HENRY VIII. except treason and felony, against any existing statute, without a jury, upon an information in the king's name. 1509-1547. Severe enact ments of previous statutes miti gated. Improper punishment of Emp Enactments were likewise made, by which the forfeiture upon the penal statutes was reduced to the term of three years; costs and damages were given against informers upon acquittal of the accused; more severe punishments were provided against perjury; the false inquisitions procured by Empson and Dudley were declared null and invalid; traverses were allowed, and the time of tendering them enlarged®. To gratify the brutal and licentious appetites of an ignorant son and Dudley. populace, as well as the more refined malignancy of political intrigue, Empson and Dudley, who had only enforced a strict execution of the laws, and acted in obedience to the commands of the king, were accused of crimes almost impossible in their nature, amounting to high treason, found guilty, and executed"; so that, in these times, justice was equally violated, whether the king sought power and riches, or courted popularity. Royal revenues unequal to the charge of government. General survey, Admitting Empson and Dudley to be guilty of the crimes laid to their charge, yet the manner in which their lives were forfeited cannot be justified,-for a spirit of liberty can never approve of that process, even against the worst and most guilty of men, as may be applied to destroy the best and most innocent. 2. Pecuniary Impositions. When the treasures of Henry VII. were dissipated, the royal revenues were unequal even to the ordinary charges of government, and which induced every exertion in order to supply such deficiency. In 1522, the king caused a general survey to be made of the kingdom, as to the numbers of men, their ages, profession, stock, and revenue', and then tyrannically issued privy seals to the most wealthy, demanding loans of money; and, in 1523, an edict was published, imposing a general tax, which was still called a loan, and 58. was levied in the pound Stat. 1 Henry VIII. cc. 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, et al. 7 Polydore, 620. Herbert, 5, 6, 12, 13. Rolls, 14. Lords' Journals, i. 9. Stat. 1 Henry VIII. cc. 12, 15. 4 Lingard, 8, 9. 1 Herbert, 121, 122. Stowe, 316. Rymer, 770, et seq. 4 Hume, 46. 4 Lingard, 68, 69. 1509-1547. upon the clergy, and 28. upon the laity, promising the lenders HENRY VIII. they should be indemnified from the first subsidy, but which was a precedent for the king's imposing taxes, without the consent of the legislature. 3 A parliament and a convocation were summoned shortly afterwards, and from the former, a grant of 800,000l. was demanded, divided into four yearly payments, to assist in the invasion of France, and for the defence of the north of England; although the commons had the courage to refuse granting little more than the moiety of the sum demanded*, yet they had not the courage to complain of the infringement of their privileges; in fact, they were extremely tenacious of their money, and refused a demand of the crown, which was far from being unreasonable: but they allowed an encroachment on national rights, in the case of improper taxation, to pass uncensured, though its direct tendency was utterly to subvert the liberties of the nation; and this line of conduct emboldened the king, under the plea of necessity, partially to levy in one year that, which parliament had granted him payable in four years, which was a new invasion upon the public franchise. But although Henry frequently crushed his opponents in the commons, by reprimanding, to use his own language, the "varlets" in person, or by threatening messages, yet in pecuniary affairs the commons displayed a most intractable spirit, and, at one period of this reign, were not assembled for seven years. Commons re gardless of na tional rights. Intractable spirit in pecuniary of the commons affairs. tion resisted. In 1525, another royal edict was issued, under which Arbitrary taxacommissioners had orders to demand the sixth part of every man's substance, payable in money, plate, or jewels, according to the valuation in 1522: but this tyranny was justly resisted to such an extent, that the edict was revoked, and all the sums that had been received under it were remitted". The government then had recourse to "benevolences," which Benevolences many persons submitted to, in order to escape from the persecuting vengeance of the court and its miserable satellites. If any proof was requisite that Henry was a dishonourable *Hall, 101, 102, 105. Herbert, 121, 122. Fiddes, Collect. 92. 4 Hume, 46. 33 Wilk. Con. 698-701. 1 Strype, 49. 4 Hume, 47, 48. 4 Hume, 48. Hall, 656, 672. 1 Strype's Eccles. Mem. 49. 1 Ellis's Letters illustrative of English History, 220. * Hall, 137-142. 4 Lingard, 87. granted. M 1509-1547. Dishonourable character of the king, and ser vility of parlia ment. HENRY VIII. and a selfish wretch, and that the commons were of a character the most servile, it is that statute, wherein "they do for themselves, and all the whole body of the realm which they represent, freely, liberally, and absolutely, give and grant unto the king's highness, by authority of this present parliament, all and every sum and sums of money which to them and every of them, is, ought, or might be due, by reason of any money, or any other thing, to his grace at any time heretofore advanced or paid by way of trust or loan, either upon any letter or letters under the king's privy seal, general or particular, letter missive, promise, bond, or obligation of repayment, or by any taxation, or other assessing, by virtue of any commission or commissions, or by any other mean or means, whatever it be, heretofore passed for that purpose "." Instructions to levy the benevolence, in A.D. 1546. The debts thus released had been assigned over by many to the crown creditors, and some had been given as family settlements, it not being contemplated that, a king and his parliament could participate in a transaction of so swindling a character; but it is said by Hall, that most of this House of Commons held office under the crown. This precedent was likewise adopted in 1544, when the king was