confirmed this Act, he introduced a clause specifically barring their contingent claim to the English throne.

This limitation could not legally abate the force of a statute; but it sufficed to cast a doubt upon the Beaufort title, and has been considered a sufficient explanation of Henry VII.'s reluctance to base his claim upon hereditary right.

However that may be, the Beauforts played no little part in the English history of the fifteenth century; their influence was potent for peace or war in the councils of their royal half-brother, Henry IV., and of the later sovereigns of the House of Lancaster.

One was Cardinal-Bishop of Winchester, another was Duke of Exeter, and a third was Earl of Somerset.

Two of the sons of the Earl became Dukes of Somerset; the younger fell at St.Albans, the (p.