with the discovery; but the more trust he gave to his spies, the higher resentment did he feign against them.

At first he was struck with indignation at the ingratitude of many of those about him; but concealing his resentment for a proper opportunity, he, almost at the same instant, arrested Fitzwalter, Mountford, and Thwaits, together with William Danbury, Robert Ratcliff, Thomas Cressenor, and Thomas Astwood. All these were arraigned, convicted, and condemned for high treason. Mountford, Ratcliff, and Danbury, were immediately executed; the rest received a pardon.

The young adventurer, thus finding his hopes frustrated in England, went next to try his fortune in Scotland. In that country his luck seemed greater than in England; James IV. the king of that country, receiving him with great cordiality: he was seduced to believe the story of his birth and adventures; and he carried his confidence so far, as to give him in marriage lady Catherine Gordon, daughter to the earl of Huntley, and a near kinsman of his own; a young lady eminent for virtue as well as beauty. But not content with these instances of favour, he was resolved to attempt setting him on the throne of England. It was naturally expected, that, upon Perkin's first appearance in that kingdom, all the friends of the house of York would rise in his favour. Upon this ground, therefore, the king of Scotland entered England with a numerous army, and proclaimed the young adventurer wherever he went. But Perkin's pretensions, attended by repeated disappointments, were now become stale even in the eyes of the populace; so that, contrary to expectation, none were found to second his pretensions. A. D. In this manner the restless Perkin being dismissed Scotland, and meeting with a very cold reception from the Flemings, who now desired to be at peace with the English, resolved to continue his scheme of opposition, and took refuge among the wilds and fastnesses of Ireland. Impatient of an inactive life, he held a consultation with his followers, Herne, Skelton, and Astley, three broken tradesmen; and by their advice he resolved to try the affections of the Cornish men; and he no sooner made his appearance among them at Bodmin, in Cornwall, than the populace, to the number of three thousand, flocked to his standard. Elated with this appearance of success, he took on him, for the first time, the title of Richard the Fourth, king of England; and, not to suffer the spirits of his adherents to languish, he led them to the gates of Exeter, Finding the inhabitants obstinate in refusing to admit him, and being unprovided with artillery to force an entrance, he broke

1497. J

up the siege of Exeter, and retired to Taunton. His followers. by this time amounted to seven thousand men, and appeared ready to defend his cause; but his heart failed him upon being informed that the king was coming down to oppose him; and, instead of bringing his men into the field, he privately deserted them, and took sanctuary in the monastery of Beaulieu, in the New Forest. His wretched adherents, left to the king's mercy, found him still willing to pardon; and, except a few of the ringleaders, none were treated with capital severity. At the same time some other persons were employed to treat with Perkin, and to persuade him, under promise of a pardon, to deliver himself up to justice, and to confess and explain all the circumstances of his imposture. His affairs being altogether desperate, he embraced the king's offers without hesitation, and quitted the sanctuary. Henry being desirous of seeing him, he was brought to court, and conducted through the streets of London in a kind of mock triumph, amidst the derision and insults of the populace, which he bore with the most dignified resignation. He was then compelled to sign a confession of his former life and conduct, which was printed, and dispersed throughout the nation; but it was so defective and contradictory, that, instead of explaining the pretended imposture, it left it still more doubtful than before; and this youth's real pretensions are to this very day an object of dispute among the learned.

After attempting once or twice to escape from custody, he was hanged at Tyburn; and several of his adherents suffered the same ignominious death.

There had been hitherto nothing in this reign but plots, treasons, insurrections, impostures, and executions; and it is probable that Henry's severity proceeded from the continual alarms in which they held him. It is certain, that no prince ever loved peace more than he; and much of the ill-will of his subjects arose from his attempts to repress their inclinations for war. The usual preface to all his treaties was, "That when Christ came into the world, peace was sung; and when he went out of the world, peace was bequeathed."

He had all along two points in view; one to depress the nobility and clergy, and the other to exalt and humanize the populace. With this view, he procured an act, by which the nobility were granted a power of disposing of their estates; a law infinitely pleasing to the commons, and not disagreeable even to the nobles, since they had thus an immediate resource for supplying their taste for prodigality, and answering the de

mands of their creditors. The blow reached them in their posterity alone; but they were too ignorant to be affected by such distant distresses.

