Part 30 (1/2)

VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs

326. Dress.

Great sums were spent on dress by both s.e.xes, and the courtiers'

doublets, or jackets, were of the most costly silks and velvets, elaborately puffed and slashed. During the latter part of the period the pointed shoes, which had formerly been of prodigious length, suddenly began to grow broad, with such rapidity that Parliament pa.s.sed a law limiting the width of the toes to six inches.

At the same time the court ladies adopted the fas.h.i.+on of wearing horns as huge in proportion as the n.o.blemen's shoes. The government tried legislating them down, and the clergy fulminated a solemn curse against them; but fas.h.i.+on was more powerful than Church and Parliament combined, and horns and hoofs came out triumphant.

EIGHTH PERIOD[1]

”One half her soil has walked the rest In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages!”

O. W. Holmes

Political Reaction--Absolutism of the Crown--The English Reformation and the New Learning

Crown or Pope?

House of Tudor (1485-1603)

Henry VII, 1485-1509 Henry VIII, 1509-1547 Edward VI, 1547-1553 Mary, 1553-1558 Elizabeth, 1558-1603

[1] Reference Books on this period will be found in the Cla.s.sified List of Books in the Appendix. The p.r.o.nunciation of names will be found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in parentheses.

327. Union of the Houses of Lancaster and York.

Before leaving the Continent Henry Tudor (S314) had promised the Yorkist party that he would marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV (see Genealogical Table, p. 179), and sister to the young Princes murdered by Richard III (S310). Such a marriage would unite the rival houses of Lancaster and York, and put an end to the civil war.

A few months after the new King's accession the wedding was duly celebrated, and in the beautiful east window of stained gla.s.s in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, the Roses are seen joined; so that, as the quaint verse of that day says:

”Both roses flourish--red and white-- In love and sisterly delight; The two that were at strife are blended, And all old troubles now are ended.”

Peace came from the union, but it was peace interrupted by insurrections which lasted for several years.

Origin of the House of Tudor

Edward III 1 2 3 | 4 5 -------------------------------------------------- | | | | | Edward William, Lionel, Duke John of Gaunt, Edmund, Duke of York (the Black no of Clarence, Duke of | Prince) issue from whom Lancaster /----------------- | descended in | Edward, Duke of Richard, Richard II the fourth Henry IV York, no issue Earl of generation | Cambridge, *Richard, Henry V (Catharine, m. Anne Duke of York | his widow, Mortimer, great- | Henry VI married granddaughter of --------------------- Owen Tudor, Lionel, Duke of | | a Welsh gentleman) Clarence; their Edward IV Richard III | son was | Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richard, --------------------------- Richmond, m. Margaret Duke of York | | | Beaufort, a descendant +Edward V +Richard, Elizabeth of John of Gaunt, Duke Duke of York of York, of Lancaster, see m. Henry VII pages 161, 172 (of Lancaster) | Henry (Tudor) VII (formerly Earl of Richmond), m. Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the House of Lancaster (Red Rose) and York (White Rose) in the new royal House of Tudor

*Inherited the t.i.tle Duke of York from his uncle Edward. See No. 5.

+The Princes murdered by Richard III.

328. Condition of the Country; Power of the Crown.

Henry, it is said, had his claim to the throne printed by Caxton, and distributed broadcast over the country (S306). It was the first political appeal to the people made through the press, and was a sign of the new period upon which English history had entered. Since Caxton began his great work, the kingdom had undergone a most momentous change.

The leading n.o.bles, like the Earl of Warwick (SS296, 303), were, with few exceptions, dead. Their estates were confiscated, their thousands of followers either buried on the battlefield or dispersed throughout the land (S316). The small number of t.i.tled families remaining was no longer to be feared. The nation itself, though it had taken comparatively little part in the war, was weary of bloodshed, and ready for peace on any terms.

The accession of the Welsh house of Tudor (S39) marks the beginning of a long period of almost absolute royal power. The n.o.bility were too weak to place any check on the King. The clergy, who had not recovered from their dread of Lollardism (SS255, 283) and its attacks on their wealth and influence, were anxious for a strong conservative government such as Henry promised. The House of Commons had no clear united policy, and though the first Parliament put certain restrainst on the Crown, yet they were never really enforced.[1] The truth is, that the new King was both too prudent and too crafty to give them an opportunity. By avoiding foreign wars he dispensed with the necessity of summoning frequent Parliaments, and with demanding large sums of money from them.