Copyright, 1898,

BY HANNIS TAYLOR.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.

1. Summary of the Contents of Vol. I.: Old-English Commonwealth; Norman

Conquest; process of fusion; struggle for the charters; treaty of Runny-

mede; growth of the law courts and the parliament

The rule or supremacy of law and the sovereignty of parliament the dominant

principles of the English constitution

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5

When parliamentary sovereignty reached its full growth

Exclusive right of parliament to authorize taxation; Old-English taxes supple-

mented by the new feudal taxes; hidage and scutage the great land-taxes

-gradually superseded by taxes upon personal property; fifteenths and

tenths; memorable composition of 1334; unsuccessful attempt to levy poll

taxes; right of tax-payer to assent to taxation; its connection with the growth

of national assemblies; separate negotiation with each estate as to taxa-

tion; tax-payer's right dimly recognized during Norman period; conflict with

the baronage results in articles 12 and 14 of the Great Charter, and finally

in Confirmatio Cartarum; separate negotiations with clergy and commons;

fiscal visits of justices from the exchequer; election and representation in the

shire courts; representation in the national council a fiscal expedient; first

the shires, then the towns represented; Earl Simon's parliament of 1265;

Edward I.'s model parliament of 1295; right of nation to tax itself settled by

Confirmatio Cartarum; transitions from local to central assent; and from

feudal to national taxation; the customs revenue; its probable origin; article

41 of the Great Charter; great and ancient custom of 1275; new or small

custom of 1302; origin of tonnage and poundage; summary; after 1322 the

customs a part of the permanent revenue; additional subsidies; custom and

subsidy levied regularly after 23d of Edward III.; subsidies granted for life

to Richard II., Henry V., and Henry VI.

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Collapse of the immature parliamentary system; emancipation of the monarchy
by Edward IV.; overthrow of parliamentary institutions on the Continent;
character of the struggle in England; outline of the policy of Edward IV.;
the royal authority becomes the dominant force in the state; its vital organ
the council; hereditary right; Edward's financial policy; infrequent meetings
of parliament; the council becomes an engine of tyranny

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2. Henry VII.: his threefold claim of title; his declaration of title in parliament;

the descent of the crown held to remove all effects of attainder; attainders

of subjects to be removed only by an act of parliament; declaration of par-

liament as to Henry VII.'s title; commons urge his marriage with Elizabeth

of York; act (11 Hen. VII. c. 1) for the security of the subject under a king

de facto

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3. The Court of Star Chamber: original jurisdiction of the king in council; the

council as a court in the days of Henry III.; jurisdiction of the council

first narrowed then widened by statute; act of 3 Hen. VII. c. 1, revising and

defining the criminal jurisdiction of the council; such jurisdiction vested in a

special committee; Lord Bacon's views as to the same; powers of the special

committee fall back to the general body of the council; such powers expand

far beyond the limits of the act of 3 Hen. VII. c. I; the court in its final form,

the whole council sitting judicially; outline of its procedure .

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4. Henry VII. and Parliament: causes which led to its decline prior to his acces-

sion; only two of the great baronial houses became extinct in the civil war;

Henry made no effort to check the decline of the baronage; dependent char-

acter of the new nobility; Henry's parliamentary policy a repetition of that of

Edward IV.; his financial policy, — benevolences, Morton's fork, revival of

obsolete feudal exactions, Empson and Dudley; parliament summoned only

seven times during the reign; the king's hoard

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5. Henry's Legislation: its leading purpose to provide immediate remedies for

pressing evils; his two great statutes, the one to secure the subject under

a king de facto, the other to strengthen the criminal jurisdiction of the coun-

cil; the act increasing the authority of justices of the peace; Statute of

Fines; Henry's navigation act; protective policy begins with the legislation

of Edward I.; first navigation act that of Richard II.; Henry's patents to

the Cabots

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6. The English Renaissance: the reign of monarchy brought with it peace; era of

discovery and conquest; Italian Renaissance; printing; slow progress of the

New Learning under Henry VII.; the fresh advance under Henry VIII.

