctuary. 

As  for  money  or  treasure,  the  King  thought  it  not 
seasonable  or  fit  to  demand  any  of  his  subjects  at  this 
Parliament ;  both  because  he  had  received  satisfaction 
from  them  in  matters  of  so  great  importance,  and  be- 
cause he  could  not  remunerate  them  with  any  general 
pardon  (being  prevented  therein  by  the  coronation  par- 
don passed  immediately  before)  ;  but  chiefly,  for  that 
it  was  in  every  man's  eye  what  great  forfeitures  and 
confiscations  he  had  at  that  present  to  help  himself; 
whereby  those  casualties  of  the  crown  might  in  reason 
spare  the  purses  of  the  subject ;  specially  in  a  time 
when  he  was  in  peace  with  all  his  neighbours.  Some 
few  laws  passed  at  that  Parliament,  almost  for  form 
sake :  amongst  which  there  was  one,  to  reduce  aliens 
being  made  denizens  to  pay  strangers'  customs  ;  and 
another,  to  draw  to  himself  the  seizures  and  compo- 
sitions of  Italians'  goods,  for  not  employment ; l  being 
points  of  profit  to  his  coffers,  whereof  from  the  very 
beginning  he  was  not  forgetful ;  and  had  been  more 
happy  at  the  latter  end,  if  his  early  providence,  which 
kept  him  from  all  necessity  of  exacting  upon  his 
people,    could   likewise   have   attempered    his    nature 


1  L  e.  for  not  being  employed  upon  the  purchase  of  native  goods ;  that 
being  the  condition  upon  which  the  importation  was  allowed. 

The  Latin  translation,  being  addressed  to  foreigners,  gives  a  fuller  and 
more  exact  description  of  many  of  these  laws  than  was  then  necessary  for 
English  readers.  English  readers  want  the  explanation  now  as  much  as 
foreigners ;  and  therefore  I  shall  in  most  cases  give  the  Latin  words  by 
way  of  commentary. 

Unafuit,  ut  exteri  licet  civitaie  donati  nihilominus  vectigalia  qualia  imponi 
soleni  meris  exleris  solverent :  altera,  ut  mulctxz  mercaiorum  Italorum  propter 
pecunias  qua,  proveniebant  ex  mercibus  suis  venundatis  in  nativas  regni  merces 
non  impensas,  Jisco  regio  applicarentur. 


64  HISTOKY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

therein.  He  added  during  parliament  to  his  former 
creations  the  ennoblement  or  advancement  in  nobility 
of  a  few  others.  The  Lord  Chandos  of  Brittaine  was 
made  Earl  of  Bath  ;  Sir  Giles  Dawbigny  was  made 
Lord  Dawbigny  ;  and  Sir  Robert  Willoughby  Lord 
Brooke. 

The  King  did  also  with  great  nobleness  and  bounty 
(which  virtues  at  that  time  had  their  turns  in  his  na- 
ture) restore  Edward  Stafford  eldest  son  to  Henry 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  attainted  in  the  time  of  King 
Richard,  not  only  to  his  dignities,  but  to  his  fortunes 
and  possessions,  which  were  great ;  to  which  he  was 
moved  also  by  a  kind  of  gratitude,  for  that  the  Duke 
was  the  man  that  moved  the  first  stone  against  the 
tyranny  of  King  Richard,  and  indeed  made  the  King 
a  bridge  to  the  crown  upon  his  own  ruins.  Thus  the 
Parliament  brake  up. 

The  Parliament  being  dissolved,  the  King  sent  forth- 
with money  to  redeem  the  Marquis  Dorset  and  Sir 
John  Bourchier,  whom  he  had  left  as  his  pledges  at 
Paris  for  money  which  he  had  borrowed  when  he 
made  his  expedition  for  England  ;  and  thereupon  he 
took  a  fit  occasion  to  send  the  Lord  Treasurer  and  Mr. 
Bray  (whom  he  used  as  counsellor)  to  the  Lord  Mayor 
of  London,  requiring  of  the  City  a  prest  of  six  thousand 
marks.  But  after  many  parleys  he  could  obtain  but 
two  thousand  pounds  ;  which  nevertheless  the  King 
took  in  good  part,  as  men  use  to  do  that  practise  to 
borrow  money  when  they  have  no  need. 

About  this  time  the  King  called  unto  his  Privy 
Counsel  John  Morton  and  Richard  Foxe,  the  one 
Bishop  of  Ely,  the  other  Bishop  of  Exeter  ;  vigilant 
men  and  secret,  and  such  as  kept  watch  with  him  al- 


HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII.  65 

most  upon  all  men  else.  They  had  been  both  versed 
in  his  affairs  before  he  came  to  the  crown,  and  were 
partakers  of  his  adverse  fortune.  This  Morton  soon 
after,  upon  the  death  of  Bourchier,  he  made  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  And  for  Foxe,  he  made  him 
Lord  Keeper  of  his  Privy  Seal  ;  and  afterwards  ad- 
vanced him  by  degrees,  from  Exeter  to  Bath  and 
Wells,  thence  to  Durham,  and  last  to  Winchester. 
For  although  the  King  loved  to  employ  and  advance 
bishops,  because  having  rich  bishoprics  they  carried 
their  reward  upon  themselves  ;  yet  he  did  use  to  raise 
them  by  steps  ;  that  he  might  not  lose  the  profit  of 
the  first  fruits,1  which  by  that  course  of  gradation  was 
multiplied. 

At  last  upon  the  eighteenth  of  January  was  solem- 
nised the  so  long  expected  and  so  much  desired  marriage 
between  the  King  and  the  Lady  Elizabeth  ;  which  day 
of  marriage  was  celebrated  with  greater  triumph  and 
demonstrations  (especially  on  the  people's  part)  of  joy 
and  gladness,  than  the  days  either  of  his  entry  or  coro- 
nation ;  which  the  King  rather  noted  than  liked.  And 
it  is  true  that  all  his  life-time,  while  the  Lady  Elizabeth 
lived  with  him  (for  she  died  before  him),  he  shewed 
himself  no  very  indulgent  husband2  towards  her  though 

1  i.  e.  the  portion  of  the  profit  which  he  contrived  to  secure  for  himself. 
The  first-fruits  at  that  time  went  to  the  Pope,  as  is  noticed  in  the  Latin 
translation,  which  adds,  "Licet  enim  tunc  temporis  reditus  Me  ex primitiis 
reditibus  regiis  nonfuisset  annexvis,  sed  tributo  papali  cesser  at ;  attamen  ipse 
ita  cum  collectoribus  Papce  se  gerere  solebat,  ut  haud  parvum  inde  commodum 
sibi  redundareV 

2  So  again  farther  on :  "  Towards  his  queen  he  was  nothing  uxorious, 
nor  scarce  indulgent;  but  companiable  and  respective,  and  without  jeal- 
ousy." 

I  am  not  aware  that  anv  evidence  is  now  extant  from  which  it  could  be 
inferred  that  Henry  was  wanting  in  indulgence  to  his  wife;  but  these 
words  are  evidently  chosen  with  care  and  delicacy,  and  we  need  not 

VOL.  xi.  5 


66  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

she  was  beautiful  gentle  and  fruitful.     But  his  aversion 
toward  the  house  of  York  was  so  predominant  in  him, 

doubt  that  Bacon  had  good  grounds  for  what  he  said.  These  passages 
'  are,  I  believe,  the  sole  foundation  of  the  statements  made  by  later  histo- 
rians on  this  point;  a  few  of  which  (to  show  how  little  the  copy  can  be 
trusted  for  preserving  the  characteristic  features  of  the  original)  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  quote,  according  to  the  order  of  their  date.  The  succes- 
sive pictures  are  not  however  copies  from  each  other,  but  all  meant  to  be 
copies  direct  from  Bacon. 

1  Rapin  (a.  d.  1707-25).  "  Henry  did  not  like  to  see  the  people's  joy 
for  this  marriage.  He  perceived  Elizabeth  had  a  greater  share  in  it  than 
himself,  and  consequently  he  was  thought  really  king  only  in  right  of  his 
queen.  This  consideration  inspired  him  with  such  a  coldness  for  her,  that 
he  never  ceased  giving  her  marks  of  it  so  long  as  she  lived.  He  deferred  her 
coronation  two  whole  years,  and  doubtless  would  have  done  so  for  ever,  if 
he  had  not  thought  it  prejudicial  to  him  to  persist  in  refusing  her  that 
honour.  Nay  perhaps  he  would  have  dealt  with  her  as  Edward  the  Confessor 
had  formerly  done  by  his  queen,  daughter  of  Earl  Goodwin,  had  not  the  desire 
of  children  caused  him  to  overcome  his  aversion." 

2.  Hume  (1759).  "Henry  remarked  with  much  displeasure  the  gen- 
eral favour  which  was  borne  the  house  of  York.  The  suspicions  which 
arose  from  it  not  only  distui'bed  his  tranquillity  during  his  whole  reign, 
but  bred  disgust  towards  his  spouse  herself  and  poisoned  all  his  domestic  enjoy- 
ments. Though  virtuous,  amiable,  and  obsequious  to  the  last  degree,  she 
never  met  with  a  proper  return  of  affection,  or  even  of  complaisance,  from 
her  husband;  and  the  malignant  ideas  of  faction  still,  in  his  sullen  mind, 
prevailed  over  all  the  sentiments  of  conjugal  tenderness." 

3.  Henry  (1790).  "  Henry  did  not  relish  these  rejoicings;  on  the  con- 
trary they  gave  great  disgust  to  his  jealous  and  sullen  spirit;  as  they  con- 
vinced him  that  the  house  of  York  was  still  the  favourite  of  the  people, 
and  that  his  young  and  beautiful  consort  possessed  a  greater  share  of  their 
affections  than  himself.  This,  it  is  said,  deprived  her  of  the  affections  of 
her  husband,  who  treated  her  unkindly  during  her  life.*1 

4.  Thomas  Hey  wood  (Preface  to  the  Song  of  the  Lady  Bessy,  p.  15.), 
(1829).  "  It  was  a  match  of  policy;  and  the  gentle  and  unoffending  queen, 
after  a  life  rendered  miserable  by  the  dislike  in  which  the  king  held  her  in 
common  with  the  whole  of  the  house  of  York,  and  having  given  birth  to 
three  sons  and  four  daughters,  died  in  the  Tower,  A.  d.  1503,  in  the  37th 
year  of  her  age,"  &c. 

"  I  have  not  met  "  (says  Dr.  Lingard,  after  quoting  a  passage  of  opposite 
tendency)  "  with  any  good  proof  of  Henry's  dislike  of  Elizabeth,  so  often 
mentioned  by  later  writers.  In  the  MS.  of  Andre"  and  the  journals  of  the 
Herald  they  appear  as  if  they  entertained  a  real  affection  for  each  other." 
(Vol.  v.  p.  328.) 

If  Bacon  be,  as  I  suppose  he  is,  the  sole  authority  upon  which  these 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  67 

as  it  found  place  not  only  in  his  wars  and  counsels,  but 
in  his  chamber  and  bed. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  spring,1  the  King,  full  of 
confidence  and  assurance,  as  a  prince  that  had  been 
victorious  in  battle,  and  had  prevailed  with  his  Parlia- 
ment in  all  that  he  desired,  and  had  the  ring  of  accla- 
mations fresh  in  his  ears,  thought  the  rest  of  his  reign 
should  be  but  play,  and  the  enjoying  of  a  kingdom. 
Yet  as  a  wise  and  watchful  King,  he  would  not  neglect 
anything  for  his  safety,  thinking  nevertheless  to  per- 
form all  things  now  rather  as  an  exercise  than  as  a 
labour.  So  he  being  truly  informed  that  the  northern 
parts  were  not  only  affectionate  to  the  house  of  York, 
but  particularly  had  been  devoted  to  King  Richard  the 
Third,  thought  it  would  be  a  summer  well  spent  to 
visit  those  parts,  and  by  his  presence  and  application 
of  himself2  to  reclaim  and  rectify  those  humours.  But 
the  King,  in  his  account  of  peace  and  calms,  did  much 
over-cast  his  fortunes  ;  which  proved  for  many  years 
together  full  of  broken  seas,  tides,  and  tempests.  For 
he  was  no  sooner  come  to  Lincoln,  where  he  kept  his 
Easter,  but  he  received  news  that  the  Lord  Lovell, 
Humphrey  Stafford,  and  Thomas  Stafford,  who  had 
formerly  taken  sanctuary  at3  Colchester,  were  de- 
parted out  of  sanctuary,  but  to  what  place  no  man 
could  tell.     Which  advertisement  the   King  despised, 


later  writers  speak,  proof  was  not  to  be  expected.  Bacon  does  not  say 
that  Henry  was  either  neglectful  or  unkind,  but  only  that  he  was  not  very 
indulgent. 

1  In  the  Latin,  jam  autem.  Easter-day  fell  that  year  on  the  26th  of 
March ;  and  by  that  time  the  king  had  advanced  in  his  northern  progress 
as  far  as  Lincoln. 

a  Prcesentiaque  sua,  el  majeslate  simul  ac  comitate. 

8  Several  pages  of  the  MS.  that  followed  here  are  lost. 


68  HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY   VII. 

and  continued  his  journey  to  York.  At  York1  there 
came  fresh  and  more  certain  advertisement  that  the 
Lord  Lovell  was  at  hand  with  a  great  power  of  men, 
and  that  the  Staffords  were  in  arms  in  Worcestershire, 
and  had  made  their  approaches  to  the  city  of  Worces- 
ter to  assail  it.  The  King,  as  a  prince  of  great  and 
profound  judgment,  was  not  much  moved  with  it ;  for 
that  he  thought  it  was  hut  a  rag  or  remnant  of  Bos- 
worth  Field,  and  had  nothing  in  it  of  the  main  party 
of  the  house  of  York.  But  he  was  more  doubtful  of 
the  raising  of  forces  to  resist  the  rebels,  than  of  the 
resistance  itself ; 2  for  that  he  was  in  a  core  of  people 
whose  affections  he  suspected.  But  the  action  endur- 
ing no  delay,  he  did  speedily  levy  and  send  against  the 
Lord  Lovell  to  the  number  of  three  thousand  men,  ill 
armed  but  well  assured  (being  taken  some  few  out  of 
his  own  train,  and  the  rest  out  of  the  tenants  and  fol- 
lowers of  such  as  were  safe  to  be  trusted),  under  the 
conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  And  as  his  manner 
was  to  send  his  pardons  rather  before  the  sword  than 
after,  he  gave  commission  to  the  Duke  to  proclaim 
pardon  to  all  that  would  come  in:  which  the  Duke, 
upon  his  approach  to  the  Lord  Lovell's  camp,  did  per- 
form. And  it  fell  out  as  the  King  expected ;  the  her- 
alds were  the  great  ordnance.  For  the  Lord  Lovell, 
upon  proclamation  of  pardon,  mistrusting  his  men, 
fled  into  Lancashire,  and  lurking  for  a  time  with  Sir 

i  So  Polydore  Vergil.  According  to  the  journal  of  a  herald  who  ac- 
companied the  progress  (printed  in  Leland's  Collectanea,  vol.  iv.,  from 
Cott.  MSS.  Jul.  B.  xii.),  which  is  hetter  authority,  news  reached  the  king 
at  Pontefract  that  Lord  Lovel  had  passed  him  on  the  road,  and  was  pre- 
paring to  surprise  him  at  York. 

2  i.  e.  than  that  the  rebels  might  easily  be  resisted.  "  Magis  autem  soli- 
citum  eum  habuit  copiarum  delectus  quibus  resisteret  rebellibus  quam  ijysorum 
rebellium  debellatio." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  69 

Thomas  Broughton,  after  sailed  over  into  Flanders  to 
the  Lady  Margaret.  And  his  men,  forsaken  of  their 
captain,  did  presently  submit  themselves  to  the  Duke. 
The  JStafFords  likewise,  and  their  forces,  hearing  what 
had  happened  to  the  Lord  Lovell  (in  whose  success 
their  chief  trust  was),  despaired  and  dispersed ;  the 
two  brothers  taking  sanctuary  at  Colnham,  a  village 
near  Abingdon  ;  which  place,  upon  view  of  their  privi- 
lege in  the  King's  bench,  being  judged  no  sufficient 
sanctuary  for  traitors,  Humphrey  was  executed  at  Ty- 
burn ;  and  Thomas,  as  being  led  by  his  elder  brother, 
was  pardoned.  So  this  rebellion  proved  but  a  blast, 
and  the  King  having  by  this  journey  purged  a  little 
the  dregs  and  leaven  of  the  northern  people,  that  were 
before  in  no  good  affection  towards  him,  returned  to 
London. 

In  September  following,  the  Queen  was  delivered  of 
her  first  son,  whom  the  King  (in  honour  of  the  British 
race,  of  which  himself  was)  named  Arthur,  according 
to  the  name  of  that  ancient  worthy  King  of  the  Brit- 
ons ;  in  whose  acts  there  is  truth  enough  to  make  him 
famous,  besides  that  which  is  fabulous.1  The  child 
was  strong  and  able,  though  he  was  born  in  the  eighth 
month,  which  the  physicians  do  prejudge.2 

There  followed  this  year,  being  the  second  of  the 
King's  reign,  a  strange  accident  of  state,3  whereof  the 
relations  which  we  have  are  so  naked,  as  they  leave  it 
scarce  credible ;  not  for  the  nature  of  it,  (for  it  hath 

1  In  cujus  rebus  gestis  asserendis  satis  invenitur  in  historia  vera  et  monu- 
mentis  antiquis,  quod  ilium,  demptis  fabulis,  magna  gloria  regno sse  testetur. 

2  De  quo  medici  et  astrologi  male  ominantur. 

3  Mirum  quoddam /acinus  et  audacia  plenum,  quodque  stalum  regis  et  regni 
vehemenler  perturbavit. 


70  HISTORY  OF   KING   HENRY   VII. 

fallen  out  oft,)  but  for  the  manner  and  circumstance 
of  it,  especially  in  the  beginnings.  Therefore  we  shall 
make  our  judgment  upon  the  things  themselves,  as 
they  give  light  one  to  another,  and  (as  we  can)  dig 
truth  out  of  the  mine.  The  King  was  green  in  his 
estate ;  and  contrary  to  his  own  opinion  and  desert 
both,  was  not  without  much  hatred  throughout  the 
realm.  The  root  of  all  was  the  discountenancing  of 
the  house  of  York,  which  the  general  body  of  the 
realm  still  affected.  This  did  alienate  the  hearts  of 
the  subjects  from  him  daily  more  and  more,  especially 
when  they  saw  that  after  his  marriage,  and  after  a  son 
born,  the  King  did  nevertheless  not  so  much  as  pro- 
ceed to  the  coronation  of  the  Queen,1  not  vouchsafing 
her  the  honour  of  a  matrimonial  crown ;  for  the  coro- 
nation of  her  was  not  till  almost  two  years  after,  when 
danger  had  taught  him  what  to  do.  But  much  more, 
when  it  was  spread  abroad  (whether  by  error  or  the 
cunning  of  malcontents)  that  the  King  had  a  purpose 
to  put  to  death  Edward  Plantagenet  closely  in  the 
Tower :  whose  case  was  so  nearly  paralleled  with  that 
of  Edward  the  Fourth's  children,  in  respect  of  the 
blood,  like  age,  and  the  very  place  of  the  Tower,  as  it 
did  refresh  and  reflect  upon  the  King  a  most  odious 
resemblance,  as  if  he  would  be  another  King  Richard. 
And  all  this  time  it  was  still  whispered  eveiywhere, 
that  at  least  one  of  the  children  of  Edward  the  Fourth 
was  living.  Which  bruit  was  cunningly  fomented  by 
such  as  desired  innovation.  Neither  was  the  King's 
nature  and  customs  greatly  fit  to  disperse  these  mists ; 
but  contrariwise   he   had  a  fashion   rather   to    create 

1  Nihihminus  coronationem  regince  sum  (quae  conjunctim  cum  coronatione 
propria  ab  omnibus  primo  erat  spectata)  adhuc  distulisse. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  71 

doubts  than  assurance.  Thus  was  fuel  prepared  for 
the  spark:  the  spark,  that  afterwards  kindled  such  a 
fire  and  combustion,  was  at  the  first  contemptible. 

There  was  a  subtile  priest  called  Richard  Simon, 
that  lived  in  Oxford,  and  had  to  his  pupil  a  baker's 
son  x  named  Lambert  Simnell,  of  the  age  of  some  fif- 
teen years  ;  a  comely  youth,  and  well  favoured,  not 
without  some  extraordinary  dignity  and  grace  of  as- 
pect. It  came  into  this  priest's  fancy  (hearing  what 
men  talked,  and  in  hope  to  raise  himself  to  some  great 
bishoprick)  to  cause  this  lad  to  counterfeit  and  per- 
sonate the  second  son  of  Edward  the  Fourth,  supposed 
to  be  murdered  ;  and  afterward  (for  he  changed  his 
intention  in  the  manage)  the  Lord  Edward  Planta- 
genet,  then  prisoner  in  the  Tower  ;  and  accordingly 
to  frame  him  and  instruct  him  in  the  part  he  was  to 
play.  This  is  that  which  (as  was  touched  before) 
seemeth  scarcely  credible ;  not  that  a  false  person 
should  be  assumed  to  gain  a  kingdom,  for  it  hath 
been  seen  in  ancient  and  late  times  ;  nor  that  it  should 
come  into  the  mind  of  such  an  abject  fellow  to  enter- 
prise so  great  a  matter ;  for  high  conceits  do  sometimes 
come  streaming  into  the  imaginations  of  base  persons  ; 
especially  when  they  are  drunk  with  news  and  talk  of 
the  people.  But  here  is  that  which  hath  no  appear- 
ance ; 2    that   this   priest,   being  utterly  unacquainted 

1  Speed,  on  the  authority  it  seems  of  Bernard  Andre,  says  son  of  a 
baker  or  shoemaker.  Archbishop  Sancroft,  on  the  authority  of  the 
priest's  declaration  before  the  convocation  of  clergy,  Feb.  17,  1486  {Reg. 
Morton,  f.  34.),  says  that  he  was  the  son  of  an  organ-maker  in  Oxford,  and 
that  the  priest's  name  was  William  Simonds.  See  note  on  this  passage  in 
Blackbourne's  ed.  of  Bacon's  works,  vol.  iii.  p.  407.,  said  to  be  from  San- 
croft's  MS.  In  the  act  of  attainder  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  (Rolls  of  Pari. 
vol.  vi.  p.  397.)  he  is  styled  "one  Lambert  Symnell,  a  child  of  x  yere  of 
age,  sonne  to  Thomas  Symnell,  late  of  Oxford,  joynoiire." 

-  Quod  minime  videtur  probaMle. 


72  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

with  the  true  person  according  to  whose  pattern  he 
should  shape  his  counterfeit,  should  think  it  possible 
for  him  to  instruct  his  player,  either  in  gesture  and 
fashions,  or  in  recounting  past  matters  of  his  life  and 
education,  or  in  fit  answers  to  questions,  or  the  like, 
any  ways  to  come  near  the  resemblance  of  him  whom 
he  was  to  represent.  For  this  lad  was  not  to  person- 
ate one  that  had  been  long  before  taken  out  of  his 
cradle,  or  conveyed  away  in  his  infancy,  known  to 
few ;  but  a  youth  that  till  the  age  almost  of  ten  years 
had  been  brought  up  in  a  court  where  infinite  eyes 
had  been  upon  him.  For  King  Edward,  touched  with 
remorse  of  his  brother  the  Duke  of  Clarence's  death, 
would  not  indeed  restore  his  son  (of  whom  we  speak) 
to  be  Duke  of  Clarence,  but  yet  created  him  Earl  of 
Warwick,  reviving  his  honour  on  the  mother's  side, 
and  used  him  honourably  during  his  time,  though 
Richard  the  Third  afterwards  confined  him.  So  that 
it  cannot  be,  but  that  some  great  person,  that  knew 
particularly  and  familiarly  Edward  Plantagenet,  had  a 
hand  in  the  business,  from  whom  the  priest  might  take 
his  aim.  That  which  is  most  probable,  out  of  the  pre- 
cedent and  subsequent  acts,  is,  that  it  was  the  Queen 
Dowager  from  whom  this  action  had  the  principal 
source  and  motion.  For  certain  it  is,  she  was  a  busy 
negotiating  woman,  and  in  her  with  drawing-chamber 
had  the  fortunate  conspiracy  for  the  King  against  King 
Richard  the  Third  been  hatched  ;  which  the  King 
knew,  and  remembered  perhaps  but  too  well ;  and  was 
at  this  time  extremely  discontent  with  the  King,  think- 
ing her  daughter  (as  the  King  handled  the  matter)  not 
advanced  but  depressed :  and  none  could  hold  the  book 
so  well  to  prompt  and  instruct  this  stage-play,  as  she 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  73 

could.  Nevertheless  it  was  not  her  meaning,  nor  no 
more  was  it  the  meaning  of  any  of  the  better  and  sager 
sort  that  favoured  this  enterprise  and  knew  the  secret, 
tha|L  this  disguised  idol  should  possess  the  crown ;  but 
at  his  peril  to  make  way  to  the  overthrow  of  the  King ; 
and  that  done,  they  had  their  several  hopes  and  ways. 
That  which  doth  chiefly  fortify  this  conjecture  is,  that 
as  soon  as  the  matter  brake  forth  in  any  strength,  it 
was  one  of  the  King's  first  acts  to  cloister  the  Queen 
Dowager  in  the  nunnery  of  Bermondsey,  and  to  take 
away  all  her  lands  and  estate ; x  and  this  by  a  close 
counsel,  without  any  legal  proceeding,  upon  far-fetched 


1  This  is  distinctly  stated  by  Polydore  Vergil,  Hall,  and  Speed.  Dr. 
Lingard  disputes  the  fact,  referring  to  the  collection  of  unpublished  Acts 
by  Ryraer;  Hen.  VII.  Nos.  29,  39.  Her  dower  (he  says),  of  which  she  had 
been  deprived  by  Richard  III.,  had  not  been  restored  by  Henry's  parlia- 
ment: instead  of  it  the  king  granted  her  a  compensation.  Which  is  true. 
From  the  calendar  of  the  Patent  Rolls  now  deposited  in  the  Rolls  Chapel, 
it  appears  (p.  160.)  that  on  the  4th  of  March  1485-6  various  lordships  and 
manors  were  granted  to  her  for  life  in  part  recornpence  of  her  dowry,  and 
that  on  the  following  day  other  lordships  and  manors,  of  which  the  enu- 
meration occupies  forty-six  lines,  together  with  certain  "  yearly  pay- 
ments," amounting  altogether  to  655/.  7s.  Q$d.,  were  in  like  manner 
granted  to  her  for  life  in  recornpence  of  the  residue  of  her  dowry. 

Dr.  Lingard  does  not  indeed  allege  any  grounds  for  thinking  that  this 
compensation  was  not  now  withdrawn;  which  would  justify  Polydore's 
statement  in  substance.  But  he  does  allege  good  reasons  for  thinking  that 
Polydore's  account  of  the  severity  exercised  towards  the  Queen  Dowager 
for  the  rest  of  her  days  is  exaggerated;  the  principal  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary being  the  project  of  a  marriage  between  her  and  James  III.  of  Scot- 
land, which  was  certainly  entertained  in  the  following  year.  See  Rymer, 
xii.  329.  It  is  also  certain  that  on  the  19th  of  February  1490,  an  annuity 
of  400Z.  was  granted  to  her  (Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  5  Hen.  VII.  p.  38.).  But  this 
may  have  been  in  consideration  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  former  grant,  — 
if  it  was  withdrawn. 

Bacon  does  not  seem  to  have  had  any  original  information  on  this  mat- 
ter. He  merely  repeats  the  original  story  as  he  found  it;  and  we  can  only 
infer  from  his  adoption  of  it  that  he  had  seen  no  reason  for  doubting  its 
accuracy.  It  is  certainly  not  true  that  the  Queen  Dowager  was  entirely 
secluded  from  court  for  the  remainder  of  her  life;  for  she  was  with  her 


74  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

pretences,  —  that  she  had  delivered  her  two  daughters 
out  of  sanctuary  to  King  Richard,  contrary  to  promise. 
Which  proceeding  being  even  at  that  time  taxed  for 
rigorous  and  undue,  both  in  matter  and  manner,  makes 
it  very  probable  there  was  some  greater  matter  against 
her,  which  the  King  upon  reason  of  policy  and  to 
avoid  envy  would  not  publish.  It  is  likewise  no  small 
argument  that  there  was  some  secret  in  it  and  some 
suppressing  of  examinations,  for  that  the  priest  Simon 
himself  after  he  was  taken  was  never  brought  to  ex- 
ecution ;  no  not  so  much  as  to  public  trial  (as  many 
clergymen  were  upon  less  treasons)  ;  but  was  only 
shut  up  close  in  a  dungeon.  Add  to  this  that  after 
the  Earl  of  Lincoln  (a  principal  person  of  the  house 
of  York)  was  slain  in  Stoke-field,  the  King  opened 
himself  to  some  of  his  counsel,  that  he  was  sorry  for 
the  Earl's  death,  because  by  him  (he  said)  he  might 
have  known  the  bottom  of  his  danger. 

But  to  return  to  the  narration  itself :  Simon  did  first 
instruct  his  scholar  for  the  part  of  Richard  Duke  of 
York,  second  son  to  King  Edward-  the  Fourth  ;  and 
this  was  at  such  time  as  it  was  voiced  that  the  King 
purposed  to  put  to  death  Edward  Plantagenet  prisoner 
in  the  Tower,  whereat  there  was  great  murmur.  But 
hearing  soon  after  a  general  bruit  that  Plantagenet  had 
escaped  out  of  the  Tower,1  and  thereby  finding  him 

daughter  in  November  1489  (Lei.  iv.  p.  249).  It  probably  is  true  that  she 
was  not  much  at  court, but  lived  in  retirement;  for  which  there  may  have 
been  many  reasons.  She  was  growing  old;  the  King's  mother  was  gener- 
ally with  the  Queen ;  and  it  often  happens  that  the  mother  and  the  mother- 
in-law  can  live  more  comfortably  at  a  little  distance  from  each  other.  The 
King  may  have  been  obliged  to  choose  which  of  the  two  he  would  have  in 
his  house,  —  his  own  mother  or  his  wife's. 

1  Polydore  says,  in  carcere  interiisse.     In  this  Bacon   seems  to  have 
followed  Hall,  who  says  the  rumour  was  that  he  had  broken  out  of  prison. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  75 

so  much  beloved  amongst  the  people,  and  such  rejoic- 
ing at  his  escape,  the  cunning  priest  changed  his  copy, 
and  chose  now  Plantagenet  to  be  the  subject  his  pupil 
shpuld  personate,  because  he  was  more  in  the  present 
speech  and  votes  of  the  people ;  and  it  pieced  better, 
and  followed  more  close  and  handsomely  upon  the 
bruit  of  Plantagenet's  escape.  But  yet  doubting  that 
there  would  be  too  near  looking  and  too  much  perspec- 
tive into  his  disguise,1  if  he  should  shew  it  here  in 
England  ;  he  thought  good  (after  the  manner  of  scenes 
in  stage-plays  and  masks)  to  shew  it  afar  off;  and 
therefore  sailed  with  his  scholar  into  Ireland,  where 
the  affection  to  the  house  of  York  was  most  in  height. 
The  King  had  been  a  little  improvident  in  the  matters 
of  Ireland,  and  had  not  removed  officers  and  counsel- 
lors, and  put  in  their  places,  or  at  least  intermingled, 
persons  of  whom  he  stood  assured ;  as  he  should  have 
done,  since  he  knew  the  strong  bent  of  that  country 
towards  the  house  of  York,  and  that  it  was  a  ticklish 
and  unsettled  state,  more  easy  to  receive  distempers 
and  mutations  than  England  was.  But  trusting  to  the 
reputation  of  his  victories  and  successes  in  England, 
he  thought  he  should  have  time  enough  to  extend  his 
cares  afterwards  to  that  second  kingdom. 

Wherefore  through  this  neglect,  upon  the  coming  of 
Simon  with  his  pretended  Plantagenet  into  Ireland,  all 
things  were  prepared  for  revolt  and  sedition,  almost  as 
if  they  had  been  set  and  plotted  beforehand.  Simon's 
first  address  was  to  the  Lord  Thomas  Fitz-Gerard, 
Earl  of  Kildare  and  Deputy  of  Ireland ;  before  whose 
eyes  he  did  cast  such  a  mist  (by  his  own  insinuation, 

1  Minus  sibi  tutum  futurum,  et  hominum  curiositati  et  itiquisitioni  magis 
obnoxium. 


76  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

and  by  the  carriage  of  his  youth,  that  expressed  a 
natural  princely  behaviour)  as,  joined  perhaps  with 
some  inward  vapours  of  ambition  and  affection  in  the 
Earl's  own  mind,  left  him  fully  possessed  that  it  was 
the  true  Plantagenet.  The  Earl  presently  communi- 
cated the  matter  with  some  of  the  nobles  and  others 
there,  at  the  first  secretly.  But  finding  them  of  like 
affection  to  himself,  he  suffered  it  of  purpose  to  vent 
and  pass  abroad ;  because  they  thought  it  not  safe  to 
resolve,  till  they  had  a  taste  of  the  people's  inclination. 
But  if  the  great  ones  were  in  forwardness,  the  people 
were  in  fury,  entertaining  this  airy  body  or  phantasm 
with  incredible  affection  ;  partly  out  of  their  great 
devotion  to  the  house  of  York,  partly  out  of  a  proud 
humour  in  the  nation  to  give  a  King  to  the  realm  of 
England.  Neither  did  the  party  in  this  heat  of  affec- 
tion much  trouble  themselves  with  the  attainder  of 
George  Duke  of  Clarence ;  having  newly  learned  by 
the  King's  example  that  attainders  do  not  interrupt  the 
conveying  of  title  to  the  crown.  And  as  for  the 
daughters  of  King  Edward  the  Fourth,  they  thought 
King  Richard  had  said  enough  for  them  ; 1  and  took 
them  to  be  but  as  of  the  King's  party,  because  they 
were  in  his  power  and  at  his  disposing.  So  that  with 
marvellous  consent  and  applause,  this  counterfeit  Plan- 
tagenet was  brought  with  great  solemnity  to  the  castle 
of  Dublin,  and  there  saluted,  served,  and  honoured  as 
King ;  the  boy  becoming  it  well,  and  doing  nothing 
that  did  bewray  the  baseness  of  his  condition.  And 
within  a  few  days  after  he  was  proclaimed  King  in 

1  i.  e.  the  example  of  Richard  had  shown  that  their  claim  was  no  insu- 
perable impediment.  The  Latin  is  fuller  —facile  innitebantur  repulsce 
quam  a  Rege  Eichardo  hcereditate  regni  summotce,  tulissent. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  77 

Dublin,  by  the  name  of  King  Edward  the  Sixth ; 
there  being  not  a  sword  drawn  in  King  Henry  his 
quarrel. 

The  King  was  much  moved  with  this  unexpected 
accident,  when  it  came  to  his  ears,  both  because  it 
struck  upon  that  string  which  ever  he  most  feared,1 
as  also  because  it  was  stirred  in  such  a  place,  where  he 
could  not  with  safety  transfer  his  own  person  to  sup- 
press it.  For  partly  through  natural  valour  and  partly 
through  an  universal  suspicion  (not  knowing  whom  to 
trust)  he  was  ever  ready  to  wait  upon  all  his  achieve- 
ments in  person.  The  King  therefore  first  called  his 
counsel  together  at  the  Charter-house  at  Shine  ;  2 
which  counsel  was  held  with  great  secrecy,  but  the 
open  decrees  thereof,  which  presently  came  abroad, 
were  three. 

The  first  was,  that  the  Queen  Dowager,  for  that 
she,  contrary  to  her  pact  and  agreement  with  those 
that  had  concluded  with  her  concerning  the  marriage 
of  her  daughter  Elizabeth  with  King  Henry,  had 
nevertheless  delivered  her  daughters  out  of  sanctuary 
into  King  Richard's  hands,  should  be  cloistered  in  the 
nunnery  of  Bermondsey,3  and  forfeit  all  her  lands  and 
goods. 

1  i.  e.  the  revival  of  the  York  title.  Tituli  scilicet  Eboracensis  families 
resuscitationem. 

2  This  was  soon  after  Candlemas,  1486-7.  See  the  Herald's  narrative, 
Cott.  MSS.,  Jul.  B.  xii.  fo.  23.;  or  Leland,  IV.  p.  208. 

3  This  fact  is  stated  by  Speed,  on  the  authority  probably  of  Hall;  who 
says  that  she  "  lived  ever  after  in  the  Abbey  of  Bermondsey  at  South- 
wark,  a  wretched  and  miserable  life,  where  not  long  after  she  deceased." 
The  statement  as  to  her  residing  there  for  the  rest  of  her  life  is  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  her  will,  which  is  dated  10th  April,  1492,  was  witnessed 
by  the  Abbot  of  Bermondsey;  and  it  seems  that  she  had  a  right,  under 
the  will  of  the  founder,  to  accommodation  in  the  state  apartments  there. 
If  there  be  any  ground  for  supposing  that  Henry  compelled  her  to  reside 


78  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

The  next  was,  that  Edward  Plantagenet,  then  close 
prisoner  in  the  Tower,  should  be,  in  the  most  public 
and  notorious  manner  that  could  be  devised,  shewed 
unto  the  people :  in  part  to  discharge  the  King  of  the 
envy  of  that  opinion  and  bruit,  how  he  had  been  put 
to  death  privily  in  the  Tower  ;  but  chiefly  to  make 
the  people  see  the  levity  and  imposture  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  Ireland,  and  that  their  Plantagenet  was  indeed 
but  a  puppet  or  a  counterfeit. 

The  third  was,  that  there  should  be  again  pro- 
claimed a  general  pardon  to  all  that  would  reveal  their 
offences  *  and  submit  themselves  by  a  day  ;  and  that 
this  pardon  should  be  conceived  in  so  ample  and  lib- 
eral a  manner,  as  no  high-treason  (no  not  against 
the  King's  own  person)  should  be  excepted.  Which 
though  it  might  seem  strange,  yet  was  it  not  so  to  a 
wise  King,  that  knew  his  greatest  dangers  were  not 
from  the  least  treasons,  but  from  the  greatest.  These 
resolutions  of  the  King  and  his  counsel  were  immedi- 
ately put  in  execution.  And  first,  the  Queen  Dow- 
ager was  put  into  the  monastery  of  Bermondsey,  and 
all  her  estate  seized  into  the  King's  hands  :  whereat 
there  was  much  wondering ;  that  a  weak  woman,  for 
the  yielding  to  the  menaces  and  promises  of  a  tyrant, 
after  such  a  distance  of  time  (wherein  the  King 
had  shown  no  displeasure  nor  alteration),  but  much 
more  after  so  happy  a  marriage  between  the  King  and 
her  daughter,  blessed  with  issue  male,  should  upon  a 

there  against  her  will,  it  may  be  imputed  perhaps  to  his  natural  aversion 
to  see  a  good  thing  thrown  away.  Her  pension  may  possibly  have  been 
given  upon  condition  that  she  should  not  pay  for  lodgings  when  she  might 
have  them  for  nothing.     See  note  p.  73. 

1  This  condition  is  not  mentioned  by  the  earlier  historians.     Polydore 
says,  Qui  in  officio  deinceps  permanserint. 


HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII.  79 

sudden  mutability  or  disclosure  of  the  King's  mind  be 
so  severely  handled. 

This  lady  was  amongst  the  examples  of  great  vari- 
ety of  fortune.  She  had  first,  from  a  distressed  suitor 
ancT  desolate  widow,  been  taken  to  the  marriage  bed  of 
a  bachelor-King,  the  goodliest  personage  of  his  time  ; 
and  even  in  his  reign  she  had  endured  a  strange 
eclipse,  by  the  King's  flight  and  temporary  depriving 
from  the  crown.  She  was  also  very  happy  in  that  she 
had  by  him  fair  issue,  and  continued  his  nuptial  love 
(helping  herself  by  some  obsequious  bearing  and  dis- 
sembling of  his  pleasures)  to  the  very  end.  She  was 
much  affectionate  to  her  own  kindred,  even  unto  fac- 
tion ;  which  did  stir  great  envy  in  the  lords  of  the 
King's  side,  who  counted  her  blood  a  disparagement 
to  be  mingled  with  the  King's.  With  which  lords  of 
the  King's  blood  joined  also  the  King's  favourite  the 
Lord  Hastings  ;  who,  notwithstanding  the  King's  great 
affection  to  him,  was  thought  at  times,  through  her 
malice  and  spleen,  not  to  be  out  of  danger  of  falling. 
After  her  husband's  death  she  was  matter  of  tragedy, 
having  lived  to  see  her  brother  beheaded,  and  her  two 
sons  deposed  from  the  crown,  bastarded  in  their  blood, 
and  cruelly  murdered.  All  this  while  nevertheless  she 
enjoyed  her  liberty,  state,  and  fortunes.1     But  after- 

1  This  can  hardly  be  correct.  For  her  marriage  having  been  declared  by- 
act  of  Parliament  invalid  and  her  children  illegitimate,  her  inheritance 
(unless  expressly  reserved  to  her  by  the  act,  which  seems  unlikely)  must 
have  been  taken  away.  It  is  true  however  that  on  the  1st  of  March, 
1483-4,  about  eight  months  after  Richard's  accession,  he  bound  himself  to 
befriend  and  provide  for  her  daughters  as  his  kinswomen,  and  to  allow  her 
700  marks  (466J.  13s.  4d.)  a  year  for  life,  if  they  would  come  out  of  sanc- 
tuary. On  the  accession  of  Henry  she  was  restored  to  her  rank  and 
style,  and  the  act  by  which  her  marriage  had  been  declared  illegitimate 
was  reversed  without  being  read,  "  that  the  matter  might  be  and  remain 


80  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY  VII. 

wards  again,  upon  the  rise  of  the  wheel,  when  she  had 
a  King  to  her  son-in-law,  and  was  made  grandmother 
to  a  grandchild  of  the  best  sex,  yet  was  she  (upon 
dark  and  unknown  reasons,  and  no  less  strange  pre- 
tences,) precipitated  and  banished  the  world  into  a 
nunnery ;  where  it  was  almost  thought  dangerous  to 
visit  her  or  see  her ;  and  where  not  long  after  she 
ended  her  life  ; x  but  was  by  the  King's  commandment 
buried  with  the  King  her  husband  at  Windsor.  She 
was  foundress  of  Queen's  College  in  Cambridge.  For 
this  act  the  King  sustained  great  obloquy,  which  nev- 
ertheless (besides  the  reason  of  state)  was  somewhat 
sweetened  to  him  by  a  great  confiscation. 

About  this  time  also,  Edward  Plantagenet  was  upon 
a  Sunday  brought  throughout  all  the  principal  streets 
of  London,  to  be  seen  of  the  people.  And  having 
passed  the  view  of  the  streets,  was  conducted  to  Paul's 
Church  in2  solemn  procession,  where  great  store  of 
people  were  assembled.  And  it  was  provided  also  in 
good  fashion,  that  divers  of  the  nobility  and  others  of 
quality  (especially  of  those  that  the  King  most  sus- 
pected, and  knew  the  person  of  Plantagenet  best)  had 
communication  with  the  young  gentleman  by  the  way,3 
and  entertained  him  with  speech  and  discourse,  which 

in  perpetual  oblivion  for  the  falseness  and  shamefulness  of  it."  The  orig- 
inal was  removed  from  the  Rolls  and  burned,  and  all  copies  destroyed. 
And  as  the  proceeding  did  not,  it  seems,  involve  the  restitution  of  her 
forfeited  lands,  Henry,  on  the  4th  and  5th  of  March,  1485-6,  granted  her 
the  compensation  mentioned  in  note  1.  p.  73. 

1  In  1492. 

2  Here  we  recover  the  MS. 

8  This  is  Polydore's  statement.  It  seems  however  that  besides  being 
thus  publicly  exhibited,  he  was  kept  for  some  time  in  the  beginning  of 
February,  1486-7,  about  the  court  at  Sheen.  The  Herald  (Cott.  Jul.  xii. 
p.  23.)  says  that  Lord  Lincoln  "daily  spake  with  him  at  Sheen,  afore  his 
departing." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  81 

did  in  effect  mar  the  pageant  in  Ireland  with  the  sub- 
jects here  ;  at  least  with  so  many  as  out  of  error,  and 
not  out  of  malice,  might  be  misled.  Nevertheless  in 
Ireland  (where  it  was  too  late  to  go  back)  it  wrought 
little  or  no  effect.  But  contrariwise  they  turned  the 
imposture  upon  the  King ;  and  gave  out  that  the  King, 
to  defeat  the  true  inheritor,  and  to  mock  the  world  and 
blind  the  eyes  of  simple  men,  had  tricked  up  a  boy  in 
the  likeness  of  Edward  Plantagenet,  and  shewed  him 
to  the  people  ;  not  sparing  to  profane  the  ceremony  of 
a  procession,  the  more  to  countenance  the  fable. 

The  general  pardon  likewise  near  the  same  time 
came  forth  ;  and  the  King  therewithal  omitted  no  dili- 
gence in  giving  straight  order  for  the  keeping  of  the 
ports  ;  that  fugitives,  malcontents,  or  suspected  persons 
might  not  pass  over  into  Ireland  and  Flanders. 

Meanwhile  the  rebels  in  Ireland  had  sent  privy  mes- 
sengers both  into  England  and  into  Flanders,  who  in 
both  places  had  wrought  effects  of  no  small  importance. 
For  in  England  they  won  to  their  party  John  Earl  of 
Lincoln,  son  of  John  De  la  Pole  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and 
of  Elizabeth  King  Edward  the  Fourth's  eldest  sister. 
This  Earl  was  a  man  of  great  wit  and  courage,  and  had 
his  thoughts  highly  raised  by  hopes  and  expectations 
for  a  time.  For  Richard  the  Third  had  a  resolution, 
out  of  his  hatred  to  both  his  brethren,  King  Edward 
and  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  and  their  lines,  (having 
had  his  hand  in  both  their  bloods),  to  disable  their 
issues  upon  false  and  incompetent  pretexts,  the  one  of 
attainder,  the  other  of  illegitimation ;  and  to  design 
this  gentleman  (in  case  himself  should  die  without 
children)  for  inheritor  of  the  crown.  Neither  was  this 
unknown  to  the  King  (who  had  secretly  an  eye  upon 


82  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

him)  :  but  the  King  having  tasted  of  the  envy  of  the 
people  for  his  imprisonment  of  Edward  Plantagenet, 
was  doubtful  to  heap  up  any  more  distastes  of  that 
kind  by  the  imprisonment  of  De  la  Pole  also  ;  the 
rather  thinking  it  policy  to  conserve  him  as  a  corrival 
unto  the  other.  The  Earl  of  Lincoln  was  induce*  1  to 
participate  with  the  action  of  Ireland,  not  lightly  upon 
the  strength  of  the  proceedings  there,  which  was  l>ut 
a  bubble ;  but  upon  letters  from  the  Lady  Margaret 
of  Burgundy,  in  whose  succours  and  declaration  for  the 
enterprise  there  seemed  to  be  a  more  solid  foundation, 
both  for  reputation  and  forces.  Neither  did  the  Earl 
refrain  the  business  for  that  he  knew  the  pretended 
Plantagenet  to  be  but  an  idol.  But  contrariwise  he 
was  more  glad  it  should  be  the  false  Plantagenet  than 
the  true  ;  because  the  false  being  sure  to  fall  away  of 
himself,  and  the  true  to  be  made  sure  of  by  the  King, 
it  might  open  and  pave  a  fair  and  prepared  way  to  his 
own  title.  With  this  resolution  he  sailed  secretly  into 
Flanders,1  where  was  a  little  before  arrived  the  Lord 
Lovell,  leaving  a  correspondence  here  in  England  with 
Sir  Thomas  Broughton,2  a  man  of  great  power  and 
dependencies  in  Lancashire.  For  before  this  time/3 
when  the  pretended  Plantagenet  was  first  received  in 


i  This  must  have  been  a  little  after  Candlemas.  "And  after  Oandell- 
masse  the  King  at  Shene  had  a  great  counsell  of  his  lords  both  spuelx 
and  templx  . . .  and  at  that  counseill  was  the  Erie  of  Lincoln,  which  incon- 
tinently after  the  said  counseil  departed  the  lande  and  went  into  Maun- 
ders," &c.     (Cott.  MSS.,  ubi  supra.) 

2  Qui  consiliorum  suorum  veluti  procurator  em  in  Anglia  rdiqueral  Thomam 
B.  (fc. 

3  The  translation  adds  —  (ut  supra  diximus),  referring  to  the  messengers 
mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  the  paragraph.  In  the  MS.  the  words  "  («| 
we  said  before)  "  inserted  after  "  Lady  Margaret,"  have  a  line  drawn 
through  them. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  83 

Ireland,  secret  messengers  had  been  also  sent  to  the 
Lady  Margaret,  advertising  her  what  had  passed  in 
Ireland,  imploring  succours  in  an  enterprise  (as  they 
saidy  so  pious  and  just,  and  that  God  had  so  miracu- 
lously prospered  in  the  beginning  thereof;  and  making 
offer  that  all  things  should  be  guided  by  her  will  and 
direction,  as  the  sovereign  patroness  and  protectress 
of  the  enterprise.  Margaret  was  second  sister  to  King 
Edward  the  Fourth,  and  had  been  second  wife  to 
Charles  surnamed  the  Hardy,  Duke  of  Burgundy. 
By  whom  having  no  children  of  her  own,  she  did 
with  singular  care  and  tenderness  intend  the  education 
of  Philip  and  Margaret,  grandchildren  to  her  former 
husband  ; *  which  won  her  great  love  and  authority 
among  the  Dutch.  This  Princess  (having  the  spirit 
of  a  man  and  malice  of  a  woman)  abounding  in  treas- 
ure by  the  greatness  of  her  dower  and  her  provident 
government,  and  being  childless  and  without  any 
nearer  care,  made  it  her  design  and  enterprise  to  see 
the  Majesty  Royal  of  England  once  again  replaced  in 
her  house ;  and  had  set  up  King  Henry  as  a  mark  at 
whose  overthrow  all  her  actions  should  aim  and  shoot ; 
insomuch  as  all  the  counsels  of  his  succeeding  troubles 
came  chiefly  out  of  that  quiver.  And  she  bare  such 
a  mortal  hatred  to  the  house  of  Lancaster  and  person- 
ally to  the  King,  as  she  was  no  ways  mollified  by  the 
conjunction  of  the  houses  in  her  niece's  marriage  ;  but 
rather  hated  her  niece,  as  the  means  of  the  King's 
ascent  to  the  crown  and  assurance  therein.     Where- 


1  An  incorrect  expression;  which  is  retained  in  the  translation.  He 
meant  to  say  grandchildren  to  her  husband  by  his  former  wife.  They  were 
the  children  of  Maria,  Charles's  only  child  by  his  first  marriage.  See 
Polydore  Vergil,  p.  724. 


84  HISTORY  OF  KING   HENRY  VII. 

fore  with  great  violence  of  affection  she  embraced  this 
overture.  And  upon  counsel  taken  with  the  Earl  of 
Lincoln  and  the  Lord  Lovell,  and  some  other  of  the 
party,  it  was  resolved  with  all  speed,  the  two  lords 
assisted  with  a  regiment  of  two  thousand  Almains, 
being  choice  and  veteran  bands,  under  the  command 
of  Martin  Swart  (a  valiant  and  experimented  captain) 
should  pass  over  into  Ireland  to  the  new  King ;  hop- 
ing that  when  the  action  should  have  the  face  of  a 
received  and  settled  regality  (with  such  a  second  per- 
son as  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  the  conjunction  and 
reputation  of  foreign  succours),  the  fame  of  it  would 
embolden  and  prepare  all  the  party  of  the  confederates 
and  malcontents  within  the  realm  of  England  to  give 
them  assistance  when  they  should  come  over  there. 
And  for  the  person  of  the  counterfeit,  it  was  agreed 
that  if  all  things  succeeded  well  he  should  be  put 
down,  and  the  true  Plantagenet  received ;  wherein 
nevertheless  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  had  his  particular 
hopes.  After  they  were  come  into  Ireland,1  (and  that 
the  party  took  courage  by  seeing  themselves  together 
in  a  body,)  they  grew  very  confident  of  success  ;  con- 
ceiving and  discoursing  amongst  themselves,  that  they 
went  in  upon  far  better  cards2  to  overthrow  King 
Henry,  than  King  Henry  had  to  overthrow  King 
Richard :  and  that  if  there  were  not  a  sword  drawn 
against  them  in  Ireland,  it  was  a  sign  the  swords  in 
England  would  be  soon  sheathed  or  beaten  down. 
And  first,  for  a  bravery  upon  this  accession  of  power, 


i  In  the  beginning  of  Lent,  according  to  the  Herald  (Cott.  MSS.  ubi 
sup.)  which  would  be  in  the  beginning  of  March.  Ash  Wednesday  fell 
that  year  on  the  28th  of  February. 

2  Copiis  multo  majoribus  insti~uctos. 


HISTOEY  OF  KING  HENKY  VII.  85 

they  crowned  their  new  King  in  the  cathedral  church 
of  Dublin,  who  formerly  had  been  but  proclaimed 
only  ;  and  then  sat  in  counsel  what  should  further  be 
doner  At  which  counsel  though  it  were  propounded 
by  some  that  it  were  the  best  way  to  establish  them- 
selves first  in  Ireland,  and  to  make  that  the  seat  of  the 
war,  and  to  draw  King  Henry  thither  in  person,  by 
whose  absence  they  thought  there  would  be  great  alter- 
ations and  commotions  in  England  ;  yet  because  the 
kingdom  there  was  poor,  and  they  should  not  be  able 
to  keep  their  army  together,  nor  pay  their  German 
soldiers ;  and  for  that  also  the  sway  of  the  Irishmen 
and  generally  of  the  men  of  war,  which  (as  in  such 
cases  of  popular  tumults  is  usual)  did  in  effect  govern 
their  leaders,  was  eager  and  in  affection  to  make  their 
fortunes  upon  England  ;  it  was  concluded  with  all  pos- 
sible speed  to  transport  their  forces  into  England.1 
The  King  in  the  mean  time,  who  at  the  first  when  he 
heard  what  was  done  in  Ireland,  though  it  troubled 
him,  yet  thought  he  should  be  well  enough  able  to 
scatter  the  Irish  as  a  flight  of  birds,  and  rattle  away 
this  swarm  of  bees  with  their  King  ;  when  he  heard 
afterwards  that  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  was  embarked  in 
the  action,  and  that  the  Lady  Margaret  was  declared 
for  it,  he  apprehended  the  danger  in  a  true  degree  as 
it  was  ;  and  saw  plainly  that  his  kingdom  must  again 
be  put  to  the  stake,  and  that  he  must  fight  for  it.  And 
first  he  did  conceive,  before  he  understood  of  the  Earl 
of  Lincoln's  sailing  into  Ireland  out  of  Flanders,  that 


1  On  the  4th  of  March,  1486-7,  a  commission  was  issued  to  Thomas 
Brandon  to  take  command  of  "  the  armed  force  about  to  proceed  to 
sea  against  the  king's  enemies  there  cruising."  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls.  2 
Hen.  VII. 


86  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

he  should  be  assailed  both  upon  the  east  parts  of  the 
kingdom  of  England  by  some  impression  from  Flan- 
ders,1 and  upon  the  north-west  out  of  Ireland  :  and 
therefore  having  ordered  musters  to  be  made  in  both 
parts,  and  having  provisionally  designed  two  generals, 
Jasper  Earl  of  Bedford,  and  John  Earl  of  Oxford 
(meaning  himself  also  to  go  in  person  where  the  affairs 
should  most  require  it),  and  nevertheless  not  expecting 
any  actual  invasion  at  that  time  (the  winter  being  far 
on2),  he  took  his  journey  himself  towards  Suffolk  and 
Norfolk,  for  the  confirming  of  those  parts.  And  being 
come  to  St.  Edmond's-bury,  he  understood  that  Thomas 
Marquis  of  Dorset  (who  had  been  one  of  the  pledges 
in  France)  was  hasting  towards  him  to  purge  himself 
of  some  accusations  which  had  been  made  against  him. 
But  the  King  though  he  kept  an  ear  for  him,  yet  was 
the  time  so  doubtful,  that  he  sent  the  Earl  of  Oxford 
to  meet  him  and  forthwith  to  carry  him  to  the  Tower, 
with  a  fair  message  nevertheless  that  he  should  bear 
that  disgrace  with  patience  ;  for  that  the  King  meant 
not  his  hurt,  but  only  to  preserve  him  from  doing  hurt 
either  to  the  King's  service  or  to  himself ;  and  that  the 
King  should  always  be  able  (when  he  had  cleared  him- 
self) to  make  him  reparation. 

From  St.  Edmond's-bury  he  went  to  Norwich,  where 
he  kept  his   Christmas.3     And   from  thence   he  went 

1  Facta  invasione  a  copiis  e  Flandria. 

2  Bacon  in  all  this  narrative  follows  Polydore  Vergil;  who  mistook  the 
time  of  the  year;  thinking  that  all  this  took  place  before  Christmas.  It 
appears  from  the  Herald's  narrative  (which  may  be  considered  a  conclu- 
sive authority  on  such  a  point)  that  the  King  began  his  journey  towards 
Suffolk  in  "the  second  week  in  Lent:  "  which  was  the  second  week  in 
March.     (Cott.  MS.  ubi  sup.) 

8  So  Polydore:  a  mistake.  It  was  Easter,  not  Christmas,  that  he  kept 
at  Norwich.    (Cott.  MSS.  ubi  sup.)  Bacon  seems  to  have  felt  the  difficulty 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  87 

(in  a  manner  of  pilgrimage)  to  Walsingham,  where  he 
visited  our  Lady's  church,  famous  for  miracles,  and 
made  his  prayers  and  vows  for  his  help  and  deliver- 
ance. And  from  thence  he  returned  by  Cambridge  to 
London.1  Not  long  after,  the  rebels  with  their  King 
(under  the  leading  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  the  Earl  of 
Kildare,  the  Lord  Lovell,  and  Colonel  Swart)  landed 
at  Fouldrey  in  Lancashire,  whither  there  repaired  to 
them  Sir  Thomas  Bronghton,  with  some  small  com- 
pany of  English.  The  King  by  that  time  (knowing 
now  the  storm  would  not  divide  but  fall  in  one  place) 
had  levied  forces  in  good  number ;  and  in  person  (tak- 
ing with  him  his  two  designed  generals,  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  and  the  Earl  of  Oxford)  was  come  on  his  way 
towards  them  as  far  as  Coventry,  whence  he  sent  forth 
a  troop  of  light-horsemen  for  discovery,  and  to  inter- 


of  this  date,  though  he  had  no  authority  for  correcting  it:  for  in  the  Latin 
translation  the  words  are  omitted.  Easter  day  fell  that  year  on  the  15th 
of  April.     The  King  had  kept  his  Christmas  at  Greenwich. 

1  So  again  Polydore:  a  mistake;  induced  probably  by  the  previous  one. 
From  Norwich  Henry  went  by  Cambridge,  Huntingdon,  and  Northampton 
to  Coventry ;  where  he  was  on  the  22nd  of  April;  and  where  he  remained 
until  he  heard  of  the  landing  of  the  rebels  in  Lancashire. 

Polydore's  mistake  of  Christmas  for  Easter  is  unlucky.  It  spoils  the 
story  of  the  King's  movements.  The  truth,  I  suppose,  is  that  at  first  he 
thought  the  danger  was  most  imminent  from  Flanders,  and  then  he  kept 
near  his  east  coast  and  went  to  Norwich ;  but  finding  that  it  did  not  gather 
on  that  side  but  drew  towards  Ireland,  he  proceeded  straight  towards  the 
west,  and  took  up  his  position  at  Coventry,  at  an  equal  distance  from 
either  coast:  and  there  waited  till  he  should  hear  at  what  point  he  was 
to  be  attacked.  It  was  not  till  the  5th  of  May  that  the  principal  party  of 
the  rebels  landed  in  Ireland.  (See  the  King's  letter  to  E.  of  Ormond, 
13th  May,  Ellis,  1.  i.  18.)  Upon  news  of  which  (according  to  the  Herald, 
ubi  sup.  p.  24.)  he  licensed  divers  of  his  nobles  to  go  to  their  countries  and 
prepare  to  return  with  forces  upon  a  day  assigned;  and  himself  rode  over 
to  Kenilworth,  where  the  Queen  and  his  mother  were;  and  there  he  heard 
of  the  landing  of  the  rebels  in  Lancashire;  which  was  (see  Rot.  Pari, 
p.  397.)  on  the  4th  of  June. 


88  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

cept  some  stragglers  of  the  enemies,  by  whom  he  might 
the  better  understand  the  particulars  of  their  progress 
and  purposes ;  which  was  accordingly  done ;  though 
the  King  otherways  was  not  without  intelligence  from 
espials  in  the  camp. 

The  rebels  took  their  way  towards  York  without 
spoiling  the  country  or  any  act  of  hostility,  the  better 
to  put  themselves  into  favour  of  the  people  and  to  per- 
sonate their  King  (who  no  doubt  out  of  a  princely 
feeling  was  sparing  and  compassionate  towards  his  sub- 
jects). But  their  snow-ball  did  not  gather  as  it  went. 
For  the  people  came  not  in  to  them  ;  neither  did  any 
rise  or  declare  themselves  in  other  parts  of  the  king- 
dom for  them  ;  which  was  caused  partly  by  the  good 
taste  that  the  King  had  given  his  people  of  his  govern- 
ment, joined  with  the  reputation  of  his  felicity ;  and 
partly  for  that  it  was  an  odious  thing  to  the  people  of 
England  to  have  a  King  brought  in  to  them  upon  the 
shoulders  of  Irish  and  Dutch,  of  which  their  army  was 
in  substance  compounded.  Neither  was  it  a  thing  done 
with  any  great  judgment  on  the  party  of  the  rebels, 
for  them  to  take  their  way  towards  York ;  considering 
that  howsoever  those  parts  had  formerly  been  a  nursery 
of  their  friends,  yet  it  was  there  where  the  Lord  Lovell 
had  so  lately  disbanded  ;  and  where  the  King's  pres- 
ence had  a  little  before  qualified  discontents.  The 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  deceived  of  his  hopes  of  the  coun- 
try's1 concourse  unto  him  (in  which  case  he  would 
have  temporised)  and  seeing  the  business  past  retreat,2 


1  Populum  enim  ad  se  certatim  confiuxurum  sibi  promiseral.  The  MS.  and 
Ed.  1622  also  have  "  countries;  "  meaning  I  think  "  of  the  countrie,"  not 
"of  the  countries." 

2  "  Retraict  "  in  the  MS. :  sine  receptu  in  the  translation. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  89 

resolved  to  make  on  where  the  King  was,  and  to  give 
him  battle ;  and  thereupon  marched  towards  Newark, 
thinking  to  have  surprised  the  town.  But  the  King 
was^  somewhat  before  this  time  come  to  Nottingham, 
where  he  called  a  counsel  of  war,  at  which  was  con- 
sulted whether  it  were  best  to  protract  time  or  speedily 
to  set  upon  the  rebels.  In  which  counsel  the  King 
himself  (whose  continual  vigilance  did  suck  in  some- 
times causeless  suspicions  which  few  else  knew)  in- 
clined to  the  accelerating  a  battle.1  But  this  was 
presently  put  out  of  doubt,  by  the  great  aids  that  came 
in  to  him  in  the  instant  of  this  consultation,  partly 
upon  missives  and  partly  voluntaries,  from  many  parts 
of  the  kingdom. 

The  principal  persons  that  came  then  to  the  King's 
aid  were  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  and  the  Lord  Strange, 
of  the  nobility,  and  of  knights  and  gentlemen  to  the 
number  of  at  least  threescore  and  ten  persons,  with 
their  companies  ;  making  in  the  whole  at  the  least  six 
thousand  fighting  men,  besides  the  forces  that  were 
with  the  King  before.  Whereupon  the  King  finding 
his  army  so  bravely  reinforced,  and  a  great  alacrity  in 
all  his  men  to  fight,  he 2  was  confirmed  in  his  former 

1  This  is  not  stated  by  Polydore ;  and  I  do  not  know  where  it  comes  from. 
But  the  Herald's  narrative  supplies  an  anecdote  illustrative  of  Henry's 
proneness  to  "  suspicions  which  few  else  knew,"  which  is  worth  inserting. 
■  And  on  the  morrow,  which  was  Corpus  Christi  day,  after  the  King  had 
heard  the  divine  service  in  the  parish  church,  and  the  trumpets  had 
blown  to  horse,  the  King,  not  letting  his  host  to  understand  his  intent,  rode 
backward  to  see  and  also  welcome  the  Lord  Strange,  which  brought  with 
him  a  great  host,  ....  which  unknown  turning  to  the  host  caused  many 
folks  for  to  marvel.  Also  the  King's  standard  and  much  carriage  followed 
after  the  King,  unto  the  time  the  King  was  advertised  by  Garter  King  of 
Arms,  whom  the  King  commanded  to  turn  them  all  again,"  &c.  Cott. 
MS.  ubi  sup.  p.  26. 

2  The  edition  of  1622  omits  "  he." 


90  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

resolution,  and  marched  speedily,  so  as  he  put  himself 
between  the  enemies'  camp  and  Newark  ;  being  loth 
their  army  should  get  the  commodity  of  that  town. 
The  Earl,  nothing  dismayed,  came  forwards  that  day 
unto  a  little  village  called  Stoke,  and  there  encamped 
that  night,  upon  the  brow  or  hanging  of  a  hill.  The 
King  the  next  day1  presented  him  battle  upon  the 
plain  (the  fields  there  being  open  and  champion). 
The  Earl  courageously  came  down  and  joined  battle 
with  him.  Concerning  which  battle  the  relations  that 
are  left  unto  us  are  so  naked  and  negligent  (though  it 
be  an  action  of  so  recent  memory)  as  they  rather  de- 
clare the  success  of  the  day  than  the  manner  of  the 
fight.  They  say  that  the  King  divided  his  army 
into  three  battails,  whereof  the  vant-guard  only  well 
strengthened  with  wings  came  to  fight : 2  that  the  fight 
was  fierce  and  obstinate,  and  lasted  three  hours  before 
the  victory  inclined  either  way  ;  save  that  judgment 
might  be  made  by  that  the  King's  vant-guard  of  itself 
maintained  fight  against  the  whole  power  of  the  ene- 
mies (the  other  two  battails  remaining  out  of  action) 
what  the  "success  was  like  to  be  in  the  end  :  that  Mar- 
tin Swart  with  his  Germans  performed  bravely,  and  so 
did  those  few  English  that  were  on  that  side  ;  neither 
did  the  Irish  fail  in  courage  or  fierceness,  but  being  al- 
most naked  men,  only  armed  with  darts  and  skeins,3 
it  was  rather  an  execution  than  a  fight  upon  them  ; 
insomuch  as  the  furious  slaughter  of  them  was  a  great 
discouragement  and  appalment  to  the  rest :  that  there 
died  upon  the  place  all  the  chieftains ;  that  is,  the  Earl 

1  Saturday,  June  16,  1487. 

2  The  translation  adds  totumque  exercitus  hostilis  impetum  sustinuei'ai. 
8  Ensibus. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  91 

of  Lincoln,  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  Francis  Lord  Lovell, 
Martin  Swart,  and  Sir  Thomas  Broughton,  all  making 
good  the  fight  without  any  ground  given.  Only  of 
the  Lord  Lovell  there  went  a  report,  that  he  fled,  and 
swam  over  Trent  on  horseback,  hut  could  not  recover 
the  further  side,  by  reason  of  the  steepness  of  the  bank, 
and  so  was  drowned  in  the  river.  But  another  report 
leaves  him  not  there,  but  that  he  lived  long  after  in  a 
cave  or  vault.1  The  number  that  was  slain  in  the 
field,  was  of  the  enemies'  part  four  thousand  at  the 
least,  and  of  the  King's  part  one  half  of  his  vant- 
guard,  besides  many  hurt,  but  none  of  name.  There 
were  taken  prisoners  amongst  others  the  counterfeit 
Plantagenet,  now  Lambert  Symnell  again,  and  the 
crafty  priest  his  tutor.  For  Lambert,  the  King  would 
not  take  his  life,  both  out  of  magnanimity  (taking  him 
but  as  an  image  of  wax  that  others  had  tempered  and 
moulded),  and  likewise  out  of  wisdom ;  thinking  that 
if  he  suffered  death  he  would  be  forgotten  too  soon ; 
but  being  kept  alive  he  would  be  a  continual  spectacle, 
and  a  kind  of  remedy  against  the  like  inchantments  of 
people  in  time  to  come.  For  which  cause  he  was 
taken  into  service  in  his  court  to  a  base  office  in  his 
kitchen ;  so  that  (in  a  kind  of  mattarina 2  of  human 
fortune)  he  turned  a  broach  that  had  worn  a  crown  ; 
whereas  fortune  commonly  doth  not  bring  in  a  comedy 

1  "  Towards  the  close  of  the  17th  century  (says  Dr.  Lingard)  at  his  seat 
at  Minster  Lovell  in  Oxfordshire,  was  accidentally  discovered  a  chamber 
under  the  ground,  in  which  was  the  skeleton  of  a  man  seated  in  a  chair 
with  his  head  reclined  on  a  table." 

2  Insigni  humance  fortunes  ludibrio.  Mattacini,  according  to  Florio,  was 
"  a  kind  of  moresco  or  m attach ino  dance."  He  does  not  give  the  word 
mattacina.  But  I  take  it  that  mattacini  were  properly  the  dancers  of  this 
dance,  and  that  mattacina  was  a  dance  of  mattacini,  just  as  atielana  was  a 
play  of  attelani. 


92  HISTORY  OF    KING  HENRY  VII. 

or  farce  after  a  tragedy.  And  afterwards  he  was  pre- 
ferred to  be  one  of  the  King's  falconers.  As  to  the 
priest,  he  was  committed  close  prisoner,  and  heard 
of  no  more ;  the  King  loving  to  seal  up  his  own  dan- 
gers. 

After  the  battle  the  King  went  to  Lincoln,  where 
he  caused  supplications  and  thanksgivings  to  be  made 
for  his  deliverance  and  victory.  And  that  his  devo- 
tions might  go  round  in  circle,  he  sent  his  banner  to  be 
offered  to  our  Lady  of  Walsingham,  where  before  he 
made  his  vows. 

And  thus  delivered  of  this  so  strange  an  engine  and 
new  invention  of  fortune,1  he  returned  to  his  former 
confidence  of  mind,  thinking  now  that  all  his  misfor- 
tunes had  come  at  once.  But  it  fell  unto  him2  accord- 
ing to  the  speech  of  the  common  people  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  reign,  that  said,  It  was  a  token  he  should 
reign  in  labour,  because  his  reign  began  with  a  sickness 
of  sweat.  But  howsoever  the  King  thought  himself 
now  in  the  haven,3  yet  such  was  his  wisdom,  as  his 
confidence  did  seldom  darken  his  foresight,  especially 
in  things  near-hand  ;  and  therefore,  awakened  by  so 
fresh  and  unexpected  dangers,  he  entered  into  due  con- 
sideration as  well  how  to  weed  out  the  partakers  of  the 
former  rebellion,  as  to  kill  the  seeds  of  the  like  in  time 
to  come :  and  withal  to  take  away  all  shelters  and  har- 
bours for  discontented  persons,  where  they  might  hatch 
and  foster  rebellions  which  afterwards  might  gather 
strength  and  motion. 

And  first  he  did  yet  again  make  a  progress  from 

1  Tarn  insigni  fortunes  machina  (quae  in  eum  itdentatafuerat). 

2  So  the  MS.    The  edition  of  1622  has  "  fell  out." 
8  Ed.  1622  has  "  a  haven." 


HIST  OK  Y  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  93 

Lincoln  to  the  northern  parts,  though  it  were  (indeed) 
rather  an  itinerary  circuit  of  justice  than  a  progress. 
For  all  along  as  he  went,  with  much  severity  and  strict 
inquisition,  partly  by  martial  law  and  partly  by  com- 
mission,1 were  punished  the  adherents  and  aiders  of 
the  late  rebels ;  not  all  by  death  (for  the  field  had 
drawn  much  blood),  but  by  fines  and  ransoms,  which 
spared  life  and  raised  treasure.  Amongst  other  crimes 
of  this  nature,  there  was  a  diligent  inquiry  made  of 
such  as  had  raised  and  dispersed  a  bruit  and  rumour 
(a  little  before  the  field  fought)  that  the  rebels  had  the 
day,  and  that  the  King's  army  was  overthrown,  and 
the  King  fled:  whereby  it  was  supposed  that  many 
succours  which  otherwise  would  have  come  unto  the 
King  were  cunningly  put  off  and  kept  back :  which 
charge  and  accusation,  though  it  had  some  ground,  yet 
it  was  industriously  embraced  and  put  on  by  divers, 
who  (having  been  in  themselves  not  the  best  affected 
to  the  King's  part,  nor  forward  to  come  to  his  aid) 
were  glad  to  apprehend  this  colour  to  cover  their  neg- 
lect and  coldness  under  the  pretence  of  such  discour- 
agements. Which  cunning  nevertheless  the  King 
would  not  understand,  though  he  lodged  it  and  noted 
it  in  some  particulars,  as  his  manner  was. 

But  for  the  extirpating  of  the  roots  and  causes  of  the 
like  commotions  in  time  to  come,  the  King  began  to 
find  where  his  shoe  did  wring  him  ;  and  that  it  was 
his  depressing  of  the  house  of  York  that  did  rankle 
and  fester  the  affections  of  his  people.  And  therefore 
being  now  too  wise  to  disdain  perils  any  longer,2  and 

1  Partim  via  juslitice  ordinaria. 

2  Factus  igitur  jam  cautior,  neque  pericula  amplius  contemnere,  aui  reme- 
dia  eorum  dedignatione  quadam  rejicere  volens. 


94  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

willing  to  give  some  contentment  in  that  kind  (at  least 
in  ceremony),  lie  resolved  at  last1  to  proceed  to  the 
coronation  of  his  Queen.  And  therefore  at  his  coming 
to  London,  where  he  entered  in  state,  and  in  a  kind  of 
triumph,  and  celebrated  his  victory  with  two  days  of 
devotion,  (for  the  first  day  he  repaired  to  Paul's,  and 
had  the  hymn  of  Te  Deum  sung,  and  the  morrow  after 
he  went  in  procession,  and  heard  the  sermon  at  the 
Cross,)  the  Queen  was  with  great  solemnity  crowned 
at  Westminster,  the  twenty-fifth  of  November,2  in  the 
third  year  of  his  reign,  which  was  about  two  years 
after  the  marriage  (like  an  old  christening  that  had 
stayed  long  for  godfathers)  ;  which  strange  and  un- 
usual distance  of  time  made  it  subject  to  every  man's 
note  that  it  was  an  act  against  his  stomach,  and  put 
upon  him  by  necessity  and  reason  of  state.  Soon  after, 
to  shew  that  it  was  now  fair  weather  again,  and  that 
the  imprisonment  of  Thomas  Marquis  Dorset  an  a^ 
rather  upon  suspicion  of  the  time  than  of  the  man, 
he  the  said  Marquis  was  set  at  liberty,  without  ex- 
amination or  other  circumstance. 

At  that  time  also  the  King  sent  an  ambassador  unto 
Pope  Innocent,  signifying  unto  him  this  his  marriage ; 
and   that   now   like    another   ^Eneas   he   had    passed 

i  We  learn  from  the  Herald's  narrative  (Cott.  MSS.  Jul.  xii.  fo.  28.)  that 
the  resolution  was  taken  at  Warwick  in  September.  The  King  and  Queen 
left  Warwick  on  Saturday,  October  27,  and  entered  London  on  the  3rd  of 
November. 

2  There  was  a  Parliament  sitting  at  the  time,  which  Bacon  does  not 
seem  to  have  known.  We  learn  from  the  Herald  (Cott.  MSS.,  ubi  sup.  fo. 
40.  b.)  that  the  coronation  festivities  were  ended  (27th  November)  sooner 
than  they  would  have  been,  by  reason  of  "the  great  business  of  the  Par- 
liament." This  was  Henry's  second  Parliament.  It  met  on  the  9th  of 
the  month,  and  voted  (in  consideration  of  the  rebellion  just  suppressed, 
I  suppose,  as  well  as  of  the  Queen's  coronation)  two  fifteenths  and  tenths. 
Stowe  knew  nothing  of  this  Parliament. 


HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY  VII.  95 

through  the  floods  of  his  former  troubles  and  travails 
and  was  arrived  unto  a  safe  haven ;  and  thanking  his 
Holiness  that  he  had  honoured  the  celebration  of  his 
marriage  with  the  presence  of  his  ambassador  ;  and 
offering  both  his  person  and  the  forces  of  his  kingdom 
upon  all  occasions  to  do  him  service. 

The  ambassador  making  his  oration1  to  the  Pope 
in  the  presence  of  the  cardinals,  did  so  magnify  the 
King  and  Queen,  as  was  enough  to  glut  the  hearers.2 
But  then  he  did  again  so  extol  and  deify  the  Pope,  as 
made  all  that  he  had  said  in  praise  of  his  master  and 
mistress  seem  temperate  and  passable.  But  he  was 
very  honourably  entertained  and  extremely  much  made 
on  by  the  Pope,  who  knowing  himself  to  be  lazy  and 
unprofitable  to  the  Christian  world,  was  wonderful3 
glad  to  hear  that  there  were  such  echoes  of  him  sound- 
ing in  remote  parts.  He  obtained  also  of  the  Pope  a 
very  just  and  honourable  Bull,  qualifying  the  privi- 
leges of  sanctuary  (wherewith  the  King  had  been 
extremely  galled)  in  three  points. 

The  first,  that  if  any  sanctuary-man  did  by  night 
or  otherwise  get  out  of  sanctuary  privily  and  commit 
mischief  and  trespass,  and  then  come  in  again,  he 
should  leese  the  benefit  of  sanctuary  for  ever  after. 

The  second,  that  howsoever  the  person  of  the  sanc- 
tuary-man was  protected  from  his  creditors,  yet  his 
goods  out  of  sanctuary  should  not. 

The  third,  that  if  any  took  sanctuary  for  case  of 


1  The  heads  of  this  oration  may  still  be  seen  among  the  Cotton  MSS.  in 
the  British  Museum  (Cleop.  E.  iii.  f.  123.)  ;  and  read  by  any  one  who 
thinks  it  worth  while  to  decipher  them. 

2  Utfastidio  eos  qui  aderant  prope  enecaret. 
8  "  Wonderfully."     Ed.  1622. 


9b  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

treason,  the  King  might  appoint  him  keepers  to  look 
to  him  in  sanctuary.1 

The  King  also,  for  the  better  securing  of  his  estate 
against  mutinous  and  malcontented  subjects  (whereof 
he  saw  the  realm  was  full)  who  might  have  their 
refuge  into  Scotland  (which  was  not  under  key  as  the 
ports  were),  for  that  cause  rather  than  for  any  doubt 
of  hostility  from  those  parts,  before  his  coming  to  Lon- 
don, when  he  was  at  Newcastle,  had  sent  a  solemn 
ambassage  unto  James  the  Third,  King  of  Scotland, 
to  treat  and  conclude  a  peace  with  him.  The  ambas- 
sadors were,  Richard  Foxe  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  Sir 
Richard  Edgcombe  comptroller  of  the  King's  house, 
who  were  honourably  received  and  entertained  there. 
But  the  King  of  Scotland  labouring  of  the  same  disease 
that  King  Henry  did  (though  more  mortal  as  after- 
wards appeared),  that  is,  discontented  subjects  apt  to 
rise  and  raise  tumult,  although  in  his  own  affection  he 
did  much  desire  to  make  a  peace  with  the  King,  yet 
finding  his  nobles  averse  and  not  daring  to  displease 
them,  concluded  only  a  truce  for  seven  years  ; 2  giv- 

1 1.  e.  keepers  within  the  sanctuary.  Custodes  ei  intra  asylum  apponere 
qui  ejus  dicta  et  facta  observarent. 

2  This  is  Polydore  Vergil's  statement,  who  seems  to  have  known  nothing 
of  the  real  subject  of  this  treaty.  It  appears  from  Rymer  that  a  truce 
between  England  and  Scotland  for  three  years,  counting  from  the  3rd  of 
July,  1486,  had  been  negotiated  during  the  King's  first  progress  into  the 
northern  counties  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  when  he  was  engaged  in  sub- 
duing Lord  Lovel's  rebellion;  which  truce  was  still  in  force.  On  the  7th 
of  November,  1487,  which  was  a  few  days  after  the  King's  return  to  Lon- 
don from  his  second  progress  into  those  counties,  commissioners  were  ap- 
pointed to  treat  of  certain  intermarriages  between  the  tioo  royal  families  ;  it 
being  proposed  that  the  Scotch  King  should  marry  Elizabeth,  Edward  the 
Fourth's  widow;  and  that  the  Duke  of  Rothsay  should  marry  one  of  her 
daughters,  and  the  Marquis  of  Ormond  another.  By  these  commissioners 
a  treaty  was  shortly  concluded,  by  which  it  was  agreed  in  the  first  place 
that  the  existing  truce  should  be  continued  to  the  1st  of  September,  1489; 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  97 

ing  nevertheless  promise  in  private,  that  it  should  be 
renewed  from  time  to  time  during  the  two  Kings' 
lives. 

Hitherto  the  King  had  been  exercised  in  settling 
his  affairs  at  home.  But  about  this  time  brake  forth 
an  occasion  that  drew  him  to  look  abroad  and  to 
hearken  to  foreign  business.  Charles  the  Eighth,  the 
French  King,  by  the  virtue  and  good  fortune  of  his 
two  immediate  predecessors,  Charles  the  Seventh  his 
grandfather  and  Lewis  the  Eleventh  his  father,  re- 
ceived the  kingdom  of  France  in  more  flourishing  and 
spread  estate  1  than  it  had  been  of  many  years  before ; 
being  redintegrate  in  those  principal  members  which 
anciently  had  been  portions  of  the  crown  of  France, 
and  were  after  dissevered,  so  as  they  remained  only  in 
homage  and  not  in  sovereignty,  being  governed  by 
absolute  princes 2  of  their  own  ;  Anjou,  Normandy, 
Provence,  and  Burgundy.  There  remained  only  Brit- 
taine 3  to  be  re-united,  and  so  the  monarchy  of  France 
to  be  reduced  to  the  ancient  terms  and  bounds. 


and  in  the  next  place,  that,  in  order  to  settle  the  articles  and  conditions  of 
these  marriages,  commissioners  on  both  sides  should  meet  at  Edinburgh 
on  the  24th  of  the  following  January,  and  another  assembly  be  held  on  the 
same  subject  in  May.  So  much  was  concluded  on  the  28th  of  November, 
1487.  The  negotiation  was  afterwards  broken  off  (according  to  Tytler, 
who  quotes  Rotul.  Scot.  vol.  ii.  p.  483.)  upon  the  question  of  the  surrender 
of  Berwick ;  upon  which  James  insisted,  and  to  which  Henry  would  not 
consent.     See  Tytler' s  Hist,  of  Scot.  vol.  iv.  p.  305. 

1  Opibus  Jlorentius  et  ipso  territorio  amplius. 

2  This  is  explained  (or  corrected)  in  the  Latin  translation  to  mean 
princes  governing  in  their  own  right:  cum  a  principibus propriis  jure  tan- 
quam  regio  administrarentur. 

3  I  have  retained  the  spelling  of  the  MS.  In  the  edition  of  1622  it  is 
spelt  Britaine.  In  modern  histories  it  is  always  spelt  either  Bretagne  or 
Brittany. 

VOL.    XI.  7 


98  HISTORY   OF  KING  HEXRY  VII. 

King  Charles  was  not  a  little  inflamed  with  an  am- 
bition to  re-purchase  and  re-annex  that  duchy  ;  which 
his  ambition  was  a  wise  and  well-weighed  ambition  ; 
not  like  unto  the  ambitions  of  his  succeeding  enter- 
prises of  Italy.1  For  at  that  time,  being  newly  come 
to  the  crown,  he  was  somewhat  guided  by  his  father's 
counsels  ;  (counsels  not  counsellors,  for  his  father  was 
his  own  counsel,  and  had  few  able  men  about  him  ;) 
and  that  King  (he  knew  well)  had  ever  distasted  the 
designs  of  Italy,  and  in  particular  had  an  eye  upon 
Brittaine.  There  were  many  circumstances  that  did 
feed  the  ambition  of  Charles  with  pregnant  and  appar- 
ent hopes  of  success.  The  Duke  of  Brittaine  old,  and 
entered  into  a  lethargy,  and  served  with  mercenary 
counsellors,  father  of  two  only  daughters,  the  one 
sickly  and  not  like  to  continue.-  King  Charles  him- 
self in  the  flower  of  his  age,2  and  the  subjects  of 
France  at  that  time3  well  trained  for  war,  both  for 
leaders  and  soldiers  (men  of  service  being  not  yet 
worn  out  since  the  wars  of  Lewis  against  Burgundy). 
He  found  himself  also  in  peace  with  all  his  neighbour 
princes.  As  for  those  that  might  oppose  to  his  enter- 
prise ;  Maximilian  King  of  Romans,  his  rival  in  the 
same  desires  (as  well  for  the  duchy  as  the  daughter), 
feeble  in  means ;  and  King  Henry  of  England  as  well 

1  The  difference  is  perhaps  best  explained  by  supposing  that  the  latter 
ambitions  were  his  own,  while  these  were  his  sister's,  the  princess  Anne, 
Duchess  of  Bourbon;  under  whose  guardianship  Charles,  who  was  only 
fourteen  when  he  came  to  the  throne  in  1483,  had  been  placed  by  his 
father;  and  by  whom  modern  historians  suppose  him  to  have  been  entirely 
guided  during  all  the  early  stages  of  this  business. 

2  Rather  in  the  blossom  than  the  flower.  In  the  summer  of  1487  he  was 
still  only  eighteen. 

3  Pro  ratione  ejus  lemporis  in  the  translation:  which  would  mean  "for 
that  time." 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  99 

somewhat  obnoxious x  to  him  for  his  favours  and  ben- 
efits, as  busied  in  his  particular  troubles  at  home. 
There  was  also  a  fair  and  specious  occasion  offered 
him  r-to  hide  his  ambition  and  to  justify  his  warring 
upon  Brittaine ; 2  for  that  the  Duke  had  received  and 
succoured  Lewis  Duke  of  Orleans  and  others  of  the 
French  nobility,  which  had  taken  arms  against  their 
King.  Wherefore  King  Charles,  being  resolved  upon 
that  war,  knew  well  he  could  not  receive  any  opposi- 
tion so  potent  as  if  King  Henry  should  either  upon 
policy  of  state  in  preventing  the  growing  greatness  of 
France,  or  upon  gratitude  unto  the  Duke  of  Brittaine 
for  his  former  favours  in  the  time  of  his  distress,3 
espouse  that  quarrel  and  declare  himself  in  aid  of  the 
Duke.4  Therefore  he  no  sooner  heard  that  King 
Henry  was  settled  by  his  victory,  but  forthwith  he 
sent  ambassadors  unto  him  to  pray  his  assistance,  or 
at  least  that  he  would  stand  neutral.  Which  ambas- 
sadors found  the  King  at  Leicester,5  and  delivered 
their  ambassage  to  this  effect :  They  first  imparted 
unto  the  King  the  success  that  their  master  had  had  a 
little  before  against  Maximilian  in  recovery  of  certain 

1  Sibi  non  nihil  devinctum.  For  this  word  "  obnoxious,"  now  no  longer 
used  in  this  sense,  though  always  so  used  by  Bacon,  it  is  not  easy  to  find 
an  exact  equivalent.  It  means  rather  more  than  "  obliged,"  and  not  quite 
so  much  as  "  dependent."  When  one  man  stands  in  such  a  relation  to 
another  that  he  is  not  free  to  act  as  he  otherwise  would,  Bacon  would 
have  said  that  he  is  obnoxious  to  him. 

2  Belli  ansam  adversus  Britanniam  porrigeret. 

3  Quod  ipse  Duci  etiam  Britannia}  non  minus  quam  sibi  ob  ejus  in  rebtis 
suis  adversis  merita  obstrictus  fuisset. 

4  The  last  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 

5  In  the  summer  of  1487;  probably  in  September;  certainly  not  later, 
for  the  King  was  at  Warwick  in  September.  See  note  1,  p.  94.  The  Latin 
translation  has  Lancastriam,  probably  a  mistake.  Polydore  Vergil,  whose 
narrative  is  followed  by  all  the  old  historians,  has  ad  Lecestriam. 


100  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

towns  from  him ; *  which  was  done  in  a  kind  of  pri- 
vacy and  inwardness  towards  the  King ;  as  if  the 
French  King  did  not  esteem  him  for  an  outward  or 
formal  confederate,  but  as  one  that  had  part  in  his 
affections  and  fortunes,  and  with  whom  he  took  pleas- 
ure to  communicate  his  business.  After  this  compli- 
ment and  some  gratulation  for  the  King's  victory,  they 
fell  to  their  errand :  declaring  to  the  King,  that  their 
master  was  enforced  to  enter  into  a  just  and  necessary 
war  with  the  Duke  of  Brittaine,  for  that  he  had  re- 
ceived and  succoured  those  that  were  traitors  and 
declared  enemies  unto  his  person  and  state  :  That  they 
were  no  mean  distressed  and  calamitous  persons  that 
fled  to  him  for  refuge,  but  of  so  great  quality,  as  it 
was  apparent  that  they  came  not  thither  to  protect 
their  own  fortune,  but  to  infest  and  invade  his  ;  the 
head  of  them  being  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  first 
Prince  of  the  blood  and  the  second  person  of  France : 
That  therefore  rightly  to  understand  it,  it  was  rather  on 
their  master's  part  a  defensive  war  than  an  offensive, 
as  that  that  could  not  be  omitted  or  forborne  if  he  ten- 
dered the  conservation  of  his  own  estate ;  and  that  it 
was  not  the  first  blow  that  made  the  war  invasive  (for 
that  no  wise  Prince  would  stay  for),  but  the  first  prov- 
ocation, or  at  least  the  first  preparation ;  nay  that  this 
war  was  rather  a  suppression  of  rebels  than  a  war 
with  a  just  enemy ;  where  the  case  is,  that  his  subjects 
traitors2  are  received  by  the  Duke   of  Brittaine  his 

1  In  oppidis  quibusdam  quce  invaserat  Maximilianus  recipiendis.  He  had 
retaken  St.  Omers  on  the  27th  of  May,  and  Therouane  on  the  26th  of  July. 
{Sism.  xv.  p.  99.) 

2  In  the  edition  of  1622  these  words  are  printed  thus :  "  his  subjects, 
traitors,  are  received,"  &c.  In  the  MS.  there  is  no  comma  before  or  after 
traitors.     And  this  I  believe  expresses  the  intended  construction  better. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  101 

homager:  That  King  Henry  knew  well  what  went 
upon  it  in  example,  if  neighbour  Princes  should  pat- 
ronise and  comfort  rebels  against  the  law  of  nations 
and  of  leagues  :  Nevertheless  that  their  master  was 
not  fgnorant  that  the  King  had  been  beholding  to  the 
Duke  of  Brittaine  in  his  adversity,  as  on  the  other 
side  they  knew  he  would  not  forget  also  the  readiness 
of  their  King  in  aiding  him  when  the  Duke  of  Brit- 
taine or  his  mercenary  counsellors  failed  him,  and 
would  have  betrayed  him  ;  and  that  there  was  a  great 
difference  between  the  courtesies  received  from  their 
master  and  the  Duke  of  Brittaine,  for  that  the  Duke's 
might  have  ends  of  utility  and  bargain,  whereas  their 
master's  could  not  have  proceeded  but  out  of  entire 
affection  ;  for  that  if  it  had  been  measured  by  a  politic 
line,  it  had  been  better  for  his  affairs  that  a  tyrant 
should  have  reigned  in  England,  troubled  and  hated, 
than  such  a  Prince  whose  virtues  could  not  fail  to 
make  him  great  and  potent,  whensoever  he  was  comen 
to  be  master  of  his  affairs :  But  howsoever  it  stood  for 
the  point  of  obligation  which  the  King  might  owe 
to  the  Duke  of  Brittaine,  yet  their  master  was  well 

It  is  the  same  form  which  we  have  further  on  (pp.  134-145),  merchants 
strangers;  for  so  it  is  written  in  the  MS.;  the  double  plural,  without 
any  comma  between.  So  it  was  usual  in  Bacon's  time  to  say  "letters 
patents;"  not  "letters  patent."  In  the  edition  of  1622  "merchants 
strangers"  is  printed  "merchant-strangers."  According  to  which  rule 
"subjects  traitors"  would  be  corrected  into  "subject-traitors."  But  I 
rather  think  that  the  true  modern  equivalents  would  be  "  stranger-mer- 
chants," and  "  traitor-subjects." 

The  anomaly  may  have  arisen  either  out  of  the  practice  (then  usual)  of 
placing  the  adjective  after  its  substantive,  (when,  in  the  case  of  words  that 
might  be  used  either  as  adjectives  or  substantives,  the  plural  without  the 
final  s  would  sometimes  sound  odd);  or  simply  from  the  preservation  oc- 
casionally of  the  French  form  of  a  phrase  with  which  the  ear  had  become 
familiar  in  French. 


102  HISTORY  OF   KING  HENRY  VII. 

assured  it  would  not  divert  King  Henry  of  England 
from  doing  that  that  was  just,  nor  ever  embark  him 
in  so  ill-grounded  a  quarrel :  Therefore  since  this 
war  which  their  master  was  now  to  make  was  but 
to  deliver  himself  from  imminent  dangers,  their  King 
hoped  the  King  would  shew  the  like  affection  to  the 
conservation  of  their  master's  estate,  as  their  master 
had  (when  time  was)  shewed  to  the  King's  acquisition 
of  his  kingdom :  At  the  least  that  according  to  the 
inclination  which  the  King  had  ever  professed  of  peace, 
he  would  look  on  and  stand  neutral ;  for  that  their 
master  could  not  with  reason  press  him  to  undertake 
part  in  the  war,  being  so  newly  settled  and  recovered 
from  intestine  seditions.  But  touching  the  mystery  of 
re-annexing  of  the  duchy  of  Brittaine  to  the  crown 
of  France,  either  by  war  or  by  marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  Brittaine,  the  ambassadors  bare  aloof  from 
it  as  from  a  rock,  knowing  that  it  made  most  against 
them ;  and  therefore  by  all  means  declined  any  men- 
tion thereof,  but  contrariwise  interlaced  in  their  con- 
ference with  the  King  the  assured  purpose  of  their 
master  to  match  with  the  daughter  of  Maximilian  ; 
and  entertained  the  King  also  with  some  wandering 
discourses  1  of  their  King's  purpose  to  recover  by  arms 

1  This  point  is  not  mentioned  by  Polydore  Vergil ;  who  seems  to  have 
been  the  only  authority  with  previous  historians  for  all  these  transactions. 
And  hence  it  would  appear  that  Bacon  had  some  independent  source  of 
information.  The  rest  he  might  have  inferred  from  Polydore's  narrative : 
but  this  (unless  he  had  some  other  authority)  he  must  have  invented; 
which  he  could  have  no  object  in  doing.  The  thing  is  worth  remarking; 
because  as  Bacon  undoubtedly  composed  the  speeches  in  this  history  on 
the  Thucydidean  principle,  (uc  uv  kdonovv  spot  ekciotol  nepl  tuv  ad  tra- 
povriov  tu  deovra  fidTuar'  einetv,  exofievu  otl  eyyvrara  rrjc  t-vfnruarjc  yvu- 
y/nc  tCv  u1tj&C>c  "kex&cvruv,)  it  might  be  suspected  that  he  framed  his 
narrative  upon  the  same  principle;  and  if  he  had  nothing  besides  Poly- 
dore and  the  old  chroniclers  (who  do  little  more  than  translate  Polydorel 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  103 

his  right  to  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  by  an  expedition 
in  person ;  all  to  remove  the  King  from  all  jealousy 
of  any  design  in  these  hither  parts  upon  Brittaine, 
otherwise  than  for  quenching  of  the  fire  which  he 
feared  might  be  kindled  in  his  own  estate. 

The  King,  after  advice  taken  with  his  counsel,  made 
answer  to  the  ambassadors.  And  first  returned  their 
compliment,  shewing  he  was  right  glad  of  the  French 
King's  reception  of  those  towns  from  Maximilian. 
Then  he  familiarly  related  some  particular  passages 
of  his  own  adventures  and  victory  passed.  As  to  the 
business  of  Brittaine,  the  King  answered  in  few  words  ; 
that  the  French  King  and  the  Duke  of  Brittaine  were 
the  two  persons  to  whom  he  was  most  obliged  of  all 
men ;  and  that  he  should  think  himself  very  unhappy 
if  things  should  go  so  between  them,  as  he  should  not 
be  able  to  acquit  himself  in  gratitude  towards  them 
both ;  and  that  there  was  no  means  for  him,  as  a 
Christian  King  and  a  common  friend  to  them,  to 
satisfy  all  obligations  both  to  God  and  man,  but  to 
offer  himself  for  a  mediator  of  an  accord  and  peace  be- 
tween them ;  by  which  course  he  doubted  not  but  their 
King's  estate  and  honour  both,  would  be  preserved 
with  more  safety  and  less  envy  than  by  a  war ;  and 
that  he  would  spare  no  cost  or  pains,  no  if  it  were 

to  go  upon,  it  would  appear  that  a  good  deal  of  it  was  mere  invention. 
We  know  however  that  in  other  parts  of  the  history  Bacon  had  indepen- 
dent evidence,  which  is  still  extant  and  accessible;  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  conclude  that  what  is  extant  was  all  he  had.  The  fire  in  the  Cottonian 
Library  in  1731  may  easily  have  destroyed  the  evidence  of  those  parts  of 
the  narrative  which  are  not  accounted  for,  as  another  such  fire  would  in 
all  probability  destroy  the  evidence  of  many  which  are.  It  is  a  fact  that 
the  volumes  relating  to  the  times  of  Henry  VII.  have  suffered  much. 
These  remarks  apply  also  to  the  passage  about  "  envy,"  a  little  further  on, 
which  is  not  to  be  found  in  Polydore. 


104  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

to  go  on  pilgrimage,  for  so  good  an  effect ;  and  con- 
cluded that  in  this  great  affair,  which  he  took  so  much 
to  heart,  he  would  express  himself  more  fully 1  by  an 
ambassage,  which  he  would  speedily  dispatch  unto  the 
French  King  for  that  purpose.  And  in  this  sort  the 
French  ambassadors  were  dismissed :  the  King  avoid- 
ing to  understand  any  thing  touching  the  re-annexing 
of  Brittaine,  as  the  ambassadors  had  avoided  to  men- 
tion it ;  save  that  he  gave  a  little  touch  of  it  in  the 
word  envy.  And  so  it  was,  that  the  King  was  neither 
so  shallow  nor  so  ill  advertised  as  not  to  perceive  the 
intention  of  the  French  for  the  investing  himself  of 
Brittaine.  But  first,  he  was  utterly  unwilling  (how- 
soever he  gave  out)  to  enter  into  a  war  with  France. 
A  fame  of  a  war  he  liked  well,  but  not  an  achievement ; 
for  the  one  he  thought  would  make  him  richer,  and  the 
other  poorer ;  and  he  was  possessed  with  many  secret 
fears 2  touching  his  own  people  ;  which  he  was  therefore 

1  So  ed.  1622.     The  MS.  omits  "  fully." 

2  He  had  also  a  special  reason  for  delaying  a  war  with  France  at  this 
time,  which  is  not  mentioned  in  the  histories,  but  may  be  gathered  from 
the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls,  3  Hen.  VII.  During  the  spring  of  1488  some 
danger  was  hanging  over  his  own  coasts,  probably  from  Ireland.  From 
entries  in  the  Calendar  dated  the  19th  and  20th  of  February  (1487-8)  we 
find  that  forces  were  then  "  about  to  proceed  to  sea  in  three  Spanish  ships 
in  resistance  of  the  King's  enemies,"  under  command  of  Sir  Charles  Som- 
erset. And  again  on  the  4th  of  May  following  we  find  writs  for  the  im- 
pressment of  soldiers,  &c,  — "  an  armed  force  being  about  to  be  sent 
against  the  King's  enemies  congregating  on  the  sea,"  —  also  under  com- 
mand of  Sir  Charles  Somerset.     (See  vol.  ii.  p.  130.) 

Who  these  enemies  were,  the  Calendar  does  not  state;  but  a  previous 
entry  in  the  same  volume  (p.  105),  though  of  later  date,  indicates  the 
quarter  from  which  danger  was  to  be  feared.  On  the  25th  of  May  a  writ 
was  issued  to  Richard  Eggecombe,  Knt.  the  King's  counsellor  and  comp- 
troller of  his  household,  empowering  him  u  to  assure  to  such  as  come  from 
Ireland  to  treat  on  matters  concerning  the  sound  rule  of  peace  in  that  land,  a 
safe  advent,  stay,  and  return;  "  and  further  "  to  admit  to  the  King's  grace 
all  subjects  of  the  said  land  that  may  submit  themselves,"  &c.     And  at 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  105 

loth  to  arm,  and  put  weapons  into  their  hands.  Yet 
notwithstanding,  as  a  prudent  and  courageous  Prince, 
he  was  not  so  averse  from  a  war,  but  that  he  was 
resolved  to  choose  it  rather  than  to  have  Brittaine  car- 
ried by  France  ;  being  so  great  and  opulent  a  duchy, 


pp.  108,  9,  we  find  a  number  of  general  pardons  for  Irishmen,  bearing  the 
same  date.  These  proceedings  indicate  probably  the  suppression  of  the 
danger  for  the  time.  For  during  the  rest  of  the  summer  we  learn  (Leland, 
iv.  p.  243.)  that  the  King  was  engaged  in  hunting  and  sporting,  and  in  the 
autumn,  he  was  free,  as  I  shall  show  a  little  further  on,  to  take  more 
active  measures  for  the  succour  of  Brittany. 

On  the  1st  of  October  following,  the  King's  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Bedford, 
was  made  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  for  a  year.  ( Cal.  Pat.  Rolh,  vol.  iii. 
p.  14.) 

I  am  the  rather  disposed  to  think  that  defence  against  Ireland  and  not 
succour  to  Brittany  was  the  object  of  this  voyage,  because  it  seems  to 
have  been  at  this  time  that  Lord  Woodville's  project  of  raising  volunteers 
in  aid  of  the  Duke  of  Brittany  (see  p.  110)  was  countermanded.  "  My  lord 
hath  been  with  the  King  in  Windsor,"  (says  William  Paston,  writing  from 
Hedingham,  the  Earl  of  Oxford's  castle,  to  his  brother,  on  the  13th  of  May 
[1488],)  "  at  St.  George's  feast;  and  there  at  the  same  feast  were  both  the 
ambassadors  of  Bretaigne  and  of  Flanders,  as  well  from  the  King  of  the  Ro- 
mans as  from  the  young  Duke;  but  I  cannot  shew  you  the  certain  whether 
we  shall  have  with  them  war  or  peace;  but  I  understand  for  certain  that 
all  such  captains  as  went  to  the  sea  in  Lent,  that  is  to  say  Sir  Charles 
Somerset,  Sir  Richard  Hawte,  and  Sir  William  Vampage,  maketh  them 
ready  to  go  to  the  sea  again  as  shortly  as  they  can;  to  what  intent  I  cannot 
say.  Also  whereas  it  was  said  that  my  Lord  Wodevyle  and  other  should 
have  gone  over  into  Bretaigne  to  have  aided  the  Duke  of  Bretaigne,  I  can- 
not tell  of  none  such  aid ;  but  upon  that  saying  there  came  many  men  to 
Southampton,  where  it  was  said  that  he  should  have  taken  shipping,  to 
have  waited  upon  him  over;  and  so  when  he  was  countermanded,  those  that 
resorted  thither  to  have  gone  over  with  him  tarried  there  still,  in  hope  that 
they  should  have  been  licensed  to  have  gone  over;  and  when  they  saw  no 
likelihood  that  they  should  have  license,  there  was  200  of  them  that  got 
them  into  a  Bretaigne  ship,"  &c.  &c.  He  goes  on  to  say  how  these  200 
arrived  in  Brittany,  where  they  then  were.  —  See  Paston  Letters,  vol.  v. 
p.  367. 

D'Argentre'  (xiii.  41.)  mentions  an  embassy  sent  by  the  Duke  of  Brit- 
tany to  England  in  September,  1487,  and  adds  that  Henry  who  was  then 
very  busy  (avoit  lors  bien  des  affaires)  some  time  after  sent  some  troops 
to  aid  hiin,  who  were  at  the  battle  of  St.  Aubin, —  but  not  above  500  men; 
alluding  no  doubt  to  Lord  Woodville's  company. 


106  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

and  situate  so  opportunely  to  annoy  England  either 
for  coast  or  trade.1  But  the  King's  hopes  were,  that 
partly  by  negligence,  commonly  imputed  to  the  French, 
(especially  in  the  court  of  a  young  King2)  ;  and  partly 
by  the  native  power  of  Brittaine  itself,  which  was  not 
small ;  but  chiefly  in  respect  of  the  great  party  that  the 
Duke  of  Orleans  had  in  the  kingdom  of  France,  and 
thereby  means  to  stir  up  civil  troubles  to  divert  the 
French  King  from  the  enterprise  of  Brittaine  ; 3  and 
lastly  in  regard  of  the  power  of  Maximilian,  who  was 
corrival  to  the  French  King  in  that  pursuit ;  the  enter- 
prise would  either  bow  to  a  peace  or  break  in  itself. 
In  all  which  the  King  measured  and  valued  things 
amiss,  as  afterwards  appeared.  He  sent  therefore  forth- 
with to  the  French  King,  Christopher  Urswick  his 
chaplain,  a  person  by  him  much  trusted  and  employed ; 
choosing  him  the  rather  because  he  was  a  church- 
man, as  best  sorting  with  an  embassy  of  pacification ; 
and  giving  him  also  a  commission,  that  if  the  French 
King  consented  to  treat,  he  should  thence  repair  to  the 
Duke  of  Brittaine  and  ripen  the  treaty  on  both  parts. 
Urswick  made  declaration  to  the  French  King  much  to 
the  purpose  of  the  King's  answer  to  the  French  am- 
bassadors here,  instilling  also  tenderly  some  overture 
of  receiving  to  grace  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  some 
taste  of  conditions  of  accord.  But  the  French  King  on 
the  other  side  proceeded  not  sincerely,  but  with  a  great 
deal  of  art  and  dissimulation  in  this  treaty,  having  for  his 
end  to  gain  time,  and  so  put  off  the  English  succours, 

1  Sive  belh,  sive  impediendo  commercium. 

2  This  parenthesis  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 

8  The  edition  of  1622  has  a  full  stop  after  Brittaine:  ohviously  a  mis- 
print. I  have  followed  the  punctuation  of  the  MS. ;  which  certainty  has 
a  semicolon,  though  not  clearly  written. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  107 

under  hope  of  peace,  till  lie  had  got  good  footing  in 
Brittaine  by  force  of  arms.  Wherefore  he  answered 
the  ambassador,  that  he  would  put  himself  into  the 
King's  hands,  and  make  him  arbiter  of  the  peace; 
and  willingly  consented  that  the  ambassadors  should 
straightways  pass  into  Brittaine  to  signify  this  his  con- 
sent, and  to  know  the  Duke's  mind  likewise  ;  well  fore- 
seeing that  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  by  whom  the  Duke 
of  Brittaine  was  wholly  led,  taking  himself  to  be  upon 
terms  irreconcileable  with  him,  would  admit  of  no 
treaty  of  peace  ;  whereby  he  should  in  one  both  gener- 
ally abroad  veil  over  his  ambition,  and  win  the  repu- 
tation of  just  and  moderate  proceedings ;  and  should 
withal  endear  himself  in  the  affections  of  the  King  of 
England,  as  one  that  had  committed  all  to  his  will; 
nay  and  (which  was  yet  more  fine)  make  faith  in  him 
that  although  he  went  on  with  the  war,  yet  it  should 
be  but  with  his  sword  in  his  hand  to  bend  the  stiffness 
of  the  other  party  to  accept  of  peace ;  and  so  the  King 
should  take  no  umbrage  of  his  arming  and  prosecution, 
but  the  treaty  to  be  kept  on  foot  to  the  very  last 
instant,  till  he  were  master  of  the  field.  Which 
grounds  being  by  the  French  King  wisely  laid,  all 
things  fell  out  as  he  expected.  For  when  the  English 
ambassador  came  to  the  court  of  Brittaine,  the  Duke 
was  then  scarcely  perfect  in  his  memory,  and  all  things 
were  directed  by  the  Duke  of  Orleans  ;  who  gave  audi- 
ence to  the  chaplain  Urswick,  and  upon  his  ambassage 
delivered  made  answer  in  somewhat  high  terms :  That 
the  Duke  of  Brittaine  having  been  an  host  and  a  kind 
of  parent  or  foster-father  to  the  King  in  his  tenderness 
of  age  and  weakness  of  fortune,  did  look  for  at  this 
time  from  King  Henry  (the  renowned  King  of  Eng- 


108  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

land)  rather  brave  troops  for  his  succours  than  a  vain 
treaty  of  peace.  And  if  the  King  could  forget  the 
good  offices  of  the  Duke  done  unto  him  aforetime,  yet 
he  knew  well  he  would  in  his  wisdom  consider  of  the 
future,  how  much  it  imported  his  own  safety  and  repu- 
tation both  in  foreign  parts  and  with  his  own  people, 
not  to  suffer  Brittaine  (the  old  confederates  of  Eng- 
land) to  be  swallowed  up  by  France,  and  so  many  good 
ports  and  strong  towns  upon  the  coast  be  in  the  com- 
mand of  so  potent  a  neighbour  King,  and  so  ancient 
an  enemy :  And  therefore  humbly  desired  the  King 
to  think  of  this  business  as  his  own :  and  therewith 
brake  off,  and  denied  any  farther  conference  for  treaty. 
Urswick  returned  first  to  the  French  King,  and 
related  to  him  what  had  passed.  Who  finding  things 
to  sort  to  his  desire,  took  hold  of  them  ;  and  said,  That 
the  ambassador  might  perceive  now  that  which  he  for 
his  part  partly  imagined  before  :  That  considering  in 
what  hands  the  Duke  of  Brittaine  was,  there  would  be 
no  peace  but  by  a  mixed  treaty  of  force  and  persua- 
sion :  And  therefore  he  would  go  on  with  one,  and 
desired  the  King  not  to  desist  from  the  other  :  But 
for  his  own  part,  he  did  faithfully  promise  to  be  still  in 
the  King's  power,  to  rule  him  in  the  matter  of  peace. 
This  was  accordingly  represented  unto  the  King  by 
Urswick  at  his  return,  and  in  such  a  fashion  as  if  the 
treaty  were  in  no  sort  desperate,  but  rather  stayed  for 
a  better  hour,  till  the  hammer  had  wrought  and  beat 
the  party  of  Brittaine  more  pliant ;  whereupon  there 
passed  continually  packets  and  despatches  between  the 
two  Kings,  from  the  one  out  of  desire,1  and  from  the 
other  out  of  dissimulation,   about  the  negotiation  of 

1   Cupide  sed  candide. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  109 

peace.  The  French  King  meanwhile  invaded  Brit- 
taine  with  great  forces,  and  distressed  the  city  of  Nantes 
with  a  strait  siege,1  and  (as  one  who,  though  he  had 

1  This  is  Polydore  Vergil's  statement;  who  seems,  as  I  said,  to  have 
been  the  original  authority  for  these  transactions;  and  whose  narrative 
could  not  then  be  corrected  by  comparison  with  more  authentic  records. 
Rymer's  Foedera  however  and  the  Rolls  of  Parliament  enable  us  now  to 
detect  inaccuracies  of  date,  which  show  that  his  means  of  information 
were  either  imperfect  or  carelessly  used;  and  the  researches  of  modern 
historians  into  the  Breton  archives  supply  several  material  corrections. 
Bacon  seems  to  have  taken  Polydore's  narrative  as  his  ground-work,  to 
have  done  his  best  to  make  out  the  meaning  of  it,  and  then  to  have  told  it 
as  plainly  and  luminously  as  he  could.  And  the  meaning  of  it  —  the 
ideas  and  designs  of  the  parties,  the  ends  they  were  aiming  at,  and  the 
issues  they  brought  out  —  he  appears  to  have  divined  with  great  accu- 
racy ;  insomuch  that  every  correction  of  his  story  in  its  details  seems  to 
make  the  truth  of  his  general  interpretation  more  manifest.  But  as  he  was 
obliged  to  fit  his  narrative  into  Polydore's  frame-work,  which  contains 
several  wrong  dates,  the  details  are  of  course  very  far  from  accurate.  In 
a  story  that  hangs  well  together,  a  single  false  date  will  commonly  affect 
the  whole  sequence  of  events ;  and  when  that  false  date  happens  to  sep- 
arate material  points  that  were  in  fact  connected  or  to  bring  together 
material  points  that  were  in  fact  separate,  it  may  even  affect  the  whole 
series  of  causes  and  effects. 

Though  I  know  how  inconvenient  it  is  for  a  reader  to  be  continually 
called  away  from  the  story  in  the  text  to  listen  to  a  different  version  of  it, 
I  fear  that  in  this  case  the  inconvenience  must  be  submitted  to.  The 
corrections  would  not  be  intelligible  to  him  if  the  original  story  were  not 
fresh  in  his  memory;  and  if  I  were  to  remit  them  to  the  appendix,  I 
should  be  obliged  either  to  repeat  the  whole  or  to  interrupt  him  by  refer- 
ences to  the  body  of  the  narrative  which  would  be  more  troublesome  than 
references  from  the  text  to  foot-notes.  If  he  wishes  therefore  to  take  a 
true  impression  of  Henry's  proceedings  in  the  matter  of  Brittany,  I  must 
ask  him  to  pause  at  the  points  which  I  shall  indicate,  and  hear  what  I 
have  to  say  before  he  goes  on. 

In  the  present  instance,  Bacon,  following  Polydore  Vergil,  has  misdated 
the  siege  of  Nantes  by  eight  or  nine  months.  It  was  commenced  (see 
D'Argentr^,  xiii.  38.)  on  the  19th  of  June,  1487,  —  only  three  days  after 
the  battle  of  Stoke;  and  raised  on  the  6th  of  August  following,  a  little 
before  the  time  when  Charles  sent  his  first  embassy  to  Henry.  Which  if 
Bacon  had  known,  he  would  probably  have  included  the  fresh  failure  of 
this  enterprise  among  Henry's  reasons  (see  pp.  106,  112,)  for  thinking  that 
Brittany  was  not  in  immediate  danger  from  France;  especially  if  he 
could  have  connected  it  with  another  fact,  which  he  does  not  seem  to 


110  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

no  great  judgment,  yet  had  that,  that  he  could  dissem- 
ble home1)  the  more  he  did  urge  the  prosecution  of 
the  war,  the  more  he  did  at  the  same  time  urge  the 
solicitation  of  the  peace  ;  insomuch  as  during  the  siege 
of  Nantes,  after  many  letters  and  particular  messages, 
the  better  to  maintain  his  dissimulation  and  to  refresh 
the  treaty,  he  sent  Bernard  Daubigny,2  a  person  of 
good  quality,  to  the  King,  earnestly  to  desire  him  to 
make  an  end  of  the  business  howsoever.  The  King 
was  no  less  ready  to  revive  and  quicken  the  treaty  ; 
and  thereupon  sent  three  commissioners,  the  Abbot  of 
Abingdon,  Sir  Richard  Tunstall,  and  Chaplain  Urs- 
wick  formerly  employed,  to  do  their  utmost  endeavour 
to  manage  the  treaty  roundly  and  strongly. 

About  this  time  the  Lord  Woodvile  (uncle  to  the 
Queen)  a  valiant  gentleman  and  desirous  of  honour, 
sued  to  the  King  that  he  might  raise  some  power  of 
voluntaries  under-hand,  and  without  licence  or  pass- 
have  been  aware  of,  though  it  is  mentioned  by  D'Argentre",  xiii.  41.,  and 
which  Henry  must  have  known,  namely,  that  the  Duke  of  Brittany  did 
at  that  very  time  (24th  Sept.  1487)  formally  entertain  Maximilian's  suit 
for  his  daughter. 

But  though  it  is  not  true  that  Charles  was  investing  Nantes  while  the 
negotiations  which  Bacon  is  here  speaking  of  were  proceeding,  it  is  true 
that  he  was  preparing  a  fresh  invasion  of  Brittany.  (See  Daru,  iii.  p.  134.) 
The  inaccuracy  therefore  does  not  in  this  case  affect  the  substantial  truth 
of  the  narrative. 

