^hap XXI, from si?'Conquest, to the Death of §L Mary I.

/ farther

Z Cc ount of

e Varta-

C 0n °fthe

0m pass.

to give an Account of the fartherDiscoveries made by Sebastian Cabot ;But as the Spirit of Enquiry intounknown Countries began now to dif-fuse itself more and more, as well inEr gland as elsewhere, and several con-siderable Voyages of other Persons inter-vened, I shall speak of them, in dueCourse of Time, as they happened. Imust not, however, conclude this shortAccount of the Beginning os his Disco-veries, without mentioning one Thing,for which the Art of Navigation is in-debted to him, I mean a more perfectKnowledge and Comprehension of theVariation of the Compass. Columbus,indeed, took Notice of it, as I have ob-

served in his Life ; But had he knownthe Reason of it, he might (as DoctorBrown , in his vulgar Errors observes)have been fully convinced of the Truthof his Opinion concerning an undiscover-ed Part of the World, by that Time hewas got but little more than half Way toit. For thereabouts it is, that the Need-le, being excited by the Neighbourhoodof that vast Continent, begins to varytowards the JVeJl, and it’s Variation en-creases in some Proportion to its nearerApproach towards the Land, TheDifference of this Variation, in severalParts of the World, has of late been nice-ly observed, and as accurately describ-ed, by the great Doctor Halley.

CHAP.

Naval Expeditions and TransaSlions of the English, with other Occur-rences, during the Reign of King Henry VII.

*485.

y ofan d

taster.

g.

aeon.

o,

» 1 o

y vir.

n ed.

HB 6.

k/j

»g e A arr i-Pruf’^the

Q ^ard ^

E N RE VII. ascended theThrone, after the Death of Ri-chard III- who was slain in theBattle of Bofworth ; and bymarrying Elizabeth , Daughter to Ed-ward IV, united the two Houses ofTork and Lancaster , which had beenso long divided, and thereby put a Stopto the Civil Wars and Bloodshed, (a)of which this Division had been theOccasion.

Henry made his Entry into Lon-don, with great State, (b) on the sevenand twentieth of August, and the nextDay renewed the Oath, he had beforetaken, to marry the Princess Elizabeth.On the thirtieth of 0 Slob er, he wascrowned, the seventh of November, hecalled a Parliament, (c) and, on theeighteenth of January, he celebratedhis Nuptials with that Princess, tho’he deferred her Coronation till neartwo Years afterwards. This Year, oneRichard Simon, a Priest, having trained

up a young Man, named Lambert Sim- 1486.nel, a Baker’s Son, carried him to Ire- Lambertland, where he made him personate the jsssst a sEarl of Warwick, the sole Male of theHouse of Tork, who was, at thatTime,

Prisoner in the Tower. The Cheatpassed there so unsuspected, that Si ni-ne I was, in a few Days, proclaimed, frownedin Dublin, King of England and .Lord 1n Ire "of Ireland, by the Name of Ed-ward VI. and in the Month of May, theYear following, he was crowned thereas such. This Success in Ireland made 1487.the Impostor hope the same in England,whither he came with a small Army osIrijh and Germans, commanded by theEarl of Lincoln : But the first Battle, Comes towhich was fought at Stoke, on the sixth England,of June, determined his Fate; andfrom wearing a Crown, he was reduced And is de-to turning the Spit in the King’s Kit -stated.,chen. As soon as the King returnedfrom suppressing this Rebellion, he cau-sed Preparations to be made for the

Queen’s

Hir

CsP de (a) Philip de Commines, speaking of thesen,n es. Civil Wars, affirms, that they cost the Lives of. near a Hundred Thousand Men, and eighty

A° ie s 0 Lfinces of the Blood ; but (adds the Author ofYtz ss! Je the Notes on the A it a Regis) upon consultinggla - the Genealogical Table of King Edward IIPsPo-, sterity, this last Number will appear too much

<°tcl» exaggerated.

(4) The Mayor and Companies of the Cityfeceived him at Shoreditch, whence with greatand honourable Attendance, and Troops of No-fikmen and Persons.of Quality, be entered theCity ; himself not being on Horseback, or in any

Open Chair, or Throne, but in a close Chariot,as one that having been sometimes an .Enemy tothe whole State, and a proscribed Person, choserather to keep State, and strike a Reverence intothe People, than to fawn upon them.

(c) In this Parliament the following remarka- Holinfhble Act was passed.: " Be it ordained, establifh-“ ed and enacted by this present Parliament, that“ the Inheritance of the Crown of this Realm of“ England, and also of France, with all the Pre-“ eminence and Dignity Royal, to the same ap-“ pertaining, all other Signiories to the King be-st longing, beyond the Sea, with the Appurtenan-