The History of England, Volume III Henry VIII Miscellaneous transactions
by David Hume
There were ten parliaments summoned by Henry VIII. and twenty-three sessions held. The whole time, in which these parliaments sat during this long reign, exceeded not three years and a half. It amounted not to a twelvemonth during the first twenty years. The innovations in religion obliged the king afterwards to call these assemblies more frequently: But though these were the most important transactions that ever fell under the cognizance of parliament, their devoted submission to Henry’s will, added to their earnest desire of soon returning to their country-seats, produced a quick dispatch of the bills, and made the sessions of short duration. All the king’s caprices were, indeed, blindly complied with, and no regard was paid to the safety or liberty of the subject. Besides the violent prosecution of whatever he was pleased to term heresy, the laws of treason were multiplied beyond all former precedent. Even words to the disparagement of the king, queen, or royal issue, were subjected to that penalty; and so little care was taken in framing these rigorous statutes, that they contain obvious contradictions; insomuch that, had they been strictly executed, every man, without exception, must have fallen under the penalty of treason. By one statute,l for instance, it was declared treason to assert the validity of the king’s marriage, either with Catherine of Arragon, or Anne Boleyn: By another,m it was treason to say anything to the disparagement or slander of the princesses, Mary and Elizabeth; and to call them spurious would, no doubt, have been construed to their slander. Nor would even a profound silence, with regard to these delicate points, be able to save a person from such penalties. For by the former statute, whoever refused to answer upon oath to any point contained in that act, was subjected to the pains of treason. The king, therefore, needed only propose to any one a question with regard to the legality of either of his first marriages: If the person were silent, he was a traitor by law: If he answered, either in the negative or in the affirmative, he was no less a traitor. So monstrous were the inconsistencies, which arose from the furious passions of the king, and the slavish submission of his parliaments. It is hard to say, whether these contradictions were owing to Henry’s precipitancy, or to a formed design of tyranny.
It may not be improper to recapitulate whatever is memorable in the statutes of this reign, whether with regard to government or commerce: Nothing can better show the genius of the age than such a review of the laws.
The abolition of the ancient religion much contributed to the regular execution of justice. While the catholic superstition subsisted, there was no possibility of punishing any crime in the clergy: The church would not permit the magistrate to try the offences of her members, and she could not herself inflict any civil penalties upon them. But Henry restrained these pernicious immunities: The privilege of clergy was abolished for the crimes of petty treason, murder, and felony, to all under the degree of a subdeacon.n But the former superstition not only protected crimes in the clergy: It exempted also the laity from punishment, by affording them shelter in the churches and sanctuaries. The parliament abridged these privileges. It was first declared, that no sanctuaries were allowed in cases of high treason;o next, in those of murder, felony, rapes, burglary, and petty treason:p And it limited them in other particulars.q The farther progress of the reformation removed all distinction between the clergy and other subjects; and also abolished entirely the privileges of sanctuaries. These consequences were implied in the neglect of the canon law.
The only expedient employed to support the military spirit during this age, was the reviving and extending of some old laws, enacted for the encouragement of archery, on which the defence of the kingdom was supposed much to depend. Every man was ordered to have a bow:r Butts were ordered to be erected in every parish:s And every bowyer was ordered, for each bow of yew which he made, to make two of elm or wich, for the service of the common people.t The use of cross-bows and hand-guns was also prohibited.u What rendered the English bowmen more formidable was, that they carried halberts with them, by which they were enabled, upon occasion, to engage in close fight with the enemy.w Frequent musters or arrays were also made of the people, even during time of peace; and all men of substance were obliged to have a complete suit of armour or harness, as it was called.x The martial spirit of the English, during that age, rendered this precaution, it was thought, sufficient for the defence of the nation; and as the king had then an absolute power of commanding the service of all his subjects, he could instantly, in case of danger, appoint new officers, and levy regiments, and collect an army as numerous as he pleased. When no faction or division prevailed among the people, there was no foreign power that ever thought of invading England. The city of London alone could muster fifteen thousand men.y Discipline, however, was an advantage wanting to those troops; though the garrison of Calais was a nursery of officers; and Tournay first,z Boulogne afterwards, served to encrease the number. Every one, who served abroad, was allowed to alienate his lands without paying any fees.a A general permission was granted to dispose of land by will.b The parliament was so little jealous of its privileges (which indeed were, at that time, scarcely worth preserving), that there is an instance of one Strode, who, because he had introduced into the lower house some bill regarding tin, was severely treated by the Stannery courts in Cornwal: Heavy fines were imposed on him; and upon his refusal to pay, he was thrown into a dungeon, loaded with irons, and used in such a manner as brought his life in danger: Yet all the notice which the parliament took of this enormity, even in such a paultry court, was to enact, that no man could afterwards be questioned for his conduct in parliament.c This prohibition, however, must be supposed to extend only to the inferior courts: For as to the king, and privy-council, and star-chamber, they were scarcely bound by any law.