1  Sed  tamen  qui  simulationum  artes  in  sinu  pairis  optime  didicerat. 

2  Bernardum  Dobenensem,  honestum  equitem,  according  to  Polydore.  We 
learn  from  the  Herald  (Lei.  iv.  p.  236.)  that  "the  Lorde  Dawbeney,  em- 
bassator  of  Fraunce  "  was  at  Windsor  on  Twelfth  Even,  1487-8 :  which 
may  have  been  the  occasion  Polydore  was  thinking  of.  The  embassy 
which  he  represents  as  sent  by  Henry  in  answer  (after  some  delay,  it 
seems,  from  the  illness  of  one  of  the  commissioners)  was  despatched  on 
the  17th  of  March,  1487-8.  See  Rymer.  This  Bernardus  Dobenensis  was, 
I  suppose,  Bernard  Stewart,  Lord  Aubigny;  a  gentleman  of  Scotch  ex- 
traction ;  who  commanded  the  body  of  French  soldiers  that  accompanied 
Henry  to  England.     See  Tytler's  Hist,  of  Scotl.  vol.  iv.  p.  296. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  Ill 

port  (wherein  the  King  might  any  ways  appear1)  go 
to  the  aid  of  the  Duke  of  Brittaine.  The  King  de- 
nied his  request,  or  at  least  seemed  so  to  do,  and  laid 
strait  commandment  upon  him  that  he  should  not  stir ; 
for  that  the  King  thought  his  honour  would  suffer 
therein,  during  a  treaty  to  better  a  party.  Neverthe- 
less this  lord  (either  being  unruly,  or  out  of  conceit 2 
that  the  King  would  not  inwardly  dislike  that  which 
he  would  not  openly  avow,)  sailed  secretly  over  into 
the  Isle  of  Wight  whereof  he  was  governor,  and  lev- 
ied a  fair  troop  of  four  hundred  men,  and  with  them 
passed  over  into  Brittaine,  and  joined  himself  with  the 
Duke's  forces.3  The  news  whereof  when  it  came  to 
the  French  court,  put  divers  young  bloods  into  such 
a  fury,  as  the  English  ambassadors  were  not  without 
peril  to  be  outraged.  But  the  French  King,  both  to 
preserve  the  privilege  of  ambassadors,  and  being  con- 
scious to  himself  that  in  the  business  of  peace  he  him- 
self was  the  greater  dissembler  of  the  two,  forbad  all 
injuries  of  fact  or  word  against  their  persons  or  follow- 
ers. And  presently  came  an  agent  from  the  King  to 
purge  himself  touching  the  Lord  Woodvile's  going 
over,  using  for  a  principal  argument  to  demonstrate 
that  it  was  without  his  privity,  for  that  the  troops  were 
so  small,  as  neither  had  the  face  of  a  succour  by  au- 
thority nor  could  much  advance  the  Briton  affairs. 
To  which  message  although  the  French  King  gave  no 
full  credit,  yet  he  made  fair  weather4  with  the  King 
and  seemed  satisfied.  Soon  after  the  English  ambassa- 
dors returned,  having  two  of  them  been  likewise  with 

1  Absque  commeatu  autjide  publica. 

2  Opinione  temeraria. 

8  Compare  W.  Paston's  letter,  13th  May,  1488;  quoted  in  note,  p.  105. 
*   Cum  serenitate  quadam  respondit. 


112  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

the  Duke  of  Brittaine l  and  found  things  in  no  other 
terms  than  they  were  before.  Upon  their  return  they 
informed  the  King  of  the  state  of  the  affairs,  and  how 
far  the  French  King  was  from  any  true  meaning  of 
peace,  and  therefore  he  was  now  to  advise  of  some 
other  course.  Neither  was  the  King  himself  led  all 
this  while  with  credulity  merely,  as  was  generally  sup- 
posed. But  his  error  was  not  so  much  facility  of 
belief,  as  an  ill-measuring  of  the  forces  of  the  other 
party.  For  (as  was  partly  touched  before)  the 
King  had  cast  the  business  thus  with  himself.  He 
took  it  for  granted  in  his  own  judgment  that  the  war 
of  Brittaine,  in  respect  of  the  strength  of  the  towns 
and  of  the  party,  could  not  speedily  come  to  a  period. 
For  he  conceived  that  the  counsels  of  a  war  that  was 
undertaken  by  the  French  King  (then  childless2) 
against  an  heir  apparent  of  France,  would  be  very 
faint  and  slow ;  and  besides  that  it  was  not  possible 
but  that  the  state  of  France  should  be  embroiled  with 
some  troubles  and  alterations  in  favour  of  the  Duke 
of  Orleans.      He  conceived  likewise  that  Maximilian 

1  According  to  Lobineau,  i.  783,  who  gives  as  his  authority  Regisfre,  an 
embassage  consisting  of  the  three  commissioners  above  mentioned;  viz. 
the  Abbot  of  Abingdon,  Sir  Richard  Tunstall,  and  Chaplain  Urswick,  — 
together  with  Dr.  Wardes,  —  passed  from  France  into  Brittany  in  June, 
1488:  which  agrees  with  Sismondi's  statement,  that  from  the  1st  to  the 
26th  of  June  in  that  year  hostilities  were  suspended  in  consequence  of 
Henry's  mediation.  Polydore  adds  that  the  ambassadors,  before  they 
returned,  renewed  the  truce  between  Henry  and  Charles  for  twelve 
months  —  (renovatis  in  duodecim  menses  cum  Carolo  induciis).  They  prob- 
ably agreed-upon  the  terms  of  the  truce  which  was  signed  by  Henry  at 
Windsor  on  14th  July,  1488,  (see  Rymer)  and  was  to  continue  from  that 
day  till  the  17th  of  January,  1489-90.  I  do  not  however  find  any  trace 
of  the  counterpart  signed  by  Charles:  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  it 
was  interrupted  before  completion  by  the  events  which  immediately 
followed. 

2  And  unmarried.     Coelibe  et  sine  liberis. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  113 

King  of  the  Romans  was  a  Prince  warlike  and  potent, 
who  he  made  account  would  give  succours  to  the 
Britons  roundly.  So  then  judging  it  would  be  a  work 
of  time,  he  laid  his  plot  how  he  might  best  make  use 
of  that  time  for  his  own  affairs.  Wherein  first  he 
thought  to  make  his  vantage  upon  his  Parliament, 
knowing  that  they  being  affectionate  unto  the  quarrel 
of  Brittaine  would  give  treasure  largely.  Which 
treasure  as  a  noise  of  war  might  draw  forth,  so  a  peace 
succeeding  might  coffer  up.  And  because  he  knew 
his  people  were  hot  upon  the  business,  he  chose  rather 
to  seem  to  be  deceived  and  lulled  a-sleep  by  the 
French,  than  to  be  backward  in  himself;  considering 
his  subjects  were  not  so  fully  capable  of  the  reasons 
of  state  which  made  him  hold  back.  Wherefore  to 
all  these  purposes  he  saw  no  other  expedient  than  to 
set  and  keep  on  foot  a  continual  treaty  of  peace,  lay- 
ing it  down  and  taking  it  up  again  as  the  occurrence 
required.  Besides  he  had  in  consideration  the  point 
of  honour,  in  bearing  the  blessed  person  of  a  pacifica- 
tor. He  thought  likewise  to  make  use  of  the  envy 
that  the  French  King  met  with  by  occasion  of  this  war 
of  Brittaine,  in  strengthening  himself  with  new  alli- 
ances ;  as  namely  that  of  Ferdinando  of  Spain,  with 
whom  he  had  ever  a  consent  (even  in  nature  and  cus- 
toms) ;  and  likewise  with  Maximilian,  who  was  par- 
ticularly interested.  So  that  in  substance  he  promised 
himself1  money,  honour,  friends,  and  peace  in  the 
end.2  But  those  things  were  too  fine  to  be  fortunate 
and  succeed  in  all  parts  ;  for  that  great  affairs  are 
commonly  too    rough    and  stubborn    to   be   wrought 

1  Satis  indulgenter  promiseral. 

2  Et  in  fine  pacem  quakm  qptabat. 


114  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

upon  by  the  finer  edges  or  points  of  wit.  The  King 
was  likewise  deceived  in  his  two  main  grounds.  For 
although  he  had  reason  to  conceive  that  the  counsel 
of  France  would  be  wary  to  put  the  King  into  a  war 
against  the  heir  apparent  of  France  ;  yet  he  did  not 
consider  that  Charles  was  not  guided  by  any  of  the 
principal  of  the  blood  or  nobility,1  but  by  mean  men, 
who  would  make  it  their  master-piece  of  credit  and 
favour  to  give  venturous  counsels  which  no  great 
or  wise  man  durst  or  would.  And  for  Maximilian, 
he  was  thought  then  a  greater  matter  than  he  was ; 
his  unstable  and  necessitous  courses2  being  not  then 
known. 

After  consultation  with  the  ambassadors,  who 
brought  him  no  other  news  than  he  expected  before 
(though  he  would  not  seem  to  know  it  till  then),  he 
presently  summoned  his  Parliament,3  and  in  open  Par- 

1  The  translation  has  "n  viris  e  concilio  primariis."  According  to 
Comines,  those  who  governed  Charles  during  the  first  four  years  of  his 
reign  were  "  Le  Due  et  Duchesse  de  Bourbon,  et  un  Chambellan  appele* 
le  seigneur  de  Graville,  et  autres  chambelans,  qui  en  ce  temps  eurent 
grand  regne."     (Liv.  vii.  c.  1.) 

2  Mores  ejus  instabiles,  et  conatus  ob  indigentiam  suamfere  semper  inuliles. 
8  Polydore  Vergil's  words  are  "  suorum  principum  convocato  cmuilio;" 

by  which  he  probably  meant,  as  Hall  certainly  understood  him  to  mean, 
that  Henry  summoned  a  Parliament.  But  as  no  Parliament  was  sum- 
moned between  the  9th  of  November,  1487,  and  the  13th  of  January, 
1488-9;  and  as  the  series  of  negotiations  above  detailed  could  not  have 
been  gone  through  between  September  and  November;  and  as  this  " prin- 
cipum concilium"  is  expressly  mentioned  as  having  met  before  the  battle 
of  St.  Aubin,  which  was  fought  on  the  28th  of  July,  1488;  it  is  clear  that 
if  he  supposed  it  to  be  a  Parliament  (as  indeed  he  must  have  done,  for  he 
speaks  of  laws  being  passed  by  it)  he  has  made  a  mistake  somewhere.  In 
supposing  that  the  succours  which  Henry  sent  to  Brittany  were  despatched 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  St.  Aubin,  and  before  the  death  of  the 
Duke  of  Brittany,  he  was  certainly  mistaken.  The  Duke  died  on  the  8th 
of  September,  1488;  the  succours  did  not  set  out  before  March,  1488-9. 

Modern  historians  have  pointed  out  or  avoided  these  mistakes;  but  have 
not,  as  it  seems  to  me,  discovered  the  true  order  and  concatenation  of 


HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY  VII.  115 

liament   propounded   the    cause    of  Brittaine    to    both 

events.  I  think  it  will  be  found  that  this  " principum  concilium"  before 
which  Henry  propounded  the  case  of  Brittany,  was  not  a  Parliament,  but 
a  "  Great  Council;  "  (so  called  in  contradistinction  to  the  "  ordinary"  or 
"  continual  council,"  and  in  those  days  well  known  it  seems  by  that 
name;)  i.  e.  a  council  consisting  not  only  of  lords,  spiritual  and  temporal, 
joined  with  the  King's  privy  council  (as  has  been  supposed);  but  also  of 
principal  persons  of  various  classes,  including  lawyers,  burgesses,  and 
merchants;  composed  in  short  of  much  the  same  elements  as  a  Parlia- 
ment; and  specially  summoned  by  the  King  for  consultation  in  great  af- 
fairs (for  a  fuller  justification  of  which  conjecture  see  Appendix  No.  I.): 
—  that  the  occasion  of  its  being  summoned  was  not  the  return  of  the  am- 
bassadors out  of  France  just  before  the  battle  of  St.  Aubin ;  but  the  issue 
of  that  battle,  with  the  events  which  immediately  followed,  including  the 
Duke's  death  and  the  new  pretensions  of  the  French  King  (see  note  1. 
p.  118) :  —  and  that  the  time  of  its  meeting  was  the  beginning  of  November, 
1488,  only  two  months  after  the  Duke's  death.  We  know  from  the  Herald's 
narrative  (Cott.  MSS.  Jul.  xii.  fo.  49.)  — an  evidence  almost  conclusive  on 
such  a  point  —  that  after  Whitsuntide  in  that  year  (which  was  on  the  25th 
of  May),"  all  tfie  summer  following''''  the  King  "hunted  and  sported  him 
merely;"  but  that  after  keeping  his  Allhallow-tide  (1st  November)  at 
Windsor,  "  he  removed  to  Westminster,  to  the  gretest  conseill  that  was  many 
yers  withoute  the  name  of  parliamenV  We  know  from  the  same  authority 
that  "  there  were  at  that  season  many  ambassadors  in  England  from  for- 
eign countries."  We  know  from  Rymer  that  on  the  11th  of  December  fol- 
lowing, ambassadors  were  despatched  from  England  to  France,  to  Brittany, 
to  Spain,  and  to  Flanders.  We  know  that  on  the  23rd  of  December  com- 
missions were  out  for  raising  a  body  of  archers  for  the  succour  of  Brittany. 
We  know  that  Parliament  met  on  the  13th  of  the  following  month,  and 
voted  liberal  supplies  for  that  enterprise.  And  we  know  lastly  that  soon 
after  the  Parliament  broke  up  these  succours  were  despatched.  If  then 
we  suppose  that  Henry  still  hoped  to  carry  his  ends  by  negotiation  until 
he  heard  of  the  battle  of  St.  Aubin;  that  the  result  of  that  battle  was  not 
only  unexpected,  but  so  decisive  that  it  did  in  fact  put  an  end  to  the  war 
for  the  time  (which  is  true;  for  the  treaty  of  Verger,  which  established 
Charles  in  possession  of  all  he  had  won,  was  concluded  (D'Argentre",  xiii. 
48.)  on  the  21st  August),  and  left  him  no  room  for  action,  until  the  acces- 
sion of  the  young  Duchess  and  the  questions  arising  thereupon  opened  a 
new  chapter;  that  immediately  upon  this  he  summoned  a  Great  Council, 
partly  that  he  might  feel  the  sense  of  the  nation,  and  partly  that  he  might 
pledge  them  to  the  support  of  the  war  before  he  committed  himself;  and 
that  it  was  to  this  Great  Council  that  he  now  (i.  e.  in  the  beginning 
of  November,  1488)  propounded  the  case  and  appealed  for  advice;  it  will 
be  found  I  think  that  the  events  hang  together  more  naturally,  and  suit 
better  with  the  fixed  data  established  by  state  documents. 


116  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

houses  by  his  chancellor  Morton *  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, who  spake  to  this  effect. 

1  This  fact  is  not  mentioned  by  Polydore,  nor  I  think  by  any  of  the 
Chroniclers;  from  which  one  may  suspect  that  Bacon  had  some  inde- 
pendent source  of  information  with  regard  to  this  speech.  The  speech 
itself  however  is  of  course  to  be  taken,  not  as  a  report  of  what  the  Chan- 
cellor really  said,  but  as  a  representation  of  what  Bacon  imagined  that 
such  a  person,  in  such  circumstances,  with  such  ends  in  view,  would  or 
should  have  said.  The  same  is  to  be  understood  of  all  the  speeches  in  the 
book;  the  amount  of  invention  varying  inversely  as  the  amount  of  actual 
information.  If  he  had  had  a  full  report  of  the  speech  actually  spoken,  he 
would  have  given,  not  a  transcript  certainly,  but  the  substance  of  it  in  the 
best  and  fewest  words ;  still  keeping  the  form  of  the  first  person.  Where 
he  had  no  means  of  knowing  more  than  the  general  tenour  and  purpose  of 
what  was  spoken,  he  would  fill  up  the  outline  from  his  own  head,  and  make 
a  speech  of  such  tenour  and  purpose,  — the  best  he  could.  It  is  this  which 
gives  to  these  speeches  their  peculiar  interest  and  value:  they  are  so  many 
statements  of  the  case  as  Bacon  conceived  it,  viewed  from  the  point  at 
which  the  speakers  stood,  and  presented  in  a  dramatic  form. 

This,  I  need  hardly  add,  is  according  to  the  old  rule  of  historical  com- 
position, practised  by  all  the  classical  historians,  and  distinctly  explained 
and  avowed  by  Thucydides,  the  best  and  trust  worthiest  of  them  all ;  and 
Bacon  could  never  have  imagined  that  his  speeches  would  be  taken  in  any 
other  sense.  But  since  I  find  Dr.  Henry  gravely  recording  his  suspicion 
"  that  these  speeches  were  made  by  the  noble  historian  who  hath  recorded 
them;"  and  the  author  of  the  chapter  on  "National  Industry"  in  the 
Pictorial  History  of  England  criticising  and  commenting  upon  and  drawing 
inferences  from  the  words  of  this  speech,  as  if  it  had  been  a  document  of 
the  time;  and  Lord  Campbell  treating  it  as  a  blemish  in  the  work  that  it 
is  "  filled  up  with  proclamations  and  long  speeches,"  (as  if  they  were  so 
much  rubbish;  when  the  speeches  are  in  fact  the  most  original  part  of  it); 
—  I  must  suppose  that  the  thing  is  not  so  well  understood  now-a-days  as 
to  make  this  note  superfluous. 

Whether  the  pi-actice  is  a  good  one  or  not,  is  another  question.  My  own 
opinion  is  that  the  reader  is  less  liable  to  be  deceived  by  history  written 
upon  this  principle  than  upon  the  modern  plan,  though  the  modern  be  ap- 
parently the  more  scrupulous.  The  records  of  the  past  are  not  complete 
enough  to  enable  the  most  diligent  historian  to  give  a  connected  narrative, 
in  which  there  shall  not  be  many  parts  resting  upon  guesses  or  inferences 
or  unauthenticated  rumours.  He  may  guess  for  himself,  or  he  may  report 
other  people's  guesses;  but  guesses  there  must  be.  And  if  he  be  a  wise 
man  and  curious  about  the  truth,  those  portions  of  his  narrative  which 
have  most  of  his  own  will  probably  be  nearest  the  truth.  The  advantage 
of  the  old  practice  is,  that  the  invention  appears  in  the  undisguised  form 
of  invention;  whereas  the  modern  practice,  by  scrupulously  eschewing 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  117 

"  My  lords  and  masters,  the  King's  Grace,  our  Sov- 
ereign Lord,  hath  commanded  me  to  declare  unto  you 
the  causes  that  have  moved  him  at  this  time  to  summon 
this  his  Parliament ;  which  I  shall  do  in  few  words ; 
craving  pardon  of  his  Grace  and  you  all,  if  I  perforin 
it  not  as  I  would. 

"  His  Grace  doth  first  of  all  let  you  know  that  he 
retaineth  in  thankful  memory  the  love  and  loyalty 
shewed  to  him  by  you  at  your  last  meeting,1  in  estab- 
lishment of  his  royalty,  freeing  and  discharging  of  his 
partakers,  and  confiscation  of  his  traitors  and  rebels  ; 
more  than  which  could  not  come  from  subjects  to  their 
sovereign  in  one  action.  This  he  taketh  so  well  at  your 
hands,  as  he  hath  made  it  a  resolution  to  himself  to 
communicate  with  so  loving  and  well  approved  subjects 

everything  like  avowed  and  deliberate  invention,  leaves  it  to  be  supposed 
that  what  remains  is  all  fact;  that  when  the  writer  tells  you  what  this 
man  said  or  that  man  thought,  —  carefully  keeping  in  the  third  person,  or 
quoting  from  a  previous  writer,  —  he  is  telling  you  something  that  did 
really  happen :  whereas  in  most  cases  of  the  kind  he  is  but  reporting  his 
own  or  another  man's  conjecture,  just  as  much  as  if  he  had  sate  down 
deliberately  to  compose  a  soliloquy  or  a  speech  in  the  first  person. 

1  It  seems  therefore  that  Bacon  believed  this  to  be  Henry's  second  Par- 
liament; the  Parliament  in  3  //.  VII. ;  under  which  description  he  was  no 
doubt  familiar  with  the  records  of  it.  But  he  did  not  know,  and  had  not 
perhaps  any  ready  means  of  ascertaining,  in  what  month  of* Henry's  third 
year,  which  extended  from  August  22,  1487,  to  August  21,  1488,  it  met. 
We  have  seen  that  in  speaking  of  the  coronation  of  the  Queen  (p.  94.)  he 
makes  no  allusion  to  the  fact  that  this  Parliament  was  then  sitting;  which 
considering  its  importance  both  as  a  legislative  and  as  a  money-voting 
Parliament,  (for  they  granted  —  in  consideration  of  the  rebellion  just 
passed,  I  imagine,  rather  than  of  the  war  to  come  —  two  fifteenths  and 
tenths,)  he  would  naturally  have  done  in  that  place.  I  have  little  doubt 
that,  following  Polydore's  narrative,  as  all  previous  historians  had  done, 
and  not  having  access  to  the  Parliament  Rolls  to  correct  it  by,  he  believed 
this  second  Parliament  to  have  met  in  the  summer  of  1488.  It  must  be 
supposed  that  authentic  records  as  to  the  date  of  Henry's  Parliaments 
were  not  easily  accessible,  when  so  diligent  and  original  an  explorer  as 
Stowe  failed  to  detect  these  errors. 


118  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

in  all  affairs  that  are  of  public  nature  at  home  or 
abroad. 

"  Two  therefore  are  the  causes  of  your  present  as- 
sembling :  the  one  a  foreign  business  ;  the  other  matters 
of  government  at  home. 

"  The  French  King  (as  no  doubt  ye  have  heard) 
maketh  at  this  present  hot  war  upon  the  Duke  of  Brit- 
taine.  His  army  is  now  before  Nantes,1  and  holdeth 
it  straitly  besieged,  being  the  principal  city,  if  not  in 
ceremony  and  preeminence,  yet  in  strength  and  wealth, 
of  that  duchy :  ye  may  guess  at  his  hopes,  by  his  at- 
tempting of  the  hardest  part  of  the  war  first.  The 
cause  of  this  war  he  knoweth  best.  He  alledgeth  the 
entertaining  and  succouring  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
and  some  other  French  lords,  whom  the  King  taketh 
for  his  enemies.  Others  divine  of  other  matters.  Both 
parts  have  by  their  ambassadors  divers  times  prayed 
the  King's  aids  ;  the  French  King,  aids  or  neutrality ; 
the  Britons,  aids  simply ;  for  so  their  case  requireth. 
The  King,  as  a  Christian  Prince  and  blessed  son  of  the 
holy  church,  hath  offered  himself  as  a  mediator  to  treat 
a  peace  between  them.     The  French  King  yieldeth  to 


1  This  is  consistent  with  Polydore's  narrative:  but  it  is  a  mistake,  what- 
ever date  you  assign  to  "  now."  The  siege  of  Nantes  had  been  raised  on 
the  6th  of  August,  1487.  (See  note  1.  p.  109.)  The  Chancellor  however, 
speaking  in  November,  1488,  had  in  fact  a  stronger  case  than  could  have 
been  assigned  to  him  at  the  time  Bacon  supposed  him  to  be  speaking. 
The  victory  of  St.  Aubin  had  given  Charles  all,  and  more  than  all,  he 
originally  pretended.  The  party  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  overthrown; 
the  Duke  himself  was  his  prisoner;  he  had  been  secured  by  treaty  in  the 
possession  of  all  the  places  he  had  won;  yet  he  was  now,  upon  the  Duke 
of  Brittany's  death,  claiming  the  right  of  guardianship  over  the  young 
Duchess,  and  in  the  mean  time  proceeding  in  his  conquests  and  taking 
town  after  town  in  Brittany.  (See  Daru,  iii.  p.  148.,  and  compare  the 
King's  letter  to  Lord  Oxford,  quoted  in  note  p.  148.;  which  shows  how  far 
the  French  had  advanced  into  Brittany  before  the  end  of  March,  1489.) 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  119 

treat,  but  will  not  stay  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 
The  Britons,  that  desire  peace  most,  hearken  to  it 
least ;  not  upon  confidence  or  stiffness,  but  upon  dis- 
trust of  true  meaning ;  seeing  the  war  goes  on.  So  as 
the  King,  after  as  much  pains  and  care  to  effect  a  peace 
as  ever  he  took  in  any  business,  not  being  able  to  re- 
move the  prosecution  on  the  one  side  nor  the  distrust 
on  the  other  caused  by  that  prosecution,  hath  let  fall 
the  treaty  ;  not  repenting  of  it,  but  despairing  of  it 
now,  as  not  likely  to  succeed.  Therefore  by  this  nar- 
rative you  now  understand  the  state  of  the  question, 
whereupon  the  King  prayeth  your  advice  ;  which  is  no 
other,  but  whether  he  shall  enter  into  an  auxiliary  and 
defensive  war  for  the  Britons  against  France  ? 

"  And  the  better  to  open  your  understandings  in  this 
affair,  the  King  hath  commanded  me  to  say  somewhat 
to  you  from  him  of  the  persons  that  do  intervene  in 
this  business  ;  and  somewhat  of  the  consequence  there- 
of, as  it  hath  relation  to  this  kingdom  ;  and  somewhat 
of  the  example  of  it  in  general ;  making  nevertheless 
no  conclusion  or  judgment  of  any  point,  until  his  Grace 
hath  received  your  faithful  and  politic  advices. 

"  First  for  the  King  our  sovereign  himself,  who  is 
the  principal  person  you  are  to  eye  in  this  business  ;  his 
Grace  doth  profess  that  he  truly  and  constantly  desir- 
eth  to  reign  in  peace  :  but  his  Grace  saith  he  will 
neither  buy  peace  with  dishonour,  nor  take  it  up  at 
interest  of  danger  to  ensue  ;  but  shall  think  it  a  good 
change,  if  it  please  God  to  change  the  inward  troubles 
and  seditions  wherewith  he  hath  been  hitherto  exer- 
cised into  an  honourable  foreign  war. 

u  And  for  the  other  two  persons  in  this  action,  the 
French  King  and  the  Duke  of  Brittaine,  his  Grace  doth 


120  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

declare  unto  you,  that  they  be  the  men  unto  whom  he 
is  of  all  other  friends  and  allies  most  bounden ;  the  one 
having  held  over  him  his  hand  of  protection  from  the 
tyrant ;  the  other  having  reached  forth  unto  him  his 
hand  of  help  for  the  recovery  of  his  kingdom  ;  so  that 
his  affection  toward  them  in  his  natural  person  is  upon 
equal  terms.  And  whereas  you  may  have  heard  that 
his  Grace  was  enforced  to  fly  out  of  Brittaine  into 
France  for  doubts  of  being  betrayed  ;  his  Grace  would 
not  in  any  sort  have  that  reflect  upon  the  Duke  of 
Brittaine  in  defacement  of  his  former  benefits  ;  for  that 
he  is  thoroughly  informed  that  it  was  but  the  practice 
of  some  corrupt  persons  about  him,  during  the  time  of 
his  sickness,  altogether  without  his  consent  or  privity. 
But  howsoever  these  things  do  interest  his  Grace  in  his 
particular,  yet  he  knoweth  well  that  the  higher  bond 
that  tieth  him  to  procure  by  all  means  the  safety  and 
welfare  of  his  loving  subjects,  doth  disinteress  him  of 
these  obligations  of  gratitude,  otherwise  than  thus  ; 
that  if  his  Grace  be  forced  to  make  a  war  he  do  it 
without  passion  or  ambition. 

"  For  the  consequence  of  this  action  towards  this 
kingdom,  it  is  much  as  the  French  King's  intention  is. 
For  if  it  be  no  more  but  to  range  his  subjects  to  reason 
who  bear  themselves  stout  upon  the  strength  of  the 
Duke  of  Brittaine,1  it  is  nothing  to  us.  But  if  it  be  in 
the  French  King's  purpose,  —  or  if  it  should  not  be  in 
his  purpose,  yet  if  it  shall  follow  all  one  as  if  it  were 
sought,  —  that  the  French  King  shall  make  a  province 
of  Brittaine  and  join  it  to  the  crown  of  France  ;  then 
it  is  worthy  the  consideration  how  this  may  import 
England,  as  well  in  the  increasement  of  the  greatness 

1  This  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  121 

of  France,  by  the  addition  of  such  a  country  that 
stretcheth  his  boughs  unto  our  seas,  as  in  depriving  this 
nation  and  leaving  it  naked  of  so  firm  and  assured  con- 
federates as  the  Britons  have  always  been.  For  then 
it  will  come  to  pass  that,  whereas  not  long  since  this 
realm  was  mighty  upon  the  continent,  first  in  territory 
and  after  in  alliance,  in  respect  of  Burgundy  and  Brit- 
taine,  which  were  confederates  indeed,  but  dependent 
confederates  ;  2  now  the  one  being  already  cast  partly 
into  the  greatness  of  France  and  partly  into  that  of 
Austria,  the  other  is  like  wholly  to  be  cast  into  the 
greatness  of  France  ;  and  this  island  shall  remain  con- 
fined in  effect  within  the  salt  waters,  and  girt  about 
with  the  coast  countries  of  two  mighty  monarchs. 

"  For  the  example,  it  resteth  likewise  upon  the  same 
question,  upon  the  French  King's  intent.  For  if  Brit- 
tame  be  carried  and  swallowed  up  by  France,  as  the 
world  abroad  (apt  to  impute  and  construe  the  actions 
of  Princes  to  ambition)  conceive  it  will,  then  it  is  an 
example  very  dangerous  and  universal,  that  the  lesser 
neighbour  estate  should  be  devoured  of  the  greater. 
For  this  may  be  the  case  of  Scotland  towards  England ; 
of  Portugal  towards  Spain ;  of  the  smaller  estates  of 
Italy  towards  the  greater  ;  and  so  of  Germany ;  or  as  if 
some  of  you  of  the  commons  might  not  live  and  dwell 
safely  besides  some  of  these  great  lords.  And  the 
bringing  in  of  this  example  will  be  chiefly  laid  to  the 
King's  charge,  as  to  him  that  was  most  interested  2  and 
most  able  to  forbid  it.3  But  then  on  the  other  side 
there  is  so  fair  a  pretext  on  the  French  King's  part 

1  Fcederati  ex  hujus  regni  consiliis  pendentes. 

2  So  MS. 

8   Qui  Mud  etiam  cum  bono  republicce  sum  impedire  maxime  potuisset. 


122  HISTORY  OF  KING   HENRY  VII. 

(and  yet  pretext  is  never  wanting  to  power)  in  regard 
the  danger  imminent  to  his  own  estate  is  such  as  may 
make  this  enterprise  seem  rather  a  work  of  necessity 
than  of  ambition,  as  doth  in  reason  correct  the  danger 
of  the  example ;  for  that  the  example  of  that  which  is 
done  in  a  man's  own  defence  cannot  be  dangerous,  be- 
cause it  is  in  another's  power  to  avoid  it.  But  in  all 
this  business,  the  King  remits  himself  to  your  grave 
and  mature  advice,  whereupon  he  purposeth  to  rely." 

This  was  the  effect  of  the  Lord  Chancellor's  speech 
touching  the  cause  of  Brittaine ;  for  the  King  had 
commanded  him  to  carry  it  so  as  to  affect  the  Parlia- 
ment towards  the  business  ;  but  without  engaging  the 
King  in  any  express  declaration. 

The  Chancellor  went  on  : 

"  For  that  which  may  concern  the  government  at 
home,  the  King  hath  commanded  me  to  say  unto  you  ; 
that  he  thinketh  there  was  never  any  King  (for  the 
small  time  that  he  hath  reigned)  had  greater  and  juster 
cause  of  the  two  contrary  passions  of  joy  and  sorrow, 
than  his  Grace  hath  ;  joy,  in  respect  of  the  rare  and 
visible  favours  of  Almighty  God,  in  girting  the  impe- 
rial sword  upon  his  side,  and  assisting  the  same  his 
sword  against  all  his  enemies,  and  likewise  in  blessing 
him  with  so  many  good  and  loving  servants  and  sub- 
jects, which  have  never  failed  to  give  him  faithful 
counsel,  ready  obedience,  and  courageous  defence  ;  sor- 
row, for  that  it  hath  not  pleased  God  to  suffer  him  to 
sheath  his  sword  (as  he  greatly  desired,  otherwise  than 
for  administration  of  justice,)  but  that  he  hath  been 
forced  to  draw  it  so  oft,  to  cut  off  traitorous  and 
disloyal  subjects,  whom  it  seems  God  hath  left  (a  few 
amongst  many  good)  as  the  Canaanites  amongst  the 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  123 

people  of  Israel,  to  be  thorns  in  their  sides,  to  tempt 
and  try  them  ;  though  the  end  hath  been  always 
(God's  name  be  blessed  therefore)  that  the  destruction 
hath  fallen  upon  their  own  heads.  Wherefore  his 
Grace  saith  that  he  seeth  that  it  is  not  the  blood  spilt 
in  the  field  that  will  save  the  blood  in  the  city  ;  nor 
the  marshal's '  sword  that  will  set  this  kingdom  in  per- 
fect peace :  but  that  the  true  way  is  to  stop  the  seeds 
of  sedition  and  rebellion  in  their  beginnings,  and  for 
that  purpose  to  devise,  confirm,  and  quicken  good  and 
wholesome  laws  against  riots  and  unlawful  assemblies 
of  people  and  all  combinations  and  confederacies  of 
them  by  liveries,  tokens,  and  other  badges  of  factious 
dependence ;  that  the  peace  of  the  land  may  by  these 
ordinances,  as  by  bars  of  iron,  be  soundly  bound  in 
and  strengthened,  and  all  force  both  in  court,  coun- 
try, and  private  houses  be  supprest. 

"  The  care  hereof,  which  so  much  concerneth  your- 
selves, and  which  the  nature  of  the  times  doth  instant- 
ly call  for,  his  Grace  commends  to  your  wisdoms. 

u  And  because  it  is  the  King's  desire  that  this  peace 
wherein  he  hopeth  to  govern  and  maintain  you,  do  not 
bear  only  unto  you  leaves,  for  you  to  sit  under  the 
shade  of  them  in  safety,  but  also  should  bear  you  fruit 
of  riches,  wealth,  and  plenty ;  therefore  his  Grace 
prays  you  to  take  into  consideration  matter  of  trade, 
as  also  the  manufactures  of  the  kingdom,  and  to  re- 
press the  bastard  and  barren  employment  of  moneys  to 
usury  and  unlawful  exchanges  ;  that  they  may  be  (as 
their  natural  use  is)  turned  upon  commerce,  and  law- 
ful and  royal  trading  ;  and  likewise  that  our  people  be 
set  awork  in  arts  and  handicrafts,  that  the  realm  may 

1  So  ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  Marshall;  "  which  is  perhaps  right. 


124  HISTOEY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

subsist  more  of  itself,  that  idleness  be  avoided,  and  the 
draining  out  of  our  treasure  for  foreign  manufactures 
stopped.  But  you  are  not  to  rest  here  only,  but  to 
provide  further  that  whatsoever  merchandise  shall  be 
brought  in  from  beyond  the  seas  may  be  employed 
upon  the  commodities  of  this  land  ;  whereby  the  king- 
dom's stock  of  treasure  may  be  sure  to  be  kept  from 
being  diminished  by  any  overtrading  of  the  foreigner. 

"  And  lastly  because  the  King  is  well  assured  that 
you  would  not  have  him  poor  that  wishes  you  rich  ; 
he  doubteth  not  but  that  you  will  have  care,  as  well 
to  maintain  his  revenews  of  customs  and  all  other 
natures,  as 1  also  to  supply  him  with  your  loving  aids, 
if  the  case  shall  so  require :  the  rather  for  that  you 
know  the  King  is  a  good  husband,  and  but  a  steward 
in  effect  for  the  public,  and  that  what  comes  from  you 
is  but  as  moisture  drawn  from  the  earth,  which  gathers 
into  a  cloud  and  falls  back  upon  the  earth  again  ;  and 
you  know  well  how  the  kingdoms  about  you  grow 
more  and  more  in  greatness,  and  the  times  are  stir- 
ring ;  and  therefore  not  fit  to  find  the  King  with  an 
empty  purse.  More  I  have  not  to  say  to  you,  and 
wish  that  what  hath  been  said  had  been  better  ex- 
pressed: but  that  your  wisdoms  and  good  affections 
will  supply.     God  bless  your  doings."  2 

It  was  no  hard  matter  to  dispose  and  affect  the  Par- 
liament in  this  business ; 3  as  well  in  respect  of  the 
emulation  between  the  nations,4  and  the  envy  at  the 
late  growth  of  the  French  monarchy  ;    as  in   regard 

i  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  and  also." 

2  The  Latin  translation  adds  Heme  orationem  Cancellarius  habuit,  non 
comptam  eerie,  sed  solidam  et  perspicuam. 

3  i.  e.  the  business  of  Brittany.     Ad  islud  Britannia  negotium. 

4  Inter  nationes  Anglice  et  Gallue. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  125 

of  the  danger  to  suffer  the  French  to  make  their  ap- 
proaches upon  England,  by  obtaining  so  goodly  a 
maritime  province,  full  of  sea-towns  and  havens,  that 
might  do  mischief  to  the  English,  either  by  invasion 
or  by  interruption  of  traffic. 

The  Parliament  was  also  moved  with  the  point  of 
oppression ;  for  although  the  French  seemed  to  speak 
reason,1  yet  arguments  are  ever  with  multitudes  too 
weak  for  suspicions.  Wherefore  they  did  advise  the 
King  roundly  to  embrace  the  Britons'  quarrel,  and  to 
send  them  speedy  aids  ;  and  with  much  alacrity  and 
forwardness  granted  to  the  King  a  great  rate  of  sub- 
sidy 2  in  contemplation  of  these  aids.     But  the  King, 

1  This  might  perhaps  have  been  said  in  July,  1488;  but  hardly  in  No- 
vember, after  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  all  that  party  were  overthrown. 

2  The  Parliament  of  November,  1487,  had  granted  (though  not  with 
any  view  to  the  case  of  Brittany)  two  fifteenths  and  tenths.'  The  Parlia- 
ment of  January,  1488-9,  granted  (and  this  was  expressly  for  the  suc- 
cours to  Brittany)  "  the  tenth  penny  on  men's  lands  and  goods  movable  " 
—  a  rate  which  was  expected  to  produce  75,000/.  But  what  could  have 
been  granted  in  November,  1488,  when  there  was  no  Parliament  but  only 
a  Great  Council?  I  take  it  that  though  a  Great  Council  could  not  (prop- 
erly speaking)  grant  a  subsidy,  yet  the  members  composing  it  might  have 
given  the  King  sufficient  security,  either  by  promise  or  by  actual  loan, 
that  if  a  Parliament  were  summoned  a  subsidy  would  be  granted.  In  the 
first  year  of  Henry  IV.  a  Great  Council,  summoned  for  advice  on  a  ques- 
tion of  peace  or  war,  advised  war,  and  (in  order  to  avoid  the  necessity  of 
summoning  a  Parliament  and  imposing  a  general  tax)  agreed  upon  a  grant 
of  money  from  themselves.  A  Great  Council,  summoned  by  Henry  VII. 
in  his  twelfth  year  (as  we  shall  see  further  on)  to  advise  of  war  with  Scot- 
land, advised  war,  and  for  means  to  carry  it  on,  lent  [prested]  the  King 
"every  one  for  his  part  great  sums  of  ready  money;  "  and  recommended,  it 
seems,  the  raising  of  40,000/.  more  by  privy  seals.  That  Great  Council  sat 
from  the  24th  of  October  to  the  6th  of  November,  1496 ;  and  was  followed 
by  a  Parliament,  January  16,  1496-7,  which  granted  the  King  for  the 
Scotch  war  two  aids  and  two  fifteens.  That  this  was  the  course  taken 
with  regard  to  the  Scotch  war  in  1496,  is  as  certain,  though  it  is  not  noticed 
in  any  of  our  histories,  as  anything  can  be  that  happened  so  long  ago:  and 
I  suppose  the  same  course  to  have  been  taken  with  regard  to  the  case  of 
Brittany,  the  occasions  being  in  all  respects  analogous.    It  is  observable 


126  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

both  to  keep  a  decency  towards  the  French  King,  to 
whom  he  profest  himself  to  be  obliged,  and  indeed 
desirous  rather  to  show  war  than  to  make  it,  sent 
new  solemn  ambassadors *  to  intimate  unto  him  the 
decree  of  his  estates,  and  to  iterate  his  motion  that  the 
French  would  desist  from  hostility  ;  or  if  war  must 
follow,  to  desire  him  to  take  it  in  good  part,  if  at  the 
motion  of  his  people,  who  were  sensible  of  the  cause 
of  the  Britons  as  their  ancient  friends  and  confeder- 
ates, he  did  send  them  succours  ;  with  protestation 
nevertheless  that,  to  save  all  treaties  and  laws  of 
friendship,  he  had  limited  his  forces,2  to  proceed  in 
aid  of  the  Britons,  but  in  no  wise  to  war  upon  the 
French,  otherwise  than  as  they  maintained  the  posses- 
sion of  Brittaine.  But  before  this  formal  ambassage 
arrived,  the  party  of  the  Duke  had  received  a  great 

that  the  old  chronicler  (Cott.  Vitel.  A.  xvi.  f.  161.),  who  was  either 
Fabyan  himself  or  Fabyan's  great  authority  (for  Fabyan's  printed  chron- 
icle of  this  reign  is  but  an  abstract  from  this  MS.),  being  evidently  a  con- 
temporary, and  a  citizen  of  London,  attentive  enough  to  matters  of  loan 
and  taxation,  says  expressly  that  at  this  Great  Council  (the  nature  of 
which  he  plainly  understood  and  did  not  at  all  confound  it  with  the  Par- 
liament which  followed,  and  which  he  notices  in  its  place)  "was  granted 
unto  the  King  for  the  defence  of  the  Scots  120,000/."  And  therefore  it 
may  very  well  be  that  in  like  manner  this  "great  rate  of  subsidy,"  that 
was  given  to  Henry  in  contemplation  of  the  aids  to  Brittany,  was  (popu- 
larly speaking)  granted  by  the  Great  Council  of  November,  1488,  though 
the  legal  authority  for  levying  it  had  to  wait  for  the  Parliament  which 
met  in  the  following  January. 

1  This  again  comes  from  Polydore;  an  error  in  point  of  date  growing 
out  of  the  previous  error  with  regard  to  the  Council.  There  are  no  traces 
in  Rymer  of  such  an  embassy  in  July,  1488;  but  on  the  11th  of  December 
following,  —  between  the  breaking  up  of  the  Great  Council  and  the  issu- 
ing of  the  commission  for  levying  a  body  of  archers  for  the  succour  of 
Brittany,  —  Christopher  Urswick,  Thomas  Warde,  and  Stephen  Fryon 
were  sent  to  treat  a  peace  between  England  and  France,  and  also  between 
France  and  the  Duchess  of  Brittany.  And  this  was  no  doubt  the  solemn 
embassy  here  spoken  of. 

2  Copiis  suis  imperare  in  animo  habere. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  127 

blow,  and  grew  to  manifest  deelination.  For  near  the 
town  of  St.  Alban  in  Brittaine  a  battle  had  been 
given,  where  the  Britons  were  overthrown,  and  the 
Duke  of  Orleans  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  taken 
prisoners,  there  being  slain  on  the  Britons'  part  six 
thousand  men,  and  amongst  them  the  Lord  Woodvile, 
and  almost  all  his  soldiers,  valiantly  fighting.  And 
of  the  French  part,  one  thousand  two  hundred,  with 
their  leader  James  Galeot  a  great  commander. 

When  the  news  of  this  battle  came  over  into  Eng- 
land, it  was  time  for  the  King  (who  now 1  had  no 
subterfuge  to  continue  further  treaty,  and  saw  before 
his  eyes  that  Brittaine  went  so  speedily  for  lost,  con- 
trary to  his  hopes ;  knowing  also  that  with  his  people 
and  foreigners  both,  he  sustained  no  small  envy  and 
disreputation  for  his  former  delays,)  to  dispatch  with 
all  possible  speed  his  succours  into  Brittaine  ;  which 
he  did  under  the  conduct  of  Robert  Lord  Brooke,  to 
the  number  of  eight  thousand,  choice  men  and  well 
armed  ;  who  having  a  fair  wind,  in  few  hours  land- 
ed in  Brittaine,  and  joined  themselves  forthwith  to 
those  Briton  forces  that  remained  after  the  defeat, 
and  marched  straight  on  to  find  the  enemy,  and  en- 
camped fast  by  them.  The  French  wisely  husband- 
ing the  possession  of  a  victory,  and  well  acquainted 
with  the  courage  of  the  English,  especially  when  they 
are  fresh,  kept  themselves  within  their  trenches,  being 
strongly  lodged,  and  resolved  not  to  give  battle.  But 
meanwhile  to  harass  and  weary  the  English,  they  did 
upon  all  advantages  set  upon  them  with  their  light 
horse  ;  wherein  nevertheless  they  received  commonly 
loss,  especially  by  means  of  the  English  archers. 

1  The  MS.  omits  now. 


128  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

But  upon  these  achievements  Francis  Duke  of  Brit- 
taine  deceased ;  an  accident  that  the  King  might  easily 
have  foreseen,  and  ought  to  have  reckoned  upon  and 
provided  for ;  but  that  the  point  of  reputation,  when 
news  first  came  of  the  battle  lost,  (that  somewhat 
must  be  done)  did  overbear  the  reason  of  war. 

After  the  Duke's  decease,  the  principal  persons  of 
Brittaine,  partly  bought,  partly  thro'  faction,  put  all 
things  into  confusion  ;  so  as  the  English  not  finding 
head  or  body  with  whom  to  join  their  forces,  and 
being  in  jealousy  of  friends  as  well  as  in  danger  of 
enemies,  and  the  winter  begun,  returned  home  five 
months  after  their  landing.1     So  the  battle  of  St.  Al- 

1  All  this  comes  from  Polydore,  and  appears  to  be  quite  wrong.  The 
true  story  would  have  told  much  better ;  being  much  more  consistent  with 
Bacon's  idea  of  Henry's  character  and  policy.  It  is  true  that  Henry  had 
shown  some  want  of  foresight  in  not  perceiving  the  imminence  of  the 
danger  which  threatened  Brittany,  and  that  he  had  thereby  let  the  time 
slip  when  he  might  have  interfered  most  effectually  to  preserve  her  against 
the  encroachment  of  France.  But  it  is  not  at  all  true  that  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  hurried  by  popular  clamour  and  a  desire  to  save  appear- 
ances into  an  ill-considered  and  fruitless  enterprise. 

Till  he  heard  of  the  battle  of  St.  Aubin  (28th  of  July,  1488)  he  had 
hoped  to  save  Brittany  by  negotiation.  That  battle  took  him  by  surprise, 
not  expecting  to  be  called  upon  for  immediate  interference  by  arms,  and 
no  wajr  prepared  for  it  (the  less  because  the  successful  rebellion  in  Scot- 
land and  the  accession  of  a  new  King  in  the  middle  of  the  preceding 
month  left  him  in  doubt  what  he  was  to  expect  from  that  side);  and  it 
was  then  too  late.  The  blow  was  too  decisive  to  be  retrieved  by  an  array 
of  assistance;  and  even  if  Henry  had  been  disposed  to  help  the  Duke  of 
Brittany  in  that  way,  it  would  not  have  been  in  his  power  :  before  he 
could  have  got  his  army  ready,  the  Duke  had  bound  himself  by  the  treaty 
of  Verger,  or  Sable"  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  (August  21,  1488),  not  to  call 
in  foreign  auxiliaries.  It  was  not  till  after  the  Duke's  death  (September 
9, 1488),  when  the  French  King  had  shown  himself  not  content  to  rest  upon 
his  recent  advantages,  but  was  evidently  aiming  to  possess  himself  of  the 
entire  duchy,  that  Henry  determined  to  take  more  active  measures  for  the 
purpose  of  checking  him.  The  winter  being  then  so  near  that  nothing 
more  could  be  done  on  either  side  for  that  season,  he  had  plenty  of  time 
before  him ;  but  he  used  it  for  preparation,  not  for  delay.     He  first,  by  his 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  129 

ban,  the  death  of  the  Duke,  and  the  retire  of  the 
English  succours,  were  (after  some  time)  the  causes 
of  the  loss  of  that  duchy  ;  which  action  some  ac- 
counted as  a  blemish  of  the  King's  judgment,  but 
most  but  as  the  misfortune  of  his  times. 

But  howsoever  the  temporary  fruit  of  the  Parlia- 
ment in  their  aid  and  advice  given  for  Brittaine,  took 
not  nor  prospered  not ;  yet  the  lasting  fruit  of  Parlia- 
ment, which  is  good  and  wholesome  laws,  did  prosper, 

Great  Council,  made  himself  sure  of  the  support  of  his  people.  He  then 
proceeded  to  make  his  terms  with  Brittany;  careful  and  rather  hard  terms, 
framed  to  secure  him  against  pecuniary  loss.  At  the  same  time  he  gave 
the  French  King  due  warning  of  his  course;  and  made  arrangements  with 
Flanders  and  Spain  for  concerted  action.  Lastly,  he  summoned  his  Parlia- 
ment and  obtained  a  formal  vote  of  supply;  and  as  soon  as  the  season  was 
far  enough  advanced  for  a  new  campaign,  he  had  a  body  of  6000  archers 
ready  to  sail.     So  that  all  things  were  cared  for,  and  yet  no  time  lost. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  his  measures  were  unsuccessful;  as  I  shall  ex- 
plain in  a  subsequent  note;  for  to  explain  it  here  would  confuse  our  dates 
by  anticipating  the  events  of  the  next  year.  It  is  enough  in  this  place  to 
remember  that  at  the  time  of  which  Bacon  is  now  speaking,  namely  the 
winter  of  1488,  the  English  force,  instead  of  returning  unsuccessful,  was 
only  preparing  to  go ;  and  that  the  matters  related  in  the  following  pages 
all  took  place  either  before  the  expedition  or  while  it  was  going  on. 

The  story  of  the  return  of  the  English  succours  after  an  unsuccessful 
campaign  within  five  months  of  their  setting  out,  grew  probably  out  of 
some  loose  statement  or  incidental  report  of  a  circumstance  which  we 
learn  from  the  Paston  Letters  (vol.  v.  p.  355.).  About  the  end  of  January, 
1488-9,  a  month  or  more  before  the  forces  under  Lord  Brooke  were  ready 
to  sail,  some  gentlemen  did  go  over  to  Brittany,  but  returned  to  England 
immediately  without  having  landed;  finding  the  French  too  strong  prob- 
ably for  so  small  a  force.  "Those  gentlemen"  (says  Margery  Paston, 
writing  from  London  on  the  10th  of  February,  1488-9  —  not  1487-8,  as  the 
editor  supposes)  "  that  took  shipping  to  have  gone  over  into  Bretaigne 
upon  a  fortnight  ago  —  that  is  to  say,  Sir  Richard  Edgecomb,  the  Comp- 
troller, Sir  Robert  Clifford,  Sir  John  Trobylvylle,  and  John  Motton,  Ser- 
jeant porter,  —  be  arrived  again  upon  the  coast  of  England,  save  only  Sir 
Richard  Edgecomb,  who  landed  in  Bretaigne  and  there  was  in  a  town 
called  Morlaix,  which  anon  upon  his  coming  was  besieged  with  the 
Frenchmen,  and  so  escaped  hardly  with  his  life;  the  which  town  the 
Frenchmen  have  gotten,  and  also  the  town  called  Brest;  howbeit  the 
castle  holdeth,  as  we  hear  say." 

VOL.    XI.  9 


130  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

and  doth  yet  continue  till  this  day.1  For  according 
to  the  Lord  Chancellor's  admonition,  there  were  that 
Parliament2  divers  excellent  laws  ordained,  concern- 
ing the  points  which  the  'King  recommended. 

First,  the  authority  of  the  Star-chamber,  which  be- 
fore subsisted  by  the  ancient  common  laws  of  the 
realm,  was  confirmed  in  certain  cases  by  act  of  Par- 
liament.3 This  court  is  one  of  the  safest  and  noblest 
institutions  of  this  kingdom.  For  in  the  distribution 
of  courts  of  ordinary  justice,  (besides  the  high  court 
of  Parliament,)  in  which  distribution  the  King's  bench 
holdeth  the  pleas  of  the  crown  ;  the  Common-place, 
pleas  civil  ;  4  the  Exchequer,  pleas  concerning  the 
King's  revenew  ;  and  the  Chancery,  the  Pretorian 
power  for  mitigating  the  rigour  of  law,  in  case  of  ex- 
tremity, by  the  conscience  of  a  good  man  ;  there  was 
nevertheless  always  reserved  a  high  and  preeminent 
power  to  the  King's  counsel  in  causes  that  might  in 
example  or  consequence  concern  the  state  of  the  com- 
monwealth ;  which  if  they  were  criminal,  the  counsel 
used  to  sit  in  the  chamber  called  the  Star-chamber  ;  if 
civil,  in  the  white-chamber  or  White-hall.  And  as  the 
Chancery  had  the  Pretorian  power  for  equity,  so  the 

i  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  to  this  day." 

2  This  is  a  further  proof  that  Bacon  supposed  the  case  of  Brittany  to 
have  been  propounded  in  Henry's  second  Parliament.  Almost  all  the  laws 
which  are  mentioned  in  the  following  paragraphs  were  passed  by  the  Par- 
liament which  met  on  the  7th  November,  1487:  just  a  year  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Great  Council. 

8  3  H.  7.  c.  1. 

4  A  very  politic  distribution,  according  to  the  translation.  In  qua  Curia 
Band  Regis,  criminibus  quae,  contra  coronam  commitluntur ;  curia  Band 
Communis,  litibus  civilibus ;  curia  Scaccarii,  causis  quae  ad  reditus  et  proven- 
tus  regis  spectant ;  et  Curias  Cancellarice,  causis  qua  mitigationem  rigoris 
juris  ex  arbitrio  boni  viri,  ad  exemplum  juris  Prcetorii,  merentur,  fwlitice 
admodum  assignatce  sunt. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  131 

Star-chamber  had  the  Censorian  power  for  offences 
under  the  degree  of  capital.  This  court  of  Star- 
chamber  is  compounded  of  good  elements  ;  for  it  con- 
sisteth  of  four  kinds  of  persons  ;  counsellors,  peers, 
prelates,  and  chief  judges :  it  discerneth  also  princi- 
pally of  four  kinds  of  causes  ;  forces,  frauds,  crimes 
various  of  stellionate,  and  the  inchoations  or  middle 
acts  towards  crimes  capital  or  hainous  not  actually 
committed  or  perpetrated.  But  that  which  was  prin- 
cipally aimed  at  by  this  act  was  force,1  and  the  two 
chief  supports  of  force,  combination  of  multitudes,  and 
maintenance  or  headship  of  great  persons. 

From  the  general  peace  of  the  country  the  King's 
care  went  on  to  the  peace  of  the  King's  house,  and  the 
security  of  his  great  officers  and  counsellors.  But  this 
law  2  was  somewhat  of  a  strange  composition  and  tem- 
per. That  if  any  of  the  King's  servants  under  the 
degree  of  a  lord,  do  conspire  the  death  of  any  of  the 
King's  counsel,  or  lord  of  the  realm,  it  is  made  capi- 
tal.3 This  law  was  thought  to  be  procured  by  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  who  being  a  stern  and  haughty 
man,  and  finding  he  had  some  mortal  enemies  in 
court,  provided  for  his  own  safety  ;  drowning  the 
envy  of  it  in  a  general  law,  by  communicating  the 
privilege  with  all  other  counsellors  and  peers  ;  and 
yet  not  daring  to  extend  it  further  than  to  the  King's 
servants  in  check-roll,  lest  it  should  have  been  too 
harsh  to  the  gentlemen  and  other  commons  of  the 
kingdom,  who  might  have  thought  their  ancient  liberty 
and  the  clemency  of  the  laws  of  England  invaded,  if 

1  Suppressio  turbarum  illicitarum. 

2  3  H.  7.  c.  14. 

8  t.  e.  whether  it  be  effected  or  not — /actum  est  crimen,  licet  res  peracta 
non/uerit,  capitale. 


132  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

the  will  in  any  case  of  felony a  should  be  made  the  deed. 
And  yet  the  reason  which  the  act  yieldeth  (that  is  to 
say,  that  he  that  conspireth  the  death  of  counsellors 
may  be  thought  indirectly  and  by  a  mean  to  conspire 
the  death  of  the  King  himself)  is  indifferent  to  all 
subjects  as  well  as  to  servants  in  court.  But  it  seem- 
eth  this  sufficed  to  serve  the  Lord  Chancellor's  turn  at 
this  time  ;  but  yet  he  lived  to  need  a  general  law  ;  for 
that  he  grew  afterwards  as  odious  to  the  country  as 
he  was  then  to  the  court. 

From  the  peace  of  the  King's  house  the  King's  care 
extended  to  the  peace  of  private  houses  and  families ; 
for  there  was  an  excellent  moral  law 2  moulded  thus : 
The  taking  and  carrying  away  of  women  forcibly  and 
against  their  will  (except  female  wards  and  bond- 
women) was  made  capital  :  the  Parliament  wisely 
and  justly  conceiving,  that  the  obtaining  of  women 
by  force  into  possession  3  (howsoever  afterwards  assent 
might  follow  by  allurements)  was  but  a  rape  drawn 
forth  in  length,  because  the  first  force  drew  on  all  the 
rest. 

There  was  made  also  another  law  *  for  peace  in  gen- 
eral, and  repressing  of  murders  and  manslaughters,  and 
was  in  amendment  of  the  common  laws  of  the  realm ; 
being  this  :  That  whereas  by  the  common  law  the 
King's  suit,  in  case  of  homicide,  did  expect  the  year 
and  the  day,  allowed  to  the  party's  suit  by  way  of  ap- 
peal ; 5  and  that  it  was  found  by  experience  that  the 

1  i.  e.  in  any  case  under  the  degree  of  treason — alias  quam  in  criminibus 
Icesce  majestatis. 

2  3  H.  7.  c.  3. 

3  Abripiendi  fmminas  per  vim  in  possessionem  extraneorum. 

4  3  H.  7.  c.  2. 

6  i.  e.  to  the  wife  and  heir  of  the  man  killed,  to  prosecute  in  their  own 
name.  Quod  spatium  uxori  et  hceredi  occisi  datum  est  ut  nomine  proprio 
accusationem  peragerent. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  133 

party  was  many  times  compounded  with,  and  many 
times  wearied  with  the  suit,  so  that  in  the  end  such 
suit  was  let  fall ;  and  by  that  time  the  matter  was  in 
a  manner  forgotten,  and  thereby  prosecution  at  the 
King's  suit  by  indictment  (which  is  ever  best  flagrante 
crimine)  neglected ;  it  was  ordained 1  that  the  suit  by 
indictment  might  be  taken  as  well  at  any  time  within 
the  year  and  the  day  as  after ;  not  prejudicing  never- 
theless the  party's  suit. 

The  King  began  also  then,  as  well  in  wisdom  as  in 
justice,  to  pare  a  little  the  privilege  of  clergy  ;  ordain- 
ing that  clerks  convict  should  be  burned  in  the  hand,2 
—  both  because  they  might  taste  of  some  corporal  pun- 
ishment, and  that  they  might  carry  a  brand  of  infamy. 
But  for  this  good  act's  sake,  the  King  himself  was 
after  branded  by  Perkin's  proclamation  for  an  exe- 
crable breaker  of  the  rites  of  holy  church. 

Another  law  was  made  for  the  better  peace  of  the 
country,  by  which  law  the  King's  officers  and  farmers 
were  to  forfeit  their  places  and  holds,  in  case  of  unlaw- 
ful retainer  3  or  partaking  in  routs  and  unlawful  assem- 
blies. 

These  were  the  laws  that  were  made  for  repressing 
of  force,  which  those  times  did  chiefly  require  ;  and 
were  so  prudently  framed  as  they  are  found  fit  for  all 
succeeding  times,  and  so  continue  to  this  day. 

1  So  ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  ordered." 

2  4  H.  7.  c.  13.  This  therefore  belongs  to  the  year  1489-90.  Bacon  per- 
haps confounded  these  two  sessions ;  there  being  no  hint  in  Polydore  of  a 
Parliament  being  called  in  January,  '88-9.  "  Clerks  convict  "  are  clergy 
convicted  of  capital  crimes.  Clericl  capitalis  criminis  convicti.  This  act 
was  passed  at  the  last  meeting  of  this  Parliament,  Jan.  25th  —  Feb.  27th, 
1489-90.     See  Stat,  of  Realm,  p.  524.  note. 

8  Si  famulitiis  nobilium  aut  aliorum,  nisi  domestici  essent,  se  aggregarent. 
3  H.  7.  c.  15. 


134  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

There  were  also  made  good  and  politic  laws  that 
Parliament  against  usury,1  which  is  the  bastard  use 
of  money  ;  and  against  unlawful  chievances  and  ex- 
changes,2 which  is  bastard  usury  ;  and  also  for  the 
security  of  the  King's  customs ;  and  for  the  employ- 
ment of  the  procedures  of  foreign  commodities,  brought 
in  by  merchants  strangers,3  upon  the  native  commodi- 
ties of  the  realm ;  together  with  some  other  laws  of 
less  importance. 

But  howsoever  the  laws  made  in  that  Parliament 
did  bear  good  and  wholesome  fruit ;  yet  the  subsidy 
granted  at  the  same  time  bore4  a  fruit  that  proved 
harsh  and  bitter.  All  was  inned  at  last  into  the 
King's  barn  ;  but  it  was  after  a  storm.  For  when 
the  commissioners  entered  into  the  taxation  of  the 
subsidy  in  Yorkshire  and  the  bishoprick  of  Durham, 
the  people  upon  a  sudden  grew  into  great  mutiny,  and 
said  openly  that  they  had  endured  of  late  years  a  thou- 
sand miseries,  and  neither  could  nor  would  pay  the 
subsidy.  This  no  doubt  proceeded  not  simply  of  any 
present  necessity,  but  much  by  reason  of  the  old  hu- 
mour of  those  countries,  where  the  memory  of  King 
Richard  was  so  strong,  that  it  lay  like  lees  in  the 
bottom  of  men's  hearts,  and  if  the  vessel  was  but 
stirred  it  would  come  up ;  and  no  doubt  it  was  partly 
also  by  the  instigation  of  some  factious  malcontents 

i  3  H.  7.  c.  6. 

2  lllicita  excambia  et  contractus  Jictos.     3  H.  7.  c.  7. 

8  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  '*  merchant  strangers."     See  note  2.  p.  100. 

4  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  has  "bare."  The  events  which  follow  were  cer- 
tainly in  the  spring  of  1489.  I  presume  therefore  that  the  tax  which 
caused  the  combustion  was  that  of  the  tenth  penny  upon  lands  and  goods 
moveable,  granted  in  the  Parliament  of  January,  1488-9,  not  the  two 
fifteenths  and  tenths  granted  in  1487. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  135 

that  bare  principal '  stroke  amongst  them.  Hereupon 
the  commissioners,  being  somewhat  astonished,  deferred 
the  matter  unto  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who  was 
the  principal  man  of  authority  in  those  parts.  The 
Earl  forthwith  wrote  unto  the  court,  signifying  to  the 
King  plainly  enough  in  what  flame  he  found  the  people 
of  those  countries,  and  praying  the  King's  direction. 
The  King  wrote  back  peremptorily  that  he  would  not 
have  one  penny  abated  of  that  which  had  been  granted 
to  him  by  Parliament ;  both  because  it  might  encour- 
age other  countries  to  pray  the  like  release  or  mitiga- 
tion ;  and  chiefly  because  he  would  never  endure  that 
the  base  multitude  should  frustrate  the  authority  of 
the  Parliament,  wherein  their  votes  and  consents  were 
concluded.  Upon  this  dispatch  from  court,  the  Earl 
assembled  the  principal  justices  and  freeholders  of  the 
country  ;  and  speaking  to  them  in  the2  imperious 
language  wherein  the  King  had  written  to  him,  which 
needed  not  (save  that  an  harsh  business  was  unfortu- 
nately fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  harsh  man),  did  not 
only  irritate  the  people,  but  make  them  conceive  by 
the  stoutness  and  haughtiness  of  delivery  of  the  King's 
errand,3  that  himself  was  the  author  or  principal  per- 
suader of  that  counsel :  whereupon  the  meaner  sort 
routed  together,  and  suddenly  assailing4  the  earl  in 
his  hoiise,  slew  him 5  and  divers  of  his  servants  ;  and 
rested  not  there,  but  creating  for  their  leader  Sir  John 
Egremond,  a  factious  person,  and  one  that  had  of  a 


1  So  ed.  1662.     The  MS.  has  "  principally." 

■  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  has  "that." 

8  Ex  acerbitate  verborum  ejus  quce  tanquam  regis  ipsius  verba  retuleral. 

4  So  ed.  1622.    The  MS.  has  »  assailed." 

6  This,  according  to  Stowe,  was  on  the  28th  of  April,  1489. 


136  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

long  time  borne  an  ill  talent  towards  the  King,1  and 
being  animated  also  by  a  base  fellow,  called  John 
a  Chamber,  a  very  boutefeu,  who  bore  much  sway 
amongst  the  vulgar  and  populace,2  entered  into  open 
rebellion,  and  gave  out  in  flat  terms  that  they  would 
go  against  King  Henry  and  fight  with  him  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  liberties. 

When  the  King  was  advertised  of  this  new  insurrec- 
tion (being  almost  a  fever  that  took  him  every  year), 
after  his  manner  little  troubled  therewith,  he  sent 
Thomas  Earl  of  Surrey  (whom  he  had  a  little  before 
not  only  released  out  of  the  Tower  and  pardoned,  but 
also  received  to  especial  favour)  with  a  competent  power 
against  the  rebels,  who  fought  with  the  principal  band 
of  them  and  defeated  them,  and  took  alive  John  a 
Chamber  their  firebrand.  As  for  Sir  John  Egremond, 
he  fled  into  Flanders  to  the  Lady  Margaret  of  Bur- 
gundy, whose  palace  was  the  sanctuary  and  receptacle 
of  all  traitors  against  the  King.  John  a  Chamber  was 
executed  at  York  in  great  state  ;  for  he  was  hanged 
upon  a  gibbet  raised  a  stage  higher  in  the  midst  of  a 
square  gallows,  as  a  traitor  paramount ;  and  a  number 
of  his  men  that  were  his  chief  complices  were  hanged 
upon  the  lower  story  round  about  him  ;  and  the  rest 
were  generally  pardoned.  Neither  did  the  King  him- 
self omit  his  custom  to  be  first  or  second  in  all  his  war- 
like exploits,  making  good  his  word  which  was  usual 
with  him  when  he  heard  of  rebels,  (that  he  desired  but 
to  see  them).     For  immediately  after  he  had  sent  down 

i  Regi  in/ensus  erat. 

2  Ed.  1622  has  "  popular."  In  the  MS.  the  word  seems  to  have  been 
originally  written  "  populare ;  "  but  the  r  has  apparently  been  corrected 
into  c.  See  p.  180.  where  the  same  error  has  been  corrected  in  the  same 
way. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  137 

the  Earl  of  Surrey,  he  marched  towards  them  himself 
in  person.  And  although  in  his  journey  he  heard 
news  of  the  victory,  yet  he  went  on  as  far  as  York,1 
to  pacify  and  settle  those  countries:  and  that  done, 
returned  to  London,  leaving  the  Earl  of  Surrey  for  his 
lieutenant  in  the  northern  parts,  and  Sir  Richard  Tun- 
stal  for  his  principal  commissioner  to  levy  the  subsidy, 
whereof  he  did  not  remit  a  denier. 

About  the  same  time  2  that  the  King  lost  so  good  a 
servant  as  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  he  lost  like- 
wise a  faithful  friend  and  ally  of  James  the  Third 
King  of  Scotland  by  a  miserable  disaster.  For  this3 
unfortunate  Prince,  after  a  long  smother  of  discontent 
and  hatred  of  many  of  his  nobility  and  people,  break- 
ing forth  at  times  into  seditions  and  alterations  of 
court,  was  at  last  distressed  by  them,  having  taken 
arms  and  surprised  the  person  of  Prince  James  his  son 
(partly  by  force,  partly  by  threats  that  they  would 
otherwise  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  the  King  of  Eng- 
land) to  shadow  their  rebellion,  and  to  be  the  titular 

1  He  "  departed  from  Hertford  towards  the  north"  on  the  22nd  of  May. 
(Lei.  iv.  p.  246.) ;  about  two  months  after  the  forces  sailed  for  Brittany.  We 
are  to  remember  therefore  that  the  war  in  Brittany  was  going  on  at  the 
same  time  with  this  rebellion.  Bacon  thought  that  the  forces  had  returned 
to  England  two  or  three  months  before,  and  was  not  aware  that  Henry  had 
any  other  important  business  on  his  hands  at  this  time. 

2  This  is  another  error  of  date,  which  came  from  Polydore  Vergil,  and 
was  adopted  by  all  our  old  chroniclers.  James  III.  was  killed  on  the  11th 
of  June,  1488,  nearly  seven  weeks  before  the  battle  of  St.  Aubin;  while 
Henry  was  endeavouring  to  mediate  between  the  King  of  France  and  the 
Duke  of  Brittany,  and  had  so  far  succeeded  as  to  cause  a  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  hostilities.  See  note  1.  p.  112.  It  is  of  some  importance  to  remem- 
ber the  true  date ;  because  so  great  a  change  in  Scotland,  fraught  with 
such  uncertain  consequences,  obliged  Henry  to  look  well  to  his  borders 
and  strengthen  Berwick,  and  materially  affected  the  state  of  the  question 
with  regard  to  France. 

»  So  ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  the." 


138  HISTOKY  OF  KING  HENEY  VII. 

and  painted  head  of  those  arms.1  Whereupon  the 
King  (finding  himself  too  weak)  sought  unto  King 
Henry,  as  also  unto  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  France, 
to  compose  those  troubles  between  him  and  his  sub- 
jects. The  Kings  accordingly  interposed  their  media- 
tions in  a  round  and  princely  manner,2  not  only  by 
way  of  request  and  persuasion,  but  also  by  way  of  prot- 
estation and  menace,  declaring  that  they  thought  it  to 
be  the  common  cause  of  all  Kings,  if  subjects  should 
be  suffered  to  give  laws  unto  their  sovereign ;  and  that 
they  would  accordingly  resent  it  and  revenge  it.  But 
the  rebels,  that  had  shaken  off  the  greater  yoke  of 
obedience,  had  likewise  cast  away  the  lesser  tie  of 
respect ;  and  fury  prevailing  above  fear,  made  answer, 
that  there  was  no  talking  of  peace  except  their 3  King 
would  resign  his  crown.  Whereupon  (treaty  of  accord 
taking  no  place)  it  came  to  a  battle  at  Bannocksbourn 
by  Strivelin.  In  which  battle  the  King  transported 
with  wrath  and  just  indignation,  inconsiderately  fight- 

1  In  this  ambiguous  and  hardly  accurate  sentence  there  are  no  marks 
of  parenthesis  either  in  the  MS.  or  in  the  edition  of  1622 ;  and  the  MS.  has 
a  comma  after  "  threats  "  and  no  stop  after  "  England:  "  which,  if  it  were 
right,  would  suggest  a  different  meaning.  But  the  Latin  translation  re- 
moves the  ambiguity,  and  shows  that  the  punctuation  which  I  have  substi- 
tuted expresses  the  intended  construction.  Siquidem  arma  contra  eum 
sumpserunt,  et  Jacobi  Principis  Jilii  sui  personam  ex  improviso  intra potestatem 
suam  redegerunt,  partim  vi  partim  minis ;  intei'minantes,  se  aliter  regnum  in 
manus  Regis  Anglice  tradituros.  Eo  autem  consilio  hoc  moliebantur,  ut  rebel- 
lionem  suam  obvelarent,  sicque  Princeps  (itulare  et  pictum  quoddam  caput  re- 
bettionis  jieret.     Compare  Buchanan,  Rer.  Scot.  Hist.  xii.  58. 

2  Modo  honorifico  et  qui  reges  magnos  deceret.  Tytler,  who  mentions 
James's  application  to  France  and  to  Rome  (vol.  iv.  p.  317.),  says  nothing 
about  Henry.  The  circumstances  here  detailed  come  from  Speed  (p. 
735.);  who  quotes  as  his  authority  John  Leslie,  Bishop  of  Rosse.  A  letter 
in  the  Paston  correspondence,  dated  the  13th  of  May,  1488,  mentions  "  an 
ambassador  from  the  King  of  Scots,  who  is  now  in  great  trouble  about  his 
son  and  other  lords  of  his  land."     Vol.  v.  p.  369. 

8  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  the." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  139 

ing  and  precipitating  the  charge  before  his  whole  num- 
bers came  up  to  him,  was,  notwithstanding  the  con- 
trary express  and  strait  commandment  of  the  Prince 
his  son,  slain  in  the  pursuit,  being  fled  to  a  mill  situate 
in  the  field  where  the  battle  was  fought. 

As  for  the  Pope's  ambassy,  which  was  sent  by 
Adrian  de  Castello  an  Italian  legate,  (and  perhaps 
as  those  times  were  might  have  prevailed  more,)  it 
came  too  late  for  the  ambassy,  but  not  for  the  am 
bassador.  For  passing  through  England  and  being 
honourably  entertained  and  received  of  King  Henry 
(who  ever  applied  himself  with  much  respect  to  the 
see  of  Rome),  he  fell  into  great  grace  with  the  King, 
and  great  familiarity  and  friendship  with  Morton  the 
Chancellor.  Insomuch  as  the  King  taking  a  liking 
to  him,  and  finding  him  to  his  mind,1  preferred  him 
to  the  bishoprick  of  Hereford,  and  afterwards  to  that 
of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  employed  him  in  many  of  his 
affairs  of  state  that  had  relation  to  Rome.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  learning,2  wisdom,  and  dexterity  in  busi- 
ness of  state  ;  and  having  not  long  after  ascended  to 
the  degree  of  cardinal,  paid  the  King  large  tribute 
of  his  gratitude  in  diligent  and  judicious  advertise- 
ment 3  of  the  occurrents  of  Italy.  Nevertheless  in  the 
end  of  his  time  he  was  partaker  of  the  conspiracy 
which  cardinal  Alphonso  Petrucci  and  some  other 
cardinals  had  plotted  against  the  life  of  Pope  Leo. 
And  this  offence,  in  itself  so  hainous,  was  yet  in  him 
aggravated   by   the   motive   thereof;  which   was   not 

1  Et  eum  rebus  suis  utilem  fore  credens. 

2  The  Latin  translation  goes  further  and  calls  him  a  great  man.     Certe 
vir  magnusfuil  Adrianus  et  multa  eruditione,  <fc.  prceditus. 

8  A  long  letter  of  this  kind  from  Adrian  to  Henry,  dated  4th  June,  1504, 
is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Cotton  collection.    (Cleo.  iii.  fo.  171.). 


140  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

malice  or  discontent,  but  an  aspiring  mind  to  the 
papacy.1  And  in  this  height  of  impiety  there  wanted 
not  an  intermixture  of  levity  and  folly,  for  that  (as 
was  generally  believed)  he  was  animated  to  expect 
the  papacy  by  a  fatal  mockery ;  the  prediction  of  a 
sooth-sayer  ;  which  was,  That  one  should  succeed  Pope 
Leo,  whose  name  should  be  Adrian,  an  aged  man  of 
mean  birth  and  of  great  learning  and  wisdom;  by 
which  character  and  figure  he  took  himself  to  be 
described  ;  though  it  were  fulfilled  of  Adrian  the 
Fleming,  son  to2  a  Dutch  brewer,  cardinal  of  Tor- 
tosa,  and  preceptor  unto  Charles  the  Fifth  ;  the  same 
that,  not  changing  his  christen-name,  was  afterwards 
called  Adrian  the  Sixth. 

But  these  things  happened  in  the  year  following, 
which  was  the  fifth  of  this  King.3  But  in  the  end 
of  the  fourth  year  the  King  had  called  again  his 
Parliament,4  not  as  it  seemeth  for  any  particular  occa- 
sion of  state :  but  the  former  Parliament 5  being  ended 
somewhat  suddenly  (in  regard  of  the  preparation  for 
Brittaine),  the  King  thought  he  had  not  remunerated 
his  people  sufficiently  with  good  laws,   (which  ever- 

1  Ambitione  fceda  adipiscendi  papatum. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  of." 

8  Henry's  fifth  year  extended  from  22nd  August,  1489,  to  21st  August, 
1490.  "  These  things  "  therefore  must  mean  the  favour  and  preferment 
of  Adrian. 

4  Meaning  probably  the  session  of  October,  1489;  and  perhaps  confound- 
ing it  with  the  previous  session  in  the  January  preceding,  of  which  there 
is  no  notice  in  Polydore  or  in  any  of  the  succeeding  chroniclers.  That 
Parliament  had  been  prorogued  on  the  23rd  of  February,  1488-9,  and  met 
again  on  the  14th  of  October  following,  —  the  beginning  of  Henry's  fifth 
year. 

5  Meaning  the  Parliament  which  Bacon  supposed  to  have  been  called  in 
June  or  July,  1488;  and  to  which  he  refers  the  acts  passed  by  the  Parlia- 
ment of  November,  1487.  Understand  it  of  the  session  of  January,  '88-9, 
and  the  words  are  correct  enough. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  141 

more  was  his  retribution  for  treasure)  :  and  finding 
by  the  insurrection  in  the  north,  there  was  discon- 
tentment abroad  in  respect  of  the  subsidy,  he  thought 
it  good  for1  to  give  his  subjects  yet  further  content- 
menrand  comfort  in  that  kind.  Certainly  his  times 
for  good  commonwealths  laws  did  excel ;  so  as  he 
may  justly  be  celebrated  for  the  best  lawgiver  to  this 
nation  after  King  Edward  the  First.  For  his  laws 
(whoso  marks  them  well)  are  deep  and  not  vulgar ; 
not  made  upon  the  spur  of  a  particular  occasion  for 
the  present,  but  out  of  providence  of  the  future ;  to 
make  the  estate  of  his  people  still  more  and  more 
happy,  after  the  manner  of  the  legislators  in  ancient 
and  heroical  times. 

First  therefore  he  made  a  law  suitable  to  his  own 
acts  and  times.  For  as  himself  had  in  his  person 
and  marriage  made  a  final  concord  in  the  great  suit 
and  title  for  the  crown  ;  so  by  this  law  he  settled 
the  like  peace  and  quiet  in  the2  private  possessions 
of  the  subjects :  ordaining,  That  Fines  thenceforth 
should  be  final  to  conclude  all  strangers  rights ; 3  and 
that  upon  fines  levied,  and  solemnly  proclaimed,  the 


i  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  omits  "  for." 

2  So  ed.  1622.     The  MS.  omits  "  the." 

8  4  H.  7.  c.  24.,  passed  in  February,  1489-90.  See  Statutes  of  the  Realm, 
p.  524.  note. 

Readers  that  are  not  learned  in  the  law  may  perhaps  find  the  Latin 
easier  to  understand  than  the  English.  Ordinatum  est  enim  ut  Fines  quos 
vocant  {quod  genus  est  transactions  cujusdam  solennis)  r  ever  a  finales  essent  ad 
jura  non  partium  tantum  sed  aliorum  omnium  extinguenda  :  ita  tamen  ut  post 
fines  hujusmodi  levatos,  et  solenniter  proclamatos,  haberet  subditus  spatium 
quinque  annorum  post  titulum  suum  devolutum,  ad  jus  suum  reciiperandum  aut 
saltern  vindicandum;  quod  si  praitermisisset^'ure  suo  in  perpetuum  excluder etur. 

The  Index  Vocabulorum  explains  what  a  "fine"  is:  viz.  instrumentum 
quo  Imreditates  transferuntur,  eamque  habet  vim  ut  omnium  jura,  si  intra 
tempus  non  agant,  extinguat. 


142  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

subject  should  have  his  time  of  watch  for  five  years 
after  his  title  accrued ;  which  if  he  forepassed,  his  right 
should  be  bound  for  ever  after ;  with  some  exception 
nevertheless  of  minors,  married  women,  and  such  in- 
competent persons.  This  statute  did  in  effect  but 
restore  an  ancient  statute  of  the  realm,  which  was 
itself  also  made  but  in  affirmance  of  the  common  law. 
The  alteration  had  been  by  a  statute  commonly  called 
the  statute  of  non-claim,1  made  in  the  time  of  Edward 
the  Third.  And  surely  this  law  2  was  a  kind  of  prog- 
nostic of  the  good  peace  which  since  his  time  hath  (for 
the  most  part)  continued  in  this  kingdom  until  this 
day.  For  statutes  of  non-claim  are  fit  for  times  of 
war,  when  men's  heads  are  troubled,  that  they  cannot 
intend  their  estate ;  but  statutes  that  quiet  possessions 
are  fittest  for  times  of  peace,  to  extinguish  suits  and 
contentions  ;  which  is  one  of  the  banes  of  peace. 

Another  statute  was  made  of  singular  policy ;  for 
the  population  apparently,3  and  (if  it  be  thoroughly 
considered)  for  the  soldiery  and  militar  forces  of  the 
realm.  Inclosures  at  that  time  began  to  be  more  fre- 
quent, whereby  arable  land  (which  could  not  be  ma- 
nured4 without  people  and  families)  was  turned  into 

1  Lex  est  quae,  sub  tempora  belli,  cum  homines  juri  suo  asserendo  plerumque 
non  vacarent,  lata  erat,  et  vim  illam  finium  destruxit ;  qws  tamen  postea  per 
aliud  statutum  restituebatur.     ( Index  Vocab. ) 

2  i.  e.  this  law  of  Henry  VII.     Ista  lex  definibus  levandis. 

3  i.  e.  manifestly  tending  to  the  increase  of  population.  Incremenlum 
populi  regni  manifesto  ....  promovens.  4  H.  7.  c.  19. ;  passed  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1489-90. 

4  i.  e.  cultivated :  the  word  not  having  yet  lost  its  general  meaning.  So 
Adam  speaks  to  Eve  (Par.  Lost,  iv.  627.)  of 

"  Alleys  green 
Our  walk  at  noon,  with  branches  overgrown, 
That  mock  our  scant  manuring,  and  require 
More  hands  lhan  ours  to  lop  their  wanton  growth. " 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  143 

pasture,  which  was  easily  rid  by  a  few  herdsmen  ;  and 
tenances  for  years,  lives,  and  at  will,  (whereupon  much 
of  the  yeomanry  lived,)  were  turned  into  demesnes.1 
This  bred  a  decay  of  people,  and  by  consequence  a 
decay  of  towns,  churches,  tithes,  and  the  like.  The 
King  likewise  knew  full  well,  and  in  no  wise  forgot, 
that  there  ensued  withal  upon  this  a  decay  and  diminu- 
tion of  subsidies  and  taxes  ;  for  the  more  gentlemen 
ever  the  lower  books  of  subsidies.  In  remedying  of 
this  inconvenience  the  King's  wisdom  was  admirable ; 
and  the  Parliament's  at  that  time.  Inclosures  they 
would  not  forbid,  for  that  had  been  to  forbid  the  im- 
provement of  the  patrimony  of  the  kingdom  ; 2  nor 
tillage  they  would  not  compel  ;  for  that  was  to  strive 
with  nature  and  utility : 3  but  they  took  a  course  to 
take  away  depopulating  inclosures  and  depopulating 
pasturage,4  and  yet  not  that  by  name,5  or  by  any  impe- 
rious express  prohibition,  but  by  consequence.  The 
ordinance  was,  That  all  houses  of  husbandry,  that 
were  used  with6  twenty  acres  of  ground  and  upwards, 
should  be  maintained  and  kept  up  for  ever  ;  together 
with  a  competent  proportion  of  land  to  be  used  and 
occupied  with  them,  and  in  no  wise  to  be  severed  from 
them  (as  by  another  statute,  made  afterwards  in  his 
successor's  time,  was  more  fully  declared)  :  this  upon 

1  i.  e.  lands  kept  by  the  lord  of  the  manor  in  his  own  hands.  Posses- 
siones  qua  non  sunt  feodales,  sed  in  manibus  domini.     (Ind.  Vocab.) 

2  i.  e.  by  means  of  a  more  productive  cultivation.  Soli  culturam  fruc- 
tuosiorem,  atque  inde  seculuram  patrimonii  regni  meliorationem. 

8   Cum  natura  ipsa  et  rebus  pugnare. 

4  i.  e.  such  kinds  of  enclosures  and  pasturage  as  manifestly  induced 
depopulation.  Clausuras  tantum  et  pascua  quaz  depopulationem  liquido 
invehebant. 

6  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  not  by  that  name." 

6  i.  e.  that  had  annexed  to  them.     Quibus  fuerint  annexa. 


144  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

forfeiture  to  be  taken,  not  by  way  of  popular  action, 
but  by  seizure  of  the  land  itself  by  the  King  and  lords 
of  the  fee,  as  to  half  the  profits,  till  the  houses  and 
lands  were  restored.  By  this  means  the  houses  being 
kept  up  did  of  necessity  enforce  a  dweller ;  and  the  pro- 
portion of  land  for  occupation  being  kept  up,  did  of 
necessity  enforce  that  dweller  not  to  be  a  beggar  or 
cottager,  but  a  man  of  some  substance,  that  might  keep 
hinds  and  servants,  and  set  the  plough  on  going.  This 
did  wonderfully  concern  the  might  and  mannerhood1 
of  the  kingdom,  to  have  farms  as  it  were  of  a  standard, 
sufficient  to  maintain  an  able  body  out  of  penury,  and 
did  in  effect  amortise  a  great  part  of  the  lands  of  the 
kingdom  unto  the  hold  and  occupation  of  the  yeomanry 
or  middle  people,  of  a  condition  between  gentlemen  and 
cottagers  or  peasants.  Now  how  much  this  did  ad- 
vance the  militar  power  of  the  kingdom,  is  apparent  by 
the  true  principles  of  war  and  the  examples  of  other 
kingdoms.  For  it  hath  been  held  by  the  general  opin- 
ion of  men  of  best  judgment  in  the  wars  (howsoever 
some  few  have  varied,  and  that  it  may  receive  some 
distinction  of  case)  that  the  principal  strength  of  an 
army  consisteth  in  the  infantry  or  foot.  And  to  make 
good  infantry,  it  requireth  men  bred  not  in  a  servile  or 
indigent  fashion,  but  in  some  free  and  plentiful  manner. 
Therefore  if  a  state  run  most  to  noblemen  and  gentle- 
men, and  that  the  husbandmen  and  ploughmen  be  but 
as  their  workfolks  or2  labourers,  or  else  mere  cottagers 
(which  are  but  housed  beggars),  you  may  have  a  good 


1  So  both  the  MS.  and  the  ed.  of  1622.  I  do  not  remember  to  have  met 
with  the  word  any  where  else.  The  translation  gives  —  Hoc  populi  nu- 
merum  miris  modis  augebat,  quin  et  potzntwe,  regni  milltaris  intererat. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  and." 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  145 

cavalry,  but  never  good  stable  bands  of  foot ;  like  to 
coppice  woods,  that  if  you  leave  in  them  staddles  too 
thick,  they  will  run  to  bushes  and  briars,  and  have 
little  clean  underwood.  And  this  is  to  be  seen  in 
France  and  Italy  (and  some  other  parts  abroad), 
where  in  effect  all  is  noblesse  or  peasantry  (I  speak 
of  people  out  of  towns1),  and  no  middle  people  ;  and 
therefore  no  good  forces  of  foot :  insomuch  as  they  are 
enforced  to  employ  mercenary  bands  of  Switzers  (and 
the  like2)  for  their  battalions  of  foot.  Whereby  also  it 
comes  to  pass  that  those  nations  have  much  people  and 
few  soldiers.  Whereas  the  King  saw  that  contrariwise 
it  would  follow,  that  England,  though  much  less  in  ter- 
ritory, yet  should  have  infinitely  more  soldiers  of  their 
native  forces  than  those  other  nations  have.  Thus  did 
the  King  secretly  sow  Hydra's  teeth  ;  whereupon  (ac- 
cording to  the  poets'  fiction)  should  rise  up  armed  men 
for  the  service  of  this  kingdom. 

The  King  also  (having  care  to  make  his  realm  potent 
as  well  by  sea  as  by  land),  for  the  better  maintenance 
of  the  navy,  ordained,  That  wines  and  woads  from  the 
parts  of  Gascoign  and  Languedoc,  should  not  be  brought 
but  in  English  bottoms  ; 3  bowing  the  ancient  policy  of 
this  estate  from  consideration  of  plenty  to  consideration 
of  power :  for  that  almost  all  the  ancient  statutes  in- 
vite 4  (by  all  means)  merchants  strangers 5  to  bring  in 
all  sorts  of  commodities  ;  having  for  end  cheapness,  and 
not  looking  to  the  point  of  state  concerning  the  naval 
power. 

1  "  Populo  in  agris  degentc  non  in  urbibus." 

2  "  Helvetiorum  aul  Germanoirum.^ 

8  4  Hen.  1.  c.  10. ;  passed  February,  1489-90. 

4  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "incite."     The  translation  has  invitant. 

5  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  merchant-strangers."     See  note  2.  p.  100. 

VOL.  xi.  10 


143  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

The  King  also  made  a  statute  in  that  Parliament 
monitory  and  minatory  towards  justices  of  peace,1  that 
they  should  duly  execute  their  office,  inviting  com- 
plaints against  them,  first  to  their  fellow-justices,  then 
to  the  justices  of  assize,  then  to  the  King  or  Chancellor; 
and  that  a  proclamation  which  he  had  published  of  that 
tenor  should  be  read  in  open  session  four  times  a  year, 
to  keep  them  awake.  Meaning  also  to  have  his  laws 
executed,2  and  thereby  to  reap  either  obedience  or 
forfeitures,  (wherein  towards  his  later  times  he  did  de- 
cline too  much  to  the  left  hand,)  he  did  ordain  remedy 
against  the  practice  that  was  grown  in  use,  to  stop  and 
damp  informations  upon  penal  laws,  by  procuring  infor- 
mations by  collusion  to  be  put  in  by  the  confederates 
of  the  delinquents,  to  be  faintly  prosecuted  and  let  fall 
at  pleasure,  and  pleading  them  in  bar  of  the  informa- 
tions which  were  prosecuted  with  effect. 

He  made  also  laws  for  the  correction  of  the  mint, 
and  counterfeiting  of  foreign  coin  current.3  And  that 
no  payment  in  gold  should  be  made  to  any  merchant 

i  4  H.  7.  c.  12.  |  passed  February,  1489-90. 

2  The  translation  varies  a  little  from  the  original  here;  for  it  represents 
this  admonition  to  the  justices,  equally  with  the  act  for  putting  a  stop  to 
collusive  informations,  as  attributable  to  the  same  motive;  viz.  his  desire 
of  forfeitures.  Hoc  modo  fore  putabat  ut  leges  suce  poenales  executioni  de- 
mandareniur,  utque  inde  vel  obedientice  vel  mulctarum  fructum  perciperet:  in 
qua  re  versus  finem  vitce  suce  declinavit  nimis  in  partem  sinistram.  Hunc  ad 
finem  etiam  cohibuit  pragmaticam  quandam,  nuper  ortam,  qua  informationes 
verai  super  legibus  paenalibus  exhibits,  informationibus  aliis  illusoriis  suffoca- 
bantur,  exhibitis  scilicet  per  quosdam  quos  delinquentes  ipsi  suborndrant,  ut  ad 
libitum  eorum  fieret  litis  vel  prosecutio  vel  desertio ;  atque  hoc  modo  veros 
prosecutiones  (scilicet  ne  duplex  for et  vexatio)  regerebant. 

This  is  the  act  4  H.  7.  c.  20.  passed  Feb.  1489-90. 

3  i.  e.  for  punishing  the  adulteration  of  foreign  coin  that  was  made  cur- 
rent in  England.  De  monetaria  reformanda  et  nummorum  externorum  {eorum 
scilicet  qui  edicto  regio  essent  in  usum  regni  recepti)  adulter atione  punienda. 
4  H.  7.  c.  18.  23. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  147 

stranger ;  the  better  to  keep  treasure  within  the  realm ; 
for  that  gold  was  the  metal  that  lay  in  least  room.1 

He  made  also  statutes  for  the  maintenance  of  drapery 
and  the  keeping  of  wools  within  the  realm  ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  for  stinting  and  limiting  the  prices  of 
cloth;  one  for  the  finer,  and  another  for  the  coarser 
sort.2  Which  I  note,  both  because  it  was  a  rare  thing 
to  set  prices  by  statute,  especially  upon  our  home  com- 
modities ;  and  because  of  the  wise  model 3  of  this  act ; 
not  prescribing  prices,4  but  stinting  them  not  to  exceed 
a  rate ;  that  the  clothier  might  drape  accordingly  as 
he  might  afford. 

Divers  other  good  statutes  were  made  that  Parlia- 
ment, but  these  were  the  principal.  And  here  I  do 
desire  those  into  whose  hands  this  work  shall  fall,  that 
they  do  take  in  good  part  my  long  insisting  upon  the 
laws  that  were  made  in  this  King's  reign  ;  whereof  I 
have  these  reasons ;  both  because  it  was  the  preemi- 
nent virtue  and  merit  of  this  King,6  to  whose  memory 
I  do  honour ;  and  because  it  hath  some  correspondence 
to  my  person ;  but  chiefly  because  in  my  judgment  it 
is  some  defect  even  in  the  best  writers  of  history,  that 
they  do  not  often  enough  summarily  deliver  and  set 
down  the  most  memorable  laws  that  passed  in  the 
times  whereof  they  write,6  being  indeed  the  principal 

1  And  was  therefore  most  easily  smuggled  out.  Quod facillime  et  occulta 
transportari  posset. 

2  4  H.  7.  c.  8. ;  passed  December,  1489. 
8  Prudens  temper  amentum. 

4  i.  e.  not  fixing  the  exact  price  of  each  kind  of  cloth ;  but  only  the 
maximum.  The  clothier  was  free  to  sell  as  cheap  as  he  pleased.  Quod 
pretia  preecise  pannorum  diversi  generis  non  pr&scriberet,  sed  sanciret  tan- 
tum,  $c. 

5  Ut  optimus  legislator  essel. 

«  The  edition  of  1622  has  writ.    In  the  MS.  it  seems  to  me  that  writt  has 


148  HISTOKY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

acts  of  peace.  For  though  they  may  be  had1  in 
original  books  of  law  themselves  ;  yet  that  informeth 
not  the  judgment  of  kings  and  counsellors  and  persons 
of  estate  so  well  as  to  see  them  described  and  entered 
in  the  table  and  portrait  of  the  times. 

About  the  same  time  the  King;  had  a  loan  from  the 
City2  of  four  thousand  pounds,  which  was  double  to 
that  they  lent  before,  and  was  duly  and  orderly  paid 
back  at  the  day,  as  the  former  likewise  had  been :  the 
King  ever  choosing  rather  to  borrow  too  soon  than  to 
pay  too  late,  and  so  keeping  up  his  credit. 

Neither  had  the  King  yet  cast  off  his  cares  and 
hopes  touching  Brittaine,3  but  thought  to  master  the 

been  corrected  into  write,  the  second  t  being  turned  into  e,  —  not  struck 
out,  as  the  compositor  perhaps  supposed. 

1  Maxima  ex  parte  reperiri  soleant. 

2  According  to  Fabyan  (a  good  authority  on  such  a  point)  the  King  bor- 
rowed this  sum  in  his  third  year;  i.  e.  1487-8.  And  according  to  the  old 
chronicle  (Cott.  Vitel.  A.  xvi.) —  which  seems  to  deserve  quite  as  much 
credit  as  Fabyan,  if  not  more,  —  he  borrowed  another  sum  of  2000J.  in 
July,  1488:  in  contemplation  perhaps  of  troubles  on  his  Scotch  borders; 
James  III.  having  been  killed  just  before. 

8  In  returning  to  the  business  of  Brittany,  it  will  be  remembered  that 
we  left  the  English  forces,  not  returning  unsuccessful  (as  Bacon,  following 
Polydore,  supposed),  but  preparing  to  embark.  They  arrived  in  Brittany 
in  the  beginning  of  April,  1489,  and  were  in  full  operation  there  all  the 
time  that  the  actions  in  Flanders  which  Bacon  is  now  proceeding  to  relate 
were  going  on.  Had  Bacon  known  this,  he  would  no  doubt  have  con- 
nected the  two  actions  together  in  quite  a  different  way,  and  seen  that  the 
succours  to  the  Duchess  in  Brittany  and  to  Maximilian. in  Flanders  were 
the  two  parts  of  a  simultaneous  and  combined  movement  to  stop  the 
French  King's  progress.  What  the  success  of  it  was  I  will  explain  pres- 
ently. In  the  meantime  the  following  letter  from  Henry  himself  to  Lord 
Oxford  will  put  the  reader  in  possession  of  the  true  state  of  affairs  in  that 
quarter  at  the  time  of  which  Bacon  is  now  speaking.  As  it  is  very  char- 
acteristic as  well  as  concise,  I  transcribe  it  at  length,  from  the  Paston  Let- 
ters, vol.  v.  p'.  370. 

"  Eight  trusty  and  entirely  beloved  cousin,  we  greet  you  well.  Inas- 
much as  it  hath  liked  God  to  send  us  good  tidings  out  of  Bretayn,  such  as 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  149 

occasion  by  policy,  though  his  arms  had  been  unfor- 
tunate, and  to  bereave  the  French  King  of  the  fruit 


we  doubt  not  but  ye  be  desirous  to  understand,  we  write  unto  you  of 
thenras  they  be  comen  to  our  knowledge  and  as  followeth. 

"  The  Lord  Malpertuis,  now  lately  with  us  in  ambassade  from  our  dear 
cousin  the  Duchess  of  Bretayne,  shipped  at  our  port  of  Dartmouth  and 
arrived  at  St.  Paul  de  Lyon  in  Bretayn  on  Palm'  Sunday  at  four  afternoon 
[Palm  Sunday  in  1489  fell  on  the  12th  of  April],  from  whence  he  wrote  us 
the  disposition  and  the  state  of  the  country  there,  and  of  the  landing  and 
the  demeaning  of  our  army.  We  received  his  writing  on  Monday  last  at 
evensong  time.  And  because  he  was  of  Bretayn  born  and  favourable  to 
that  party,  we  ne  gave  such  trust  to  his  tidings  as  was  thought  to  us  surety 
to  write  to  you  thereupon.  This  day  after  high  mass  cometh  unto  us  out 
of  Bretayn  foresaid,  and  with  a  new  ambassade  from  our  said  cousin,  Faw- 
con,  one  of  our  pursuivants,  that  ratifieth  the  news  of  the  said  Lord  Mal- 
pertuis ;  which  ben  these :  — 

"  After  the  garrison  of  Frenchmen  in  the  town  of  Gyngham  [Guincamp] 
had  certainty  of  the  landing  of  our  army,  they  drew  down  the  fabours 
[portcullises  or  fauxbourys\  of  Gyngham  and  made  them  meet  to  defend  a 
siege.  But  as  soon  as  they  understood  that  our  army  journeyed  towards 
them,  they  left  the  same  Gyngham.  where  our  said  army  arrived  the 
Thursday  next  before  Palm  Sunday,  and  was  received  with  procession, 
lodged  and  received  and  refreshed  in  the  town  four  days.  And  going 
towards  the  said  Duchess  they  must  pass  to  the  castle  and  borough  of 
Moncouter.  In  that  castle  was  also  a  garrison  of  Frenchmen,  which  incon- 
tinently upon  word  that  our  said  army  drew  towards  them,  the  French- 
men did  cast  down  great  part  of  the  walls,  and  fled  from  thence.  In  that 
castle  and  borough  our  said  army  kept  their  Easter.  The  castle  of  Chan- 
son adjoining  near  to  the  town  of  St.  Bryak  [Brieu]  was  also  garrisoned 
with  Frenchmen.  That  castle  they  set  on  fire  and  so  fled  in.  The  towns 
of  Henebone  and  Vannes  were  garrisoned  with  Frenchmen  which  brake 
down  the  walls  of  the  towns  and  put  themselves  to  flight.  The  inhabi- 
tants about  Brest  have  laid  siege  thereunto  and  gotten  the  Base  Court  of 
the  Frenchmen  or  the  departing  of  our  said  pursuivant.  The  garrison 
of  the  town  of  Concarneau,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  strengths  of 
all  Bretayn,  was  besieged  in  likewise  and  driven  to  that  necessity  that 
they  within  offered  or  his  departing  to  avoid  the  town  with  staff  in  hand. 
How  that  is  taken,  or  what  more  is  done  sithence,  he  cannot  tell. 

"  Our  said  cousin  the  Duchess  is  in  her  city  of  Rennes;  and  our  right 
trusty  Knight  and  Counsellor  Sir  Richard  Edgecomb  there  also,  having 
chief  rule  about  her.  And  the  Marshal  of  Bretayne  arredieth  him  to  join 
with  them  in  all  haste  and  with  a  good  band  of  men.  Many  noblemen  of 
that  country  repair  to  our  said  army  to  take  their  party. 

"These  premises  in  substance  we  have  by  writing  as  well  from  the 


150  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

of  his  victory.  The  sum  of  his  design  was  to  encour- 
age Maximilian  to  go  on  with  his  suit  for  the  marriage 
of  Anne  the  heir  of  Brittaine,  and  to  aid  him  to  the 
consummation  thereof.  But  the  affairs  of  Maximilian 
were  at  that  time  in  great  trouble  and  combustion,  by 
a  rebellion  of  his  subjects  in  Flanders,  especially  those 
of  Bruges  and  Gaunt ;  whereof  the  town  of  Bruges 
(at  such  time  as  Maximilian  was  there  in  person)  had 
suddenly  armed  in  tumult,  and  slain  some  of  his  prin- 
cipal officers,  and  taken  himself  prisoner,  and  held  him 
in  durance  till  they  had  enforced  him  and  some  of  his 
counsellors  to  take  a  solemn  oath  to  pardon  all  their 
offences,  and  never  to  question  and  revenge  the  same 
in  time  to  come.  Nevertheless  Frederick  the  Em- 
peror would  not  suffer  this  reproach  and  indignity 
offered  to  his  son  to  pass,  but  made  sharp  wars  upon 
Flanders  to  reclaim  and  chastise  the  rebels.1  But  the 
Lord  Ravenstein  2  a  principal  person  about  Maximilian 
and  one  that  had  taken  the  oath  of  abolition3  with 
his  master,  pretending  the  religion  thereof,  but  indeed 
upon  private  ambition,  and  as  it  was  thought  insti- 
gated and  corrupted  from  France,  forsook  the  Emperor 
and  Maximilian  his  lord,  and  made  himself  an  head 
of  the  popular  party,  and  seized  upon  the  towns  of 


chief  captains  of  our  said  army  as  from  our  Comptroller  foresaid :  and  that 
our  said  army,  blessed  be  God,  hath  among  themself  kept  such  love  and 
accord  that  no  manner  of  fray  or  debate  hath  been  between  them  sithens 
the  time  of  their  departing  out  of  this  our  realm. 

"  Given  under  our  signet  at  our  castle  at  Hertford  the  22  day  of  April." 
So  far  therefore  the  measures  taken  by  Henry  were  prospering;  and 
bearing  this  in  mind  we  may  now  proceed  with  Bacon's  narrative. 

1  This  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 

2  Ravelston  in  MS. 

3  That  is,  the  oath  just  mentioned,  that  he  would  pardon  their  offences, 
&c.    This  oath  had  been  taken  on  the  16th  of  May,  1488.     See  Sismondi. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  151 

Ipre  and  Sluce  with  both  the  castles ;  and  forthwith 
sent  to  the  Lord  Cordes,1  governor  of  Picardy  under 
the  French  King,  to  desire  aid,  and  to  move  him 
that  he  on  the  behalf  of  the  French  King  would  be 
protector  of  the  united  towns,  and  by  force  of  arms 
reduce  the  rest.  The  Lord  Cordes  was  ready  to  em- 
brace the  occasion,  which  was  partly  of  his  own  set- 
ting, and  sent  forthwith  greater  forces  than  it  had 
been  possible  for  him  to  raise  on  the  sudden  if  he 
had  not  looked  for  such  a  summons  before,  in  aid  of 
the  Lord  Ravenstein  and  the  Flemings,  with  instruc- 
tions to  invest  the  towns  between  France  and  Bruges. 
The  French  forces  besieged  a  little  town  called  Dix- 
mue,2  where  part  of  the  Flemish  forces  joined  with 
them.  While  they  lay  at  this  siege,  the  King  of 
England,  upon  pretence  of  the  safety  of  the  English 
pale  about  Calais,  but  in  truth  being  loth  that  Max- 
imilian should  become  contemptible  and  thereby  be 
shaken  off  by  the  states  of  Brittaine  about  his 3  mar- 
riage, sent  over  the  Lord  Morley  with  a  thousand 
men  unto  the  Lord  Daubigny,  then  deputy  of  Calais, 
with  secret  instructions  to  aid  Maximilian  and  to  raise 
the  siege  of  Dixmue.  The  Lord  Daubigny  (giving 
it  out  that  all  was  for  the  strengthening  of  the  Eng- 
lish marches)  drew  out  of  the  garrisons  of  Calais, 
Hammes  and  Guines,  to  the  number  of  a  thousand 
men  more :  so  that  with  the  fresh  succours  that  came 

1  Rapin  spells  the  name  Desquerdes.  The  particulars  which  follow  seem 
to  come  from  Hall,  whose  narrative  is  much  fuller  than  Polydore's  here. 
He  quotes  the  Flemish  Chronicle,  from  which  I  suppose  he  had  the  addi- 
tional details. 

2  So  spelt  both  in  the  MS.  and  the  edition  of  1622.  Now  called  Dix- 
mude. 

8  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  this  marriage." 


152  HISTOKY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

under  the  conduct  of  the  Lord  Morley,  they  made 
up  to  the  number  of  two  thousand  or  better.  Which 
forces  joining  with  some  companies  of  Almaynes,  put 
themselves  into  Dixmue,  not  perceived  by  the  enemies  ; 
and  passing  through  the  town  (with  some  reinforce- 
ment from  the  forces  that  were  in  the  town)  assailed 
the  enemies'  camp,  negligently  guarded  as  being  out 
of  fear,  where  there  was  a  bloody  fight,  in  which  the 
English  and  their  partakers  obtained  the  victory,  and 
slew  to  the  number  of  eight  thousand  men,  with  the 
loss  on  the  English  part  of  a  hundred  or  thereabouts ; 
amongst  whom  was  the  Lord  Morley.  They  took 
also  their  great  ordnance,  with  much  rich  spoils,  which 
they  carried  to  Newport ; *  whence  the  Lord  Daubigny 
returned  to  Calais,  leaving  the  hurt  men  and  some 
other  voluntaries  in  Newport.  But  the  Lord  Cordes 
being  at  Ipre  with  a  great  power  of  men,  thinking  to 
recover  the  loss  and  disgrace  of  the  fight  at  Dixmue, 
came  presently  on  and  sat  down  before  Newport  and 
besieged  it ;  and  after  some  days  siege,  he  resolved  to 
try  the  fortune  of  an  assault ;  which  he  did  one  day,2 
and  succeeded  therein  so  far,  that  he  had  taken  the 
principal  tower  and  fort  in  that  city,  and  planted  upon 
it  the  French  banner ;  whence  nevertheless  they  were 
presently  beaten  forth  by  the  English,  by  the  help 
of  some  fresh  succours  of  archers,  arriving  by  good 
fortune  (at  the  instant)  in  the  haven  of  Newport. 
Whereupon  the  Lord  Cordes,  discouraged,  and  meas- 
uring the  new  succours  which  were  small  by  the  suc- 
cess which  was  great,  left3  his  siege.     By  this  means 

1  A  town  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  on  which  Dixmude  stands. 

2  This  was  on  Midsummer's  Day,  1489.    See  the  Herald's  journal.    Cott. 
Jul.  xi.  f.  55. 

8  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  levied." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  153 

matters  grew  more  exasperate  between  the  two  Kings 
of  England  and  France,  for  that  in  the  war  of  Flan- 
ders the  auxiliary  forces  of  French  and  English  were 
much_  blooded  one  against  another ;  which  blood  ran- 
kled the  more,  by  the  vain  words  of  the  Lord  Cordes, 
that  declared  himself  an  open  enemy  of  the  English, 
beyond  that  that  appertained  to  the  present  service ; 
making  it  a  common  by-word  of  his,  That  he  could 
be  content  to  lie  in  hell  seven  years  so  he  might  win 
Calais  from  the  English. 

The  King  having  thus  upheld  the  reputation1  of 
Maximilian,  advised  him  now  to  press  on  his  marriage 
with  Brittaine  to  a  conclusion  ;  which  Maximilian  ac- 
cordingly did ;  and  so  far  forth  prevailed  both  with  the 
young  lady  and  with  the  principal  persons  about  her, 
as  the  marriage  was  consummate  by  proxy2  with  a  cer- 
emony at  that  time  in  these  parts  new.  For  she  was 
not  only  publicly  contracted,  but  stated  as  a  bride,  and 
solemnly  bedded,  and  after  she  was  laid,  there  came  in 
Maximilian's  ambassador  with   letters   of  procuration, 

1  Res  et  existimationem. 

2  Polydore  Vergil,  from  whom  all  this  comes,  does  not  give  the  date  of 
this  proxy-marriage,  and  the  diligence  of  modern  French  historians  does 
not  seem  to  have  succeeded  in  fixing  it  with  certainty.  It  is  said  to  have 
been  performed  with  such  secrecy  that  even  the  servants  of  the  Duchess 
were  not  aware  of  it  for  some  time.  If  so —  and  the  existence  of  a  doubt 
as  to  the  date  of  such  an  event  makes  it  probable  that  secrecy  was 
affected,  though  it  does  not  oblige  us  to  believe  with  Rapin  that  neither 
Henry  nor  Charles  knew  of  it  for  above  a  twelvemonth  after — the  object 
must  have  been  to  keep  it  from  Charles ;  and  we  need  not  seek  so  far  as 
Bacon  does  to  account  for  Maximilian's  being  content  with  a  marriage  by 
proxy:  had  he  gone  to  Brittany  in  person,  the  secret  would  have  been 
harder  to  keep. 

Lingard  dates  the  marriage  as  late  as  April,  1491;  which  must  be 
wrong ;  for  there  is  a  commission  extant  dated  the  29th  of  March  in  that 
year,  in  which  the  marriage  is  distinctly  mentioned.  See  Rymer,  xii.  438. 
D'Argentre"  (xiii.  56.)  puts  it  about  the  beginning  of  November,  1490. 


154  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

and  in  the  presence  of  sundry  noble  personages,  men 
and  women,  put  his  leg  (stript  naked  to  the  knee)  be- 
tween the  espousal  sheets,  to  the  end  that  that  cere- 
mony might  be  thought  to  amount  to  a  consummation 
and  actual  knowledge.  This  done,  Maximilian  (whose 
property  was  to  leave  things  then  when  they  were 
almost  comen  to  perfection,  and  to  end  them  by  imagi- 
nation ;  like  ill  archers,  that  draw  not  their  arrows  up 
to  the  head ;  and  who  might  as  easily  have  bedded  the 
lady  himself1  as  to  have  made  a  play  and  disguise  of 
it,)  thinking  now  all  assured,  neglected  for  a  time  his 
further  proceeding,  and  intended  his  wars.2    Meanwhile 


1  Besides  the  reasons  suggested  in  the  last  note,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Anne  did  not  complete  her  fourteenth  year  till  the  26th  of  January, 
1490-1.     See  Daru,  iii.  p.  84. 

2  What  then  became  of  the  English  forces  in  Brittany  ?  Polydore  Ver- 
gil did  not  know  they  were  there;  the  old  English  historians,  following 
Polydore  without  suspicion,  do  not  raise  the  question ;  the  modern,  by  cor- 
recting Polydore's  dates,  raise,  but  do  not  perfectly  answer  it.  There 
they  were  however  all  this  time ;  and  it  is  particularly  important  with  ref- 
erence to  Henry's  administration  to  know  when  and  under  what  circum- 
stances they  came  back.  For  it  was  the  most  considerable  move  in  the 
game,  and  was  regarded  by  Bacon  as  the  single  exception  to  the  good  for- 
tune of  Henry's  military  enterprises;  and  one  so  little  in  keeping  with  the 
rest  that  he  is  obliged  to  impute  it  to  an  accident,  for  which  through  want 
of  political  foresight  he  had  neglected  to  provide.  French  historians  sup- 
ply us  with  the  true  story,  and  show  that  this  business  was  in  fact  no 
exception,  but  a  striking  illustration  both  of  the  qualities  and  the  fortune 
which  Bacon  ascribes  to  him. 

I  have  already  explained  that  the  expedition  was  planned  with  great 
deliberation,  and  formed  part  of  a  combined  movement,  in  conjunction 
with  Spain  and  Flanders,  to  arrest  the  French  King's  progress  in  the 
reduction  of  Brittany.  In  pursuance  of  this  plan  Spain  threatened  France 
in  the  south  at  Fontarabia;  Maximilian,  though  hampered  with  troubles 
at  home,  contrived  with  Henry's  assistance  to  effect  an  important  diver- 
sion in  the  north;  at  the  same  time  secretly  and  successfully  pressing  his 
suit  for  the  young  Duchess's  hand;  and  the  English  forces  in  Brittany 
meanwhile,  if  they  gained  no  brilliant  successes  over  the  French,  yet 
effectually  stopped  their  career  of  conquest:  the  result  of  all  which  was 
that  Charles  gave  up  the  attempt  to  carry  his  ends  that  way.    It  has  in- 


HISTORY  OF   KING  HENRY  VII.  155 

the  French  King  (consulting  with  his  divines,  and 
finding  that  this  pretended  consummation  was  rather 

deed  been  stated,  not  only  by  Polydore  Vergil  and  those  also  who  followed 
him,  but  by  modern  writers  with  better  information,  that  Henry  not  only 
failed  to  give  these  forces  due  support  and  encouragement  while  they 
were  there,  but  recalled  them  in  less  than  six  months,  —  that  is  before  the 
stipulated  time  of  service  had  expired.  But  this  is  surely  a  mistake,  aris- 
ing from  some  attempt  to  combine  Bacon's  narrative  with  the  facts  derived 
from  Rymer's  Foedera  and  the  Breton  archives,  instead  of  setting  it  aside 
altogether,  as  inconsistent  with  them  and  resting  itself  upon  no  better 
authority  than  Polydore's.  The  fact  is  that  in  the  middle  of  August, 
1489,  which  was  the  fifth  month  after  their  landing,  Henry  instead  of  re- 
calling was  reinforcing  them.  (See  Rymer,  xii.  337.;  also  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls,  where  we  find  commissions  issued  on  the  14th,  15th,  and  16th 
of  August  for  the  raising  of  a  force  "  destined  for  Brittany;  "  and  compare 
Lobineau,  i.  p.  805.);  and  (not  to  attempt  to  trace  with  exactness,  the 
separate  operations  of  the  many  causes  which  conspired  to  bring  about 
the  total  result)  the  end  of  it  all  was  that  Charles  consented  soon  after  to 
make  peace,  on  terms  by  no  means  disadvantageous  to  Brittany.  By  the 
treaty  of  Frankfort,  concluded  between  him  and  Maximilian  sometime  in 
the  autumn  of  1489,  it  was  agreed  that  Charles  should  restore  to  the 
Duchess  all  the  towns  which  he  had  conquered  since  her  father's  death 
(except  three  or  four  which  were  to  be  held  in  trust  by  the  Duke  of  Bour- 
bon and  the  Prince  of  Orange  until  the  differences  should  be  amicably 
settled;  for  which  purpose  a  congress  was  to  be  holden  at  Tournay  in  the 
following  April);  that  he  should  in  the  meantime  withdraw  his  troops  out 
of  Brittany,  and  that  she  should  dismiss  her  foreign  auxiliaries.  u  Et  vuy- 
deront "  (says  D'Argentre)  "  les  gens  de  guerre  Francois  de  Bretagne, 
comme  aussi  la  Duchesse  feroit  vuyder  les  Anglois."  This  treaty  was 
accepted  by  the  Duchess,  according  to  Lobineau,  in  November,  1489; 
whereupon  the  English  forces  would  of  course  be  withdrawn,  or  if  they 
remained  it  was  only  pending  the  payment  of  expenses. 

We  see  therefore  that  there  is  no  ground  for  regarding  the  issue  of  this 
enterprise  as  a  thing  requiring  explanation  or  apology.  If  it  did  not  aim 
to  accomplish  much,  it  is  not  the  less  characteristic  of  Henry  on  that 
account.  What  it  did  aim  at  it  accomplished;  and  it  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  his  fault  if  the  winning  of  the  move  did  not  secure  the  game. 
The  project  of  marriage  between  Maximilian  and  the  Duchess  was  so  far 
advanced  that  a  commission  for  consummating  it  by  proxy  was  issued 
(D'Argentre*,  xiii.  56.)  on  the  23rd  of  March,  1489  —  that  is,  I  presume, 
1489-90,  though  it  matters  not  to  the  present  question  to  which  year  the 
date  belongs — and  had  it  been  regularly  completed,  which  might  (it 
seems)  have  been  done  if  Maximilian  had  not  left  it  when  it  was  all  but 
done,  Charles  would  apparently  have  been  fairly  checkmated.  As  it  was, 
he  was  obliged  to  quit  the  attempt  to  possess  himself  of  Brittany  by 


156  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

an  invention  of  court  than  any  ways  valid  by  the  laws 
of  the  church,)  went  more  really l  to  work  ;  and  by 
secret  instruments  and  cunning  agents,  as  well  matrons 
about  the  young  lady  as  counsellors,  first  sought  to  re- 
move the  point  of  religion  and  honour  out  of  the  mind 
of  the  lady  herself  ;  wherein  there  was  a  double 
labour ;  for  Maximilian  was  not  only  contracted  unto 
the  lady,  but  Maximilian's  daughter  was  likewise  con- 
tracted to  King  Charles  :  so  as  the  marriage  halted 
upon  both  feet,  and  was  not  clear  on  either  side.  But 
for  the  contract  with  King  Charles,  the  exception  lay 
plain  and  fair  ;  for  that  Maximilian's  daughter  was 
under  years  of  consent,  and  so  not  bound  by  law  ;  but 
a  power  of  disagreement  left  to  either  part.2  But  for 
the  contract  made  by  Maximilian  with  the  lady  herself, 
they  were  harder  driven :  having  nothing  to  allege, 
but  that  it  was  done  without  the  consent  of  her  sover- 
eign lord  King  Charles,  whose  ward  and  client  she 
was,  and  he  to  her  in  place  of  a  father  ;  and  therefore 
it  was  void  and  of  no  force,  for  want  of  such  consent. 
Which  defect  (they  said)  though  it  would  not  evac- 
uate a  marriage  after  cohabitation  and  actual  consum- 
mation, yet  it  was  enough  to  make  void  a  contract. 
For  as  for  the  pretended  consummation,  they  made 
sport  with  it,  and  said  that  it  was  an  argument  that 
Maximilian  was  a  widower,  and  a  cold  wooer,  that 
could  content  himself  to  be  a  bridegroom  by  deputy, 
and  would  not  make  a  little  journey  to  put  all  out  of 
question.     So  that  the  young  lady  wrought  upon  by 

force,  and  try  it  another  way.  In  all  respects  therefore,  the  enterprise 
appears  to  have  been  planned  with  characteristic  caution  and  concluded 
with  characteristic  success. 

i  Magis  solide. 

