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Henry VII
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Henry VII
Introductory: The New Ideas
Physical geography makes us familiar with the idea of a watershed. A homely but misleading image likens it to a house roof, whose sharp ridge divides the rain falling on it; in reality the watersheds of our own land are generally less defined; they are often flat, boggy, high grounds, where the water lies in stagnant pools, apparently going nowhither. It is only when we- go down the hill in one direction or the other that the actual course of the streams becomes evident. So with the division between medieval and modern England. Henry VIl's reign is on the parting of the ways - its character is indeterminate. Most of the king's legislation is medieval; much of his policy, especially his marriage policy, is modern. Yet if we go hack or forward a little we have no doubts about the character of the surroundings. Warwick is medieval, but Wolsey is not. Richard III, with an environment of axe and dagger, murder and sudden death, belongs to the museum of historical antiquities; Henry VIII, though scarcely less blood-stained, is yet essentially modern. We can almost picture him concerned with things of our own day, his mind full of modern questionings as lo the Rise of Ritualism, What to do with the Unemployed, or Js Marriage a Failure?
The Seed Time
Henry VII's reign was a period of remedy and a period of seed time. The remedies belonged to past ills; these fall in their natural place at the end of the story of the Wars of the Roses. The sowing was to bear great fruit in the future. For the meantime the results were hidden. We need only notice briefly what like the seed was.
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Chronology
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