Upon ascending the throne Henry IV had to subdue many uprisings. And the House of Commons availed itself of the opportunity to assume the exclusive right of granting the money needed for the expenses. Henry V (1413), who succeeded him, caused many of the Lollards[1] to be put to death. Their leader, John Oldcastle, was burned as a heretic. Henry VI was dethroned in 1461 and died a prisoner in the Tower of London. Some important events of this reign were the rebellion of Jack Cade, the mismanagement of public affairs, and the personal rivalries which provoked the civil war known as the War of the Roses. For thirty years the English soil was stained with blood; and the contest was not for principle, but for place and spoils, and became a war of extermination.
The reign of Edward IV (1461-1483) was one of continual civil warfare. Edward V was murdered by his uncle, who thereupon took possession of the throne. But Richard III (1483-1485) did not long profit by his crime. He succeeded in crushing Buckingham's revolt, but was defeated by Henry Tudor and was found dead on the battlefield of Bosworth.
The accession of the Tudors to the throne with Henry VII (1485-1509) did not put an end to the effusion of English blood. Under the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1517), whose deeds are too well known to need being retold here, numbers of people were put to death for treason and heresy. Men and women alike were burned, some for being too zealous in their faith, others for not having enough belief. The establishment of the Church of England made matters still worse, adding as it did
- ↑ The name of Lollards was given to the followers of John Wycliffe, who, after attacking the religious and political corruption of his time, had organized the order of the "Poor Priests" in order to take up the work formerly accomplished by the "Mendicant Friars." In the beginning these friars led a life of self-sacrifice; they went from place to place preaching the Gospel and exhorting the people to penance; growing rich, they forgot their former duties. Coarsely clothed, barefooted, and staff in hand, the "Poor Priests" went from town to town preaching the law of God and demanding that church and state bring themselves in harmony with it. The Lollards afterward became socialists or communists. (D. H. Montgomery, The Leading Facts of English History.)
