England Under the Tudors | Page 7

acquiring a new
weight in the national counsels which, however, did not take full effect
till a later day.
[Sidenote: International relations]
Finally we have to observe that in this period the whole system of
international relations underwent a complete transformation. At its
commencement, there was no Spanish kingdom; there was no Dutch
Republic; the unification even of France was not completed; England
had a chronically hostile nation on her northern borders; the Moors still
held Granada; the Turk had only very recently established himself in
Europe, and his advance constituted a threat to all Christendom, which
still very definitely recognised one ecclesiastical head in the Pope,
and--very much less definitely--one lay head in the Emperor.
Elizabeth's death united England and Scotland at least for international
purposes; France and Spain had each become a homogeneous state;
Holland was on the verge of entering the lists as a first-class power.
The theoretical status of the Emperor in Europe had vanished, but on
the other hand, the co-ordination of the Empire itself as a Teutonic
power had considerably advanced. The Turk was held in check, and the
Moor was crushed: but one half of Christendom was disposed to regard
the other half as little if at all superior to the Turk in point of Theology.
The nations of Western Europe had approximately settled into the
boundaries with which we are familiar; the position of the great Powers
had been, at least comparatively speaking, formulated; and the idea had
come into being which was to dominate international relations for
centuries to come--the political conception of the Balance of Power.

CHAPTER I

HENRY VII (i), 1485-92--THE NEW DYNASTY
[Sidenote: 1485 Henry's title to the Crown]
On August 22nd, 1485, Henry Earl of Richmond overcame and slew
King Richard III., and was hailed as King on the field of victory. But
the destruction of Richard, an indubitable usurper and tyrant, was only
the first step in establishing a title to the throne as disputable as ever a
monarch put forward. To establish that title, however, was the primary
necessity not merely for Henry himself, but in the general interest;
which demanded a secure government after half a century of turmoil.
Henry's hereditary title amounted to nothing more than this, that
through his mother he was the recognised representative of the House
of Lancaster in virtue of his Beaufort descent from John of Gaunt,
[Footnote: See Front. and Appendix B. The prior hereditary claims of
the royal Houses of Portugal and Castile and of the Earl of
Westmorland were ignored.] father of Henry IV.; whereas the House of
York was descended in the female line from Lionel of Clarence, John
of Gaunt's elder brother, and in unbroken male line from the younger
brother Edmund of York. On the simple ground of descent therefore,
any and every member of the House of York had a prior title to Henry's;
the most complete title lying in Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward
IV.; while the young Earl of Warwick, son of George of Clarence, was
the first male representative, and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, son
of Edward's sister, had been named by Richard as heir presumptive.
But Henry could support his hereditary title, such as it was, by the
actual fact that it was he and not a Yorkist who had challenged and
overthrown the usurper Richard.
[Sidenote 1: Measures to strengthen the title] [Sidenote 2: 1486
Marriage]
Now the idea that the rivalry of the Houses of York and Lancaster
should be terminated and their union be effected by the marriage of the
two recognised representatives had been mooted long before. But in
Henry's position, it was imperative that he should assert his own

personal right to the throne, not admitting that he occupied it as his
wife's consort. His strongest line was to claim the Crown as his own of
right and procure the endorsement of that claim from Parliament,
[Footnote: The intricacies of descent, and the position of the crowd of
hypothetical claimants, are set forth in detail in Appendix B, and the
complete genealogical chart (Front.).] as Henry IV. had done on the
deposition of Richard II. He could then without prejudice to his own
title effectively bar other rivals by taking as his consort Elizabeth of
York; since the Yorkists, as a group, would at any rate hesitate to assert
priority of title to hers for either Warwick or De la Pole (who in fact
never himself posed as a claimant for the throne). In accordance with
this plan of operations, the contemplated marriage with Elizabeth of
York was in the first instance postponed as a matter for later
consideration. Henry proceeded forthwith to London, entering the City
laetanter, amidst public rejoicings; [Footnote: Gairdner, Memorials of
Henry VII., p. xxvi, where a