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CABINET 

CYCLOPAEDIA. 
HISTORY. 

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DR.  LARDNER'S 

CABINET 
CYCLOPAEDIA. 

CABINET    LIBRARY. 


Under  the  above  title  will  be  published  by  CAREY  & 
LEA,  a  Series  of  Valuable  Works,  the  first  of  which 

ng  the  NARRATIVE  OF  THE  WAR  IN  GERMANY  AND 
FRANCE,  is  now  submitted  to  the  public. — The  succeed 
ng  volumes  will  appear  monthly. 


No.  I. 

THE  MARQUESS  OF  LONDONDERRY'S 
NARRATIVE 

OP  THE 

LATE  WAR 

IN 

GERMANY  AND  FRANCE: 

Being  the  First  Volume 

OF  THE 
CABINET    LIBRARY. 

No  history  of  the  events  to  which  it  relates  can  be  correct 
vithout  reference  to  its  statements." — Literary  Gazette. 

The  events  detailed  in  this  volume  cannot  fail  to  excite  an 
intense  interest." — Dublin  Literary  Gazette. 

"  The  only  connected  and  well  authenticated  account  we  have 
f  the  spirit  stirring  scenes  which  preceded  the  fell  of  Napoleon, 
t  introduces  us  into  the  cabinets  and  presence  of  the  allied  mo- 
mrchs.  We  observe  the  secret  policy  ef  each  individual :  we  see 
he  course  pursued  by  the  wily  Bernadotte,  the  temporising  Met- 
eraich,  and  the  ambitious  Alexander.  The  work  deserves  a  place 
n  every  historical  library."—  Globe, 


CABINET  LIBRARY,  No.  II. 
JOURNAL  OF  A  NATURALIST. 

Plants,  trees, and  stones  we  note  ; 

Birds,  insects,  beasts,  and  rural  things. 

"We  again  most  strongly  recommend  this  little  unpretending 
olume  to  the  attention  of  every  lover  of  nature,  and  more  par- 
icularly  of  our  country  readers.  It  will  induce  them,  we  are 
ure,  to  examine  more  closely  than  they  have  been  accustomed 
jo  do,  into  the  objects  of  animated  nature,  and  such  examination 
will  prove  one  of  the  most  innocent,  and  the  most  satisfactory 
sources  of  gratification  and  amusement.  It  is  a  book  that  ought 
jo  find  its  way  into  every  rural  drawing  room  in  the  kingdom, 
and  one  that  may  safely  be  placed  in  every  lady's  boudoir,  be  her 
rank  and  station  in  life  what  they  may." — Quarterly  Review. 
\o.  LXXVIII. 

"  We  think  that  there  are  few  readers  who  will  not  be  de- 
ighted  (we  are  certain  all  will  be  instructed)  by  the  *  Journal  of 
a  Naturalist.'  "—Monthly  Review. 

"  This  is  a  most  delightful  book  on  the  most  delightful  of  all 
studies.  We  are  acquainted  with  no  previous  work  which  bears 
any  resemblance  to  this,  except  *  White's  History  of  Selhorne, 
he  most  fascinating  piece  of  rural  writing  and  sound  English 
philosophy  that  ever  issued  from  the  press." — Athenceum. 

"  The  author  of  the  charming  volume  now  before  us,  has  pro- 
luced  one  of  the  most  charming  volumes  we  remember  to  have 
seen  for  a  long  time." — New  Monthly  Magazine,  June,  1829. 

'A  delightful  volume — perhaps  the  most  so — nor  less  instruc- 
ive  and  amusing — given  to  Natural  History  since  White's  Sel- 
lorne." — Blackwood's  Magazine. 

To  be  succeeded  by 

MILITARY  MEMOIRS  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON.  By  Cap- 
ain  Moyle  Sherer.  Nearly  ready. 

HISTORICAL  MEMOIRS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BOURBON. 

HISTORY  OF  FRANCE,  from  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  to 
;he  year  1830*  LIFE  OF  PETRARCH.  By  Thomas  Moore. 

THE  BOOK  OF  THE  SEASONS.    By  William  Howitt 

"Since  the  publication  of  the  Journal  of  a  Naturalist,  no  work 
at  once  so  interesting  and  instructive  as  the  Book  of  the  Season 
las  been  submitted  to  the  public.  Whether  in  reference  to  the 
utility  of  its  design,  or  the  grace  and  beauty  of  its  execution,  i 
will  amply  merit  the  popularity  it  is  certain  to  obtain.  It  is,  in 
deed,  cheering  and  refreshing  to  meet  with  such  a  delightful  vo- 
lume, so  full  of  nature  and  truth— in  which  reflection  and  expe 
rience  derive  aid  from  imagination — in  which  we  are  taugh 
much ;  but  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  it  doubtful  whether  w< 
have  not  been  amusing  ourselves  all  the  time  we  have  been  read 
ing." — New  Monthly  Magazine. 

"  The  Book  of  the  Seasons  is  a  delightful  book,  and  recom 
mended  to  all  lovers  of  nature." — Blackwood's  Magazine. 


Hr.  H&rtHttffs  (Sfsdbfttst  (£gclopjj0lifflf. 

Considerable  progress  having  been  made  in  this  work,  the  publishers  wish  to 
direct  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  advantages  by  which  it  is  distinguished 
from  other  similar  monthly  publications. 

It  is  not  intended  that  the  Cabinet  Cyclopaedia  shall  form  an  interminable  se- 
ries, in  which  any  work  of  interest  which  may  present  itself  from  time  to  time 
can  claim  a  place.  Its  subjects  are  classified  according  to  the  usual  divisions  ol 
literature,  science,  and  art.  Each  division  is  distinctly  traced  out,  and  will  con- 
sist of  a  determinate  number  of  volumes.  Although  the  precise  extent  of  the 
work  cannot  be  fixed  with  certainty,  yet  there  is  a  limit  which  will  not  be  ex> 
ceeded ;  and  the  subscribers  may  look  forward  to  the  possession,  within  a  reason- 
able time,  of  a  complete  library  of  instruction,  amusement,  and  general  reference, 
in  the  regular  form  of  a  popular  Cyclopaedia. 

The  several  classes  of  the  work  are— 1,  Natural  Philosophy;  2,  The  Useful  ant 
Fine  Arts  ;  3,  Natural  History  ;  4,  Geography;  5,  Politics  and  Morals  ;  6,  General 
Literature  and  Criticism ;  7,  History;  8,  Biography. 

In  the  above  abstruse  and  technical  departments  of  knowledge,  an  attempt  has 
l>een  made  to  convey  to  the  reader  a  general  acquaintance  with  these  subjects,  by 
the  use  of  plain  and  familiar  language,  appropriate  and  well-executed  engravings 
and  copious  examples  and  illustrations,  taken  from  objects  and  events  with  which 
every  one  is  acquainted. 

The  proprietors  formerly  pledged  themselves  that  no  exertion  should  be  sparec 
to  obtain  the  support  of  the  most  distinguished  talent  of  the  age.  They  trust  that 
they  have  redeemed  that  pledge.  Among  the  volumes  already  published  in  the 
iterary  department,  no  less  than  four  have  been  the  production  of  men  who  stant 
in  the  first  rank  of  literary  talent,— Sir  James  Mackintosh  and  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
In  the  scientific  department,  a  work  has  been  produced  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Her- 
schel,  which  has  been  pronounced  by  the  highest  living  authority  on  subjects  of 
general  philosophy,  to  contain  "  the  noblest  observations  on  the  value  of  know- 
edge  which  have  been  made  since  Bacon,"  and  to  be  "  the  finest  work  of  phi- 
losophical genius  which  this  age  has  seen." 

The  following  is  a  selection  from  the  list  of  Contributors. 
Authors  of  volumes  actually  published  are  marked  (*>     Those  whose  produc- 
tions are  in  immediate  preparation  are  marked  (+) 
CONTRIBUTORS. 

ktThe  Right  Honourable  Sir  JAMES  MACKINTOSH,  M.P. 
tThe  Right  Rev.  The  Lord  Bishop  of  Cloyne. 
*tSir  WALTER  SCOTT,  Bart. 

tJOHN  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  HERSCHEL,  Esq. 
tTHOMAS  MOORE,  Esq. 
tJ.  B.  BIOT,  Member  of  the  French  Institute. 
tROBERT  SOUTHEY,  Esq.  Poet  Laureate. 
tThe  Baron  CHARLES  DUPIN,  Member  of  the  Royal  Institute  and  Chamber 

of  Deputies. 

THOMAS  CAMPBELL,  Esq.  tDAVID  BREWSTER,  LL.D. 

tJ.  C.  L.  SISMONDI,  of  Geneva.         tT.  B.  MACAULEY,  Esq.  M.P. 
Capt.  HENRY  KATER,  Vice  President  of  the  Royal  Society. 
The  ASTRONOMER  ROYAL.  S.  T.  COLERIDGE,  Esq. 

tThe  Right  Hon.  T.  P.  COURTENAY,  M.P. 

DAVIES  GILBERT,  Esq.,  M.P.          tJAMES  MONTGOMERY,  Esq. 
J.  J.  BERZELIUS.  of  Stockholm,  F.R.S.,  &c. 
tThe  Rev.  G.  R.  GLEIG. 
tT.  PHILLIPS,  Esq.  Prof,  of  Painting,  R.A. 
tRev.  C.  THIRLWALL,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
tANDREW  URE,  M.D.  F.R.S.,  &c-  &c.  &c.  &e. 


2ir.  aarfcner's  (fcatmtet 


VOLUMES  PUBLISHED. 

I.  II.-HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  By  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
III.-HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.    87  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  Vol.  I. 
IV.— OUTLINES  OF  HISTORY. 
V.— HISTORY  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.     By  T.  C.  Grattan,  Esq. 

VOLUMES  IN  IMMEDIATE  PREPARATION. 
HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  Vol.  III. 

HISTORY  OF  FRANCE.  By  Eyre  Brans  Crowe,  in  3  Vol». 
HISTORY  OF  POLAND,  in  1  Vol. 

HISTORY  OF  MARITIME  DISCOVERY,  in  3  Vols.  (Complete.) 
MECHANICS,  in  1  Vol.  By  Capt.  Kater,  and  Dr.  Lardner.  (Complete.) 
LIVES  OF  EMINENT  BRITISH  LAWYERS,  in  1  Vol.  By  H.  Roscoe,  Esq 
THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  WORLD,  in  4  Vols.  Vol.  I.  THE 
UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

Two  volumes  of  this  work,  nearly  ready,  will  complete  the  History  of  the  Unite* 
States  to  the  present  lime.  The  two  remaining  volumes  will  be  devoted  to  South 
America  and  the  Weet  India  Islands. 

A  PRELIMINARY  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  OBJECTS,  ADVANTAGES 
AND  PLEASURES  OF  THE  STUDY  OF  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY 
in  1  Vol.  By  J.  F.  W.  Herschel,  Esq.  (Completed.) 

N.  B.— This  work  forms  the  Introduction  or  Preface  to  the  Cabinet  of  Natura' 
Philosophy  in  the  Cyclopaedia. 

HYDROSTATICS,  &c.    1  Vol.    By  Dr.  Lardner. 

A  TREATISE  ON  OPTICS.    By  Dr.  Brewster. 

A  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND,  TO  THE  UNION,  in  2  Vols.  By  T.  Moore,  Esq. 

A  PRELIMINARY  DISCOURSE  ON  THE  USEFUL  ARTS  AND  MA- 
NUFACTURES.  By  the  Baron  Charles  Dupin,  Member  of  the  Institute  of 
France  and  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  MOORS,  in  3  Vols.  By  Robert  Southey,  Esq. 

LIVES    OF    THE    MOST    EMINENT    LITERARY  MEN    OF    ALL  NA 
TIONS,in  8  Vols.  By  Scott,  Southey,  Moore,  Mackintosh,  Montgomery,  Cun- 
ningham, and  all  the  principal  Literary  and  Scientific  Contributors  to  the 
Cyclopaedia. 
TREATISE  ON  ASTRONOMY.    By  J.  F.  W.  Herschel,  Esq. 

GEOGRAPHY,  in  4  Vols.  By  W.  Cooley,  Esq.,  author  of  the  "  History  of  Mari- 
time Discovery." 

LIVES  OF  THE  MOST  DISTINGUISHED  BRITISH  NAVAL  COM- 
MANDERS. By  R.  Southey,  Esq. 

IVES  OF  THE  MOST  DISTINGUISHED  BRITISH  MILITARY  COM- 
MANDERS.   By  the  Rev.  G.  R.  Gkig. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  ITALIAN  REPUBLICS.    By  J.  C.  L.  Sismondi. 
HE  HISTORY  OF  GREECE,  in  3  Vols.    By  the  Rev.  C.  Thirlwall. 

LIVES  OF  EMINENT  BRITISH  ARTISTS.  By  W.  Y.  Otley,  Esq.,  and  T. 
PHILLIPS,  R.A.  Professor  of  Painting  to  the  Royal  Academy. 

V.  TREATISE  ON  ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM.  By  M.  Biot, 
Member  of  the  French  Institute. 


THE 


CABINET  HISTORY 


OP 


ENGLAND,  SCOTLAND,  AND  IRELAND. 


BY 


THE  RIGHT  HON.  SIR  JAMES  MACKINTOSH,  M.  P. 

SIR  WALTER  SCOTT,  BART.  AND 

THOMAS  MOORE,  ESQ. 


ENGLAND. 

VOL.  II. 


PHILADELPHIA. 

CAREY  fc  LEA.-CHESTNUT  STREET. 

1831. 


THE 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


BY 


THE  RIGHT  HON.  SIR  JAMES  MACKINTOSH,  M.  P. 


VOLUME  II. 


PHILADELPHIA. 

CAREY  &  LEA.— CHESTNUT  STREET. 

1831. 


"  Masters,"  quoth  the  cardinal,  "  unless  it  be  the  manner  of  your 
house,  as  oflikelihood  it  is,  by  the  mouth  of  your  Speaker  whom  you 
have  chosen  for  trusty  and  wise  (as  indeed  he  is),  in  such  cases  to 
utter  your  minds,  here  is  without  doubt  a  marvellous  silence  ;"  and 
thereupon  he  required  answer  of  master  Speaker.  Who  first  rever- 
ently on  his  knees  excusing  the  silence  of  the  house,  abashed  at  the 
presence  of  so  noble  a  personage  able  to  amaze  the  wisest  and  best 
learned  in  a  realm,  and  after  by  many  probable  arguments  proving 
that  for  them  to  make  answer  was  neither  expedient  nor  agreeable 
with  the  ancient  liberty  of  the  house ;  in  conclusion  for  himself 
showed  that  though  they  had  all  with  their  voices  trusted  him,  yet 
except  every  one  of  them  could  put  into  his  one  head  all  their  several 
wits,  he  alone  in  so  weighty  a  matter  was  unmeet  to  make  his  grace 
answer.  Whereupon  the  cardinal,  displeased  with  Sir  Thomas  More, 
that  had  not  in  this  parliament  in  all  things  satisfied  hi*  desire,  sud 
denly  arose  and  departed." 

Roper's  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  More. 


CONTENTS  TO  VOL.  II. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WAR  OF  THE  ROSES,  1423—1483. 

HENRY  VI.  (continued.)— EDWARD  IV. 

Dissensions  of  Gloucester  and  Beaufort.  — Gloucester  named  Chief  of  the 
Council.  —  Elinor  Cobham.  —  Henry  marries  Margaret  of  Anjou.  —  Mur- 
der of  Gloucester.  —  Proceedings  against  Suffolk.  —  Murder  of  Suffolk  .— 
Discontents  of  the  people. -rJa.ck  Cade.  —  Execution  of  Lord  Say.— 
Birth  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  — King's  Incapacity.  — Duke  of  York  Pro- 
tector.—  Margaret  collects  Forces  in  the  North.  —  Battle  of  St.  Alban's. 

—  Parliament    assembled. —  Dismissal  of  York.  —  Henry  resumes   his 
Authority. —  Resides  at  Coventry.  —  Yorkists  defeated  near  Ludlow.— 
Duke  of  York  enters  London.  —  Claims  the  Crown.  —  The  Lords  propose 
a  Compromise. —-York  obtains  the  regal  Power.  —His  Defeat  and  Death. 

—  Edward  Earl  of  March  claims  the  Crown.  —  Is  proclaimed  by  tlie  Style 
of  Edward  IV.  —  Battle  of  Towton.  —  Edward  is  crowned  at  London.  — 
Battle  of  Hexham.— Dispersion  of  the  Lancastrians.  — Concealment  of 
Henry.  —  His  Capture.  —  Escape  of  Margaret.  —  Lady  Elizabeth  Wood- 
vine,  —  Coalition  of  Margaret  and  Warwick.  —  Battle  of  Barnet.  —  Bat- 
tle of  Tewkcsbury.  —  War  with  France.  — Treaty  of  Pecquigny.  —  The 
Shepherd  Lord  Clifford.  —  Death  of  Edward  IV Page  H 

CHAP.  II. 

TO  THE  BATTLE  OF   BOSWORTH,  1483—1485. 

EDWARD  V.— RICHARD  III. 

C'ourl  Factions.  — •.  Richard  Duke  of  Gloucester.  —  Accusation  of  Rivers  and 
Grey.  —  Flight  of  the  (Jueen  from  Westminster.  —  Richard  assumes  the 
Title  of  Protector.  —  The  king  and  the  Duke  of  York  placed  in  the  Tower. 

—  Murder  of  Lord  Hastings.  —Jane  Shore.  —  Richard  disputes  the  King's 
Title.  —  Procures  himself  to  be  declared  king.  —  Disappearance  of  Ed- 
ward and  the  Duke  of  York.  —  Their  probable  Murder.  —  Buckingham 
revolts.  —  Proclamation  against  Richmond.  —  Richard  lands  at  Milford 
Haven.  —  Battle  of  Bosworth.  —  Death  of  Richard.  —  Richmond  proclaim- 
ed Kins  by  the  Title  of  Henry  VII 50 

CHAP.  III. 

HENRY  VII. 

1485—1509. 

Marriage  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth.  —  Imposture  of  Symnel.  —  Per  kin  War- 
beck.— His  History. —  Execution  of  Sir  William  Stanley.  —  Warbeck 
collects  a  Force  in  Flanders.  —  Is  defeated  at  Deal.  —  Marries  Lady  Cath- 

A2 


VI  CONTENTS-'. 

arinc  Gordon.  —  Aided  by  the  king  of  Scotland.  —  Northern  Invasion. — 
Truce  with  Scotland.  —  Perkin  land*  in  Cornwall.  —  Collects  .1  Body  of 
Troops.  —  insurgents  defeated.  — Audley, their  Leader,  defeated.  —  Perkin 
takes  sanctuary  at  Boatilieu.  — Finally  surrenders. —  I*  committed  to  the 
Tower.  —  Meets  Warwick.  —  Execution  of  Perkin  and  Warwick.  —  Real 
Causes  of  the  latter.  —  Slate  of  Europe.  —  Plot  against  the  Scottish  King. 
—  Philip  the  Fair  driven  on  the  English  Coast.  — Is  received  by  Henry, 
who  insists  on  the  surrender  of  John  de  la  Pole.  —  Marriage  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  with  Catharine  of  Aragon.  —  Star  Chamber  instituted.  — 
Changes  in  the  Laws.  — The  great  Intercourse.  — Enormous  Wealth  of 
Henry. —His  Death 65 


CHAP.  IV. 

TO  THE  REFORMATION. 

HENRY  VIII. 

1506—1547. 

Coronation  of  Henry.  —  His  Character.  — His  formal  Marriage  with  Catlia- 
rine.  —  Attainder  of  Dudley  and  Einpson. — Italian  Wars.  —  Debates  in 
the  Council  respecting  the  War  with  France.  —  Return  of  English  Troops 
from  Spain.  —Defeat  of  the  French  in  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs.  —  Battle 
of  Flodden  Field.  —  The  rise  of  Wolsey.  —  His  History  and  Character.  — 
The  Tournament  of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold.  —  Accusation  and  Ex- 
ecution of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham. — Wolsey  resorts  to  illegal  Expedient* 
to  raise  Money.  —Sir  Thomas  More  Speaker  of  the  Commons.  —  Wolsey 
enters  the  Commons,  and  is  answered  by  More.  —  Death  of  Leo  X. — 
Wolsey  aspires  to  the  Popedom.  —  Battle  of  Pa  via.  —  Francis  I.  a  Prison- 
er.—  Is  liberated.  —  The  Constable  Bourbon  attacks  Rome.  —  Is  killed. — 
Sack  of  Rome V$ 

CHAP.  V. 

RISE  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

HENRY  VIII.  (continued.) 
1527. 

Freedom  of  Discussion.  —  Inconstancy  of  the  Reformers.  —  Persecutions.  — 
Circumstances  which  led  to  the  Reformation.  —  Writings  of  Erasmus.  — 
Character  of  Martin  Luther. —  His  Preaching.  — Appointed  to  the  Pro- 
fessorship of  Philosophy  at  Wittembcrg.  —  Visits  Rome.  — Is  shocked  at 
the  Profligacy  of  the  Clergy.  — Bull  for  Indulgences.  — Is  abused  in  Ger 
many.  —  Excites  the  Opposition  of  Luther.  —  Sublime  Principles  adopted 
by  Hither.  — His  ninety-five  Theses.  —  Part  of  his  Writings  condemned 
as  heretical.  —  His  personal  Sufferings.  —  Ulric  Zuinglins. —  John  Calvin. 
—  Controversy  respecting  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  — Conduct 
of  Erasmus.  —  Excesses  of  the  German  Boors.  —  Death  of  Erasmus. — 
Insurrection  in  Suabia. —  Conduct  of  Luther 114 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAP.  VI. 

TO  THE  EXECUTION  OF  SIR  THOMAS  MOKE. 

HENRY  VIII.  (continued.) 

1527—1535. 

Henry  raises  Doubts  of  the  Validity  of  his  Marriage  with  Catharine.  —  Be- 
comes enamored  of  Anne  Boleyn.  —  Seeks  a  Divorce.  —  Anne  Boleyn 
resists  his  Importunities.  —  Sir  Thomas  More  declines  to  advocate  the 
Divorce. — Henry  sends  to  Rome  to  obtain  the  support  of  the  Pope. — 
Clement  temporizes.  —  Disputes  on  the  Subject  of  the  Divorce.  —  Henry 
proposes  Questions  to  the  principal  Universities  of  Europe  respecting  it. 

—  Receives  favorable  Answers. — The  Pope  sends  a  Commission  to  try 
the  Questions.  —  Expedients  for  delaying  the  suit.  — Wolsey  loses  the 
royal  favor. —  Is  prosecuted.  —  Defence  of  Catharine  before  the  Lega- 
tine  Court.  — Anne  Boleyn  hostile  to  Wolsey.  —  Sentence  pronounced 
against  him.  —  Is  pardoned,  and  restored  to  the  See  of  Winchester.  —  Is 
apprehended  for  High  Treason.  —  Is  carried  to  the  Abbey  of  Leicester.  — 
His  Death.  — Henry  determines  to  resist  the  Papal  Authority.  —  Cranmer 
Institutes  an  Investigation  into  the  Validity  of  the  Marriage  with  Cath- 
arine. —  Pronounces  that  Marriage  null.  — Tire  King  marries  the  Lady 
Anne. — The  King  addressed  as  Head  of  the  Church.  —  Thomas  Crom- 
well.—  His  History. — Cranmer  raised  to  the  See  of  Canterbury.  —  Pro- 
ceeds against  Papal  Power.  — The  king  declared  by  Act  of  Parliament 
Supreme  Head  of  the  Church.— The  holy  Maid  of  Kent.  — Her  Execu- 
tion.—  Execution  of  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester.  —  Sir  Thomas  More, 
his  Writings  and  Character.  —  His  Trial  and  Condemnation.  —  Circum- 
stances of  his  Execution.  —Public Opinion  respecting  it.  —Remonstrance 
of  Cranmer 128 

CHAP.  VII. 

PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  QUEEN  ANNE  BOLEYN,  AND  HER  EXECUTION. 

HENRY  VIII.  (continued.) 
1535—1536. 

Character  of  Anne  Boleyn.  —  Her  conduct  before  and  after  Marriage.— 
The  King's  Inconstancy.  —  His  pretended  Jealousy.  —  Anne  is  committed 
to  the  Tower.  —Her  Conduct.  —  Her  Letter  to  the  King.  —  Her  Examina 
tion  before  the  Privy  Council. — Her  alleged  Accomplices  indicted  and 
executed.  —  Q,ueen  Anne  and  lier  Brother  tried  and  found  guilty.  —  Her 
Brother  executed.  —  Brought  to  Lambeth.  —  Cranmer  declares  her  Mar- 
riage null.  —  Her  Execution 159 

CHAP.  VIII. 

TO  THE  DEATH  OF   THE    KING. 

HENRY  VIII.  (continued.) 
1536—1547. 

Thomas  Cromwell  appointed  the  King's  Vicegerent.  —  His  unlimited  Power. 

—  Suppression  of  religious  Houses,  and  Seizure  of  their  Estates.  — Revolt 
in  Lincolnshire  headed  by  Mackrel. —Suppression  of  Monasteries  perse- 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

vercd  in. — Conduct  of  tlie  Clergy.  —  Rights  of  Property  considered.— 
Creed  imposed  by  Proclamation.  — Reformers  discouraged.  — Anne  of 
Cleves.  —  Thomas  Cromwell,  his  attainder  —His  Execution.  —  Court- 
ney Marquess  of  Exeter.  —Cardinal  Pole.  -King's  Marriage  with  Lady 
Catharine  Howard.  —  Execution  of  Margaret  Pole.  —  Lady  Catharine 
Howard  executed.  —  King  marries  Catharine  Parr.  —  War  with  France 

—  Howard  Earl  of  Surrey.  — His  Execution.  —Attainder  of  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk.  —  Death  of  the  King. —  His  Will.  — Parliamentary  Reform  in 
this  Reign.  — Death  of  Luther.  — His  Character.  —  Extent  of  Luther 
anisuj 173 

CHAP.  IX. 

EDWARD  VI. 

1547—1553. 

Edward  VI.  proclaimed. — His  Character. — Duke  of  Somerset  Protector. 

—  Persecutions    mitigated.  —  Progress  of   the    Reformation.  —  Bishops 
nominated  by  the  King.  —  Sir  Thomas  Seymour.  —  Is  condemned  and  ex- 
ecuted.—  Insurrection  in  Cornwall.  —  Rising  in   Norfolk.  —  Insurgents 
defeated  by  Warwick.  — Ket,  their  leader,  hanged.  — The  Protector  Som- 
erset becomes  unpopular.  —  Confederacy  against  him.  —  Is  deposed.  —  His 

..  Opponent,  Warwick,  appointed  Lord  High  Admiral.  —  Somerset  enlaru'c'l 
on  Payment  of  a  Fine.  — Is  restored  to  the  Council.  —  Is  reconciled  with 
Warwick.  —  Again  at  variance.  —  Is  committed  to  the  Tower. — Tri-1 
and  executed.  —  Treatment  of  Bonner  and  Gardiner. — Severe  Restric- 
tions on  the  Princess  Mary. — Character  of  Edward.  —  Articles  of  thy 
Church.  —  Law  of  Divorce.  —  King's  Illness.  —  Edward  settles  the  Crown 
on  Jane  Seymour.  —  The  Death  of  Edward , , . , ,.,,.,, 20tt 

CHAP.  X. 

LADY    JANE    SEYMOUR, 
1553. 

Proclamation  of  Queen  Jane.  —  Opposition  of  Mary's  Party.  —  Conduct  of 
the  Lady  Jane.  —  Her  Remonstrances.  —  Apathy  of  the  People.  —  Ridley 
preaches  in  Support  of  Jane's  Title.  —  Both  Mary  and  Jane  exercise  tlie 
Rights  of  Sovereigns. —Weakness  of  Jane's  Party.  — Mary  proclaimed 
dueen.  —  Her  Party  seize  the  Tower.  —  Resignation  of  Jane. 237 

CHAP.  XI. 
MARY. 

1553—1558. 

Mary  arrives  in  London.  —  Liberates  her  Party  from  the  Tower.  —  North- 
umberland and  other  Lords  tried  and  executed.  —  Catholic  Bishops  re- 
stored. —  Cranmer  and  Latimer  committed  to  the  Tower.  —  The  Emperor 
influences  Mary.  —  Sessions  of  Parliament.  —  Approaches  towards  Re- 
union with  the  Church  of  Rome.  —  Coronation  of  Mary.  —  Discontent* 
of  the  Protestants.  —  Negotiation  for  the  Marriage  of  Mary  with  Philip 
of  Spain.—  Communications  with  Rome.  —  Cardinal  Pole  appointed  Lf- 


CONTENTS.  IX 

gate.  —  Opposition  of  the  Commons  to  the  Marriage.  —  Abortive  Plan  of 
Revolt.  —  Mary's  Speech  at  Guildhall.  —  Wyatt's  Attack  on  London.— 
His  Defeat  and  Surrender.  —  Lady  Jane  Grey  and  Lord  Dudley  convicted 
of  Treason.  —  Executed.  —  The  Princess  Elizabeth  at  Ashridge.  —  Is 
conducted  to  London.  — Is  imprisoned  in  the  Tower. —  Is  removed  to 
Woodstock.  —  Philip  lands  at  Southampton.  — His  Marriage  with  Mary 
solemnized. — Parliament  at  Westminster.  —  Reconciliation  with  Rome. 

—  Cardinal  Pole.  —  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  —  Persecutions  of  the  Protest- 
ants.—  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London.  —  English  Ambassadors  at  Rome. — 
Death  of  Ridley  and  Latimer.  —  Martyrdom  of  Cranmer.  —  Pole  raised 
to  the  See  of  Canterbury.  —  Extent  of  the  Persecution  of  Protestants  — 
State  of  the  Exiles.  —  Philip  succeeds  Charles  V.  —Embassy  from  Russia. 

