I was saying, that all your demands would be satisfied, as I went along
in this discourse. It is true, an attentive reader of our history, who
considers what is said of the mixed frame of our government, and the
struggles that were occasioned by it, is surprised to find that these
contentions at once subsided on the accession of the house of TUDOR;
and that the tenour of the government thenceforth for many successions
is as calm, and the popular influence as small, as in the most absolute
and despotic forms. This appearance tempts him to conclude, that the
crown had at length redeemed itself from a forced, unconstitutional
servitude; and that, far from usurping on the people, it only returned
to the exercise of its old and acknowledged rights. For otherwise it
will be said, how could the people at once become so insensible, and
their representatives in parliament so tame, as to bear with the most
imperious of their princes without reluctance; they, who had resented
much smaller matters from the gentlest and the best?
But those, who talk in this strain, have not considered, that there
were some circumstances in the state of things, from the time we are
speaking of, that DISABLED the nation from insisting, and many more
that INDISPOSED them to insist, on their ancient and undoubted rights.
I took notice, that the ruinous contentions of the two houses of YORK
and LANCASTER, from which the nation was at last delivered by the
accession of HENRY VII. disposed all men to submit with satisfaction
to the new government. Such a conjuncture was favourable, of itself,
to the increase of the regal power. But the truth is, there was little
danger of any successful opposition to the crown, if the nation had
been ever so ill inclined towards it. The great lords or barons were,
in former days, both by the feudal constitution, and by the vast
property they had in their hands, the proper and only check on the
sovereign. These had been either cut off, or so far weakened at least
by the preceding civil wars, that the danger seemed entirely over from
that quarter. The politic king was aware of his advantage, and improved
it to admiration. One may even affirm, that this was the sole object of
his government.
For the greater security, and majesty of his person, he began with the
institution of his LIFEGUARD. And having thus set out with enlarging
his own train, his next care was to diminish that of his nobles.
Hence the law, or rather laws (for, as Lord BACON observes, there was
scarcely a parliament through his whole reign which passed without
an act to that purpose) against RETAINERS. And with how jealous a
severity he put those laws into execution, is sufficiently known from
his treatment of one of his principal friends and servants, the earl of
OXFORD[7].
It was also with a view to this depression of the nobility, that the
court Of STAR-CHAMBER was considered so much, and confirmed by act
of parliament in his reign: “That which was principally aimed at by
it being, as his historian frankly owns, FORCE, and the two chief
supports of Force, COMBINATION OF MULTITUDES, and maintenance of
HEADSHIP OF GREAT PERSONS.”
To put them still lower in the public estimation, he affected to fill
the great offices with churchmen only. And it was perhaps, as much to
awe the nation by the terror of his prerogative as to fill his coffers,
that he executed the penal laws with so merciless a rigour on the very
greatest of his subjects.
Still further to prevent the possibility of a return, in any future
period, of the patrician power, this politic prince provided with great
care for the encouragement of trade, and the distribution of property.
Both which ends were effected at once by that famous act, which was
made to secure and facilitate the alienation of estates by fine and
proclamation.
All these measures, we see, were evidently taken by the king to
diminish the credit and suppress the influence of his nobles; and of
consequence, as he thought, to exalt the power of the crown above
control, if not in his own, yet in succeeding ages. And his policy had
this effect for some time; though in the end it served, beside his
expectation, to advance another and more formidable power, at that
time little suspected or even thought of, the POWER OF THE PEOPLE[8].
The truth is, HENRY’s policy was every way much assisted by the genius
of the time. Trade was getting up: and Lollardism had secretly made its
way into the hearts of the people. And, though _liberty_ was in the end
to reap the benefit of each, _prerogative_ was the immediate gainer.
Commerce, in proportion to its growth, brought on the decline of the
feudal, that is, aristocratic power of the barons: and the authority of
the church, that other check on the sovereign, was gradually weakened
by the prevailing spirit of reformation.
Under these circumstances, HENRY found it no difficulty to depress his
great lords; and he did it so effectually, that his son had little
else left him to do, but to keep them down in that weak and disabled
state, to which his father had reduced them. ‘Tis true, both he and
his successors went further. They never thought themselves secure
enough from the resistance of their old enemies, the barons[9]; and
so continued, by every method of artifice and rapine, to sink them
much lower than even the safety of their own state required. But the
effects of this management did not appear till long afterwards. For the
present, the crown received a manifest advantage by this conduct.
There was, besides, another circumstance of great moment attending the
government of the younger HENRY. He was the first heir of the white and
red roses: so that there was now an end of all dispute and disaffection
in the people. And they had so long and so violently contended about
the title to the crown, that, when that mighty point was once settled,
they did not readily apprehend that any other consideration deserved,
or could justify, resistance to their sovereign.