2  This  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  157 

these  reasons,  finely  instilled  by  such  as  the  French 
King  (who  spared  for  no  rewards  or  promises)  had 
made  on  his  side  ;  and  allured  likewise  by  the  present 
glory  and  greatness  of  King  Charles  (being  also  a 
young  king  and  a  bachelor)  ;  and  loth  to  make  her 
country  the  seat  of  a  long  and  miserable  war ;  secretly 
yielded  to  accept  of  King  Charles.  But  during  this 
secret  treaty  with  the  lady,  the  better  to  save  it  from 
blasts  of  opposition  and  interruption,  King  Charles  re- 
sorting to  his  wonted  arts,  and  thinking  to  carry  the 
marriage  as  he  had  carried  the  wars,  by  entertaining 
the  King  of  England  in  vain  belief,  sent  a  solemn 
ambassage 1  by  Francis  Lord  of  Luxemburgh,  Charles 

1  I  have  not  succeeded  in  absolutely  fixing  the  date  of  this  embassy. 
But  the  circumstance  which  Polydore  Vergil  is  least  likely  to  have  been 
mistaken  in  relating,  and  of  which  the  date  can  be  fixed  with  the  nearest 
approach  to  certainty,  appears  to  be  this;  that  the  ambassadors  whom 
Henry  despatched  with  the  answer  to  this  embassy,  met  on  their  way,  at 
Calais,  a  legate  of  the  Pope,  who  was  on  his  way  to  England.  And  though 
Polydore  says  that  the  legate  came  from  Pope  Alexander  VI.  who  had  just 
succeeded  Pope  Innocent  (in  which  case  it  must  have  been  at  least  as  late 
as  August,  1492,  after  Charles  and  Anne  were  married  and  while  England 
and  France  were  at  war) — yet  I  suppose  it  was  more  likely  that  he 
should  have  made  a  mistake  as  to  the  date  of  Pope  Innocent's  death  than 
as  to  the  circumstance  of  an  accidental  meeting  at  Calais  between  the 
ambassadors  and  a  legate  from  the  Pope. 

Taking  this  then  as  a  fixed  point,  the  date  of  the  "  solemn  ambassage" 
here  mentioned  may  be  set  with  some  confidence  in  November  or  Decem- 
ber, 1489.  We  know  from  the  Herald's  journal  (Jul.  xii.  fo.  61.  b)  that 
during  Christmas  in  that  year  there  was  in  England  "  a  great  ambassade 
of  France,  that  is  to  say  Francois  Mom.  de  Luxembourgh,  Viscount  of 
Geneve,  and  the  General  of  the  order  of  the  Trinity  in  France;  which  on 
St.  John's  Day  dined  at  the  King's  board:  "  —  that  "  anon  after"  Candle- 
mas Day  (i.  e.  Feb.  2nd,  1489-90)  "...  the  ambassadors  of  France  had 
soon  their  answer,  were  right  greatly  and  largely  rewarded,  and  well  con- 
duct to  the  sea  side  by  the  King's  almoner  and  Sir  John  Rysley,  Knt. : " 
—  that  "  soon  after  the  King  sent  a  great  ambassage  into  France  "  (prob- 

Iably  that  of  which  the  commission  bears  date  27th  February;  see  Rymer), 
"  that  is  to  say,  the  Lord  Privy  Seal,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  the  Queen's  chamberlain,  and  the  Prior  of  Christ  Church  of  Can- 


158  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Marignian,  and  Robert  Gagvien,  general  of  the  order 
of  the  bons-hommes  of  the  Trinity,  to  treat  a  peace  and 
league  with  the  King  ;  accoupling  it  with  an  article  in 
the  nature  of  a  request,  that  the  French  King  might 
with  the  King's  good  will  (according  unto  his  right  of 
seigniory  and  tutelage)  dispose  of  the  marriage  of  the 
young  Duchess  of  Brittaine  as  he  should  think  good, 
offering  by  a  judicial  proceeding  to  make  void  the  mar- 
riage of  Maximilian  by  proxy.  Also  all  this  while  the 
better  to  amuse  the  world,  he  did  continue  in  his  court 
and  custody  the  daughter  of  Maximilian,  who  formerly 
had  been  sent  unto  him  to  be  bred  and  educated  in 
France,  not  dismissing  or  renvoying  her,1  but  con- 
trariwise professing  and  giving  out  strongly  that  he 
meant  to  proceed  with  that  match;  and  that  for  the 
Duchess  of  Brittaine,  he  desired  only  to  preserve  his 
right  of  seigniory,  and  to  give  her  in  marriage  to  some 
such  ally  as  might  depend  upon  him. 

When  the  three  commissioners  came  to  the  court 
of  England,  they  delivered  their  ambassage  unto  the 
King,  who  remitted  them  to  his  counsel ;  where  some 
days  after  they  had  audience,  and  made  their  propo- 
sition by  the  Prior  of  the  Trinity  (who  though  he 
were  third  in  place,  yet  was  held  the  best  speaker  of 
them)  to  this  effect : 2 

terbury:"  —  and  that  "after  Mid-Lent  ensuing"  (Mid-Lent  Sunday  in 
1490  fell  on  the  21st  of  March)  "  there  came  to  the  King  divers  and  many 
ambassadors,  —  that  is  to  say,  a  Legate  from  the  Pope,"  &c.  Under  these 
circumstances,  the  ambassadors  on  their  way  to  Paris  and  the  Pope's 
legate  on  his  way  to  England  would  very  likely  meet  at  Calais. 

It  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  is  in  Rymer  a  safe  conduct  for 
the  three  persons  named  by  Bacon,  dated  the  10th  of  December,  and  en- 
tered as  belonging  to  Henry's  sixth  year;  which  would  be  1490;  a  date 
probable  enough  in  itself. 

1  So  ed.  1622.     The  MS.  omits  "  her." 

2  Is  locutus  esse  perhihetur  in  hunc  modum.     There  is  nothing  in  Polydore 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  159 

"  My  lords,  the  King  our  master,  the  greatest  and 
mightiest  King  that  reigned  in  France  since  Charles 
the  great  whose  name  he  beareth,  hath  nevertheless 
thought  it  no  disparagement  to  his  greatness  at  this 
time  Fo  propound  a  peace,  yea  and  to  pray  a  peace, 
with  the  King  of  England.  For  which  purpose  he 
hath  sent  us  his  commissioners,  instructed  and  enabled 
with  full  and  ample  power  to  treat  and  conclude  ;  giv- 
ing us  further  in  charge  to  open  in  some  other  business 
the  secrets  of  his  own  intentions.  These  be  indeed  the 
precious  love  tokens  between  great  Kings,  to  commu- 
nicate one  with  another  the  true  state  of  their  affairs, 
and  to  pass  by  nice  points  of  honour,  wThich  ought  not 
to  give  law  unto  affection.1  This  I  do  assure  your 
lordships  ;  it  is  not  possible  for  you  to  imagine  the  true 
and  cordial  love  that  the  King  our  master  beareth  to 
your  sovereign,  except  you  were  near  him  as  we  are. 
He  useth  his  name  with  so  great  respect,  he  remem- 
bereth  their  first  acquaintance  at  Paris  with  so  great 
contentment,  nay  he  never  speaks  of  him,  but  that 
presently  he  falls  into  discourse  of  the  miseries  of  great 
Kings,  in  that  they  cannot  converse  with  their  equals, 
but  with  their2  servants.  This  affection  to  your 
King's  person  and  virtues  God  hath  put  into  the  heart 

or  Speed,  nor  I  think  in  any  of  the  English  chroniclers  who  preceded 
Bacon,  from  which  it  can  be  gathered  that  the  Prior  was  the  spokesman. 

I  It  may  indeed  be  reasonably  conjectured  from  the  account  which  Bernard 
Andre  gives  of  the  matter  (Cott.  Domit.  A.  xviii.  193.)  that  it  was  so,  and 
several  of  the  particulars  that  follow  may  have  been  taken  from  this 
source.  But  there  are  several  others  which  could  not  have  been  extracted 
either  from  Polydore  or  Andr6,  and  which  show  that  Bacon  had  some 
soui-ce  of  information  independent  of  them.  How  much  of  what  follows 
is  derived  from  such  a  source,  and  how  much  is  Bacon's  own,  it  is  im- 
possible to  know. 

1  Quce  affectui  alicui  insigni  postponi  debent. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  omits  "  their." 


160  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

of  our  master,  no  doubt  for  the  good  of  Christendom, 
and  for  purposes  yet  unknown  to  us  all ;  for  other  root 
it  cannot  have,  since  it  was  the  same  to  the  Earl  of 
Richmond  that  it  is  now  to  the  King  of  England. 
This  is  therefore  the  first  motive  that  makes  our  King 
to  desire  peace  and  league  with  your  sovereign ;  good 
affection,  and  somewhat  that  he  finds  in  his  own  heart. 
This  affection  is  also  armed  with  reason  of  estate. 
For  our  King  doth  in  all  candour  and  frankness  of 
dealing  open  himself  unto  you,  that  having  an  honour- 
able, yea  and  holy1  purpose,  to  make  a  voyage  and 
war  in  remote  parts,  he  considereth  that  it  will  be  of 
no  small  effect  in  point  of  reputation  to  his  enter- 
prise, if  it  be  known  abroad  that  he  is  in  good  peace 
with  all  his  neighbour  princes,  and  specially  with  the 
King  of  England,  whom  for  good  causes  he  esteemeth 
most. 

"  But  now  my  lords  give  me  leave  to  use  a  few 
words,  to  remove  all  scruples  and  misunderstandings 
between  your  sovereign  and  ours,  concerning  some  late 
actions ;  which  if  they  be  not  cleared,  may  perhaps 
hinder  this  peace  ;  to  the  end  that  for  matters  past 
neither  King  may  conceive  unkindness  of  other,  nor 
think  the  other  conceiveth  unkindness  of  him.  The 
late  actions  are  two  ;  that  of  Brittaine,  and  that  of 
Flanders.  In  both  which  it  is  true  that  the  subjects' 
swords  of  both  Kings  have  encountered  and  stricken, 
and  the  ways  and  inclinations  also  of  the  two  Kings  in 
respect  of  their  confederates  and  allies  have  severed. 

"  For  that  of  Brittaine  ;  the  King  your  sovereign 
knoweth  best  what  hath  passed.  It  was  a  war  of  ne- 
cessity on  our  master's  part.     And  though  the  motives 

1  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  a  holy." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  161 

of  it  were  sharp  and  piquant  as  could  be,  yet  did  he 
make  that  war  rather  with  an  olive-branch  than  a 
laurel-branch  in  his  hand;  more  desiring  peace  than 
victory.1  Besides  from  time  to  time  he  sent  as  it  were 
blank  papers  to  your  King  to  write  the  conditions  of 
peace.  For  though  both  his  honour  and  safety  went 
upon  it,  yet  he  thought  neither  of  them  too  precious  to 
put  into  the  King  of  England's  hands.  Neither  doth 
our  King  on  the  other  side  make  any  unfriendly  inter- 
pretation of  your  King's  sending  of  succours  to  the 
Duke  of  Brittaine  ;  for  the  King  knoweth  well  that 
many  things  must  be  done  of  Kings  for  satisfaction  of 
their  people ;  and  it  is  not  hard  to  discern  what  is  a 
King's  own.  But  this  matter  of  Brittaine  is  now  by 
the  act  of  God  ended  and  passed  ;  and,  as  the  King 
hopeth,  like  the  way  of  a  ship  in  the  sea,  without  leav- 
ing any  impression  in  either  of  the  Kings'  minds ;  as 
he  is  sure  for  his  part  it  hath  not  done  in  his. 

"  For  the  action  of  Flanders  ;  as  the  former  of  Brit- 
taine was  a  war  of  necessity,  so  this  was  a  war  of  jus- 
tice ;  which  with  a  good  King  is  of  equal  necessity 
with  danger  of  estate ;  for  else  he  should  leave  to  be 
a  King.  The  subjects  of  Burgundy2  are  subjects  in 
chief  to  the  crown  of  France,  and  their  Duke  the  hom- 
ager and  vassal  of  France.  They  had  wont  to  be  good 
subjects*  howsoever  Maximilian  hath  of  late  distem- 
pered them.  They  fled  to  the  King  for  justice  and 
deliverance   from   oppression.      Justice   he   could   not 

1  This  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 

2  Subditi  Burgundiee:  meaning  (it  would  seem)  the  Flemings.  It  was 
through  his  marriage  with  the  heiress  of  Burgundy  that  they  became 
Maximilian's  subjects;  and  it  was  as  subjects  of  Burgundy  that  the  King 
of  France  claimed  to  be  their  lord  in  chief.  In  p.  222.  the  word  M  Flem- 
ings "  in  the  English  is  rendered  by  Buryundos  in  the  Latin. 

VOL.    XI.  11 


162  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

deny ;  purchase 1  he  did  not  seek.  This  was  good  for 
Maximilian  if  he  could  have  seen  it :  in  people  muti- 
ned  to  arrest  fury,  and  prevent  despair.  My  lords,  it 
may  be  this  I  have  said  is  needless,  save  that  the  King 
our  master  is  tender  in  any  thing  that  may  but  glance 
upon  the  friendship  of  England.  The  amity  between 
the  two  Kings  no  doubt  stands  entire  and  inviolate. 
And  that  their  subjects'  swords  have  clashed,  it  is  noth- 
ing unto  the  public  peace  of  the  crowns  ;  it  being  a 
thing  very  usual  in  auxiliary  forces  of  the  best  and 
straitest  confederates  to  meet  and  draw  blood  in  the 
field.  Nay  many  times  there  be  aids  of  the  same 
nation  on  both  sides,  and  yet  it  is  not  for  all  that  a 
kingdom  divided  in  itself. 

"  It  resteth  my  lords  that  I  impart  unto  you  a  mat- 
ter that  I  know  your  lordships  all  will  much  rejoice  to 
hear ;  as  that  which  importeth  the  Christian  common- 
weal more  than  any  action  that  hath  happened  of  long 
time.2  The  King  our  master  hath  a  purpose  and  deter- 
mination to  make  war  upon  the  kingdom  of  Naples, 
being  now  in  the  possession  of  a  bastard  slip  of  Arra- 
gon ;  but  appertaining  unto  his  majesty  by  clear  and 
undoubted  right ;  which  if  he  should  not  by  just  arms 
seek  to  recover,  he  could  neither  acquit  his  honour  nor 
answer  it  to  his  people.  But  his  noble  and  christian 
thoughts  rest  not  here  :  for  his  resolution  and  hope  is,3 
to  make  the  reconquest  of  Naples  but  as  a  bridge  to 
transport  his  forces  into  Grecia,  and  not  to  spare  blood 
or  treasure  (if  it  were  to  the  impawning  his  crown  and 


i  Meaning  profit,  the  ordinary  meaning  of  the  word  at  that  time.    Enwl- 
umentum  aliquod  sibi  ipsi  minime  expetebat. 
a  Post  nostram  memoriam. 
8  Spe  enim  hand  levi  non  injiatur  quidem  sedfulcitur. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  163 

dispeopling  of  France)  till  either  he  hath  overthrown 
the  empire  of  the  Ottomans,  or  taken  it  in  his  way  to 
paradise.  The  King  knoweth  well  that  this  is  a  de- 
sign that  could  not  arise  in  the  mind  of  any  King  that 
did  Hot  steadfastly  look  up  unto  God,  whose  quarrel 
this  is,  and  from  whom  cometh  both  the  will  and  the 
deed.  But  yet  it  is  agreeable  to  the  person  that  he 
beareth  (though  unworthy)  of  the  Thrice  Christian 
King,  and  the  eldest  son  of  the  church ;  whereunto  he 
is  also  invited  by  the  example  (in  more  ancient  time) 
of  King  Henry  the  Fourth  of  England,  (the  first  re- 
nowned King  of  the  House  of  Lancaster ;  ancestor 
though  not  progenitor *  to  your  King  ;)  who  had  a 
purpose  towards  the  end  of  his  time  (as  you  know  bet- 
ter) to  make  an  expedition  into  the  Holy-land ;  and  by 
the  example  also  (present  before  his  eyes)  of  that  hon 
ourable  and  religious  war  which  the  King  of  Spain 
now  maketh  and  hath  almost  brought  to  perfection,  for 
the  recovery  of  the  realm  of  Granada  from  the  Moors. 
And  although  this  enterprise  may  seem  vast  and  un- 
measured, for  the  King  to  attempt  that  by  his  own 
forces,  wherein  (heretofore)  a  conjunction  of  most  of 
the  Christian  Princes  hath  found  work  enough  ; 2  yet 
his  Majesty  wisely  considereth,  that  sometimes  smaller 
forces  being  united  under  one  command  are  more 
effectual  in  proof  (though  not  so  promising  in  opinion 
and  fame)  than  much  greater  forces  variously  com- 
pounded by  associations  and  leagues,  which  commonly 
in  a  short  time  after  their  beginnings  turn  to  dissoci- 


1  Ancestor  seems  to  be  used  here  simply  in  the  sense  of  predecessor ;  by 
which  word  it  is  translated  in  the  Latin.  Prcedecessor  quidem  licet  non  pro- 
genitor regis  vestri. 

2  Non  sine  magnis  doloribus  et  diuturno  bello  olim  confecerunt. 


164  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

ations  and  divisions.  But  my  lords  that  which  is  as  a 
voice  from  heaven  that  calleth  the  King  to  this  enter- 
prise, is  a  rent  at  this  time  in  the  house  of  the  Otto- 
mans. I  do  not  say  but  there  hath  been  brother 
against  brother  in  that  house  before,1  but  never  any 
that  had  refuge  to  the  arms  of  the  Christians,  as  now 
hath  Gemes2  (brother  under  Bajazet  that  reigneth,) 
the  far  braver  man  of  the  two ;  the  other  being  be- 
tween a  monk  and  a  philosopher ;  and  better  read  in 
the  Alcoran  and  Averroes,  than  able  wield  the  sceptre 
of  so  warlike  an  empire.  This  therefore  is  the  King 
our  master's  memorable  and  heroical  resolution  for  an 
holy  war.  And  because  he  carrieth  in  this  the  person 
of  a  Christian  soldier  as  well  as  of  a  great  temporal 
monarch,  he  beginneth  with  humility  ;  and  is  content 
for  this  cause  to  beg  peace  at  the  hands  of  other  Chris- 
tian Kings. 

"  There  remaineth  only  rather  a  civil  request  than 
any  essential  part  of  our  negotiation,  which  the  King 
maketh  to  the  King  your  sovereign.  The  King  (as  all 
the  world  knoweth)  is  lord  in  chief  of  the  duchy  of 
Brittaine.  The  marriage  of  the  heir  belongeth  to  him 
as  guardian.  This  is  a  private  patrimonial  right,  and 
no  business  of  estate.  Yet  nevertheless  (to  run  a  fair 
course  with  your  King,  whom  he  desires  to  make  an- 
other himself,  and  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing  with 
him,)  his  request  is,  that  with  the  King's  favour  and 
consent  he  may  dispose  of  her  marriage  as  he  thinketh 
good,  and  make  void  the  intruded  and  pretended  mar- 
riage of  Maximilian,  according  to  justice. 

1  Quin  f rater  contra  fratrem  antehac  in  ilia  familia  arma  sumpseril  et  de 
imperio  decertdrit. 

2  So  the  ed.  of  1622  and  the  Latin  translation.     The  MS.  has  Gemmim. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  165 

"  This,  my  lords,  is  all  that  I  have  to  say,  desiring 
your  pardon  for  my  weakness  in  the  delivery." 

Thus  did  the  French  ambassadors,  with  great1  shew 
of  their  King's  affection  and  many  sugared  words,  seek 
to  addulce  all  matters  between  the  two  Kings ;  having 
two  things  for  their  ends ;  the  one  to  keep  the  King 
quiet  till  the  marriage  of  Brittaine  was  past  (and  this 
was  but  a  summer  fruit,  which  they  thought  was 
almost  ripe,  and  would  be  soon  gathered)  :  The  other 
was  more  lasting ;  and  that  was  to  put  him  into  such 
a  temper,  as  he  might  be  no  disturbance  or  impedi- 
ment to  the  voyage  for  Italy. 

The  lords  of  the  counsel  were  silent,  and  said  only 
that  they  knew  the  ambassadors  would  look  for  no 
answer  till  they  had  reported  to  the  King.  And  so 
they  rose  from  counsel. 

The  King  could  not  well  tell  what  to  think  of  the 
marriage  of  Brittaine.  He  saw  plainly  the  ambition 
of  the  French  King  was  to  impatronise  himself  of  the 
duchy ;  but  he  wondered  he  would  bring  into  his 
house  a  litigious  marriage,  especially  considering  who 
was  his  successor.  But  weighing  one  thing  with  an- 
other, he  gave  Brittaine   for   lost ; 2   but   resolved   to 

1  So  ed.  1622.  The  MS.  omits  "  great."  The  translation  is  a  little 
fuller :  verbis  suavissimis  et  plane  mellitis  regis  sui  propensionem  in  Henricum 
regem  reprcesentare,  et  aspera  quceque  inter  reges  duos  lenire  et  dulcorare 
conati  sunt. 

2  If  this  negotiation  took  place  in  the  winter  of  1489-90,  and  the  French 
ambassadors  had  their  answer  "anon  after  Candlemas  Day,"  three  months 

thad  not  yet  passed  since  the  treaty  of  Frankfort;  by  which  it  had  been 
agreed  that  hostilities  should  cease;  forces  be  withdrawn;  and  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  between  France  and  Brittany  referred  to  a  congress  at  Tour- 
nay,  to  be  held  in  the  following  April.  And  though  it  is  said  that  Charles 
had  not  withdrawn  his  forces  and  that  the  preliminary  preparations  for  the 
proposed  congress  were  not  proceeding;  yet  I  do  not  find  that  he  at  this 
time  meditated  the  renewal  of  hostilities,  or  that  the  case  of  Brittany  was, 


166  HISTOKY  OF  KING  HENEY  VII. 

make  his  profit  of  this  business  of  Brittaine,  as  a  quar- 
rel for  war ;  and  of  that  of  Naples,  as  a  wrench  and 


outwardly  at  least,  more  desperate  than  in  the  preceding  November.  It 
seems  early,  therefore,  for  Henry  to  "  give  it  for  lost."  Whether  Bacon 
had  sufficient  grounds  for  the  conclusion  we  cannot  tell,  without  knowing 
what  information  he  had  about  these  negotiations  (for  it  is  clear  from  the 
many  little  particulars  which  he  adds  that  he  had  some)  besides  what  he 
found  in  Polydore.  It  is  certainly  possible  that,  even  in  February,  1489-90, 
Henry  saw  so  far  into  Charles's  design,  and  thought  it  so  likely  that  the 
Duchess  would  end  the  quarrel  by  marrying  him,  that  (in  that  sense)  he 
did  begin  to  "give  Brittany  for  lost,"  and  resolved  not  to  entangle  himself 
further  in  a  fruitless  quarrel.  And  if  Bacon  had  any  positive  ground  for  the 
assertion,  it  is  in  that  sense  it  must  be  understood.  If  however  it  was  only 
an  inference  from  what  went  before  and  followed  (which  is  perhaps  more 
likely)  it  must  be  remembered  that  Bacon  was  proceeding  upon  false 
grounds.  He  was  going  upon  the  supposition  that  the  French  had  had 
their  own  way  in  Brittany,  without  any  effectual  check,  since  the  battle 
of  St.  Aubin.  He  knew  nothing  of  the  events  of  1489,  or  of  the  treaty  of 
Frankfort;  of  which  not  the  slightest  hint  is  to  be  found  in  any  of  our  old 
historians.  And  believing  (what  may  after  all  be  true)  that  the  negotia- 
tion he  was  speaking  of  took  place  in  the  spring  of  1491,  he  was  endeavour- 
ing to  conceive  the  case  as  it  would  have  been  then.  By  that  time  Henry 
might  very  well  have  perceived  that  there  was  no  prospect  of  preserving 
the  independence  of  Brittany  but  by  a  greater  war  than  it  was  worth. 
And  the  obvious  inadequacy  and  ineffectiveness  of  the  measures  which  he 
took,  if  that  were  his  object,  coupled  with  their  singular  efficacy  and  suc- 
cess, if  money  was  his  object,  may  have  suggested  to  Bacon  this  explana- 
tion of  his  motives. 

The  main  fact  however,  —  viz.  that  Henry  met  this  conciliatory  move  on 
the  part  of  Charles  with  some  extravagant  demand  which  induced  a 
breach,  —  is  distinctly  stated  by  Bernard  Andre-  (tandem  inter  eos  decretum 
est  ut  si  tributum  non  solver ent  helium  in  eos  brevi  strueretur ;)  and  may 
indeed  be  gathered  from  Polydore's  narrative,  though  he  put  a  different 
construction  upon  it.  uAngli  enim  legati  (he  says)  ut  pauca  tandem  quw 
cupiebant  asseguerentur,  permulta  postulabant :  Franci  autem,  ut  nihil  in  fine 
concederent,  omnia  repudiabant,  stomachabantur,  perneyabant"  &c.  Poly- 
dore took  it  for  a  case  of  ordinary  higgling;  one  party  hoping  to  get  as 
much  as  he  wanted  by  beginning  with  a  demand  for  more,  —  the  other 
making  the  extravagance  of  the  first  demand  a  pretence  for  refusing  all. 
But  this  is  merely  a  speculation  —  Polydore's  way  of  accounting  for  what 
he  supposed  to  be  Henry's  disappointment.  With  this  we  need  not  trouble 
ourselves.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  mere  scholar,  without  any  historical 
faculty  except  that  of  concise  and  fluent  narrative ;  his  selection  of  cir- 
cumstances is  guided  by  no  insight  into  the  meaning  of  the  thing;  and  the 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  167 

mean  for  peace ;   being  well  advertised  how  strongly 
the  King  was  bent  upon  that  action.     Having  there- 


general  reflexions  in  which  he  now  and  then  indulges  are  mere  moral  com- 
monplaces. In  a  case  like  this  however,  the  very  shallowness  of  his  inter- 
pretation is  an  argument  for  accepting  his  evidence  as  to  the  fact;  viz. 
that  Henry's  demands  were  unreasonable,  and  that  Charles  refused  to 
entertain  them.  Indeed  there  is  other  evidence  to  show  that  early  in  1490 
Henry,  whatever  his  motive  may  have  been,  had  in  fact  made  up  his  mind 
to  break  with  Charles,  and  was  taking  his  measures  with  that  view.  On 
the  15th  of  February  the  Duchess  of  Brittany  engaged,  among  other 
things,  not  to  marry  nor  to  make  war  or  peace  without  his  consent.  In 
the  course  of  the  summer,  besides  sending  a  new  army  to  her  assistance 
(see  a  number  of  entries  in  an  account  of  "  payments  made  at  the  King's 
receipt,"  between  Whitsuntide  and  Michaelmas,  1490;  Chapter  House 
Records,  A.  3.  19.  pp.  77-95.,  Rolls  house),  he  had  concluded  treaties  with 
Ferdinand  and  Maximilian,  by  which  each  of  the  three  powers  was  bound 
under  certain  contingencies  to  join  the  others  in  an  invasive  war  against 
Charles.  See  Rymer.  It  appears  also  from  the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls 
that  during  all  this  spring  and  summer  he  was  looking  carefully  to  his 
own  coasts  and  borders,  as  if  the  war  might  be  brought  to  his  own  doors 
at  any  moment.  On  the  20th  of  May  the  Earl  of  Surrey  was  appointed 
warden-general  of  the  marches  of  England  towards  Scotland,  with  full 
power  to  array  and  muster  the  men  of  Northumberland,  and  to  treat  with 
agents  of  the  Scotch  King.  On  the  22nd  he  was  directed  to  publish  a 
proclamation  ordering  home  all  the  idle  and  vagrant  Scots  that  had  overrun 
the  country.  On  the  26th  a  commission  of  survey  and  array  was  sent  to  the 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  of  Kent,  with  special  injunction  "  to  place  beacons 
for  forewarning  the  people  of  the  advent  of  the  King's  enemies."  Similar 
commissions  were  issued  from  time  to  time  during  June,  July,  and  August, 
to  the  other  counties  on  the  southern,  and  southern  part  of  the  eastern, 
coast.  On  the  8th  of  July  a  writ  was  issued  for  the  impressment  of 
twenty-four  gunners  for  the  defence  of  the  town  of  Calais.  Interspersed 
among  these  are  several  commissions  (the  earliest  dated  May  22,  the  latest 
July  17)  in  which  mention  is  made  of  ships  proceeding  to  sea  "  in  resist- 
ance of  the  King's  enemies  there  congregating."  One  of  the  20th  of  June 
speaks  of  "  the  present  voyage  to  Brittany:'  And  on  the  17th  of  September 
following,  public  proclamation  was  directed  to  be  made  in  all  the  counties 
of  England  of  the  confederation  above  mentioned  between  the  King  of 
England,  the  King  of  the  Romans,  and  the  King  and  Queen  of  Spain,  "  to 
make  actual  war  against  Charles  the  French  King,  if  he  invade  them  or 
the  Duchess  of  Brittany." 

It  is  possible  however  that  the  precautions  taken  for  the  security  of  the 
English  coasts  had  reference  to  Perkin  Warbeck,  who  was  now  beginning 
to  stir,  rather  than  to  any  apprehension  of  a  French  invasion. 


168  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENEY  VII. 

fore  conferred  divers  times  with  liis  counsel,  and  keep- 
ing himself  somewhat  close,  he  gave  a  direction  to  the 
Chancellor  for  a  formal  answer  to  the  ambassadors  ; 
and  that  he  did  in  the  presence  of  his  counsel.  And 
after,  calling  the  Chancellor  to  him  apart,  bad  him 
speak  in  such  language  as  was  fit  for  a  treaty  that  was 
to  end  in  a  breach  ;  and  gave  him  also  a  special  caveat, 
that  he  should  not  use  any  words  to  discourage  the 
voyage  of  Italy.  Soon  after  the  ambassadors  were 
sent  for  to  the  counsel,  and  the  Lord  Chancellor 
spake  to  them  in  this  sort : 1 

uMy  lords  ambassadors,  I  shall  make  answer  by 
the  King's  commandment  unto  the  eloquent  declara- 
tion of  you  my  lord  Prior,  in  a  brief  and  plain  man- 
ner. The  King  forgetteth  not  his  former  love  and 
acquaintance  with  the  King  your  master.  But  of 
this  there  needeth  no  repetition  ;  for  if  it  be  between 
them  as  it  was,  it  is  well ;  if  there  be  any  alteration, 
it  is  not  words  will2  make  it  up.  For  the  business 
of  Brittaine,  the  King  findeth  it  a  little  strange  that 
the  French  King  maketh  mention  of  it  as  matter  of 
well  deserving  at  his  hand.  For  that  deserving  was 
no  more  but  to  make  him  his  instrument  to  surprise 
one  of  his  best  confederates.  And  for  the  marriage, 
the  King  would  not  meddle  in  it,  if  your  master 
would  marry  by  the  book,3  and  not  by  the  sword. 
For  that  of  Flanders,  if  the  subjects  of  Burgundy 
had   appealed   to   your    King   as    their   chief  lord,   at 

1  In  hunc  modum  loculus  fertur. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  that  will." 

8  Lituryid.  This  must  not  be  understood  as  referring  to  the  French 
King's  intention  to  marry  the  Duchess  himself,  for  that  was  not  yet 
in  question;  but  to  the  right  which  he  claimed  of  disposing  of  her  in 
marriage. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  169 

first,1  by  way  of  supplication,  it  might  have  had  a 
shew  of  justice.  But  it  was  a  new  form  of  process, 
for  subjects  to  imprison  their  prince  first,  and  to  slay 
his  officers,  and  then  to  be  complainants.  The  King 
saith^that  sure  he  is,  when  the  French  King  and 
himself  sent  to  the  subjects  of  Scotland  (that  had 
taken  arms- against  their  King,)  they  both  spake  in 
another  stile,  and  did  in  princely  manner  signify  their 
detestation  of  popular  attentates  upon  the  person  or 
authority  Princes.  But,  my  lords  ambassadors,  the 
King  leaveth  these  two  actions  thus.  That  on  the 
one  side  he  hath  not  received  any  manner  of  satis- 
faction from  you  concerning  them ;  and  on  the  other, 
that  he  doth  not  apprehend  them  so  deeply,  as  in 
respect  of  them  to  refuse  to  treat  of  peace,  if  other 
things  may  go  hand  in  hand.  As  for  the  war  of 
Naples  and  the  design  against  the  Turk ;  the  King 
hath  commanded  me  expressly  to  say,  that  he  doth 
wisli  with  all  his  heart  to  his  good  brother  the  French 
King,  that  his  fortunes  may  succeed  according  to  his 
hopes  and  honourable  intentions :  and  whensoever  he 
shall  hear  that  he  is  prepared  for  Grecia,  —  as  your 
master  is  pleased  now  to  say  that  he  beggeth  a  peace 
of  the  King,  so  the  King  then  will  beg  of  him  a  part 
in  that  war.  But  now,  my  lords  ambassadors,  I  am 
to  propound  unto  you  somewhat  on  the  King's  part. 
The  King  your  master  hath  taught  our  King  what  to 
say  and  demand.  You  say  (my  lord  Prior)  that  your 
King  is  resolved  to  recover  his  right  to  Naples,  wrong- 
fully detained  from  him ;  and  that  if  he  should  not  thus 
do,  he  could  not  acquit  his  honour,  nor  answer  it  to  his 

i.  e.  had  begun  by  appealing,  &c.     Si  Burgundies,  subditi  a  principle)  per 
viam  supplicationis  vestrum  regent  appellassent  ut  dominum  supremum. 


170  HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY  VII. 

people.  Think  my  lords  that  the  King  our  master 
saith  the  same  thing  over  again  to  you,  touching  Nor- 
mandy, Guienne,  Anjou ;  yea  and  the  kingdom  of 
France  itself.  I  cannot  express  it  better  than  in  your 
own  words.  If  therefore  the  French  King  shall  con- 
sent that  the  King  our  master's  title  to  France  (or 
least  tribute  for  the  same)  be  handled  in  the  treaty, 
the  King  is  content  to  go  on  with  the  rest,  otherwise 
he  refuseth  to  treat." 

The  ambassadors  being  somewhat  abashed  with  this 
demand,  answered  in  some  heat,  that  they  doubted  not 
but  that  the  King  their  sovereign's  sword  would  be 
able  to  maintain  his  sceptre  ;  and  they  assured  them- 
selves he  neither  could  nor  would  yield  to  any  dimi- 
nution of  the  crown  of  France,  either  in  territory  or 
regality.  But  howsoever,  they  were  too  great  matters 
for  them  to  speak  of,  having  no  commission.  It  was 
replied  that  the  King  looked  for  no  other  answer 
from  them,  but  would  forthwith  send  his  own  am- 
bassadors to  the  French  King.  There  was  a  ques- 
tion also  asked  at  the  table : 1  Whether  the  French 
King  would  agree  to  have  the  disposing  of  the  mar- 
riage of  Brittaine,  with  an  exception  and  exclusion 
that  he  should  not  marry  her  himself?  To  which  the 
ambassadors  answered,  that  it  was  so  far  out  of  their 
King's  thoughts  as  they  had  received  no  instructions 
touching  the  same.  Thus  were  the  ambassadors  dis- 
missed,  all  save  the  Prior;  and  were  followed  imme- 
diately by  Thomas  Earl  of  Ormond,  and  Thomas 
Goldenston  Prior  of  Christ-Church  in  Canterbury, 
who  were  presently  sent  over  into  France.     In  the 

1  Injecta  aulem  tanquam  obiter  est  queslio  a  quibusdam  ex  consiliariis. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  171 

mean  space  Lionel  Bishop  of  Concordia  was  sent  as 
nuncio  from  Pope  Alexander  the  Sixth 1  to  both 
Kings,  to  move  a  peace  between  them.  For  Pope 
Alexander,  finding  himself  pent  and  locked  up  by  a 
league  and  association  of  the  principal  states  of  Italy, 
that  he  could  not  make  his  way  for  the  advancement 
of  his  own  house  (which  he  immoderately  thirsted 
after),  was  desirous  to  trouble  the  waters  in  Italy, 
that  he  might  fish  the  better;  casting  the  net  not 
out  of  St.  Peter's,  but  out  of  Borgia's  bark.  And 
doubting  lest  the  fears  from  England  might  stay  the 
French  King's  voyage  into  Italy,  dispatched  this 
bishop  to  compose  all  matters  between  the  two  Kings, 
if  he  could:  who  first  repaired  to  the  French  King, 
and  finding  him  well  inclined  (as  he  conceived),  took 
On  his  journey  towards  England,  and  found  the  Eng- 
lish ambassadors  at  Calais  on  their  way  towards  the 
French  King.  After  some  conference  with  them,  he 
was  in  honourable  manner  transported  over  into  Eng- 
land, where  he  had  audience  of  the  King.  But  not- 
withstanding he  had  a  good  ominous  name  to  have 
made  a  peace,  nothing   followed.     For  in  the  mean 

1  So  Polydore ;  who  adds,  "  qui  Innocentio  paullo  ante  moiHuo  succes- 
serat."  But  Pope  Innocent  died  on  the  25th  of  July,  1492.  Pope  Alex- 
ander was  elected  on  the  11th,  and  crowned  on  the  26th,  of  the  following 
month.  Now  Charles  VIII.  had  been  married  to  the  Duchess  of  Brittany 
in  the  preceding  December;  and  on  the  9th  of  September  immediately 
following,  Henry  was  on  his  way  to  France  at  the  head  of  an  invading 
ai-my.  Therefore  if  any  legate  from  Pope  Alexander  met  at  Calais  any 
ambassadors  from  Henry  VII.,  it  must  have  been  those  who  were  ar- 
ranging the  treaty  of  Estaples,  and  not  those  who  are  spoken  of  here. 
But  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  mistake  is  only  as  to  the  Pope,  and 
that  some  such  conference  did  take  place  between  the  legate  from  Pope 
Innocent,  who  arrived  in  England  soon  after  Mid-Lent  in  1490,  and  the 
ambassadors  who  were  on  their  way  from  London  to  Paris  in  the  begin- 
ning of  March.     See  note  1.  p.  157. 


172  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

time  the  purpose  of  the  French  King  to  many  the 
Duchess  could  be  no  longer  dissembled.  Wherefore 
the  English  ambassadors  (finding  how  things  went) 
took  their  leave  and  returned.  And  the  Prior  also 
was  warned  from  hence,  to  depart  out  of  England. 
Who  when  he  turned  his  back,  (more  like  a  pedant 
than  an  ambassador)  dispersed  a  bitter  libel  in  Latin 
verse !  against  the  King ;  unto  which  the  King  (though 
he  had  nothing  of  a  pedant)  yet  was  content  to  cause 
an  answer  to  be  made  in  like  verse  ;  and  that  as  speak- 
ing in  his  own  person  ;  but  in  a  stile  of  scorn  and 
sport.2 

About  this  time  also  was  born  the  King's  second 
son  Henry,3  who  afterwards  reigned.  And  soon  after 
followed  the  solemnisation  of  the  marriage  between 
Charles  and  Anne  Duchess  of  Brittaine,4  with  whom 
he  received  the  duchy  of  Brittaine  as  her  dowry  ; 
the  daughter  of  Maximilian  being  a  little  before  sent 

i  Bernard  Andrd  (who  seems  to  be  the  authority  for  this)  quotes  only 
the  first  line  of  Gaguin's  poem.  Several  pens  seem  to  have  flown  into  the 
ink  to  answer  him;  and  if  the  report  of  the  answerers  may  be  trusted,  his 
discomfiture  was  complete. 

There  is  in  the  British  Museum  a  little  book  (Disceptatio  R.  Gaguin  et  J. 
Phiniphelingi  super  roptu  Ducissce  Briiannicce,  4to.  1492)  containing  a  war 
of  the  same  kind  in  verse  and  prose  between  the  same  Prior  and  one  of 
Maximilian's  chief  counsellors,  relating  to  the  next  stage  in  this  same 
transaction,  —  the  French  King's  marriage  to  Maximilian's  bride.  One 
of  them,  I  forget  which,  commences  the  war  with  a  Sapphic  ode, 
clenched  with  a  page  or  two  of  invective  in  Latin  prose.  The  other 
answers  in  the  same  form  and  strain.  Both  write  vigorously,  and  seem 
quite  in  earnest. 

2  Magno  tamen  cum  vilipendio  Prioris,  cujus  genio  et  petulantia  tanquam 
facetiis  scurrce  se  oblectabat. 

8  He  was  born  (according  to  Stowe)  on  the  22nd  of  June,  1491:  which 
shows  that  Bacon  supposed  these  negotiations  to  have  taken  place  in  the 
spring  of  that  year;  not  the  spring  of  1490,  which  is  the  true  date. 

4  They  were  married  at  the  castle  of  Langeais,  in  Touraine,  on  the  6th 
of  December,  1491.     Daru,  vol.  iii.  p.  175. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  173 

home.  Which  when  it  came  to  the  ears  of  Maxi- 
milian (who  would  never  believe  it  till  it  was  done, 
being  ever  the  principal  in  deceiving  himself;  though 
in  this  the  French  King  did  very  handsomely  second 
it)  and  tumbling  it  over  and  over  in  his  thoughts, 
that  he  should  at  one  blow  (with  such  a  double  scorn) 
be  defeated  both  of  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  and 
his  own  (upon  both  which  he  had  fixed  high  imagina- 
tions), he  lost  all  patience ;  and  casting  off  the  re- 
spects fit  to  be  continued  between  great  Kings  (even 
when  their  blood  is  hottest  and  most  risen),  fell  to 
bitter  invectives  against  the  person  and  actions  of  the 
French  King ;  and  (by  how  much  he  was  the  less 
able  to  do,  talking  so  much  the  more)  spake  all  the 
injuries  he  could  devise  of  Charles ;  saying  that  he 
was  the  most  perfidious  man  upon  the  earth ;  and 
that  he  had  made  a  marriage  compounded  between 
an  advoultry  and  a  rape ;  which  was  done  (he  said) 
by  the  just  judgment  of  God  to  the  end  that  (the 
nullity  thereof  being  so  apparent  to  all  the  world) 
the  race  of  so  unworthy  a  person  might  not  reign  in 
France.     And  forthwith  he  sent  ambassadors1  as  well 


1  The  correction  of  one  material  date  generally  makes  it  necessary  to 
readjust  all  the  rest.  Bacon,  supposing  that  Henry's  final  breach  with 
France  was  not  till  the  spring  or  summer  of  1491,  and  that  the  marriage 
of  Charles  and  Anne  followed  soon  after,  took  this  embassy  of  Maximilian's 
for  the  next  act;  following  immediately  upon  the  marriage.  But  when 
we  find  that  between  the  breach  and  the  marriage  there  was  an  interval 

I  of  at  least  a  year  and  a  half,  the  question  arises  what  were  Henry  and 
Maximilian  doing  all  that  time?  or  how  came  they  to  let  Charles  pursue 
his  designs  upon  the  Duchess  so  long  unmolested?  Upon  closer  examina- 
tion, with  the  help  of  Rymer  and  other  modern  lights,  it  will  appear  I 
think  that  the  story  requires  a  good  deal  of  correction.  And  Polydore 
Vergil's  narrative  supplies  —  not  indeed  the  true  story  —  but  a  hint 
from  which  the  true  story  may  be  collected.  He  says  that  Maximilian, 
when  his  daughter  (who  was  betrothed  to  Charles)  was  sent  back  to  him, 


174  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

to  the  King  of  England  as  to  the  King  of  Spain,  to 
incite  them   to  war  and  to  treat  a  league   offensive 


began  to  suspect  Charles's  design  upon  the  Duchess;  —  that  thereupon 
he  sent  one  James  Contibald  to  Henry,  to  propose  that  they  should  join 
their  forces  against  Charles;  himself  engaging  to  contribute  not  less  than 
10,000  men  for  two  years,  and  as  soon  as  he  should  be  ready  for  the  war 
to  let  Henry  know,  giving  him  six  months  for  preparation:  —  that  Henry, 
who  felt  that  the  case  of  Brittany  would  not  bear  any  longer  delay,  and 
who  was  already  of  his  own  motion  raising  forces  for  her  defence,  was 
delighted  with  this  message,  and  promised  that  Maximilian  should  not 
find  him  unprepared:  —  that  in  the  mean  time  (that  is,  as  I  understand 
it,  while  the  arrangement  between  Henry  and  Maximilian  stood  thus), 
Charles  married  Anne  and  so  carried  off  Duchy  and  Duchess  together:  — 
that  Maximilian,  as  soon  as  the  first  burst  of  his  rage  was  over,  conclud- 
ing that  something  must  be  done  for  the  reparation  of  his  honour,  warned 
Henry  to  prepare  for  war  with  France  with  all  speed,  for  he  should  soon 
be  ready:  —  that  Henry,  in  reliance  upon  this  promise,  immediately  levied 
a  great  army  and  sent  word  that  he  was  ready  and  would  put  to  sea  as 
soon  as  he  heard  that  Maximilian  was  ready  too:  —  that  his  messengers 
found  Maximilian  totally  unprepared:  —  that  their  report  to  that  effect, 
being  quite  unexpected,  threw  him  into  great  perplexity,  for  he  feared 
that  the  war  would  be  too  much  for  him  if  he  undertook  it  alone,  and  that 
the  people  would  reproach  and  calumniate  him  if  he  declined  it:  —  but 
that  weighing  the  honour  against  the  danger,  he  resolved  for  honour; 
made  up  his  mind  to  attack  France  single-handed ;  raised  fresh  forces,  and 
keeping  Maximilian's  defection  a  secret  from  his  troops  lest  it  should  dis- 
pirit them,  set  out  for  Calais  (for  at  last  we  come  to  a  date)  VIII.  Iduum 
Septembris,  — the  6th  of  September. 

Now  since  there  is  no  hint  here  of  any  concurrent  embassy  to  Spain,  we 
may  very  well  suppose  that  Contibald's  business  was  not  the  negotiation 
of  that  triple  league  between  Maximilian,  Henry,  and  Ferdinand,  which 
held  so  important  a  place  in  Henry's  policy;  but  some  separate  arrange- 
ment in  which  Maximilian  and  Henry  were  concerned  alone.  And  since 
it  is  represented  as  occurring  certainly  before  the  marriage,  and  may  for 
anything  that  is  said  to  the  contrary  have  occurred  a  good  while  before,  — 
if  we  find  traces  of  any  such  arrangement  at  any  time  within  the  preced- 
ing half  year,  and  the  circumstances  seem  otherwise  to  suit,  we  need  not 
reject  it  on  account  of  the  date.  Now  such  a  separate  arrangement  was 
(it  seems)  concluded  between  Henry  and  Maximilian  about  the  end  of 
May,  1491;  and  this  I  suspect  was  really  the  business  of  the  mission 
which  Polydore  speaks  of;  though  Polydore,  mistaking  the  date,  con- 
nected and  confounded  it  with  other  matters  of  like  nature  that  happened 
after. 

The  arrangement  to  which  I  allude  (my  information  comes  chiefly  from 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  175 

against  France,  promising  to  concur  with  great  forces 
of  his  own.     Hereupon  the  King  of  England  (going 


Lobineau,  i.  p.  813,  4,  who  seems  to  have  studied  D'Argentre'  carefully) 
appear*  to  have  been  no  part  of  the  great  convention  between  Maximilian, 
Henry,  and  Ferdinand,  for  a  joint  invasion  of  France;  which  was  in  force 
indeed  at  the  time,  but  did  not  provide  for  such  speedy  action  as  the  pres- 
ent accident  seemed  to  require.  That  convention  had  been  concluded  in 
September,  1490;  a  date  considerably  earlier  than  Bacon  would  have  as- 
signed, but  agreeing  perfectly  well  with  his  theory  of  Henry's  policy;  for 
it  would  seem  from  that  that  Henry  had  taken  care,  before  he  finally  broke 
with  France,  to  provide  himself  with  those  occasions,  first  for  making  the 
show  of  war  and  then  for  accepting  terms  of  peace,  which  Bacon  detected 
in  the  broad  outlines  of  the  case,  through  all  Polydore's  errors  of  detail. 
Already  it  seems  he  bad  engaged  Maximilian  and  Ferdinand  to  take  their 
part  in  a  combined  movement  against  Charles ;  which  if  they  performed, 
he  would  have  power  to  command  what  terms  of  peace  he  pleased ;  if  not, 
he  would  have  a  fair  excuse  for  accepting  such  terms  as  he  could  get. 
The  seed  thus  timely  sown  came  prosperously  to  harvest  at  last  in  the 
treaty  of  Estaples,  as  we  shall  see;  but  that  was  not  till  the  end  of  1492. 

Charles  in  the  mean  time,  unwilling  to  provoke  a  combined  attack  from 
so  formidable  a  confederacy,  forbore  to  renew  his  suspended  hostilities 
against  Brittany,  and  applied  himself  entirely  to  win  the  Duchess  by 
peaceful  arts  from  her  engagement  to  Maximilian.  The  Duchess  however, 
encouraged  no  doubt  by  these  great  alliances,  stood  well  out  against  his 
suit;  and  at  length  (by  way  perhaps  of  ending  it  at  once)  assumed  pub- 
licly the  title  of  Queen  of  the  Romans.  This  was  in  March,  1490-1,  at 
which  time  D'Argentre  (xiii.  57.)  supposes  Charles  to  have  just  discov- 
ered the  marriage.  So  decisive  a  step  stirred  him  to  take  stronger  meas- 
ures, and  at  the  same  time  gave  him  an  ally  in  D'Albret,  an  old  aspirant 
to  the  Duchess's  hand  whose  hopes  it  extinguished.  By  this  man's  means 
he  made  himself  master  of  the  important  town  of  Nantes ;  a  town  which 
in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  it  will  be  remembered,  he  had  attempted  in 
vain  to  take;  which  in  the  summer  of  1490  he  had  again  (it  would  seem) 
invested  (see  Rymer,  12  June,  1490);  and  which  was  now  on  the  19th  of 
February,  1490-1,  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  French.     Charles  him- 

;lf  entered  it  on  the  ±th  of  April,  1491.     Upon  the  news  of  this,  Maximil- 

m,  alarmed  and  roused  in  his  turn,  got  his  father  the  Emperor  to  call  a 

Diet  (une  Diette  des  Estates  d'Allemagne),  who  voted  him  a  force  of 

12,000  lanzknechts.     They  were  to  be  sent  to  the  succour  of  the  Duchess 

August,  and  to  be  joined  by  6000  English.     This  I  take  to  have  been  the 

xasion  and  business  of  the  mission  of  which  Polydore  speaks.  And 
jince  it  is  certain  that  ambassadors  were  despatched  from  Brittany  on  the 

kh  of  May,  1491,  as  from  the  King  and  Queen  of  the  Romans,  to  solicit 
succour  from  Henry;  and  that  James  Contibald  (or  Gondebault)  was  in 


176  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

nevertheless  his  own  way)  called  a  Parliament,  it  be- 
ing the  seventh  year  of  his  reign ; *  and  the  first  day 


England  about  the  same  time  negotiating  on  the  part  of  Maximilian  con- 
cerning the  repayment  of  expences  incurred  in  the  affairs  of  Brittany; 
that  would  seem  to  be  the  most  probable  date  of  it:  a  date  of  some  conse- 
quence in  connexion  with  Henry's  next  proceeding;  concerning  which  I 
have  a  doubt  to  raise  and  settle. 

The  arrangement,  whatever  it  was,  was  ineffectual.  It  is  said  that  some 
succours  were  sent  from  England  (forces  were  certainly  raised  there  in 
April  and  May,  1491;  see  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  pp.  37.  63.  71.  70.),  but  not 
enough  to  do  any  good  by  themselves;  that  for  Maximilian's  lanzknechts, 
Charles  strengthened  his  frontiers  against  their  passage  and  kept  them 
from  joining,  while  he  proceeded  to  take  Guincamp;  and  that  the  Duch- 
ess, seeing  her  towns  going  and  no  succour  coming,  and  that  whether 
she  made  her  appeal  against  Charles  to  arms  or  to  arbitration,  he  was  ob- 
viously in  a  conditiou  to  defeat  her  either  way,  —  at  length  despaired  of 
resistance,  and  consented  to  compound  the  quarrel  by  becoming  Queen  of 
France  and  merging  her  duchy  in  her  crown. 

l  The  only  Parliament  that  was  held  in  Henry's  seventh  year  met  on 
the  17th  October,  1491.  It  could  not  therefore  have  been  called  in  conse- 
quence of  the  marriage,  which  had  not  yet  taken  place.  This  however, 
considering  the  doubt  and  confusion  in  which  all  the  events  and  dates  of 
these  transactions  are  involved,  would  be  of  no  great  consequence.  The 
intentions  of  the  French  King  to  possess  himself  of  Brittany  by  one  means 
or  another  must  have  been  sufficiently  known  before  October,  and  would 
be  ground  enough  for  calling  a  war-parliament. 

But  there  is  another  difficulty  which  is  not  so  easily  explained.  Nothing 
can  be  more  distinct  and  positive  than  Polydore  Vergil's  statement  that 
the  exaction  of  the  benevolence  was  subsequent  to  the  meeting  of  this 
assembly,  and  in  fact  sanctioned  by  it.  "  Convocato  principum  concilio, 
primum  exponit  causas  belli  sumendi  contra  Francos;  deinde  eos  poscit 
pro  bello  pecuniam.  Causas  belli  cuncti  generatim  probant,  suamque  ope- 
rant pro  se  quisque  offert.  Rex,  collaudata  suorum  virtute,  ut  populus  tri- 
bute non  gravaretur,  cui  gratificandum  existimabat,  voluit  molliter  ac 
leniter  pecuniam  a  locupletioribus  per  benevolentiam  exigere.  Fuit  id  ex- 
actionis  genus,"  &c.  Of  which  the  corresponding  passage  in  Stowe  may 
serve  for  a  translation.  He  "  called  a  Parliament,  and  therein  declared 
that  he  was  justly  provoked  to  make  war  against  the  Frenchmen,  and 
therefore  desired  them  of  their  benevolence  of  money  and  men  towards  the 
maintenance  thereof.  Every  man  allowed  the  cause  to  be  just,  and  prom- 
ised his  helping  hand.  And  to  the  intent  he  might  spare  the  poorer  sort  he 
thought  good  first  to  exact  money  of  the  richest  sort  by  way  of  a  benevolence, 
which  kind  of  levying  of  money  was  first  practised,"  &c.  Nothing  on 
the  other  hand  can  be  more  certain  than  that  the  commissions  for  the 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  177 

of  opening  thereof  (sitting  under  his  cloth  of  estate) 
spake  himself  unto  his  Lords  and  Commons  in  this 
manner. 

benevolence  were  issued  more  than  three  months  before  the  Parliament 
met;  and  that  the  supplies  which  were  voted  by  the  Parliament  when  it 
did  meet  were  not  in  the  form  of  a  benevolence,  but  an  ordinary  tax  of 
two  fifteenths  and  tenths.  We  have  here  therefore  a  substantial  inaccu- 
racy of  some  kind,  which  cannot  be  set  right  by  shifting  a  date  or  cor- 
recting a  careless  expression.  The  revival  of  this  exaction  was  an 
Important  matter.  Polydore's  next  words  show  that  he  knew  what  it 
meant;  and  he  could  not  have  overlooked  the  importance  of  the  question 
whether  it  was  done  before  or  after  a  Parliament,  —  with  or  without  a 
Parliamentary  sanction. 

I  am  persuaded  that  the  error  lies  deeper;  that,  as  the  case  was  nearly 
the  >ame  as  that  of  1488,  so  the  error  is  exactly  the  same  as  that  which  I 
have  pointed  out  in  note  3,  p.  114.  I  am  persuaded  that  Polydore,  on  this 
as  on  that  occasion,  mistook  a  Great  Council  for  a  Parliament;  that  Henry, 
on  this  occasion  as  on  that,  before  he  called  a  regular  Parliament  took  the 
precaution  of  calling  one  of  these  quasi-parliaments;  with  a  view  partly 
to  ascertain  the  sense  of  the  people  and  partly  to  engage  them  in  the  cause 
before  he  engaged  himself:  and  that  it  was  to  a  Great  Council  held  in 
June,  1491,  or  thereabouts,  that  he  now  declared  his  intention  to  invade 
France,  at  the  same  time  asking  their  advice  as  to  the  raising  of  supplies. 

For  the  grounds  of  this  conclusion  and  for  an  answer  to  objections,  I 
must  again  refer  to  the  appendix.  If  I  am  right,  the  fact  and  the  date  will 
be  found  to  be  of  some  value,  both  as  clearing  the  narrative  and  as  illus- 
trating Henry's  character  and  policy.  It  will  be  seen  that  when  the 
French  King  took  possession  of  Nantes  and  was  obviously  proceeding  to 
absorb  Brittany  either  by  arms  or  by  marriage  or  by  arbitration;  and 
when  Maximilian  was  about  to  raise  a  force  of  12,000  men  to  oppose  him, 
and  called  upon  Henry  to  join;  which  was  as  I  suppose  in  April  or  May, 
1491 ;  Henry  had  a  good  case  to  go  to  his  people  with.  Having  first  there- 
fore spread  an  alarm  of  French  invasion  (Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  5  May,  p.  71.), 
and  made  some  stir  of  warlike  preparation  to  warm  the  blood  and  feel 
the  pulse  of  the  people,  he  proceeded  in  the  same  course  which  had  suc- 
ceeded so  well  in  1488;  and  immediately  summoned  —not  his  Parliament, 
which  could  not  perhaps  have  been  assembled  so  expeditiously  as  the  time 
required  — but  a  Great  Council,  which  he  could  make  as  fair  a  represent- 
ative of  a  Parliament  as  he  pleased,  and  which,  though  it  had  no  power  to 
make  laws  or  impose  taxes,  yet  served  very  well  both  to  express  and  react 
upon  the  public  opinion  of  the  time.  Finding  them  in  an  apt  humour, 
and  having  all  his  precautions  ready  taken,  he  boldly  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  making  an  invasive  war  upon  France,  and  thereupon  (pretending 
probably  the  urgency  of  the  occasion,  which  could  not  wait  for  the  ordi- 
VOL.  xi.  12 


178  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

"  My  Lords  and  you  the  Commons ;  when  I  pur- 
posed to  make  a  war  in  Brittaine  by  my  lieutenant,  I 


nary  course,)  obtained  their  advice  and  consent  (which  though  it  carried 
no  legal  authority  would  in  a  popular  cause  carry  authority  enough  for 
the  purpose)  to  send  out  commissioners  to  levy  a  "  benevolence."  A  com- 
mission il  de  subsidio  requirendo  pro  viagio  Franciae "  was  accordingly 
issued  (7th  July,  1491);  by  which,  after  a  preamble  declaring  the  grounds 
of  the  intended  war,  which  it  represents  as  undertaken,  not  "  de  advisa- 
mento  concilii  nostri,"  but  "ad  instantiam  et  specialem  requisitionem 
tam  dominorum  spiritualium  et  temporalium  quam  aliorum  rcofo'ftwm,"  the 
requisite  authority  was  conveyed  to  a  number  of  persons,  each  to  act 
within  a  specified  county.  But  as  these  Great  Councils  could  only  give 
advice  and  such  authority  as  the  opinion  and  personal  influence  of  the 
members  carried  with  it,  Henry  seems  to  have  used  them  only  as  prepara- 
tory to  regular  Parliaments.  A  regular  Parliament  was  accordingly  sum- 
moned shortly  after,  which  (in  consideration  probably  of  the  succours  to 
Brittany,  upon  which  the  benevolence  money  must  have  been  partly  con- 
sumed, and  also  of  its  more  distressed  state  and  more  imminent  danger), 
voted  fresh  supplies,  but  to  be  raised  by  ordinary  taxation ;  and  passed 
the  laws  which  were  convenient  for  a  state  of  war. 

If  we  suppose  therefore  the  speech  which  follows  to  have  been  addressed 
to  a  Great  Council  in  June,  1491 ;  the  benevolence  to  have  been  levied, 
with  their  advice,  in  July  and  August;  some  succours  to  have  been  sent 
to  Brittany  about  the  same  time ;  and  the  Parliament  to  have  met  on  the 
17th  of  October;  we  shall  have  supplied  all  the  correction  which  (so  far 
as  I  know)  Bacon's  narrative  requires;  and  we  shall  find  that  his  interpre- 
tation of  Henry's  views  and  policy  and  character  is  illustrated  and  con- 
firmed by  the  change. 

It  may  be  worth  mentioning,  as  a  confirmation  of  this  conjecture,  that 
whereas  Bacon  expressly  represents  the  King  as  making  the  declaration  in 
person,  it  does  not  appear  from  the  Parliament  Rolls  that  he  did  open  in 
person  the  session  of  October,  1491.  Bacon  is  not  likely,  I  think,  to  have 
stated  it  so  expressly,  if  it  were  only  an  inference  from  Polydore's  expres- 
sion "exponit  causas,"  &c.  It  is  more  likely  that  he  had  some  fuller 
account  of  the  speech  itself.  And  it  need  not  be  thought  that  the  same 
account  would  have  enabled  him  to  correct  the  error.  It  may  on  the  con- 
trary have  authorised  and  established  it.  Of  such  a  declaration  as  this 
there  would  no  doubt  at  the  time  be  many  copies  or  abstracts  circulated. 
At  the  time,  "  His  Majesty's  Speech"  would  be  description  quite  sufficient. 
One  of  these  happened  perhaps  to  be  preserved.  A  collector  coming  into 
possession  of  it,  and  wanting  to  know  in  what  department  of  his  collection 
it  should  be  put,  fixed  the  year  at  once  from  the  circumstances.  It  was 
plainly  a  declaration  of  war  with  France,  about  the  time  when  Brittany 
was  absorbed  into  the  French  monarchy.     Then  he  turned  to  his  Poly- 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  179 

made  declaration  thereof  to  you  by  my  Chancellor. 
But  now  that  I  mean  to  make  a  war  upon  France  in 
person,  I  will  declare  it  to  you  myself.  That  war 
was  to  defend  another  man's  right,  but  this  is  to  re- 
cover^ our  own ;  and  that  ended  by  accident,  but  we 
hope  this  shall  end  in  victory. 

"  The  French  King  troubles  the  Christian  world. 
That  which  he  hath  is  not  his  own,  and  yet  he  seeketh 
more.  He  hath  invested  himself  of  Brittaine.1  He 
maintaineth  the  rebels  in  Flanders :  and  he  threateneth 
Italy.  For  ourselves,  he  hath  proceeded  from  dissimu- 
lation to  neglect,  and  from  neglect  to  contumely.  He 
hath  assailed  our  confederates :  he  denieth  our  tribute  : 
in  a  word,  he  seeks  war.  So  did  not  his  father ;  but 
sought  peace  at  our  hands ;  and  so  perhaps  will  he, 
when  good  counsel  .or  time  shall  make  him  see  as 
much  as  his  father  did. 

"  Meanwhile,  let  us  make  his  ambition  our  advan- 
tage, and  let  us  not  stand  upon  a  few  crowns  of  tribute 
or  acknowledgement,  but  by  the  favour  of  Almighty 
God  try  our  right  for  the  crown  of  France  itself; 
remembering  that  there  hath  been  a  French  King 
prisoner  in  England,  and  a  King  of  England  crowned 
in  France.  Our  confederates  are  not  diminished. 
Burgundy  is  in  a  mightier  hand  than  ever,  and  never 
more  provoked.  Brittaine  cannot  help  us,  but  it 
may  hurt  them.  New  acquests  are  more  burden 
than  strength.      The  malcontents   of  his   own   king- 


dore,  or  Hall,  or  Holinshed,  or  Stowe,  found  this  passage,  and  wrote  on  the 
back  *'  The  Speech  of  K.  Henry  7,  at  the  opening  of  the  Parliament  in 
1491 ;  "  which  would  seem  to  be  authority  sufficient  for  stating  that  Henry 
opened  the  session  in  person. 

1  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  he  hath  invested  Brittaine." 


180  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY  VII. 

dom  have  not  been  base  populace1  nor  titulary  im- 
postors ;  but  of  an  higher  nature.  The  King  of 
Spain  (doubt  ye  not)  will  join  with  us,  not  knowing 
where  the  French  King's  ambition  will  stay.  Our 
holy  father  (the  Pope)  likes  no  Tramontanes  in  Italy. 
But  howsoever  it  be,  this  matter  of  confederates  is 
rather  to  be  thought  on  than  reckoned  on  ;  for  God 
forbid  but  England  should  be  able  to  get  reason  of 
France  without  a  second. 

"  At  the  battles  of  Cressy,  Poictiers,  Agent-Court, 
we  were  of  ourselves.  France  hath  much  people,  and 
few  soldiers  :  they  have  no  stable  bands  of  foot.  Some 
good  horse  they  have,  but  those  are  forces  which  are 
least  fit  for  a  defensive  war,  where  the  actions  are  in 
the  assailant's  choice.  It  was  our  discords  only  that 
lost  France  ;  and  (by  the  power  of  God)  it  is  the 
good  peace  which  we  now  enjoy  that  will  recover  it. 
God  hath  hitherto  blessed  my  sword.  I  have  in  this 
time  that  I  have  reigned,  weeded  out  my  bad  subjects, 
and  tried  my  good.  My  people  and  I  know  one  an- 
other ;  which  breeds  confidence.  And  if  there  should 
be  any  bad  blood  left  in  the  kingdom,  an  honourable 
foreign  war  will  vent  it  or  purify  it.  In  this  great 
business  let  me  have  your  advice  and  aid.  If  any  of 
you  were  to  make  his  son  knight,  you  might  have  aid 
of  your  tenants  by  law.  This  concerns  the  knight- 
hood and  spurs  of  the  kingdom,  whereof  I  am  father ; 
and  bound  not  only  to  seek  to  maintain  it,  but  to 
advance  it.  But  for  matter  of  treasure  let  it  not  be 
taken  from  the  poorest  sort,  but  from  those  to  whom 

1  The  Ed.  of  1622  has  "base,  popular."  In  the  MS.  it  seems  to 
have  been  first  written  "  populare,"  but  the  r  has  plainly  been  correct- 
ed into  a  c. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  181 

the  benefit  of  the  war  may  redound.  France  is  no 
wilderness,  and  I  that  profess  good  husbandry  hope 
to  make  the  war  (after  the  beginnings)  to  pay  itself. 
Go  together  in  God's  name,  and  lose  no  time,  for  I 
have^called  this  Parliament  wholly  for  this  cause." 

Thus  spake  the  King.  But  for  all  this,  though  he 
shewed  great  forwardness  for  a  war,  not  only  to  his 
Parliament  and  court,  but  to  his  privy  counsel  likewise 
(except  the  two  bishops  and  a  few  more),  yet  never- 
theless in  his  secret  intentions  he  had  no  purpose  to  go 
through  with  any  war  upon  France.  But  the  truth 
was,  that  he  did  but  traffic  with  that  war,  to  make  his 
return  in  money.  He  knew  well  that  France  was  now 
entire  and  at  unity  with  itself,  and  never  so  mighty 
many  years  before.  He  saw  by  the  taste  he 2  had  of 
his  forces  sent  into  Brittaine  that  the  French  knew 
well  enough  how  to  make  war  with  the  English ;  by 
not  putting  things  to  the  hazard  of  a  battle,  but  weary-r- 
ing 2  them  by  long  sieges  of  towns,  and  strong  fortified 
en  campings.  James  the  Third  of  Scotland,  his  true 
friend  and  confederate,  gone ;  and  James  the  Fourth 
(that  had  succeeded)  wholly  at  the  devotion  of  France, 
and  ill-affected  towards  him.  As  for  the  conjunctions 
of  Ferdinando  of  Spain  and  Maximilian,  he  could 
make  no  foundation  upon  them.  For  the  one  had 
power  and  not  will ;  and  the  other  had  will  and  not 
power.  Besides  that  Ferdinando  had  but  newly  taken 
breath  from  the  war  with  the  Moors  ;  and  merchanded 
at  this  time  with  France  for  the  restoring  of  the  coun- 
ties of  Russignon  and  Perpignian,  oppignorated  to  the 
French.     Neither  was  he  out  of  fear  of  the  discontents 

1  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  that  he." 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  M  wearing." 


182  HISTORY  OF  ZING  HENRY  VII. 

and  ill  blood  within  the  realm  ;  which  having  used 
always  to  repress  and  appease  in  person,  he  was  loth 
they  should  find  him  at  a  distance  beyond  sea,  and 
engaged  in  war.  Finding  therefore  the  inconven- 
iencies  and  difficulties  in  the  prosecution  of  a  war,  he 
cast  with  himself  how  to  compass  two  things.  The 
one,  how  by  the  declaration  and  inchoation  of  a  war 
to  make  his  profit.  The  other,  how  to  come  off  from 
the  war  with  saving  of  his  honour.  For  profit,  it  was 
to  be  made  two  ways ;  upon  his  subjects  for  the  war, 
and  upon  his  enemies  for  the  peace  ;  like  a  good  mer- 
chant that  maketh  his  gain  both  upon  the  commodities 
exported  and  imported  back  again.  For  the  point  of 
honour,  wherein  he  might  suffer  for  giving  over  the 
war,  he  considered  well,  that  as  he  could  not  trust 
upon  the  aids  of  Ferdinando  and  Maximilian  for  sup- 
ports of  war,  so  the  impuissance  of  the  one,  and  the 
double  proceeding  of  the  other,  lay  fair  for  him  for 
occasions1  to  accept  of  peace. 

These  things  he  did  wisely  foresee,  and  did  as  artifi- 
cially conduct",  whereby  all  things  fell  into  his  lap  as 
he  desired. 

For  as  for  the  Parliament,  it  presently  took  fire, 
being  affectionate  (of  old)  to  the  war  of  France,  and 
desirous  (afresh)  to  repair  the  dishonour  they  thought 
the  King  sustained  by  the  loss  of  Brittaine.  There- 
fore they  advised  the  King  (with  great  alacrity)  to 
undertake  the  war  of  France.  And  although  the 
Parliament  consisted  of  the  first  and  second  nobility 
(together  with  principal  citizens  and  townsmen),2  yet 

1  i.  e.  pretexts.     Semper  prcesto  habiturus  esset  adpacem  excusandam. 

2  With  reference  to  the  question  whether  this  was  a  Parliament  or  a 
Great  Council,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  compare  with  this  description 


HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY   VII.  183 

worthily  and  justly  respecting  more  the  people  (whose 
deputies  they  were)  than  their  own  private  persons ; 
and  finding,  by  the  Lord  Chancellor's  speech,1  the 
King's  inclination  that  way ;  they  consented  that 
commissioners  should  go  forth  for  the  gathering  and 
levying  of  a  Benevolence  from  the  more  able  sort. 
This  tax  (called  a  Benevolence)  was  devised  by  Ed- 
ward the  Fourth,  for  which  he  sustained  much  envy. 
It  was  abolished  by  Richard  the  Third  by  act  of  Par- 
liament, to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  people  ;  and  it 
was  now  revived  by  the  King ;  but  with  consent  of 
Parliament ; 2  for  so  it  was  not  in  the  time  of  King 
Edward  the  Fourth.     But  by  this  way  he  raised  ex- 

of  it  two  independent  descriptions  of  what  was  certainly  a  Great  Coun- 
cil, in  the  year  1496.  "In  this  yere  (says  an  old  city  chronicler,  Cott. 
Vitell.  A.  xvi.  p.  161.)  the  24th  day  of  Octobre  beganne  a  great  coun- 
saill  holden  at  Westmynster  by  the  Kyng  and  his  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal,  to  the  which  counsaill  come  certeyn  burgesses  and  merchants 
of  all  cities  and  good  townes  of  England,"  &c.  And  in  an  original  privy 
seal  of  Hen.  VII.  (Cott.  Tit.  B.  v.  p.  145.),  the  same  council  is  described 
as  "orgrete  counseill  of  lords  spriiell  and  tempell,  of  juges,  sjaunts  in 
o  lawe  and  others  soni  hede-wisemen  of  evy  citie  and  good  towne  of  this 
or  lond."     Bacon's  description  therefore  applies  to  either. 

1  This  seems  to  be  a  slip  of  the  memory;  for  though  it  was  usual  for 
the  Lord  Chancellor  to  speak  after  the  King,  the  allusion  is  apparently  to 
the  last  part  of  the  King's  own  speech.  The  Latin  translation  has  Quin  cl 
regis  moniti  memoirs,  in  hoc  consenserunt,  ut  contributio  (qutim  benevolentiam 
appellabant)  ab  opulentioribus  tantum  exigeretur. 

2  Hume  observed  (on  a  comparison  of  dates)  that  this  was  a  mistake.  I 
have  already  explained  at  length  my  own  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
mistake  and  how  it  arose.  If  that  explanation  should  be  rejected,  it  may 
be  accounted  for  another  way.  The  commissions  for  the  levying  of  the 
benevolence,  though  the  great  body  of  them  bear  date  the  7th  July,  1491, 
did  not  all  bear  that  date.  There  is  a  commission  given  in  Rymer,  dated 
6th  December,  1491,  which  is  in  the  same  words  precisely.  Any  one  who 
had  happened  to  meet  with  the  last  and  not  with  any  others  would  have 
set  it  down  as  fixing  the  date  of  the  levy  of  the  benevolence  beyond  all 
question.  It  may  be  observed  that  this  benevolence  received  a  kind  of 
sanction  from  a  subsequent  Parliament;  an  act  being  passed  in  1495  to 
enforce  the  payment  of  sums  which  had  been  promised.     See  p.  241. 


184  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

ceeding  great  sums.  Insomuch  as  the  city  of  London 
(in  those  days)  *  contributed  nine  thousand  pounds 
and  better ;  and  that,  chiefly  levied  upon  the  wealthier 
sort.  There  is  a  tradition  of  a  dilemma  that  Bishop 
Morton  (the  Chancellor)  used,  to  raise  up  the  Benev- 
olence to  higher  rates  ;  and  some  called  it  his  fork, 
and  some  his  crotch.  For  he  had  couched  an  article 
in  the  instructions  to  the  commissioners  who  were  to 
levy  the  Benevolence,  That  if  they  met  with  any  that 
were  sparing,  they  should  tell  them  that  they  must 
needs  have,  because  they  laid  up  ;  and  if  they  were 
spenders,  they  must  needs  have,  because  it  was  seen 
in  their  port  and  manner  of  living  ;  so  neither  kind 
came  amiss. 

This  Parliament  was  merely  a  Parliament  of  war ; 
for  it  was  in  substance  but  a  declaration  of  war 
against  France  and  Scotland, 2  with  some  statutes  con- 

1  i.  e.  even  in  those  days;  when  money  was  so  much  scarcer.  Eiiam 
ilia  cetate. 

a  The  declsiration  of  war  against  Scotland,  of  which  no  mention  is 
made  in  our  modern  histories,  is  contained  in  the  preamble  to  the  act 
(7  H.  7.  c.  6.),  by  which  all  Scots,  not  made  denizens,  were  ordered  out 
of  the  kingdom  within  forty  days.  "  The  King,"  it  says,  "  our  Sovereign 
Lord,  hath  had  to  his  great  cost  and  charge  many  assemblies  and  com- 
munications with  the  King  of  Scots  for  amity  truce  and  peace  to  be  had 
and  observed  betwixt  his  Highness  and  his  subjects  on  the  one  part,  and 
the  King  of  Scots  and  his  subjects  on  the  other  part;  but  what  accord 
or  agreement  soever  be  taken  or  concluded,  such  accord  or  agreement 
on  the  part  of  the  said  King  of  Scots  is  ever  under  the  surest  promise 
broken  and  not  kept ;  for  the  which  it  is  better  to  be  with  them  at  open 
war  than  under  such  a  feigned  peace:  wherefore,"  &c. 

I  suppose  the  measure  may  be  regarded  as  one  partly  of  precaution 
and  partly  of  menace;  the  object  being  to  induce  the  Scotch  King  to 
renew  the  truce,  which  for  some  reason  or  other  he  seems  to  huve  been 
reluctant  to  do.  The  truce  between  England  and  Scotland  which  had 
been  confirmed  at  Westminster  on  the  24th  of  October,  1488  (See  Rot. 
Scot.  ii.  p.  488.),  expired  on  the  5th  of  October,  1491.  For  some  time 
before,  the  two  kings  had  been  on  terms  of  mutual  distrust  and  secret 
hostility.     Henry  had  been  secretly  encouraging  some  of  James's  disaf- 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  185 

ducing  thereunto ;  as  the  severe  punishing  of  mort- 
pays  and  keeping  back  soldiers'  wages  in  captains  ; 
the  like  severity  for  the  departure  of  soldiers  without 
licence  ;  strengthening  of  the  common  law  in  favour 
of  protections  for  those  that  were  in  the  King's  ser- 
vice ; !  and  the  setting  the  gate  open  and  wide,  for 
men  to  sell  or  mortgage  their  lands  without  fines  for 
alienation,2  to  furnish  themselves  with  money  for  the 

fee  ted  subjects  in  a  design  to  possess  themselves  of  his  person  and  de- 
liver it  into  his  hands ;  —  a  design  however  which  was  probably  not  to 
be  executed  till  after  the  expiration  of  the  truce  upon  failure  of  the  ne- 
gotiations for  renewing  it.  James  had  been  secretly  negotiating  with 
the  Duchess  of  Burgundy  and  Perkin  Warbeck,  and  is  supposed  (see 
Tytler,  iv.  p.  361.)  to  have  made  up  his  mind  to  break  with  England 
as  soon  as  he  durst.  Which  of  the  two  had  the  justest  ground  of  com- 
plaint it  would  not  be  easy  to  ascertain :  but  it  is  clear  that  neither  of 
them  could  have  felt  secure  that  the  other  would  not  take  against  him 
the  first  advantage  that  offered;  and  it  was  necessary  for  Henry,  on  en- 
tering into  a  war  with  France,  to  make  himself  safe  on  the  Scotch  side. 
He  was  now  well  furnished  with  money  and  with  troops,  and  well  sec- 
onded by  his  people,  and  therefore  in  a  good  condition  to  treat.  (It  was 
partly  with  this  view  probably  that  he  commenced  his  preparations  for 
the  French  invasion  so  long  before  the  time.)  Commissioners  had  been 
appointed  in  April  and  again  in  June,  both  to  settle  complaints  concern- 
ing breaches  of  the  existing  truce  and  to  treat  for  the  prolongation  of  it; 
but  nothing  seems  to  have  been  concluded.  Immediately  upon  its  ex- 
piration followed  the  declaration  of  war,  which  had  better  success :  for 
new  commissioners  being  presently  sent  by  Henry  (22nd  of  October)  on 
the  same  errand,  they  were  met  by  commissioners  on  the  other  side, 
and  on  the  21st  of  December  following  a  new  truce  was  agreed  upon 
between  them,  which  was  to  last  for  five  years.  Henry  ratified  it  at 
once  (9th  of  January,  1491-2);  but  James,  it  seems,  demurred;  and  a 
truce  for  nine  months  only  was  in  the  end  concluded.  It  was  to  com- 
mence on  the  20th  of  February  and  last  till  the  20th  November,  1492 : 
and  was  ratified  by  James  on  the  18th  of  March.     See  Rymer. 

1  7  H.  7.  c.  1,  2.  Veluti  circa  severam  anhnadversionem  in  capitaneos 
qui  aut  stipewUa  militum  mortuorum  vel  absentium  in  raliones  suas  rej'errent, 
aut  ttiam  slipendia  militum  detinerent.  Severe  eliam  sancitum  est  contra 
milites  qui  post  delectum  habiium  sine  licentia  se  substraherent.  Etiam  pro- 
tectiones  quae,  prius  lege  communi  in  usu  erant  pro  iis  qui  militabant,  statuto 
roboratcB  sunt. 

2  Thereby  releasing  them  from  the  charges  which  were  due  to  the 
crown  in  that  case:  ne  aliquid  inde  pro  eorwn  alienatiunibus  reyi  solverent. 


186  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Avar ;  and  lastly  the  voiding  of  all  Scotchmen  out  of 
England. 

There  was  also  a  statute  for  the  dispersing  of  the 
standard  of  the  exchequer  throughout  England,  there- 
by to  size  weights  and  measures  ; l  and  two  or  three 
more  of  less  importance. 

After  the  Parliament  was  broken  up  (which  lasted 
not  long)  the  King  went  on  with  his  preparations 
for  the  war  of  France ;  yet  neglected  not  in  the 
mean  time  the  affairs  of  Maximilian,  for  the  quiet- 
ing of  Flanders  and  restoring  him  to  his  authority 
amongst  his  subjects.  For  at  that  time  the  Lord  of 
Ravenstein,  being  not  only  a  subject  rebelled  but  a 
servant  revolted  (and  so  much  the  more  malicious 
and  violent),  by  the  aid  of  Bruges  and  Gaunt  had 
taken  the  town  and  both  the  castles  of  Sluice  (as 
we  said  before)  ;  and  having  by  the  commodity  of 
the  haven  gotten  together  certain  ships  and  barks, 
fell  to  a  kind  of  piratical  trade  ;  robbing  and  spoil- 
ing and  taking  prisoners  the  ships  and  vessels  of  all 
nations  that  passed  alongst  that  coast  towards  the 
mart  of  Antwerp,  or  into  any  part  of  Brabant,  Zea- 
land, or  Friezeland ;  being  ever  well  victualled  from 
Picardy,  besides  the  commodity  of  victuals  from  Sluice 
and  the  country  adjacent,  and  the  avails  of  his  own 
prizes.  The  French  assisted  him  still  under-hand ; 
and  he  likewise  (as  all  men  do  that  have  been  on 
both  sides)  thought  himself  not  safe,  except  he  de- 
pended upon  a  third  person.  There  was  a  small  town 
some  two  miles  from  Bruges  towards  the  sea,  called 

1  7  H.  7.  c.  3.  Ut  exemplar  ponderum  et  mensurarum  quod  in  scacchario 
regis  ut  authenticum  repositum  est,  in  universum  regnum  disperyeretur ;  et 
pondera  atque  mensurce  ubique  ad  earn  normam  examinarentur  et  reducerentur. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  187 

Dam ;  which  was  a  fort  and  approach  to  Bruges, 
and  had  a  relation  also  to  Sluice.  This  town  the 
King  of  the  Romans  had  attempted  often  (not  for 
any  worth  of  the  town  in  itself,  but  because  it  might 
choke  Bruges,  and  cut  it  off  from  the  sea)  ;  and 
ever  failed.  But  therewith  the  Duke  of  Saxony 
came  down  into  Flanders,  taking  upon  him  the  per- 
son of  an  umpire,  to  compose  things  between  Max- 
imilian and  his  subjects  ;  but  being  (indeed)  fast  and 
assured  to  Maximilian.  Upon  this  pretext  of  neu- 
trality and  treaty,  he  repaired  to  Bruges,  desiring 
of  the  states  of  Bruges  to  enter  peaceably  into  their 
town,  with  a  retinue  of  some  number  of  men  of  arms 
fit  for  his  estate,  being  somewhat  the  more  (as  he 
said)  the  better  to  guard  him  in  a  country  that  was 
up  in  arms  ;  and  bearing  them  in  hand  that  he  was 
to  communicate  with  them  of  divers  matters  of  great 
importance  for  their  good ;  which  having  obtained 
of  them,  he  sent  his  carriages  and  harbingers  be- 
fore him  to  provide  his  lodging  ;  so  that  his  men  of 
war  entered  the  city  in  good  array,  but  in  peace- 
able manner,1  and  he  followed.  They  that  went 
before  inquired  still  for  inns  and  lodgings,  as  if 
they  would  have  rested  there  all  night  ;  and  so 
went  on  till  they  came  to  the  gate  that  leadeth 
directly  towards  Dam ;  and  they  of  Bruges  only 
gazed  upon  them,  and  gave  them  passage.  The 
captains  and  inhabitants  of  Dam  also  suspected  no 
harm  from  any  that  passed  through  Bruges ;  and 
discovering  forces  afar  off,  supposed  they  had  been 
some  succours  that  were  come  from  their  friends, 
knowing   some   dangers    towards    them :   and   so    per- 

1  This  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 


188  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

ceiving  nothing  but  well  till  it  was  too  late,  suf- 
fered them  to  enter  their  town.  By  which  kind 
of  slight,  rather  than  stratagem,  the  town  of  Dam 
was  taken,  and  the  town  of  Bruges  shrewdly  blocked 
up,  whereby  they  took  great  discouragement.  The 
Duke  of  Saxony,  having  won  the  town  of  Dam, 
sent  immediately  to  the  King1  to  let  him  know 
that  it  was  Sluice  chiefly  and  the  Lord  Ravenstein 
that  kept  the  rebellion  of  Flanders  in  life;  and  that 
if  it  pleased  the  King  to  besiege  it  by  sea,  he  also 
would  besiege  it  by  land,  and  so  cut  out  the  core 
of  those  wars.  The  King,  willing  to  uphold  the 
authority  of  Maximilian  (the  better  to  hold  France 
in  awe),2  and  being  likewise  sued  unto  by  his  mer- 
chants, for  that  the  seas  were  much  infested  by  the 
barks  of  the  Lord  Ravenstein,  sent  straightways  Sir 
Edward  Poynings,3  a  valiant  man  and  of  good  ser- 
vice, with  twelve  ships,  well  furnished  with  soldiers 
and  artillery,  to  clear  the  seas,  and  to  besiege  Sluice 
on  that  part.  The  Englishmen  did  not  only  coop 
up  the  Lord  Ravenstein,  that  he  stirred  not,  and 
likewise  hold  in  strait  siege  the  maritime  part  of 
the  town,  but  also  assailed  one  of  the  castles,  and 
renewed  the  assault  so  for  twenty  days'  space  (is- 
suing still  out  of  their  ships  at  the  ebb),  as  they 
made  great  slaughter  of  them  of  the  castle,  who  con- 
tinually fought  with  them  to  repulse  them ;  though 
of   the    English    part   also    were    slain    a   brother    of 

1  i.  e.  to  King  Henry.     The  Latin  has  Henricum  Regem. 

'l  Ut  frceno  Gallia,  esset.  Maximilian's  territory,  lying  along  the  north- 
eastern border  of  France,  not  only  checked  her  encroachments  on  that  side, 
but  could  be  used  to  effect  a  diversion  and  so  prevent  her  from  concentrat- 
ing her  forces  elsewhere:  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  Brittany  in  1489. 

3  This  according  to  Rapin  (whose  dates  however  are  not  to  be  toe 
much  trusted)  was  in  the  middle  of  1492. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  189 

the  Earl  of  Oxford's,  and  some  fifty  more.  But  the 
siege  still  continuing  more  and  more  strait ;  and 
both  the  castles  (which  were  the  principal  strength 
of  the  town)  being  distressed,  the  one  by  the  Duke 
of  Satxony,  and  the  other  by  the  English  ;  and  a 
bridge  of  boats,  which  the  Lord  Ravenstein  had 
made  between  both  castles,  whereby  succours  and 
relief  might  pass  from  the  one  to  the  other,  being  on 
a  night  set  on  fire  by  the  English  ;  he  despairing  to 
hold  the  town,  yielded  (at  the  last)  the  castles  to 
the  English,  and  the  town  to  the  Duke  of  Saxony, 
by  composition.  Which  done,  the  Duke  of  Saxony 
and  Sir  Edward  Poynings  treated  with  them  of  Bru- 
ges to  submit  themselves  to  Maximilian  their  lord ; 
which  after  some  time  they  did,  paying  (in  some 
good  part)  the  charge  of  the  war,  whereby  the  Al- 
mains  and  foreign  succours  were  dismissed.  The 
example  of  Bruges  other  of  the  revolted  towns  fol- 
lowed;  so  that  Maximilian  grew  to  be  out  of  dan- 
ger, but  (as  his  manner  was  to  handle  matters)  nev- 
er out  of  necessity.  And  Sir  Edward  Poynings 
(after  he  had  continued  at  Sluice  some  good  while 
till  all  things  were  settled)  returned  unto  the  King, 
being  then  before  Bulloigne.1 

Somewhat  about  this  time2  came  letters  from  Ferdi- 
nando  and  Isabella,  King  and  Queen  of  Spain,  signify- 
ing the  final  conquest  of  Granada  from  the  Moors  ; 
which  action,  in  itself  so  worthy,  King  Ferdinando 
(whose  manner  was  never  to  lose  any  virtue  for  the 

1  Sometime,  therefore,  between  the  19th  of  October  and  the  7th  or  8th 
of  November,  1492. 

2  Earlier,  if  Rapin's  date  does  not  put  the  expedition  of  Sir  Edward 
Poinings  too  late.  The  solemnity  in  St.  Paul's  was  on  the  6th  of  April, 
1492.     See  old  Chron.  (Cott.  Vitei.  A,  xvi.  p.  161.). 


190  HISTOEY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

shewing)  had  expressed  and  displayed  in  his  letters 
at  large ;  with  all  the  particularities  and  religious 
punctos  and  ceremonies,  that  were  observed  in  the  re- 
ception of  that  city  and  kingdom  : *  shewing  amongst 
other  things,  that  the  King  would  not  by  any  means 
in  person  enter  the  city,  until  he  had  first  aloof  seen 
the  cross  set  up  upon  the  greater  tower  of  Granada, 
whereby  it  became  Christian  ground  :  that  likewise 
before  he  would  enter  he  did  homage  to  God  above, 
pronouncing  by  an  herald  from  the  height  of  that 
tower,  that  he  did  acknowledge  to  have  recovered 
that  kingdom  by  the  help  of  God  Almighty,  and  the 
glorious  Virgin,  and  the  virtuous  Apostle  Saint  James, 
and  the  holy  father  Innocent  the  Eighth,  together 
with  the  aids  and  services  of  his  prelates,  nobles,  and 
commons  :  that  yet  he  stirred  not  from  his  camp,  till 
he  had  seen  a  little  army  of  martyrs,  to  the  number 
of  seven  hundred  and  more  Christians  (that  had  lived 
in  bonds  and  servitude  as  slaves2  to  the  Moors),  pass 
before  his  eyes,  singing  a  psalm  for  their  redemption  ; 
and  that  he  had  given  tribute  unto  God,  by  alms  and 
relief  extended  to  them  all,  for  his  admission  into  the 
city.  These  things  were  in  the  letters,  with  many 
more  ceremonies  of  a  kind  of  holy  ostentation.  The 
King,  ever  willing  to  put  himself  into  the  consort  or 
quire  of  all  religious  actions,  and  naturally  affecting 
much  the  King  of  Spain  (as  far  as  one  King  can  affect 
another),  partly  for  his  virtue  and  partly  for  a  counter- 
poise to  France ;  upon  the  receipt  of  these  letters  sent 
all  his  nobles  and  prelates  that  were  about  the  court,3 

1  Ejus  regni. 

'2  The  translation  has  crudelissima  servitute. 

3  The  translation  has  urbem  et  aulam. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  191 

together  with  the  mayor  and  aldermen  of  London,  in 
great  solemnity  to  the  Church  of  Paul's  ;  there  to  hear 
a  declaration  from  the  Lord  Chancellor,  now  Cardinal. 
When  they  were  assembled,  the  Cardinal,  standing 
upon  the  uppermost  step  or  half-pace  before  the  quire, 
and  all  the  nobles,  prelates,  and  governors  of  the  City 
at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  made  a  speech  to  them ;  letting 
them  know,  that  they  were  assembled *  in  that  conse- 
crated place  to  sing  unto  God  a  new  song.  For  that 
(said  he)  these  many  years  the  Christians  have  not 
gained  new  ground  or  territory  upon  the  Infidels,2  nor 
enlarged  and  set  further  the  bounds  of  the  Christian 
world.  But  this  is  now  done  by  the  prowess  and  devo- 
tion of  Ferdinando  and  Isabella,  Kings  of  Spain ;  who 
have  to  their  immortal  honour  recovered  the  great  and 
rich  kingdom  of  Granada  and  the  populous  and  mighty 
city  of  the  same  name  from  the  Moors,3  having  been  in 
possession  thereof  by  the  space  of  seven  hundred  years 
and  more  ;  for  which  this  assembly  and  all  Christians 
are  to  render  all  laud  and  thanks  unto  God,  and  to 
celebrate  this  noble  act  of  the  King  of  Spain,  who  in 
this  is  not  only  victorious  but  apostolical,  in  the  gaining 
of  new  provinces  to  the  Christian  faith ;  and  the  rather 
for  that  this  victory  and  conquest  is  obtained  without 
much  effusion  of  blood  ;  whereby  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
there  shall  be  gained  not  only  new  territory,  but  infinite 
souls  to  the  church  of  Christ ;  whom  the  Almighty  (as 
it  seems)  would  have  live  to  be  converted.    Herewithal 

ie  did  relate  some  of  the  most  memorable  particulars 
f  the  war  and  victory.     And  after  his  speech  ended, 


1  Ex  regis  mandate  convenisse. 

2  Saracenis  et  Mahumetanis. 
8  A  Saracenis. 


192  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY  VII. 

the  whole  assembly  went  solemnly  in  procession,  and 
Te  Deum  was  sung. 

Immediately  after  the  solemnity,1  the  King  kept  his 
May-day  of  his  palace  at  Shine  (now  Richmond)  ; 
where  to  warm  the  blood  of  his  nobility  and  gallants 
against  the  war,  he  kept  great  triumphs  of  justing  and 
tourney  during  all  that  month.  In  which  space  it  so 
fell  out,  that  Sir  James  Parker  and  Hugh  Vaughan 
one  of  the  King's  gentlemen  ushers,  having  had  a 
controversy  touching  certain  arms  that  the  King-at- 
Arms  had  given  Vaughan,  were  appointed  to  run  some 
courses  one  against  another ;  and  by  accident  of  a 
faulty  helmet  that  Parker  had  on,  he  was  stricken  into 
the  mouth  at  the  first  course,  so  that  his  tongue  was 
borne  unto  the  hinder  part  of  his  head,  in  such  sort 
that  he  died  presently  upon  the  place  ;  which  because 
of  the  controversy  precedent,  and  the  death  that  fol- 
lowed, was  accounted  amongst  the  vulgar  as  a  combat 
or  trial  of  right. 

The  King  towards  the  end  of  this  summer,  having 
put  his  forces  wherewith  he  meant  to  invade  France  in 
readiness  (but  so  as  they  were  not  yet  met  or  mustered 
together),  sent  Urswick,  now  made  his  almoner,  and 
Sir  John  Risley  to  Maximilian,  to  let  him  know  that 
he  was  in  arms,  ready  to  pass  the  seas  into  France,  and 
did  but  expect  to  hear  from  him  when  and  where  he 
did  appoint  to  join  with  him,  according  to  his  promise 
made  unto  him  by  Countebalt  his  ambassador. 

The  English  ambassadors  having  repaired  to  Maxi- 
milian did  find  his  power  and  promise  at  a  very  great 
distance  ;  he  being  utterly  unprovided  of  men,  money, 
and  arms,  for  any  such  enterprise.      For  Maximilian 

1  Non  muliis  diebus  ab  hac  solemnitate. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  193 

having  neither  wing  to  fly  on,  for  that  his  patrimony  of 
Austria  was  not  in  his  hands  (his  father  being  then  liv- 
ing), and  on  the  other  side  his  matrimonial  territories 
of  Flanders  were *  partly  in  dower  to  his  mother-in-law, 
and  partly  not  serviceable  in  respect  of  the  late  rebel- 
lions,2 was  thereby  destitute  of  means  to  enter  into  war. 
The  ambassadors  saw  this  well,  but  wisely  thought  fit  to 
advertise  the  King  thereof,  rather  than  to  return  them- 
selves, till  the  King's  further  pleasure  were  known :  the 
rather,  for  that  Maximilian  himself  spake  as  great  as 
ever  he  did  before,  and  entertained  them  with  dilatory 
answers ;  so  as  the  formal  part  of  their  ambassage  might 
well  warrant  and  require  their  further  stay.  The 
King  hereupon,  who  doubted  as  much  before,  and  saw 
through  his  business  from  the  beginning,  wrote  back  to 
the  ambassadors,  commending  their  discretion  in  not 
returning,  and  willing  them  to  keep  the  state  wherein 
they  found  Maximilian  as  a  secret,  till  they  heard  fur- 
ther from  him  ;  and  meanwhile  went  on  with  his  voyage 
royal  for  France  ;  suppressing  for  a  time  this  adver- 
tisement touching  Maximilian's  poverty  and  disability. 
By  this  time  was  drawn  together  a  great  and  puis- 

Isant  army  unto  the  City  of  London ;  in  which  were 
Thomas  Marquis  Dorset,  Thomas  Earl  of  Arundel, 
Thomas  Earl  of  Derby,  George  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 
Edmond  Earl  of  Suffolk,  Edward  Earl  of  Devonshire, 
George  Earl  of  Kent,  the  Earl  of  Essex,  Thomas  Earl 
of  Ormond,  with  a  great  number  of  barons,  knights, 
and  principal  gentlemen  ;  and  amongst  them  Richard 
Thomas,  much  noted  for  the  brave  troops  that  he 
brought  out  of  Wales  ;  the  army  rising  in  the  whole 

1  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "being." 

2  Recentibus  rebellionibus  exhausta. 
VOL.  XI.  13 


194  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

to  the  number  of  five  and  twenty  thousand  foot,  and 
sixteen  hundred  horse  ;  over  which  the  King  (constant 
in  his  accustomed  trust  and  employment)  made  Jasper 
Duke  of  Bedford  and  John  Earl  of  Oxford  generals 
under  his  own  person.  The  ninth  of  September,  in 
the  eighth  year  of  his  reign,  he  departed  from  Green- 
wich towards  the  sea  ;  all  men  wondering  that  he  took 
that  season  (being  so  near  winter)  to  begin  the  war, 
and  some  thereupon  gathering  it  was  a  sign  that  the 
war  would  not  be  long.  Nevertheless  the  King  gave 
out  the  contrary,  thus ;  That  he  intending  not  to  make 
a  summer  business  of  it,  but  a  resolute  war  (without 
term  prefixed)  until  he  had  recovered  France,  it  skilled 
not  much  when  he  began  it ;  especially  having  Calais 
at  his  back,  where  he  might  winter,  if  the  reason  of 
the  war  so  required.  The  sixth  of  October  he  em- 
barked at  Sandwich  ;  and  the  same  day  took  land  at 
Calais,  which  was  the  rendezvous  where  all  his  forces 
were  assigned  to  meet.  But  in  this  his  journey  tow- 
ards the  sea-side  (wherein  for  the  cause  that  we  shall 
now  speak  of  he  hovered  so  much  the  longer),  he  had 
received  letters  from  the  Lord  Cordes  (who  the  hotter 
he  was  against  the  English  in  time  of  war  had  the  more 
credit  in  a  negotiation  of  peace,  and  besides  was  held  a 
man  open  and  of  good  faith)  ;  in  which  letters  there 
was  made  an  overture  of  peace  from  the  French  King, 
with  such  conditions  as  were  somewhat  to  the  King's 
taste  ;  but  this  was  carried  at  the  first  with  wonderful 
secrecy.  The  King  was  no  sooner  come  to  Calais,  but 
the  calm  winds  of  peace  began  to  blow.  For  first  the 
English  ambassadors  returned  out  of  Flanders  from 
Maximilian,  and  certified  the  King  that  he  was  not  to 
hope  for  any  aid  from   Maximilian,  for  that  he  was 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  195 

altogether  unprovided.  His  will  was  good,  but  he 
lacked  money.  And  this  was  made  known  and  spread 
throughout  the  army.  And  although  the  English  were 
therewithal  nothing  dismayed,  and  that  it  be  the  man- 
ner of  soldiers  upon  bad  news  to  speak  the  more 
bravely;1  yet  nevertheless  it  was  a  kind  of  prepara- 
tive to  a  peace.  Instantly  in  the  neck  of  this  (as  the 
King  had  laid  it)  came  news  that  Ferdinando  and 
Isabella,  Kings  of  Spain,  had  concluded  a  peace  with 
King  Charles,  and  that  Charles  had  restored  unto  them 
the  counties  of  Ruscignon  and  Perpignian,  which  for- 
merly were  mortgaged  by  John  King  of  Arragon, 
Ferdinando's  father,  unto  France,  for  three  hundred 
thousand  crowns  :  which  debt  was  also  upon  this  peace 
by  Charles  clearly  released.  This  came  also  hand- 
somely to  put  on  the  peace,  both  because  so  potent  a 
confederate2  was  fallen  off,  and  because  it  was  a  fair 
example  of  a  peace  bought ;  so  as  the  King  should  not 
be  the  sole  merchant  in  this  peace.  Upon  these  airs 
of  peace,  the  King  was  content  that  the  Bishop  of 
Exeter  and  the  Lord  Daubigny  (Governor  of  Calais) 
should  give  a  meeting  unto  the  Lord  Cordes,  for  the 
treaty  of  a  peace  :  but  himself  nevertheless  and  his 
army,  the  fifteenth  of  October,  removed  from  Calais, 
and  in  four  days'  march  sat  him  down  before  Bulloigne. 
During  this  siege  of  Bulloigne  (which  continued 
near  a  month)  there  passed  no  memorable  action  nor 
accident  of  war.  Only  Sir  John  Savage,  a  valiant 
captain,  was  slain,  riding  about  the  walls  of  the  town 
to  take  a  view.  The  town  was  both  well  fortified  and 
well  manned  ;  yet  it  was  distressed,  and  ready  for  an 

1  Ex  malis  nuntiis  mayisjieri  alacres  et  erectos  et  magnificentius  loqui 

2  Qualis  fuerit  Ferdinandus. 


196  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

assault ;  which  if  it  had  been  given  (as  was  thought) 
would  have  cost  much  blood ;  but  yet  the  town  would 
have  been  carried  in  the  end.  Meanwhile  a  peace 
was  concluded  by  the  commissioners,  to  continue  for 
both  the  Kings'  lives.  Where  there  was  no  article  of 
importance ;  being  in  effect  rather  a  bargain  than  a 
treaty.  For  all  things  remained  as  they  were,  save 
that  there  should  be  paid  to  the  King  seven  hundred 
forty-five  thousand  ducats  in  present,  for  his  charges 
in  that  journey  ;  and  five  and  twenty  thousand  crowns 
yearly,  for  his  charges  sustained  in  the  aids  of  the 
Britons.1  For  which  annual,  though  he  had  Maxi- 
milian bound  before  for  those  charges,  yet  he  counted 
the  alteration  of  the  hand  as  much  as  the  principal 
debt ; 2  and  besides  it  was  left  somewhat  indefinitely  3 

1  So  Speed;  quoting  the  authority  partly  of  Polydore  and  partly  of  a 
MS.  Polydore's  words  are  "  Sumrna  autem  pactionis  foederis  fuit,  ut 
Carohis  primum  solveret  bene  magnam  pecuniae  summam  Henrico  pro 
sumptibus  in  id  bellum  factis,  juxta  sestimationem  legatorum ;  deinde  in 
singulos  annos  millia  aureorum  vicena  quina  penderet  per  aliquot  annos 
pro  impensa  ab  ipso  Henrico  facta  in  copias  quas  Britannis  auxilio  misis- 
set."  Speed  substituted  this  specific  "  745,000  ducats  (186,250  pounds 
English)"  to  be  paid  in  present,  for  the  bene  magnam  pecunice  summam; 
repeating  in  other  respects  Polydore's  statement. 

The  old  Chronicle,  speaking  upon  the  authority  of  the  King's  own  letter 
to  the  City,  which  was  read  at  Guildhall  on  the  9th  of  November,  says 
only  that  "  for  to  have  this  peace  established  the  French  King  granted 
unto  our  sovereign  lord,  to  be  paid  in  certain  years,  745,000  scutis;  which 
amounteth  in  sterling  money  to  127,666/.  13s.  4<£.  And  this,  it  appears 
from  Rymer,  is  the  correct  statement.  Henry  reckoned  the  expenses 
incurred  in  the  defence  of  Brittany  (for  which  the  French  Queen  was 
bound )  at  620,000  crowns  (escus  d'or)  and  the  sum  remaining  due  upon  the 
pension  granted  to  Edward  IV.  by  Lewis  XI.  at  125,000.  He  was  now  to 
give  up  his  claim  to  both  these  sums  in  consideration  of  an  annual  pay- 
ment by  the  French  King  of  50,000  francs,  to  commence  the  1st  of  May 
next,  and  be  continued  from  half  year  to  half  year  until  the  whole  745,000 
crowns  were  paid. 

2  i.  e.  worth  as  much  as  the  whole  sum.  Debitoris  mutationem  non  minus 
quam  si  debitum  ipsum  esset  persalulum  astimabat. 

8  Polydore  says  per  aliquot  annos.    And  adds  "  Franci  reges  postea,  bello 


HISTORY  OF  KING   HENRY  VII.  197 

when  it  should  determine  or  expire  ;  which  made  the 
English  esteem  it  as  a  tribute  carried  under  fair  terms. 
And  the  truth  is,  it  was  paid  both  to  the  King  and 
to  his  son  Henry  the  Eighth,  longer  than  it  could 
continue  upon  any  computation  of  charges.  There 
was  also  assigned  by  the  French  King  unto  all  the 
King's  principal  counsellors  great  pensions,  besides 
rich  gifts  for  the  present ;  which  whether  the  King 
did  permit,  to  save  his  own  purse  from  rewards,  or 
to  communicate  the  envy  of  a  business  that  was  dis- 
pleasing to  his  people,  was  diversely  interpreted:  for 
certainly  the  King  had  no  great  fancy  to  own  this 


Italico  implicate,  id  annuum  vectigal  etiara  Henrico  octavo,  septimi  filio, 
pependerunt:  quo  tandem  debitam  pecuniam  persolverent  amicitiamque 
servarent:"  which  Speed  renders  thus,  "which  (by  the  English  called 
tribute)  was  duly  paid  during  all  this  King's  reign  and  also  to  Henry  his 
son,  till  the  whole  debt  was  run  out;  thereby  to  preserve  amity  with  Eng- 
land." Id  vectigal  was  the  millia  aureorum  vicena  quina ;  which,  con- 
tinued into  Henry  VIII. 's  reign,  would  have  risen  at  the  very  least  to 
425,000  of  these  aurei;  making  (if  they  are  rightly  translated  crowns)  the 
whole  sum  1,170,000  crowns,  or  234,000/. :  a  fact  which  would  have  amply 
justified  Bacon's  remark,  a  few  lines  further  on,  that  the  annual  payments 
could  not  have  continued  so  long  "  upon  any  computation  of  charges."  As 
it  was,  the  continuation  of  the  payments  beyond  the  date  of  Henry  VH.'s 
death  is  sufficiently  explained.  The  whole  sum  of  745,000  crowns  was  to 
be  paid  off  by  half-yearly  instalments  of  25,000  francs  in  crowns  of  gold; 
each  franc  worth  20  sols,  each  crown  worth  35  sols;  at  which  rate  it 
would  take  more  than  25  years  to  pay  the  whole ;  10  years  after  the  death 
of  Henry  VII.  Bernard  Andre"  misrepresents  the  fact,  but  probably  repre- 
sents the  popular  opinion  in  England,  in  calling  it  a  tribute  granted  in  con- 
sideration of  our  French  possessions.  "  Quocirca  (he  says)  pactionibus 
utrinque  transactis  scriptoque  solemniter  commendatis,  antiquum  jus  suum 
sub  tributo,  ut  alii  sui  sanguinis  antecessores,  poposcit;  quod  quidem  gra- 
tiocissime  a  rege  Gallia?  concessum  est." 

The  half-yearly  payments  were  in  fact  continued  till  the  year  1514; 
when  in  consideration  of  a  new  claim  made  by  Henry  VIII.  as  heir  to 
Margaret  Duchess  of  Somerset,  which  (together  with  what  then  remained 
unpaid  of  the  745,000  crowns)  was  estimated  at  a  million  crowns,  Lewis 
bound  himself  to  pay  that  sum  by  half-yearly  instalments  of  50,000  francs 
each.     See  Rymer,  xiii.  p.  428. 


198  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

peace ;  and  therefore  a  little  before  it  was  concluded, 
he  had  under-hand  procured  some  of  his  best  captains 
and  men  of  war  to  advise  him  to  a  peace  under  their 
hands,  in  an  earnest  manner,  in  the  nature  of  a  sup- 
plication. But  the  truth  is,  this  peace  was  welcome 
to  both  Kings ;  to  Charles,  for  that  it  assured  unto 
him  the  possession  of  Brittaine,  and  freed  the  enter- 
prise of  Naples  ;  to  Henry,  for  that  it  filled  his  coffers  ; 
and  that  he  foresaw  at  that  time  a  storm  of  inward 
troubles  coming  upon  him,  which  presently  after  brake 
forth.  But  it  gave  no  less  discontent  to  the  nobility 
and  principal  persons  of  the  army,1  who  had  many 
of  them  sold  or  engaged  their  estates  upon  the  hopes 
of  the  war.  They  stuck  not  to  say,  That  the  King 
cared  not  to  plume  his  nobility  and  people,  to  feather 
himself.  And  some  made  themselves  merry  with  that 
the  King  had  said  in  Parliament ;  That  after  the  war 
was  once  begun,  he  doubted  not  but  to  make  it  pay 
it  itself;  saying  he  had  kept  promise. 

Having  risen  from  Bulloigne,  he  went  to  Calais, 
where  he  stayed  some  time :  from  whence  also  he 
writ  letters  2  (which  was  a  courtesy  that  he  sometimes 
used)  to  the  Mayor  of  London  and  the  Aldermen  his 
brethren  ;  half  bragging  what  great  sums  he  had  ob- 
tained for  the  peace ;  knowing  well  that  full  coffers 

1  In  the  translation,  —  remembering  probably  the  supplication  of  the 
captains  and  the  men  of  war,  —  he  adds  utcunque  nonnulli  ex  Us  ad  ejus 
nutum  se  accommoddssent. 

2  They  were  read  at  Guildhall  on  the  9th  of  November.  Old  Chron. 
Vitel.  A.  xvi.  fo.  145.  b. 

This  is  the  treaty  which  in  our  modern  historians  goes  by  the  name  of 
the  treaty  of  Estdples.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  on  the  Sunday  on 
which  it  was  concluded  (3rd  November,  1492),  the  truce  with  Scotland 
which  was  to  expire  on  the  20th  of  that  month,  was  continued  till  the  30th 
of  April,  1494.    See  Rot.  Scot.  ii.  p.  509. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  199 

of  the  King  is  ever  good  news  to  London ;  and  bet- 
ter news  it  would  have  been,  if  their  benevolence  had 
been  but  a  loan.  And  upon  the  seventeenth  of  Sep- 
tember following  he  returned  to  Westminster,  where 
he  kept  his  Christmas. 

Soon  after  the  King's  return,  he  sent  the  Order  of 
the  Garter  to  Alphonso  Duke  of  Calabria,  eldest  son 
to  Ferdinando  King  of  Naples.  An  honour  sought 
by  that  Prince  to  hold  him  up  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Italians  ;  who  expecting  the  arms  of  Charles,  made 
great  account  of  the  amity  of  England  for  a  bridle 
to  France.  It  was  received  by  Alphonso  with  all  the 
ceremony  and  pomp  that  could  be  devised  ;  as  things 
use  to  be  carried  that  are  intended  for  opinion.  It 
was  sent  by  Urswick ;  upon  whom  the  King  bestowed 
this  ambassage,  to  help  him  after  many  dry  employ- 
ments. 

At  this  time  the  King  began  again  to  be  haunted 
with  sprites  ;  by  the  magic  and  curious  arts  of  the 
Lady  Margaret ;  who  raised  up  the  ghost  of  Richard 
Duke  of  York  (second  son  to  King  Edward  the 
Fourth)  to  walk  and  vex  the  King.  This  was  a 
finer  counterfeit  stone  than  Lambert  Symnell ;  better 
done,  and  worn  upon  greater  hands ;  being  graced 
after  with  the  wearing  of  a  King  of  France  and  a 
King  of  Scotland,  not  of  a  Duchess  of  Burgundy 
only.  And  for  Symnell,  there  was  not  much  in  him, 
more  than  that  he  was  a  handsome  boy,  and  did  not 
shame  his  robes.  But  this  youth  (of  whom  we  are 
now  to  speak)  was  such  a  mercurial,  as  the  like  hath 
seldom  been  known  ;  and  could  make  his  own  part, 
if  any  time  he  chanced  to  be  out.  Wherefore  this 
being  one  of  the  strangest  examples  of  a  personation, 


200  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

that  ever  was  in  elder  or  later  times,  it  deserveth  to 
be  discovered  and  related  at  the  fall:  although  the 
King's  manner  of  shewing  things  by  pieces,  and  dark- 
lights,  hath  so  muffled  it,  that  it  hath  left  it  almost 
as  a  mystery  to  this  day. 

The  Lady  Margaret,  whom  the  King's  friends  called 
Juno,  because  she  was  to  him  as  Juno  was  to  ^Eneas, 
stirring  both  heaven  and  hell  to  do  him  mischief,  for 
a  foundation  of  her  particular  practices  against  him 
did  continually  by  all  means  possible  nourish,  main- 
tain, and  divulge  the  flying  opinion  that  Richard 
Duke  of  York  (second  son  to  Edward  the  Fourth) 
was  not  murdered  in  the  Tower  (as  was  given  out) 
but  saved  alive ;  for  that  those  who  were  employed 
in  that  barbarous  fact,  having  destroyed  the  elder 
brother,  were  stricken  with  remorse  and  compassion 
towards  the  younger,  and  set  him  privily  at  liberty 
to  seek  his  fortune.  This  lure  she  cast  abroad,  think- 
ing that  this  fame  and  belief  (together  with  the  fresh 
example  of  Lambert  Symnell)  would  draw  at  one 
time  or  other  some  birds  to  strike  upon  it.  She 
used  likewise  a  further  diligence,  not  committing  all 
to  chance :  for  she  had  some  secret  espials,  (like  to 
the  Turks  commissioners  for  children  of  tribute,1) 
to  look  abroad  for  handsome  and  graceful  youths,  to 
make  Plantagenets  and  Dukes  of  York.  At  the  last 
she  did  light  on  one,  in  whom  all  things  met,  as  one 
would  wish,  to  serve  her  turn  for  a  counterfeit  of 
Richard  Duke  of  York.  This  was  Perkin  Warbeck, 
whose  adventures  we  shall  now  describe.  For  first, 
the  years  agreed  well.     Secondly,  he  was  a  youth  of 

1  Turcorum  minislris  qui  puerorum  tributum  exigunt. 


HISTORY  OF  KING   HENRY  VII.  201 

fine  favour  and  shape ; *  but  more  than  that,  he  had 
such  a  crafty  and  bewitching  fashion2  both  to  move 
pity  and  to  induce  belief,  as  was  like  a  kind  of  fasci- 
nation and  inchantment  to  those  that  saw  him  or 
heard  "him.  Thirdly,  he  had  been  from  his  childhood 
such  a  wanderer,  or  (as  the  King  called  it)  such  a 
landloper,  as  it  was  extreme  hard  to  hunt  out  his 
nest  and  parents  ;  neither  again  could  any  man,  by 
company  or  conversing  with  him,  be  able  to  say  or 
detect  well  what  he  was ;  he  did  so  flit  from  place 
to  place.  Lastly,  there  was  a  circumstance  (which 
is  mentioned  by  one  that  writ  in  the  same  time)  that 
is  very  likely  to  have  made  somewhat  to  the  matter ; 8 
which  is,  that  King  Edward  the  Fourth  was  his  god- 
father.4    Which,   as  it  is   somewhat  suspicious  for  a 

1  Oris  elegantia  et  corporis  lineamentis  cum  dignitate  quadam  amabilis. 

2  Mores  et  gestus  ejus  tarn  erant  vafri  et  quasi  veneficiis  quibusdam  obliti. 

8  Ees  quwdam  levis  ....  quam  tamen  probabile  est  ad  ea  quae, postea  gesta 
sunt  nonnihil  atlulisse,  eisque  tanquam  ansam  praibuisse. 

