took no pleasure in them, he left them as
soon as ever he could; he lived only in business. In his council sat
men of mark, sagacious bishops, experienced generals, magistrates
learned in the law: he held it to be his duty and his interest to hear
their advice. And they were not without influence: one or two were
noted as able to restrain his self-seeking will. But the main affairs
he kept in his own hands. All that he undertook he conducted with
great foresight and as a rule he carried it through. Foreigners
regarded him as cunning and deceitful; to his own people his
successful prudence seemed to have something supernatural about it. If
he had personal passions, he knew how to keep them under; he seemed
always calm and sober, sparing of words and yet affable.

He directed almost his chief energies to this object, to keep off all
foreign influences from his well-ordered kingdom.

NOTES:

[70] Historiae Croylandensis Continuatio II. 'Concessae sunt decimae
ac quintodecimae multiplices in coetibus clericorum et laicorum,
habentibus in faciendis concessionibus hujusmodi interesse. Praeterea
haereditarii ac possessionati omnes de rebus immobilibus suarum
possessionum partem libere concedebant. Cumque nec omnia praedicta
sufficere visa sunt, inducta est nova et inaudita impositio oneris, ut
per benevolentiam quilibet daret id quod vellet, imo verius quod
nollet.'

[71] At least Sir Thomas More has not invented the nature and manner
of the murder; it is derived from a confession of the persons
concerned in it in Henry VII's time. 'Dightonus traditionis hujus
principale erat instrumentum' (Bacon 212). Tyrel too seems to have
known of it.

[72] 'Videntes, quod si novum conquestionis suae capitaneum invenire
non possent brevi de omnibus actum foret.' Hist. Croyl. 568.

[73] I take this from Nicolas, Observations on the state of historical
literature, 1830, p. 178. Hume's objection, that the mother's right
came before the son's, is done away with by the fact that men had in
general never yet seen reigning Queens.

[74] How the world regarded it then we ascertain from the words of the
Chroniques de Jean Molinet, ed. Buchon, iii. 151. 'Le Comte de
Richmond fut couronne et institue Henri VII, par le confort et
puissant subside du roi de France.'

[75] 'A quo tempore Rex coronam assumpserat, fontem sanguinis fuisse
expurgatum--ut regi opera parlamentaria non fuisset opus.' So Bacon,
Henricus VII. 29.

[76] Edw. Coke: 4