The History of England, Volume III Henry VIII A parliament
by David Hume
[1544. January 14.] While the winter season restrained Henry from military operations, he summoned a new parliament; in which a law was passed, such as he was pleased to dictate, with regard to the succession of the crown. After declaring, that the prince of Wales, or any of the king’s male issue, were first and immediate heirs to the crown, the parliament restored the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, to their right of succession. This seemed a reasonable piece of justice, and corrected what the king’s former violence had thrown into confusion; but it was impossible for Henry to do any thing, how laudable soever, without betraying in some circumstance, his usual extravagance and caprice: Though he opened the way for these two princesses to mount the throne, he would not allow the acts to be reversed, which had declared them illegitimate; he made the parliament confer on him a power of still excluding them, if they refused to submit to any conditions, which he should be pleased to impose; and he required them to enact, that, in default of his own issue, he might dispose of the crown, as he pleased, by will or letters patent. He did not probably foresee, that, in proportion as he degraded the parliament, by rendering it the passive instrument of his variable and violent inclinations, he taught the people to regard all its acts as invalid, and thereby defeated even the purposes, which he was so bent to attain.
An act passed, declaring that the king’s usual stile should be “King of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, and on earth the supreme head of the church of England and Ireland.” It seemed a palpable inconsistency, to retain the title of Defender of the faith, which the court of Rome had conferred on him, for maintaining its cause against Luther; and yet subjoin his ecclesiastical supremacy, in opposition to the claims of that court.
An act also passed, for the remission of the debt, which the king had lately contracted by a general loan, levied upon the people. It will easily be believed, that, after the former act of this kind, the loan was not entirely voluntary.m But there was a peculiar circumstance, attending the present statute, which none but Henry would have thought of; namely, that those who had already gotten payment, either in whole or in part, should refund the money to the exchequer.
The oaths, which Henry imposed for the security of his ecclesiastical model, were not more reasonable than his other measures. All his subjects of any distinction had already been obliged to renounce the pope’s supremacy; but as the clauses to which they swore had not been deemed entirely satisfactory, another oath was imposed; and it was added, that all those who had taken the former oaths, should be understood to have taken the new one.n A strange supposition! to represent men as bound by an oath, which they had never taken.
The most commendable law, to which the parliament gave their sanction, was that by which they mitigated the law of the six articles, and enacted, that no person should be put to his trial upon an accusation concerning any of the offences comprized in that sanguinary statute, except on the oath of twelve persons before commissioners authorized for the purpose; and that no person should be arrested or committed to ward for any such offence before he was indicted. Any preacher, accused of speaking in his sermon contrary to these articles, must be indicted within forty days.
The king always experienced the limits of his authority, whenever he demanded subsidies, however moderate, from the parliament; and, therefore, not to hazard a refusal, he made no mention this season of a supply: But as his wars both in France and Scotland, as well as his usual prodigality, had involved him in great expence, he had recourse to other methods of filling his exchequer. Notwithstanding the former abolition of his debts, he yet required new loans from his subjects: And he enhanced gold from forty-five shillings to forty-eight an ounce; and silver from three shillings and nine pence to four shillings. His pretence for this innovation, was to prevent the money from being exported; as if that expedient could anywise serve the purpose. He even coined some base money, and ordered it to be current by proclamation. He named commissioners for levying a benevolence, and he extorted about seventy thousand pounds by this expedient. Read, alderman of London,oa man somewhat advanced in years, having refused to contribute, or not coming up to the expectation of the commissioners, was inrolled as a foot-soldier in the Scottish wars, and was there taken prisoner. Roach, who had been equally refractory, was thrown into prison, and obtained not his liberty but by paying a large composition.p These powers of the prerogative (which at that time passed unquestioned), the compelling of any man to serve in any office, and the imprisoning of any man during pleasure, not to mention the practice of extorting loans, rendered the sovereign in a manner, absolute master of the person and property of every individual.
