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Blackstone's words, "declares a fine duly levied by tenant in tail to be a complete bar to him and his heirs, and all other persons claiming under such entail *." Restrictions on the transference of land being thus removed, great tracts, which were entailed on old families, passed into other handscarrying the influence from the old proprietors, and conferring a different kind upon the new, who were not in a condition to aspire at baronial power.

The great aristocracy thus weakened, and precluded their former field of ambition by the severity of the laws against armed retainers, gratified their desire of distinction daily more and more, by indulging in expensive habits of luxury. The king's conduct, in another respect, must have contributed to these habits, while it straitened many in the means. Under the colour of the penal laws, he wrung large sums from the subject, to gratify his mean, yet predominant, passion of avarice t; and, as he was too politic a prince to provoke his adherents by extortions from them, the Yorkists would naturally endeavour to avert the evil, by removing any cause of fear in the monarch, which could be best accomplished by habits of expense, incompatible with the idea of mustering strength to overturn the government. To increase their revenue, the aristocracy were obliged not only to diminish, in an unprecedented manner, the number

*Vol. ii. p. 117.

+ See Bac. Hist.

of their idle followers; but to pursue, on a far more extensive scale than formerly, a system, which had been long creeping in, of dismissing a numerous petty tenantry, who contributed much to the power, but little to the profit of the proprietor; and of letting their lands in large tracts to individuals, who undertook to pay considerable rents. Though this system was necessarily much encouraged by the policy of Henry and his faction, it was opposed by them,―a statute for keeping up farm-houses, in conformity with previously existing laws against depopulation, having been passed during this reign; but nothing could more effica

* It appears, as well from the Statute Book, see 4 H. 4 cap. 12, as from the declamation of John Rous, the antiquary of Warwick, who died at an advanced age in 1491, that the system of pasturage and enclosing had been going on for a considerable time. J. Rossi Hist. p. 39-44, 8896, 114-137. This author paints the evil in the strongest colours, dwells upon the inhumanity of expelling the inhabitants from their possessions, and prophecies general desolation; while he denounces eternal damnation upon the depopulators. His reasoning has some plausibility:-" Isti villarum et ecclesiarum parochialium dirutores, deo offendunt, homines rationales a villis ejicientes et bestias pro eis irrationales inducentes. Ecclesiæ dei offendunt, ecclesias deo dedicatas destruentes, decimas antiquas minuentes, et solitas oblationes annihilantes, Regiam celsitudinem lædunt, eo quod ubi prius homines, ad regis et regni defensionem corpore robustos et fortitudine habiles habere solebat, modo tantum bruta animalia remanent. Pauciores etiam solito sunt modo ubi hæc pestis regnat villæ, et ex conse quenti pauciores homines, et nullæ aliæ villæ per hoc crescunt, sed poțius, læduntur, quia in allocatione per regiam misericordiam taxationum domini villarum dirutarum de ipsa allocatione pro carentia tenentium magnam partem ejusdem allocationis eismet appropriant, et totum onus super villas non dirutas apponunt. Offendunt etiam civitatibus et villis mercatis multipliciter, tum quia causant caristiam: Nam ubi deficiunt coloni, deficiunt etiam grana, et per villarum destructionem, multi pauciores sunt coloni, et solita cultura reducitur in her,

ciously sweep from the aristocracy the prospect of recovering their influence in the community.

bagium. Sequitur ergo necessario ex hoc major parcitas granorum, et ex consequenti oritur et augetur caristia, et multimode minoratur habunduntia qua civitates burge et villæ mercatæ prosperabantur: tum quia, villis dirutis, est minor populi affluentia venientis ad nundinas et mercatus, et per hoc minuitur emptio et venditio, unde mercatores ceterique mechanici depauperantur, quorum depauperatio minatur ruinam civitatum, burgorum et villarum, ubi major populi confluentia adesse solebat, et si continuaretur, regni totius desolationem procuraret, quod absit." P. 40-1.