4  This  fact  is  derived  from  Speed,  whose  words  are  "  this  yxmth  was 
born  (they  say)  in  the  city  of  Torney  and  called  Peter  Warbeck;  the  son 
of  a  converted  Jew,  whose  godfather  at  baptism  King  Edward  himself 
was."  But  Speed  meant  that  King  Edward  was  godfather  not  to  Perkin, 
but  to  the  Jew  when  he  was  christened.  The  fact  comes  from  Bernard 
Andre\  who  mentions  it  with  reference  to  the  Jew's  name,  which  was 
Edward.  He  does  not  say  however  that  Perkin  was  his  son :  but  only 
that  he  was  brought  up  {educalum)  by  him.  His  words  are  "  Petreium 
quendam  Tornacensem,  ab  Eduardo  quodam  Judeo,  postea  a  rege  Eduardo 
sacro  levato  fonte,  in  hac  regione  educatum."  And  in  another  place  he 
makes  Perkin  speak  of  himself  as  having  been  in  his  childhood  "  Eduardi 
Judei  ac  ante  memorati  regis  Eduardi  filioli  in  Anglia  servulus."  The 
mistake  was  pointed  out  by  Sir  Frederic  Madden  in  the  Archseologia, 
vol.  xxvii.  p.  163. 

Of  course  Bacon's  speculation  upon  the  circumstance  must  be  set 

I  aside;  being  built  entirely  upon  the  supposition  that  it  was  Perkin  him- 
self to  whom  King  Edward  stood  godfather.  And  the  true  story  (if 
Andre's  authority,  uncorroborated  by  Perkin's  confession  or  by  any  other 
contemporary  report,  be  good  enough  to  make  it  pass  for  true)  is  perhaps 


202  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

wanton  prince  to  become  gossip  in  so  mean  a  house, 
and  might  make  a  man  think  that  he  might  indeed 
have  in  him  some  base  blood  of  the  house  of  York ; 
so  at  the  least  (though  that  were  not)  it  might  give 
the  occasion  to  the  boy,  in  being  called  King  Ed- 
ward's godson,  or  perhaps  in  sport  King  Edward's 
son,  to  entertain  such  thoughts  into  his  head.  For 
tutor  he  had  none  (for  ought  that  appears1),  as  Lam- 
bert Symnell  had,  until  he  came  unto  the  Lady  Mar- 
garet who  instructed  him.2 

Thus  therefore  it  came  to  pass.  There  was  a  towns- 
man of  Tournay  that  had  borne  office  in  that  town, 
whose  name  was  John  Osbeck,  (a  converted  Jew,3) 
married  to  Katheren  de  Faro,  whose  business  drew 
him  to  live  for  a  time  with  his  wife  at  London  in  Kino- 
Edward  the  Fourth's  days  ;  during  which  time  he  had 
a  son  by  her ;  and  being  known  in  court,  the  King- 
either  out  of  religious  nobleness,  because  he  was  a 
convert,  or  upon  some  private  acquaintance,  did  him 

educalum  and  servulus,  —  whether  that  Perkin  was  pupil  or  clerk  or  ap- 
prentice or  servant  or  adopted  son  to  the  Jew  in  question,  —  we  must  at 
least  suppose  that,  in  one  capacity  or  another,  he  was  in  his  family.  Now 
we  have  it  upon  the  same  authority  that  this  Jew  was  well  acquainted 
with  King  Edward  and  his  children  —  "erat  enim  ille  patronns  meus  " 
he  makes  Perkin  say,  "  regi  Eduardo  ac  suis  liberis  familiarissimus;  " 
Perkin  must  at  least  therefore  have  seen  the  person  of  Edward  IV.,  and 
may  very  likely  have  seen  something  of  his  court  and  of  his  humours:  the 
recollection  of  which,  though  not  likely  to  have  put  it  into  his  head  to 
assume  such  a  part,  would  be  of  great  use  in  enabling  him  to  play  it.  He 
was  about  ten  years  old  when  Edward  died:  and  a  quick-witted  boy  with 
a  natural  gift  that  way,  such  as  he  must  have  had,  might  easily  at  an 
earlier  age  than  that  have  observed  enough  to  enable  him  to  fill  up  the 
outlines  of  the  story  which  he  had  to  tell  with  a  great  resemblance  to  the 
truth. 

1  This  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 

2  Quae  eum  in  omnibus  egregie  inslruxit. 

8  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  has  u  a  convert-Jew." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  203 

the  honour  as  to  be  godfather  to  his  child,1  and  named 
him  Peter.  But  afterwards  proving  a  dainty  and  ef- 
feminate youth,  he  was  commonly  called  by  the  dimin- 
utive of  his  name,  Peterkin,  or  Perkin.  For  as  for  the 
name  of  Warbeck,  it  was  given  him  when  they  did 
but  guess  at  it,  before  examinations  had  been  taken. 
But  yet  he  had  been  so  much  talked  on  by  that  name, 
as  it  stuck  by  him  after  his  true  name  of  Osbeck  was 
known.  While  he  was  a  young  child,  his  parents  re- 
turned with  him  to  Tournay.  Then  was  he  placed  in 
a  house  of  a  kinsman  of  his,  called  John  Stenbeck,  at 
Antwerp,  and  so  roamed2  up  and  down  between  Ant- 
werp and  Tournay  and  other  towns  of  Flanders  for 
a  good  time  ;  living  much  in  English  company,  and 
having  the  English  tongue  perfect.  In  which  time, 
being  grown  a  comely  youth,  he  was  brought  by  some 
of  the  espials  of  the  Lady  Margaret  into  her  presence : 
who  viewing  him  well,  and  seeing  that  he  had  a  face 
and  personage  that  would  bear  a  noble  fortune  ;  and 
finding  him  otherwise  of  a  fine  spirit  and  winning  be- 
haviour ;  thought  she  had  now  found  a  curious  piece 
of  marble  to  carve  out  an  image  of  a  Duke  of  York. 

1  See  note  4.  p.  201.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  particulars  are  col- 
lected by  combining  Perkin's  confession  with  Bernard  Andrews  statement, 
as  Bacon  misunderstood  it.  There  is  no  reason  that  I  know  of  to  suppose 
that  John  Osbeck  was  a  Jew,  or  that  he  and  his  wife  were  ever  in  London. 
To  correct  the  story,  we  must  substitute  —  "  There  was  a  townsman,  &c, 
whose  name  was  John  Osbeck,  married  to  Catherine  de  Faro,  by  whom 
he  had  a  son  that  was  named  Peter.  But  afterwards,  proving  a  dainty 
and  effeminate  youth,  &c.  &c.  While  he  was  a  young  child  he  was  taken 
(it  seems)  to  London,  and  lived  there  in  the  house  of  one  Edward,  a  Jew, 
that  was  converted  in  King  Edward  IV.'s  time;  the  King  himself,  either 
out  of  religious  nobleness  (because  he  was  a  convert),  or  upon  some  pri- 
vate acquaintnnce,  doing  him  the  honour  to  be  his  godfather.  After  he 
had  staid  in  England  some  little  while,  he  returned  to  Tournay.  Then 
was  he  placed,"  &c. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "roved." 


204  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

She  kept  him  by  her  a  great  while,  but  with  extreme 
secrecy.  The  while  she  instructed  him  by  many  cab- 
inet conferences  ;  First,  in  princely  behaviour  and 
gesture ;  teaching  him  how  he  should  keep  state,  and 
yet  with  a  modest  sense  of  his  misfortunes :  Then  she 
informed  him  of  all  the  circumstances  and  particulars 
that  concerned  the  person  of  Richard  Duke  of  York, 
which  he  was  to  act ;  describing  unto  him  the  per- 
sonages, lineaments,  and  features  of  the  King  and 
Queen  his  pretended  parents,  and  of  his  brother  and 
sisters,  and  divers  others  that  were  nearest  him  in  his 
childhood,  together  with  all  passages,  some  secret,  some 
common,  that  were  fit  for  a  child's  memory,  until  the 
death  of  King  Edward.  Then  she  added  the  partic- 
ulars of  the  time  from  the  King's  death  until  he  and 
his  brother  were  committed  to  the  Tower,  as  well 
during  the  time  he  was  abroad  as  while  he  was  in 
sanctuary.  As  for  the  times  while  he  was  in  the 
Tower,  and  the  manner  of  his  brother's  death,  and  his 
own  escape ;  she  knew  they  were  things  that  a  veiy 
few  could  controul.1  And  therefore  she  taught  him 
only  to  tell  a  smooth  and  likely  tale  of  those  matters ; 
warning  him  not  to  vary  from  it.  It  was  agreed  like- 
wise between  them  what  account  he  should  give  of  his 
peregrination  abroad  ;  intermixing  many  things  which 
were  true  and  such  as  they  knew  others  could  testify, 
for  the  credit  of  the  rest ;  but  still  making  them  to 
hang  together  with  the  part  he  was  to  play.  She 
taught  him  likewise  how  to  avoid  sundry  captious  and 
tempting  questions,  which  were  like  to   be  asked  of 

1 1.  e.  could  correct  him  in.  Tarn  clandestina  fuisse,  ut  pauci  admodum, 
qumcunque  ei  confingere  liberet,  arguere  possent ;  itaque  libero  prorsus  men- 
dado  se  uti  posse. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  205 

him.  But  in  this  she  found  him  of  himself  so  nimble 
and  shifting,1  as  she  trusted  much  to  his  own  wit 
and  readiness  ;  and  therefore  laboured  the  less  in  it. 
Lastly,  she  raised  his  thoughts  with  some  present  re- 
wards and  further  promises ;  setting  before  him  chiefly 
the  glory  and  fortune  of  a  crown,  if  things  went  well ; 
and  a  sure  refuge  to  her  court  if  the  worst  should  fall. 
After  such  time  as  she  thought  he  was  perfect  in  his 
lesson,  she  began  to  cast  with  herself  from  what  coast 
this  blazing  star  should  first  appear,  and  at  what  time.2 
It  must  be  upon  the  horizon  of  Ireland  ;  for  there  had 
the  like  meteor  strong  influence  before.  The  time  of 
the  apparition  to  be,  when  the  King  should  be  engaged 
into  a  war  with  France.  But  well  she  knew  that 
whatsoever  should  come  from  her  would  be  held  sus- 
pected. And  therefore  if  he  should  go  out  of  Flanders 
immediately  into  Ireland  she  might  be  thought  to  have 
some  hand  in  it.  And  besides,  the  time  was  not  yet 
ripe ;  for  that  the  two  Kings  were  then  upon  terms  of 
peace.3  Therefore  she  wheeled  about ;  and  to  put  all 
suspicion  afar  off,  and  loth  to  keep  him  any  longer  by 
her  (for  that  she  knew  secrets  are  not  long-lived), 
she  sent  him  unknown  into  Portugal,  with  the  Lady 
Brampton,  an  English  lady  (that  embarked  for  Por- 
tugal at  that  time),  with  some  privado  of  her  own  to 
have  an  eye  upon  him ;  and  there  he  was  to  remain 

1  lta  instar  anguillce  lubricum  et  ad  elabendum  promptum  reperit. 

2  Ed.  1622  has  no  stop  after  "time:"  which  is  evidently  a  mistake. 
The  Latin  translation  explains  the  intended  construction  of  the  sentence, 
so  that  there  can  be  no  room  for  doubt.  A  qua  cozli  plagd  cometa  iste  se 
prima  osttndere  deberet,  et  quo  tempore.  Constituit  autem  hoc  fieri  oportere 
ab  horizonte  Hibernim  .  .  .  tempus  autem  aj)paritionis  maxime  opportunum 
fore  cum  rex,  &c. 

8  The  translation  has  de  pace  tractarent.  The  time  spoken  of  seems  to 
have  been  some  time  in  1490. 


206  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

and  to  expect  her  further  directions.  In  the  mean 
time  she  omitted  not  to  prepare  things  for  his  better 
welcome  and  accepting,  not  only  in  the  kingdom  of 
Ireland,  but  in  the  court  of  France.  He  continued  in 
Portugal  about  a  year ;  and  by  that  time  the  King  of 
England  called  his  Parliament1  (as  hath  been  said), 
and  had  declared  2  open  war  against  France.  Now  did 
the  sign  reign,  and  the  constellation  was  comen,  under 
which  Perkin  should  appear.  And  therefore  he  was 
straight  sent  unto  by  the  Duchess  to  go  for  Ireland, 
according  to  the  first  designment.  In  Ireland  he  did 
arrive3  at  the  town  of  Cork.  When  he  was  thither 
comen,  his  own  tale  was  (when  he  made  his  confession 
afterwards)  that  the  Irishmen  finding  him  in  some  good 
clothes,  came  flocking  about  him,  and  bore  him  down 


1  The  Parliament,  as  I  have  said,  was  not  called  till  October,  1491.  But 
open  war  was  declared  against  France  at  least  as  early  as  the  7th  of  July- 
preceding  (see  the  preamble  of  the  Commission  for  the  Benevolence; 
Rymer,  xii.  p.  446.);  probably  earlier;  see  the  Commission  for  Array  and 
Musters,  May  5,  1491,  in  which  it  is  said  that  "  Charles,  calling  himself 
King  of  France,  intends  to  invade  the  realm.'1''  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  6  Hen.  VH. 
p.  71. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  omits  "  had." 

8  I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  the  exact  date  of  his  arrival  in  Ire- 
land. But  on  the  6th  of  December,  1491,  a  Commission  was  issued,  recit- 
ing that  the  King  had  determined  to  send  an  army  to  parts  of  the  counties 
of  Kilkenne  and  Typparary  in  the  land  of  Ireland,  to  suppress  his  rebels 
and  enemies  there;  and  appointing  James  Ormond,  and  Thomas  Garth, 
Esqs.,  captains  and  governors  of  the  forces,  with  power  to  pass  over  the 
sea  and  invade  the  land;  also  to  take  the  musters  of  the  said  army  and  of 
the  king's  lieges,  and  to  make  statutes  and  issue  proclamations  for  the 
government  of  the  same,  &c.  &c. ;  and  declaring  the  power  of  the  lieu- 
tenant of  Ireland  suspended  with  respect  to  the  said  army.  See  Cal.  Pat. 
Rolls,  6  Dec.  7  Hen.  VII. 

As  Perkin  was  certainly  in  Ireland,  and  in  communication  with  the 
Earl  of  Desmond,  in  the  February  following  (see  note  2.  p.  207.),  it  is 
probable  that  this  rebellion  had  something  to  do  with  him.  It  also  helps 
to  explain  the  conduct  of  the  Scotch  King  with  regard  to  the  truce.  See 
note  2.  p.  184. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  207 

that  he  was  the  Duke  of  Clarence  that  had  been  there 
before  :  and  after,  that  he  was  Richard  the  Third's 
base  son  :  and  lastly,  that  he  was  Richard  Duke  of 
York,  second  son  to  Edward  the  Fourth :  but  that  he 
for  his  part  renounced  all  these  things,  and  offered  to 
swear  upon  the  holy  Evangelists  that  he  was  no  such 
man,  till  at  last  they  forced  it  upon  him,1  and  bad  him 
fear  nothing  ;  and  so  forth.  But  the  truth  is,  that 
immediately  upon  his  coming  into  Ireland,  he  took 
upon  him  the  said  person  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and 
drew  unto  him  complices  and  partakers  by  all  the 
means  he  could  devise.  Insomuch  as  he  writ  his  let- 
ters unto  the  Earls  of  Desmond  and  Kildare,2  to  come 
in  to  his  aid  and  be  of  his  party  ;  the  originals  of 
which  letters  are  yet  extant. 

Somewhat  before  this  time,3  the  Duchess  had  also 
gained  unto  her  a  near  servant  of  King  Henry's  own, 

1  Pi  quadam  ad  quicquid  Mi  vellent  agnoscendum  eum  adegisseni. 

2  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  has  "  wrote."  This  statement  is  accidentally  con- 
firmed by  an  entry  in  the  Treasurer's  Books  of  Scotland,  quoted  by  Tytler, 
vol.  iv.  p.  373. :  —  "  Given  at  the  King's  command  to  an  Englishman,  called 
Edward  Ormond,  that  brought  letters  forth  of  Ireland  fra  King  Edward's 
son  and  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  ix  lb."  The  entry  is  dated  March  2,  1491; 
that  is,  of  course,  1491-2 :  a  date  worth  remarking  in  connexion  with  the 
refusal  of  the  Scotch  King  to  ratify  the  five-years'  truce  with  England 
which  was  concluded  by  the  Commissioners  in  the  preceding  December 
and  signed  by  Henry  on  the  12th  of  January.  The  arrival  and  reception 
of  Perkin  in  Ireland  would  be  a  sufficient  motive  to  make  James  unwil- 
ling to  bind  himself  to  peace  with  Henry  for  so  long  a  period.  See  note 
2.  p.  184.  By  the  time  the  nine-months'  truce  that  was  substituted  was 
about  to  expire,  Henry  had  made  his  peace  with  France,  and  Perkin 
had  been  sent  away  from  the  French  court.  And  then  it  was  that 
James  agreed  to  prolong  the  truce  for  a  year  and  a  half.  See  note  2. 
p.  198. 

8  The  Latin  translation  has  circa  idem  tempus.  Perkin  in  his  confes- 
sion mentions  Maister  Stephen  Fryam  as  one  of  the  persons  sent  from 
France  to  invite  him  to  the  French  court.  Another  French  secretary 
was  appointed  by  the  King  on  the  16th  of  June,  1490.     See  Cal.  Pat 

r 


208  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

one  Stephen  Frion,  his  secretary  for  the  French 
tongue ;  an  active  man,  but  turbulent  and  discon- 
tented. This  Frion  had  fled  over  to  Charles  the 
French  King,  and  put  himself  into  his  service,  at 
such  time  as  he  began  to  be  in  open  enmity  with 
the  King.1  Now  King  Charles,  when  he  understood 
of  the  person  and  attempts  of  Perkin,  ready  of  him- 
self to  embrace  all  advantages  against  the  King  of 
England,  instigated  by  Frion,  and  formerly  prepared 
by  the  Lady  Margaret,  forthwith  despatched  one 
Lucas  and  this  Frion  in  nature2  of  ambassadors  to 
Perkin,  to  advertise  him  of  the  King's  good  inclina- 
tion to  him,  and  that  he  was  resolved  to  aid  him 
to  recover  his  right  against  King  Henry,  an  usurper 
of  England  and  an  enemy  of  France ;  and  wished  him 
to  come  over  unto  him  at  Paris.  Perkin  thought 
himself  in  heaven  now  that  he  was  invited  by  so 
great  a  King  in  so  honourable  a  manner.  And  im- 
parting unto  his  friends  in  Ireland  for  their  encour- 
agement how  fortune  called  him,  and  what  great  hopes 
he  had,  sailed  presently  into  France.  When  he  was 
comen  to  the  court  of  France,  the  King  received  him 
with  great  honour,  saluted,  and  stiled  him  by  the  name 
of  the  Duke  of  York,  lodged  him  and  accommo- 
dated him  in  great  state ;  and  the  better  to  give  him 
the  representation  and  the  countenance  of  a  Prince, 
assigned  him  a  guard  for  his  person,  whereof  the  Lord 
Congresall  was  captain.  And  the  courtiers  likewise 
(though  it  be  ill  mocking  with  the  French 3)  applied 

1 i.  e.  as  King  Charles  began  to  be  in  open  enmity  with  King  Henry. 
The  Latin  translation  expresses  it  more  correctly:  quo  tempore  helium  inter 
reges  pnllulare  cospisset. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  in  the  nature." 

8  i.  e.  though  they  are  not  good  at  playing  a  part.  Licet  apud  Gallos 
ludos  facer e  inproclivi  non  sit. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  209 

themselves  to  their  King's  bent,  seeing  there  was  rea- 
son of  state  for  it.  At  the  same  time  there  repaired 
unto  Perkin  divers  Englishmen  of  quality  ;  Sir  George 
Neville,  Sir  John  Taylor,  and  about  one  hundred 
more  j~ and  amongst  the  rest,  this  Stephen  Frion  of 
whom  we  spake,  who  followed  his  fortune  both  then 
and  for  a  long  time  after,  and  was  indeed  his  principal 
counsellor  and  instrument  in  all  his  proceedings.  But 
all  this  on  the  French  King's  part  was  but  a  trick,  the 
better  to  bow  King  Henry  to  peace.  And  therefore 
upon  the  first  grain  of  incense  that  was  sacrificed  upon 
the  altar  of  peace  at  Bulloigne,  Perkin  was  smoked 
away.  Yet  would  not  the  French  King  deliver  him 
up  to  King  Henry  (as  he  was  laboured  to  do  *),  for 
his  honour's  sake ;  but  warned  him  away  and  dis- 
missed him.  And  Perkin  on  his  part  was  as  ready 
to  be  gone,  doubting  he  might  be  caught  up  under- 
hand. He  therefore  took  his  way  into  Flanders  unto 
the  Duchess  of  Burgundy ;  pretending  that  having 
been  variously  tossed  by  fortune  he  directed  his  course 
thither  as  to  a  safe  harbour ;  no  ways  taking  knowl- 
edge that  he  had  ever  been  there  before,  but  as  if  that 
had  been  his  first  address.  The  Duchess  on  the  other 
part  made  it  as  new  and  strange  to  see  him  ;  and  pre- 
tending at  the  first  she2  was  taught  and  made  wise  by 
the  example  of  Lambert  Symnell,  how  she  did  admit 


1  Licet  ab  eo  de  hoc  interpeUalus. 

2  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  omits  "and"  before  "pretending,"  inserts  "that" 
before  "  she,"  and  has  a  full  stop  after  "  satisfied;  "  —  a  correction  possi- 
bly,—  to  avoid  the  awkwardness  of  the  repetition;  which  however  it 
hardly  removes.  The  construction  as  it  stands  is  more  natural,  and  the 
only  change  wanted  is  the  substitution  of  some  equivalent  phrase  for 
"  pretending  at  the  first." 

VOL.   xi.  14 


210  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

of  any  counterfeit  stuff  (though  even  in  that  she  said 
she  was  not  fully  satisfied),  she  pretended  at  the  first 
(and  that  was  ever  in  the  presence  of  others)  to  pose 
him  and  sift  him,  thereby  to  try  whether  he  were 
indeed  the  very  Duke  of  York  or  no.  But  seeming 
to  receive  full  satisfaction  by  his  answers,  then  she 
feigned  herself  to  be  transported  with  a  kind  of  aston- 
ishment, mixt  of  joy  and  wonder,  of1  his  miraculous 
deliverance ;  receiving  him  as  if  he  were  risen  from 
death  to  life  ;  and  inferring  that  God,  who  had  in  such 
wonderful  manner  preserved  him  from  death,  did  like- 
wise reserve  him  for  some  great  and  prosperous  for- 
tune. As  for  his  dismission  out  of  France,  they  inter- 
preted it,  not  as  if  he  were  detected  or  neglected  for  a 
counterfeit  deceiver ;  but  contrariwise  that  it  did  shew 
manifestly  unto  the  world  that  he  was  some  great  mat- 
ter ;  for  that  it  was  his  abandoning  that  (in  effect) 
made  the  peace ; 2  being  no  more  but  the  sacrificing 
of  a  poor  distressed  Prince  unto  the  utility  and  am- 
bition of  two  mighty  monarchs.  Neither  was  Perkin 
for  his  part  wanting  to  himself  either  in  gracious  and 
princely  behaviour,  or  in  ready  and  apposite  answers, 
or  in  contenting  and  caressing  those  that  did  apply 
themselves  unto  him,  or  in  pretty  scorns  or  disdains3 
to  those  that  seemed  to  doubt  of  him ;  but  in  all 
things  did  notably  acquit  himself:  insomuch  as  it  was 
generally  believed  (as  well  amongst  great  persons  as 
amongst  the  vulgar)  that  he  was  indeed  Duke  Richard. 
Nay  himself  with   long  and  continual   counterfeiting 


1  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  at." 

2  Quoniam  causae  ejus  destitutio  et  desertio  revera  lanti  erat,  ut,  si  quis 
recte  animadvertat,  pacem  confecisset. 

8  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  scorn  or  disdain." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  211 

and  with  often  telling  a  lie,  was  turned  (by  habit) 
almost  into  the  thing  he  seemed  to  be,  and  from  a  liar 
to  a  believer.1  The  Duchess  therefore,  as  in  a  case 
out  of  doubt,  did  him  all  princely  honour,  calling  him 
always  by  the  name  of  her  nephew,  and  giving  him 
the  delicate  title  of  the  White  Rose  of  England ;  and 
appointed  him  a  guard  of  thirty  persons,  halberdiers, 
clad  in  a  party-coloured  livery  of  murrey  and  blue, 
to  attend  his  person.  Her  court  likewise,  and  gener- 
ally the  Dutch  and  strangers,2  in  their  usage  towards 
him  expressed  no  less  respect. 

The  news  hereof  came  blazing  and  thundering  over 
into  England,  that  the  Duke  of  York  was  sure  alive. 
As  for  the  name  of  Perkin  Warbeck,  it  was  not  at 
that  time  comen  to  light,  but  all  the  news  ran 3  upon 
the  Duke  of  York;  that  he  had  been  entertained  in 
Ireland,  bought  and  sold  in  France,  and  was  now 
plainly  avowed  and  in  great  honour  in  Flanders. 
These  fames  took  hold  of  divers ;  in  some  upon  dis- 
content, in  some  upon  ambition,  in  some  upon  levity 
and  desire  of  change,  in  some  few  upon  conscience  and 
belief,  but  in  most  upon  simplicity,4  and  in  divers  out 
of  dependence  upon  some  of  the  better  sort  who  did  in 
secret  favour  and  nourish  these  bruits.     And  it  was 


1  Quasi  quce  Jlngeret  simul  et  crederet.      This  suggestion  comes  from 
Speed.     Shakespeare,  in  the  Tempest,  has  the  same  thought  — 

"Like  one 
Who  having  unto  Truth,  by  telling  oft, 
Made  such  a  sinner  of  his  memory 
To  credit  his  own  lie,  he  did  believe 
He  was  indeed  the  Duke." 

2  The  translation  has  tarn  Flandri  quam  peregrini :  the  Flemings  and 
strangers  both. 

«  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  came." 
4  Imbecillitatem  judicu. 


212  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

not  long  ere  these  rumours  of  novelty  had  begotten 
others  of  scandal  and  murmur  against  the  King  and 
his  government,  taxing  him  for  a  great  taxer  of  his 
people  and  discountenancer  of  his  nobility.  The  loss 
of  Brittaine  and  the  peace  with  France  were  not  for- 
gotten ;  but  chiefly  they  fell  upon  the  wrong  that  he 
did  his  Queen,  and  that  he  did  not  reign  in  her  right ; 
wherefore  they  said  that  God  had  now  brought  to 
light  a  masculine  branch  of  the  House  of  York  that 
would  not  be  at  his  courtesy,  howsoever  he  did  depress 
his  poor  lady.  And  yet  (as  it  fareth  in  things  which 
are  current  with  the  multitude  and  which  they  affect) 
these  fames  grew  so  general,  as  the  authors  were  lost 
in  the  generality  of  speakers ;  they  being  like  running 
weeds  that  have  no  certain  root,  or  like  footings  up 
and  down  impossible  to  be  traced.  But  after  a  while 
these  ill  humours  drew  to  an  head,  and  settled  secretly 
in  some  eminent  persons ; 1  which  were  Sir  William 
Stanley  Lord  Chamberlain  of  the  King's  household, 
the  Lord  Fitzwater,  Sir  Symond  Mountford,  Sir 
Thomas  Thwaits.  These  entered  into  a  secret  con- 
spiracy to  favour  Duke  Richard's  title ;  nevertheless 
none  engaged  their  fortunes  in  this  business  openly  but 
two,  Sir  Robert  Clifford  and  master  William  Barley, 
who  sailed  over  into  Flanders,  sent  indeed  from  the 
party  of  the  conspirators  here  to  understand  the  truth 
of  those  things  that  passed  there,  and  not  without 
some  help  of  moneys  from  hence,  provisionally  to  be 
delivered  —  if  they  found  and  were  satisfied  that  there 
was  truth  in  these  pretences.  The  person  of  Sir 
Robert  Clifford  (being  a  gentleman  of  fame  and  fam- 

1  Atque  occulta  in  viris  aliquibus  magna  dignitatis,  veluti  in  partibus  nobili- 
bus,  sedes  repererunt:  quorum  prcecipui  erant,  &c. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  213 

ily)  was  extremely  welcome  to  the  Lady  Margaret, 
who  after  she  had  conference  with  him  brought  him 
to  the  sight  of  Perkin,  with  whom  he  had  often 
speech  and  discourse.  So  that  in  the  end,  won  either 
by  the  Duchess  to  affect 1  or  by  Perkin  to  believe, 
he  wrote  back  into  England,  that  he  knew  the  per- 
son of  Richard  Duke  of  York  as  well  as  he  knew  his 
own,  and  that  this  young  man  was  undoubtedly  he. 
By  this  means  all  things  grew  prepared  to  revolt  and 
sedition  here,  and  the  conspiracy  came  to  have  a  cor- 
respondence between  Flanders  and  England.2 

The  King  on  his  part  was  not  asleep.  But  to  arm 
or  levy  forces  yet,  he  thought  he  would  but  show  fear, 
and  do  this  idol  too  much  worship.  Nevertheless  the 
ports  he  did  shut  up,  or  at  least  kept  a  watch  on  them, 
that  none  should  pass  to  or  fro  that  was  suspected. 
But  for  the  rest  he  chose  to  work  by  countermine. 
His  purposes  were  two ;  the  one  to  lay  open  the  abuse ; 
the  other  to  break  the  knot  of  the  conspirators.3  To 
detect  the  abuse,  there  were  but  two  ways ;  the  first  to 
make  it  manifest  to  the  world  that  the  Duke  of  York 
was  indeed  murdered ;  the  other  to  prove  that  (were 
he  dead  or  alive)  yet  Perkin  was  a  counterfeit.  For 
the  first,  thus  it  stood.  There  were  but  four  persons 
that  could  speak  upon  knowledge  to  the  murder  of  the 

1  The  translation  has  ut  conalibus  suis  faveret.  From  which  it  would 
appear  that  the  word  "affect"  is  used  here  in  its  old  sense  of  "  to  regard 
with  affection;  "  however  its  modern  sense  of  "  to  pretend"  may  seem  to 
suit  the  context. 

'l  i.  e.  the  conspiracy  in  Flanders  and  the  conspiracy  in  England  came 
into  correspondence.  The  expression  in  the  Latin  is  more  exact  and 
clear  —  Hoc  modo  factum  est  ut  omnia  hie  in  Anglid  ad  defectionem  et  sediti- 
onem  spectarent;  et  conjuratio  foveri  cospit  mutuo  tractatu  inter  Flandriam  et 
Angliam. 

8   Ut  conjuratos  inter  se  committerei. 


214  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Duke  of  York  ;  Sir  James  Tirrell  (the  employed-man 
from  King  Richard),  John  Dighton  and  Myles  Forrest 
his  servants  (the  two  butchers  or  tormentors),  and  the 
priest  of  the  Tower  that  buried  them ;  of  which  four, 
Myles  Forrest  and  the  priest  were  dead,  and  there  re- 
mained alive  only  Sir  James  Tirrell  and  John  Dighton. 
These  two  the  King  caused  to  be  committed  to  the 
Tower1  and   examined   touching   the   manner  of  the 

1  This  is  not  mentioned  by  any  historian  who  preceded  Bacon ;  and  I 
have  not  been  able  to  discover  his  authority  for  stating  that  Tirrell  and 
Dighton  were  examined  on  the  subject  at  this  time.  The  account  of  their 
confession  which  follows  comes  no  doubt  from  the  history  ascribed  to  Sir 
Thomas  More;  who  adds,  "  Very  troth  is  it  and  well  known  that  at  such 
time  as  Sir  James  Tirrell  was  in  the  Tower  for  treason  committed  against 
the  most  famous  prince  King  Henry  VII.,  both  Dighton  and  he  were  ex- 
amined and  confessed  the  murder  in  manner  above  written."  But  the 
time  when  Tirrell  was  in  the  Tower  for  treason  against  Henry  was  many 
years  after,  in  1502.  And  there  is  nothing  in  More's  narrative  to  make 
one  think  that  he  supposed  the  confession  to  have  been  made  at  an  earlier 
period.  It  was  a  point  however  in  which  he  might  easily  be  mistaken, 
(especially  if  Tirrell  repeated  at  his  death  the  same  story  which  he  had 
told  before,  as  he  very  likely  might),  and  Bacon  may  have  had  sufficient 
evidence  for  correcting  him.  Certainly  among  the  persons  arrested  at  the 
same  time  with  Tirrell  in  1502  there  is  no  mention  of  Dighton. 

But  there  is  a  circumstance  which  makes  me  suspect  that  Henry  had  in 
fact  obtained  a  confession  from  Tirrell  some  time  before. 

On  the  9th  of  August,  1484,  Sir  James  Tyrrell  had  received  a  grant  from 
Richard  III.  of  the  stewardship  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  and  on  the  13th 
of  September  following  "  a  grant  of  the  offices  of  Sheriff  of  the  Lordship 
of  Wenllouk,  and  steward  of  the  Lordships  of  Newport,  Wenllouk,  Kovo- 
eth-Meredith,  Lavenithevery,  and  Lanthoesant,  in  Wales  and  the  marches 
thereof"  (see  Ninth  Report  of  the  Deputy  Keeper  of  the  Records,  App. 
94.);  and  on  the  19th  of  February,  1485-6,  he  had  received  from  Henry 
himself  a  grant  for  life  of  the  offices  of  Sheriff  of  the  County  of  Glamor- 
gan and  Margannot,"  &c.  (Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  i.  p.  236.)  Two  years  after 
however,  viz.  on  the  26th  of  February,  3  Hen.  VII.  (i.  e.  1487-8), —  I  find 
that  a  commission  was  granted  to  certain  persons  there  named,  reciting 
that  "  in  consideration  of  the  services  of  Sir  James  Tyrrell,  a  knight  of 
the  King's  body,  it  had  been  granted  to  him  to  be  recompensed  of  the 
issues  of  the  County  of  Guysnes  in  the  marches  of  Calais,  in  such  wise  as 
he  holdeth  him  content;  amounting  to  the  value  of  all  the  profits  of  his 
lands,  rents,  &c.  in  Wales,  at  the  beginning  of  this  reign:  "  which  lands 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  215 

death  of  the  two  innocent  princes.  They  agreed  both 
in  a  tale  (as  the  King  gave  out)  to  this  effect :  That 
King  Richard  having  directed  his  warrant  for  the  put- 
ting of  them  to  death  to  Brackenbury,  the  Lieutenant 
of  the- Tower,  was  by  him  refused  ;  whereupon  the 
King  directed  his  warrant  to  Sir  James  Tirrell  to  re- 
ceive the  keys  of  the  Tower  from  the  lieutenant  (for 
the  space  of  a  night)  for  the  King's  especial  service. 
That  Sir  James  Tirrell  accordingly  repaired  to  the 
Tower  by  night,  attended  by  his  two  servants  afore- 
named, whom  he  had  chosen  for  the *  purpose.  That 
himself  stood  at  the  stair-foot,  and  sent  these  two  vil- 
lains to  execute  the  murder.  That  they  smothered 
them  in  their  bed ;  and,  that  done,  called  up  their  mas- 
ter to  see  their  naked  bodies  dead,2  which  they  had 
laid  forth.  That  they  were  buried  under  the  stairs, 
and  some  stones  cast  upon  them.     That  when  the  re- 


were  now  transferred  to  the  charge  of  the  Commissioners.  (Cal.  Pat. 
Rolls,  ii.  p.  89.)  Now  it  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  interval  between 
Feb.  19, 1485-6  and  Feb.  26,  1487-8  had  occurred  the  rebellion  of  Lambert 
Symnell,  which  was  suppressed  in  the  summer  of  1487;  and  that  Symnell 
had  been  originally  intended  to  play  the  part  of  Edward  Duke  of  York, 
one  of  the  murdered  princes.  This  would  naturally  stir  Henry  to  search 
out  the  history  of  the  murder.  And  if  in  the  course  of  his  inquiries  he 
became  acquainted  with  the  part  which  Tirrell  had  played  in  it,  he  would 
naturally  wish  to  get  him  out  of  England  as  soon  as  he  could.  To  punish 
him  for  the  murder,  for  which  we  must  suppose  that  he  had  obtained  from 
Richard  a  full  pardon,  was  probably  not  in  Henry's  power;  and  he  may 
very  likely  have  elicited  the  confession  upon  a  promise  of  not  harming 
him;  but  he  would  wish  to  get  him  out  of  the  way;  and  for  that  purpose 
might  offer  him  an  equivalent  abroad  for  what  he  possessed  at  home.  The 
story  which  he  told,  Henry  may  with  characteristic  closeness  have  kept 
to  himself;  till  the  appearance  of  Perkin  Warbeck  in  the  same  character 
made  it  expedient  to  divulge  it.  And  the  time  when  the  story  was  "given 
out "  may  have  led  to  an  error  as  to  the  time  when  the  confession  was 
made. 

i  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  that." 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  naked  dead  bodies." 


216  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

port  was  made  to  King  Richard  that  his  will  was  done, 
he  gave  Sir  James  Tirrell  great  thanks ;  but  took  ex- 
ception to  the  place  of  their  burial,  being  too  1  base  for 
them  that  were  King's  children  ;  whereupon  another 
night  by  the  King's  warrant  renewed,  their  bodies 
were  removed  by  the  priest  of  the  Tower,  and  buried 
by  him  in  some  place  which  (by  means  of  the  priest's 
death  soon  after)  could  not  be  known.  Thus  much 
was  then  delivered  abroad,  to  be  the  effect  of  those  ex- 
aminations ;  but  the  King  nevertheless  made  no  use  of 
them  in  any  of  his  declarations.  Whereby,  as  it  seems, 
those  examinations  left  the  business  somewhat  per- 
plexed. And  as  for  Sir  James  Tirrell,  he  was  long2 
after  beheaded  in  the  Tower-yard  for  other  matters  of 
treason.  But  John  Dighton,  who  it  seemeth  spake 
best  for  the  King,  was  forthwith  set  at  liberty,  and  was 
the  principal  means  of  divulging  this  tradition.  There- 
fore this  kind  of  proof  being  left  so  naked,3  the  King 
used  the  more  diligence  in  the  latter,  for  the  tracing  of 
Perkin.  To  this  purpose  he  sent  abroad  into  several 
parts,  and  especially  into  Flanders,  divers  secret  and 
nimble  scouts  and  spies ;  some  feigning  themselves  to 
fly  over  unto  Perkin,  and  to  adhere  unto  him  ;    and 

1  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  so  base." 

2  So  the  MS.  The  edition  of  1622  has  "soon  after:"  an  alteration 
which  can  hardly  have  been  made  by  Bacon,  because  it  is  inconsistent 
with  his  own  narrative.  But  it  may  very  well  have  been  hazarded  by  a 
corrector  of  the  press,  who  thought  the  context  required  it. 

It  must  be  confessed  however  that,  if  "  long  "  be  the  right  reading,  the 
sentence  is  oddly  introduced  and  hardly  to  the  purpose.  And  it  would 
rather  seem  as  if  Bacon  when  writing  this  part  of  his  narrative  had  been 
under  a  wrong  impression  as  to  the  date  of  Tirrell's  execution,  and  had 
made  the  correction  afterwards.  This  MS.  is  of  earlier  date,  it  is  true, 
than  the  printed  book;  but  the  book  may  have  been  printed  from  another 
copy  in  which  the  correction  had  not  been  made. 

8  i.  e.  ill-furnished.     The  translation  has  nudam  et  jejunam. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  217 

some  under  other  pretences  to  learn,  search,  and  dis- 
cover all  the  circumstances  and  particulars  of  Perkin's 
parents,  birth,  person,  travels  up  and  down,  and  in 
brief,  to  have  a  journal  (as  it  were)  of  his  life  and 
doings";  and1  furnished  these  his  employed-men  liber- 
ally with  money,  to  draw  on  and  reward  intelligences  ; 
giving  them  also  in  charge,  to  advertise  continually 
what  they  found,  and  nevertheless  still  to  go  on.  And 
ever  as  one  advertisement  and  discovery  called  up  an- 
other, he  employed  other  new  men,  where  the  business 
did  require  it.  Others  he  employed  in  a  more  special 
nature  and  trust,  to  be  his  pioners  in  the  main  counter- 
mine. These  were  directed  to  insinuate  themselves 
into  the  familiarity  and  confidence  of  the  principal  per- 
sons of  the  party  in  Flanders,  and  so  to  learn  what 
associates  they  had  and  correspondents  either  here  in 
England  or  abroad:  and  how  far  every  one  was2 
engaged  ;  and  what  new  ones  they  meant  afterwards 
to  try  or  board : 3  and  as  this  for  the  persons,  so  for  the 
actions  themselves,  to  discover  to  the  bottom  (as  they 
could)  the  utmost  of  Perkin  and  the  conspirators  their 
intentions,  hopes,  and  practices.  These  latter  best  be- 
trust4  spies  had  some  of  them  farther  instructions,  to 
practice  and  draw  off  the  best  friends  and  servants  of 
Perkin,  by  making  remonstrance  to  them  how  weakly 
his  enterprise  and  hopes  were  built,  and  with  how  pru- 
dent and  potent  a  King  they  had  to  deal  ;  and  to  rec- 
oncile them  to  the  King  with  promise  of  pardon  and 
good  conditions  of  reward.  And  above  the  rest  to 
assail,  sap,  and  work  into  the  constancy  of  Sir  Robert 

i  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  he  furnished." 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  omits  "  was." 

8   Tentare  el  allicere. 

4  Exploratores  pro  fidelioribus  habiti. 


218  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Clifford,  and  to  win  him  (if  they  could),  being  the 
man  that  knew  most  of  their  secrets,  and  who  being 
won  away  would  most  appall  and  discourage  the  rest, 
and  in  a  manner  break  the  knot.  There  is  a  strange 
tradition,  that  the  King  lost l  in  a  wood  of  suspicions, 
and  not  knowing  whom  to  trust,  had  both  intelligence2 
with  the  confessors  and  chaplains  of  divers  great  men  ; 
and  for  the  better  credit  of  his  espials  abroad  with  the 
contrary  side,  did  use  to  have  them  cursed  at  Paul's 
(by  name)  amongst  the  bead-roll  of  the  King's  ene- 
mies, according  to  the  custom  of  those  times.  These 
spials  plied  their  charge  so  roundly,  as  the  King  had 
an  anatomy  of  Perkin  alive  ;  and  was  likewise  well 
informed  of  the  particular  correspondent  conspirators 
in  England,  and  many  other  mysteries  were  revealed ; 
and  Sir  Robert  Clifford  in  especial  won  to  be  assured 
to  the  King,  and  industrious  and  officious  for  his  ser- 
vice. The  King  therefore  (receiving  a  rich  return  of 
his  diligence,  and  great  satisfaction  touching  a  number 
of  particulars,)  first  divulged  and  spread  abroad  the 
imposture  and  juggling  of  Perkin's  person  and  travels, 
with  the  circumstances  thereof,  throughout  the  realm  ; 
not  by  proclamation  (because  things  were  yet  in  exam- 
ination, and  so  might  receive  the  more  or  the  less,)  but 
by  court-fames,  which  commonly  print  better  than 
printed  proclamations.  Then  thought  he  it  also  time 
to  send  an  ambassage  unto  Archduke  Philip  into  Flan- 
ders, for  the  abandoning  and  dismissing  of  Perkin. 
Herein  he  employed  Sir  Edward  Poynings,  and  Sir 
William   Warham 3  .  doctor    of  the    canon    law.     The 


1  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  being  lost." 

2  Secreto  egisse  ut  ex  iis  de  consiliis  adversariorum  suoi*um  edoceretur. 

8  In  Ellis's  Letters,  2nd  series,  vol.  i.  p.  167.,  there  is  a  privy  seal  for 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  219 

Archduke  was  then  young  and  governed  by  his  coun- 
sel. Before  whom  the  ambassadors  had  audience. 
And  Dr.  Warham  spake  in  this  manner : 

"  My  lords,  the  King  our  master  is  very  sorry,  that 
England  and  your  country  here  of  Flanders  having 
been  counted  as  man  and  wife  for  so  long  time,  now 
this  country  of  all  others  should  be  the  stage  where 
a  base  counterfeit  should  play  the  part  of  a  King  of 
England,  not  only  to  his  Grace's  disquiet  and  dis- 
honour, but  to  the  scorn  and  reproach  of  all  sover- 
eign Princes.  To  counterfeit  the  dead  image  of  a 
King  in  his  coin  is  an  high  offence  by  all  laws.  But 
to  counterfeit  the  living  image  of  a  King  in  his  per- 
son exceedeth  all  falsifications,  except  it  should  be 
that  of  a  Mahomet  or  an  Antichrist,  that  counterfeit 
divine  honour.  The  King  hath  too  great  an  opin- 
ion of  this  sage  counsel,  to  think  that  any  of  you  is 
caught  with  this  fable  (though  way  may  be  given  by 
you  to  the  passion  of  some),  the  thing  in  itself  is  so 
improbable.  To  set  testimonies  aside  of  the  death 
of  Duke  Richard,  which  the  King  hath  upon  record 
plain  and  infallible,  (because  they  may  be  thought 
to  be  in  the  King's  own  power,)  let  the  thing  testify 
for  itself.  Sense  and  reason  no  power  can  command. 
Is  it  possible  (trow  you)  that  King  Richard  should 
damn  his  soul  and  foul  his  name  with  so  abominable 
a  murder,  and  yet  not  mend  his  case?  Or  do  you 
think  that  men  of  blood  (that  were  his  instruments) 
did  turn  to  pity  in  the  midst  of  their  execution? 
whereas  in  cruel  and  savage  beasts,   and  men  also,1 

payment  of  money  to  Sir  E.  Poynings  and  Sir  W.  Warham,  for  their  em- 
bassy.   It  is  dated  the  5th  of  July  (1493);  and  it  appears  that  they  had 
not  then  set  out. 
1  Inferis  ipsis,  nee  minus  in  hominibus  ferinas  natural. 


220  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

the  first  draught  of  blood  doth  yet  make  them  more 
fierce  and  enraged.  Do  you  not  know  that  the  bloody 
executioners  of  tyrants  do  go  to  such  errands  with 
an  halter  about  their  neck,  so  that  if  they  perform 
not  they  are  sure  to  die  for  it?  And  do  you  think 
that  these  men  would  hazard  their  own  lives  for 
sparing  another's?  Admit  they  should  have  saved 
him ;  what  should  they  have  done  with  him  ?  Turn 
him  into  London  streets?  that  the  watchmen,  or  any 
passenger  that  should  light  upon  him,  might  carry 
him  before  a  justice,  and  so  all  come  to  light  ?  Or 
should  they  have  kept  him  by  them  secretly?  That 
surely  would  have  required  a  great  deal  of  care, 
charge,  and  continual  fears.  But,  my  lords,  I  labour 
too  much  in  a  clear  business.  The  King  is  so  wise, 
and  hath  so  good  friends  abroad,  as  now  he  knoweth 
Duke  Perkin  from  his  cradle.  And  because  he  is  a 
great  Prince,  if  you  have  any  good  poet  here,  he  can 
help  him  with  notes  to  write  his  life,  and  to  parallel 
him  with  Lambert  Symnell,  now  the  King's  falconer. 
And  therefore,  to  speak  plainly  to  your  lordships,  it 
is  the  strangest  thing  in  the  world,  that  the  Lady 
Margaret  (excuse  us  if  we  name  her,  whose  malice 
to  the  King  is  both  causeless  and  endless,)  should 
now  when  she  is  old,  at  the  time  when  other  women 
give  over  child-bearing,  bring  forth  two  such  monsters, 
being  not  the  births  of  nine  or  ten  months,  but  of 
many  years.  And  whereas  other  natural  mothers 
bring  forth  children  weak,  and  not  able  to  help  them- 
selves ;  she  bringeth  forth  tall  stripplings,  able  soon 
after  their  coming  into  the  world  to  bid  battle  to 
mighty  Kings.  My  lords,  we  stay  unwillingly  upon 
this   part :   we  would  to   God  that  lady  would  once 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  221 

taste  the  joys  which  God  Almighty  doth  serve  up 
unto  her,  in  beholding  her  niece  to  reign  in  such 
honour,  and  with  so  much  royal  issue,  which  she 
might  be  pleased  to  account  as  her  own.  The  King's 
request  unto  the  Archduke  and  your  lordships  might 
be,  that  according  to  the  example  of  King  Charles, 
who  hath  already  discarded  him,  you  would  banish 
this  unworthy  fellow  out  of  your  dominions.  But 
because  the  King  may  justly  expect  more  from  an 
ancient  confederate  than  from  a  new  reconciled  ene- 
my, he  maketh  it1  his  request  unto  you  to  deliver 
him  up  into  his  hands  :  pirates  and  impostors  of  this 
sort  being  fit  to  be  accounted  the  common  enemies  of 
mankind,  and  no  ways  to  be  protected  by  the  law  of 
nations." 

After  some  time  of  deliberation,  the  ambassadors 
received  this  short  answer:  That  the  Archduke,  for 
the  love  of  King  Henry,  would  in  no  sort  aid  or  assist 
the  pretended  Duke,  but  in  all  things  conserve  the 
amity  he  had  with  the  King.  But  for  the  Duch- 
ess Dowager,  she  was  absolute  in  the  lands  of  her 
dowry,  and  that  he  could  not  let  her  to  dispose  of 
her  own. 

The  King,  upon  the  return  of  the  ambassadors,  was 
nothing  satisfied  with  this  answer  :  for  well  he  knew 
that  a  patrimonial  dowry  carried  no  part  of  sover- 
eignty or  command  of  forces.2  Besides,  the  ambas- 
sadors told  him  plainly,  that  they  saw  the  Duchess 
had  a  great  party  in  the  Archduke's  counsel ;  and  that 


1  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  omits  "  it." 

2  i.  e.  none  of  the  prerogatives  of  sovereignty,  such  as  the  command  of 
forces:  as  it  is  more  clearly  expressed  in  the  translation  —  nihil  quod  abso- 
luti  imperii  esset  {quale  est  copiarum  administratio)  secum  transferre. 


222  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

howsoever  it  was  carried  in  a  course  of  connivance,1 
yet  the  Archduke  underhand  gave  aid  and  further- 
ance to  Perkin.  Wherefore  (partly  out  of  courage2 
and  partly  out  of  policy)  the  King  forthwith  banished 
all  Flemings  (as  well  their  persons  as  their  wares) 
out  of  his  kingdom ;  commanding  his  subjects  likewise 
(and  by  name  his  Merchants  Adventurers)  which  had 
a  resiance  in  Antwerp,  to  return ;  translating  the 
mart  (which  commonly  followed  the  English  cloth) 
unto  Calais,  and  embarred  also  all  further  trade  for 
the  future.3  This  the  King  did,  being  sensible  in 
point  of  honour4  not  to  suffer  a  pretender  to  the 
crown  of  England  to  affront  him  so  near  at  hand, 
and  he  to  keep  terms  of  friendship  with  the  country 
where  he  did  set  up.  But  he  had  also  a  further 
reach ;  for  that  he  knew  well  that  the  subjects  of 
Flanders  drew  so  great  commodity  from  the  trade  of 
England,  as  by  this  embargo  they  would  soon  wax 
weary  of  Perkin ;  and  that  the  tumults  of  Flanders 
had  been  so  late  and  fresh,  as  it  was  no  time  for 
the  Prince  to  displease  the  people.  Nevertheless  for 
form's    sake,   by  way  of  requital,   the   Archduke  did 

1  i.  e.  howsoever  the  Archduke  pretended  only  to  connive  at  the  enter- 
tainment of  Perkin.  Utcunque  Archidux  ad  res  Perkini  connivere  lantum 
simularet. 

2  Animum  explere  cupiens. 

8  i.  e.  all  trade  between  the  English  and  the  Flemings.  The  transla- 
tion has  cum  Burgundis ;  by  which  word  Flemings  a  few  lines  above  is 
rendered.  It  was  on  the  18th  of  September,  1493,  that  the  sheriffs  were 
directed  to  publish  the  proclamation  forbidding  mercantile  intercourse  (by 
importation  or  exportation  without  license  under  the  great  seal)  with  the 
subjects  of  the  Archduke  of  Austriche  and  the  Duke  of  Burgoyne.  See 
Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  9  Hen.  VII.  p.  80. 

4  i.  e.  feeling  himself  interested  in  point  of  honour.  The  Latin  is  a  little 
fuller:  partim  ut  nihil  honori  suo  indignum  fieri  permitteret,  qui  haud  parum 
perstringi  posset  si  quis  ad  coronam  Anglia  prastensoi',  &c. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  223 

likewise  banish  the  English  out  of  Flanders ;  which 
in  effect  was  done  to  his  hand. 

The  King  being  well  advertised  that  Perkin  did 
more  trust  upon  friends  and  partakers  within  the 
realm -than  upon  foreign  arms,  thought  it  behoved 
him  to  apply  the  remedy  where  the  disease 1  lay,  and 
to  proceed  with  severity  against  some  of  the  principal 
conspirators  here  within  the  realm ;  thereby  to  purge 
the  ill  humours  in  England,  and  to  cool  the  hopes  in 
Flanders.  Wherefore  he  caused  to  be  apprehended, 
almost  at  an  instant,  John  Ratcliffe  Lord  Fitzwater, 
Sir  Symon  Mountford,  Sir  Thomas  Thwaites,  William 
Dawbeny,  Robert  Ratcliffe,  Thomas  Chressenor,  and 
Thomas  Astwood.  All  these  were  arraigned,  con- 
victed, and  condemned  for  high  treason,  in  adhering 
and  promising  aid  to  Perkin.  Of  these  the  Lord 
Fitzwater  was  conveyed  to  Calais,  and  there  kept 
in  hold  and  in  hope  of  life,   until  soon  after   (either 

inpatient  or  betrayed)  he  dealt  with  his  keeper  to 
have  escaped,  and  thereupon  was  beheaded.  But 
Sir  Symon  Mountford,  Robert  Ratcliffe,  and  William 

>awbeny,  were  beheaded  immediately  after  their  con- 
demnation.    The  rest  were  pardoned,  together  with 

lany  others,2  clerks  and  laics,  amongst  which  were 
two  Dominican  friars,  and  William  Worseley3  Dean 
of  Paul's ;■  which  latter  sort 4  passed  examination,  but 
le  not  to  public  trial.5 

1  Fomes  morbi. 

2  This  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 

8  William  Worsely,  Clk.,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  received  his  par- 
Ion  on  the  6th  of  June,  1495.     Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  10  Hen.  VII.  p.  57. 

4  Clerici  autem. 

5  Tytler  in  his  History  of  Scotland  (vol.  iv.  p.  374-5.)  supplies  a  fact, 
lot  mentioned  in  any  previous  history,  which  is  of  considerable  impor- 

mce  to  the  understanding  of  Henry's  position  at  this  juncture,  and  par- 


224  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

The  Lord  Chamberlain  at  that  time  was  not 
touched  ;  whether  it  were  that  the  King  would  not 
stir  too  many  humours  at  once,  but,  after  the  man- 
ner of  good  physicians,  purge  the  head  last ;  or  that 
Clifford  (from  whom  most  of  these  discoveries  came) 
reserved  that  piece  for  his  own  coming  over ; x  sig- 
nifying only  to  the  King  in  the  mean  time  that  he 
doubted  there  were  some  greater  ones  in  the  business, 
whereof  he  would  give  the  King  farther  account 
when  he  came  to  his  presence. 

ticularly  of  his  relations  with  Scotland.  "  This  discovery,"  he  says, 
speaking  of  the  information  given  by  Sir  R.  Clifford,  "  was  a  fatal  blow 
to  the  Yorkists.  Their  project  was  probably  to  have  proclaimed  Perkin 
in  England,  whilst  his  numerous  adherents  prepared  to  rise  in  Ireland;  and 
Vie  Scottish  monarch  teas  to  break  at  the  head  of  his  army  across  the  Borders, 
and  compel  Henry  to  divide  his  force.  But  the  Border  chiefs,  impatient  for 
war,  invaded  England  too  soon ;  and  it  happened,  unfortunately  for  War- 
beck,  that  whilst  a  tumultuous  force,  including  the  Armstrongs,  Elwalds, 
Crossars,  Wighams,  Nyksons,  and  Henrisons,  penetrated  into  Northumberland, 
tcith  the  hope  of  promoting  a  rising  in  favour  of  the  counterfeit  Duke  of  York, 
the  treachery  of  Clifford  had  revealed  the  whole  particulars  of  the  con- 
spiracy; and  the  apprehension  and  execution  of  the  ringleaders  struck 
such  terror  into  the  nation,  that  the  cause  of  Perkin  in  that  country  was 
for  the  present  considered  hopeless."  "  This  raid  or  invasion,"  adds  Mr. 
Tytler  in  a  note,  "  which  is  unknown  to  our  historians,  is  mentioned 
nowhere  but  in  the  record  of  justiciary,  Nov.  1493.  Mr.  Stirling's  MS. 
Chron.  Notes,  p.  55."  The  total  omission  from  our  histories  of  so  consid- 
erable a  fact  as  an  incursion  of  this  kind  at  such  a  conjuncture  and  during 
a  truce  (especially  if  Mr.  Tytler  be  right  in  supposing  that  it  was  intended 
to  be  part  of  a  combined  movement  in  concert  with  Flanders,  Ireland,  and 
the  Yorkists  in  England)  shows  how  ill  we  can  judge  of  the  questions  of 
state  with  which  Henry  had  to  deal. 

It  appears  from  an  entry  in  the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls,  dated  8  March, 
8  Hen.  VII.  [1492-3],  that  an  armed  force  was  then  about  to  be  sent  into 
Ireland  under  Sir  Roger  Cotton,  "to  war  with  the  rebels"  (p.  71.);  who 
seem  to  have  been  speedily  suppressed,  for  we  find  general  pardons 
granted  to  several  principal  persons  in  Ireland  on  the  22nd  and  30th  of 
March,  the  10th  of  April,  and  the  29th  of  May  following.  See  Cal.  Pat. 
Rolls,  pp.  85.  81,  82.  A  fact  which  agrees  very  well  with  Tytler's  state- 
ment. 

1  The  translation  adds  ut  rem  maximi  momenti. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  225 

Upon  Allhallows-day-even,  being  now  the  tenth 
year  of  the  King's  reign,  the  King's  second  son  Henry 
was  created  Duke  of  York  ;  and  as  well  the  Duke,  as 
divers  others,  noblemen,  knights-bachelors,  and  gentle- 
men of"  quality,  were  made  Knights  of  the  Bath  ac- 
cording to  the  ceremony.  Upon  the  morrow  after 
Twelfth-day,  the  King  removed  from  Westminster J 
(where  he  had  kept  his  Christinas)  to  the  Tower  of 
London.  This  he  did  as  soon  as  he  had  advertisement 
that  Sir  Robert  Clifford  (in  whose  bosom  or  budget 
most  of  Perkin's  secrets  were  laid  up)  was  comen  into 
England.  And  the  place  of  the  Tower  was  chosen  to 
that  end,  that  if  Clifford  should  accuse  any  of  the  great 
ones,  they  might  without  suspicion  or  noise  or  sending 
abroad  of  warrants  be  presently  attached ;  the  court 
and  prison  being  within  the  cincture  of  one  wall. 
After  a  day  or  two  the  King  drew  unto  him  a  selected 
counsel,  and  admitted  Clifford  to  his  presence  ;  who 
first  fell  down  at  his  feet,  and  in  all  humble  manner 
craved  the  King's  pardon  ;  which  the  King  then 
granted,2  though  he  were  indeed  secretly  assured  of  his 
life  before.  Then,  commanded  to  tell  his  knowledge, 
he  did  amongst  many  others  (of  himself  not  interro- 
gated) impeach  Sir  William  Stanley,  the  Lord  Cham- 
berlain of  the  King's  household. 

The  King  seemed  to  be  much  amazed  at  the  nam- 
ing  of  this  lord  ;  as  if  he  had  heard  the  news  of  some 
strange  and  fearful  prodigy.  To  hear  a  man  that  had 
done  him  service  of  so  high  a  nature  as  to  save  his  life 


1  So  Stowe.     According  to  the  old  Chronicle  (Cott.  Vitel.  A.  xvi.)  he 
kept  his  Christmas  at  Greenwich. 

2  Sir  Robert  Clifford  received  his  pardon  on  the  22nd  of  December,  1494. 
Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  10  Hen.  VII.  p.  33. 

VOL.   XI.  15 


226  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

and  set  the  crown  upon  his  head ;  a  man  that  enjoyed 
by  his  favour  and  advancement  so  great  a  fortune  both 
in  honour  and  riches  ;  a  man  that  was  tied  unto  him 
in  so  near  a  band  of  alliance,  his  brother  having  mar- 
ried the  King's  mother ;  and  lastly  a  man  to  whom  he 
had  committed  the  trust  of  his  person,  in  making  him 
his  chamberlain  :  that  this  man,  no  ways  disgraced,  no 
ways  discontent,  no  ways  put  in  fear,  should  be  false 
unto  him.  Clifford  was  required  to  say  over  again  and 
again  the  particulars  of  his  accusation  ;  being  warned, 
that  in  a  matter  so  unlikely,  and  that  concerned  so 
great  a  servant  of  the  King's,  he  should  not  in  any 
wise  go  too  far.  But  the  King  finding  that  he  did 
sadly  and  constantly  (without  hesitation  or  varying, 
and  with  those  civil  protestations  that  were  fit,)  stand 
to  that  that  he  had  said,  offering  to  justify  it  upon  his 
soul  and  life ;  he  caused  him  to  be  removed.  And 
after  he  had  not  a  little  bemoaned  himself  unto  his 
counsel  there  present,  gave  order  that  Sir  William 
Stanley  should  be  restrained  in  his  own  chamber, 
where  he  lay  before,  in  the  square  tower.  And  the 
next  day  he  was  examined  by  the  lords.  Upon  his 
examination  he  denied  little  of  that  wherewith  he  was 
charged,  nor  endeavoured  much  to  excuse  or  extenuate 
his  fault.  So  that  (not  very  wisely),  thinking  to  make 
his  offence  less  by  confession,  he  made  it  enough  for 
condemnation.  It  was  conceived  that  he  trusted  much 
to  his  former  merits  and  the  interest  that  his  brother 
had  in  the  King.  But  those  helps  were  over-weighed 
by  divers  things  that  made  against  him,  and  were  pre- 
dominant in  the  King's  nature  and  mind.  First,  an 
over-merit;  for  convenient  merit,  unto  which  reward 
may  easily  reach,  doth  best  with   Kings :    Next,  the 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  227 

sense  of  his  power  ;  for  the  King  thought  that  he  that 
could  set  him  up  was  the  more  dangerous  to  pull  him 
down  :  Thirdly,  the  glimmering  of  a  confiscation ;  for 
he  was  the  richest  subject  for  value  in  the  kingdom  ; 
there  being  found  in  his  castle  of  Holte  forty  thousand 
marks  in  ready  money  and  plate,  besides  jewels,  house- 
hold-stuff, stocks  upon  his  grounds,  and  other  personal 
estate  exceeding  great;  and  for  his  revenue  in  land 
and  fee,  it  was  three  thousand  pounds  a  year  of  old 
rent,1  a  great  matter  in  those  times  : 2  Lastly,  the  na- 
ture of  the  time ;  for  if  the  King  had  been  out  of  fear 
of  his  own  estate,  it  was  not  unlike  he  would  have 
spared  his  life ;  but  the  cloud  of  so  great  a  rebellion 
hanging  over  his  head  made  him  work  sure.  Where- 
fore after  some  six  weeks'  distance  of  time,  which  the 

Aug  did  honourably  interpose,  both  to  give  space  to 
brother's  intercession,  and  to  shew  to  the  world 

tat  he  had  a  conflict  with  himself  what  he  should 
lo,  he  was  arraigned  of  high-treason,  and  condemned, 

id  presently  after  beheaded.3 

It  is  yet 4  to  this  day  left  but  in  dark  memory,  both 

rhat  the  case  of  this  noble  person  was,  for  which  he 
fered  ;  and  what  likewise  was  the  ground  and  cause 
of  his  defection  and  alienation  5  of  his  heart  from  the 
King.  His  case  was  said  to  be  this  ;  that  in  discourse 
between  Sir  Robert  Clifford  and  him  he  had  said,  That 
if  he  were  sure  that  that  young  man  were  King  Ed- 


1  Antiqui  census. 

2  Res  mira  et  fere  inaudita.     The  inventory  of  the  money  found  at  Holt 
is  preserved  in  the  Rolls-house.    Chapter-House  Records,  A.  3.  10.  fo.  29. 

8  He  was  arraigned  on  the  31st  of  January,  and  executed  on  the  16th  of 
February,  1494-5.    (Old  Chron.) 
*  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  Yet  is  it." 
«  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  the  alienation." 


228  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

ward's  son,  he  would  never  bear  arms  against  him. 
This  case  seems  somewhat  a  hard  case,  both  in  respect 
of  the  conditional,  and  in l  respect  of  the  other  words. 
But  for  the  conditional,  it  seemeth  the  judges  of  that 
time  (who  were  learned  men,  and  the  three  chief  of 
them  of  the  privy  counsel,)  thought  it  was  a  dangerous 
thing  to  admit  Ifs  and  Ands  to  qualify  words  of  trea- 
son ;  whereby  every  man  might  express  his  malice,  and 
blanch  his  danger.  And  it  was  like  to  the  case  (in  the 
following  times)  of  Elizabeth  Barton,  the  holy  maid  of 
Kent,  who  had  said,  That  if  King  Henry  the  Eighth 
did  not  take  Catherine  his  wife  again,  he  should  be  de- 
prived of  his  crown,  and  die  the  death  of  a  dog.  And 
infinite  cases  may  be  put  of  like  nature  ;  which  it 
seemeth  the  grave  judges  taking  into  consideration, 
would  not  admit  of  treasons  upon  condition.2  And  as 
for  the  positive  words,  That  he  would  not  bear  arms 
against  King  Edward's  son ;  though  the  words  seem 
calm,  yet  it  was  a  plain  and  direct  over-ruling  of  the 
King's  title,  either  by  the  line  of  Lancaster  or  by  act 
of  Parliament ;  which  no  doubt  pierced  the  King  more 
than  if  Stanley  had  charged  his  lance  upon  him  in  the 
field.  For  if  Stanley  would  hold  that  opinion,  That  a 
son  of  King  Edward  had  still  the  better  right,  he  being 
so  principal  a  person  of  authority  and  favour  about  the 
King,  it  was  to  teach  all  England  to  say  as  much. 
And  therefore,  as  those  times  were,3  that  speech 
touched  the  quick.  But  some  writers  do  put  this  out 
of  doubt ;  for  they  say  that  Stanley  did  expressly  prom- 
ise to  aid  Perkin,  and  sent  him  some  help  of  treasure.4 

i  MS.  omits  "in." 

2  Noluewnt  prorsus  proditionibus  cum  clausula  conditionali  patrocinari. 

8  Si  quis  temporum  illorum  conditionem  rite  introspiciat. 

4  This  is  the  statement  of  Bernard  Andre",  as  quoted  by  Speed. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  229 

Now  for  the  motive  of  his  falling  off  from  the  King. 
It  is  true  that  at  Bos  worth-field  the  King  was  beset, 
and  in  a  manner  inclosed  round  about  by  the  troops 
of  King  Richard,  and  in  manifest  danger  of  his  life ; 
when  this  Stanley  was  sent  by  his  brother  with  three 
thousand  men  to  his  rescue,  which  he  performed  so, 
that  King  Richard  was  slain  upon  the  place.     So  as 
the  condition  of  mortal  men  is  not  capable  of  a  greater 
benefit  than  the  King  received  by  the  hands  of  Stan- 
ley; being  like  the  benefit  of  Christ,  at  once  to  save 
and  crown.     For  which  service  the   King  gave  him 
great  gifts,1  made  him  his  counsellor  and  chamberlain  ; 
and  (somewhat  contrary  to  his  nature)  had  winked  at 
the  great  spoils  of  Bosworth-field,  which  came  almost 
wholly  to  this  man's  hands,  to  his  infinite  enriching. 
Yet  nevertheless,  blown  up  with   the  conceit  of  his 
merit,  he  did  not  think  he  had  received  good  measure 
om  the  King,  at  least  not  pressing-down  and  running 
ver,  as  he  expected.     And  his  ambition  was  so  exor- 
itant  and  unbounded,  as  he  became  suitor  to  the  King 
or  the  Earldom  of  Chester  :  which  ever  being  a  kind 
f  appanage  to  the  principality  of  Wales,  and  using  to 
o  to  the  King's  son,  his  suit  did  not  only  end  in  a 
enial  but  in  a  distaste  :   the  King  perceiving  thereby 
that  his  desires  were  intemperate,  and  his  cogitations 
vast  and  irregular,  and  that  his  former  benefits  were 
but  cheap  and  lightly  regarded  by  him.     Wherefore 
the  King  began  not  to  brook  him  well ; 2  and  as  a  little 

I  leaven  of  new  distaste  doth  commonly  sour  the  whole 
lump  of  former  merits,  the  king's  wit  began  now  to 


1  So  Polydore  Vergil  says.    In  the  Latin  translation,  Bacon  substitutes 
maximam  gratiam  habuit. 

2  Ei  intra  animum  suum  minus  f  avert. 


230  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

suggest  unto  his  passion,  that  Stanley  at  Bos  worth- 
field,  though  he  came  time  enough  to  save  his  life,  yet 
he  stayed  long  enough  to  endanger  it.  But  yet  having 
no  matter  against  him,  he  continued  him  in  his  places 
until  this  his  fall. 

After  him  was  made  Lord  Chamberlain  Giles  Lord 
Dawbeny,  a  man  of  great  sufficiency  and  valour,  the 
more1  because  he  was  gentle  and  moderate. 

There  was  a  common  opinion,  that  Sir  Robert  Clif- 
ford (who  now  was  becomen  the  state-informer)  was 
from  the  beginning  an  emissary  and  spy  of  the  King's ; 
and  that  he  fled  over  into  Flanders  with  his  consent 
and  privity.  But  this  is  not  probable ;  both  because 
he  never  recovered  that  degree  of  grace  which  he  had 
with  the  King  before  his  going  over ;  and  chiefly  for 
that  the  discovery  which  he  had  made  touching  the 
Lord  Chamberlain  (which  was  his  great  service)  grew 
not  from  anything  he  learned  abroad,  for  that  he  knew 
it  well  before  he  went. 

These  executions,  and  specially  that  of  the  Lord 
Chamberlain  which  was  the  chief  strength  of  the 
party,  and  by  means  of  Sir  Robert  Clifford  who  was 
the  most  inward  man  of  trust  amongst  them,  did  ex- 
tremely quail  the  design  of  Perkin  and  his  complices, 
as  well  through  discouragement  as  distrust.  So  that 
they  were  now  like  sand  without  lime  ;  ill  bound  to- 
gether ;  especially  as  many  as  were  English,  who  were 
at  a  gaze,  looking  strange  one  upon  another,  not  know- 
ing who  was  faithful  to  their  side  ;  but  thinking  that 
the  King  (what  with  his  baits  and  what  with  his  nets) 
would  draw  them  all    unto  him  that  were  any  thing 

1  t.  e.  qualities  which  were  of  the  greater  value  because  &c.     Quce  vir~ 
tutes  magis  in  eo  enituerunt  quod,  &c. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VU.  231 

worth.  And  indeed  it  came  to  pass  that  divers  came 
aw.-iv  by  the  thrid,  sometimes  one  and  sometimes  an- 
other. Barley,1  that  was  joint-commissioner  with  Clif- 
ford, did  hold  out  one  of  the  longest,  till  Perkin  was 
far  worn  ;  yet  made  his  peace  at  length.2  But  the  fall 
of  this  great  man,  being  in  so  high  authority  and  fa- 
vour (as  was  thought)  with  the  King,  and  the  manner 
of  carriage  of  the  business,  as  if3  there  had  been  secret 
inquisition  upon  him  for  a  great  time  before  ;  and  the 
cause  for  which  he  suffered,  which  was  little  more  than 
for  saying  in  effect  that  the  title  of  York  was  better 
than  the  title  of  Lancaster,  which  was  the  case  almost 
of  every  man,  at  the  least  in  opinion  ;  was  matter  of 
great  terror  amongst  all  the  King's  servants  and  sub- 
jects ;  insomuch  as  no  man  almost  thought  himself  se- 
cure, and  men  durst  scarce  commune  or  talk  one  with 
another,  but  there  was  a  general  diffidence  everywhere ; 
which  nevertheless  made  the  King;  rather  more  absolute 
than  more  safe.4  For  bleeding  inwards  and  shut  va- 
pours strangle  soonest  and  oppress  most. 

Hereupon  presently  came  forth  swarms  and  vollies 
of  libels  (which  are  the  gusts  of  liberty  of  speech  re- 
strained, and  the  females  of  sedition,)  containing  bitter 
invectives  and  slanders  against  the  King  and  some  of 
the  counsel :  for  the  contriving  and  dispersing  whereof 
(after  great  diligence  of  enquiry)  five  mean  persons 

I  were  caught  up  and  executed. 
Meanwhile  the  King  did  not  neglect  Ireland,  being 


1  "  William  Barlee,  alias  Barley,  of  Aldebury  (Herts),  Esquire,"  received 
his  pardon  on  12  July,  1498.     See  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  13  Hen.  VII.  p.  39. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  M  at  the  length." 

8  The  Latin  puts  it  more  strongly.     Uncle  liquido  palebat. 
4  In  the  translation  he  says  more  absolute  but  less  safe.     Ex  quo  factum 
est  ut  rex  magis  absoluto  certe,  sed  minus  tuto,  imperio  frueretur. 


232  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

the  soil  where  these  mushrooms  and  upstart  weeds  that 
spring  up  in  a  night  did  chiefly  prosper.  He  sent 
therefore  from  hence  (for  the  better  settling  of  his 
affairs  there)  commissioners  of  both  robes,1  the  Prior 
of  Lanthony2  to  be  his  Chancellor  in  that  kingdom, 


1  Sir  Edward  Poynings  (or  Ponynges),  and  "  Henry,  Prior  of  Langtony 
and  Bishop  elect  of  Bangor  "  received  their  commissions,  —  the  one  as 
"  Deputy  of  Ireland,  with  power  to  act  as  Lieutenant  in  the  absence  of 
Henry,  second  son  of  the  King;  '•  the  other  as  Chancellor,  —  on  the  13th 
of  September,  1494.  See  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  10  Hen.  VII.  p.  81.  36.  On  the 
same  day,  Sir  Robert  Poyntz  was  commissioned  "  to  superintend  the  mus- 
ter of  the  King's  troops  destined  for  Ireland,  and  to  ship  them  in  certain 
vessels  at  Bristol  thereto  appointed."     Id.  ibid.  p.  81. 

1  suspect  that  Bacon's  description  of  Sir  Edward  Poynings's  commis- 
sion, which  does  not  agree  exactly  with  the  description  in  the  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls,  was  drawn  from  the  tenor  of  the  previous  commission  to 
James  Ormond  and  Thomas  Garth,  6th  December,  1491.  See  note  3,  p. 
206.  At  that  time  the  Duke  of  Bedford  was  Lieutenant  of  Ireland ;  who 
was  Deputy  in  his  absence  I  do  not  know;  but  on  the  11th  of  June,  1492, 
Walter  Archbishop  of  Dublin  was  appointed  to  that  office.  See  Cal.  Pat. 
Rolls. 

The  statement  that  the  Earl  of  Kildare  was  Deputy  when  Poynings  was 
sent  over,  that  he  was  apprehended,  sent  to  England,  cleared  himself,  and 
was  replaced,  comes  from  Polydore  Vergil:  whose  dates  are  not  much  to 
be  relied  upon.  It  is  true  however  that  the  Earl  was  attainted  by  Poin- 
ings's  Parliament,  1  Dec.  1494,  and  that  the  attainder  was  reversed  by 
Parliament  in  England  in  October,  1495.  See  Stat,  of  Realm,  vol.  ii.  p. 
612.  The  entries  in  the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  would  lead  one  to  sus- 
pect that  Sir  Edward  Poynings  discharged  the  office  of  Deputy  till  the 
end  of  1495;  that  he  was  then  succeeded  (provisionally  perhaps)  by  the 
Prior  of  Lanthony,  who  was  still  Chancellor,  and  whose  appointment  as 
"  Deputy  and  Justice  of  Ireland,  during  the  absence  of  Henry,  the  King's 
son,"  &c.  is  dated  1  Jan.  1495-6  (see  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  11  Hen.  VII.  p.  25); 
that  he  continued  to  discharge  both  offices  till  the  6th  August,  1496,  when 
he  was  succeeded  as  Chancellor  by  Walter  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  as 
Deputy  by  Gerald  Fitz  Moryce,  Earl  of  Kildare,  to  whom  that  office,  with 
the  same  privileges,  &c.  as  Sir  Edward  Poynings  had  enjoyed  in  the  same, 
was  then  granted  for  ten  years,  and  afterwards  during  pleasure.  See  Cal. 
Pat.  Rolls,  11  Hen.  VII.  pt.  1.  p.  25.  and  pt.  2.  pp.  15.  18.  It  may  be 
worth  mentioning  that  Gerald  Earl  of  Kildare  had  previously  received  a 
general  pardon  on  the  30th  of  March,  1493.  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  8  Hen.  VII. 
p.  81. 

2  Henry  Dene,  now  bishop  elect  of  Bangor;  translated  to  Salisbury  in 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 


233 


and  Sir  Edward  Poynings,  with  a  power  of  men,  and 
a  marshall  commission,  together  with  a  civil  power  of 
his  Lieutenant,1  with  a  clause,  That  the  Earl  of  Kil- 
dare,  then  Deputy,  should  obey  him.  But  the  wild 
Irish,  ^who  were  the  principal  offenders,  fled  into  the 
woods  and  bogs,  after  their  manner  ;  and  those  that 
knew  themselves  guilty  in  the  pale  fled  to  them.  So 
that  Sir  Edward  Poynings  was  enforced  to  make  a 
wild  chase  upon  the  wild  Irish ;  where  (in  respect 
of  the  mountains  and  fastnesses)  he  did  little  good  : 
which  (either  out  of  a  suspicious  melancholy  upon  his 
bad  success,  or  the  better  to  save  his  service  from  dis- 
grace,) he  would  needs  impute  unto  the  comfort  that 
the  rebels  should  receive  underhand  from  the  Earl  of 
Kildare  ;  every  light  suspicion  growing  upon  the  Earl, 
in  respect  of  the  Kildare  that  was  in  the  action  of 
Lambert  Symnell,  and  slain  at  Stokefield.  Wherefore 
he  caused  the  Earl  to  be  apprehended,  and  sent  into 
England  ;  where  upon  examination  he  cleared  himself 
so  well  as  he  was  replaced  in  his  government.  But 
Poynings,  the  better  to  make  compensation  of  the 
meagreness  of  his  service  in  the  wars  by  acts  of  peace, 
called  a  Parliament ;  where  was  made  that  memorable 
act  which  at  this  day  is  called  Poynings'  Law  ;  where- 
bv  all  the  statutes  of  England  were  made  to  be  of  force 
in  Ireland.  For  before  they  were  not  ;  neither  are 
any  now  in  force  in  Ireland,  which  were  made  in  Eng- 
land since  that  time  ;  which  was  the  tenth  year  of  the 
King. 

1500;  and  to  Canterbury  in  August,  1501,  upon  the  death  of  Cardinal 
Morton.     Died  16  Feb.  1502-3.     See  old  Chron.  204.  b. 

1  Atque  una  diploma  dedit  auctoritatem  in  eum  conferens  locumtenentis  sui 
in  reyimine  civili.  This  is  not  expressly  stated  by  Polydore,  though  his 
narrative  seems  to  imply  as  much. 


234  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENKY  VII. 

About  this  time  began  to  be  discovered  in  the  King 
that  disposition,  which  afterwards  nourished  and  whet 
on  by  bad  counsellors  and  ministers  proved  the  blot  of 
his  times  :  which  was  the  course  he  took  to  crush 
treasure  out  of  his  subjects'  purses,  by  forfeitures  upon 
penal  laws.  At  this  men  did  startle  the  more  (at  this 
time),  because  it  appeared  plainly  to  be  in  the  King's 
nature,  and  not  out  of  his  necessity ;  he  being  now 
in  float  for  treasure:  for  that  he  had  newly  received 
the  peace-money  from  France,  the  benevolence-money 
from  his  subjects,  and  great  casualties  upon  the  con- 
fiscations of  the  Lord  Chamberlain  and  divers  others. 
The  first  noted  case  of  this  kind  was  that  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Capel,1  Alderman  of  London ;  who  upon  sundry 
penal  laws  was  condemned  in  the  sum  of  seven  and 
twenty  hundred  pounds,  and  compounded  with  the 
King  for  sixteen  hundred :  and  yet  after,  Empson 
would  have  cut  another  chop  out  of  him,  if  the  King 
had  not  died  in  the  instant. 

The  summer  following,2  the  King,  to  comfort  his 
mother,  whom  he  did  always  tenderly  love  and  revere, 
and  to  make  demonstration  3  to  the  world  that  the  pro- 
ceeding against  Sir  William  Stanley  (which  was  im- 
posed upon  him  by  necessity  of  state)  had  not  in  any 

i  This  fact  is  recorded  by  Stowe;  without  any  remark.  And  it  is  worth 
observing  that  the  predominance  of  avarice  in  Henry's  character  (which 
has  since  become  almost  proverbial,  and  to  which  our  modern  historians 
refer  almost  every  action  of  his  life,)  had  not  been  noticed  by  any  historian 
before  Bacon,  except  Speed;  and  he  professes  to  have  derived  the  obser- 
vation from  Bacon  himself.  This  case  occurred  in  May,  1495.  See  old 
Chron.  Sir  William  Capell  received  a  pardon  on  the  7th  Nov.  following. 
See  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  11  Hen.  VII.  p.  19. 

2  i.  e.  the  summer  of  1495 :  the  25th  of  June,  according  to  Polydore. 

8  The  MS.  and  the  Ed.  1622  both  have  "to  make  open  demonstration." 
Iu  the  list  "  faults  escaped,"  at  the  end  of  the  volume,  "  open  "  is  directed 
to  be  omitted. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  235 

degree  diminished  the  affection  he  bore  to  Thomas  his 
brother,  went  in  progress  to  Latham,  to  make  merry 
with  his  mother  and  the  Earl,  and  lay  there  divers 
days.  i 

During  this  progress  Perkin  Warbeck,  rinding  that 
time  and  temporising,  which  while  his  practices  were 
covert  and  wrought  well  in  England  made  for  him,  did 
now  when  they  were  discovered  and  defeated  rather 
make  against  him  (for  that  when  matters  once  go 
down  the  hill  they  stay  not  without  a  new  force),  re- 
solved to  try  his  adventure  in  some  exploit  upon  Eng- 
land ;  hoping  still  upon  the  affections  of  the  common 
people  towards  the  House  of  York.  Which  body  of 
common  people  he  thought  was  not  to  be  practised 
upon  as  persons  of  quality  are ;  but  that  the  only  prac- 
tice upon  their  affections  was  to  set  up  a  standard  in 
the  field.  The  place  where  he  should  make  his  at- 
tempt he  chose  to  be  the  coast  of  Kent. 

The  King  by  this  time  was  grown  to  such  a  height 
of  reputation  for  cunning  and  policy,  that  every  acci- 
dent and  event  that  went  well  was  laid  and  imputed  to 
his  foresight,  as  if  he  had  set  it  before.  As  in  this 
particular  of  Perkin's  design  upon  Kent.  For  the 
world  would  not  believe  afterwards,  but  the  King,  hav- 
ing secret  intelligence  of  Perkin's  intention  for  Kent, 
the  better  to  draw  it  on,  went  of  purpose  into  the 
north  afar  off;  laying  an  open  side  unto  Perkin  to 
make  him  come  to  the  close,  and  so  to  trip  up  his 
heels,  having  made  sure  in  Kent  beforehand. 

But  so  it  was,  that  Perkin  had  gathered  together  a 
power  of  all  nations,1  neither  in  number  nor  in  the 
hardiness  and  courage   of  the  persons  contemptible  ; 

1  Colluviem  quondam. 


236  HISTORY  OF   KING  HENRY  VII. 

but  in  their  nature  and  fortunes  to  be  feared  as  well  of 
friends  as  enemies  ;  being  bankrupts,  and  many  of 
them  felons,  and  such  as  lived  by  rapine.  These  he 
put  to  sea,  and  arrived  upon  the  coast  of  Sandwich 
and  Deal  in  Kent  about  July.1 

There  he  cast  anchor,  and  to  prove  the  affections  of 
the  people,  sent  some  of  his  men  to  land,  making  great 
boasts  of  the  power  that  was  to  follow.  The  Kentish 
men,  perceiving  that  Perkin  was  not  followed  by  any 
English  of  name  or  account,  and  that  his  forces  con- 
sisted but  of  strangers  born,  and  most  of  them  base 
people  and  free-booters,  fitter  to  spoil  a  coast  than  to 
recover  a  kingdom  ;  resorting  unto  the  principal  gen- 
tlemen of  the  country,  professed  their  loyalty  to  the 
King,  and  desired  to  be  directed  and  commanded  for 
the  best  of  the  King's  service.  The  gentlemen,  enter- 
ing into  consultation,  directed  some  forces  in  good 
number  to  shew  themselves  upon  the  coast,  and  some 
of  them  to  make  signs  to  entice  Perkin 's  soldiers  to 
land,  as  if  they  would  join  with  them  ;  and  some 
others  to  appear  from  some  other  places,  and  to  make 
semblance  as  if  they  fled  from  them,  the  better  to  en- 
courage them  to  land.  But  Perkin,  who  by  playing 
the  Prince,  or  else  taught  by  secretary  Frion,  had 
learned  thus  much,  that  people  under  command  do  use 
to  consult  and  after  to  march  on  in  order,2  and  rebels 
contrariwise  run  upon  an  head  together  in  confusion ; 
considering  the  delay  of  time,  and  observing  their  or- 
derly and  not  tumultuary  arming,  doubted  the  worst. 
And  therefore  the  wily  youth  would  not  set  one  foot 

1  On  the  3rd  of  July,  1495;  according  to  the  old  Chronicle,  p.  154.  b. 

2  Primo  stare  et  postea  ordine  incedere.     Ed.  1622  has  "  to  march  in 
order." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  237 

out  of  his  ship,  till  he  might  see  things  were  sure. 
Wherefore  the  King's  forces,  perceiving  that  they 
could  draw  on  no  more  than  those  that  were  formerly 
landed,  set  upon  them  and  cut  them  in  pieces  ere  they 
could  fly  back  to  their  ships.  In  which  skirmish  (be- 
sides those  that  fled  and  were  slain)  there  were  taken 
about  an  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  which,  for  that  the 
King  thought,  that  to  punish  a  few  for  example  was 
gentleman's  pay,  but  for  rascal  people  they  were  to  be 
cut  off  every  man,  especially  in  the  beginning  of  an 
enterprise  ;  and  likewise  for  that  he  saw  that  Perkin's 
forces  would  now  consist  chiefly  of  such  rabble  and 
scum  of  desperate  people  ; *  he  therefore  2  hanged  them 
all  for  the  greater  terror.  They  were  brought  to  Lon- 
don all  railed  in  ropes,  like  a  team  of  horses  in  a  cart, 
and  were  executed  some  of  them  at  London  and  Wap- 
ping,  and  the  rest  at  divers  places  upon  the  sea-coast 
of  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Norfolk ;  for  sea-marks  or  light- 
houses to  teach  Perkin's  people  to  avoid  the  coast. 
The  King  being  advertised  of  the  landing  of  the  rebels, 
thought  to  leave  his  progress :  but  being  certified  the 
next  day  that  they  were  partly  defeated  and  partly 
fled,  he  continued  his  progress,  and  sent  Sir  Richard 
Guildford  into  Kent  in  message  ;  who  calling  the  coun- 
try together,  did  much  commend  (from  the  King) 
their   fidelity,    manhood,    and   well   handling   of   that 

I  service  ;  and   gave   them   all   thanks,   and  in   private 
promised  reward  to  some  particulars. 
Upon   the   sixteenth   of  November  (this  being  the 
eleventh  year  of  the  King)  was  holden  the  Serjeants' 


1  Simulque  animo  prospiciens  copias  Perkini  posthac  ex  cottuvie  et  sentind 
hominum  prqjectoi'um  compositas  fore. 
a  So  Ed.  1622.    The  MS.  omits  "  he  therefore." 


238  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

feast  at  Ely  Place,  there  being  nine  Serjeants  of  that 
call.  The  King,  to  honour  the  feast,  was  present  with 
his  Queen  at  the  dinner  ;  being  a  Prince  that  was  ever 
ready  to  grace  and  countenance  the  professors  of  the 
law  ;  having  a  little  of  that,  that  as  he  governed  his 
subjects  by  his  J  laws,  so  he  governed  his  laws  by  his 
lawyers. 

This  year  also  the  King  entered  into  league  with 
the  Italian  potentates  for  the  defence  of  Italy  against 
France.  For  King  Charles  had  conquered  the  realm 
of  Naples,  and  lost  it  again,  in  a  kind  of  felicity  of  a 
dream.  He  passed  the  whole  length  of  Italy  without 
resistance ;  so  that  it  was  true  which  Pope  Alexander 
was  wont  to  say,  That  the  Frenchmen  came  into  Italy 
with  chalk  in  their  hands  to  mark  up  their  lodgings, 
rather  than  with  swords  to  fight.  He  likewise  entered 
and  won  in  effect  the  whole  kingdom  of  Naples  itself, 
without  striking  stroke.  But  presently  thereupon  he 
did  commit  and  multiply  so  many  errors,  as  was  too 
great  a  task  for  the  best  fortune  to  overcome.  He 
gave  no  contentment  to  the  barons  of  Naples,  of  the 
faction  of  the  Angeovines  ;  but  scattered  his  rewards 
according  to  the  mercenary  appetites  of  some  about 
him  :  He  put  all  Italy  upon  their  guard,  by  the  seiz- 
ing and  holding  of  Ostia,  and  the  protecting  of  the 
liberty  of  Pisa  ;  which  made  all  men  suspect  that  his 
purposes  looked  further  than  his  title  of  Naples  :  He 
fell  too  soon  at  difference  with  Ludovico  Sfortza,  who 
was  the  man  that  carried  the  keys  which  brought  him 
in  and  shut  him  out :  He  neglected  to  extinguish  some 
relicks  of  the  war :  And  lastly,  in  regard  of  his  easy 
passage  through  Italy  without  resistance,  he  entered 

1  So  Ed.  1622.    The  MS.  omits  "his." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  239 

into  an  overmuch  despising  of  the  arms  of  the  Italians, 
whereby  lie  left  the  realm  of  Naples  at  his  departure 
so  much  the  less  provided.  So  that  not  long  after  his 
return,  the  whole  kingdom  revolted  to  Ferdinando  the 
younger,  and  the  French  were  quite  driven  out.  Nev- 
ertheless Charles  did  make  both  great  threats  and 
great  preparations  to  re-enter  Italy  once  again :  where- 
fore at  the  instance  of  divers  of  the  states  of  Italy  (and 
especially  of  Pope  Alexander)  there  was  a  league  con- 
cluded between  the  said  Pope,  Maximilian  King  of 
the  Romans,  Henry  King  of  England,  Ferdinando  and 
Isabella  King  and  Queen  of  Spain  (for  so  they  are 
constantly  placed  in  the  original  treaty  throughout), 
.ugustino  Barbadico  Duke  of  Venice,  and  Ludovico 
>fortza  Duke  of  Milan,  for  the  common  defence  of 
ieir  estates  :  wherein  though  Ferdinando  of  Naples 
ras  not  named  as  principal,  yet  no  doubt  the  king- 
>m  of  Naples  was  tacitly  included  !  as  a  fee  of  the 
turch. 

There  died  also  this  year  Cecile  Duchess  of  York, 

tother  to  King  Edward  the  Fourth,  at  her  castle  of 

►arkhamsted,  being  of  extreme  years,  and  who  had 

ived  to  see  three  princes  of  her  body  crowned,  and 

Pour  murdered.     She  was  buried  at  Foderingham,  by 

her  husband. 

This  year  also  the  King  called  his  Parliament,2 
where  many  laws  were  made  of  a  more  private  and 
vulgar  nature  than  ought  to  detain  the  reader  of  an 
history.     And  it  may  be  justly  suspected,  by  the  pro- 


1  Tacitly  is  omitted  in  the  translation.  The  original  league  (without 
Henry)  was  signed  25  March,  1495.  It  was  ratified  by  Henry  on  the  13th 
of  September,  1496. 

2  It  met  on  the  14th  of  October,  1495. 


240  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

ceedings  following,  that  as  the  King  did  excell  in  good 
commonwealth  laws,  so  nevertheless  he  had  in  secret  a 
design  to  make  use  of  them  as  well  for  collecting  of 
treasure  as  for  correcting  of  manners ;  and  so  mean- 
ing thereby  to  harrow  his  people,  did  accumulate 
them  the  rather. 

The  principal  law  that  was  made  this  Parliament 
was  a  law  of  a  strange  nature,  rather  just  than  legal,1 
and  more  magnanimous  than  provident.  This  law  did 
ordain,  That  no  person  that  did  assist  in  arms  or  other- 
wise the  King  for  the  time  being,  should  after  be  im- 
peached therefore,  or  attainted  either  by  the  course  of 
law  2  or  by  act  of  Parliament ;  but  if  any  such  act  of 
attainder  did  hap 3  to  be  made,  it  should  be  void  and 
of  none  effect ;  for  that  it  was  agreeable  to  reason  of 
estate  that  the  subject  should  not  inquire  of  the  just- 
ness of  the  King's  title  or  quarrel,  and  it  was  agreeable 
to  good  conscience  that  (whatsoever  the  fortune  of  the 
war  were)  the  subject  should  not  suffer  for  his  obedi- 
ence. The  spirit  of  this  law  was  wonderful  pious  and 
noble,  being  like,  in  matter  of  war,  unto  the  spirit  of 
David  in  matter  of  plague ;  who  said,  If  I  have  sinned 
strike  me,  but  what  have  these  sheep  done  ?  Neither 
wanted  this  law  parts  of  prudent  and  deep  foresight. 
For  it  did  the  better  take  away  occasion  for  the  people 
to  busy  themselves  to  pry  into  the  King's  title  ;  for  that 
(howsoever  it  fell)  their  safety  was  already  provided 
for.  Besides  it  could  not  but  greatly  draw  unto  him 
the  love  and  hearts  of  the  people,  because  he  seemed 

1  Jusla  potius  secundum  cequitatem  naturalem  quarn  ex  noi-md  juris.  The 
act  was  the  11  H.  7.  c.  1. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "the  law." 
8  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  happen." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  241 

more  careful  for  them  than  for  himself.  But  yet  nev- 
ertheless it  did  take  off  from  his  party  that  great  tie 
and  spur  of  necessity  to  fight  and  go  victors  out  of  the 
field  ;  considering  their  lives  and  fortunes  were  put  in 
safety  .and  protected  whether  they  stood  to  it  or  ran 
away.  But  the  force  and  obligation  of  this  law  was 
in  itself  illusory,  as  to  the  latter  part  of  it ;  (by  a  pre- 
cedent act  of  Parliament  to  bind  or  frustrate  a  future). 
For  a  supreme  and  absolute  power  cannot  conclude 
itself,  neither  can  that  which  is  in  nature  revocable  be 
made  fixed ;  no  more  than  if  a  man  should  appoint  or 
declare  by  his  will  that  if  he  made  any  later  will  it 
should  be  void.  And  for  the  case  of  the  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, there  is  a  notable  precedent  of  it  in  King  Henry 
the  Eighth's  time ;  who  doubting  he  might  die  in  the 
minority  of  his  son,  procured  an  act  to  pass,  That  no 
statute  made  during  the  minority  of  a  King  should 
bind  him  or  his  successors,  except  it  were  confirmed 
by  the  King  under  his  great  seal  at  his  full  age.  But 
the  first  act  that  passed  in  King  Edward  the  Sixth's 
time,  was  an  act  of  repeal  of  that  former  act  ;  at 
which  time  nevertheless  the  King  was  minor.  But 
things  that  do  not  bind  may  satisfy  for  the  time. 

There  was  also  made  a  shoaring  or  underpropping 
act  for  the  benevolence :  *  to  make  the  sums  which 
any  person  had  agreed  to  pay,  and  nevertheless  were 
not  brought  in,  to  be  leviable  by  course  of  law. 
Which  act  did  not  only  bring  in  the  arrears,  but  did 

I  indeed  countenance  the  whole  business,  and  was  pre- 
tended to  be  made  at  the  desire  of  those  that  had  been 
forward  to  pay. 
VOL.    XI. 


i  11  H.  7.  c.  10. 
16 


242  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

gave  the  attaint  upon  a  false  verdict  between  party  and 
party,1  which  before  was  a  kind  of  evangile,  irremedi- 
able. It  extends  not  to  causes  capital,  as  well  because 
they  are  for  the  most  part  at  the  King's  suit ;  as  be- 
cause in  them,  if  they  be  followed  in  course  of  indict- 
ment,2 there  passeth  a  double  jury,  the  indictors  and 
the  triers,  and  so  not  twelve  men  but  four  and  twenty. 
But  it  seemeth  that  was  not  the  only  reason ;  for  this 
reason  holdeth  not  in  the  appeal.3  But  the  great  rea- 
son was,  lest  it  should  tend  to  the  discouragement  of 
jurors  in  cases  of  life  and  death,  if  they  should  be 
subject  to  suit  and  penalty,  where  the  favour  of  life 
maketh  against  them.  It  extendeth  not  also  to  any 
suit  where  the  demand  is  under  the  value  of  forty 
pounds  ;  for  that  in  such  cases  of  petty  value  it  would 
not  quit  the  charge  to  go  about  again.4 

There  was  another  law  made  against  a  branch  of  in- 
gratitude in  women,  who  having  been  advanced 5  by 
their  husbands,  or  their  husbands'  ancestors,  should 
alien  and  thereby  seek  to  defeat  the  heirs  or  those 
in  remainder  of  the  lands  whereunto  they  had  been  so 
advanced.  The  remedy  was  by  giving  power  to  the 
next  to  enter  for  a  forfeiture.6 

There  was  also  enacted  that  charitable  law  for  the 
admission  of  poor  suitors  in  forma  pauperis,  without 

1  Quce  breve  de  attincta  vocalum  introduxit ;  per  quod  judicia  juratorum 
(qua}  veredicto,  vocantur)  falsa  rescindi possint.     11  H.  7.  c.  21. 

2  Si  per  viam   indictamenti,   quod  regis  nomine   semper  proctdit,   trac- 
ienlur. 

3  TJbi  causa  capitalis  a  parte  gravata  peragitur. 

4  Superaturai  essent  impensm  summam  principalem  si  rctractarentur.     The 
entire  sum  at  issue  would  not  pay  the  expense  of  the  process. 

5}  e.  received  lands :  ad  terras  promotas. 

6  In  terrarum  possessionem,  nomine  forisfacturai,  non  expectata  mortc  mu- 
lieris,  continuo  venire.     11  H.  7.  c.  20. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  243 

fee  to  counsellor,  attorney,  or  clerk ;  whereby  poor 
men  became  rather  able  to  vex  than  unable  to  sue.1 
There  were  divers  other  good  laws  made  that  Parlia- 
ment, as  we  said  before ;  but  we  still  observe  our 
manner  in  selecting  out  those  that  are  not  of  a  vul- 
gar nature. 

The  King  this  while  though  he  sat  in  Parliament  as 
in  full  peace,  and  seemed  to  account  of  the  designs  of 
Perkin  (who  was  now  returned  into  Flanders)  but  as 
of  a  May-game  ;  2  yet  having  the  composition  of  a 
wise  King,  stout  without  and  apprehensive  within, 
had  given  order  for  the  watching  of  beacons  upon  the 
coast,  and  erecting  more  where  they  stood  too  thin  ; 
and  had  a  careful  eye  where  this  wandering  cloud 
would  break.  But  Perkin,  advised  to  keep  his  fire 
(which  hitherto  burned  as  it  were  upon  green  wood) 
alive  with  continual  blowing,  sailed  again  into  Ire- 
land ; 3  whence  he  had  formerly  departed,  rather  upon 
the  hopes  of  France  than  upon  any  unreadiness  or 
discouragement  he  found  in  that  people.  But  in  the 
space  of  time  between,  the  King's  diligence  and  Poyn- 
ing's  commission  had  so  settled  things  there,  as  there 


1  JJnde  tamen  factum  est  ut  homines  egeni,  sicut  lege  experiri  melius  possent, 
ad  alios  vexandos  promptiores  essent.  The  meaning  is,  that  the  charity  of 
the  legislature  thought  it  better  that  the  poor  man  should  be  able  to  vex 
than  that  he  should  not  be  able  to  sue.  —  This  was  11  H.  7.  c.  12. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  but  as  a  May-game." 

8  Probably  soon  after  the  failure  of  his  descent  upon  Kent.  For  we 
hear  of  a  royal  fleet  under  the  command  of  Sir  Roger  Cotton  destined  for 
Ireland  on  the  26th  of  July,  1495  (Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  10  Hen.  VII.  p.  97.); 
and  on  the  26th  of  November  following,  license  was  granted  to  the  owner 
of  a  ship  which  had  been  seized  and  despoiled  at  Toughal  by  the  rebel 
Peter  Warbeck,  to  seize  or  detain  any  ship  or  goods,  &c.  (Id.  11  Hen. 
VII.  p.  18.  A.)  A  letter  from  Yarmouth,  in  the  Paston  Correspondence 
(v.  p.  431.),  dated  'Relyk  Sonday '  [12  July,  1495],  says  "  as  for  the  ships 
with  the  King's  rebellers  they  be  forth  out  of  Cambyr  westwards.''y 


244  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

was  nothing  left  for  Perkin  but  the  blustering  affection 
of  the  wild1  and  naked  people.  Wherefore  he  was 
advised  by  his  counsel  to  seek  aid  of  the  King  of 
Scotland  ;  a  Prince  young  and  valorous,  and  in  good 
terms  with  his  nobles  and  people,  and  ill  affected  to 
King  Henry.  At  this  time  also  both  Maximilian  and 
Charles  of  France  began  to  bear  no  good  will  to  the 
King:  the  one  being  displeased  with  the  King's  pro- 
hibition of  commerce  with  Flanders  ;  the  other  hold- 
ing the  King  for  suspect,  in  regard  of  his  late  entry 
into  league  with  the  Italians.  Wherefore  besides  the 
open  aids  of  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  which  did 
with  sails  and  oars  put  on  and  advance  Perkin's  de- 
signs, there  wanted  not  some  secret  tides  from  Maxi- 
milian and  Charles  which  did  further  his  fortunes  ; 
insomuch  as  they  both  by  their  secret  letters  and  mes- 
sages recommended  him  to  the  King  of  Scotland. 

Perkin  therefore  coming  into  Scotland2  upon  those 
hopes,  with  a  well-appointed  company,  was  by  the 
King  of  Scots  (being  formerly  well  prepared)  hon- 
ourably welcomed  ;  and  soon  after  his  arrival  admitted 
to  his  presence  in  a  solemn  manner.  For  the  King 
received  him  in  state  in  his  chamber  of  presence, 
accompanied  with  divers  of  his  nobles.     And  Perkin, 


1  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "of  wild." 

2  He  arrived  in  Stirling  on  the  20th  of  November,  1495.  But  the  King 
of  Scotland  had  been  prepared  to  receive  him  more  than  a  year  before. 
See  the  entry  in  the  Treasurer's  books,  Nov.  6,  1494,  quoted  by  Tytler. 
"  Items  for  carriage  of  the  arras  work  forth  of  Edinburgh  to  Stirling,  for 
receiving  the  Prince  of  England,  xxx.  sft."  This  may  have  been  the  occa- 
sion of  the  busy  deliberations  in  the  English  Council  mentioned  in  one  of 
the  Paston  letters,  dated  Allhallowtide,  1494.  "  Sir,  there  hath  been  so 
great  counsel  for  the  King's  matters  that  my  Lord  Chancellor  kept  not  the 
Star  Chamber  this  eight  days,  but  one  day  at  London,  on  St.  Leonard's 
day."     Vol.  v.  p.  423. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  245 

well  attended  as  well  with  those  that  the  King  had  sent 
before  him  as  with  his  own  train,  entered  the  room 
where  the  King  was,  and  coming  near  to  the  King, 
and  bowing  a  little  to  embrace  him,  he  retired  some 
paces  ^ack,  and  with  a  loud  voice,  that  all  that  were 
present  might  hear  him,  made  his  declaration  in  this 
manner : * 

"  High  and  mighty  King  ;  your  Grace  and  these 
your  nobles  here  present  may  be  pleased  benignly  to 
bow  your  ears  to  hear  the  tragedy  of  a  young  man, 
that  by  right  ought  to  hold  in  his  hand  the  ball  of  a 
kingdom,  but  by  fortune  is  made  himself  a  ball,  tossed 
from  misery  to  misery,  and  from  place  to  place.  You 
see  here  before  you  the  spectacle  of  a  Plantagenet, 
who  hath  been  carried  from  the  nursery  to  the  sanctu- 

1  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  there  is  any  authentic  report  of  Perkin's 
speech  to  the  Scotch  King,  except  for  the  general  tenor  and  effect  of  it. 
The  speech  which  is  given  here  is  taken  almost  entirely  from  Speed;  who 
seems  to  have  made  it  up  partly  from  Perkin's  Proclamation  (to  be  men- 
tioned presently)  and  partly  from  the  narrative  of  John  Leslie  Bishop  of 
Rosse ;  with  a  touch  here  and  there  taken  from  Polydore  Vergil.  Speed 
gives  it  in  the  third  person,  as  the  substance  of  what  Perkin  said.  Bacon 
retains  all  that  is  in  Speed,  almost  word  for  word;  interweaving  here  and 
there  a  sentence  or  two,  apparently  of  his  own,  by  way  of  introduction  or 
transition ;  or  to  fill  up  an  apparent  gap  in  the  argument.  The  three  first 
sentences,  and  those  in  which  Perkin  is  made  to  touch  upon  the  manner  of 
his  escape  from  the  Tower,  may  be  taken  as  specimens  of  the  matter  added. 
I  have  not  thought  it  worth  while  to  point  out  each  expression  which 
varies  from  previously  recorded  versions  of  the  speech.  It  is  enough  to 
say  that  no  statement  or  material  modification  of  any  fact  has  been  intro- 
duced by  Bacon  without  the  authority  (such  as  it  is)  of  preceding  histo- 
rians. In  point  of  form  and  expression  there  is  no  version  of  it  which 
has  any  claim  to  be  taken  for  authentic.  Such  things,  unless  taken  down 
by  a  short-hand  writer,  must  always  be  in  great  part  the  composition  of 
the  narrator;  as  any  one  may  satisfy  himself  by  trying  to  write  out  a 
continuous  narrative  of  the  last  conversation,  or  a  continuous  report  of  the 
last  speech,  that  was  uttered  in  his  presence :  and  if  the  version  of  the 
speech  which  is  here  given  contains  Bacon's  guesses,  instead  of  Polydore's 
or  Leslie's  or  Speed's,  it  is  not  the  less  likely  on  that  account  to  represent 
truly  the  effect  of  what  Perkin  said. 


246  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

ary,  from  the  sanctuary  to  the  direful  prison,  from  the 
prison  to  the  hand  of  the  cruel  tormentor,  and  from 
that  hand  to  the  wide  wilderness  (as  I  may  truly  call 
it),  for  so  the  world  hath  been  to  me.  So  that  he  that 
is  born  to  a  great  kingdom,  hath  not  ground  to  set  his 
foot  upon,  more  than  this  where  he  now  standeth  by 
your  princely  favour.  Edward  the  Fourth,  late  King 
of  England,  (as  your  Grace  cannot  but  have  heard,) 
left  two  sons,  Edward  and  Richard  Duke  of  York, 
both  very  young.  Edward  the  eldest  succeeded  their 
father  in  the  crown,  by  the  name  of  King  Edward  the 
Fifth.  But  Richard  Duke  of  Glocester,  their  unnat- 
ural uncle,  first  thirsting  after  the  kingdom  through 
ambition,  and  afterwards  thirsting  for  their  blood  out 
of  desire  to  secure  himself,  employed  an  instrument  of 
his  (confident  to  him  as  he  thought,)  to  murder  them 
both.  But  this  man  that  was  employed  to  execute 
that  execrable  tragedy,  having  cruelly  slain  King  Ed- 
ward, the  eldest  of  the  two,  was  moved  partly  by 
remorse,  and  partly  by  some  other  mean,  to  save 
Richard  his  brother ;  making  a  report  nevertheless 
to  the  tyrant  that  he  had  performed  his  command- 
ment for  both  brethren.  This  report  was  accordingly 
believed,1  and  published  generally.  So  that  the  world 
hath  been  possessed  of  an  opinion  that  they  both  were 
barbarously  made  away,  though  ever  truth  hath  some 
sparks  that  fly  abroad  until  it  appear  in  due  time,  as 
this  hath  had.  But  Almighty  God,  that  stopped  the 
mouth  of  the  lions,2  and  saved  little  Joas  from  the 
tyranny  of  Athaliah  when  she  massacred  the  King's 


1  Believed,  that  is,  by  Richard.     Isti  relatloni  a  tyranno  fides  adhibita  est, 
eademque  publicis  deelaralionibus  est  confirmata. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  lion." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  247 

children,  and  did  save  Isaac  when  the  hand  was 
Stretched  forth  to  sacrifice  him,  preserved  the  second 
brother.  For  I  myself  that  stand  here  in  your  pres- 
ence, am  that  very  Richard  Duke  of  York,  brother 
of  thai  unfortunate  Prince  King  Edward  the  Fifth, 
now  the  most  rightful  surviving  heir-male  to  that  vic- 
torious and  most  noble  Edward,  of  that  name  the 
Fourth,  late  King  of  England.  For  the  manner  of 
my  escape,  it  is  fit  it  should  pass  in  silence,  or  at  least 
in  a  more  secret  relation  ;  for  that  it  may  concern 
some  alive,  and  the  memory  of  some  that  are  dead. 
Let  it  suffice  to  think,  that  I  had  then  a  mother  living, 
a  Queen,  and  one  that  expected  daily  such  a  com- 
mandment from  the  tyrant  for  the  murdering  of  her 
children.  Thus  in  my  tender  age  escaping  by  God's 
mercy  out  of  London,  I  was  secretly  conveyed  over 
sea ;  where  after  a  time  the  party  that  had  me  in 
charge  (upon  what  new  fears,  change  of  mind,  or 
practice,  God  knoweth)  suddenly  forsook  me ;  where- 
by I  was  forced  to  wander  abroad,  and  to  seek  mean 
conditions  for  the  sustaining  of  my  life.  Wherefore 
distracted  between  several  passions,  the  one  of  fear 
to  be  known,  lest  the  tyrant  should  have  a  new  at- 
tempt upon  me,  the  other  of  grief  and  disdain  to  be 
unknown  and  to  live  in  that  base  and  servile  manner 
that  I  did,  I  resolved  with  myself  to  expect  the  ty- 
rant's death,  and  then  to  put  myself  into  my  sister's 
hands,  who  was  next  heir  to  the  crown.  But  in  this 
season  it  happened  one  Henry  Tidder,1  son  to  Edmund 

1  So  spelt  throughout  Perkin's  original  proclamation;  and  in  the  MS. 
and  original  edition  of  this  work. 

The  sentences  which  follow,  down  to  the  words  "  if  I  had  been  such  a 
feigned  person,"  are  taken  almost  verbatim  from  Speed,  by  whom  they 
were  copied  almost  verbatim  from  the  first  paragraph  of  Perkin's  procla- 


248  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Tidder  Earl  of  Richmond,  to  come  from  France  and 
enter  into  the  realm,  and  by  subtile  and  foul  means  to 
obtain  the  crown  of  the  same,  which  to  me  rightfully 
appertained :  so  that  it  was  but  a  change  from  tyrant 
to  tyrant.  This  Henry,  my  extreme  and  mortal  en- 
emy, so  soon  as  he  had  knowledge  of  my  being  alive, 
imagined  and  wrought  all  the  subtile  ways  and  means 
he  could  to  procure  my  final  destruction.  For  my 
mortal  enemy  hath  not  only  falsely  surmised  me  to  be 
a  feigned  person,  giving  me  nick-names  so  abusing  the 
world  ;  but  also  to  defer  and  put  me  from  entry  into 
England,  hath  offered  large  sums  of  money  to  corrupt 
the  Princes  and  their  ministers  with  whom  I  have 
been  retained  ;  and  made  importune  labours  to  certain 
servants  about  my  person  to  murder  or  poison  me,1 
and  others  to  forsake  and  leave  my  righteous  quarrel 
and  to  depart  from  my  service ;  as  Sir  Robert  Clifford 
and  others.  So  that  every  man  of  reason  may  well 
perceive,  that  Henry,  calling  himself  King  of  England, 
needed  not  to  have  bestowed  such  great  sums  of  treas- 
ure, nor  so  to  have  busied  himself  with  importune  and 
incessant  labour  and  industry,  to  compass  my  death 
and  ruin,  if  I  had  been  such  a  feigned  person.  But 
the  truth  of  my  cause  being  so  manifest,  moved  the 
most  Christian  King  Charles,  and  the  Lady  Duchess 
Dowager  of  Burgundy,  my  most  dear  aunt,  not  only 
to  acknowledge  the  truth  thereof,  but  lovingly  to  assist 

mation.  The  discrepancies  between  Speed's  extract  and  the  original 
(presuming  that  the  copy  of  the  original  which  has  been  preserved  is 
correct)  seem  to  have  arisen  from  the  difficulty  of  decyphering  it. 

The  remainder  of  the  speech  is  also  taken  —  with  no  more  change  than 
the  turning  it  from  the  third  person  into  the  first,  and  the  insertion  of  a 
transitional  sentence  —  from  Speed;  who  took  it  from  Bishop  Leslie. 

1  So  Speed.  The  MS.  copy  has  "  some  of  them  to  murdere  our  psone, 
us  (sic)  and  other  to  forsack,"  &c. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  249 

me.  But  it  seemeth  that  God  above,  for  the  good  of 
this  whole  island,  and  the  knitting  of  these  two  king- 
doms of  England  and  Scotland  in  a  strait  concord  and 
amity  by  so  great  an  obligation,  hath  reserved  the 
placing^  of  me  in  the  imperial  throne  of  England  for 
the  arms  and  succours  of  your  Grace.  Neither  is  it 
the  first  time  that  a  King  of  Scotland  hath  supported 
them  that  were  reft *  and  spoiled  of  the  kingdom  of 
England,  as  of  late  in  fresh  memory  it  was  done  in 
the  person  of  Henry  the  Sixth.  Wherefore  for  that 
your  Grace  hath  given  clear  signs  that  you  are  in  no 
noble  quality  inferior  to  your  royal  ancestors,  I,  so 
distressed  a  Prince,  was  hereby  moved  to  come  and 
put  myself  into  your  royal  hands  ;  desiring  your  as- 
sistance to  recover  my  kingdom  of  England,  promising 
faithfully  to  bear  myself  towards  your  Grace  no  other- 
ise  than  if  I  were  your  own  natural  brother;  and 
pll,  upon  the  recovery  of  mine  inheritance,  grate- 
illy  do  to  you  2  all  the  pleasure  that  is  in  my  utmost 
»wer." 

After  Perkin   had    told   his    tale,  King  James    an- 
swered bravely  and  wisely,  That  whosoever  he  were, 
te  should  not  repent  him  of  putting  himself  into  his 
lands.       And   from    that    time   forth    (though    there 
ranted  not  some  about  him  that  would  have  persuaded 
lim  that  all  was  but  an  illusion)  yet  notwithstanding, 
jther  taken  by  Perkin's  amiable  and  alluring  behav- 
iour, or  inclining  to  the  recommendation  of  the  great 
*rinces  abroad,  or  willing  to  take  an  occasion  of  a  war 
against  King  Henry,  he  entertained  him  in  all  things 
as  became  the  person  of  Richard  Duke  of  York,  em- 

1  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  bereft." 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  do  you." 


250  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

braced  his  quarrel,  and,  the  more  to  put  it  out  of  doubt 
that  he  took  him  to  be  a  great  Prince  and  not  a  repre- 
sentation only,  he  gave  consent  that  this  Duke  should 
take  to  wife  the  Lady  Katheren  Gordon  daughter  to 
the  Earl  of  Huntley,  being  a  near  kinswoman  to  the 
King  himself,  and  a  young  virgin  of  excellent  beauty 
and  virtue. 

Not  long  after,1  the  King  of  Scots  in  person,  with 
Perkin  in  his  company,  entered  with  a  great  army 
(though  it  consisted  chiefly  of  borderers  being  raised 
somewhat  suddenly)  into  Northumberland.  And  Per- 
kin, for  a  perfume  before  him  as  he  went,  caused  to  be 
published  a  proclamation    of  this  tenor  following,2  in 

1  All  Bacon's  authorities  represented  this  predatory  incursion  of  the 
Scotch  as  following  close  upon  Perkin's  arrival.  And  Fabyan,  whose 
authority  is  good  for  dates,  says  that  the  Scotch  King  made  sharp  war 
upon  the  marches  in  the  eleventh  year;  that  is  1495-6.  I  find  also  in  the 
Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  several  commissions  for  warlike  preparations 
dated  during  that  year:  on  the  18th  of  November,  1495,  a  commission  of 
array  for  Yorkshire:  on  the  16th  of  March,  1495-6,  a  commission  to  im- 
press carpenters,  masons,  &c.  for  the  King's  works  on  the  northern  parts 
and  the  marches  towards  Scotland:  on  the  23rd  of  April,  commissions  of 
muster  and  array  for  Sussex,  Kent,  Worcestershire,  Lincolnshire,  the 
cinque  ports,  Surrey,  Hants,  Derbyshire,  and  Staffordshire.  (See  Cal.  Pat. 
Rolls,  11  Hen.  VII.  pp.  49.  51.  29-33.)  It  is  probable  therefore  that  some 
predatory  incursions  did  take  place  soon  after  Perkin's  arrival  in  Scotland. 
The  principal  invasion  however  of  which  Bacon  proceeds  to  speak  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  made  for  ten  months  or  more  after.  See  Ellis's 
Letters,  1st  ser.  vol.  i.  pp.  23.  32. ;  and  Tytler's  Extracts  from  the  Treas- 
urer's Books. 

