The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (325 page)

The state of the English manufactures was at this time very low; and foreign wares of almost all kinds had the preference.
z
About the year 1590, there were in London four persons only rated in the subsidy-books so high as four hundred pounds.
a
This computation is not indeed to be deemed an exact estimate of their wealth. In 1567, there were found on enquiry to be four thousand eight hundred and fifty-one strangers of all nations in London: Of whom three thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight were Flemings, and only fifty-eight Scots.
b
The persecutions in France and the Low Countries drove afterwards a greater number of foreigners into England; and the commerce, as well as manufactures of that kingdom, was very much improved by

them.c
It was then that Sir Thomas Gresham built, at his own charge, the magnificent fabric of the Exchange for the reception of the merchants: The queen visited it, and gave it the appellation of the Royal Exchange.

By a lucky accident in language, which has a great effect on men’s ideas, the invidious word, usury, which formerly meant the taking of any interest for money, came now to express only the taking of exorbitant and illegal interest. An act, passed in 1571, violently condemns all usury; but permits ten per cent interest to be payed.

Henry IV. of France reduced interest to 6 1/2 per cent: An indication of the great advance of France above England in commerce.

Dr. Howell saysd
that queen Elizabeth in the third of her reign was presented with a pair of black silk knit stockings by her silk-woman, and never wore cloth hose any more. The author of the present State of England, says that about 1577, pocket watches were first brought into England from Germany. They are thought to have been invented at Nuremberg. About 1580, the use of coaches was introduced by the

earl of Arundel.e
Before that time, the queen, on public occasions, rode behind her chamberlain.

Camden says, that in 1581, Randolph, so much employed by the queen in foreign embassies, possessed the office of post-master general of England. It appears, therefore, that posts were then established; though from Charles I.’s regulations in 1635, it would seem, that few post-houses were erected before that time.

In a remonstrance of the Hanse Towns to the diet of the empire in 1582, it is affirmed that England exported annually about 200,000 pieces of cloth.
f
This number seems to be much exaggerated.

In the fifth of this reign was enacted the first law for the relief of the poor.

A judicious author of that age confirms the vulgar observation, that the kingdom was depopulating from the encrease of inclosures and decay of tillage; and he ascribes the reason very justly to the restraints put on the exportation of corn; while full liberty was allowed to export all the produce of pasturage, such as wool, hides, leather, tallow, &c. These prohibitions of exportation were derived from the prerogative, and were very injudicious. The queen, once, on the commencement of her reign, had tried a contrary practice, and with good success. From the same author we learn, that the complaints, renewed in our time, were then very common, concerning the high prices

of every thing.g
There seems, indeed, to have been two periods, in which prices rose PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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remarkably in England, namely, that in queen Elizabeth’s reign, when they are computed to have doubled, and that in the present age. Between the two, there seems to have been a stagnation. It would appear that industry, during that intermediate period, encreased as fast as gold and silver, and kept commodities nearly at a par with money.

There were two attempts made in this reign to settle colonies in America; one by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in Newfoundland, another by Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia: But neither of these projects proved successful. All those noble settlements were made in the following reigns. The current specie of the kingdom, in the end of this reign, is computed at four millions.
h

The earl of Leicester desired Sir Francis Walsingham, then ambassador in France, to provide him with a riding master in that country, to whom he promises a hundred pounds a-year, beside maintaining himself and servant and a couple of horses. “I know,” adds the earl, “that such a man as I want may receive higher wages in France: But let him consider, that a shilling in England goes as far as two shillings in

France.”i
It is known that every thing is much changed since that time.

The nobility in this age still supported, in some degree, the Manners.

ancient magnificence in their hospitality, and in the numbers of their retainers; and the queen found it prudent to retrench, by proclamation, their

expences in this last particular.k
The expence of hospitality, she somewhat encouraged, by the frequent visits she paid her nobility, and the sumptuous feasts,

which she received from them.l
The earl of Leicester gave her an entertainment in Kenilworth Castle, which was extraordinary for expence and magnificence. Among other particulars, we are told, that three hundred and sixty-five hogsheads of beer were drunk at it.
m
The earl had fortified this castle at great expence; and it contained

arms for ten thousand men.n
The earl of Derby had a family consisting of two hundred and forty servants.
o
Stowe remarks it as a singular proof of beneficence in this nobleman, that he was contented with his rent from his tenants, and exacted not any extraordinary services from them: A proof that the great power of the sovereign (what was almost unavoidable) had very generally countenanced the nobility in tyrannizing over the people. Burleigh, though he was frugal, and had no paternal estate, kept a family consisting of a hundred servants.
p
He had a standing table for gentlemen, and two other tables for persons of meaner condition, which were always served alike, whether he were in town or in the country. About his person he had people of great distinction, insomuch that he could reckon up twenty gentlemen retainers who had each a thousand pounds a-year; and as many among his ordinary servants, who were worth from a thousand pounds to three, five, ten, and twenty thousand pounds.
q
It is to be remarked, that, though the revenues of the crown were at that time very small, the ministers and courtiers sometimes found means, by employing the boundless prerogative, to acquire greater fortunes than it is possible for them at present to amass, from their larger salaries, and more limited authority.