—  Execution  of  Lord    Stourton  for  Murder.  —  English  Army  sent  to 
Spain.  —  Battle  of  St  Quentin.  —  Fall  of  Calais.  — Death  of  Mary.  —Her 
Character.  — Death  of  Pole.  —  Religious  Persecutions  abroad.  —  The  In- 
quisition.—  Council  of  Trent.  —  Origin  of  the  Jesuits.  — Their  Progress 
and  Influence.  —  Pascal 240 


APPENDIX. 

I.  Proportion  of  different  Troops  in  the  Army  of  Henry  VII. 
II.  Note  on  Lord  Bacon. 

III.  Anne  Boleyn's  Letter  to  Henry  VIII.,  from  a  Manuscript  in  the 
British  Museum. 

IV.  Extracts  from  State  Papers  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VIII.  (hitherto 
unpublished.) 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


CHAP.  I. 

WAR    OF    THE    ROSES. 

HENRY  VI.— EDWARD  IV. 
1423—1483. 

THE  history  of  the  expulsion  of  the  English  army  from 
France  has  been  briefly  related  at  the  close  of  the  former 
volume.  The  civil  wars  between  the  partisans  of  the  heredi- 
tary pretensions  of  the  house  of  York  and  the  adherents  to 
the  parliamentary  establishment  of  the  house  of  Lancaster, 
which  followed  this  event,  cannot  be  understood  without  some 
review  of  the  internal  administration  of  the  kingdom,  the 
state  of  the  royal  family,  and  the  animosities  among  the  coun- 
sellors of  the  king  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  his  nominal 
rule.  This  state  of  affairs  contributed  to  plunge  the  nation 
into  convulsions,  and  conduced  also  to  clothe  violent  revolu- 
tions in  the  robes  of  law  and  of  form ;  thin  disguises,  indeed, 
yet  serving  as  some  restraint  on  the  rapacity,  and  as  some 
obstacle  to  the  progress,  of  an  otherwise  boundless  ambition. 

The  first  parliament  of  Henry  was  convoked  in  November, 
1422,  when  he  was  in  the  tenth  month  of  his  age,  with  all  the 
circumstances  of  grave  mockery  and  solemn  falsehood  which 
characterize  the  acts  done  in  the  name  of  minor  kings. 

This  parliament  was  held  in  virtue  of  a  commission  to  which 
the  great  seal  was  affixed,  as  the  commissioners  gravely  aver- 
red, by  the  command  of  an  infant  who  had  not  yet  uttered  an 
articulate  sound.  That  assembly,  however,  thus  resting  its 
authority  solely  on  the  pretended  order  of  a  child  who  had  not 
learned  to  speak,  conferred  the  regency  of  both  kingdoms, 
with  the  administration  of  France,  on  the  duke  of  Bedford, 
and  the  protectorship  of  England,  in  his  absence,  on  his  brother 
the  duke  of  Gloucester.  By  an  act,  the  first,  perhaps,  drawn 
in  English,  a  language  since  so  fertile  in  such  measures,  it 
granted  a  subsidy  to  the  crown.  In  the  midst  of  apparent 
humility  and  prostrate  submission  before  a  royal  infant,  they 
nominated  a  council  of.  regency,  without  whose  consent  no 


12  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1422. 

considerable  act  of  state  was  to  be  legal.  This  body  was 
composed  of  five  prelates,  six  great  lay  lords,  and  five  of  the 
minor  nobility,  who,  after  a  course  of  ages,  being  gradually 
amalgamated  with  the  wealthier  commoners,  formed  that 
body,  unknown  in  other  countries,  called  among  us  the  gen- 
try.* Bedford,  whose  title  as  regent  gave  him  a  higher  au- 
thority than  his  brother,  might  at  any  time  really  supersede 
the  protector  by  returning  to  England ;  and  the  powers  of  the 
council  of  state  reduced,  on  ordinary  occasions,  the  protectoral 
authority  within  narrow  limits. 

In  the  parliament  of  the  succeeding  year,  the  ransom  and 
marriage  of  the  king  of  Scots,  who  for  twenty  years  had  been 
detained  a  prisoner, — with  all  due  honor  and  state,  indeed,  but 
without  a  shadow  of  law  or  allegation  of  right, — were  regu- 
lated by  the  advice  and  with  the  consent  of  both  houses.  At 
this  tune,  by  the  death  of  Edmund,  last  earl  of  March,  the 
hereditary  pretensions  of  the  house  of  Clarence  became  vested 
in  Richard  Plantagenet  duke  of  York,  the  son  of  Anne  Mor- 
timer, heiress  of  that  family :  Richard,  however,  being  then 
only  a  boy  of  fourteen,  a  serious  prosecution  of  his  claim  was 
not  to  be  apprehended.f  So  little,  indeed,  were  his  preten- 
sions feared,  that  long  afterwards  Bedford  and  Gloucester,  the 
king's  uncles,  as  well  as  the  duke  of  Somerset  and  cardinal 
Beaufort,  the  sons  of  John  of  Gaunt  by  Catherine  Swineford, 
and  thence  the  leaders  of  the  Lancastrian  party,  thought  it  a 
safe  policy  to  unite  all  the  branches  of  the  royal  family,  by 
granting  to  the  duke  of  York  in  succession  the  lieutenancy 
of  Ireland  and  the  regency  of  France.  Dissensions  early  arose 
between  Humphrey  duke  of  Gloucester  and  Thomas  bishop 
of  Winchester,  afterwards  cardinal,  whose  shares  in  the  gov- 
ernment at  home  were  too  equally  poised  for  the  ambition  of 
either.  These  feuds  ran  so  high,  that  it  became  necessary  for 
the  duke  of  Bedford  to  compel  both  parties  in  full  parliament 
to  refer  their  differences  to  the  arbitrement  of  certain  peers 
and  prelates.  An  oblivion  of  past  quarrels  and  a  promise  of 
friendship  in  time  to  come|  was  awarded,  and  was  confirmed 
by  professions  and  salutations  on  both  sides,  in  the  presence 
of  the  estates  in  parliament  assembled ;  professions  which,  if 
slightly  sincere  at  the  moment  on  either  side,  were  so  super- 
ficial that  the  impression  was  quickly  effaced  by  rivalship. 
Beaufort,  whose  private  life  was  more  that  of  a  prince  than 
that  of  a  prelate,  was  politic,  martial,  penurious,  except  on 

*  Rot.  Part.  iv.  pp.  169—174. 

t  Dugdale,  i.  101.    Edmund  Mortimer,  earl  of  March,  died  on  the  23d  of 
January,  1425. 
J  Rot.  Part.  iv.  299. 


1427.        GLOUCESTER  AND  BEAUFORT.          13 

occasions  of  parade,  and  combined  the  jarring  passions  of  love 
of  power  and  of  love  of  money.  With  his  knowledge,  which 
for  that  age  was  not  contemptible,  his  long  observation,  and 
his  expertness  in  affairs,  he  did  not  easily  brook  an  inferiority 
of  place  to  a  boy.  The  first  subject  of  contest  between  the 
two  chiefs  was  the  possession  of  the  Tower  of  London,  which 
involved  the  custody  of  the  infant  king.  The  apparently 
amicable  settlement  of  this  point  was  followed  by  disputes 
whether  the  power  of  the  council  of  regency,  in  which  Beau- 
fort exercised  a  great  ascendant,  ought  not  to  be  enlarged  at 
the  expense  of  the  protector.  Attempts  were  at  the  same 
time  made  to  exclude  Beaufort  from  the  council,  on  the  ground 
of  his  being  a  cardinal,  and,  in  that  high  character,  the  coun- 
sellor of  another  potentate.  The  parliament,  however,  sanc- 
tioned his  continuance  in  office,*  notwithstanding  this  natural 
jealousy,  which  has  often  prevailed  in  Catholic  countries.  In 
the  parliamentary  rolls  of  1427,  there  is  a  declaration  of  the 
lords  in  parliament,  composed  in  the  English  language,  and 
addressed  to  the  duke  of  Gloucester,  who  had  demanded  that 
they  should  accurately  define  the  power  and  authority  which 
appertained  unto  him  as  "protector  and  defendbur  of  this 
land."  The  duke  refused  to  come  to  parliament  until  such  a 
definition  was  made,  as  "  he  had  formerly  desired  to  have  the 
governance  of  this  land,  as  well  by  birth  as  by  the  last  will 
of  the  late  king."  The  answer  of  the  lords  was  peremptory 
and  authoritative.  They  apprized  the  duke  that  the  late  king 
"  might  not  by  his  last  will,  nor  otherwise,  alter  without  the 
consent  of  the  estates,  nor  grant  to  any  person  the  governance 
of  this  land  longer  than  he  lived ;  and  that  the  desire  of  the 
duke  was  not  according  to  the  laws  of  this  land,  but  was 
against  the  right  and  freedom  of  the  estates  of  the  same 
land."  They  nevertheless  for  the  sake  of  peace  declared,  by 
the  authority  of  the  king  and  the  three  estates,  that  in  the 
absence  of  his  brother,  Bedford,  he  (Gloucester)  should  be 
chief  of  the  king's  council,  "not  with  the  name  of  lieutenant- 
governor,  nor  regent,  nor  any  other  that  importeth  authority 
over  the  land,  but  with  the  name  of  protector  and  defender, 
which  importeth  a  personal  duty  of  attendance  to  the  actual 
defence  of  the  land  ;"  and,  finally,  referred  him  to  the  act  of 
parliament  which  named  him  as  the  sole  measure  of  the  power 
of  his  office.! 

So  absolute  was  the  supremacy  of  parliament,  and  so  com- 
pletely did  they  assume  to  themselves  the  power  of  the  minor 
king,  that  they  thus  regulated  the  distribution  of  his  preroga- 

*  Rot.  Parl.  iv.  338.  t  Ibid.  326. 

VOL.  II.  B 


14  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1441. 

lives  and  dominions  among  various  officers,  some  of  whom 
were  so  unknown  to  former  usage  that  it  became  necessary 
to  frame  new  and  very  indefinite  names  for  them.  At  various 
periods  of  the  minority  changes  were  made  in  persons,  and  in 
the  powers  with  which  they  were  invested,  as  if  to  display 
the  authority  of  parliament,  but  which  also  indicated  the  secret 
discord  between  the  duke  and  the  cardinal,  discord  of  which 
the  embers  were  not  yet  extinguished.  Gloucester  sought  the 
united  support  of  all  the  legitimate  Plantagenets,  more  espe- 
cially of  Richard  duke  of  York,  who,  in  his  governments  of 
France  and  of  Ireland,  conducted  himself  with  the  fidelity 
becoming  his  just  and  moderate  character.  The  lay  represent- 
ative of  the  domineering  cardinal  was  his  nephew,  Henry 
Beaufort,  afterwards  duke  of  Somerset.  The  two  ministers 
tried  their  strength  in  the  question  relating  to  the  release  of 
the  duke  of  Orleans,  a  prisoner  since  the  battle  of  Agincourt, 
whom  the  cardinal  procured  to  be  enlarged,  with  such  dis- 
pleasure on  the  part  of  Gloucester  that  he  protested  against 
the  measure,  and  took  to  his  barge  to  avoid  sanctioning  by 
his  presence  the  oaths  of  the  enlarged  prince  not  to  turn  his 
liberty  and  his  arms  against  England.* 

In  the  ensuing  year  a  more  conspicuous  blow  was  struck  at 
the  protector's  greatness.  In  that  age  the  charge  of  sorcery 
was  irresistible.  It  blasted  all  whom  it  touched,  raising  such 
a  storm  of  indignation  and  abhorrence  that  no  mind  had  calm- 
ness remaining  to  distinguish  guilt  from  innocence,  if  such 
terms  can  properly  be  applied  to  this  imaginary  crime.  It  was 
the  sharpest  weapon  of  churchmen,  who  were  thought  most 
capable  of  discriminating  and  subduing  the  confederates  of 
the  infernal  powers.  An  accusation  of  sorcery  and  treason 
was  brought  against  Elinor  Cobham,  the  wife  or  concubine  of 
Gloucester.  She  was  charged  with  having  framed  a  waxen 
statue  of  the  king,  whom  she  was  slowly  to  torture,  and  finally 
to  destroy,  by  such  applications  to  this  image,  as,  according  to 
the  first  principles  of  necromancy,  would  become  painful  and 
fatal  inflictions  on  the  royal  person.  An  ecclesiastic  named 
Bolingbroke,  her  husband's  secretary,  Hum  her  chaplain,  and 
Southwell,  a  canon  of  St  Stephen's  chapel  in  Westminster, 
men  of  most  repute  for  knowledge  of  any  in  their  time,  were 
convicted  with  her  of  the  same  composition  of  necromancy 
and  treason.  One  suffered  public  execution ;  two  died  secretly 
and  suddenly  in  prison.  Elinor  herself,  on  the  13th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1441,  was  brought  from  Westminster  by  water,  and  landed 
at  the  Temple  bridge,  from  whence,  with  a  taper  of  wax  of 

*  Fenn.  or  Paston  Letters,  i.  3.    1  Nov.  1440,  10  IF.  6. 


1445.  MARGARET    OF    ANJOU.  15 

two  pounds  weight  in  her  hand,  she  went  through  Fleet-street, 
"  hoodless,  save  a  kerchief,  to  St.  Paul's,  where  she  offered  her 
taper."  At  two  other  days  in  the  same  week  she  was  landed 
at  Queenhithe  and  in  Thames-street,  whence  she  made  the 
like  penitential  procession  to  other  shrines  in  the  city;  at 
all  which  times  the  mayor,  sheriffs,  and  crafts  of  London  re- 
ceived her  and  accompanied  her :  the  march,  doubtless,  pre- 
served the  show  of  voluntary  penitence ;  and  the  exposure  of 
the  king's  aunt  was  softened  by  some  tokens  of  her  royal  con- 
nexion. She  was  afterwards  committed  to  the  custody  of  Sir 
John  Stanley,  comptroller  of  the  household :  a  chronicler  de- 
scribes her  to  have  been  sent  by  him  "  to  dwell  an  outlaw  in 
the  wilds  of  the  Isle  of  Man."  But  by  the  more  credible  tes- 
timony of  records  it  appears  that  she  had  been  committed  a 
prisoner  to  his  castle  of  Chester,  whence  she  is  traced  to  Ken- 
ilworth,  where  she  disappears  from  history.*  The  sorcerers 
themselves  doubtless  trusted  as  much  the  potent  malignity  of 
their  own  spells  as  other  men  dreaded  them.  They  intended 
to  do  evil,  and  believed  that  they  had  accomplished  their  fell 
purposes.  They  might  be  thought  as  wicked  as  real  demons, 
if  it  were  possible  for  mankind  to  contemplate  with  lasting 
abhorrence  intentions  and  designs  which  are  known  from 
their  nature  to  be  for  ever  incapable  of  being  carried  into 
execution ;  yet  their  black  attempts  spread  dismay  and  alarm 
among  mankind,  and  the  general  apprehension  was  as  real  an 
evil  as  if  the  means  contemplated  had  been  substantial  and 
efficacious. 

While  the  bulwarks  of  Gloucester's  security  as  well  as 
dignity  were  thus  loosened  around  him,  and  though  he  saw 
his  connexions  crumbling  on  every  side,  he  was  obliged  "  to 
take  all  patiently,  and  said  little."!  Another  transaction 
occurred  which  speedily  threw  the  whole  current  of  authority 
into  new  channels:  this  was  the  marriage  of  the  imbecile 
king  with  a  French  princess  of  great  spirit  and  renown,  Mar- 
garet, the  daughter  of  Rene  of  Anjou,  titular  king  of  Sicily ; 
a  woman  with  the  allurements  but  without  the  virtues  of  her 
sex,  endowed  with  masculine  faculties,  trained  in  the  sanguine 
hopes  and  wild  projects  of  adventurous  exile,  and  who  became 
as  fearless  and  merciless  as  any  of  the  heroes  of  her  time. 
Thus  the  guidance  of  the  most  timid  and  effeminate  of  mon- 
archs  fell  to  the  charge  of  the  fiercest  and  one  of  the  ablest 
of  females.  The  marriage  was  solemnized  in  May,  1445,  with 
a  splendor  more  becoming  the  actual  state  than  suited  to  the 
impending  fortunes  of  the  king.  In  a  curious  account  of  the 

*  Ellis's  Royal  Letters,  second  series,  i.  107.  Rymer,  xi.  45.  f  Grafton. 


16  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1447. 

nuptial  pomp  by  a  contemporary  chronicler,*  we  are  struck  by 
the  show  and  bravery  of  the  trading  companies  of  London, 
already  mingling  the  display  of  their  commercial  wealth  with 
the  gorgeous  magnificence  of  princes  and  lords.  One  circum- 
stance brought  unpopularity  on  the  marriage,  and  on  Suffolk 
who  had  concluded  the  treaty.  The  territories  of  Maine  and 
Anjou  had  been  ceded  to  Rene  in  the  matrimonial  treaty. 
They  were  the  keys  of  Normandy ;  which,  being  placed  in 
the  weak  hands  of  Rene,  enabled  the  French  army  to  over- 
run that  most  English  of  the  provinces  situated  in  France. 

The  final  attack  on  Gloucester  was  made  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing that  of  the  marriage.  It  is  a  transaction  buried  in  deep 
obscurity ;  of  which  a  probable  account  may  be  hazarded,  but 
of  which  little,  except  the  perpetration  of  an  atrocious  murder, 
can  be  affirmed  with  certainty.  General  belief,  and  our  most 
ancient  writers,  trace  it  to  the  deep-rooted  animosity  between 
the  cardinal  Beaufort  and  the  duke  of  Gloucester.  We  find 
them  engaged  in  angry  and  fierce  contest  from  the  beginning, 
without  any  appearance  of  their  enmities  having  really  ceased 
to  the  last.  Even  in  his  most  advanced  age,  there  is  no  indi- 
cation that  the  cardinal  renounced  his  inveterate  habits  of 
ambitious  intrigue,  the  last  vice  perhaps  extinguished  by  gray 
hairs.  In  the  mean  time,  however,  the  chief  administration 
of  public  affairs  had  gradually  slid  into  the  hands  of  William 
de  la  Pole,  earl  and  afterwards  duke  of  Suffolk,  son  of  the 
unfortunate  favorite  of  Richard  II.  His  grandfather,  Sir  Wil- 
liam de  la  Pole,  a  merchant  at  Hull,  had,  by  loans  and  supplies 
to  Edward  III.  during  the  French  wars,  raised  his  family  to 
the  threshold  of  nobility.  After  the  cardinal's  decay,  and  the 
appearance  of  a  domineering  queen,  Suffolk  became  like  his 
predecessor  the  enemy  of  Gloucester. 

The  minister  felt  a  prince  engaged  in  public  affairs  to  be  a 
formidable  rival.  His  jealousy  was  quickened  by  Gloucester's 
popularity,  and  by  the  compassion  of  the  multitude  for  the 
ignominy  heaped  on  his  family  and  adherents.  His  condem- 
nation of  the  pacific  policy  adopted  towards  France  (first 
shown  in  his  resistance  to  the  duke  of  Orleans's  enlargement), 
and  his  affectation  of  zeal  for  the  more  heroic  councils  of  Henry 
V.,  contributed  to  offend  the  queen  and  to  displease  the  minis- 
ter of  a  new  system.  De  la  Pole  himself,  who  had  risen  under 
the  cardinal,  can  hardly  be  believed  to  have  embarked  in  any 
enterprise  against  his  own,  the  prelate's,  and  the  queen's 
enemy,  without  perfect  assurance  that  it  would  not  be  unac- 
ceptable either  to  Beaufort  or  to  Margaret.  The  advanced 

*  Fabian. 


1447.  MURDER  OF  GLOUCESTER.  17 

years  of  the  cardinal  were  likely  to  be  more  soothed  than  dis- 
pleased by  one  of  those  irregular  blows  against  an  enemy 
which  were  considered  as  master-strokes  of  policy.  It  is  no 
wonder,  then,  that  the  crime  directly  perpetrated  by  De  la 
Pole  has  always  been  thought  not  to  have  been  disapproved 
by  the  young  queen  ;  and,  to  use  the  significant  words  of  an 
old  chronicler,  "  to  be  not  unprocured  by  the  cardinal."  In 
February  1447,  at  a  parliament  holden  at  St.  Edmund's  Bury, 
the  lord  viscount  Beaumont,  by  the  king's  command,  ar- 
rested Humphrey  duke  of  Gloucester  for  divers  acts  of  high 
treason.  If  there  were  any  parliamentary  proceedings  on  the 
subject,  no  part  of  them  is  to  be  found  in  the  printed  rolls  of 
parliament*  Within  two  days  of  the  committal  the  duke 
was  found  dead  in  his  prison.  His  body,  which  was  exposed 
to  public  view,  had  no  outward  marks  of  violence.  No  legal 
inquiry  into  the  circumstances  of  the  death  of  the  presump- 
tive heir  to  the  throne  seems  to  have  been  demanded.  Some 
of  the  most  remarkable  circumstances  of  the  case  are  a  grant 
of  the  county  of  Pembroke,  a  part  of  his  vast  possessions  (if 
he  should  die  without  issue)  to  De  la  Pole,  his  accuser  and 
destroyer,  executed  some  time  before ;  the  mockery  of  suing 
out  administration  for  the  king  as  next  of  kin  to  his  uncle, 
who  died  intestate  ;  and  the  seizure  of  the  dower  of  the  un- 
happy Elinor,  which  they  alleged  to  be  forfeited  by  her  pre- 
tended crimes.  Many  were  thrown  into  prison  as  Gloucester's 
accomplices.  Of  these,  five  gentlemen  of  the  duke's  house- 
hold, Sir  Roger  Chamberlayne,  Middleton,  Herbert,  Arthur, 
and  Needham,  were  condemned  to  be  hanged,  drawn,  and 
quartered ;  on  what  proof  and  by  what  mode  of  trial,  we  know 
not  Suffolk  the  prime  minister  was,  it  seems,  present  at  their 
trial,  and  more  certainly  on  the  day  of  execution.  When  the 
culprits  were  cut  down,  and  after  their  bodies  were  marked 
for  quartering,  the  duke  of  Suffolk  took  a  paper  out  of  his 
pocket  containing  the  king's  pardon,  which  he  read  aloud  to 
the  multitude,!  assigning  the  reasons  of  the  royal  mercy,  one 
of  which  was  the  indecency  of  a  public  execution  on  Friday. 
The  duke  of  Gloucester  had  endeared  himself  to  the  people 
in  some  measure,  perhaps,  by  his  zeal  against  the  French 
party,  but  more  justly  by  his  generosity,  valor,  and  encourage- 
ment of  letters,  with  which  he  was  himself  not  untinctured. 
He  was  long  bewailed  as  the  good  duke  of  Gloucester. 

He  was  followed  to  the  grave  within  two  months  by  his  old 

*  The  imperfect  state  of  the  rolls  revives  my  envy  of  those  historical  in- 
quirers who  will  have  the  good  fortune  to  begin  their  labors  after  Mr.  Pal- 
grave's  edition  shall  be  completed. 

t  Tabian,  61'J.  4to.  London,  1812. 

B2 


18  HISTORY  OF  EXGLAXD.  1450. 

rival  the  cardinal,  who  did  not  leave  behind  him  go  good  a 
name.  The  Lancastrian  party  was  thus  stripped  of  its  chiefs. 
No  male  Plantagenet  of  that  lineage  remained  but  the  pageant 
king ;  and  the  execution  of  Somerset  completed  that  naked 
and  defenceless  position  of  the  crown  which  had  been  caused 
by  the  murder  of  Gloucester. 

In  the  year  1450  the  administration  of  Suffolk  was  closed, 
in  a  manner  of  which  the  outward  circumstances  are  charac- 
teristic of  the  time,  though  the  secret  springs  of  it  are  imper- 
fectly known  to  us.  He  had  been  impeached  in  1447  for  high 
treason,  in  exciting  the  French  to  invade  England,  in  order  to 
depose  Henry,  and  to  place  on  the  throne  De  la  Pole's  son, 
who  was  to  wed  Somerset's  daughter,  considered  by  the  Lan- 
castrian party  as  the  next  in  succession  to  the  crown.  He  was 
charged  with  the  loss  of  France  by  his  negotiations  in  that 
country,  and  with  having  betrayed  the  secrets  of  the  state  to 
the  French  ministers.  Many  other  illegal  and  tyrannical  acts 
were  thrown  into  the  scale  by  the  house  of  commons.  Few 
of  these  acts,  if  proved,  would  have  amounted  to  treason ; 
many  of  them  were  either  frivolous,  or  supported  only  by 
vague  rumor ;  and  the  remainder  were  composed  of  the  ir- 
regularities which  no  man  who  had  any  power  to  do  wrong 
was  at  that  time  solicitous  to  avoid.  The  king,  however, 
stopped  the  impeachment.*  He  called  the  peers  and  the  ac- 
cused into  a  secret  apartment  of  his  palace,  where  the  chan- 
cellor, by  the  king's  command,  acquainted  the  prisoner  that 
the  king,  having  considered  the  charges  of  treason,  held  the 
duke  to  be  neither  acquitted  nor  convicted :  "  that  touching 
the  misprisions,  the  king,  by  force  of  your  submission,  by  his 
own  advice,  and  not  referring  himself  to  the  advice  of  the 
lords,  nor  by  way  of  judgment, — for  he  is  not  seated  in  a  place 
of  judgment, — putteth  you  to  his  rule  and  governance ;  and 
commands  that  you  shall  absent  yourself  from  the  realms  of 
England  and  France  for  five  years."  Lord  Beaumont,  on, 
behalf  of  the  lords,  protested  that  they  did  not  share  in  this 
act ;  and  that  it  should  never  be  Cited  in  derogation  of  their 
honor,  nor  to  prejudice  the  privilege  of  peerage  in  all  time 
coming. 

As  far  as  it  is  possible  to  liken  so  anomalous  a  proceeding 
to  legal  regularity,  the  above  entry  has  some  resemblance  to 
a  conditional  pardon  of  the  impeachment,  with  a  general  un- 
derstanding, that  by  a  breach  of  the  conditions  the  prisoner 
would  expose  himself  to  the  king's  displeasure.  The  public, 
as  we  learn  from  a  contemporary,  considered  the  whole  as  a 

*  Rot.  Parl.  v.  1P2. 


1450.  MLKDER  OF  SUFFOLK.  19 

juggle ;  and  "  it  was  believed  that  the  duke  of  Suffolk  was 
right  well  at  ease  and  merry,  and  in  the  king's  good  grace, 
and  in  the  good  conceit  of  the  lords  as  well  as  ever."*  The 
prevalence  of  such  surmises  renders  the  event  which  followed 
somewhat  more  unintelligible.  The  duke  took  shipping  for 
Calais,  in  pursuance  of  the  king's  command.  He  was  stopped 
near  the  coast  by  one  of  the  largest  vessels  of  those  times, 
called  the  "  Nicholas  of  the  Tower,"  which  carried  150  men. 
The  commander  of  that  ship  sent  a  party  on  board  the  duke's 
bark  to  bring  him  to  the  Nicholas,  and  on  his  being  brought 
said  to  him,  "  Welcome,  traitor !  as  men  say."  K»J  was  al- 
lowed a  confessor ;  and  on  the  next  day,  2d  May,  1450,  the 
duke,  in  'sight  of  all  his  men,  who  looked  on  from  their  small 
vessel,  was  drawn  out  of  the  great  ship  into  the  boat,  where 
there  were  an  ax  and  a  block,  and  one  of  the  meanest  of  the 
mariners  bade  him  lay  down  his  head  and  he  should  die  by  the 
sword.  The  seaman  then  took  a  rusty  sword,  with  which,  in 
half  a  dozen  strokes,!  ne  cut  the  head  from  the  body, 

It  seems  evident  that  the  instrument  of  the  downfall  of  De 
la  Pole  was  the  hatred  of  the  people,  and  of  the  house  of  com- 
mons, raised  to  the  utmost  pitch  by  the  barbarous  murder  of 
Gloucester,  apparently  the  most  popular  Plantagenet  since  the 
Black  Prince.  But  the  component  portions  of  the  party  form- 
ed against  him,  their  leader,  and  their  motives  are  not  to  be 
so  easily  understood.  How  the  queen,  then  all-powerful, 
looked  calmly  on  his  overthrow,  seems  incompatible  with  the 
whole  of  her  conduct  since  he  had  negotiated  the  marriage. 
It  is  not  more  easy  to  conjecture  the  authority  or  the  induce- 
ments which,  after  he  had  been  released  by  the  king  and 
sheltered  from  popular  fury  in  mild  banishment,  caused  him 
to  be  dragged  from  the  vessel  which  was  bearing  him  to  the 
place  of  his  appointed  exile ;  to  be  carried  by  force  on  board  a 
ship  of  the  state;  and,  by  order  of  her  commander,  to  be 
murdered  in  open  day,  with  some  butcherly  mimicry  of  an 
execution  of  public  justice.  Perhaps  the  ambitious  queen, 
and  her  late  colleagues  in  administration,  yielded  to  the  fear 
of  those  commotions  which  the  swell  of  the  sea  and  the  black- 
ness of  the  clouds  indicated  not  to  be  distant ;  nor  is  it  im- 
probable that  Margaret,  loaded  by  liim  with  burdensome  ben- 
efits, might  have  shown  that  she  should  not  be  inconsolable  if 
she  were  delivered  from  a  man  who  had  the  power  to  bestow 
so  much  good,  and  consequently  to  inflict  so  much  evil.  The 
contemporary  relater  of  this  barbarous  deed  tells  his  corre- 

*  Fenn.  i.  29. 

t  Ibid.  i.  30.  evidently  from  the  words  of  an  eye-witnew. 