again released by statute of all moneys borrowed by him since 1542, with the additional provision, that if he should have already discharged any of such debts, the party or his heirs should repay his majesty ". In 1546°, a "benevolence" was the expedient to which the government had recourse. The commissioners who were appointed for its levy, were directed to incite all men to a loving contribution according to the rates of their substance, as they were assessed at the last subsidy, calling on no one whose lands were of less value than 40s., or whose chattels were less than 157.; but it is intimated that the least which his majesty can reasonably accept, would be 20d. in the pound on the yearly value of land, and half that sum on moveable goods. They were to summon but a few to attend at one time, and to commune with every one apart, "lest some one unreasonable man, amongst so many, forgetting his duty towards God, his sovereign lord, and his country, may go 76 Rot. Parl. 164. Burnet, App. No. 31. Act 26, An. Reg. 21 Henry 1 Hallam, Const. Hist. 31, 32. VIII. Stat. 35 Henry VIII. c. 12. Sanders, 203. Lords' Journals, 265. 915 Rymer, 84. about by his malicious frowardness to silence all the rest, be HENRY VIII. they never so well disposed." They were to use "good words and amiable behaviour” to induce men to contribute, and to dismiss the obedient with thanks. But if any person should withstand their gentle solicitations, alleging either poverty or some other pretence, which the commissioners should deem unfit to be allowed, then, after failure of persuasions, and reproaches for ingratitude, they were to command his attendance before the privy council, at such time as they should appoint, to whom they were to certify his behaviour, enjoining him in silence in the mean time, that his evil example might not corrupt the better disposed 10. A London alderman, inspired with "patriotism," refused to contribute to the benevolence; the result was his being compelled to serve in the northern wars as a soldier, under the greatest privations, was then made prisoner by the Scots, and had to pay a much larger sum for his ransom, than had been required from him in the first instance". 3. Tyrannical Character of the King. 1509-1547. Those who rebute to the benevolence, were the privy council. fused to contri to appear before The cruel disposition of Henry, was early and unfortunately too amply illustrated in the executions of the Earl of Suffolk and the Duke of Buckingham; but after the disgrace of the wronged and ill-abused Wolsey, no persons could reckon themselves secure from his murderous or tyrannical decrees: and "many perished by sentences which we can hardly prevent Unjustifiable ourselves from considering as illegal, because the statutes to which they might be conformable seem, from their temporary duration, their violence, and the passiveness of the parliaments that enacted them, rather like arbitrary invasions of the law than alterations of it "." By the statutes of 1534, not only an oath was imposed to 10 I Lodge's Illust. of British Hist. 711. Strype's Eccles. Mem. App. n. 119. 1 Hallam's Const. Hist. 33. 11 15 Rymer, 84. Lodge, 80. Vide etiam Sanders, 203, 204. Stowe, 588. Herbert, 587. 1 Strype, 333. 13 Hume, 433. 1 Hallam's Const. Hist. 35, 36. 2 Year Book, 13 Henry VIII. H. T. Stowe, 514. Hall, 85. Herbert, 4 Lingard 62. 4 Hume, 27, 28. 100. 31 Hallam's Const. Hist. 37. enactments. 1509-1547. HENRY VIII. maintain the succession in the heirs of the king's second marriage, in exclusion of the Princess Mary, but it was made high treason to deny that ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown, which, till about two years before, no one had ever ventured to assert. A number of persons, among whom were Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More", "whose name can ask no epithet," were executed for not acknowledging such supreor lust of Henry macy, although the latter personage offered to take the oath to maintain the succession, which, he properly said, the legislature were competent to alter. Victims sacrificed either to the revenge, caprice, rapacity, VIII. Stat. 33 Henry Caprices of the king blindly submitted to. Numerous other victims were sacrificed, either to the revenge, caprice, rapacity, or lust of this monarch", the most distinguished of whom were the Countess of Salisbury, Earl of Essex, who were attainted by the Houses of Lords and Commons without being heard in their defence®, Earl of Surrey, and Anne Boleyn 10; as to the licentious Catherine Howard", she deserved her fate; and it was she that caused the enactment of Stat. 33 Henry VIII., c. 21, whereby any woman whom the king should marry as a virgin, incurred the penalties of treason, if she did not previously reveal any failings that had disqualified her for the service of Diana. Compliance was always yielded to the king's caprices, and liberty of the subject was despised; for notwithstanding the violent prosecution of whatever he was pleased to term heresy, the laws of treason were multiplied beyond all former precedent 12. 4 Stat. 26 Henry VIII. cc. 1, 2, 13. Poli Apol. ad Car. 96. Fuller, b. 5. 203. 4 Hume, 138. 5 Ep. Gul. Corvini in App. ad Epis. Erasmi, 1763. Pole, lxxxix.-xciv. Stapleton, Vit. Mor. 335. 1 State Trials, 59. More's Works, 1429, 1447. Herbert, 393. 4 Hume, 139, 140. 4 Lingard, 211, 212. Chauncey's Historia aliquot nostri sæculi Martyrum, Moguntiæ, 1550. Pole's Defensio Eccles. Unit. fol. lxxxiv.; and his Apology to Cæsar, 98. 1 Strype, 196. 4 Lingard, 305. 4 Hume, 130-140. 7 "For testimonies of this kind, some urge two queens; one cardinal (in procinctu at least), or two (for Pole was condemned, though absent); dukes, marquisses, earls, and earls' sons, twelve; barons and knights, eighteen; abbots, priors, monks, and priests, seventy-seven; of the more common sort, between one religion and another, huge multitudes.”—Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII. 267. 8 1 Burnet, 278. 4 Lingard, 284, 285, 297, 299, 300, 303. 4 Hume, 197, 207, 208. 94 Lingard, 351, 352. 4 Hume, 262. 10 1 Burnet, 201-205. 2 Ibid. 119. Hall, 228. Stat. 28 Henry VIII. c. 7. 4 Hume, 160. 11 Lords' Journals, 171, 172, 176. 4 Hume, 218, 219. 12 4 Hume, 162–168. |