There is a bill of tonnage and poundage, which shews what uncertain ideas the parliament had formed both of their own privileges and of the rights of the sovereign.d This duty had been voted to every king since Henry IV. during the term of his own life only: Yet Henry VIII. had been allowed to levy it six years without any law; and though there had been four parliaments assembled during that time, no attention had been given either to grant it to him regularly, or restrain him from levying it. At last, the parliament resolved to give him that supply; but even in this concession, they plainly show themselves at a loss to determine whether they grant it, or whether he has a right of himself to levy it. They say, that the imposition was made to endure during the natural life of the late king, and no longer: They yet blame the merchants who had not paid it to the present king: They observe, that the law for tonnage and poundage was expired; yet make no scruple to call that imposition the king’s due: They affirm, that he had sustained great and manifold losses by those who had defrauded him of it; and to provide a remedy, they vote him that supply during his life-time, and no longer. It is remarkable, that, notwithstanding this last clause, all his successors, for more than a century, persevered in the like irregular practice: If a practice may deserve that epithet, in which the whole nation acquiesced, and which gave no offence. But when Charles I. attempted to continue in the same course, which had now received the sanction of many generations, so much were the opinions of men altered, that a furious tempest was excited by it; and historians, partial or ignorant, still represent this measure as a most violent and unprecedented enormity in that unhappy prince.
The king was allowed to make laws for Wales, without consent of parliament.e It was forgotten, that, with regard both to Wales and England, the limitation was abolished by the statute, which gave to the royal proclamations the force of laws.
The foreign commerce of England, during this age, was mostly confined to the Netherlands. The inhabitants of the Low-Countries bought the English commodities, and distributed them into other parts of Europe. Hence the mutual dependance of those countries on each other; and the great loss sustained by both, in case of a rupture. During all the variations of politics, the sovereigns endeavoured to avoid coming to this extremity; and though the king usually bore a greater friendship to Francis, the nation always leaned towards the emperor.
In 1528, hostilities commenced between England and the Low-Countries; and the inconvenience was soon felt on both sides. While the Flemings were not allowed to purchase cloth in England, the English merchants could not buy it from the clothiers, and the clothiers were obliged to dismiss their workmen, who began to be tumultuous for want of bread. The cardinal, to appease them, sent for the merchants, and ordered them to buy cloth as usual: They told him, that they could not dispose of it as usual; and notwithstanding his menaces, he could get no other answer from them.f An agreement was at last made to continue the commerce between the states, even during war.
It was not till the end of this reign that any sallads, carrots, turnips, or other edible roots were produced in England. The little of these vegetables, that was used, was formerly imported from Holland and Flanders.g Queen Catherine, when she wanted a sallad, was obliged to dispatch a messenger thither on purpose. The use of hops and the planting of them, was introduced from Flanders about the beginning of this reign, or end of the preceding.
Foreign artificers, in general, much surpassed the English in dexterity, industry, and frugality: Hence the violent animosity, which the latter, on many occasions, expressed against any of the former who were settled in England. They had the assurance to complain, that all their customers went to foreign tradesmen; and in the year 1517, being moved by the seditious sermons of one Dr. Bele, and the intrigues of Lincoln, a broker, they raised an insurrection. The apprentices, and others of the poorer sort, in London, began by breaking open the prisons, where some persons were confined for insulting foreigners. They next proceeded to the house of Meutas, a Frenchman, much hated by them; where they committed great disorders; killed some of his servants; and plundered his goods. The mayor could not appease them; nor Sir Thomas More, late under sheriff, though much respected in the city. They also threatened cardinal Wolsey with some insult; and he thought it necessary to fortify his house, and put himself on his guard. Tired at last with these disorders, they dispersed themselves; and the earls of Shrewsbury and Surrey seized some of them. A proclamation was issued, that women should not meet together to babble and talk, and that all men should keep their wives in their houses. Next day the duke of Norfolk came into the city, at the head of thirteen hundred armed men, and made enquiry into the tumult. Bele and Lincoln, and several others, were sent to the Tower, and condemned for treason. Lincoln and thirteen more were executed. The other criminals, to the number of four hundred, were brought before the king, with ropes about their necks, fell on their knees, and cried for mercy. Henry knew at that time how to pardon; he dismissed them without farther punishment.h
So great was the number of foreign artizans in the city, that at least fifteen thousand Flemings alone were at one time obliged to leave it, by an order of council, when Henry became jealous of their favour for queen Catherine.i Henry himself confesses, in an edict of the star-chamber, printed among the statutes, that the foreigners starved the natives; and obliged them from idleness to have recourse to theft, murder, and other enormities.k He also asserts, that the vast multitude of foreigners raised the price of grain and bread.l And to prevent an encrease of the evil, all foreign artificers were prohibited from having above two foreigners in their house, either journeymen or apprentices. A like jealousy arose against the foreign merchants; and to appease it, a law was enacted obliging all denizens to pay the duties imposed upon aliens.m The parliament had done better to have encouraged foreign merchants and artizans to come over in greater numbers to England; which might have excited the emulation of the natives, and have improved their skill. The prisoners in the kingdom, for debts and crimes, are asserted in an act of parliament, to be sixty thousand persons and above;n which is scarcely credible. Harrison asserts that 72,000 criminals were executed during this reign for theft and robbery, which would amount nearly to 2000 a-year. He adds, that, in the latter end of Elizabeth’s reign, there were not punished capitally 400 in a year: It appears, that, in all England, there are not at present fifty executed for those crimes. If these facts be just, there has been a great improvement in morals since the reign of Henry VIII. And this improvement has been chiefly owing to the encrease of industry and of the arts, which have given maintenance, and, what is almost of equal importance, occupation, to the lower classes.
