It was therefore with no little anxiety that the council of Henry VIII. perceived his male children, on whom their hopes were centred, either born dead, or dying one after another within a few days of their birth, as if his family were under a blight.  When the queen had advanced to an age which precluded hope of further offspring, and the heir presumptive was an infirm girl, the unpromising prospect became yet more alarming.  The life of the Princess Mary was precarious, for her health was weak from her childhood.  If she lived, her accession would be a temptation to insurrection; if she did not live, and the king had no other children, a civil war was inevitable.  At present such a difficulty would be disposed of by an immediate and simple reference to the collateral branches of the royal family; the crown would descend with even more facility than the property of an intestate to the next of kin.  At that time, if the rule had been recognised, it would only have increased the difficulty, for the next heir in blood was James of Scotland; and, gravely as statesmen desired the union of the two countries, in the existing mood of the people, the very stones in London streets, it was said,[111] would rise up against a king of Scotland who claimed to enter England as sovereign.  Even the parliament itself declared in formal language that they would resist any attempt on the part of the Scottish king “to the uttermost of their power."[112]

As little, however, as the English would have admitted James’s claims, would James himself have acknowledged their right to reject them.  He would have pleaded the sacred right of inheritance, refusing utterly the imaginary law which disentitled him:  he would have pressed his title with all Scotland to back him, and probably with the open support of France.  Centuries of humiliation remained unrevenged, which both France and Scotland had endured at English hands.  It was not likely that they would waste an opportunity thrust upon them by Providence.  The country might, it is true, have encountered this danger, serious as it would have been, if there had been hope that it would itself have agreed to any other choice.  England had many times fought successfully against the same odds, and would have cared little for a renewal of the struggle, if united in itself:  but the prospect on this side, also, was fatally discouraging.  The elements of the old factions were dormant, but still smouldering.  Throughout Henry’s reign a White Rose agitation had been secretly fermenting; without open success, and without chance of success so long as Henry lived, but formidable in a high degree if opportunity to strike should offer itself.  Richard de la Pole, the representative of this party, had been killed at Pavia, but his loss had rather strengthened their cause than weakened it, for by his long exile he was unknown in England; his personal character was without energy; while he made place for the leadership of a far more powerful spirit in