The  author  of  the  Pictorial  History  of  England  puts  it  still  later.  He 
says  that  James  did  not  cross  the  borders  till  the  beginning  of  the  winter 
of  1496,  though  he  had  been  expected  to  do  so  as  early  as  the  middle  of 
September.  But  he  does  not  quote  his  authority.  In  the  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls  there  are  several  commissions  for  the  conveyance  of  various 
warlike  stores  towards  Scotland  dated  in  September,  November,  January, 
and  February,  1496-7.  And  these  were  no  doubt  the  preparations  against 
the  "  great  army"  which  the  Scotch  King  led  across  the  borders  in  person. 

2  Of  this  tenor;  not  in  these  words.  This  proclamation  stands  on  a  dif- 
ferent footing  from  the  speech  in  the  last  page;  and  I  have  therefore 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  251 

the  name  of  Richard  Duke  of  York,  true  inheritor 
of  the  crown  of  England  : 

"  It   hath    pleased    God,    who    putteth    The  original  of 

•,  ,  .    ,  n  ,  ,  this  proclamation 

down  the  mighty  irom  their  seat,  and  ex- remaineth  with  sir 
alteth  the  humble,  and  suffereth  not  the  worthy  preserver 

,  n     ,  .  ,      .         ,  ,  and   treasurer   of 

IlOpeS    Ot    tlie  JUSt    tO    perish    in   the  end,   tO  rare     antiquities: 

..        ,  ..  ..  from  whose  manu- 

give  us  means  at  the  length  to  show  our-  scripts  i  have  had 

°.  ,  Tii         „  much  light  for  the 

selves  armed  unto  our  lieges  and  people  of  furnishing  of  thus 
England.     But  far  be  it  from  us  to  intend 

treated  it  differently.  Of  this  there  is  extant  a  literal  copy;  not  indeed 
the  original  copy  of  which  Bacon  speaks  as  then  remaining  with  Sir  Rob- 
ert Cotton;  but  a  transcript  in  a  well-known  hand,  with  the  following 
note  prefixed  by  the  transcriber  himself.  "  The  original  of  this,  in  old 
written  hand,  is  in  the  hands  of  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  the  18  of  August, 
1616."  That  original  (which,  to  judge  by  the  many  confused  and  scarcely 
intelligible  passages  that  occur  in  the  copy,  was  probably  either  very  in- 
correct or  very  hard  to  read)  is  not  now  to  be  found:  but  the  transcript 
may  be  seen  among  the  Harleian  MSS.  No.  283.  fo.  123.  b. 

Bacon's  manner  of  treating  it  is  peculiar,  and  (for  modern  readers  at 
^ast)  requires  explanation.  It  seems  that  he  had  read  the  original  and 
smembered  its  tenor,  but  had  no  copy  within  reach  from  which  he  could 
mote  the  words.  Speed  however  had  printed  some  extracts  from  it;  and 
these  he  has  quoted  almost  verbatim,  —  with  only  the  occasional  sub- 
itution  of  a  familiar  for  an  obsolete  word.  Of  the  rest  he  has  given,  not 
transcript,  but  a  representation ;  the  sort  of  representation  which  a  clear- 
leaded  reporter  will  give  of  a  confused  message,  or  a  judge  of  the  evi- 
mce  of  a  blundering  witness.  The  spirit  and  effect  he  has  preserved 
lithfully;  but  he  has  omitted  repetitions,  changed  the  order,  marked  the 
insitions,  and  in  some  cases  inserted  a  sentence  or  two  to  make  the 
leaning  clearer  or  more  forcible. 

Now  if  he  had  treated  the  extracts  which  he  found  in  Speed  in  the  same 
ray  as  the  rest,  one  could  only  have  supposed  that  he  had  done  it  in  obe- 
ience  to  some  law  of  historical  composition,  —  because  a  literal  transcript 
such  a  thing  could  not  have  been  introduced  into  his  work  with  a  good 
feet.  But  since  this  is  not  so;  since  he  has  made  so  very  little  alteration 
those  portions  of  which  he  certainly  had  an  exact  copy  at  hand,  and  so 
;ry  much  in  all  the  rest;  the  only  natural  inference  is  that  though  he 
id  read  the  original  and  remembered  well  enough  its  general  character 
id  purport,  he  had  no  copy  of  the  words  within  reach,  and  either  had 
)t  the  means  or  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  procure  one. 
I  have  pointed  out  in  the  foot-notes  the  principal  passages  in  which 
lacon's  representation  varies  from  the  real  proclamation ;  and  a  copy  of 
le  proclamation  itself  will  be  found  in  the  appendix. 


252  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

their  hurt  or  damage,  or  to  make  war  upon  them, 
otherwise  than  to  deliver  ourself  and  them  from  tyr- 
anny and  oppression.  For  our  mortal  enemy  Henry 
Tidder,  a  false  usurper  of  the  crown  of  England  which 
to  us  by  natural  and  lineal  right  appertaineth,  knowing 
in  his  own  heart  our  undoubted  right,  (we  being  the 
very  Richard  Duke  of  York,  younger  son  and  now 
surviving  heir-male  of  the  noble  and  victorious  Ed- 
ward the  Fourth,  late  King  of  England),  hath  not 
only  deprived  us  of  our  kingdom,  but  likewise  by  all 
foul  and  wicked  means  sought  to  betray  us  and  be- 
reave us  of  our  life.  Yet  if  his  tyranny  only  extended 
itself  to  our  person,  (although  our  royal  blood  teacheth 
us  to  be  sensible  of  injuries,)  it  should  be  less  to  our 
grief.  But  this  Tidder,  who  boasteth  himself  to  have 
overthrown  a  tyrant,  hath  ever  since  his  first  entrance 
into  his  usurped  reign,  put  little  in  practice  but  tyr- 
anny and  the  feats  thereof.1  For  King  Richard,  our 
unnatural  uncle,  (although  desire  of  rule  did  blind 
him)  yet  in  his  other  actions,  like  a  true  Plantagenet, 
was  noble,  and  loved  the  honour  of  the  realm  and  the 
contentment  and  comfort  of  his  nobles  and  people. 
But  this  our  mortal  enemy,  agreeable  to  the  meanness 
of  his  birth,  hath  trodden  under  foot  the  honour  of 
this  nation  ;  selling  our  best  confederates  for  money, 
and  making  merchandise  of  the  blood,  estates,  and  for- 
tunes of  our  peers  and  subjects,  by  feigned  wars  and 
dishonourable  peace,  only  to  enrich  his  coffers.2     Nor 

1  This  first  paragraph  is  a  kind  of  abstract  of  the  first  page  and  half  of 
the  real  proclamation;  of  which  the  words,  or  a  great  part  of  them,  have 
already  been  given  (from  Speed)  as  part  of  Perkin's  speech  to  the  King. 
The  substance  of  them  is  here  recast  in  quite  a  different  form. 

2  1  cannot  find  any  passage  in  the  real  proclamation  in  which  any  such 
allusion  to  the  recent  peace  is  contained,  either  explicitly  or  implicitly.  I 
fancy  that,  in  this  instance,  Bacon's  memory,  endeavouring  to  recover  its 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  253 

unlike  hath  been  his  hateful  misorovernment  and  evil 
deportments  here  at  home.  First  he  hath  to  fortify  his 
false  quarrel1  caused  divers  nobles  of  this  our  realm 
(whom  he  held  suspect  and  stood  in  dread  of)  to  be 
cruelly  murdered;  as  our  cousin  Sir  William  Stanley 
Lord  Chamberlain,2  Sir  Simon3  Mountfort,  Sir  Robert 
Ratcliffe,  William  Dawbeney,  Humphrey  Stafford,  and 
ninny  others,  besides  such  as  have  dearly  bought  their 
lives  with  intolerable  ransoms :  some  of  which  nobles 
are  now  in  the  sanctuary.  Also  he  hath  long  kept, 
and  yet  keepeth  in  prison,  our  right  entirely  well-be- 
loved cousin,  Edward,  son  and  heir  to  our  uncle  Duke 
of  Clarence,  and  others  ;  withholding  from  them  their 

impression  of  the  original,  —  an  impression  derived  perhaps  from  a  single 

reading  of  an  inaccurate  and  illegible  manuscript  —  mistook  a  suggestion 

of  his  own  for  a  recollection  of  what  he  had  seen  there.     His  thought  as 

le  read  had  outrun  his  eye.     He  had  seen  the  sort  of  topics  which  Perkin 

looking  for;  that  topic  had  at  once  presented  itself  to  his  mind;  and 

remained  afterwards  in  his  memory  so  associated  with  the  passage,  that 

forgot  it  was  not  a  part  of  it.    In  men  of  quick  faculties  and  large 

lemories  largely  tasked,  there  is  no  kind  of  error  of  memory  so  common 

this.    Indeed  I  suppose  there  is  hardly  any  man  who,  if  he  make  a 

)int  of  referring  distinctly  to  his  authorities  and  verifying  his  references, 

rill  not  find  himself  occasionally  turning  for  his  authority  with  the  great- 

st  confidence  to  a  place  where  no  such  thing  is  to  be  found.     The  value 

Bacon's  testimony  to  matters  of  fact  (which  I  hold  very  high)  depends 

)t  upon  any  particular  faculty  for  remembering  details,  —  for  his  refer- 

lces  and  quotations  are  often  inaccurate, — but  upon  the  capacity  and 

le  habit,  far  more  important  to  substantial  accuracy  than  the  most  im- 

:cable  memory,  of  taking  true  impressions  in  the  first  instance. 

1  The  rest  of  this  and  the  following  paragraph  are  taken  word  for  word 

)m  Speed;  who  copied  them  word  for  word  (with  a  very  few  differences 

jbably  accidental  and  two  or  three  omissions  indicated  by  et  cceteras) 

)m  Sir  Robert  Cotton's  MS. 

5  So  Speed.     The  MS.  copy  of  the  proclamation  has  "  our  cousin  the 

Fitzwater,  Sir  William  Stanley,  Sir  Robert  Chamberlain,  &c."    Lord 

'itzwater  was  beheaded  at  Calais,  according  to  the  old  Chronicle,  fo.  161. 

b.  in  November,  1496 ;  after  the  date  which  Bacon  would  have  assigned  to 

the  proclamation. 

«  So  Ed.  1622.    The  MS.  has  "  Edmond." 


254  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

rightful  inheritance,  to  the  intent  they  should  never  be 
of  might  and  power  to  aid  and  assist  us  at  our  need, 
after  the  duty  of  their  legiances.  He  also  married  by 
compulsion  certain  of  our  sisters,  and  also  the  sister  of 
our  said  cousin  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  divers  other 
ladies  of  the  royal  blood,  unto  certain  of  his  kinsmen 
and  friends  of  simple  and  low  degree  ;  and,  putting 
apart  all  well  disposed  nobles,  he  hath  none  in  favour 
and  trust  about  his  person,  but  Bishop  Foxe,  Smith, 
Bray,  Lovel,  Oliver  King,1  David  Owen,  Riseley, 
Turbervile,2  Tyler,3  Cholmeley,  Empson,4  James  Ho- 
barte,  John  Cutte,  Garth,  Henry  Wyate,  and  such 
other  caitifs  and  villains  of  birth,5  which  by  subtile  in- 
ventions and  pilling  of  the  people  have  been  the  prin- 
cipal finders,  occasioners,  and  counsellors  of  the  mis- 
rule and  mischief  now  reigning  in  England.6 

"  We  remembering  these  premises,  with  the  great 
and  execrable  offences  daily  committed  and  done  by 
our  foresaid  great  enemy  and  his  adherents,  in  break- 


1  The  name  of  Sir  Charles  Somerset,  which  follows  that  of  Oliver  King 
both  in  Speed  and  in  the  MS.  proclamation,  has  been  omitted,  I  suppose 
by  accident. 

2  The  MS.  proclamation  has  Sir  Joseph  Trobulvill:  Speed  gives  Sir  John 
Trobutuile.  Sir  John  Turbervile  is  the  name  given  in  the  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls. 

8  After  the  name  of  Tyler  there  follow  in  the  MS.  proclamation  the 
names  Robert  Lytton,  Gylforde  ;  —  they  are  omitted  by  Speed. 

4  The  name  of  Empson  is  given  in  the  MS.  proclamation,  but  not  in 
Speed:  a  circumstance  worth  observing,  because  we  must  suppose  that 
Bacon  supplied  the  omission  from  his  recollection  of  the  original;  the 
name  of  Empson  being  too  notable  a  one  in  connexion  with  Henry  VII.  to 
be  overlooked. 

6  So  Speed.     The  MS.  proclamation  has  villains  of  simple  birth. 

6  Here  Speed  inserts  etc.  to  mark  the  omission  of  a  long  clause  which 
follows  in  the  original.  It  relates  to  the  reward  offered  for  the  taking  of 
Henry,  and  the  substance  of  it  will  be  found  a  little  further  on, —  in  the 
last  paragraph  but  one. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  255 

in<r   the   liberties    and   franchises    of  our   mother  the 

o 

holy  church,  u  on  pretences  of  wicked  and  heathenish 
policy,  to  the  high  displeasure  of  Almighty  God, 
besides  the  manifold  treasons,  abominable  murders, 
manslaughters,  robberies,  extortions,  the  daily  pilling 
of  the  people  by  dismes,  taskes,  tallages,  benevolences, 
and  other  unlawful  impositions  and  grievous  exactions, 
with  many  other  hainous  effects,1  to  the  likely  destruc- 
tion and  desolation  of  the  whole  realm  : 2  shall  by 
God's  grace,  and  the  help  and  assistance  of  the  great 
lords  of  our  blood,  with  the  counsel  of  other  sad 
persons,3  see  that  the  commodities  of  our  realm  be 
employed  to  the  most  advantage  of  the  same  ;  the  in- 
tercourse of  merchandise  betwixt  realm  and  realm  to 
be  ministered  and  handled  as  shall  more  be  to  the  com- 
mon weal  and  prosperity  of  our  subjects  ;  and  all  such 
dismes,  taskes,  tallages,  benevolences,  unlawful  impo- 
tions,  and  grievous  exactions  as  be  above  rehearsed, 
be  foredone  and  laid  apart,  and  never  from  hence- 
forth to  be  called  upon,  but  in  such  cases  as  our  noble 
progenitors  Kings  of  England  have  of  old  time  been 
accustomed  to  have  the  aid,  succour,  and  help  of  their 
subjects  and  true  liege-men.4 

1  So  Speed.  The  MS.  proclamation  has  " offences; "  which  is  probably 
the  right  woi-d. 

2  Here  Speed  inserts  an  cfc. ;  a  few  lines  being  omitted. 

8  Here  again  Speed  inserts  an  #c. ;  a  passage  being  omitted  of  some 
length,  the  substance  of  which  Bacon  has  worked  up  into  the  following 
paragraph. 

4  This  is  the  end  of  Speed's  extract;  who  gives  no  more.  The  three 
remaining  paragraphs  appear  to  have  been  supplied  by  Bacon  from  mem- 
ory :  and  contain  the  substance  of  all  the  rest.  He  has  made  no  attempt 
(or  else  an  unsuccessful  one)  to  preserve  the  form  and  order  of  the  real 
proclamation ;  but  upon  a  careful  comparison  of  the  two  I  have  not  been 
able  to  find  anything  material  here  which  is  not  implied  in  the  original,  or 
anything  material  in  the  original  which  is  not  expressed  here. 


256  HISTOEY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

"  And  farther  we  do  out  of  our  grace  and  clemency 
hereby  as  well  publish  and  promise  to  all  our  subjects 
remission  and  free  pardon  of  all  by-past  offences  what- 
soever against  our  person  or  estate,  in  adhering  to  our 
said  enemy,  by  whom  we  know  well  they  have  been 
misled  ;  if  they  shall  within  time  convenient  submit 
themselves  unto  us.  And  for  such  as  shall  come  with 
the  foremost  to  assist  our  righteous  quarrel,  we  shall 
make  them  so  far  partakers  of  our  princely  favour  and 
bounty,  as  shall  be  highly  for  the  comfort  of  them  and 
theirs  both  during  their  life  and  after  their  death.  As 
also  we  shall,  by  all  means  which  God  shall  put  into 
our  hands,  demean  ourselves  to  give  royal  contentment 
to  all  degrees  and  estates  of  our  people  ;  maintaining 
the  liberties  of  holy  church  in  their  entire,  preserving 
the  honours,  privileges,  and  preeminences  of  our  nobles 
from  contempt  or  disparagement,  according  to  the  dig- 
nity of  their  blood :  we  shall  also  unyoke  our  people 
from  all  heavy  burdens  and  endurances,  and  confirm 
our  cities,  boroughs,  and  towns  in  their  charters  and 
freedoms,  with  enlargement  where  it  shall  be  deserved  ; 
and  in  all  points  give  our  subjects  cause  to  think  that 
the  blessed  and  debonaire  government  of  our  noble 
father  King  Edward  in  his  last  times  is  in  us  revived. 

"  And  forasmuch  as  the  putting  to  death  or  taking 
alive  of  our  said  mortal  enemy  may  be  a  mean  to  stay 
much  effusion  of  blood,  which  otherwise  may  ensue  if 
by  compulsion  or  fair  promises  he  shall  draw  after  him 
any  number  of  our  subjects  to  resist  us  ;  which  we  de- 
sire to  avoid  (though  we  be  certainly  informed  that  our 
said  enemy  is  purposed  and  prepared  to  fly  the  land, 
having  already  made  over  great  masses  of  the  treas- 
ure of  our  crown  the  better  to  support  him  in  foreign 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


257 


parts)  ;  we  do  hereby  declare  that  whosoever  shall 
take  or  distress  our  said  enemy,  though  the  party  be 
of  never  so  mean  a  condition,  he  shall  be  by  us  re- 
warded with  1000Z.  in  money,  forthwith  to  be  laid 
down  to  him,  and  an  hundred  marks  by  the  year  of 
inheritance ;  besides  that  he  may  otherwise  merit,  both 
toward  God  and  all  good  people,  for  the  destruction  of 
such  a  tyrant. 

"  Lastly,  we  do  all  men  to  wit  (and  herein  we  take 
also  God  to  witness)  that  whereas  God  hath  moved  the 
heart  of  our  dearest  cousin  the  King  of  Scotland  to  aid 
us  in  person  in  this  our  righteous  quarrel,  that  it  is 
altogether  without  any  pact  or  promise,  or  so  much  as 
demand,  of  any  thing  that  may  prejudice  our  crown  or 
subjects ;  but  contrariwise  with  promise  on  our  said 
cousin's  part,  that  whensoever  he  shall  find  us  in  suf- 
ficient strength  to  get  the  upper  hand  of  our  enemy 
(which  we  hope  will  be  very  suddenly),  he  will  forth- 
with peaceably  return  into  his  own  kingdom,  content- 
ing himself  only  with  the  glory  of  so  honourable  an 
enterprise,  and  our  true  and  faithful  love  and  amity: 
which  we  shall  ever  by  the  grace  of  Almighty  God  so 
order  as  shall  be  to  the  great  comfort  of  both  king- 
doms." 

But  Perkin's  proclamation  did  little  edify  with  the 
people  of  England.  Neither  was  he  the  better  wel- 
come for  the  company  he  came  in.  Wherefore  the 
King  of  Scotland,  seeing  none  came  in  to  Perkin  nor 
none  stirred  any  where  in  his  favour,  turned  his  en- 
terprise into  a  rode ;  ]  and  wasted  and  destroyed  the 

1  Spelt  "road"  in  MS.  —  James's  preparations  seem  to  have  been  com- 
plete by  the  middle  of  September,  1496 ;  but  he  waited,  I  suppose,  for  the 
promised  rising  of  the  English  in  Perkin's  favour.  Henry  in  the  mean- 
time was  informed  by  his  friends  in  the  Scotch  Court  of  everything  that 

vol.  xi.  17 


258  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.' 

country  of  Northumberland  with  fire  and  sword.  But 
hearing  that  there  were  forces  coming  against  him,  and 
not  willing  that  they  should  find  his  men  heavy  and 
laden  with  booty,  he  returned  into  Scotland  with  great 
spoils,  deferring  further  prosecution  till  another  time. 
It  is  said  that  Perkin,  acting  the  part  of  a  prince  hand- 
somely, when  he  saw  the  Scottish  fell  to  waste  the 
country,  came  to  the  King  in  a  passionate  manner, 
making  great  lamentation,  and  desired  that  that  might 
not  be  the  manner  of  making  the  war ;  for  that  no 
crown  was  so  dear  to  his  mind,  as  that  he  desired  to 
purchase  it  with  the  blood  and  ruin  of  his  country. 
Whereunto  the  King  answered  half  in  sport,  that  he 
doubted  much  he  was  careful  for  that  that  was  none  of 
his ;  and  that  he  should  be  too  good  a  steward  for  his 
enemy,  to  save  the  country  to  his  use.1 

By  this  time,  being  the  eleventh  year  of  the  King, 
the  interruption  of  trade  between  the  English  and  the 
Flemish  began  to  pinch  the  merchants  of  both  nations 
very  sore,  which  moved  them  by  all  means  they  could 
devise  to  affect  and  dispose  their  sovereigns  respectively 
to  open  the  intercourse  again.  Wherein  time  favoured 
them.  For  the  Archduke  and  his  counsel  began  to  see 
that  Perkin  would  prove  but  a  runagate  and  citizen  of 
the  world  ;  and  that  it  was  the  part  of  children  to  fall 
out  about  babies.2  And  the  King  on  his  part,  after  the 
attempts  upon   Kent  and  Northumberland,3  began  to 

was  going  on:  and  knew  that  he  was  secure  against  any  serious  impres- 
sion from  that  side.  Whether  he  was  prepared  for  this  kind  of  predatory 
incursion  or  not,  seems  to  be  doubtful. 

1  This,  and  most  of  the  particulars  of  Perkin's  proceedings  in  Scotland, 
may  be  found  in  Buchanan.     See  Rer.  Scot.  Hist.  XIII.  10,  et  seq. 

2  Pupas  :  i.  e.  dolls.     So  in  ^lacbeth  :  "  the  baby  of  a  girl." 

3  Post  impressiones  Mas  in  Cantium  et  Northumbriam  factas  et  frustralas. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  however  that  the  attempt  upon  Northumberland 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  259 

h:ive  the  business  of  Perkin  in  less  estimation  ;  so  as 
he  did  not  put  it  to  account  in  any  consultation  of 
state.  But  that  that  moved  him  most  was,  that  being 
a  King  that  loved  wealth  and  treasure,  he  could  not 
endure  to  have  trade  sick,  nor  any  obstruction  to  con- 
tinue in  the  gate-vein,  which  disperseth  that  blood. 
And  yet  he  kept  state  so  far,  as  first  to  be  sought  unto. 
Wherein  the  Merchant  Adventurers  likewise  being  a 
strong  company  (at  that  time)  and  well  under-set  with 
rich  men  and  good  order,1  did  hold  out  bravely ;  taking 
off  the  commodities  of  the  kingdom,  though  they  lay 
dead  upon  their  hands  for  want  of  vent.  At  the  last, 
commissioners  met  at  London  to  treat.  On  the  King's 
part,  Bishop  Foxe  Lord  Privy  Seal,  Viscount  Wells, 
Kendall  Prior  of  Saint  John's,  and  Warham  Master 
of  the  Rolls  (who  began  to  gain  much  upon  the  King's 
opinion),  and  Urswick,  who  was  almost  every  one,  and 

IRiseley.  On  the  Archduke's  part,  the  Lord  Bevers 
lis  Admiral,  the  Lord  Verunsell  President  of  Flan- 
lers,  and  others.  These  concluded  a  perfect  treaty2 
iad  not  yet  been  made.  At  the  time  Bacon  is  now  speaking  of,  Perkin's 
brtunes  at  the  Scotch  Court  were  in  full  flower.     See  note  1.  p.  250. 

1  Magno  locupletum  numero  et  bonis  contributionibus  corroborata. 

2  I  find  from  the  old  Chronicle  (Vitel.  A.  xvi.  fo.  157.  b.)  that  the 
Archduke's  commissioners  were  received  in  London  on  Candlemas  Even 
(1.  Feb.)  1495-6:  and  that  the  treaty  was  concluded  in  the  following  April. 

The  Chronicler  (evidently  a  contemporary  citizen)  adds  a  circumstance 
hich  is  worth  recording  as  an  illustration  of  the  relation  which  subsisted 

tween  the  King  and  the  City  of  London. 
For  the  assurance  of  the  same,"  he  says  speaking  of  the  treaty, 
"  above  and  beside  both  the  seals  of  either  princes  was  granted  divers 
towns  of  this  land  to  be  bound ;  whereof  London  was  one ;  .  .  .  .  which 
sealing  when  it  should  have  been  performed,  the  Commons  of  the  City 
would  not  be  agreeable  that  their  seal  should  pass.  And  albeit  that  my 
Lord  of  Derby,  the  Lord  Treasurer,  the  Chief  Justice  of  England,  Master 
Bray,  and  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  by  the  King's  commandment  came  unto 
Guildhall  to  exhort  the  said  Commons  for  the  same,  yet  in  no  wise  they 


= 


260  HISTORY   OF    KING  HENRY   VII. 

both  of  amity  and  intercourse  between  the  King  and 
the  Archduke ;  containing  articles  both  of  state,  com- 
merce, and  free  fishing.  This  is  that  treaty  which  the 
Flemings  call  at  this  day  intercursus  magnus  ;  both  be- 
cause it  is  more  complete  than  the  precedent  treaties 
of  the  third  and  fourth  year  of  the  King  ;  and  chiefly 
to  give  it  a  difference  from  the  treaty  that  followed  in 
the  one  and  twentieth  year  of  the  King,  which  they 
call  intercursus  malus.  In  this  treaty  there  was  an 
express  article  against  the  reception  of  the  rebels  of 
either  prince  by  other  ;  purporting  that  if  any  such 
rebel  should  be  required  by  the  prince  whose  rebel  he 
was  of  the  prince  confederate,  that  forthwith  the  prince 
confederate  should  by  proclamation  command  him  to 
avoid  his  country  :  which  if  he  did  not  within  fifteen 
days,  the  rebel  was  to  stand  proscribed,  and  put  out  of 
protection.  But  nevertheless  in  this  article  Perkin  was 
not  named,  neither  perhaps  contained,  because  he  was 
no  rebel.  But  by  this  means  his  wings  were  dipt  of 
his  followers  that  were  English.  And  it  was  expressly 
comprised  in  the  treaty,  that  it  should  extend  to  the 
territories  of  the  Duchess  Dowager.  After  the  in- 
tercourse thus  restored,  the  English  merchants  came 
again  to  their  mansion  at  Antwerp,  where  they  were 
received  with  procession  and  great  joy. 

The  winter  following,  being  the  twelfth  year  of  his 
reign,  the  King  called  again  his  Parliament ; l  where 

would  not  be  agreeable  that  the  town  seal  should  pass;  but  besought  the 
said  Lords  to  grant  unto  them  respite  of  six  days,  trusting  by  that  season 
to  show  in  writing  such  considerations  unto  the  King's  Grace  and  his 
Counsel  that  his  Grace  should  be  therewith  well  contented.  Which  was 
to  them  granted,  and  thereupon  divers  bills  were  devised,"  &c.  The  end 
was  that  the  Mayor's  seal  was  taken  only. 

1  So  Polydore  Vergil:  coacto principum  concilio. 

A  Parliament  met  on  the  16th  of  January,  1496-7,  in  which  supplies 


HISTORY  OF  KING   HENBY  VII.  261 

he  did  much  exaggerate  both  the  malice  and  the 
cruel  predatory  war  lately  made  by  the  King  of  Scot- 
were  voted  for  the  Scottish  war.  But  on  this,  as  on  the  two  former  occa- 
sions already  mentioned,  Henry  had  taken  the  precaution  to  call  a  "  Great 
Council"  first.  He  seems  to  have  been  in  no  hurry,  and  it  is  probable 
that  he  waited  purposely  until  some  overt  act  of  hostility  on  the  part  of 
the  Scotch  should  excite  the  alarm  or  exasperate  the  resentment  of  his 
own  people,  and  make  them  less  careful  of  their  money.  It  is  certain  that 
on  the  8th  of  September  one  of  his  spies  in  the  Scotch  Court  sent  him 
word  that  James  would  be  upon  the  borders  at  the  head  of  his  army  on 
the  15th,  and  that  before  the  end  of  the  following  month,  a  Great  Coun- 
cil had  been  held  and  agreed  to  a  grant  of  120,000/.  for  defence  against  the 
Scots. 

"In  this  year"  (says  the  old  Chronicle,  meaning  the  12th  year  of 
Henry's  reign,  —  i.  e.  22  Aug.  1496  —  21  Aug.  1497)  "the  24th  of  October, 
began  a  Great  Counsel  holden  at  Westminster  by  the  King  and  his  Lords 
spiritual  and  temporal;  to  the  which  Counsel  come  certain  burgesses  and 
merchants  of  all  cities  and  good  towns  of  England ;  at  which  Counsel  was 
granted  unto  the  King  for  the  defence  of  the  Scots  120,000/. :  which  Coun- 
sel ended  the  6th  day  of  November," 

In  addition  to  this  "  grant,"  as  the  Chronicler  calls  it, —  (which  was  no 
more,  I  suppose,  than  a  pledge  on  the  part  of  the  members  of  the  Council 
to  support  such  a  grant  if  proposed  in  Parliament)  —  they  appear  to  have 

RFered  in  the  meantime  to  lend  the  King  large  sums  of  ready  money,  each 
r  himself ;  and  to  have  advised  the  borrowing  of  money  upon  privy 
als,  to  the  amount  of  40,000/.  more.     This  circumstance  (of  which,  sin- 
ilarly  enough,  no  trace  appears  in  any  of  our  histories)  is  proved  beyond 
spute  by  an  original  Privy  Seal  bearing  Henry  the  7th's  sign  manual, 
id  dated  at  Westminster  on  the  1st  of  December;  which  is  still  preserved 
nong  the  Cotton  MSS.     (Titus,  B.  V.  fo.  145.)    It  is  addressed  to  a  gen- 
tleman of  Hereford  and  the  sum  applied  for  is  20/.    But  blank  spaces  have 
been  left  for  the  county  and  the  sum;  which  shows  that  it  was  a  general 
form.     It  sets  forth  that  "  for  the  revenging  of  the  great  cruelty  and  dis- 
honour that  the  King  of  Scots  hath  done  unto  us,  our  realm,  and  subjects 
of  the  same,  as  our  Commissioners  in  our  County  of  Hereford  where  ye 
be  inhabited  shall  shew  unto  you  at  length,  we  lately  in  our  Great  Coun- 
1  of  Lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  Judges,  Sergeants  in  our  law,  and 
others  some  headwisemen  of  every  city  and  good  town  of  this  our  land, 
ve  at  their  instances  and  by  their  advices  determined  us  to  make  by 
and  by  land  two  armies  royal  for  a  substantial  war  to  be  continued 
on  the  Scots  unto  such  time  as  we  shall  invade  the  realm  of  Scotland 
our  own  person  and  shall  have  with  God's  grace  revenged  their  great 
trages  done  unto  us  our  realm  and  subjects  aforesaid,  so  and  in  such 
ise  as  we  trust  the  same  our  subjects  shall  live  in  rest  and  peace  for 
any  years  to  come.     The  lords  and  others  of  our  said  Great  Counsel, 


262  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

land :  That  that  King,  being  in  amity  with  him,  and 
no  ways  provoked,  should  so  burn  in  hatred  towards 
him,   as  to   drink  of  the  lees  and  dregs   of  Perkin's 

considering  well  that  the  said  substantial  war  cannot  be  borne  but  by- 
great  sums  of  ready  money,  have  prested  unto  us,  every  one  of  them  for 
his  part,  great  sums  of  money  contented ;  besides  that  we  have  of  ourself 
avanced  out  of  our  own  coffers;  yet  natheless  40,000/.  more,  as  our  said 
Counsel  hath  cast  it,  must  of  necessity  be  borrowed  and  avanced  in  ready 
money  of  others  our  loving  subjects  for  the  furniture  of  this  matter.  And 
because  as  we  hear  ye  be  a  man  of  good  substance,  we  desire  and  pray 
you  to  make  loan  unto  us  of  the  sum  of  20/.  whereof  ye  shall  be  undoubt- 
edly and  assuredly  repaid,"  &c.  &c. 

In  confirmation  again  of  this  we  find  in  the  old  Chronicle  (fo.  161.  b.) 
that  "upon  the  Sunday  following"  [the  18th  of  November  being  the  date 
last  mentioned]  "  was  sent  from  the  King's  ma.  Sir  Reginald  Bray  with 
other  of  the  King's  Counsel  to  the  Mayor  to  borrow  of  the  city  10,000/. 
And  upon  the  Thursday  next  following  was  granted  by  a  Common  Coun- 
sel to  lend  to  the  King  4000/."  The  Chronicler  adds,  a  little  further  on 
(fo.  162.  b.)  that  there  was  that  year  "  lent  unto  the  King  for  a  year  day 
throughout  all  England  many  and  great  sums  of  money,  whereof  the  fore- 
said sum  of  4000/  lent  by  the  City  of  London,  as  before  is  said,  was  parcel 
of  the  same.  The  whole  sum  of  all  the  land  borrowed  amounted  to 
58,000/.  and  more." 

Among  the  records  preserved  in  the  Rolls-house  are  to  be  found  two 
more  of  these  privy  seals  (see  B.  V.  1.  Nos.  32,  33.),  as  well  as  an  account 
of  all  the  sums  borrowed  (see  B.  V.  20.) ;  amounting  in  all  to  £57,388  10s.  2c?. 
This  latter  document  is  inaccurately  described  on  the  cover  as  an  account 
of  the  Benevolence,  A°  H.  7.  12°.     It  should  have  been  called  Loan. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  the  exact  period  at  which  the  Scotch 
incursion  took  place,  but  it  seems  probable  that  this  hurried  borrowing  of 
money  (partly  for  immediate  use  and  partly  perhaps  as  a  collateral  secu- 
rity for  the  promised  Parliamentary  grant)  followed  immediately  upon  it, 
while  the  alarm  and  resentment  were  fresh.  Thus  the  King  was  provided 
with  the  sinews  of  war  for  the  present  and  might  act  as  he  saw  occasion. 
But  as  yet  he  was  only  furnished  with  money  lent,  which  was  to  be  repaid. 
The  next  thing  was  to  secure  the  grant;  and  for  this  purpose  a  Parliament 
was  called  on  the  16th  of  January,  which  granted  him  for  the  Scotch  war, 
first  two  fifteenths  and  tenths;  and  then  (because  this  was  not  enough)  a 
subsidy  equal  to  two  fifteenths  and  tenths  which  it  seems  amounted  to 
120,000/.  (See  Stat,  of  Realm,  p.  644.)  In  the  "index  vocabulorum  " 
Bacon  explains  that  a  Fifteen  was  a  kind  of  pecuniary  aid  granted  only  by 
authority  of  Parliament:  which,  to  judge  by  the  name,  should  be  a  fifteenth 
part  of  men's  goods,  but  had  in  fact  a  fixed  value, —  not  nearly  so  much: 
Consuetudine  in  solutionem  certain,  et  huge  minus  gravem,  redactum. 


HISTORY  OF  KING   HENRY   VII.  263 

intoxication,  who  was  every  where  else  detected  and 
discarded:  and  that  when  he  perceived  it  was  out  of 
his  reach  to  do  the  King  any  hurt,  he  had  turned  his 
arms  upon  unarmed  and  unprovided  people,  to  spoil 
only  and  depopulate,  contrary  to  the  laws  both  of  war 
and  peace :  concluding,  that  he  could  neither  with 
honour  nor  with  the  safety  of  his  people  to  whom  he 
did  owe  protection,  let  pass  these  wrongs  unrevenged. 
The  Parliament  understood  him  well,  and  gave  him  a 
subsidy  limited  to  the  sum  J  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  pounds,  besides  two  fifteens  :  for  his  wars 
were  always  to  him  as  a  mine  of  treasure  of  a  strange 
kind  of  ore ; 2  iron  at  the  top,  and  gold  and  silver  at 
the  bottom.  At  this 3  Parliament,  for  that  there  had 
been  so  much  time  spent  in  making  laws  the  year 
before,  and  for  that  it  was  called  purposely  in  respect 
of  the  Scottish  war,  there  were  no  laws  made  to  be 
remembered.  Only  there  passed  a  law,  at  the  suit  of 
the  Merchant  Adventurers  of  England,4  against  the 
Merchant  Adventurers  of  London,  for  monopolising 
and  exacting  upon  the  trade ; 5  which  it  seemeth  they 
did  a  little  to  save  themselves,  after  the  hard  time 
they  had  sustained  by  want  of  trade.  But  those  inno- 
vations were  taken  away  by  Parliament. 

But  it  was  fatal  to  the  King  to  fight  for  his  money. 
And  though  he  avoided  to  fight  with  enemies  abroad, 
yet  he  was  still  enforced  to  fight  for  it  with  rebels  at 
home.     For  no  sooner  began  the  subsidy  to  be  levied  8 

1  Limitatum  certe  ;  sed  tamen  amplissimum ;  ad  summam  videlicet,  &c. 

2  Spelt  ure  in  MS. 

»  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "  the." 

4  Pei'  Angliam  sparsorum. 

6  Propter  monopolium  quoddam,  et  exactiones  ruwas  mercibus  impositas. 

6  The  grant  was  passed  on  the  13th  of  February,  1496-7. 


264  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

in  Cornwall,  but  the  people  there  grew 1  to  grudge  and 
murmur ;  the  Cornish  being  a  race  of  men  stout  of 
stomach,  mighty  of  body  and  limb,  and  that  lived 
hardly  in  a  barren  country,  and  many  of  them  could 
for  a  need  live  under-ground,  that  were  tinners.  They 
muttered  extremely,  that  it  was  a  thing  not  to  be  suf- 
fered that  for  a  little  stir  of  the  Scots,  soon  blown  over, 
they  should  be  thus  grinded  to  powder  with  payments : 
and  said  it  was  for  them  to  pay  that  had  too  much, 
and  lived  idly ;  but  they  would  eat  their  bread  that 
they  got  with  the  sweat  of  their  brows,  and  no  man 
should  take  it  from  them.  And  as  in  the  tides  of 
people  once  up  there  want  not  commonly  stirring 
winds  to  make  them  more  rough ;  so  this  people  did 
light  upon  two  ringleaders  or  captains  of  the  rou^.2 
The  one  was  Michael  Joseph,  a  blacksmith  or  farrier 
of  Bodmin,  a  notable  talking  fellow,  and  no  less  de- 
sirous to  be  talked  of.  The  other  was  Thomas  Flam- 
mock,  a  lawyer,  that3  by  telling  his  neighbours  com- 
monly upon  any  occasion  that  the  law  was  on  their 
side,  had  gotten  great  sway  amongst  them.  This  man 
talked  learnedly,  and  as  if  he  could  tell  how  to  make 
a  rebellion  and  never  break  the  peace.  He  told  the 
people4  that  subsidies  were  not  to  be  granted  nor 
levied  in  this  case  ;  that  is  for  wars  of  Scotland :  for 
that  the  law  had  provided  another  course  by  service 
of  escuage,5  for  those  journeys  ;  much  less  when  all 
was  quiet,  and  war  was  made  but  a  pretence  to  poll 
and  pill  the  people.     And  therefore  that  it  was  good 

i  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  began." 

2  Rebellionis  faces. 

3  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "who." 

4  Populum  autem  magno  cum  supercifio  edocuit. 

5  Obligatio  tenentis  qua  astringebatur  ad  bella  cum  Scotis.     (Ind.  Vocab.) 


HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY  VII.  265 

they  should  not  stand1  like  sheep  before  the  shearers, 
but  put  on  harness  and  take  weapons  in  their  hands ; 
yet  to  do  no  creature  hurt,  but  go  and  deliver  the 
King  a  strong  petition a  for  the  laying  down  of  those 
grievous^  payments,  and  for  the  punishment  of  those 
that  had  given  him  that  counsel,  to  make  others  be- 
ware how  they  did  the  like  in  time  to  come.  And 
said  for  his  part  he  did  not  see  how  they  could  do  the 
duty  of  true  Englishmen  and  good  liege-men,  except 
they  did  deliver  the  King  from  such  wicked  ones  that 
would  destroy  both  him  and  the  country.  Their  aim 
was  at  Archbishop  Morton  and  Sir  Reignold  Bray, 
who  were  the  King's  screens  in  this  envy. 

After  that  these  two,  Flammock  and  the  blacksmith, 

had  by  joint  and  several  pratings3  found  tokens  of 

consent  in  the  multitude,  they  offered  themselves  to 

lead  them,  until  they  should  hear  of  better  men   to 

e  their  leaders,  which  they  said  would  be  ere  long : 

lling  them  further,  that  they  would  be  but  their  ser- 

ants,  and  first  in  every  danger ;  but  doubted  not  but 

make  both  the  west-end  and  the  east-end  of  Eng- 

nd  to  meet  in  so  good  a  quarrel ;  and  that  all  (rightly 

derstood)  was  but  for  the  King's  service. 

The  people  upon  these  seditious  instigations  did  arm, 

ost  of  them  with  bows   and  arrows,  and  bills,  and 

ch  other  weapons  of  rude  and  country  people  ;  and 

rthwith  under  the  command  of  their  leaders  (which 

such  cases  is  ever  at   pleasure) 4  marched  out  of 

i  Ed.  1622  "  stand  now." 

2  Petitionem  validd  manu  porrigerent. 

8  i.  e.  by  talking  to  the  people  sometimes  in  companies,  and  sometimes 
singly.  The  translation  expresses  it  more  at  large  —  garrulitate  sua,par- 
tim  public e  partim  secreto,  aures  populi  implessent  et  animos  vulgi  inclinatos  et 
promptos  ad  consilia  sua  invenissent. 

*  Ad  pladtum  populi. 


266  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Cornwall l  through  Devonshire  unto  Taunton  in  Som- 
ersetshire, without  any  slaughter,  violence,  or  spoil  of 
the  country.  At  Taunton  2  they  killed  in  fury  an  of- 
ficious and  eager  commissioner  for  the  subsidy,  whom 
they  called  the  Provost  of  Perin.  Thence  they 
marched  to  Wells,  where  the  Lord  Audley  (with 
whom  their  leaders  had  before  some  secret  intelli- 
gence), a  nobleman  of  an  ancient  family,  but  unquiet 
and  popular  and  aspiring  to  ruin,  came  in  to  them,  and 
was  by  them  with  great  gladness  and  cries  of  joy  ac- 
cepted as  their  general ;  they  being  now  proud  that 
they  were  led  by  a  nobleman.  The  Lord  Audley  led 
them  on  from  Wells  to  Salisbury,  and  from  Salisbury 
to  Winchester.  Thence  the  foolish  people  (who  in 
effect  led  their  leaders)  had  a  mind  to  be  led  into 
Kent ;  fancying  that  the  people  there  would  join  with 
them  ;  contrary  to  all  reason  or  judgment ;  considering 
the  Kentish  men  had  shewed  great  loyalty  and  affec- 
tion to  the  King  so  lately  before.  But  the  rude  peo- 
ple3 had  heard  Flammock  say  that  Kent  was  never 
conquered,  and  that  they  were  the  freest  people4  of 
England.  And  upon  these  vain  noises,  they  looked 
for  great  matters  at  their  hands,  in  a  cause  which  thev 
conceited  to  be  for  the  liberty  of  the  subject.  But 
when  they  were  comen  into  Kent,  the  country  was  so 
well  settled,  both  by  the  King's  late  kind  usage  tow- 
ards them,  and  by  the  credit  and  power  of  the  Earl  of 
Kent,  the  Lord  Abergavenny,  and  the  Lord  Cobham, 

1  In  the  latter  end  of  May,  according  to  the  old  Chronicle. 

2  So  Stowe;  and  after  him  Speed.  The  old  Chronicle  however  dates 
this  fact  later:  i.  e.  in  the  latter  end  of  September  when  Perkin  was  in 
sanctuary,  and  says  it  was  done  by  "  one  James,  a  robber,  who  had  gath- 
ered 6  or  700  rebels  to  assist  Perkin."     ( Vitel.  A.  xvi.  fo.  167.) 

8  Fatuw  iste  populus. 

*  Homines  inter  Anglos  in  libertate  asserenda  acerrimos. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  267 

as  neither  gentleman  nor  yeoman  came  in  to  their  aid ; 
which  did  much  damp  and  dismay  many  of  the  sim- 
pler sort ;  insomuch  as  divers  of  them  did  secretly  fly 
from  the  army  and  went  home  ;  but  the  sturdier  sort, 
and  those  that  were  most  engaged,  stood  by  it,  and 
rather  waxed  proud  than  failed  in  hopes  and  courage. 
For  as  it  did  somewhat  appall  them,  that  the  people 
came  not  in  to  them  ;  so  it  did  no  less  encourage  them, 
that  the  King's  forces  had  not  set  upon  them,  having 
marched  from  the  west  unto  the  east  of  England. 
Wherefore  they  kept  on  their  way,  and  encamped 
upon  Blackheath,1  between  Greenwich  and  Eltham  ; 
threatening  either  to  bid  battle  to  the  King  (for  now 
the  seas  went  higher  than  to  Morton  and  Bray),  or  to 
take  London  within  his  view ;  imagining  with  them- 
selves there  to  find  no  less  fear  than  wealth. 

But  to  return  to  the  King.  When  first  he  heard  of 
this  commotion  of  the  Cornishmen  occasioned  by  the 
subsidy,  he  was  much  troubled  therewith  ;  not  for  it- 
self, but  in  regard  of  the  concurrence  of  other  dangers 
that  did  hano;  over  him  at  that  time.  For  he  doubted 
lest  a  war  from  Scotland,  a  rebellion  from  Cornwall, 
and  the  practices  and  conspiracies  of  Perkin  and  his 
partakers,  would  come  upon  him  at  once :  knowing 
well  that  it  was  a  dangerous  triplicity  to  a  monarchy, 
to  have  the  arms  of  a  foreigner,  the  discontents  of 
subjects,  and  the  title  of  a  pretender  to  meet.  Never- 
theless the  occasion  took  him  in  some  part  well  pro- 
vided. For  as  soon  as  the  Parliament  had  broken  up, 
the  King  had  presently  raised  a  puissant  army  to  war 
upon  Scotland.  And  King  James  of  Scotland  likewise 
on  his  part  had  made  great  preparations,  either  for  de- 

1  On  Friday,  June  16th  (old  Chron.  fo.  163.  b.) 


268  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

fence  or  for  a  new  assailing1  of  England.  But  as  for 
the  King's  forces,  they  were  not  only  in  preparation, 
but  in  readiness  presently  to  set  forth,  under  the  con- 
duct of  Dawbeney  the  Lord  Chamberlain.  But  as 
soon  as  the  King  understood  of  the  rebellion  of  Corn- 
wall, he  stayed  those  forces,  retaining  them  for  his 
own  service  and  safety.  But  therewithal  he  dis- 
patched the  Earl  of  Surrey  into  the  north,  for  the 
defence  and  strength  of  those  parts,  in  case  the  Scots 
should  stir.  But  for  the  course  he  held  towards  the 
rebels,  it  was  utterly  differing  from  his  former  custom 
and  practice  ;  which  was  ever  full  of  forwardness  and 
celerity  to  make  head  against  them,  or  to  set  upon 
them  as  soon  as  ever  they  were  in  action.  This  he 
was  wont  to  do  ;  but  now,  besides  that  he  was  attem- 
pered by  years,  and  less  in  love  with  dangers  by  the 
continued  fruition  of  a  crown,  it  was  a  time  when  the 
various  appearance  to  his  thoughts  of  perils  of  several 
natures  and  from  divers  parts  did  make  him  judge  it 
his  best  and  surest  way  to  keep  his  strength  together 
in  the  seat  and  centre  of  his  kingdom  ;  according  to 
the  ancient  Indian  emblem  —  in  such  a  swelling  sea- 
son, to  hold  the  hand  upon  the  middle  of  the  bladder, 
that  no  side  might  rise.  Besides,  there  was  no  necessity 
put  upon  him  to  alter  this  counsel.  For  neither  did 
the  rebels  spoil  the  country,  in  which  case  it  had  been 
dishonour  to  abandon  his  people,  neither  on  the  other 
side  did  their  forces  gather  or  increase,  which  might 
hasten  him  to  precipitate,  and  assail  them  before  they 
grew  too  strong.  And  lastly,  both  reason  of  estate 
and  war  seemed  to  agree  with  this  course.  For  that 
insurrections  of  base  people  are  commonly  more  furi- 

1  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  omits  u  a." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  269 

ous  in  their  beginnings.  And  by  this  means  also  he 
had  them  the  more  at  vantage,  being  tired  and  har- 
assed with  a  long  march  ; 1  and  more  at  mercy,  being 
cut  off  far  from  their  country,  and  therefore  not  able 
by  any  sudden  flight  to  get  to  retreat,  and  to  renew 
the  troubles. 

When  therefore  the  rebels  were  encamped  in2 
Blackheath  upon  the  hill,  whence  they  might  behold 
the  city  of  London,  and  the  fair  valley  about  it ;  the 
King,  knowing  well  that  it  stood  him  upon,3  by  how 
much  the  more  he  had  hitherto  protracted  the  time  in 
not  encountering  them,  by  so  much  the  sooner  to  dis- 
patch with  them  ; 4  that  it  might  appear  to  have  been 
no  coldness  in  fore-slowing  but  wisdom  in  choosing  his 
time  ;  resolved  with  all  speed  to  assail  them  ;  and  yet 
with  that  providence  and  surety  as  should  leave  little 
to  venture  or  fortune.  And  having  very  great  and 
puissant  forces  about  him,  the  better  to  master  all 
events  and  accidents,  he5  divided  them  into  three 
parts.  The  first  was  led  by  the  Earl  of  Oxford  in 
chief,  assisted  by  the  Earls  of  Essex  and  Suffolk. 
These  noblemen  were  appointed,  with  some  cornets6 
of  horse  and  bands  of  foot,  and  good  store  of  artillery, 
wheeling  about  to  put  themselves  beyond  the  hill 
where  the  rebels  were  encamped,  and  to  beset  all  the 

1  These  words  are  omitted  in  the  translation:  which  only  has  eos  plus  in 
arcto  habebat  et  magis  sibi  obnoxios,  cum  longe  a  pairia  sua  remoti  essent ; 
ideoque  fieri  non  patera t  ut  domum  se  reciperent  et  motus  fortasse  renovarent. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  on." 

8  Plurimum  honoris  sui  interesse.     So  Hamlet ; 

"  Doth  it  not,  think'st  thou,  stand  me  now  upon  ?  n 
The  expression  was  in  use  as  late  as  Locke's  time. 
*  Prcelium  consereret. 
6  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  omits  "  he." 
6  Turmis  aliquot  equitum. 


270  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

skirts  and  descents  thereof,  except  those  that  lay  tow- 
ards London  ;  thereby  to  have  these  wild  beasts  as  it 
were  in  a  toil.  The  second  part  of  his  forces  (which 
were  those  that  were  to  be  most  in  action,  and  upon 
which  he  relied  most  for  the  fortune  of  the  day)  he 
did  assign  to  be  led  by  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  who 
was  appointed  to  set  upon  the  rebels  in  front,  from  that 
side  which  is  towards  London.  The  third  part  of  his 
forces  (being  likewise  great  and  brave  forces)  he  re- 
tained about  himself,  to  be  ready  upon  all  events  ;  to 
restore  the  fight  or  consummate  the  victory  ;  and 
meanwhile  to  secure  the  city.  And  for  that  purpose 
he  encamped  in  person  in  Saint  George's  Fields,  put- 
ting himself  between  the  city  and  the  rebels. 

But  the  City  of  London,  especially  at  the  first  upon 
the  near  encamping  of  the  rebels,  was  in  great  tumult ; 
as  it  useth  to  be  with  wealthy  and  populous  cities,  es- 
pecially those  which  being  for  greatness  and  fortune 
queens  of  their  regions,  do  seldom  see  out  of  their 
windows  or  from  their  towers  an  army  of  enemies.1 
But  that  which  troubled  them  most  was  the  conceit 
that  they  dealt  with  a  rout  of  people,  with  whom  there 
was  no  composition  or  condition,  or  orderly  treating,  if 
need  were  ;  but  likely  to  be  bent  altogether  upon  rap- 
ine and  spoil.  And  although  they  had  heard  that  the 
rebels  had  behaved  themselves  quietly  and  modestly  by 
the  way  as  they  went ;  yet  they  doubted  much  that 
would  not  last,  but  rather  make  them  more  hungry, 
and  more  in  appetite  to  fall  upon  spoil  in  the  end. 
Wherefore  there  was  great  running  to  and  fro  of  peo- 

1  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  has  "  as  it  useth  to  be  with  wealthy  and  populous 
cities  (especially  those  which  for  greatness  and  fortune  are  Queens  of  their 
regions)  who  seldom  see,"  &c. 


: 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  271 

pie,  some  to  the  gates,  some  to  the  walls,  some  to  the 
water-side ;  giving  themselves  alarms  and  panic  fears 
continually.  Nevertheless  both  Tate  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  Shaw  and  Haddon  the  Sheriffs  did  their  parts 
stoutly  and  well,  in  arming  and  ordering  the  people ; 
and  the  King  likewise  did  adjoin  some  captains  of  ex- 
perience in  the  Wars  to  advise  and  assist  the  citizens. 
But  soon  after  when  they  understood  that  the  King 
had  so  ordered  the  matter,  that  the  rebels  must  win 
three  battles  before  they  could  approach  the  city,  and 
that  he  had  put  his  Own  person  between  the  rebels  and 
them,  and  that  the  great  care  was  rather  how  to  im- 
pound the  rebels  that  none  of  them  might  escape,  than 
that  any  doubt  was  made  to  vanquish  them  ;  they 
grew  to  be  quiet  and  out  of  fear  ;  the  rather  for  the 
confidence  they  reposed  (which  was  not  small)  in  the 
three  leaders,  Oxford,  Essex,  and  Dawbeney  ;  all  men 
well  famed  and  loved  amongst  the  people.  As  for 
per  Duke  of  Bedford,  whom  the  King  used  to  em- 
ploy with  the  first  in  his  wars,  he  was  then  sick,  and 
died  soon  after. 

It  was  the  two  and  twentieth  of  June,1  and  a  Sat- 
urday (which  was  the  day  of  the  week  the  King 
fancied2),  when  the  battle  was  fought;  though  the 
King  had  by  all  the  art  he  could  devise  given  out  a 
false  day,  as  if  he  prepared  to  give  the  rebels  battle  on 

e  Monday  following,  the  better  to  find  them  unpro- 

ded  and  in  disarray.     The  lords  that  were  appointed 

o  circle  the  hill,  had  some  days  before  planted  them- 


wei 
Jas 


1  This  is  the  date  given  by  Stowe.  The  old  Chronicle  however  (fo.  64.), 
calls  it  the  17th ;  which  is  no  doubt  right.  The  22nd  of  June,  1497,  fell  on 
a  Thursday. 

2  Profousto  ducebat. 


272  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

selves  (as  at  the  receipt1)  in  places  convenient.  In 
the  afternoon  towards  the  decline  of  the  day,  (which 
was  done  the  better  to  keep  the  rebels  in  opinion  that 
they  should  not  fight  that  day,)  the  Lord  Dawbeney 
marched  on  towards  them,  and  first  beat  some  troops 
of  them  from  Deptford-bridge  ;  where  they  fought 
manfully,  but  being  in  no  great  number  were  soon 
driven  back,  and  fled  up  to  their  main  army  upon  the 
hill.  The  army  2  at  that  time  hearing  of  the  approach 
of  the  King's  forces,  were  putting  themselves  in  array 
not  without  much  confusion.  But  neither  had  they 
placed 3  upon  the  first  high  ground  towards  the  bridge 
any  forces  to  second  the  troops  below  that  kept  the 
bridge  ;  neither  had  they  brought  forwards  their  main 
battle  (which  stood  in  array  far  into  the  heath)  near  to 
the  ascent  of  the  hill ; 4  so  that  the  Earl  with  his  forces 
mounted  the  hill  and  recovered5  the  plain  without 
resistance.  The  Lord  Dawbeney  charged  them  with 
great  fury ;  insomuch  as  it  had  like  by  accident  to 
have  brandled  the  fortune  of  the  day.6  For  by  incon- 
siderate forwardness  in  fighting  in  the  head  of  his 
troops,  he  was  taken  by  the  rebels,  but  immediately 
rescued  and  delivered.  The  rebels  maintained  the 
fight  for  a  small  time,  and  for  their  persons  shewed  no 
want  of  courage.7     But  being  ill  armed  and  ill  led  and 

1  I  suppose  this  means  "  as  having  to  make  arrangements  for  receiving 
them."     The  translation  has  rebelles  intercepturi. 

2  i.  e.  the  main  army  of  the  rebels.     Exercitus  rebellium. 
8  The  translation  adds  ut  ratio  belli  postulabat. 

4  Thereby  giving  up  their  vantage-ground.  Neque  exercitum  suum  prom- 
overunt  ad  acclivia  collis,  ubi  iniquo  loco  a  regis  copiis  pugnam  conseri  ne- 
cessefuisset ;  sed  in  planitie  collis  procul  insiruxerunt. 

6  "Recovered"  means  merely  "gained;  "  not  "got  back  again."  uEquo 
loco  se  sisteret.    It  was  a  very  common  use  of  the  word  in  Bacon's  time. 

6  Ita  utfortuna  ejus  diei periclitaretur. 

'  Neque  ignave  rem  gesserunt. 


HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY   VII. 


273 


without  horse  or  artillery,  they  were  with  no  great 
difficulty  cut  in  pieces l  and  put  to  flight.  And  for 
their  three  leaders,  the  Lord  Audley,  the  blacksmith, 
and  Flammock,  (as  commonly  the  captains  of  commo- 
tions are  but  half-couraged  men,)  suffered  themselves 
to  be  taken  alive.  The  number  slain  on  the  rebels' 
part  were  some  two  thousand  men  ; 2  their  army 
amounting  as  it  is  said,  unto  the  number  sixteen  thou- 
sand.3 The  rest  were  in  effect  all  taken  ;  for  that  the 
hill  (as  was  said)  was  encompassed  with  the  King's 
forces  round  about.  On  the  King's  part  there  died 
about  three  hundred,  most  of  them  shot  with  arrows, 
which  were  reported  to  be  of  the  length  of  a  taylor's 
yard ; 4  so  strong  and  mighty  a  bow  the  Cornishmen 
were  said  to  draw. 

The  victory  thus  obtained,  the  King  created  divers 
bannerets,  as  well  upon  Blackheath,  where  his  lieuten- 
ant had  won  the  field,  (whither  he  rode  in  person  to 
perform  the  said  creation)  as  in  St.  George's  Fields, 
where  his  own  person  had  been  encamped.     And  for 
latter   of  liberality,   he  did  by   open   edict  give  the 
roods  of  all  the  prisoners  unto   those  that  had  taken 
iem  ;   either  to  take  them  in  kind  or  compound  for 
them  as   they  could.       After   matter  of  honour  and 
liberality,  followed  matter  of  severity  and  execution, 
'he  Lord  Audley  was  led  from  Newgate  to  Tower- 
till,  in  a  paper  coat  painted  with  his  own  arms  ;  the 


1  Devicti. 

2  So  Polydore.     Stowe  says  only  300. 

s  "And  their  company,"  says  the  old  Chronicle,  fo.  163.,  "was  that  day 
Monday  12  June]  accounted  to  the  number  of  15,000  men." 

*  "  Whose  arrows"  (says  Hall)  "as  is  reported,  were  in  length  a  full 
trrf."  There  is  a  question  as  to  the  length  of  the  "  cloth-yard  shaft," 
)ut  "  a  full  yard  "  must  be  taken,  I  presume,  to  mean  thirty-six  inches. 

VOL.  xi.  18 


274  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

arms  reversed,  the  coat  torn  ;  and  at  Tower-Hill  be- 
headed.1 Flammock  and  the  blacksmith  were  hanged 
drawn  and  quartered  at  Tyburn  : 2  the  blacksmith  tak- 
ing pleasure  upon  the  hurdle  (as  it  seemeth  by  words 
that  he  uttered)  to  think  that  he  should  be  famous  in 
after-times.  The  King  was  once  in  mind  to  have  sent 
down  Flammock  and  the  blacksmith  to  have  been  exe- 
cuted in  Cornwall,  for  the  more  terror.  But  being 
advertised  that  the  country  was  yet  unquiet  and  boil- 
ing, he  thought  better  not  to  irritate  the  people  further. 
All  the  rest  were  pardoned  by  proclamation,  and  to 
take  out  their  pardons  under  seal  as  many  as  would. 
So  that  more  than  the  blood  drawn  in  the  field,  the 
King  did  satisfy  himself  with  the  lives  of  only  three 
offenders  for  the  expiation  of  this  great  rebellion. 

It  was  a  strange  thing  to  observe  the  variety  and 
inequality  of  the  King's  executions  and  pardons :  ;md 
a  man  would  think  it  at  the  first  a  kind  of  lottery  or 
chance.  But  looking  into  it  more  nearly,  one  shall 
find  there  was  reason  for  it ;  much  more  perhaps,  than 
after  so  long  a  distance  of  time  we  can  now  discern. 
In  the  Kentish  commotion  (which  was  but  an  handful 
of  men)  there  were  executed  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty ;  and 3  in  this  so  mighty  a  rebellion 
but  three.  Whether  it  were  that  the  King  put  to  ac- 
count the  men  that  were  slain  in  the  field ;  or  that  he 
was  not  willing  to  be  severe  in  a  popular  cause ;  or 
that  the  harmless  behaviour  of  this  people,  that  came 
from  the  west  of  England  to  the  east  without  mischief 
(almost)  or  spoil  of  the  country,  did  somewhat  mollify 

1  On  Wednesday  the  28th  of  June  (old  Chron.)      Ed.  1622  has  "and  he 
at  Tower  Hill  beheaded." 

2  On  Tuesday  the  27th  of  June  (old  Chron.). 

3  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "but." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  275 

liim  and  move  him  to  compassion  ;   or  lastly,  that  he 
made  a  great  difference  between  people  that  did  rebel 
upon  wantonness,  and  them  that  did  rebel  upon  want. 
After  the   Coraishmen   were  defeated,  there  came 
from  Calais  to  the  King  an  honourable  ambassage  from 
the  French  King ;  which  had  arrived  at  Calais  a  month 
before,  and  was  there  stayed  in  respect  of  the  troubles  ; 
but  honourably  entertained  and  defrayed.      The  King 
at  their  first  coming  sent  unto  them,  and  prayed  them 
to  have  patience,  till  a  little  smoke  that  was  raised  in 
his  country,  were  over  ;  which  would  soon  be  :  slight- 
ing (as  his  manner  was)  that  openly,  which  neverthe- 
less he  intended  seriously.     This  ambassage  concerned 
no  great  affair,  but  only  the  prolongation  of  days  for 
payment  of  money,  and  some  other  particulars  of  the 
frontiers  :  and  it  was  indeed  but  a  wooing  ambassage, 
ith  good  respects  to  entertain  the  King  in  good  affec- 
ion.     But  nothing  was  done  or  handled  to  the  deroga- 
tion of  the  King's  late  treaty  with  the  Italians. 
But  during  the  time  that  the  Cornishmen  were  in 
teir  march  towards  London,  the  King  of  Scotland, 
rell  advertised  of  all  that  passed  and  knowing  himself 
sure  of  a  war  from  England  whensoever  those  stirs 
rere    appeased,    neglected   not    his    opportunity ;    but 
linking   the    King   had   his    hands  full,  entered   the 
mtiers  of  England  again  with  an  army,  and  besieged 
le  castle  of  Norham  in  person  with  part  of  his  forces, 
mding  the  rest  to  forage   the  country.      But  Foxe 
►ishop  of  Duresme,  a  wise  man,  and  one  that  could 
je  through   the   present   to  the  future,   doubting   as 
Luch  before,  had  caused  his  castle  of  Norham  to  be 
strongly  fortified,  and  furnished  with  all  kind  of  muni- 
tion ;   and  had  manned  it  likewise  with  a  very  great 


276  HISTOEY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

number  of  tall  soldiers  1  more  than  for  the  proportion 
of  the  castle,  reckoning  rather  upon  a  sharp  assault 
than  a  long  siege.  And  for  the  country  likewise,  he 
had  caused  the  people  to  withdraw  their  cattle  and 
goods  into  fast  places,  that  were  not  of  easy  approach  ; 
and  sent  in  post  to  the  Earl  of  Surrey  (who  was  not 
far  off  in  Yorkshire)  to  come  in  diligence  to  the  suc- 
cour. So  as  the  Scottish  King  both  failed  of  doing 
good  upon  the  castle,  and  his  men  had  but  a  catching 
harvest  of  their  spoils.2  And  when  he  understood  that 
the  Earl  of  Surrey  was  coming  on  with  great  forces, 
he  returned  back  into  Scotland.  The  Earl  finding  the 
castle  freed,  and  the  enemy  retired,  pursued  with  all 
celerity  into  Scotland  ;  hoping  to  have  overtaken  the 
Scottish  King,  and  to  have  given  him  battle.  But  not 
attaining  him  in  time,  sat  down  before  the  castle  of 
Aton,  one  of  the  strongest  places  (then  esteemed)  be- 
tween Berwick  and  Edinburgh  ;  which  in  a  small  time 
he  took.  And  soon  after  the  Scottish  King  retiring 
further  into  his  country,  and  the  weather  being  ex- 
traordinary foul  and  stormy ;  the  Earl  returned  into 
England.  So  that  the  expeditions  on  both  parts  were 
(in  effect)  but  a  castle  taken  and  a  castle  distressed  ; 
not  answerable  to  the  puissance  of  the  forces,  nor  to 
the  heat  of  the  quarrel,  nor  to  the  greatness  of  the 
expectation. 

1  Militum  fortissimorum. 

2  El  militibus  prcedam  satis  jejunam  compararet. 

According  to  Stowe  the  army  tinder  Surrey  was  sent  in  July.  The 
"  an.  reg.  13"  in  the  margin  is  probably  misplaced.  It  must  have  been  in 
1497,  —  the  11th  month  of  Henry's  12th  year.  Fabyan  gives  the  year,  but 
I  think  not  the  month. 

Buchanan  (xiii.  16.)  represents  the  invasion  as  having  taken  place  im- 
mediately upon  news  arriving  in  Scotland  of  the  Cornish  rebellion  :  which 
would  be  about  the  end  of  May. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  277 

Amongst  these  troubles  both  civil  and  external, 
came  into  England  from  Spain,  Peter  Hialas,  some 
call  him  Elias  (surely  he  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
good  hap  that  we  enjoy  at  this  day  :  for  his  ambas- 
sage  set x  the  truce  between  England  and  Scotland  ; 
the  truce  drew  on  the  peace  ;  the  peace  the  mar- 
riage ;  and  the  marriage  the  union  of  the  kingdoms)  ; 
a  man  of  great  wisdom,5*  and  (as  those  times  were) 
not  unlearned ;  sent  from  Ferdinando  and  Isabella, 
Kings  of  Spain,  unto  the  King,  to  treat  a  marriage 
between  Katherine,  their  second  daughter,  and  Prince 
Arthur.  This  treaty  was  by  him  set  in  a  very  good 
way ; 3  and  almost  brought  to  perfection.  But  it 
so  fell  out  by  the  way,  that  upon  some  conference 
which  he  had  with  the  King  touching  this  business, 
the  King  (who  had  a  great  dexterity  in  getting 
suddenly  into  the  bosom  of  ambassadors  of  foreign 
Princes,  if  he  liked  the  men  ;  insomuch  as  he  would 
many  times  communicate  with  them  of  his  own  af- 
fairs, yea  and  employ  them  in  his  service,)  fell  into 
speech  and  discourse  incidently,  concerning  the  end- 
ing of  the  debates  and  differences  with  Scotland.  For 
the  King  naturally  did  not  love  the  barren  wars  with 
Scotland  ;  though  he  made  his  profit  of  the  noise  of 
them  :  and  he  wanted  not  in  the  counsel  of  Scotland 
those  that  would  advise  their  King  to  meet  him  at 
the  half  way,  and  to  give  over  the  war  with  Eng- 
land ;  pretending  to  be  good  patriots,  but  indeed  fa- 
vouring the  affairs  of  the  King.  Only  his  heart  was 
too  great  to  begin  with  Scotland  for  the  motion  of 

1  Induxit. 

-Prudens.  Wherever  "wise"  occurs  in  the  English,  it  is  translated 
prudens  in  the  Latin. 

8  Dexteritate  legati  non  segniter promotus. 


278  HISTORY   OF   KING  HENRY   VII. 

peace.  On  the  other  side,  he  had  met  with  an  ally 
of  Ferdinando  of  Arragon,  as  fit  for  his  turn  as  could 
be.  For  after  that  King  Ferdinando  had  upon  as- 
sured confidence  of  the  marriage  to  succeed  taken 
upon  him  the  person  of  a  fraternal  ally  to  the  King, 
he  would  not  let,1  in  a  Spanish  gravity,  to  counsel 
the  Kins;  in  his  own  affairs.  And  the  Kino;  on  his 
part  not  being  wanting  to  himself,  but  making  use 
of  every  man's  humours,  made  his  advantage  of  this 
in  such  things  as  he  thought  either  not  decent  or  not 
pleasant  to  proceed  from  himself;  putting  them  off 
as  done  by  the  counsel  of  Ferdinando :  wherefore  he 
was  content  that  Hialas  (as  in  a  matter  moved  and 
advised  from  Hialas  himself)  should  go  into  Scot- 
land, to  treat  of  a  concord  between  the  two  Kings. 
Hialas  took  it  upon  him,  and  coming  to  the  Scottish 
King,  after  he  had  with  much  art  brought  King 
James  to  hearken  to  the  more  safe  and  quiet  coun- 
sels, writ  unto  the  King  that  he  hoped  that  peace 
would  with  no  great  difficulty  cement  and  close,  if 
he  would  send  some  wise  and  temperate  counsellor  of 
his  own,  that  might  treat  of  the  conditions.  Where- 
upon the  King  directed  Bishop  Foxe  (who  at  that 
time  was  at  his  castle  of  Norham)  to  confer  with 
Hialas,  and  they  both  to  treat  with  some  commission- 
ers deputed  from  the  Scottish  King.  The  commis- 
sioners on  both  sides  met.2  But  after  much  dispute 
upon  the  articles  and  conditions  of  peace  propounded 
upon  either  part,  they  could  not  conclude  a  peace. 
The  chief  impediment  thereof  was  the  demand  of  the 

1  Non  dubitabat. 

2  At  Jedburgh,  according  to  Buchanan,  xiii.  17.;  from  whom  most  of 
these  particulars  appear  to  have  been  taken.  But  one  of  the  commenta- 
tors, speaking  on  the  authority  of  documents,  says  they  met  at  Aton. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  279 

King  to  have  Perkin  delivered  into  liis  hands  ;  as  a 
reproach  to  all  Kings,  and  a  person  not  protected  by 
the  law  of  nations.  The  King  of  Scotland  on  the 
other  side  peremptorily  denied  so  to  do  ;  saying  that 
he  fortius  part  was  no  competent  judge  of  Perkin's 
title  :  but  that  he  had  received  him  as  a  suppliant,  pro- 
tected him  as  a  person  fled  for  refuge,  espoused  him 
with  his  kinswoman,  and  aided  him  with  his  arms, 
upon  the  belief  that  he  was  a  Prince  ;  and  therefore 
that  he  could  not  now  with  his  honour  so  unrip  and 
in  a  sort  put  a  lie  upon  all  that  he  had  said  and  done 
before,  as  to  deliver  him  up  to  his  enemies.  The 
Bishop  likewise  (who  had  certain  proud  instructions 
from  the  King,1  at  the  least  in  the  front,  though  there 
were  a  pliant  clause  at  the  foot,  that  remitted  all 
to  the  Bishop's  discretion,  and  required  him2  by  no 
means  to  break  off  in  ill  terms,)  after  that  he  had 
failed  to  obtain  the  delivery  of  Perkin,  did  move  a 
second  point  of  his  instructions  ;  which  was,  that  the 
Scottish  King  would  give  the  King  an  interview  in 
person  at  Newcastle.  But  this  being  reported  to  the 
Scottish  King,  his  answer  was,  that  he  meant  to  treat 
a  peace,  and  not  to  go  a  begging  for  it.     The  Bishop 

1  A  copy  of  instructions  answering  this  description,  and  dated  at  Shene, 
5  July,  1497,  may  be  seen  in  the  Cotton  MSS.  Vesp.  C.  xvi.  fo.  141.  Ref- 
erence is  made  in  them  to  a  previous  treaty  lately  made  at  "  Jenynhaugh  " 
(date  not  mentioned)  in  which  it  seems  that  certain  offers  were  made  by 
the  Earl  of  Angus  and  Lord  Home,  which  could  not  be  accepted,  —  ap- 
parently because  they  did  not  include  the  delivery  of  Perkin  into  Henry's 
hands.  It  is  possible  that  Fox  had  similar  instructions  for  his  guidance 
in  that  previous  negotiation,  and  that  it  was  that  which  ended  in  the  "  re- 
cv-s  "  which  Bacon  speaks  of;  during  which  James  took  occasion  to  send 
Perkin  away.  For  it  was  on  the  6th  of  July,  according  to  Tytler  (iv.  p. 
385.),  that  he  sailed:  therefore  before  the  instructions  of  the  5th  could 
have  been  received. 

-  Etiam  disertis  verbis  pracipiens. 


280  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

also  according  to  another  article  of  his  instructions, 
demanded  restitution  of  the  spoils  taken  by  the  Scot- 
tish, or  damages  for  the  same.  But  the  Scottish  com- 
missioners answered,  that  that  was  but  as  water 
spilt  upon  the  ground,  which  could  not  be  gotten  up 
again  ;  and  that  the  King's  people  were  better  able 
to  bear  the  loss  than  their  master  to  repair  it.  But 
in  the  end  as  persons  capable  of  reason 1  on  both  sides, 
they  made  rather  a  kind  of  recess  than  a  breach  of 
treaty,  and  concluded  upon  a  truce  for  some  months 
following.2  But  the  Kino;  of  Scotland,  though  he 
would  not  formally  retract  his  judgment  of  Perkin, 
wherein  he  had  engaged  himself  so  far  ;  yet  in  his 
private  opinion,  upon  often  speech  with  the  English- 
men and  divers  other  advertisements,  began  to  suspect 
him  for  a  counterfeit ;  wherefore  in  a  noble  fashion 
he  called  him  unto  him,  and  recounted  the  benefits 
and  favours  that  he  had  done  him  in  making  him  his 
ally,  and  in  provoking  a  mighty  and  opulent  King 
by  an  offensive  war  in  his  quarrel,  for  the  space  of 
two  years  together  ;  nay  more,  that  he  had  refused  an 
honourable  peace,  whereof  he  had  a  fair  offer  if  he 
would  have  delivered  him  ;  and  that  to  keep  his  prom- 

1  Moderati  et  rationi  non  recalcitrant es. 

2  So  Buchanan,  xiii.  17.  But  the  truce  ''for  some  months  "  was  prob- 
ably the  result  of  the  previous  negotiation  at  Jenynhaugh.  By  the  time 
Fox  received  the  instimctions  of  the  5th  of  July,  Perkin  was  gone  and  the 
obstacle  removed.  The  commissioners  met,  D'Ayala  acting  as  a  kind  of 
mediator,  and  agreed  in  the  first  instance  upon  a  truce  for  seven  years. 
This  was  concluded  on  the  30th  of  September,  1497.  Soon  after  a  new 
negotiation  was  commenced,  D'Ayala  acting  on  the  part  of  James,  and 
Warham  on  the  part  of  Henry;  which  ended  in  an  extension  of  the  term 
to  the  lives  of  the  two  kings  and  a  year  after  the  death  of  the  survivor. 
It  was  signed  by  Warham  in  London  on  the  5th  of  December;  proclaimed 
in  London  the  next  day  (see  old  Chronicle);  and  ratified  by  James  on  the 
10th  of  February,  1497-8. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  281 

ise  with  him,  he  had  deeply  offended  both  his  nobles 
and  people,  whom  he  might  not  hold  in  any  long  dis- 
content :  and  therefore  required  him  to  think  of  his 
own  fortunes,  and  to  choose  out  some  fitter  place  for 
his  exile :  telling  him  withal  that  he  could  not  say  but 
the  English  had  forsaken  him  before  the  Scottish  ;  for 
that  upon  two  several  trials,  none  had  declared  them- 
selves on  his  side  :  but  nevertheless  he  would  make 
good  what  he  said  to  him  at  his  first  receiving,  which 
was  that  he  should  not  repent  him  for  putting  him- 
self into  his  hands  ;  for  that  he  would  not  cast  him 
off,  but  help  him  with  shipping  and  means  to  trans- 
port him  where  he  should  desire. 

Perkin,  not  descending  at  all  from  his  stage-like 
greatness,  answered  the  King  in  few  words  ;  That  he 
saw  his  time  was  not  yet  come  ;  but  whatsoever  his 
fortunes  were,  he  should  both  think  and  speak  honour 
of  the  King.  Taking  his  leave,  he  would  not  think 
on  Flanders,  doubting  it  was  but  hollow  ground  for 
him  since  the  treaty  of  the  Archduke  concluded  the 
year  before  ;  but  took  his  lady,  and  such  followers  as 
would  not  leave  him,  and  sailed  over  into  Ireland. 

This  twelfth  year  of  the  King  a  little  before  this 
time,1  Pope  Alexander,  who  loved  best  those  Princes 
that  were  furthest  off  and  with  whom  he  had  least 
to  do ;  and  taking  very  thankfully  the  King's  late 
entrance  into  league  for  the  defence  of  Italy  ;  did  re- 
munerate him  with  an  hallowed  sword  and  cap  of 
maintenance,  sent  by  his  Nuncio.     Pope  Innocent  had 


1  These  words  are  omitted  in  the  translation.  If  it  was  at  Allhallow- 
mass  (1  Nov.)  in  the  12th  year  of  the  King,  it  was  a  good  deal  before  the 
time  Bacon  is  speaking  of.  Henry's  12th  year  began  on  the  22nd  of  Au- 
gust, 1496.     We  are  now  in  July,  1497. 


282  HISTORY   OF  KING   HENRY  VII. 

done  the  like,  but  it  was  not  received  in  that  glory.1 
For  the  King  appointed  the  Mayor  and  his  brethren 
to  meet  the  Pope's  orator  at  London-bridge,  and  all 
the  streets  between  the  bridge-foot  and  the  palace  of 
Paul's  (where  the  King  then  lay)  were  garnished 
with  the  citizens,2  standing  in  their  liveries.  And  the 
morrow  after  being  Allhallown-day,3  the  King,  at- 
tended with  many  of  his  prelates  and4  nobles  and 
principal  courtiers,  went  in  procession  to  Paul's,  and 
the  cap  and  sword  were  borne  before  him  ;  and  after 
the  procession,  the  King  himself  remaining  seated  in 
the  quire,  the  Lord  Archbishop  upon  the  greese  5  of  the 
quire  made  a  long  oration  ;  setting  forth  the  greatness 
and  eminency  of  that  honour  which  the  Pope  (in  these 
ornaments  and  ensigns  of  benediction)  had  done  the 
King  ;  and  how  rarely  and  upon  what  high  deserts 
they  used  to  be  bestowed :  and  then  recited  the  King's 
principal  acts  and  merits,  which  had  made  him  appear 
worthy  in  the  eyes  of  his  Holiness  of  this  great  honour. 
All  this  while  the  rebellion  of  Cornwall  (whereof 

1  There  was  probably  no  account  of  the  reception  of  the  cap  of  main- 
tenance sent  by  Pope  Innocent  in  any  of  the  histories  to  which  Bacon  had 
access.  But  there  is  a  full  account  of  it  in  the  Herald's  journal  (Cott. 
Jul.  B.  xi. ;  printed  by  Leland,  vol.  iv.  p.  244.)  and  the  arrangements  were 
much  the  same  as  those  which  Bacon  proceeds  to  describe.  So  much  so, 
that  if  the  old  Chronicle  from  which  his  account  is  taken  (Vitel.  A.  xvi. 
f.  161.)  had  been  lost  and  the  Herald's  journal  preserved,  one  might  have 
suspected  him  of  having  mistaken  the  date.  The  former  occasion  was 
in  1488. 

2  The  translation  makes  it  part  of  the  King's  directions  that  the  streets 
should  be  thus  garnished.  Elenim  rex  nunc  mandavit  mojori  dV.  ut  oratori 
Papce,  ad pedem  pontis  Londinensis  obviam  Jierent,  atque  platece  universal  inter 
pontem  et  palatium  episcopi  Londinensis  {ubi  rex  tunc  hospitabatur)  cicium 
fraternitatibus,  in  sagulis  suis  vestitis,  ulrinque  clauderentur. 

8  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  has  "  All-hallowes." 

4  Ed.  1622  omits  "  and." 

5  Super  gradus  ante  chorum  stans.     Ed.  1622  has  u  greece." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  283 

we  have  spoken)  seemed  to  have  no  relation  to  Per- 
kin  ;  save  that  perhaps  Perkin's  proclamation  had 
stricken  upon  the  right  vein,  in  promising  to  lay  down 
exactions  and  payments ;  and  so  had  made  them  now 
and  then  have  a  kind  thought  on  Perkin.  But  now 
these  bubbles  by  much  stirring  began  to  meet,  as  they 
use  to  do  upon  the  top  of  water.  The  King's  lenity 
(by  that  time  the  Cornish  rebels,  who  were  taken  and 
pardoned,  and  as  it  was  said  many  of  them  sold  by 
them  that  had  taken  them  for  twelve  pence  and  two 
shillings  apiece,  were  come  down  into  their  country) 
had  rather  emboldened  them  than  reclaimed  them ; J 
insomuch  as  they  stuck  2  not  to  say  to  their  neighbours 
and  countrymen  that  the  King  did  well  to  pardon 
them  ;  for  that  he  knew  he  should  leave  few  subjects 
in  England,  if  he  hanged  all  that  were  of  their  mind : 
and  began  whetting  and  inciting  one  another  to  renew 
the  commotion.  Some  of  the  subtlest  of  them,  hear- 
ing of  Perkin's  being  in  Ireland,  found  means  to  send 
to  him  to  let  him  know  that  if  he  would  come  over 
to  them  they  woutd  serve  him.  When  Perkin  heard 
this  news,  he  began  to  take  heart  again,  and  advised 
upon  it  with  his  counsel  ;  which  were  principally 
three  ; 3  Heme  a  mercer  that  had  fled  for  debt ;  Skel- 
ton  a  taylor,  and  Astley  a  scrivener ;  (for  secretary 
Frion  was  gone.)  These  told  him  that  he  was  migh- 
tily overseen  both  when  he  went  into  Kent  and  when 
he  went  into  Scotland ;  the  one  being  a  place  so  near 

1  This  rather  awkward  sentence  is  more  clearly  expressed  in  the  Latin. 
Reyis  dementia  rebel/es  Cornvbienses  (poslqunm  domum  rediissent,  sine  poena 
dimissi,  verum  ut  diximus  solidi  unius  nut  duorum  pretio  redempti)  mayis  an- 
iimn\rat  quam  sanaverat. 

2  The  MS  has  "  stick." 

8  Ex  qiribus  ires  plurimum  apud  eum  poterant. 


284  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

London,  and  under  the  King's  nose  ;  and  the  other  a 
nation  so  distasted  with  the  people  of  England,  that 
if  they  had  loved  him  never  so  well,  yet  they  would 
never  have  taken  his  part  in  that  company.  But  if 
he  had  been  so  happy  as  to  have  been  in  Cornwall  at 
the  first,  when  the  people  began  to  take  arms  there, 
he  had  been  crowned  at  Westminster  before  this  time : 
for  these  Kings  (as  he  had  now  experience)  would  sell 
poor  princes  for  shoes :  but  he  must  rely  wholly  upon 
people ;  and  therefore  advised  him  to  sail  over  with  all 
possible  speed  into  Cornwall :  which  accordingly  he 
did ;  having  in  his  company  four  small  barks,  with 
some  sixscore  or  sevenscore  figh tins-men.  He  arrived 
in  September  at  Whitsand-Bay,  and  forthwith  came 
to  Bodmin,  the  blacksmith's  town  ; 1  where  there  as- 
sembled unto  him  to  the  number  of  three  thousand 
men  of  the  rude  people. 

There  he  set  forth  a  new  proclamation,  stroking  the 
people  with  fair  promises,  and  humouring  them  with 
invectives  against  the  King  and  his  government.  And 
as  it  fareth  with  smoke  that  never  leeseth  itself  till  it 
be  at  the  highest,  he  did  now  before  his  end  raise  his 
stile,  intitling  himself  no  more  Richard  Duke  of  York, 
but  Richard  the  Fourth,  King  of  England.2    His  coun- 

1  Michael  Joseph.     Oppidum  fabri  ferrarii  de  quo  ante  diximus. 

2  These  words  from  "he  did  now,"  are  omitted  in  the  translation; 
where  it  is  only  said  magnifice  admodum  de  seipso  loquebatur ;  Bacon  hav- 
ing remembered,  no  doubt,  or  been  reminded,  that  Perkin's  Scotch  proc- 
lamation ran  in  the  name  of  "  Richard,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of 
England  and  of  France,  Lord  of  Ireland,  Prince  of  Wales."  He  had  been 
misled  by  Speed,  who  speaks  of  that  proclamation  (p.  741.)  as  "  made  in 
the  name  of  Richard  Duke  of  York;  "  and  says  afterwards  that  Perkin 
after  his  landing  in  Cornwall,  found  means  to  raise  thousands  of  people 
"whom  with  most  lavish  promises,  invective  proclamations,  and  strong 
impudency,  he  held  together  under  the  title  of  Richard  the  Fourth  King  of 
England.'1'' 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


285 


sel  advised  him  by  all  means  to  make  himself  master 
of  some  good  walled  town ;  as  well  to  make  his  men 
find  the  sweetness  of  rich  spoils,  and  to  allure  to  him 
all  loose  and  lost  people  by  like  hopes  of  booty ;  as  to 
be  a  sure  retreat  to  his  forces,  in  case  they  should  have 
any  ill  day  or  unlucky  chance  in  the  field.  Where- 
fore they  took  heart  to  them,  and  went  on  and  be- 
sieged the  city  of  Exeter,1  the  principal  town  for 
strength  and  wealth  in  those  parts.  When  they  were 
comen  before  Exeter,  they  forebore  to  use  any  force 
at  the  first,  but  made  continual  shouts  and  outcries  to 
terrify  the  inhabitants,  and2  did  likewise  in  divers 
places  call  and  talk  to  them  from  under  the  walls,  to 
join  with  them,  and  be  of  their  party ;  telling  them 
that  the  King3  would  make  them  another  London, 
if  they  would  be  the  first  town  that  should  acknowl- 
edge him :  but  they  had  not  the  wit  to  send  to  them, 
in  any  orderly  fashion,  agents  or  chosen  men  to  tempt 
them  and  to  treat  with  them.  The  citizens  on  their 
part  shewed  themselves  stout  and  loyal  subjects ;  nei- 
ther was  there  so  much  as  any  tumult  or  division 
amongst  them,  but  all  prepared  themselves  for  a  val- 
iant defence,  and  making  good  the  town.  For  well 
they  saw  that  the  rebels  were  of  no  such  number  or 
power  that  they  needed  to  fear  them  as  yet :  and  well 
they  hoped  that  before  their  numbers  increased  the 
King's  succours  would  come  in.  And  howsoever, 
they  thought  it  the  extremest  of  evils  to  put  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  those  hungry  and  disorderly 

1  On  Sunday,  September  17.     About  1  p.  m.     See  Ellis's  Letters,  1st 
ser.  vol.  i.  p.  34. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  a  full  stop  after  "  inhabitants,"  and  begins  the 
next  sentence  with  "  They." 

8  Regem  Rickardum. 


286  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

people.  Wherefore  setting  all  things  in  good  order 
within  the  town,  they  nevertheless  let  down  with 
cords  from  several  parts  of  the  walls  privily,  several 
messengers  (that  if  one  came  to  mischance  another 
might  pass  on),  which  should  advertise  the  King  of 
the  state  of  the  town,  and  implore  his  aid.  Perkin 
also  doubted  that  succours  would  come  ere  long,  and 
therefore  resolved  to  use  his  utmost  force  to  assault  the 
town.  And  for  that  purpose  having  mounted  scaling- 
ladders  in  divers  places  upon  the  walls,  made  at  the 
same  instant  an  attempt  to  force  one  of  the  gates.  But 
having  no  artillery  nor  engines,  and  finding  that  he 
could  do  no  good  by  ramming  with  logs  of  timber,  nor 
by  the  use  of  iron  bars  and  iron  crows  and  such  other 
means  at  hand,  he  1  had  no  way  left  him  but  to  set  one 
of  the  gates  on  fire ;  which  he  did.  But  the  citizens 
well  perceiving  the  danger,  before  the  gate  could  be 
fully  consumed,  blocked  up  the  gate  and  some  space 
about  it  on  the  inside  with  faggots  and  other  fuel, 
which  they  likewise  set  on  fire,  and  so  repulsed  fire 
with  fire ;  and  in  the  mean  time  raised  up  rampiers  of 
earth,  and  cast  up  deep  trenches,  to  serve  instead  of 
wall  and  gate.  And  for  the  escaladaes,  they  had  so  bad 
success,  as  the  rebels  were  driven  from  the  walls  with 
the  loss  of  two  hundred  men.2 

The  King  when  he  heard  of  Perkin's  siege  of  Exe- 
ter, made  sport  with  it ;  and  said  to  them  that  were 
about  him,  that  the  King  of  rake-hells  was  landed  in 
the  west,  and  that  he  hoped  now  to  have  the  honour 
to  see  him,  which  he  could  never  yet  do.     And  it  ap- 

1  So  Ed.  1622.     MS.  omits  "  he." 

2  Above  three  or  four  hundred,  according  to  King  Henry.     See  Ellis's 
Letters,  1st  ser.  vol.  i.  p.  34. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY    VII.  287 

peared  plainly  to  those  that  were  about  the  King,  that 
lie  was  indeed  much  joyed  with  the  news  of  Perkin's 
being  in  English  ground,  where   he   could   have  no 
retreat  by  land ;  thinking  now,  that  he  should  be  cured 
of  those-privy  stitches,  which  he  had  had1  long  about 
his.  heart,  and  had  sometimes  broken  his  sleeps  in  the 
midst  of  all  his  felicity.     And  to  set  all  men's  hearts 
on  fire,  he  did  by  all  possible  means  let  it  appear,  that 
those  that  should  now  do  him  service  to  make  an  end 
of  these  troubles,  should  be  no  less  accepted  of  him 
than  he  that  came  upon  the  eleventh  hour  and  had  the 
whole  wages  of  the  day.     Therefore  now,  like  the  end 
of  a  play,  a  great  number  came  upon  the  stage  at  once. 
He  sent  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  and  the  Lord  Brooke, 
and  Sir  Rice  ap  Thomas,  with  expedite  forces  to  speed 
to  Exeter  to  the  rescue  of  the  town,  and  to  spread 
e  fame  of  his  own  following  in  person  with  a  royal 
y.     The  Earl  of  Devonshire  and  his  son,  with  the 
arews,  and  the  Fulfordes  and  other  principal  persons 
f  Devonshire  (uncalled  from  the  court,  but  hearing 
t  the  King's  heart  was  so  much  bent  upon  this  ser- 
ce),  made  haste  with  troops  that  they  had  raised  to 
the  first  that  should  succour  the  city  of  Exeter,  and 
revent  the  King's  succours.     The  Duke  of  Bucking- 
m  likewise  with  many  brave  gentlemen  put  them- 
selves in  arms,  not  staying  either  the  *  King's  or  Lord 
I  Chamberlain's2  coming  on,  but  making  a  body  of  forces 
of  themselves,  the  more  to  endear  their  merit ;  signify- 
ing to  the  King  their  readiness,  and  desiring  to  know 
his  pleasure.     So  that  according  to  the  proverb,  In  the 
coming  down  every  Saint  did  help. 
i  So  MS.    In  Ed.  1622  "  had  long  had." 
2  Ed.  1622  "  the  Lord  Charaberlaines." 


288  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Perkin  hearing  this  thunder  of  arms  and  prepara- 
tions against  him  from  so  many  parts,  raised  his  siege 1 
and  marched  to  Taunton,  beginning  already  to  squint 
one  eye  upon  the  crown  and  another  upon  the  sanctu- 
ary ;  though  the  Cornishmen  were  become  like  metal 
often  fired  and  quenched,  churlish,2  and  that  would 
sooner  break  than  bow ;  swearing  and  vowing  not  to 
leave  him  till  the  uttermost  drop  of  their  blood  were 
spilt.  He  was  at  his  rising  from  Exeter  between  six 
and  seven  thousand  strong,  many  having  comen  unto 
him  after  he  was  set  before  Exeter,  upon  fame  of  so 
great  an  enterprise,  and  to  partake  of  the  spoil ; 
though  upon  the  raising  of  the3  siege  some  did  slip 
away.  When  he  was  comen  near  Taunton,  he  dis- 
sembled all  fear ;  and  seemed  all  the  day  to  use 
diligence  in  preparing  all  things  ready  to  fight.  But 
about  midnight  he  fled  with  threescore  horse  to  Bew- 
ley4  in  the  New  Forest;  where  he  and  divers  of  his 
company  registered  themselves  sanctuary-men,  leaving 
his  Cornishmen  to  the  four  winds  ;  but  yet  thereby 
easing  them  of  their  vow ;  and  using  his  wonted  com- 
passion, not  to  be  by  when  his  subjects  blood  should  be 
spilt.  The  King  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  Perkin's  flight, 
sent  presently  five  hundred  horse  to  pursue  and  appre- 
hend him,  before  he  should  get  either  to  the  sea  or  to 
that  same  little  island  called  a  sanctuary.  But  they 
came  too  late  for  the  latter  of  these.  Therefore  all  they 
could  do  was  to  beset  the  sanctuary,  and  to  maintain  a 
strong  watch  about  it,  till  the   King's  pleasure  were 


1  On  the  18th  of  September.     See  Ellis's  Letters,  1st  ser.  vol.  i.  p.  34. 

2  Obstinali. 

8  So  Ed.  1622.     The  MS.  has  "his  siege." 

4  On  the  21st  of  September.     See  Ellis's  Letters,  1st  ser.  vol.  i.  p.  34. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  289 

further  known.  As  for  the  rest  of  the  rebels,  they 
(  being  destituted  of  their  head)  without  stroke  stricken 
submitted  themselves  unto  the  King's  mercy.  And 
the  King  who  commonly  drew  blood  (as  physicians 
do)  rather  to  save  life  than  to  spill  it,  and  was  never 
cruel  when  he  was  secure,  now  he  saw  the  danger  was 
past,  pardoned  them  all  in  the  end ;  except  some  few 
desperate  persons,  which  he  reserved  to  be  executed, 
the  better  to  set  off  his  mercy  towards  the  rest.  There 
were  also  sent  with  all  speed  some  horse  to  Saint 
Michael's  Mount  in  Cornwall,  where  the  Lady  Kathe- 
rine  Gordon  was  left  by  her  husband,  whom  in  all  for- 
tunes she  entirely  loved ;  adding  the  virtues  of  a  wife 
to  the  virtues  of  her  sex.  The  King  sent  in  the 
greater  diligence,  not  knowing  whether  she  might  be 
with  child,  whereby  the  business  would  not  have  ended 
in  Perkin's  person.  When  she  was  brought  to  the 
King,  it  was  commonly  said  that  the  King  received  her 

lot  only  with  compassion  but  with  affection  ;  pity  giv- 
ing more  impression  to  her  excellent  beauty.  Where- 
fore comforting  her,  to   serve  as  well  his  eye  as  his 

une,  he  sent  her  to  his  Queen,  to  remain  with  her ; 

jiving  her  very  honourable  allowance  for  the  support 

)f  her  estate,  which  she  enjoyed  both  during  the 
King's  life  and  many  years  after.  The  name  of  the 
White  Rose,  which  had  been  given  to  her  husband's 
false  title,  was  continued  in  common  speech  to  her  true 
jauty. 

The  King  went  forwards  on  his  journey,  and  made 
a  joyful  entrance  into  Exeter,1  where  he  gave  the  citi- 

1  It  appears  by  an  entry  in  the  Privy  Purse  expences  that  Perkin  was 
brought  to  Taunton  on  the  5th  of  October,  where  the  King  was,  on  his 
way  to  Exeter.     He  reached  Exeter  on  the  7th. 

VOL.  xi.  19 


290  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

zens  great  commendations  and  thanks  ;  and  taking  the 
sword  he  wore  from  his  side,  he  gave  it  to  the  Mayor, 
and  commanded  it  should  be  ever  after  carried  before 
him.  There  also  he  caused  to  be  executed  some  of  the 
ringleaders  of  the  Cornishmen,  in  sacrifice  to  the  citi- 
zens ;  whom  they  had  put  in  fear  and  trouble.  At 
Exeter  the  King  consulted  with  his  counsel,  whether 
he  should  offer  life  to  Perkin  if  he  would  quit  the  sanc- 
tuary and  voluntarily  submit  himself.  The  counsel 
were  divided  in  opinion.  Some  advised  the  King  to 
take  him  out  of  sanctuary  perforce,  and  to  put  him  to 
death,  as  in  a  case  of  necessity,  which  in  itself  dispens- 
eth  with  consecrated  places  and  things  ;  wherein  they 
doubted  not  also  but  the  King  should  find  the  Pope 
tractable  to  ratify  his  deed,  either  by  declaration  or  at 
least  by  indulgence.  Others  were  of  opinion,  since  all 
was  now  safe  and  no  further  hurt  could  be  done,  that 
it  was  not  worth  the  exposing  of  the  King  to  new 
scandal  and  envy.  A  third  sort  fell  upon  the  opinion1 
that  it  was  not  possible  for  the  King  ever  either  to  sat- 
isfy the  world  well  touching  the  imposture  or  to  learn 
out  the  bottom  of  the  conspiracy,  except  by  promise 
of  life  and  pardon  and  other  fair  means  he  should  get 
Perkin  into  his  hands.  But  they  did  all  in  their  pre- 
ambles much  bemoan  the  King's  case,  with  a  kind  of 
indignation  at  his  fortune  ;  that  a  Prince  of  his  high 
wisdom  and  virtue  should  have  been  so  long  and  so  oft 
exercised  and  vexed  with  idols.  But  the  King  said 
that  it  was  the  vexation  of  God  Almighty  himself  to 
be  vexed  with  idols,  and  therefore  that  that  was  not  to 
trouble  any  of  his  friends  :  and  that  for  himself  he  al- 

1  In  the  translation  he  says  they  distinctly  advised  him:  regem  diserte 
prmmonebat. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  291 

ways  despised  them,  but  was  grieved  that  they  had  put 
his  people  to  such  trouble  and  misery.  But  in  conclu- 
sion he  leaned  to  the  third  opinion  ;  and  so  sent  some 
to  deal  with  Perkin  ;  who  seeing  himself  a  prisoner 
and  destitute  of  all  hopes,  having  tried  princes  and 
people,  great  and  small,  and  found  all  either  false, 
faint,  or  unfortunate,  did  gladly  accept  of  the  condi- 
tion. The  King  did  also  while  he  was  at  Exeter  ap- 
point the  Lord  Darcy  and  others  commissioners  for  the 
fining  of  all  such  as  were  of  any  value,1  and  had  any 
hand  or  partaking  in  the  aid  or  comfort  of  Perkin  or 
the  Cornishmen,  either  in  the  field  or  in  the  flight. 
These  commissioners  proceeded  with  such  strictness 
and  severity,  as  did  much  obscure  the  King's  mercy  in 
sparing  of  blood,  with  the  bleeding  of  so  much  treas- 
ure. Perkin  was  brought  unto  the  King's  court,  but 
I  not  to  the  King's  presence  ;  though  the  King  to  satisfy 
his  curiosity  saw  him  sometimes  out  of  a  window 2  or 
in  passage.  He  was  in  shew  at  liberty,  but  guarded 
with  all  care  and  watch  that  wras  possible,  and  willed 
to  follow  the  King  to  London.  But  from  his  first  ap- 
pearance upon  the  stage  in  his  new  person  of  a  syco- 
phant or  juggler,  instead  of  his  former  person  of  a 
Prince,  all  men  may  think  how  he  was  exposed  to  the 
derision  not  only  of  the  courtiers  but  also  of  the  com- 
mon people,  who  flocked  about  him  as  he  went  along, 
(that  one  might  know  afar  off  where  the  owl  was,  by 
the  flight  of  birds  ;  some  mocking,  some  wondering, 
some  cursing,  some  prying  and  picking  matter  out  of 
his  countenance  and  gesture  to  talk  of.     So  that  the 

1  The  original  return  of  the  fines  levied  is  preserved  in  the  British  Mn- 
seum.     See  Ellis's  Letters,  1st  ser.  vol.  i.  p.  38. 

2  This  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 


292  HISTOEY   OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

false  honour  and  respects  which  he  had  so  long  enjoyed 
was  plentifully  repaid  in  scorn  and  contempt.  As 
soon  as  he  was  comen  to  London,  the  King  gave  also 
the  City  the  solace  of  this  may-game.  For  he  was 
conveyed  leisurely  on  horseback,  but  not  in  any  igno- 
minious fashion,  through  Cheapside  and  Cornhill1  to 
the  Tower,  and  from  thence  back  again  unto  West- 
minster, with  the  churmne 2  of  a  thousand  taunts  and 
reproaches.  But  to  amend  the  show,  there  followed  a 
little  distance  off  Perkin,  an  inward  counsellor  of  his, 
one  that  had  been  serjeant  farrier  to  the  King.  This 
fellow,  when  Perkin  took  sanctuary,  chose  rather  to 
take  an  holy  habit  than  a  holy  place,  and  clad  himself 
like  an  hermit,  and  in  that  weed  wandered  about  the 
country,  till  he  was  discovered  and  taken.  But  this 
man  was  bound  hand  and  foot  upon  the  horse,  and 
came  not  back  with  Perkin,  but  was  left  at  the 
Tower,8  and  within  few  days  after  executed.  Soon 
after,  now  that  Perkin  could  tell  better  what  himself 
was,  he  was  diligently  examined ;  and  after  his  confes- 
sion taken,  an  extract  was  made  of  such  parts  of  them 4 
as  were  thought  fit  to  be  divulged  ;  which  was  printed 
and  dispersed  abroad  :  wherein  the  King  did  himself 
no  right :  for  as  there  was  a  laboured  tale  of  particu- 
lars of  Perkin's  father  and  mother  and  grandsire  and 
grandmother  and  uncles  and  cousins,  by  names  and 
surnames,  and  from  what  places  he  travelled  up  and 

1  The  MS.  as  well  as  the  edition  of  1622  has  Corneivall;  which  is  evi- 
dently wrong.  The  Latin  translation  has  Cornhill.  This,  according  to 
Stowe,  was  on  the  20th  of  November,  1497 ;  the  13th  of  the  King. 

2  Churm  is  an  old  Saxon  word,  meaning  a  confused  murmuring  noise. 
In  the  translation  cum  choro  is  substituted. 

8  These  words  are  omitted  in  the  translation. 
4  So  both  MS.  and  Ed.  1622. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  293 

down  ;  so  there  was  little  or  nothing  to  purpose  of  any 
tiling  concerning  his  designs,  or  any  practices  that  had 
been  held  with  him  ;  nor  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy 
herself,  that  all  the  world  did  take  knowledge  of  as  the 
personthat  had  put  life  and  being  into  the  whole  busi- 
ness, so  much  as  named  or  pointed  at ; J  so  that  men 
missing  of  that  they  looked  for,  looked  about  for  they 
knew  not  what,  and  were  in  more  doubt  than  before. 
But  the  King  chose  rather  not  to  satisfy  than  to  kindle 
coals.2  At  that  time  also  it  did  not  appear  by  any 
new  examinations  or  commitments  that  any  other  per- 
son of  quality  was  discovered  or  appeached,  though 
the  King's  closeness  made  that  a  doubt  dormant. 

About  this  time3  a  great  fire  in  the  night-time  sud- 
denly began  at  the  King's  palace  of  Shyne,  near  unto 
the  King's  own  lodgings  ;  whereby  a  great  part  of  the 
building  was  consumed,  with  much  costly  household- 
stuff;  which  gave  the  King  occasion  of  building  from 
the  ground  that  fine  pile  of  Richmond,  which  is  now 
standing. 

Somewhat  before  this  time  also,  there  fell  out  a 
memorable  accident.  There  was  one  Sebastian  Ga- 
bato,  a  Venetian,  dwelling  in  Bristow,  a  man  seen  and 
expert  in  cosmography  and  navigation.  This  man 
seeing  the  success  and  emulating  perhaps  the  enter- 
prise of  Christopherus  Columbus  in  that  fortunate  dis- 
covery towards  the  south-west,  which  had  been  by 
him  made  some  six  years  before,4  conceited  with  him- 

1  The  translation  adds  sed prorsus  silentio  ■prcetermissa. 

2  Verum  regi  magis  placebat  vulgo  non  satisfacere  quam  grandium  animos 
irritare. 

3  On  St.  Thomas's  Day,  at  night,  about  nine  o'clock.     (Old  Chron.  fo. 
171.  &.). 

4  Columbus  saw  the  light  on  San  Salvador  on  the  3rd  of  October,  1492 


294  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

self  that  lands  might  likewise  be  discovered  towards 
the  north-west.  And  surely  it  may  be  he  had  more 
firm  and  pregnant  conjectures  of  it  than  Columbus  had 
of  his  at  the  first.  For  the  two  great  islands  of  the 
old  and  new  world,  being  in  the  shape  and  making  of 
them  broad  towards  the  north  and  pointed  towards  the 
south,  it  is  likely  that  the  discovery  first  began  where 
the  lands  did  nearest  meet.  And  there  had  been  be- 
fore that  time  a  discovery1  of  some  lands,  which  they 
took  to  be  islands,  and  were  indeed  the  continent  of 
America,  towards  the  north-west.  And  it  may  be, 
that  some  relation  of  this  nature  coming  afterwards  to 
the  knowledge  of  Columbus,  and  by  him  suppressed 
(desirous  rather  to  make  his  enterprise  the  child  of  his 
science  and  fortune  than  the  follower  of  a  former  dis- 
covery), did  give  him  better  assurance  that  all  was  not 
sea  from  the  west  of  Europe  and  Africke  unto  Asia, 
than  either  Seneca's  prophecy,  or  Plato's  antiquities, 
or  the  nature  of  the  tides  and  land-winds  and  the  like, 
which  were  the  conjectures  that  were  given  out  where- 
upon he  should  have  relied  :  though  I  am  not  ignorant 
that  it  was  likewise  laid  unto  the  casual  and  wind- 
beaten  discovery  a  little  before  of  a  Spanish  pilot  who 
died  in  the  house  of  Columbus.  But  this  Gabato 
bearing  the  King  in  hand 2  that  he  would  find  out  an 
island  endued  with  rich  commodities,  procured  him  to 
man  and  victual  a  ship  at  Bristow  for  the  discovery  of 
that  island :  with  whom  ventured  also  three  small  ships 

(see  Conquerors  of  the  New  World  and  their  Bondsmen,  vol.  i.  p.  100.);  — 
while  Henry  was  arranging  the  treaty  of  Estaples. 

1  Quin  et  memoria  extabat  aliquarum  terrarum  ad  zephyr o-bor earn  ante  dis- 
coopertarum  et  pro  insidis  habitarum  ;  quce  tamen  revera  essent  pars  continen- 
tis  Americce  borealis. 

2  Regi  Jldem  faciens. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  295 

of  London  merchants,1  fraught  with  some  gross  and 
slight  wares,  fit  for  commerce  with  barbarous  people. 
He  sailed,  as  he  affirmed  at  his  return  (and  made  a 
card  thereof),  very  far  westwards,  with  a  quarter  of 
the  nofth,  on  the  north  side  of  Terra  de  Labrador, 
until  he  came  to  the  latitude  of  sixty-seven  degrees  and 
a  half,  finding  the  seas  still  open.2     It  is  certain  also 


1  "  Which  departed  (says  the  old  Chronicle,  Vitel.  A.  xvi.  p.  173)  from 
the  west  country  in  the  beginning  of  summer;  but  to  this  present  month 
came  never  knowledge  of  their  exploit." 

This  was  in  Henry's  thirteenth  year, —  1498.  Stowe  puts  it  on  the  four- 
teenth; probably  by  an  accidental  misplacement  of  the  A.  R.  in  the  mar- 
gin. But  it  is  very  singular  that  neither  of  them  takes  any  notice  of 
Sebastian  Cabot's  first  voyage,  which  took  place  the  year  before,  and 
which  had  resulted  in  no  less  an  "  exploit  "  than  the  first  discovery  of  the 
North  American  continent.  It  was  on  the  24th  of  June,  1497,  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  that  they  saw  land  first;  at  what  exact  point  we 
do  not  know;  but  apparently  at  some  part  of  the  coast  of  Labrador,  with 
an  island  not  far  off.  The  result  of  the  expedition  was  known  in  England 
in  the  beginning  of  August;  for  in  the  Privy  Purse  Expences  of  Henry 
VII.  we  find  an  entry  (p.  113.)  of  10/.  paid  on  the  10th  of  August,  1497, 
"  to  him  that  found  the  new  isle."  And  the  second  voyage  of  1498  ap- 
pears to  have  been  undertaken  with  a  view  rather  to  settlement  than  dis- 
covery, the  commission  (3rd  Feb.  1497-8)  having  special  reference  to  "the 
Londe  and  Isles  of  late  found."  The  fate  of  it  (strange  to  say)  is  to  this 
day  a  matter  of  conjecture;  but  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  failure. 
For  an  elaborate  discussion  of  all  questions  connected  with  this  subject, 
see  "A  Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot;  with  a  review  of  the  History  of  Mar- 
itime Discovery,"  2nd  ed.  Lond.  1832.  Compare  also  an  account  of  a 
paper  in  the  Miscellanies  of  the  Philobiblon  Society,  communicated  by 
Mr.  Cheney,  —  in  Notes  and  Queries,  2nd  ser.  No.  105,  2nd  Jan.  1858. 

The  old  Chronicle  (it  should  be  added)  does  not  mention  Sebastian 
Cabot's  name;  but  merely  calls  him  "a  stranger  Venisian  which  by  a 
caart  mad  hym  self  expert  in  knowing  of  the  world." 

2  This  statement  comes,  through  Stowe,  from  "  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert's 
Discovery  for  a  new  passage  to  Cataia; "  whose  authority  appears  to  have 
been  a  letter  from  Sebastian  Cabot  to  Ramusio.  But  the  date  of  the  voy- 
age in  question  is  not  given;  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  took 
place  in  1511.  See  "  Memoir  of  Cabot,"  p.  118.  Perhaps  the.  three  con- 
tradictory statements  as  to  the  northernmost  point  reached  by  Cabot  may 
be  best  explained  by  supposing  that  in  1497  he  sailed  to  the  56th  degree, 
in  1498  to  the  58th,  and  in  1517  to  the  67ith. 


296  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

that  the  King's  fortune  had  a  tender  of  that  great  em- 
pire of  the  West-Indies.  Neither  was  it  a  refusal  on 
the  King's  part,  but  a  delay  by  accident,  that  put  by 
so  great  an  acquest.  For  Christopherus  Columbus, 
refused  by  the  King  of  Portugal  (who  would  not  em- 
brace at  once  both  east  and  west),  employed  his 
brother  Bartholomeus  Columbus  unto  King  Henry  to 
negotiate  for  his  discovery.  And  it  so  fortuned  that 
he  was  taken  by  pirates  at  sea ;  by  which  accidental 
impediment  he  was  long  ere  he  came  to  the  King  ;  so 
long,  that  before  he  had  obtained  a  capitulation  with 
the  King  for  his  brother  the  enterprise  by  him  was 
achieved,1  and  so  the  West-Indies  by  providence  were 
then  reserved  for  the  crown  of  Castilia.  Yet  this 
sharpened  the  King  so,  that  not  only  in  this  voyage, 
but  again  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  his  reign,  and  like- 
wise in  the  eighteenth  thereof,  he  granted  forth  new 
commissions  for  the  discovery  and  investing  of  un- 
known lands. 

In  this  fourteenth  year  also,2  by   God's  wonderful 

1  The  translation  says  only  that  it  was  undertaken,  meaning  that  Chris- 
topher Columbus  had  made  his  arrangements  with  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
Tarn  diu  ut  priusquam  cum  rege  Henrico  transegisset  expeditio  ilia  a  f rat  re 
8W)  Christophoro  swcepta  esset. 

2  If  there  be  no  oversight  here,  we  must  conclude  that  Bacon  (following 
Stowe)  supposed  Sebastian  Gabato's  expedition  to  have  taken  place  in 
Henry's  fourteenth  year,  that  is  between  22  August,  1498,  and  21  August, 
1499:  in  which  case  it  must  have  been  nearly  a  year  after  the  events  he 
had  been  speaking  of,  instead  of  a  little  before.  We  do  not  indeed  know 
the  exact  date  of  the  publication  of  Perkin's  confession.  But  he  was 
shown  in  London  at  the  end  of  November,  1497 ;  in  Henry's  thirteenth 
year;  and  his  confession  is  represented  as  having  been  made  "soon  after." 
The  accident  at  Norham  appears  to  have  occurred  in  November,  1498 :  for 
on  the  26th  of  that  month  the  Sheriff  of  Northumberland  was  directed  to 
make  proclamation  summoning  several  persons,  inhabitants  of  Ryddesdale 
and  Tyndale  (northward),  to  appear  within  three  days  at  Berwick  before 
Thomas  Darcy,  Knt.,  Lieutenant  of  the  East  and  Middle  marches  towards 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  297 

providence,  that  boweth  things  unto  his  will,  and 
bangeth  great  weights  upon  small  wires,  there  fell  out 
a  trifling  and  untoward  accident,  that  drew  on  great 
and  happy  effects.  During  the  truce  with  Scotland, 
there  were  certain  Scottish  young  gentlemen  that  came 
into  Norham  town,  and  there  made  merry  with  some 

Scotland,  to  answer  for  murder  committed  on  certain  Scotchmen,  contrary  to 
the  peace  between  England  and  Scotland.  (See  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  14  Hen. 
VII.  pt.  1.  p.  39.)  The  "peace  "  alluded  to  was  no  doubt  the  truce  con- 
cluded in  December,  1497,  and  ratified  by  James  on  the  10th  of  February 
following.  (See  note  2.  p.  280.)  The  error  as  to  the  date  of  this  accident 
comes  from  Polydore  Vergil;  who  begins  his  account  of  it  (immediately 
after  relating  the  capture  of  Perkin  at  Exeter  and  the  proceedings  conse- 
quent) with  eodem  anno. 

The  season  of  quiet  which  followed  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection 
in  Cornwall,  the  capture  of  Perkin,  and  the  conclusion  of  this  truce,  was 
taken  advantage  of  by  Henry,  not  only  for  quenching  the  embers  of  the 
rebellion  in  England  by  examining,  punishing,  and  pardoning;  but  also  for 
making  an  attempt  to  civilise  Ireland.    Sir  Edward  Poynings's  Parliament, 
iree  years  before,  had  extended  the  English  statutes  to  Ireland.     Henry 
wished  now  to  try  whether  English  manners  and  customs  could  not  be  in- 
luced  likewise.     Accordingly  on  the  28th  of  March,  1498,  he  commis- 
ioned  the  Earl  of  Kildare  to  summon  a  Parliament  for  the  purpose  of 
iking  into  consideration,  among  other  things,  measures  for  prohibiting 
ibsenteeism,  except  for  purposes  of  education ;  —  for  causing  the  English 
Iress  to  be  worn  and  English  weapons  used;  — for  enforcing  the  cleansing 
towns,  ditching,  draining,  paving,  &c;   and  for  levying  customs  and 
ier  dues.    It  was  proposed  that  the  Lords  in  Parliament  should  wear 
jbes  as  in  England;  that  every  Lord  or  other  person  having  livelihood  or 
mefice  worth  20  marks  a  year  should  "  ride  in  a  saddle  after  the  English 
lise; "  and  that  merchants  and  others  of  that  degree  should  wear  gowns 
id  cloaks,  instead  of  the  usual  "  hucks  and  foldings."    Provision  was  also 
to  be  made  for  the  election  of  a  Justice  (in  absence  of  the  Lieutenant)  to 
hold  the  Government  during  the  interval.     The  reversal  of  the  attainder 
)f  the  Earl  of  Kildare  by  the  English  Parliament  was  to  be  ratified.     And 
'illiam    Barry,   commonly   called   Lord   Barry,   of    Munster,   and  John 
fater,  of  Cork,  merchant,  having  of  late   received  divers  letters  from 
Parkyn  Wosebek"  and  treasonably  concealed  the  same  from  the  King 
id  his  Council,  were  to  be  attainted  of  high  treason. 
Such  was  to  be  the  principal  business  of  this  Parliament,  as  detailed  in 
the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls,  13  Hen.  VII.  p.  33.     What  was  done,  and 
rith  what  success,  I  do  not  know.     No  mention  is  made  of  it  in  the  Eng- 
lish histories. 


