Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Devil's Advocate, Vol. 2
VIII.; but am inclined to believe it, if not monstrously exaggerated. Nevertheless, the history of the time shows how deep was the impression produced on the English mind by the dynastic War of the Roses. The people evidently felt that the birth of a legitimate and direct male heir to the throne was of paramount importance to the country; and if no such feeling entered largely into the motives of Henry VIII it is obvious that under other but similar circum stances a nation might easily learn to regard polygamy in the Royal House as a national necessity; though in' the long run it proved the source of those very civil wars and dynastic feuds which it was perhaps in the first instance meant to avert by insuring as far as possible the existence of several children of the reigning prince, and so promising to prevent at once the failure of the dynasty and the rebellion of collateral heirs. For many a king would distrust any heir but his own son. He would therefore be anxious to insure that no single accident, such as the barrenness of the Wife, or the removal by disease or accident of her one or two sons, should leave him with no other heir than an ambitious brother or cousin who might snatch at.
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