20  HISTORY  OP  ENGLAND.  1450. 

spondent,  that,  in  writing  it,  "  he  had  so  washed  his  short  let- 
ter with  sorrowful  tears,  that  it  would  be  scarcely  possible  to 
read  it :"  tears  which,  if  they  were  those  of  humanity,  do 
honor  to  the  memory  of  Suffolk,  but  which  may  only  have 
been  the  regret  of  a  partisan  at  the  loss  of  the  leader  of  his 
faction. 

Before  the  impeachment  of  Suffolk,  some  risings  of  the 
people,  who  took  the  nickname  of  blue-beard,  manifested  the 
gathering  discontent.  In  the  month  of  June,  immediately  after 
the  murder  of  that  minister,  a  body  of  the  peasantry  of  Kent 
met  on  Blackheath  in  arms,  under  a  leader  of  disputed  de- 
scent, who  has  been  transmitted  to  posterity  with  the  nick- 
name of  Jack  Cade.*  On  him  they  bestowed  the  honorable 
name  of  John  Mortimer,  with  manifest  allusion  to  the  claims 
of  the  house  of  Mortimer  to  the  succession;  which  were, 
however,  now  indisputably  vested  in  Richard  duke  of  York. 
In  the  force  assembled  by  the  king  were  many  not  untainted 
by  the  disaffection  of  the  peasantry.  After  the  defeat  of  -a 
part  of  the  royal  troops  at  Seven  Oaks,  the  remainder  refused 
to  fight.  Lord  Say  was  committed  to  the  Tower  to  satisfy 
the  revolters.  The  kin^,  driven  from  the  field,  took  shelter 
in  London ;  and  on  occasion  of  a  second  revolt  of  the  common- 
alty of  Essex,  he  fled  to  Kenilworth,  lest  he  and  his  court 
should  be  surrounded.  Cade  now  assumed  the  attire,  orna- 
ments, and  style  of  a  knight ;  and,  under  the  title  of  captain, 
he  professed  to  preserve  the  country  by  enforcing  the  rigorous 
observance  of  discipline  among  his  followers.  The  duke  of 
Buckingham  and  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had  been 
sent  to  negotiate  with  him,  acknowledged  that  they  found  him 
"  right  discrete  in  his  answers ;  howbeit  they  could  not  cause 
him  to  lay  down  his  people,  and  to  submit  him"  (uncondition- 
ally) "  unto  the  king's  grace." 

He  made  a  triumphant  entry  into  London,  in  the  shining 
armor  and  gilt  spurs  of  a  knight,  and  issued  a  proclamation 
forbidding,  under  pain  of  death,  his  men  from  taking  any 
thing  without  payment ;  an  indulgence  which,  however,  he 
is  said  by  his  enemies,  through  whom  alone  we  know  him,  to 
have  granted  to  himself.  He  rode  in  exultation  through 
divers  streets ;  and  as  he  came  by  London  stone,  he  struck  it 
with  his  sword,  saying,  "  Now  is  Mortimer  lord  of  the  city ! " 
Lord  Say,  the  treasurer,  was  executed  with  a  few  others.  A 
battle  or  bloody  scuffle  was  continued  during  the  night  on 
London  bridge,  in  which  success  seemed  to  incline  to  the  in- 

*  Stowe  alone  represents  this  leader's  name  to  have  really  been  Cade.  In 
a  contemporary  record  he  is  called  Mr.  John  Aylmere,  physician.— Ellis' s 
Letters,  i.  second  series,  112. 


1452.  BIRTH    OF    THE    PRINCE    OF    WALES.  21 

surgents,  until  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  sent  to  Cade 
pardons  for  himself  and  his  companions ;  "  by  reason  whereof 
he  and  his  company  departed  the  same  night  out  of  South- 
wark,  and  returned  every  man  to  his  own  home."*  In  the 
subsequent  attainder  of  Cade,f  the  treasons  for  which  he  was 
attainted  are,  indeed,  alleged  to  have  been  committed  on  the 
8th  and  9th  of  July,  in  order  that  he  might  not  seem  to  have 
suffered  for  any  act  pardoned  by  the  general  amnesty  which 
was  granted  on  the  7th  of  July  ;  but  his  enemies  had  leisure 
and  opportunity,  for  more  than  twelve  months  after  his  death, 
to  adapt  their  forms  and  dates  to  their  own  purposes.  The 
two  days  which  immediately  followed  the  amnesty  might 
have  been  employed  in  reaching  a  place  of  safe  and  conve- 
nient dispersion :  a  certain  military  array  and  order,  which 
were  technically  treasonable,  might  have  been  necessary  to 
this  inoffensive  purpose ;  insomuch  that,  according  to  all  the 
fair  and  honorable  rules  of  construction,  a  march  to  a  place 
of  dispersion  might  have  justly  been  comprehended  under  the 
protection  of  the  amnesty.  It  seems  also  evident  that  all  the 
legal  executions  took  place  after  the  death  of  Cade  ;  and  the 
chroniclers  hint  at  no  distinction  between  the  treasons  before 
and  those  after  the  general  pardon. 

The  pretensions  of  the  house  of  York,  which  seemed  to 
have  been  so  long  forgotten,  were  now  revived  by  the  popular 
virtues  of  the  duke  of  York  contrasted  with  the  insignificance 
of  Henry ;  by  the  arrogance  and  violence  of  Margaret,  who 
bore  prosperity  so  ill  and  adversity  so  well ;  by  the  loss  of 
France  ;  by  the  long  dishonor  brought  on  the  English  arms ; 
and  by  the  general  opinion  that  a  bodily  infirmity  attended 
the  mental  imbecility  of  Henry,  which  was  likely  to  render 
him  the  last  descendant  of  Jolin  of  Gaunt 

But  the  last  and  most  promising  expectation  of  a  pacific 
issue  amidst  jarring  pretensions  was  disappointed  by  the  un- 
expected pregnancy  of  the  queen  and  the  birth  of  her  ill- 
omened  son,  Edward  prince  of  Wales ;  which  last  event  oc- 
curred on  the  13th  of  October,  1453,J  seven  years  after  the 
marriage.  Till  that  birth  it  seemed  possible  to  preserve  the 
public  quiet  and  avert  an  armed  contest  for  the  crown,  by 
vesting  the  administration  during  Henry's  life  in  Richard, 
and  leaving  the  succession  to  its  natural  course ;  which,  af- 
ter the  death  of  that  prince,  would  place  the  -  crown  on  the 
brow  of  Richard  duke  of  York,  the  Plantagenet  of  undisputed 

*  Fabian,  G25.  t  Rot.  Part.  v.  2i». 

t  "  His  noble  mother  sustained  not  a  little  ilisclaunder  of  the  common 
people  saying,  that  he  was  not  the  natural  eon  of  king  Henry."— Fabian, 


22  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1453. 

legitimacy  nearest  to  the  throne.  A  prince  of  less  estimable 
and  unambitious  character  than  Richard  might  have  been 
well  satisfied  with  so  ample  a  share  of  the  power  and  dignity 
of  royalty,  either  in  possession  or  in  expectation ;  but  the 
birth  of  Edward  blocked  up  this  single  road  to  peace,  and,  by 
opening  a  possible  prospect  of  numerous  issue,  threatened  the 
whole  kingdom  with  the  odious  dictatorship  of  Margaret, 
continued  through  the  imbecility  of  her  husband,  and  the  mi- 
nority of  a  series  of  perhaps  equally  suspected  children.* 

The  duke  of  York  impeached  the  duke  of  Somerset  for  the 
loss  of  Normandy  and  Aquitaine  ;  but  chiefly  with  an  inten- 
tion to  weaken  his  power  as  the  Lancastrian  leader.  It  was 
not,  however,  till  the  birth  of  the  prince  that  the  claims  of 
York  began  to  be  seriously  made.  Though  an  unfriendly 
correspondence  between  York  and  the  king's  prompters  had 
subsisted  for  some  time,  it  seemed  only  to  be  one  of  the  mili- 
tary impeachments,  which  had  become  a  frequent  though 
lawless  mode  of  removing  evil  counsellors,  and  which  was 
regarded  as  a  baronial  privilege.  It  is  not,  indeed,  wonderful 
that  the  mere  principle  of  hereditary  succession  should  have 
been  so  long  kept  out  of  public  view.  Few  pretensions  can 
be  more  glaringly  absurd  than  that  of  the  house  of  York,  as 
far  as  it  barely  rested  on  that  supposed  principle.  The  de- 
scendants of  John  of  Gaunt  had  now  filled  the  throne  for 
nearly  sixty  years :  they  were  raised  to  it  by  a  solemn  par- 
liamentary establishment,  confirmed  by  the  general  obedience 
of  the  whole  nation,  and  by  manifold  oaths  of  allegiance  from 
successive  generations  of  the  hereditary  pretenders  them- 
selves. To  press  the  convenient  rule  of  hereditary  succes- 
sion to  such  an  extremity,  was  to  expose  society  to  that  disor- 
der and  anarchy  from  which  monarchy  was  regarded  as  a 
refuge.  If  an  inquiry  into  titles  could  be  thus  retrospective, 
what  principle  could  limit  its  operation  1  Surely  the  heirs  of 
Edgar  Athelihg,  if  not  those  of  king  Arthur,  ought  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  descendants  of  Edward  III.  A  restoration  after 
an  establishment  of  sixty  years  is  a  revolution,  and  leads  to  an 
endless  series  of  revolutions.  The  revived  establishment  is 
as  untried  by  the  existing  generation  as  if  it  had  not  subsist- 
ed in  past  times ;  it  is  as  little  known  from  experience  whether 
it  will  be  suitable  to  their  needs ;  combined  as  it  must  be  with 
new  and  unknown  agents,  no  man  can  foretell  its  future  course 

*  "  His  mother  sustained  not  a  little  slander  and  obloquy  of  the  common 
people,  who  had  an  opinion  that  the  king  was  not  able  to  get  a  child  ;  and 
therefore  stalked  not  to  say  that  this  was  not  his  son;  with  many  slan- 
derous words  to  the  queen's  dishonor,  much  perhaps  untruly." — Holinshed. 
' 


1453.        ANNALS    OF   THE    CIVIL    WAR    OBSCURE.  23 

from  a  remembrance  of  its  former  power  in  a  simpler  form  or 
in  other  combinations. 

It  seems,  accordingly,  to  have  been  rather  from  the  personal 
merit  of  the  duke  of  York,  from  the  general  proximity  of  his 
family  to  the  royal  blood,  from  the  habit  of  considering  them 
as  presumptive  heirs  of  the  crown  for  the  thirty  years  which 
elapsed  between  the  extinction  of  the  Mortimers  and  the  birth 
of  prince  Edward,  than  from  any  strong  sense  or  even  distinct 
conception  of  hereditary  right,  that  the  English  nation,  hum- 
bled abroad  and  agitated  at  home,  began  to  turn  their  eyes  to 
the  first  prince  of  the  blood,  and  to  seek  a  refuge  under  his 
sway  from  the  passionate  tyranny  of  Margaret,  whether  ex- 
ercised through  an  imbecile  husband  or  a  minor  son. 

The  civil  war  between  the  red  rose  of  Lancaster  and  the 
white  rose  of  York  is,  in  every  sense,  the  darkest  period  of 
our  history  within  the  time  in  which  its  outlines  are  ascer- 
tained by  documentary  evidence.  We  are  no  longer  enlight- 
ened, as  in  otherwise  less  advanced  times,  by  such  excellent 
writers  as  Bede,  Malmesbury,  and  Matthew  Paris.  A  few 
strokes  of  Comines  throw  a  more  clear  and  agreeable  light 
over  our  story  than  the  scanty  information  of  our  own  meager 
and  unskilful  writers.  This  defect  in  historical  materials 
seems  to  depend  in  part  on  peculiar  circumstances  in  the  pro- 
gress of  our  literature  and  language.  The  war  of  the  roses 
fills  an  insulated  space  between  the  cessation  of  Latin  annal- 
ists and  the  rise  of  English  historians.  Men  of  genius  ceased 
to  write  hi  a  language  of  which  the  employment  narrowed 
their  power  over  the  opinions  and  applauses  of  their  country- 
men. During  the  period  which  we  now  contemplate,  they 
may  be  said  to  have  paused  before  they  turned  then-  powers 
of  writing  towards  their  native  tongue,  although  it  was  daily 
more  fitted  for  their  purpose  by  its  successful  employment  in 
the  contests  of  the  bar  and  the  senate.  The  nature  of  the 
civil  war  itself,  which  was  merely  personal ;  the  multiplicity 
of  its  obscure  and  confused  incidents ;  the  frequent  instances 
of  success  without  ability,  and  of  calamity  befalling  the  un- 
known and  uninteresting ;  the  monotonous  cruelty  of  every 
party,  which  robbed  horror  itself  of  its  sway  over  the  soul ; 
together  with  the  unsafe  and  unsteady  position  of  most  indi- 
viduals, which  repressed  the  cultivation  of  every  province  of 
literature,  more  especially  repelled  men  of  letters  from  re- 
lating the  inglorious  misfortunes  of  themselves  and  of  their 
country.  More  obvious  causes  contributed  towards  the  same 
effect.  The  general  war  often  broke  out  in  local  eruptions 
and  provincial  commotions,  which  no  memory  could  follow. 
The  mind  is  often  perplexed  at  the  sudden  changes  in  the 


24  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1454. 

political  conduct  of  chiefs,  which  arise  from  momentary  im- 
pulses of  great  danger,  or  of  newer  and  stronger  hatred, 
which  act  with  redoubled  force  in  times  of  convulsion.  The 
inconstancy  is  made  to  appear  greater  than  it  really  was,  by 
those  alterations  of  name  and  title,  which  occasion  some  diffi- 
culties in  our  most  orderly  times. 

Some  of  the  preludes  of  civil  confusion  deserve  notice,  as 
curious  specimens  of  a  laborious  regard  paid  to  the  forms 
and  fictions  of  law  amidst  the  dread  of  tumult  and  carnage. 
Thomas  Thorp,  a  baron  of  exchequer,  and  speaker  of  the 
house  of  commons,  who  had  been,  by  the  duke  of  York's  pro- 
curement, committed  to  prison  to  enforce  payment  of  a  fine, 
sought  his  enlargement  on  the  ground  of  parliamentary  privi- 
lege. "The  lords  spiritual  and  temporal  not  intending  to 
empeche  or  hurt  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  theym  that 
were  comen  for  the  commune  of  this  land,  for  this  present 
parliament,  asked  the  judges  whether  the  said  Thomas  ought 
to  be  delivered  from  prison  by  privilege  of  parliament.  The 
chief  justice,  in  the  name  of  all  the  justices,  answered  and 
said,  that  they  ought  not  to  answer  to  that  question ;  for  it  has 
not  been  used  aforetime  that  the  justices  should  in  anywise 
determine  the  privilege  of  this  high  court  of  parliament ;  for 
it  is  so  high  and  so  mighty  in  its  nature,  that  it  may  make 
law,  and  the  determination  and  knowledge  of  that  privilege 
belongeth  to  the  lords  of  the  parliament,  and  not  to  the  judges." 
Thus  did  the  independent  power  of  the  house  of  commons 
flourish  in  the  midst  of  storms,  and  the  foundations  of  legal 
liberty  were  laid  by  the  violent  contests  of  ambition  merely 
personal. 

In  the  same  parliament,  which  was  holden  in  the  abbey  of 
Reading  by  John  Tiptoft  earl  of  Worcester,  a  statesman  nei- 
ther merciful  nor  spotless,  but  distinguished  as  one  of  the 
earliest  patrons  and  even  cultivators  of  letters  among  the 
English  nobility,  another  scene  was  exhibited,  which  lays 
open  to  us  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  king.  A  committee 
of  three  spiritual  and  eight  temporal  lords  was  appointed  to 
confer  with  the  king  on  measures  of  state,*  or,  in  plainer  lan- 
guage, to  ascertain  Henry's  capacity  for  government.  "  The 
bishop  of  Chester  read  to  him  part  of  his  instructions ;  to  this 
statement  they  could  get  no  answer  nor  sign  for  none  of  their 
prayers  or  desires.  After  dinner  they  moved  him  again  for 
an  answer ;  but  they  could  have  none.  From  that  place  they 
willed  the  king  to  go  into  another  chamber,  and  he  was  led 
between  two  men  to  the  chamber  where  he  lieth ;  and  there  they 

*  March  23,  1451.  *Rot.  Parl.  v.  241,  242. 


1455.          YORK  CHOSEN  PROTECTOR.  25 

stirred  him  the  third  time,  but  they  could  have  no  answer, 
word,  nor  sign,  and  therefore  with  sorrowful  hearts  came  their 
way."  Having  thus  ascertained  the  total  incapacity  of  the 
king,  the  lords  chose  the  duke  of  York  to  be  protector  and 
defender  of  the  kingdom,  which  he  accepted ;  protesting,  how- 
ever, that  he  did  not  assume  the  title  or  authority  of  protector, 
but  was  chosen  by  the  parliament  of  themselves,  and  of  their 
own  free  and  mere  disposition ;  and  that  he  should  be  ready  to 
resume  his  obedience  to  the  king's  commands,  as  soon  as  it 
was  notified  and  declared  unto  him  by  the  parliament  that 
Henry  was  restored  to  his  health  of  body  and  mind.  Applying 
precedents  of  infancy  to  a  case  apparently  of  temporary  idiocy, 
they  then  proceeded  to  a  notable  expedient,  copied  in  modern 
and  very  recent  times — commanding  the  chancellor  to  frame 
and  seal  a  commission  in  the  king's  name  and  by  his  authority, 
as  well  as  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  lords  and  com- 
mons, nominating  the  infant  prince  of  Wales,  when  he  reaches 
years  of  discretion,  to  be  protector  of  the  kingdom ;  but  ap- 
pointing Richard  duke  of  York  to  exercise  the  office  till  that 
infant  prince  should  be  of  age :  the  whole  to  be  in  force  during 
the  king's  pleasure. 

The  duke  of  York  gained  the  support  of  the  potent  earls  of 
Salisbury  and  Warwick,  by  his  marriage  with  their  sister,  the 
lady  Cicely  Neville.  These  lords  led  into  the  field  the  well- 
tried  borderers  of  Wales.  Mowbray  duke  of  Norfolk,  and 
Courtenay  earl  of  Devon,  were  zealous  Yorkists.  London  and 
its  neighborhood  favored  the  pretensions  of  that  party.  All 
who  Jiad  suffered  from  or  were  indignant  at  the  tyranny  of 
Margaret,  all  who  earnestly  sought  to  avenge  the  murder  of 
the  good  duke  of  Gloucester,  or  to  punish  the  lawless  execu- 
tion of  Suffolk,  flocked  to  the  standard  of  redress,  in  hopes  of 
winning  the  possession  of  the  kingly  pageant,  by  whose  hand 
the  queen  still  ruled  the  kingdom.  Percy,  in  Northumber- 
land, and  Clifford  in  Cumberland,  led  a  border  force  to  the  aid 
of  Margaret.  She  was  supported  by  the  dukes  of  Somerset 
and  Buckingham,  by  Edmund  of  Hadham  earl  of  Richmond, 
and  Jasper  of  Hatfield  earl  of  Pembroke,  the  king's  half- 
brothers,  the  issue  of  the  second  marriage  of  his  mother  Cath- 
erine of  France,  with  Owen  ap  Tudor,  a  Welsh  gentleman, 
who,  as  the  house  of  Lancaster  was  thinned  by  violent  deaths, 
came  gradually  to  be  considered,  if  not  as  princes  of  that 
family,  at  least  as  the  chiefs  of  the  Lancastrian  party.  The 
court,  fearful  of  the  popularity  of  the  Yorkists  in  the  capital, 
advanced  towards  the  north,  where  they  themselves  had  nu- 
merous partisans.  The  two  parties  first  met  at  St  Alban's  on 
Thursday  the  23d  of  May,  l455,  to  contend  with  small  means 

VOL.  II.  C 


26  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1455. 

for  an  immense  prize ;  the  king  being  attended  to  the  field  by 
only  2000  soldiers,  and  the  duke  by  no  more  than  3000.  The 
duke,  in  the  humblest  language,  assured  the  king  of  the  loyal 
attachment  of  himself  and  his  friends  to  his  majesty's  sacred 
person ;  but  they  added,  "  Please  it  your  majesty  royal  to 
deliver  such  as  we  will  accuse,  and  they  to  have  like  as  they 
have  deserved,  you  to  be  honorably  worshipped  as  most  right- 
ful king  and  our  true  governor."*  The  king  sternly  answered 
these  applications  by  commanding  the  rebels  to  disperse ;  ahd 
by  declaring  that  "  rather  than  they  shall  have  any  lord  that 
here  is  with  me  at  this  time,  I  shall  this  day,  for  their  sake, 
in  this  quarrel  myself  live  or  die."  York  considered  this 
refusal  as  a  lawful  cause  of  war.  While  the  messages  were 
passing  between  the  two  camps,  and  when  the  vigilance  of 
the  king's  officers  was  somewhat  lulled,  the  earl  of  Warwick, 
rushing  into  the  town  at  the  head  of  his  hardy  marchmen, 
threw  the  enemy  into  a  confusion  from  which  they  were 
unable  to  recover.  The  royalists  were  dispersed.  Three  of 
their  chiefs,  the  duke  of  Somerset,  the  earl  of  Northumber- 
land, and  the  lord  Clifford,  with  less  than  200  of  the  commoner 
sort,  fell  in  this  engagement,  which  might  rather  be  called  a 
scuffle  than  a  battle,  f 

An  extraordinary  carnage  among  the  commanders  was  ob- 
served by  contemporaries  to  distinguish  this  fatal  war.  "  In 
my  remembrance,"  says  Philip  de  Comines,|  "  eighty  princes 
of  the  blood  royal  of  England  perished  in  these  convulsions ; 
seven  or  eight  battles  were  fought  in  the  course  of  thirty 
years ;  their  own  country  was  desolated  by  the  English  as 
cruelly  as  the  former  generation  had  wasted  France.  Those 
who  were  spared  by  the  sword  renewed  their  sufferings  in 
foreign  lands.  I  myself  saw  the  duke  of  Exeter,  the  king  of 
England's  brother-in-law,  walking  barefoot  after  the  duke  of 
Burgundy's  train,  and  earning  his  bread  by  begging  from  door 
to  door."  Every  individual  of  two  generations  of  the  families 
of  Somerset  and  Warwick  fell  on  the  field,  or  on  the  scaffold, 
a  victim  of  these  bloody  contests.  $ 

Immediately  after  the  battle  of  St.  Alban's,  York  called  a 
parliament,  or  caused  Henry  to  issue  writs  for  that  purpose, 
in  order  to  sanction  his  victory  by  the  show  of  order  and  law. 
At  the  opening  of  the  session  on  Wednesday,  the  9th  of  June, 
1455,  the  king  being  seated  on  his  throne,  with  all  the  display 
of  liberty  and  dignity, ||  he  declared  the  duke  of  York  and  the 

*  Holinshed.  t  Fenn,  i.  100. 

J  Comines,  liv.  i.  chap.  vii. ;  liv.  iii.  chap.  iv.  §  Fenn's  Letters. 

|| "  Ipso  domino  rege  in  camera  depicta  regali  solio  residente."  Rot. 
Parl.  v.  278. 


1456.  HENRY  RESUMES  HIS  AUTHORITY.  27 

earls  of  Warwick  and  Salisbury  to  be  innocent  of  the  slaugh- 
ter caused  at  St.  Alban's  by  the  duke  of  Somerset's  having 
concealed  their  letter  from  the  king ;  and,  with  the  consent 
of  parliament,  he  pronounced  the  Yorkist  lords,  and  those  who 
aided  them,  to  be  "  our  true  and  faithful  liegemen."  A  gene- 
ral pardon  was  granted ;  the  parliament  was  prorogued  till 
the  12th  of  November,  when  it  was  opened  by  the  duke  of 
York,  under  a  commission  from  the  king;  the  duke  was 
elected  protector  by  the  lords,  on  the  repeated  proposition  of 
the  commons ;  and  the  chancellor  gave  the  royal  assent  on 
behalf  of  a  prince,  whose  want  of  capacity  to  assent  or  dissent 
was  the  avowed  occasion  of  all  these  extraordinary  proceed- 
ings. At  the  next  meeting  of  parliament,  however,  on  the 
23d  of  February,  1456,  the  king  appearing  personally,  exon- 
erated the  protector  from  the  duties  of  his  office:*  for  such 
was  the  mild  phrase  by  which  he  was  deprived  of  its  high 
powers. 

Whatever  degree  of  convalescence  Henry  had  attained,  the 
only  effect  of  his  apparent  resumption  of  authority  was  the 
transfer  of  the  custody  of  the  royal  person  from  the  protector 
to  the  queen.  She  it  was  who  probably  contrived  the  dismiss- 
al of  York,  by  which  she  mainly  profited ;  yet  the  change  was 
so  pacific,  and  the  acquiescence  in  it  so  general,  that  the  pro- 
tector and  the  parliament  must  have  been  considerably  influ- 
enced by  the  appearances  of  sanity  in  the  very  perplexing 
case  of  a  man  whose  best  health  was  scarcely  more  than  a 
shade  above  total  disability.  Few  men  appear  to  have  fallen 
into  a  more  hopeless  state  of  childishness  and  oblivion  than 
this  unfortunate  prince.  "  Blessed  be  God,"  says  a  contempo- 
rary in  1455,  "the  king  is  well  amended:  on  Monday  the 
queen  came  to  him,  and  brought  my  lord  prince  with  her ;  and 
then  he  asked  what  the  prince's  name  was,  and  the  queen  told 
him  Edward,  and  then  he  held  up  his  hands,  and  thanked  God 
for  it ;  he  said  he  never  knew  till  that  time,  nor  wist  not  what 
was  said  to  him,  nor  wist  not  where  he  had  been  since  he  was 
sick."f  The  secret  history  of  the  election  for  the  parliament 
of  1455  affords  some  curious  proofs  of  the  solicitude  of  the 
lords  to  acquire  an  ascendant  in  an  assembly  which  was  wax- 
ing stronger.  The  duke  of  York,  and  Mow  bray  duke  of  Nor- 
folk, had  an  interview  at  St  Edmund's  Bury,  to  settle  the 
election.^  The  names  of  the  candidates  favored  by  these 
lords  were  written  on  strips  of  paper,  which  were  distributed 
among  their  yeomanry.  The  duchess  of  Norfolk  also  desired 

*  Rymer,  «.  37?.    Rot.  Parl.  v.  321. 

f  Fenn,  i.  60.  t  October,  1455.    Fenn,  i.  98. 


28  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1458. 

the  votes  of  her  friends  for  John  Howard  and  Sir  Roger 
Chamberlain,  to  be  knights  of  the  shire,  "  it  being  thought 
right  necessary  for  divers  causes  that  my  lord  have  at  this 
time  in  the  parliament  such  persons  as  belong  unto  him,  and 
be  of  his  menial  servants."*  These  practices  are  spoken  of 
familiarly,  as  if  they  were  the  old  and  general  custom,  of 
which  no  man  then  living  remembered  the  origin,  or  censured 
the  observance.  Probably  in  very  early  times,  when  the  com- 
mons were  less  independent,  such  interpositions  were  more 
open  and  violent. 

For  three  years  after  the  removal  of  York,  the  parties 
rested  on  their  arms,  angrily  watching  each  other,  and  lying 
in  wait  for  specious  pretexts  or  promising  opportunities  of 
crushing  their  adversaries.  It  was  during  this  period  that  the 
whole  people  seems  gradually  to  have  arrayed  themselves  as 
Yorkists  or  Lancastrians.  The  rancor  of  party  was  exaspe- 
rated by  confinement  to  narrow  circles  and  petty  districts. 
Feuds  began  to  become  hereditary  ;  and  the  heirs  of  the  lords 
slaughtered  at  St.  Alban's  regarded  the  pursuit  of  revenge  as 
essential  to  the  honor  of  their  families,  and  as  a  pious  office 
due  to  the  memory  of  their  ancestors.  The  delay  in  an  ap- 
peal to  arms  was  doubtless  partly  owing  to  the  formal  and 
wary  character  of  the  duke  of  York,  who  was  solicitous  to 
combine  the  substance  of  power  with  the  appearance  of  law ; 
and  who,  though  a  popular  candidate  for  supreme  authority, 
was  still  withheld  by  prudence  and  principle  from  the  bold 
strokes  which  often  place  a  more  daring  ambition  between  a 
scaffold  and  a  throne.  York  and  the  Nevilles,  who  were  his 
mainstay,  unable  to  face  the  revolution  at  court,  made  their 
escape  to  their  domains  and  fastnesses  in  the  north. 

In  the  beginning  of  1458,  the  queen  required  the  attend- 
ance of  the  Yorkist  lords  in  London  to  go  through  the  vain 
ceremony  of  an  ostentatious  reconciliation  with  the  Lancas- 
trian chiefs.  They  entered  the  capital  at  the  head  of  their 
respective  bands  of  military  retainers,  with  which  each  of 
them  garrisoned  his  dwelling-house,  and  after  an  exchange  of 
professions  of  forgiveness  and  promises  of  kindness,  by  whiph 
neither  party  was  deceived,  the  disaffected  Yorkists  returned 
to  their  castles.  During  their  unwilling  residence  in  London, 
the  trained  bands  of  the  city,  amounting  to  10,000,  arid  the 
active  vigilance  of  Godfrey  Boleyn  the  mayor,  were  unequal 
to  the  task  of  restraining  the  undisciplined  licentiousness  of 
the  fierce  soldiery,  who  were  now  encamped  in  the  capital. 

