converting the holdings of the men-at-arms into allodial estates, held direct from the Crown, he would have created a number of small estates, and there need have been no evictions. Bacon, who praises the ordinance that "all houses of husbandry, that were used with 20 acres of ground and upwards," should be kept up for ever, with a competent proportion of land, says that it "did wonderfully concern the might and mannerhood of the kingdom, to have farms … sufficient to maintain an able body out of penury … yeomanry or middle people, of a condition between gentlemen and cottagers or peasants." The small tenants had not the capital necessary for sheep-farming, but they could have lived off the land. And the lords would have been no worse off, because they were now relieved of the great charges of livery and military service. But Henry relieved the lords from a charge, and at the same time made it possible for them to evict their tenants altogether. This was the second wrench given in getting the people off the land.
The depopulating effect of enclosure is shown by the famous Act, 4 Henry VII. (1487) to forbid the taking of more than one farm by one tenant in the Isle of Wight, The Act says that the safety of the realm depends on the coast towards France being well inhabited. The Isle is lately "decayed of people." "Many towns and villages have been beaten down"; it is "desolate," only inhabited by beasts, laying the kingdom open to the King's enemies. The depopulating effect of enclosure is thus acknowledged by an Act of Parliament. And immediately we have another Act against "vagabonds." The two things go together—Acts complaining of the clearing off of people, and Acts complaining of vagabondage. Where were the people to go, and what were they to do?
The rapacity of Henry VII. greatly affected the tenure of land. Bacon says that towards the end of the reign, Empson and Dudley[1]—the two men who carried out his schemes—ceased "to observe so much as the half-face of
- ↑ "Dudley was of a good family, eloquent, and one that could put hateful business into good language. But Empson, that was the son of a sieve-maker, triumphed always upon the deed done, putting off an other respects whatsoever. 'Dudley was the father of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, who for a time had supreme power under Edward VI."—Bacon.