The aristocracy, while they pursued this system, were afraid of losing the population, and therefore got laws to restrain the poorer country people from going to trades. Such is the selfishness of man. But it is not singular. It is well known upon what principle the emigration from the Highlands of Scotland was so keenly opposed. See Selkirk on that subject.-Dr. Henry's observations upon the depopulating system of England are notable enough. Vol. x. b. v. ch. 5, § i. He conceives that there must have been an immense loss of lives by the wars in France, and afterwards by the civil wars: that proprietors could not easily procure hands to labour their grounds, and therefore banished the inhabitants, and substituted brutes for men! The loss in the French wars must have been soon supplied; and though historians have mentioned great losses in the civil wars, if we may credit Commines, the loss of lives, except amongst the nobility and gentry, was not great. But a loss of this kind is never felt.

The aristocracy lost their villains or slaves by the change of manners, as they fled to the towns, and were enfranchised. This galled that body exceedingly; and in the 1st R. ii. it was complained of that villains would join the king's enemies to be revenged of their lords, and had subscribed large sums for mutual support. In a few years afterwards, the nobility complained that their villains fled from them to towns, where the burgesses, under colour of their franchises, detained them; and that the rest behaved so insolently, that their masters were afraid to exercise their authority for fear of losing them. See Eden's Hist. of the Poor, vol. i. p. 30.

St. 12. R. 2, 7 H. 4, c. 17; see also 2 H. 5, c. 4; 4. H. 5, c. 4; 2 H. 6. c. 18; 32 H. 6, c. 12; by 8 H. 6. c. 9. the custom of London about apprentices is confirmed in spite of 7 H. 4; and a dispensation is granted to the city of Norwich by 12 H. 7, c. 1.

The faction that raised Henry, insisted, for their own security, upon his marriage with Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. whose title to the crown by descent was allowed to be best founded. The marriage was humiliating to him, as it implied the defectiveness of his own title, and consequently made him a king by courtesy rather than by right; but, as it united the opposite pretensions to the throne in the person of his son, it had the effect of closing the contest. Though, however, the cause of dissension was thus withdrawn, so fierce, so bloody, and so protracted a contest must have left bitter animosities behind, which, while they weakened the aristocracy in regard to the crown, as the monarch could have opposed one faction to the other, necessarily promoted the change in manners. Both parties courted the monarch, and Henry VIII. rendered himself popular with both, by an equal dispensation of his favours. He, at the same time, set an example of a different course of life, by his taste for learning, and profuse expenditure on elegancies and luxuries; and, from the anxiety of each faction to gain the royal favour, as well as from the commanding influence which he derived from his personal qualities in such an age, he could not fail to lead the fashion.

The young king possessed far more learning than generally falls to the share of princes, a circumstance which has been variously accounted for, -from the intention of his father during the life of prince Arthur, the eldest son, to qualify Henry for

*

the Archbishopric of Canterbury (though, as Arthur died before Henry had completed his twelfth year, the studies of the latter could not have proceeded far with that view, and Arthur is said to have been equally learned †)—and from the jealousy that the father entertained of his sons' superior title to the throne, which made him anxious to employ their minds in study, that they might be diverted from thoughts of government; but it ought most probably to be greatly attributed to the good sense of Henry VII. who, though pronounced illiterate by Burnet, appears to have made no despicable progress in literature t. The era at which the young king mounted the throne was a most important one; for the human mind, awakened from a slumber of centuries, entered upon the study of polite literature with the ardour of youth, and the art of printing, then brought to some perfection, had the effect of communicating a simultaneous impulse throughout Europe. His knowledge inspired veneration, and his patronage of learned men obtained for him the zealous voice of a body that be

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Herbert in White Ken. Col. p. 1.

Burnet's Hist. of Reformation, vol. i. p. 18.

At this time the aristocracy were utterly illiterate. See Henry's Hist. Vol. XII. B. 6. C. 4. § 1. But the most convincing proof is, that so late as Edward VI's. reign, a statute was passed to extend the benefit of clergy on conviction of crimes, to peers, though they could neither write nor read. Now Henry VII. kept a journal with his own hand, was intimately acquainted with French, and understood Latin-a great deal for the age in which he lived-the standard by which his pretensions ought unquestionably to be tried. See Bac. p. 637.

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