Richard II. also gave proof of his anxiety to improve the breed of horses by passing laws on the subject. The troublous times of the Wars of the Roses (1450-1471) were productive of injurious results. Horses of power and substance were, of course, required for all military purposes, and “Strong Horses” were seized whenever found and pressed into service by the contending parties. The owners of many of the best horses seem to have sent them out of the country to be sold beyond seas lest they should be thus confiscated. The fame of the _Equus Britannicus_ had ere this period spread to the continent, where a ready market awaited it; Sir John Hawkewood in his _Travels_ states that in the States of Northern Italy English horses were cherished and sought for breeding purposes. For the twenty-one years during which England was the scene of civil war it was worth no man’s while to breed, much less attempt to improve, the Great Horse; thus much of the good which had been done was nullified. THE LAWS OF HENRY VII. Henry VII. was fully alive to the desirability of fostering the breed, and during his reign (1485-1509) more Acts were passed to this end. At this time, says Polydore Virgil, the English were wont to keep large herds of horses in pastures and common fields; and when the harvest was gathered in the cattle of different owners fed promiscuously together; for which reason the practice of cutting horses was introduced. The preference accorded horses for military use was not due entirely to their superiority in strength over mares; for centuries only entire horses were used by men-at-arms; this being the case the interests of discipline and good order in the ranks and at the horse pickets in camp practically compelled the exclusion of mares. In the eleventh year of his reign (1496) Henry VII. passed a law forbidding the export of horses. In the preamble it was set forth that whereas “not only a smaller number of good horses were left within the realm for the defence thereof, but also that great and good plenty of the same were in parts beyond the sea which in times past were wont to be within this land; whereby the price of horses is greatly increased here to the loss and annoyance of all the King’s subjects;” therefore it was enacted that no horse at all was to be transported out of the kingdom, and no mare of the value of six shilling and eightpence or upwards. This law, it may be added, remained on the Statute Book until the reign of Charles II. when it was repealed. There were sundry weak points in the wording of this Act--in which respect legal draughtsmen will remind us it does not stand alone--and from the measures dealing with exportation which were passed by his successor it would seem that Henry VII.’s attempt to keep horses at home proved something of a failure.