It would be an error, however, to consider this absolutism of the
Crown as an unmitigated evil. On the contrary, it was in one
important direction an advantage. There are times when the great need
of a people is not more individual liberty, but greater national
unity. Spain and France were two countries consisting of a collection
of petty feudla states. Their nobility were always trying to steal
each other's possessions and cut each other's throats.
But the rise in each country of a royal despotism forced the turbulent
barons to make peace, and to obey a common central law. By this means
both realms ultimately developed into great and powerful kingdoms.
When the Tudors came to the throne, England was still full of rankling
hate engendered by the Wars of the Roses (S299). Held down by the
heavy hand of Henry VII, and later, by the still heavier one of Henry
VIII, the country learned the same salutary lesson of growth under
repression which had benefited Spain and France.
Henceforth Englishmen of all classes no longer boasted that they
belonged to the Yorkist or the Lancastrian faction (S300), but began
to pride themselves on their loyalty to Crown and country, and their
readiness to draw their swords to defend both.[1]
[1] But the passage of Poyning's Act (1494) in Ireland prohibited the
Irish Parliament from passing any law which did not receive the
sanction of the English Council. This act was not repealed until
1782.