BOOK REIGN OF HEN. VII. 1497. 9 11 The pacification with Scotland ended, after much negotiation, in a marriage between its sovereign James IV. and Margaret, the eldest daughter of Henry; an important union, as it occasioned the house of Stewart to succeed to the English crown. The marriage of Catherine, the princess of Spain, with Arthur, was also accomplished." She landed at Plymouth, the 4th of October 1501; and on the 12th of November, made her entry from Lambeth into the metropolis." Two days after, she was married to the prince, then but fourteen years old. He lived only a few months after these premature nuptials; 13 and Henry his brother, who had been made duke of York, was now declared prince of Wales; 1 and a dispensation from the Pope was soon afterwards obtained, to allow him to wed his brother's widow.15 See these at first in 1487 with James III. in Rymer, 12. p. 328, and after his death in many truces in the same volume. In 1497, Henry issued letters patent, agreeing that his differences with Scotland should be determined by the judgment of Ferdinand and Isabella. p. 671. A Pope's bull of dispensation was on 4 kal. Aug. 1500, obtained for this marriage. Rym. p. 765. The treaty of marriage, dated 24th of January 1502, is in p. 787. The lady was only 12 years old on the 29th of November 1501, but Henry was not to be obliged to send her before the 1st of September 1503. 10 She was the fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. Her portion was to be 200,000 crowns of gold, one-half to be paid on her reaching England, and the rest in two years. Her dowry was to be 23 or 25,000 crowns. Rym. 417. See also the official instrument, p. 754. 780. Fab. 533. 12 Graft. 935. For a full and picturesque account of her reception in England, and of the jousts and banquets given on the occasion, which are curious for displaying the expiring ceremonies of chivalry, see the MS. detail printed by Hearne, in 5 Lel. Collect. 352-373. 13 He died on the 2d April 1502. There is a full detail of his state interment printed by Hearne, 5 Lel. Col. 373. 14 The patent so creating him, dated the 26th of June 1502, is in Rymer, 13. p. 11. On the 24th of October 1503, Henry VII. made a treaty with her parent, for marrying Catherine to his son, afterwards Henry VIII. It is like the one for Arthur, excepting that Henry had received half her portion. Rym. 13. p. 36. 15 This bull, which became the subject of so much discussion, on Henry VIII's divorce, dated 7 kal. Jan. 1503, is in Ryıner, 13. p. 88. IV. HEN. VII. A delay on its celebration took place, which gave time CHAP. for the English king to have some scruples about it,16 and for his son, the intended husband, to object to it. REIGN OF Hence it was not completed while Henry lived; and it was at last effected, with the ultimate result of causing that celebrated divorce, to which the Protestant religion owed its first legal establishment in England. Arthur's mother rapidly followed him to the grave." And Henry began afterwards to negotiate for another wife; 18 but either his illness, or Philip's death, the brother of the intended queen, changing this intention, he made a treaty of marriage between his second daughter Mary, and Charles, then archduke of Austria and prince of Spain, who reigned afterwards the celebrated emperor Charles V.19 This prince was then only seven years old. It was actually solemnized at the end of 1508, by his substitute, who kissed the lady and put a ring on her finger.20 But this ceremony was all that followed from 16 Moryson's Apomaus. 17 On the merits of this princess, it is just to her to add the testimony of Bernard Andreas: From her youth, her veneration for the Supreme, and devotion to him, were admirable. Her love to her brothers and sisters was unbounded. Her affection and respect to the poor, and to religious ministers, were singularly great.' MS. ib. p. 168. 18 The commission to John Young, concerning this incident, dated 10 May 1506, is in Rym. 12. p. 127. The lady was Margaret of Austria, sister of Philip, then the governor of the Low Countries. Her dowry was to have been 300,000 French crowns, and an annuity, during the marriage, of 3850 more. Ib. But Philip died that year, and the treaty was not completed. 19 By the treaty signed at Calais, 21st December 1507, the marriage was to take place before Easter 1508, on pain of heavy penalties. Her dowry was to have been 250,000 crowns of gold. Rym. 12. p. 171. On 26th October 1508, an instrument was signed by Maximilian and Charles, appointing a lord of Bergen-op-Zoom to attend to solemnize these nuptials in the name of Charles; and it mentions that Henry's illness, from which he had recovered, had occasioned the delay of the ceremony. Ib. 20 The official instrument stating this, and the words of their mutual affiance, on 17th of December 1508, is in Rym. 12. p. 236.