was great complaint of the decay of English shipping and the lack of employment of English mariners. In consequence, the King established bounties for large ships, he prohibited foreigners exporting wool to the Netherlands, and, in 1489, passed an Act that wines and woad from Gascony must be imported in English ships, manned by English sailors. Following a protective policy begun by Edward IV, Henry VII strove to encourage the manufacture of wool and to develop English capital by discouraging the importation of luxuries and the export of gold. Parliament was directed to set the people on "works and handicrafts" in order that "the realm might subsist of itself " and so stop the draining of "our treasure for manufacturers." And in the nineteenth year of the reign, an Act was passed prohibiting the import of silks wrought in forms that the English were beginning to manufacture. As the sixteenth century advanced, English artisans made cloth in increasing quantities so that the export of wool declined while that of cloth took its place. While efforts were thus made to encourage English shipping and manufactures, commercial treaties were made with various foreign countries. The most important of them all was concluded with the Netherlands, in 1496. —— By the "Great Intercourse," or Intercursus Magnus, the merchants of the respective countries were to have the unrestricted right of buying and selling at rates of duty which had prevailed when intercourse was freest, and, ten years later, Henry secured large concessions for the sale of English woolens in those dominions.

England and the New World. The Cabots. - An outstanding result of the discovery of America and the new ocean routes was the supremacy of the Atlantic seaboard states over the Italian cities of the Mediterranean. England, which emerged supreme over the others as a sea power, only slowly secured her position. None of the medieval explorers were Englishmen. Norsemen, Spaniards, Portuguese, all won distinction before England entered the field. The first momentous step was taken when Henry, 5 March, 1495, issued a patent to John Cabot and his sons, Venetians residing in Bristol, to sail forth in search of a northwest passage and for the discovery and annexation of heathen lands. In May, 1497, they started on their first voyage. Sailing north so far that they found monstrous great lumps of ice swimming in the sea and continual daylight," they reached what was probably the coast of Labrador, and brought home "three islanders in skins," whom they presented to the King. They made two or three subsequent voyages, exploring the coast southward, possibly as far as Florida. Such were the beginnings of England's share in the discovery of the

north continent of America, a continent which they were afterwards to dominate.

The Literature of the Fifteenth Century and the Introduction of Printing into England. The transitional character of the age is manifest in the literature and learning. The foreign wars, the domestic turmoil, and the absorption of the best minds in material pursuits were unfavorable to literary or scholarly productiveness. The one great oasis" in this period so barren of literary creation is Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, finished in 1470. Relating in simple but graphic language the stirring adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, scholars value it as one of the earliest examples of English prose, while the stories which it preserves have been a source of delight for those who prize beautiful lessons of knightly courtesy and daring. In this period, too, the English language and literature are immeasurably indebted to William Caxton, who, by introducing the art of printing into England, in 1476, first brought books within the reach of the common man. For two centuries, already, a primitive form of printing had been in use: letters were cut on a block of wood, inked, and stamped on paper; but it was only with the invention of movable type that the real revolution began. The inventor was probably John Gutenberg (1400-1481) of Mainz. Caxton learned the art at Cologne, practiced it at Bruges, and brought it thence to his native land. Not only did he print existing English poetry of value, as well as chronicles and tales, all with careful revision, but he also rendered selected classical works into English. Building on Chaucer in his revisions and translations, he made the dialect of London the literary language of all England, and, by reducing it to print, gave it not only extent of circulation, but also permanence.

FOR ADDITIONAL READING

Narrative. H. A. L. Fisher, Political History of England, 1485-1547 (1906), a scholarly work brilliantly written. A. D. Innes, England under the Tudors (1905). Cambridge Modern History (vol. I, 1903), a coöperative work in 14 vols. containing a number of chapters on England; extensive lists of authorities, without comments, are to be found at the end of each volume.

Legal and Constitutional. In addition to the general works already cited, Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance (1901), reprinted in Essays in Anglo-American Legal History (3 vols., 1907-1909). Henry Hallam, English Constitutional History (3 vols., 1855), dry and to some degree out of date, but still indispensable for the period from 1485 to 1760.

Biography. Francis Bacon, History of the Reign of Henry VII (1621, in Spedding and Ellis' edition of Bacon's works, vol. VI, 1861). James Gairdner, Henry VII (1889) and Gladys Temperley, Henry VII (1915) are good brief accounts.

