latter it did not much exceed 2000 per annum. This goes far to
prove the evil from civil wars, and the oppression of the
oligarchy.





VI. THE TUDORS


The protracted struggle of the Plantagenets left the nation in a
state of exhaustion. The nobles had absorbed the lands of the
FREEMEN, and had thus broken the backbone of society. They had then
entered upon a contest with the Crown to increase their own power;
and to effect their selfish objects, setup puppets, and ranged
under conflicting banners, but the Nemesis followed. The Wars of
the Roses destroyed their own power, and weakened their influence,
by sweeping away the heads of the principal families. The ambition
of the nobles failed of its object, when "the last of the barons"
lay gory in his blood on the field of Tewkesbury. The wars were,
however, productive of one national benefit, in virtually ending
the state of serfdom to which the aborigines were reduced by the
Scandinavian invasion. The exhaustion of the nation prepared the
way to changes of a most radical character, and the reigns of the
Tudors are characterized by greater innovations and more striking
alterations than even those which followed the accession of the
Normans.

Henry of Richmond came out of the field of Bostworth a vistor, and