34 A. D. 1509. 



his influence, were very conducive to the advancement of agriculture 

 and commerce, as particularly, 



T) By an adt for the encouragement of hufbandry, in the year 1489. 



II) By gradually reducing the exorbitant power of the nobility, who 

 had lately raifed fuch dorms in the nation, particularly againft himfelf. 

 Leave was granted to all freeholders, who went with the king in his 

 wars, to alienate their lands at pleafure, without fines for alienation, 

 which was a good means to make landed eftates change proprietors the 

 more eafily and frequently, as the commerce and wealth of the nation 

 gradually increafed. He wifely confidered the old maxim. Dominium 

 fequitur tcrram, and that king John's barons were often too hard for 



him, becaufe mofi: of the lands were poirefled by them or by their vaf- 

 fals ; and that, as he himfelf had been raifed by the nobles, he might 

 poflibly be caft down by them. This ad was renewed or confirmed by 

 one of the third year of king Henry VIII, c. 4. 



III) By an ad of his 19th year, c. 14, direding a penalty for all giv- 

 ers or takers of any livery, or for any perfons retaining or being re- 

 tained with another, during that king's life, the nobility were deprived 

 of their great retinues. This law was, indeed, but a more extenfive 

 confirmation of the laws againft retainers (more properly to be called 

 retained) of great men, made in the reigns of king Richard II, Henry 

 IV, and Edward IV ; for, by the great numbers of men (as well 

 knights and efquires as yeomen or common men) who wore the liveries 

 and hats of the nobility, and were at their devotion in thofe idle and 

 lefs opulent times, became formidable to the crown, and formed the 

 beft of the Englifh cavalry in the wars between the houfes of York and 

 Lancafter, fo jealous a prince as Henry VII would, therefor, naturally 

 lay hold of fuch means to break the ftrength of the nobles ; and this 

 law anfwered the end very well, fmce we hear very little of retainers 

 and liveries from this time. In this only fenfe, therefor, may he be 

 faid to have altered the balance of the nation (as fome authors phrafe 

 it), viz. in depreffing the nobility, and enabling the com.mons freely 

 to purchafe their lands. But it is an almoft univerfal miftake of our 

 hiftorians, to afcribe to him a kind of total revival of our woollen ma- 

 nufadure, as if, according to them, it had been gradually funk and ne- 

 gleded ever fince king Edward Ill's time ; the contrary whereof is ap- 

 parent, from fo many ads of parliament, and fo many treaties with 

 foreign princes in the intermediate reigns, in favour of that manufac- 

 ture, which not only profpered at home, but was conftantly exported 

 beyond fea in all thofe reigns before his time. 



IV) Forefeeing the bad confequences of the noble and great province 

 of Bretagne being annexed 'to France (in a great meafure owing to his 

 avarice and pufillanimity), he had love enough left for his country 

 (and for his own credit in fucceeding times), to induce him now and 



