s_,
iii., 384-85.]

[Footnote 37: _L. and P._, _Henry VII._, ii., 57.]

The accumulation of these great offices of State, any one of which
might have taxed the powers of a tried administrator, in the feeble
hands of a child appears at first sight a trifle irrational; but there
was always method in Henry's madness. In bestowing these administrative
posts upon his children he was really concentrating them in his own
person and bringing them directly under his own supervision. It was
the policy whereby the early Roman Emperors imposed upon Republican
Rome the substance, without the form, of despotism. It limited the
powers of mischief which Henry's nobles might otherwise have enjoyed,
and provided incomes for his children without increasing taxation or
diminishing the privy purse. The work of administration could be done
at least as effectively, much more economically, and with far less
danger to internal peace by deputies of lower rank than the dukes and
earls and barons who had been wont to abuse these high positions for
the furtherance of private ends, and often for the levying of (p. 018)
private war. Nowhere were the advantages of Henry's policy more
conspicuous than in his arrangements for the government of Ireland.
Ever since Richard, Duke of York, and George, Duke of Clarence, had
ruled as Irish viceroys, Ireland had been a Yorkist stronghold. There
Simnel had been crowned king, and there peers and peasants had fought
for Perkin Warbeck. Something must be done to heal the running sore.
Possibly Henry thought that some of Ireland's loyalty might be
diverted from Yorkist channels by the selection of a Tudor prince as
its viceroy; but he put his trust in more solid measures. As deputy to
his infant son he nominated one who, though but a knight, was perhaps
the ablest man among his privy council. It was in this capacity that
Sir Edward Poynings[38] crossed to Ireland about the close of 1494,
and called the Parliament of Drogheda. Judged by the durability of its
legislation, it was one of the most memorable of parliaments; and for
nearly three hundred years Poynings' laws remained the foundation upon
which rested the constitutional relations between the sister kingdoms.
Even more lasting was the precedent set by Prince Henry's creation as
Duke of York; from that day to this, from Henry VIII. to the present
Prince of Wales, the second son of the sovereign or of the heir-apparen