Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/504

 376 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. The Earl of Devonshire being interested in the blood of York, that was rather feared than nocent ; yet as one that might be the object of others plots and designs, remained prisoner in the Tower, dur ing the king s life. William de la Pole was also long restrained, though not so straitly. But for Sir James Tirrel, against whom the blood of the innocent princes, Edward the Fifth, and his brother, did still &quot; cry from under the altar,&quot; and Sir John Windham, and the other meaner ones, they were attainted and executed ; the two knights beheaded. Nevertheless, to confirm the credit of Curson : who belike had not yet done all his feats of activi ty, there was published at Paul s cross, about the time of the said executions, the pope s bull of ex communication and curse against the Earl of Suf folk and Sir Robert Curson, and some others by name ; and likewise in general against all the abettors of the said earl : wherein it must be con fessed, that heaven was made too much to bow to earth, and religion to policy. But soon after, Curson, when he saw the time, returned into Eng land, and withal into wonted favour with the king, but worse fame with the people. Upon whose return the earl was much dismayed, and seeing himself destitute of hopes, the Lady Margaret also, by tract of time and bad success, being now become cool in those attempts, after some wander ing in France and Germany, and certain little projects, no better than squibs of an exiled man, being tired out, retired again into the protection of the Archduke Philip in Flanders, who by the death of Isabella was at that time King of Castile, in the right of Joan his wife. This year, being the nineteenth of his reign, the king called his parliament; wherein a man may easily guess how absolute the king took himself to be with his parliament, when Dudley, that was so hateful, was made Speaker of the House of Com mons. In this parliament there were not made any statutes memorable touching public government; but those that were, had still the stamp of the king s wisdom and policy. There was a statute made for the disannulling of all patents of lease or grant, to such as came not upon lawful summons to serve the king in his wars, against the enemies or rebels, or that should depart without the king s licence; with an excep tion of certain persons of the long robe ; provid ing, nevertheless, that they should have the king s wages from their house till they return home again. There had been the like made before for offices, and by this statute it was extended to lands. But a man may easily see by many statutes made in this king s time, that the king thought it safest to assist martial law by law of parliament Another statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of manufactures of silk wrought by (self, or mixed with any other thread. But it &amp;lt;vas not of stuffs of whole piece, for that the realm had of them no manufacture in use at that timo, but of knit silk, or texture of silk ; as ribands, laces, cauls, points, and girdles, &c., which th people of England could then well skill to make. This law pointed at a true principle ; &quot; That when; foreign materials are but superfluities, foreign manufactures should be prohibited.&quot; For that will either banish the superfluity, or gain the manufacture. There was a law also of resumption of patents of jails, and the reannexing of them to the sherirT- wicks; privileged officers being no less an inter ruption of justice, than privileged places. There was likewise a law to restrain the by laws or ordinances of corporations, which many times were against the prerogative of the king, the common law of the realm, and the liberty of the subject, being fraternities in evil. It was therefore provided, that they, should not be put in execution, without the allowance of the chancel lor, treasurer, and the two chief justices, or three of them, or of the two justices of circuit where the corporation was. Another law was, in effect, to bring in the silver of the realm to the mint, in making all clipped, minished, or impaired coins of silver not to be current in payments ; without giving any remedy of weight, but with an exception only of reasonable wearing, which was as nothing in re spect of the uncertainty ; and so, upon the matter, to set the mint on work, and to give way to new coins of silver, which should be then minted. There likewise was a long statute against va gabonds, wherein two things may be noted ; the one, the dislike the parliament had of jailing them, as that which was chargeable, pesterous, and of no open example. The other that in the statutes of this king s time, for this of the nine teenth year is not the only statute of that kind, there are ever coupled the punishment of vaga bonds, and the forbidding of dice and cards, and unlawful games, unto servants and mean people, and the putting down and suppressing of ale houses, as strings of one root together, and as if the one were unprofitable without the other. As for riot and retainers, there passed scarce any parliament in this time without a law against them : the king ever having an eye to might and multitude. There was granted also that parliament a sub sidy, both from the temporally and the clergy. And yet, nevertheless, ere the year expired, there went out commissions for a general benevolence, though there were no wars, no fears. The same year the city gave five thousand marks, for con firmation of their liberties ; a thing fitter for the beginnings of kings reigns than the latter ends. Neither was it a small matter that the mint gained upon the late statute, by the recoinage of groats and half-groats, now twelve-pences and six pences. As for Empson and Dudley s mills, they