exception, peers are now always created by letters patent. The first instance in which earls and barons are called peers is in 14 Edw. II. (1321), in the award of exile against the Despensers. The degrees of nobility are dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons. 1. The title of Duke or dux was used among the Anglo-Saxons as a title of dignity; but as William the Conqueror and his successors were dukes of Normandy, they would not honour any subject with the title till the reign of Edward III., who, claiming to be king of France, created his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince, duke of Cornwall (1337). Several of the royal family subsequently received the title of duke. 2. The title of Marquess or marchio was originally applied to a Lord Marcher, or lord of the frontier districts, called the marches, from the Teutonic word marka, a limit; but it was first created a parliamentary dignity by Richard II., who made Robert de Vere marquess of Dublin (1386). 3. An Earl corresponded to the Saxon ealdorman or alderman, who originally had the administration of a shire. Under the Norman kings the title became merely personal, though the earl continued to receive a third penny of the emoluments arising from the pleas in the county courts. In Latin the earl was called Comes, and after the Norman conquest Count, whence the name county is still applied to the shires; but the title of count never superseded the more ancient designation of earl, and soon fell into disuse. The title of earl continued to be the highest hereditary dignity till the reign of Edward III. 4. The dignity of Viscount or Vice-Comes was borrowed from France, and was first conferred in 1440 by Henry VI., who had been crowned king of France. 5. The title of Baron has been already explained. (See p. 126.) II. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.-The members of the House of Commons consist of the knights of the shires, and the burgesses, or representatives of the cities, universities, and boroughs. The origin of the knights of the shires is traced to the fourteenth clause in the charter of John, by which the sheriff was bound to summon to the Great Council all the (inferior) tenants in chief. The principle of representation introduced by Simon de Montfort in the 49th of Henry III. (1265) has been already explained (p. 148). From this time till the 23rd of Edward I. (1295) the representatives of the cities and boroughs were occasionally summoned; but they were not permanently engrafted upon parliament till the latter date, when the expenses of Edward, arising from his foreign wars, led him to have recourse to this means for obtaining supplies of money. This is the true date of the House of Commons (Stubbs, p. 402). The success of the experiment insured its repetition; and the king found that he could more readily obtain larger sums of money by the subsidies of the citizens and burgesses than he had previously obtained by tallages upon their towns. It must be recollected that the only object of summoning the citizens and burgesses was to obtain money, and that it was not originally intended to give them the power of consenting to the laws. And often after this period the upper house continued to sit and pass laws, when the commons had retired. But gradually the power of the purse procured them a share in legislation. At first both houses sat in the same chamber; but from the earliest times they voted separately, and imposed separate taxes, each upon its own order. The knights of the shires voted at first with the earls and barons; but in the latter years of Edward III. the houses deliberated apart, and were divided as we now find them. In the feeble reign of Edward II. the commons were not slow in advancing their rights; and the rolls of parliament show that on one occasion, at least, they granted supplies on condition that the king should redress the grievances of which they complained. Gradually the assent of the commons came to be considered necessary for the enactment of laws; and in the long and prosperous reign of Edward III. the three essential principles of our government were generally established: (1) The consent of parliament to all extraordinary aids and taxes; (2) the concurrence of the two houses in all matters affecting the realm; (3) the right of the commons to inquire into public abuses, and to impeach public counsellors. With regard to the second constitutional principle mentioned above, we find in 15 Edward II. that "matters to be established for the estate of the king and his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established, in parliament by the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty of the realm, according as has been before accustomed." It was the practice that the petitions of the commons, with the respective answers made to them in the king's name, should be drawn up after the end of the session in the form of laws, and entered upon the statute-roll. Still it must be observed that the statutes do not always express the true sense of the commons, as their petitions were frequently modified and otherwise altered by the king's answers. The first instance in which the commons exercised the third