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CHAPTER II.

HENRY VIII. AND THE BREAK WITH ROME.

1. Outline of the Conciliar System: supreme powers of the state transferred
from the king in parliament to the king in council; from the council emanated
all the more important acts of government; star chamber overawes the ordinary
tribunals; the council as an administrative body; strength and weakness of the
system (absence of a military force); Tudors knew how to yield at the oppor-
tune moment; the royal will the driving force of the conciliar system
2. Marriage Alliances arranged by Henry VII.: marriage of James IV. of Scot-
land with Margaret, 1503; marriage of Arthur with Catherine of Aragon, 1501;
Arthur's death and the betrothal of his widow to his brother Henry; canonical
difficulties; the dispensation; the secret protest.

3. Accession and Early Measures of Henry VIII.: his characteristics; punish-

ment of Empson and Dudley; marriage of Henry and Catherine, June, 1509;

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objections to the marriage revived; Henry's first parliament, January, 1510, —

tonnage and poundage for life; he enters the Holy League and breaks the

policy of peace; two demands for money in quick succession in the parliaments

of 1511 and 1513; general subsidy of 1514 marks a point in the history of taxa-

tion; results of the heavy pressure of taxation; protest of the New Learning

against the spirit of conquest

4. Wolsey, 1515-29: his rapid promotion in the church; receives the seals as

chancellor in 1515; origin of the office of master of the rolls; Wolsey's diplo-

macy makes England a leading factor in European politics; appointed legate

a latere; concentrates in his hands the control of both secular and ecclesiastical

business; French and Spanish war of 1521; forced loans of 1522; parliament

of 1523

Sir Thomas More as popular leader, as a light of the New Learning, as a diplo-

mat; the "Utopia," its scope and character; religious toleration; aspirations

for the improvement of the laboring classes; reformation declared to be the

end of all punishment; when a king should be deposed; straining the law in

favor of the crown; More, on account of his popular influence, made speaker

in 1523

Wolsey makes an unprecedented demand for money; More's response for the
commons; clergy assert their right to grant money only in convocation; the
forced loan of 1526; downward turn in Wolsey's fortunes.

Luther and the Reformation; in each country in which it prevails it has a special

and local history; Luther and Henry VIII.; Luther and the New Learning;

Lutheranism and Lollardry; Tyndal's translation and Wycliffe's tracts appear

together; Wolsey's attempt to reform the clergy; he suppresses some smaller

monasteries and founds Christ Church; Cambridge first receives the Lutheran

literature; in 1528 Oxford purged of heresy

Wolsey and the divorce; no male heir, and Mary's legitimacy assailed; real

grounds for a divorce belittled by unworthy motives; position of the pope as

final judge in such matters, under the theory of the medieval empire; Wolsey

first attempts to hear the case as legate; then refers it to Rome, and guarantees

a successful issue; conflicting motives which there embarrassed its considera-

tion; appointment of Campeggio and failure of his mission; Wolsey's over-

throw; last of the great ecclesiastical statesmen; distribution of his powers;

his portrait of Henry VIII. .

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5. Cromwell, 1529-40: his early life; disciple of Machiavelli; member of the
parliament of 1523; his fidelity to Wolsey, who had employed him in the sup-
pression of monasteries; after Wolsey's fall he suggests to the king a new line
of policy; outline of that policy in its broader aspects
Review of the prior relations between the English Church and papacy; resistance
of the feudal supremacy of Boniface VIII.; Statute De asportatis; Statute of
Provisors; Statute of Præmunire; Lollardry; religious revolt of the fourteenth
century a mere prologue to that of the sixteenth
Cromwell aimed not at the restraint but entire abolition of the papal power;
sworn of the privy council; the divorce becomes the mainspring of separation;
Henry's policy of menace and coercion; parliament made the tool of the crown

Outline of the work of the Reformation Parliament of 1529; its first session began

in November with an attack upon the clergy; detailed accusation against them;

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