[66] 12 Rich. II. cap. 6: 11 Hen. IV. cap. 4.
[67] ELLIS'S Original Letters, first series, vol. i. p. 226.
[68] It has been stated again and again that the policy of Henry the Eighth was to make the crown despotic by destroying the remnants of the feudal power of the nobility. How is such a theory to be reconciled with statutes the only object of which was the arming and training of the country population, whose natural leaders were the peers, knights, and gentlemen? We have heard too much of this random declamation.
[69] 33 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.
[70] From my experience of modern archery I found difficulty in believing that these figures were accurately given. Few living men could send the lightest arrow 220 yards, even with the greatest elevation, and for effective use it must be delivered nearly point blank. A passage in HOLINSHED'S Description of Britain, however, prevents me from doubting that the words of the statute are correct. In his own time, he says that the strength of the English archers had so notoriously declined that the French soldiers were in the habit of disrespectfully turning their backs, at long range, "bidding them shoot," whereas, says Holinshed, "had the archers been what they were wont to be, these fellows would have had their breeches nailed unto their buttocks." In an order for bowstaves, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, I find this direction: "Each bowstave ought to be three fingers thick and squared, and seven feet long: to be got up well polished and without knots."—Butler to Bullinger: Zurich Letters.
[71] Page 735, quarto edition.
[72] The Personages, Dresses, and Properties of a Mystery Play, acted at Greenwich, by command of Henry VIII. Rolls House MS.
[73] Hall says "collar of the garter of St. Michael," which, however, I venture to correct.
[74] Rich. II. 12, cap. 7, 8, 9; Rich. II. 15, cap. 6.
[75] Lansdowne MSS. 1, fol. 26.