There is a remarkable clause in a statute passed near the beginning of this reign,o by which we might be induced to believe, that England was extremely decayed from the flourishing condition, which it had attained in preceding times. It had been enacted in the reign of Edward II. that no magistrate in town or borough, who by his office ought to keep assize, should, during the continuance of his magistracy, sell, either in wholesale or retail, any wine or victuals. This law seemed equitable, in order to prevent fraud or private views in fixing the assize: Yet the law is repealed in this reign. The reason assigned is, that “since the making of that statute and ordinance, many and the most part of all the cities, boroughs, and towns corporate, within the realm of England, are fallen in ruin and decay, and are not inhabited by merchants, and men of such substance as at the time of making that statute: For at this day, the dwellers and inhabitants of the same cities and boroughs are commonly bakers, vintners, fishmongers, and other victuallers, and there remain few others to bear the offices.” Men have such a propensity to exalt past times above the present, that it seems dangerous to credit this reasoning of the parliament, without farther evidence to support it. So different are the views in which the same object appears, that some may be inclined to draw an opposite inference from this fact. A more regular police was established in the reign of Henry VIII. than in any former period, and a stricter administration of justice; an advantage which induced the men of landed property to leave the provincial towns, and to retire into the country. Cardinal Wolsey, in a speech to parliament, represented it as a proof of the encrease of riches, that the customs had encreased beyond what they were formerly.p
But if there were really a decay of commerce, and industry, and populousness in England, the statutes of this reign, except by abolishing monasteries, and retrenching holidays, circumstances of considerable moment, were not in other respects well calculated to remedy the evil. The fixing of the wages of artificers was attempted:q Luxury in apparel was prohibited, by repeated statutes;r and probably without effect. The chancellor and other ministers were empowered to fix the price of poultry, cheese, and butter.s A statute was even passed to fix the price of beef, pork, mutton, and veal.t Beef and pork were ordered to be sold at a halfpenny a pound: Mutton and veal at a halfpenny half a farthing, money of that age. The preamble of the statute says, that these four species of butcher’s meat were the food of the poorer sort. This act was afterwards repealed.u
The practice of depopulating the country, by abandoning tillage, and throwing the lands into pasturage, still continued;w as appears by the new laws which were, from time to time, enacted against that practice. The king was entitled to half the rents of the land, where any farm houses were allowed to fall to decay.x The unskilful husbandry was probably the cause why the proprietors found no profit in tillage. The number of sheep allowed to be kept in one flock, was restrained to two thousand.y Sometimes, says the statute, one proprietor or farmer would keep a flock of twenty-four thousand. It is remarkable, that the parliament ascribes the encreasing price of mutton, to this encrease of sheep: Because say they, the commodity being gotten into few hands, the price of it is raised at pleasure.z It is more probable, that the effect proceeded from the daily encrease of money: For it seems almost impossible, that such a commodity could be engrossed.
In the year 1544, it appears that an acre of good land in Cambridgeshire was let at a shilling, or about fifteenpence of our present money.a This is ten times cheaper than the usual rent at present. But commodities were not above four times cheaper: A presumption of the bad husbandry in that age.
Some laws were made with regard to beggars and vagrants;b one of the circumstances in government, which humanity would most powerfully recommend to a benevolent legislator; which seems, at first sight, the most easily adjusted; and which is yet the most difficult to settle in such a manner, as to attain the end without destroying industry. The convents formerly were a support to the poor; but at the same time tended to encourage idleness and beggary.