298  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

of  the  English  of  the  town  ;  and  having  little  to  do, 
went  sometimes  forth,  and  wonld  stand  looking  upon 
the  castle.  Some  of  the  garrison  of  the  castle,  observ- 
ing this  their  doing  twice  or  thrice,  and  having  not 
their  minds  purged  of  the  late  ill  blood  of  hostility, 
either  suspected  them  or  quarelled 1  them  for  spies. 
Whereupon  they  fell  at  ill  words,  and  from  words  to 
blows,  so  that  many  were  wounded  of  either  side  ;  and 
the  Scottishmen,  being  strangers  2  in  the  town,  had  the 
worst ;  insomuch  that  some  of  them  were  slain,  and 
the  rest  made  haste  home.  The  matter  being  com- 
plained on,  and  often  debated  before  the  Wardens  of 
Marches  of  both  sides,  and  no  good  order  taken,  the 
King  of  Scotland  took  it  to  himself,3  and  being  much 
kindled,  sent  a  herald  to  the  King  to  make  protestation 
that  if  reparation  were  not  done,  according  to  the  con- 
ditions of  the  truce,4  his  King  did  denounce  war.  The 
King,  who  had  often  tried  fortune  and  was  inclined 
to  peace,  made  answer  that  what  had  been  done  was 
utterly  against  his  will  and  without  his  privity ;  but  if 
the  garrison  soldiers  had  been  in  fault,  he  would  see 
them  punished  ;  and  the  truce  in  all  points  to  be  pre- 
served. But  this  answer  seemed  to  the  Scottish  King 
but  a  delay,  to  make  the  complaint  breathe  out  with 
time ;  and  therefore  it  did  rather  exasperate  him  than 
satisfy  him.  Bishop  Foxe,  understanding  from  the 
King  that  the  Scottish  King  was  still  discontent  and 
impatient,  being  troubled  that  the  occasion  of  breaking 
the  truce  should  grow  from  his  men,  sent  many  hum- 


1  Calumniabantur. 

2  The  translation  adds  uti  verisimile  est. 

8  In  suam  contumeliam  factum  esse  interpretatus  est. 
4  This  clause  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  299 

ble  and  deprecatory  letters  to  the  Scottish  King  to 
appease  him.  Whereupon  King  James,  mollified  by 
the  Bishop's  submiss  and  eloquent  letters,  writ  back 
unto  him,  that  though  he  were  in  part  moved  by  his 
letters^yet  he  should  not  be  fully  satisfied  except  he 
spake  with  him  ;  as  well  about  the  compounding  of 
the  present  differences,  as  about  other  matters  that 
might  concern  the  good  of  both  kingdoms.  The 
Bishop,  advising  first  with  the  King,  took  his  journey 
for  Scotland.  The  meeting  was  at  Melrosse,  an  abbey 
of  the  Cistercians,  where  the  King  then  abode.  The 
King  first  roundly  uttered  unto  the  Bishop  his  offence 
conceived  for  the  insolent  breach  of  truce  by  his  men 
of  Norham-castle  :  whereunto  Bishop  Foxe  made  such 
an  humble  and  smooth  answer,  as  it  was  like  oil  into 
the  wound,  whereby  it  began  to  heal.  And  this  was 
done  in  the  presence  of  the  King  and  his  counsel. 
After  the  King  spake  with  the  bishop  apart,  and 
opened  himself  unto  him,  saying  that  these  tempo- 
rary truces  and  peaces  were  soon  made  and  soon 
broken ;  but  that  he  desired  a  straiter  amity  with  the 
King  of  England  ;  discovering  his  mind,  that  if  the 
King  would  give  him  in  marriage  the  Lady  Margaret, 
his  eldest  daughter,  that  indeed  might  be  a  knot  in- 
dissoluble :  that  he  knew  well  what  place  and  author- 
ity the  Bishop  deservedly  had  with  his  master :  there- 
fore if  he  would  take  the  business  to  heart  and  deal 
in  it  effectually,  he  doubted  not  but  it  would  succeed 
well.  The  Bishop  answered  soberly,  that  he  thought 
himself  rather  happy  than  worthy  to  be  an  instrument 
in  such  a  matter,  but  would  do  his  best  endeavour. 
Wherefore  the  Bishop  returning  to  the  King  and  giv- 
ing him  account  of  what  had  passed  and  finding  the 


300  HISTORY   OF   DBG    11KNKY    VII. 

King  more  than  well  disposed  in  it,1  gave  the  King 
advice,  first  to  proceed  to  a  conclusion  of  peace,  and 
then  to  go  on  with  the  treaty  of  marriage  by  degr 
Hereupon  a  peace  was  concluded,  which  n\;is  published 
a  little  before  Christmas,8  in  the  fourteenth  year  of 
the  King's  reign,  to  continue  for  both  the  Kings'  lives 
and  the  over-liver  of  them  and  a  year  after.  In  this 
peace  there  was  an  article  contained.  That  no  Eng- 
lishman should  enter  into  Scotland,  and  no  Scottish- 
man  into  England,  without  letters  commendatory  from 
the  Kings  of  either  nation.  This  at  the  first  sight 
might  seem  a  means  to  continue  a  strangeness  between 
the  nations  :  but  it  was  done  to  lock  in  the  bordeiv 

This  year  there  was  also  born  to  the  King  a  third 
son,  who  was  christened  by  the  name  of  Edmond, 
and  shortly  after  died.4  And  much  about  the  same 
time  came  news  of  the  death  of  Charles  the  French 
Kincr:6  for  whom  there  were  celebrated  solemn  and 
princely  obsequies. 

It  was  not  long  but  Perkin,  who  was  made  of  quick- 
silver (which  is  hard  to  hold  or  imprison),  began  to 

1  Prcpensum  tt  fere  cupidum.  There  was  a  commission  for  treating  on 
the  subject  of  this  match  granted  by  Henry  in  the  summer  of  1496.  But 
I  suppose  it  did  not  come  to  actual  negotiation  at  that  time,  as  James  was 
then  preparing  to  invade  England  with  Perkin. 

a  I  think  this  is  a  mistake.  The  former  treaty  (see  note  2.  p.  280.)  was 
published  a  little  before  Christmas,  1497.  The  treaty  now  in  quest 
which  contaius  the  article  concerning  the  letters  commendatory  (Rymer 
xii.  724),  was  not  concluded  till  the  12th  July,  1499.  It  was  ratifiY 
James  on  the  20th,  at  Strivelin,  and  immediately  after,  that  is  on  the  11th 
of  September,  a  commission  was  granted  to  Bishop  Fox  to  treat  of  the 
marriage. 

8  Ad  Umitaneos  coercendos,  qui  dissidiorvm  causa  esse  consueverant. 

*  He  was  christened  on  the  24th  February  A°  14  [1498-9]  and  died  on 
the  Friday  after  Whitsunday,  A0  15;  which  would  be  the  12th  of  June, 
1500.     (Old  Chron.  fo.  174  k  and  181.) 

*  The  news  arrived  in  London  in  April,  1498.    (Old  Chron.  fa  172.) 


KING  HENRY  VII. 

stir.  For  deceiving  his  keepers,1  he  took  him  to  his 
heel-,  and  made  speed  to  the  sea-coast.2  But  pres- 
ently all  corners  were  laid  for  him,  and  such  diligent 
pursuit  and  search  made,  as  he  was  fain  to  turn  back 
and  get  him  to  the  house  of  Bethleem,  called  the  Pri- 
ory of  Shyne  (which  had  the  privilege  of  sanctuary), 
and  put  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Prior  of  that 
monastery.  The  Prior  was  thought  an  holy  man, 
and  much  reverenced  in  those  days.  He  came  to  the 
King  and  besought  the  King  for  Perkin's  Hfe  only, 
leavincr  him  otherwise  to  the  King's  discretion.  Many 
about  the  King  were  again  more  hot  than  ever  to  have 
the  King  to  take  him  forth  and  hang  him.  But  the 
King  that  had  an  high  stomach  and  could  not  hate 
any  that  he  despised,  bid  take  him  forth  and  set  the 
knave  in  the  stocks.  And  so  promising  the  Prior  his 
life,  he  caused  him  to  be  brought  forth.  And  within 
two  or  three  days  after,3  upon  a  scaffold  set  up  in  the 
palace-court  at  Westminster,  he  was  fettered  and  set 
in  the  stocks  for  the  whole  day.  And  the  next  day 
after,  the  like  was  done  by  him  at  the  cross  in  Cheap- 
side,  and  in  both  places  he  read  his  confession  of  which 
we  made  mention  before ;  and  was  from  Cheapside 
conveyed  and  laid  up  in  the  Tower.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  this  the  King  was  (as  was  partly  touched  be- 
fore) grown  to  be  such  a  partner  with  fortune,  as  no 
body  could  tell  what  actions  the  one  and  what  the 
other  owned.  For  it  was  believed  generally  that  Per- 
kin  was  betrayed ;  and  that  this  escape  was  not  with- 

1 1  suppose  he  was  tinder  what  they  call  smrvaUanee  ;  for  according  to 
the  Chronicle  (fo.  173),  the  King  u  kept  him  in  his  Court  at  liberty." 

m  Trinity  Sunday  even,  upon  Saturday  the  9th  of  Jane,"  1498. 
(Old  Chron.  f.  172.) 

«  u  On  the  Friday  next  following."    Id.  fo.  172.  b. 


302  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

out  the  King's  privity,  who  had  him  all  the  time  of 
his  flight  in  a  line ;  and  that  the  King  did  this  to 
pick  a  quarrel  to  him,  to  put  him  to  death,  and  to  be 
rid  of  him  at  once ;  which  is  not  probable ; 1  for  that 
the  same  instruments  who  observed  him  in  his  flight 
might  have  kept  him  from  getting  into  sanctuary. 

But  it  was  ordained  that  this  winding-ivy  of  a  Plan- 
tagenet  should  kill  the  true  tree  itself.  For  Perkin 
after  he  had  been  a  while  in  the  Tower,  began  to  in- 
sinuate himself  into  the  favour  and  kindness  of  his 
keepers  ;  servants  to  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower  Sir 
John  Digby  ;  being  four  in  number  ;  Strange  ways, 
Blewet,  Astwood,  and  Long-Roger.  These  varlets 
with  mountains  of  promises  he  sought  to  corrupt,  to 
obtain  his  escape.  But  knowing  well  that  his  own 
fortunes  were  made  so  contemptible  as  he  could  feed 
no  man's  hopes  ;  and  by  hopes  he  must  work,  for 
rewards  he  had  none ;  he  had  contrived  with  himself 
a  vast  and  tragical  plot ;  which  was,  to  draw  into  his 
company  Edward  Plantagenet  Earl  of  Warwick,  then 
prisoner  in  the  Tower,  whom  the  weary  life  of  a  long 
imprisonment,  and  the  often  and  renewing  fears  of 
being  put  to  death,  had  softened  to  take  any  impres- 
sion of  counsel  for  his  liberty.  This  young  Prince  he 
thought  these  servants  would  look  upon,  though  not 
upon  himself.  And  therefore  after  that  by  some 
message  by  one  or  two  of  them  he  had  tasted  of  the 
Earl's  consent,  it  was  agreed  that  these  four  should 
murder  their  master  the  Lieutenant  secretly  in  the 
night,  and  make  their  best  of  such  money  and  porta- 
ble goods  of  his  as  they  should  find  ready  at  hand ; 
and  get  the  keys  of  the  Tower,  and  presently  to  let 

i  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has :  "  But  this  is  not  probable." 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


303 


forth  Perkin  and  the  Earl.  But  this  conspiracy  was 
revealed  in  time  before  it  could  be  executed.  And  in 
this  again  the  opinion  of  the  King's  great  wisdom  did 
surcharge  him  with  a  sinister  fame,  that  Perkin  was 
but  his  bait  to  entrap  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  And  in 
the  very  instant  while  this  conspiracy  was  in  working 
(as  if  that  also  had  been  the  King's  industry)  it  was 
fatal  that  there  should  break  forth  a  counterfeit  Earl 
of  Warwick,  a  cordwainer's  son,  whose  name  was 
Ralph  Wilford,  a  young  man  taught  and  set  on  by 
an  Augustin  Friar  called  Patrick.  They  both  from 
the  parts  of  Suffolk  came  forwards  into  Kent,  where 
they  did  not  only  privily  and  underhand  give  out  that 
this  Wilford  was  the  true  Earl  of  Warwick ;  but  also 
the  friar,  finding  some  light  credence  in  the  people, 
took  the  boldness  in  the  pulpit  to  declare  as  much, 
and  to  incite  the  people  to  come  in  to  his  aid.  Where- 
upon they  were  both  presently  apprehended,  and  the 
young  fellow  executed,1  and  the  friar  condemned  to 
perpetual  imprisonment.  This  also  happening  so  op- 
portunely to  represent  the  danger  to  the  King's  estate 
from  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  thereby  to  colour  the 
King's  severity  that  followed ;  together  with  the  mad- 
ness of  the  friar,  so  vainly  and  desperately  to  divulge 
a  treason  before  it  had  gotten  any  manner  of  strength ; 
and  the  saving  of  the  friar's  life,  which  nevertheless 
was  indeed  but  the  privilege  of  his  order;  and  the 
pity  in  the  common  people  (which  if  it  run  in  a  strong 
stream  doth  ever  cast  up  scandal  and  envy),  made  it 
generally  rather  talked  than  believed  that  all  was  but 
the  King's  device.     But  howsoever  it  were,  hereupon 

1  He  was  hanged  on  Shrove-Tuesday,  which  in  1498-9  fell  on  the  13th 
of  February.     Old  Chron.  fo'.  174.  b.  and  Speed. 


304  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Perkin  (that  had  offended  against  grace  now  the  third 
time)  was  at  the  last  proceeded  with,  and  by  commis- 
sioners of  Oyer  and  Determiner  arraigned  at  West- 
minster,1 upon  divers  treasons  committed  and  perpe- 
trated after  his  coming  on  land  within  this  kingdom 
(for  so  the  judges  advised,  for  that  he  was  a  foreigner), 
and  condemned ;  and  a  few  days  after  executed  at 
Tyburn  ;  where  he  did  again  openly  read  his  confes- 
sion, and  take  it  upon  his  death  to  be  true.  This  was 
the  end  of  this  little  cockatrice  of  a  King,  that  was 
able  to  destroy  those  that  did  not  espy  him  first.  It 
was  one  of  the  longest  plays  of  that  kind  that  hath 
been  in  memory,  and  might  perhaps  have  had  another 
end,  if  he  had  not  met  with  a  King  both  wise,  stout, 
and  fortunate. 

As  for  Perkin's  three  counsellors,  they  had  regis- 
tered themselves  sanctuary-men,  when  their  master 
did ;  and  whether  upon  pardon  obtained  or  continu- 
ance within  the  privilege,  they  came  not  to  be  pro- 
ceeded with. 

There  was  executed  with  Perkin  the  Mayor  of  Cork 
and  his  son,  who  had  been  principal  abettors  of  his 
treasons.  And  soon  after  were  likewise  condemned 
eight  other  persons  about  the  Tower-conspiracy ; 
whereof  four  were  the  Lieutenant's  men.  But  of 
those  eight  but  two  were  executed.2  And  immedi- 
ately after  was  arraigned  before  the  Earl  of  Oxford 
(then  for  the  time  High  Steward  of  England)  the 
poor  Prince  the  Earl  of  Warwick ;  not  for  the  attempt 
to  escape  simply,  for  that  was  not  acted ;  and  besides 
the  imprisonment   not   being  for  treason,   the   escape 

1  On  the  16th  of  November,  1499. 

2  This  is  omitted  in  the  translation. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  305 

by  law  could  not  be  treason  ;  but  for  conspiring  with 
Perk  in  to  raise  sedition,  and  to  destroy  the  King. 
And  the  Earl  confessing  the  indictment  had  judgment, 
and  was  shortly  after  beheaded  on  Tower-hill.1 

This  "was  also  the  end  not  only  of  this  noble  and 
coinmiserable 2  person  Edward  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
eldest  son  to  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  but  likewise  of  the 
line-male  of  the  Plantagenets,  which  had  flourished  in 
great  royalty  and  renown  from  the  time  of  the  famous 
King  of  England,   King  Henry  the   Second.     How- 
beit  it  was  a  race   often  dipped  in  their  own  blood. 
It  hath  remained  since,  only  transplanted  into  other 
names,  as  well  of  the  imperial  line  as  of  other  noble 
houses.     But  it  was  neither  guilt  of  crime,  nor  reason 
of  state,  that  could  quench  the  envy  that  was  upon  the 
King  for  this  execution.     So  that  he  thought  good  to 
sxport  it  out  of  the  land,  and  to  lay  it  upon  his  new 
ly  Ferdinando  King  of  Spain.     For  these  two  Kings 
nderstanding  one  another  at  half  a  word,  so  it  was 
:hat  there  were  letters  shewed  out  of  Spain,  whereby 
the  passages  concerning  the  treaty  of  the  marriage, 
erdinando  had  written  to  the  King  in  plain  terms  that 
ie  saw  no  assurance  of  his  succession  as  long  as  the 
iarl  of  Warwick  lived  ;  and  that  he  was  loth  to  send 
is  daughter  to  troubles  and  dangers.     But  hereby  as 
the  King  did  in  some  part  remove  the  envy  from  him- 
self, so  he  did  not  observe  that  he  did  withal  bring  a 
kind  of  malediction  and  infausting  upon  the  marriage, 
as  an  ill  prognostic  ;  which  in  event  so  far  proved  true, 

I  as  both  Prince  Arthur  enjoyed  a  very  small  time  after 
1  He  was  arraigned  on  the  19th  and  beheaded  on  the  29th  of  November. 
For  a  statement  of  the  grounds  of  the  arraignment,  see  Statutes  of  the 
Realm,  p.  685.  1.  7. 
2  Vere  commiserabilis. 
vol.  xi.  20 


306  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

the  marriage ;  and  the  Lady  Katherine  herself  (a  sad 
and  a  religious  woman)  long  after,  when  King  Henry 
the  Eighth  his  resolution  of  a  divorce  from  her  was 
first  made  known  to  her,  used  some  words,  that  she 
had  not  offended,  but  it  was  a  judgment  of  God,  for 
that  her  former  marriage  was  made  in  blood  ;  meaning 
that  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick.1 

1  Sir  James  Mackintosh  construes  these  remarks,  coupled  with  another 
a  little  further  on  (see  note  2.  p.  317),  into  a  reluctant  admission  (for  he 
chooses  to  regard  everything  that  Bacon  mentions  to  Henry's  disadvantage 
as  a  reluctant  admission)  that  the  execution  of  Warwick  had  been  deter- 
mined on  beforehand  between  Henry  and  Ferdinand,  and  that  his  offence 
was  the  result  of  a  snare  laid  by  Henry  in  order  to  bring  it  about.  It  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  Bacon  believed  so  much  as  this,  or  that  the  evidence 
requires  us  to  believe  it.  Bacon  appears  to  have  thought  that  Henry's 
real  motive  for  this  unjustifiable  severity  was  state-policy:  the  desire  to 
put  an  end  at  last  to  these  dangers  and  troubles;  that  the  laying  it  upon 
Ferdinand  was  a  prttext,  to  shift  the  unpopularity  of  the  act  from  himself; 
and  that  Ferdinand,  understanding  the  case  and  having  himself  an  interest 
in  it,  had  been  willing  to  play  into  his  hands  and  provide  him  with  this 
pretext  in  case  he  should  want  it;  which  it  was  obvious  that  he  very 
likely  might.  As  long  as  a  male  representative  of  the  house  of  York 
lived,  Yorkist  conspiracies  were  continually  hatching  against  Henry,  upon 
various  pretences,  but  always  with  the  one  ultimate  aim  of  reinstating  the 
true  heir  on  the  throne.  Whatever  impostor  might  be  put  forward  for 
convenience,  it  was  in  the  true  heir  alone  that  the  hopes  of  all  the  con- 
spirators could  meet  and  rest,  and  the  chances  therefore  were  that  he 
would  sooner  or  later  be  drawn  into  some  plot  which  would  involve  him  in 
a  charge  of  treason.  The  question  would  then  arise  whether  in  such  a 
case  as  Warwick's  —  a  case  so  extremely  cruel  and  unjust  —  the  rigour 
of  the  law  could  be  allowed  to  take  its  course.  That  it  would  be  con- 
venient it  should,  it  is  idle  to  deny.  What  Ferdinand  is  represented  to 
have  said  was  quite  true:  as  long  as  the  Earl  of  Warwick  lived,  the  suc- 
cession was  not  secure.  That  in  the  course  of  a  negotiation  for  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughter  he  should  put  this  fact  strongly  forward  as  a  set-off 
against  the  advantages  of  the  match,  was  natural  and  no  way  wrong:  it 
was  a  very  material  objection.  This  would  of  itself  account  for  the  occur- 
rence of  such  passages  in  his  letters  as  are  said  to  have  been  shown  after 
the  execution  of  Warwick;  and  would  of  itself  bear  out  the  whole  of  Ba- 
con's statement  as  to  the  facts.  The  expression  "understanding  each 
other  at  half  a  word  "  does  indeed  imply  something  more  as  to  Bacon's 
opinion.  It  implies  an  impression  on  his  mind  that  there  had  been  some 
collusion  between  the  two  Kings  on  the  subject;  that  Ferdinand  had  done 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  307 

This  fifteenth  year  of  the  King,  there  was  a  great 
plague  both  in  London  and  in  divers  parts  of  the  king- 
dom. Wherefore  the  King  after  often  change  of  places, 
whether  to  avoid  the  danger  of  the  sickness,  or  to  give 

more  than  merely  urge  this  point  in  his  letters  as  making  against  the  eligi- 
bility of  the  match  (which  he  might  certainly  have  done  without  any 
blame);  that  he  had  foreseen  the  use  which  Henry  might  make  of  such 
a  pretext  if  he  should  have  occasion  to  use  unpopular  severity  towards 
Warwick,  and  had  therefore  the  rather  dwelt  upon  it. 

Bacon  may  have  had  grounds  for  such  an  impression,  independent  of  the 
rumour  mentioned  in  the  old  histories.  He  may  very  likely  have  seen  the 
letters  he  speaks  of.  But  I  do  not  think  we  are  at  liberty  to  conclude  that 
his  opinion  went  further  than  this.  If  he  had  believed  as  much  as  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  supposes  him  to  admit,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  he  did 
not  adopt  the  narrative  of  Speed,  who  not  only  represents  Warwick  as 
entrapped  into  the  conspiracy,  but  connects  the  plea  for  entrapping  him 
with  the  case  of  Ralph  Wilford  that  has  just  been  mentioned:  a  theory 
with  which,  if  other  circumstances  corroborated  it,  the  dates  suit  very 
well.  Wilford's  conspiracy  was  in  February,  1498-9.  "  This  new  device 
(says  Speed)  to  uncrown  King  Henry  so  wakened  his  own  fears  and  the 
eyes  of  the  Castilians  (who  had  secretly  agreed  to  marry  their  princess 
Katherine  to  our  prince  Arthur)  that  there  seemed  no  sure  ground  of  suc- 
cession if  that  the  Earl  of  Warwick  were  not  made  away.  . 
But  oh  the  narrow  capacities  of  the  most  seeing  men;  the  confidence 
reqf  did  undoubtedly  lead  this  King  (herein  not  justifiable,  howsoever  ex- 
able  in  respect  of  human  frailty,  which  might  propound  to  itself  many 
ears  and  respects  both  public  and  private)  to  connive  at  the  plotted  death,  or 
rather  formal  murder,  of  this  harmless  gentleman,  whose  wrong  may  yet 
move  the  hardest  to  compassion,  as  it  afterwards  stirred  God  in  justice  to 
revenge,  prospering  no  part  of  that  great  work  which  was  therefore  thus 
corruptly  sought  to  be  perpetuated."  This  is  the  "sinister  fame"  which 
Bacon  mentions  as  having  been  current  at  the  time,  but  not  as  believed  by 
himself;  as  having  been  naturally  suggested  by  that  singular  sequence  of 
events;  but  not  as  being  the  true  explanation  of  them.  It  may  easily  be 
pposed  that  Bacon  and  Speed  had  the  very  same  evidence  before  them, 
t  drew  different  conclusions  from  it. 

My  own  difficulty  is  to  understand  how  Henry  could  expect  to  relieve 
himself  from  any  part  of  the  odium  of  the  business  by  laying  it  upon 
Ferdinand.  One  would  think  that  the  avowal  of  such  a  motive  would 
only  have  made  the  act  more  odious  than  ever.  But  I  suppose  Ferdinand, 
being  a  great  man  and  in  alliance  with  England  against  France,  was  a 
popular  favourite  in  England,  and  the  match  was  popular;  and  the  people, 
with  true  popular  partiality,  were  disposed  to  excuse  in  the  one  the  same 
crime  which  they  abhorred  in  the  other. 


DUt 

whe 
cus; 
fear 


\s 


308  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

occasion  of  an  interview  with  the  Archduke,  or  both, 
sailed  over  with  his  Queen  to  Calais.  Upon  his  com- 
ing thither  the  Archduke  sent  an  honourable  ambas- 
sage  unto  him,  as  well  to  welcome  him  into  those  parts, 
as  to  let  him  know  that  if  it  pleased  him  he  would 
come  and  do  him  reverence.  But  it  was  said  withal, 
that  the  King  might  be  pleased  to  appoint  some  place 
that  were  out  of  any  walled  town  or  fortress,  for  that 
he  had  denied  the  same  upon  like  occasion  to  the 
French  King.  And  though  he  said  he  made  a  great 
difference  between  the  two  Kings,  yet  he  would  be  loth 
to  give  a  precedent,  that  might  make  it  after  to  be  ex- 
pected at  his  hands  by  another  whom  he  trusted  less. 
The  King  accepted  of  the  courtesy,  and  admitted  of  his 
excuse,  and  appointed  the  place  to  be  at  Saint  Peter's 
Church  without  Calais.  But  withal  he  did  visit  the 
Archduke  with  ambassadors  sent  from  himself,  which 
were  the  Lord  St.  John  and  the  secretary,  unto  whom 
the  Archduke  did  the  honour  as  (going  to  mass  at  St. 
Omer's)  to  set  the  Lord  Saint  John  on  his  right  hand 
and  the  secretary  on  his  left,  and  so  to  ride  between 
them  to  church.  The  day  appointed  for  the  interview 
the  King  went  on  horseback  some  distance  from  Saint 
Peter's  Church  to  receive  the  Archduke.  And  upon 
their  approaching,  the  Archduke  made  haste  to  light, 
and  offered  to  hold  the  King's  stirrup  at  his  alight- 
ing, which  he l  would  not  permit,  but  descending  from 
horseback  they  embraced  with  great  affection.  And 
withdrawing  into  the  church  to  a  place  prepared, 
they  had  long  conference,  not  only  upon  the  con- 
firmation of  former  treaties,2  and  the  freeing  of  com- 

1  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  which  the  King  would  not,"  &c. 

2  Some  new  regulations  concerning  the  packers  of  wool,  &c,  and  the 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  309 

merce,1  but  upon  cross-marriages  to  be  had  between  the 
Duke  of  York  the  King's  second  son,  and  the  Arch- 
duke's daughter ;  and  again  between  Charles  the  Arch- 
duke's son  and  heir,  and  Mary  the  King's  second  daugh- 
ter. But  these  blossoms  of  unripe  marriages  were  but 
of2  friendly  wishes,  and  the  airs  of  loving  entertain- 
ment ;  though  one  of  them  came  afterwards  to  a  con- 
clusion 3  in  treaty,  though  not  in  effect.  But  during  the 
time  that  the  two  Princes  conversed  and  communed  to- 
gether in  the  suburbs  of  Calais,  the  demonstrations  on 
both  sides  were  passing  hearty  and  affectionate ;  espe- 
cially on  the  part  of  the  Archduke  ;  who  (besides  that 
he  was  a  Prince  of  an  excellent  good  nature)  being 
conscious  to  himself  how  drily4  the  King  had  been 
used  by  his  counsel  in  the  matter  of  Perkin,  did  strive 
by  all  means  to  recover  it  in  the  King's  affection. 
And  having  also  his  ears  continually  beaten  with  the 
counsels  of  his  father  and  father-in-law,  who  in  respect 
of  their  jealous  hatred  against  the  French  King  did 
always  advise  the  Archduke  to  anchor  himself  upon 
the  amity  of  King  Henry  of  England,  was  glad  upon 
this  occasion  to  put  in  ure  and  practice  their  precepts  : 
calling  the  King  patron,  and  father,  and  protector, 
(these  very  words  the  King  repeats,  when  he  certified 

sale  of  English  cloths  at  Antwerp  and  Barugh,  in  the  Archduke's  domin- 
ions, had  been  agreed  upon  between  Henry  and  Philip  in  the  spring  of 
1499.  The  sheriffs  were  directed  to  proclaim  it  on  the  29th  of  May  of  that 
year.     See  Cal.  Pat.  Rolls,  14  Hen.  VII.  fo.  8.  p.  26. 

1  So  Ed.  1622.  The  MS.  has  "  comen,"  but  a  blank  space  is  left  be- 
tween the  n  and  the  comma  which  follows,  as  if  the  transcriber  had  felt 
that  it  was  not  the  right  word,  and  left  that  space  for  the  insertion  of  the 

>per  letter  at  the  end. 

2  So  MS.     Ed.  1622  omits  "  of." 

«  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  to  conclusion."    The  treaty  alluded  to  was 
for  a  marriage  between  Charles  and  Mary. 
*  Moi'ose  etparum  amanter. 


310  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

of  the  loving  behaviour  of  the  Archduke  to  the  city,1) 
and  what  else  he  could  devise  to  express  his  love  and 
observance  to  the  King.  There  came  also  to  the  King 
the  Governor  of  Picardy  and  the  Bailiff  of  Amiens, 
sent  from  Lewis  the  French  King  to  do  him  honour, 
and  to  give  him  knowledge  of  his  victory  and  winning 
of  the  duchy  of  Milan.  It  seemeth  the  King  was  well 
pleased  with  the  honours  he  received  from  those  parts, 
while  he  was  at  Calais ;  for  he  did  himself  certify  all 
the  news  and  occurrents  of  them  in  every  particular 
from  Calais  to  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London, 
which  no  doubt  made  no  small  talk  in  the  City.  For 
the  King,  though  he  could  not  entertain  the  good-will 
of  the  citizens  as  Edward  the  Fourth  did,  yet  by  affa- 
bility and  other  princely  graces  did  ever  make  very 
much  of  them,  and  apply  himself  to  them. 

This  year  also  died  John  Morton,2  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  Chancellor  of  England,  and  Cardinal. 
He  was  a  wise  man  and  an  eloquent,  but  in  his  na- 
ture harsh  and  haughty,  much  accepted  by  the  King, 
but  envied  by  the  nobility  and  hated  of  the  people. 

1  Lileris  suis  postea  inseruil  ad  civilatem  Londini  missis,  quibus  humanitatem 
Archiducis  prolixe  commendavit. 

There  is  a  copy  of  this  letter  in  the  old  Chronicle  (Vitel.  A.  xvi.  fo.  178. 
b.)  from  which  most  of  the  particulars  here  given  may  have  been  taken. 
The  chief  difference  is  in  a  thing  of  very  small  importance  —  the  sequence 
of  the  two  embassies;  which  Bacon  appears  to  have  inverted.  According 
to  the  King's  letter,  his  embassy  to  the  Archduke  which  was  received 
with  such  distinction  at  St.  Omer's  was  prior  to  the  Archduke's  message 
mentioned  above.  Henry's  embassy  was  sent  in  acknowledgment  of  some 
former  embassy  of  the  Archduke's;  the  Archduke's  message  in  acknowl- 
edgment of  this.  The  King's  letter  is  dated  Calais,  June  2 ;  and  was  writ- 
ten before  his  personal  interview  with  the  Archduke:  which  was  to  be  on 
the  Monday  or  Tuesday  in  Whitsun  week.  i.  e.  the  8th  or  9th  of  June. 

2  In  the  beginning  of  October,  according  to  the  old  Chronicle,  p.  181.  b. 
Reckoning  by  the  years  of  the  King's  reign,  it  should  have  been  not  this 
year,  but  the  next,  the  16th. 


HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  311 

Neither  was  his  name  left  out  of  Perkin's  proclama- 
tion ]  for  any  good  will ;  but  they  would  not  bring  him 
in  amongst  the  King's  casting  counters,  because  he  had 
the  image  and  superscription  upon  him  of  the  Pope,  in 
his  honour  of  Cardinal.  He  wanne  the  King  with 
secrecy  and  diligence,  but  chiefly  because  he  was  his 
old  servant  in  his  less  fortunes,  and  also  for  that  in 
his  affections  he  was  not  without  an  inveterate  malice 
against  the  house  of  York,  under  whom  he  had  been  in 
trouble.  He  was  willing  also  to  take  envy  from  the 
King  more  than  the  King  was  willing  to  put  upon 
him.  For  the  King  cared  not  for  subterfuges,  but 
would  stand  envy,  and  appear  in  any  thing  that  was 
to  his  mind  ;  which  made  envy  still  grow  upon  him ; 
more  universal,  but  less  daring.  But  in  the  matter  of 
exactions,  time  did  after  shew  that  the  Bishop  in  feed- 
ing the  King's  humour  did  rather  temper  it.  He  had 
been  by  Richard  the  Third  committed  as  in  custody  to 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  whom  he  did  secretly  incite 
to  revolt  from  King  Richard.  But  after  the  Duke  was 
engaged,  and  thought  the  Bishop  should  have  been  his 
chief  pilot  in  the  tempest,  the  Bishop  was  gotten  into 
the  cock-boat,  and  fled  over  beyond  seas.  But  what- 
soever else  was  in  the  man,2  he  deserveth  a  most  happy 
memory,  in  that  he  was  the  principal  means  of  joining 
the  two  Roses.  He  died  of  great  years,  but  of  strong 
health  and  powers.3 

1  Neque  ex  benevolentid  aliqud  nomen  ejus  omissum  est  in  catabgo  adula- 
torum  regis  quos  edictum  Perkini  perstrinxit ;  sed  eum  noluerunl  cum  reliqui» 
admiscere  quoniam,  &c. 

2  Utcumque  iste  vir  laudandus  aut  reprehendendus  occurrat. 
8  Corpore  validus  el  animi  facultatibus  integris. 

The  old  Chronicle  says  that  he  died  "  passing  the  years  of  fourscore  and 
odd." 


312  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

The  next  year,  which  was  the  sixteenth  year  of  the 
King  and  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  five  hun- 
dred, was  the  year  of  jubilee  at  Rome.1  But  Pope 
Alexander,  to  save  the  hazard  and  charges  of  men's 
journeys  to  Rome,  thought  good  to  make  over  those 
graces  by  exchange  to  such  as  would  pay  a  convenient 
rate,  seeing  they  could  not  come  to  fetch  them.2  For 
which  purpose  was  sent  into  England  Gasper  Pons  a 
Spaniard,  the  Pope's  commissioner,  better  chosen  than 
were  the  commissioners  of  Pope  Leo  afterwards  em- 
ployed for  Germany ;  for  he  carried  the  business  with 
great  wisdom  and  semblance  of  holiness :  insomuch  as 
he  levied  great  sums  of  money  within  this  land  to  the 
Pope's  use,  with  little  or  no  scandal.  It  was  thought 3 
the  King  shared  in  the  money.  But  it  appeareth  by  a 
letter4  which  Cardinal  Adrian,  the  King's  pensioner, 
writ  to  the  King  from  Rome  some  few  years  after,  that 

1  The  year  of  Jubilee  extended  from  Christmas  1499,  to  Christmas  1500. 
Therefore  it  coincided  more  nearly  with  the  King's  15th  year.  Jasper 
Pons  came  in  1499-1500. 

2  Cum  minus  grave  esset  eos  in  patria  quemque  sua  recipere. 
8  Opinio  prava  increbuerat. 

4  This  letter  or  one  to  the  same  effect  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Cotton 
collection.  (Cleo.  E.  iii.  fo.  164.)  It  contains  the  following  passage; 
probably  the  one  of  which  Bacon  was  thinking,  though  it  does  not  appear 
to  me  to  be  quite  decisive  upon  the  point  specially  in  question.  "  Dixi 
et  prcedicavi,  quod  est  verum,  vestram  Majestalem  solum  fuisse  inter  omnes 
Catholicos  principes  qui  non  solum  admisitpro  sede  Apostolica  dictas  cruciatas 
et  subsidia,  sed  etiam  antequam  colligerentur  de  suis  propriis  pecumis  20a 
millia  scutorum  auri  sedi  Apostolicce  solvenda  hie  Romoe  proemisisse  et  oratori 
Apostolicce  maqistro  Pon  deliberasse." 

It  appears  from  Henry's  Privy  Purse  expences  that  on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1502,  there  was  "  delivered  to  Gasper  Pon  the  Pope's  orator,  by 
the  King's  commandment,  for  and  unto  the  Pope's  use,  4000/."  Nicolas's 
Excerpt.  Hist.  p.  126. 

Henry  may  possibly  have  repaid  himself  for  this  advance  out  of  the 
money  raised  by  Pons :  and  thence  may  have  arisen  the  report  that  he 
shared  in  the  money.  I  suppose  it  may  easily  have  taken  two  years  to 
complete  the  collection. 


ot 

- 

gra 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  313 

this  was  not  so.  For  this  Cardinal,  being  to  persuade 
Pope  Julius  on  the  King's  behalf  to  expedite  the  bull 
of  dispensation  for  the  marriage  between  Prince  Henry 
d  the  Lady  Katherine,  finding  the  Pope  difficile  in 
anting- thereof,  doth  use  it  as  a  principal  argument 
concerning  the  King's  merit  towards  that  see,  that 
he  had  touched  none  of  those  deniers  which  had  been 
levied  by  Pons  in  England.  But  that  it  might  the 
better  appear  (for  the  satisfaction  of  the  common  peo- 
ple) that  this  was  consecrate  money,  the  same  nuncio 
brought  unto  the  King  a  brief  from  the  Pope,  wherein 
the  King  was  exhorted  and  summoned  to  come  in  per- 
son against  the  Turk.  For  that  the  Pope,  out  of  the 
care  of  an  universal  father,  seeing  almost  under  his 
eyes  the  successes  and  progresses  of  that  great  enemy 
of  the  faith,1  had  had  in  the  conclave,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  the  ambassadors  of  foreign  Princes,  divers 
consultations  about  an  holy  war  and  general  expedition 
of  Christian  Princes  against  the  Turk.  Wherein  it 
was  agreed  and  thought  fit,  that  the  Hungarians, 
Polonians,  and  Bohemians,  should  make  a  war  upon 
Thracia :  the  French  and  Spaniards  upon  Graecia ;  and 
that  the  Pope  (willing  to  sacrifice  himself  in  so  good  a 
cause)  in  person,  and  in  company  of  the  King  of  Eng- 
land, the  Venetians,  (and  such  other  states  as  were 
great  in  maritime  power),  would  sail  with  a  puissant 
navy  through  the  Mediterrane  unto  Constantinople. 
And  that  to  this  end  his  Holiness  had  sent  nuncios 
to  all  Christian  Princes,  as  well  for  a  cessation  of  all 
quarrels   and   differences   amongst   themselves,   as  for 

1  "  Also  this  year,"  says  the  old  Chronicle,  fo.  182.,  "  come  certain 
tidings  to  the  King  that  the  Turk  had  gotten  the  town  Modon  and  made 
great  destruction  of  the  Christians." 


314  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENKY  VII. 

speedy  preparations  and  contributions  of  forces  and 
treasure  for  this  sacred  enterprise.  To  this  the  King 
(who  understood  well  the  court  of  Rome)1  made  an 
answer2  rather  solemn  than  serious.  Signifying  that 
no  Prince  on  earth  should  be  more  forward  and  obe- 
dient both  by  his  person  and  by  all  his  possible  forces 
and  fortunes  to  enter  into  this  sacred  war  than  himself. 
But  that  the  distance  of  place  was  such,  as  no  forces 
that  he  should  raise  for  the  seas  could  be  levied  or 
prepared  but  with  double  the  charge  and  double  the 
time  (at  the  least)  that  they  might  be  from  the  other 
Princes  that  had  their  territories  nearer  adjoining. 
Besides,  that  neither  the  manner  of  his  ships  (having 
no  galleys)  nor  the  experience  of  his  pilots  and  mari- 
ners could  be  so  apt  for  those  seas  as  theirs.  And 
therefore  that  his  Holiness  might  do  well  to  move  one 
of  those  other  Kings,  who  lay  fitter  for  the  purpose,  to 
accompany  him  by  sea,  whereby  both  all  things  would 
be  sooner  put  in  readiness,  and  with  less  charge  ;  and 
the  emulation  and  division  of  command  which  might 
grow  between  those  Kings  of  France  and  Spain, 
if  they  should  both  join  in  the  war  by  land  upon 
Graecia,  might  be  wisely  avoided.  And  that  for  his 
part  he  would  not  be  wanting  in  aids  and  contribu- 
tion. Yet  notwithstanding  if  both  these  Kings  should 
refuse,  rather  than  his  Holiness  should  go  alone,  he 
would  wait  upon  him  as  soon  as  he  could  be  ready. 
Always  provided  that  he  might  first  see  all  differences 
of  the  Christian  Princes  amongst  themselves  fully  laid 

1  De  animo  et  consiliis  Papce  bene  informalus. 

2  The  answer  may  be  read  at  length  in  Ellis's  letters,  1st  ser.  vol.  i. 
p.  48;  where  it  is  printed  from  the  original  Cott.  MSS.  Cleo.  E.  iii.  fo. 
150.  This  which  Bacon  gives  is  only  the  substance  of  the  business  part 
of  it. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


315 


down  and  appeased,  (as  for  his  own  part  he  was  in 
none.)  And  that  he  might  have  some  good  towns 
upon  the  coast  in  Italy  put  into  his  hands,  for  the  re- 
treat and  safeguard  of  his  men.  With  this  answer 
Gasper- Pons  returned,  nothing  at  all  discontented. 

And  yet  this  declaration  of  the  King  (as  superficial 
as  it  was)  gave  him  that  reputation  abroad,  as  he  was 
not  long  after  elected  by  the  Knights  of  the  Rhodes 
protector  of  their  order ;  all  things  multiplying  to 
honour  in  a  prince  that  had  gotten  such  high  esti- 
mation for  his  wisdom  and  sufficiency.1 

There  were  these  two  last  years  some  proceedings 
against  heretics,  which  was  rare  in  this  King's  reign ; 
and  rather  by  penances  than  by  fire.2  The  King  had 
(though  he  were  no  good  schoolman)  the  honour  to 
convert  one  of  them  3  by  dispute  at  Canterbury. 

This  year  also,  though  the  King  were  no  more 
haunted  with  sprites,  for  that  by  the  sprinkling  partly 
of  blood  and  partly  of  water  he  had  chased  them 
away ;  yet  nevertheless  he  had  certain  apparitions 
that  troubled  him  :  still  shewing  themselves  from  one 
region,  which  was  the  house  of  York.  It  came  so  to 
pass  that  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  son  to  Elizabeth  eldest 
sister  to  King  Edward  the  Fourth  by  John  Duke  of 
Suffolk  her  second  husband,  and  brother  to  John  Earl 


1  In  rebus  eivilibus  peritice. 

2  Et  si  aliquando  contigerat,  posnitentiis  potius  quam  igne  luebant. 

3  This  is  recorded  by  the  city  Chronicler  (p.  172.)  who  adds  that  he 
"died  a  Christian  man,  whereof  his  Grace  have  great  honour." 

"  The  King  (says  Fuller)  by  what  arguments  we  know  not,  converted 
this  priest  and  then  presently  gave  order  that  he  should  be  burned ;  which 
was  done  accordingly.  Surely  there  was  more  in  the  matter  than  what 
appeared  in  the  record,  or  else  one  may  boldly  say  that,  if  the  King's  con- 
verts had  no  better  encouragement,  this  was  the  first  he  made  and  the  last 
he  was  ever  likely  to  make."     Church  History,  iv.  15.  82. 


316  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

of  Lincoln,  that  was  slain  at  Stokefield,  being  of  a 
hasty  and  choleric  disposition,  had  killed  a  man  in  his 
fury.  Whereupon  the  King  gave  him  his  pardon,  but 
either  willing  to  leave  a  cloud  upon  him  or  the  better 
to  make  him  feel  his  grace,  produced  him  openly  to 
plead  his  pardon.  This  wrought  in  the  Earl,  as  in  a 
haughty  stomach  it  useth  to  do.  For  the  ignominy 
printed  deeper  than  the  grace.  Wherefore  he  being 
discontent  fled  secretly  into  Flanders 1  unto  his  aunt 
the  Duchess  of  Burgundy.  The  King  startled  at  it. 
But  being  taught  by  troubles  to  use  fair  and  timely 
remedies,  wrought  so  with  him  by  messages  (the  Lady 
Margaret  also  growing  by  often  failing  in  her  alchemy 
weary  of  her  experiments,  and  partly  being  a  little 
sweetened  for  that  the  King  had  not  touched  her  name 
in  the  confession  of  Perkin,)  that  he  came  over  again 
upon  good  terms,  and  was  reconciled  to  the  King. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  being  the  seven- 
teenth of  the  King,  the  Lady  Katherine,  fourth  daugh- 
ter of  Ferdinando  and  Isabella,  King  and  Queen  of 
Spain,  arrived  in  England  at  Plymouth  the  second  of 
October,  and  was  married  to  Prince  Arthur  in  Paul's 
the  fourteenth  of  November  following :  the  Prince 
being  then  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  the  lady 
about  eighteen.2      The  manner  of  her  receiving,  the 

1  In  the  month  of  August.     Old  Chron.  fo.  183. 

It  seems  the  Earl  had  another  ground  of  discontent.  His  elder  brother 
John  had  been  attainted  during  the  Duke  their  father's  life;  when  the 
Duke  died  Edmond  claimed  the  honour  and  estate  of  his  father.  But 
Henry  persisted  in  considering  him  as  the  heir  of  his  brother,  and  gave 
him  only  the  title  of  Earl,  with  a  small  portion  of  his  patrimony ;  —  an 
instance  of  the  troubles  Henry  bred  himself  from  his  aversion  to  the  House 
of  York. 

2  So  say  both  Stowe  and  Speed :  but  it  seems  to  be  a  mistake.  Miss 
Strickland,  on  the  authority  of  a  Spanish  MS.  in  the  possession  of  Sir 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  817 

manner  of  her  entry  into  London,  and  the  celebrity 
oi  the  marriage,  were  performed  with  great  and  true 
magnificence,  in  regard  of  cost,  shew,  and  order.1  The 
■lief  man  that  took  the  care  was  Bishop  Foxe,  who 
was  nofc  only  a  grave  counsellor  for  war  or  peace,  but 
also  a  good  surveyor  of  works,  and  a  good  master  of 
ceremonies,  and  any  thing  else  that  was  fit  for  the 
active  part  belonging  to  the  service  of  court  or  state 
of  a  great  King.  This  marriage  was  almost  seven 
years  in  treaty,  which  was  in  part  caused  by  the 
tender  years  of  the  marriage-couple ;  especially  of 
the  Prince.  But  the  true  reason  was  that  these  two 
Princes,  being  Princes  of  great  policy  and  profound 
judgment,  stood  a  great  time  looking  one  upon  an- 
other's fortunes,  how  they  would  go  ; 2   knowing  well 


Thomas  Phillips,  states  that  Katherine  was  born  on  the  15th  of  December, 
1485:  therefore  was  not  quite  sixteen  at  the  time  of  her  marriage. 

1  See  a  full  account  of  it  in  the  old  Chronicle,  p.  183.  b.  —  201. 

2  This  is  the  passage  referred  to  in  note  1.  p.  306.  It  is  quoted  by  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  as  imputing  to  Henry  and  Ferdinand  (clearly  though 
not  directly)  a  "criminal  agreement"  for  the  removal  of  Warwick.  He 
could  hardly,  I  think,  have  remembered  his  own  admission  that  "  history 
ought  to  be  written  without  passion,"  when  he  found  such  a  meaning  in 
these  words.  Dr.  Lingard's  remark  is  more  pertinent.  "  As  almost  three 
years  elapsed  (he  says)  between  the  treaty  of  marriage  and  the  con- 
tract, this  delay  has  been  urged  as  a  proof  that  Ferdinand  would  not  con- 
sent to  it  till  he  was  assured  that  the  life  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  real 
heir,  would  be  taken  by  Henry.  But  the  fact  is  that  this  was  the  earliest 
period  stipulated  in  the  treaty  (Rymer,  xii.  663.),  which  provided  that  as 
soon  as  Arthur  had  completed  his  twelfth  year,  the  parents  might,  if  they 
pleased,  apply  to  the  Pope  for  a  dispensation."  This  seems  to  be  a  suffi- 
cient answer  to  Sir  James  Mackintosh's  question  "  How  came  the  espousal 
by  proxy  to  occur  only  six  months  before  the  execution  of  Warwick, 
&c?  "  Arthur  had  not  completed  his  twelfth  year  till  September,  1498. 
And  if  it  be  asked  why  this  delay  was  provided  for  in  the  contract 
(marriages  between  children  being  in  such  cases  —  where  Kings  were  the 
matchmakers  and  kingdoms  the  parties  matched  —  not  unusual),  the 
reason  here  assigned  by  Bacon  —  if  the  obvious  rationality  and  decency 
of  the  proceeding  be  not  thought  reason  enough  —  is  probably  the  true 


318  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

that  in  the  mean  time  the  very  treaty  itself  gave 
abroad  in  the  world  a  reputation  of  a  strait  conjunc- 
tion and  amity  between  them,  which  served  on  both 
sides  to  many  purposes  that  their  several  affairs  re- 
quired, and  yet  they  continued  still  free.  But  in  the 
end,  when  the  fortunes  of  both  the  Princes  did  grow 
every  day  more  and  more  prosperous  and  assured,  and 


one.     As  no  good  could  be  got  by  closing  the  question,  they  thought  it 
better  to  leave  it  open. 

The  thing  which  requires  explanation  is  not  the  delay  of  the  match,  but 
the  resolution  to  expedite  it.  It  was  first  agreed  upon  in  general  terms  on 
the  27th  of  March,  1489,  before  Arthur  was  three  years  old.  On  the  2nd 
of  November,  1491,  Katherine's  dowry  was  settled,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
she  should  be  brought  to  England  as  soon  as  Arthur  had  completed  his 
fourteenth  year.  On  the  22nd  of  September,  1496,  it  was  further  agreed 
that  as  soon  as  the  parties  should  be  of  "  legitimate  age  "  for  it,  the  mar- 
riage should  be  celebrated  "per  verba  de  prassenti."  And  on  the  first  of 
October  following  it  was  arranged  that,  if  for  any  urgent  cause  it  were 
thought  fit  that  the  marriage  should  be  celebrated  per  verba  de  praisenti  as 
soon  as  Arthur  had  completed  his  twelfth  year,  then  the  two  Kings  would 
apply  for  a  dispensation  for  that  purpose.  This  I  suppose  was  the  treaty 
in  which  D'Ayala  was  concerned.  Henry  seems  to  have  been  in  no  hurry 
about  it;  for  though  concluded  on  the  1st  of  October,  1496,  it  was  not 
confirmed  by  him  till  the  18th  July,  1497.  On  the  15th  of  the  following 
month  the  contract  was  solemnised  at  Woodstock  as  formally  as  it  could 
be  without  the  Pope's  dispensation  and  while  the  parties  were  under  age. 
The  dispensation  was  granted  in  February,  1497-8.  Arthur  completed 
his  twelfth  year  in  the  following  September.  On  the  12th  of  March, 
1498-9,  Katherine  appointed  her  procurator.  On  the  19th  of  May  the 
marriage  was  solemnised  by  proxy.  On  the  20th  of  December  the  proxy 
marriage  was  acknowledged  by  Katherine  and  approved  by  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella.  On  the  28th  of  May,  1500,  the  whole  proceeding  was  for- 
mally recited  and  ratified  by  Henry.  And  four  months  had  still  to  pass 
before  the  earliest  time  ever  thought  of  for  the  actual  union.  If  it  be 
asked  why  it  was  resolved  to  celebrate  the  proxy  marriage  sooner  than 
was  originally  intended  (a  resolution  which  seems  to  have  been  taken  in 
October,  1496),  the  answer  is  simple  and  obvious.  By  the  original  treaty, 
Ferdinand  had  engaged  to  send  his  daughter  to  England  at  his  own  charge 
as  soon  as  Arthur  had  completed  his  fourteenth  year;  which  would  be 
in  September,  1500.  And  he  naturally  wished,  before  he  commenced  his 
preparations  for  sending  her,  to  have  the  contract  made  irrevocable  and 
indissoluble. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  319 

that  looking  all  about  them  they  saw  no  better  con- 
ditions, they  shut  it  up. 

The  marriage-money  the  Princess  brought  (which 
was  turned  over  to  the  King  by  act  of  renunciation) 
was  two  •hundred  thousand  ducats :  whereof  one  hun- 
dred thousand  were  payable  ten  days  after  the  solem- 
nization, and  the  other  hundred  thousand  at  two  pay- 
ments annual ;  but  part  of  it  to  be  in  jewels  and  plate, 
and  a  due  course  set  down  to  have  them  justly  and  in- 
differently priced.1  The  jointure  or  advancement  of 
the  lady,  was  the  third  part  of  the  principality  of 
Wales,  and  of  the  dukedom  of  Cornwall,  and  of  the 
earldom  of  Chester ;  to  be  after  set  forth  in  sever- 
alty. And  in  case  she  came  to  be  Queen  of  Eng- 
land her  advancement  was  left  indefinite ;  but  thus  ; 
that  it  should  be  as  great  as  ever  any  former  Queen 
of  England  had. 

In  all  the  devices  and  conceits  of  the  triumphs  of 
this  marriage,  there  was  a  great  deal  of  astronomy. 
The  lady  being  resembled  to  Hesperus,  and  the  Prince 
to  Arcturus ;  and  the  old  King  Alphonsus  (that  was 
the  greatest  astronomer  of  Kings  and  was  ancestor  to 
the  lady)  was  brought  in  to  be  the  fortune-teller  of 
the  match.  And  whosoever  had  those  toys  in  com- 
piling, they  were  not  altogether  pedantical.  But  you 
may  be  sure  that  King  Arthur  the  Briton,  and  the 
descent  of  the  Lady  Katherine  from  the  house  of  Lan- 

ter,  was  in  no  wise  forgotten.  But  as  it  should 
seem,  it  is  not  good  to  fetch  fortunes  from  the  stars. 
For  this  young  Prince  (that  drew  upon  him  at  that 
time  not  only  the  hopes  and  affections  of  his  country, 
but  the  eyes  and  expectation  of  foreigners)  after  a  few 


aes( 
cast 


320 

months,  in  the  beginning  of  April,  deceased  at  Ludlow 
Castle,  where  he  was  sent  to  keep  his  resiance  and 
court  as  Prince  of  Wales.  Of  this  Prince,  in  respect 
he  died  so  young,  and  by  reason  of  his  father's  manner 
of  education,  that  did  cast  no  great  lustre  upon  his 
children,  there  is  little  particular  memory.  Only  thus 
much  remaineth,  that  he  was  very  studious  and  learn- 
ed beyond  his  years,  and  beyond  the  custom  of  great 
Princes. 

There  was  a  doubt  ripped  up  in  the  times  following, 
when  the  divorce  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth  from  the 
Lady  Katherine  did  so  much  busy  the  world,  whether 
Arthur  was  bedded  with  his  lady  or  no,  whereby  that 
matter  in  fact  (of  carnal  knowledge)  might  be  made 
part  of  the  case.  And  it  is  true  that  the  lady  herself 
denied  it,  or  at  least  her  counsel  stood  upon  it,  and 
would  not  blanch  that  advantage ; l  although  the  pleni- 
tude of  the  Pope's  power  of  dispensing  was  the  main 
question.  And  this  doubt  was  kept  long  open  in  re- 
spect of  the  two  Queens  that  succeeded,  Mary  and 
Elizabeth,  whose  legitimations  were  incompatible  one 
with  another ;  though  their  succession  was  settled  by 
act  of  Parliament.  And  the  times  that  favoured  Queen 
Mary's  legitimation  would  have  it  believed  that  there 
was  no  carnal  knowledge  between  Arthur  and  Kath- 
erine ;  not  that  they  would  seem  to  derogate  from  the 
Pope's  absolute  power  to  dispense  even  in  that  case ; 
but  only  in  point  of  honour,  and  to  make  the  case 
more  favourable  and  smooth.  And  the  times  that 
favoured  Queen  Elizabeth's  legitimation  (which  were 
the  longer  and  the  later)  maintained  the  contrary. 
So  much  there  remaineth  in  memory  ;  thatit  was  half 

1  Ut  firmamentum  cawce  non  contemnendum  omitti  noluisse. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  321 

a  year's  time 1  between  the  creation  of  Henry  Prince 

of  Wales  and  Prince  Arthur's  death ;   which  was  con- 

Itrned  to  be,  for  to  expect  a  full  time  whereby  it  might 

ifrpear  whether  the  Lady  Katherine  were  with  child 

»v  PrimSe  Arthur  or  no.     Again  the  lady  herself  pro- 

ired  a  bull  for  the  better  corroboration  of  the  mar- 

iage,   with  a  clause   of  (yel  forsan  cognitam)  which 

ras  not  in  the   first  bull.     There  was  given  in  evi- 

lence  also  when  the  cause  of  the  divorce  was  handled, 

pleasant  passage,2  which  was  ;    that  in  a  morning 

'rince  Arthur  upon  his  up-rising  from  bed  with  her 

died  for  drink,  which  he  was  not  accustomed  to  do, 

id  finding  the  gentleman  of  his  chamber  that  brought 

im  the  drink  to  smile  at  it  and  to  note  it,  he  said  mer- 

ily  to  him  that  he  had  been  in  the  midst  of  Spain 

diich  was  an  hot  region,  and  his  journey  had  made 

lim  dry ;  and  that  if  the  other  had  been  in  so  hot  a 

lime  he  would  have  been  drier  than  he.     Besides  the 

'rince  was  upon  the  point  of  sixteen   years  of  age3 

dien  he  died,  and  forward,  and  able  in  body. 

The  February  following,  Henry  Duke  of  York  was 

ited  Prince   of   Wales,   and  Earl   of  Chester  and 

lint.      For  the  dukedom   of   Cornwall  devolved    to 

him   by  statute.      The   King  also  being  fast-handed4 

and   loth  to  part  with  a  second   dowry,   but  chiefly 

being  affectionate  both  by  his  nature  and  out  of  politic 

1  Nearly  a  year.  Prince  Arthur  died  about  the  2nd  of  April,  1502. 
Prince  Henry  was  created  Prince  of  Wales  on  the  18th  of  February 
following. 

2  Scomma  quoddam  facelum. 
8  About  fifteen  and  a  half. 

4  At  rex  ingenio  tenax,  et  non  libenter  reditus  novos,  si  alibi  nupsisset  Hen- 
ricus,  assignaturus ;  sed  prcecipue  propter  affectum  suum,  quo  et  natura  et 
jjropter  rationes  politicas  Ferdinandum  prosecutus  est,  affinitatis  prioris  con- 
tinuandi  cupidus,  cfc. 

VOL.    XI.  21 


322  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

considerations  to  continue  the  alliance  with  Spain,  pre* 
vailed  with  the  Prince  (though  not  without  some  rel- 
uctation,1  such  as  could  be  in  those  years,  for  he  was 
not  twelve  years  of  age)  to  be  contracted  with  the 
Princess  Katherine  :  the  secret  providence  of  God 
ordaining  that  marriage  to  be  the  occasion  of  great 
events  and  changes. 

The  same  year  were  the  espousals  of  James  King  of 
Scotland  with  the  Lady  Margaret  the  King's  eldest 
daughter  ;  which  was  done  by  proxy,  and  published 
at  Paul's  Cross,  the  five  and  twentieth  of  January, 
and  Te  Deum  solemnly  sung.  But  certain  it  is,  that 
the  joy  of  the  City  thereupon  shewed,  by  ringing  of 
bells  and  bonfires  and  such  other  incense  of  the  people, 
was  more  than  could  be  expected  in  a  case  of  so  great 
and  fresh  enmity  between  the  nations  ;  especially  in 
London,  which  was  far  enough  off  from  feeling  any  of 


1  Bacon's  authority  for  this  statement  was  probably  Speed,  who  asserts 
it,  on  the  strength  apparently  of  Prince  Henry's  protestation,  made  on  the 
27th  of  June,  1505,  when  he  was  just  turned  fourteen.  According  to  Dr. 
Lingard,  however,  this  protestation  was  dictated  by  his  father,  and  was 
not  intended  to  imply  any  objection  on  the  part  of  young  Henry  to  marry 
Katherine,  but  only  to  leave  him  free.  "  The  King  assured  Ferdinand 
(says  Lingard)  that  his  only  object  was  to  free  his  son  from  all  previous 
obligation;  he  still  wished  to  marry  Katherine,  but  was  also  free  to  marry 
any  other  Avoman."  (Chap.  6.  p.  329.)  Dr.  Lingard  also  represents  the 
proposition  for  this  marriage  as  having  come  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
and  as  one  on  which  Ferdinand  was  much  bent:  which  Henry  knew,  and 
kept  the  question  open  in  order  to  engage  him  in  furtherance  of  some 
matrimonial  projects  of  his  own. 

Sir  Richard  Morysine  in  his  Apomaxis  calumniarum,  #c.  (1537)  states 
that  Henry  himself  afterwards,  taking  the  failure  of  his  own  health  and 
the  death  of  his  Queen  (quam  merito  suo  unice  deamabat)  as  intimations 
of  the  divine  displeasure  at  this  contract,  sent  for  his  son,  told  him  it  was 
wrong  to  think  that  God's  laws  were  not  God's  laws  when  the  Pope  chose, 
obtained  a  promise  from  him  that  he  would  not  marry  his  brother's  wid- 
ow, and  formally  annulled  the  contract.  And  I  believe  that  evidence  in 
confirmation  of  this  statement  has  recently  been  discovered. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  323 

the  former  calamities  of  the  war :  and  therefore  might 
truly  be  attributed  to  a  secret  instinct  and  inspiring 
(which  many  times  runneth  not  only  in  the  hearts 
of  Princes  but  in  the  pulse  and  veins  of  people)  touch- 
ing the"  happiness  thereby  to  ensue  in  time  to  come. 
This  marriage  was  in  August  following  consummate  at 
Edinburgh :  the  King  bringing  his  daughter  as  far  as 
Collyweston  on  the  way  ;  and  then  consigning  her  to 
the  attendance  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  ;  who 
with  a  great  troop  of  lords  and  ladies  of  honour 
brought  her  into  Scotland  to  the  King  her  husband. 
This  marriage  had  been  in  treaty  by  the  space  of  al- 
most three  years,1  from  the  time  that  the  King  of 
Scotland  did  first  open  his  mind  to  Bishop  Foxe.  The 
sum  given  in  marriage  by  the  King  was  ten  thousand 
pounds  :  and  the  jointure  and  advancement  assured  by 
the  King  of  Scotland  was  two  thousand  pounds  a  year 
ir  King  James  his  death,  and  one  thousand  pounds 

year  in  present  for  the  lady's  allowance  or  mainten- 
mce :  this  to  be  set  forth  in  lands,  of  the  best  and  most 

?rtain  revenue.2     During  the  treaty  it  is  reported  that 

te  King  remitted  the  matter  to  his  counsel,  and  that 
iome  of  the  table  in  the  freedom  of  counsellors  (the 

ing  being  present)  did  put  the  case,  —  that  if  God 
mould  take  the  King's  two  sons  without  issue,  that 
then  the  kingdom  of  England  would  fall  to  the  King 
>f  Scotland,  which  might  prejudice  the  monarchy  of 
England.  Whereunto  the  King  hinlself  replied  ;  That 
that  should  be,  Scotland  would  be  but  an  accession 
to  England,  and  not  England  to  Scotland ;  for  that  the 

1  Rather  more  than  three  years.  Fox  was  formally  commissioned  to 
treat  of  the  marriage  on  the  11th  September,  1499. 

2  Qui  redllus  separandi  erani  ex  proecipuis  et  certissimis  reditibus. 


324  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

greater  would  draw  the  less :  and  that  it  was  a  safer 
union  for  England  than  that  of  France.  This  passed 
as  an  oracle,  and  silenced  those  that  moved  the  ques- 
tion. 

The  same  year  was  fatal  as  well  for  deaths  as  mar- 
riages ;  and  that  with  equal  temper.  For  the  joys  and 
feasts  of  the  two  marriages  were  compensed  with  the 
mournings  and  funerals  of  Prince  Arthur  (of  whom 
we  have  spoken),  and  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  died 
in  child-bed  in  the  Tower,  and  the  child  lived  not  long 
after.  There  died  also  that  year  Sir  Reignold  Bray, 
who  was  noted  to  have  had  with  the  King  the  greatest 
freedom  of  any  counsellor  ;  but  it  was  but  a  freedom 
the  better  to  set  off  flattery  ;  yet  he  bare  more  than 
his  just  part  of  envy  for  the  exactions. 

At  this  time  the  King's  estate  was  very  prosperous : 
secured  by  the  amity  of  Scotland  ;  strengthened  by 
that  of  Spain  ;  cherished  by  that  of  Burgundy  ;  all 
domestic  troubles  quenched  ;  and  all  noise  of  war  (like 
a  thunder  afar  off)  going  upon  Italy.  Wherefore  na- 
ture, which  many  times  is  happily  contained  and  re- 
frained by  some  bands  of  fortune,  began  to  take  place  * 
in  the  King ;  carrying  as  with  a  strong  tide  his  affec- 
tions and  thoughts  unto  the  gathering  and  heaping  up 
of  treasure.  And  as  Kings  do  more  easily  find  instru- 
ments for  their  will  and  humour  than  for  their  service 
and  honour,  he  had  gotten  for  his  purpose,  or  beyond 
his  purpose,  two  instruments,  Empson  and  Dudley ; 
whom  the  people  esteemed  as  his  horse-leeches  and 
shearers :  bold  men  and  careless  of  fame,  and  that 
took  toll  of  their  master's  grist.  Dudley  was  of  a 
good  family,  eloquent,  and  one  that  could  put  hateful 

1  Prcevalere  et  prcedominari  effrcenis. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  325 

business  into  good  language.  But  Empson,  that  was 
the  son  of  a  sieve-maker,  triumphed  always  upon  the 
deed  done  ; *  putting  off'  all  other  respects  whatsoever. 
These  two  persons  being  lawyers  in  science  and  privy 
counsellors  in  authority,  (as  the  corruption  of  the  best 
things  is  the  worst)  turned  law  and  justice  into  worm- 
wood and  rapine.  For  first  their  manner  was  to  cause 
divers  subjects  to  be  indicted  of  sundry  crimes  ;  and  so 
far  forth  to  proceed  in  form  of  law  ;  but  when  the 
bills  were  found,  then  presently  to  commit  them  ;  and 
nevertheless  not  to  produce  them  in  any  reasonable 
time 2  to  their  answer  ;  but  to  suffer  them  to  languish 
long  in  prison,  and  by  sundry  artificial  devices  and 
terrors  to  extort  from  them  great  fines  and  ransoms, 
which  they  termed  compositions  and  mitigations. 

Neither  did  they,  towards  the  end,  observe  so  much 
as  the  half-face  of  justice,3  in  proceeding  by  indict- 

tent ;  but  sent  forth  their  precepts  to  attach  men  and 
jonvent  them  before   themselves   and  some    others  at 

teir  private  houses,  in  a  court  of  commission ; 4  and 

1  Factum  semper  urgebai  deque  eo  triumphabat.  He  was  satisfied,  so  he 
)t  the  thing  done,  no  matter  how :  an  explanation  which  I  should  not 

lave  thought  it  worth  while  to  add,  but  that  Sir  James  Mackintosh  (who 
id  a  bad  habit  of  altering  Bacon's  phraseology  to  suit  his  own  ideas  of 

legance,  even  where  he  professes  by  inverted  commas  to  quote  the  words) 
lbstitutes  "  triumphed  in  his  deeds:  "  an  expression  which  throws  the  em- 

jhasis  so  effectually  on  the  wrong  word  that  it  may  be  said  to  miss  all  the 
leaning. 

2  Cum  vero  bilke  impetitionis,  quce  vim  tantum  accusationis  non  decisionis 
bebant,  verce  repertce  fuerint,  statim  eos  custodies  tradere.     Neque  tamen 

lusam  juridicd  via  prosequebantur  aut  eos  tempore  convenienii  ad  se  defen- 
endum  producebant,  &c. 

For  "  in  any  reasonable  time  "  the  Edition  of  1622  has  "  to  any  reason- 
ible  time;"  a  misprint,  I  presume.     The  MS.  has  "  in." 

8  Quineliam  usu  audaciores  facti,  tandem  tarn  contemptim  et  incuriose  pro- 
:esserunl  ut  ne  dimidiam  Mam  partem,  &c. 
*  Colore  scilicet  commissionis  sum. 


326  HISTORY  OF  KING   HENRY  VII. 

there  used  to  shuffle  up  a  summary  proceeding  by  ex- 
amination,1 without  trial  of  jury  ;  assuming  to  them- 
selves there2  to  deal  both  in  pleas  of  the  crown  and 
controversies  civil. 

Then  did  they  also  use  to  inthral  and  charge  the 
subjects'  lands  with  tenures  in  capite?  by  finding  false 
offices,4  and  thereby  to  work  upon  them  for  wardships,5 
liveries,  premier  seisins,6  and  alienations,  (being  the 
fruits  of  those  tenures) ;  refusing  (upon  divers  pre- 
texts and  delays)  to  admit  men  to  traverse  those 
false  offices,  according  to  the  law. 

Nay  the  King's  wards  after  they  had  accomplished 
their  full  age  could  not  be  suffered  to  have  livery  of 
their  lands  without  paying  excessive  fines,  far  exceed- 
ing all  reasonable  rates. 

They  did  also  vex  men  with  information  of  intru- 
sion,7 upon  scarce  colourable  titles. 

When  men  were  outlawed  8  in  personal  actions,  they 
would  not  permit  them  to  purchase  their  charters  of 
pardon,  except  they  paid  great  and  intolerable  sums ; 
standing  upon  the  strict  point  of  law,  which  upon  ut- 
lawries   giveth  forfeiture   of  goods.     Nay  contrary  to 

1  Via  quadam  justilice  summaria  et  irregulari,  per  examinationem  solam, 
absque  duodecim  virorum  judicio,  causas  terminabant. 

2  In  his  justit'uB  latebris. 

8  Tenura  immediata  de  corona,  aut  persona  regis  ;  non  de  baronid  aut  prce- 
dio  superiore  aut  hujusmodi.     (Ind.  Vocab.) 
*  Falsas  inquisitiones. 

5  Jus,  per  quod  custodia  hmredum  minoris  aztatis,  qui  tenent  per  servitium 
equitis,  pertinet  ad  dominum.     Id. 

6  Jus,  domino  accrescens,  ad  summam  pecuniae,  quamprimum  hasredes  sint 
plenai  aitatis     Id. 

?  De  intrusione  in  terras  regias  .  .  .  ex  meris  calumniis  et  praitextibus  vix 
probabilibus. 

8  Utlegati :  Proseripti  ex  formula  legis,  vel  propter  capitalia,  vel  propter 
contemptum  et  contumaciam.     (Ind.  Voc.) 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  327 

all  law  and  colour,  they  maintained *  the  King  ought 
to  have  the  half  of  men's  lands  and  rents,  during  the 
space  of  full  two  years,  for  a  pain  in  case  of  utlawry. 
They  would  also  ruffle  with  jurors2  and  inforce  them 
to  find  -as  they  would  direct,  and  (if  they  did  not) 
convent  them,  imprison  them,  and  fine  them. 

These  and  many  other  courses,3  fitter  to  be  buried 
than  repeated,  they  had  of  preying  upon  the  people ; 
both  like  tame  hawks  for  their  master,  and  like  wild 
hawks  for  themselves  ;  insomuch  as  they  grew  to  great 
riches  and  substance.  But  their  principal  working4 
was  upon  penal  laws,  wherein  they  spared  none  great 
nor  small  ;  nor  considered  whether  the  law  were  possi- 
ble or  impossible,  in  use  or  obsolete :  but  raked  over 
all  old  and  new  statutes  ;  though  many  of  them  were 
made  with  intention  rather  of  terror  than  of  rigour  ; 6 
ever  having  a  rabble  of  promoters,  questmongers, 
uid  leading  jurors 6  at  their  command  ;  so  as  they 
mid  have  any  thing  found,"  either  for  fact  or  valu- 
ition. 

There  remaineth  to  this  day  a  report,  that  the  King 
ras  on  a  time  entertained  by  the  Earl  of  Oxford  (that 
ras  his  principal  servant  both  for  war  and  peace) 
lobly  and  sumptuously,  at  his  castle  at  Henningham. 
.nd  at  the  King's  going  away,  the  Earl's  servants 
bood  in  a  seemly  manner  in  their  livery  coats  with 
)gnizances  ranged  on  both  sides,  and  made  the  King  a 
ine.     The  King  called  the  Earl  to  him,  and  said,  My 

1  De  proprio  addebant. 

2  Cum  duodecim  viris  et  juratoribus  grandioribus  minaciter  agere. 
8  Oppressiones  et  concussiones. 

4  Prcecipuum  autem  eorum  flagellum. 

5  Quam  ut  sum-mo  jure  ageretur. 

6  Juratorum  pragmaticorum. 

7  Veredicto  exhiberi  et  confirmari. 


328  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

lord,  I  have  heard  much  of  your  hospitality,  but  I  see 
it  is  greater  than  the  speech.  These  handsome  gentle- 
men and  yeomen  which  I  see  on  both  sides  of  me  are 
(sure)  your  menial  servants.  The  Earl  smiled  and 
said,  It  may  please  your  Grace,  that  were  not  for  mine 
ease.  They  are  most  of  them  my  retainers,1  that  are 
comen  to  do  me  service  at  such  a  time  as  this,  and 
chiefly  to  see  your  Grace.  The  King  started  a  little, 
and  said,  By  my  faith,  (my  lord)  I  thank  you  for  my 
good  cheer,  but  I  may  not  endure  to  have  my  laws 
broken  in  my  sight.  My  attorney  must  speak  with 
you.  And  it  is  part  of  the  report,  that  the  Earl  com- 
pounded for  no  less  than  fifteen  thousand  marks.2 
And  to  shew  further  the  King's  extreme  diligence  ;  I 
do  remember  to  have  seen  Ion 2  since  a  book  of  ac- 
compt  of  Empson's,  that  had  the  King's  hand  almost 
to  every  leaf  by  way  of  signing,  and  was  in  some 
places  postilled  in  the  margent  with  the  King's  hand 
likewise,  where  was  this  remembrance.3 

1  Famuli  extraordinarii  suis  viventes  impensis. 

2  The  King  visited  Lord  Oxford  on  the  6th  of  August,  1498  (see  Privy 
Purse  expenses  of  Hen.  VII.  p.  119.),  on  which  occasion  this  may  have 
happened.  A  heavier  fine  for  a  similar  offence  was  exacted  from  Lord 
Abergavenny  some  years  afterwards.  In  a  memorandum  of  obligations 
and  sums  of  money  received  by  Edmund  Dudley  for  fines  and  duties  to  be 
paid  to  the  King,  of  which  a  copy  is  preserved  in  the  Harleian  collection 
(1877,  f.  47.),  the  following  item  appears  as  belonging  to  the  23rd  year  of 
the  reign :  — 

"  Item :  delivered  three  exemplifications  tinder  the  seal  of  the  L.  of 
King's  Bench  of  the  confession  and  condemnation  of  the  Lord  Burgavenny 
for  such  retainers  as  he  was  indicted  of  in  Kent;  which  amounteth  unto 
for  his  part  only  after  the  rate  of  the  months  69,900Z." 

It  appears  from  the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  (23  Hen.  VII.  pt.  2.  p.  18.) 
that  George  Nevile,  Knt.,  Lord  Bergevenny  received  a  pardon  of  all  felo- 
nies, offences  against  the  forest  laws,  &c.  on  the  18th  of  February,  1507-8: 
two  months  before  Henry's  death.  Fabyan  mentions  his  being  committed 
to  the  Tower  "  for  a  certain  displeasure  which  concerned  no  treason  *'  in 
May,  1506. 

8  Memoriola  ista  Empsoni. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


329 


Item,  Received,  of  such  a  one,  five  marks,  for  a 
pardon  to  be  procured  ; 1  and  if  the  pardon  do  not 
pass,  the  money  to  be  repaid ;  except  the  party 
be  some  other  ways  satisfied. 

jid  over  against  this  memorandum   (of  the   King's 
>\vn    hand2), 

Otherwise  satisfied. 

hich  I  do  the  rather  mention  because  it  shews  in  the 

ling  a  nearness,3  but  yet  with  a  kind  of  justness.     So 

lese  little  sands  and  grains  of  gold  and  silver  (as  it 

seemeth)  holp  not  a  little  to  make  up  the  great  heap 

id  bank. 

But  meanwhile  to  keep  the  King  awake,  the  Earl  of 
>uftblk,  having  been  too  gay  at  Prince  Arthur's  mar- 
•iage,4  and  sunk  himself  deep  in  debt,  had  yet  once 
tore  a  mind  to  be  a  knight-errant,  and  to  seek  adven- 
ts in  foreign  parts  ;    and    taking  his   brother  with 
tim  fled  again  into  Flanders.     That  no  doubt  which 
ive  him  confidence,  was  the  great  murmur  of  the 
)eople  against  the  King's  government.     And  being  a 
lan  of  a  light  and  rash  spirit,  he  thought  eA^ery  va- 
>ur  would   be  a  tempest.     Neither  wanted  he  some 
>arty  within  the  kingdom.     For  the  murmur  of  people 


1  Condonationem  A.  B.  impetrandam. 

2  Per  manum  Regis  propriam  ojoposita  sunt  hcec  verba. 
8  Magnam  parsimoniam. 

4  This  is  Polydore's  statement,  but  it  is  a  mistake.  The  Earl  of  Suffolk 
ras  gone  above  a  month  before  Katherine  arrived.  Fabyan  and  the  old 
Chronicle  distinctly  state  that  he  departed  secretly  out  of  the  land  in  Au- 
ist,  1501;  three  months  before  the  marriage  of  Prince  Arthur;  and  the 
Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  (17  Hen.  VII.  pt.  2.  p.  4.)  puts  the  matter  out  of 
doubt;  for  we  there  find  that  on  the  8th  of  October  (1501)  Sir  Robert 
Lovell  was  appointed  receiver  and  surveyor  of  all  lands,  &c.  in  Norfolk 
and  Suffolk,  late  the  property  of  the  rebel  Edmund  Earl  of  Suffolk. 


330  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

awakes  the  discontents  ]  of  nobles,  and  again  that  call- 
eth  up  commonly  some  head  of  sedition.  The  King 
resorting  to  his  wonted  and  tried  arts,  caused  Sir 
Robert  Curson,  captain  of  the  castle  at  Hammes, 
(being  at  that  time  beyond  sea,  and  therefore  less 
likely  to  be  wrought  upon  by  the  King)  to  fly  from 
his  charge  and  to  feign  himself  a  servant  of  the  Earl's. 
This  knight  having  insinuated  himself  into  the  secrets 
of  the  Earl,  and  finding  by  him  upon  whom  chiefly  he 
had  either  hope  or  hold,  advertised  the  King  thereof 
in  great  secrecy  ;  but  nevertheless  maintained  his  own 
credit  and  inward  trust  with  the  Earl.  Upon  whose 
advertisements,  the  King  attached  William  Courtney 
Earl  of  Devonshire,  his  brother-in-law,2  married  to 
the  Lady  Katherine,  daughter  to  King  Edward  the 
Fourth  ;  William  Delapole,  brother  to  the  Earl  of 
Suffolk  ;  Sir  James  Tirrell  and  Sir  John  Windham, 
and  some  other  meaner  persons,  and  committed  them 
to  custody.3  George  Lord  Abergavenny  and  Sir 
Thomas  Green  were  at  the  same  time  apprehended  ; 
but  as  upon  less  suspicion,  so  in  a  freer  restraint,  and 
were  soon  after  delivered.  The  Earl  of  Devonshire 
being  interessed  in  the  blood  of  York,  (that  was 
rather  feared  than  nocent,4)  yet  as  one  that  might  be 
the  object  of  others  plots  and  designs,  remained  pris- 
oner in  the  Tower  during  the  King's  life.  William 
Delapole  was  also  long  restrained,  though  not  so 
straitly.     But  for    Sir  James  Tirrell   (against  whom 

1  Novaiiim  rerum  studium. 

2  Arctissimd  affinitate  cum  Rege  conjunctus  (quippe  qui  m  malrimonium, 
&c).     It  should  have  been  u  his  wife's  brother-in-law." 

3  About  the  beginning  of  March,  1501-2.     Old  Chron.  fo.  201.  b. 

4  Qui  cum  sanguine  familice  Eboracensis   tarn  alto  gradu  commixtus  erat 
ideoque  a  rege  metuebatur  sane,  licet  omnino  insons /merit. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


331 


the  blood  of  the  innocent  Princes,  Edward  the  Fifth 
and  his  brother,  did  still  cry  from  under  the  altar), 
and  Sir  John  Windham,  and  the  other  meaner  ones, 
they  were  attainted  and  executed  ; *  the  two  knights 
beheaded.     Nevertheless  to  confirm  the  credit  of  Cur- 
>n  (who  belike  had  not  yet  done  all  his  feats  of  activ- 
ity), there  was   published  at  Paul's  Cross  about   the 
time  of  the  said  executions2  the  Pope's  bull  of  excom- 
Lunication  and  curse  against  the  Earl  of  Suffolk  and 
>ir   Robert   Curson,  and  some  others  by  name,  and 
ike  wise  in  general  against  all  the  abettors  of  the  said 
iarl :  wherein  it  must  be  confessed,  that  heaven  was 
lade  too  much  to  bow  to  earth,  and  religion  to  policy, 
lut  soon  after,3  Curson  when  he  saw  time  returned 
ito  England,  and  withal  into  wonted  favour  with  the 
jng,  but  worse  fame  with  the  people.     Upon  whose 
jturn  the  Earl  was  much  dismayed,  and  seeing  him- 
£f  destitute   of  hopes  (the  Lady  Margaret   also   by 
ract  of  time  and  bad  success  being  now  become  cool 
in  those  attempts),  after  some  wandering   in  France 
and  Germany,  and  certain   little  projects  (no   better 
than  squibs)  of  an  exiled  man,  being  tired  out,  retired 
again  into  the  protection  of  the  Archduke  Philip  in 
Flanders,  who  by  the  death  of  Isabella  was   at   that 
time  King  of  Castile,  in  the  right  of  Joan  his  wife. 


1  On  the  6th  of  May,  1502  (Stowe). 

2  Later.     We  learn  from  Fabyan  that  they  were  cursed  twice ;  once  on 
the  Sunday  before  St.  Simon  and  Jude,  1502;  which  was  the  23rd  of  Octo- 

jr;  and  again  on  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent,  1503;  which  was  the  5th  of 
larch. 

8  Not  before  March,  1502-3.     See  last  note.    It  appears  from  the  Calen- 

lar  of  Patent  Rolls  that  he  received  a  pardon  on  the  5th  of  May,  1504. 

That  he  had  been  acting  all  the  time  in  the  interest  and  confidence  of 

lenry,  is  stated  on  no  better  authority,  I  believe,  than  Polydore's,  and  may 

fairly  doubted. 


332  HISTORY  OF    KING  HENRY  VII. 

This  year,  being  the  nineteenth  of  his  reign,1  the 
King  called  his  Parliament,  wherein  a  man  may  easily 
guess  how  absolute  the  King  took  himself  to  be  with 
his  Parliament ; 2  when  Dudley,  that  was  so  hateful, 
was  made  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons.  In  this 
Parliament  there  were  not  made  many  3  statutes  mem- 
orable touching  public  government.  But  those  that 
were  had  still  the  stamp  of  the  King's  wisdom  and 
policy. 

There  was  a  statute  made  for  the  disannulling  of 
all  patents  of  lease  or  grant  to  such  as  came  not  upon 
lawful  summons  to  serve  the  King  in  his  wars,  against 
the  enemies  or  rebels,  or  that  should  depart  without 
the  King's  licence ;  with  an  exception  of  certain  per- 
sons of  the  long-robe :  providing  nevertheless  that  they 

1  Not  this  year,  if  by  "this"  be  meant  the  year  of  the  execution  just 
mentioned.  Sir  James  Tyrrel  was  executed  on  the  6th  of  May,  1502,  A. 
R.  17.     Parliament  met  on  the  25th  of  January,  1503-4,  A.  R.  19. 

2  This  growing  "  absoluteness  of  the  King  with  his  Parliament,"  an  ab- 
soluteness which  his  son  inherited,  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  discontinu- 
ance of  the  "  Great  Councils,"  formerly  resorted  to  by  way  of  feeler  or 
preparative,  when  in  unsettled  times  the  temper  of  a  Parliament  could  not 
so  well  be  foreseen.  After  the  32nd  of  Henry  VIII.,  in  which  year  the 
Register  of  the  Privy  Council  (discontinued  or  lost  since  the  13th  of  Hen. 
VI.)  was  ordered  to  be  regularly  kept,  there  is  no  record  I  believe  of  the 
holding  of  any  such  "  Great  Council."  The  strange  thing  is  that  they 
should  have  dropped,  not  only  out  of  use,  but  out  of  memory:  a  thing  so 
strange  that  one  would  doubt  whether  they  ever  were  in  use,  if  it  were  not 
established  by  evidence  direct  and  incontrovertible.  That  a  foreigner,  and 
a  man  of  no  great  sagacity,  like  Polydore  Vergil,  should  overlook  the  fact, 
is  nothing  remarkable;  that  other  popular  historians  should  follow  their 
leader  without  inquiry,  was  natural;  that  so  strong  an  array  of  negative 
evidence  should  be  taken  by  ordinary  inquirers  as  sufficient  proof  that  no 
such  councils  had  ever  been  called,  was  also  natural.  But  that  profound 
constitutional  lawyers  like  Sir  Edward  Coke,  and  profound  constitutional 
antiquarians  like  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  should  have  met  with  nothing  in  their 
researches  to  suggest  the  fact,  is  a  mystery  to  me. 

8  So  MS.     Paucce  admodum  latce  sunt  leges,  &c.     Ed.  1622  has  "  any." 


HISTORY    OF  KING   HENRY    VII.  333 

should  have  the  King's  wages  from  their  house,1  till 
their  return  home  again.  There  had  been  the  like 
made  before  for  offices,2  and  by  this  statute  it  was 
extended  to  lands.  But  a  man  may  easily  see  by 
many  statutes  made  in  this  King's  time,  that  the  King 
thought  it  safest  to  assist  martial  law  by  law  of  Par- 
liament. 

Another  statute  was  made,  prohibiting  the  bringing 
in  of  manufactures  of  silk  wrought  by  itself  or  mixt 
with  any  other  thrid.3  But  it  was  not  of  stuffs  of 
whole-piece  (for  that  the  realm  had  of  them  no  manu- 
facture in  use  at  that  time),  but  of  knit  silk  or  texture 
of  silk ;  as  ribbands,  laces,  cauls,  points,  and  girdles, 
&c.  which  the  people  of  England  could  then  well  skill 
to  make.  This  law  pointed  at  a  true  principle ;  That 
where  foreign  materials  are  but  superfluities,  foreign 
manufactures  should  be  prohibited.  For  that  will 
either  banish  the  superfluity,  or  gain  the  manufac- 
ture. 

There  was  a  law  also  of  resumption  of  patents  of 
gaols,  and  the  reannexing  of  them  to  the  sheriffwicks ; 4 
privileged  officers  being  no  less  an  interruption  of  jus- 
tice than  privileged  places. 

There  was  likewise  a  law  to  restrain  the  by-laws 
or  ordinances  of  corporations,  which  many  times  were 
against  the  prerogative  of  the  King,  the  common  law 
of  the  realm,   and  the  liberty  of  the  subject :   being 


1  So  MS.  and  Ed.  1622.  The  translation  has  aprimo  die  proj ectionis  sua. 
There  seems  to  be  an  error  in  the  English;  which  should  apparently  be 
from  the  day  of  leaving  their  house.  The  words  of  the  act  (19  H.  7.  c.  1.) 
are  "  from  the  time  of  coming  from  his  house  toward  the  King,"  &c. 

I2  Quatenus  ad  concessiones  ojficiorum  civilium. 
8  Vel  simpliciter  vel  cum  mixturd  alteriusfili  textce.     See  19  H.  7.  c.  21. 



334  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

fraternities  in  evil.1  It  was  therefore  provided,  that 
they  should  not  be  put  in  execution,  without  the  allow- 
ance of  the  chancellor,  treasurer,  and  the  two  chief 
justices,  or  three  of  them;  or  of  the  two  justices  of 
circuit  where  the  corporation  was. 

Another  law  was  in  effect  to  bring  in  the  silver  of 
the  realm  to  the  mint,  in  making  all  clipped  minished 
or  impaired  coins  of  silver  not  to  be  current  in  pay- 
ments ; 2  without  giving  any  remedy  of  weight ; 3  but 
with  an  exception  only  of  reasonable  wearing ;  which 
was  as  nothing,  in  respect  of  the  incertainty ;  and  so 
upon  the  matter  to  set  the  mint  on  work,  and  to  give 
way  to  new  coins  of  silver  which  should  be  then 
minted.4 

There  likewise  was  a  long  statute  against  vagabonds, 
wherein  two  things  may  be  noted ;  the  one,  the  dis- 
like the  Parliament  had  of  gaoling  of  them,  as  that 
which  was  chargeable,  pesterous,5  and  of  no  open  ex- 
ample. The  other,  that  in  the  statutes  of  this  King's 
time  (for  this  of  the  nineteenth  year  is  not  the  only 
statute  of  that  kind)  there  are  ever  coupled  the  pun- 
ishment of  vagabonds,  and  the  forbidding  of  dice  and 
cards  and  unlawful  games  unto  servants  and  mean 
people,  and  the  putting  down  and  suppressing  of  ale- 


1  i.  e.  these  corporations  being  fraternities  in  evil.  Jlujusmodl  municipiis 
et  collegiis  nil  aliud  existenlibus  quam  fraternitatibus  in  malo.  See  19  H.  7. 
c.  7. 

2  i.  e.  the  object  of  the  law  was  to  bring  silver  to  the  mint;  its  enactment 
was  that  clipped  coins  should  not  be  current.  Hoc  revera  agebat,  ut,  &c. 
Ordinabat  autem  ut,  &c.     See  19  H.  7.  c.  5. 

8  Ne  grani  quidem  facta  gratia,  quam  remedium  vocant. 

4  Adeo  utper  consequentiam  omnes  nummos  argenteos  in  monetariam  regis, 
iterum  recudendos,  adduci  necesse  fuerit ;  unde  rex  propter  novam  cusionem 
fructum  perciperet. 

5  The  translation  has  Carceres  superoneraret. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  335 

bouses;  as  strings  of  one  root  together,  and  as  if  the 
one  were  unprofitable  without  the  other.1 

As  for  riots  and  retainers,  there  passed  scarce  any 
Parliament  in  this  time  without  a  law  against  them : 
the  King  ever  having  an  eye  to  might  and  multi- 
tude2 

There  was  granted  also  that  Parliament  a  subsidy,3 
both  from4  the  temporalty  and  the  clergy.  And  yet 
nevertheless  ere  the  year  expired  there  went  out  com- 
missions for  a  general  benevolence ; 6  though  there 
were  no  wars  ;  no  fears.  The  same  year  the  City 
gave  live  thousand  marks,  for  confirmation  of  their 
liberties ;  a  thing  fitter  for  the  beginnings  of  kings' 
reigns  than  the  latter  ends.  Neither  was  it  a  small 
matter  that  the  mint  gained  upon  the  late  statute,  by 
the  recoinage  of  groats  and  half-groats;  now  twelve- 
pences  and  six-pences.     As  for  Empson  and  Dudley's 

1  i.  e.  as  if  the  punishment  of  the  one  were  unprofitable  without  the 
putting  down  of  the  others.  The  translation  has,  more  correctly,  atque  ac 
si  alterum  absque  cceteris  extingui  posse  vana  opinio  esset.  The  statute  in 
question  is  19  H.  7.  c.  12. 

2  Magnatum  potentiam  et  populares  coitus.     See  19  H.  7.  c.  13,  14. 
8  The  King  had  at  this  time  a  claim  by  law  upon  his  subjects  for  "  two 

reasonable  aids;  "  one  for  the  knighting  of  his  son,  the  other  for  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughter.  The  Commons  offered  him  40,000/.  in  lieu  of  the 
said  two  aids.     See  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  p.  675. 

The  old  Chronicle  says  that  there  was  granted  to  the  King  at  this  Par- 
liament an  aid  of  36,000/. 

Modern  historians  state,  I  do  not  know  on  what  authority,  that  the  King 

■is  content  with  30,000/.  i 

*  So  MS.  Ed.  1622  has  "  for." 
5  This  is  stated  by  Holinshed;  and  in  the  book  of  the  King's  payments 
Ihapter  House  Records:  A.  5.  18.)  there  are  several  items  dated  in  the 
21st  of  Henry  VII.  relating  to  the  "arrears  of  the  Benevolence,"  which 
seem  to  confirm  the  statement.  It  appears  however  from  the  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls  (21  Hen.  VII.  pt.  1.  p.  51.)  that  they  were  the  arrears  of  the 
former  Benevolence,  made  leviable  by  Parliament  11  Hen.  VII.  c.  10.  I 
spect  therefore  that  this  is  a  mistake. 


336  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

mills,  they  did  grind  more  than  ever.  So  that  it  was 
a  strange  thing  to  see  what  golden  showers  poured 
down  upon  the  King's  treasury  at  once.  The  last 
payments  of  the  marriage-money  from  Spain.  The 
subsidy.  The  benevolence.  The  recoinage.  The 
redemption  of  the  city's  liberties.  The  casualties.1 
And  this  is  the  more  to  be  marvelled  at,  because  the 
King  had  then  no  occasions  at  all  of  wars  or  troubles. 
He  had  now  but  one  son  ;  and  one  daughter  unbe- 
stowed.  He  was  wise.  He  was  of  an  high  mind. 
He  needed  not  to  make  riches  his  glory,2  he  did  excel 
in  so  many  things  else ;  save  that  certainly  avarice 
doth  ever  find  in  itself  matter  of  ambition.  Belike 
he  thought 3  to  leave  his  son  such  a  kingdom  and  such 
a  mass  of  treasure,  as  he  might  choose  his  greatness 
where  he  would. 

This  year  was  also  kept  the  Serjeants'  feast,4  which 
was  the  second  call  in  this  King's  days. 

About  this  time  6  Isabella  Queen  of  Castile  deceased ; 
a  right  noble  lady,  and  an  honour  to  her  sex  and 
times ;  and  the  corner-stone  of  the  greatness  of  Spain 
that  hath  followed.  This  accident  the  King  took  not 
for  news  at  large,  but  thought  it  had  a  great  relation 
to  his  own  affairs ;  especially  in  two  points  :  the  one 
for  example,  the  other  for  consequence.     First  he  con- 

1  Casualia  undique  emergentia. 

2  Ed.  1622  has  a  full  stop  after  "  glory;  "  which  is  clearly  wrong.  The 
MS.  has  only  a  comma;  and  the  translation  has  cum  aliis  rebus  plurimis 
....  eniteret. 

3  Forsitan  amor  Jilii  hanc  cogitationem  animo  suo  suggessit,  se  tarn  potem 
regnum,  &c. 

4  On  the  13th  of  November,  1503,  according  to  the  old  Chronicle,  fo.  206. 

5  He  should  have  said  in  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  which  was  the 
20th  of  the  King.  Queen  Isabella  died  on  the  26th  of  November,  1504. 
See  Prescott's  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 


trai 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  337 

ived  that  the  case  of  Ferdinando  of  Arragon  after 
8  death  of  Queen  Isabella,  was  his  own  case  after 
e  death  of  his  own  Queen ;  and  the  case  of  Joan  the 
ir  unto  Castile,  was  the  case  of  his  own  son  Prince 
en rv.   -For  if  both  of  the  Kings  had  their  kingdoms 
in  the  right  of  their  wives,  they  descended  to  the  heirs 
d  did  not  accrue  to  the  husbands.     And  although 
s  own  case  had  both  steel  and  parchment  more  than 
e  other ; 1  that  is  to  say,  a  conquest  in  the  field  and 
act  of  Parliament ;  yet  notwithstanding  that  natu- 
1  title   of  descent  in  blood  did  (in  the  imagination 
en  of  a  wise  man)  breed  a  doubt  that  the  other  two 
ere  not  safe  nor  sufficient.     Wherefore  he  was  won- 
erful  diligent  to  inquire  and  observe  what  became  of 
the  King  of  Arragon  in  holding  and  continuing  the 
kingdom  of  Castile ;  and  whether  he  did  hold  it  in 
his  own  right,   or  as   administrator  to  his  daughter; 
and  whether  he  were  like  to  hold  it  in  fact,  or  to  be 
put  out  by  his  son-in-law.2     Secondly,  he  did  revolve 
in  his  mind,  that  the  state  of  Christendom  might  by 
this  late  accident  have  a  turn.     For  whereas  before 
time  himself  with  the  conjunction  of  Arragon  and  Cas- 
tile  (which   then  was  one),  and  the  amity  of  Maxi- 
milian and  Philip  his  son  the  Archduke,  was  far  too 
strong  a  party  for  France ;  he  began  to  fear  that  now 
the  French  King  (who  had  great  interest  in  the  affec- 
tions of  Philip  the  young  King  of  Castile),  and  Philip 
himself  now  King  of  Castile   (who  was  in  ill  terms 
ith  his  father-in-law  about  the  present  government 


1  I  lie  Ferdinandi. 

>  This  latter  clause  "and  whether  he  were  like,"  &c.  is  omitted  in  the 
relation.  The  previous  one  is  worded  rather  more  accurately  thus  — 
Atque  insuper,  si  forte  retinuisset,  utrum  in  jure  proprio  vel  ut  administrator 
bonorum  JMce  sua  se  Mud  tenere  projiteretur. 

vol.  xi.  22 


838  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

of  Castile),  and  thirdly  Maximilian,  Philip's  father, 
(who  was  ever  variable,  and  upon  whom  the  surest 
aim  that  could  be  taken  was  that  he  would  not  be 
long  as  he  had  been  last  before),  would  all  three  being 
potent  Princes,  enter  into  some  strait  league  and  con- 
federation amongst  themselves,  whereby  though  he 
should  not  be  endangered,  yet  he  should  be  left  to 
the  poor  amity  of  Arragon ;  and  whereas  he  had  been 
heretofore  a  kind  of  arbiter  of  Europe,  he  should  now 
go  less,  and  be  over-topped  by  so  great  a  conjunction. 
He  had  also  (as  it  seems)  an  inclination  to  marry, 
and  bethought  himself  of  some  fit  conditions  abroad.1 
And  amongst  others  he  had  heard  of  the  beauty  and 
virtuous  behaviour2  of  the  young  Queen  of  Naples, 
the  widow  of  Ferdinando  the  younger,  being  then  of 
matronal  years  of  seven  and  twenty :  by  whose  mar- 
riage he  thought  that  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  having 
been  a  goal 3  for  a  time  between  the  King  of  Arragon 
and  the  French  King,  and  being  but  newly  settled, 
might  in  some  part  be  deposited  in  his  hands,  who 
was  so  able  to  keep  the  stakes.  Therefore  he  sent  in 
ambassage  or  message  three  confident  persons,  Francis 
Marsin,  James  Braybrooke,  and  John  Stile,  upon  two 
several  inquisitions,  rather  than  negotiations  :  4  the  one 

1  Et  circumspicere  quales  condiliones  malHinoniorum  in  Europa  tunc  se  os- 
tenderent. 

2  Moribus  suavissimis. 

8  This  word  seems  to  be  used  here  merely  for  a  subject  of  contention. 
The  translation  has  de  quo  .  .  .  cerlaium  futrat. 

4  A  copy  of  the  several  articles,  with  the  answers,  is  still  extant  in  the 
Cotton  collection.  The  part  which  relates  to  the  Queen  of  Naples  is  in 
Vitel.  C.  xi.  fo.  34.  The  part  which  relates  to  Ferdinand  in  Vesp.  C.  vi. 
fo.  338.  The  commissioners  went  first  to  Valencia  where  the  two  Queens 
were;  and  then  to  Segovia  where  they  arrived  on  the  14th  of  July,  1505, 
and  had  their  interview  with  Ferdinand  two  or  three  days  after. 

An  entry  in  a  book  of  accompts  of  Henry  VII.,  now  in  the  British  Mu- 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  339 

touching  the  person  and  condition  of  the  young  Queen 
of  Naples :  the  other  touching  all  particulars  of  estate 
that  concerned  the  fortunes  and  intentions  of  Ferdi- 
nando.  And  because  they  may  observe  best  who 
themselves  are  observed  least,  he  sent  them  under  col- 
on ruble  pretexts ;  giving  them  letters  of  kindness  and 
compliment  from  Katherine  the  Princess  to  her  aunt 
and  niece,  the  old  and  young  Queen  of  Naples ;  and 
delivering  to  them  also  a  book  of  new  articles  of 
peace ;  which  notwithstanding  it  had  been  delivered 
unto  Doctor  de  Puebla,  the  lieger  ambassador  of  Spain 
here  in  England,  to  be  sent;  yet  for  that  the  King 
had  been  long  without  hearing  from  Spain,  he  thought 
good  those  messengers,  when  they  had  been  with  the 
two  Queens,  should  likewise  pass  on  to  the  court  of 
Ferdinando,  and  take  a  copy  of  the  book  with  them. 

'he  instructions  touching  the  Queen  of  Naples  were 
curious  and  exquisite,  being  as  articles  whereby  to 

lirect  a  survey  or  framing  a  particular  of  her  person,1 
for  complexion,  favour,  feature,2  stature,  health,  age, 

customs,  behaviour,  conditions,  and  estate ;  as,  if  the 


turn  (Additional  MSS.  21,480),  gives  the  date  of  their  departure,  and  is 
rorth  inserting  as  a  record  of  the  terms  upon  which  such  services  were 
lid.    Among  the  payments  of  the  1st  and  2nd  of  May,  in  the  20th  year 
Henry's  reign,  I  find  — 

"  Item  to  James  Braybrooke  going  upon  the  King's  message  for  four 

months  at  5s.  the  day 281. 

"  Item  to  Fraunces  Marzen  for  his  costs  at  5s.  the  day  in  likewise     .    28/. 

"  Item  for  John  Style  his  costs  at  is.  the  day 221.  8s. r' 

1  Cum  articulos  conlinerent  adeo  prcecisos  ut  veluli  tabulam  aliquant  confi- 
dent personaz  ejus. 

2  Aspectum,  lineamenta  corporis.  In  the  original  instructions,  one  of  the 
lings  which  the  commissioners  are  directed  "  specially  to  mark  and  note 
rell"  is  "the  feature  of  her  body;  "  upon  which  they  report  that  they 
m  give  no  answers  to  that  point  because  the  young  Queen  was  so  covered 
rith  her  mantle  that  they  could  only  see  her  visage. 


340  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

King  had  been  young,  a  man  would  have  judged  him 
to  be  amorous ;  but  being  ancient,  it  ought  to  be  inter- 
preted that  sure  he  was  very  chaste,  for  that  he  meant 
to  find  all  things  in  one  woman,  and  so  to  settle  his 
affections  without  ranging.  But  in  this  match  he  was 
soon  cooled,  when  he  heard  from  his  ambassadors  that 
this  young  Queen  had  had  a  goodly  jointure  in  the 
realm  of  Naples,  well  answered  during  the  time  of 
her  uncle  Frederick,  yea  and  during  the  time  of  Lewis 
the  French  King,  in  whose  division  her  revenue  fell ; 
but  since  the  time  that  the  kingdom  was  in  Ferdi- 
nando's  hands,  all  was  assigned  to  the  army  and  gar- 
risons there ;  and  she  received  only  a  pension  or 
exhibition  out  of  his  coffers. 

The  other  part  of  the  inquiry  had  a  grave  and  dili- 
gent return  ;  informing  the  King  at  full  of  the  present 
state  of  King  Ferdinando.  By  this  report  it  appeared 
to  the  King  that  Ferdinando  did  continue  the  govern- 
ment of  Castile  as  administrator  unto  his  daughter 
Joan,  by  the  title  of  Queen  Isabella's  will,  and  partly 
by  the  custom  of  the  kingdom  (as  he  pretended)  ;  and 
that  all  mandates  and  grants  were  expedited  in  the 
name  of  Joan  his  daughter  and  himself  as  adminis- 
trator, without  mention  of  Philip  her  husband.  And 
that  King  Ferdinando,  howsoever  he  did  dismiss  him- 
self of  the  name  of  King  of  Castile,  yet  meant  to  hold 
the  kingdom  without  account  and  in  absolute  com- 
mand. 

It  appeareth  also  that  he  flattered  himself  with  hopes 
that  King  Philip  would  permit  unto  him  the  govern- 
ment of  Castile  during  his  life ;  which  he  had  laid  his 
plot  to  work  him  unto,1  both  by  some  counsellors  of 

1  Quod  Ferdinandus  certe  eipersuadere  vehementer  conatus  est. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  341 

his  about  him  which  Ferdinando  had  at  his  devotion, 
and  chiefly  by  promise1  that  in  case  Philip  gave  not 
way  unto  it  he  would  marry  some  young  lady,  where- 
by to  put  him  by  the  succession  of  Arragon  and 
Granada,  in  case  he  should  have  a  son ;  and  lastly 
by  representing  unto  him  that  the  government  of  the 
Burgundians,  till  Philip  were  by  continuance  in  Spain 
made  as  natural  of  Spain,  would  not  be  endured  by 
the  Spaniards.  But  in  all  those  things,  though  wisely 
laid  down  and  considered,  Ferdinando  failed ;  but  that 
Pluto  was  better  to  him  than  Pallas. 

In  the  same  report  also  the  ambassadors,  being  mean 
men  and  therefore  the  more  free,  did  strike  upon  a 
string  which  was  somewhat  dangerous ;  for  they  de- 
clared plainly  that  the  people  of  Spain  both  nobles 
and  commons  were  better  affected  unto  the  part  of 
'hilip   (so  he  brought   his  wife  with  him)   than   to 
'erdinando  ;  and  expressed  the  reason  to  be,  because 
le  had  imposed  upon  them  many  taxes  and  tallages ; 
diich  was  the  King's  own  case  between  him  and  his 

5011 .2 

There  was  also  in  this  report  a  declaration  of  an 
>verture  of  marriage,  which  Amason  the  secretary  of 
lerdinando  had  made  unto  the  ambassadors  in  great 
jcret,  between  Charles  Prince  of  Castile  and  Mary 
Le  King's  second  daughter  ;  assuring  the  King  that 
le  treaty  of  marriage  then  on  foot  for  the  said  Prince 
md  the  daughter  of  France  would  break ;  and  that 
le  the  said  daughter  of  France  should  be  married  to 
jigolesme,  that  was  the  heir  apparent  of  France. 

1  Protestatione. 

2  Quce  certe,  simul  representata,  ipsissimum  casum  exprimebant  inter  regem 
tjilium  suum. 


342  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

There  was  a  touch  also  of  a  speech  of  marriage  be- 
tween Ferdinando  and  Madame  de  Fois,  a  lady  of  the 
blood  of  France,  which  afterwards  indeed  succeeded. 
But  this  was  reported  as  learnt  in  France,  and  silenced 
in  Spain.1 

The  King  by  the  return  of  this  ambassage,  which 
gave  great  light  unto  his  affairs,  was  well  instructed 
and  prepared  how  to  carry  himself  between  Ferdi- 
nando King  of  Arragon  and  Philip  his  son-in-law 
King  of  Castile ;  resolving  with  himself  to  do  all  that 
in  him  lay  to  keep  them  at  one  within  themselves  ;  but 
howsoever  that  succeeded,  by  a  moderate  carriage  and 
bearing  the  person  of  a  common  friend  to  lose  neither 
of  their  friendships ;  but  yet  to  run  a  course  more 
entire  with  the  King  of  Arragon,  but  more  laboured 
and  officious  with  the  King  of  Castile.2  But  he  was 
much  taken  with  the  overture  of  marriage  with  his 
daughter  Mary  ;  both  because  it  was  the  greatest 
marriage  of  Christendom,  and  for  that  it  took  hold 
of  both  allies.  But  to  corroborate  his  alliance  with 
Philip,  the  winds  gave  him  an  interview.  For 
Philip  choosing  the  winter  season  the  better  to  sur- 
prise the  King  of  Arragon,  set  forth  with  a  great 
navy  out  of  Flanders  for  Spain  in  the  month  of 
January,  the  one  and  twentieth  year  of  the  King's 
reign.  But  himself  was  surprised  with  a  cruel  tem- 
pest, that  scattered  his  ships  upon  the  several  coasts 
of  England  ;  and  the  ship  wherein  the  King  and 
Queen  were,  with  two  other  small  barks  only,  torn 

1  Tamquam  rem  quam  in  Gallia  perdidicerant,  in  Hispania  autem  silentio 
cohibitam.     "  Silenced  "  seems  to  mean  merely  not  talked  of. 

2  lta  tamen  ut  interiore  affectu  Ferdinandi  rebus  faveret,  externis  vero 
demonstrationibus  et  ojficiis  Philippum  magis  demereretur. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  343 

and  in  great  peril,  to  escape  the  fury  of  the  weather 
thrust  into  Weymouth.  King  Philip  himself,  having 
not  been  used  as  it  seems  to  sea,  all  wearied  and  ex- 
treme sick,  would  needs  land  to  refresh  his  spirits ; 
though  4t  was  against  the  opinion  of  his  counsel, 
doubting  it  might  breed  delay,  his  occasions  requir- 
ing celerity. 

The  rumour  of  the  arrival  of  a  puissant  navy  upon 

the  coast  made  the  country  arm.      And  Sir  Thomas 

Trenchard,  with  forces  suddenly  raised,  not  knowing 

what  the  matter  might  be,  came  to  Weymouth  :  where 

understanding  the  accident,  he  did  in  all  humbleness 

and  humanity  invite  the  King  and  Queen  to  his  house ; 

and  forthwith   dispatched  posts  to  the  court.      Soon 

after  came  Sir  John  Caroe l  likewise  with  a  great  troop 

of  men  well  armed,   using  the  like  humbleness   and 

respects  towards  the  King,  when  he  knew  the  case. 

King  Philip  doubting  that  they,  being  but  subjects, 

it  not  let  him  pass  away  again  without  the  King's 

)tice  and  leave,  yielded  to  their  intreaties  to  stay  till 

Ley  heard  from  the  court.     The  King,  as  soon  as  he 

leard   the  news,   commanded   presently  the   Earl  of 

.rundel  to  go  to  visit  the  King  of  Castile,  and  to  let 

im2  understand   that  as  he  was  very  sorry  for  his 

tishap,  so  he  was  glad  that  he  had  escaped  the  danger 

the  seas,  and  likewise  of  the  occasion  himself  had 

do  him  honour ;  and  desiring  him  to  think  himself 

in  his  own  land ;  and  that  the  King  made  all  haste 

>ssible  to  come  and  embrace  him.     The  Earl  came  to 

dm  in  great  magnificence  with  a  brave  troop  of  three 

idred  horse  ;  and  for  more  state  came  by  torch-light. 

1  So  spelt  both  in  MS.  and  Ed.  1622. 

2  So  MS.    Ed.  1622  has  "  and  let  him." 


344  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

After  he  had  done  the  King's  message,  King  Philip 
seeing  how  the  world  went,1  the  sooner  to  get  away, 
went  upon  speed  to  the  King  at  Windsor,  and  his 
Queen  followed  by  easy  journeys.  The  two  Kings  at 
their  meeting  used  all  the  caresses  and  loving  demon- 
strations that  were  possible.  And  the  King  of  Castile 
said  pleasantly  to  the  King,  that  he  was  now  punished 
for  that  he  would  not  come  within  his  walled  town  of 
Calais,  when  they  met  last.  But  the  King  answered, 
that  walls  and  seas  were  nothing  where  hearts  were 
open  ;  and  that  he  was  here  no  otherwise  but  to  be 
served.  After  a  day  or  two's  refreshing,  the  Kings 
entered  into  speech  of  renewing  the  treaty ;  the  King 
saying  that  though  King  Philip's  person  were  the 
same,  yet  his  fortunes  and  state  were  raised ;  in  which 
case  a  renovation  of  treaty  was  used  amongst  Princes. 
But  while  these  things  were  in  handling,  the  King 
choosing  a  fit  time,  and  drawing  the  King  of  Castile 
into  a  room  where  they  two  only  were  private,  and 
laying  his  hand  civilly  upon  his  arm,  and  changing 
his  countenance  a  little  from  a  countenance  of  enter- 
tainment,'2 said  to  him,  Sir,  you  have  been  saved  upon 
my  coast,  I  hope  you  will  not  suffer  me  to  wreck  upon 
yours.  The  King  of  Castile  asked  him  what  he  meant 
by  that  speech  ?  I  mean  it  (saith  the  King)  by  that 
same  harebrain  wild  fellow  my  subject  the  Earl  of 
Suffolk,  who  is  protected  in  your  country,  and  begins 
to  play  the  fool,  when  all  others  are  weary  of  it.  The 
King  of  Castile  answered,  I  had  thought,  Sir,  your 
felicity  had  been  above  those  thoughts.  But  if  it 
trouble  you,  I  will  banish  him.     The   King  replied, 

1  Regis  animum  satis  perspiciens. 

2  Vultuque  nonnihil  ad  serium  composite. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII.  345 

those  hornets  were  best  in  their  nest,  and  worst  then 
when  they  did  fly  abroad ;  and  that  his  desire  was  to 
have  him  delivered  to  him.  The  King  of  Castile  here- 
with a  little  confused,  and  in  a  study,  said,  That  can  I 
not  do  with  my  honour,  and  less  with  yours ;  for  you 
will  be  thought  to  have  used  me  as  a  prisoner.  The 
King  presently  said,  Then  the  matter  is  at  an  end. 
For  I  will  take  that  dishonour  upon  me,  and  so  your 
honour  is  saved.  The  King  of  Castile,  who  had  the 
King  in  great  estimation,  and  besides  remembered 
where  he  was,  and  knew  not  what  use  he  might  have 
of  the  King's  amity ;  for  that  himself  was  new  in  his 
state  of  Spain,  and  unsettled  both  with  his  father-in-law 
and  with  his  people  ;  composing  his  countenance,  said, 
Sir,  you  give  law  to  me  ;  but  so  will  I  to  you.  You 
shall  have  him,  but  upon  your  honour  you  shall  not 
take  his  life.  The  King  embracing  him  said,  Agreed. 
Saith  the  King  of  Castile,  Neither  shall  it  dislike  you, 
I  send  to  him  in  such  a  fashion  as  he  may  partly 
>me  with  his  own  good  will.  The  King  said  it  was 
rell  thought  of;  and  if  it  pleased  him  he  would  join 
rith  him  in  sending  to  the  Earl  a  message  to  that  pur- 
se. They  both  sent  severally ;  and  mean  while  they 
mtinued  feasting  and  pastimes ;  the  King  being  on  his 
irt  willing  to  have  the  Earl  sure  before  the  King  of 
Jastile  went ;  and  the  King  of  Castile  being  as  willing 
seem  to  be  enforced.1  The  King  also  with  many 
rise  and  excellent  persuasions  did  advise  the  King  of 
Jastile  to  be  ruled  by  the  counsel  of  his  father-in-law 
'erdinando ;  a  Prince  so  prudent,  so  experienced,  so 
>rtunate.  The  King  of  Castile  (who  was  in  no  very 
rood  terms  with  his  said  father-in-law)  answered,  that 

1  In  hoc  conveniente,  ut  res  manifestius  a  se  extorta  putaretur. 


346  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  fll. 

if  his   father-in-law  would  suffer  him  to  govern  his 
kingdoms,  he  should  govern  him. 

There  were  immediately  messengers  sent  from  both 
Kings  to  recall  the  Earl  of  Suffolk ;  who  upon  gentle 
words   used   to   him  was   soon  charmed,   and  willing 
enough  to  return ;  assured  of  his  life,  and  hoping  of 
his  liberty.      He  was   brought   through    Flanders   to 
Calais,   and   thence  landed  at   Dover,   and  with  suf- 
ficient  guard   delivered   and   received   at   the   Tower 
of  London.1      Meanwhile  King  Henry  to  draw  out 
the  time,  continued  his  feastings  and  entertainments, 
and  after  he  had2  received  the   King  of  Castile  in- 
to    the   fraternity  of  the    Garter,  and   for   a   recipro- 
cal had  his  son  the  Prince  admitted  to  the  order  of 
the  Golden  Fleece,  he  accompanied  King  Philip  and 
his  Queen  to  the  City  of  London ;  where  they  were 
entertained  with  the  greatest  magnificence  and  triumph 
that  could  be  upon  no  greater  warning.     And  as  soon 
as  the  Earl  of  Suffolk  had  been  conveyed  to  the  Tower 
(which  was  the  serious  part)  the  jollities  had  an  end, 
and  the  Kings  took  leave.     Nevertheless  during  their 
being  here,   they  in   substance  concluded  that  treaty 
which  the  Flemings  term  intercursus  mains,  and  bears 
date  at  Windsor :  for  there  be  some  things  in  it  more 
to  the  advantage  of  the  English  than  of  them ;   espe- 
cially for  that  the  free  fishing  of  the  Dutch  upon  the 
coasts  and  seas  of  England,  granted  in  the  treaty  of 
undeeimo,  was  not  by  this  treaty  confirmed ;  all  articles 
that  confirm  former  treaties  being  precisely  and  warily 


1  About  the  end  of  March,  1505-6,  according  to  the  old  Chronicle,  fo. 
207. 

2  All  this  from  "  to  draw  out"  to  "  after  he  had,"  is  omitted  in  the  trans- 
lation. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


347 


limited  and  confined  to  matter  of  commerce  only,  and 
not  otherwise. 

