in his will, not one could boast a peerage of twelve years' standing;[73] and all the great Tudor ministers, Wolsey and (p.

038) Cromwell, Cecil and Walsingham, were men of comparatively humble birth.
With similar objects Henry VII.

passed laws limiting the number of retainers and forbidding the practice of maintenance.

The courts of Star Chamber and Requests were developed to keep in order his powerful subjects and give poor men protection against them.

Their civil law procedure, influenced by Roman imperial maxims, served to enhance the royal power and dignity, and helped to build up the Tudor autocracy.
[Footnote 71: The Duke was Buckingham, and the Marquis was Dorset.] [Footnote 72: See a description of Ferdinand's court by John Stile, the English envoy, in _L.