sed at
Waterford, and ultimately took refuge in Scotland, where King James
IV., anxious to distinguish himself in a war with England,
acknowledged him as the Duke of York, and found him a wife of noble
birth, Lady Catherine Gordon. It was probably in order to rally even
the most timid around him, in face of such a danger, that Henry
obtained the consent of Parliament to an act declaring that no one
supporting a king in actual possession of the crown could be subjected
to the penalty of treason in the event of that king's dethronement.

13. =The Intercursus Magnus. 1496.=--The danger of a Scottish invasion
made Henry anxious to be on good terms with his neighbours. Maximilian
had become Emperor in =1493= upon his father's death. In the
Netherlands, however, his influence had declined, as his son, the
young Archduke Philip, was now growing up, and claimed actually to
rule the country which he had inherited from his mother, Mary of
Burgundy (see p. 337), his father having merely the right of
administering the government of it till he himself came of age. It was
therefore with Philip, and not with Maximilian, that Henry concluded,
in =1496=, a treaty known as the _Intercursus Magnus_, for the
encouragement of trade between England and the Netherlands, each
party engaging at the same time to give no shelter to each other's
rebels.

14. =Kildare Restored to the Deputyship. 1496.=--In Ireland also Henry
was careful to avert danger. The government of Poynings had not been
entirely successful, and the Geraldines had taken good care to show
that they could be troublesome in spite of the establishment of
English government. The Earl of Kildare was at the time in England,
and a story is told of some one who, having brought a long string of
charges against him, wound up by saying that all Ireland could not
govern the Earl, whereupon the king replied that then the Earl should
govern all Ireland. The story is untrue, but it well represents the
real situation. In =1496= Henry sent Kildare back as Lord Deputy. A
bargain seems to have been struck between them. Henry abandoned his
attempt to govern Ireland from England, and Kildare was allowed to use
the king's name in any enterprise upon which his heart was set,
provided that he did not support any more pretenders to the English
throne.

15. =Perkin's Overthrow. 1496--1497.=--In the autumn of =1496= James
IV. made an attack on England in Perkin's name, but it was no more
than a plun