our entertainment, but my attorney
must speak to you." The attorney, who was the notorious Empson,
brought suit in the Star Chamber against the Earl, who was fined
fifteen thousand marks, or something like $750,000, for the incautious
display he had made.

331. The Introduction of Artillery strengthens the Power of the King.

It was easier for Henry to pursue this arbitrary course because the
introduction of artillery had changed the art of war. Throughout the
Middle Ages the call of a great baron had, as Macaulay says, been
sufficient to raise a formidable revolt. Countrymen and followers
took down their tough yew long bows from the chimney corner, knights
buckled on their steel armor, mounted their horses, and in a few days
an army threatened the holder of the throne, who had no troops save
those furnished by loyal subjects.

But since then, men had "digged villainous saltpeter out of the bowels
of the harmless earth" to manufacture powder, and others had invented
cannon (S239), "those devilish iron engines," as the poet Spenser
called them, "ordained to kill." Without artillery, the old feudal
army, with its bows, swords, and battle-axes, could do little against
a king like Henry, who had it. For this reason the whole kingdom lay
at his mercy; and though the nobles and the rich might groan, they saw
that it was useless to fight.

332. The Pretenders Symnel and Warbeck.

During Henry's reign, two pretenders laid claim to the crown: Lambert
Symnel, who represented himself to be Edward Plantagenet, nephew of
the late King; and Perkin Warbeck, who asserted that he was Richard,
Duke of York (S310), who had been murdered in the Tower by his uncle,
Richard III. Symnel's attempt was easily suppressed, and he commuted
his claim to the crown for the position of scullion in the King's
kitchen.

Warbeck kept the kingdom in a turmoil for more than five years, during
which time one hundred and fifty of his adherents were executed, and
their bodies exposed on gibbets along the south coast of England to
deter their master's French supporters from landing. At length
Warbeck was captured, imprisoned, and finall hanged at Tyburn.

333. Henry's Politic Marriages.

Henry accomplished more by the marriages of his children and by
diplomacy than other monarchs had by their wars. He gave his daughter
Margaret to King James IV of Scotland, and thus prepared the way for
the union of the two kingdoms in 1603. He married his e