Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/488

 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. that moved him most was, that being a king that loved wealth and treasure, he could not endure to have trade sick, nor any obstruction to continue in the g-ate- vein which disperseth that blood. And yet he kept state so far, as first to be sought unto. Wherein the merchant-adventurers likewise, be ing a strong company at that time, and well un der-set with rich men, and good order, did hold out bravely ; taking off the commodities of the kingdom, though they lay dead upon their hands for want of vent. At the last, commissioners met at. London to treat: on the king s part, Bishop Fox, lord privy seal, Viscount Wells, Kendal, prior of Saint John s, Warham, master of the rolls, who began to gain much upon the king s opinion; f Jrswick, who was almost ever one ; and Risely : on the archduke s part, the Lord Severs, his ad miral ; the Lord Verunsel, president of Flanders, and others. These concluded a perfect treaty, both of amity and intercourse, between the king and the archduke; containing articles both of state, commerce, and free fishing. This is that treaty which the Flemings call at this day &quot; inter- cursus magnus ;&quot; both because it is more com plete than the precedent treaties of the third and fourth year of the king ; and chiefly to give it a difference from the treaty that followed in the one- and-twentieth year of the king, which they call &quot;intercursus malus.&quot; In this treaty, there was rebels of either prince by other; purporting* That if any such rebel should be required, by the prince whose rebel he was, of the prince confederate, that forthwith the prince confederate should by proclamation command him to avoid the country : which if he did not within fifteen days, the rebel was to stand proscribed, and put out of protection. But nevertheless in this article Perkin was not named, neither perhaps contained, because he was no rebel. But by this means his wings were clipt of his followers that were English. And it was expressly comprised in the treaty, that it should extend to the territories of the duchess- dowager. After the intercourse thus restored, the English merchants came again to their mansion at Antwerp, where they were received with pro cession and great joy. The winter following, being the twelfth year of his reign, the king called again his parliament ; where he did much exaggerate both the malice and the cruel predatory war lately made by the Kins of Scotland : That the king, being in amity with him, and noways provoked, should so burn in hatred towards him, as to drink of the lees and dregs of Perkin s intoxication, who was every where else detected and discarded : and that when he perceived it was out of his reach to do the king any hurt, he had turned his arms upon unarmed and unprovided people, to spoil only and depopu late, contrary to the laws both of war and peace: Concluding, that he could neither with honour, nor with the safety of his people, to whom he didowo protection, let pass these wrongs unrevenged. The parliament understood him well, and gave him a subsidy, limited to the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, besides two fifteens : for his wars were always to him as a mine of treasure of a strange kind of ore ; iron at the top, and gold and silver at the bottom. At this parlia ment, for that there had been so much time spent in making laws the year before, and for that it was called purposely in respect of the Scottish war, there were no laws made to be remembered. Only there passed a law, at the suit of the mer chant-adventurers of England, against the mer chant-adventurers of London, for monopolizing and exacting upon the trade; which it seemeth they did a little to save themselves after the hard time they had sustained by want of trade. But those innovations were taken away by parliament. But it was fatal to the king to fight for his money ; and though he avoided to fight with ene mies abroad, yet he was still enforced to fight for it with rebels at home : for no sooner began the subsidy to be levied in Cornwall, but the people there began to grudge and murmur. The Cornish, being a race of men, stout of stomach, mighty of body and limb, and that lived hardly in a barren country, and many of them could, for a need, live under ground, that were tinners. They muttered extremely, that it was a thing not to be suffered, that for a little stir of the Scots, soon blown over, they should be thus grinded to powder with pay ments ; and said it was for them to pay that had too much, and lived idly. But they would eat their bread that they got with the sweat of their brows, and no man should take it from them. And as in the tides of people once up, there want not commonly stirring winds to make them more rough ; so this people did light upon two ring leaders or captains of the rout. The one was one Michael Joseph, a blacksmith or farrier, of Bod- min, a notable talking fellow, and no less de sirous to be talked of. The other was Thomas Flammock, a lawyer, who, by telling his neigh bours commonly upon any occasion that the law was on their side, had gotten great sway amongst them. This man talked learnedly, and as if he could tell how to make a rebellion, and never break the peace. He told the people, that subsi dies were not to be granted, nor levied in this case ; that is, for wars of Scotland : for that the law had provided another course, by service of escuage for those journeys ; much less when ail was quiet, and war was made but a pretence to poll and pill the people. And therefore that it was good they should not stand like sheep before the shearers, but put on harness, and take weapons in their hands. Yet to do no creature hurt; but go and deliver the king a strong petition for the laying down of those grievous payments, and for the punishment of those that had given him that
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