He was not remiss also in abridging the pope's power, while at the same time he professed the utmost submission to his commands, and the greatest respect for the clergy. But while he thus employed his power in lowering the influence of the nobles and clergy, he was using every art to extend the privileges of the people. In fact, his greatest efforts were directed to promote trade and commerce, because this naturally introduced a spirit of liberty, and disengaged them from all dependence, except upon the laws and the king. Before this great æra, all our towns owed their original to some strong castle in the neighbourhood, where some powerful lord generally resided. These were at once fortresses for protection, and prisons for all sorts of criminals. In this castle there was usually a garrison armed and provided, depending entirely on the nobleman's support and assistance. To these seats of protection, artificers, victuallers, and shop-keepers, naturally resorted, and settled on some adjacent spot, to furnish the lord and his attendants with all the necessaries they might require. The farmers also, and the husbandmen, in the neighbourhood, built their houses there to be protected against the numerous gang. of robbers, called Robertsmen, that hid themselves in the woods by day, and infested the open country by night. Henry endeavoured to bring the towns from such a neighbourhood, by inviting the inhabitants to a more commercial situation. He attempted to teach them frugality, and a just payment of debts, by his own example; and never once omitted the rights of the merchant, in all his treaties with foreign princes.

Henry having thus seen England, in a great measure, civilized by his endeavours, his people pay their taxes without constraint, the nobles confessing subordination, the laws alone inflicting punishment, the towns beginning to live independent of the powerful, commerce every day increasing, the spirit of faction extinguished, and foreigners either fearing England, or seeking its alliance, he began to see the approaches of his end, A. D.) and died of the gout in his stomach, having lived fiftytwo years, and reigned twenty-three. Since the times of Alfred, England had not seen such another king. He rendered his subjects powerful and happy, and wrought a greater change in the manners of the people, than it was possible to suppose could be effected in so short a time.

1509.

NO prince ever came to the throne with a conjuncture of

circumstances more in his favour than Henry VIII. who now, in the eighteenth year of his age, undertook the government of the kingdom

A. D. And as he was at the head of a formidable army, fifty 1509. J thousand strong, and as a war with France was the most pleasing to the people, he determined to head his forces, for the conquest of that kingdom. But France was not threatened by him alone; the Swiss, on another quarter, with twenty-five thousand men, were preparing to invade it; while Ferdinand of Arragon, whom no treaties could bind, was only waiting for a convenient opportunity of attack on his side to advantage. Never was the French monarchy in so distressed a situation; but the errors of its assailants procured its safety.

After an ostentatious but ineffectual campaign, a truce was concluded between the two kingdoms; and Henry continued to dissipate, in more peaceful follies, those immense sums which had been amassed by his predecessor for very different purposes.

In this manner, while his pleasures on the one hand engrossed Henry's time, the preparations for repeated expeditions exhausted his treasures on the other. As it was natural to suppose the old ministers, who were appointed to direct him by his father, would not. willingly concur in these idle projects, Henry had, for some time, discontinued asking their advice,

and chiefly confided in the councils of Thomas, afterwards cardinal Wolsey, who seemed to second him in his favourite pursuits. Wolsey was a minister who complied with all his master's inclinations, and flattered him in every scheme to which his sanguine and impetuous temper was inclined. He

was the son of a private gentleman, and not of a butcher, as is commonly reported, of Ipswich. He was sent to Oxford so early, that he was a bachelor at fourteen, and at that time was called the Boy Bachelor. He rose by degrees, upon quitting college, from one preferment to another, till he was made rector of Lymington by the marquis of Dorset, whose children he had instructed. He had not long resided at this living, when one of the justices of the peace put him in the stocks for being drunk, and raising disturbances at a neighbouring fair. This disgrace, however, did not retard his promotion; for he was recommended as chaplain to Henry the Seventh; and being employed by that monarch in a secret negotiation, respecting his intended marriage with Margaret of Savoy, he acquitted himself to that king's satisfaction, and obtained the praise both of diligence and dexterity. That prince having given him a commission to Maximilian, who at that time resided at Brussels, was surprised in less than three days after to see Wolsey present himself before him; and, supposing that he had been delinquent, began to reprove his delay. Wolsey, however, surprised him with assurance that he was just returned from Brussels, and had successfully fulfilled all his majesty's commands. His dispatch, on that occasion, procured him the deanery of Lincoln; and in this situation it was that he was introduced by Fox, bishop of Winchester, to the young king's notice, in hopes that he would have talents to supplant the earl of Surrey, who was favourite at that time; and in this Fox was not out in his conjectures. Presently after, being introduced at court, he was made a privy counsellor; and, as such, had frequent opportunities of ingratiating himself with the young king, as he appeared at once complying, submissive, and enterprising. Wolsey used every art to suit himself to the royal temper; he sung, laughed, and danced, with every libertine of the court: neither his own years, which were near forty, nor his character, as a clergyman, were any restraint upon him, or tended to check, by ill-timed severities, the gaiety of his companions. To such a weak and vicious monarch as Henry, qualities of this nature were highly pleasing; and Wolsey was soon acknowledged as his chief favourite, and to him was intrusted the chief admi