CHAP. In the act of settlement itself no mention was VI. made of Elizabeth or her heirs even Henry's own claim, which he so ostentatiously brought forward in his speech to the commons, "of his just right of inheritance, and the sure judg"ment of God," was studiously omitted: and it was merely enacted, that "the inheritance of "the crown should be, rest, remain, and abide "in the most royal person of the then sovereign lord, king Henry VII., and the heirs of his 46 66 body lawfully coming, perpetually with the "grace of God so to endure, and in none "other."15 2°. But this cautious policy, and in particular this silence with respect to the princess, seems to have alarmed not only the partisans of the house of York, but even Henry's own friends, who had trusted that under the union of the red and white roses domestic peace had been apprehended by order of the king immediately after the battle of Bosworth. We find him soon afterwards a prisoner at York, "sore crased by reason of his trouble and carrying." (Drake's Eborac. 123.) He however made his peace with Henry, was not included in the act of attainder, and obtained a full par. don. On this account Henry opposed a motion to call him before the house of lords for his conduct in composing the petition and act of bastardy of Edward's children. Year-book, Ibid. 15 Rot. Parl. vi. 270. While this bill was before the lords, the chancellor assembled all the judges, and required their opinion, whether such an act, if it were passed, would have the effect "of resuming all the franchises and liberties of all manner of per"sons." It seems to have been apprehended that the new settlement might have had the same effect, as the acquisition of the crown by conquest. The judges replied in the negative. Yearbook, Term Hil. 1 Hen. VII. 25. 66 CHAP. VI. would succeed to war and dissension. When the commons presented to the king the usual grant of tonnage and poundage for life, they coupled with it a petition, that he would be pleased to “take to wife and consort the prin- Dec. 10. cess Elizabeth, which marriage they hoped "God would bless with a progeny of the race "of kings:"16 the lords spiritual and temporal, rising from their seats, and bowing to the throne, signified their concurrence; and Henry graciously answered that he was willing to comply with their request." 3.. At the very commencement of the session the king had alluded to "the punishment of those, who had offended "his royal majesty." The expression was noticed how, it was asked, could the late monarch and his supporters have offended the majesty of the earl of Richmond, at a time when he had never publicly advanced any claim to the throne? The case differed from the precedents of the past reigns. If Henry VI. and his friends had been pronounced traitors by Edward, and Edward and his adherents by Henry, on each occasion the supposed offence had been committed against a king, whose claim to the crown had been previously admitted by parliament.18 But the treasury was now exhausted: Henry wanted the means to defray his expenses, and to reward his followers and in defiance of 16 De stirpe regum. Rot. Parl. vi. 278. By this unusual expression I conceive was meant the kings of each line. 18 Cont. Croyl. 581. 17 Ibid. VI. CHAP. the murmurs of the people, Richard III., the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Surrey, the lords Lovell, Zouch, and Ferrers, with several knights and gentlemen, amounting in all to thirty individuals, were included in an act of attainder.19 4o. The act of resumption which followed, was less invidious and equally politic. Treading in the footsteps of former monarchs, the king revoked all grants made by the crown since the 34th of Henry VI., and as the grantees were chiefly the partizans of the house of York, they were all placed at the mercy of the king, who, according to his judgment or caprice, had it in his power to take from them, or to confirm to them, the possession of their property." 5. Before he dissolved the parliament, he granted a general pardon to the adherents of Richard but that he might monopolize the whole merit of the measure, he would not allow it to originate at the intercession, or to be issued with the concurrence, of the two houses." 6°. During the recess after Christmas, he married Elizabeth. It was believed that the delay arose from a desire to prevent her name from 1486. Jan. 18. 20 19 Rot. Parl. vi. 275–278. In the act Richard is accused of "unnaturall, mischevous, and grete perjuries, treasons, homicides, "and murdres in shedding of infants blood." Is not this an allusion to the death of his nephews ? I know of no other infants, whom he is said to have murdered. 20 Rot. Parl. vi. 336-384. 21 Bacon, 9. 22 Cont. Croyl. 581. André tells us that Edward IV. had before offered Elizabeth to Henry during his exile in Bretagne, but that it was considered as an artifice to entice him into England. Domit. A. XVIII. When CHAP. being inserted in the act of settlement. VI. riage. As the king and queen were relatives, a dis- Papal dispensation pensation had been granted, previously to the of marmarriage, by the bishop of Imola, the legate of Innocent VIII. But Henry applied for another to the pontiff himself, avowedly for the purpose of removing every doubt respecting the validity of the marriage, but in reality that by introducing into it the meaning which he affixed to the act of settlement, that meaning might have the sanction of the papal authority. Innocent in his rescript informs us, that, according to the representation made to him in the name of the king, the crown of England belonged to Henry by right of war, by notorious and indisputable 23 This is asserted by all our historians. The reader will meet hereafter with some reasons to induce a belief, that the statement, to be true, must at least be confined to the first years of the king's reign, VI. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. hereditary succession, by the wish and election of all the prelates, nobles, and commons of the realm, and by the act of the three estates in parliament assembled; but that nevertheless, to put an end to the bloody wars caused by the rival claims of the house of York, and at the urgent request of the three estates, the king had consented to marry the princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter and true heir of Edward IV. of immortal memory." The pontiff, therefore, at the prayer of the king, and to preserve the tranquillity of the realm, confirms the dispensation which has already been granted, and the act of settlement passed by the parliament; declares the meaning of that act to be, that if the queen should die without issue before the king, or if her issue should not survive their father, the crown should in that case devolve to Henry's other children, if he should have any other by a subsequent marriage; and concludes by excommunicating all those, who may hereafter attempt to disturb him or his posterity in the possession of their rights.25 The existence of this extraordinary instrument betrays the king's uneasi 24 Immortalis famæ regis Edvardi præfati primogenitam et veram hæredem. Rym. xi. 297, Carte by some mistake has translated these words" the true heiress of the kingdom" (ii. 825). The reader may notice the expression vera hæres, and in another instrument indibutata hæres. Rym. xii. 294.. If the pontiff believed Elizabeth to be the true and undoubted heir to her father, he must also have believed that her brothers had perished. 25 Rym. ibid. |