58 HISTOEICAL SKETCH OF THE [XTV. 



XIV. 



HENRY VII. AND HIS NOBLES THE STATUTE OF 

 FINES. 



THE Statute of Fines, 4 Henry VII., c. 24 (1487), 

 was made about fifteen years after Taltarum's case 

 had established the right of the tenant in possession 

 of entailed land to dispose of it absolutely. 



This statute has afforded occasion of comment to 

 those who discover deep political designs in the 

 authors of every change in the law relating to land. 



They allege that Henry VII., being a politic and 

 sagacious prince, obtained the enactment with the 

 view of depressing the power of his nobility ; 

 although the objections to such a theory are neither 

 few nor inconsiderable. 



The first objection is that the statute was really 

 not the work of Henry VII. or his advisers, but of 

 his predecessor Richard III., a prince whose hands 

 were too full of pressing business, during his short 

 reign, to leave him leisure for plans which could 

 ripen, if at all, only in the distant future. The 



