The British nation a history / by George MWrong . was part of the rudepageant of that day. He was the last of the Plantage-nets. Long before, Eichard I had^said of his line, Fromthe devil we all came, and to the devil we all shall go,and the last king in his tragic wickedness seemed to jus-tify the sinister prophecy. Henry YII gained his throne when only twenty-eight, but he was one of those who are never Siucc childhood he had been a fugitive in character and foreign lands, or a captive in his own; in exilemet ods, j^g |^^^^ learned his jiolitical conceptions, and his theory of m
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . was part of the rudepageant of that day. He was the last of the Plantage-nets. Long before, Eichard I had^said of his line, Fromthe devil we all came, and to the devil we all shall go,and the last king in his tragic wickedness seemed to jus-tify the sinister prophecy. Henry YII gained his throne when only twenty-eight, but he was one of those who are never Siucc childhood he had been a fugitive in character and foreign lands, or a captive in his own; in exilemet ods, j^g |^^^^ learned his jiolitical conceptions, and his theory of monarchy wasthe absolutist one of France,his plan of political auctionthat of the Italian despot, wliolooked upon war and openviolence as gross and rudemethods compared Avith thesilent schemes of the in a few cases of policy,Henry was just and merciful,and his domestic life was pure. iikxry vii Posterity has called him a mi-ser, yet he kept up a splendid hospitality, and was a mag-nificent builder: the most sumptuous features of the. |y 234 THE BRITISH NATION Chapel of Kings College, Cambridge, and of WestminsterAbbey, showed that he spared no cost in carrying out hisplans. He loved money, not for itself, but because it wasthe key to political power. When he borrowed, he repaid,no slight virtue, if we consider the conduct of some of hispredecessors, and of his son, in repudiating loans. To hismother he showed tender affection. She was that LadyMargaret who founded St. Johns and Christs Colleges atCambridge, and divinity professorships in the two univer-sities, and herself translated parts of The Imitation ofChrist into English. Under her influence the court wasgrave and austere in tone ; there was still talk of crusad-ing to rescue the Holy Land, and religious fasts were keptso strictly, that Catherine of Aragon, a child-wife in Eng-land, wrote home that she got no taste of meat during tliewhole of Lent. Gravity, precision, and method markedHenrys reign. He encoura
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