Having refreshed his army a few days at Leicester, he proceeded slowly towards the capital, and at every step of his progress was saluted with the loudest acclamations. He was received by the citizens of London with every ex pression of satisfaction and respect; but scorning to court popularity, he entered the city in a close chariot, and re fused to gratify the people with a sight of their new sove reign. Proceeding directly to St Paul's, he deposited the standards which had been taken at Bosworth, and return ed thanks to God for the victory. He hastened to re new in public his promise to espouse the Princess Eliza beth ; but that he might not seem to derive his claim from her right, or to depend upon her life for the dura tion of his authority, he determined to postpone the alli ance till his own coronation should be finished, and his title recognised by parliament. Ile was crowned king of England on the 20th of October 1485, with the usual pomp and ceremonies; and, to heighten the splendour of the spectacle, he bestowed the rank of knights ban neret on twelve persons, and conferred peerages on three.
When the parliament assembled in the beginning of the following month, it was found that many members of the House of Commons, who were his most zealous partisans, had been attainted in the preceding reign. These persons he required to abstain from taking their seats, till an act should be passed to reverse their attain der, and thus exhibited a degree of regard to the laws hitherto unknown in England. The same parliament, however, gratified the king's resentment towards the ad herents of the York family, by passing an act of attain der against the Duke of Norfolk, and thirty other per sons who had fought under Richard at Bosworth,—a measure which could only have been prompted by ava rice or revenge, and which excited considerable de bates in the house, as well as murmuring among the peo ple. At the same time, Henry issued a royal proclama him, offering pardon to all who had taken part against him, upon condition that they submitted by a certain day, and took the usual oath of allegiance.
Perceiving that the delay of his marriage rendered the nation more suspicious of his proceedings, and having been petitioned by parliament to fulfil the wishes of his people, he espoused the Princess Elizabeth on the 18th of January 1486. The public rejoicings on this occasion, were greatly superior to those which had taken place at his own accession and coronation ; a circumstance which Henry regarded with jealous displeasure, as the testimo ny of general to the house of York, and which gave rise to suspicions in his mind subversive at once of his own tranquillity, and of that tenderness which he owed to his amiable consort. Having taken due care to
prolong the continuance of peace abroad, particularly with the kingdoms of France and of Scotland, he resol ved to secure more effectually the internal quiet of his own dominions. In this view, he set out on a journey to the northern districts, where the friends of the late king and of the house of York were most numerous, in the hope of either awing the malcontents by his pre sence, or conciliating them by his condescension.
Upon his arrival at York, he received intelligence that Lord Lovel was approaching at the head of three or four thousand men, and that Sir Humphrey and Thomas Stafford had marched with another army to besiege the city of Worcester. Though in the midst of disaffected counties, Henry found resources in his own active cou rage, and having hastily collected a small body of troops, be gave the command to his uncle the Duke of Bedford, with orders, when he approached the rebels, to publish a general promise of pardon to all who should lay down their arms. Lovel, dreading the desertion which this proclamation might produce among his troops, suddenly withdrew in the night, and made his escape to Flanders. His army submitted to the king's clemency ; and the other insurgents, intimidated by the surrender of their confederates, instantly dispersed. The two Staffords having sought refuge in some obscure church, which had not sufficient privileges to protect them, were drag ged from the altar, and Humphrey, the elder, was exe cuted at Tyburn, but the younger, upon the plea of his youth, received a pardon.
This success was followed by the birth of a son, to whom Henry gave the name of Arthur, in memory of the celebrated British king of that name, from whom the house of Tudor was held to be descended. But neither the recent triumph over his enemies, nor the acquisition of a prince, who united all the claims of York and Lan caster, could reconcile the hearts of the English to their sovereign. By a long course of civil war, the people were become so turbulent and factious, that no king could please them ; and this rooted disposition to insurrection, was still farther inflamed by Henry's open animosity to the house of York. The undisguised preference which he gave on all occasions to the Lancastrians; his frequent acts of severity against the opposite party ; his reported harsh treatment of the Queen; his refusing her, even after the birth of a son, the honour of a public corona tion; his imprisonment of the young Earl of Warwick in the Tower ; and his own reserved and haughty address, all conveyed the idea that his prepossessions against the Yorkists were inveterate, and contributed to render his government generally unpopular.