Warbeck attempts to land.

all statutes << lately made in England, and belonging to
<< the public weal of the same », the force of law in
Ireland. As the people had been harassed by frequent
parliaments, in which ordinances were repeatedly made
for the sole profit of the chief governor, or of the party
which he espoused, it was enacted that for the future
no parliament should be holden, till the king had been
informed, by the lieutenant and council, of the neces-
sity of the same, and of the acts intended to be passed
in it, and had previously given his licence and appro-
bation under the great seal'. In these provisions the
deputy appears to have had no other object than the
welfare of the state: but he was thought to have been
swayed by private considerations in the act of attainder
which he procured against the earl of Kildare, his fa-
mily and adherents. Henry, however, whose object it
was to strengthen his interest in the sister island, con-
demned the precipitancy of Poynings, and reversed
the attainder in the English parliament. The earl of
Desmond, whose guilt was less ambiguous, had pre-
viously submitted, had given one of his sons as a hostage
for his fidelity, and had taken a second time the oath of
allegiance. A free pardon was afterwards granted to the
rest of the natives, with the exception of lord Barry
and O'Water and tranquillity was fully restored in the
island. 2

:

Three years had now elapsed since the pretender first set forth his claim: and yet, during that long interval, he had never made any attempt to establish it by legal proof, or to enforce it by an appeal to the sword.

'On Poynings' law, I have followed the opinion of Leland, ii. App. 512-516.

2 Rot. Parl. vi. 482. Rym, xii. 558-562. 567. 634.

This protracted delay, the accounts which had been published of his country and parentage, the punishment of his friends in England, and the pacification of Ireland, made his cause appear desperate and both the Flemish, whose commerce had been suspended on his account, and the archduke, whose treasury suffered from the deficiency of the customs, began to complain of the countenance which he had hitherto received from the dutchess Margaret. In this emergency he sailed from the coast of Flanders with a few hundreds of adventurers attached to his fortunes, and, while Henry was on a visit to his mother at Latham in Lancashire, made a descent in the neighbourhood of Deal. But the July 3. inhabitants, either believing him an impostor, or urged by the fear of incurring the royal displeasure, attacked the invaders, made one hundred and sixty-nine prisoners, and drove the remainder into their boats. All the captives were hanged by the order of Henry, some in London, and others in different parts of the coast. Warbeck returned in despair to Flanders.'

liament.

In autumn the parliament assembled, and at the king's Proceedings in parrequest passed a bill of attainder against twenty-one gentlemen who had suffered, or had been condemned, for their adhesion to the pretender. The other acts of Oct. 27. the session were to ratify the peace of Estaples, according to one of the articles of the treaty'; and to enact the penalty of forfeiture against all persons holding fees, annuities, or offices from the crown (and to these were afterwards added, all possessing lands, hereditaments, and honours by letters patent)3, who should neglect to

'Fab. 530. Hall, 37. Stow, 479. Rot. Parl. vi. 504.

2 Rot. Parl. vi. 503-508. Rym. xii. 710.

3 Ibid. vi. 525.

Warbeck is received in Scotland. 1496.

Feb. 24.

attend in person the king in his wars. But the nation had now grown weary of civil dissension. The extinction or beggary of so many noble and opulent families had proved a useful lesson to the existing generation; and men betrayed a reluctance to engage in a contest, in which they knew from experience, that they must either gain the ascendency, or lose their lives or their fortunes. To obviate these disastrous consequences a statute was made, declaring, that no one, who should attend on the king and sovereign lord for the time being, to do him faithful service in his wars, should hereafter, on that account, whatever might be the fortune of battle, be attainted of treason, or incur the penalty of forfeiture. That this act might be set aside by the avarice or the resentment of a successful competitor, was indeed evident: yet it was perhaps the best remedy that could be devised for the evil; and a hope was cherished both from the reasonableness of the measure, and from the benefits which it promised to all parties, that in future contests it would be generally respected.

1

The repulse of Warbeck in his late expedition, and the complaint of the Flemish merchants, induced the archduke to solicit a reconciliation with Henry: and, after a few conferences between their respective envoys, the great treaty of commerce between England and << the Netherlands » was signed. By it every facility was afforded to the trade of the two countries; but there was appended to it a provision, which from this period Henry inserted in every treaty with foreign sovereigns, that each of the contracting parties should banish from his dominions the known enemies of the other: and to preclude the possibility, of evasion in the present in

'Stat. 10 Hen. VIII. c. 118.

stance, it was expressly stipulated that Philip should not permit the dutchess to aid or harbour the king's rebels, but should deprive her of her domains, if she acted in opposition to this engagement'. Warbeck could no longer remain in Flanders. He sailed to Cork : but the Irish refused to venture their lives in his service. From Cork he passed to Scotland, and exhibited, it was said, to the king, recommendatory letters from Charles VIII. and his friend the dutchess of Burgundy. James received the adventurer with kindness; paid him the honours due to the prince, whose character he had assumed; and to evince the sincerity of his friendship, gave to him in marriage his near relation, the lady Catharine Gordon, daughter to the earl of Huntley.

2

This sudden improvement in the fortune of the adventurer renewed the jealousy and apprehensions of the king, who had good reason to suspect the enmity of James. That prince had been placed on the throne by the murderers of his father, a faction hostile to the interests of England: and Henry had in consequence entered into engagements with a party of the Scottish nobles, who undertook to seize the person of their young sovereign, and to conduct him to London 3. Now, however, Fox bishop of Durham, was commissioned to open a negociation, and to tempt the fidelity of James, with the offer of an English princess in marriage. But he listened rather to the suggestions of resentment or ambition; and demanded as the price of his forbearance terms to which the king refused his assent. Fox was followed by Concressault, as ambassador

Polydore, 593. Hall, 38, 39. Stow, 497. Speed, 977.

2

3 Rym. xii. 440. Pinkert. Scot. ii. App. 1.

He invades

England.

Dec.

from the French monarch, who proposed, that all subjects of dispute between the two kings should be referred to the decision of his sovereign : and when that was refused, offered one hundred thousand crowns for the person of the adventurer, to be sent a captive into France'. The bribe was indignantly rejected by James, who coined his plate into money, obtained a small supply from the dutchess of Burgundy, and engaged to place the pretender on the throne, on condition that he should receive as the reward of his services the town of Berwick, and the sum of fifty thousand marks in two years. Warbeck had mustered under his standard fourteen hundred men, outlaws from all nations: to these James added all the forces it was in his power to raise; and the combined army crossed the borders in the depth of winter, and when no preparation had been made to oppose them. They were preceded by a proclamation, in which the adventurer styled himself Richard by the grace of God, king of England and France, lord of Ireland, and prince of Wales. It narrated in general terms his escape from the Tower, his wanderings in foreign countries, the usurpation of Henry Tydder », the attempts to debauch the fidelity of his confidents, the execution and attainder of his friends in England, and the protection which he had received from the king of Scots. He was now in England, accompanied by that monarch, for the purpose of re

I Was it Charles, who wished to get possession of Warbeck, or Henry, who made the offer through Charles? It is certain that the ambassador was sent at the instance of Henry. Pinkert. Scot. ii. App. 1. ibid.

2 All these particulars are taken from a letter of lord Bothwell. ibid. Ellis, Original letters, i. 25. 32.