-Charles, with permission of his grandfather Maximilian, pledged to Henry a jewel, called, the rich fleur de lys,' weighing in its gold and stones 211 ounces, for 50,000 crowns. Ib. 239. BOOK the engagement. Charles changed his mind and politics, and the lady had to seek her husband elseREIGN OF Where. V. HEN. VII. It was in March 1501, that sir James Tyrrell, the principal murderer of Edward v. was arrested, with his eldest son, on a charge of treason; and on the 6th of May following, perished on the scaffold. He was connected with the last insurrectionary attempt of any of the nobility. The earl of Suffolk, a descendant of the ill-fated minister of Henry VI. and son of a sister of Edward IV. enraged, because he had been compelled, by Henry's impartial justice, to stand a trial for killing a person in his passion, quitted England to join the old duchess of Burgundy. Pardoned by Henry's clemency, he again allied himself with her, in enmity against the king. This conduct excited Henry to arrest those who were accused of hostility against him. Some were imprisoned; and Tyrrell, with others, executed."1 In estimating the character and reign of Henry, too narrow views have been taken; and the difficulties amid which he had to act, have not been sufficiently contemplated. He may be considered as the great re-founder of the English monarchy. He terminated the agitations and danger of the throne, which had almost become a Polish sovereignty: an aristocracy of many petty kings, obeying the nominal and paramount one no longer than they pleased; and choosing or deposing him, and changing the dynasty, as it chanced to gratify their passions, or to suit their varying interests. This power and custom disappeared from England after Henry VII. had acceded. The great nobility 21 Graft. 937-9. entropy CHAP. IV. REIGN OF HEN. VII. shook and disposed of the crown no more; tho va- These plans necessarily produced much obloquy ; yet even in his own days his merit was felt amid all the opposing interests and prejudices that attacked him; and he died with the epithet fixed upon him, of a second Solomon.22 He was so respected abroad, that three popes of Rome elected him before all the other reigning kings, as the "chief defensor" of christendom; and sent him by three successive embassies, three swords and caps of maintenance.23 He conquered his numerous enemies," by his great policy and wisdom, more than by shedding of blood or cruel war.' " 24 It was essential to his great public objects, that he should break down the power of the unruly aristocracy, which was reviving in new trunks and ramifications, from the injuries it had received during the civil wars. He saw, that one necessary means was, » Fabian, then alive, says, he may most congruly, above all earthly princes, be called the second Salomon, for his great sapience and acts.' p. 537. 23 Ib. 537. 24 lb. BOOK REIGN OF to wean the minds of Englishmen from that love of war, to which their courage and activity of spirit made them at that time so peculiarly prone; and the education for which made his nobility too martial for the safety of the throne, and for the tranquillity of the kingdom. With this view, he not only professed to love and seek peace, and made it, as lord Bacon says,25 the usual preface in his treaties, that when Christ came into the world, peace was sung by angels; and when he left it, he bequeathed peace as their great characteristic to all his followers; but he also caused his chancellor to give his parliament one of the wisest lectures on the only just causes of war, that it had ever, up to that time, heard." 26 Henry was not averse to state, but he used it for its kingly effect and public utility, not for his personal exaltation." He made his royal ceremonials auxiliary to his great design of occupying, civilizing, and weakening his nobility; and weaning them from that turbulence, in which they had, till his reign, chiefly sought their consequence, and employed their time.28 The splendid exhibitions caused an emulous rivalry, which exhausted their means, but satisfied their vanity; and the joust and tournament which he patronized, the harmless semblance of war, and peaceful fountains of popular applause, gave them enough of the bustle and parade of military dress and display, to keep them from the reality, and to 6 26 See it in Parl. Rolls, 6. p. 440. 25 Bacon, 635. 27 Grafton mentions, He so much abhorred pride and arrogance, that he was ever sharp and quick to them which were noted or spotted with that crime.' p. 948. 28 Grafton adds,' There was no man with him, though never so much in his favor, or having never so much authority, that either durst or could do any thing as his own phantasie did serve him, without the consent or agreement of the other.' Ib. |