30 INTRODUCTORY. 



their endowments. Without this consent, it was dangerous 

 to sell or alienate. 



The treasures of the monasteries and the rents of their lands 

 were soon wasted, and four years after the dissolution of the 

 greater monasteries, Henry began to debase the currency. 

 The first addition of alloy was comparatively small, one oz. 

 two dwts. But two years later a further debasement was 

 effected, in the next year more than half the coin was base 

 metal, and the debasement was continued into Edward's reign 

 to a still greater extent, for one issue from his mint contained 

 only one fourth silver to three fourths of alloy. When the 

 currency was restored by Elizabeth, the base money brought 

 into the mint in the year between Sept. 29, 1560, and Sept. 29, 

 1561, was 631,950 Ibs. weight. I shall comment below on the 

 particulars of this great fraud on the people, and on the process 

 by which Elizabeth restored the currency. Henry, I am per- 

 suaded, adopted these expedients because he feared to try the 

 temper of his parliament by appealing to them for assistance, 

 and he must have known that no grants which his people were 

 likely to make him would meet the enormous expense of his 

 extravagant establishments. In the last year but one of Henry's 

 reign, a Bill was actually passed by both houses for the dis- 

 solution of all Colleges, Chantries, Hospitals, Free Chapels, 

 &c., and it was probable that the Universities with all their 

 colleges would have been swept into 'the all-devouring ex- 

 chequer, but Henry died on Jan. 28, 1547. He died of that 

 new disease which was so fatal to the monarchs and princes of 

 Europe at the time, and his only son inherited the malady, the 

 precocity which it frequently developes, and the rapid decline 

 which it generally induces. 



The despotism of Henry's administration produced its natural 

 consequences. The king surrounded the throne of his son with 

 a body of councillors, whose powers he was at the pains to 

 limit by the elaborate precautions of his will. But Henry's 

 commands were neglected from the very beginning. The 

 councillors were from the first a camarilla, which became more 



