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middle ages, were but the organs of an extensive sect or party, whose bond of union was hostility to the papacy, its claims, its doctrines, and its practices*,

The middle ages thus rise in moral dignity, while we view in them the struggle of man's intellectual nature against superstition, upheld by fraud and cruelty; and we learn to acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the men whose unremitting efforts achieved the victory of which we now enjoy the benefits.

* The writer here alludes to what he regards as the extraordinary discoveries of his most valued friend Professor Gabriele Rossetti, in his “ Comento Analitico” on Dante, his “ Spirito Antipapale de' Classici Italiani,” and his “ Mistero dell' Amor Platonico." He at the same time will not pledge himself for the correctness of all the theories and opinions in those important works, as on some points he differs with the profound and sagacious author.

HOUSE OF TUDOR.

CHAPTER I.

HENRY VII.*

1485-1509.

The sweating sickness.-King's marriage.-Lambert Simnell.-Battle of

Stoke. ---Coronation of the queen.-Affairs of Brittany.--Perkin Warbeck. Execution of the earl of Warwick.-Marriage and death of prince Arthur. The king's avarice.--His death and character.

The first act of the new king was to direct that the princess Elizabeth and her cousin, the earl of Warwick, whom the late usurper had placed at Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire, should be conveyed to London, the former to be restored to her mother, the latter to be immured in the Tower. He then proceeded by easy journeys to the capital. The lord mayor

and aldermen met him without the city (Aug. 28); he passed through the streets in a close litter to St. Paul's, where a Te Deum was chanted, and he then took up his abode at the house of the bishop. While there he solemnly renewed his engagement to marry the princess Elizabeth, but declined espousing her till after he should have been crowned and have held a parliament.

The coronation would have taken place immediately but for the prevalence of the disease named the Sweating Sickness from its nature. It was a rapid fever, carrying people off in four-and-twenty hours, which time if they got

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* Authorities :--Bacon, Polydore Virgil, Hall, Fabyan, and the other chroniclers.

through they were almost sure of recovery. It lasted but a month, and was regarded as being in the atmosphere, and not an epidemic or contagious malady.

The king was crowned on the 30th of October by the primate. He was frugal of his honours on this occasion, only making twelve bannerets, and raising his uncle, Jasper Tudor earl of Pembroke, to the dignity of duke of Bedford, lord Stanley to that of earl of Derby, and sir Edward Courtenay to that of earl of Devon. He appointed a body of archers to attend him in future, under pretext of imitating the state of foreign princes. They were named Yeomen of the Guard.

When parliament met (Nov. 11) the matter of most importance that occupied it was the settlement of the crown. Henry's title rested on three grounds : his pledged marriage with Elizabeth; his descent from the house of Lan

l caster; the right of conquest. The last was too odious to be put forward prominently; the first was disagreeable to his own prejudices and those of his Lancastrian adherents, and would only secure the succession to his issue by Elizabeth. “He therefore,” says Bacon, "rested on the title of Lancaster in the main*, using the marriage and the victory as supporters ;” and in the act of settlement it was merely enacted, that "the inheritance of the crown should be, rest, remain and abide in the most royal person of the then sovereign lord king Henry VII., and the heirs of his body lawfully coming.” As all mention of the princess seemed studiously avoided, those of both parties who had looked forward to the termination of the differences between the white and the red rose grew alarmed. Shortly after (Dec. 10) the commons took occasion to petition the king to take the princess to wife; the peers readily ex

* No title could be weaker than this. Henry claimed through his mother, (who was still alive,) the sole heiress of the duke of Somerset, descended from one of the children whom Catherine Swynford bore to John of Gaunt before marriage, and who when legitimated were expressly excluded from all claim

to the crown.

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pressed their concurrence; Henry gave a gracious promise, and during the recess he espoused Elizabeth (Jan. 18, 1486).

In this parliament an act of attainder was passed against Richard III., the duke of Norfolk, and his son the earl of Surrey, the lords Lovel, Zouch, Ferrers, and about two dozen of others; all grants made by the crown since the 34th of Henry VI. were resumed; and a general pardon was issued in the king's name to all the adherents of the late usurper.

After the dissolution the king set out on a progress through the kingdom, and as the North had been most attached to Richard, he proceeded thither first, hoping to gain the people by spending the summer among them. While he was keeping his Easter at Lincoln he heard that lord Lovel had left the sanctuary at Colchester, and when he reached Pontefract he learned that Lovel had raised a force and intended surprising him on his entry into York. But this lord finding the royal train too numerous gave up his project, and having permitted his followers to disperse, made his own escape to Flanders. The king remained three weeks in York, and then returned to London by way of Worcester, Gloucester and Bristol. During his absence the queen held her court at Winchester, with her mother and sisters, and her mother-in-law the countess of Richmond. Here, at the end of her eighth month, (Sept. 20,) she was delivered of her first child, a son, who was named Arthur, after the famous British hero, from whose lineage the king affected to be sprung on the father's side.

The evident favour shown by the king to the Lancastrian party gave great offence to the Yorkists; they were also displeased at the want of respect to the queen in deferring her coronation; the manners of the king too were cold and repulsive, totally different from those of the former kings of England. This state of discontent was taken advantage of for introducing the most extraordinary

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imposture recorded in history; for though many have personated dead or missing princes, who ever heard of an impostor pretending to be a prince who was known to be alive and could be produced at any time?

There was a priest at Oxford named Richard Simons, or Symmonds, a man of a subtle, enterprising temper. He had a pupil about the age of fifteen years named Lambert Simnell, the son of a baker, or, as others said, of an organ-maker. This youth was of a handsome, engaging countenance; and the priest, whether actuated by hopes of great advantages to himself if the imposture should succeed, or, as is more probable, acting merely as the agent of higher persons, instructed him to assume the character of Richard duke of York, who, it was rumoured, had escaped from the Tower in the late reign.' But on a report of the escape of the young earl of Warwick, Simons, or his directors, changed the plan, and it was agreed that Simnell should personate this prince. As during the abode of the duke of York in Ireland as chief governor in the time of Henry VI. the Anglo-Irish had become strongly attached to his person, family and cause, it was resolved that the drama should open in that country. Accordingly Simons and his pupil landed in Dublin, where the earl of Kildare, the lord deputy, without hesitation or inquiry, at once acknowledged the pretended Plantagenet. His example was followed by the nobility and people in general. The Butlers of Ormond, a few of the prelates, and the citizens of Waterford alone adhered to the cause of king Henry.

When these events reached the ears of Henry he summoned a great council of peers and prelates, and by their advice published a full pardon to all his former opponents; for the preceding one had been so clogged with conditions, and had been violated in so many points, as to have failed of its great object. He then had the earl of Warwick led from the Tower to St. Paul's, and thence brought to the

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