With these advantages of situation, HENRY VIII. brought with him to the
throne a spirit of that firm and steady temper as was exactly fitted
to break the edge of any rising opposition. Besides the confidence of
youth, he was of a nature so elate and imperious, so resolved and
fearless[10], that no resistance could succeed, hardly any thought of
it could be entertained against him. The commons, who had hitherto been
unused to treat with their kings but by the mediation of the great
lords, being now pushed into the presence, were half discountenanced in
the eye of majesty; and durst scarcely look up to the throne, much less
dispute the prerogatives with which so awful a prince was thought to be
invested.
And when the glaring abuse of his power, as in the exaltation of
that great instrument of his tyranny, WOLSEY, seemed afterwards to
provoke the people to some more vigorous resolutions, a singular event
happened, which not only preserved his greatness, but brought a further
increase to it. This was the famous rupture with the court of _Rome_:
in consequence of which, the yoke of papal usurpations, that yoke under
which our kings had groaned for so many ages, was in a moment broken
off, and the crown restored to its full and perfect independency.
Nor was this all. The throne did not only stand by itself, as having no
longer a dependence on the papal chair. It rose still higher, and was,
in effect, erected upon it. For the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was not
annihilated, but transferred; and all the powers of the _Roman_ pontiff
now centered in the king’s person. Henceforth then we are to regard him
in a more awful point of view; as armed with both swords at once; and,
as NAT. BACON expresses it in his way, as a strange kind of monster, “A
king with a pope in his belly[11].”
The remainder of his reign shews that he was politic enough to make
the best use of what his passions had brought on, and thus far
accomplished. For though the nation wished, and, without doubt, hoped
to go much further, the king’s quarrel was rather with the court, than
the church of _Rome_. And the high authority in spirituals, which he
had gained, enabled him to hold all men, who either feared or desired a
further reformation, in the most entire dependence.
In the mean time, the nation rejoiced with great reason at its
deliverance from a foreign tyranny: and the lavish distribution of
that wealth, which flowed into the king’s coffers from the suppressed
monasteries, procured a ready submission, from the great and powerful,
to the king’s domestic tyranny.
In a word, every thing contributed to the advancement of the regal
power; and, in that, to the completion of the great designs of
Providence. The amazing revolution, which had just happened, was, at
all events, to be supported: and thus, partly by fear, and partly by
interest, the parliament went along with the king, in all his projects;
and, beyond the example of former times, was constantly obsequious
to him, even in the most capricious and inconsistent measures of his
government.
And thus matters, in a good degree, continued till the accession of
Queen ELIZABETH. It is true, the weak administration of a minor king,
and a disputed title at his death, occasioned some disorders. But the
majesty of the crown itself was little impaired by these bustles; and
it even acquired fresh glory on the head of our renowned Protestant
princess.
For that astonishing work of reformation, so happily entered upon by
HENRY, and carried on by his son, was after a short interruption
(which only served to prove and animate the zeal of good men) brought
at length by her to its final establishment. The intolerable abuses
and shameless corruptions of popery were now so notorious to all the
world, and the spirit of reformation, which had been secretly working
since the days of WICKLIFF, had now spread itself so generally through
the nation, that nothing but an entire renunciation of the doctrine
and discipline of the church of _Rome_ could be expected. And, by the
happiest providence, the queen was as much obliged by the interest of
her government and the security of her title, as by her own unshaken
principles, to concur with the dispositions of her subjects.
Thus, in the end, Protestantism prevailed, and obtained a legal and
fixed settlement. But to maintain it, when made, against the combined
powers that threatened its destruction, the crown on which so much
depended, was to be held up in all its splendor to the eyes of our own
and foreign nations. Hence the height of prerogative in ELIZABETH’s
days, the submission of parliaments, and, I may almost say, the
prostration of the people.
And when this magnanimous princess, as well by her vast spirit and
personal virtues, as the constant successes of her long reign, had
derived the highest dignity and authority on the _English_ sceptre, it
passed into the hands of the elder JAMES; who brought something more
with him than a good will, the accession of a great kingdom, and the
opinion of deep wisdom, to enable him to wield it.
What followed in his and the succeeding reigns, I need not be at
the pains to recount to you. These things are too recent for me to
dwell upon: and you, my Lord Commissioner, do not only remember them
perfectly, but have yourself acted a great part in most of them. Allow
me only to say, that from this brief history of the regal authority,
and the means by which it arrived at so unusual a greatness, it is no
wonder that the STUART family were somewhat dazzled by the height to
which they were raised, and that more than half a century was required
to correct, if it ever did correct, the high but false notions they had
entertained of the imperial dignity.