It  was  observed  that  the  great  tempest  which  drave 
Philip  into  England  blew  down  the  golden  eagle  from 
le  spire- of  Paul's,  and  in  the  fall  it  fell  upon  a  sign 
)f  the  black  eagle  which  was  in  Paul's  church-yard  in 
le  place  where  the  school-house  now  standeth,1  and 
ittered  it  and  broke  it  down  ;  which  was  a  strange 
stooping  of  a  hawk  upon  a  fowl.      This  the  people 
iterpreted    to   be   an    ominous    prognostic    upon   the 
iperial  house ;  which  was  by  interpretation  also  ful- 
illed  upon  Philip  the  Emperor's  son ;  not  only  in  the 
>resent  disaster  of  the  tempest,  but  in   that  that  fol- 
>wed.     For  Philip  arriving  into  Spain  and  attaining 
ie  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Castile  without  resist- 
lce,  insomuch  as  Ferdinando  who  had  spoke  so  great 
>efore  was  with  difficulty  admitted  to  the  speech  of 
lis  son-in-law,  sickened  soon  after,  and  deceased:   yet 
?r  such  time  as  there  was  an  observation  by  the 
risest  of  that  court,  that  if  he  had  lived  his  father 
rould  have  gained  upon  him  in  that  sort,  as  he  would 
Lve  governed  his  counsels  and  designs,  if  not  his  affec- 
ions.     By  this  all  Spain  returned  into  the  power  of 
I'erdinando  in  state  as  it  was  before ;    the  rather  in 
jgard  of   the  infirmity   of   Joan   his   daughter,   who 
loving  her  husband  (by  whom  she  had  many  children) 
dearly  well,  and  no  less  beloved  of  him  (howsoever 
her  father  to  make  Philip  ill-beloved  of  the  people  of 
Spain  gave  out  that  Philip  used  her  not  well),  was 
unable  in  strength  of  mind  to  bear  the  grief  of  his  de- 
cease, and  fell  distracted  of  her  wits : 2  of  which  malady 


1  The  words  "  in  the  place  where,"  &c.  are  omitted  in  the  translation. 

2  She  is  said  to  have  exhibited  decided  symptoms  of  insanity  before. 


348  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

her  father  was  thought  no  ways  to  endeavour  the  cure, 
the  better  to  hold  his  regal  power  in  Castile.  So  that 
as  the  felicity  of  Charles  the  Eighth  was  said  to  be  a 
dream,  so  the  adversity  of  Ferdinando  was  said  like- 
wise to  be  a  dream,  it  passed  over  so  soon. 

About  this  time  the  Kino;  was  desirous  to  bring  into 
the  house  of  Lancaster  celestial  honour  ;  and  became 
suitor  to  Pope  Julius  to  canonise  King  Henry  the 
Sixth  for  a  saint ;  the  rather  in  respect  of  that  his 
famous  prediction  of  the  King's  own  assumption  to  the 
crown.  Julius  referred  the  matter  (as  the  manner  is) 
to  certain  cardinals  to  take  the  verification  of  his  holy 
acts  and  miracles  :  but  it  died  under  the  reference. 
The  general  opinion  was,  that  Pope  Julius  was  too 
dear,  and  that  the  King  would  not  come  to  his  rates. 
But  it  is  more  probable,  that  that  Pope,  who  was  ex- 
Modem  historians,  deriving  their  information  from  the  Spanish  writers, 
represent  Philip  as  having  really  used  her  ill.  But  this  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  the  impression  of  the  Venetian  ambassador  Vincenzo  Quirini; 
whose  "relazione"  (written  shortly  after  Philip's  death)  contains  an  ac- 
count of  the  relation  between  them,  which  agrees  very  well  with  what 
Bacon  says.  After  giving  a  very  favourable  character  of  Philip,  the  am- 
bassador proceeds:  —  "A  questo  principe  cosl  grande  e  nobile,  e  cosl 
virtuoso,  fu  data  per  moglie  una  donna  gelosa  (ancora  che  assai  bella  e 
nobilissima  e  di  tanti  regni  erede)  la  quale  con  la  sua  gelosia  molestava  in 
tal  modo  il  marito,  che  il  povero  ed  infelice  non  si  poteva  in  tutti  di  lei 
contentare;  perche  la  non  parlava  con  molte  persone,  ne  accarezzava 
alcuno;  stava  sempre  ristretta  in  camera  e  consumavasi  de  se  stessa  per 
gelosia;  amava  la  solitudine,  fuggiva  feste,  solazzi,  e  piaceri,  e  sopra  tutto 
non  voleva  compagnia  di  donne,  ne  fiamminghe,  ne  spagnuole,  ne  vecchie, 
ne  giovani,  ne  di  qualunque  altro  grado.  E  pero  donna  di  buon  ingegno,  e 
apprenda  comodamente  quello  che  le  vien  detto,  e  le  poche  parole  ch'  ella 
risponde  le  parla  con  buona  maniera  e  con  buona  forma,  servando  quella 
gravita  che  a  regina  si  conviene;  il  che  potei  comprendere  quando  per 
norae  della  serenita  vostra  le  feci  riverenza,  ed  esposi  brevemente  quello 
che  in  commissione  avevo."     Alberi,  Ser.  1.  vol.  i.  p.  5,  6. 

If  this  be  true,  it  is  easy  to  believe  both  in  her  affection  for  Philip  dur- 
ing his  life  and  in  her  distraction  at  his  death;  and  also  that  two  very 
different  stories  might  be  told  with  regard  to  his  treatment  of  her. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


349 


tivmt'lv  jealous  of  the  dignity  of  the  see  of  Rome  and 
of  the  acts  thereof,  knowing  that  King  Henry  Sixth 
was  reputed  in  the  world  abroad  but  for  a  simple  man, 
was  afraid  it  would  but  diminish  the  estimation  of  that 
id  of  honour,  if  there  were  not  a  distance  kept 
jtween  innocents  and  saints. 

The  same  year  likewise  there  proceeded  a  treaty  of 

irriage  between   the  King  and  the  Lady  Margaret 

mchess  Dowager  of  Savoy,  only  daughter  to  Maxi- 

dlian  and  sister  to  the  King  of  Castile  ;  a  lady  wise 

id  of  great  good  fame.     This  matter  had   been  in 

jech  between  the  two  Kings  at  their  meeting  ;  but 

is  soon  after  resumed  ;  and  therein  was  employed  for 

lis  first  piece  the  King's  then  chaplain,  and  after  the 

•eat  prelate,   Thomas  Wolsey.1     It  was  in  the   end 

mcluded  with   great   and   ample   conditions  for   the 

]ing,  but  with  promise  defutwo  only.     It  may  be  the 

!ing  was  the  rather  induced  unto  it,  for  that  he  had 

leard  more  and  more  of  the  marriage  to  go  on  be- 

reen  his  great  friend  and  ally  Ferdinando  of  Arragon 

id  Madame  de  Fois ;  whereby  that  King  began  to 

)iece  with  the  French  King,  from  whom  he  had  been 

Iways  before  severed.     So  fatal  a  thing  it  is  for  the 

'eatest  and  straitest  amities  of  Kings  at  one  time  or 

)ther  to  have  a  little  of  the  wheel.     Nay  there  is  a 

irther  tradition  (in  Spain  though  not  with  us)  that 

le  King  of  Arragon  (after  he  knew  that  the  marriage 


1  It  seems  that  Wolsey  was  employed  in  the  negotiation  of  this  marriage 
early  as  Nov.  1504.     See  Cott.  Galba  B.  ii.  fo.  128.    But  the  date  is 
ily  in  the  margin. 

That  volume  consists  of  original  instructions,  &c.  from  Hen.  VII.  but 
been  so  damaged  by  fire  that  one  can  only  make  out  the  general  sub- 
let.    There  is  not  a  leaf  of  which  the  edges  have  not  been  burned  away. 
The  articles  are  in  Vitel.  C.  xi.  fo.  127. 


350  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

between  Charles  the  young  Prince  of  Castile  and 
Mary  the  King's  second  daughter  went  roundly  on, 
which  though  it  was  first  moved  by  the  King  of  Ar- 
ragon,  yet  it  was  afterwards  wholly  advanced  and 
brought  to  perfection  by  Maximilian  and  the  friends 
on  that  side)  entered  into  a  jealousy  that  the  King  did 
aspire  to  the  government  of  Castilia,1  as  administrator 
during  the  minority  of  his  son-in-law  ;  as  if  there 
should  have  been  a  competition  of  three  for  that  gov- 
ernment ;  Ferdinando  grandfather  on  the  mother's 
side  ;  Maximilian  grandfather  on  the  father's  side ; 
and  King  Henry  father-in-law  to  the  young  Prince. 
Certainly  it  is  not  unlike  but  the  King's  government 
(carrying  the  young  Prince  with  him)  would  have 
been  perhaps  more  welcome  to  the  Spaniards  than  that 
of  the  other  two.  For  the  nobility  of  Castilia,  that  so 
lately  put  out  the  King  of  Arragon  in  favour  of  King 
Philip,  and  had  discovered  themselves  so  far,  could  not 
be  but  in  a  secret  distrust  and  distaste  of  that  King. 
And  as  for  Maximilian,  upon  twenty  respects  he  could 
not  have  been  the  man.  But  this  purpose  of  the 
King's  seemeth  to  me  (considering  the  King's  safe 
courses,2  never  found  to  be  enterprising  or  adventu- 
rous,) not  greatly  probable ;  except  he  should  have  had 
a  desire  to  breathe  warmer,  because  he  had  ill  lungs. 
This  marriage  with  Margaret  was  protracted  from 

1  Dr.  Lingard  (quoting  Zurita,  vi.  163.)  says  that  after  the  death  of 
Philip,  Maximilian  urged  Henry  to  make  this  claim. 

The  following  entry  in  the  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  (22  Hen.  VII.  pt.  3. 
p.  20.)  may  be  quoted  as  bearing  indirectly  upon  this  point. 

"  14  June.  License  (at  the  request  of  Margaret  Duchess  Dowager  of  Sa- 
voy, John  Sheldon  Governor,  and  merchants  adventurers)  to  the  said  Gov- 
ernor and  merchants  to  resort  to  and  freely  trade  in  Holland,  Zealand, 
Brabant,  and  Flanders,  and  other  countries  under  the  rule  of  OasHU." 

2  Regis  mores  reputantibus  et  consilia  tuta  et  solida. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  351 

time  to  time,  in  respect  of  the  infirmity  of  the  King,1 
who  now  in  the  two  and  twentieth  of  his  reign  began 
to  be  troubled  with  the  gout :  but  the  defluxion  taking 
also  into  his  breast,  wasted  his  lungs,  so  that  thrice  in  a 
mar  in  a  kind  of  return,  and  especially  in  the  spring, 
he  had  great  fits  and  labours  of  the  tissick.2  Never- 
theless he  continued  to  intend  business  with  as  great 
diligence  as  before  in  his  health  :  yet  so,  as  upon  this 
warning  he  did  likewise  now  more  seriously  think  of 
the  world  to  come  ;  and  of  making  himself  a  saint,  as 
well  as  King  Henry  the  Sixth,  by  treasure  better  em- 
ployed than  to  be  given  to  Pope  Julius.  For  this  year 
he  gave  greater  alms  than  accustomed,  and  discharged 
all  prisoners  about  the  City  that  lay  for  fees,  or  debts 
under  forty  shillings.  He  did  also  make  haste  with 
religious  foundations.  And  in  the  year  following, 
which  was  the  three  and  twentieth,  finished  that  of  the 
avoy.  And  hearing  also  of  the  bitter  cries  of  his 
pie  against  the  oppressions  of  Dudley  and  Empson 
and  their  complices,  partly  by  devout  persons  about 
him  and  partly  by  public  sermons  (the  preachers  doing 
their  duty  therein),  he  was  touched  with  great  remorse 
for    the    same.      Nevertheless   Empson    and   Dudley 

1  Dr.  Lingard,  who  has  had  recourse  to  Spanish  historians  and  archives, 
gives  a  different  explanation  of  the  breaking  off  of  this  treaty:  viz.  that 
upon  the  death  of  Philip  (25  Sep.  1506)  Henry  conceived  the  idea  of  mar- 
rying his  widow  Juana  Queen  of  Castile;  which  he  only  abandoned  on 
King  satisfied  that  her  insanity  was  permanent  and  incurable. 
It  seems  however  that  the  marriage  with  Margaret  was  still  in  consider- 
ion  in  September,  1507,  and  that  Maximilian  was  still  in  hope  of  its  pro- 
eding,  and  that  Margaret  herself  had  some  objections  from  an  apprehen- 
m  that  it  would  imprison  her  in  England.  The  difficulty  of  agreeing 
•on  the  conditions  in  this  respect  would  account  sufficiently  for  its  not 
ing  concluded.  See  Corr.  de  Maximilian  I.  et  de  Marguerite  d'Autriche, 
1.  p.  11.    Margaret  assumed  the  government  of  the  Low  Countries  in  the 

I  ginning  of  1507. 


£ 


352  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

though  they  could  not  but  hear  of  these  scruples  in 
the  King's  conscience,  yet  as  if  the  King's  soul  and  his 
money  were  in  several  offices,  that  the  one  was  not  to 
intermeddle  with  the  other,  went  on  with  as  great  rage 
as  ever.1  For  the  same  three  and  twentieth  year  was 
there  a  sharp  prosecution  2  against  Sir  William  Capel 
(now  the  second  time),  and  this  was  for  matters  of 
misgovernment 3  in  his  mayoralty :  the  great  matter 
being,  that  in  some  payments  he  had  taken  knowledge 
of  false  moneys,  and  did  not  his  diligence  to  examine 
and  beat  it  out  who  were  the  offenders.  For  this  and 
some  other  things  laid  to  his  charge,  he  was  condemned 
to  pay  two  thousand  pounds  ;  and  being  a  man  of 
stomach,  and  hardened  by  his  former  troubles,  re- 
fused to  pay  a  mite  ;  and  belike  used  some  untoward 
speeches  of  the  proceedings ;  for  which  he  was  sent  to 
the  Tower,  and  there  remained  till  the  King's  death. 
Knesworth  likewise,  that  had  been  lately  Mayor  of 
London,  and  both  his  Sheriffs,  were  for  abuses  in  their 
offices  questioned,  and  imprisoned,  and  delivered  upon 
one  thousand  four  hundred  pounds  paid.  Hawis,  an 
Alderman  of  London,  was  put  in  trouble,  and  died 
with  thought  and  anguish  before  his  business  came  to 
an  end.  Sir  Laurence  Ailmer,  who  had  likewise  been 
Mayor  of  London,  and  his  two  Sheriffs,  were  put  to 
the  fine  of  one  thousand  pounds.  And  Sir  Laurence 
for  refusing  to  make  payment  was  committed  to  prison, 
where  he  stayed  till  Empson  himself  was  committed  in 
his  place. 

It  is  no  marvel  (if  the  faults  were  so  light  and  the 
rates  so  heavy)  that  the  King's  treasure  of  store  that 

1  Nihilo  lenlius  populum  gravabant. 

2  Orudelissime  actum  est. 

3  Prcetextu  quod  se  male  gessisset. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  353 

he  left  at  his  death,  most  of  it  in  secret  places  under 
his  'ami  key  and  keeping  at  Richmond,  amounted  (as 
l»\  tradition  it  is  reported  to  have  done1)  unto  the  sum 
of  near  eighteen  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  ;  a 
huge  mass  of  money  even  for  these  times. 

The  last  act  of  state  that  concluded  this  King's  tern- 
poral  felicity,  was  the  conclusion  of  a  glorious  match 
between   his    daughter  Mary  and   Charles   Prince  of 
Castile,  afterwards  the  great  Emperor  ;  both  being  of 
tender  years:  which  treaty  was  perfected2  by  Bishop 
Foxe  and  other  his  commissioners  at  Calais,  the  year 
before  the  King's  death.     In  which  alliance  it  seemeth 
he  himself  took   so  high   contentment,   as  in  a  letter 
which  he  wrote  thereupon  to  the  City  of  London,  com- 
manding all  possible  demonstrations  of  joy  to  be  made 
for  the  same,  he  expresseth  himself  as  if  he  thought 
he  had  built  a  wall  of  brass  about  his  kingdom,  when 
he  had  for  his  sons-in-law  a  King  of  Scotland  and  a 
'rince  of  Castile  and   Burgundy.     So  as   now  there 
as    nothing  to  be  added    to  this   great  King's   felic- 
>\  being  at  the  top  of  all  worldly  bliss,  in  regard  of 
the  high  marriages  of  his  children,  his  great  renown 
iroughout  Europe,  and  his  scarce  credible  riches,  and 
ie    perpetual    constancy  of  his  prosperous  successes, 
)ut  an  opportune  death,   to  withdraw  him  from  any 
iture  blow  of  fortune :  which  certainly  (in  regard  of 
ie  great  hatred  of  his  people,3  and  the  title  of  his  son, 

1  The  translation  omits  this  clause,  and  for  1,800,000/.  sterling  gives  ad 
immam  quinque  millionum  et  dimidice  aurewum. 

Sir  Edward  Coke  (Institutes,  p.  198.)  says  "fifty  and  three  hundred 
lousand  pounds."  Quoting  the  Close  Roll  A0.  3  Hen.  8.  A  mistake  per- 
of  pounds  for  nobles;  1,800,000/.  being  equivalent  to  5,400,000  six- 
ld-eightpenny-pieces. 

2  December  17,  1508. 

8  This  hatred  had  probably  increased  rapidly  during  the  last  year  or 

VOL.   XI.  23 


354  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

being  then  come  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  being  a 
bold  Prince  and  liberal,  and  that  gained  upon  the  peo- 
ple by  his  very  aspect  and  presence1)  had  not  been 
impossible  to  have  comen  upon  him. 

To  crown  also  the  last  year  of  his  reign  as  well  as 
his  first,  he  did  an  act  of  piety,  rare  and  worthy  to  be 
taken  in  imitation.  For  he  granted  forth  a  general 
pardon ;  2  as  expecting  a  second  coronation  in  a  better 
kingdom.  He  did  also  declare  in  his  will,  that  his 
mind  was,  that  restitution  should  be  made  of  those 
sums  which  had  been  unjustly  taken  by  his  officers. 

And  thus  this  Salomon  of  England  (for  Salomon 
also  was  too  heavy  upon  his  people  in  exactions)  hav- 
ing lived  two  and  fifty  years,  and  thereof  reigned  three 
and  twenty  years  and  eight  months,  being  in  perfect 
memory  and  in  a  most  blessed  mind,  in  a  great  calm  of 
a  consuming  sickness,  passed  to  a  better  world,  the  two 
and  twentieth  of  April  1508,3  at  his  palace  of  Rich- 
mond which  himself  had  built. 

This  King4  (to  speak  of  him  in  terms  equal  to  his 
deserving)   was   one   of  the  best  sort  of  wonders ;   a 

two.  Vincenzo  Quirini,  writing  in  1506,  describes  Henry  as  "  nomo  di 
anni  cinquanta  quattro,  assai  ben  disposto  della  persona,  savio,  prudente, 
rum  odiato  ne  eziam  molto  amato  dalli  suoi  popoli."  Alberi,  Ser.  1.  vol.  i. 
p.  19. 

1  Oris  majestate. 

2  Qualis  in  coronatione  regum  concedi  solet. 

8  This  is  a  mistake;  occasioned  apparently  by  a  misprint  in  Speed. 
Henry  completed  his  23rd  year  on  the  21st  of  August,  1508,  and  died  on 
the  22nd  of  April,  1509. 

4  In  the  character  of  Henry  which  follows  and  concludes  the  work  the 
differences  between  the  Latin  translation  and  the  English  original  are 
unusually  numerous.  There  is  nothing  added  indeed,  nor  is  the  meaning 
in  any  place  materially  modified.  But  the  expression  is  so  frequently 
varied  that  it  would  seem  as  if  Bacon  had  done  this  part  of  the  transla- 
tion himself  and  with  care.  I  have  thought  it  better  therefore  to  print  it 
entire.    It  will  be  found  in  the  appendix,  No.  III. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  355 

wonder  for  wise  men.  He  had  parts  (both  in  his  vir- 
tues and  his  fortune)  not  so  fit  for  a  common-place 
as  for  observation.  Certainly  he  was  religious,  both 
in  his  affection  and  observance.  But  as  he  could  see 
clear  (for  those  times)  through  superstition  ;  so  he 
would  be  blinded  now  and  then  by  human  policy.  He 
advanced  church-men.  He  was  tender  in  the  privilege 
of  sanctuaries,  though  they  wrought  him  much  mischief. 
He  built  and  endowed  many  religious  foundations,  be- 
sides his  memorable  hospital  of  the  Savoy:  and  yet 
was  he  a  great  alms-giver  in  secret ;  which  shewed 
that  his  works  in  public  were  dedicated  rather  to  God's 
glory  than  his  own.  He  professed  always  to  love  and 
seek  peace  ;  and  it  was  his  usual  preface  in  his  trea- 
ties,1 that  when  Christ  came  into  the  world  peace  was 
pong,  and  when  he  went  out  of  the  world  peace  was 
bequeathed.  And  this  virtue  could  not  proceed  out  of 
fear   or  softness,  for  he  was  valiant  and  active;  and 

lerefore  no  doubt  it  was  truly  Christian  and  moral. 

et  he  knew  the  way  to  peace  was  not  to  seem  to  be 
iesirous  to  avoid  wars.  Therefore  would  he  make 
)ffers  and  fames  of  wars,  till  he  had  mended  the  con- 
litions  of  peace.  It  was  also  much,  that  one  that  was 
great  a  lover  of  peace  should  be  so  happy  in  war. 

'or  his  arms,  either  in  foreign  or  civil  wars,  were 
tever  infortunate;    neither  did  he  know  what  a  dis- 

»ter   meant.      The  war  of  his   coming  in,   and  the 

ibellions  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln  and  the  Lord  Aud- 
ley,  were  ended  by  victory.     The  wars  of  France  and 

Scotland   by  peaces  sought  at  his  hands.      That  of 

1  This  statement  is  not  strictly  borne  out  by  those  of  his  treaties  which 
re  printed  in  Rymer.  It  is  true  however  that  most  of  them  contain  some 
)reamble  about  the  blessings  of  peace.  The  particular  expression  quoted 
)y  Bacon  occurs  I  think  in  one  of  the  Bulls  of  dispensation. 


356  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

Brittaine  by  accident  of  the  Duke's  death.1  The  in- 
surrection of  the  Lord  Lovell,  and  that  of  Perkin  at 
Exeter  and  in  Kent,  by  flight  of  the  rebels  before  they 
came  to  blows.  So  that  his  fortune  of  arms  was  still 
inviolate.  The  rather  sure,  for  that  in  the  quenching 
of  the  commotions  of  his  subjects  he  ever  went  in  per- 
son :  sometimes  reserving  himself  to  back  and  second 
his  lieutenants,  but  ever  in  action.  And  yet  that  was 
not  merely  forwardness,  but  partly  distrust  of  others. 
He  did  much  maintain  and  countenance  his  laws ; 
which  (nevertheless)  was  no  impediment  to  him  to 
work  his  will.  For  it  was  so  handled  that  neither 
prerogative  nor  profit  went  to  diminution.  And  yet 
as  he  would  sometimes  strain  up  his  laws  to  his  prerog- 
ative, so  would  he  also  let  down  his  prerogative  to  his 
Parliament.  For  mint  and  wars  and  martial  discipline 
(things  of  absolute  power)  he  would  nevertheless  bring 
to  Parliament.  Justice  was  well  administered  in  his 
time,  save  where  the  King  was  party ;  save  also  that 
the  counsel-table  intermeddled  too  much  with  meum 
and  tuum.  For  it  was  a  very  court  of  justice  during 
his  time ;  especially  in  the  beginning.  But  in  that  part 
both  of  justice  and  policy  which  is  the  durable  part,  and 
cut  as  it  were  in  brass  or  marble,  which  is  the  mak- 
ing of  good  laws,  he  did  excel.     And  with  his  justice 

1  The  war  of  Brittany,  had  Bacon's  account  of  it  been  accurate,  must 
have  been  accounted  an  exception  to  Henry's  usual  fortune  in  war.  It 
might  be  an  accident,  but  still  it  was  a  failure.  But.  if  we  substitute  the 
true  history  of  it,  which  I  have  given  in  my  note  p.  154,  we  may  fairly 
count  it  among  the  examples  of  his  habitual  success.  The  army  accom- 
plished all  it  was  sent  to  accomplish;  the  ultimate  frustration  of  Henry's 
object  was  due  to  an  error  of  policy,  not  to  an  accident  of  war. 

I  may  take  this  opportunity  of  correcting  the  statement  in  note  3.  p.  97. 
as  to  the  spelling  of  the  name  Brittaine.  It  is  so  spelt  in  the  MS.  in  that 
place  and  one  or  two  others  immediately  following.  But  afterwards  it  is 
always,  or  almost  always,  spelt  Britaine. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  357 

he  was  also  a  merciful  prince  :  as  in  whose  time  there 
w  <iv  but  three  of  the  nobility  that  suffered ;  the  Earl 
of  Warwick  ;  the  Lord  Chamberlain ;  and  the  Lord 
Audley :  though  the  first  two  were  instead  of  numbers 

11  the  dislike  and  obloquy  of  the  people.  But  there 
/ere  never  so  great  rebellions  expiated  with  so  little 
lood  drawn  by  the  hand  of  justice,  as  the  two  rebel- 
ons  of  Blackheath  and  Exeter.  As  for  the  severity 
sed  upon  those  which  were  taken  in  Kent,  it  was  but 
]><>n  a  scum  of  people.  His  pardons  went  ever  both 
efore  and  after  his  sword.  But  then  he  had  withal  a 
strange  kind  of  interchanging  of  large  and  inexpected 
pardons  with  severe  executions :  which  (his  wisdom 
considered)  could  not  be  imputed  to  any  inconstancy  or 
inequality ;  but  either  to  some  reason  which  we  do  not 
now  know,  or  to  a  principle  he  had  set  unto  himself, 
that  he  would  vary,  and  try  both  ways  in  turn.  But 
the  less  blood  he  drew  the  more  he  took  of  treasure : 
and  as  some  construed  it,  he  was  the  more  sparing  in 
the  one  that  he  might  be  the  more  pressing  in  the 
other ;  for  both  would  have  been  intolerable.  Of 
nature  assuredly  he  coveted  to  accumulate  treasure ; 
and  was  a  little  poor  in  admiring  riches.  The  people 
(into  whom  there  is  infused  for  the  preservation  of 
monarchies  a  natural  desire  to  discharge  their  princes, 
though  it  be  with  the  unjust  charge  of  their  counsellors 
and  ministers)  did  impute  this  unto  Cardinal  Morton 
and  Sir  Reignold  Bray ;  who  as  it  after  appeared  (as 
counsellors  of  ancient  authority  with  him)  did  so 
second  his  humours,  as  nevertheless  they  did  temper 
them.  Whereas  Empson  and  Dudley  that  followed, 
being  persons  that  had  no  reputation  with  him  other- 
wise than  by  the  servile  following  of  his  bent,  did  not 


358  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

give  way  only  (as  the  first  did)  but  shape  him  way  to 
those  extremities,  for  which  himself  was  touched  with 
remorse  at  his  death ;  and  which  his  successor  re- 
nounced, and  sought  to  purge.  This  excess  of  his  had 
at  that  time  many  glosses  and  interpretations.  Some 
thought  the  continual  rebellions  wherewith  he  had 
been  vexed  had  made  him  grow  to  hate  his  people  : 
Some  thought  it  was  done  to  pull  down  their  stomachs 
and  to  keep  them  low :  Some,  for  that  he  would  leave 
his  son  a  golden  fleece  :  Some  suspected  he  had  some 
high  design  upon  foreign  parts.  But  those  perhaps 
shall  come  nearest  the  truth  that  fetch  not  their  rea- 
sons so  far  off;  but  rather  impute  it  to  nature,  age, 
peace,  and  a  mind  fixed  upon  no  other  ambition  or 
pursuit:  whereunto  I  should  add,  that  having  every 
day  occasion  to  take  notice  of  the  necessities  and  shifts 
for  money  of  other  great  Princes  abroad,  it  did  the 
better  by  comparison  set  off  to  him  the  felicity  of  full 
coffers.  As  to  his  expending  of  treasure,  he  never 
spared  charge  which  his  affairs  required  :  and  in  his 
buildings  was  magnificent ;  but  his  rewards  were  very 
limited.  So  that  his  liberality  was  rather  upon  his 
own  state  and  memory  than  upon  the  deserts  of  others. 
He  was  of  an  hio-h  mind,  and  loved  his  own  will 
and  his  own  way;  as  one  that  revered  himself,  and 
would  reign  indeed.  Had  he  been  a  private  man  he 
would  have  been  termed  proud  :  but  in  a  wise  Prince, 
it  was  but  keeping  of  distance  ;  which  indeed  he  did 
towards  all ;  not  admitting  any  near  or  full  approach 
either  to  his  power  or  to  his  secrets.  For  he  was 
governed  by  none.  His  Queen  (notwithstanding  she 
had  presented  him  with  divers  children  ;  and  with  a 
crown   also,  though   he   would   not   acknowledge   it) 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  359 

could  do  nothing  with  him.  His  mother  he  rever- 
enced much,  heard  little.  For  any  person  agreeable 
to  him  for  society  (such  as  was  Hastings  to  King 
Edward  the  Fourth,  or  Charles  Brandon  after  to  King 
Henry  the  Eighth),  he  had  none  ;  except  we  should 
account  for  such  persons  Foxe  and  Bray  and  Empson, 
because  they  were  so  much  with  him.  But  it  was  but 
as  the  instrument  is  much  with  the  workman.  He 
had  nothing  in  him  of  vain-glory,  but  yet  kept  state 
and  majesty  to  the  height ;  being  sensible  that  majesty 
maketh  the  people  bow,  but  vain-glory  boweth  to  them. 
To  his  confederates  abroad  he  was  constant  and 
just ;  but  not  open.  But  rather  such  was  his  inquiry 
and  such  his  closeness,  as  they  stood  in  the  light  tow- 
ards him,  and  he  stood  in  the  dark  to  them  ;  yet 
without  strangeness,  but  with  a  semblance  of  mutual 
communication  of  affairs.  As  for  little  envies  or  emu- 
lations upon  foreign  princes  (which  are  frequent  with 
many  Kings),  he  had  never  any ;  but  went  substan- 
tially to  his  own  business.  Certain  it  is,  that  though 
his  reputation  was  great  at  home,  yet  it  was  greater 
abroad.  For  foreigners  that  could  not  see  the  passages 
of  affairs,  but  made  their  judgments  upon  the  issues  of 
them,  noted  that  he  was  ever  in  strife  and  ever  aloft. 
It  grew  also  from  the  airs  which  the  princes  and  states 
abroad  received  from  their  ambassadors  and  agents 
here  ;  which  were  attending  the  court  in  great  num- 
ber ;  whom  he  did  not  only  content  with  courtesy, 
reward,  and  privateness ;  but  (upon  such  conferences 
as  passed  with  them)  put  them  in  admiration  to  find 
his  universal  insight  into  the  affairs  of  the  world : 
which  though  he  did  suck  chiefly  from  themselves,  yet 
that  which  he  had  gathered  from  them  all  seemed  ad- 


360  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

mirable  to  every  one.  So  that  they  did  write  ever  to 
their  superiors  in  high  terms  concerning  his  wisdom 
and  art  of  rule.  Nay  when  they  were  returned,  they 
did  commonly  maintain  intelligence  with  him ;  such  a 
dexterity  he  had  to  impropriate  to  himself  all  foreign 
instruments. 

He  was  careful  and  liberal  to  obtain  good  intelli- 
gence from  all  parts  abroad ;  wherein  he  did  not  only 
use  his  interest  in  the  liegers  here,  and  his  pensioners 
which  he  had  both  in  the  court  of  Rome  and  other  the 
courts  of  Christendom,  but  the  industry  and  vigilancy 
of  his  own  ambassadors  in  foreign  parts.  For  which 
purpose  his  instructions  were  ever  extreme  curious 
and  articulate ;  and  in  them  more  articles  touching 
inquisition  than  touching  negotiation  :  requiring  like- 
wise from  his  ambassadors  an  answer,  in  particular 
distinct  articles,  respectively  to  his  questions. 

As  for  his  secret  spials  which  he  did  employ  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  by  them  to  discover  what  practices 
and  conspiracies  were  against  him ;  surely  his  case 
required  it ;  he  had  such  moles  perpetually  working 
and  casting  to  undermine  him.  Neither  can  it  be 
reprehended ;  for  if  spials  be  lawful  against  lawful 
enemies,  much  more  against  conspirators  and  traitors. 
But  indeed  to  give  them  credence  by  oaths  or  curses, 
that  cannot  be  well  maintained ;  for  these  are  too  holy 
vestments  for  a  disguise.  Yet  surely  there  was  this 
further  good  in  his  employing  of  those  flies  and  famil- 
iars ;  that  as  the  use  of  them  was  cause  that  many 
conspiracies  were  revealed,  so  the  fame  and  suspicion 
of  them  kept  (no  doubt)  many  conspiracies  from  being 
attempted. 

Towards  his  Queen  he  was  nothing  uxorious  ;  nor 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


361 


scarce  indulgent 


but  companiable  and  respective,  and 

without  jealousy.     Towards  his  children  he  was  full  of 

;it(Tii;il  affection,  careful  of  their  education,  aspiring  to 

eir  high  advancement,  regular  to  see  that  they  should 

ot   want  of  any   due  honour  and  respect ;    but  not 

eatly  willing  to  cast  any  popular  lustre  upon  them. 

To  his  counsel  he  did  refer  much,  and  sat  oft  in  per- 

on  ;  knowing  it  to  be  the  way  to  assist  his  power  and 

form  his  judgment :    in  which  respect  also  he  was 

irly  patient  of  liberty  both   of  advice  and  of  vote, 

ill  himself  were  declared. 

He  kept  a  strait  hand  on   his  nobility,  and  chose 

rather  to  advance  clergymen  and  lawyers,  which  were 

ore  obsequious  to  him,  but  had  less  interest  in  the 

eople ;  which  made  for  his  absoluteness,  but  not  for 

his  safety.     Insomuch  as  I  am  persuaded  it  was  one 

f  the  causes  of  his  troublesome  reign.     For  that  his 

nobles,  though  they  were  loyal  and  obedient,  yet  did 

not  cooperate  with  him,  but  let  every  man  go  his  own 

ay.     He  was  not  afraid  of  an  able  man,  as  Lewis  the 

Eleventh  was.     But  contrariwise  he  was  served  by  the 

ablest  men  that  then  were  to  be  found ;  without  which 

his  affairs  could  not  have  prospered  as  they  did.     For 

war,    Bedford,    Oxford,    Surrey,    Dawbeny,    Brooke, 

Poynings.     For  other  affairs,  Morton,  Foxe,  Bray,  the 

rior  of  Lanthony,  Warham,  Urswick,  Hussey,  Fro- 

ick,  and  others.     Neither  did  he  care  how  cunning 

they  were  that  he  did  employ :  for  he  thought  himself 

to  have  the  master-reach.     And  as  he  chose  well,  so 

he  held  them  up  well.     For  it  is  a  strange  thing,  that 

though  he  were  a  dark  prince,  and  infinitely  suspicious, 

and  his  times  full  of  secret  conspiracies  and  troubles ; 

yet  in  twenty-four  years  reign  he  never  put  down  or 


362  HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 

discomposed  counsellor  or  near  servant,  save  only  Stan- 
ley the  Lord  Chamberlain.  As  for  the  disposition  of 
his  subjects  in  general  towards  him,  it  stood  thus  with 
him ;  that  of  the  three  affections  which  naturally  tie 
the  hearts  of  the  subjects  to  their  sovereign,  —  love, 
fear,  and  reverence,  —  he  had  the  last  in  height ;  the 
second  in  good  measure ;  and  so  little  of  the  first,  as 
he  was  beholding  to  the  other  two. 

He  was  a  Prince,  sad,  serious,  and  full  of  thoughts 
and  secret  observations ;  and  full  of  notes  and  me- 
morials of  his  own  hand,  especially  touching  per- 
sons ;  as  whom 1  to  employ,  whom  to  reward,  whom 
to  inquire  of,  whom  to  beware  of,  what  were  the  de- 
pendencies, what  were  the  factions,  and  the  like  ;  keep- 
ing (as  it  were)  a  journal  of  his  thoughts.  There  is 
to  this  day  a  merry  tale ;  that  his  monkey  (set  on  as 
it  was  thought  by  one  of  his  chamber)  tore  his  prin- 
cipal note-book  all  to  pieces,  when  by  chance  it  lay 
forth :  whereat  the  court  which  liked  not  those  pensive 
accounts  was  almost  tickled  with  sport. 

He  was  indeed  full  of  apprehensions  and  suspicions. 
But  as  he  did  easily  take  them,  so  he  did  easily  check 
them  and  master  them  ;  whereby  they  were  not  dan- 
gerous, but  troubled  himself  more  than  others.  It  is 
true,  his  thoughts  were  so  many,  as  they  could  not 
well  always  stand  together ;  but  that  which  did  good 
one  way,  did  hurt  another.  Neither  did  he  at  some 
times  weigh  them  aright  in  their  proportions.  Cer- 
tainly that  rumour  which  did  him  so  much  mischief 
(that  the  Duke  of  York  should  be  saved  and  alive) 
was  (at  the  first)  of  his  own  nourishing,  because  he 
would  have  more  reason  not  to  reign  in  the  right  of 
1  The  rest  of  the  MS.  is  lost. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII. 


363 


3  wife.     He  was   affable,   and   both   well   and   fair 
>oken ;   and  would  use  strange  sweetness  and  blan- 
lishments  of  words,  where  he  desired  to  effect  or  per- 
suade  any   thing   that   he    took   to   heart.      He   was 
ither  studious  than  learned ;  reading  most  books  that 
rere  of  any  worth,  in  the  French   tongue.     Yet  he 
Lderstood  the  Latin,  as  appeareth   in  that  Cardinal 
[adrian  and  others,  who  could  very  well  have  written 
Yench,  did  use  to  write  to  him  in  Latin. 

For  his  pleasures,  there  is  no  news  of  them.     And 
ret  by  his  instructions  to  Marsin  and  Stile  touching 
the  Queen  of  Naples,  it  seemeth  he  could  interrogate 
well  touching  beauty.     He  did  by  pleasures  as  great 
Princes  do  by  banquets,  come  and  look  a  little  upon 
them,   and  turn  way.     For   never  Prince  was  more 
wholly  given  to  his  affairs,  nor  in  them  more  of  him- 
self: insomuch  as  in  triumphs   of  justs  and  tourneys 
and  balls  and  masks  (which  they  then  called  disguises) 
le  was   rather  a  princely  and  gentle  spectator  than 
jemed  much  to  be  delighted. 
No  doubt,  in  him  as  in  all  men  (and  most  of  all  in 
Kings)  his  fortune  wrought  upon  his  nature,  and  his 
lature  upon  his  fortune.     He  attained  to  the  crown, 
Lot  only  from  a  private  fortune,  which  might  endow 
dm  with  moderation  ;  but  also  from  the  fortune  of  an 
exiled  man,  which  had  quickened  in  him  all  seeds  of 
observation  and  industry.     And  his  times  being  rather 
>rosperous  than  calm,  had  raised  his  confidence  by  suc- 
cess, but  almost  marred  his  nature  by  troubles.     His 
risdom,    by   often    evading   from   perils,   was   turned 
ither  into  a  dexterity  to  deliver  himself  from  dangers 
when  they  pressed  him,  than  into  a  providence  to  pre- 
vent and  remove  them  afar  off.    And  even  in  nature, 


364  HISTOKY  OF  KING  HENRY   VII. 

the  sight  of  his  mind  was  like  some  sights  of  eyes ; 
rather  strong  at  hand  than  to  carry  afar  off.  For 
his  wit  increased  upon  the  occasion ;  and  so  much 
the  more  if  the  occasion  were  sharpened  by  danger. 
Again,  whether  it  were  the  shortness  of  his  foresight, 
or  the  strength  of  his  will,  or  the  dazzling  of  his  suspi- 
cions, or  what  it  was ;  certain  it  is  that  the  perpetual 
troubles  of  his  fortunes  (there  being  no  more  matter 
out  of  which  they  grew)  could  not  have  been  without 
some  great  defects  and  main  errors  in  his  nature,  cus- 
toms, and  proceedings,  which  he  had  enough  to  do  to 
save  and  help  with  a  thousand  little  industries  and 
watches.  But  those  do  best  appear  in  the  story  itself. 
Yet  take  him  with  all  his  defects,  if  a  man  should  com- 
pare him  with  the  Kings  his  concurrents  in  France  and 
Spain,  he  shall  find  him  more  politic  than  Lewis  the 
Twelfth  of  France,  and  more  entire  and  sincere  than 
Ferdinando  of  Spain.  But  if  jou  shall  change  Lewis 
the  Twelfth  for  Lewis  the  Eleventh,  who  lived  a  little 
before,  then  the  consort  is  more  perfect.  For  that 
Lewis  the  Eleventh,  Ferdinando,  and  Henry,  may  be 
esteemed  for  the  tres  magi  of  kings  of  those  ages.  To 
conclude,  if  this  King  did  no  greater  matters,  it  was 
long  of  himself;  for  what  he  minded  he  compassed. 

He  was  a  comely  personage,  a  little  above  just 
stature,  well  and  straight  limbed,  but  slender.  His 
countenance  was  reverend,  and  a  little  like  a  church- 
man :  and  as  it  was  not  strange  or  dark,  so  neither 
was  it  winning  or  pleasing,  but  as  the  face  of  one 
well  disposed.  But  it  was  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
painter,  for  it  was  best  when  he  spake. 

His  worth  may  bear  a  tale  or  two,  that  may  put 
upon  him  somewhat  that  may  seem  divine.     When 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VII.  365 

the  Lady  Margaret  his  mother  had  divers  great  suit- 
ors for  marriage,  she  dreamed  one  night  that  one  in 
the  likeness  of  a  bishop  in  pontifical  habit  did  tender 
ler  Edmund  Earl  of  Richmond  (the   King's  father) 
>r  her  husband.      Neither  had    she    ever   any  child 
rat-  the  King,  though  she  had  three  husbands.     One 
ly  when   King  Henry  the  Sixth  (whose  innocency 
ive  him  holiness)  was  washing  his  hands  at  a  great 
jast,   and   cast   his    eye   upon    King    Henry,   then   a 
oung  youth,   he  said ;   "  This  is    the  lad  that   shall 
>ossess  quietly  that  that  we  now  strive  for."      But 
hat  that  was  truly  divine  in  him,  was  that  he  had 
te  fortune  of  a  true  Christian  as  well  as  of  a  great 
jng,   in  living  exercised  and  dying  repentant.      So 
he  had  an  happy  warfare  in  both  conflicts,   both 
)f  sin  and  the  cross. 

He  was  born  at  Pembroke  Castle,  and  lieth  buried 

it  Westminster,  in  one  of  the  stateliest  and  daintiest 

lonuments   of  Europe,   both  for  the   chapel  and  for 

the  sepulchre.     So  that  he  dwelleth  more  richly  dead, 

in  the  monument  of  his  tomb,  than  he  did  alive  in 

Richmond  or   any  of  his   palaces.     I 

could  wish  he  did  the  like  in  this 

monument  of  his  fame. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. 


GREAT   COUNCILS. 


There  are  three  places  in  this  history  (see  pp.  114.  17(k 
260.)  in  which  I  have  ventured  an  opinion  that  what  is 
called  by  our  historians  a  Parliament  was  in  reality  a  Great 
Council.  The  positive  and  particular  grounds  for  the  con- 
jecture may  be  best  understood  in  connexion  with  the  narra- 
tive, and  have  therefore  been  explained  in  the  several  places. 
Certain  general  objections  which  may  perhaps  suggest  them- 
selves, will  be  answered  more  conveniently  here. 

It  may  be  objected  in  the  first  place  that  the  point  being 
one  of  considerable  constitutional  importance,  it  is  not  likely 
that  Bacon  would  have  overlooked  it.  Polydore  Vergil  in- 
deed, who  was  a  foreigner ;  Hall,  who  merely  followed  Poly- 
dore, using  no  independent  judgment  of  his  own  ;  Holinshed, 
who  followed  Hall ;  even  Stowe  and  Speed,  who  though  dili- 
gent and  original  explorers  were  not  statesmen  and  consti- 
tutional lawyers ;  —  all  these  might  easily  make  the  mistake 
and  overlook  the  difficulties  which  it  involves.  But  Bacon's 
acquiescence  in  such  an  error,  if  error  it  be,  is  not  so  easily 
accounted  for.  So  familiar  as  he  was  with  the  practical 
working  of  government  and  the  practical  solution  of  state- 
problems  ;  so  inquisitive  as  he  was  into  the  particular  ways 
and  methods  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  regarded  as  a  study  in 


368  APPENDIX  I. 

the  art  of  government;  so  learned  as  he  must  have  grown, 
by  thirty  years'  service  as  a  law  officer  of  the  Crown,  and 
more  than  thirty  as  a  member  of  Parliament,  in  constitu- 
tional precedents ;  so  diligent  and  vigilant  as  he  was  in  ob- 
serving what  he  calls  the  "  real  passages  "  of  affairs,  —  the 
real  means  by  which  ends  were  brought  about ;  —  it  must 
be  admitted  that  he  was  a  man  very  unlikely  to  overlook 
the  evidences  of  such  a  fact  and  quite  certain  not  to  overlook 
the  importance  of  it.  The  adoption  therefore  by  Bacon  of 
Polydore  Vergil's  story,  is  a  negative  argument  against  my 
conjecture  which  it  is  necessary  to  remove. 

But  on  referring  to  the  particulars,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  direct  evidence  of  the  fact  in  each  case  is  drawn  almost 
entirely  from  sources  which  were  not  within  Bacon's  reach. 
At  the  time  he  wrote,  there  was  no  accessible  collection  of 
state-documents  resembling  Rymer's  Fcedera,  and  apparently 
no  accessible  record  by  which  it  could  be  ascertained  at  what 
precise  date  the  several  Parliaments  in  this  reign  were  called. 
The  Herald's  narrative,  which  supplies  the  only  positive  evi- 
dence we  have  as  to  the  first  of  these  Great  Councils,  it  is 
clear  that  he  had  not  seen.  Henry  the  Seventh's  privy-seal, 
which  contains  positive  evidence  as  to  the  last,  is  a  single 
sheet,  which  may  not  have  been  in  Sir  Robert  Cotton's 
possession  at  the  time,  and  if  it  was  may  easily  have  been 
overlooked  ;  and  without  it,  the  notice  in  the  old  Chronicle, 
though  distinct  and  of  great  weight,  would  have  been  hardly 
sufficient  perhaps  to  establish  the  fact.  Now  if  we  should 
set  aside  all  the  evidence,  direct  or  inferential,  which  is  de- 
rived from  these  sources,  there  would  really  be  no  ground 
for  suspecting  the  accuracy  of  Polydore's  narrative.  There- 
fore that  Bacon  did  not  anticipate  the  conjecture,  is  not  in 
fact  any  presumption  against  it. 

Another  objection  may  be  drawn  from  the  silence  of  con- 
temporary historians  as  to  the  fact,  and  of  the  constitutional 
writers  of  the  next  century  as  to  the  practice.  It  may  be 
urged,  and  urged  with  much  appearance  of  reason,  that  if 


i 


APPENDIX  I. 


369 


the  calling  of  a  Great  Council,  such  as  I  suppose  these  to 
have  been,  was  in  those  days  a  new  or  a  very  unusual  thing, 
it  would  have  made  a  noise  at  the  time ;  and  then  how  came 
Fabyan,  or  Polydore,  or  Hall,  who  were  contemporaries,  not 
to  have  heard  of  it  ?  And  that  if  on  the  contrary  it  was  a 
tiling  frequent  and  familiar  to  people  in  the  days  of  Henry 
the  Seventh,  it  must  have  been  familiar  to  students  of  the 
constitution  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  James  the  First; 
and  then  how  came  Sir  Edward  Coke,  in  the  fourth  part 
of  his  Institutes,  to  give  an  elaborate  account  of  the  consti- 
tution and  functions  of  the  Council,  without  alluding  to  a 
practice  of  such  considerable  constitutional  importance;1  or 
how  was  it  that  during  the  latter  half  of  James  the  First's 
reign,  when  the  government  was  in  continual  embarrassment 
from  the  opposition  of  the  Lower  House  of  Parliament,  the 
experiment  of  reviving  this  practice,  and  calling  a  "  Great 
Council"  for  deliberation  and  advice,  was  never  (as  far  as 
I  know)  proposed  for  consideration  or  once  mentioned,  at 
least  by  that  name  ?  2 

Fortunately  it  is  not  necessary  to  answer  this  question ;  for 
there  is  no  doubt  about  the  fact.  That  "  Great  Councils," 
precisely  such  as  I  suppose  these  to  have  been,  were  fre- 
quently summoned  during  the  three  reigns  of  the  House  of 
Lancaster,  is  a  fact  established  by  direct  evidence  altogether 
conclusive.  In  the  Proceedings  and  Ordinances  of  the  Privy 
Council,  edited  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  in  1834,  there  is  dis- 


1  In  the  first  part  of  the  Institutes  (ii.  10.  164.)  Coke  mentions  the  Mag- 
num Concilium,  as  meaning  sometimes  the  Upper  House  of  Parliament; 
and  sometimes,  when  Parliament  was  not  sitting,  the  "  Peers  of  the  realm, 
Lords  of  Parliament,  who  are  called  (he  says)  Magnum  Concilium  Regis." 
But  he  says  nothing  of  any  peculiar  function  belonging  to  it,  or  of  the 
occasions  on  which  it  was  called. 

2  The  Council  before  which  Robert  Earl  of  Essex  was  charged,  heard, 
and  censured  on  the  5th  of  June,  1600;  and  that  before  which  James's 
Learned  Counsel  recommended  that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  should  be  charged 
and  heard  in  1618;  were  very  like  Great  Councils  both  in  composition 
and  in  function ;  but  I  do  not  find  any  allusion  to  the  precedent  in  either 
case. 

vol.  xi.  24 


CTO  APPENDIX  I. 

tinct  mention  made  of  not  less  than  sixteen  "  Great  Coun- 
cils" called  during  the  sixty-one  years  of  the  Lancastrian 
dynasty,  and  there  are  traces  of  more.  The  latest  of  which 
there  is  record  there  was  in  1459  ;  only  twenty-six  years  be- 
fore the  accession  of  Henry  the  Seventh.  And  we  are  not 
to  conclude,  because  this  is  the  last  recorded,  that  it  was  the 
last  which  took  place  :  for  the  records  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  Council  from  the  end  of  Henry  the  Sixth's  to  nearly  the 
end  of  Henry  the  Eighth's  reign  are  almost  all  lost ;  and 
therefore  the  negative  evidence  is  of  no  value.  Positive 
evidence  on  the  other  hand  is  not  wanting  to  show  that  the 
practice  was  in  use  at  least  seventeen  years  after.  Twice  in 
the  Paston  Correspondence  we  meet  with  news  of  the  Coun- 
cil then  sitting ;  which  on  both  occasions  the  editor  supposes 
(see  table  of  contents)  to  mean  Parliament ;  though  it  is  cer- 
tain that  no  Parliament  was  sitting  at  the  time.  One  is 
stated  to  have  ended  on  the  3rd  of  March  1473-4,  the  last 
day  of  Edward  the  Fourth's  13th  year;  the  other  as  having 
begun  on  the  13th  of  February,  in  his  16th  year;  that  is, 
1476-7.  See  Vol.  II.  pp.  158.  205.  This  brings  us  within 
nine  years  of  Henry  the  Seventh's  accession.  So  that,  even 
if  that  were  the  latest  precedent,  there  would  be  nothing 
strange  either  in  the  name  or  the  thing. 

Of  the  distinctive  character  and  functions  of  these  Great 
Councils  the  clearest  and  most  complete  description  which  I 
have  met  with  is  in  Sir  Matthew  Hale's  Jurisdiction  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  published  by  Hargrave  in  1796  j1  but  the 

1  "  This  magnum  consilium  was  of  two  kinds;  viz.  a  magnum  consilium 
out  of  Parliament,  and  a  magnum  consilium  in  Parliament.  The  former  of 
these  was  commonly  upon  some  emergent  occasion,  that  either  in  respect 
of  the  suddenness  could  not  expect  the  summoning  of  Parliament,  or  in 
respect  of  its  nature  needed  it  not,  or  was  intended  but  as  preparative  to 
it But  the  form  of  these  Great  Councils  was  varied.  For  some- 
times only  some  few  of  the  prelates  and  nobility  were  called  to  it,  and 
none  of  the  consilium  ordinarium,  as  claus.  33.  E.  3.  m.  dors.  At  other 
times  not  only  the  nobility,  prelates,  and  consilium  ordinarium  were  called, 
but  also  there  went  out  writs  to  every  sheriff  to  return  one  knight  for  each 
county,  aud  to  divers  cities  and  boroughs  to  return  one  citizen  or  burgess, 


APPENDIX  I.  371 

fullest  and  most  authentic  evidence,  and  that  which  comes 
nearest  to  the  times  in  question,  is  to  be  found  in  the  records 
published  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas. 

"  They  appear  to  have  been  summoned  (he  says)  when- 
ever a#airs  of  greater  moment  occurred  than  the  '  Continual 
Council '  thought  proper  to  determine,  but  were  not  of  such  a 
nature  or  suck  a  degree  of  importance  as  to  render  it  advis- 
able to  bring  them  before  Parliaments  The  Peers  spiritual 
and  temporal  were  considered  as  belonging  to  the  Great 
Council  of  course ;  "  Lords  of  the  Great  Council "  appears 
to  have  been  one  of  their  titles.  And  it  is  probable  that  in 
ordinary  cases  it  was  composed  (according  to  Mr.  Hallam's 
conjecture;  "Middle  Ages"  vol.  iii.  p.  213.)  of  these  alone, 
in  conjunction  with  the  members  of  the  "Continual"  Coun- 
cil. But  it  is  certain  that  on  some  special  occasions  many 
commoners  were  joined  with  them ;  specially  selected  from 
various  qualities,  professions,  and  localities,  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  question  in  debate.  Thus,  in  the  second  year 
of  Henry  the  Fourth,  on  the  20th  of  July,  1401,  letters 
were  addressed  to  the  "  Continual  Council,"  commanding 
them  (pour  certaines  chargeantes  matires  touchantes  nous  et 
notre  roiaume)  to  summon  all  the  Prelates,  Earls,  and  Bar- 
ons of  the  realm,  and  from  four  to  eight  of  the  most  sufficient 
and  discreet  Knights  of  each  County,  to  attend  a  Council  at 
Westminster  on  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption  next  ensuing. 
And  a  second  letter  was  addressed  to  them  on  the  following 
day  commanding  that  a  certain  number  of  Esquires  should  be 
likewise  summoned  to  attend  this  Council.     The  object  was 

as  was  done  clans.  27.  E.  3.  m.  12.  dors,  upon  the  making  of  the  ordinance 
of  the  staple.  But  this  magnum  consilium  had  nothing  of  legislative  power 
nor  jurisdiction;  and  therefore  the  ordinances  of  the  staple  were  after 
enacted  by  Parliament  to  supply  the  defect  of  a  law.  I  never  yet  saw  any 
private  petition,  or  footsteps  of  jurisdiction  exercised  by  such  a  Grand 
Council.  —  These  Grand  Councils  have  been  rarely  summoned  of  late 
years;  businesses  of  state  being  usually  despatched  by  the  Privy  Council, 
and  if  of  very  great  importance  in  Parliament.  The  only  Grand  Council 
that  hath  been  in  my  remembrance  was  that  at  York,  at  the  coming  in  of 
the  Scots."  —  Hale's  Jurisdiction  of  die  House  of  Lords,  chap.  2.  §  3. 


372  APPENDIX  I. 

to  have  their  advice  with  regard  to  the  war  with  France  ; 
and  it  appears  from  a  list  annexed  that  the  Council  was 
attended  by  about  150  Knights  and  Esquires,  besides  the 
Lords  spiritual  and  temporal.  (See  Proceedings  and  Ordi- 
nances of  the  P.  C.  vol.  i.  p.  155.,  and  Rymer  viii.  213.) 

Again,  a  minute  of  Council  dated  the  7th  of  March, 
1442-3,  (21  Hen.  6.)  directs  that  there  be  "made  letters 
under  privy  seal  to  all  the  King's  freemen,  and  also  to  the 
King's  Great  Council,  to  be  with  the  King  in  his  Great 
Council  at  Westminster  at  the  15th  of  Pasque,  all  excita- 
tions ceasing,  for  the  good  of  his  realm,  lordships,  and  sub- 
jects." (Proceedings  and  Ordinances,  v.  p.  237.)  The  occa- 
sion of  this  was  also  a  French  war. 

I  have  selected  these  two  instances  as  containing  the  most 
distinct  mention  that  I  can  find  of  the  summoning  of  persons 
who  were  not  members  of  the  King's  Council  by  rank  or 
office,  and  of  their  character  and  quality.  In  other  cases 
they  are  less  distinctly  mentioned  as  "  et  plusieurs  autres"  or 
"  et  aliorum  ad  Mud  convocatorum."  In  others,  and  indeed 
in  the  majority,  there  are  no  traces  of  the  presence  of  any 
persons  besides  the  Lords  and  the  members  of  the  Continual 
Council.  The  questions  on  which  they  were  summoned  to 
advise  and  deliberate  were  not  always  questions  of  peace  and 
war.  Sometimes  it  was  a  question  of  raising  money ;  as  in 
the  first  year  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  when  in  order  to  avoid 
the  necessity  of  calling  a  Parliament  and  taxing  the  Com- 
mons, it  was  agreed  that  the  Peers  themselves  should  grant 
the  King  an  aid,  and  that  letters  of  Privy  Seal  should  be 
sent  to  all  the  Abbots  for  the  same  purpose.  (See  Vol.  I. 
p.  102.)  And  again  in  the  third  year  of  Henry  the  Fifth, 
when  the  Lords  temporal,  who  had  undertaken  in  a  previous 
Parliament  to  do  the  King  service  in  his  wars  upon  certain 
terms  of  payment,  consented  to  allow  him  a  longer  day  for 
the  payment,  considering  that  the  supplies  granted  by  Par- 
liament for  the  purpose  could  not  be  levied  soon  enough. 
(II.  p.  150.)     In  the  seventh  year  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  a 


APPENDIX  I. 


373 


Great  Council  was  summoned  to  advise  upon  a  proposal  that 
the  King  should  be  crowned  in  France,  and  also  upon  the 
means  of  supplying  a  deficiency  in  the  revenue.  In  his 
ninth  year  a  Great  Council  was  summoned  to  advise  upon 
the  expediency  of  calling  a  Parliament.  (IV.  p.  67.)  In  the 
next  year  the  question  of  the  salary  of  the  Lieutenant  of 
England  was  referred  to  a  Great  Council.  (IV.  p.  105.)  In 
his  twelfth  year,  a  proposal  having  been  made  for  peace  with 
Scotland  by  marriage  of  the  King  with  one  of  the  Scottish 
King's  daughters,  and  the  Continual  Council  having  consid- 
ered the  proposition,  but  not  liking  to  give  advice  on  a  matter 
of  such  weight,  referred  it  to  the  King's  uncles  ;  who  in  their 
turn  "  doubting  greatly  to  take  upon  them  sole  so  great  a 
charge,"  requested  that  a  "  Great  Council "  might  be  called 
to  deliberate  upon  it.  (IV.  p.  191.)  The  minutes  of  the 
Council  which  was  called  in  consequence  (IV.  210-213.)  and 
which  met  soon  after  the  siege  of  Orleans  and  the  beginning 
of  the  English  reverses  in  France,  make  no  mention  of  this 
subject ;  but  of  a  dispute  between  the  Dukes  of  Bedford  and 
Gloucester,  and  a  question  as  to  the  ways  and  means  of  rais- 
ing 40  or  50,000/.  for  carrying  on  the  war,  according  to  a 
proposition  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  In  the  sixteenth  year 
of  Edward  the  Fourth,  Sir  John  Paston  informs  his  corre- 
spondent (vol.  ii.  p.  205.)  that  "  yesterday  began  the  Great 
Council ;  to  which  all  the  estates  of  the  land  shall  come  but 
if  it  be  for  great  and  reasonable  excuses.  And  I  suppose  the 
chief  cause  of  this  assembly  is  to  commune  what  is  best  to  do 
now  upon  the  great  change  by  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgoyne  and  for  the  keeping  of  Calais  and  the  marches, 
and  for  the  preservation  of  the  amities  taken  late  as  well 
with  France  as  now  with  the  members  of  Flanders." 

It  is  clear  therefore  that  the  reference  to  a"  Great  Coun- 
cil "  of  such  questions  as  formed  the  subject  of  deliberation 
on  the  three  occasions  to  which  my  conjecture  refers  was 
quite  according  to  precedent,.  It  would  appear  moreover 
from  the  minutes  that  the  proceedings  always  began  with  a 


374  APPENDIX  II. 

speech  by  the  Chancellor,  setting  forth  the  questions  upon 
which  they  were  called  to  deliberate  and  advise.  So  that  in 
all  but  the  name  and  the  account  of  laws  passed  (which  were 
in  fact  passed  by  the  Parliament  that  met  just  before  or  just 
after),  Bacon's  narrative  may  be  a  correct  report  of  the  pro- 
ceeding in  each  case. 


No.  II. 
Perkyn   Werbeeks  his  Proclamation 

published  in  the  time  of  his  Rebellion  in  the  beginning  of  the 
Reign  of  H.  7.1 

Richard  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  England  and  of 
France,  Lord  of  Ireland,  Prince  of  Wales,  to  all  those  that 
these  our  present  letters  shall  see  hear  or  read,  and  to  every 
of  them,  greeting :  and  whereas  we  in  our  tender  age  escaped 
by  God's  might  out  of  the  tower  of  London,  and  were 
secretly  conveyed  over  the  sea  into  other  divers  countries, 
there  remaining  certain  years  as  unknown ;  in  the  which 
season  it  happened  one  Henry,  son  to  Edmund  Tydder,  Earl 
of  Richmond  created,  son  to  Owen  Tydder,  of  low  birth,  in 
the  country  of  Wales,  to  come  from  France  and  entered  into 
this  our  realm ;  and  by  subtle  false  means  to  obtain  the 
crown  of  the  same  unto  us  of  right  appertaining ;  which 
Henry  is  our  extreme  and  mortal  enemy  as  soon  as  he  had 
knowledge  of  our  being  one  live,  imagined,  compassed  and 
wrought  all  the  subtle  ways  and  means  he  could  devise  to  our 

1  Harl.  MSS.  283.  fo.  123.  b.  "  The  original  of  this,  in  an  old  written 
hand,  is  in  the  hands  of  Sir  Robert  Cotton;  18  August,  1616." — Note  in 
the  hand  of  the  transcriber. 


APPENDIX  II. 


375 


final  destruction,  insomuch  as  he  hath  not  only  falsely  sur- 
mised us  to  be  a  feigned  person,  giving  us  nicknames  so 
abusing  your  minds,  but  also  to  defer  and  put  us  from  our 
entry  into  this  our  realm,  hath  offered  large  sums  of  money 
to  corrupt  the  princes  in  every  land  and  country  and  that  we 
have  been  retained  with  and  made  importune  labour  to  cer- 
tain of  our  servants  about  our  person  some  of  them  to  mur- 
der our  person,  us  [m'c]  and  other  to  forsake  and  leave  our 
righteous  quarrel,  and  to  depart  from  our  service,  as  by  Sir 
Robert  Clifford  and  others  was  verified  and  openly  proved, 
and  to  bring  his  cursed  and  malicious  intent  aforesaid  to  his 
purpose  he  hath  subtilly  and  by  crafty  means  levied  outra- 
geous and  importable  sums  of  moneys  upon  the  whole  body 
of  our  realm,  to  the  great  hurt  and  impoverishing  of  the 
same :  all  which  subtle  and  corrupt  labours  by  him  made  to 
our  great  jeopardy  and  peril,  we  have  by  God's  might  gra- 
ciously escaped  and  overpassed,  as  well  by  land  as  by  sea, 
and  be  now  with  the  right  high  and  mighty  prince  our  dear- 
est cousin  the  King  of  Scots,  which  without  any  gift  or  other 
thing  by  him  desyred  or  demanded  to  the  prejudice  or  hurt 
of  us  our  crown  or  realm,  hath  full  lovingly  and  kindly  re- 
tained us,  by  whose  aid  and  supportation  we  in  proper  person 
be  now  by  God's  grace  entered  into  this  our  realm  of  Eng- 
land, where  we  shall  shew  ourselves  openly  unto  you,  also 
confounding  our  foresaid  enemy  in  all  his  false  sayings  and 
also  every  man  of  reason  and  discretion  may  well  understand 
that  him  needed  not  to  have  made  the  foresaid  costages  and 
importune  labour  if  we  had  been  such  a  feigned  person  as  he 
untruly  surmiseth,  ascertaining  you  how  the  mind  and  intent 
of  the  foresaid  noble  prince  our  dearest  cousin  is,  if  that  he 
may  find  or  see  our  subjects  and  natural  liege  people  accord- 
ing to  right  and  the  duty  of  their  allegiance  resort  lovingly 
unto  us  with  such  power  as  by  their  puissance  shall  move, 
[sic,  nowe  ?]  be  able  of  likelyhood  to  distress  and  subdue  our 
enemies,  he  is  fully  set  and  determined  to  return  home  again 
quietly  with  his  people  into  his  own  land,  without  doing  or 


376  APPENDIX  II. 

suffering  to  be  done  any  hurt  or  prejudice  unto  our  realm,  or 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  same.  Also  our  great  enemy  to  for- 
tify his  false  quarrel  hath  caused  divers  nobles  of  this  our 
realm  whom  he  had  suspect  and  stood  in  dread  of,  to  be  cru- 
elly murdered,  as  our  cousin  the  Lord  Fitzwater,  Sir  William 
Stanley,  Sir  Robert  Chamberlaine,  Sir  Symon  Mounteford, 
Sir  Robert  Radclyfe,  William  Daubeney,  Humphrey  Staf- 
ford, and  many  other,  besides  such  as  have  dearly  bought 
their  lives,  some  of  which  nobles  are  now  in  the  sanctuary : 
also  he  hath  long  kept  and  yet  keepeth  in  prison  our  right 
entirely  well  beloved  cousin  Edward  son  and  heir  to  our 
uncle  Duke  of  Clarence  and  others,  withholding  from  them 
their  rightful  inheritance  to  the  intent  they  ne  should  be  of 
might  and  power  to  aid  and  assist  us  at  our  need,  after  the 
duty  of  their  leigeance.  He  hath  also  married  by  compulsion 
certain  of  our  sisters  and  also  the  sister  of  our  foresaid 
cousin  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  divers  other  ladies  of  the 
blood  royal  unto  certain  his  kinsmen  and  friends  of  simple 
and  low  degree,  and  putting  apart  all  well  disposed  nobles  he 
hath  none  in  favour  and  trust  about  his  person  but  Bishop 
Foxe,  Smith,  Bray,  Lovell,  Oliver  King,  Sir.  Charles  Somer- 
set, David  Owen,  Rysley,  Sir  John  Trobulvill,  Tyler,  Robert 
Lytton,  Gylford,  Chamley,  Emson,  James  Hobert,  John 
Cutte,  Garthe,  Hansey,  Wyot,  and  such  other  caitiffs  and 
villains  of  simple  birth,  which  by  subtle  inventions  and  pill- 
ing of  the  people  have  been  the  principal  finders,  occasion- 
ers,  and  counsellors  of  the  misrule  and  mischief  now  reign- 
ing in  England. 

Also  we  be  credibly  informed  that  our  said  enemy  not 
regarding  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  this  land,  but  only 
the  safeguard  and  surety  of  his  person,  hath  sent  into  divers 
places  out  of  our  realm  the  foresaid  nobles,  and  caused  to 
be  conveyed  from  thence  to  other  places  the  treasure  of  this 
our  realm,  purposing  to  depart  after  in  proper  person  with 
many  other  estates  of  the  land  being  now  at  his  rule  and 
disposition,  and  if  he  should  be  so  suffered  to  depart  as  God 


APPENDIX  II.  377 

defend  it  should  be  to  the  greatest  hurt  jeopardy  and  peril 
of  the  whole  realm  that  could  be  thought  or  imagined. 
Wherefore  we  desire  and  pray  you  and  nevertheless  charge 
you  and  every  of  you  as  ye  intend  the  surety  of  yourself 
and  the^commonweal  of  our  land,  your  native  ground,  to  put 
you  in  your  most  effectual  devoirs  with  all  diligence  to  the 
Uttermost  of  your  powers,  to  stop  and  let  his  passage  out 
of  this  our  realm,  ascertaining  you  that  what  person  or  per- 
sons shall  fortune  to  take  or  distress  him  shall  have  for  his 
or  their  true  acquittal  in  that  behalf  after  their  estate  and 
degrees,  so  as  the  most  low  and  simplest  of  degree  that  shall 
happen  to  take  or  distress  him,  shall  have  for  his  labour  one 
thousand  pounds  in  money,  and  houses  and  lands  to  the 
yearly  value  of  one  hundred  marks  to  him  and  his  heirs  for 
ever.  We  remembering  these  premises  with  the  great  and 
execrable  offences  daily  committed  and  done  by  our  foresaid 
great  enemy  and  his  adherents  in  breaking  the  liberty  and 
franchises  of  our  mother  holy  Church  to  the  high  displeasure 
of  Almighty  God,  besides  the  manifold  treasons,  abominable 
murders,  manslaughters,  robberies,  extortions,  the  daily  pill- 
ing of  the  people  by  dismes  tasks  tallages  benevolences 
and  other  unlawful  impositions  and  grievous  exactions,  with 
many  other  heinous  offences  to  the  likely  destruction  and 
desolation  of  the  whole  realm  as  God  defend,  shall  put  our- 
self  effectually  in  our  devoir,  not  as  a  step-dame  but  as  the 
very  true  mother  of  the  child,  languishing  or  standing  in 
peril  to  redress  and  subdue  the  foresaid  mischief  and  mis- 
rule and  to  punish  the  occasioners  and  haunters  thereof  after 
their  deserts  in  example  of  others.  We  shall  also  by  God's 
grace  and  the  help  and  assistance  of  the  great  lords  of  our 
blood  with  the  counsel  of  other  sad  persons  of  approved 
policy  prudence  and  experience  dreading  God  and  having 
tender  zeal  and  affection  to  indifferent  ministration  of  justice 
and  the  public  weal  of  the  land,  peruse  and  call  to  remem- 
brance the  good  laws  and  customs  heretofore  made  by  our 
noble  progenitors  kings  of  England  and  see  them  put  in  due 


378  APPENDIX  II. 

and  lawful  execution  according  to  the  effect  and  true  mean- 
ing they  were  first  made  or  ordained  for,  so  that  by  virtue 
thereof  as  well  the  disinheriting  of  rightful  heirs  as  the 
injuries  and  wrongs  in  anywise  committed  and  done  unto 
the  subjects  of  our  realm,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  shall 
be  duly  redressed  according  to  right  law  and  good  conscience 
and  we  shall  see  that  the  commodities  of  our  realm  be  em- 
ployed to  the  most  advantage  of  the  same,  the  intercourse 
of  merchandises  betwixt  realm  and  realm,  to  be  ministered 
and  handled  as  shall  more  be  to  the  commonweal  and  pros- 
perity of  our  subjects,  and  all  such  dismes  tasks  tallages 
benevolences  unlawful  impositions  and  grievous  exactions 
as  be  above  rehearsed  utterly  to  be  foredone  and  laid  apart 
and  never  from  henceforth  to  be  called  upon  but  in  such 
causes  as  our  noble  progenitors  kings  of  England  have  of 
old  time  been  accustomed  to  have  the  aid  succour  and  help 
of  their  subjects  and  true  liegemen. 

Also  we  will  that  all  such  persons  as  have  imagined  com- 
passed or  wrought  privily  or  apertly  since  the  reign  of  our 
foresaid  enemy  or  before  anything  against  us  except  such 
as  since  the  reign  have  imagined  our  death  shall  have  their 
free  pardon  for  the  same  of  their  lives  lands  and  goods,  so 
that  they  at  this  time  according  to  right  and  the  duty  of 
their  allegiances  take  our  righteous  quarrel  and  part  and 
aid  comfort  and  support  us  with  their  bodies  and  goods. 

And  over  this  we  let  you  wot  that  upon  our  foresaid 
great  enemy  his  adherents  and  part-takers,  with  all  other 
such  as  will  take  their  false  quarrel  and  stand  in  their  de- 
fence against  us  with  their  bodies  or  goods,  we  shall  come 
and  enter  upon  them  as  their  heavy  lord  and  take  and  repute 
them  and  every  of  them  as  our  traitors  and  rebels  and  see 
them  punished  according,  and  upon  all  other  our  subjects 
that  according  to  right  and  the  duty  of  their  leigance  will 
aid  succour  and  comfort  us  with  their  powers  with  their 
[lives]  or  goods  or  victual  our  host  for  ready  money,  we 
shall  come  and  enter  upon  them  lovingly  as  their  natural 


APPENDIX  III. 


379 


leige  lord  and  see  they  have  justice  to  them  equally  minis- 
tered upon  their  causes:  wherefore  we  will  and  desire  you 
and  every  of  you  that  incontinent  upon  the  hearing  of  this 
our  proclamation  ye  according  to  the  duty  of  your  alle- 
giances '-aready  yourselves  in  your  best  defensible  array 
and  give  your  personal  attendance  upon  us  where  we  shall 
then  fortune  to  be,  and  in  so  doing  ye  shall  find  us  your 
right  especial  and  singular  good  lord  and  so  to  see  you  rec- 
ompensed and  rewarded  as  by  your  service  shall  be  unto 
us  deserved. 


No.  III. 


CHARACTER  OF   HENRY  VII. 


(From  the  Latin  Translation.) 

Rex  iste  (ut  verbis  utamur  quse  merita  ejus  exaequent) 
fuit  instar  miraculi  cujusdam :  ejus  scilicet  generis,  quod  pru- 
dentes  attonitos  reddit,  imperitos  leviter  perceltit.  Plurima 
siquidem  habuit  et  in  virtutibus  suis  et  in  fortuna,  quae  non 
tarn  in  locos  communes  cadunt,  quam  in  observationes  pru- 
dentes  et  graves.  Vir  certe  fuit  pius  ac  religiosus,  et  affectu 
et  cultu:  sed  ut  erga  superstitionem,  pro  modo  temporum 
suorum,  satis  perspicax,  ita  interdum  politicis  rationibus  et 
consiliis  nonnihil  occaecatus.  Personarum  ecclesiasticarum 
promotor,  erga  asylorum  privilegia  (quae  tanta  ei  mala  peper- 
erant)  non  durus.  Haud  pauca  religiosorum  coenobia  fun- 
davit,  dotavit ;  quibus  accedit  memorabile  illud  hospitale 
Savoya  dictum.  Magnus  nihilominus  eleemosynarius  in  se- 
creto ;  quod  luculenter  indicat,  etiam  publica  ilia  opera  Dei 
gloriae,  non  suae,  data.  Pacem  se  summopere  et  amare,  et 
pro  viribus  procurare,  perpetuo  prae  se  tulit.  Atque  illud  in 
foederum  praefationibus  illi  frequens  fuit ;  Pacem,  cum  Chris- 


380  APPENDIX  III. 

tus  in  mundum  veniret,  anyelos  prcecinuisse ;  cum  e  mundo 
excederet,  ipsum  Dominum  legasse.  Neque  hoc  ei,  timori 
aut  animi  mollitiei  imputari  poterat  (quippe  qui  animosus  fue- 
rit  et  bellator),  sed  virtu ti  vere  Christianae  et  morali.  Neque 
tamen  illud  eum  fugit,  a  via  pacis  aberrare  ilium,  qui  earn 
nimio  plus  videatur  appetere:  itaque  famas  et  rumores  et 
apparatus  belli  saepe  excitabat,  donee  pacis  conditiones  in 
melius  flecteret.  Etiam  illud  notatu  non  indignum,  quod 
tarn  sedulus  pacis  amator  in  bellis  tarn  felix  extiterit.  Siqui- 
dem  arma  et  expeditiones  ejus  neque  in  bellis  externis  neque 
in  civilibus,  unquam  ei  improspere  cesserunt;  neque  noverat 
ille  quid  clades  bellica  esset.  Bellum  in  adeptione  regni, 
necnon  Comitis  Lincolniae  et  Baronis  Audlaei  rebelliones,  ter- 
minavit  victoria.  Bella  Gallica  et  Scotica  pax,  sed  pax  ab 
hostibus  ultro  petita.  Bellum  illud  Britannia?,  casus  ;  mors 
nimirum  Britanniae  ducis.  Tumultus  Baronis  Lovelli,  item 
Perkini,  tam  ad  Exoniam  quam  in  Cantio,  fuga  rebellium, 
antequam  praelium  tentarent :  adeo  ut  propria  ei  fuerit  armo- 
rum  felicitas,  atque  inviolata.  Cujus  rei  causa  haud  parva, 
quatenus  ad  seditiones  intestinas  compescendas,  proculdubio 
fuit,  quod  in  iis  restinguendis  personam  suam  nunquam  sub- 
traxerit.  Prima  quandoque  pugnae  per  duces  suos  transegit, 
cum  ipse  ad  suppetias  ferendas  praesto  esset:  sed  aliquam 
belli  partem  semper  ipse  attigit.  Neque  tamen  hoc  ipsum 
omnino  propter  alacritatem  et  fortitudinem,  sed  partim  ob 
suspiciones,  quod  aliis  parce  fideret. 

Leges  regni  in  magno  honore  semper  habuit,  easque  auc- 
toritate  sua  munire  videri  voluit.  Licet  hoc  ipsum  non 
minimo  quidem  ei  esset  impedimento,  ad  ea  quae  voluit  pro 
arbitrio  suo  exequenda.  Ita  enim  commode  earum  habenas 
tractavit,  ut  ne  quid  de  proventibus  suis,  aut  etiam  prreroga- 
tiva  regia,  intercideret.  Attamen  tali  usus  est  temperamento, 
ut  sicut  interdum  leges  suas  ad  prasrogativas  suae  jura  tra- 
heret  et  prope  torqueret ;  ita  rursus  per  vices  prserogativam 
suam  ad  legum  aequabilitatem  et  moderationem  consulto  de- 
mitteret.     Etenim  et  monetarum  regimen,  et  belli  ac  pacis 


APPENDIX  III. 


381 


tractates  et  consilia,  et  rei  militaris  administrationem,  (quae 
onmino  absoluti  juris  sunt)  ssepenumero  ad  Comitiorum  Reg- 
ni  deliberationes  et  vota  referebat.  Justitia,  temporibus  suis, 
recte  et  a3quabiliter  administrata  fuit ;  prceterquam  cum  rex 
lite  pars  esset ;  praeterquam  etiam,  quod  consilium  priva- 

im  regis  communibus  causis  circa  meum  et  tuum  se  nimis 
lisceret.     Etenim  consessus  ille  mera  erat  turn  curia  et 

'ibunal  justitiae,  praesertim  sub  regni  sui  initiis.  Enimvero 
ilia  justitiae  parte  quae  fixa  est  et  tanquam  in  aere  incisa 
hoc  est  prudentia  legislatorial  prorsus  excelluit.  Justitiam 
suam  misericordia  et  dementia  temperavit ;  utpote  sub 

ijus  regno  tres  tantum  ex  nobilitate  poena  capitali  affecti 

mt :  Comes  nempe  Warwicensis,  Aulae  Regiae  Camerarius, 
it  Baro  Audleius.     Quamvis  priores  duo  instar  multorum 

ssent,   quatenus   ad   invidiam   et    obloquia   apud   populum. 

d  ne  auditu  quidem  cognitum  erat,  tantas  rebelliones  tarn 
)arca  sanguinis  per  gladium  justitiae  missione  expiatas  fuisse, 
[uam  fuerunt  duae  illae  insignes  rebelliones,  Exoniae  et  prope 

rrenovicum.      Severitas   autem   ilia,  satis    cruenta,  qua  in 

'imos   illos   infimae   conditionis   homines   qui   Cantium  ap- 

ilerunt  animadversum  est,  ad  faecem  quandam  populi  tan- 

lm  pertinebat.     Diplomata  autem  ilia  generalia,  quae  gra- 

tm  prreteritorum  rebellibus  faciebant,  perpetuo  arma  sua  et 

>raeibant   et   sequebantur.      Videre   autem   erat   apud   eum 

liram  quandam  et  inusitatam  gratiae  larga  manu  praebitae  et 
)lane  inexpectatae  cum  suppliciorum  severitate  alternationem. 
Quod  quidem,  si  tanti  principis  prudentiam  cogitemus,  minime 

iconstantiae  aut  consiliorum  vacillationi  imputari  poterit ;  sed 
mt  causae  alicui  secretae,  quae  jam  nos  latet ;  aut  regulae 
midam,  quam  sibi  praescripserat,  ut  rigoris  et  mansuetudinis 
das  per  vices  experiretur.  Sed  quo  minus  sanguinis,  eo 
)lus  pecuniae  haurire  solebat.  Atque  ut  nonnulli  satis  malev- 
)le  interpretabantur,  in  altero  fuit  continentior  ut  in  altero  pre- 

leret  magis :  utrunque  enim  intolerabile  plane  fuisset.  Natura 
►roculdubio  erat  ad  accumulandos  thesauros  pronior,  et  divi- 
tias  plus  quam  pro  fastigio  suo  admirabatur.     Populus  certe 


382  APPENDIX  III. 

quibus  hoc  natura  inditum  est,  ad  conservandas  monarchias, 
ut  principes  suos  excusent,  licet  saepenumero  minus  juste  in 
consiliarios  eorum  et  ministros  culpam  rejiciant,  hoc  ipsum 
Mortono  Cardinali  et  Reginaldo  Braio  consiliario  imputabat : 
qui  tamen  viri  (ut  postea  luculenter  patebat)  utpote  qui  pro 
veteri  ipsorum  apud  eum  auctoritate  et  gratia  plurimum  pol- 
lebant,  ita  ingenio  ejus  obsecundabant,  ut  id  tamen  nonnihil 
moderarentur  :  ubi  contra  qui  sequebantur,  Empsonus  et 
Dudleius,  viri  nullius  apud  eum  auctoritatis  nisi  quatenus 
cupiditatibus  illius  servilem  in  modum  ministrabant,  viam  ei 
non  tantum  praeberent,  verum  etiam  sternerent,  ad  eas  op- 
pressiones  et  concussiones  pro  pecuniis  undique  excutiendis, 
quarum  et  ipsum  sub  finem  vitae  sua?  poenituit,  quibusque 
successor  ejus  renunciavit ;  quin  et  easdem  diluere  et  expiare 
connixus  est.  Iste  autem  excessus  tunc  temporis  complures 
nactus  est  interpretationes  et  glossas.  Nonnulli  in  ea  opini- 
one  erant,  perpetuas  rebelliones  quibus  toties  vexatus  fuit 
eum  ad  hoc  redegisse,  ut  odio  populum  suum  haberet.  Alii 
judicium  faciebant,  hoc  eo  tendisse,  ut  ferocitatem  populi 
reprimeret,  eumque  propter  inopiam  humiliorem  redderet. 
Alii  eum  filio  suo  vellus  aureum  relinquere  cupiisse.  Alii 
denique,  eum  cogitationes  secretas  de  bello  aliquo  externo 
animo  agitasse.  Verum  illi  forsitan  ad  veritatem  propius 
accedent,  qui  causas  hujus  rei  minus  longe  petunt,  easque 
attribuunt  naturae  suae,  aetati  ingravescenti,  paci  quae  opes 
alit,  animoque  nulla  alia  ambitione  aut  opere  occupato.  Qui- 
bus illud  addere  placet,  eum,  quod  quotidie  per  occasiones 
varias  inopiae  mala  et  dimciles  pecuniarum  conquisitiones  in 
aliis  principibus  observaret,  ex  comparatione  quadam  plena- 
rum  arcarum  felicitatem  melius  agnovisse.  Quatenus  ad 
modum  quern  servabat  in  thesauris  impendendis,  hoc  habuit, 
ut  nunquam  sumptui  parceret  quern  negotia  sua  postulabant : 
in  aedificando  magnificus,  in  remunerando  tenacior :  ita  ut 
liberalitas  sua  potius  se  applicaret  ad  ea  quae  ad  statum  suum 
proprium  aut  memoriam  nominis  sui  pertinerent,  quam  ad 
praemia  benemeritorum. 


APPENDIX  III.  383 

Fuit  ille  alti  et  excelsi  animi ;  propria^  sententia?,  proprii 
consilii,  amator;  utpote  qui  seipsum  revereretur,  et  ex  se 
revera  regnare  vellet.  Si  privatse  conditionis  fuisset,  super- 
bus  proculdubio  habitus  esset :  sed  in  principe  prudente  nihil 
aliud  hoc  fuit,  quam  ut  intervallum  et  spatium  justum  et  deb- 
itum  inter  se  et  subditos  suos  tueretur ;  quod  certe  erga  omnes 
constanter  tenuit ;  nemini  propinquum  permittendo  aditum, 
neque  ad  auctoritatem  suam  neque  ad  secreta.  A  nullo  enim 
ex  suis  regebatur.  Regina,  consors  ejus,  licet  eum  compluri- 
bus  pulcherrimis  liberis,  quinetiam  corona  ipsa  (utcunque 
illud  fateri  non  sustineret),  beasset,  parum  apud  eum  potuit. 
Matrem  magna  sane  reverentia  prosecutus  est,  sed  ad  partici- 
pationem  consiliorum  suorum  raro  admovit.  Qui  vero  grati 
ob  conversationem  ipsi  forent  (qualis  fuit  Hastingus  apud 
regem  Edwardum  quartum,  aut  Carolus  Brandonus  postea 
apud  Henricum  octavum)  nulli  fuerant ;  nisi  forte  inter  tales 
numeraremus  Foxum  Episcopum,  et  Braium,  et  Empsonum ; 
quod  eos  tam  frequenter  secum  habuit.  Sed  non  alio  modo, 
quam  sicut  instrumentum  plerunque  secum  habet  artifex. 
Glorise  inanis,  si  in  aliquo  alio  principe,  minimum  in  illo  fuit ; 
ita  tamen  ut  de  majestate,  quam  ad  summum  fastigium  usque 
semper  attollebat,  nihil  remitteret;  haud  ignarus,  majestatis 
reverentiam  populum  in  obsequio  continere,  inanem  autem 
gloriam  (si  quis  recte  rem  sestimet)  reges  populari  aurse 
prostituere. 

Erga  foederatos  suos  justum  se  et  constantem  prasbuit, 
tectum  tamen  et  cautum;  sed  contra,  tam  diligenter  in  eos 
lquirebat,  se  interim  ita  velans  et  reservans,  ut  illi  aspice- 
mtur,  tanquam  in  lumine  positi ;  ipse,  veluti  in  tenebris  col- 
>catus,  lateret :  absque  specie  tamen  hominis  se  occultantis, 
3d  potius  libere  et  familiariter  communicantis  negotia  sua, 
me  de  illorum  rebus  vicissim  percontantis.  Quantum  au- 
im  ad  pusillas  illas  invidias  et  aemulationes  (quae  inter  prin- 
dpes,  haud  parvo  rerum  suarum  detrimento,  intercedere 
)lent),  nihil  tale  in  eo  cernere  erat ;  sed  suas  res  sedulo  et 
)lide  agebat.     Atque  certissimum  est,  existimationem  ejus 


384  APPENDIX  III. 

domi  magnam,  in  externis  partibus  adhuc  majorem  et  illus- 
triorem  fuisse.  Exteri  enim,  qui  negotiorum  ejus  ductus  et 
vias  particulares  cernere  non  poterant,  sed  summas  tantum 
et  exitus  eorum  intuebantur,  eum  perpetuo  conflictari  et  per- 
petuo  superiorem  esse  animadvertebant.  Partim  etiam  in 
causa  erant  literae  et  relationes  legatoruin  exterorum,  qui  in 
comitatu  aulae  suae  magno  nuniero  erant.  Quibus  non  tan- 
tum comitate,  muneribus,  et  colloquiis  familiaribus  satisfacie- 
bat,  verum  in  colloquiis  illis  suis  baud  parva  admiratione  illos 
perstrinxit,  cum  viderent  universalem  ejus  rerum  Europsea- 
rum  notitiam.  Quam  licet  ex  ipsis  legatis  eorumque  infor- 
mationibus  maxima  ex  parte  hauserat,  nihilominus  quod  ab 
universis  collegerat  admirationi  erat  singulis.  Ita  ut  magna 
semper  conscriberent  ad  superiores  suos  de  prudentia  ejus  et 
artibus  imperandi.  Imo  post  reditum  eorum  in  patrias  suas, 
per  literas  de  rebus  omnimodis  scitu  dignis  eum  frequenter 
certiorem  faciebant.  Tantae  fuit  dexteritatis  in  conciliandis 
sibi  principum  externorum  ministris. 

Omnibus  profecto  modis  sollicitus  erat  de  procuranda  sibi 
et  obtinenda  rerum  ubique  occurrentium  notitia.  Quam  ut 
assequeretur,  non  tantum  exterorum  ministrorum  qui  apud 
se  residebant  industria  usus  est,  atque  pensionariorum  suorum 
quos  tarn  in  curia  Romana  quam  alibi  in  aulis  principum 
fovebat ;  verum  etiam  sui  ipsius  legatorum  qui  apud  exteros 
perfungebantur.  Quern  in  finem,  mandata  ejus  usque  ad  curi- 
ositatem  diligentissima  erant,  et  per  articulos  ordine  digestos ; 
inter  quos  plures  erant  plerunque  quae  ad  inquisitionem  quam 
quae  ad  negotiationem  pertinerent :  exigendo  responsa  particu- 
laria  et  articulata,  ad  quaestiones  suas  respectiva. 

Quantum  vero  ad  emissarios  suos,  quos  tam  domi  quam 
foras  ad  explorandas  machinationes  et  conjurationes  contra 
se  initas  subornabat ;  sane  hoc,  quo  loco  res  suae  erant,  ap- 
prime  necessarium  fuit.  Tot  in  eum  veluti  talpae  subter- 
raneae  perpetuo  operam  dabant,  quo  statum  ejus  labefactarent 
et  subfoderent.  Neque  hoc  illicitum  habendum  est.  Etenim 
si  in  bello  exploratores  probantur  adversus  hostes  legitimos, 


APPENDIX  III. 


385 


multo  magis  adversus  conjuratos  et  proditores.  Verum  ut 
fides  lmjusmodi  exploratoribus  concilietur  per  juramenta,  et 
per  <xeerationes,  atque  anathemata  contra  illos  tanquam 
(lOBtes  fulminata,  defensionem  justam  non  capit.  Sacra  enim 
ista  vestimenta  larvis  non  conveniunt.  Veruntamen  habebat 
lud  in  se  boni  industria  ista  emissarios  adhibendi,  ut  quem- 
admodum  opera  eorum  multae  conjurationes  detectae,  ita 
etiam  fama  eorum  et  diffidentia  inde  nata  plurimae  ne  ten- 

rentur  proculdubio  cohibitae  fuerint. 

Maritus  erat  minime  uxorius,  ne  indulgens  quidem;  sed 
comis,  et  consortio  blandus,  et  sine  zelotypia.  Lrga  liberos 
suos  itidem  paterno  plenus  affectu,  magnam  suscipiens  cu- 
ram  de  iis  optime  educandis  ;  ad  hoc  etiam  animi  quadam 
altitudine  aspirans,  ut  conditiones  eis  dignas  et  sublimes 
procuraret ;  honores  quoque,  quales  amplitudinem  eorum 
condecerent,  ab  omnibus  deferri  curavit ;  sed  non  admodum 
cupidus  ut  in  oculis  populi  sui  extollerentur. 

Ad  Sanctius  Consilium  suum  plurima  negotia  referebat, 
ubi  frequenter  et  ipse  prsesidebat ;  satis  gnarus  hoc  pacto  se 
via  recta  et  solida  insistere  tarn  ad  auctoritatem  suam  robo- 
randam  quam  ad  judicium  suum  informandum.  Ad  quern 
etiam  finem,  patiens  fuit  libertatis  eorum,  tarn  in  suadendo 
quam  in  suffragia  ferendo,  donee  animi  sui  sensum,  quem 
ad  finem  deliberationum  reservare  solebat,  declarasset.  No- 
bilitati  suae  aliquantum  gravis  fuit,  et  ad  negotia  sua  potius 
ecclesiasticos  et  jurisconsultos  evehebat ;  qui  magis  ad  obse- 
quium  parati,  et  apud  populum  minus  gratiosi  erant;  quod 
quidem  ut  imperiose  regnaret  profuit,  ut  tuto  non  item. 
Adeo  ut  mihi  persuasissimum  sit,  hunc  ejus  morem  fuisse 
causam  non  exiguam  crebrarum  perturbationum  quae  sub 
regimine  suo  contigerunt ;  propterea  quod  proceres  regni,  licet 
fidi  et  obedientes,  non  tamen  alacriter  cum  eo  cooperabantur ; 
sed  vota  ejus  magis  eventui  permittebant  quam  ad  efFectum 
urgebant.  Nunquam  sibi  metuit  a  servis  et  ministris  elatior- 
ibus  ingeniis  et  virtutibus  prgeditis ;  id  quod  in  moribus  erat 
Ludovico  undecimo  Galliae  regi :  sed  e  contra  ad  sua  negotia 

VOL.  XI.  26 


386  APPENDIX  III. 

admovit  viros  qui  suis  temporibus  maxime  eminebant ;  quod 
ni  fecisset,  fieri  non  potuit  ut  res  suae  tam  prospere  cedere 
potuissent.  Hi  erant,  nimirum  in  rebus  bellicis,  Dux  Bed- 
fordise,  Comites  Oxoniae,  et  Surrise ;  Barones  Daubeney,  et 
Brookus ;  et  Poyningus,  eques  auratus.  In  rebus  autem 
civilibus,  Mortonus,  Foxus,  Braius,  Prior  de  Lanthony, 
Warhamus,  Urswicus,  Frowicus,  et  alii.  Neque  ei  curae 
erat,  quam  vafri  et  callidi  essent  quibus  negotia  committebat. 
Putabat  enim  sui  ipsius  artes  eorum  artibus  posse  praedom- 
inari.  Sicut  autem  in  ministris  deligendis  summo  judicio 
agebat ;  ita  et  in  iis  quos  delegerat  protegendis  haud  minore 
utebatur  constantia.  Mirabile  enim  quiddam  est,  quod  licet 
princeps  esset  occulti  et  reconditi  sensus,  et  majorem  in 
modum  suspicax,  tempora  quoque  sua  turbulenta  et  conjura- 
tionum  plena,  spatio  tamen  viginti  quatuor  annorum  quibus 
regnavit  nunquam  consiliarium  aliquem  suum  aut  interiorem 
ministrum  dejecit  aut  discomposuit,  excepto  solo  Stanleio, 
Aulae  suae  Camerario.  Quatenus  vero  ad  subditorum  suo- 
rum  erga  eum  affectus,  ita  res  erat ;  ut  ex  tribus  illis  afFecti- 
bus  qui  corda  subditorum  erga  principes  suos  devinciunt, 
amore  scilicet,  metu,  et  reverentia ;  ultimo  horum  eximie 
gauderet,  secundo  mediocriter,  tertio  autem  tam  parce,  ut 
reliquis  duobus  securitatem  suam  deberet. 

Princeps  erat  subtristis,  serius,  et  cogitabundus ;  quique 
secretas  in  animo  suo  observationes  et  curas  foveret ;  cui 
etiam  commentarioli  et  memoriae  manu  propria  scriptae  praesto 
semper  erant,  praecipue  circa  personas  :  quos  nimirum  ex 
subditis  suis  ad  munia  destinaret;  quibus  prcemiorum  debi- 
tor esset ;  de  quibus  inquirendum ;  a  quibus  cavendum ;  qui 
itidem  essent  inter  se  maxime  aut  factione  aut  meritis  col- 
ligati,  et  veluti  in  partes  descendissent ;  et  similia ;  veluti 
diaria  quasdam  cogitationum  suarum  componens  et  servans. 
Traditur  etiam  hodie  narratio  quaedam  faceta,  cercopithe- 
cum  suum  (ab  aliquo  ex  suis  cubiculariis,  ut  creditum  est, 
impulsum)  die  quodam  praecipuum  ex  diariis  suis,  tunc  forte 
incuriose  positum,  in  frusta  innumera  discerpsisse.     Ad  quod 


APPENDIX  III.  387 

aulici,  quibus  anxia  ilia  diligentia  minime  complacebat,  risu 
prope  disrumpebantur. 

Quamvis  autem  esset  apprehensiohum  et  suspicionum  ple- 
nus,  attamen  sicut  facile  eas  admittebat,  ita  rursus  dimittebat, 
easque^judicio  suo  subjiciebat.  Unde  potius  sibi  ipsi  mo- 
lestae,  quam  in  alios  periculosae,  existebant.  Fatendum  est 
tamen,  cogitationes  suas  tarn  fuisse  numerosas  et  complicatas 
ut  siniul  stare  saepius  non  possent,  sed  quod  in  aliquibus  pro- 
desset  ad  alia  obesset ;  neque  fieri  potuit  ut  adeo  ultra  mor- 
tale  prudens  esset  aut  felix,  ut  rerum  pondera  justa  perpetuo 
exciperet.  Certe  rumor  ille  qui  tot  et  tantas  ei  turbas  con- 
citavit,  nempe  quod  dux  Eboraci  dimissus  et  adhuc  superstes 
fuit,  sub  principiis  vires  et  fidem  ab  ipso  nactus  est ;  quia 
scilicet  hoc  credi  volebat,  ut  mollius  ei  imputaretur,  quod  in 
jure  proprio  et  non  in  uxoris  jure  regnaret. 

Affabilis  fuit,  et  blanda  quadam  eloquentia  pollens,  mag- 
naque  prorsus  uti  consueverat  verborum  dulcedine  et  ille- 
cebris,  cum  aliquid  suadere  aut  perficere  vellet  quod  enixe 
cupiebat.  Studiosus  magis  erat,  quam  eruditus;  libros  ple- 
runque  qui  Gallica  lingua  conscripti  erant  legens.  Licet 
Latinae  lingua?  rudis  non  esset ;  quod  ex  eo  patet,  quod  Ha- 
drianus  Cardinalis,  et  alii,  quibus  lingua  Gallica  satis  famili- 
aris  erat,  nihilominus  Latine  ad  eum  semper  scriberent. 

Quatenus  ad  delicias  et  voluptates  hujus  regis,  muta 
prorsus  est  earum  memoria.  Nihilominus  apparet  ex  man- 
datis  illis  quae  Marsino  et  Stilo  circa  reginam  Neapolitanam 
dedit,  eum  de  forma  et  pulchritudine  ejusque  partibus  perite 
admodum  interrogare  potuisse.  Cum  voluptatibus  sic  agere 
solebat,  ut  reges  magni  cum  mensis  bellariorum;  pauhsper 
eas  inspicientes,  et  statim  terga  vertentes.  Neque  enim  un- 
quam  regnavit  princeps  qui  magis  negotiis  suis  deditus  esset ; 
totus  in  illis,  et  totus  ex  sese.  Ita  ut  in  hastiludiis  et  turnea- 
mentis  et  aliis  pugnarum  simulacris,  nec-non  saltationibus 
personatis  et  hujusmodi  celebritatibus,  potius  cum  dignitate 
quadam  et  comitate  spectator  esse  videretur,  quam  iis  mag- 
nopere  capi  aut  delectari. 


388  APPENDIX  III. 

In  eo  proculdubio,  ut  in  caeteris  mortalibus  universis  (ac 
prascipue  in  regibus),  fortuna  influxum  quendam  habebat  in 
mores,  et  mores  vicissim  in  fortunam.  Ad  culmen  regnum 
ascendit,  non  tantum  a  fortuna  privata,  quae  moderatione  eum 
imbuere  posset,  verumetiam  a  fortuna  exulis,  quae  stimulos 
ei  industriae  et  sagacitatis  addiderat.  Tempora  autem  regi- 
minis  sui,  cum  essent  potius  prospera  quam  tranquilla,  con- 
fidentiam  ex  successibus  addiderant ;  naturam  interim  suam 
assiduis  vexationibus  fere  perverterant.  Prudentia  autem 
ejus,  per  frequentes  e  periculis  emersiones  (quae  subitis  eum 
remediis  fidere  docuerant),  versa  est  potius  in  dexteritatem 
quandam  seipsum  e  malis  quando  ingruerent  extricandi, 
quam  in  providentiam  ilia  ex  longinquo  arcendi  et  summo- 
vendi ;  sed  et  indole  propria  oculi  mentis  ejus  non  absimilea 
erant  oculis  quorundam  corporalibus,  qui  ad  objecta  prope 
sita  validi  sunt,  ad  remotiora  infirmi.  Prudentia  enim  ejus 
occasione  ipsa  subito  suscitabatur :  atque  eo  magis,  si  occa- 
sioni  accesserit  periculum.  Atque  haec  fortuna  in  naturam 
suam  potuit.  Nee  deerant  rursus  quae  natura  sua  fortuna? 
suae  imposuit.  Nam  sive  hoc  tribuendum  sit  providentiae 
ejus  defectui;  aut  in  rebus  quas  decreverat  pertinaciae;  aut 
suspicionibus,  quae  aciem  mentis  ejus  perstringebant ;  vel 
quicquid  aliud  in  causa  fuit;  certum  est,  fortunae  suae  per- 
turbationes  continuas  (praesertim  nulla  violenta  occasione 
subnixas)  exoriri  non  potuisse  absque  magnis  aliquibus  in 
natura  sua  impedimentis,  et  erroribus  in  constitutione  animi 
sui  radicali;  quae  necesse  habuit  salvare  et  emendare  per 
mille  pusillas  industrias  et  artes.  Verum  ilia  omnia  aper- 
tius  se  produnt  in  historia  ipsa.  Veruntamen,  intueamur 
licet  eum  cum  defectibus  suis  omnibus,  si  quis  eum  cum 
regibus  in  Gallia  et  Hispania,  contemporaneis  suis,  conferat ; 
reperiet  eum  Ludovico  duodecimo  Galliarum  regi,  prudentia 
civili,  et  Ferdinando  Hispaniarum,  fide  et  candore,  anteponi 
debere.  At  si  Ludovicum  duodecimum  demas,  et  Ludovi- 
cum  undecimum,  qui  paulo  ante  regnavit,  substituas ;  magis 
convenient  exempla,  fierentque  verius  parallela.     Illi  enim 


APPENDIX  HI. 

tres,  Ludovicus,  Ilenricus,  et  Ferdinandus,  pro  Tribus  Magis 
censeri  possunt  inter  illiua  astatis  principes.  Ut  verbo  con- 
cludamus,  si  rex  iste  res  majores  non  gessit,  in  causa  ipse 
fail   sibi ;  quicquid  enim  suscepit,  perfecit. 

Corpore  erat  Henricua  decoro,  statura  justa  paulo  pro- 
eerior,  erectus,  et  membrorum  compage  bona,  sed  gracilis. 
Vultus  erat  talis  quae  reverentiam  incuteret,  et  aspectum 
viri  ecclesiastici  aliquantum  referret.  Et  sicut  minirae  erat 
obscurus  aut  superciliosus,  ita  neque  blandus  aut  conciliator : 
sed  tanquam  facies  hominis  animo  compositi  et  quieti:  sed 
non  commoda  pictori ;  gratiosior  scilicet  facta  cum  loque- 
retur. 

Hujus  regis  dignitas  praecellens  pati  possit,  ut  memoren- 
tur  narrationes  quaepiam  quae  ei  divinum  aliquid  iraponant. 
Cum  matris  ejus  Margaretae,  foeminae  raris  virtutibus  orna- 
tae,  nuptias  multi  proci  ambirent ;  visa  est  videre  in  somniis 
virum  quendam  episcopo  similem,  habitu  pontificali,  tradere 
ei  in  manum  Edmundum  Comitem  RichmondiaB.  Henrici* 
patrem,  pro  marito.  Neque  ilia  liberos  unquam  alios  con- 
cepit,  praeter  regem,  licet  tribus  maritis  nupta.  Quodam 
etiam  die  festo,  cum  Henricus  sextus  (cui  innocentia  sancti- 
tatem  astruebat)  a  prandio  lavaret,  oculosque  in  Henricum, 
tunc  adolescentulum,  conj  iceret,  dixit :  Adolescens  iste  coro- 
nam,  pro  qua  nos  confligimus,  pacifice  tandem  possidebit. 
Sed  quod  vere  in  eo  divinum  censeri  possit,  hoc  fuit ;  quod 
non  minus  fortunam  boni  Christiani  quam  magni  regis  sorti- 
tus  sit ;  vita  exercitata,  morte  poenitenti.  Ita  ut  non  magis  in 
mundanis  quam  spiritualibus  victor  triumphaverit ;  et  militia 
ei  in  conflictibus  tam  peccati  quam  crucis  prospere  cesserit. 

Natus  est  apud  castrum  Pembrochiae,  sepultus  apud  Wesl- 
monasterium,  in  monumento  inter  opera  Europae  pulcher- 
rimo  et  elegantissimo,  sive  capellam  spectes  sive  sepulchrum. 
Adeo  ut  magnificentius  jam  in  sepulchri  sui  monumento  habi- 
tet  mortuus,  quam  vivus  aut  Riclimondiaa  aut  in  alio  quo- 
piam  palatio  suo  habitaveiat.  Optaverim  ut  idem  ei  con- 
tigisset  in  hoc  famae  sine  monumento. 


THE 


iEGINNING  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  REIGN 


KING    HENRY    THE    EIGHTH. 


PREFACE. 


The  history  of, Henry  the  Eighth  was  undertaken 
by  desire  of  Prince  Charles,  to  whom  the  history 
of  Henry  the  Seventh  was  dedicated.  The  under- 
taking did  not  suit  very  well  with  Bacon's  plans  at 
that  time;  for  it  must  have  been  a  long  business, 
owing  to  the  quantity  of  original  letters  and  other 
documents  that  had  been  preserved  and  must  have 
been  consulted,  and  he  was  now  anxious  to  make 
the  most  of  his  time  in  pushing  on  his  philosophical 
inquiries.  He  seems  to  have  entered  upon  it  without 
appetite  and  proceeded  somewhat  reluctantly.  He 
had  some  difficulty  also  in  obtaining  free  use  of  the 
requisite  materials.  Answering  a  letter  from  Tobie 
Matthew  (then  with  the  Prince  and  Buckingham  in 
Spain)  dated  26th  of  June,  1623,  he  writes,  "  Since 
you  say  the  Prince  hath  not  forgotten  his  command- 
ment touching  my  history  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  I 
may  not  forget  my  duty.  But  I  find  Sir  Robert  Cot- 
ton, who  poured  forth  what  he  had  in  my  former 
work,  somewhat  dainty  of  his  materials  in  this." 
And  in  sending  the  Prince  a  copy  of  the  De  Aug- 
mentis  Scientiarum,  then  newly  published  (22nd  of 
October,  1623),  he  says,  "  For  Henry  the  Eighth,  to 
deal  truly  with  your  Highness,  I  did  so  despair  of 


394 


PREFACE. 


my  health  this  summer,  as  I  was  glad  to  choose  some 
such  work  as  I  might  compass  within  days :  so  far 
was  I  from  entering  into  any  work  of  length."  How 
far  he  proceeded  in  gathering  materials,  or  at  what 
time  this  opening  paragraph  was  written,  we  are  not 
informed.  But  we  know  from  Dr.  Rawley  that  this 
was  all  he  ever  did  of  it. 

It  was  published  by  Dr.  Rawley  in  1629,  in  a  small 
volume  entitled  "  Certain  Miscellany  works  of  the 
Right  Hon.  Francis  Lord  Verulam,  Viscount  St.  Al- 
ban."  But  I  have  preferred  to  take  the  text  from  a 
manuscript  copy  in  the  British  Museum  (additional 
MSS.  5503,  f.  120  b.)  :  which  I  suspect  to  be  a  more 
original  authority. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  REIGN 


KING   HENRY   THE   EIGHTH. 


After  the  decease  of  that  wise  and  fortunate  King, 
King  Henry  the  Seventh,  who  died  in  the  height  of 
his  prosperity,  there  followed  (as  useth  to  do  when 
the  sun  setteth  so  exceeding  clear)  one  of  the  fairest 
mornings  of  a  kingdom  that  hath  been  known  in  this 
land  or  anywhere  else.  A  young  King  about  eigh- 
teen years  of  age,  for  stature,  strength,  making,  and 
beauty,  one  of  the  goodliest  persons  of  his  time.  And 
although  he  were  given  to  pleasure,  yet  he  was  like- 
wise desirous  of  glory;  so  that  there  was  a  passage 
open  in  his  mind  by  glory  for  virtue.  Neither  was 
he  unadorned  with  learning,  though  therein  he  came 
short  of  his  brother  Arthur.  He  had  never  any  the 
least  pique,  difference,  or  jealousy,  with  the  King  his 
father,  which  might  give  any  occasion  of  altering  court 
or  counsel  upon  the  change  ;  but  all  things  passed  in 
a  still.  He  was  the  first  heir  of  the  White  and  of 
the  Red  Rose ;  so  that  there  was  no  discontented  party 
now  left  in  the  kingdom,  but  all  men's  hearts  turned 
towards  him  ;  and  not  only  their  hearts,  but  their  eyes 


396  HISTORY   OF  KING  HENRY   VIII. 

also  ;  for  he  was  the  only  son  of  the  kingdom.  He 
had  no  brother;  which  though  it  be  a  comfort1  for 
Kings  to  have,  yet  it  draweth  the  subjects'  eyes  a 
little  aside.  And  yet  being  a  married  man  in  those 
young  years,  it  promised  hope  of  speedy  issue  to  suc- 
ceed in  the  Crown.  Neither  was  there  any  Queen 
Mother,  who  might  share  any  way  in  the  government 
or  clash  with  the  counsellors  for  authority,  while  the 
King  intended  his  pleasure.  No  such  thing  as  any 
great  or 2  mighty  subject  who  might  eclipse 3  or  over- 
shade  the  imperial  power.  And  for  the  people  and 
state  in  general,  they  were  in  such  lowness  of  obe- 
dience, as  subjects  were  like  to  yield  who  had  lived 
almost  four  and  twenty  years  under  so  politic  a  King 
as  his  father ;  being  also  one  who  came  partly  in  by 
the  sword,  and  had  so  high  a  courage  in  all  points 
of  regality,  and  was  ever  victorious  in  rebellions  and 
seditions  of  the  people.  The  Crown  extremely  rich 
and  full  of  treasure  ;  and  the  kingdom  like  to  be  so 
in  short  time.  For  there  was  no  war,  no  dearth,  no 
stop  of  trade  or  commerce ;  it  was  only  the  Crown 
which  sucked4  too  hard;  but5  now  being  full,  and 
upon  the  head  of  a  young  King,  it  was  like  to  draw 
the  less.6  Lastly,  he  was  inheritor  of  his  father's  rep- 
utation, which  was  great  throughout  the  world.  He 
had  strait  alliance  with  the  two  neighbour  states,  an 
ancient  enemy  in  former  times,  and  an  ancient  friend, 
Scotland  and  Burgundy.  He  had  peace  and  amity 
with  France,  under  the  assurance  not  only  of  treaty 
and  league,  but  of  necessity  and  inability  in  the  French 

1  comfortable  thing.    R.  2  and.     R. 

8  any  way  eclipse.     R.  4  had  sucked.     R. 

5  and.     R.  6  Was  like  to  draw  less.     R. 


HISTORY  OF  KING  HENRY  VIII. 


397 


to  do  him  hurt,  in  respect  the  French  King's  designs 
were  wholly  bent  upon  Italy.  So  that  it  may  be  truly 
said,  there  had  been  scarcely  seen  or  known  in  many 
js  such  a  rare  concurrence  of  signs  and  promises 
)f  a  happy  and  flourishing  reign  to  ensue,  as  were 
iow  met  in  this  young  King,  called  after  his  father's 
lame,  Henry  the  Eighth. 


THE  BEGINNING 


HISTORY  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN. 


PEEFACE. 


"  The  Beginning  of  the  History  of  Great  Britain  " 
was  first  published  in  Rawley's  Resuscitatio  (1657). 
At  what  period  it  was  composed  we  have  no  certain 
means  of  knowing.  But  there  is  a  letter  in  the  same 
volume  described  as  a  letter  "  to  the  King  upon  send- 
ing him  a  beginning  of  the  history  of  his  Majesty's 
times  ;  "  and  we  may  presume  that  this  was  the  paper 
which  accompanied  it.  The  letter  is  not  dated.  It 
is  placed  however  in  all  the  collections  among  those 
which  belong  to  the  early  part  of  James's  reign ;  and 
from  a  passage  in  another  letter  to  the  King,  also  un- 
dated but  certainly  written  while  Bacon  was  solicitor- 
general  and  apparently  about  the  beginning  of  1610,  I 
should  conjecture  that  it  was  composed  a  little  before 
that  time.  His  object  in  the  last-mentioned  letter  was 
to  obtain  from  the  King  a  promise  of  the  attorney's 
place,  whenever  it  should  be  vacant ;  for  "  perceiving 
how  at  this  time  preferments  of  law  flew  about  his 
ears,  to  some  above  him  and  to  some  below  him," 1  he 
had  begun  to  think  that,  unless  he  had  some  better 

1  Alluding  perhaps  to  the  preferment  of  "  one  Bromley,  an  obscure  law- 
yer," to  a  Barony  of  the  Exchequer;  of  Sir  Edward  Philips  to  the  Master- 
ship of  the  Rolls,  and  of  Sir  Julius  Caesar  to  the  reversion  of  that  office: 
which  was  the  news  of  January,  1609-10.  See  Chamberlain  to  Carleton ; 
Court  and  Times  of  James  I.,  vol.  i.  p.  103-4. 

VOL.  xi.  26 


402  PREFACE. 

assurance  of  advancement  in  his  present  course,  it 
would  be  better  for  him  to  give  it  over,  "  and  to  make 
proof  (he  proceeds)  to  do  you  some  honour  by  my 
pen,  either  by  writing  some  faithful  narrative  of  your 
happy  though  not  untraduced  times,  or  by  recompiling 
your  laws,  which  I  perceive  your  Majesty  laboreth 
with  and  hath  in  your  head,1  than  to  spend  my  wits 
and  time  in  this  laborious  place,"  and  so  on. 

The  letter  which  accompanied  the  history  runs 
thus  : 

"  Hearing  that  your  Majesty  is  at  leisure  to  peruse 
story,2  a  desire  took  me  to  make  an  experiment  what  I 
could  do  in  your  Majesty's  times  ;  which  being  but  a 
leaf  or  two,  I  pray  your  pardon  if  I  send  it  for  your 
recreation  ;  considering  that  love  must  creep  where  it 
cannot  go.  But  to  this  I  add  these  petitions.  First, 
that  if  your  Majesty  do  dislike  anything,  you  would 
conceive  I  can  amend  it  upon  your  least  beck.  Next, 
that  if  I  have  not  spoken  of  your  Majesty  encomiasti- 
cally,  your  Majesty  would  be  pleased  only  to  ascribe  it 
to  the  law  of  an  history,  which  doth  not  clutter  to- 
gether praises  upon  the  first  mention  of  a  name,  but 
rather  disperseth  and  weaveth  them  through  the  whole 
narrative.  And  as  for  the  proper  place  of  commemo- 
ration, which  is  in  the  period  of  life,  I  pray  God  I  may 
never  live  to  write  it.  Thirdly,  that  the  reason  why  I 
presumed  to  think  of  the  oblation  was  because,  what- 

1  Alluding  perhaps  to  the  King's  Speech  in  the  Banqueting  Hall,  21 
March,  1609-10.  State  Paper  Office,  vol.  liii.  (domestic)  no.  31.  See 
also  Winwood's  Memorials,  iii.  p.  136. 

2  Alluding  probably  to  Camden's  Annals  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  which  the 
King  was  reading  and  criticising  in  the  MS.  about  the  beginning  of  1610, 
and  of  which  he  sent  a  considerable  portion  to  the  French  historian  De 
Thou  towards  the  close  of  that  year.  Compare  Bacon's  letter  to  Sir  R. 
Cotton,  7  April,  1610,  with  Chamberlain's  to  Carleton,  29  Jan.  1610-11. 


PREFACE. 


403 


soever  my  disability  be,  yet  I  shall  have  that  advantage 
which  almost  no  writer  of  history  hath  had,  in  that  I 
si iall  write  of  times  not  only  since  I  could  remember, 
but  since  I  could  observe.  And  lastly,  that  it  is  only 
for  your  Majesty's  reading." 