constitutional principle alluded to was in 50 Edward III., when, instigated by the Black Prince, they impeached lord Latimer and other ministers of the king. con Under the reign of Richard II. the power of the House of Commons made still further progress, which was tinued under the three kings of the house of Lancaster, who owed their throne to a parliamentary title. Among the rights established under these kings the two following were the most important: 1. The introduction, in the reign of Henry VI., of complete statutes under the name of bills, instead of the old petitions, to which the king gave his consent, and which he was not at liberty to alter, as he had done in the case of petitions. It now became the practice for either house to originate a bill, except in the case of money bills, which continued to be originated exclusively by the commons. 2. That the king ought not to take notice of matters pending in parliament, and that the commons should enjoy liberty of speech. The persons who had the right of voting for knights of the shire were declared by 8 Hen. VI. c. 7, to be all freeholders of lands and tenements of the annual value of 408., equivalent at least to 301. of our value; which was a limitation of the number of voters, since it would appear from 7 Hen. IV. c. 15, that all persons whatever, present at the county court, had previously the right of voting for the knights of their shires. For further particulars as to the House of Lords, see sir Harris Nicolas, The Historic Peerage of England, Introduction, in the edit. of 1857; and as to the House of Commons, Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. c. 8. B. AUTHORITIES FOR THE PERIOD A reference to Note C, appended to chapter vii. (pp. 129, 130), will show what histories already mentioned extend into this period In addition may be named the Annals of Dunstable to 1297 (Rolls); Walter of Hemingford, Lives of Edward I., II., III.; John Trokelowe, Annales Edwardi II., with a continuation by Henry Blaneford (Rolls); Robert of Avesbury, Historia de Mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi III.; the Monk of Evesham, Hist. Vita et Regni Ricardi II.; Otterbourne's Chronicle, from Brute to 1420; Whethamstede's Chronicle, 1441 to 1460 (Rolls); Elmham, Vita et Gesta Henrici V. (Rolls); Titus Livius, idem.; William of Worcester, Annales Rerum Anglicarum, 1324 to 1491; Rous, Historia Regum Anglia (to 1485). The preceding works are published in Hearne's collection. The following are in the collection of Hall: Nicholas Trivet, Annales sex regum Angliæ, 1135 to 1318; Adam Murimuth, Chronicle (with continuation), 1303 to 1380. The Chronicle of Lanercost, published by the Bannatyne Club, extends from 1201 to 1346. Joan. Amundesham, 1422-1440 (Rolls). The following are in Camden's Anglica, &c.: Thos. de la More, De Vita et Morte Edwardi II.; Walsingham, Historia brevis Angliæ, 1272 to 1422: the same author's Hypodigma Neustria, containing an account of the affairs of Normandy to Henry V. (Rolls), is also in Camden. Froissart's Chroniques (translated by Lord Berners) is an interesting but not very trustworthy work for the times of Edward III. and Richard II. Chron. Anglia, 1328-1388 (Rolls). The Chroniques of Monstrelet (1400 to 1467) and the Memoires of Philip de Comines (1461 to 1498) may also be consulted for foreign affairs during the later Plantagenets. The early printed chronicles which treat of this period, with the exception of Fabyan's (to 1509) and Hardyng's (to 1538), are not contemporary. The principal are those of Hall, Grafton, Holinshed, and Stowe. Sir Thos. More's History of Richard III. is the best authority for that period: he was old enough to have heard the facts from contemporaries, and especially from bishop Morton, in whose service he had lived, Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York. From their monument in Westminster Abbey. BOOK IV. THE HOUSE OF TUDOR. A.D. 1485-1603. CHAPTER XIII. HENRY VII. A.D. 1485-1509. § 1. Introduction. § 2. Accession of HENRY VII. His coronation, marriage, and settlement of the government. § 3. Discontents. Invasion of Lambert Simnel, and battle of Stoke. Coronation of the queen. § 4. Foreign affairs. Peace of Estaples. § 5. Perkin Warbeck. Execution of lord Stanley. § 6. Further attempts of Perkin. Cornish insurrection, and battle of Blackheath. 7. Perkin again invades England, is captured, and executed. Execution of Warwick. § 8. Marriage and death of prince Arthur. Marriage of the princess Margaret. Oppression of Empson and Dudley § 9. Matrimonial negociations of Henry. Death and character of the king. § 10. Miscellaneous occurrences. § 1. THE accession of the Tudors to the English throne is nearly coincident with the proper epoch of modern history. The final important change in the European populations had been effected by the settlement of the Turks at Constantinople in 1453. The improvement in navigation was soon to lay open a new world, as well as a new route to that ancient continent of Asia, whose almost fabulous riches had attracted the wonder and cupidity of Europeans since the days of Alexander the Great. Hence was to arise a new system of relations among the states of Europe. The commerce of the