f Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, now on the side of
Edmund, Duke of York. Wat Tyler, the Lollards, Warwick the King-maker,
all that anarchy from which freedom is to spring, had for foundation,
avowed or secret, the English feudal system. The Lords were usefully
jealous of the Crown; for to be jealous is to be watchful. They
circumscribed the royal initiative, diminished the category of cases of
high treason, raised up pretended Richards against Henry IV., appointed
themselves arbitrators, judged the question of the three crowns between
the Duke of York and Margaret of Anjou, and at need levied armies, and
fought their battles of Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, and St. Albans,
sometimes winning, sometimes losing. Before this, in the thirteenth
century, they had gained the battle of Lewes, and had driven from the
kingdom the four brothers of the king, bastards of Queen Isabella by
the Count de la Marche; all four usurers, who extorted money from
Christians by means of the Jews; half princes, half sharpers--a thing
common enough in more recent times, but not held in good odour in those
days. Up to the fifteenth century the Norman Duke peeped out in the King
of England, and the acts of Parliament were written in French. From the
reign of Henry VII., by the will of the Lords, these were written in
English. England, British under Uther Pendragon; Roman under Caesar;
Saxon under the Heptarchy; Danish under Harold; Norman after William;
then became, thanks to the Lords, English. After that she became
Anglican. To have one's religion at home is a great power. A foreign
pope drags down the national life. A Mecca is an octopus, and devours
it. In 1534, London bowed out Rome. The peerage adopted the reformed
religion, and the Lords accepted Luther. Here we have the answer to the
excommunication of 1215. It was agreeable to Henry VIII.; but, in other
respects, the Lords were a trouble to him. As a bulldog to a bear, so
was the House of Lords to Henry VIII. When Wolsey robbed the nation of
Whitehall, and when Henry robbed Wolsey of it, who complained? Four
lords--Darcie, of Chichester; Saint John of Bletsho; and (two Norman
names) Mountjoie and Mounteagle. The king usurped. The peerage
encroached. There is something in hereditary power which is
incorruptible. Hence the insubordination of the Lords. Even in
Elizabeth's reign the barons were restless. From this resulted the
tortures at Durham. Elizabeth was as a farthingale over an executioner's
blo