The Leading Facts of English History Part 30

VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs

326. Dress.

Great sums were spent on dress by both s.e.xes, and the courtiers'

doublets, or jackets, were of the most costly silks and velvets, elaborately puffed and slashed. During the latter part of the period the pointed shoes, which had formerly been of prodigious length, suddenly began to grow broad, with such rapidity that Parliament pa.s.sed a law limiting the width of the toes to six inches.

At the same time the court ladies adopted the fashion of wearing horns as huge in proportion as the n.o.blemen's shoes. The government tried legislating them down, and the clergy fulminated a solemn curse against them; but fashion was more powerful than Church and Parliament combined, and horns and hoofs came out triumphant.

EIGHTH PERIOD[1]

"One half her soil has walked the rest In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages!"

O. W. Holmes

Political Reaction--Absolutism of the Crown--The English Reformation and the New Learning

Crown or Pope?

House of Tudor (1485-1603)

Henry VII, 1485-1509 Henry VIII, 1509-1547 Edward VI, 1547-1553 Mary, 1553-1558 Elizabeth, 1558-1603

[1] Reference Books on this period will be found in the Cla.s.sified List of Books in the Appendix. The p.r.o.nunciation of names will be found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in parentheses.

327. Union of the Houses of Lancaster and York.

Before leaving the Continent Henry Tudor (S314) had promised the Yorkist party that he would marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV (see Genealogical Table, p. 179), and sister to the young Princes murdered by Richard III (S310). Such a marriage would unite the rival houses of Lancaster and York, and put an end to the civil war.

A few months after the new King's accession the wedding was duly celebrated, and in the beautiful east window of stained gla.s.s in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, the Roses are seen joined; so that, as the quaint verse of that day says:

"Both roses flourish--red and white-- In love and sisterly delight; The two that were at strife are blended, And all old troubles now are ended."

Peace came from the union, but it was peace interrupted by insurrections which lasted for several years.

Origin of the House of Tudor

Edward III 1 2 3 | 4 5 -------------------------------------------------- | | | | | Edward William, Lionel, Duke John of Gaunt, Edmund, Duke of York (the Black no of Clarence, Duke of | Prince) issue from whom Lancaster /----------------- | descended in | Edward, Duke of Richard, Richard II the fourth Henry IV York, no issue Earl of generation | Cambridge, *Richard, Henry V (Catharine, m. Anne Duke of York | his widow, Mortimer, great- | Henry VI married granddaughter of --------------------- Owen Tudor, Lionel, Duke of | | a Welsh gentleman) Clarence; their Edward IV Richard III | son was | Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richard, --------------------------- Richmond, m. Margaret Duke of York | | | Beaufort, a descendant +Edward V +Richard, Elizabeth of John of Gaunt, Duke Duke of York of York, of Lancaster, see m. Henry VII pages 161, 172 (of Lancaster) | Henry (Tudor) VII (formerly Earl of Richmond), m. Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the House of Lancaster (Red Rose) and York (White Rose) in the new royal House of Tudor

*Inherited the t.i.tle Duke of York from his uncle Edward. See No. 5.

+The Princes murdered by Richard III.

328. Condition of the Country; Power of the Crown.

Henry, it is said, had his claim to the throne printed by Caxton, and distributed broadcast over the country (S306). It was the first political appeal to the people made through the press, and was a sign of the new period upon which English history had entered. Since Caxton began his great work, the kingdom had undergone a most momentous change.

The leading n.o.bles, like the Earl of Warwick (SS296, 303), were, with few exceptions, dead. Their estates were confiscated, their thousands of followers either buried on the battlefield or dispersed throughout the land (S316). The small number of t.i.tled families remaining was no longer to be feared. The nation itself, though it had taken comparatively little part in the war, was weary of bloodshed, and ready for peace on any terms.

The accession of the Welsh house of Tudor (S39) marks the beginning of a long period of almost absolute royal power. The n.o.bility were too weak to place any check on the King. The clergy, who had not recovered from their dread of Lollardism (SS255, 283) and its attacks on their wealth and influence, were anxious for a strong conservative government such as Henry promised. The House of Commons had no clear united policy, and though the first Parliament put certain restrainst on the Crown, yet they were never really enforced.[1] The truth is, that the new King was both too prudent and too crafty to give them an opportunity. By avoiding foreign wars he dispensed with the necessity of summoning frequent Parliaments, and with demanding large sums of money from them.

[1] At the accession of Henry VII, Parliament imposed the following checks on the power of the King: (1) No new tax to be levied without consent of Parliament; (2) No new law to be made without the same consent; (3) No committal to prison without a warrant specifying the offense, and the trial to be speedy; (4) Criminal charges and questions of fact in civil cases to be decided by jury; (5) The King's officers to be held responsible to the nation.

By thus ruling alone for a large part of the time, Henry got the management of affairs into his own hands, and transmitted the power to those who came after him. In this way the Tudors with their successors, the Stuarts, built up a system of "personal sovereignty"-- or "one-man power"--unchecked by const.i.tutional restraints. It continued for a hundred and fifty years, when the outbreak of the great Civil War brought it to an end forever.

329. Growth of a Stronger Feeling of Nationality.

It would be an error, however, to consider this absolutism of the Crown as an unmitigated evil. On the contrary, it was in one important direction an advantage. There are times when the great need of a people is not more individual liberty, but greater national unity. Spain and France were two countries consisting of a collection of petty feudla states. Their n.o.bility were always trying to steal each other's possessions and cut each other's throats.