Conditions, social, industrial, and intellectual. In addition to the works already cited: W. Denton, Life in the Fifteenth Century (1888); Alice S. Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century (2 vols., 1894); A. Abram, English Life and Manners in the Middle Ages (1913); Fisher, ch. VI, "The Dawn of the English Renaissance"; Innes, ch. IV; Vickers, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, chs. IX, X, "The Italian Renaissance in England" and "The Revolution in English Scholarship"; Creighton, "The Early Renaissance in England" in Historical Lectures, pp. 188-212; F. A. Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformation in England (1899) from the Roman Catholic standpoint; Stubbs, Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History, two scholarly and brilliant lectures, XV, XVI, on "The Reign of Henry VII”; F. Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers, 1877.

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 134-140.

CHAPTER XIX

THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII (1509-1529). THE EVE OF THE SEPARATION FROM ROME

The New Reign and the Young Henry VIII. - Henry, eighth of the name, became King, 22 April, 1509. The new reign began with the happiest prospects. Crabbed age had made way to youthful ardor and enthusiasm; for the new ruler was barely eighteen. Entering into the reward of the labors of the "Solomon of England," his sagacious and thrifty father, he soon exhausted the treasure which he inherited; but without an independent revenue, without a standing army, and without openly violating constitutional forms, he was able to work his will, to wrench the Church of England free from the jurisdiction of the Pope, and to end his days as an absolute King. However, many years were to elapse before Henry's subjects were to realize what a masterful man he was. The young Henry was described as the handsomest prince in Europe; tall and well proportioned, with a fair, ruddy complexion, he was in his youth a striking contrast to the huge, bloated figure of mature manhood. While he excelled in strength and athletic skill and was a tireless hunter, he was also, like most of his family, both accomplished and learned. Not only was he an accomplished musician and linguist, but he gave much attention to theology as well, and his Defense of the Seven Sacraments, published against Luther in 1521-a work in which, perhaps, he was not unassisted-earned for English Sovereigns the title "Defender of the Faith," which they still bear. Contemporaries were loud in their praise of his beauty and talents, and in their hopefulness of what he was to achieve; yet while the heavens might "laugh," the "earth exult," and "all things be full of mirth at his coming," more and more the mailed fist was to appear from under the velvet glove. Three or four summary executions early in the reign only faintly foreshadow his later ruthlessness. Until his passions and his political ambitions called forth his strength, Henry occupied himself mainly with masks and revels, fine clothes, dancing and

music, hunting and birding, and the excitement of war and diplo

macy.

Henry's Plunge into Foreign Struggles (1511-1514). The leading Continental Sovereigns with whom Henry VIII had to cope at the beginning of the reign were all men of years and experience. He made his appearance in European politics by joining, in 1511, the Holy League, formed by Pope Julius II for the purpose of expelling the French King from Italy, where he had obtained a dangerous ascendancy. Ferdinand of Spain, the astutest of the papal allies, determined to use the high-spirited Henry for his own designs. So, when an English force was sent, in May, 1512, to coöperate with a Spanish force in an attack on Guyenne, he contributed no contingents, but, instead, profited by the diversion against the French to conquer the little kingdom of Navarre, which he had long coveted. Thus deserted, the English expedition, in spite of gallant work on the part of the fleet, accomplished nothing. Then, anxious to restore the English prestige, Henry led in person a large army across to Calais, in 1513. Proceeding with all the pomp and magnificence of a royal progress, he overcame the French forces, 16 August, at Guinegate in the "Battle of the Spurs," so called from the panic of the enemies' horsemen, and followed up his victory by the capture of two fortified towns. Meanwhile, taking advantage of Henry's absence, the Scotch King, James IV, yielded to the entreaties of Louis XII and led an army across the Border in August. Queen Catharine promptly hurried levies to the threatened district and placed the Earl of Surrey in command, who, 9 September, 1513, overcame the invaders at Flodden, where James fell, "riddled with arrows and gashed with bows and bills." Before his return, in October, 1513, Henry concluded a treaty with Ferdinand and Maximilian, Emperor of the Germans, for a joint invasion of France the following year. Discovering, however, that, all the while, they were treacherously making their own terms with their professed enemy Louis, he declared that he saw no faith in the world, and, in August, 1514, made a treaty of his own with France.

The Rise of Thomas Wolsey. Such success as Henry's arms and diplomacy achieved at this time was due chiefly to one remarkable man, Thomas Wolsey, who was destined, for over a decade, to shape England's policy abroad, and to be the leading figure in Church and State at home. Educated for the Church, he entered the royal service in 1506, forging rapidly to the front. The work of equipping the expeditions of 1512-1513 and the negotiation of the French peace of 1514 fell to him. All sorts of offices and honors were showered