*i.  e.  bred  in  his  service,  which  any  gentleman  might  have  been.  Fenn. 
i.96, 


1459.  BATTLE  OF  BLORE  HEATH.  29 

Under  pretence  of  tumults  existing  in  London,  and  of  the 
importance  of  a  journey  for  the  restoration  of  her  husband's 
health,  Margaret,  who  knew  the  attachment  of  the  Londoners 
to  the  house  of  York,  led  Henry  with  her  to  Coventry,  where 
they,  or  rather  she,  held  their  residence. 

The  queen,  soon  after  having  brought  her  husband  to  Coven- 
try in  1458,  invited  the  duke  of  York  and  the  Nevilles  to  join 
in  the  king's  sports  of  hawking  and  hunting  in  Warwickshire. 
Either  on  their  journey,  or  immediately  after  their  arrival, 
they  received  a  seasonable  warning  of  Margaret's  project  for 
luring  them  into  Coventry,  where  she  purposed  to  destroy 
them.  They  fled  once  more  to  the  seats  of  their  strength ; 
but  the  detection  of  so  foul  a  scheme  of  faithless  murder 
banished  the  little  remains  of  faith  and  mercy  from  the  sequel 
of  the  war.  The  duke  returned  to  his  castle  of  Wigmore, 
the  ancient  seat  of  the  Mortimers.  Salisbury  went  to  Mid- 
dleham  in  Yorkshire ;  and  Warwick  to  his  government  of 
Calais,  "  then,"  says  Comines,  "  considered  as  the  most  ad- 
vantageous appointment  at  the  disposal  of  any  Christian 
prince,  and  that  which  placed  the  most  considerable  force  at 
the  disposal  of  the  governor."  "  But,"  says  an  ancient  chron- 
icler,* "  although  the  bodies  of  these  noble  persons  were  thus 
separated  asunder  by  artifice,  yet  their  hearts  were  united  and 
coupled  in  one."  They  planned  a  junction.  Salisbury  began 
his  march  to  join  York,  and  proceeded  towards  London,  in 
order  to  rouse  the  Yorkists  of  the  capital,  while  the  duke  re- 
mained on  the  Welsh  border  to  recruit  his  army.  With  a 
force  of  only  5000  men,  Salisbury,  before  he  could  effect  the 
junctions,  encountered  double  that  number  under  the  com- 
mand of  lord  Audley,  whom  Margaret  had  dispatched  to  in- 
tercept his  march.  They  met  on  the  23d  of  September,  1459, 
at  Blore  Heath,  about  a  mile  from  Drayton,  on  the  confines  of 
Shropshire,  where  Audley  was  slain  and  his  army  defeated, 
Salisbury  joined  York  at  Ludlow ;  and  fortune  seemed  to 
smile  on  the  ambition  of  the  respectable  pretender  to  the 
throne. 

One  of  the  most  singular  reverses  of  civil  war,  however, 
soon  ensued :  the  combined  Yorkists  now  advanced  to  attack 
the  queen's  camp,  but  with  the  strongest  protestations  of  loy- 
alty, and  "  with  the  intent  to  remove  from  the  king  such  per- 
sons as  they  thought  enemies  to  the  common  weal  of  Eng- 
land." The  earl  of  Warwick  had  found  means  to  join  his 
friends  from  Calais  with  a  considerable  body,  commanded  by 
Sir  Andrew  Trollop,  a  soldier  of  reputation,  but  suspected  of 

*Ha11. 

C2 


30  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1460. 

secret  disaffection  to  the  house  of  York.  The  onset  was  made 
on  the  12th  of  October,  1459,  near  Ludlow :  the  duke  appears 
to  have  carried  his  language  of  loyalty  and  submission  so  far 
as  to  dishearten  his  followers,  who  ascribed  it  to  despondency. 
The  king,  or  rather  the  queen,  made  the  largest  offers  of  par- 
don and  amnesty.  Trollop,  whether  from  loyalty  or  incon- 
stancy, or  yielding  to  baser  temptations,  deserted  with  his  de- 
tachment in  the  night ;  and  Richard  himself  employed  the 
perilous  stratagem  of  spreading  a  report  that  the  king  was 
dead,  which  elated  his  troops  for  a  moment,  but,  as  soon  as  its 
falsehood  was  known,  so  struck  down  their  spirit,  that  they  no 
longer  offered  any  resistance.  The  duke  of  York  and  his 
sons  made  their  escape  through  Wales  into  Ireland,  where 
his  influence  was  great.  The  Nevilles  took  refuge  on  the 
continent. 

A  parliament  was  holden  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Mary's  at 
Coventry,  of  which  the  principal  business  was  to  attaint  the 
duke  of  York  and  his  adherents  of  treason.*  The  acts  of  this 
parliament  were  afterwards  determined  to  be  void,  on  the 
ground  that  the  electors  were  unduly  influenced,  and  many 
nominated  by  the  crown  without  any  form  of  election  ;f  but 
another  sudden  turn  of  fortune  was  at  hand.  The  duke  of 
York  prepared  to  land  with  Irish  auxiliaries,  and  was  joined 
by  many  Welsh.  Warwick,  who  had  preserved  his  important 
government  of  Calais,  landed  in  Kent,  and  entered  London 
amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  people.  He  advanced  to  meet 
the  queen's  army,  which  he  encountered  near  Northampton, 
and  defeated  with  great  slaughter,  especially  with  that  car- 
nage among  the  chiefs  which  was  so  constant  in  this  war. 
The  king  remained  inactive  in  a  tent  during  a  contest  which, 
with  respect  to  him,  could  determine  nothing  but  which  of 
the  factions  were  to  possess  themselves  of  his  body,  and  to  use 
his  name  as  the  tool  of  their  ambition.  He  was  treated  by  the 
victors,  in  all  other  respects,  with  the  outward  formalities  of 
obsequious  politeness.  A  parliament  which  assembled  at 
Westminster  on  the  2d  of  October,  1460.  annulled,  at  a  blow, 
all  the  proceedings  of  the  late  pretended  parliament  at  Cov- 
entry.J  A  few  days  after  the  meeting  of  parliament,  Richard 
duke  of  York  made  his  entry  into  London,  with  a  sword  borne 
naked  before  him,  with  trumpets  sounding,  and  with  a  great 

*  Rot.  Parl.  v.  345. 

t  "A  great  part  of  the  knights  of  shires,  citizens,  and  burgesses,  were 
named  and  returned,  some  of  them  without  due  and  free  election,  and  some 
of  them  without  any  election,  against  the  course  of  your  laws  and  the  liber- 
ties of  the  communes  of  this  your  land."  See  also  Statutes  of  the  Realm, 
ii.  378.  Parl.  holden  at  London,  Oct.  7,  14CO ;  last  statute  of  Hen.  (5. 

|  Vide  supra,  p.  25.  note. 


1460.         YORK  CLAIMS  THE  CROWX.  31 

train  (or  a  small  army)  of  men-at-arms.  Having  passed 
through  the  great  hall  of  the  palace,  he  went  to  the  upper 
house,  where  the  king  and  lords  used  to  sit  in  parliament 
time,  and  stepping  forward  to  the  royal  throne,  laid  his  hand 
upon  the  cloth  of  estate,  and  seemed  as  if  he  were  taking  pos- 
session of  that  which  was  his  right*  It  is  needless  to  cite 
the  various  narratives  of  the  singular  scene  which  followed, 
as  they  are  described  by  our  ancient  historians,  who  seldom 
thought  of  searching  the  materials  of  their  relation  in  original 
and  authentic  documents.  We  now  know  with  certainty  from 
the  rolls  of  parliament,!  the  claim  advanced  by  Richard,  and 
the  remarkable  manner  in  which  a  claim  so  unusual  was  dealt 
with  by  the  lords.  On  the  16th  of  October,  1460,  the  counsel 
of  Richard  duke  t>f  York  brought  into  the  parliament-chamber 
a  writing  containing  his  claim  to  the  crown  of  England  and 
France,  with  the  lordship  of  Ireland.  The  chancellor  put  the 
question,  whether  such  a  paper  could  be  read  ]  It  was  re- 
solved unanimously,  "  That  inasmuch  as  every  person,  high 
or  low,  suing  to  this  high  court  of  parliament,  of  right  must 
be  heard,  and  his  petition  understood ;  this  writing  must  be 
heard,  though  not  answered  without  the  king's  commandment ; 
for  so  much  as  the  matter  is  so  high,  and  of  so  great  weight 
and  poise."  The  substance  of  the  claim  was,  that  Richard, 
being  the  son  of  Anne  Mortimer,  daughter  of  Roger  earl  of 
March,  the  son  and  heir  of  Philippa,  daughter  of  Lionel  duke 
of  Clarence,  the  third  son  of  Edward  III.,  is  entitled  to  the 
crowns  of  England  and  France,  before  any  of  the  progeny  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  the  fourth  son  of  Edward  III.  On 
the  next  day  the  lords  waited  on  the  king  in  a  body.  He 
commanded  them  to  search  for  all  matters  which  furnished  an 
answer  to  this  claim.  They  dutifully  and  courteously  refer- 
red the  question  to  the  king's  historical  knowledge,  whom 
they  represented  as  well  read  in  the  chronicles.  On  the  18th. 
however,  they  directed  the  judges  to  attend,  and  required 
their  advice  in  devising  arguments  for  the  king.  The  wary 
magistrates,  in  declining  the  hazardous  honor,  made  answer, 
that  they  had  to  determine  matters  between  party  and  party, 
which  come  before  them  in  the  course  of  law,  and  in  such 
matters  they  cannot  be  counsel ;  and  as  it  has  not  been  accus- 
tomed to  call  the  justices  to  council  in  such  matters,  and  es- 
pecially as  the  matter  was  so  high,  and  touched  the  king's  es- 
tate and  regality,  which  is  above  the  law  and  passes  their  learn- 
ing, therefore  they  durst  not  enter  into  any  communication 
relating  to  it.  The  king's  sergeants  and  attorney  being  de- 

*  Holinehed.    Hall.  t  Rot.  Part,  r.  375. 


32  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1460. 

sired  to  give  an  opinion,  answered  that,  since  the  matter  was 
so  high  that  it  passed  the  learning  of  the  justices,  it  must 
needs  exceed  their  learning.  The  lords,  however,  directed 
them,  as  counsel  for  the  king,  to  draw  up  an  answer  to  them. 
They  urged  the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  the  acts  of 
parliament  which  establish  or  suppose  his  will,  and  the  entail 
of  the  crown  on  the  house  of  Lancaster ;  to  which  it  was  an- 
swered, that  unlawful  oaths  are  not  binding,  and  that  the  stat- 
utes themselves  are  of  no  force  against  him  that  is  right  in- 
heritor of  the  said  crowns,  as  it  accorded  with  God's  law  and 
the  law  of  nature. 

The  lords  at  length  proposed  a  compromise,  by  which  they 
imagined  that  the  hereditary  right  of  the  duke  might  be  pre- 
served without  breach  of  their  own  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the 
king  ;  namely,  that  the  king  shall  keep  the  crowns  and  digni- 
ty royal  during  his  life,  and  that  the  duke  and  his  heirs 
should  succeed  to  him  in  the  same,  which,  as  the  duke's  title 
cannot  be  defeated,  was  the  sole  means  of  saving  the  oaths 
made  to  Henry,  and  clearing  the  consciences  of  the  lords  who 
had  taken  them.*  The  infant  prince  of  Wales  was  passed 
over  in  silence,  and  it  was  tacitly  assumed  that  an  oath  of  al- 
legiance does  not  in  an  hereditary  monarchy  imply  the  duty  of 
allegiance  to  the  legal  successor.  These  and  other  irregu- 
larities or  subtleties  were  almost  inseparable  from  the  nature 
of  a  political  compromise,  and  were  willingly  and  very  rea- 
sonably sacrificed  to  the  hope  of  establishing  the  public  quiet. 
Although  it  must  be  owned  that  the  attachment  of  London  to 
the  duke,  and  the  force  by  which  that  prince  maintained  his 
claims,  contributed  largely  to  the  success  of  the  treaty ;  yet  it 
is  equally  indisputable  that  the  submission,  even  apparent,  of 
the  king  and  the  duke  to  the  judgment  of  parliament,  con- 
cerning the  claims  of  possession  or  of  succession  to  the 
throne,  must  have  raised  the  authority  and  dignity  of  that  as- 
sembly in  the  estimation  of  the  public  more  than  perhaps  any 
other  occurrence.  The  powers  of  suppressing  revolts,  and  of 
resisting  adversaries  from  France  or  Scotland ;  or,  in  other 
words,  the  whole  command  over  armed  men,  were  vested  in 
the  duke.f  To  resist  his  authority,  or  to  compass  his  death, 
was  made  treason  ;  and  so  full  was  the  transfer  of  the  exer- 
cise of  regal  powers  to  him,  that  it  was  deemed  necessary  to 
declare,  in  express  words,  "  that  none  of  the  lords  or  com- 
mons are  bound  to  attend  or  assist  him  in  any  other  form  than 
they  are  now  bound  by  law  to  do  to  the  king."J 

The  duke  of  York,  knowing  how  ill  Margaret's  spirit  would 

*  Bot.  Parl.  v.  377.  t  Ib.  379.  t  Rot.  Parl.  v.  383. 


1460.       DEFEAT  AND  DEATH  OF  YORK.          33 

brook  such  concessions,  procured  the  king's  commands,  re- 
quiring her  attendance  and  that  of  her  son  in  London :  but 
the  warlike  dame  assembled  a  considerable  army  to  rescue 
the  king,  and  marched  to  the  northern  provinces,  where 
Northumberland  and  Clifford  joined  her  with  their  borderers. 
The  duke  of  York  committed  the  custody  of  the  king  to  the 
duke  of  Norfolk  and  the  earl  of  Warwick.  He  proceeded  to 
his  castle,  near  Wakefield,  where  his  wisest  counsellors  ad- 
vised him  to  remain  till  his  son  Edward  earl  of  March  should 
arrive  at  the  head  of  the  powerful  succor  which  that  young 
prince  was  leading  to  the  help  of  his  father.  Whether  York 
was  actuated  solely  by  the  pride  of  prowess,  and  the  im- 
patience of  inaction ;  or  whether  he  was  ensnared  by  his  ad- 
versaries, who  with  pretended  chivalry  had  challenged  him  to 
battle  for  one  day,  but  attacked  him  on  another,  when  many 
of  his  followers  were  foraging  on  the  faith  of  the  challenge ; 
or  whether  we  adopt  the  conjecture  of  some  moderns,  that 
the  veteran  commander  was  compelled  to  quit  his  strong  hold 
by  want  of  provisions  to  hold  out  a  siege,  it  is  at  least  certain 
that,  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1460,  he  had  no  sooner 
marched  with  his  scanty  force  into  Wakefield  Green,  where 
he  was  exposed  to  attack  on  every  point,  than  troops,  placed 
by  Margaret  in  ambush  around  the  green,  burst  upon  him 
from  all  sides,  and  threw  his  troops  into  such  a  state  of  con- 
fusion and  panic,  that,  within  half  an  hour  of  the  onset,  they 
were  totally  defeated.  Some  writers  tell  us,  that,  being  taken 
prisoner,  York  was  put  to  death  with  deliberate  mockery. 
Those  who  represented  him  as  killed  in  fight,  add  to  their  re- 
lation, that  his  inanimate  remains  were  treated  with  the  most 
brutal  indignity ;  that  his  head,  crowned  with  a  paper  diadem, 
and  after  the  fierce  Margaret  had  glutted  her  eyes  with  the 
sight,  was  nailed  to  one  of  the  gates  of  the  city  of  York.  In 
the  pursuit,  Clifford,  a  furious  I^ncastrian,  whose  father  had 
perished  in  the  slaughter  at  St.  Alban's,  overtook  a  handsome 
stripling  of  twelve  years  old,  clad  in  princely  apparel,  whom 
his  preceptor,  a  venerable  priest,  faithful  to  the  last,  was  con- 
ducting from  the  bloody  field,  in  hopes  of  shelter  in  the  town. 
Clifford,  surprised  at  the  dress  of  the  boy,  loudly  asked, 
"  Who  is  he  ? "  The  unconscious  youth  fell  on  his  knees, 
and  implored  mercy.  "  Save  him,"  cried  the  aged  tutor ; 
"  he  is  the  son  of  a  prince,  and  may  perad venture  do  you 
good  hereafter."  Clifford  shouted,  **  The  son  of  York  !  thy 
father  slew  mine,  I  will  slay  thce  and  all  thy  kin."  He 
plunged  a  dagger  into  the  heart  of  the  stripling.  The  earl 
of  Salisbury  with  twelve  other  Yorkist  chiefs,  was  on  the 
next  day,  with  some  ceremony,  executed  at  Pomfret ;  a  cir- 


34  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1461. 

cumstancc  which  somewhat  confirms  the  relation  of  those 
who  describe  York  as  being  killed  in  the  heat  of  action  ;  for, 
had  he  survived  it,  it  is  probable  that  his  execution  would 
have  been  reserved  for  the  bloody  ceremonial  of  Pomfret. 

Almost  all  the  historians  who  have  transmitted  accounts 
of  the  duke  of  York,  lived  under  the  rule  of  his  enemies ; 
yet,  through  their  narratives,  we  must  see  how  faithfully  and 
how  long  he  served  his  competitor.  We  discern  his  mild 
and  courteous  demeanor  to  the  king  when  vanquished ;  we  are 
obliged  to  consider  the  long  life  of  that  unhappy  prince  as 
some  proof  of  the  conqueror's  humanity,  and  we  shall  find  it 
hard  to  point  out  another  ruler  of  the  middle  age,  who,  though 
he  fought  his  way  to  the  throne,  has  left  a  name  spotted  with 
fewer  atrocities. 

Edward  earl  of  March,  now  duke  of  York,  who  inherited 
all  the  rights  and  pretensions  of  his  family,  heard  at  Glouces- 
ter of  the  death  of  his  father,  of  the  revenge  taken  on  his  in- 
nocent brother,  and  of  the  more  formal  butchery  of  his  most 
important  friends.  Being  supported  by  the  Welsh  borderers, 
whose  attachment  to  the  house  of  Mortimer  was  unextin- 
guished,  he  was  about  to  march  against  Margaret  and  the 
murderers  of  his  father,  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  23,000 
men ;  but  the  earls  of  Pembroke  and  Ormond,  with  a  formi- 
dable force  of  Welsh  and  Irish,  hung  on  his  rear.  He  turned 
upon  them,  and  brought  them  to  battle  at  Mortimer's  Cross,  a 
little  eastward  of  Hereford,  on  the  2d  of  February,  1461, 
where  he  defeated  and  dispersed  them.  They  are  said  to 
have  left  dead  on  the  field  3800  men.  The  earls  of  Pembroke 
and  Ormond  escaped  ;  but  Sir  Owen  Tudor,  the  husband  of 
the  queen-dowager  of  France,  was  with  other  Welsh  chiefs 
beheaded  on  the  next  day  at  Hereford.  The  queen  marched 
southward,  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  had  been  success- 
ful at  Wakefield.  The  approach  of  these  bands  of  rude  and 
lawless  mountaineers  was  dreaded  by  the  people  of  the  capi- 
tal, who  expected  universal  pillage,  outrage,  and  destruction. 
u  Here,  every  one  is  willing  to  go  with  my  lords:*  and  I  hope 
God  shall  help  them;  for  the  people  in  the  north  rob  and 
steal,  and  be  appointed  to  pillage  this  country."  f  Margaret 
advanced  towards  London,  having  sharpened  the  appetite  of 
her  borderers  by  promising  that  she  would  give  them  the 
whole  country  south  of  Trent  to  be  pillaged.  Both  parties 
once  more  met  in  battle  at  St.  Alban's,  on  the  17th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1461 :  the  Yorkists,  under  the  duke  of  Norfolk  and  the 

*  The  earl  of  Warwick,  Sec. 

T  Fenn,  i.  208.   Clement  Pastor  to  his  brother  John,  Jan  23.  1461. 


1461.  EDWARD    IV.    PROCLAIMED.  35 

earl  of  Warwick,  brought  with  them  the  captive  king ;  as 
dead  an  instrument  in  their  hands  as  the  royal  standard, 
which  the  possession  of  his  body  seemingly  warranted  them 
to  bear. 

For  a  time  the  Yorkists  or  southern  men  seem  to  have 
been  successful ;  but  a  confused  scuffle  in  the  streets  of  St. 
Alban's,  and  a  more  serious  engagement  in  the  plain  to  the 
northward,  ended  in  the  success  of  the  Lancastrians.  The 
lords  who  surrounded  the  king,  and,  as  his  jailers,  were 
probably  more  odious  than  the  rest,  changed  the  discomfiture 
into  a  defeat,  by  providing  somewhat  prematurely  for  their 
own  escape.  Lord  Bonville  and  Sir  John  Kyriell  only  stayed 
to  console  the  unhappy  pageant,  trusting  to  the  king's  word, 
which  had  been  pledged  for  their  safety.  They  soon  learned 
the  folly  of  trusting  in  kings ;  for  the  first  use  of  victory 
made  by  Margaret  was  to  command  that  both  these  gentle- 
men should  be  beheaded ;  or,  according  to  other  narratives, 
the  execution  of  these  generous  men  was  her  last  act  of 
power  when  on  the  eve  of  her  northern  march.  Henry  ex- 
pressed, and  perhaps  felt,  some  gratification  at  once  more  em- 
bracing his  wife  and  son  after  so  long  a  separation.  The 
northerns  began  to  plunder  the  suburbs  of  London  ;  but  were 
repulsed  by  the  inhabitants,  who  hated  more  than  they  feared 
the  plunderers.  A  deputation  of  aldermen  were  ordered  to 
repair  to  Barnet  to  conduct  the  royal  iamily  to  the  metropolis; 
but  all  these  measures  were  broken  by  the  march  of  Edward 
of  York  to  the  aid  of  London,  which  was  always  devoted  to 
his  family.  "  Little  trusting  Essex,  and  less  Kent,  but  Lon- 
don least  of  all,  she  (the  queen)  departed  from  St.  Alban's  to 
the  north  country,  where  the  root  of  her  power  was."* 

Meanwhile  Edward  and  Warwick  entered  the  metropolis 
amid  the  applause  of  the  people  of  the  city  and  of  the  sur- 
rounding counties.  Edward  laid  his  claim  before  a  council 
of  lords,  on  the  2d  of  March,  1461,  charging  Henry  with 
breaking  the  agreement  which  the  lords  had  negotiated,  by 
his  presence  in  the  enemy's  camp ;  and  alleging  that  he  was 
altogether  incapable  of  performing  the  duties  of  sovereign 
power.  In  the  afternoon  an  immense  multitude  were  assem- 
bled in  St.  John's  Fields,  and,  having  heard  the  statement  of 
Edward's  claim  made  by  lord  Falconbridge,  were  asked  by 
that  nobleman  "  whether  they  would  love  and  obey  Edward 
earl  of  March  as  their  sovereign  lord."  They  answered, 
"  Yea,  yea,"  crying  "  King  Edward  ! "  with  shouts  and  clap- 
ping of  hands.  On  the  next  day,  being  the  4th  of  March,  he 

*  Hall,  253. 


36  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1461. 

was  proclaimed  by  the  style  of  Edward  IV.  With  such  a 
tumultuary  imitation  of  the  most  extreme  democracy,  was 
accomplished  the  choice  or  recognition  of  a  monarch,  whose 
title  could  only  be  justified  by  the  adoption  of  the  most  ex- 
travagant notions,  not  only  of  hereditary,  but  of  indefeasible 
and  even  of  divine  right.  If  speculative  opinions  ever  exer- 
cise much  influence  over  the  conduct  of  men,  it  might  be  ex- 
pected that  such  influence  would  be  greatest  in  the  weightier 
concerns  of  life,  were  it  not  that  on  these  occasions  the  most 
powerful  of  human  passions  are  most  strongly  excited ;  that 
they  impel  the  ambitious  to  choose  the  expedient  most  effectual 
at  the  instant,  however  discordant  with  their  opinions,  and  to 
make  any  sacrifice  of  consistency,  if  the  ruling  passion  be 
thereby  enabled  to  grasp  its  immediate  object. 

Edward,  one  of  the  few  voluptuaries  who  never  lost  their 
activity  and  vigilance,  pursued  his  enemies  into  the  north, 
and  deferred  the  vain  ceremony  of  a  coronation  till  after  his 
success  and  his  return.  On  the  12th  of  March,  1461,  he  began 
his  march,  having  sent  lord  Fitzwalter  before  to  secure  the 
pass  of  Ferrybridge,  on  the  river  Aire  in  Yorkshire.  Somer- 
set, Northumberland,  and  Clifford,  the  commanders  of  the 
Lancastrian  army,  left  Henry,  Margaret,  and  the  young 
prince,  at  York :  they  themselves  resolved  to  recover  Ferry- 
bridge ;  and  Clifford,  about  the  27th  of  March,  accomplished 
that  object.  Such,  say  the  annalists,  were  his  deeds  of  savage 
revenge,  that  no  man  shared  his  anger,  or  pitied  his  fall.  On 
the  29th  (the  eve  of  Palm  Sunday),  after  proclamations  had 
been  issued  on  both  sides  forbidding  quarter,  the  two  armies 
came  within  view  of  each  other  near  Towton,  a  village  about 
eight  miles  from  York.  Their  numbers  were  greater  than 
had  hitherto  met  in  this  civil  war;  the  Lancastrian  army 
being  computed  to  contain  60,000  men,  and  that  of  Edward  to 
consist  of  about  40,000. 

Edward  resolved  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  the  pass  on  the 
next  day ;  and,  if  we  may  believe  some  writers,  he  only  pub- 
lished the  proclamation  against  quarter  because  he  deemed 
his  inferiority  of  numbers  a  justification  of  that  barbarous 
menace.  Warwick,  in  despair  at  the  loss  of  so  good  a  posi- 
tion, rode  up  to  Edward,  and,  dismounting,  shooting  his  own 
horse  through  the  head  as  a  signal  for  an  attack  which  admit- 
ted no  retreat,  called  aloud,  "Sir,  God  have  mercy  on  their 
souls  who  for  love  of  you  in  the  beginning  of  their  enterprise 
have  lost  their  lives.  Yet  let  him  flee  who  will  flee :  by  this 
cross  (kissing  the  hilt  of  his  sword)  I  will  stand  by  him  who 
will  stand  by  me  !"  During  a  constant  succession  of  irregular 
skirmishes  which  made  up  this  fierce  battle,  it  was  found  im- 


1461.  BATTLE    OF   TOWTOITi  37 

possible  to  cross  the  river  at  Ferrybridge ;  but  a  fresh  body 
of  troops  was  brought  to  the  aid  of  Edward  by  the  duke  of 
Norfolk,  who  found  means  to  pass  the  river  at  Castleford, 
about  three  miles  above,  and  thereby  turned  the  flank  of  the 
enemy,  which  was  commanded  by  Clifford,  memorable  for  the 
ferocity  with  which  he  avenged  his  father's  death.  For  ten 
hours  on  Palm  Sunday  the  battle  was  continued  with  valor 
and  rage :  at  length  the  northern  army  gave  way,  after  hav- 
ing left  dead  the  earl  of  Northumberland  and  lord  Clifford, 
with  about  20,000  men  *  On  Monday,  Edward  entered  York 
triumphantly,  but  not  until  he  had  taken  down  from  the  gates 
the  head  and  limbs  of  his  father,  trophies  worthy  of  cannibals. 
The  sight  of  them  so  incensed  him,  that  he  gave  immediate 
orders  for  beheading  Courtenay  carl  of  Devonshire,  with  three 
of  his  fellow-commanders,  that  their  heads  might  replace  that 
of  his  father.  In  the  three  days  of  the  battle  of  Towton, 
37,000  Englishmen  are  said  to  have  fallen  on  both  sides. 
Margaret  fled  with  Henry  and  the  prince  towards  Scotland, 
followed  by  several  of  her  most  important  adherents.  Henry 
was  left  at  Kircudbright,  with  four  attendants;  Margaret 
went  to  Edinburgh  with  her  son;  and  we  still  possess  a 
list  of  about  twenty-five  refugees  of  some  distinction  who 
accompanied  her.  Among  these  were  Sir  John  Fortescue,  the 
celebrated  instructor  of  Henry's  son,  and  Sir  Edmund  Hamp- 
den,  whose  name  is  now  so  inseparably  connected  with  events 
auspicious  to  liberty,  that  we  naturally  expect  to  find  it  among 
the  champions  of  a  parliamentary  establishment  against  the 
partisans  of  hereditary  right.  The  important  fortress  of  Ber- 
wick was  ceded  by  Henry  to  the  king  of  Scots  as  the  price  of 
succor.  Margaret  went  to  France  to  levy  recruits  and  to 
obtain  allies;  but  she  found  Louis  XI.  fully  occupied  with 
preparations  for  the  contest  with  his  vassals  and  subjects, 
known  under  the  name  of  "  the  war  <ff  the  public  good." 

On  Edward's  return  to  London  after  the  victory  of  Towton, 
he  was  crowned  on  the  22d  of  June,  1461.  He  called  together 
a  parliament  on  the  4th  of  November  in  that  year,  which,  by 
confirming  all  the  judicial  acts,  creations  of  nobility,  and  most 
other  public  proceedings  in  the  times  of  Henry  IV.,  Henry  V., 
and  Henry  VI.,  "  late  in  fact,  but  not  of  right,  kings  of  Eng- 
land,"! branded  an  establishment  of  half  a  century  with  ille- 
gality, and  first  introduced  into  English  law  a  dangerous  dis- 
tinction, pregnant  with  those  evils  from  a  disputed  title  which 

*  Fenn,  i.  219. 

t  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  ii.  3H).    1  Edw.  4.  c.  1.  A.D.  1461. 

