2. The district next to the Pale (especially in Leinster and Munster) where Norman settlers (now called the Englishry) had become half Irish in language and customs. Though nominally owning allegiance to England, the extent of their loyalty may be seen from the usual designation which was applied to them, viz : "the King's Irish Rebels." The chief families were the Butlers, Geraldines, and Bourkes.

3. The native Irishry, etc., i.e. the rest of Ireland (especially Ulster and Connaught), where the Conquest had never been enforced at all, and the old tribal customs prevailed in full force. These all tended to disorder and tribal warfare, and the only bond of union which was ever found at all effective was hostility to England. The O'Niels of Tyrone and the O'Donnels of Donegal were the most important of the native Irishry, who were commonly termed "the King's Irish enemies." Richard II. was absent on a vain and fruitless expedition to Ireland when Bolingbroke landed in England (1399), and no further attempt to bring order to Ireland was made for many years.

No opportunity was lost by the Irish to harrass England, and the Yorkists, as hostile to the reigning house, were inevitably popular in Ireland. Richard of York (1450) won some popularity as Governor, and in 1459, after the Rout of Ludford, he fled thither for safety. The Irish Parliament took the opportunity of asserting its independence of England, gaining his support by upholding the Yorkist claims. During these years the only way by which the English Government ever tried to keep Ireland in subjection was by the vicious plan of playing off one tribe against another, with the unfailing result of increasing disorder.

i. Henry VII.

HENRY VII. 1485-1509.

a. His descent

b. Character

c. His work

I. THE "NEW MONARCHY."

d. Characteristics of the reign: its importance; yet uninteresting because of its transitional nature

ii. Political condition of England made for the power of the Crown at the expense of all parties

1. Clergy

2. Baronage

3. Commons

4. General causes of the strength of the Tudors

iii. Settlement of the Succession: Henry VII's title

iv.

'Quenching of the Embers of the Wars of the Roses "

(cf. Gairdner's Henry VII.; Stubbs'

a. Sources of difficulty

b. Yorkist Risings

1. Lovel, 1486

2. Lambert Simnel 1487

3. Perkin Warbeck 1492-99
a. Its origin

b. Warbeck in Ireland

c. in France: Treaty of Estaples 1492

d. Warbeck in Flanders

e. English supporters

f. Warbeck in Scotland

g. Magnus Intercursus 1496

h. Warbeck lands in England 1497

i. His execution 1499

c. De la Poles: Malus Intercursus 1506

The new King was descended from John of Gaunt, Edward Lectures 15 & 16; III.'s third son, in two lines. His father, Edmund Tudor, who Moberley's Early could trace descent through the family of Lancaster, had married the representative of the family of Somerset, the Lady Margaret Beaufort.

Tudors.)

1. Henry VII.

a His descent (cf. Table on p. 115)

b, Character.

His character, like his reign, possesses few attractions. He had been schooled in adversity, having been driven abroad in his childhood by the attainder of his family; and he only returned to his native land when he came to gain the throne. This he won mainly by reason of the fact that Richard's tyrannies had made any deliverer welcome. Henry was cold and calculating, not caring for popular affection and knowing well that he was only accepted King for the want of a better. He was clear-sighted and wise, willing to wait while there was any chance of reconciliation, but ruthless when vengeance appeared necessary and possible. His very virtues were merely negative. He was sober and temperate, a frugal king

where his predecessors for three centuries had been spendthrifts. Yet he had no desire to rise to anything high or noble. His one object was to hold what he had gained, without caring much about the means he used. He employed good ministers if he could find them, but if men like Empson and Dudley seemed more profitable he did not scruple to use them.

Thus he remains something of an enigma, and failed to be a c, His work. great king though he accomplished much. (1) He reigned a quarter of a century in an age of bloodshed without a single important war. (2) He united forces which had been struggling for a hundred years. (3) He found England poor and weak, drenched with blood and feebly ruled, and left it influential abroad and settled at home.

the reign; its importance.

Similarly his reign is singularly uninteresting in spite of d, Characteristics of much that should make it attractive. It is important, for it was the connecting link between the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation, between England isolated in Europe and England courted by all States in turn, between England weak and England strong, between England ancient and England modern. It saw Caxton and his followers active with the newly-invented printing press; it saw the Revival of Learning; it saw the discovery of a New World; it saw an unexampled development of commercial enterprise. It saw the beginning of modern as distinguished from medieval history, it saw the present States-system of Europe taking shape and the present methods of statesmanship beginning. It saw the eve of the Reformation.

Yet it is a period which fails to attract. The reason is that yet uninteresting, it stands midway between what had gone before and what was

tional nature.

to come, partaking of the interest of neither. As a man who because of its transistands on two stools is likely to fall between them, so the reign

of Henry VII. fails to attract because it possesses neither the interest of the old days nor of the new.

The reign may be divided almost exactly between the influences of the period which went before and those of the time which followed. The earlier half saw the working out to the bitter end of the party quarrels and murders which had begun when Warwick and Lancaster had murdered Gaveston, and which only ended with the deaths of Edward of Warwick and the De la Poles. The later half saw the beginning of statecraft and policy which (1) gave England its due place in Europe and (2) raised the Commons to power as the supporters of the Crown against both Clergy and Baronage.

