FROM THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.--1461 TO 1558.
[Illustration: LADY JANE GREY REFUSING THE CROWN.]
1. Henry the Seventh was not an amiable man, but he had many
qualities that were good and useful in a sovereign, and the country
prospered greatly under his government.
2. One of the conditions on which he succeeded to the throne, was
that he should marry the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward
the Fourth, and thus secure peace by uniting the families of York
and Lancaster:--the princess Elizabeth was a lady much beloved by
every body, and her many acts of benevolence were long remembered in
England, so that she was generally called the good queen Bess.
3. The king wished to increase the wealth and prosperity of the
nation, and he took the best means of doing so by promoting commerce.
He made commercial treaties, that is, agreements about trade, with
foreign princes, by which he obtained many advantages for the English
merchants, just as our government has lately made a treaty with the
emperor of China, about our trade in his country.
4. No English ship had ever been to China then, nor even to India;
and America had not yet been discovered; but in the time of Henry
the Seventh, the Spaniards and Portuguese made longer voyages than
had ever been made before, and the celebrated Christopher Columbus,
whom I dare say you have often heard of, found out by study, that
there was an unknown land on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,
and although people laughed at him, he at last persuaded the king
and queen of Spain to let him have ships, and sailors, and money, to
go in search of it, so he was the first that found out the way to
America, which, for a long time, was called the New World.
5. Soon after this, the Portuguese found out the way to India by sea;
and then the English began to make voyages of discovery also, and
to find that the world had more countries in it than they had ever
dreamed of before.
6. Maps and charts, which had been known to the Greeks and Romans,
now began to be much improved, though they were still incorrect, as
you may suppose.
7. However, all these new discoveries, together with the invention
of printing, made people think more about learning, and less about
fighting than they used to do; especially as the nobility were
beginning to live more in the way they do now, and to have handsome
houses in London, instead of living always in their gloomy old
castles.
8. Their domestics were no longer slaves, but hired servants; their
tenants were not villeins, but free farmers, who paid rent for their
land; and the poor peasantry, no longer in bondage, were at liberty
to go where they pleased, and were paid for their daily labour.
9. You remember that in the feudal times all the land in the country
belonged to the king, the nobles, the knights, and the bishops, and
abbots.
10. But Edward the First made a law in favour of the sale and
purchase of all lands except those held immediately of the king; and
Edward the Third gave his own vassals leave to sell their estates.
11. Other laws were afterwards made, by which landed property was
made liable to seizure for debt, and might be given by will, or sold
at the pleasure of the owner. And Henry the Seventh, by another law,
further encouraged the sale of land, and the consequent division of
large estates.
12. Then many of the nobles, who had more land than they wanted, sold
some of it to wealthy merchants and others, who built large mansions,
to which they often gave their own family name, as for instance, if
the name of the proprietor happened to be Burton, he would probably
call his residence Burton Hall.
13. These country gentlemen formed quite a new class of people in
England, and they have ever since that time continued to increase in
wealth, rank, and importance.
14. A strange thing happened in the reign of Henry the Seventh, which
has made some people think the sons of Edward the Fourth were not
put to death in the Tower, as is generally believed, but you shall
hear the story.
15. A young man, called Perkin Warbeck, came to Ireland from
Flanders, and declared he was the younger of those two princes, and
the lawful heir to the throne, as his brother was dead.
16. He told a wonderful tale, how he had escaped from the Tower,
and related many adventures which he said had befallen him; so the
Irish people said they would fight for him, and try to take the crown
from king Henry; but as they could not raise a sufficient force by
themselves, Warbeck applied to the king of France, who also promised
to help him, and then he went to the Duchess of Burgundy, who was
Edward the Fourth’s sister, and, strange to say, that lady declared
she believed the young man was her brother’s son, and persuaded the
Flemings to lend him their aid.
17. But the king of France changed his mind; and made a treaty of
peace with king Henry, who ordered the English merchants not to carry
on any trade with Flanders while the Flemings continued to favour the
cause of Perkin Warbeck, so they deserted him too.
18. I have not the room to tell you the rest of his adventures, but
they ended in his being taken prisoner by the king, who had him put
to death as a traitor. Henry the Seventh reigned twenty-four years,
and was succeeded in 1509 by his son, Henry the Eighth.
19. The young king was married to Catharine of Arragon, the daughter
of the king of Spain, a beautiful and talented woman, who deserved a
better husband, for Henry was a sad tyrant in his family, as well as
over the nation.
20. The greatest man in the kingdom next to the king, was his
minister, Cardinal Wolsey, who governed the country for many years,
and was so rich, that he not only lived in as much splendour as the
king, but he built the palaces of Hampton-court and Whitehall, and
founded the College of Christ Church at Oxford.
21. A Cardinal is a priest of high dignity in the Catholic Church,
being next in rank to the Pope.
22. Wolsey was clever and learned; but he was very proud, so he had
many enemies, and at last fell into disgrace with the king, and died
of grief.
23. Soon after this Henry chose to be separated from his good wife,
Catharine, because he had seen a young lady named Anna Boleyn, whom
he thought he should like to marry; so he sent the queen and his
daughter Mary, away from court, and made Anna Boleyn queen; but he
soon began to dislike her, and said she had done some very wicked
things, as an excuse for sending her to the Tower, where he had her
head cut off; and then he married another young lady, named Jane
Seymour, who soon died. She left a little baby, who was king Edward
the Sixth; and Anna Boleyn also had a baby, who was queen Elizabeth.
