Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/583

] has been asserted by a modern author that the people in the time of Henry VIII. were most cowardly, for that he had no means of maintaining his arbitrary course against them, as he had no standing army. But this is not altogether true, for though he had no actual standing army, he had such authority over the minds of both aristocracy and people, that—as we have seen on all occasions in which the people revolted, chiefly on account of religion, and when they were instigated and supported by the Roman Catholic nobles—he speedily mustered sufficient forces to put them down. In contemplating the strange mystery of the base submission of the Parliament and people to the reckless caprices and the blood-thirsty despotism of Henry VIII., we must ever bear in mind that the whole nation was rent into two most antagonistic parts by the schism in religion. The Roman Catholics feared the loss of their estates, the Protestants were eager to secure them. Of the few noblemen remaining in the country, from the sanguinary decimation of the civil wars, some of the wealthiest remained stanch Roman Catholics, and were watched with greedy eyes by the host of poor but ambitious adventurers who were ready to second every scheme of spoliation meditated by the monarch. When the ancient Church was going to the ground, with all its proud establishments and enormous estates, the nobles who belonged to it felt the very earth shaking under their feet, and saw no means of safety but in the most implicit obedience. On the other hand, the numerous swarm of courtiers—whose only law was the word of the prince, and their only real creed the belief in plunder and in the acquisition of the lands of nobles, prelates, abbots, and chantries, as the reward of subservience—were ever ready to rush to arms or to the execution of the most fierce and unconstitutional orders of the king. No mercy was shown by the members of one family to each other, where the terror of the monarch and the hope of his favour intervened. And at that day, when the country swarmed with vagabonds, who had no home and no ties, who had been increasing ever since the abolition of villenage, there was no difficulty in mustering any number of soldiers, where there was the chance of liberal pay and more liberal plunder.

This state of things, this facility of drawing forces to the field on the shortest notice, and on the most certain basis, was particularly provided for by Henry VII. He took care to save money by all means, and hoard it, so that though no man was more reluctant to spend, and none ever incurred so much odium by his parsimony where the military fame of the nation was concerned, yet he gained at least the reputation of ample means, and the credit for a disposition to punish promptly and severely any disloyalty or adverse claims on his Crown. He moreover passed two express statutes for the purpose of bringing his nobles and dependents rapidly to his standard on any emergency. By the Acts 2 Henry VII. c. 18, and 19 Henry VII. c. 1, every one who possessed any office, fee, or annuity, by grant from the Crown, was required to attend the king whenever he went to war, under penalty, in case of failure, of forfeiture of all such grants. There were, of course, certain exemptions. Some obtained the king's licence, for an equivalent consideration, to remain at home, and such as could prove any disqualifying infirmity were excused. The clergy, as a matter of course, were exempt, also the judges and principal officers of the law; and by the latter Act this privilege was extended to the members of the king's Council, to such persons as had bought their patents for certain sum, and to all persons under twenty and above sixty years of age. The exemptions extended to comparatively a small number of persons, the fear of forfeiture applied to the majority. To render this more effectual, Henry VII., as we have seen, was rigorous in prohibiting a large array of retainers by the nobles, whilst he was strenuous to enforce the attendance of the feofees of the Crown.

To break the power of the nobles, he enacted in the fourth year of his reign the Statute of Fines, in fact, a renewal of the law of Edward IV., by which entails could be cut off at pleasure, and thus the great landowners were enabled to divide their estates amongst their children, or to bequeath or sell them. This was a powerful means of breaking down those enormous estates which had heretofore maintained the overgrown barons, to the danger and continual disturbance of the throne. This process was carried farther, by the free use of attainders, by Henry VIII., by which, at will, he struck down the most wealthy and exalted nobles, and appropriated their demesnes; so that eventually there was not a foot of land in the kingdom nor an individual life which was not held at the king's mercy.

But still more than the Statute of Fines, and the passing of attainders, were the lives, liberties, and property of the people, submitted to the will of the king, by the institution of the Court of "La Chambres des Estayers," or "des Esteilr," the Star Chamber. This court set aside all other courts at will, and by abandoning the use of juries in it, laid Magna Charta, and the life and fortune of every man, at the foot of the throne. From the moment, in fact, that this court was formally erected by the 2 Henry VII., 1487, there was an end of the constitution, the privilege of Habeas Corpus was suspended, and Parliament legislated in vain. The king was the State, and ruled in this arbitrary court by the officers of his Privy Council.

This court was so called, it has been generally supposed, from the stars which ornamented the ceiling of the room in which it met, but these would seem to have been originated by the name, not the name from them. It was the place where the Jewish contracts were deposited by Richard I., and which were called "starra," or stars, a corruption of the Hebrew word "shitar." No star was deemed valid except it was found in that depository, and they remained there till the banishment of the Jews by Edward I. This Royal tribunal had been employed by monarchs previously to Henry, but he was enabled to make it legal by Act of Parliament, during the depressed condition of both Parliament and aristocracy. It became speedily the great instrument of the oppression and extortion of the subject and the terror of the whole realm, till it was abolished in the 16 Charles I., 1641. The judges, the members of the Royal Council, amounted to from twenty-six to forty-two, the lord chancellor having the casting voice. Bishops as well as judges sate in this court, but the lord chancellor, the treasurer, and privy seal were the chief authorities till the 21 Henry VIII., when the president of the Council was added to them.

Henry VII., in his original enactment, plainly avows