East, previously monopolized by the Venetians and Genoese, began to be diverted to the Western nations; its richest products to be rivalled by those of another hemisphere. The various European states, having consolidated their domestic institutions, were beginning to direct their attention to the affairs of their neighbours. The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. of France, in the reign of Henry VII., is justly regarded as the commencement of the political system of Europe, or of that series of wars and negociations among its different kingdoms which has continued to the present day, The house of Tudor, lifted to the throne by the civil wars, and strengthened by the very desolation which they had occasioned, was enabled to play an effective part upon the continent, and to lay the foundation of that European influence which England still commands. Besides the advantages derived from commerce, the intercourse of nations is beneficially felt in their mutual influence upon opinion and the progress of society. Europe, first cemented into a whole by the conquests of the Romans, derived a still firmer bond of union from its common Christianity. The distinguishing historical feature of the reign of the Tudors is the progress and final establishment of the Reformation. That great revolution was accompanied by an astonishing progress in manners, literature, and the arts; but, above all, it encouraged that spirit of civil freedom, by which, under the house of Stuart, the last seal was affixed to our constitutional liberties. § 2. The victory which the earl of Richmond gained at Bosworth was entirely decisive. Sir William Stanley placed upon his head the crown which Richard had worn in the battle; and the acclamations of "Long live Henry the Seventh!" by a natural and unpremeditated movement, resounded from all quarters of the field (August 22, 1485). Henry was now in his 30th year. He had no real title to the crown; but he determined to put himself in immediate possession of regal authority, and to show all opponents that nothing but force of arms should be able to expel him. He brought to the throne all the bitter feelings of the Lancastrians. To exalt that party, and depress the adherents of the house of York, were his favourite objects, and through the earlier part of his reign were never forgotten. His first command after the battle of Bosworth was to secure the person of Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence, who had been put to death by his brother, Edward IV. Henry immediately afterwards set out for the capital. His journey bore the appearance of an established monarch making a peaceable progress through his dominions, rather than that of a prince who had opened his way to the throne by force of arms. The promise he had made of marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV., seemed to insure a union of the contending titles of the two families; but, though bound by honour as well as by interest to complete this alliance, he was resolved to postpone it till the ceremony of his own coronation should be finished, and his title recognized by parliament. Anxious to support his personal and hereditary right to the throne, he dreaded lest an earlier marriage with the princess should imply a right in her to participate in the sovereignty, and raise doubts of his own title through the house of Lancaster. On the 30th of October Henry was crowned at Westminster by cardinal Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury. The parliament, which assembled soon after, seemed entirely devoted to him. It was enacted "That the inheritance of the crown should rest, remain, and abide in the king, and none other;" but whether as rightful heir, or only as present possessor, was not determined. In the following year Henry applied to the papal authority for a confirmation of his title. The parliament, at his instigation, passed an act of attainder against the late king and the richest of his adherents; they also reversed the attainders of Henry VI. and 107 Lancastrians. Henry bestowed favours and honours on some particular persons who were attached to him; but the ministers whom he most trusted and favoured were not chosen from among the nobility, or even from among the laity. John Morton and Richard Fox, two clergymen of singular industry and capacity, who had shared in his dangers and distresses, were called to the privy council; Morton was restored to the bishopric of Ely, and Fox was created bishop of Exeter (1487). The former, soon after, upon the death of Bourchier, was raised to the see of Canterbury. The king's marriage was celebrated at London, January 18, 1486, with greater demonstrations of joy than appeared either at his first entry or his coronation. But, though married, the queen was not crowned until the end of the next year. § 3. In the course of this year an abortive attempt at insurrection was made by lord Lovel; but though Henry had been able to defeat this hasty rebellion, 1aised by the relics of Richard's partisans, his government was disturbed by a more formal attempt. There lived in Oxford one Richard Simon, a priest, who entertained the design of disturbing Henry's government by raising up a pretender |