17 



his horse afterwards for a sum equal to 

 ,20,000 in modern money. 



For nearly a hundred years after the 

 deposition of Richard II., the available 

 records throw little or no light upon our 

 subject. The Wars of the Roses (1450- 

 [471) were productive of results injurious 

 alike to agriculture, stock breeding, and 

 commerce. During a period when horses 

 for military service were in constant demand, 

 and were liable, unless the property of some 

 powerful noble, to seizure by men of either 

 of the contending factions, it was not worth 

 any man's while to breed horses, still less 

 to try to improve them. The fifteenth 

 century, therefore, or at least a considerable 

 portion of it, saw retrogression rather than 

 progress in English horse-breeding. 



HENRY VII. (1485-1509). 



Henry VIL, in 1495, found the horse 

 supply of the country so deficient, and the 

 prices so high, that he passed an Act for- 

 bidding the export of any horse without 

 Royal permission, on pain of forfeiture, and 

 of any mare whose value exceeded six 

 shillings and eightpence ; no mare under 

 three years old might be sent out of the 



