111. 



attended tlie Council Meeting at the Tower which. Shakespeare 

 has immortalized, and which Dr. Hook says, "wehaveupoa 

 the highest authority, from Morton himself, who narrated it to 

 Sir Thomas More, if he did not himself pen the narrative." 

 Hastings on this occasion having been taken off for execution, 

 Morton was made prisoner and confined in the Tower, from whence 

 he was removed by Eichard's orders to Brecknock Castle, being 

 fearful lest the confinement of so popular a prelate might stir up 

 a tumult among the Londoners. Having escaped from Brecknock 

 he passed across England to the Isle of Ely, and joined the Earl 

 of Richmond in Bretagne. He assisted in planning Richmond's 

 invasion, and was probably the first projector for putting an 

 end to the civil wars by marrying Elizabeth, Edward the 

 Fourth's daughter, to Richmond ; by whom he was made Lord 

 Chancellor, which office he held to the time of his death 

 thirteen years after during which time, Lord Campbell says, "he 

 greatly contributed to the steadiness of the government and the 

 growing prosperity of the country. Although he appeared merely 

 to execute the measures of the king, he was in reality chief 

 author of the system for controlling the power of the great 

 feudal barons, and he may be considered the model, as he was 

 the precursor, of Cardinal Richelieu, who in a later age accom- 

 plished the same object still more effectually in France." 

 Among other laws and important statutes which were passed on 

 the recommendation of Morton was one, to extend the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Star Chamber, which Lord Bacon and Lord Coke 

 call a " Court of Criminal Equity," and which, not being 

 governed by any certain rules, they considered superior to any 

 other Court to be found in this or any other nation. But the 

 most important piece of legislation with which he was connected 

 was the statute protecting from the pains of treason all who act 

 under a de facto king. About this time parliament imposed a 

 t ax for defraying the expence of a war, to repair the dishonour 

 they considered the king had sustained by the loss of Bretagne, 

 and, finding by the Lord Chancellor's speech that the king's 

 inclination was that way, appointed Commissioners to gather and 