24. I must now tell you of a great change made by Henry the Eighth,
with regard to religion, and called the Reformation.
25. The church of England had, till this period, been the same as
that of Rome, and the people were Roman Catholics; but there were a
good many people in Germany, and in England also, who thought that
some of the forms of the Catholic religion were not right, and ought
to be altered, and these persons were called reformers, and all who
adopted their opinions took the name of Protestants, because they
protested against certain things.
26. Now Henry the Eighth had a disagreement with the Pope, about his
second marriage; so he determined to abolish the Catholic religion,
to seize on and destroy the monasteries and nunneries, and to have
Protestant clergymen to preach and read the prayers in the churches.
27. It would be too long a story to tell you how he accomplished all
this; but it was done. There were nearly a thousand religious houses,
that is, convents, abbeys, and priories, in England, inhabited by
monks and nuns, clerks and friars, of different orders, who had no
other homes, nor any means of living, but on the property of the
establishments to which they belonged; and these were all suppressed,
together with many colleges and hospitals, which also supported a
great many poor people.
28. The poor were very sorry the convents were broken up, for they
had been accustomed to go there when they were in distress, for food,
clothing, or medicine; and now they did not know where to get relief,
as there were no workhouses; the hospitals, and all other charitable
institutions, except some alms-houses, having been destroyed; nor was
it till almost the middle of the reign of queen Elizabeth that any
provision was made by law for the destitute poor.
29. The manufactures of England were now fast increasing.
Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield, were beginning to be known
as manufacturing towns; the first, for woollens and cottons; the
others, for cutlery and hardware.
30. Pewter plates and dishes were made in large quantities, for they
were now used in the most respectable families instead of wood; hats
were also made in England in this reign; and a clock, the first ever
manufactured in this country.
31. But nothing was more useful than the improvements made in
gardening, for which we are indebted to the Flemings and Dutch, who
were the best gardeners in Europe, and who brought here many kinds of
vegetables for the table, such as cabbages, lettuces, &c., and many
fruits that had not been cultivated in England since the time of the
Romans, particularly cherries and currants.
32. Potatoes were not known until the reign of queen Elizabeth, when
Sir Walter Raleigh brought some from America, and planted them, first
in Ireland, little thinking, perhaps, that this root would, at a
future time, be almost the only food of the Irish people.
33. Henry the Eighth had three more wives, Anne of Cleves, whom he
divorced; Catherine Howard, whom he had beheaded, like poor Anna
Boleyn; and Catherine Parr, who outlived him.
34. He reigned thirty-eight years, and was succeeded by his son,
Edward the Sixth, who was only nine years old, and died before he
was sixteen; so that he can scarcely be reckoned among the kings of
England.
35. He was a pious and amiable prince, fond of learning, and
extremely charitable. He founded St. Thomas’s Hospital, for the sick
poor; and Christ’s Hospital and School, for the education of boys who
had lost their fathers.
36. He had a cousin, Lady Jane Grey, whom he was very fond of, for
she was about his own age, gentle and beautiful, and being fond of
study, was educated with him; so that it was no wonder he liked her.
37. They were both Protestants; but Edward’s eldest sister, Mary, was
a Catholic; and as some of the great noblemen were Protestants, they
did not like to have a Catholic queen; so when the young king was
dying, they persuaded him to make a will, leaving the crown to Lady
Jane Grey, which was not right, because his father had ordered, and
the parliament confirmed his will, that, if he died, Mary was to be
queen. Edward the Sixth died in the seventh year of his reign.
38. Lady Jane was married to young Lord Guildford Dudley, and knew
nothing about king Edward’s will till after he was dead, when her
husband’s father told her she was to be queen.
39. At first she refused, but was, at length, persuaded or compelled
to allow herself to be proclaimed; and very unhappy it made her, so
that she was very glad, at the end of ten days, to give up the title
of queen to her who had a better right to it.
40. Now Mary was a woman of a morose temper; and, unfortunately, at
that time, and long afterwards, people who differed in religious
opinions were very cruel to each other; so she would not forgive poor
Lady Jane Grey, but sent her and her husband to the Tower, where they
were both beheaded.
41. The reign of queen Mary lasted only five years, and there is
little to tell about it, except that she did all she could to
restore the Roman Catholic religion, and re-established some of the
monasteries; but they were suppressed again, after her death, by her
sister Elizabeth, who had been brought up in the Protestant faith.
QUESTIONS.
2. How did Henry the Seventh secure peace?
3. How was the prosperity of the country increased?
4. What great discoveries were made in his reign?
7. What changes may be noticed in the mode of living?
8. How was a new class of people formed?
15. Who was Perkin Warbeck?
18. Who succeeded Henry the Seventh?
19. To whom was he married?
20. Who was Cardinal Wolsey?
23. Why did the king put away his first queen?
25. What was the Reformation?
26. How was this change accomplished?
29. Which towns had become famous for their manufacture?
33. How many wives had Henry the Eighth?
34. How long did he reign, and who succeeded him?
36. Who was Lady Jane Grey?
37. What is chiefly remarkable of queen Mary?
41. By whom was she succeeded?