VOL.  II.  D 


38  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1464. 

hereditary  monarchy  can  only  be  justified  by  its  tendency  to 
prevent. 

When  parliaments  at  this  time  were  at  leisure  from  their 
usual  occupation  of  raising  up  or  deposing  sovereigns,  they 
applied  themselves  very  diligently  to  regulate  commerce.  It 
is  hard  to  say  whether  the  regulations  which  they  proposed 
more  betray  their  strong  sense  of  the  rising  importance  of 
trade,  or  their  gross  ignorance  of  its  true  nature,  and  of  the 
only  effectual  means  of  promoting  it  The  importation  of 
foreign  corn  was  prohibited,  because  it  ruined  the  people  by 
making  their  food  cheap ;  and  foreign  manufactures  were  for- 
bidden whenever  the  like  articles  could  be  produced  at  home ; 
a  similar  disregard  being  shown  in  both  cases  to  the  interest 
of  the  body  of  the  people  who  consumed  food,  and  who  wore 
clothes.  But  the  same  astonishing  errors  still  pervert  the 
judgment  of  perhaps  the  majority ;  and  we  must  not  blame 
the  parliaments  of  the  fifteenth  century,  for  prejudices  which 
to  this  day  taint  the  statutes  of  the  nineteenth. 

After  passing  two  years  in  suits  for  aid  in  France,  Margaret 
returned  to  Scotland  with  only  500  French  troops,  which  en- 
abled her  to  make  an  inroad  into  England  at  the  head  of  Scot- 
tish borderers,  always  easily  collected  for  such  a  purpose. 
After  several  indecisive  skirmishes,  lord  Montacute,  the  com- 
mander of  Edward's  forces,  completely  routed  the  Lancastri- 
ans near  Hexham  in  Northumberland,  on  the  17th  of  May, 
1464.  The  duke  of  Somerset,  their  commander,  was  beheaded 
on  the  spot ;  twenty-five  gentlemen  of  his  band,  with  little 
more  form  of  law,  were  executed  at  York.  Henry  escaped 
by  the  speed  of  his  horse :  but  some  of  his  attendants  were 
recognized  by  the  horses'  trappings  of  blue  velvet.  One  of 
the  prisoners  bore  the  unhappy  prince's  helmet.  His  high  cap 
of  estate,  garnished  with  two  rich  crowns,  was  in  a  few  days 
presented  to  Edward  at  York,  as  being  a  part  of  the  personal 
spoils  of  his  competitor.  Henry,  with  a  few  chiefs,  long  hid 
themselves  in  the  caves  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  moun- 
tainous districts  of  Yorkshire,  Westmoreland,  and  Cumber- 
land. The  earl  of  Kent  was  taken  in  Redesdale,  and  lost  his 
head  by  the  ax  at  Newcastle:  Sir  Humphrey  Neville,  who 
lurked  in  a  cave  in  Holderness,  was  beheaded  at  York.  Ed- 
ward spilt  the  blood  of  his  opponents  with  wanton  prodigality, 
while  he  squandered  honors  and  estates  with  a  lavish  hand 
among  his  adherents.  France  and  Scotland,  yielding  to  his 
ascendant,  made  advances  of  reconciliation  to  him.  Margaret 
found  a  refuge  for  herself  and  her  son  among  the  powerful 
vassals  of  France ;  but  the  condition  of  her  wretched  husband 
in  Scotland  became  more  precarious:  he  feared  the  secret 


1464.  CAPTURE  OF  HENRY.  39 

intercourse  of  Edward  with  the  king  of  Scots.  He  secreted 
himself  in  the  borders,  where  the  doubtful  jurisdiction,  the 
wild  life  of  the  borderers,  and  their  very  precarious  alle- 
giance, afforded  him  facilities  for  sudden  and  rapid  escape. 
Either  misled  by  Edward's  spies,  and  unacquainted  with  the 
boundaries,  or  despairing  of  security  in  Scotland,  or  perhaps 
in  one  of  his  fits  of  idiocy,  Henry  threw  himself  into  England, 
where,  from  authentic  documents,  it  appears  that  while  sitting 
at  one  of  his  few  and  troubled  meals  at  Waddington  Hall  in 
Lancashire,  he  was  detected  by  Sir  James  Harrington,  the 
testimony  of  whose  infamy  is  perpetuated  by  the  grant  of 
large  estates,  the  bitter  fruits  of  confiscation,  which  this  man 
of  rank  and  wealth  did  not  disdain  to  accept  as  the  price  of 
his  treachery  to  a  helpless  suppliant* 

After  the  battle  of  Hexham  and  the  capture  of  Henry  (25th 
May,  1464),  that  prince  was  led  prisoner,  no  longer  with  any 
pretence  of  state  or  show  of  liberty ;  for  Edward's  parliament 
had  attainted  him,  with  the  queen  and  prince  Edward,  for  no 
other  crime  than  that  of  asserting  rights  which  the  whole  na- 
tion had  long  recognized.  Neville  earl  of  Warwick,  a  man 
distinguished  by  all  the  good  and  bad  qualities  which  shine 
with  most  lustre  in  a  barbarous  age,  who  had  been  left  in  com- 
mand at  London  by  Edward,  made  his  late  sovereign  taste  all 
the  bitterness  of  proscription.  He  placed  the  deposed  king 
on  a  horse,  under  whose  belly  his  feet  were  fastened,  and  in 
that  condition  led  him  through  Cheapside  to  the  Tower,  where 
he  was  now  received  and  treated  as  a  prisoner. 

Margaret  made  her  escape  through  Scotland  into  France 
with  her  son  and  his  famous  preceptor,  Sir  John  Fortescue. 
During  his  exile,  this  learned  person  had  an  opportunity  of  mak- 
ing many  of  the  remarks  on  the  difference  between  a  despotic 
and  a  limited  monarchy,  as  exemplified  in  France  and  England, 
which  demonstrate  that  these  opposite  systems  had  even  then 
made  a  visible  and  deep  impression  on  the  condition  and  char- 
acter of  neighboring  and  kindred,  tbough  frequently  adverse, 
nations. 

In  the  mean  time  Edward  applied  himself  to  public  affairs 
with  his  characteristic  vigor.  According  to  the  maxim  of 
Machiavel,  he  made  a  terrific  slaughter  of  his  enemies  in  the 
first  moment  of  victory ;  and,  in  his  subsequent  administration, 
treated  the  vanquished  party  with  a  politic  parade  of  season- 
able clemency.  He  was  well  qualified  by  beauty  and  valor 
to  inspire  love,  and  in  its  lower  sense  he  was  prone  to  feel  it. 
For  a  time  he  revelled  in  the  licentious  gratifications  which 

*  Rymer,  xi.  548. 


40  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1465. 

were  open  to  a  young,  handsome,  and  victorious  king.  Prin- 
cesses of  Castile,  and  of  Scotland,  had  already,  however, 
been  spken  of  as  likely  to  be  wedded  by  him.  The  earl  of 
Warwick  had  been  authorized  to  negotiate  with  Louis  XI.  for 
the  marriage  of  his  sister-in-law,  the  princess  Bonne  of  Savoy, 
afterwards  duchess  of  Milan,  to  the  king  of  England.*  An 
incident  occurred  which  disturbed  these  projects  of  high  al- 
liance, and  contributed  to  revive  the  troubles  which  seemed 
ready  to  expire.  In  the  year  1464,  when  Edward  was  hunt- 
ing in  the  forest  of  Grafton,  near  Stony  Stratford,  he  casually 
met  a  young  lady,  by  whose  attractions  his  susceptible  temper- 
ament was  instantly  affected.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Jac- 
quetta  of  Luxemburg,  duchess-dowager  of  Bedford,  by  her 
second  husband  Sir  Richard  Woodville,  a  private  gentleman, 
who,  soon  after  this  adventure,  was  created  earl  Rivers.  The 
young  lady  herself,  Elizabeth  Woodville,  youthful  as  she  was, 
had  before  been  married  to  Sir  Thomas  Gray,  who  fell  in  the 
Lancastrian  army  at  the  second  battle  of  Barnet.  Whether 
these  obstacles  served  to  stimulate  Edward's  passion,  or 
whether  he  was  charmed  by  her  composed  demeanor,  her 
graceful  form,  her  "  pregnant  wit,"  and  her  "  eloquent 
tongue ;"  for  her  countenance  is  said  to  have  been  not  beau- 
tiful:  certain  it  is,  that  when  dame  Elizabeth  made  an  humble 
suit  to  the  king,  she  prevailed  more  rapidly  than  other  suitors. 
The  manners  of  Edward  were  so  dissolute  as  to  countenance  a 
rumor  that  he  tried  every  means  of  seduction  before  he  offered 
his  hand  and  crown  to  her.  Even  though  we  should  without 
just  ground  refuse  the  praise  of  unmingled  virtue  to  her  re- 
sistance, still  it  would  not  lose  its  right  to  be  accounted  virtue, 
by  calling  to  its  aid  the  dictates  of  a  commendable  prudence 
and  of  an  honorable  ambition.  From  whatever  motive,  or 
mixture  of  motives,  she  acted,  she  was,  in  fact,  steady  in  her 
rejection  of  illicit  union.  The  king  at  length  consented  to  a 
private  marriage,  which  was  solemnized  at  Grafton  on  the  1st 
of  May,  1464.  The  bride  and  bridegroom,  a  priest,  a  chanter, 
two  gentlemen,  and  the  duchess  of  Bedford,  were  the  only 
persons  present  at  the  solemnity.  The  king,  after  remaining 
a  short  time,  returned  to  Stony  Stratford,  where  he  went  to 
bed,  affecting  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  chase  during  the 
night.  He  speedily  imparted  his  secret  to  Sir  Richard  Wood- 
ville, but  contented  himself  with  secret  and  stolen  visits  to 
his  bride.  She  was  acknowledged  at  Michaelmas,  and  crowned 
with  all  due  splendor  on  Ascension-day  of  the  following  year. 
This  union  displeased  the  powerful  and  haughty  Warwick, 

*  Ryraer,  xi.  523,  &c.  April  24,  1464. 


1469.  DISCONTENT   OP   WARWICK.  41 

who  did  not  easily  brook  the  rupture  which  it  occasioned  of 
the  negotiation  for  marriage  with  the  princess  Bonne  in  which 
he  had  been  employed.  He  blamed,  with  reason,  the  levity 
with  which  Edward  incurred  the  resentment  of  those  power- 
ful princes  by  alliance  with  whose  families  he,  in  his  wiser 
moments,  sought  to  strengthen  himself.  The  sudden  eleva- 
tion of  the  queen's  family  to  office  and  honor  awakened  the 
jealousy  of  the  nobility,  and  especially  of  Warwick,  who  re- 
ceived the  alarming  name  of  the  king-maker,  and  might  be 
impelled  by  his  quick  resentment  and  offended  pride  to  prove 
that  he  could  pull  down  as  well  as  set  up  kings.'  His  means 
of  good  and  harm  were  most  extensive.  To  the  earldoms  of 
Warwick  and  Salisbury,  with  the  lands  of  the  Spencers,  he 
added  the  offices  of  great  chamberlain  and  high-admiral,  to- 
gether with  the  government  of  Calais,  and  the  lord-lieuten- 
ancy of  Ireland.  The  income  of  his  offices  is  said  by  Comines 
to  have  amounted  to  eighty  thousand  crowns  by  the  year,  be- 
sides the  immense  revenue  or  advantage  derived  from  his  pat- 
rimony.* Not  satisfied  with  these  resources,  he  accepted  a 
secret  pension  and  gratuities  from  Louis  XL,  of  which  the 
exposure  bares  the  mean  heart  that  often  lurked  beneath 
knightly  armor.f  Perhaps  the  report  of  this  dishonorable 
correspondence  might  have  alarmed  Edward;  while  War- 
wick I  might  consider  his  patrimonial  estate  as  in  some  dan- 
ger from  the  rapacity  of  the  upstart  Woodvilles.  In  the  year 
1469,  Warwick  gave  no  small  token  of  estrangement  by  wed- 
ding his  daughter  to  George  duke  of  Clarence,  Edward's 
brother,  without  the  permission,  probably  without  the  know- 
ledge, of  that  monarch.  After  several  jars,  followed  by  formal 
and  superficial  reconciliations,  Warwick  broke  out  into  open 
revolt  against  Edward,  which  gave  rise  to  two  years  of  more 
inconstancy  and  giddiness,  more  vicissitudes  hi  the  fortune 
and  connexion  of  individuals,  and  more  unexpected  revolutions 
in  government,  than  any  other  equal  space  of  time  in  the 
history  of  England.  About  the  beginning  of  that  time  the 
men  of  Yorkshire,  under  the  command  of  Robin  of  Redesdale, 
a  hero  among  the  moss-troopers  of  the  border,  took  the  field 
to  the  amount  of  60,000  men.  Their  manifesto  complained 
of  the  influence  of  evil  counsellors  over  the  king,  and  of  other 
matters  more  likely  to  be  suggested  by  barons  than  by  boors. 
These  insurgents  were  checked  by  Neville  earl  of  Northum- 

*  Cominos,  liv.  iii.  c.  4. :  i.  148.  edition  de  I/Englet  Dufresnoy,  4to.  1747. 

t  Note  on  Comines,  i.  149. 

t  He  was  sent  minister  to  France,  Burgundy,  and  Britany,  immediately 
after  Edward's  marriage,  perhaps  with  the  double  purpose  of  soothing  hi* 
anger  and  abating  his  personal  influence.— Rymer,  xi.  511,  542. 

D2 


42  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1469. 

berland ;  but  they  were  dealt  with  so  leniently  by  that  noble- 
man as  to  strengthen  the  suspicion  that  the  discontents  of  the 
Nevilles  had  ripened  into  projects  of  rebellion.  Warwick, 
too,  was  deeply  suspected  of  being1  inactive  only  till  he  was 
armed.  It  was  about  this  time  (26th  of  July,  14&9),  that  the 
revolters,  after  being  defeated  in  an  imprudent  attack  on  the 
royalists  at  Edgecote,  were  finally  dispersed.  It  seems  to  have 
been  the  last  heave  of  the  earth  before  the  wide-spread  earth- 
quake. The  execution  of  two  Woodvilles,  father  and  son, 
favorites  of  the  king,  yet  put  to  death  by  the  victorious  army, 
seemed  to  indicate  that  some  of  the  leaders  against  the  pea- 
sants were  ill-affected  to  the  court.  The  duke  of  Clarence 
and  the  earl  of  Warwick  returned  from  Calais,  apparently 
obeying  the  king's  summons,  and  supporting  his  cause.  It 
appears  from  the  records,*  that  between  the  17th  and  the  27th 
of  August,  1469,  several  feigned  reconciliations  were  effect- 
ed, which  were  terminated  by  a  royal  declaration  against 
Clarence  and  Warwick  as  rebels.  The  remaining  part  of  our 
information  does  not  flow  from  so  pure  a  source,  and  is  indeed 
both  scanty  and  perplexed.  Clarence  and  Warwick  were  at 
length  compelled  to  quit  England ;  and  under  specious  pre- 
tences, were  refused  permission  to  land  at  Calais  by  Vauclere 
the  lieutenant  of  that  fortress,  a  wary  officer,  who  was  de- 
sirous to  retain  the  liberty  of  finally  adhering  to  the  success- 
fuLf,  Louis  XI.  now  openly  espoused  the  cause  of  these 
malcontent  barons.  Under  his  mediation,  Margaret  and 
Warwick,  so  long  mortal  enemies,  were  really  reconciled  to 
each  other  by  their  common  hatred  of  the  Icing  of  England, 
and  concluded  a  treaty,  by  which  it  was  stipulated  that  prince 
Edward  should  espouse  Anne  Neville,  Warwick's  daughter ; 
that  they  should  join  their  forces  to  restore  Henry ;  and  that, 
in  failure  of  issue  by  the  prince,  the  crown  should  devolve  on 
Clarence.  Meanwhile,  Edward  seems  to  have  been  seized 
with  an  unwonted  fit  of  supineness.  He  lingered  while  he 
was  beset  with  revolts.!  His  only  exertion,  that  of  going  to 
Northumberland,  where  the  borderers  now  favored  their  new 
masters,  the  Nevilles,  more  than  their  ancient  lords  of  the 
house  of  Percy,  was  more  pernicious  than  inaction,  by  placing 
him  so  far  from  the  capital  that  the  fate  of  the  kingdom  must 
be  determined  before  he  learned  the  existence  of  the  danger. 
The  approach  of  Warwick  shook  the  fidelity  of  the  troops ; 
and  Edward  was  compelled  to  make  his  escape  to  Holland. 
Warwick,  by  the  aid  of  Clarence,  and  under  the  name  of 

*  Ryiper,  *i.  447— 461.  t  Monstrelet.    Coniines,  iii.  4. 

JPenn.i.49. 


1471.  BATTLE    OF   TEWKESBURY.  43 

Henry,  resumed  the  supreme  power.*  Edward,  by  the  con- 
nivance of  the  duke  of  Burgundy,  collected  a  body  of  Flemings 
and  Dutchmen,  with  whom  he  landed  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Humber,  on  the  14th  of  March,  1471.  His  advance  towards 
London  obliged  Henry's  army,  commanded  by  Warwick,  to 
take  a  position  at  Barnet ;  where,  on  the  14th  of  April,  a 
battle  was  fought,  which  proved  much  more  important  in  its 
consequences  than  could  have  been  conjectured  from  the 
small  number  of  the  slain,  which  on  both  sides  is  estimated, 
by  an  eye-witness,  at  no  more  than  1000.  On  Edward's  side 
were  killed  the  lords  Cromwell  and  Say,  with  some  gentle- 
men of  the  neighboring  country.  The  great  event  of  the  day 
was  that  Warwick,  and  his  brother,  Montague,  were  left  dead 
on  the  field.  By  their  death  the  greatness  of  the  house  of 
Neville  was  destroyed.  Warwick  is  the  most  conspicuous 
personage  of  this  disturbed  reign;  and  the  name  of  kingma- 
ker, given  to  him  by  the  people,  well  expresses  his  love  of 
turbulence  for  its  own  sake ;  his  preference  of  the  pleasures 
of  displaying  power  to  that  of  attaining  specific  objects  of  am- 
bition ;  and  his  almost  equal  readiness  to  make  or  unmake 
any  king,  according  to  the  capricious  inclination  or  repug- 
nancy of  the  moment. 

Another  contest  still  remained.  The  undaunted  and  un- 
wearied Margaret  had  levied  troops  in  France,  at  the  head  of 
which  she  landed  at  Weymouth  on  the  very  day  of  the  battle 
of  Barnet.t  The  first  event  of  which  she  received  tidings 
was  the  fatal  battle.  Her  spirits  were  for  an  instant  depress- 
ed. She  sought  sanctuary  for  herself  and  her  son  in  the 
monastery  of  Beaulieu.  But  the  bolder  counsels  of  the  Lan- 
castrian lords  who  had  escaped  from  Barnet  resumed  their 
wonted  ascendant  over  her  masculine  mind.  Pembroke  had 
collected  a  considerable  force  in  support  of  her  cause  v* 
Wales.  If  she  had  been  able  to  pass  the  Severn,  and  form  a 
junction  with  him,  there  was  still  a  probability  of  success ; 
but  the  inhabitants  of  Gloucester  had  already  fortified  their 
bridge,  and  Edward  had  taken  a  position  which  commanded 
the  pass  of  Tewkesbury. 

On  Saturday,  the  14th  of  May,  1471,  the  battle  of  Tewkes- 
bury concluded  this  sanguinary  war.  The  defeat  of  the  Lan- 
castrians was  complete.  Courtenay  earl  of  Devonshire,  Sii 

*  A  parliament  was  as  usual  called,  of  which  some  of  the  proceedings 
are  to  he  found  in  Rymer,  xi.  601 — 707.  It  confirmed  the  engagement  he 
tween  the  prince  and  Warwick. 

f  "  Margaret  is  verily  landed  and  her  son  in  the  west  country,  and  I  trou 
that  to-morrow  or  the  next  day  King  Edwnrd  will  depart  from  hence  to 
norwards  to  drive  her  out  again." — Letter  of  J.  Pastgn  to  his  mother,  with 
an  account  of  the  battle  of  Barnet.— Fenn,  ii.  67. 


44  HISTORY    OF   ENGLATTO.  1471. 

Edmund  Hampden,  and  about  3000  soldiers,  were  killed.  On 
the  next  day,  the  duke  of  Somerset  and  the  prior  of  St.  John 
were  beheaded,  after  a  summary  trial  before  the  constable  and 
the  marshal.  Search  was  made,  and  reward  offered,  for 
prince  Edward :  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  brought  before 
the  king  by  Sir  Richard  Crofts.  The  king  said  to  him,  "  How 
dare  you  presumptuously  enter  into  my  realm  with  banner 
displayed  ?"  Whereunto  the  prince  answered,  "  To  recover 
my  father's  kingdom  and  heritage,  from  his  father  and  grand- 
father to  him,  and  from  him  to  me,  lineally  descended."  At 
these  words,  Edward  said  nothing,  but  thrust  the  youth  from 
him,  or,  as  some  say,  "  struck  him  with  his  gauntlet,  when  he 
was  instantly  put  to  death  by  the  dukes  of  Clarence  and 
Gloucester,  lord  Dorset  and  lord  Hastings  ;"*  a  display  of  bar- 
barous manners  among  persons  of  the  highest  dignity,  which 
it  would  be  hard  to  match  among  the  most  embruted  savages. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten,  that  it  passed  in  the  first 
heat  and  irritation  of  battle ;  that  the  nearest  observers  might 
have  overlooked  some  circumstances,  and  confounded  the 
order  of  others ;  and  that  the  omission  of  a  provoking  look  or 
gesture  (to  say  nothing  of  words  or  deeds)  might  give  a  dif- 
ferent color  to  the  event.  Margaret  and  her  son  having  been 
declared  rebels  by  the  king  a  few  daysf  before  the  battle  of 
Tewkesbury,  the  barbarous  chiefs  might  have  deemed  the  as- 
sassination of  the  prince  as  little  differing  from  the  execution 
of  a  sentence  ;  and  instead  of  remorse  for  that  deed,  they  per- 
haps thought  that  by  sparing  Margaret  they  had  earned  the 
praise  of  knightly  generosity. 

Shortly  after  Edward's  victorious  return,  Henry  VI.  breath- 
ed his  last  in  the  Tower,  where  much  of  his  life  had  been 
passed  as  a  pageant  of  state,  and  another  large  portion  of  it 
as  a  prisoner  of  war.  He  is  generally  stated  by  historians  to 
have  died  by  violence ;  and  the  odium  of  the  bloody  deed  has 
chiefly  fallen  upon  Richard  duke  of  Gloucester.  The  proof 
of  the  fact,  however,  is  disproportioned  to  the  atrocity  of  the 
accusation.  Many  temptations  and  provocations  to  destroy 
him  had  occurred  in  a  secret  imprisonment  of  nearly  ten 
years.  It  is  rather  improbable  that  those  who  through  so  many 
scenes  of  blood  had  spared  "  the  meek  usurper's  hoary  head," 
should,  at  last,  with  so  small  advantage,  incur  the  odium  of 
destroying  a  prince  who  seems  to  have  been  dear  to  the  peo- 
ple for  no  other  quality  but  the  regular  observance  of  petty 
superstitions.  He  was  as  void  of  manly  as  of  kingly  virtues. 
No  station  can  be  named  for  which  he  was  fitted  but  that  of  a 

*  Holinshed,  iii.  320.  t  Rymer,  xi.  709. 


1476.     WAR  AND  TREATY  WITH  FRANCE.        45 

weak  and  ignorant  lay  brother  in  a  monastery.  Our  compas- 
sion for  the  misfortunes  of  such  a  person  would  hardly  go  beyond 
the  boundary  of  instinctive  pity,  if  an  extraordinary  provision 
had  not  been  made  by  nature  to  strengthen  the  social  affec- 
tions. We  are  so  framed  to  feel  as  if  all  harmlessness  arose 
from  a  pure  and  gentle  mind ;  and  something  of  the  beauty  of 
intentional  goodness  is  lent  to  those  who  only  want  the  power 
of  doing  ill.  The  term  innocence  is  ambiguously  employed 
for  impotence  and  abstinence.  A  man  in  a  station  such  as 
that  of  a  king,  which  is  generally  surrounded  with  power  and 
dignity,  is  apt  to  be  considered  as  deliberately  abstaining  from 
evil  when  he  inflicts  none,  although  he  be  really  withheld,  as 
in  the  case  of  Henry,  by  an  incapacity  to  do  either  good  or 
harm.  Nature,  by  an  illusion  more  general  and  more  mo- 
mentous, benevolently  beguiles  us  into  a  tenderness  for  the 
beings  who  most  need  it,  inspiring  us  with  the  fond  imagina- 
tion that  the  innocence  of  children  is  the  beautiful  result  of 
mature  reason  and  virtue; — a  sentiment  partaking  of  the 
same  nature  with  the  feelings  which  dispose  the  good  man  to 
be  merciful  to  his  beast. 

The  war  with  France  which  followed  the  civil  wars  was 
attended  with  no  memorable  events,  and  it  was  closed  by  the 
treaty  of  Pecquigny,  in  1475,  by  which  provision  was  made 
for  large  payments  of  money  to  Edward,  and  for  the  marriage 
of  the  dauphin  with  his  eldest  daughter.  Margaret  of  Anjou 
was  set  at  liberty,  on  payment  of  50,000  crowns  by  Louis. 
She  survived  her  deliverance  about  seven  years,  during  which, 
having  no  longer  any  instruments  or  objects  of  ambition,  she 
lived  quietly  in  France.  The  earl  of  Richmond  the  grandson, 
and  the  earl  of  Pembroke  the  second  son,  of  Catherine  of 
France  by  Owen  Tudor,  took  refuge  from  the  persecution  of 
the  Yorkists  at  the  court  of  Britany.  By  the  marriage  of  Ed- 
mund Tudor  earl  of  Richmond  with  Margaret  Beaufort,  the 
last  legitimate  descendant  of  John  of  Gaunt's  union  with 
Catherine  Swinford,  Henry  earl  of  Richmond,  the  surviving 
son  of  that  marriage,  was  the  only  Lancastrian  pretender  to 
the  crown. 

The  quarrel  of  Edward  with  his  brother  the  duke  of  Clar- 
ence ;  the  share  of  the  latter  in  Warwick's  defection ;  and 
the  levity  which  led  him  to  atone  for  his  desertion  of  Edward 
by  another  desertion  from  Warwick,  have  already  been  re- 
lated summarily.  The  reconciliation,  probably  superficial 
from  the  first,  gave  way  to  collisions  of  the  interests  and 
passions  of  the  princes  of  the  royal  race,  at  a  period  when 
the  order  of  inheritance  was  so  often  interrupted.  The  final 
rupture  is  eaid  to  have  been  produced  by  a  singular  incident. 


46  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1478. 

Thomas  Burdett,  a  man  of  ancient  family  in  the  county  of 
Warwick,  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  Clarence's  bed-chamber, 
is  said  to  have  had  a  favorite  buck  in  his  park  at  Harrow, 
which  the  king,  when  sporting  there,  chanced  to  kill.  Bur- 
dett, as  we  are  told,  in  the  first  transports  of  his  rage,  declared 
that  he  "  wished  the  horns  in  the  belly  of  him  who  killed  it." 
It  is  not  known  whether  this  was  more  than  a  hasty  expres- 
sion, or  even  whether  Burdett  then  knew  the  king  to  be  the 
killer.  He  was,  however,  immediately  imprisoned,  and  very 
summarily  put  to  death.  Clarence,  who  had  spoken  angrily 
of  the  execution  of  his  friend,  was  attainted  of  treason  for 
his  hasty  language,  and  of  sorcery  to  give  to  Burdett's  expres- 
sion the  dire  character  of  necromantic  imprecation.  The 
commons  importuned  the  king  to  give  orders  for  his  brother's 
execution ;  an  act  of  baseness  not  easily  surpassed.  The 
king  had  some  repugnance  to  the  public  execution  of  a  prince. 
Clarence  was  accordingly  privately  put  to  death ;  and  the 
prevalent  rumor  was,  that  he  was  drowned  in  a  butt  of  malm- 
sey ;  a  sort  of  murder  not  indeed  substantiated  by  proof,*  but 
very  characteristic  of  that  frolicksome  and  festive  cruelty 
which  Edward  practised  in  common  with  other  young  and 
victorious  tyrants. 

Some  incidents  in  the  lives  of  individuals  open  a  more 
clear  view  into  the  state  of  England  during  this  calamitous 
period,  than  public  documents  or  general  history  can  supply : 
among  these  may  be  numbered  the  romantic  tale  of  the  shep- 
herd lord  Clifford.  The  reader  already  knows  that  the  Clif- 
fords, a  martial  and  potent  race  of  the  northern  borders,  af- 
terwards earls  of  Cumberland,  had  embraced  the  Lancastrian 
cause  with  all  the  rancor  of  hereditary  feud.  John  lord  Clif- 
ford was  killed  at  the  battle  of  St.  Alban's  by  Richard  duke 
of  York.  At  the  battle  of  Wakefield,  another  John  lord  Clif- 
ford revenged  the  death  of  his  father  by  the  destruction  of  the 
young  earl  of  Rutland,  that  duke's  eldest  son ;  to  say  nothing 
of  the  slaughter  which  procured  for  him  in  that  action  the 
name  of  "  the  butcher."  At  the  battle  of  Towton  this  inter- 
change of  barbarous  revenge  was  closed  by  the  death  of  lord 
Clifford  and  the  disappearance  of  his  children.  Henry  his 
eldest  son  was  then  only  seven  years  of  age.  But  lady  Clif- 
ford, the  mother,  eluded  the  rigorous  inquiry  which  was  made 
for  the  children.  She  then  resided  at  Lonesborough  in  York- 
shire, where  she  placed  her  eldest  son  under  the  care  of  a 
shepherd  who  had  married  his  nurse.  The  boy  was  trained 

*  "  Factum  est  id,  qualecunque  erat,  genus  supplicii." — Hist,  of  Crayland, 
552. :  a  passage  which,  by  mysterious  allusion  to  an  unusual  sort  of  death, 
seems  favorable  to  the  common  narrative. 


