Mr. Froude remarks (History, p. 26), "An act, tyrannical in form,
was singularly justified by its consequences. The farm-houses were
rebuilt, the land reploughed, the island repeopled; and in 1546,
when the French army of 60,000 men attempted to effect a landing at
St. Helens, they were defeated and driven back by the militia, and
a few levies transported from Hampshire and the surrounding
counties."

Lord Bacon, in his "History of the Reign of Henry VII., says:

"Enclosures, at that time, began to be more frequent, whereby
arable land (which could not be manured without people and
families) was turned into pasture, which was easily rid by a few
herdsmen; and tenancies for years, lives, and at will (whereupon
much of the yeomanry lived) were turned into demesnes. This bred a
decay of people and (by consequence) a decay of towns, churches,
tithes, and the like. The king, likewise, knew full well, and in
nowise forgot, that there ensued withal upon this a decay and
diminution of subsidies and taxes; for the more gentlemen, ever the
lower books of subsidies. In remedying of this inconvenience, the
king's wisdom was admirable, and the parliaments at that time.
Enclosures they would not forbid, for that had been to forbid the
improvement of the patrimony of the kingdom; nor tillage they would
not compel, for that was to strive with nature and utility; but
they took a course to take away depopulating enclosures and
depopulating pasturage, and yet not by that name, or by any
imperious express prohibition, but by consequence. The ordinance
was, that all houses of husbandry, that were used with twenty acres
of ground and upward, should be maintained and kept up for ever,