crown of England belonged to Henry by right of war, by notorious and indisputable 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. The existence of this extraordinary instrument betrays the king's uneasiness with respect to the insufficiency of his own claim.

After his marriage and the dissolution of the par- Insurrecliament, the new monarch, in imitation of his prede

'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 indubitata 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.

tion of lord

Lovell.

April 2.

cessors, resolved to signalize the commencement of his reign by a progress through the kingdom. The natives of the northern counties had been much devoted to Richard Henry hoped by spending the summer among them to attach them to his own interests. He was keeping the festival of Easter at Lincoln, when he heard that lord Lovell, with Humphrey and Thomas Stafford, had suddenly left the sanctuary of Colchester; but whither they were fled, or what might be their April 6. object, remained a profound secret. Despising the information he left Lincoln for Nottingham, with a numerous and splendid retinue from Nottinghamı, where he received an embassy from the king of Scots, April 17. he continued his journey; but was stopped at Pontefract by the intelligence that lord Lovell had passed him on the road, had raised a force in the neighbourhood of Rippon and Middleham, and was preparing to surprise him at his entry into York. But Henry's court was now attended by most of the southern and northern nobility: their followers formed a pretty numerous and well appointed army and in two days the insurgents, convinced of the superiority of the royalists, dispersed with the permission of their leader. A few were taken and executed by the earl of Northumberland: Lovell himself escaped to his friend sir Thomas Broughton in Lancashire, and thence to the court of Margaret dowager dutchess of Burgundy '. At the same time the Staffords had prepared to take possession of the city of Worcester: but the dispersion of

Hall, 3. Bacon, 11, and others tell us that Lovell's attempt happened after Henry's arrival at York, and was put down by the duke of Bedford. I have followed the journal of one of the heralds who accompanied the court. Lel. Col. iv. 186.

the Yorkshire insurgents proved the hopelessness of
the attempt: and the two brothers fled for sanctuary
to the church of Colnham, an obscure village near
Abingdon. Humphrey Stafford was taken thence by
force; was condemned by the judges in virtue of the
act of attainder formerly passed against him; and suf-
fered at Tyburn the death of a traitor. It is said that
the younger brother obtained a pardon, on the plea
that he had acted under the control of the elder.'
The king made his entry into York with royal mag-
nificence. Three miles from the city he was met by
and aldermen on horseback: at the gate
the mayor
he was received with a procession of the clergy, the
acclamations of the populace, and the exhibition of
pageants. He spent three weeks in that city, dispensing
favours, conferring honours, and redressing grie-
vances: a conduct, the policy of which was proved by

The prisoner had been brought to Worcester to suffer there (May 20): but the abbot of Abingdon arrived on the same day, and required that he should be replaced in the sanctuary. This saved his life for the time. He was sent to the Tower, and the judges were consulted by the king, whether Colnham had the privilege of a sanctuary. They replied it was hard, and contrary to order that they should give their opinions beforehand on a matter, on which they would have to decide judicially. Henry assented with reluctance: the point was argued before all the judges: and the claim of sanctuary was rejected. Year-book, Term Pas. 1 Henry VII. 15. Term Trin. I.

2 The people cried, «King Henry, king Henry, our Lord pre« serve that sweet and well favoured face. » Lell. Coll. iv. 187. I observe that the verses recited on the occasion abound, like those of the Anglo-Saxons, in alliteration. They begin thus :

O Reverend Right wise, Regent of this Regalitie,
Whose Primitive Patron I appear to your Presence, etc.

Ibid. 188.

May 20,

June 5.

Treaty with
Scotland.

the loyalty of the country during the invasion of the following year'. Thence he returned through Worcester, Hereford, Glocester, and Bristol, to London, to receive a numerous and splendid embassy sent by James king of Scotland. During his progress through each county, he was accompanied by the sheriffs, and the resident nobility and gentry : on all Sundays and festivals he attended divine service in public; and on such occasions he heard a sermon from one of the bishops, who was ordered to read and explain to the audience the papal bull confirmatory of the king's marriage and title. He left the citizens of Worcester with evident marks of displeasure : but by his condescension attached to himself those of Bristol, whom he consulted on the causes of the decay of their trade, and at the same time encouraged them by his promise to restore their city to its former prosperity.

2

To a prince in Henry's situation it was of the highest importance to live on terms of amity with his neighbours. Among these the most to be feared was James king of Scotland, from his proximity, from the ancient enmity between the two nations, and from that attachment to the house of York, which still lurked among the inhabitants of the northern counties. Fortunately James had long cherished a strong partiality for the English: a partiality so marked, that it formed the principal of the charges alleged against him by the rebels, who afterwards deprived him of life. He had sent a deputation to assist at the coronation of Henry other envoys had met the king at Not

'He diminished the yearly rent of 160l. paid by the citizens of York to the crown, to the small sum of 187. 5s. Rot. Parl. vi. 390. "See the sequel of the herald's journal. Rot. Parl. vi. 39o.

July 3.

tingham: and now a most honourable embassy awaited his arrival in London. The negociation lasted almost a month. As the former truce between the two crowns was supposed to have expired at the death of Richard, both kings readily consented to its renewal. But the turbulence and discontent of the Scottish nobility compelled James to limit its duration to three years: and Henry could only obtain a promise that it should be continued till the death of one of the two monarchs, and that a matrimonial alliance should be contracted between the royal families of England and Scotland. ' It might have been expected that the king would Birth of a have taken his queen with him during his progress, to gratify the partisans of the house of York: it was supposed that he refused through his jealousy of her influence, and his unwillingness to seem indebted to her for his crown. She kept her court at Winchester with her mother and sisters, and the countess of Richmond her mother-in-law. As she advanced in her pregnancy, the king removed from London to hunt in the new forest and in her eighth month she was safely delivered of a son whose birth gave equal joy to the king Sept. 20. and the nation. He was christened with extraordinary

:

parade in the cathedral and at the font received the name of Arthur, in memory of the celebrated king of the Britons, from whom Henry wished it to be thought, that he was himself descended. 2

«

' Rym. xii. 290.

2 Lel. Coll. iv. 204. On this occasion the king's mother made ordinaunces as to what preparation is to he made against the deli<< veraunce of a queen, as also for the christening of the child, when she shall be delivered.» They descend to every particular « of the furniture of her highnesses chamber, and the furniture ap<< pertayning to her bedde, how the churche shall be arraied

«

prince.