tary right to the throne, he dreaded lest
a preceding marriage with the princess should imply a participation of
sovereignty in her, and raise doubts of his own title by the house of
Lancaster.

There raged at that time in London, and other parts of the kingdom,
a species of malady unknown to any other age or nation, the sweating
sickness, which occasioned the sudden death of great multitudes; though
it seemed not to be propagated by any contagious infection, but arose
from the general disposition of the air and of the human body. In less
than twenty-four hours the patient commonly died or recovered, but when
the pestilence had exerted its fury for a few weeks, it was observed,
either from alterations in the air, or from a more proper regimen which
had been discovered, to be considerably abated.[*] Preparations were
then made for the ceremony of Henry's coronation. In order to heighten
the splendor of that spectacle, he bestowed the rank of knight banneret
on twelve persons; and he conferred peerages on three. Jasper, earl of
Pembroke, his uncle, was created duke of Bedford; Thomas Lord Stanley,
his father-in-law, earl of Derby; and Edward Courtney, earl of
Devonshire. At the coronation, likewise, there appeared a new
institution, which the king had established for security as well as
pomp, a band of fifty archers, who were termed yeomen of the guard. But
lest the people should take umbrage at this unusual symptom of jealousy
in the prince, as if it implied a personal diffidence of his subjects,
he declared the institution to be perpetual. The ceremony of coronation
was performed by Cardinal Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury.

The parliament being assembled at Westminster, the majority immediately
appeared to be devoted partisans of Henry; all persons of another
disposition either declining to stand in those dangerous times, or being
obliged to dissemble their principles and inclinations. The Lancastrian
party had every where been successful in the elections; and even many
had been returned who, during the prevalence of the house of York, had
been exposed to the rigor of law, and had been condemned by sentence
of attainder and outlawry. Their right to take seats in the house being
questioned, the case was referred to all the judges, who assembled in
the exchequer chamber, in order to deliberate on so delicate a subject.
The opinion delivered was prudent, and contained a just temperament
between law and expediency.[**