Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/93

] to participate in his high fortune. Morton was, at the death of Bouchier, made Primate of England; and Fox was entrusted with the Privy Seal, and successively made Bishop of Bath and Wells, Durham, and finally, Winchester. These two able prelates were Henry's ministers and constant advisers. "He loved," says an historian of the time, "to have a convenient number of right grave and wise priests to be of his council; because," adds Bacon, "having rich bishoprics to bestow, it was easy to reward their services," thus sparing his beloved coin; for the only two things which Henry Tudor really loved were power and money.



Having dismissed his Parliament, and left all in order, Henry set out on a progress through the kingdom. The people of the northern counties had been the most devoted to Richard, and he sought, by spending some time amongst them, to remove their prejudices and attach them to his interests. No means could have been so effectual as that of carrying with him, in honour and affection, the head of the house of York—his own queen; but here again his jealous disposition showed itself. He dreaded the superior homage which she was sure to elicit, and determined to owe nothing but to his own merits and measures. He therefore left Elizabeth with a small court, including her mother and sisters, and his own mother, the Countess of Richmond. He had advanced as far as Lincoln, and was there keeping his Easter, on the 2nd day of April, when he learned that Lord Lovell, formerly chamberlain to Richard, with Humphrey and Thomas Stafford, had left the sanctuary at Colchester, and were gone with dangerous intentions, no man knew whither. The news did not seem to give him much concern, and he proceeded towards York. At Nottingham, more pressing and alarming intelligence reached him, that Lord Lovell was advancing towards York with 4,000 men, and that the two Staffords were besieging Worcester with another army.

At Nottingham, Henry received an embassy from the King of the Scots; and dispatching his uncle, the Duke of Bedford, with about 3,000 men in pursuit of Lord Lovell, on the 6th of April he quitted Northampton in