1478.  THE    SHEPHERD    LORD    CLIFFORD.  47 

in  a  shepherd's  clothing  and  habits.  Some  time  after,  how- 
ever, on  a  rumor  prevailing  that  he  was  still  alive,  the  court 
renewed  the  jealous  search,  and  his  mother  removed  the  faith- 
ful shepherd  with  his  family  to  Cumberland,  where  he  dwelt 
sometimes  on  the  debateable  ground,  at  other  times  at  Threl- 
kield,  near  the  seat  of  her  second  husband.  At  that  place 
she  privately  visited  her  beloved  child.  On  the  accession  of 
Henry  VII.,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one,  he  was  restored  to  the 
honors  and  estates  of  his  family.  Every  part  of  his  life  was 
so  well  fitted  to  his  outward  station,  that  he  was  not  taught 
to  read,  and  only  learnt  to  write  his  name.  He  built  the 
tower  of  Barden,  which  he  made  his  residence  by  reason  of 
its  neighborhood  to  the  priory  of  Bolton ;  that  he  might  con- 
verse with  some  of  the  canons  of  that  house  who  were  skilled 
in  astronomy,  for  which  his  life  as  a  lonely  shepherd  had  in- 
spired him  with  a  singular  affection.  Amidst  the  beautiful 
scenery  of  Bolton,  or  in  his  tower  of  Barden,  he  is  said  to 
have  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days.  His  death  occurred 
when  he  had  reached  his  seventy-second  year,  after  a  life  the 
greater  part  of  which  was  spent  in  the  calm  occupations  of 
science  and  piety.  He  distinguished  himself  as  a  commander 
on  the  field  of  Flodden ;  and  he  was  allied  by  marriage  to 
the  royal  blood.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  any  struggle  more 
interesting  than  that  of  a  jealous  tyrant  searching  for  infants 
whom,  had  he  made  them  captives,  he  would  have  won  the 
power  of  destroying,  against  the  perseverance  and  ingenuity 
of  a  mother's  affection  employed  in  guarding  her  progeny 
from  the  vulture.* 

Many  of  the  long  concealments  and  narrow  escapes  of 
Henry  and  his  consort  attest,  like  the  story  of  lord  Clifford, 
the  condition  of  the  borders,  thinly  peopled  by  predatory 
tribes,  mixed  with  a  few  priests,  and  fugitives  from  justice, 
who  had  so  little  amicable  intercourse  with  their  neighbors, 
that  kings  and  barons  might  long  lie  hidden  among  them  un- 
discovered by  their  enemies. 

The  remainder  of  Edward's  reign  was  chiefly  employed  in 
apparent  preparations  for  renewing  the  pretensions  of  his 
predecessors  to  the  crown  of  France,  with  no  serious  inten- 
tion, as  it  should  seem,  to  execute  his  threat ;  but  in  order  to 
obtain  money  in  various  modes  from  Louis  XL,  from  the  house 

*  "  In  him  the  savage  virtue  of  his  race, 

Revenge,  and  all  ferocious  thoughts,  were  dead ; 
Nor  did  he  change  ;  but  kept  in  lofty  place 
The  wisdom  which  adversity  had  bred." 

Wordsworth,  ii.  155. 
Dugdale,  Whitaker's  Craven,  <fcc. 


48  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1478. 

of  commons,  and  by  prerogative  from  the  body  of  the  nation. 
The  senseless  pursuit  of  aggrandizement  in  France  was  still 
popular  in  England.  Parliament  granted  no  subsidy  so  gladly 
as  one  for  conquering  Franco.  The  practice  of  raising  money 
by  what  was  called  benevolences  was  rendered  almost  accept- 
able when  it  was  to  be  applied  for  this  national  purpose. 
They  had  originally  been  voluntary  contributions,  for  which 
the  king  applied  to  the  wealthier  of  his  subjects.  The  odium 
of  refusal  was  so  great,  that  they  were  gradually  growing 
into  a  usage  which  would  shortly  have  ranked  with  positive 
law. 

The  most  dangerous  of  his  objects  in  threatening  France 
with  war,  was  that  of  obtaining  pensions  from  Louis  XL  for 
himself  and  his  ministers.  That  wily  monarch  thought  the 
most  effectual  means  of  attaining  his  ends,  whatever  they 
might  be,  were  to  be  always  chosen,  without  regard  to  any 
other  consideration.  In  the  year  1475,  a  treaty  had  been 
concluded,*  by  which  a  present  gratification  of  seventy-five 
thousand  crowns,  with  an  annuity  of  fifty  thousand  more, 
were  to  be  paid  by  Louis  to  Edward ;  and  by  which  it  was 
stipulated  that  the  union  was  to  be  further  cemented  by  the 
marriage  of  the  dauphin  with  Edward's  eldest  daughter.  It 
was  impossible  that  this  example  should  not  be  followed. 
Lord  Hastings  and  the  chancellor  accepted  pensions  of  two 
thousand  crowns  each.  Twelve  thousand  more  were  distrib- 
uted among  the  marquis  of  Dorset,  the  queen's  son,  the  lords 
Howard  and  Cheyne,  and  other  favorites.  This  pernicious 
expedient  opened  to  the  needy  and  prodigal  prince  immense 
means  of  supply,  independent  of  grants  from  parliament,  and 
which  might  even  be  easily  concealed  from  that  assembly. 
The  territories  of  the  crown  might  thus  be  alienated ;  the 
strong  holds  of  the  kingdom  placed  in  the  hands  of  foreigners ; 
a  door  opened  by  which  foreign  armies  might  enter  the"  king- 
dom to  enslave  it.  To  the  pensions  were  added  occasional 
gratuities  to  an  amount  scarcely  credible.  Lord  Howard, 
within  two  years,  received  24,000  crowns;  lord  Hastings, 
at  the  treaty  of  Pecquigny,  received  twelve  dozen  of  gilt 
silver  bowls,  and  twelve  dozen  not  gilt ;  each  of  which  weighed 
seventeen  nobles.  The  receipts  of  the  English  politicians 
for  these  dangerous  gifts  were  preserved  in  the  public  offices 
at  Paris.  At  first,  the  permission  of  the  crown  was  probably 
obtained:  the  ministers  then  might  flatter  themselves  that, 
though  they  accepted  the  money,  it  was  only  to  obey  the 
commands  and  promote  the  policy  of  their  master ;  but  during 

*  See  page  45. 


1483.  DEATH  OF  EDWARD.  49 

an  intercourse  in  which  both  parties  must  have  learned  to 
despise  each  other,  it  is  impossible  that  the  ministers  should 
not  be  tempted  to  deal  clandestinely  with  the  foreign  govern- 
ment, and  finally,  with  however  slow  steps,  that  they  should 
not  slide  into  the  miserable  condition  of  its  hireling  agents. 
Lord  Hastings,  in  these  corrupt  transactions,  showed  some 
glimmering  of  a  sense  of  perverted  and  paradoxical  honor. 
Cleret,  the  pay-master  of  the  English  ministers,  after  one  of 
his  payments,  softly  insinuated  the  propriety  of  a  written  ac- 
knowledgment. Hastings,  without  disputing  Cleret's  demand, 
answered,  "  Sir,  this  gift  cometh  from  the  liberal  pleasure  of 
the  king  your  master,  and  not  from  my  request :  if  it  be  his 
determinate  will  that  I  should  have  it,  put  it  into  my  sleeve ; 
if  not,  return  it :  for  neither  he  nor  you  shall  have  it  to  brag 
that  the  lord  chamberlain  of  England  has  been  his  pen- 
sioner."* 

Louis  postponed  the  marriage  of  the  dauphin,  with  a  view 
to  an  union  with  some  heiress,  whose  territory  might  be 
united  to  the  crown.  Edward  discovered  at  last  that  Louis  was 
amusing  him  with  vain  promises :  his  death  (9th  April,  1483), 
is  ascribed  by  some  to  mortified  ambition ;  by  others,  to  one 
of  those  fits  of  debauchery  which  now  succeeded  the  vices  of 
youth,  and  which  had  already  converted  his  elegant  form  and 
fine  countenance  into  the  bloated  corpulence  of  depraved  and 
premature  age.  Either  cause  of  death  suited  his  character, 
und  might  naturally  have  closed  such  a  life :  for  the  shortest 
and  yet  fullest  account  of  his  character  is,  that  he  yielded  to 
the  impulse  of  every  passion.  His  ambition  was  as  boundless 
as  his  revenge  was  fierce.  Both  these  furious  passions  made 
him  cruel,  faithless,  merciless,  and  lawless.  Nothing  restrained 
him  in  the  pursuit  of  sensual  gratification.  He  squandered 
on  his  mistresses  the  foreign  bribes  which  were  the  price  of 
his  own  dishonor.  To  fear  and  its  abject  train  he  was  a  stran- 
ger; but  it  can  scarcely  be  said  with  truth  that  he  was  exempt 
from  any  other  species  of  vice ;  unless  we  except  avarice, 
which  would  have  bridled  him  more  than  his  impetuous  appe- 
tites could  have  brooked.  Sir  Thomas  More  tells  us,  that  his 
licentious  amours  rather  raised  than  lowered  his  popularity, 
by  inuring  him  to  familiar  intercourse  with  women  of  the 
middle  class.  The  year  before  his  death,  he  entertained  the 
lord  mayor  and  aldermen  at  Windsor,  and  distributed  his  pres- 
ents of  venison  so  liberally  among  them,  "  that  nothing  won 
more  the  hearts  of  the  common  people,  who  oftentimes  esteem 
a  little  courtesy  more  than  a  great  benefit."! 

*HolinBhed,iii.342.  t  Ibid. 

VOL.  II.  E 


50  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1483. 

CHAP.  II. 

TO  THE  BATTLE  OF  BOSWORTH. 

EDWARD  V.— RICHARD  III. 
1483— 1485. 

EDWARD  V.  nominally  reigned  over  England  for  two  months 
and  thirteen  days.  His  imaginary  rule  began  and  ended  in 
his  fourteenth  year.  In  that  brief  space  revolutions  of  gov- 
ernment occurred  of  which  not  one  was  unstained  by  faithless, 
deliberate,  and  cruel  murder ;  and  it  was  closed  by  a  dark  and 
bloody  scene,  which  has  become  the  subject  of  historical  con- 
troversy rather  as  an  exercise  of  paradoxical  ingenuity,  than 
on  account  of  any  uncertainty  respecting  the  events  which 
occurred  in  the  blood-stained  summer  of  1483. 

Scarcely  had  the  wars  of  the  Roses  been  extinguished  when 
new  factions  sprung  up  from  the  jealousy  always  felt  towards 
court  favorites  by  the  ancient  nobility.  Such  factions  charac- 
terize the  Plantagenet  reigns,  and  more  especially  those  of 
the  princes  of  York,  who,  having  long  been  subjects,  continued 
their  habits  of  intermarriage  with  subjects.  Perhaps  these 
dispositions  gained  some  accession  from  the  temperament  and 
propensities  of  the  amorous  Edward,  who,  long  after  he  had 
been  notoriously  unfaithful  to  the  queen,  continued  to  load  her 
kindred  with  honors  and  wealth.  Among  the  court  or  queen's 
party,  the  principal  persons  were,  her  accomplished  brother 
earl  Rivers,  her  sons  by  the  first  marriage,  the  marquess  of 
Dorset  and  lord  Richard  Grey,  and  her  brother-in-law  lord 
Lyle.  The  noblemen  who  were  the  personal  friends  of  the 
late  king  as  well  as  the  ancient  adherents  of  the  house  of 
York,  such  as  the  lords  Hastings,  Stanley,  and  Howard,  were 
jealous  of  the  Woodvilles,  and  waited  with  impatience  the 
appearance  of  two  princes,  who  might  balance  that  family  of 
favorites ; — Richard  duke  of  Gloucester,  who  commanded  in 
the  war  against  Scotland,  and  Henry  duke  of  Buckingham, 
the  descendant  of  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  the  sixth  son  of 
Edward  the  third,  who  was  then  at  his  castle.  Edward  was 
at  the  time  of  his  accession  at  Ludlow  castle,  in  the  hands  of 
his  mother's  family.  As  soon  as  Richard  learnt  the  tidings 
of  his  brother's  death,  he  marched  towards  the  south  with  all 
speed,  in  pursuance,  as  afterwards  appeared,  of  a  secret  under- 
standing with  Hastings,  who  remained  at  court,  and  with 
Buckingham,  who  hastened  with  a  body  of  adherents,  pro- 
fessedly to  join  the  king.  Ix>rd  Rivers,  lulled  into  security 
by  the  assurances  and  professions  of  the  illustrious  dukes, 


1483.  RICHARD,    DUKE    OF   GLOUCESTER.  51 

made  haste  to  meet  them  with  his  royal  charge.  On  the  29th 
of  April,  Edward  V.,  accompanied  by  the  Woodvilles,  had 
reached  Stony  Stratford,  and  on  the  same  day  the  duke  of 
Gloucester  arrived  at  Northampton,  ten  miles  distant.  Lord 
Rivers  immediately  went  to  pay  a  compliment  to  the  duke  of 
Gloucester,  and  to  receive  his  orders.  They,  together  with 
Buckingham,  who  appears  to  have  arrived  the  same  day,  re- 
mained at  the  latter  town  till  next  morning ;  and  though  the 
suspicions  of  lord  Rivers  were  excited  by  the  outlets  of  North- 
ampton being  guarded  during  the  night,  he  professed  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  explanation  given  of  that  circumstance.  He 
and  his  brother  rode  in  attendance  on  Gloucester  and  Buck- 
ingham, with  every  appearance  of  intimate  friendship,  to  the 
entrance  of  Stony  Stratford,  where  Gloucester  accused  Rivers 
and  Grey  of  having  taught  the  young  monarch  to  distrust  the 
protector.  Rivers,  who,  as  the  historian  tells  us,  was  a  well- 
spoken  man,  defended  himself  with  his  accustomed  abilities ; 
but  as  he  could  not  prove  that  he  was  no  obstacle  to  Richard's 
ambition,  his  defence  was  vain.  "  They  took  him  and  put  him 
in  ward."  On  being  ushered  into  the  presence  of  the  king 
at  Stony  Stratford,  they  assured  him  that  "  the  marquess  his 
brother  and  Rivers  his  uncle  had  compassed  to  rule  the  king 
and  the  realm,  and  to  subdue  and  destroy  its  noble  blood." 
The  unfortunate  boy  answered,  with  touching  simplicity, 
"  What  my  lord  marquess  may  have  done  in  London  I  cannot 
say ;  but  I  dare  answer  for  my  uncle  Rivers  and  my  brother 
here,  that  they  be  innocent  of  any  such  matter."  The  Wood- 
villes were  instantly  ordered  to  be  conveyed  to  Pomfret  cas- 
tle. "  Gloucester  and  Buckingham  sent  away  from  the  king 
whom  it  pleased  them,  and  set  new  servants  about  him,  such 
as  liked  better  them  than  him ;  at  which  dealing  he  wept, 
and  was  nothing  content ;  but  it  booted  not."  On  the  advance 
to  London,  their  purposes  were  evident  to  those  whom  they 
most  concerned.  The  queen  fled  from  her  palace  at  West- 
minster at  midnight,  to  take  sanctuary  in  the  adjoining  abbey. 
The  confusion  and  hurry  with  which  her  furniture  was  scat- 
tered over  the  floor  by  her  affrighted  attendants  afford  the  best 
proof  of  the  extent  of  their  fears.  "  The  queen  herself,"  we 
are  told,  "  sat  alone  on  the  rushes  all  desolate  and  dismayed." 
On  the  4th  of  May,  the  day  originally  destined  for  the  coro- 
nation, which  from  the  evident  influence  of  new  purposes  was 
now  postponed  to  the  22d  of  June,  the  young  prince  was  led 
by  his  uncle  with  due  state  into  his  capital. 

Richard  assumed  the  title  of  protector  of  the  king  and 
kingdom;  a  station  for  which  the  analogy  of  the  constitution 
in  an  hereditary  monarchy  seemed  to  designate  him.  It  seemed 


52  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1483. 

probable  that  Hastings  and  Stanley,  the  friends  of  Edward 
IV.,  began  to  show  misgivings  at  the  designs  of  Richard,  es- 
pecially after  he  had  compelled  the  (Jueen  to  surrender  the 
duke  of  York  to  him,  under  the  specious  color  of  lodging  him 
with  his  elder  brother  in  the  royal  palace  of  the  Tower.  On 
the  13th  of  June,  a  council  was  held  in  the  Tower  to  regulate 
the  approaching  coronation ;  at  which  were  present  the  lords 
Hastings  and  Stanley,  together  with  several  prelates.  Rich- 
ard, affecting  an  unwonted  gaiety,  desired  the  bishop  of  Ely 
to  send  for  a  dish  of  strawberries  for  breakfast.  Retiring 
from  council  for  almost  an  hour,  he  returned  with  his  looks 
and  gestures  entirely  altered,  and  with  a  sour  and  angry 
countenance,  knitting  his  brows  and  gnawing  his  lips.  After 
a  short  time  he  broke  his  sullen  silence,  by  crying  out,  "  Of 
what  are  they  worthy  who  have  compassed  the  death  of  me, 
the  king's  protector  by  nature  as  well  as  by  law  T'  "  To  be 
punished,"  said  Hastings,  "  as  heinous  traitors."  "  That  is," 
replied  the  protector,  still  dissembling,  "  that  sorceress  my 
brother's  wife,  and  her  kindred."  This  reply  was  not  un- 
grateful to  Hastings,  the  mortal  enemy  of  the  Woodvilles, 
who  said,  "  Heinous,  indeed,  if  true."  The  protector,  weary 
of  dissimulation,  cried  aloud,  "  Yes !  I  will  make  good  your 
answer  upon  your  body,  traitor,  in  spite  of  your  ifs  and  ands." 
Then  he  clapped  his  fist  on  the  board  with  a  great  rap,  at 
which  token  a  man  who  stood  without  the  door  cried  out, 
Treason !  Men  in  armor,  as  many  as  the  apartment  could 
contain,  entered  into  it.  Richard  said  to  Hastings,  "  I  arrest 
thee,  traitor ! "  Stanley  and  the  other  obnoxious  lords  were 
committed  to  various  dungeons.  The  protector  bade  Hastings 
"  to  shrive  (confess)  himself  apace ;  for  by  St.  Paul  I  will 
not  dine  till  I  see  thy  head  off! "  "  It  booted  him  not  to  ask 
why  ?  He  took  a  priest  at  a  venture,  and  made  a  short  shrift ; 
for  the  protector  made  haste  to  dinner,  which  he  might  not  go 
to  until  they  were  done,  for  saving  of  his  oath."  He  was 
brought  down  to  the  green  by  the  chapel,  and  being  laid  on  a 
long  log  of  timber,  which  happened  to  be  near,  his  head  was 
struck  off,  without  any  form  of  trial  or  even  specification  of 
his  pretended  offence.  Those  who,  after  such  deeds,  could 
have  doubted  the  dire  designs  of  the  merciless  protector, 
must  surely  have  relinquished  their  opinion,  when  they  learn- 
ed shortly  after,  that,  on  the  very  13th  of  June  which  wit- 
nessed the  murder  of  lord  Hastings,  a  like  scene  was  exhibited 
near  the  northern  frontier  of  the  kingdom.  On  that  day, 
Radcliffe,  one  of  Richard's  emissaries,  entering  the  castle  of 
Pomfret  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  armed  men,  put  Rivers  and 
his  friends  to  death,  before  a  crowd  of  bystanders,  with  as 


1483.  MURDER    <JF    THE    PRINCES.  53 

little  semblance  of  judicial  proceeding  as  was  vouchsafed  to 
Hastings. 

These  horrible  transactions,  which  in  their  general  out- 
lines are  disputed  by  no  writer,  have  been  here  related  almost 
in  the  words  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  one  of  the  few  historians 
who  had  an  opportunity  of  proving  their  abhorrence  of  false- 
hood, by  choosing  to  suffer  a  death  which  the  vulgar  account- 
ed ignominious,  rather  than  to  utter  a  lie.     Had  Richard  per- 
petrated so  many  crimes  for  a  less  temptation  than  a  crown ; 
had  he  shrunk  from  the  only  deed  of  blood  which  was  to  ren- 
der his  former  guilt  profitable,  he  would  have  disappointed  all 
reasonable  expectation,  by  stopping  short  under  such  a  load 
of  criminality,  when,  by  wading  one  step  farther  in  blood, 
lie  might  seat  himself  on  the  throne.     His  uncontested  acts 
compel  us  to  believe  that  he  could  not  be  withheld,  by  scruples 
of  conscience  or  visitings  of  nature,  from  seizing  a  sceptre 
which  seemed  within  his  grasp.     An  unbiassed  reader,  who 
has  perused  the  narrative  of  his  avowed  deeds,  will  therefore 
learn  with  little  surprise,  but  rather  regard  as  the  natural 
sequel  of  his  previous  policy,  that  Edward  V.  and  Richard 
duke  of  York  soon  after  silently  disappeared  from  the  Tower, 
and  were  generally  believed  to  be  murdered  ;  that  no  inquest 
was  made  for  their  blood,  or  no  show  of  public  inquiry  into 
the  mysterious  circumstances  of  their  disappearance  attempt- 
ed.    The  mind  of  such  a  reader,  without  exacting  further 
evidence,  would  gradually  prepare  him  for  the  belief,  that 
such  a  tale  told  of  royal  infants  sufficiently  proved  their  death 
to  be  a  murder,  and  that  the  murder  was  commanded  by  those 
who  reaped  its  fruit     None  of  the  circumstances  immedi- 
ately following  could  tend  to  shake  such  a  belief.     On  Mon- 
day, June  16th,  three  days  after  the  murder  of  Hastings  and 
the  Woodvilles,  the  consent  of  the  queen  to  the  removal  of 
Richard,  her  second  son,  to  the  Tower,  from  the  sanctuary  at 
Westminster,  was  extorted  by  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
under  the  pretext  that  lie  should  not  be  in  sanctuary  among 
thieves  and  murderers,  at  the  moment  of  so  august  and  sacred 
a  ceremony  as  his  brother's  coronation ;  although  it  be  un- 
questionably certain  that  such  a  solemnity  was,  then  at  least, 
no  longer  intended.     On  the  next  day,  the  17th  of  June,  the 
last  exercise  of  regal  authority  in  the  name  of  Edward  V. 
appears,  in  the  form  of  a  commission  to  supply  the  royal 
household  with  provisions  for  six  months.* 

Meanwhile  Richard,  probably  for  the  purpose  of  reviving 
the  recollection  of  his  brother's  licentious  manners,  caused 

*  Rymor. 

E2 


64  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1483. 

his  subservient  ecclesiastics  to  inflict  penance  on  Jane  Shore, 
the  wife  of  an  opulent  citizen  of  London,  who  had  been  the 
beloved  mistress  of  the  late  king.     "  Proper  she  was  and 
fair,"  says  Sir  Thomas  More ;   "  yet  delighted  not  men  so 
much  in  her  beauty  as  in  her  pleasant  behavior  ;  for  a  proper 
wit  had  she,  and  could  both  read  well  and  write ;  ready  and 
quick  of  answer;  neither  mute  nor  babbling.     Many  mis- 
tresses the  king  had,  but  her  he  loved ;  whose  favor,  to  say 
the  truth,  she  never  abused  to  any  man's  hurt,  but  often  em- 
ployed to  many  a  man's  relief."*    The  cruel  selection  of  such 
a  person  for  ignominious  punishment  arose,  probably,  in  part 
from  her  plebeian  condition,  and  in  part  from  her  having  be- 
come the  paramour  of  Hastings,  who,  though  enamored  of 
her  in  Edward's  lifetime,  had  then  so  much  respect  for  the 
taste  of  his  master,  as  to  abstain  from  nearer  approaches  to 
her.     Having  thus  insulted  the  memory  of  his  brother,  and 
removed  the  friends  of  his  nephews,  Richard  began  openly  to 
attack  the  title  of  the  late  king's  children  to  the  throne.   The 
narrative  of  his  conduct  is  full  of  confusion,  and  not  exempt 
from  inconsistency.     If  we  measure  his  acts  by  a  modern 
standard,  some  of  them  appear  incredible;   but  where  the 
more  conspicuous  facts  are  certain,  however  atrocious,  we 
must  not  withhold  our  belief  from  the  recital  of  particulars, 
because  it  partakes  of  the  disorder  and  precipitation  which 
are  the  natural  companions  of  dark  and  bloody  undertakings. 
The  first  expedient  employed  by  Richard  to  undermine  the 
general  belief  in  the  legitimacy  of  his  nephews  was  singu- 
larly at  variance  with  modern  manners  and  opinions.     On 
Sunday,  the  15th  of  June,  1483,  he  caused  Shaw,  a  noted 
preacher,  to  deliver  a  sermon  against  the  lawfulness  of  their 
birth,  at  Paul's  Cross,  a  place  of  more  than  ordinary  resort, 
in  an  age  when  preaching  was  chiefly  confined  to  high  festi- 
vals or  peculiar  solemn  occasions.     This  extraordinary  attack- 
on  the  title  of  the  reigning  prince,  whose  coronation  had  been 
appointed  to  be  on  that  very  day,  is  not  preserved,  and  our 
accounts  of  its  tenor  do  not  perfectly  agree.     It  appears, 
however,  that  the  preacher's  main  argument  was,  that  Ed- 
ward IV.  had  contracted  to  wed,  or  had  secretly  wedded,  lady 
Elinor  Butler,  before  the  marriage  solemnized  between  that 
prince  and  Elizabeth  Woodville;  that  the  second  marriage 
was  void,  and  the  issue  of  it  illegitimate,  on  account  of  the 
alleged  precontract  or  previous  wedlock.     Stillington,  bishop 
of  Bath,  a  profligate  creature  of  the  protector,  declared  that 
he  had  officiated  at  the  former  nuptials  or  espousals.    To  this 

*  Sir  T.  More,  in  Holin.  384. 


1483.         RICHARD  DECLARED  KINO.  55 

was  added,  an  odious  and  unjust  imputation  of  infidelity 
against  the  duchess-dowager  of  York,  and  of  bastardy  of  her 
children,  unless  the  sycophant  chose  expressly  to  except 
Richard.  But  if  this  aspersion  was  then  thrown  out,  it  per- 
haps flowed  from  the  redundant  zeal  of  the  calumniator  him- 
self; for  in  the  subsequent  and  more  formal  proceedings  we 
find  it  dropped.  The  multiplicity  of  Edward's  amours  gave 
some  credit  to  these  rumors;  and  it  was  certainly  possible 
that  Stillington,  a  man  very  capable  of  being  the  minister  of 
a  prince's  vices,  may  have  been  privy  to  intrigues,  in  which 
promises  of  marriage  may  have  been  employed  as  means  of 
seduction.*  Two  days  afterwards  the  duke  of  Buckingham 
harangued  the  citizens  in  the  same  strain  with  Shaw ;  and 
on  the  25th  of  June  that  nobleman  presented  to  Richard,  in 
his  mother's  house  at  Baynard's  Castle,  a  parchment,  purport- 
ing to  be  a  declaration  of  the  three  estates  in  favor  of  Rich- 
ard, as  the  only  legitimate  prince  of  the  house  of  York.  But 
as  the  three  estates  who  presented  this  scroll  to  the  king  were 
not  then  assembled  in  form  of  parliament,!  it  was  deemed 
necessary  at  the  next  meeting  of  that  assembly!  to  declare 
the  marriage  of  Edward  with  Elizabeth  to  be  void,  on  ac- 
count of  his  precontract  with  lady  Elinor ;  and  therefore  to 
pronounce  that  Richard  "  was  and  is  veray  and  undoubted 
king  of  the  realm  of  England  j  and  that  the  inheritance  of  it, 
after  his  decease,  shall  rest  in  the  heirs  of  his  body.??  The 
infidelity  of  the  duchess  of  York  was  deemed  too  gross,  or  the 
allegation  of  it  by  her  son  too  monstrous,  to  be  adverted  to 
in  the  statute.  On  the  26th  of  June,  Richard  seated  himself 
in  the  royal  chair  in  the  palace  of  Westminster ;  and  was  re- 
ceived with  outward  reverence  by  the  clergy,  when  he  came 
to  the  cathedral  church  of  St.  Paul  to  return  thanks  to  God 
for  his  exaltation  to  the  throne.  "  After  his  accession,"  says 
a  simple  chronicler,  "  the  prince,  or  rather  of  right  the  king, 
Edward  V.,  with  his  brother,  the  duke  of  York,  were  under 
sure  keeping  within  the  Tower,  in  such  wyse  that  they  never 
came  abroad  after."}  That  the  circumstances  alleged  by 
Richard  in  support  of  the  illegitimacy  of  these  unhappy 
princes  should  be  true,  is  a  supposition  so  improbable  as 

*  "  Cet  eveque  mit  en  avant  a«  Due  de  Gloucester,  que  le  roi  Edouard, 
ctant  fort  amoureux  d'une  dame  d'Angleterre,  lui  promit  de  1'epouser, 
pourvu  qu'il  couchat  avec  elte.  Elle  y  consentit ;  et  cet  eveque,  qui  lcs 
avoit  epouses;  et  il  n'y  avoit  que  lui  et  deux  autres,  il  6toit  homme  de 
cour,  ct  ne  le  decouvrit  pas  et  aida  a  faire  taire  ia  dame.  Cet  eveque  en- 
fin  decouvrit  cette  matiere  au  Due  de  Gloucester,  et  lui  aida  a  executer  son 
jii.-nivais  vouloir." — Comities,  lib.  v.  c.  20. 

t  Rot.  Parl.  vi.  240.  t  Jan.  23.  1483-4.    Rot.  Parl.  vi.  271. 

