HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 413 



power, and inform his judgement. In which re 

 spect also he was fairly patient of liberty, both of 

 advice, and of vote, till himself were declared. He 

 kept a strait hand on his nobility, and chose rather 

 to advance clergymen and lawyers, which were more 

 obsequious to him, but had less interest in the 

 people ; which made for his absoluteness, but not 

 for his safety. Insomuch as, I am persuaded, it was 

 one of the causes of his troublesome reign ; for that 

 his nobles, though they were loyal and obedient, 

 yet did not co-operate with him, but let every man 

 go his own way. He was not afraid of an able man, 

 as Lewis the Eleventh was; but contrariwise, he 

 was served by the ablest men that were to be found; 

 without which his affairs could not have prospered 

 as they did. For war, Bedford, Oxford, Surrey, 

 D Aubigny, Brooke, Poynings : for other affairs, 

 Morton, Fox, Bray, the Prior of Lanthony, Warham, 

 Urswick, Hussey, Frowick, and others. Neither 

 did he care how cunning they were that he did em 

 ploy : 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 dis 

 composed counsellor, or near servant, save only 

 Stanley, the lord chamberlain. As for the disposi 

 tion 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 sove- 



