olicy to secure Brittany. She waged war
successfully against its duke, Francis II., and after he died, in
=1488=, she continued to wage war against his daughter, the Duchess
Anne. In England there was a strong feeling against allowing the
Duchess to be overwhelmed. At the beginning of =1489= Henry, having
received from Parliament large supplies, sent 6,000 Englishmen to
Anne's assistance. Maximilian--whose hold on the Netherlands, where he
ruled in the name of his young son, Philip (see p. 337), was always
slight--proposed marriage to the young duchess, and in =1490= was
wedded to her by proxy. He was a restless adventurer, always aiming at
more than he had the means of accomplishing. Though he could not find
time to go at once to Brittany to make good his claim, yet in =1491=
he called on Henry to assist him in asserting it.

8. =Cardinal Morton's Fork. 1491.=--Henry, who knew how unpopular a
general taxation was, fell back on the system of benevolences (see p.
335), excusing his conduct on the plea that the statute of Richard
III. abolishing benevolences (see p. 342) was invalid, because Richard
himself was a usurper. In gathering the benevolence the Chancellor,
Cardinal Morton, who had been helpful to Henry in the days of his
exile (see p. 341), invented a new mode of putting pressure on the
wealthy, which became known as Cardinal Morton's fork. If he addressed
himself to one who lived in good style, he told him that his mode of
living showed that he could afford to give money to the king. If he
had to do with one who appeared to be economical, he told him that he
must have saved and could therefore afford to give money to the king.
Before Henry could put the money thus gained to much use, Anne,
pressed hard by the French, repudiated her formal marriage with
Maximilian, who had never taken the trouble to visit her, and gave her
hand to Charles VIII., who on his part refused to carry out his
contract to marry Maximilian's daughter Margaret (see p. 337). From
that time Brittany, the last of the great fiefs to maintain its
independence, passed under the power of the king of France. Feudality
was everywhere breaking down, and in France, as in England, a strong
monarchy was being erected on its ruins.

9. =The Invasion of France. 1492.=--Maximilian's alliance had proved
but a broken reed, but there was now arising a formidable power in the
south of Europe, which might possibly give valuable support to the
enemies of Fra