Everything tended to the exaltation of the Crown, and out II. Political condiof the depression of all rivals was built up the "New Monarchy of the Tudors.

The Clergy were weak in their isolation. (1) Through their connection with the Baronage they were weakened by the

J

tion of England made for power of crown at expense of all parties; (Green 290 -292.)

1. Clergy.

(Stubbs 301; Wakeman ch. 9.)

wars of the Roses. (2) The New Learning was teaching men to think for themselves instead of being content to take for granted all that their forefathers had held. (3) The higher clergy had so long been employed in high offices of state that (Gairdner's Hist. 2.) they often forgot they were anything more than state officials.

2. Baronage.

3. Commons.

Growing in impor

tance.

4. General causes of strength of Tudors.

The practice of choosing ministers of state from the ranks of the Clergy and of rewarding ministers of state by clerical preferments, had the effect of secularising the power which should have been, first of all, moral and spiritual. The Church, weakened and depressed, was glad to sit at the foot of the Monarchy, which soon was to trample upon it.

The Baronage was hopelessly exhausted, in power, purse, and numbers, by the Wars of the Roses, and by the party quarrels which had caused them. At Henry's accession there were only 29 Barons of age sufficient to be called to Parliament. Many great families had disappeared entirely. The result was that the Crown was freed from its old check, while the Commons lost their old leaders. The constitutional powers of the House of Lords were almost extinguished, passing to the King as the one authority which was strong enough to wield them. He exercised them through a Royal Council, or Councils, appointed by himself; and even great magnates had to be content with a place in such a Council, obtained by favour, instead of occupying in the House of Lords the great and independent position which was theirs by right.

There remained the Commons. These also were too weak to be a serious rival to the New Monarchy as yet. They had lost their old leaders the Barons. They were not really represented in Parliament, and Parliament, so important under the Lancastrian Kings, had almost ceased to be summoned under the Yorkists. Frightened by the horrors of Civil War they were glad to sacrifice for the sake of peace and good government the political rights they had gained.

But they were growing stronger. Increasing trade was making them richer and so more influential, The Tudor Policy was to strengthen them, and to lean on them for support. It succeeded for a time, and produced the "Tudor Absolutism; but, later, the Commons were to prove a far more fatal rival to the Crown than either of the other estates had ever been.

Other causes which contributed to the strength of the Tudors

were:

1. The people were willing to have a strong Monarchy to prevent a renewal of disorder, and to enable Trade to progress.

2. The earlier tendency of the Renaissance was to exalt the royal power.

3. The introduction of Gunpowder and Artillery made

opposition more difficult as it lessened the value of
retainers.

4. The need of presenting a united front to foreign powers,
(especially, after the Reformation had begun, to

powers which supported the Papacy) made a strong
Monarchy necessary.

5. The Tudor title was, as a rule, unquestioned. The only
two Tudors who were faced with rival claimants were
Henry VII. and Elizabeth.

Henry VII. checkmated rivals by diplomacy. Elizabeth checkmated rivals by throwing herself on her people's loyalty, and by carefully avoiding entangling herself in questions of her marriage or of the Succession.

6. The personal character of most of the Tudors—strong, sensible, and remarkably successful in the choice of capable ministers and in impressing their own wills on them-immensely strengthened the royal power.

the succession

Henry's title.

It was said that the first half of the reign saw the working III. Settlement of out of the influences which remained from the past. The immediate need of the nation was the settlement of the succession as the guarantee that there should be no more Wars of the Roses. To that Henry's first measures were directed. In his first Address to Parliament, in November 1485, he declared he had come to the throne (1) by just title of inheritance, and (2) by the true judgment of God in giving him the victory. Parliament accepted him and (3) passed a Statute declaring the fact. In the hope of making assurance doubly sure (4) he was married to Elizabeth of York in the next January. But roots of bitterness remained, as was inevitable. (1) IV. "Quenching of Margaret of Burgundy, Edward IV.'s sister, was ready to do or say anything for the sake of revenge. (2) The son of Clarence, Warwick, though a prisoner in the King's hands, had a good title to the crown. (3) The eldest of the De la Poles, sons of the Duke of Suffolk by Elizabeth of York, another of Edward IV.'s sisters, had been declared by Richard III. to be heirpresumptive. (4) The fate of Edward V. and his brother Richard was still uncertain. All these were elements of difficulty if not of danger, and, besides, (5) Henry could hardly avoid showing a natural preference for Lancastrians over Yorkists. Consequently there was a series of risings by (6) the unreconciled Yorkist remnant, each increasing in peril and each unprincipled and desperate.

the Embers of the Wars of the Roses."

(a), Sources of difficulty.

The first was a mere intrigue. In April 1486 Lord Lovel (b), Yorkist risings rose in Worcestershire, with Humfrey and Thomas Stafford. I. Lovel, 1486. The King looked upon it as a mere rag of Bosworth and it

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collapsed before his offer of pardon. Humfrey Stafford alone was executed; his brother was forgiven.