f the
oligarchy.

VI. THE TUDORS

The protracted struggle of the Plantagenets left the nation in a state
of exhaustion. The nobles had absorbed the lands of the FREEMEN, and
had thus broken the backbone of society. They had then entered upon a
contest with the Crown to increase their own power; and to effect their
selfish objects, setup puppets, and ranged under conflicting banners,
but the Nemesis followed. The Wars of the Roses destroyed their own
power, and weakened their influence, by sweeping away the heads of the
principal families. The ambition of the nobles failed of its object,
when "the last of the barons" lay gory in his blood on the field of
Tewkesbury. The wars were, however, productive of one national benefit,
in virtually ending the state of serfdom to which the aborigines were
reduced by the Scandinavian invasion. The exhaustion of the nation
prepared the way to changes of a most radical character, and the reigns
of the Tudors are characterized by greater innovations and more striking
alterations than even those which followed the accession of the Normans.

Henry of Richmond came out of the field of Bostworth a vistor, and
ascended the throne of a nation whose leading nobles had been swept
away. The sword had vied with the axe. Henry VII. was prudent and
cunning; and in the absence of any preponderating oligarchical
influence, planted the heel of the sovereign upon the necks of the
nobles. He succeeded where the Plantagenets had failed. His accession
became the advent of a series of measures which altered most materially
the system of landholding. The Wars of the Roses showed that the power
of the nobles was too great for the comfort of the monarch. The decision
in Taltarum's case, in the reign of Edward IV., affected the entire
system of entail. Land, partly freed from restrictions, passed into
other hands. But Henry went further. He destroyed their physical
influence by ridigly putting down retainer; and in one of his tours,
while partaking of the hospitality of the Earl of Oxford, he fined him
L15,000 for having greeted him with 5000 of his tenants in livery. The
rigid enforcement of the laws passed against retainers in former reigns,
but now made more penal, strengthened the king and reduced the power of
the nobles. Their estates were relieved of a most onerous charge, and
the lands freed from the burden of supporting the army of the state.

Henry VII. had thus a large fund to give away