Burleigh entertained the queen twelve several times in his country house; where she remained three, four, or five weeks at a time. Each visit cost him two or three thousand pounds.
r
The quantity of silver plate possessed by this nobleman, is PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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surprising: No less than fourteen or fifteen thousand pounds weight;NOTE [KK]

which, besides the fashion, would be above forty-two thousand pounds sterling in value. Yet Burleigh left only 4000 pounds a-year in land, and 11,000 pounds in money; and as land was then commonly sold at ten years purchase, his plate was nearly equal to all the rest of his fortune. It appears, that little value was then put upon the fashion of the plate, which probably was but rude: The weight was chiefly

considered.t

But though there were preserved great remains of the ancient customs, the nobility were, by degrees, acquiring a taste for elegant luxury; and many edifices, in particular, were built by them, neat, large, and sumptuous, to the great ornament of the kingdom, says Camden;
u
but to the no less decay of the glorious hospitality of the nation. It is, however, more reasonable to think, that this new turn of expence promoted arts and industry; while the ancient hospitality was the source of vice, disorder, sedition, and idleness.
NOTE [LL]

Among the other species of luxury, that of apparel began much to encrease during this age; and the queen thought proper to restrain it by proclamation.
x
Her example was very little conformable to her edicts. As no woman was ever more conceited of her beauty, or more desirous of making impression on the hearts of beholders, no one ever went to a greater extravagance in apparel, or studied more the variety and richness of her dresses. She appeared almost every day in a different habit; and tried all the several modes, by which she hoped to render herself agreeable. She was also so fond of her cloaths, that she never could part with any of them; and at her death she had in her wardrobe all the different habits, to the number of three thousand, which she had

ever worn in her life-time.y

The retrenchment of the ancient hospitality, and the diminution of retainers, were favourable to the prerogative of the sovereign; and by disabling the great noblemen from resistance, promoted the execution of the laws, and extended the authority of the courts of justice. There were many peculiar causes in the situation and character of Henry VII. which augmented the authority of the crown: Most of these causes concurred in succeeding princes; together with the factions in religion, and the acquisition of the supremacy, a most important article of prerogative: But the manners of the age were a general cause, which operated during this whole period, and which continually tended to diminish the riches, and still more the influence, of the aristocracy, anciently so formidable to the crown. The habits of luxury dissipated the immense fortunes of the ancient barons; and as the new methods of expence gave subsistance to mechanics and merchants, who lived in an independant manner on the fruits of their own industry, a nobleman, instead of that unlimited ascendant, which he was wont to assume over those who were maintained at his board, or subsisted by salaries conferred on them, retained only that moderate influence, which customers have over tradesmen, and which can never be dangerous to civil government. The landed proprietors also, having a greater demand for money than for men, endeavoured to turn their lands to the best account with regard to profit, and either inclosing their fields, or joining many small farms into a few large ones, dismissed those useless hands, which formerly were always at their call in every attempt to subvert the government, or oppose a neighbouring baron. By all these means the cities PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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encreased; the middle rank of men began to be rich and powerful; the prince, who, in effect, was the same with the law, was implicitly obeyed; and though the farther progress of the same causes begat a new plan of liberty, founded on the privileges of the commons, yet in the interval between the fall of the nobles and the rise of this order, the sovereign took advantage of the present situation, and assumed an authority almost absolute.

Whatever may be commonly imagined, from the authority of lord Bacon, and from that of Harrington, and later authors, the laws of Henry VII. contributed very little towards the great revolution, which happened about this period in the English constitution. The practice of breaking entails, by a fine and recovery, had been introduced in the preceding reigns; and this prince only gave indirectly a legal sanction to the practice, by reforming some abuses which attended it. But the settled authority, which he acquired to the crown, enabled the sovereign to encroach on the separate jurisdictions of the barons, and produced a more general and regular execution of the laws. The counties palatine underwent the same fate as the feudal powers; and by a statute of Henry VIII,
z
the jurisdiction of these counties was annexed to the crown, and all writs were ordained to run in the king’s name. But the change of manners was the chief cause of the secret revolution of government, and subverted the power of the barons. There appear still in this reign some remains of the

ancient slavery of the boors and peasants,a
but none afterwards.

Learning, on its revival, was held in high estimation by the Learning.

English princes and nobles; and as it was not yet prostituted by being too common, even the Great deemed it an object of ambition to attain a character for literature. The four successive sovereigns, Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, may, on one account or other, be admitted into the class of authors. Queen Catherine Parr translated a book: Lady Jane Gray; considering her age, and her sex, and her station, may be regarded as a prodigy of literature. Sir Thomas Smith was raised from being professor in Cambridge, first to be ambassador to France, then secretary of state. The dispatches of those times, and among others those of Burleigh himself, are frequently interlarded with quotations from the Greek and Latin classics.

Even the ladies of the court valued themselves on knowledge: Lady Burleigh, lady Bacon, and their two sisters, were mistresses of the ancient, as well as modern languages; and placed more pride in their erudition than in their rank and quality.

Queen Elizabeth wrote and translated several books; and she was familiarly

acquainted with the Greek as well as Latin tongue.NOTE [MM]
It is pretended, that she made an extemporary reply in Greek to the university of Cambridge, who had addressed her in that language. It is certain, that she answered in Latin without premeditation, and in a very spirited manner, to the Polish ambassador, who had been wanting in respect to her. When she had finished, she turned about to her courtiers, and said, “God’s death, my lords,” (for she was much addicted to swearing) “I have been forced this day to scour up my old Latin, that hath long lain rusting.”
c
Elizabeth, even after she was queen, did not entirely drop the ambition of appearing as an author; and next to her desire of admiration for beauty, this seems to have been the chief object of her vanity. She translated Boethius of the Consolation of Philosophy; in order, as she pretended, to allay her grief for Henry IV.’s change of religion. As far as PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)