I  am  the  more  inclined  to  assign  the  composition  of 
this  little  historical  piece  to  the  latter  end  of  1609  or 
the  beginning  of  1610,  because  I  find  no  allusion  to 
it  either  before  or  after  as  one  of  Bacon's  projected 
works.  And  I  suppose  that  he  abandoned  the  design 
altogether,  either  because  the  King  did  not  encourage 
him  to  proceed,  or  because,  after  the  Earl  of  Salis- 
bury's death  which  happened  early  in  1612,  he  had  no 
prospect  of  leisure  ;  being  fully  engaged  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  day,  and  all  the  time  he  had  to  spare  being 
devoted  to  his  philosophy. 

Mr.  Craik  {Bacon  and  Ms  writings;  vol.  i.  p.  213.) 
says  it  was  probably  written  in  1624.  But  if  so  Dr. 
Rawley  would  surely  have  mentioned  it  in  his  list  of 
the  works  written  by  Bacon  during  the  last  five  years 
of  his  life. 

As  an  account  of  the  temper  of  men's  minds  at 
James's  entrance,  it  is  complete  ;  and  in  my  judgment 
one  of  the  best  things  in  its  kind  that  Bacon  ever 
wrote. 


THE  BEGINNING 


HISTORY  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN. 


By  the  decease  of  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  the 
issues  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth  failed  ;  being  spent 
in  one  generation  and  three  successions.  For  that 
King,  though  he  were  one  of  the  goodliest  persons  of 
his  time,  yet  he  left  only  by  his  six  wives  three  chil- 
dren ;  who  reigning  successively  and  dying  childless, 
made  place  to  the  line  of  Margaret,  his  eldest  sister, 
married  to  James  the  Fourth  King  of  Scotland. 
There  succeeded  therefore  to  the  kingdom  of  England 
James  the  Sixth,  then  King  of  Scotland,  descended  of 
the  same  Margaret  both  by  father  and  mother ;  so  that 
by  a  rare  event  in  the  pedigrees  of  Kings,  it  seemed  as 
if  the  Divine  Providence,  to  extinguish  and  take  away 
all  note  of  a  stranger,  had  doubled  upon  his  person, 
within  the  circle  of  one  age,  the  royal  blood  of  Eng- 
land by  both  parents.  This  succession  drew  towards  it 
the  eyes  of  all  men  ;  being  one  of  the  most  memorable 
accidents  that  had  happened  a  long  time  in  the  Chris- 
tian world.  For  the  kingdom  of  France  having  been 
reunited  in  the  age  before  in  all  the  provinces  thereof 


406  HISTORY   OF   GREAT  BRITAIN. 

formerly  dismembered  ;  and  the  kingdom  of  Spain 
being  of  more  fresh  memory  united  and  made  entire 
by  the  annexing  of  Portugal  in  the  person  of  Philip 
the  Second ;  there  remained  but  this  third  and  last 
union,  for  the  counterpoising  of  the  power  of  these 
three  great  monarchies,  and  the  disposing  of  the  affairs 
of  Europe  thereby  to  a  more  assured  and  universal 
peace  and  concord.  And  this  event  did  hold  men's 
observations  and  discourses  the  more,  because  the  Isl- 
and of  Great  Britain,  divided  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  was  never  before  united  in  itself  under  one 
King  ;  notwithstanding  the  people  be  of  one  language, 
and  not  separate  by  mountains  or  great  waters ;  and 
notwithstanding  also  that  the  uniting  of  them  has  been 
in  former  times  industriously  attempted  both  by  war 
and  treaty.  Therefore  it  seemed  a  manifest  work  of 
Providence  and  case  of  reservation  for  these  times  ; 
insomuch  as  the  vulgar  conceived  that  there  was  now 
an  end  given  and  a  consummation  to  superstitious 
prophecies  (the  belief  of  fools,  but  the  talk  sometimes 
of  wise  men),  and  to  an  ancient  tacit  expectation 
which  had  by  tradition  been  infused  and  inveterated 
into  men's  minds.  But  as  the  best  divinations  and 
predictions  are  the  politic  and  probable  foresight  and 
conjectures  of  wise  men,  so  in  this  matter  the  provi- 
dence of  King  Henry  the  Seventh  was  in  all  men's 
mouths,  who,  being  one  of  the  deepest  and  most  pru- 
dent princes  of  the  world,  upon  the  deliberation  con- 
cerning the  marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter  into  Scot- 
land, had  by  some  speech  uttered  by  him  showed 
himself  sensible  and  almost  prescient  of  this  event. 

Neither  did  there  want  a  concurrence  of  divers  rare 
external  circumstances  (besides  the  virtues  and  condi- 


HISTORY  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN. 


407 


tion  of  the  person)  which  gave  great  reputation  to  this 
succession.  A  king,  in  the  strength  of  his  years,  sup- 
ported with  great  alliances  abroad,  established  with  royal 
issue  at  home,  at  peace  with  all  the  world,  practised 
in  the  regiment  of  such  a  kingdom  as  mought  rather 
enable  a  king  by  variety  of  accidents  than  corrupt  him 
with  affluence  or  vain  glory  ;  and  one  that  besides  his 
universal  capacity  and  judgment,  was  notably  exercised 
and  practised  in  matters  of  religion  and  the  church  ; 
which  in  these  times  by  the  confused  use  of  both 
swords  are  become  so  intermixed  with  considerations 
of  estate,  as  most  of  the  counsels  of  sovereign  princes 
or  republics  depend  upon  them.  But  nothing  did 
more  fill  foreign  nations  with  admiration  and  expec- 
tation of  his  succession,  than  the  wonderful  and  (by 
them)  unexpected  consent  of  all  estates  and  subjects 
of  England  for  the  receiving  of  the  King  without  the 
least  scruple,  pause,  or  question.  For  it  had  been  gen- 
erally dispersed  by  the  fugitives  beyond  the  seas  (who 
partly  to  apply  themselves  to  the  ambition  of  foreign- 
ers, and  partly  to  give  estimation  and  value  to  their 
own  employments,  used  to  represent  the  state  of  Eng- 
land in  a  false  light),  that  after  Queen  Elizabeth's  de- 
cease there  must  follow  in  England  nothing  but  confu- 
sions, interreigns,  and  perturbations  of  estate ;  likely 
far  to  exceed  the  ancient  calamities  of  the  civil  wars 
between  the  houses  of  Lancaster  and  York,  by  how 
much  more  the  dissensions  were  like  to  be  more  mor- 
tal and  bloody  when  foreign  competition  should  be 
added  to  domestical,  and  divisions  for  religion  to  mat- 
ter of  title  to  the  crown.  And  in  special,  Parsons  the 
Jesuit,  under  a  disguised  name,  had  not  long  before 
published  an  express  treatise,  wherein  whether  his  mal- 


408  HISTORY  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN.' 

ice  made  him  believe  his  own  fancies,  or  whether  he 
thought  it  the  fittest  way  to  move  sedition,  like  evil 
spirits  which  seem  to  foretell  the  tempest  they  mean  to 
move,  he  laboured  to  display  and  give  colour  to  all  the 
vain  pretences  and  dreams  of  succession  which  he 
could  imagine  ;  and  thereby  had  possessed  many 
abroad,  that  knew  not  the  affairs  here,  with  those  his 
vanities.  Neither  wanted  there  here  within  this  realm 
divers  persons  both  wise  and  well  affected,  who  though 
they  doubted  not  of  the  undoubted  right,  yet  setting 
before  themselves  the  waves  of  people's  hearts  (guided 
no  less  by  sudden  temporary  wTinds  than  by  the  natural 
course  and  motion  of  the  waters),  were  not  without 
fear  what  mought  be  the  event.  For  Queen  Elizabeth, 
being  a  Prince  of  extreme  caution,  and  yet  one  that 
loved  admiration  above  safety,  and  knowing  the  decla- 
ration of  a  successor  mought  in  point  of  safety  be  dis- 
putable, but  in  point  of  admiration  and  respect  assur- 
edly to  her  disadvantage,  had  from  the  beginning  set  it 
down  for  a  maxim  of  estate  to  impose  a  silence  touch- 
ing succession.  Neither  was  it  only  reserved  as  a 
secret  of  estate,  but  restrained  by  severe  laws,  that  no 
man  should  presume  to  give  opinion  or  maintain  argu- 
ment touching  the  same  ;  so  though  the  evidence  of 
right  drew  all  the  subjects  of  the  land  to  think  one 
thing,  yet  the  fear  of  danger  of  law  made  no  man 
privy  to  other's  thought.  And  therefore  it  rejoiced  all 
men  to  see  so  fair  a  morning  of  a  kingdom,  and  to  be 
thoroughly  secured  of  former  apprehensions  ;  as  a  man 
that  awaketh  out  of  a  fearful  dream.  But  so  it  was, 
that  not  only  the  consent  but  the  applause  and  joy  was 
infinite  and  not  to  be  expressed  throughout  the  realm 
of  England  upon  this  succession  ;  whereof  the  consent 


HISTORY   OF   GREAT   BRITAIN'.  409 

(no  doubt)  may  be  truly  ascribed  to  the  clearness  of 
the  right ;  but  the  general  joy,  alacrity,  and  gratula- 
tion  were  the  effects  of  differing  causes.  For  Queen 
Elizabeth,  though  she  had  the  use  of  many  both  virtues 
and  ^demonstrations  that  mought  draw  and  knit  unto 
her  the  heart  of  her  people,  yet  nevertheless  carrying  a 
hand  restrained  in  gift  and  strained  in  points  of  prerog- 
ative, could  not  answer  the  votes  either  of  servants  or 
subjects  to  a  full  contentment ;  especially  in  her  latter 
days,  when  the  continuance  of  her  reign  (which  ex- 
tended to  five  and  forty  years)  mought  discover  in 
people  their  natural  desire  and  inclination  towards 
change  ;  so  that  a  new  court  and  a  new  reign  were  not 
to  many  unwelcome.  Many  were  glad,  and  especially 
those  of  settled  estate  and  fortunes,  that  the  fears  and 
incertainties  were  overblown  and  that  the  dye  was 
cast :  others  that  had  made  their  way  with  the  King 
or  offered  their  service  in  the  time  of  the  former 
Queen,  thought  now  the  time  was  come  for  which 
they  had  prepared  :  and  generally  all  such  as  had  any 
dependance  upon  the  late  Earl  of  Essex  (who  had  min- 
gled the  secrecy  of  his  own  ends  with  the  popular  pre- 
tence of  advancing  the  King's  title)  made  account 
their  cause  was  amended.  Again  such  as  mought  mis- 
doubt they  had  given  the  King  any  occasion  of  dis- 
taste, did  continue1  by  their  forwardness  and  confi- 
dence to  shew  it  was  but  their  fastness  to  the  former 
government,  and  that  those  affections  ended  with  the 
time.  The  Papists  nourished  their  hopes  by  collating 
the  case  of  the  Papists  in  England  and  under  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  the  case  of  the  Papists  in  Scotland  under 
the  King ;  interpreting  that  the  condition  of  them  in 

1  So  in  the  original.     Bacon  probably  wrote  "  contend." 


410  HISTORY  OF   GREAT   BRITAIN. 

Scotland  was  the  less  grievous,  and  divining  of  the? 
King's  government  here  accordingly  ;  besides  the  com- 
fort they  ministered  themselves  from  the  memory  of 
the  Queen  his  mother.  The  ministers,  and  those 
which  stood  for  the  Presbytery,  thought  their  cause 
had  more  sympathy  with  the  discipline  of  Scotland 
than  the  hierarchy  of  England,  and  so  took  themselves 
to  be  a  degree  nearer  their  desires.  Thus  had  every 
condition  of  persons  some  contemplation  of  benefit 
which  they  promised  themselves  ;  overreaching  per- 
haps, according  to  the  nature  of  hope,  but  yet  not 
without  some  probable  ground  of  conjecture.  At 
which  time  also  there  came  forth  in  print  the  King's 
book,  entitled  BaoiMnbv  Atipov,  containing  matter  of  in- 
struction to  the  Prince  his  son  touching  the  office  of  a 
king  ;  which  book  falling  into  every  man's  hand  filled 
the  whole  realm  as  with  a  good  perfume  or  incense 
before  the  King's  coming  in.  For  being  excellently 
written,  and  having  nothing  of  affectation,  it  did  not 
only  satisfy  better  than  particular  reports  touching  the 
King's  disposition  ;  but  far  exceeded  any  formal  or 
curious  edict  or  declaration  which  could  have  been  de- 
vised of  that  nature,  wherewith  Princes  at  the  begin- 
ning of  their  reigns  do  use  to  grace  themselves,  or  at 
least  express  themselves  gracious,  in  the  eyes  of  their 
people.  And  this  was,  for  the  general,  the  state  and 
constitution  of  men's  minds  upon  this  change.  The 
actions  themselves  passed  in  this  manner,  etc. 

[The  rest  is  wanting.] 


JX 


FELICEM    MEMOEIAM 
ELIZABETHS. 


PREFACE. 


The  earliest  notice  of  the  following  piece  which  I 
have  met  with  is  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  John  Cham- 
berlain to  Mr.  Dudley  Carleton,  dated  December  16, 
1608.  "  I  come  even  now,"  he  says,  "  from  reading 
a  short  discourse  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  life,  written  in 
Latin  by  Sir  Francis  Bacon.  If  you  have  not  seen 
nor  heard  of  it,  it  is  worth  your  enquiry ;  and  yet  me- 
thinks  he  doth  languescere  towards  the  end,  and  falls 
from  his  first  pitch :  neither  dare  I  warrant  that  his 
Latin  will  abide  test  or  touch."  1 

About  the  same  time,  or  not  long  after,  Bacon  him- 
self sent  a  copy  of  it  to  Sir  George  Carew,  then  ambas- 
sador in  France,  with  a  letter  which,  though  undated, 
enables  us  to  fix  the  composition  of  it  with  tolerable 
certainty  in  the  summer  of  1608.  "  This  last  summer 
vacation  (he  says),  by  occasion  of  a  factious  book  that 
endeavoured  to  verify  Misera  Foemina  (the  addition  of 
the  Pope's  Bull)  upon  Queen  Elizabeth,  I  did  write  a 
few  lines  in  her  memorial ;  which  I  thought  you  would 
be  well  pleased  to  read,  both  for  the  argument  and 
because  you  were  wont  to  bear  affection  to  my  pen. 
Verum  ut  aliud  ex  alio,  if  it  came  handsomely  to  pass, 
I  would  be  glad  the  President  De  Thou  (who  hath 

1  Court  and  Times  of  James  I.,  i.  83. 


414  PREFACE. 

written  a  history,  as  you  know,  of  that  fame  and  dili- 
gence) saw  it ;  chiefly  because  I  know  not  whether  it 
may  not  serve  him  for  some  use  in  his  story ;  wherein 
I  would  be  glad  he  did  right  to  the  truth  and  to  the 
memory  of  that  Lady,  as  I  perceive  by  that  he  hath 
already  written  he  is  well  inclined  to  do." 

In  answering  a  letter  from  Tobie  Matthew  dated 
February  10  [1608-9],  Bacon  sent  him  also  a  copy 
of  this  tract ;  with  the  following  remarks.  "  I  send 
you  also  a  memorial  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  to  requite 
your  eulogy  of  the  late  Duke  of  Florence's  felicity. 
Of  this  when  you  were  here  I  shewed  you  some 
model ;  at  what  time  methought  you  were  more  will- 
ing to  hear  Julius  Caesar 1  than  Queen  Elizabeth  com- 
mended. But  this  which  I  send  is  more  full,  and  hath 
more  of  the  narrative  :  and  further  hath  one  part  that 
I  think  will  not  be  disagreeable  either  to  you  or  to  that 
place  ;  being  the  true  tract  of  her  proceedings  tow- 
ards the  Catholics,  which  are  infinitely  mistaken.  And 
though  I  do  not  imagine  they  will  pass  allowance  there, 
yet  they  will  gain  upon  excuse."  Tobie  Matthew,  who 
had  joined  the  Catholic  Church  not  long  before,  could 
not  quite  allow  this  part  himself,  and  appears  to  have 
taken  exceptions  to  it  in  his  reply.  Upon  which  Bacon 
writes  again,  apparently  in  the  summer  of  1609,  "  For 
that  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  your  judgment  of  the  temper 
and  truth  of  that  part  which  concerns  some  of  her  for- 
eign proceedings,  concurs  fully  with  the  judgment  of 
others  to  whom  I  have  communicated  part  of  it ;  and 
as  things  go,  I  suppose  they  are  likely  to  be  more  and 

1  Alluding  possibly  to  the  Imago  Civilis  Julii  Ccesaris ;  the  piece  which 
stands  next  but  one  in  this  volume,  and  of  which  we  know  nothing  but 
that  Dr.  Rawley  found  it  among  Bacon's  papers,  and  printed  it  along  with 
the  Opuscula  Phihsophica  in  1658. 


PREFACE. 


415 


more  justified  and  allowed.  And  whereas  you  say,  for 
some  other  part,  that  it  moves  and  opens  a  fair  occa- 
sion and  broad  way  into  some  field  of  contradiction,  on 
the  other  side  it  is  written  to  me  from  the  lieger  at 
Paria~[Sir  G.  Carew]  and  some  others  also,  that  it 
carries  a  manifest  impression  of  truth  with  it,  and  that 
it  even  convinces  as  it  grows.  These  are  their  very 
words  ;  which  I  write  not  for  mine  own  glory,  but  to 
show  what  variety  of  opinion  rises  from  the  dispositions 
of  several  readers.  And  I  must  confess  my  desire  to 
be,  that  my  writings  should  not  court  the  present  time 
or  some  few  places,  in  such  sort  as  might  make  them 
either  less  general  to  persons  or  less  permanent  in  fu- 
ture ages."  Upon  this  Matthew  seems  to  have  writ- 
ten a  rejoinder  on  the  4th  of  August,  to  which  Bacon 
merely  replies,  "  As  for  the  memorial  of  the  late  de- 
ceased Queen,  I  will  not  question  whether  you  be  to 
pass  for  a  disinteressed  man  or  no ;  I  freely  confess 
myself  am  not,  and  so  I  leave  it." 

"  This  work,"  says  Dr.  Rawley  writing  in  1657, 
"  his  Lordship  so  much  affected  that  he  had  ordained 
by  his  last  will  and  testament  to  have  had  it  published 
many  years  since  ;  but  that  singular  person  entrusted 
therewith  soon  after  deceased,  and  therefore  it  must 
expect  a  time  to  come  forth  amongst  his  Lordship's 
other  Latin  works  :  "  1  —  alluding  to  the  volume  of 
Opuscula  philosophica  which  was  published  in  the  next 
year,  and  in  which  it  first  appeared. 

The  will  of  which  Dr.  Rawley  speaks,  and  of  which 
Tenison  has  given  an  extract  in  the  Baconiana,  was 
probably  a  draft  only,  not  a  copy  ;  for  in  Bacon's 
last  will  there  is  no  mention  of  this  piece.     And  as  in 

1  Epistle  to  the  Reader,  in  the  Resuscitatio. 


416  PREFACE. 

that  draft  it  is  distinguished  from  his  other  papers  by 
the  expression  of  a  particular  wish  that  it  should  be 
published,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  had  proceeded 
to  take  special  measures  to  secure  that  object,  by  put- 
ting it  into  the  hands  of  that  "  singular  person "  to 
whom  Dr.  Rawley  alludes.  This  would  account  for 
the  omission  of  the  clause  relating  to  it  in  his  last  will 
of  all,  and  also  for  the  separation  of  the  manuscript 
from  his  other  papers,  and  afterwards  (upon  the  death 
of  the  person  entrusted  with  it)  for  its  being  locked  up 
or  mislaid.  Considering  moreover  that  it  related  to 
state  affairs  with  which  Bacon's  official  position  had 
made  him  acquainted,  he  may  have  thought  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  published  without  the  sanction  of  a 
Privy  Councillor,  —  for  we  know  that  he  had  this 
scruple  with  regard  to  the  publication  of  his  own  let- 
ters ; 1  —  and  among  all  the  Privy  Councillors  then 
living  the  man  whom  he  would  most  naturally  select 
for  such  a  trust  was  his  old  and  much  revered  friend 
Bishop  Andrews,  who  survived  him  only  by  a  few 
months.  This  is  only  a  guess  ;  but  if  true,  it  explains 
why  Bacon  did  not  propose  to  include  this  piece  among 
his  Opera  Moralia  et  Civilia  (though  that  indeed  might 
be  sufficiently  accounted  for  by  the  probability  that  it 
would  have  caused  the  volume  to  be  prohibited  in 
Italy),  and  how  the  publication  of  it  came  to  be  so 
long  delayed. 

But  however  this  may  be,  the  fact  with  which  we 
are  principally  concerned  is   the  value  which   Bacon 

1  "  Also  whereas  I  have  made  up  two  register-books,  the  one  of  my  ora- 
tions or  speeches,  the  other  of  my  epistles  or  letters,  whereof  there  may 
be  use,  and  yet  because  they  touch  upon  business  of  state  they  are  not  fit 
to  be  put  into  the  hands  but  of  some  counsellor,  I  do  devise  and  bequeathe 
them,"  &c  —  Last  Will. 


PREFACE.  417 

bimself  set  upon  it:  and  of  this  the  draft  of  the  will 
affords  conclusive  evidence.  The  work  is  important, 
because  it  relates  to  a  series  of  proceedings  which 
Bacon  had  watched  almost  from  the  beginning  with 
anxious  interest  and  from  a  position  very  favourable 
for  observation  ;  and  because  it  was  written  at  a  time 
when  he  could  have  had  no  other  motive  in  writing  it 
than  a  wish  to  bear  witness  to  what  he  believed  to  be 
the  truth.  For  though  I  do  not  myself  believe  that 
which  has  been  commonly  asserted,  upon  the  evidence, 
I  think,  chiefly  of  strangers  or  slanderers,  —  that  the 
depreciation  of  Elizabeth  was  popular  at  court,  —  there 
was  certainly  nothing  to  be  gained  by  flattering  her. 
And  if  Bacon  was  not  a  disinterested  witness,  as  he 
confesses  he  was  not,  it  was  only  because  the  impres- 
sion which  her  character  and  conduct  had  made  upon 
him  was  so  favourable  that  he  had  grown  partial ;  and 
this  very  partiality  must  be  accepted  as  a  historical 
fact,  —  not  the  least  significant  among  the  many  testi- 
monies which  history  bears  in  her  favour. 

It  cannot  have  been  for  its  literary  merit  that  Bacon 
especially  valued  this  writing ;  for  the  style  is  more 
than  usually  hasty  and  careless,  and  there  is  some 
truth  in  Mr.  Chamberlain's  criticism  that  it  falls  off  a 
little  towards  the  end  ;  a  defect  which  a  very  little 
trouble  would  have  removed. 

The  passage  in  which  he  alludes  to  the  death  of 
Anne  Boleyn  is  interesting ;  and  the  more  so  because 
his  argument  did  not  oblige  him  to  make  any  allusion 
to  it,  and  he  appears  to  me  to  have  gone  purposely  out 
of  his  way  to  bring  it  in.  Had  his  argument  required 
him  to  show  that  the  felicity  of  Elizabeth  began  with 
her  parents,  the  case  would  have  been  desperate.     Her 

vol.  xi.  27 


418  PREFACE. 

mother  having  been  put  to  death  by  her  father  upon  a 
charge  of  incest  and  adultery,  there  must  have  been 
either  the  most  awful  guilt  in  one  of  them  or  the  most 
awful  calamity  to  both.  And  therefore  when  I  find 
Bacon,  in  an  argument  designed  to  prove  the  constant 
felicity  of  Elizabeth's  fortune,  deliberately  and  unneces- 
sarily introducing  such  a  topic,  —  I  say  unnecessarily, 
because  it  is  brought  in  only  with  reference  to  the 
question  as  to  the  "  dignity  of  her  birth,"  that  is 
whether  she  was  really  a  king's  daughter,  —  I  con- 
clude that  he  was  only  making  an  occasion  to  place  on 
record  Anne's  last  message  (which  he  afterwards  in- 
serted in  his  collection  of  Apophthegms)  and  his  own 
opinion  of  her  innocence. 

What  weight  is  due  to  that  opinion,  one  cannot  well 
say  without  knowing  how  much  he  knew  of  the  cir- 
cumstances. There  was  naturally  a  strong  inclination 
on  the  part  of  the  Protestants  in  Elizabeth's  time  to 
believe  Anne  Boleyn  innocent.  This  inclination  would 
naturally  be  exasperated  into  passion  by  the  slanders 
and  invectives  of  the  Catholics.  Of  the  evidence  pro- 
duced at  the  trial  there  was  no  accessible  record,  and 
the  position  of  Elizabeth  herself  between  her  father's 
memory  and  her  mother's  forbade  the  question  to  be 
openly  or  freely  discussed.  It  is  probable  therefore 
that  his  impression  was  formed  upon  rumours  and 
charitable  surmises  of  no  very  authentic  or  trustworthy 
character  ;  and  that  of  the  nature  of  the  direct  evi- 
dence he  did  not  know  more  than  we  do  now.  Not  so 
however  with  regard  to  the  weight  of  the  verdict.  Of 
the  value  to  be  attached  to  the  judgment  of  the  Peers 
in  a  trial  for  treason  and  to  an  attainder  by  Parlia- 
ment, Bacon  must  have  been  a  much  better  judge  than 


PREFACE. 


419 


any  one  can  be  now,  standing  as  lie  did  so  much  nearer 
the  time,  and  so  well  versed  as  he  was  in  the  details 
of  similar  proceedings  half  a  century  later.  We  can- 
not suppose  him  to  have  been  ignorant  of  the  compo- 
sitioirof  the  tribunal  which  found  Anne  Boleyn  guilty, 
and  yet  it  is  clear  that  he  did  not  on  that  account  find 
it  impossible  to  believe  her  innocent.  Most  true  it  is 
no  doubt,  as  Mr.  Froude  has  well  pointed  out,  that  the 
assumption  of  Anne  Boleyn's  innocence  involves  an 
assumption  that  not  Henry  only,  but  also  Peers  and 
Parliament,  were  deeply  guilty.  But  it  is  a  grave  fact 
that  Bacon,  writing  within  little  more  than  seventy 
years  of  the  time,  and  being  himself  a  middle  aged 
man  with  much  experience  of  courts  and  Parliaments, 
did  not  regard  it  as  an  assumption  which  must  be 
dismissed  as  incredible. 

In  so  far  as  the  balance  of  probabilities  depends 
upon  our  estimate  of  Henry's  personal  character,  his 
judgment  is  of  less  importance.  Of  that  (although 
he  may  no  doubt  in  his  boyhood  have  heard  some- 
thing from  his  father,  who  had  had  opportunities  of 
personal  observation)  he  probably  took  his  impression 
from  the  popular  historians,  who  had  little  to  guide 
them  beyond  the  naked  outline  of  Henry's  public  pro- 
ceedings, and  were  not  in  a  position  to  see  below  the 
surface.,  When  the  particular  difficulties  with  which 
he  had  to  deal  were  forgotten,  and  the  rapid  succes- 
sion of  violent  changes  had  altered  the  relative  posi- 
tion of  all  parties  and  the  complexion  of  all  interests, 
the  chronicle  of  his  reign  exhibited  a  series  of  violent 
proceedings,  —  leagues  of  amity  and  marriage  alliances 
with  neighbour  kings  followed  by  quarrels  and  wars, 
divorces  of  wives  followed  suddenly  by  fresh  marriages, 


420  PREFACE. 

great  ministers  suddenly  disgraced  and  executed,  pen- 
alties of  heresy  enforced  now  against  Catholics  now 
against  Protestants,  —  of  which  the  popular  interpre- 
tation was  simple  and  obvious.  To  a  superficial  ob- 
server they  could  but  appear  as  the  actions  of  a  man 
violent  in  love  and  anger,  and  imperious  in  will ;  and 
such  no  doubt  was  the  general  impression  of  Henry's 
character  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Odious  to  his  contemporaries  he  certainly  was  not ; 
nor  was  his  memory  odious  in  the  eyes  of  the  two 
next  generations :  our  modern  notion  of  him  being, 
I  think,  of  much  later  date,  when  his  actions  were 
seen  refracted  through  an  atmosphere  of  opinion  en- 
tirely changed.  But  though  of  the  Protestant  histo- 
rians who  wrote  before  the  Commonwealth  those  who 
censure  his  actions  most  freely  speak  with  affection 
as  well  as  respect  of  the  man,  I  suppose  none  of  them 
would  have  disputed  Bacon's  assertion  that  he  was 
a  man  by  nature  extremely  prone  both  to  love  and 
jealousy,  and  that  his  attachment  to  Jane  Seymour 
preceded  his  anger  against  Anne  Boleyn.  Taking 
the  simple  sequence  of  events,  this  is  the  natural  ex- 
planation of  them.  It  is  quite  possible  however  that 
it  is  not  the  true  one.  In  these  times,  when  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  government  are  called  in  question, 
the  first  thing  is  to  ask  for  the  "  papers  "  relating  to 
them :  till  these  are  produced  it  is  felt  that  the  case 
cannot  be  judged.  Now  the  papers  relating  to  the 
transactions  of  Henry  the  Eighth  were  not  produced 
till  long  after  the  popular  judgment  had  been  formed ; 
the  most  important  part  of  them  only  within  the  last 
few  years ;  and  it  seems  that  they  suggest  a  new  read- 
ing of  his  character  in  many  points ;  showing  among 


PREFACE.  421 

other  things  that  the  imputation  of  a  "  natura  ad 
amoves  propensissima "  must  be  given  up.  This  is 
not  the  place  for  a  discussion  of  the  question,  but  it 
is  proper  that  Bacon's  opinion,  which  would  otherwise 
be  of  great  value  in  such  a  matter,  should  be  taken 
with  this  caution.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Mr. 
Froude's  plea  for  a  reconsideration  of  the  judgment 
is  reasonable,  and  that  he  has  asked  some  questions 
which  it  is  at  least  very  difficult  to  answer. 

For  the  text  of  this  piece  I  have  used  two  authori- 
ties, each  of  which  may  be  considered  as  original  and 
independent.  One  is  Dr.  Rawley's  edition,  printed 
along  with  the  Opuscula  Philosophical  in  1658,  with 
the  title  Opus  illustre  in  felicem  memoriam  FJUzabethce, 
Anglice,  Regince,  auctore  nobilissimo  heroe  Francisco 
JBacono,  Barone  de  Verulamio,  Vicecomite  Sancti  Al- 
bania multis  retro  annis  prcelo  designatum,  sed  non 
antehac  in  lucem  editum ;  the  other  is  a  manuscript 
copy  in  the  British  Museum  (Harl.  6797.  fo.  79.), 
written  in  the  hand  of  one  of  Bacon's  own  people, 
though  it  bears  no  traces  of  revision  by  Bacon  him- 
self. It  cannot,  I  think,  have  been  the  same  which 
Rawley  used;  and  as  he  gives  no  particulars  about 
the  one  which  he  did  use,  we  are  left  to  decide  for 
ourselves  which  is  the  best,  from  internal  evidence.1 
My  own  impression  is  that  Rawley's  manuscript  must 
have  been  the  less  perfect,  and  that  some  of  the  dif- 

1  The  following  sentence  contains  all  that  he  says  ahout  it.  "  His  mon- 
umentum  illud  Regium,  cui  titulus  In  felicem  memoriam  Elizabethan  AnglixB 
Regince,  inter  opera  civilia  primum  adjunxi,  ante  annos  complnres  ab  ipso 
honoratissimo  auctore  (si  Deus  annuisset)  typis  designatum:  Caeterum 
quamvis  obdormisse  diu  non  tamen  penitus  expirasse  jam  compertuin 


422  PREFACE. 

ferences  which  appear  in  his  printed  copy  are  correc- 
tions or  conjectural  emendations  of  his  own.  Where 
the  two  copies  differ  therefore  and  the  true  reading 
seems  doubtful,  I  have  generally  preferred  that  of 
the  manuscript ;  but  in  all  cases,  whichever  I  have 
received  into  the  text,  I  have  given  the  other  in  the 
notes ;  and  therefore  every  reader  can  choose  for  him- 
self. 

As  the  principal  pieces  which  belong  to  this  divis- 
ion of  Bacon's  works  are  English,  the  Latin  pieces 
being  few  and  comparatively  short  and  not  connected 
with  one  another,  I  have  thought  it  better  to  print 
the  translation  of  each  immediately  after  the  original, 
instead  of  collecting  them  into  a  body  at  the  end ;  and 
as  this  is  the  first  for  the  translation  of  which  I  am 
myself  solely  responsible,  I  shall  add  here  a  few  words 
to  explain  the  principle  upon  which  I  have  attempted 
to  do  them. 

My  object  in  all  my  attempts  at  translation  being, 
not  to  help  a  Latin  reader  to  construe  the  original,  but 
to  put  English  readers  in  possession  of  the  sense  of  it, 
my  plan  has  been  first  to  take  as  clear  an  impression 
as  I  could  of  the  meaning  and  effect  of  the  Latin,  and 
then  to  reproduce  that  meaning  in  the  best  and  clear- 
est and  most  readable  English  that  I  could  command : 
not  tying  myself  to  the  particular  form  which  the 
Latin  sentence  assumes,  even  where  it  could  be  pre- 
served without  awkwardness  or  obscurity,  —  nor  even 
preferring  it,  —  but  always  adopting  that  form  in 
which  I  could  best  express  the  thing;  keeping  my- 
self as  faithful  as  possible  to  the  effect  of  the  orig- 
inal,—  not  the  literal  and  logical  meaning  only,  but 
the  effect  upon  the  imagination   and  the  feelings, — 


FREFACE. 


423 


and  leaving  myself  as  free  as  possible  with  regard  to 
the  mode  of  bringing  it  out.  How  far  I  have  suc- 
ceeded it  is  for  others  to  say;  but  my  endeavour  has 
been  to  produce  a  translation  from  the  perusal  of 
whiclr  the  reader  shall  rise  with  the  same  feelings 
with  which  he  would  have  risen  from  the  perusal  of 
the  original  had  the  language  of  it  been  familiar  to 
him. 

I  am  of  course  aware  that  there  are  not  only  many 
people  who  would  prefer  for  their  own  purposes  a  dif- 
ferent kind  of  translation,  but  also  some  real  objections 
to  this  kind  which  upon  the  whole  nevertheless  I  pre- 
fer myself.  Whether  I  have  judged  rightly,  is  a  ques- 
tion which  can  only  be  determined  by  the  effect  upon 
readers  generally.  If  my  translations  give  a  livelier 
and  juster  impression  of  the  original,  it  will  be  found 
that  most  people  like  them  better. 


IN 


FELICEM  IEMOBIAI  ELIZABETHS 


ANGLIC    REGINiE.1 


Elizabetha  et  natura  et  fortuna  mirabilis  inter 
foeminas,  memorabilis  inter  principes  fuit.  Neque  haec 
res  indicium  monachi  alicujus,  aut  hujusmodi  censoris 
umbratilis  desiderat.  Nam  isti  homines,  stylo  acres, 
judicio  impares,  et  partis  sua?  memores,  rerum  minus 
fideles  testes  sunt.  Ad  principes  viros  pertinet  haec 
cognitio,  atque  ad  eos  qui  imperiorum  gubernacula 
tractarunt,  et  rerum  civilium  ardua  et  arcana  norunt. 
Rarum  in  omni  memoria  est 2  muliebre  imperium ; 
rarior  in  eo  felicitas  ;  rarissima  cum  felicitate  diutur- 
nitas.  Ilia  vero  quadragesimum  quartum  regni  sui 
annum  complevit ;  neque  tamen  felicitati  suae  superstes 
fuit.  De  hac  felicitate  pauca  dicere  institui ;  neque 
in  laudes  excurrere.  Nam  laudem  3  homines  tribuunt, 
felicitatem  Deus. 

Primum  in  parte  felicitatis  pono,  quod  ad  imperato- 
rium  fastigium  a  privata  fortuna  evecta  est.4  Siquidem 
hoc  in  moribus  et  opinionibus  hominum  penitus  insedit, 


i  Harl.  MSS.  6797.  fo.  79. 
8  laudem  enim.    R. 


2  est  memoria. 
*  sit.    R. 


426  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

ut  quae  praster  spem  et  expectationem  eveniunt  majori 
felicitati  deputentur  ;  sed  non  hoc  est  quod  volo.  Illud 
intueor ;  principes  qui  in  domo  regnatrice  et  ad  spem 
successionis  non  dubiam  nutriti  sunt,  ab  educationis 
indulgentia  et  licentia  depravatos,  plerumque  et  minus 
capaces  et  minus  moderatos  evadere.  Itaque  optimos 
et  excellentissimos  reges  reperias,  quos  utraque  fortuna 
erudiit.  Talis  apud  nos  fuit  Henricus  septimus,  et 
apud  Gallos  Ludovicus  duodecimus,  qui  recenti  menio- 
ria  et  eodem  fere  tempore  non  tantum  a  privata,  sed 
etiam  ab  adversa  et  exercita  fortuna,  regnum  accepere ; 
atque  ille  prudentia,  hie  justitia  floruere.  Similis  fuit 
et  hujusce  principis  ratio ;  cujus  initia  et  spes  variavit 
fortuna,  ut  in  principatu  ad  extremum  erga  illam  con- 
stans  et  aequabilis  esset.  Nam  Elizabetha  natalibus 
suis  successioni  destinata,  dein  l  exhasredata,  turn  post- 
habita  fuit.  Eadem  regno  fratris  fortuna  magis  pro- 
pitia  et  serena,  regno  sororis  magis  turbida  et  ancipiti 
usa  est.  Neque  tamen  ex  vinculis  subito  in  regnum 
assumpta  est,  ut  ab  infortunio  exacerbata  intumesceret ; 
sed  libertati  restituta,  et  expectatione  aucta,  turn  de- 
mum  regnum  sine  tumultu  aut  competitore  placide  et 
felicissime  obtinuit.  Atque  haec  ideo  adducimus,  ut 
appareat  Divinam  Providentiam,  optimam  prineipem 
meditatam,  per  istiusmodi  disciplinae  gradus  earn  prae- 
parasse  et  extulisse.  Neque  sane  natalium  dignitati 
calamitas  matris  obesse  debet ;  cum  praesertim  satis  con- 
stet  Henricum  octavum  prius  amori  novo  quam  irae 
ad  versus  Ann  am  indulsisse ;  ejusque  regis  natura  et  ad 
amores  et  ad  suspiciones  propensissima,  et  in  iisdem 
usque  ad  sanguinem  praeceps,  posteritatis  notam  non 
efFugiat.     Adde,  quod  criminatione,  vel  personae  ipsius 

1  deinde.     R. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  427 

ad  quern  referebatur  nomine,  minus  probabili  et  tenuis- 
simis  conjecturis  innixa,  circumventa  erat  ;  quod  et 
fama  etiam  turn  occulto  ut  solet  murmure  excepit,  et 
Anna  ipsa  celso  animo  et  memorabili  voce  sub  tempus 
mortis  suae  detestata 1  est.  Nacta  enim  nuntium  ut  ex- 
istimabat  et  fidum  et  benevolum,  eadem  hora  qua  ad 
mortem  se  parabat  hujusmodi  mandata  ad  regem  perfe- 
renda  dedit:  Regem  in  ipsa  novis  honoribus  cumulanda 
institutum  suum  optime  servare  et  perpetuo  tueri ;  cum 
illam  primum,  generosa  stirpe  ortam  sed  nobilitatis 
titulis  non  insignitam,  dignitate  marchionissae  ornasset, 
deinde  in  reginam  et  consortem  suam 2  accepisset ;  et 
postremo,  quia  non  restabat  terreni  honoris  gradus 
altior,  innocentem  ad  coronam  martyrii  evehere  volu- 
isset.  Atqui  nuntius  ille  ad  regem  alio  amore  flagran- 
tem  hoc  perferre  non  ausus  est ;  sed  fama  veritatis 
vindex  ad  posteros  pertulit. 

Atque  non  exigua  3  pars  felicitatis  Elizabethan,  etiam 
mensura  ac  veluti  curriculum  ipsum  regni4  sui  nobis 
visum  est :  non  tantum  quia  diuturnum,  sed  quia  spa- 
tium  illud  aetatis  suae  occupavit,  quod  rerum  moderam- 
ini  et  habenis  regni  flectendis  et  moliendis  aptissimum 
esset.  Annos  enim  viginti  quinque  (qua  aetate  cura- 
tura  finitur)  nata  cum  regnare  inciperet,  ad  septuages- 
imum  aetatis  annum  imperium  produxit.  Itaque  nee 
pupillae  detrimenta  et  aliena  arbitria,  nee  rursus  exactae 
et  aegrae  senectutis  incommoda  experta  est.  Senectus 
autem,  etiam  privatis,  miseriarum  satis  ;  sed  regibus, 
praeter  communia  aetatis  mala,  adhuc  status  sui  declina- 
tiones  et  inglorios  exitus  afferre  solet.  Nemo  enim  fere 
in  regno  ad  multam  et  invalidam  senectutem  pertingit, 

1  protestata.     R.  2  jn  regni  et  thori  consortium.     R. 

8  non  exigua  sane.     R.  4  regiminis.     R. 


428  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

quin  aliquam  imperii  et  existimationis  diminutionem  * 
patiatur.  Cujus  rei  exemplum  maxime  eminet  in  Phi- 
lippo  secundo  rege  Hispaniarum,  principe  potentissimo 
et  imperandi  peritissimo  ;  qui  extremis  suis  temporibus 
et  fessa  aetate  hoc  quod  diximus  penitus  sensit,  ideoque 
prudentissimo  consilio  se  rerum  conditioni  submisit  ; 
territoriis  in  Galliis  acquisitis  se  ipse  mulctavit,  pacem 
ibidem  firmavit,  alibi  tentavit,  ut  res  compositas  atque 
integra  omnia  posteris  relinqueret.  Contra,  Elizabethan 
fortuna  tarn  constans  et  valida  fuit,  ut  nee  ulla  rerum 
declinatio  vergentem  certe,  sed  tamen  adhuc  vigentem, 
aetatem  sequeretur :  atque  insuper,  in  signum  felicitatis 
suae  certissimum,  non  prius  diem  obiret2  quam  de 
defectione  in  Hibernia  prospero  praelii  eventu  decretum 
esset ;  ne  gloria  ejus  aliqua  ex  parte  deformata  et  im- 
perfecta videretur. 

Etiam 3  illud  cogitandum  censeo,  in  quali  populo 
imperium  tenuerit.  Si  enim  in  Palmyrenis,  aut  Asia 
imbelli  et  molli,  regnum  sortita  esset,  minus  mirandum 
fuisset ;  cum  effoeminato  populo  foemina  princeps  com- 
peteret :  verum  in  Anglia,  natione  ferocissima  et  belli- 
cosissima,  omnia  ex  nutu  foeminae  moveri  et  cohiberi 
potuisse,  summam  merito  admirationem  habet. 

Neque  haec  inclinatio  populi  sui,  belli  cupida  et 
pacem  aegre  tolerans,  obfuit,  quo  minus  perpetuis  suis 
temporibus  pacem  coleret  et  teneret.  Atque  banc  ejus 
voluntatem  cum  successu  conjunctam  inter  maximas 
ejus  laudes  pono.  Hoc  enim  aetati  suae  felix,  hoc  sexui 
decorum,  hoc  conscientiae  salutare  fuit.  Tentata  pau- 
lisper,  circa  decimum  regni  sui  annum,  in  partibus 
borealibus  rerum  commotio,  sed  statim  sopita  et  ex- 

1  detrimentum.     MS.  2  obierit.     R. 

8  Et  etiam.     R. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  429 

tincta  est.  Reliqui  anni  interna  pace,  eaque  secura 
atque  alta,  floruere. 

Pacem  autem  florentissimam  judico  duabus  de  causis, 
quae  ad  meritum  pacis  nihil  faciunt,  ad  gloriam  max- 
ime  :  una,  quod  vicinorum  calamitatibus,  veluti  flam- 
mis  lucentibus,  magis  fiebat  conspicua  et  illustrata ; 
altera,  quod  commodis  pacis  armorum  honor  non  def- 
uit ;  cum  celebritatem  nominis  Anglici  in  armis  et  re 
militari  per  multa  decora  non  solum  retineret,  sed 
etiam  augeret.  Nam  et  auxilia  in  Belgium,  Galliam, 
et  Scotiam  praebita,1  et  navales  expeditiones  susceptae 
in  Indias,  atque  ex  illis  nonnullae  per  universi  globi 
terrarum  ambitum  factae,  et  classes  in  Lusitaniam  et  ad 
oras  Hispaniae  infestandas  missae,2  et  rebelles  in  Hiber- 
nia  saepius  concisi  et  domiti,  nihil  aut  de  virtute  bellica 
gentis  nostrae  remitti,  aut  de  ejusdem  fama  et  honore 
deperire,  sinebant. 

Aderat  etiam  gloriae  meritum,  quod  et  regibus  vicinis 
tempestivis  ab  ipsa  3  auxiliis  regnum  conservatum  est ;  4 
et  populis  supplicibus  (pessimo  principum  consilio) 
ministrorum  suorum  crudelitati  et  plebis  furori  et  omni 
lanienae  et  vastitati  relictis  et  fere  devotis,  levamentum 
malorum  datum  est ;  per  quod  res  eorum  adhuc  stetere. 

Nee  minus  consiliis  quam  auxiliis  benefica  et  salu- 
taris  haec5  princeps  fuit:  ut  quae  regem  Hispaniarum 
toties  de  lenienda  in  subditos  suos  in  Belgio  ira,  et  illis 
suo  imperio  sub  tolerabili  aliqua  conditione  restituendis, 
interpellavit :  et  reges  Galliae  perpetuis  et  repetitis  mon- 
itis  de  edictis  suis  pacem  spondentibus  observandis 
maxima  fide  solicitavit.      Neque6  negaverim  consilio 

1  missa.     R.  2  submissce.     R. 

3  ab  ipsa  om.  MS.  4  sit.     R. 

5  hcec  om.     R.  6  Non.    R. 


430  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.    . 

ejus  successum  defuisse.  Neque  enim  prius  illud  sivit 
fatum  Europse  commune ;  ne  forte  ambitio  Hispaniae, 
veluti  carceribus  liberata,  in  majus  *  regnorum  et  re- 
rumpublicarum  orbis  Christiani  detrimentum  (ut  tunc 
res  erant)  se  effunderet.  Hoc  etiam  posterius  non 
sivit  sanguis  tot  innocentium  cum  uxoribus  et  liberis  ad 
focos  et  cubilia  sua  per  infimam  plebis  faecem,  ut  bel- 
luas  quasdam  publica  auctoritate  et  animatas  et  armatas 
et  missas,  effusus ;  qui  ut  regnum  tarn  nefario  scelere 
obligatum  mutuis  caedibus  et  contrucidationibus  expia- 
retur,  in  ultionem  poscebat.  Ilia  tamen  utcunque 
officium  foederatae  et  prudentis  et  benevolae  praestitit. 
Alia  etiam  subest  causa,  cur  pacem  ab  Elizabetha 
cultam  et  conservatam  admiremur:  ea  nimirum,  quod 
non  a  temporum  inclinatione  sed  ab  ejus  prudentia  et 
rebus  bene  ordinatis  pax  ista  profecta  est.2  Nam  cum 
et  interna  factione  ob  causam  religionis  laboraret,  et 
hujus  regni  robur  et  praesidium  universas  Europaa  in- 
star  propugnaculi  esset  adversus  regis  Hispaniaa  illis 
temporibus  formidabilem  et  exundantem  ambitionem 
et  potentiam,  belli  materia  non  defuit,  verum  ipsa  et 
copiis  et  consiliis  superfuit.  Id3  eventus  docuit  max- 
ime  memorabilis  inter  res  gestas  nostri  seculi  universas, 
si  felicitatem  spectes.  Nam  cum  classis  Hispana,4  tanto 
rerum  tumore  et  totius  Europaa  terrore  et  expectatione, 
et  tanta  victoriae  fiducia,  freta  nostra  secaret,5  nee 
naviculam  aliquam  in  mari  excepit,6  nee  villulam  ali- 
quam  incendio  vastavit,  nee  littus  omnino  attigit :  sed 
praelio  fusa,  misera  fuga  et  crebris  naufragiis  dissipata 
est ;  atque  pax  Anglico  solo  et  finibus  immota  et  incon- 
cussa  mansit. 

1  majus  om.     R.  2  sn.     R. 

8  Istud.     R.  4  Hispanica.     R. 

5  sulcaret.     R.  6  accepit.     R. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  EUZABETHjE.  431 

Nee  minus  felix  in  conjuratorum  insidiis  devitandis 
quam  in  copiis  hostilibus  devincendis  et  propulsandis 
fuit.  Non  paucae  enim  contra  vitam  ejus  conspirations 
factae,  felicissime  et  patefactae  et  disturbatae  sunt.  Ne- 
que  ex  eo  vita  ejus  magis  trepida  aut  anxia  ;  non  stipa- 
torum  numerus  auctus,  non  tempus  intra  palatium 
actum,  et  rarus  in  publicum  processus  ;  sed  secura  et 
fidens,  et  potius  liberationis  a  periculo  quam  periculi 
ipsius  memor,  nihil  de  consuetudine  sua  pristina  vivendi 
mutavit. 

Etiam  illud  notatu  dignum  videtur,  qualia  tempora 
fuerint  in  quibus  floruit.  Sunt  enim  quaedam  secula 
tarn  barbara  et  rerum  nescia,  ut  homines,  tanquam 
animalium  greges,  imperio  coercere  nil  magnum  fuerit. 
Haec  autem  princeps  in  tempora  eruditissima  et  excul- 
tissima  incidit ;  in  quibus  eminere  et  excellere,  non 
absque  maximis  ingenii  dotibus  et  singulari  virtutis 
temperamento  datur.1 

Etiam  imperia  foeminarum  nuptiis  fere  obscurantur, 
laudesque  et  acta  in  maritos  transeunt :  illis  autem  quas 
innuptae  degunt,  propria  et  integra  gloria  manet.  In 
illam  vero  hoc  magis  cadit,  quod  nullis  imperii  adminic- 
ulis,  nisi  quae  ipsa  sibi  comparaverat,  fulciebatur.  Non 
frater  uterinus  aderat,  non  patruus,  non  alius  quispiam 
e  2  familia  et  stirpe  regia,  qui  particeps  ei 3  curarum  et 
dominationis  subsidium  esset.  Sed  et  eos  quos  ipsa  ad 
honores  evexerat  ita  et  cohibuit  et  commiscuit,  ut  sin- 
gulis maximam4  complacendi  solicitudinem  injiceret, 
atque  ipsa  semper  sui  juris  esset. 

Orba  sane  fuit,  nee  stirpem  ex  se  reliquit ;  quod 
etiam   felicissimis   contigit,    Alexandro    Magno,    Julio 

1  dabatur.     R.  2  e  om.     R. 

8  ei  om.     MS.  •*  maxime.     MS. 


432  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

Caesari,  Trajano,  aliis ;  et  semper  varie  jactatum,  et 
in  contrarias  partes  trahi  et  disputari  solet ;  cum  alii 
hoc  in  diminutionem  felicitatis  accipiant,  ne  forte 
homines  supra  mortalem  conditionem  bearentur,  si 
et  in  individuo  et  in  speciei  propagatione  felices  es- 
sent ;  alii  autem  in  cumulum  felicitatis  rem  vertant, 
quod  ea  demum  felicitas  completa  videatur,  in  quam 
fortunae  nil  amplius  liceat ;  quod,  si  posteri  sint,  fieri 
non  potest. 

Aderant  ei  et  externa;  statura  procera,  corpus  de- 
corae  compagis,1  summa  dignitas  oris  cum  suavitate, 
valetudo  maxime  prospera.  Superest  et  illud,  quod  ad 
extremum  valens  et  vigens,  nee  fortunae  commutationes 
nee  senectutis  mala  experta,  earn  quam  tantopere  sibi 
votis  precari  solebat  Augustus  Caesar  euthanasian  facili 
et  leni  obitu  sortita  sit :  quod  etiam  de  Antonino  Pio 
imperatore  optimo  celebratur,  cujus  mors  somni  alicujus 
suavis  et  placidi  imaginem  habebat.  Similiter  et  in 
Elizabethae  morbo  nil  miserabile,2  nil  omninosum,  nil  ab 
humana  natura  alienum  erat.  Non  desiderio  vitae,  non 
morbi  impatientia,  non  doloris  cruciatibus  torquebatur  : 
nullum  aderat  symptoma  dirum  aut  foedum  ;  sed  omnia 
ejus  generis  erant,  ut  naturae  fragilitatem  potius  quam 
corruptionem  aut  dedecus  ostenderent.  Paucos  enim 
ante  obitum  dies,  ex  corporis  nimia  siccitate,  et  curis 
quae  regni  culmen  sequuntur  attenuati,  nee  unquam 
mero  aut  uberiore  diaeta  irrigati,3  nervorum  rigore  per- 
culsa,  vocem  tamen  (quod  fieri  non  solet  in  ejusmodi 
morbo)  et  mentem  et  motum,  licet  tardiorem  et  hebe- 
tiorem,  retinuit.     Atque  is  personae  suae  4  status  paucis 

1  corporis  decora  compages.     R. 

2  atrox.    R. 

8  atlenuata  . . .  irrigata.     R.  which  perhaps  is  the  true  reading. 
4  ejus.     R. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  433 

diebus  tantum  duravit ;  ut  non  tanquam  actus  vita? 
novissimus,  sed  tamquam  primus  gradus  ad  mortem 
fuerit.  Nam  imminutis  facultatibus  in  vita  diu  manere 
miserum  ;  l  sed  a  sensu  paulatim  sopito  ad  mortem 
properare,  placida  et  clemens  vitae  clausula  est. 

Addo  et  illud  in  felicitatis  ejus  cumulum  insignem  : 
quod  non  tantum  nomine  proprio,  sed  et  ministrorum  2 
virtute,  felicissima  fuit.  Tales  enim  viros  nacta  est, 
quales  fortasse  haec  insula  antehac  3  non  peperit.  Deus 
autem,  regibus  favens,  etiam  spiritus  ministrorum  ex- 
citat  et  ornat. 

Restant  felicitates  posthumae  duae,  iis  quae  vivam 
comitabantur  fere  celsiores  et  augustiores ;  una  succes- 
soris,  altera  memoriae.  Nam  successorem  sortita  est 
eum,  qui  licet  et  mascula  virtute  et  prole  et  nova  im- 
perii accessione  fastigium  ejus  excedat  et  obumbret, 
tamen  et  nomini  et  honoribus  ejus  faveat,  et  actis  ejus 
quandam  perpetuitatem  donet :  cum  nee  ex  personarum 
delectu  nee  ex  institutorum  ordine  quicquam  magnop- 
ere  mutaverit :  adeo  ut  raro  fllius  parenti  tanto  si- 
lentio  atque  tarn  exigua  mutatione  et  perturbatione 
successerit.  Memoria  autem  ejus  ita  et  in  ore  homi- 
num  et  in  animis  viget,  ut,  per  mortem  extincta  invidia 
atque  accensa4  fama,  felicitas  memoriae  cum  felicitate 
vitae  quodammodo  certet.  Nam  si  qua  ex  studio 
partium  et  dissensione  religionis  vagatur  fama  facti- 
osa  (quae  tamen  ipsa  jam  timida  videtur,  et  consensu 
victa),  ea  et  sincera  non  est,  et  perennis  esse  non 
potest.  Atque  ob  earn  causam  praecipue  haec5  de 
felicitate  ejus  et  divini  favoris  notis  collegi ;  ut  malev- 

1  miserum  habetur.     R.  2  ministrorum  status.    R. 

8  ante  eum  diem.     R.  4  incensa.     R. 

5  hcec  qualia  sunt. 
VOL.  xi.  28 


434  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

olus  aliquis  tantis  Dei  benedictionibus  suas  maledic- 
tiones  inserere  vereatur. 

Si  quis  autem  ad  haec,  ut  ille  ad  Caesarem,  "  Quae 
miremur  habemus :  sed  et  quae ]  laudemus  expecta- 
mus  ;  "  sane  existimo  veram  admirationem  quendam 
laudis  excessum  esse.  Neque  ea  quam  descripsimus 
felicitas  ulli  evenire  potest,  nisi  qui  et  a  divina  chari- 
tate  2  eximie  sustineatur  atque  foveatur,  ac  etiam  mori- 
bus  et  virtute  banc  fortunam  sibi  aliqua  ex  parte  finx- 
erit.  Sed  tamen  visum  est  pauca  admodum  quae  ad 
mores  pertinent  subjungere,3  in  iis  solummodo  quae 
iniquorum  sermonibus  maxime  aditum  et  fomitem  prae- 
bere  videntur. 

Fuit  Elizabetba  in  religione  pia  et  moderata,  et  con- 
stans  ac  novitatis  inimica,  Atque  pietatis  indicia, 
licet  in  factis  et  rebus  quas  gessit  maxime  elucescant, 
tamen  et  in  vitae  ratione  et  consuetudine  famibari  non 
leviter4  adumbrata  sunt.  Liturgiis  et  divinis  officiis, 
aut  sacello  solenniore  aut  interiore,  raro  abfuit.  In 
Scripturis  et  patrum  scriptis  (praecipue  beati  Augus- 
tini)  legendis,  multum  versata  est.  Preces  quasdam 
ipsa  5  ex  occasione  et  re  nata  composuit.  In  Dei  men- 
tionem  vel  communi  sermone  incidens,  fere  semper  et 6 
Creatoris  nomen  addidit,  et  oculos  et  vultum  ad  bu- 
militatem  et  reverentiam  quandam  composuit ;  quod 
et  ipse  saepe  notavi.  Quod  autem  quidam  vulgaverunt, 
earn  minime  mortalitatis  memorem  fuisse,  adeo  ut  nee 
de  senectute  nee  de  morte  mentionem  aequo  animo  fer- 
ret, id  falsissimum  fuit ;  cum  ipsa  saepissime,  multis 
ante  mortem  annis,  magna  comitate  se  vetulam  diceret ; 

l  sed  quce.     R.  2  gratia.     R. 

8  adjungere.     R.  4  non  leviter  om.     R. 

5  ijisa  om.     MS.  6  et  om.     R. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  435 

et  de  inscriptione  sepulchri,  quid  sibi  maxime  placeret, 
sermones  haberet ;  cum  diceret  sibi  gloriam  et  splendi- 
dos  titulos  minime  cordi  esse ;  sed  lineam  memoriae 
unam  aut  alteram,  quae  nomen  ejus  tantum,  et  vir- 
ginitatem,  et  tempus  regni,  et  religionis  instaurationem, 
et  pacis  conservationem,  brevi  verborum  compendio 
significaret.  Verum  est,  cum  aetate  florenti  et  liberis 
procreandis  liabili  de  successore  declarando  interpellare- 
tur,  respondisse,  Se  linteum  sepulchrale  sibi  vivae  ante 
oculos  obtendi  nullo  modo  passuram.  Attamen  non 
multis  ante  mortem  annis,  cum  cogitabunda  esset,  ac, 
ut  verisimile  est,  de  mortalitate  sua  meditaretur,  et1 
quidam  ex  intimis  sermonem  intulisset,  quod  munera 
et  loca  multa  et  magna  in  republica  nimium  diu  vaca- 
rent,  commotior  et  assurgens,  Se  certo  scire  suum 
locum  ne  tantillum  temporis  vacaturum  dixit. 

Quod  ad  moderationem  in  religione  attinet,  haerere 
videbimur,  propter  legum  in  subditos  religionis  ponti- 
ficiae  latarum  severitatem.  Sed  ea  proferemus  quae 
nobis  et  certo  nota  et  diligenter  notata  sunt. 

Certissimum  est,  hunc  fuisse  istius  principis  animi 
sensum,  ut  vim  conscientiis  adhibere  nollet ;  sed  rursus 
statum  regni  sui  praetextu  conscientiae  et  religionis  in 
discrimen  venire  non  permitteret.  Ex  hoc  fonte,  pri- 
rnum  duarum  religionum  libertatem  et  tolerationem 
auctoritate  publica,  in  populo  animoso  et  feroce,  et  ab 
animorum  contentione  ad  manus  et  arma  facile  veni- 
ente,2  certissimam  perniciem  judicavit.  Etiam  in  novi- 
tate  regni,  cum  omnia  suspecta  essent,  ex  praesulibus 
ecclesiae  quosdam  magis  turbidi  et  factiosi  ingenii,  auc- 
toritate legis  accedente,  sub  custodia  libera  habuit. 
Reliquis  utriusque  ordinis,  non  acri  aliqua  inquisitione 

1  ut.     R.  2  venienle  admittere.     R. 


436  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

molesta,  sed  benigna  conniventia  praesidio  fuit.  Hie 
primus  rerum  status  :  neque  de  hac  dementia,  licet  ex- 
communicatione  Pii  quinti  provocata,  quae  et  indignati- 
onem  addere  et  occasionem  praebere  novi  instituti 
potuit,  quidquam  fere  mutavit,  sed  natura  sua  uti  per- 
severavit.  Nam  prudentissima  foemina  et  magnanima, 
hujusmodi  terrorum  sonitu  nil  admodum  commota  est ; 
secura  de  populi  sui  fide  et  amore,  et  de  factionis 
pontificiae  intra  regnum  ad  nocendum  virium  tenuitate, 
non  accedente  hoste  externo.  At  sub  vicesimum  ter- 
tium  regni  sui  annum,  rerum  commutatio  facta  est. 
Atque  haec  temporis  distinctio  non  commode  ficta,  sed 
in  publicis  actis  expressa  ac  veluti  in  aere  incisa  est. 
Neque  enim  ante  annum  eum  gravior  aliqua  poena 
per  leges  prius  sancitas  subditis  suis ]  pontificiae  reli- 
gionis  incubuit.  Verum  sub  hoc  tempus,  ambitiosum 
et  vastum  Hispaniae  consilium  de  hoc  regno  subju- 
gando  paulatim  detegi  ccepit.  Hujus  pars  magna  fuit, 
ut  omnibus  modis  intra  regni  viscera  factio  a  statu 
aliena  et  rerum  novarum  cupida  excitaretur,  quae 
hosti  invadenti  adhaereret.  Ea  ex  dissensione  religi- 
onis  sperabatur.  Itaque  huic  rei 2  omni  opera  incum- 
bendum  statuebant,  et  pullulantibus  tunc  seminariis, 
sacerdotes  in  regnum  immissi  qui  studium  religionis 
Romanae  excitarent  et  spargerent,  vim  excommunica- 
tionis  Romanae  in  fide  solvenda3  docerent  et4  inculca- 
rent,  et  animos  hominum  novarum  rerum  expectatione 
erigerent  et  praepararent.  Circa  idem  tempus,  et  Hi- 
bernia  apertis  armis  tentabatur ;  et  nomen  et  regimen 
Ehzabethae  variis  et  sceleratis  libellis  proscindebatur : 
denique  insolitus  erat  rerum   tumor,   praenuntius  ma- 

1  suis  om.  R.  2  rei  om.  R. 

sJide  subditorum  solvenda.     R.  <•  et  om.  MS. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  437 

joris  motus.  Neque  sane  dixerim  singulos  sacerdotes 
in  participationem  consilii  assumptos  aut  quid  ageretur 
conscios,  sed  tantummodo  prava  alienae  malitiae  instru- 
menta  fuisse.  Sed  tamen  hoc  verum  est  et  multis 
confessionibus  testatum,  omnes  fere  sacerdotes,  qui  ab 
eo  quern  diximus  anno  usque  ad  tricesimum  Elizabethan 
annum  (quo  consilium  Hispaniae  et  pontificium  per 
memorabilem  ilium  et  classis  et  terrestrium  copiarum 
apparatum  executioni  mandatum  erat)  in  hoc  regnum 
missi1  erant,  habuisse  in  mandatis  inter  functionis 
officia  hoc  insuper,  ut  Non  posse  haec  diutius  stare ; 
novam  rerum  faciem  et  conversionem  non  ita  multo 
post  conspicuam  fore ;  curse  esse  et  pontifici  et  prin- 
cipibus  catholicis  rem  Anglicam,  modo  ipsi  sibi  non 
desint ;  insinuarent.  Etiam  ex  sacerdotibus  nonnulli 
rebus  et  machinationibus  quae  ad  status  labefactationem 
et  subversionem  pertinebant  manifeste  se  immiscue- 
rant ;  et,  quod  maxime  movit,  consilii  hujus  et  negotii 
ratio  per  literas  ex  multis  partibus  interceptas 2  pate- 
facta  est ;  in  quibus  scriptum  erat,  Vigilantiam  reginae 
et  concilii  sui  circa  catholicos  elusam  iri.  Ulam  enim 
ad  hoc  tantum  intentam  esse,3  ne  quod  caput  in  per- 
sona alicujus  nobilis  aut  viri  primarii  catholicorum 
factioni  se  attolleret.  At  consilium  jam  tale  adhiberi, 
ut  per  homines  privatos  atque  ex  inferiore  nota,  neque 
eos  inter  se  conspirantes  et  conscios,  per  secreta  con- 
fessionum  omnia  disponerentur  et  praepararentur.  At- 
que has  turn  artes  adhibebantur,  hujusmodi  hominibus 
(quod  etiam  nuper  in  casu  non  dissimili  videre  licuit) 
usitatae  et  familiares.     Hac  tanta  periculorum  tempes- 

1  immissi.     R. 

2  per  lit.  ex  m.p.  interceptas  consilii  h.  et  neg.  rat.     R. 
8  esse  om.  R.  \ 


438  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

tate,  lex  quaedam  necessitatis  imposita  est  Elizabethan, 
ut  earn  partem  subditorum  quae  a  se  alien ata  et  per 
hujusmodi  venena  facta  erat  quasi  insanabilis,  atque 
interim  ob  vitam  privatam  a  publicis  muneribus  et 
expensis  immunem  ditesceret,  gravioribus  legum  vin- 
culis  constringeret.  Atque  ingravescente  malo,  cum 
origo  ejus  sacerdotibus  seminariorum  deputaretur,  qui 
in  exteris  partibus  nutriti,  et  exterorum  principum, 
hujus  regni  ex  professo  hostium,  opibus  et  eleemosynis 
sustentati  essent,  et  in  locis  versati  ubi  ne  nomen  qui- 
dem  ipsum  Elizabethan,  nisi  ut  haereticae,  excommuni- 
catae,  diris  l  devotee,  audiebatur ;  quique  (etsi  non  ipsi 
criminibus  majestatis  imbuti)  at  eorum  qui  hujusmodi 
sceleribus  operam  dedissent  intimi  cognoscerentur ; 2 
quique  suis  artibus  et  venenis  ipsam  catholicorum  mas- 
sam,  antea  magis  dulcem  et  innoxiam,  depravassent 
et  novo  veluti  fermento  et  perniciosa  malignitate  infe- 
cissent ;  non  aliud  inventum  est  remedium,  quam  ut 
hujusmodi  homines  ab  omni  in  hoc  regnum  aditu  sub 
poena  capitis  prohiberentur :  quod  tandem  vicesimo 
septimo  regni  sui  anno  factum  est.  Neque  ita  multo 
post  eventus  ipse,  cum  tanta  tempestas  hoc  regnum 
adorta  esset  et  totis  viribus  incubuisset,  horum  homi- 
num  invidiam  et  odium  auxit ; 3  ac  si  omnem  charita- 
tem  patriae  exuissent  quam  servituti  externa?  tradere 

1  et  dhHs.     R. 

2  agnoscerentur.     R. 

s  quidquam  lenibat  sedpotius  auxit.  R.  I  have  preferred  the  reading  of 
the  MS.  because  the  sentence  as  given  by  Rawley  is  certainly  wrong,  a 
negative  being  wanted.  It  seems  probable  however  that  the  error  arose 
from  some  interlinear  correction,  either  imperfectly  made  or  carelessly 
read.  Perhaps  the  words  ita  multo  post  were  intended  to  be  struck  out,  or 
introduced  with  non  after  cum ;  with  either  of  which  alterations  the  sen- 
tence as  given  by  Rawley  reads  to  me  more  naturally  than  that  in 
the  MS. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  439 

in  votis  habuissent.1  Ac  postea  sane,  licet  motus2  ab 
Hispania  qui  hujus  severitatis  stimulus  erat  consedisset 
aut  remitteretur  ;  tamen  cum  et  memoria  praeteriti 
temporis  in  animis  et  sensibus  hominum  alte  infixa 
maneret,  et  leges  semel  factas  aut  abrogare  inconstans 
aut  negligere  dissolutum  videretur,  ipsa  rerum  vis 
Elizabethan!  traxit,  ut  ad  priorem  rerum  statum  qui 
ante  vicesimum  tertium  regni  sui  annum  erat  revertere 
sibi  integrum  non  esset.  Hue  accessit  quorundam  in 
fisci  commodis  augendis  industria,  et  ministrorum  jus- 
titiae  qui  non  aliam  patriae  salutem  quam  quae  legibus 
continetur  introspicere  aut  intueri  consueverunt,  so- 
licitudo ;  quae  omnia 3  executionem  legum  urgebant.4 
Ipsa  tamen,  in  naturae  suae  specimen  manifestum,  ita 
legum  mucronem  contudit,  ut  pauci  pro  numero  sacer- 
dotes  capitali  supplicio  plecterentur.  Neque  haec  de- 
fensionis  loco  dicta  sunt,  qua  res  ista  non  eget : 5  cum 
et  salus  regni  in  hoc  verteretur,  et  universae  istius 
severitatis  ratio  et  modus  longe  infra  sanguinaria  et 
inter  Christianos  vix  nominanda,  atque  ex  iis  non- 
nulla  6  potius  ab  arrogantia  atque  malitia  quam  a  neces- 
sitate profecta,  pontificiorum  exempla  steterit.  Sed 
ejus  quod  asseruimus  memores,  Elizabetham 7  in  causa 
religionis  moderatam  fuisse,  et  variationem  quae  fait, 
non  in  natura  sua  sed  in  temporibus  existitisse,  dem- 
onstrasse  nos  existimamus. 

De    constantia   autem    Elizabethae    in   religione   ac 

1  This  clause  (quam  .  .  .  habuissent)  is  omitted  by  Rawley. 

2  metus.    R.     Which  is  perhaps  right. 
8  quidem.     R. 

4  poscebant  et  urgebant.     R. 
6  qua  res  ista  non  egent.     R. 
6  eaque  potius.     R. 
*  earn.     R. 


440  IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

ejus  cultu,  maximum  argumentum  est,  quod  rellgionem 
pontificiam,  regno  sororis  auctoritate  publica  et  multa 
cura  impense  stabilitam,1  et  altas  jam  radices  agentem, 
atque  omnium  qui  in  magistratibus  et  cum  potestate 
erant  consensu  et  studio  firmatam  ;  tamen  quandoqui- 
dem  nee  verbo  Dei,  nee  primitivae  puritati,  nee  con- 
scientiae  suae  consentanea  esset,  maximo  animo  et  pau- 
cissimis  adjumentis  convulsit  et  abrogavit.  Neque  id 
praaceps  aut  acri  impetu ;  sed  prudenter  et  tempestive.2 
Idque  turn  ex  multis  aliis3  rebus,  turn  ex  responso 
quodam4  suo  per  occasionem  facto  conjicere  licet. 
Nam  primis  regni  diebus,  cum  in  omen  et  gratula- 
tionem  novi  principatus  vincti  (ut  moris  est)  solve- 
rentur,  accessit  ad  earn,  ad  sacellum  turn  pergentem, 
aulicus  quidam,  qui  ex  natura  et  consuetudine  jocaudi 
quandam5  licentiam  sibi  assumpserat.  Isque,  sive  ex 
motu  proprio  sive  a  quodam 6  prudentiore  immissus, 
libellum  supplicem  ei  porrexit,  et7  magna  frequentia 
clara  voce  addidit,  Restare  adhuc  quatuor  aut  quin- 
que  vinctos,  idque  immerito ;  illis  se  libertatem  ut  rel- 
iquis  petere.  Eos  esse  quatuor  Evangelistas,  atque 
etiam  apostolum  Paulum,  qui  diu  ignota  lingua  tan- 
quam  carcere  conclusi,  inter  populum  conversari  non 
possent.  Cui  ilia  prudentissime,  Sciscitandum  adhuc 
melius  ab  ipsis  esse,  utrum  liberari  vellent.8  Atque  ita 
improvises  quaestioni  suspenso  responso  occurrit,  veluti 
omnia  integra  sibi  servans.  Neque  tamen  timide  et 
per  vices  haec  instillavit ;  sed  ordine  gravi  et  maturo, 
habito  inter  partes  colloquio,  et  peractis  regni  comitiis, 

1  et  stabilitam.     R.  2  tempestive  fecit.     R. 

8  aliis  multis.     R.  4  quopiam.     MS. 

5  licentiam  quandam.  R.  6  quopiam.     MS. 

7  in  magna.     R.  8  vellent,  necne.     R. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  441 

turn  demum  (idque  intra  orbem  unius  anni  vertentis) 
ita  omnia  quae  ad  ecclesiam  pertinebant  ordinavit  et 
stabilivit,  ut  ne  punctum  quidem  1  ab  illis  ad  extremum 
vitae  diem  recedi  pateretur.  Quin  et  singulis  fere 
regnr  comitiis,  ne  quid  in  ecclesiae  disciplina  aut  riti- 
bus  innovaretur  publice  monuit.  Atque  de  religione 
hactenus. 

Quod  si  quis  ex  tristibus2  leviora  ilia  exaggeret, 
quod  coli,  ambiri,  quin  et  amoris  nomine  se  celebrari, 
extolli,3  sinebat,4  volebat,  eaque  ultra  sortem  aetatis 
continuabat :  haec  tamen,  si  mollius  accipias,  admira- 
tione  et  ipsa  carere  non  possunt ;  cum  talia  sint  fere, 
qualia  in  fabulosis  narrationibus  inveniantur,  de  regina 
quadam  in  insulis  beatis  ejusque  aula  atque  institutis, 
quae  amorura  admirationem 5  recipiat,  lasciviam  pro- 
hibeat :  sin  severius,  habent  et  ilia  admirationem,  eam- 
que  vel  maximam,  quod  hujusmodi  deliciae  non  multum 
famae,  nil  prorsus  majestati  ejus  officerent ;  nee  impe- 
rium  relaxarent,  nee  impedimento  notabili  rebus  et 
negotiis  gerendis  essent.  Hujusmodi  enim  res  se  cum 
publica  fortuna  commiscere  liaud  raro  solent.  Verum, 
ut  sermones  nostros  claudamus  :  fuit  certe  ista  princeps 
bona  et  morata,  etiam  talis  videri  voluit :  vitia  oderat, 
et  se  bonis  artibus  clarescere  cupiebat.  Sane  ad  men- 
tionem  morum  illius,6  in  mentem  mihi  venit  quod 
dicam.  Cum  scribi  ad  legatum  suum  jussisset  de  qui- 
busdam  mandatis  ad  Reginam  Matrem  Yalesiorum 
separatim  perferendis  ;  atque  qui  ab  epistolis  erat  clau- 
sulam  quandam  inseruisset,  ut  legatus  diceret,  tan- 
quam  ad  favorem  aucupandum,7  Esse  nimirum  ipsas 

1  quidem  om.  MS.  2  tristioribus.     R. 

8  et  extolli.     R.  *  atque  volebat.     R. 

5  amoris  administrationem.  R.  *  suorum.     R. 

7  occupandum.     MS. 


442  IN  FELICEM  MEMOKIAM  ELIZABETHS. 

duas  feeminas  principes,  a  quibus,  in  usu  rerum  et 
imperandi  virtute  et  artibus,  non  minora  quam  a  sum- 
mis  viris  expectarentur ;  comparationem  non  tulit,  sed 
deleri  jussit ;  Seque  artes  longe  dissimiles  et  instituta 
diversa  ad  imperandum  afFerre  dixit.  Nee  a  potestate 
aut  longo  imperio  depravata  erat ;  quin  et  iis  laudibus 
maxime  delectabatur,  si  quis  hujusmodi  sermones  instit- 
uisset,  ut  earn  1  etiamsi  in  privata  et  mediocri  fortuna 
aevum  traduxisset,  tamen  non  absque  aliqua  excellentiae 
nota  apnd  homines  victuram  fuisse,  apte  insinuaret.2 
Adeo  nihil  a  fortuna  sua  ad  virtutis  laudem  mutuare 
aut  transferee  volebat.  Verum  si  in  ejus  laudes,  sive 
morales  sive  politicas,  ingrederer,  aut  in  communes  quas- 
dam  virtutum  notas  et  commemorationes  incidendum 
est,  quod  tarn  rara  principe  minus  dignum ;  aut  si  pro- 
priam  ipsis  lucem  et  gratiam  conciliare  velim,  in  vitae 
ejus  historiam  prolabendum,  quod  et  majus  otium  et 
venam  uberiorem  desiderat.  Ego  enim  haec  paucis,  ut 
potui.  Sed  revera  dicendum  est ;  non  alium  verum 
hujus  foeminae  laudatorem  inveniri  posse,  quam  tempus  : 
quod  cum  tarn  diu  jam  volvitur,  nihil  simile,  in  hoc 
sexu,  quoad  rerum  civilium  administrationem  peperit. 

1  The  first  clause  of  this  sentence  is  omitted  by  Rawley,  and  the  rest 
stands  thus  —  Delectabatur  etiam  haud  parum  si  quis  forte  hujusmodi  ser- 
monem  intulisset,  Earn  ....  fuisse. 

2  The  two  last  words  are  omitted  by  Rawley. 


ON   THE 


FORTUNATE  MEMORY   OF  ELIZABETH 
QUEEN   OF  ENGLAND. 


Elizabeth  both  in  her  nature  and  her  fortune  was 
a  wonderful  person  among  women,  a  memorable  per- 
son among  princes.  But  it  is  not  to  monks  or  closet 
penmen  that  we  are  to  look  for  guidance  in  such  a 
case ;  for  men  of  that  order,  being  keen  in  style,  poor 
in  judgment,  and  partial  in  feeling,  are  no  faithful 
witnesses  as  to  the  real  passages  of  business.  It  is 
for  ministers  and  great  officers  to  judge  of  these  things, 
and  those  who  have  handled  the  helm  of  government, 
and  been  acquainted  with  the  difficulties  and  myste- 
ries of  state  business. 

The  government  of  a  woman  has  been  a  rare  thing 
at  all  times ;  felicity  in  such  government  a  rarer  thing 
still ;  felicity  and  long  continuance  together  the  rarest 
thing  of  all.  Yet  this  Queen  reigned  forty-four  years 
complete,  and  did  not  outlive  her  felicity.  Of  this 
felicity  I  propose  to  say  something;  without  wander- 
ing into  praises  ;  for  praise  is  the  tribute  of  men, 
felicity  the  gift  of  God. 

First,  then,  I  set  it  down  as  part  of  her  felicity 


444  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

that  she  was  raised  to  sovereignty  from  a  private  for- 
tune ;  not  so  much  because  of  that  feeling  so  deeply- 
seated  in  man's  nature,  whereby  benefits  which  come 
unexpected  and  unhoped  for  are  always  counted  the 
greater  blessings  ;  but  because  Princes  who  are  brought 
up  in  the  reigning  house  with  assured  expectation  of 
succeeding  to  the  throne,  are  commonly  spoiled  by 
the  indulgence  and  licence  of  their  education,  and  so 
turn  out  both  less  capable  and  less  temperate.  And 
therefore  you  will  find  that  the  best  kings  are  they 
who  have  been  trained  in  both  schools  of  fortune  ; 
such  as  Henry  the  Seventh  with  us,  and  Lewis  the 
Twelfth  in  France ;  both  of  whom,  of  late  years  and 
almost  at  the  same  time,  came  to  their  kingdoms  not 
only  from  a  private  but  from  an  adverse  and  troubled 
fortune  ;  and  both  were  eminently  prosperous  ;  the  one 
excelling  in  wisdom,  the  other  in  justice.  Much  like 
was  the  case  of  this  Queen,  whose  early  times  and 
opening  prospects  fortune  chequered  with  uncertainty, 
that  afterwards  when  she  was  settled  in  the  throne  it 
might  prove  to  the  last  constant  and  equable.  For 
Elizabeth  at  her  birth  was  destined  to  the  succession, 
then  disinherited,  afterwards  superseded.  Her  fortune 
in  her  brother's  reign  was  more  propitious  and  serene, 
in  her  sister's  more  troubled  and  doubtful.  And  yet 
she  did  not  pass  suddenly  from  the  prison  to  the 
throne,  with  a  mind  embittered  and  swelling  with  the 
sense  of  misfortune,  but  was  first  restored  to  liberty 
and  comforted  with  expectation ;  and  so  came  to  her 
kingdom  at  last  quietly  and  prosperously,  without 
tumult  or  competitor.  All  which  I  mention  to  show 
how  Divine  Providence,  meaning  to  produce  an  ex- 
cellent   Queen,    passed    her    by   way   of   preparation 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  445 

through  these  several  stages  of  discipline.  Nor  ought 
the  calamity  of  her  mother  to  be  admitted  as  an  ob- 
jection to  the  dignity  of  her  birth :  the  rather  because 
it  is  clear  that  Henry  the  Eighth  had  fallen  in  love 
with  "another  woman  before  he  fell  in  anger  with 
Anne,  and  because  he  has  not  escaped  the  censure 
of  posterity  as  a  man  by  nature  extremely  prone  both 
to  loves  and  suspicions,  and  violent  in  both  even  to 
the  shedding  of  blood.  And  besides,  the  criminal 
charge  in  which  she  was  involved  was  in  itself,  if  we 
consider  only  the  person  to  whom  it  related,  improba- 
ble, and  rested  upon  the  slenderest  conjectures ;  as 
was  secretly  whispered  (as  the  manner  is  in  such 
cases)  even  then,  and  Anne  herself  just  before  her 
death  with  a  high  spirit  and  in  memorable  words 
made  protestation.  For  having  procured  a  messenger 
whose  fidelity  and  good  will  she  thought  she  could 
trust,  she  sent  the  King,  in  the  very  hour  when  she 
was  preparing  for  the  scaffold,  a  message  to  this  effect : 
u  That  he  kept  constant  to  his  course  of  heaping  hon- 
ours upon  her ;  from  a  gentlewoman  without  title  he 
had  made  her  marchioness  ;  he  had  then  raised  her 
to  be  the  partner  of  his  throne  and  bed ;  and  now 
at  last,  because  there  remained  no  higher  step  of 
earthly  honour,  he  had  vouchsafed  to  crown  her  in- 
nocence with  martyrdom."  Which  words  the  mes- 
senger durst  not  indeed  carry  to  the  King,  who  was 
then  in  the  heat  of  a  new  love ;  but  fame,  the  vin- 
dicator of  truth,  transmitted  them  to  posterity. 

I  account  also  as  no  small  part  of  Elizabeth's  felic- 
ity the  period  and  compass  of  her  administration ;  not 
only  for  its  length,  but  as  falling  within  that  portion 
of  her  life  which  was  fittest  for  the'  control  of  affairs 


446  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

and  the  handling  of  the  reins  of  government.  She 
was  twenty-five  years  old  (the  age  at  which  guar- 
dianship ceases)  when  she  began  to  reign,  and  she 
continued  reigning  till  her  seventieth  year ;  so  that 
she  never  experienced  either  the  disadvantages  and 
subjection  to  other  men's  wills  incident  to  a  ward, 
nor  the  inconveniences  of  a  lingering  and  impotent 
old  age.  Now  old  age  brings  with  it  even  to  private 
persons  miseries  enough ;  but  to  kings,  besides  those 
evils  which  are  common  to  all,  it  brings  also  decline 
of  greatness  and  inglorious  exits  from  the  stage.  For 
there  is  hardly  any  sovereign  who  reigns  till  he  be- 
comes old  and  feeble,  but  suffers  some  diminution  of 
power  and  reputation :  of  which  we  have  a  very  emi- 
nent example  in  Philip  the  Second,  King  of  Spain, 
a  most  powerful  prince  and  perfect  in  the  art  of  gov- 
ernment; who  in  his  last  times  when  worn  out  with 
age  became  deeply  sensible  of  this  which  I  say,  and 
therefore  wisely  submitted  to  the  condition  of  things  ; 
voluntarily  sacrificed  the  territories  he  had  won  in 
France,  established  peace  there,  attempted  the  like  in 
other  places,  that  he  might  leave  a  settled  estate  and 
all  things  clear  and  entire  to  his  successor.  Eliza- 
beth's fortune  on  the  contrary  was  so  constant  and 
flourishing,  that  not  only  did  her  declining,  but  though 
declining  still  fresh  and  vigorous  years,  bring  with 
them  no  decline  at  all  in  the  state  of  her  affairs ;  but 
it  was  granted  to  her  for  an  assured  token  of  her  felic- 
ity not  to  die  before  the  fate  of  the  revolt  in  Ireland 
had  been  decided  by  a  victory  ;  lest  her  glory  might 
seem  to  be  in  any  part  sullied  and  incomplete. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  withal  among  what  kind 
of  people  she  reigned ;  for  had  she  been  called  to  rule 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  447 

over  Palmyrenes  or  in  an  un warlike  and  effeminate 
country  like  Asia,  the  wonder  would  have  been  less ; 
a  womanish  people  might  well  enough  be  governed  by 
a  woman  ;  but  that  in  England,  a  nation  particularly 
fierce  "and  warlike,  all  things  could  be  swayed  and 
controlled  at  the  beck  of  a  woman,  is  a  matter  for 
the  highest  admiration. 

Observe  too  that  this  same  humour  of  her  people, 
ever  eager  for  war  and  impatient  of  peace,  did  not 
prevent  her  from  cultivating  and  maintaining  peace 
during  the  whole  time  of  her  reign.  And  this  her 
desire  of  peace,  together  with  the  success  of  it,  I 
count  among  her  greatest  praises ;  as  a  thing  happy 
for  her  times,  becoming  to  her  sex,  and  salutary  for 
her  conscience.  Some  little  disturbance  there  was  in 
the  northern  counties  about  the  tenth  year  of  her 
reign,  but  it  was  immediately  quieted  and  extin- 
guished. The  rest  of  her  years  flourished  in  inter- 
nal peace,  secure  and  profound. 

And  this  peace  I  regard  as  more  especially  flour- 
ishing from  two  circumstances  that  attended  it,  and 
which  though  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  merit 
of  peace,  add  much  to  the  glory  of  it.  The  one, 
that  the  calamities  of  her  neighbours  were  as  fires  to 
make  it  more  conspicuous  and  illustrious ;  the  other 
that  the  benefits  of  peace  were  not  unaccompanied 
with  honour  of  war,  —  the  reputation  of  England 
for  arms  and  military  prowess  being  by  many  noble 
deeds,  not  only  maintained  by  her,  but  increased. 
For  the  aids  sent  to  the  Low  Countries,  to  France, 
and  to  Scotland ;  the  naval  expeditions  to  both  the 
Indies,  some  of  which  sailed  all  round  the  globe ;  the 
fleets  despatched  to  Portugal  and  to  harass  the  coasts 


448  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

of  Spain ;  the  many  defeats  and  overthrows  of  the 
rebels  in  Ireland;  —  all  these  had  the  effect  of  keep- 
ing both  the  warlike  virtues  of  our  nation  in  full  vig- 
our and  its  fame  and  honour  in  full  lustre. 

Which  glory  had  likewise  this  merit  attached, — 
that  while  neighbour  kings  on  the  one  side  owed  the 
preservation  of  their  kingdoms  to  her  timely  succours ; 
suppliant  peoples  on  the  other,  given  up  by  ill-advised 
princes  to  the  cruelty  of  their  ministers,  to  the  fury 
of  the  populace,  and  to  every  kind  of  spoliation  and 
devastation,  received  relief  in  their  misery ;  by  means 
of  which  they  stand  to  this  day. 

Nor  were  her  counsels  less  beneficent  and  salutary 
than  her  succours ;  witness  her  remonstrances  so  fre- 
quently addressed  to  the  King  of  Spain  that  he  would 
moderate  his  anger  against  his  subjects  in  the  Low 
Countries,  and  admit  them  to  return  to  their  alle- 
giance under  conditions  not  intolerable ;  and  her  con- 
tinual warnings  and  earnest  solicitations  addressed  to 
the  kings  of  France  that  they  would  observe  their 
edicts  of  pacification.  That  her  counsel  was  in  both 
cases  unsuccessful,  I  do  not  deny.  The  common  fate 
of  Europe  did  not  suffer  it  to  succeed  in  the  first ; 
for  so  the  ambition  of  Spain,  being  released  as  it  were 
from  prison,  would  have  been  free  to  spend  itself  (as 
things  then  were)  upon  the  ruin  of  the  kingdoms  and 
commonwealths  of  Christendom.  The  blood  of  so 
many  innocent  persons,  slaughtered  with  their  wives 
and  children  at  their  hearths  and  in  their  beds  by 
the  vilest  rabble,  like  so  many  brute  beasts  animated, 
armed,  and  set  on  by  public  authority,  forbade  it  in 
the  other ;  that  innocent  blood  demanding  in  just  re- 
venge  that  the  kingdom  which  had  been  guilty  of  so 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  449 

atrocious  a  crime  should  expiate  it  by  mutual  slaugh- 
ters and  massacres.  But  however  that  might  be,  she 
was  not  the  less  true  to  her  own  part,  in  performing 
the  office  of  an  ally  both  wise  and  benevolent. 

Upon  another  account  also  this  peace  so  cultivated 
and  maintained  by  Elizabeth  is  matter  of  admiration ; 
namely,  that  it  proceeded  not  from  any  inclination  of 
the  times  to  peace,  but  from  her  own  prudence  and 
good  management.  For  in  a  kingdom  laboring  with 
intestine  faction  on  account  of  religion,  and  standing 
as  a  shield  and  stronghold  of  defence  against  the  then 
formidable  and  overbearing  ambition  of  Spain,  matter 
for  war  was  nowise  wanting ;  it  was  she  who  by  her 
forces  and  her  counsels  combined  kept  it  under;  as 
was  proved  by  an  event  the  most  memorable  in  respect 
of  felicity  of  all  the  actions  of  our  time.  For  when 
that  Spanish  fleet,  got  up  with  such  travail  and  fer- 
ment, waited  upon  with  the  terror  and  expectation  of 
all  Europe,  inspired  with  such  confidence  of  victory, 
came  ploughing  into  our  channels,  it  never  took  so 
much  as  a  cockboat  at  sea,  never  fired  so  much  as  a 
cottage  on  the  land,  never  even  touched  the  shore  ; 
but  was  first  beaten  in  a  battle  and  then  dispersed  and 
wasted  in  a  miserable  flight  with  many  shipwrecks  ; 
while,  on  the  ground  and  territories  of  England  peace 
remained  undisturbed  and  unshaken. 

Nor  was  she  less  fortunate  in  escaping  the  treacher- 
ous attempts  of  conspirators  than  in  defeating  and  re- 
pelling the  forces  of  the  enemy.  For  not  a  few  con- 
spiracies aimed  at  her  life  were  in  the  happiest  manner 
both  detected  and  defeated ;  and  yet  was  not  her  life 
made  thereby  more  alarmed  or  anxious  ;  there  was  no 
increase   in  the  number  of  her  guards  ;   no  keeping 

VOL.  xi.  29 


450  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

within  her  palace  and  seldom  going  abroad ;  but  still 
secure  and  confident,  and  thinking  more  of  the  escape 
than  of  the  danger,  she  held  her  wonted  course,  and 
made  no  change  in  her  way  of  life. 

Worthy  of  remark  too  is  the  nature  of  the  times  in 
which  she  flourished.  For  there  are  some  times  so 
barbarous  and  ignorant  that  it  is  as  easy  a  matter  to 
govern  men  as  to  drive  a  flock  of  sheep.  But  the  lot 
of  this  Queen  fell  upon  times  highly  instructed  and 
cultivated,  in  which  it  is  not  possible  to  be  eminent 
and  excellent  without  the  greatest  gifts  of  mind  and  a 
singular  composition  of  virtue. 

Again,  the  reigns  of  women  are  commonly  obscured 
by  marriage  ;  their  praises  and  actions  passing  to  the 
credit  of  their  husbands ;  whereas  those  that  continue 
unmarried  have  their  glory  entire  and  proper  to  them- 
selves. In  her  case  this  was  more  especially  so  ;  inas- 
much as  she  had  no  helps  to  lean  upon  in  her  govern- 
ment, except  such  as  she  had  herself  provided ;  no 
own  brother,  no  uncle,  no  kinsman  of  the  royal  family, 
to  share  her  cares  and  support  her  authority.  And 
even  those  whom  she  herself  raised  to  honour  she  so 
kept  in  hand  and  mingled  one  with  another,  that  while 
she  infused  into  each  the  greatest  solicitude  to  please 
her  she  was  herself  ever  her  own  mistress. 

Childless  she  was  indeed,  and  left  no  issue  of  her 
own ;  a  thing  which  has  happened  also  to  the  most  for- 
tunate persons,  as  Alexander  the  Great,  Julius  Caasar, 
Trajan,  and  others ;  and  which  has  always  been  a 
moot-point  and  argued  on  both  sides ;  some  taking  it 
for  a  diminution  of  felicity,  for  that  to  be  happy  both 
in  the  individual  self  and  in  the  propagation  of  the 
kind  would  be  a  blessing  above  the  condition  of  hu- 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  451 

manity  ;  others  regarding  it  as  the  crown  and  consum- 
mation of  felicity,  because  that  happiness  only  can  be 
accounted  perfect  over  which  fortune  has  no  further 
power  i  which  cannot  be  where  there  is  posterity. 

Nor  were  outward  conditions  wanting :  a  tall  stat- 
ure, a  graceful  shape,  a  countenance  in  the  highest  de- 
gree majestic  and  yet  sweet,  a  most  happy  and  healthy 
constitution  ;  to  which  this  also  must  be  added,  that 
retaining  her  health  and  vigour  to  the  end,  and  having 
experienced  neither  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  nor  the 
ills  of  old  age,  she  obtained  at  last  by  an  easy  and  gen- 
tle death  that  euthanasia  which  Augustus  Caesar  was 
wont  so  earnestly  to  pray  for ;  and  which  is  noted  in 
the  case  of  that  excellent  Emperor  Antoninus  Pius, 
whose  death  wore  the  appearance  of  a  sweet  and  placid 
sleep.  So  likewise  in  the  last  illness  of  Elizabeth  there 
was  nothing  miserable,  nothing  terrible,  nothing  re- 
volting to  human  nature.  She  was  not  tormented 
either  with  desire  of  life,  or  impatience  of  sickness,  or 
pangs  of  pain :  none  of  the  symptoms  were  frightful 
or  loathsome  ;  but  all  of  that  kind  which  showed 
rather  the  frailty  than  the  corruption  and  dishonour  of 
nature.  For  a  few  days  before  her  death,  by  reason 
of  the  exceeding  dryness  of  her  body,  wasted  as  it  was 
with  the  cares  of  government  and  never  refreshed  with 
wine  or  a  more  generous  diet,  she  was  struck  with  pa- 
ralysis ;  and  yet  she  retained  her  powers  of  speech  (a 
thing  not  usual  in  that  disease)  and  of  mind  and  of 
motion  ;  only  somewhat  slower  and  duller.  And  this 
state  of  her  body  lasted  only  a  few  days,  as  if  it  were 
less  like  the  last  act  of  life  than  the  first  step  to  death. 
For  to  continue  long  alive  with  the  faculties  impaired 
is  a  miserable  thing ;  but  to  have  the  sense  a  little  laid 


452  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

asleep  and  so  pass  quickly  to  death,  is  a  placid  and 
merciful  period  and  close  of  life. 

To  crown  all,  as  she  was  most  fortunate  in  all  that 
belonged  to  herself,  so  was  she  in  the  virtue  of  her 
ministers.  For  she  had  such  men  about  her  as  perhaps 
till  that  day  this  island  did  not  produce.  But  God 
when  he  favours  kings  raises  also  and  accomplishes  the 
spirits  of  their  servants. 

Her  death  was  followed  by  two  posthumous  felicities, 
more  lofty  and  august  perhaps  than  those  which  at- 
tended her  in  life ;  her  successor,  and  her  memory. 
For  successor  she  has  got  one  who,  though  in  respect 
of  masculine  virtue  and  of  issue  and  of  fresh  accession 
of  empire  he  overtop  and  overshadow  her,  nevertheless 
both  shows  a  tender  respect  for  her  name  and  honour, 
and  bestows  upon  her  acts  a  kind  of  perpetuity ;  hav- 
ing made  no  change  of  any  consequence  either  in 
choice  of  persons  or  order  of  proceedings ;  insomuch 
that  seldom  has  a  son  succeeded  to  a  father  with  such 
silence  and  so  little  change  and  perturbation.  And  as 
for  her  memory,  it  is  so  strong  and  fresh  both  in  the 
mouths  and  minds  of  men  that,  now  death  has  extin- 
guished envy  and  lighted  up  fame,  the  felicity  of  her 
memory  contends  in  a  manner  with  the  felicity  of  her 
life.  For  if  any  factious  rumour  (bred  of  party  feel- 
ing and  religious  dissension)  still  wanders  abroad  (and 
yet  even  this  seems  now  timid  and  weak  and  overborne 
by  general  consent),  sincere  it  is  not,  enduring  it  can- 
not be.  And  on  this  account  chiefly  it  is  that  I  have 
put  together  these  observations,  such  as  they  are,  con- 
cerning her  felicity  and  the  marks  she  enjoyed  of  the 
divine  favour,  that  malevolent  men  may  fear  to  curse 
what  God  has  so  highly  blessed. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  453 

And  if  any  man  shall  say  in  answer,  as  was  said  to 
Caesar,  "  Here  is  much  indeed  to  admire  and  wonder 
at,  but  what  is  there  to  praise  ?  "  surely  I  account  true 
wonder  and  admiration  as  a  kind  of  excess  of  praise. 
Nor  can  so  happy  a  fortune  as  I  have  described  fall  to 
the  lot  of  any,  but  such  as  besides  being  singularly  sus- 
tained and  nourished  by  the  divine  favour,  are  also  in 
some  measure  by  their  own  virtue  the  makers  of  such 
fortune  for  themselves.  And  yet  I  think  good  to  add 
some  few  remarks  upon  her  moral  character ;  confining 
myself  however  to  those  points  which  seem  most  to 
give  opening  and  supply  fuel  to  the  speeches  of  tra- 
ducers. 

In  religion  Elizabeth  was  pious  and  moderate,  and 
constant,  and  adverse  to  innovation.  Of  her  piety, 
though  the  proofs  appear  most  clearly  in  her  actions, 
yet  no  slight  traces  were  to  be  found  likewise  in  her 
ordinary  way  of  life  and  conversation.  Prayers  and 
divine  service,  either  in  her  chapel  or  closet,  she  sel- 
dom failed  to  attend.  Of  the  Scriptures  and  the  writ- 
ings of  the  Fathers,  especially  those  of  St.  Augustine, 
she  was  a  great  reader.  Some  prayers  upon  particular 
occasions  she  herself  composed.  If  she  chanced  even 
in  common  talk  to  speak  of  God,  she  almost  always 
both  gave  him  the  title  of  her  Maker,  and  composed 
her  eyes  and  countenance  to  an  expression  of  humility 
and  reverence  ;  a  thing  which  I  have  myself  often  ob- 
served. And  as  for  that  which  some  have  given  out, 
that  she  could  not  endure  the  thought  of  mortality  and 
wras  impatient  of  all  allusion  either  to  old  age  or  death, 
that  is  utterly  untrue.  For  very  often,  many  years 
before  her  death,  she  would  pleasantly  call  herself  an 
old  woman,  and  would  talk  of  the  kind  of  epitaph  she 


454  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

would  like  to  have  upon  her  tomb ;  saying  that  she 
had  no  fancy  for  glory  or  splendid  titles,  but  would 
rather  have  a  line  or  two  of  memorial,  recording  in  few 
words  only  her  name,  her  virginity,  the  time  of  her 
reign,  the  reformation  of  religion,  and  the  preservation 
of  peace.  It  is  true  that  in  the  flower  of  her  years, 
while  she  was  yet  able  to  bear  children,  being  ques- 
tioned about  declaring  a  successor,  she  replied  that  she 
would  not  have  her  winding  sheet  spread  before  her 
eyes  while  she  was  alive  ;  and  yet  not  many  years  be- 
fore her  death,  being  in  a  thoughtful  mood,  meditating 
probably  upon  her  mortality,  and  being  interrupted  by 
one  of  her  familiars  with  a  complaint  that  many  great 
offices  in  the  commonwealth  were  too  long  vacant,  she 
rose  up  and  said  in  some  displeasure,  it  was  clear  that 
her  office  would  not  be  vacant  for  an  instant. 

With  regard  to  her  moderation  in  religion  there 
may  seem  to  be  a  difficulty,  on  account  of  the  severity 
of  the  laws  made  against  popish  subjects.  But  on  this 
point  I  have  some  things  to  advance  which  I  myself 
carefully  observed  and  know  to  be  true. 

Her  intention  undoubtedly  was,  on  the  one  hand  not 
to  force  consciences,  but  on  the  other  not  to  let  the 
state,  under  pretence  of  conscience  and  religion,  be 
brought  in  danger.  Upon  this  ground  she  concluded 
at  the  first  that,  in  a  people  courageous  and  warlike 
and  prompt  to  pass  from  strife  of  minds  to  strife  of 
hands,  the  free  allowance  and  toleration  by  public  au- 
thority of  two  religions  would  be  certain  destruction. 
Some  of  the  more  turbulent  and  factious  bishops  also 
she  did,  in  the  newness  of  her  reign  when  all  things 
were  subject  to  suspicion,  —  but  not  without  legal  war- 
rant —  restrain  and   keep  in  free  custody.     The  rest, 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  455 

both  clergy  and  laity,  far  from  troubling  them  with 
any  severe  inquisition,  she  sheltered  by  a  gracious  con- 
nivency. This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  at  first. 
Nor  even  when  provoked  by  the  excommunication  pro- 
nounced against  her  by  Pius  Quintus  (an  act  sufficient 
not  only  to  have  roused  indignation  but  to  have  fur- 
nished ground  and  matter  for  a  new  course  of  proceed- 
ing), did  she  depart  almost  at  all  from  this  clemency, 
but  persevered  in  the  course  which  was  agreeable  to  her 
own  nature.  For  being  both  wise  and  of  a  high  spirit, 
she  was  little  moved  with  the  sound  of  such  terrors  ; 
knowing  she  could  depend  upon  the  loyalty  and  love  of 
her  own  people,  and  upon  the  small  power  the  popish 
party  within  the  realm  had  to  do  harm,  as  long  as  they 
were  not  seconded  by  a  foreign  enemy.  About  the 
twenty-third  year  of  her  reign  however,  the  case  was 
changed.  And  this  distinction  of  time  is  not  arti- 
ficially devised  to  make  things  fit,  but  expressed  and 
engraved  in  public  acts. 

For  up  to  that  year  there  was  no  penalty  of  a  griev- 
ous kind  imposed  by  previous  laws  upon  popish  sub- 
jects. But  just  then  the  ambitious  and  vast  design  of 
Spain  for  the  subjugation  of  the  kingdom  came  grad- 
ually to  light.  Of  this  a  principal  part  was  the  raising 
up  within  the  bowels  of  the  realm  of  a  disaffected  and 
revolutionary  party  which  should  join  with  the  invad- 
ing enemy  ;  and  the  hope  of  effecting  this  lay  in  our 
religious  dissensions.  To  this  object  therefore  they 
addressed  themselves  with  all  their  might;  and,  the 
seminaries  beginning  then  to  blossom,  priests  were  sent 
over  into  England  for  the  purpose  of  kindling  and 
spreading  a  zeal  for  the  Romish  religion,  of  teaching 
and  inculcating  the  power  of  Romish  excommunication 


456 


TRANSLATION  OF  THE 


to  release  subjects  from  their  obedience,  and  of  excit- 
ing and  preparing  men's  minds  with  expectation  of  a 
change.  About  the  same  time  an  attempt  was  made 
upon  Ireland  with  open  arms,  the  name  and  govern- 
ment of  Elizabeth  was  assailed  with  a  variety  of  wicked 
libels,  and  there  was  a  strange  ferment  and  swelling  in 
the  world,  forerunner  of  some  greater  disturbance. 
And  though  I  do  not  say  that  all  the  priests  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  design,  or  knew  what  was  doing ;  for 
they  may  have  been  only  the  tools  of  other  men's  mal- 
ice ;  yet  it  is  true,  and  proved  by  the  confessions  of 
many  witnesses,  that  from  the  year  I  have  mentioned 
to  the  thirtieth  of  Elizabeth  (when  the  design  of  Spain 
and  the  Pope  was  put  in  execution  by  that  memorable 
armada  of  land  and  sea  forces)  almost  all  the  priests 
who  were  sent  over  to  tins  country  were  charged 
among  the  other  offices  belonging  to  their  function,  to 
insinuate  that  matters  could  not  long  stay  as  they  were, 
that  a  new  aspect  and  turn  of  things  would  be  seen 
shortly,  and  that  the  state  of  England  was  cared  for 
both  by  the  Pope  and  the  Catholic  princes,  if  the  Eng- 
lish would  but  be  true  to  themselves.  Besides  which, 
some  of  the  priests  had  plainly  engaged  themselves  in 
practices  tending  directly  to  the  shaking  and  subversion 
of  the  state  ;  and  above  all,  letters  were  intercepted 
from  various  quarters  by  which  the  plan  upon  which 
they  were  to  proceed  was  discovered  ;  in  which  letters 
it  was  written,  that  the  vigilance  of  the  Queen  and 
her  council  in  the  matter  of  the  Catholics  would  be 
eluded  ;  for  that  she  was  only  intent  upon  preventing 
the  Catholic  party  from  getting  a  head  in  the  person  of 
any  nobleman  or  great  personage,  whereas  the  plan 
now  was  to  dispose  and   prepare   everything   by  the 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  457 

agency  of  private  persons  and  men  of  small  mark ;  and 
that  too  without  their  having  any  communication  or 
acquaintance  one  with  another;  but  all  to  be  done 
under  the  seal  of  confession.  Such  were  the  arts  then 
resorted  to  —  arts  with  which  these  men  (as  we  have 
seen  lately  in  a  case  not  much  unlike)  are  practised 
and  familiar.  This  so  great  tempest  of  dangers  made 
it  a  kind  of  necessity  for  Elizabeth  to  put  some  severer 
constraint  upon  that  party  of  her  subjects  which  was 
estranged  from  her  and  by  these  means  poisoned  be- 
yond recovery,  and  was  at  the  same  time  growing  rich 
by  reason  of  their  immunity  from  public  offices  and 
burdens.  And  as  the  mischief  increased,  the  origin  of 
it  being  traced  to  the  seminary  priests,  who  were  bred 
in  foreign  parts,  and  supported  by  the  purses  and  char- 
ities of  foreign  princes,  professed  enemies  of  this  king- 
dom, and  whose  time  had  been  passed  in  places  where 
the  very  name  of  Elizabeth  was  never  heard  except  as 
that  of  a  heretic  excommunicated  and  accursed,  and 
who  (if  not  themselves  stained  with  treason)  were  the 
acknowledged  intimates  of  those  that  were  directly  en- 
gaged in  such  crimes,  and  had  by  their  own  arts  and 
poisons  depraved  and  soured  with  a  new  leaven  of  ma- 
lignity the  whole  lump  of  Catholics,  which  had  before 
been  more  sweet  and  harmless ;  there  was  no  remedy 
for  it  but  that  men  of  this  class  should  be  prohibited 
upon  pain  of  death  from  coming  into  the  kingdom  at 
all ;  which  at  last,  in  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  her 
reign,  was  done.  Nor  did  the  event  itself  which  fol- 
lowed not  long  after,  when  so  great  a  tempest  assailed 
and  fell  with  all  its  fury  upon  the  kingdom,  tend  in 
any  degree  to  mitigate  the  envy  and  hatred  of  these 
men ;   but  rather  increased  it,  as  if  they  had  utterly 


458  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

# 
cast  off  all  feeling  for  their  country,  which  they  were 
ready  to  betray  to  a  foreign  servitude.  And  though  it 
is  true  that  the  fear  of  danger  from  Spain,  which  was 
the  spur  that  goaded  her  to  this  severity,  did  after- 
wards subside  or  abate ;  yet  because  the  memory  of 
the  time  past  remained  deeply  printed  in  men's  minds 
and  feelings,  and  the  laws  once  made  could  not  be 
abrogated  without  the  appearance1  of  inconstancy,  or 
neglected  without  the  appearance  of  weakness  and  dis- 
order, the  very  force  of  circumstances  made  it  impos- 
sible for  Elizabeth  to  return  to  the  former  state  of 
things  as  it  was  before  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  her 
reign.  To  which  must  be  added  the  industry  of  some 
of  her  officers  to  improve  the  exchequer,  and  the  solic- 
itude of  her  ministers  of  justice  who  saw  no  hope  of 
salvation  for  the  country  but  in  the  laws ;  all  which 
demanded  and  pressed  the  execution  of  them.  And 
yet  what  her  own  natural  disposition  was  appears 
plainly  in  this,  that  she  so  blunted  the  law's  edge  that 
but  a  small  proportion  of  the  priests  were  capitally 
punished.  All  which  I  say  not  by  way  of  apology  ; 
for  these  proceedings  need  no  apology  ;  since  the 
safety  of  the  kingdom  turned  upon  them,  and  all  this 
severity  both  in  the  manner  and  the  measure  of  it 
came  far  short  of  the  bloody  examples  set  by  the  priest- 
hood, —  examples  scarcely  to  be  named  among  Chris- 
tians, and  proceeding  moreover  some  of  them  rather 
out  of  arrogance  and  malice  than  out  of  necessity. 
But  I  conceive  that  I  have  made  good  my  assertion, 
and  shown  that  in  the  cause  of  religion  she  was  indeed 
moderate,  and  that  what  variation  there  was  was  not 
in  her  nature  but  in  the  times. 

Of  her  constancy  in  religion  and  worship  the  best 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  459 

proof  is  her  dealing  with  Popery  :  which  though  in 
her  sister's  reign  it  had  been  established  by  public  au- 
thority and  fostered  with  great  care  and  labour,  and 
had  taken  deep  root  in  the  land,  and  was  strengthened 
by  the  consent  and  zeal  of  all  who  were  in  authority 
and  power ;  yet  because  it  was  not  agreeable  either  to 
the  word  of  God  or  to  primitive  purity  or  to  her  own 
conscience,  she  at  once  with  the  greatest  courage  and 
the  fewest  helps  proceeded  to  uproot  and  abolish. 
And  yet  she  did  it  not  precipitately  or  upon  eager  im- 
pulse, but  prudently  and  all  in  due  season  ;  as  may  be 
gathered  from  many  circumstances,  and  among  the 
rest  from  a  reply  made  by  her  on  the  following  occa- 
sion. Not  many  days  after  she  came  to  the  throne, 
when  prisoners  were  released  (as  the  custom  is  to  in- 
augurate and  welcome  a  new  reign  by  the  release  of 
prisoners),  a  certain  courtier,  who  from  nature  and 
habit  had  taken  to  himself  the  license  of  a  jester,  came 
to  her  as  she  went  to  chapel,  and  either  of  his  own 
motion  or  set  on  by  wiser  men,  presented  her  a  peti- 
tion ;  adding  with  a  loud  voice  before  all  the  company, 
that  there  were  yet  four  or  five  prisoners  more  who 
deserved  liberty,  for  whom  he  besought  that  they  might 
be  released  likewise ;  namely,  the  four  Evangelists  and 
the  Apostle  Paul ;  who  had  been  long  shut  up  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  as  it  were  in  prison,  so  that  they 
could  not  converse  with  the  people.  To  whom  she 
answered  very  wisely,  that  it  were  good  first  to  inquire 
further  of  themselves,  whether  they  would  be  released 
or  no :  thus  meeting  a  sudden  question  with  a  doubtful 
answer,  as  meaning  to  keep  all  clear  and  whole  for  her 
own  decision.  And  yet  she  did  not  introduce  these 
changes  timidly  neither,  nor  by  starts ;  but  proceeding 


460  TRANSLATION  OF  THE 

in  due  order,  gravely  and  maturely,  after  conference 
had  been  first  had  between  the  parties,  and  a  Parlia- 
ment held,  she  then  at  last,  and  yet  all  within  a  single 
year,  so  ordered  and  established  everything  relating  to 
the  Church,  that  to  the  last  day  of  her  life  she  never 
allowed  a  single  point  to  be  departed  from.  Nay,  at 
almost  every  meeting  of  Parliament  she  gave  a  public 
warning  against  innovation  in  the  discipline  and  rites 
of  the  Church.  And  so  much  for  the  point  of  religion. 
As  for  those  lighter  points  of  character,  —  as  that 
she  allowed  herself  to  be  wooed  and  courted,  and  even 
to  have  love  made  to  her ;  and  liked  it ;  and  continued 
it  beyond  the  natural  age  for  such  vanities ;  —  if  any 
of  the  sadder  sort  of  persons  be  disposed  to  make  a 
great  matter  of  this,  it  may  be  observed  that  there  is 
something  to  admire  in  these  very  things,  which  ever 
way  you  take  them.  For  if  viewed  indulgently,  they 
are  much  like  the  accounts  we  find  in  romances,  of  the 
Queen  in  the  blessed  islands,  and  her  court  and  institu- 
tions, who  allows  of  amorous  admiration  but  prohibits 
desire.1  But  if  you  take  them  seriously,  they  chal- 
lenge admiration  of  another  kind  and  of  a  very  high 
order ;  for  certain  it  is  that  these  dalliances  detracted 
but  little  from  her  fame  and  nothing  at  all  from  her 
majesty,  and  neither  weakened  her  power  nor  sensibly 
hindered  her  business  :  —  whereas  such  things  are  not 
unfrequently  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  public  for- 
tune. But  to  conclude,  she  was  no  doubt  a  good  and 
moral  Queen;  and  such  too  she  wished  to  appear. 
Vices  she  hated,  and  it  was  by  honest  arts  that  she 
desired  to  shine.  And  speaking  of  her  morality,  I 
remember  a  circumstance  in  point.     Having  ordered 

1 1  have  not  been  able  to  learn  what  romance  Bacon  alludes  to  here. 


IN  FELICEM  MEMORIAM  ELIZABETHS.  461 

a  letter  to  be  written  to  her  ambassador  concerning 
a  message  which  was  to  be  given  separately  to  the 
Queen  Mother  of  the  Valois,  and  finding  that  her 
secretary  had  inserted  a  clause  directing  the  ambas- 
sador to  say  to  the  Queen  Mother  by  way  of  com- 
pliment, that  they  were  two  Queens  from  whom 
though  women  no  less  was  expected  in  administra- 
tion of  affairs  and  in  the  virtue  and  arts  of  govern- 
ment than  from  the  greatest  men,  —  she  would  not 
endure  the  comparison,  but  ordered  it  to  be  struck 
out;  saying  that  the  arts  and  principles  which  she 
employed  in  governing  were  of  a  far  other  sort  than 
those  of  the  Queen  Mother.  Nor  was  she  spoiled 
by  power  and  long  reigning:  but  the  praises  which 
pleased  her  most  were  when  one  so  managed  the  con- 
versation as  aptly  to  insinuate  that  even  if  she  had 
passed  her  life  in  a  private  and  mean  fortune  she 
could  not  have  lived  without  some  note  of  excellency 
among  men  ;  so  little  was  she  disposed  to  borrow  any- 
thing of  her  fortune  to  the  credit  of  her  virtue.  But 
if  I  should  enter  into  her  praises,  whether  moral  or 
political,  I  should  either  fall  into  certain  common-place 
observations  and  commemorations  of  virtues,  which 
would  be  unworthy  of  so  rare  a  princess ;  or  in  order 
to  give  them  a  lustre  and  beauty  peculiar  and  appro- 
priate, I  should  have  to  run  into  the  history  of  her 
life,  —  a  task  requiring  both  more  leisure  and  a  richer 
vein.  Thus  much  I  have  said  in  few  words,  accord- 
ing to  my  ability.  But  the  truth  is  that  the  only  true 
commender  of  this  lady  is  time,  which,  so  long  a 
course  as  it  has  run,  has  produced  nothing  in  this 
sex  like  her,  for  the  administration  of  civil  affairs. 

END    OF    VOL.    XI. 


NOTE 


The  following  list  of  errata,  and  also  others  which  have  been 
corrected  in  their  proper  places,  were  furnished  to  the  American 
Publishers  by  Mr.  Spedding,  one  of  the  Editors  of  the  English 
edition  of  Bacon's  Works,  of  which  this  is  a  reprint :  — 

Page  52,  line  3  from  bottom,  upon  the  words  "obtained  the 
victory  upon  a  Saturday,"  insert  the  following  note  :  "  So  Speed, 
translating  Bernard  Andre.  The  Battle  of  Bosworth,  however, 
was  really  fought  on  a  Monday." 

Page  53,  line  9  from  top,  upon  the  words  "  close  chariot,"  in- 
sert the  following  note  :  "  This  statement  comes  from  Speed,  who 
so  interpreted  Bernard  Andre's  expression  Patenter  ingressus 
est.'  It  appears,  however,  that  the  true  reading  is  loztanter.  See 
Memorials  of  Henry  Vll.  (London,  1858.)  Editor's  Preface, 
p.  xxvi." 

Page  293,  last  line,  for  "  on  the  3rd  of  October,  1492,  (see 
Conquerors  of  the  New  World  and  their  Bondsmen,  vol.  i.  p. 
100),"  read,  "  on  the  11th  of  October,  1492  (see  Helps's  Spanish 
Conquest  in  America,  vol.  i.  109.)" 


^ 


B  1153  1860  v.ll  SMC 

Bacon,  Francis, 

The  works  of  Francis  Bacon 

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