Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

328 POLICY OF
long enough to " hold the posie on which the white
rose and the red were tied together " (I486),1
Already the new monarchy of Edward IV. had
foreshadowed the Tudor reign. Parliament had been
summoned nearly every year under the Lancastrian
kings. It was merely a name under Edward IV.:
the Upper House was passing away by deaths on
the battle-field and confiscation, the Lower was
ignored. If Edward wanted subsidies, he did not
petition Parliament. He took more personal and
prompter measures. The Long Parliament under
Charles I. went back for precedent to the Lancastrian
dynasty, considering the tactics of the new monarchy
as unconstitutional, consequently non avc/m. The
Yorkists were usually victorious on the battle-field,
and victory meant wealth to Edward. After the
single battle of Towton a bill of attainder stripped
" twelve great nobles and more than - a hundred
knights and squires of their estates to the king's
profit ".2 Each success was in proportion. Added
to this, nearly a fifth part of the land was in the
royal possession at one time or another, from which
it will be seen that the sinews of war supplied by the
Eoses enabled Edward to dispense with appeals to
Parliament. The people at large were not in their
normal state, but quivering and palpitating from the
wounds of civil strife and general insecurity; they
were ready to be lulled to sleep in strong arms, un-
1 Hook, v. 384.
- Green, History of the English People, p. 287.