ENGLAND. 
630 
an immediate refource for fupplying their tafte for pro¬ 
digality, and a ready means of anfwering at all times the 
demands of their creditors. The blow, indeed, only 
reached their pofteriry ; and they were too ignorant to be 
affeCted by fuch diftant confiderations. 
His next regulation was to prevent their giving uni¬ 
forms to many hundreds of their dependents', who were 
thus retained to ferve their lord, and kept like the fol- 
diers of a Handing army, to be ready at the command of 
their leader. By an add pa (Fed in this reign, none but 
menial fervants were permitted to wear a livery, under 
feverc penalties ; and this law was enforced with the mod 
punctual obfervance. The king one day paying a vifit 
to the earl of Oxford, was entertained with all polftble 
fplendour and hofpitality. When he was ready to de¬ 
part, he faw ranged upon each fide a long avenue of men 
dreffed up in rich uniforms. The king, fttrprifed at the 
number, afked lord Oxford whether he conftantly enter¬ 
tained fuch a regiment of domeltics ; to which the earl 
very innocently replied, that they were only men whom 
he kept in pay to do him honour upon fuch occafions. 
At this the king ftarted back, and faid, “ By my faith, 
my lord, I thank you for your good cheer; but I mull 
not fuffer to have the laws broken before my face ; my 
attorney-general muff talk with you.” Oxford is faid to 
have paid no lefs than fifteen thoufand marks as a fine for 
this unadvifed (how of oflentation. 
We have it recorded, in a thoufand inftances, what a 
perverted ufe was made of monalteries, and other places 
appropriated to religious worfitip, by the number of cri¬ 
minals who found fanCtuary and protection therein. This 
privilege the clergy affumed as their religious preroga¬ 
tive ; and thefe places of pretended fanCtity were now 
become the abode of murderers, robbers, confpirators, and 
of every fpecies of felons. Witches and magicians were 
the oidy perfons that were forbidden to avail themfelves 
of the fecurity thefe fanCtuaries afforded. Henry ufed 
all his filtered with the pope to get thefe fanCtuaries abo- 
lifhed ; but he was not able to fucceed. All that lie 
could procure was, that if thieves, murderers, or rob¬ 
bers, regiftered as fanCtuary men, fiiould fally out, and 
commit fre111 offences, and retreat again, in fuch cafes 
they might be taken out of the fanCtuary, and delivered 
over to public juftice. Yet all this while Henry was not 
remifs in abridging the pope’s power, though at the fame 
time lie profetfed the utmoft fubmifTion to his will, and 
the greateft refpeCt for the clergy. The pope at one 
time was fo far impofed upon by his feeming attachment 
to the church, that he even invited him to renew the 
croifades for recovering the Holy Land. Henry’s anfwer 
deferves to be remembered. He affured his holinefs that 
no prince in Chriftendom would be more forward to un¬ 
dertake fo glorious an expedition ; but, as his dominions 
lay very diftant from Conftantinople, it would be better 
to apply to the kings of France and Spain for their aflifi¬ 
ance ; and in the mean time he would go to their aid 
himfelf, as foon as all the differences between the Clirif- 
tian princes fiiould be compromifed. This was at once 
a polite refufal, and an oblique reproach. 
Yet while he thus employed his power in lowering the 
influence of the nobles and clergy, be was tifing every 
art to extend the privileges of the people. In former 
reigns they were fure to fuffer on whatever fide they 
fought, when they were unfuccefsful. This rendered 
each party defperate in a declared civil war, fince no 
hopes of pardon remained, and confequently terrible 
daughters were feen to enfue. Henry therefore paffed an 
aCt, by which it was declared, that no perfon fhotild be 
impeached or attainted for afiifting the king for the time 
being; or, in other words, the fovereign who fhould be 
then actually in polfellion of the throne. This excellent 
fiatute ferved to reprefs the incitements to civil war; 
and hence the common people, no longer maintained in 
vicious idlenefs by their fuperiors, were obliged to be¬ 
come induftrious for their fupport, The nobility, inflead 
of vying with each other in the number and boldneL of 
•their vaffals, acquired by degrees a more civilized fpecies 
of emulation ; and endeavoured to excel in the fplendour 
and elegance of their equipages and tables. In fad, (he 
kingis greateft efforts were directed to promote trade and 
commerce, becaufe this not only enriched the treaf'ury, 
but naturally introduced a fpirit of liberty among the 
people, and difengaged them from all dependence, ex¬ 
cept upon their own industry, the laws, and the king. 
