ish peers had hitherto been no uncommon thing; since
Henry VII.'s accession there have been but four, two of them in our
own day. Only one took place in the sixteenth century, and the Duke of
Suffolk was by some thought worthy of death for his presumption in
marrying the sister of Henry VIII. The peerage was weakened not only
by diminishing numbers, but by the systematic depression of those who
remained. Henry VII., like Ferdinand of Aragon,[72] preferred to
govern by means of lawyers and churchmen; they could be rewarded by
judgeships and bishoprics, and required no grants from the royal
estates. Their occupancy of office kept out territorial magnates who
abused it for private ends. Of the sixteen regents nominated by Henry
VIII. in his will, not one could boast a peerage of twelve years'
standing;[73] and all the great Tudor ministers, Wolsey and (p. 038)
Cromwell, Cecil and Walsingham, were men of comparatively humble birth.
With similar objects Henry VII. passed laws limiting the number of
retainers and forbidding the practice of maintenance. The courts of
Star Chamber and Requests were developed to keep in order his powerful
subjects and give poor men protection against them. Their civil law
procedure, influenced by Roman imperial maxims, served to enhance the
royal power and dignity, and helped to build up the Tudor autocracy.

[Footnote 71: The Duke was Buckingham, and the
Marquis was Dorset.]

[Footnote 72: See a description of Ferdinand's
court by John Stile, the English envoy, in _L. and
P._, i., 490.]

[Footnote 73: See the present writer's _England
under Protector Somerset_, p. 38.]

* * * * *

To the office of king thus developed and magnified, the young Prince
who stood upon the steps of the throne brought personal qualities of
the highest order, and advantages to which his father was completely a
stranger. His title was secure, his treasury overflowed, and he
enjoyed the undivided affections of his people. There was no alternative
claimant. The White Rose, indeed, had languished in the Tower since
his surrender by Philip, and the Duke of Buckingham had some years
before been mentioned as a possible successor to the throne;[74] but
their claims only served to remind men that nothing but Henry's life
stood between them and anarchy, fo