ction; if she
did not live, and the king had no other children, a civil war was
inevitable. At present such a difficulty would be disposed of by an
immediate and simple reference to the collateral branches of the royal
family; the crown would descend with even more facility than the property
of an intestate to the next of kin. At that time, if the rule had been
recognised, it would only have increased the difficulty, for the next heir
in blood was James of Scotland; and, gravely as statesmen desired the union
of the two countries, in the existing mood of the people, the very stones
in London streets, it was said,[111] would rise up against a king of
Scotland who claimed to enter England as sovereign. Even the parliament
itself declared in formal language that they would resist any attempt on
the part of the Scottish king "to the uttermost of their power."[112]

As little, however, as the English would have admitted James's claims,
would James himself have acknowledged their right to reject them. He would
have pleaded the sacred right of inheritance, refusing utterly the
imaginary law which disentitled him: he would have pressed his title with
all Scotland to back him, and probably with the open support of France.
Centuries of humiliation remained unrevenged, which both France and
Scotland had endured at English hands. It was not likely that they would
waste an opportunity thrust upon them by Providence. The country might, it
is true, have encountered this danger, serious as it would have been, if
there had been hope that it would itself have agreed to any other choice.
England had many times fought successfully against the same odds, and would
have cared little for a renewal of the struggle, if united in itself: but
the prospect on this side, also, was fatally discouraging. The elements of
the old factions were dormant, but still smouldering. Throughout Henry's
reign a White Rose agitation had been secretly fermenting; without open
success, and without chance of success so long as Henry lived, but
formidable in a high degree if opportunity to strike should offer itself.
Richard de la Pole, the representative of this party, had been killed at
Pavia, but his loss had rather strengthened their cause than weakened it,
for by his long exile he was unknown in England; his personal character was
without energy; while he made place for the leadership of a far more
powerful spirit in the sister of the murdered Earl of Warwick, the