§  Fabyan,  669. 


66  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  14*3. 

scarcely  to  require  further  examination.  Had  Edward  IV. 
been  really  married  to  lady  Elinor  Butler,  the  spiritual  court 
must  have  decreed,  on  credible  evidence  of  such  an  union, 
that  his  pretended  marriage  with  Elizabeth  was  a  nullity. 
Had  any  faith  been  placed  in  the  testimony  of  the  bishop  of 
Bath,  such  an  avoidance  of  the  first  marriage  by  a  competent 
court,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  law,  is  very  unlikely  to  be 
overlooked  in  a  matter  relating  to  the  succession  to  the 
crown ;  but  the  testimony  of  a  man  made  so  infamous  by 
his  own  story  can  be  of  no  other  importance  than  as  a  speci- 
men of  the  chancellors  and  prelates  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
It  is  unanimously  agreed  that,  after  the  accession  of  Rich- 
ard, no  man  (unless  the  jailers  and  the  assassins)  saw  young 
Edward.  We  have  no  intimation  of  the  escape  of  him  or  his 
brother;  and  it  is  certain  that  they  had  been  murdered,  or 
made  their  escape,  before  the  battle  of  Bosworth.  It  may  be 
observed  that,  in  the  statute  declaring  the  legitimacy  of  Rich- 
ard, no  mention  is  made  of  the  two  princes  as  being  then  dead 
or  alive.*  Is  that  silence  reconcilable  with  the  fact  of  their 
being  then  alive  1  In  Richard's  negotiations  for  a  marriage 
with  his  niece  the  princess  Elizabeth,  there  is  no  evidence  of 
any  attempt  made  by  Edward's  wridow  to  save  her  sons.  Was 
there  ever  a  mother  who  would,  in  such  a  case,  be  silent  and 
inactive,  if  she  had  not  perfectly  known  their  death  J  The 
total  absence  of  all  pretence  to  information  respecting  the 
subsequent  fate  of  Edward,  or  the  particulars  of  the  escape 
of  his  brother  Richard,  seems  to  afford  the  most  decisive  evi- 
dence that  neither  was  alive  at  the  battle  of  Bosworth ;  espe- 
cially as  these  boys  were  not  of  an  age  to  forget  their  royal 
condition,  and  must  have  been  particularly  known  to  many  of 
the  English  exiles  who  crowded  the  courts  of  France,  Bur- 
gundy, and  Britany.  There  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  distrust- 
ing the  main  circumstances  of  the  murder  of  the  princes,  as 
they  are  commonly  related.  It  is  said,  that  in  the  month  of 
August,  1483,  while  engaged  in  a  progress  through  the  north, 
Richard  commanded  Brackenbury,  the  lieutenant  of  the 
Tower,  to  put  them  to  death  with  speed  and  secrecy.  This 
officer  rejected  the  proposal,  but  acceded  to  another  equally 
infamous, — to  place  the  keys  and  the  custody  of  the  Tower  in 
the  hands  of  Sir  James  Tyrrell,  a  less  hypocritical  assassin, 
who  on  the  night  of  his  arrival  caused  the  subordinate  mur- 
derers, Dighton  and  Forest,  f  to  smother  the  princes  in  their 

*  Rot.  Parl.  vi.  240.    Jan.  H83-4. 

t  "  Miles  Forest,  a  fellow  flesh-bred  in  murder  beforetime."— Grafton,  ii. 
118.  "Dighton  lived  at  Calais  long  after,  no  less  disdained  and  hated  than 
pointed  at."— Ibid. 


1483.  MURDER    OF    THE    PRINCES.  57 

dungeon  at  midnight.  Brackenbury  was  richly  rewarded  for 
his  connivance,  by  grants  of  manors  and  pensions.  Greene, 
Brackenbury's  messenger,  appears  to  have  been  promoted 
beyond  his  natural  expectation.  Forest,  whom  Sir  Thomas 
More  calls  "a  noted  ruffian,"  was  made  keeper  of  the  wardrobe 
at  the  duchess  of  York's  house  at  Baynard's  Castle.  Tyrrell 
himself  was  made  steward  of  the  duchy  of  Cornwall,  and  gov- 
ernor of  Glamorganshire,  with  the  gift  of  many  manors  in 
South  Wales.  It  is  surely  no  mean  corroboration  of  the  nar- 
rative of  Sir  Thomas  More,  that  we  find  the  price  of  blood 
thus  largely  paid  to  all  the  persons  whom  he  mentions  as 
parties  to  the  murder  or  privy  to  its  perpetration.*  Tyrrell  is 
said  by  More  to  have  confessed  his  guilt  when  he  was  exe- 
cuted, twenty  years  after,  for  concealing  the  treason  of  the 
earl  of  Suffolk,  f  The  most  specious  objection  to  More's  nar- 
rative is,  that  the  dates  of  several  of  Richard's  signatures,  at 
Westminster,  on  the  31st  of  July,  do  not  leave  sufficient  time 
before  his  coronation  at  York,  on  the  8th  of  August,  for  the 
instructions,  for  the  murder,  the  execution  of  it,  and  the 
news  of  its  completion ;  all  which,  according  to  the  received 
accounts,  occurred  in  that  time.  That  the  king,  to  expedite 
affairs,  might  leave  behind  him  many  documents  subscribed  by 
himself,  when  about  to  set  out  on  a  long  journey,  is  so  very 
natural  a  solution  of  this  difficulty,  that  it  is  singular  it  should 
not  have  immediately  presented  itself.  It  would  probably  not 
be  difficult  to  ascertain  the  sort  of  writings  in  which  the  sig- 
nature of  the  king  on  the  day  of  their  dates  might  be  required, 
and  in  what  cases  it  might  be  dispensed  with.  But  English 
history  is  indebted  to  Dr.  Lingard  for  a  more  specific  and 
satisfactory  answer.  He  has  produced,  in  answer  to  this  par- 
ticular objection,  thirty-three  instances  of  writs  bearing  date 
at  Westminster,  by  Edward  V.  himself,  eleven  days  before  the 
day  on  which  we  know  that  he  actually  entered  that  city  after 
his  accession.  Comines,  a  writer  of  remarkable  veracity,  and 
without  English  prejudices,  who  knew  the  chief  lords  of  Eng- 
land as  well  as  those  of  France  and  Burgundy,  relates  the 
murder  of  the  princes  by  their  barbarous  uncle  as  a  fact  not 
requiring  any  proof. 

No  sooner  had  Richard,  by  thus  spilling  the  blood  of  his 
brother's  children,  completed  his  usurpation,  than  he  found  an 
enemy,  where  he  least  expected  it,  in  the  duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, the  accomplice  of  his  blackest  crimes ;  undoubtedly  the 
chief  instrument  of  the  usurpation,  and  very  probably  privy 
to  the  murder.  The  particular  causes  of  Buckingham's  revolt 

*  Turner,  iii.  490.  f  Rot.  Parl.  vi.  545.  A.  D.  1503. 


58  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1483. 

cannot  now  be  ascertained.  He  was  perhaps  prompted  by 
anger  that  such  a  share  in  guilt  should  be  followed  by  no 
share  in  the  spoils:  Richard  may  have  waded  farther  into 
blood  than  was  warranted  by  their  original  contract ;  or,  as  a 
descendant  of  Edward  III.,  he  might  have  hoped  to  hurl  Rich- 
ard from  a  throne  stained  with  the  innocent  blood  of  his 
brother's  children.  It  is  possible  that  the  Lancastrians  may 
have  tempted  him  with  such  hopes,  and  that  they  professed  to 
believe  his  disavowal  of  previous  knowledge  of  the  murder 
of  the  princes. 

Whether  Richard  perpetrated  the  murder  from  fears  of  an 
insurrection  to  release  the  princes,  or  published  the  account 
of  their  death  to  confound  the  councils  of  the  disaffected,  the 
insurrection  of  Buckingham  broke  out  on  the  18th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1483.  He  is  generally  related  to  have  concerted  mea- 
sures for  raising  Henry  earl  of  Richmond  to  the  throne,  as  the 
chief  of  the  Lancastrian  party,  on  condition  of  his  wedding 
the  princess  Elizabeth,  the  heiress  of  the  house  of  York. 
This  expedient  for  closing  the  gates  of  civil  war  is  said  to 
have  been  suggested  by  Morton,  bishop  of  Ely,  and  approved 
by  the  queen-dowager  and  her  sons  of  the  first  marriage,  and 
by  the  countess  of  Richmond,  on  behalf  of  her  son  in  Britanv, 
to  whom  she  dispatched  tidings  of  the  treaty  and  of  the  day 
fixed  for  a  general  revolt.  Storms,  however,  interrupted  the 
voyage  of  Henry.  The  Welsh  retainers  of  Buckingham, 
dispirited  by  broken  bridges  and  impassable  fords,  in  the  forest 
of  Deane,  disbanded  themselves  with  a  precipitation  more 
suitable  to  the  mutinous  habits  than  to  the  gallant  spirit  of 
their  nation. 

Richard,  who  justified  his  cruelty  to  Jane  Shore  by  affec- 
tation of  zeal  for  austere  morality,  at  this  time,  used  the  like 
pretext  to  crush  the  remaining  adherents  of  Buckingham.  On 
the  23d  of  October,  1483,  he  issued  a  proclamation,  with  re- 
wards for  the  apprehension  of  Dorset  and  his  followers,  whose 
escape  was  then  either  not  effected  or  not  known.  That  no- 
bleman is  charged  by  this  proclamation  with  "  having  deflour- 
ed  many  maids,  wives,  and  widows  ;"*  with  "  holding  the  mis- 
chievous woman  called  Shore's  wife  in  open  adultery;  with 
having  not  only  rebelled  against  the  king,  and  intended  to 
destroy  his  person,  but  also  contributed  to  the  damnable  main- 
tenance of  vice  and  sin,  to  the  displeasure  of  God,  and  the 
evil  example  of  all  Christian  people."  Buckingham's  head 
was  struck  off,  without  form  of  trial,  in  the  market-place  of 
Salisbury.  Morton  effected  his  escape  to  Flanders ;  the  mar- 


*  Rymcr,  xii.  204. 


1485.  UNPOPULARITY    OF    RICHARD.  59 

quess  of  Dorset  and  the  bishop  of  Exeter  to  Britany.  These, 
with  500  English  exiles,  did  homage  to  Henry  of  Richmond 
as  their  sovereign,  on  condition  of  his  swearing  to  observe  the 
terms  of  their  agreement.  Richard  felt  that  he  had  suppressed, 
but  not  extinguished,  the  revolt  He  made  a  bold  effort  to 
break  the  concert  of  the  exiles  and  malcontents,  by  marrying 
the  young  princess,  his  niece,  whose  hand  was  to  be  the  bond 
of  union  .between  the  Roses.  It  seems  obvious  that  the  im- 
portance ascribed  by  all  parties  to  the  marriage  of  this  prin- 
cess can  only  have  sprung  from  their  unanimous  belief  that  by 
the  murder  of  her  brothers  she  was  become  the  heiress  of  the 
house  of  York.  The  queen-dowager,  in  spite  of  her  treaty 
with  Richmond,  was  shaken  in  her  fidelity  by  the  hope  of 
placing  her  daughter  on  the  throne.  Lady  Anne  Neville, 
Richard's  queen,  was  in  infirm  health.  The  princess  showed 
too  great  an  eagerness  for  an  unnatural  marriage,  and  even 
betrayed  the  most  indecent  impatience  of  the  life  of  Anne, 
who,  she  was  assured  by  Richard,  was  to  die  in  February.* 
He  was,  however,  dissuaded  from  these  purposes  of  mar- 
riage, which  were  so  unpopular  that  he  was  obliged  to  disavow 
them. 

It  affords  no  small  presumption  of  the  unpopularity  as  well 
as  illegality  of  his  government,  that  he  did  not  venture  to 
recur  to  the  practice  of  the  two  preceding  reigns,  by  procuring 
the  sanction  of  parliament  for  his  power,  until  it  appeared  to 
be  sufficiently  strengthened  by  the  failure  of  Richmond's  at- 
tempt to  invade  England.  It  was  only  in  the  beginning  of 
1485f  that  Richard  obtained  statutes  to  establish  his  own 
title,  and  to  attaint  his  enemies ;  for  abolishing  the  grievance 
of  "  forced  benevolences ;"  and  for  reformations  of  law,  which 
rendered  him  popular,  and  clothed  him  with  that  show  of  se- 
cure dominion  which  delivered  him  from  anxiety  for  the  sta- 
bility of  his  throne,  and  enabled  him  to  turn  his  thoughts  to 
the  paternal  duties  of  a  just  and  impartial  sovereign. 

In  the  summer  of  148o  he  directed  writs  to  be  issued  to  all 
sheriffs,}  informing  them  that  Jasper  and  Henry  Tudor,  with 
John  earl  of  Oxford,  Sir  Edward  Woodville  and  others,  had 
conspired  with  the  duke  of  Britany  to  invade  England ;  that, 
failing  in  this  attempt,  they  fled  to  the  king's  ancient  enemy 
Charles,  styling  himself  king  of  France,  whose  aid  they  pro- 
cured by  a  promise  to  cede  to  him  the  territories  of  France 
which  of  right  pertained  to  the  crown  of  England.  With  an 

*  Her  letter  in  Buck.  t  Rot.  Parl. 

|  A  copy  of  the  writ  to  the  sheriff  of  Kent  is  to  be  found  in  Fenn,  ii.  319. 
The  instructions  to  the  chancellor  to  prepare  this  proclamation  are  in 
Ellis's  Royal  Letters,  i.  102.  second  series. 


60  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1485. 

absurdity  as  remarkable  as  its  hypocrisy,  this  proclamation 
informed  the  subjects  that  the  greater  part  of  those  rebels 
were  "open  murderers,  adulterers,  and  extortioners."  The 
most  pertinent  intelligence  which  it  communicated  was,  that 
the  exiles  had  already  chosen  one  Henry  Tudor  to  be  their 
chiefj  who  already  usurped  the  royal  estate  of  England, 
"  whereunto  he  had  no  interest,  title,  or  color,  being  descended 
of  bastard  blood  on  both  sides ;  for  Owen  Tudor  his  grand- 
father was  a  bastard,*  and  his  mother  was  daughter  unto  John 
duke  of  Somerset,  son  unto  John  earl  of  Somerset,  son  unto 
dame  Catherine  Swinford  by  John  of  Gaunt,  and  the  issue  of 
their  double  adultery." 

But  these  reasonings  were  no  longer  seasonable.  The 
greater  part  of  the  York  party,  alienated  by  the  crimes  of 
Richard,  whose  impartial  tyranny  destroyed  Hastings  with  as 
little  scruple  as  Woodville,  had  acquiesced  in  Morton's  project 
for  preserving  their  own  connexion  with  the  regal  dignity  by 
seating  Elizabeth  of  York  on  the  throne. 

A  compromise  between  the  various  interests,  opinions,  and 
prejudices  of  a  community  would  lose  its  nature  and  its  use- 
fulness if  it  were  invulnerable  by  arguments  derived  from 
any  one  of  the  principles  which  it  labors  to  reconcile.  A  per- 
fect logical  consistency  is  incompatible  with  such  pacifica- 
tions ;  every  party  must  sacrifice  a  portion  of  their  opinions, 
as  well  as  a  share  of  their  interests.  A  compromise  between 
conflicting  factions  was  effected  on  the  ground  that  each  party 
should  be,  as  it  were,  represented  on  the  throne  by  a  queen 
whom  Richard's  unnatural  deeds  and  projects  pronounced  to 
be  the  heiress  of  York ;  and  by  a  king  who,  though  he  could 
not  indeed  succeed  under  the  title  of  the  house  of  Lancaster, 
was  the  only  remaining  leader  of  the  Lancastrian  party. 

A  few  of  the  most  eminent  Yorkists  adhered  to  the  princi- 
ple of  an  inheritable  crown,  clouded  as  it  was  by  the  crimes 
of  Richard.  They  probably  reconciled  themselves  to  a  devia- 
tion from  it,  in  the  preference  of  him  to  his  niece,  by  the  same 
obvious  necessity  for  a  vigorous  chief  in  the  approaching 
struggle  which  silenced  the  prejudices  of  the  other  Yorkists 
against  the  succession  of  a  Tudor.  Among  the  eminent  per- 
sons who  adhered  to  Richard  as  a  king  of  the  house  of  York, 
was  Sir  John  Howard,  created  duke  of  Norfolk  in  consequence 
of  the  marriage  of  his  father  with  the  coheiress  of  the  Mow- 

*  A  statement,  whether  true  or  false,  perfectly  immaterial.  The  latter 
assertion  is  true,  and,  as  far  as  mere  hereditary  right  is  concerned,  appears 
to  be  conclusive.  The  clause  exceplti  dignitate  rtgali,  in  the  letters  patent 
of  Richard  II.  to  John  of  Gaunt,  it  is  altogether  impossible  to  reconcile  to 
Henry's  title  derived  from  the  Beaufort  branch. 


1485.  BATTLE  OF  BOSWORTH.  61 

brays ;  a  family  who  inherited  the  estates  and  dignities  of 
Norfolk  from  Thomas  of  Brotherton,  fifth  son  of  Edward  I. 
Another  was  lord  Stanley ;  who,  though  an  original  Yorkist, 
became  suspected  by  Richard  on  account  of  his  friendship 
with  Hastings,  and  his  marriage  with  the  countess-dowager 
of  Richmond,  the  mother  of  Henry  Tudor.*  The  difficulties 
of  Stanley's  position  were  increased  by  his  son  George  lord 
Strange  being  in  the  hands  of  Richard,  treated  as  a  faithful 
adherent ;  but  who  might  be  dealt  with  as  a  hostage,  in  case 
of  the  defection  of  the  father.  He  temporized ;  seemed  to 
fluctuate ;  and,  though  probably  a  party  to  the  agreement  for 
the  marriage  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth,  preserved  a  show  of 
neutrality  longer  than  could  be  conceived,  if  the  extent  and 
remoteness  of  his  domains  were  not  considered. 

Early  in  the  month  of  August,  1485,  Henry  earl  of  Rich- 
mond embarked  from  Harfleur,  and  landed  at  Milford-Haven 
on  the  6th  of  that  month ;  a  place  chosen  partly,  perhaps, 
from  some  reliance  on  the  partiality  of  the  Britons  to  their 
native  race,  but  more  probably  from  the  facility  of  undisturbed 
disembarkation,  and  from  the  opportunity  afforded  to  the  rising 
of  the  malcontents  by  the  distance  of  his  point  of  attack.  The 
situation  of  Stanley's  domains  on  his  left  was  probably  also  not 
an  unimportant  circumstance  in  directing  his  choice  of  a  land- 
ing-place. 

Richard,  as  active  and  vigilant  in  war  as  his  brother  Ed- 
ward, marched  from  London  on  the  16th  of  August  ;f  and  be- 
ing perhaps  doubtful  of  his  competitor's  line  of  advance, 
moved  to  the  central  provinces,  that  he  might  more  easily 
turn  his  attack  wherever  the  appearance  of  the  enemy  re- 
quired. Both  armies  met  at  Bosworth  in  Leicestershire,  on 
Monday  the  22d  of  August,  1485,  in  a  battle  memorable  for 
having  composed  the  long  disorders  of  the  kingdom,  and  re- 
stored it,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  thousand  years,  to  a  race 
of  native  princes.  Stanley  continued  to  march  slowly,  and 
hung  aloof  on  the  skirts  of  the  hostile  armies  till  the  morning 
of  the  day  of  battle :  but  he  had  quieted  Richmond's  anxieties 
in  a  secret  interview  during  the  preceding  night.  Richard 
took  advantage  of  a  marsh  which  covered  his  right  flank,  and 
commanded  his  bowmen  to  assail  the  enemy,  whom  the  dis- 
charge of  arrows  threw  into  confusion.  A  close  fight  with 
sworoff  followed  for  a  short  time ;  but  lord  Stanley,  who  still 
hovered  on  the  edge  of  the  field,  at  this  critical  moment  join- 
ed the  earl  of  Richmond,  and  determined  the  fortune  of  the 
day.  For  a  moment  the  earl  of  Oxford,  who  commanded 

*Dugdale.  t  Fenn,  ii,  335. 

VOL.  II.  F 


62  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1485. 

Henry's  army,  suspected  the  new  auxiliaries ;  but  Oxford 
soon  recovering  his  confidence,  the  batde  was  resumed.  Rich- 
ard saw  Henry  approaching1,  and  hastened  to  meet  his  com- 
petitor man  to  man.  The  last  day  of  the  monarch  was  dis- 
tinguished by  his  accustomed  prowess :  he  slew  with  his  own 
hand  Sir  Charles  Brandon ;  and,  while  engaged  hi  the  hottest 
contest,  he  fell  by  a  death  too  honorable  for  his  crimes,  but 
becoming  the  martial  virtues  of  his  life.  After  his  death,  re- 
sistance became  vain:  a  thousand  men  of  Richard's  army 
were  slain  in  the  action,  which  lasted  two  hours.  The  duke 
of  Norfolk,  lords  Ferrers,  Radcliffe,  and  Brackenbury,  were 
among  the  slain.  The  killed  of  the  earl  of  Richmond's  army 
amounted  only  to  one  hundred,  of  whom  Sir  Charles  Brandon 
was  the  only  man  of  note.  Lord  Stanley,  who  by  his  timely 
interference  substantially  transferred  the  crown  to  Henry, 
was  also  the  person  who  formally,  when  it  was  found  among 
the  spoils  of  Richard,  placed  it  on  his  head,  exclaiming, 
"  Long  live  king  Henry  !"  which  was  repeated  with  military 
acclamation  by  the  victorious  army.  In  five  days  afterwards 
the  king  acknowledged  his  signal  services  by  conferring  on 
him  the  dignity  of  earl  of  Derby. 

When  the  civil  war  was  approaching,  we  first  clearly  dis- 
cern, from  the  private  and  confidential  correspondence  of  the 
Pastons,  a  family  of  note  in  Norfolk,  the  frequent  interposition 
of  the  grandees  in  the  elections  of  commoners,  or  rather  their 
general  influence  over  the  choice.  In  the  year  1455,  we  find 
a  circular  letter  from  the  duchess  of  Norfolk,  to  her  husband's 
adherents  in  that  county,  apprizing  them  of  the  necessity 
"  that  my  lord  should  have  at  this  time  in  the  parliament  such 
persons  as  belong  unto  him,  and  be  of  his  menial  servants," 
and  therefore  entreating  them  to  apply  their  voice  unto  John 
Howard  and  Roger  Chamberlayne,  to  be  knights  of  the  shire. 
On  this  passage,  it  is  only  necessary  to  observe,  that  "  menial" 
at  that  period  was  a  word  which  had  scarcely  any  portion  of 
its  modern  sense,  and  might  be  applied  with  propriety  to  any 
gentleman  bred  within  the  walls  of  the  duke's  castle.  By 
another  short  dispatch  from  lord  Oxford,  in  the  autumn  of  the 
same  year,  it  appears  that  Sir  William  Chamberlayne  and 
Henry  Grey  were  to  be  supported  by  the  two  dukes  as  candi- 
dates for  the  county  of  Norfolk.*  In  1472,  also,  the  dukes  of 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  after  a  conference  on  the  subject,  agreed 
to  have  Sir  Richard  Harcourt  and  Sir  Robert  Wyngefield  to 
represent  the  county,  and  to  recommend  Sir  John  Paston  to 
be  elected  for,  the  borough  of  Maldon,  and  obtained  from  the 

*  Fejm's  Letters,  vol.  i.  pp.  97.  99. 


1485.        ARISTOCRACY    INFLUENCES    ELECTIONS.  63 

burgesses  of  Yarmouth  a  promise  to  support  their  candidates 
for  that  borough,  who  were  Dr.  Alleyne  and  John  Russe.* 

In  the  next  instance,  after  the  duke  of  Norfolk  found  it  im- 
practicable to  return  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Howard,  for  the  coun- 
ty, an  intimation  is  thrown  out,  of  means  by  which  an  indefi- 
nite extension  of  influence  in  the  elections  of  other  towns, 
and  in  the  revivals  of  disused  franchises,  might  be  obtained. 
"  If  ye  miss  to  be  burgess  of  Maldon,  and  my  lord  Charnber- 
layne  will,  ye  may  be  in  another  place ;  there  be  a  dozen 
towns  in  England  that  choose  no  burgess,  which  ought  to  do 
it ;  ye  may  set  in  for  one  of  those  towns,  and  ye  be  friend- 
ed."! 

A  curious  illustration  of  the  habitual  exercise  of  the  influ- 
ence of  the  crown,  as  well  as  of  the  nobility,  in  elections, 
may  be  seen  in  a  familiar  letter  contained  in  the  same  collec- 
tion. "  Sir  Robert  Coniers  dined  with  me  this  day,  and  showed 
me  a  letter  that  came  from  the  king  to  him,  desiring  him  that 
he  should  wait  upon  his  well-beloved  brother,  the  duke  of  Suf- 
folk, at  Norwich,  on  Monday  next  coming,  for  to  be  at  the 
election  of  knights  of  the  shire  ;  and  he  tokd  me  that  every 
gentleman  in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  that  are  of  any  reputation, 
hath  writing  from  the  king  in  likewise  as  he  had."| 

It  was  in  this  period  of  civil  war,  that  two  writers  of  sa- 
gacity describe  England  as  superior  to  her  neighbors,  in  a 
mild  and  equitable  government,  of  which  the  habitual  influ- 
ence had  abated  the  ravages  of  a  contest  between  incensed 
factions,  and  deprived  intestine  commotions  of  a  great  part  of 
their  horrors. $  "  In  England,"  says  Philip  de  Comines,  a  sol- 
dier and  a  traveller,  "  the  evil  of  war  falls  on  those  only  who 
make  it."  Sir  John  Fortescue,  an  English  lawyer,  long  resi- 
dent in  France,  contrasts  the  operation  of  absolute  monarchy, 
in  impoverishing  and  depressing  the  people  of  that  kingdom, 
with  that  more  free  government  which  raised  up  the  race  of 
English  yeomen,  qualified  by  their  intelligence,  and  by  their 
independent  situation,  as  well  as  spirit,  to  take  an  importar,t 
part  in  dispensing  justice  as  jurors  ;1| — an  accession  to  popular 
power,  which  spread  more  widely  over  ordinary  life,  than  per- 

*  Fenn's  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p.  103. 

t  John  Paston  to  his  brother.  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  103. 

J  Margaret  Paston  to  her  husband,  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  p.  103. 

§  "  Selon  mon  advis  entre  toutes  les  seigneuriez  du  monde  dont  j'aye  con- 
noissance,  ou  la  chose  publique  est  mien*  traitee  et  on  regne  moins  de  vio- 
lence sur  de  peuple  et  on  il  y  a  nuls  edificls,  abattus  ni  demolis  pour  la  guerre 
c'est  1'Angleterre,  et  tombent  le  sortet  le  malheur  sur  eux  qui  font  la  guer- 
re."—Comines,  liv.  v.  c.  19. 

U  Sir  John  Foriescue,  De  Laudibus  Legum  Anglo,  c.  36.  See  also  on  the 
difference  between  an  absolute  and  a  limited  monarchy. 


64  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1485. 

haps  any  other;  and  while  it  fostered  the  independence  of  the 
people,  contributed,  by  a  happy  peculiarity,  to  interest  their 
pride,  in  duly  executing  the  law,  and  taught  them  to  place 
their  personal  importance  in  enforcing  the  observance  of 
justice. 

Nothing  can  be  more  decisive  than  the  testimony  of  this 
eminent  lawyer.  He  lays  it  down  as  a  first  principle,  "  that 
a  king  is  appointed  to  protect  his  subjects  in  their  lives,  prop- 
erties, and  laws ;  for  this  end  he  has  the  delegation  of  power 
from  the  people,  and  he  has  no  just  claim  to  any  other 
power."*  "  In  France,  although  well  supplied  with  all  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  yet  they  are  so  much  oppressed  by  the 
king's  troops,  that  you  could  scarce  be  accommodated  even  in 
the  great  towns.  The  king  cannot,  in  England,  lay  taxes :  he 
cannot  alter  the  laws  or  make  new  laws,  without  the  consent 
of  the  whole  kingdom  in  parliament  assembled."  These  ex- 
tracts may  be  properly  closed  by  the  short  maxim  following, 
after  the  perusal  of  which  no  man  will  be  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand the  main  cause  of  the  happiest  of  all  revolutions — the 
manumission  of  bondsmen.  "  The  laws  of  England  in  all  cases 
declare  in  favor  of  liberty."f 

Thus  early  was  the  example  of  England  in  entering  on  the 
progress  towards  liberty  (the  highest  benefit  which  a  single 
people  could  confer  on  mankind)  discovered  by  the  wisest 
men  of  an  age  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  worst  in  the 
history  of  this  country :  the  two  governments  were  thus  esti- 
mated according  to  their  experienced  effects,  by  men  whose 
origin  and  fortune  were  not  favorable  to  a  prejudice  on  the 
side  of  England ;  the  one  a  foreigner,  who  saw  the  venality 
of  the  court  and  council  of  Edward  IV. ;  the  other  an  Eng- 
lishman, indeed,  but  with  the  more  bitter  feelings  of  unjust 
exile  and  undeserved  proscription.  Fortescue,  even  in  his 
own  banishment,  and  amidst  the  tragical  circumstances  of  his 
country,  considers  its  government  as  the  best  model  of  legal 
liberty,  and  holds  out  France  as  an  example  of  the  evil  prin- 
ciple of  absolute  power. 