But the rise in each country of a royal despotism forced the turbulent barons to make peace, and to obey a common central law. By this means both realms ultimately developed into great and powerful kingdoms.

When the Tudors came to the throne, England was still full of rankling hate engendered by the Wars of the Roses (S299). Held down by the heavy hand of Henry VII, and later, by the still heavier one of Henry VIII, the country learned the same salutary lesson of growth under repression which had benefited Spain and France.

Henceforth Englishmen of all cla.s.ses no longer boasted that they belonged to the Yorkist or the Lancastrian faction (S300), but began to pride themselves on their loyalty to Crown and country, and their readiness to draw their swords to defend both.[1]

[1] But the pa.s.sage of Poyning's Act (1494) in Ireland prohibited the Irish Parliament from pa.s.sing any law which did not receive the sanction of the English Council. This act was not repealed until 1782.

330. Henry's Methods of raising Money; the Court of Star Chamber.

Henry's reign was in the interest of the middle cla.s.ses,--the farmers, tradesmen, and mechanics. His policy was to avoid heavy taxation, to exempt the poor from the burdens of state, and so ingratiate himself with a large body of the people.

In order to accomplish this, he revived "benevolences" (SS307, 313), and by a device suggested by his chief minister, Cardinal Morton, and hence known and dreaded as "Morton's Fork," he extorted large sums from the rich and well-to-do.[2]

[2] Those whose income from land was less than $2, or whose movable property did not exceed 15 pounds (Say 150 pounds and $1125 now), were exempt. The lowest rate of a.s.sessment for the "benevolences" was fixed at twenty pence on the pound on land, and half that rate on other property.

The Cardinal's agents made it their business to learn every man's income, and visit him accordingly. If a person lived handomely, the Cardinal would insist on a correspondingly liberal gift; if, however, a citizen lived very plainly, the King's minister insisted none the less, telling the unfortunate man that by his economy he must surely have acc.u.mulated enough to bestow the required "benevolence."[3] Thus on one p.r.o.ng or the other of his terrible "fork" the shrewd Cardinal impaled his writhing victims, and speedily filled the royal treasury as it had never been filled before.[4]

[3] Richard Reed, a London alderman, refused to contribute a "benevolence." He was sent to serve as a soldier in the Scotch wars at his own expense, and the general was ordered to "use him in all things according to sharp military discipline." The effect was such that few after that ventured to deny the King what he asked.

[4] Henry is said to have acc.u.mulated a fortune of nearly two millions sterling, an amount which would perhaps represent upwards of $90,000,000 now.

But Henry VII had other methods for raising money. He sold offices in Church and State, and took bribes for pardoning rebels. When he summoned a Parliament he obtained grants for putting down some real or pretended insurrection, or to defray the expenses of a threatened attack from abroad, and then quietly pocketed the appropriation,--a device not altogether unknown to modern government officials.

A third and last method for getting funds was invented in Henry's behalf by two lawyers, Empson and Dudley, who were so rapacious and cut so close that they were commonly known as "the King's skin shearers." They went about the country enforcing old and forgotten laws, by which they reaped a rich harvest.

Their chief instrument for gain, however, was a revival of the Statute of Liveries. This law imposed enormous fines on those n.o.blemen who dared to equip their followers in military garb, or designate them by a badge equivalent to it, as had been the custom during the late civil wars (S296).

In order to thoroughly enforce the Statute of Liveries, Henry organized the Court of Star Chamber, so called from the starred ceiling where the tribunal met. This court had for its object the punishment of such crimes committed by the great families, or their adherents, as the ordinary law courts could not, or through intimidation dared not, deal with. It had no power to inflict death, but might impose long terms of imprisonment and ruinous fines. It, too, first made use of torture in England to extort confessions of guilt.

Henry seemed to have enforced the Law of Livery against friend and foe alike. Said the King to the Earl of Oxford, as he left his castle, where a large number of retainers in uniform were drawn up to do him honor, "My lord, I thank you for your entertainment, but my attorney must speak to you." The attorney, who was the notorious Empson, brought suit in the Star Chamber against the Earl, who was fined fifteen thousand marks, or something like $750,000, for the incautious display he had made.

331. The Introduction of Artillery strengthens the Power of the King.

It was easier for Henry to pursue this arbitrary course because the introduction of artillery had changed the art of war. Throughout the Middle Ages the call of a great baron had, as Macaulay says, been sufficient to raise a formidable revolt. Countrymen and followers took down their tough yew long bows from the chimney corner, knights buckled on their steel armor, mounted their horses, and in a few days an army threatened the holder of the throne, who had no troops save those furnished by loyal subjects.

But since then, men had "digged villainous saltpeter out of the bowels of the harmless earth" to manufacture powder, and others had invented cannon (S239), "those devilish iron engines," as the poet Spenser called them, "ordained to kill." Without artillery, the old feudal army, with its bows, swords, and battle-axes, could do little against a king like Henry, who had it. For this reason the whole kingdom lay at his mercy; and though the n.o.bles and the rich might groan, they saw that it was useless to fight.

332. The Pretenders Symnel and Warbeck.

During Henry's reign, two pretenders laid claim to the crown: Lambert Symnel, who represented himself to be Edward Plantagenet, nephew of the late King; and Perkin Warbeck, who a.s.serted that he was Richard, Duke of York (S310), who had been murdered in the Tower by his uncle, Richard III. Symnel's attempt was easily suppressed, and he commuted his claim to the crown for the position of scullion in the King's kitchen.