In 1546, a law was made for fixing the interest of money at 10 per cent.; the first legal interest known in England. Formerly, all loans of that nature were regarded as usurious. The preamble of this very law treats the interest of money as illegal and criminal: And the prejudices still remained so strong, that the law, permitting interest, was repealed in the following reign.
This reign, as well as many of the foregoing and even subsequent reigns, abounds with monopolizing laws, confining particular manufactures to particular towns, or excluding the open country in general.c There remain still too many traces of similar absurdities. In the subsequent reign, the corporations, which had been opened by a former law, and obliged to admit tradesmen of different kinds, were again shut up by act of parliament; and every one was prohibited from exercising any trade, who was not of the corporation.d
Henry, as he possessed, himself, some talent for letters, was an encourager of them in others. He founded Trinity college in Cambridge, and gave it ample endowments. Wolsey founded Christ Church in Oxford, and intended to call it Cardinal college: But upon his fall, which happened before he had entirely finished his scheme, the king seized all the revenues; and this violence, above all the other misfortunes of that minister, is said to have given him the greatest concern.e But Henry afterwards restored the revenues of the college, and only changed the name. The cardinal founded in Oxford the first chair for teaching Greek; and this novelty rent that university into violent factions, which frequently came to blows. The students divided themselves into parties, which bore the names of Greeks and Trojans, and sometimes fought with as great animosity as was formerly exercised by those hostile nations. A new and more correct method of pronouncing Greek being introduced, it also divided the Grecians themselves into parties; and it was remarked, that the catholics favoured the former pronunciation, the protestants gave countenance to the new. Gardiner employed the authority of the king and council to suppress innovations in this particular, and to preserve the corrupt sound of the Greek alphabet. So little liberty was then allowed of any kind! The penalties, inflicted upon the new pronunciation were no less than whipping, degradation, and expulsion; and the bishop declared, that rather than permit the liberty of innovating in the pronunciation of the Greek alphabet, it were better that the language itself were totally banished the universities. The introduction of the Greek language into Oxford, excited the emulation of Cambridge.f Wolsey intended to have enriched the library of his college at Oxford, with copies of all the manuscripts that were in the Vatican.g The countenance given to letters by this king and his ministers, contributed to render learning fashionable in England: Erasmus speaks with great satisfaction of the general regard paid by the nobility and gentry to men of knowledge.h It is needless to be particular in mentioning the writers of this reign, or of the preceding. There is no man of that age, who has the least pretension to be ranked among our classics. Sir Thomas More, though he wrote in Latin, seems to come the nearest to the character of a classical author.
[l] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 7.
[m] 34, 35 Hen. VIII. c. 1.
[n] 23 Hen. VIII. c. 1.
[o] 26 Hen. VIII. c. 13.
[p] 32 Hen. VIII c. 12.
[q] 22 Hen. VIII. c. 14
[r] 3 Hen. VIII c. 3.
[s] Ibid.
[t] Ibid.
[u] 3 Hen. VIII. c. 13.
[w] Herbert.
[x] Hall, fol. 234. Stowe, p. 515. Hollingshed, p. 947.
[y] Hall, fol. 235. Hollingshed, p. 547. Stowe, p. 577.
[z] Hall, fol. 68.
[a] 14 and 15 Hen. VIII. c. 15.
[b] 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 5.
[c] 4 Hen. VIII. c. 8.
[d] 6 Hen. VIII. c. 14.
[e] 34 Hen. VIII.
[f] Hall, folio 174.
[g] Anderson, vol. i. p. 338.
[h] Stowe, 505. Hollingshed, 840.
[i] Le Grand, vol. iii. p. 232.
[k] 21 Hen. VIII.
[l] Ibid.
[m] 22 Hen. VIII. c. 8.
[n] 3 Hen. VIII. c. 15.
[o] 3 Hen. VIII. c. 8.
[p] Hall, folio 110.
[q] 6 Hen. VIII c. 3.
[r] 1 Hen. VIII. c. 14. 6 Hen. VIII. c. 1. 7 Hen. VIII. c. 7.
[s] 25 Hen. VIII. c. 2.
[t] 24 Hen. VIII. c. 3.
[u] 33 Hen. VIII. c. 11.
[w] Strype, vol. i. p. 392.
[x] 6 Hen. VIII. c. 5. 7 Hen. VIII. c. 1.
[y] 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13.
[z] 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13.
[a] Anderson, vol. i. p. 374.
[b] 22 Hen. VIII c. 12. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 5.
[c] 21 Hen. VIII c. 12. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 18. 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 20. 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 24.