Before this great era, all our towns were crowded near 
fome ftrong caftle, where fome powerful lord redded. 
Thefe were at once fortrelfes for protection, and prifons 
for all forts of criminals. To thefe feats of protection, 
artificers, victuallers, and (hop-keepers, naturally retort¬ 
ed, and fettled on fome adjacent fpot to furnifh the lord 
and his attendants with all the necelfaries they might re¬ 
quire. The farmers alfo, and the liufbandmen in the 
neighbourhood, built their houfes there, to be protected 
againft: the numerous gangs of robbers, called Robertfmcn , 
who hid themfelves in the woods by day, and in felted 
the open country by night. Henry now endeavoured to 
bring the towns from fuch a neighbourhood, by (hewing 
the inhabitants the fuperior advantages of a commercial 
fituation. He attempted to teach them frugality, and a 
juft payment of debts ; and never once omitted the rights 
of the merchant, in all his treaties with foreign prince^ 
But it mult not be concealed, that, from a long con¬ 
templation upon the relative advantages of money, Henry 
at 1 a ft grew into an habit of confidering it as valuable for 
itfelf alone. As he grew old, his avarice feemed to pre¬ 
ponderate over his ambition ; and the methods he took 
to increafe his treafures cannot be juftified by his mod 
ardent biographers. He had found two minifters, Emp- 
fon and Dudley, perfectly qualified to fecond his avari¬ 
cious intentions. They were both lawyers ; the firft of 
mean birth, brutal manners, and an unrelenting temper ; 
the fecond, better born, and better bred, but equally in¬ 
flexible. It was their ufual practice to commit, by in¬ 
dictment, fuch perfons to prifon as they intended to op- 
prefs ; from whence they feldom got free, but by paying 
heavy fines, which were called mitigations and competi¬ 
tions. By degrees, as they were grown more hardened 
in opprefiion, the very forms of law were omitted ; they 
determined in a fummary way upon the properties of the 
fubjeCt, and confifcated their effeCts to the royal treafury. 
But the chief inftruments of opprefiion employed by thele 
minifters were the penal ftatutes, which, without the 
confideration of rank, quality, or fervices, were rigidly 
put in execution againft all men. In this manner was 
the latter part of this aCtive monarch’s reign employed, 
in many a degrading fcheme for amalfing money. In the 
year 1500, he had the fatisfaCtion of completing a mar¬ 
riage between his eldeit fon Arthur prince of Wales, and 
the infanta Catharine of Spain, which had been negociated 
feven years before. But this marriage proved, in the 
event, unprofperous. The young prince (tokened and 
died in a few months after, very much regretted by the 
whole nation ; and the princefs was then obliged to marry 
his fecond fon, Henry, who was created prince of Wales, 
in the room of his brother. The prince himfelf made 
all the oppolition to this union which a youth of twelve 
years of age was capable of; but, as the crowned heads 
perfifted in their refolution, the marriage was, by the 
pope’s difpenfation, Ihortly after ffilemnized. 
The magnificence of thefe nuptials was followed up 
by the accidental arrival of Philip archduke of Caftile, 
with Joan his confort. Thefe noble perfonages had em¬ 
barked for Spain, in order to take the advantage of an in¬ 
vitation, which the people of that country had offered, 
to place them upon the Spanifh throne. Meeting, how¬ 
ever, with a violent tempeft at fea, they were obliged to 
take (belter in Weymouth harbour, where they were ho¬ 
nourably received by fir John Trenchard, a gentleman of 
authority in the county of Dorfet. The king, being in¬ 
formed of their arrival, A. D. 1506, fent the earl of 
3 Arundel 
