Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/502

 374 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. note it, he said merrily to him, that he had been in the midst of Spain, which was a hot region, and his journey had made him dry ; and that if the other had been in so hot a clime, he would have been drier than he. Besides the prince was upon the point of sixteen years of age when he died, and forward, and able in body. The February following, Henry, Duke of York was created Prince of Wales, and Earl of Chester and Flint : for the Dukedom of Cornwall devolv ed to him by statute. The king also being fast- handed, and loath to part with a second dowry, but chiefly being affectionate both by his nature, and out of politic considerations to continue the alliance with Spain, prevailed with the prince, though not without some reluctation, such as could be in those years, for he was not twelve years of age, to be contracted with the Princess Catharine. The secret providence of God ordaining that mar riage to be the occasion of great events and changes. The same year were the espousals of James, King of Scotland, with the Lady Margaret, the king s eldest daughter ; which was done by proxy, and published at Paul s cross, the five and twentieth of January, and Te Deum solemnly sung. But certain it is, that the joy of the city thereupon showed, by ringing of bells and bon fires, and such other incense of the people, was more than could be expected, in a case of so great and fresh enmity between the nations, especially in London, which was far enough off from feeling any of the former calamities of the war; and there fore might be truly attributed to a secret instinct and inspiring, which many times runneth not only in the hearts of princes, but in the pulse and veins of people, touching the happiness thereby to ensue in time to come. This marriage was in August following, consummate at Edinburgh : the king bringing his daughter as far as Colliweston on the way, and then consigning her to the attendance of the Earl of Northumberland; who, with a great troop of lords and ladies of honour, brought her into Scotland, to the king her husband. This marriage had been in treaty by the space of almost three years, from the time that the king of Scotland did first open his mind to Bishop Fox. The sum given in marriage by the king was ten thousand pounds : and the jointure and advance ment assured by the King of Scotland was two thousand pounds a year, after King James s death, and one thousand pounds a year in present, for the lady s allowance or maintenance. This to be set forth in lands, of the best and most certain revenue. During the treaty, it is reported, that tlie king remitted the matter to his council ; and llrat some of the table, in the freedom of counsel lors, the king being present, did put the case, that if God should take the king s two sons with- nit issue, that then the kingdom of England would fall to the King of Scotland, which might prejudice the monarchy of England. Whereunto the king himself replied ; that if that should be, Scotland would be but an accession to England, and not England to Scotland, for that the greater would draw the less ; and that it was a safer union for England than that of France. This passed as an oracle, and silenced those that moved the question. The same year was fatal, as well for deaths as marriages, and that with equal temper. For the joys and feasts of the two marriages were com- pensed with the mournings and funerals of Prince Arthur, of whom we have spoken, and of Queen Elizabeth, who died in child-bed in the Tower, and the child lived not long after. There died also that year, Sir Reginald Bray, who was noted to have had with the king the greatest freedom of any counsellor : but it was but a freedom the better to set off flattery. Yet he bare more than his just part of envy for the exactions. At this time the king s estate was very pros perous : secured by the amity of Scotland, strengthened by that of Spain, cherished by that of Burgundy, all domestic troubles quenched, and all noise of war, like a thunder afar off, going upon Italy. Wherefore nature, which many times is happily contained and refrained by some bands of fortune, began to take place in the king; carrying, as with a strong tide, his affections and thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of treasure. And as kings do more easily find in struments for their will and humour, than for their service and honour ; he had gotten for his purpose, or beyond his purpose, two instruments, Empson and Dudley, whom the people esteemed as his horse-leeches and shearers, bold men and careless of fame, and that took toll of their master s grist. Dudley was of a good family, eloquent, and one that could put hateful business into good language. But Empson, that was the son of a sieve-maker, triumphed always upon the deed done, putting off all other respects whatsoever. These two persons being lawyers in science, and privy counsellors in authority, as the corruption of the best things is the worst, turned law and justice into wormwood and rapine. For the first, their manner was to cause divers subjects to be indicted of sundry crimes, and so far forth to pro ceed in form of law: but when the bills were found, then presently to commit them : and never theless not to produce them in any reasonable time to their answer, but to suffer them to languish long in prison, and by sundry artificial devices and terrors to extort from them great fines and ransom, which they termed compositions and mitigations. Neither did they, towards the end, observe so much as the half-face of justice, in proceeding by indictment; but sent forth their precepts to attach men and convent them before themselves, and some others, at their private houses, in a court of