Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/90

76 of fifty archers to attend constantly upon him. This was another indication of distrust in his subjects, or of the state of a conqueror, which astonished and dismayed the public; but Henry assured them that it was merely the state which, on the Continent, was now deemed essential to a king; and such an argument is all-powerful with the bulk of mankind.

The Parliament assembled on the 7th of November, to settle the new order of things. Before proceeding to business, they found themselves in a great dilemma. No less than 107 of the members were persons attainted during the two last reigns, and were therefore disqualified for acting. They were the most zealous partisans of the house of Lancaster, and immediate application was made to the judges for their decision on this new and singular case. They came to the conclusion that the attainted members could not take their seats till their attainders were reversed, and a bill was passed by the remaining members accordingly. The judges, who noticed the king's displeasure at their requiring a bill of reversals, did not dare to recommend a reversal of the attainder of Henry himself, but they broached the convenient doctrine that the possession of the crown clears the fountain of blood, and takes away all attainders and corruptions. A very comfortable reflection for all successful usurpers! The simple interpretation of this great legal maxim, amounted to nothing more than the ancient proverb of the people, that Might makes Right. Separate bills were passed, clearing the king's mother, the Dukes of Bedford, Buckingham, and Somerset, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earl of Oxford, the Lords Beaumont, Wells, Clifford, Roos, Hungerford, and others.

When Henry met his duly qualified Parliament, he informed them that "he had come to the throne by just title of inheritance, and by the sure judgment of God, who had given him the victory over his enemies in the field." In this declaration he was careful, while he asserted what was not true, to avoid what would alarm the pride and the fears of the nation. He had no just title of inheritance, as we have shown, and he dared not use the words "right of conquest," for such right was held to imply a lapse of all the lands in the nation to the crown, since they had been held of the prince who had been conquered. Lest he had, in even speaking of victory, gone too far, he immediately added, that "every man should continue to enjoy his rights and hereditaments, except such persons as in the present Parliament should be punished for their offences against his royal majesty."

The just judgment of God he grounded on the common belief of the times, that God decided the fate of battles, and even private duels. Edward IV. had used the same language, as we find in Rymer's "Fœdera," xi. 710. "In division and controversy moved betwixt princes upon the high sovereign power royal, more evident proof or declaration of truth, right, and God's will, may not be had than by the means of reason, authority, and victory in battles." There was another right which he might have pleaded—that of the choice of the people, and of the three estates of Parliament; but this was a plea that the pride of kings made them especially reluctant to admit. They would base their elevation on the will of God, in conquest, or usurpation; but the will of the people, over whom they wished to sit as demi-gods, was peculiarly abhorred by them, and never was admitted till the reign of William of Orange in England.

Another claim to the crown which Henry was still more careful to ignore, though it was one on which he secretly placed confidence, was the right of Elizabeth of York, whom he had pledged himself to marry, and who was the undoubted owner of the throne. But as Henry would not owe his throne to his people, so he would not owe it to his wife. He therefore took every means to establish his own title to the throne before he in any way alluded to hers, or took any steps towards fulfilling his pledge of marriage. He renewed that pledge, indeed, on arriving in London, to satisfy the York party; but he proceeded to have his claims to the throne acknowledged by Parliament without any reference to hers. If he had mentioned the right of Elizabeth of York, his extreme caution suggested that he would be held to possess the throne, not by his own claims, but by hers—an idea which equally offended his pride, and alarmed him for the security of the succession in his offspring. Should Elizabeth die without children, in that case the right would die with her; and any issue of his by another marriage might be accounted intruders in the succession, and they might be removed for the next heirs of Edward IV. If she should die childless, and even before him, even his own retention of the throne might be disputed. All these points the mind of Henry saw clearly; and in a moment, and as if no such person as Elizabeth existed, and as if no pledge to marry her had helped him to his success, he procured an Act of Parliament, which provided 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, perpetually with the grace of God so to endure, and in none other."

These last words went even to exclude the children of Elizabeth, should he not marry her, and the children of all her sisters. It cut off the line of Edward IV., as well as every other, under all circumstances, except that of a union with himself. It made him essentially the fountain of right and honour, and the marriage even of Elizabeth, the true heir, became not what he in his own mind knew to be that of the only sure policy, but on his part towards her and her family and party, an act of grace and favour. So cunningly and proudly did this descendant of an illegitimate line—this grandson of a common yeoman of the guard—go to work.

But whilst he put the Princess of England thus, as it were, under his feet, he was equally careful, without directly acknowledging her title, to secure it. He therefore at once refused to revive the Act of Henry IV., which entailed succession in the line of John of Gaunt, his own line, or to repeal that of Edward IV., establishing it in the line of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, that of Elizabeth. In his own favour, he cancelled and removed from the file all mention of his own attainder, and annulled the Act of Edward IV., which had pronounced Henry IV. and his successors usurpers and traitors; and in favour of Elizabeth's claims he annulled the Act of Richard III., which pronounced the marriage of her mother with Edward IV, invalid, and she and her brothers and sisters illegitimate. When this bill was passed through Parliament, the body of it was not read, out of respect to the future queen;