Henry, it is said, had his claim to the throne printed by Caxton, and
distributed broadcast over the country (S306). It was the first
political appeal to the people made through the press, and was a sign
of the new period upon which English history had entered. Since
Caxton began his great work, the kingdom had undergone a most
momentous change.
The leading nobles, like the Earl of Warwick (SS296, 303), were, with
few exceptions, dead. Their estates were confiscated, their thousands
of followers either buried on the battlefield or dispersed throughout
the land (S316). The small number of titled families remaining was no
longer to be feared. The nation itself, though it had taken
comparatively little part in the war, was weary of bloodshed, and
ready for peace on any terms.
The accession of the Welsh house of Tudor (S39) marks the beginning of
a long period of almost absolute royal power. The nobility were too
weak to place any check on the King. The clergy, who had not
recovered from their dread of Lollardism (SS255, 283) and its attacks
on their wealth and influence, were anxious for a strong conservative
government such as Henry promised. The House of Commons had no clear
united policy, and though the first Parliament put certain restrainst
on the Crown, yet they were never really enforced.[1] The truth is,
that the new King was both too prudent and too crafty to give them an
opportunity. By avoiding foreign wars he dispensed with the necessity
of summoning frequent Parliaments, and with demanding large sums of
money from them.
[1] At the accession of Henry VII, Parliament imposed the following
checks on the power of the King: (1) No new tax to be levied without
consent of Parliament; (2) No new law to be made without the same
consent; (3) No committal to prison without a warrant specifying the
offense, and the trial to be speedy; (4) Criminal charges and
questions of fact in civil cases to be decided by jury; (5) The King's
officers to be held responsible to the nation.
By thus ruling alone for a large part of the time, Henry got the
management of affairs into his own hands, and transmitted the power to
those who came after him. In this way the Tudors with their
successors, the Stuarts, built up a system of "personal sovereignty"--
or "one-man power"--unchecked by constitutional restraints. It
continued for a hundred and fifty years, when the outbreak of the
great Civil War brought it to an end forever.