6 Constitutional History. [chap.
superseded altogether, or reduced to the position of a mere
engine which those forces can manipulate at will. The sounder
and stronger elements of English life seem to be exhausted,
and the dangerous forces avail themselves of all weapons with
equal disregard to the result. It is strange that the machinery
of state suffers after all so little. But it is useless to anticipate
now the inferences that will repeat themselves at every stage
of the story.
Oood au-
guries for
the constitu-
tion at the
accession of
Henry IV.
301. Althougli, as we have seen, the deposition of Richard II
and the accession of Henry IV were not the pure and legitimate
result of a series of constitutional workings, there were many
reasons for regarding the revolution of which they were a part
as only slightly premature ; the constitutional forces appeared
ripe, although the particular occasion of their exertion was to
a certain extent accidental, and to a certain extc:;t the result
of private rather than public causesj. Richard’s tyranny
deserved deposition had there been no Henry to revenge
a private wrong ; Henry’s qualifications for sovereign power
were adequate, even if he had not had a great injury to
avenge, and a great cause to defend. The experiment of
governing England constitutionally seemed likely to be fairly
tried. Henry could not, without discarding all the principles
that he had ever professed, even attempt to rule as Richard II
and Edward III had ruled. He had great personal advantages ;
if he was not spontaneously chosen by the nation, he was
enthusiastically welcomed by them ; he was in the closest
alliance with the clergy ; and of the greater baronage there
1 ' kynge Henry was admytte
Unto the croune of Englandc, that did amounte
Not for desert nor yet for any witte,
Or might of him selfe in Otlierwyse yet,
But only for the castigation
Of king Richardes wicked perversacion,
Of which the realιne then yrked everychone
And full glad were of his deposicion,
And glad to croune kyng Henry so anone,
With all theyr hertes and whole affeccion
For hatred more of kyng Richardes defection
Then for the love of kyng Henry that daye :
So chaunged then the people on hym aye.’—Hardyng-, p. 439.
χvι∏∙]
Character of Henry IV.
was scarcely one who could not count cousinship with him.
]je was reputed to be rich, not only on the strength of his
g1.eat inheritance, but in the possession of the treasure which
Richard had amassed to his own ruin. He was a man of high Position of
reputation for all the virtues of chivalry and morality, and
possessed, in his four young sons, a pledge to assure the nation
that it would not soon be troubled with a question of succes-
sion or endangered by a policy that would risk the fortunes of
so noble a posterity. Yet the seeds of future difficulties were
contained in every one of the advantages of Henry’s position ;
difficulties that would increase with the growth and consolida-
tion of his rule, grow stronger as the dynasty grew older, and
in the end prove too great for both the men and the system.
The character of Henry IV has been drawn by later his- Difficuityof
torians with a definiteness of outline altogether dispropor- diaSr.B
tioned to the details furnished by contemporaries. Like the
whole period on which we are entering, the portrait has been
affected by controversial views and political analogies. If the
struggle between Lancaster and York obscured the lineaments
of the man in the view of partisans of the fifteenth century,
the questions of legitimacy, usurpation, divine right and in-
defeasible royalty, obscured them in the minds of later writers.
There is scarcely one in the whole line of our kings of whose
personality it is so difficult to get a definite idea. The impres-
sion produced by his earlier career is so inconsistent with that
derived from his later life and from his conduct as king, that
they seem scarcely reconcileable as parts of one life. We are
tempted to think that, like other men who have taken part in
great crises, or in whose life a great crisis has taken place, he
underwent some deep change of character at the critical point.
As Henry of Derby he is the adventurous, chivalrous crusader ;
prompt, energetic, laborious ; the man of impulse rather than
°f judgment ; led sometimes by his uncle Gloucester, some-
times by his father ; yet independent in action, averse to blood-
shed, strong in constitutional beliefs. If with Gloucester and His character
Arundel he is an appellant in ɪɜɛɛ? ɪt is against tlιe uncon- accession,
Stitutional position of the favourites ; if, against Gloucester and