Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/67

 and the opposing armies met on Bosworth Field. When the battle began, Lord Stanley and Earl Percy deserted Richard, who, brave to the last, rushed into the thickest of the fight, eager to exchange blows with his rival. He was soon stricken down, and died on the field. His crown was found in a hawthorn bush, and placed by Stanley on Henry’s head.

With the Battle of Bosworth Field, in 1485, ended the Wars of the Roses. With it, too, began the famous line of kings and queens known as the House of Tudor. Henry VII., soon after his coronation, married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and although the marriage was not a happy one, it united in the reigning family the claims of both the Lancastrians and Yorkists, and so helped to bring peace to the distracted nation.

6. End of Medieval History.—With the reign of Henry VII., we pass into modern history. A great change now began to come over the people of Europe. Their knowledge of the earth was greatly increased by the discovery of America by Columbus, and by the many voyages to the new world that followed. Navigators made their way to India by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope. The knowledge of other planets was now extended by great scientific discoveries; and men’s minds were aroused by the study of Greek literature, the ‘‘New Learning,” brought to Italy from Constantinople by exiles from that city. The printing press was doing its work in making books cheap and thus spreading knowledge. But with all these changes for the better there was also the growth of the power of kingship. Nearly all the nobles had been killed in the Wars of the Roses, and the middle and lower classes had not yet learned to fight their own political battles. Gunpowder had come into use, and as the king had nearly all the cannon, he could batter down the strong walls of the castles of the nobles, and so keep them in subjection. So for several reigns we shall find that there was very little control over the king.