*  De  Laudibus,  c.  xiii.  Professor  Amos's  edition,  with  his  most  learned 
and  instructive  notes,  p.  38.  In  c.  xxix.  the  opulence  of  the  yeomanry  is  the 
reason  assigned  for  juries. 

t  C.  xli.    Id.  157. 


1485.  HENRY    THE    SEVENTH.  65 

CHAP.  III. 

HENRY  VII. 

1485—1509. 

THE  reign  of  Henry  VII.  may  be  characterized  as  the 
restoration  of  the  Lancastrian  party  to  power.  It  was  so  in  a 
^reat  measure,  necessarily ;  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  policy 
required  from  the  king  that  he  should  strengthen  his  most 
devoted  adherents :  but  he  had  too  long  been  the  leader  of  a 
party  not  to  be  carried  by  his  habits  and  passions  beyond  the 
limits  of  necessity,  or  of  prudence.  To  this  vice,  which  might 
be  owned  not  to  be  without  excuse,  the  chief  disorders  of 
England  under  his  administration  are  doubtless  to  be  ascribed ; 
had  he  labored  more  heartily  to  be  the  impartial  ruler  of  all 
his  subjects,  a  nation  weary  of  civil  war  would  have  more 
uniformly  submitted  to  a  government  which,  although  jealous 
and  stern,  maintained  peace  and  justice. 

Henry,  at  the  opening  of  his  reign,  was  perplexed  by  the 
various  and  jarring  grounds  on  which  his  title  to  the  crown 
rested :  first,  his  marriage  with  Elizabeth ;  second,  his  descent 
from  the  house  of  Lancaster ;  and,  third,  the  right  of  conquest. 
The  last  was  too  odious  to  be  openly  advanced.  The  second 
could  not  be  singly  relied  on  in  the  event  of  a  breach  between 
himself  and  his  Yorkist  adherents :  and  the  first  gave  security 
only  in  the  case  of  his  having  issue  by  his  marriage  with 
Elizabeth.  "  He  rested  on  the  title  of  Lancaster  in  the  main, 
using  the  marriage  and  the  victory  as  supporters."*  He 
immediately  assumed  the  title  of  king,  without  mention  of  the 
intended  marriage ;  and  though,  on  his  arrival  in  London,  he 
renewed  his  promise  in  that  respect  to  his  council,  he  was 
nevertheless  crowned  separately,  and  he  excluded  the  name 
of  Elizabeth  from  the  parliamentary  settlement,  in  order  to 
banish  her  pretension  to  a  participation  of  right.  He  did  not 
exact  such  a  recognition  of  his  title  as  would  have  been  in- 
volved in  a  declaratory  act,  nor  did  he,  on  the  other  hand, 
accept  the  crown  as  a  grant  from  parliament,  but  was  content 
with  the  ambiguous  lan^uagef  "  that  the  inheritance  of  the 
crown  should  rest,  remain,  and  abide  in  the  king."  Yet  it 
was  entailed  only  on  "  the  heirs  of  his  body ;"  a  limited'  and 


*  Bacon. 

t  These  particulars  rest  on  the  credit  of  Bacon,  and  savor  somewhat  of 
subtlety,  in  which  it  must  be  owned  that,  in  his  history,  he  has  unreason- 
ably  indulged;  for  the  words  here  applied  to  Henry  are  almost  the  same 
with  those  used  in  the  case  of  Richard  I  If.  two  years  before.— Rot.  Parl. 
vi.240. 

F2 


66  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1486. 

conditional  gift.  All  his  titles,  however,  by  descent,  by  mar- 
riage, by  victory,  or  by  parliamentary  establishment,  were 
recited  and  confirmed  in  the  next  year  by  a  papal  bull.* 

Many  of  these  measures  savor  more  of  Lancastrian  preju- 
dices struggling  for  a  time  with  prudence,  to  which  it  reluc- 
tantly and  ungraciously  yields,  than  of  the  refinements  of 
policy,  which  the  most  famous  of  his  historians  is  perhaps  too 
prone  to  attribute  to  a  prince  whom  he  evidently  aimed  at 
representing  as  an  ideal  model  of  kingcraft,  f 

It  is  certain  that  none  of  the  titles  relied  on  by  Henry  made 
the  slightest  approach  to  validity.  Even  if  his  descent  from 
John  of  Gaunt  had  been  legitimate,  he  was  not  the  nearest 
descendant  of  that  prince's  children;  for  princes  and  princesses 
of  undisputed  legitimacy,  the  descendants  of  John  of  Gaunt's 
first  wife,  Blanche  of  Lancaster,  and  of  his  second  wife,  Con- 
stantia  of  Castile,  were  then  living  in  the  Spanish  peninsula ; 
but  their  distance  and  their  want  of  the  means  of  interposi- 
tion, precluded  all  hope  of  enforcing  their  claims.  Had  the 
doctrine  of  the  indefeasible  succession  of  the  house  of  York 
been  likely  at  that  crisis  to  obtain  the  national  concurrence, 
there  were  two  unfortunate  claimants  in  England,  Edward 
Plantagenet  earl  of  Warwick,  eldest  son  of  George  duke  of 
Clarence,  and  Margaret  the  daughter  of  that  prince  and  the 
spouse  of  Sir  Richard  Pole. 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1486,  the  king  espoused  the  princess 
Elizabeth  of  York,  agreeably  to  the  compromise  of  parties 
formed  between  cardinal  Morton  and  queen  Elizabeth  Wood- 
ville,  which  was  the  foundation  of  the  subsisting  government 
The  king  then  began  a  military  progress  through  the  north. 
He  defeated  his  opponents  at  Stoke,  near  Lincoln,  and  inflicted 
on  them  severe  punishments.  This  victory  tempted  him  to 
give  the  reins  to  his  partiality.  The  stipulations  of  the  ori- 
ginal agreement  favorable  to  the  York  party  were  performed, 
indeed,  but  sullenly.  Whatever  severities  were  compatible 
with  its  letter  were  eagerly  and  fiercely  inflicted  on  them. 
The  gracious  part  of  the  contract  was  postponed  to  the  last, 
while  every  blow  from  the  hand  of  an  enemy,  however  just, 
seemed,  to  the  disordered  minds  of  the  vanquished  faction,  a 
wrong  to  their  whole  body. 

*  The  second  and  most  ample  of  the  bulls  of  Innocent  VIII.  is  extant  in 
Rymer,  xii.  2%.  It  is  dated  at  Rome,  in  March,  148C. 

t  A  curious  grant  for  life,  which  occurs  soon  after  the  accession,  is  pre- 
served in  Rymer,  xii.  275.,  "  of  a  building  contained  in  the  palace  of  West- 
minster, together  with  the  custody  of  tl»e  paradise  and  hell  under  that  palace, 
and  of  the  contiguous  buildings  which  formed  the  purgatory  of  our  aforesaid 
palace."  It  should  seem  from  these  names  that  the  praises  of  Chaucer  had 
early  rendered  Dante  popular  in  England. 


1486.  THE    131POSTOR    SYMNEL.  67 

In  February,  1486,  "  there  followed  an  accident  of  state ; 
whereof  the  relations  are  so  naked,  that  they  leave  it  unintel- 
ligible, and  scarcely  credible — not  on  account  of  the  nature 
of  it,  for  events  of  the  like  sort  either  often  occurred,  or  were 
liberally  feigned,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  but  on  account  of 
the  manner  of  it,  especially  at  the  beginning.  The  king  was 
green  in  his  estate,  and  contrary  to  his  opinion, — perhaps  to 
his  desert, — was  not  without  much  hatred  throughout  the 
kingdom.  The  root  of  all  was,  the  discountenancing  of  the 
house  of  York."*  At  the  time  of  the  fermentation  of  various 
and  even  jarring  factions,  agreeing  scarcely  in  any  common 
ingredient  but  that  of  hatred  against  the  king,  Edward  Plan- 
tagenet,  the  only  surviving  male  of  Clarence's  family,  was 
committed  to  the  Tower,  where  he  lingered  through  the  re- 
mainder of  his  wretched  life. 

In  the  same  year  the  first  mention  is  made  of  a  youth, 
named  Sulford  or  Symnel,  the  son  of  an  Oxford  tradesman. 
This  youth,  who  had  been  trained,  both  in  knowledge  and 
manners,  by  a  subtle  priest,  called  Richard  Symmonds,  was 
then  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  a  comely  boy,  not  without 
some  dignity  and  grace,  which  were  the  more  agreeable, 
because  unexpected  in  so  humble  a  station.  But  the  general 
project  of  setting  out,  under  a  false  name  and  pretensions,  as 
a  candidate  for  the  crown,  might  have  occurred  to  many  in 
an  age  of  revolutions,  when,  in  the  midst  of  the  almost  gene- 
ral massacre  of  the  royal  family,  it  was  not  improbable  that 
some  of  that  house,  then  merely  children,  might  have  been 
withdrawn  from  the  doom  of  their  kindred,  by  the  attachment 
or  common  humanity  of  some  of  their  adherents ;  and  if  any 
outward  excitement  had  been  wanting  to  the  ambition  of 
Symnel,  it  might  have  been  supplied  by  rumors  and  other  in- 
centives, proceeding  from  the  court  of  Margaret,  duchess- 
dowager  of  Burgundy,  the  third  sister  of  Edward  IV.  "  This 
princess,"  says  Bacon,  "  having  the  spirit  of  a  man,  and  the 
malice  (the  personal  resentment  and  desire  of  revenge)  of  a 
woman,  abounding  in  treasure,  by  her  dower  and  her  frugali- 
ty, made  it  the  chief  end  of  her  life  to  see  the  majesty  royal 
of  England  once  more  replaced  in  her  house ;  and  had  set  up 
king  Henry  as  a  wall,  at  whose  overthrow  all  her  actions 
should  aim  and  shoot,  insomuch  that  all  the  counsels  of  his 
succeeding  troubles  came  chiefly  out  of  that  quiver ;  and  she 
bare  such  a  deadly  hatred  to  the  house  of  Lancaster,  that  she 
was  nowise  mollified  by  the  conjunction  of  the  two  houses  in 
her  niece's  marriage,  but  rather  hated  her  niece  as  the  means 

*  Bacon,  iii.  125. 


68  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1487. 

of  the  king's  accession  to  the  crown"*  It  is  therefore  proba- 
ble, as  our  ancient  writers  tell  us,  that  Syrnmonds  and  Lambert 
had  been  stirred  up,  partly  by  these  inventions  of  the  court  of 
Brussels,  to  harbor  vague  and  vast  hopes  of  bettering  and  ad- 
vancing themselves,  at  first  without  stretching  their  serious 
expectations  beyond  ecclesiastical  preferment,  but  afterwards 
swelling  with  the  rumors  spread  by  the  duchess  of  Burgundy, 
until  their  aims  at  length  reached  the  royal  dignity.  Hitherto, 
their  ambitious  schemes,  however  apparently  impracticable, 
were  at  least  intelligible,  and  not  without  parallel  in  history ; 
but  the  choice  of  the  prince  to  be  personated,  bids  defiance  to  all 
attempts  at  explanation.  It  had  been  industriously  rumored,  and 
it  was  perhaps  believed  by  the  priest  of  Oxford  and  his  pupil, 
that  Richard  duke  of  York  had  escaped  from  the  assassins  of 
his  elder  brother,  and  had  found  a  secure  asylum  against  the 
tyrant  Richard  and  the  usurper  Henry.  In  the  beginning,  it 
seemed  to  be  intended  to  select  Symnel,  to  personate  this 
young  prince ;  but  for  some  reason  which  we  can  no  longer 
ascertain,  nor  even  probably  conjecture,  the  prompters  caused 
their  puppet  to  assume  the  character  of  Edward  Plantagenet, 
son  of  the  duke  of  Clarence,  and  in  that  character  to  claim 
the  crown.  For  the  selection  of  this  plan  of  imposture  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  see  any  plausible  reasons.  Had  Symnel 
been  really  what  he  pretended  to  be,  he  had  no  pretension  to 
the  crown  during  the  lives  of  his  uncle  Edward's  daughters. 
The  true  earl  of  Warwick  was  then  a  prisoner  hi  the  Tower, 
at  the  mercy  of  his  most  deadly  foe.  Henry  ordered  Warwick 
to  be  led  on  horseback  through  the  streets  of  London,  in  order 
that  the  most  ignorant  of  the  multitude  might  see  the  gross- 
ness  of  the  imposture.  During  the  procession,  many  courtiers 
of  Edward  IV.,  who  were  unfriendly  to  a  Lancastrian  govern- 
ment, were  allowed  and  encouraged  to  determine  for  them- 
selves the  identity  of  the  prisoner,  by  conversation  with  him,  on 
the  occurrences  of  his  infancy  and  childhood.  Every  attempt 
to  explain  these  circumstances,  by  the  supposition  that  the 
overthrow  of  the  false  Warwick  was  necessary  to  the  success 
of  the  true,  is  liable  to  the  seemingly  insurmountable  objec- 
tion, that  as  the  Yorkist  chiefs  were  not  masters  of  events,  it 
must  have  been  impossible  to  foresee  whether  those  who  were 
chosen  to  act  as  tools  might  not  at  last  snatch  victory  out  of 
the  hands  of  their  employers.  These  hypotheses  also  assumed, 
that  the  appearance  and  suppression  of  a  pretender  is  favora- 
ble to  a  like  revolt  in  support  of  the  just  claimant  in  the  same 

*  Bacon's  Works,  iii.  188.    Montague's  edition. 


1487.  SYMNEL    DEFEATED.  69 

character,  which  appears  to  be  the  reverse  of  the  ordinary  re- 
sults of  experience. 

In  February,  1487,  the  earl  of  Kildare,  lord  deputy  of  Ire- 
land, who,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  English  settled  in  that 
country,  was  a  zealous  adherent  of  the  house  of  York,  receiv- 
ed the  pretended  Warwick  with  the  utmost  friendship,  and 
allowed  his  claim  without  discussion.  The  public  exhibition 
of  Warwick  had  disabused  many  in  the  capital ;  but  the  little 
colony  in  Ireland  called  the  English  Pale,  long  ruled  by  the 
York  party,  retained  their  ancient  attachments,  little  moved 
by  mummeries  in  London,  of  which  they  had  probably  slow, 
imperfect,  and  scanty  information.  The  Irish  chiefs  took  lit- 
tle part  in  the  broils  of  the  foreign  tyrants.  In  the  earlier 
part  of  these  designs  and  movements,  John  earl  of  Lincoln, 
the  nephew  of  Edward  IV.,  had  continued  to  take  his  share  in 
the  councils  of  the  reigning  monarch ;  but  before  Symnel's 
declaration  and  coronation,  he  had  contributed  by  his  example 
and  advice  to  these  solemn  acts  of  national  recognition,  sup- 
ported and  spirited  by  the  duchess  of  Burgundy.  He,  with 
the  lord  deputy,  the  earl  of  Kildare,  in  May,  1487,  took  the 
bold  measure  of  disembarking  in  Lancashire,  with  an  Irish 
force,  to  seat  the  pretender  on  the  throne  of  England.  They 
were  aided  by  a  band  of  2000  mercenaries  of  Burgundy  and 
Germany,  and  were  led  into  the  field  by  the  earls  of  Lincoln 
and  Kildare,  lord  Lovel,  Schwartz  the  leader  of  the  foreign 
soldiers,  and  Sir  Thomas  Broughton,  an  opulent  landholder  of 
the  north.  On  the  22d  of  June,  1487,  the  Irish  army  had 
penetrated  into  the  heart  of  the  kingdom.  Though  they  do 
not  appear  to  have  gained  any  conspicuous  accession  on  their 
march,  an  advance  so  unmolested  indicates  the  absence  of  a 
very  decisive  preponderance  on  either  side.  "  Both  the  ar- 
mies joined  and  fought  earnestly  and  sharply."*  The  insur- 
gents, about  8000  in  number,  began  the  attack  ;  one  half  of 
them  were  left  dead,  among  whom  were  Lincoln,  Kildare, 
Broughton,  and  Schwartz.  Lovel  was  seen  in  the  flight,  but 
never  after  heard  of.  Symmonds  the  priest,  and  his  pupil 
Symnel,  were  spared,  and  afterwards  treated  with  a  sort  of 
contemptuous  compassion,  which  is  so  much  at  variance  with 
the  common  treatment  of  daring  and  formidable  rebels  in  that 
ago,  that  it  may  be  considered  as  another  strange  fact  in  this 
singular  transaction.  Symnel  was  made  a  turnspit  in  the 
king's  kitchen,  and  after  a  due  trial  of  his  merit,  promoted  to 
the  honorable  office  of  one  of  the  king's  falconers.  Thus 
ended  a  revolt,  absurd  in  its  plan,  unintelligible  in  some  of  its 

*  Hall,  434. 


70  HISTORY    OF    KNGLAND.  1493. 

circumstances,  suffered  to  keep  up  a  sort  of  faint  existence 
for  a  longer  period  than  its  vital  powers  seemed  to  be  capable 
of  preserving  it,  and  at  last  closed  in  a  manner  which  neither 
valor  nor  clemency  could  prevent  from  being  somewhat  ludi- 
crous. 

Another  attempt  of  the  same  general  nature,  though  cer- 
tainly very  different  in  tone  and  temper,  may  be  related  in 
this  place,  though  it  did  not  occur  until  six  years  after  (in  1493), 
in  order  to  keep  the  attempts  pointed  against  Henry's  throne 
separated  from  the  less  important  events  of  his  reign,  with 
which  they  have,  indeed,  little  natural  or  direct  connexion. 

A  pretender  to  the  regal  dignity  appeared  in  Ireland,  under 
the  name  of  Perkin  Warbeck,  but  asserting  himself  to  be 
Richard  duke  of  York,  the  second  son  of  Edward  IV.  No 
proof  remains  of  his  having  offered  an  account  on  this  or  any 
other  occasion  of  the  circumstances  of  the  murder  of  his  elder 
brother,  of  his  own  preservation,  or  of  any  of  those  facts, 
without  a  knowledge  of  which  it  was  impossible  to  bear  effec- 
tive testimony  to  his  filiation  and  legitimacy.  It  is  nowhere 
intimated  that  he  even  attempted  to  explain  the  cause  of  his 
own  total  ignorance  of  facts  inseparable  from  the  very  founda- 
tion of  his  own  claim.  Till  the  death  of  his  brother,  for  ex- 
ample, he  could  have  no  title.  But  the  death  of  that  prince 
resting  on  the  same  general  belief  with  that  of  his  younger 
brother  could  hardly  have  been  proved  by  those  who  were  ig- 
norant of  the  circumstances  of  the  murder;  or  at  least  a  satis- 
factory account  must  be  required  of  the  causes  which  enabled 
a  witness  to  be  sure  that  there  loas  a  murder,  and  yet  to  be 
wholly  unacquainted  with  every  other  particular  relating  to  it. 
He  seems  to  have  been  first  heard  of  at  the  court  of  Margaret  of 
York,  his  supposed  aunt.  Henry's  ambassadors,  archbishop 
Warham  and  Sir  Edward  Poynings,  required  that  the  auda- 
cious impostor  should  be  surrendered  to  them,  or  that  he 
should  be  compelled  to  quit  the  territories  of  the  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, where  lie  had  been  sheltered  since  Charles  VIII.,  then 
solicitous  for  the  favor  of  Henry,  expelled  him  from  France, 
though  on  the  first  arrival  there  the  adventurer  had  been  re- 
ceived with  princely  honors.  The  duke  made  all  the  profes- 
sions usual  on  such  occasions ;  he  alleged  the  confessed  neu- 
trality of  the  provinces  directly  subject  to  him,  and  his  want 
of  authority  over  the  vassals  of  the  duchess-dowager.  That 
princess  sent  Perkin  into  Portugal.  When  he  returned  his 
reception  was  more  honorable,  and  his  political  importance 
had  grown  greater,  without  effort  or  consciousness  on  his  own 
part.  From  the  moment  that  war  against  France  began  to 
be  probable,  every  pretender  to  the  English  crown  became  an 


1494.  PERKIN    WARBECK.  71 

instrument  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  that  powerful  state. 
Perk  in  was  received  with  open  arms  in  Ireland,  where  the 
people  were  as  prone  to  believe  a  wonder,  as  if  they  had  not 
just  escaped  from  the  like  fraud.  In  the  case  of  Symnel, 
they,  as  well  as  the  duchess  of  Burgundy,  forfeited  all  title  to 
belief  in  their  testimony  for  Perkin  by  their  credulity  or 
falsehood,  in  a  case  of  such  flagrant  imposture  as  that  of  Sym- 
nel. The  fanatical  attachment  of  the  Irish  to  the  house  of 
York  was  vainly  combated  by  papal  bulls,  condemnatory  of 
the  archbishops  of  Armagh  and  Dublin,  and  of  the  bishops  of 
Meath  and  Derry,  for  their  share  in  the  coronation  of  Symnel.* 
Sir  R.  Clifford,  and  some  of  his  friends,  in  1494,  went  to 
Flanders  to  ascertain  the  history  of  Warbeck.  They  were 
deputed  by  the  leading  Yorkists ;  but,  as  all  seem  to  agree, 
corrupted  by  Henry  before  their  arrival  at  the  court  of  Bur- 
gundy ;  and  they  furnished  the  king  with  important  informa- 
tion relating  to  the  correspondence  of  the  discontented  nobil- 
ity with  the  pretender  and  his  counsellors.  The  difficulties 
produced  by  the  irregularity  of  the  judicial  proceeding  of  our 
ancestors,  and  the  scantiness  of  the  narratives  now  possessed 
by  us,  are  still  more  increased  by  an  incident  of  frequent 
occurrence,  in  the  employment  of  the  dishonorable,  however 
legal,  or  even  sometimes  necessary,  means  of  detecting  and 
punishing  conspiracies.  In  some  manner,  though  it  is  not 
certain  how,  these  secret  emissaries  took  bribes  from  those  on 
whom  they  were  to  act  as  spies,  and  began  to  be  spies  on  their 
original  employers,  without  ceasing  to  be  spies  for  them.  In 
such  an  embroiled  political  comedy  it  is  very  difficult,  or 
rather  impossible,  to  trace  the  mazes  of  the  intrigue,  the  in- 
constancy, and  the  faithlessness  of  the  double  spy,  who  seldom 
fails  to  earn  the  wages  of  his  iniquity  from  one,  if  not  more, 
of  the  parties  with  whom  circumstances  have  brought  him 
into  contact,  in  situations  the  most  tempting  to  human  infirm- 
ity. The  jealous  and  suspicious  tyrants,  who  most  usually 
employ  dishonest  and  infamous  agents,  cannot  fail  to  suspect 
those  with  the  full  extent  of  whose  villany  and  wickedness 
they  alone  are  acquainted.  In  time  the  intrigue  is  perplexed 
by  using  one  gang  of  spies  to  watch  over  another  detestable 
band  of  the  same  miscreants ;  all  of  them  are  traitors  to  each 
other,  to  their  native  master  who  teaches  them  treachery  by 
the  very  act  of  their  appointment,  and  to  the  foreign  seducer 
to  whom  they  cannot  be  much  better  disposed  than  to  their 
liege  lord.  They  are  sold  to  all ;  and  though  strictly  faithful 
to  none,  yet  have  some  fear  of  losing  a  hold  on  any  party,  and 

*  Rymer,  xii.  332.  dated  at  Rome,  Jan.  1487. 


72  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1494. 

aim  at  preserving  some  ties,  either  of  fear  or  of  gratitude, 
some  secret  benefits  or  threats,  by  which  they  may  be  ran- 
somed in  the  hour  of  extreme  need. 

At  Clifford's  return,  however,  some  of  the  most  eminent 
among  the  malcontent  Yorkists  were,  on  his  secret  communi- 
cations, put  to  death.  The  fate  of  some  of  them  was  very 
mysterious.  Sir  W.  Stanley,  lord  chamberlain,  was  charged 
by  Clifford  with  the  treason  of  abetting  the  rebels  abroad  by 
a  treasonable  correspondence  with  them.  He  is  said  to  have 
confessed  the  crime ;  and  whatever  were  the  grounds  of  ac- 
cusation, the  restorer  of  Henry  was  executed  on  the  15th  of 
February,  1494.  It  would  have  been  wonderful  if,  under  the 
reign  of  a  miser  and  an  extortioner,  one  principal  motive  to  the 
execution  were  not  generally  believed  to  be  the  confiscation 
of  the  property  of  the  most  affluent  of  English  noblemen. 
Indeed,  the  causes  of  Stanley's  monstrous  execution  assigned 
by  Bacon,  an  historian  sufficiently  favorable  to  the  king,  are 
such  as  to  warrant  very  odious  suspicions.  They  are  his  in- 
vidious deserts,  which  were  too  high  for  reward ;  the  alarm- 
ing power  of  him  who  as  he  had  set  up  a  king  might  pull  him 
down,  "  with  a  glimmering  of  a  confiscation  of  the  property 
of  the  richest  subject  in  the  kingdom ;"  to  which  the  historian 
fairly  or  speciously  adds  fears  for  his  own  safety  in  times  so 
dangerous.*  He  was  accused  of  declaring  that  if  a  legitimate 
son  of  Edward  IV.  were  alive,  Sir  William  would  not  bear 
arms  against  him ;  which  amounted,  at  most,  to  a  decision  in 
favor  of  the  title  of  the  house  of  York,  and  which,  even  if  so 
interpreted,  was  not  necessarily  an  overt  act  of  treason,  be- 
cause it  was  not  uttered  in  furtherance  of  a  treasonable  pur- 
pose, and  might  probably  be  understood  as  meaning  no  more 
than  attachment  to  the  memory  of  Edward,  and  of  gratitude 
for  his  friendship. 

The  executions  which  followed  the  information  of  Sir 
Robert  Clifford,  especially  that  of  Sir  William  Stanley,  spread 
dismay  among  that  commonly  numerous  body  who,  in  times 
of  commotion  and  conspiracy,  expose  themselves  to  suspicion 
by  the  discovery  of  their  compliances  with  every  successive 
conqueror.  Sir  Robert  Clifford  had  been  the  confidential 
minister  of  the  Yorkists  in  the  Netherlands.  Stanley  was 
the  personal  friend  of  Edward  IV.  A  charge  of  treason  from 
such  an  informer,  and  aimed  at  such  a  victim,  seemed  to  dis- 
solve all  ties  of  confidence  between  the  Yorkists  and  the  ex- 
iled malcontents,  and  to  be  a  fatal  blow  struck  at  the  only 
point  of  communication  by  which  the  exiles  might  concert. 

*  Bacon,  iii.  297.  Montague's  edition. 


1496.  PERKIN   WARBECK.  73 

their  measures  with  the  discontented  at  home.  "  Still,"  says 
the  wise  historian,  "  they  rather  made  the  king  more  absolute 
than  more  safe."* 

Perkin  Warbeck  began  to  feel  that  he  stood  on  shifting 
sands ;  that  longer  procrastination  might  now  seem  to  be  a 
renunciation  of  his  claim,  and  that  the  competitor  for  a  crown 
must  show  his  fortitude  and  prowess  if  he  expect  that  many 
will  intrust  him  with  their  lives  and  fortunes.  In  May,  1496, 
he  collected  a  small  force  in  Flanders,  with  which  he  attempt- 
ed to  land  near  Deal,  but  was  defeated  by  the  people  of  the 
country,  who  took  150  prisoners ;  these  prisoners  Sir  John 
Peachy,  sheriff  of  Kent,  brought  to  London,  "railed  with 
ropes  like  horses  drawing  in  a  cart."f  The  opportunity  which 
occasioned  this  attempt  was  the  distant  visit  which  the  king 
then  was  paying  to  his  mother  the  countess  of  Richmond,  for 
whom  he  professed  much  honor  and  affection,  though  she 
was  then  the  widow  of  Sir  William  Stanley,  for  whose  death 
he  thought  that  he  was  making  some  amends  by  his  visit 
to  her. 

Perkin,  disappointed  in  Ireland,  and  worsted  in  England, 
turned  his  hopes  to  Scotland,  where  rapacity  and  national 
antipathy  always  rendered  an  irruption  into  England  palata- 
ble. In  the  latter  part  of  1496  the  young  king  of  Scotland, 
affecting  pity  for  the  misfortunes  of  Perkin,  and  professing 
a  conviction  of  the  justice  of  his  title,  gave  the  hand  of 
lady  Catherine  Gordon,  a  young  lady  celebrated  for  beauty, 
and  near  akin  to  the  royal  family,  to  the  pretender  in  the  mo- 
ment of  his  sinking  fortunes.  James  entered  Northumber- 
land ;  but  the  Scots  as  usual  dispersed  as  soon  as  they  were 
satiated  by  pillage  and  laden  with  booty.  No  native  sword 
was  drawn  for  Perkin  while  he  was  in  England  under  the 
protection  of  a  foreign  army.  It  is  said  that  during  the  inroad, 
"  when  Perkin  saw  that  the  Scotch  fell  to  waste,  seeing  no 
support  given  to  their  cause  in  the  country,  he  came  to  the 
king  and  said,  with  loud  lamentation,  that  this  might  not  be 
the  manner  of  making  the  war."  Whereupon  the  king  an- 
swered in  sport,  "  that  he  doubted  much  whether  Perkin  was 
not  too  careful  for  what  was  none  of  his."|  Henry  was  im- 
patient of  the  state  of  disquiet  and  irritation  kept  up  by  revolts 
and  conspiracy  at  home,  but  fomented  by  the  frequent  and 
destructive  inroads  of  the  Scotch.  Ayala,  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador in  London,  at  the  king's  desire  repaired  to  the  court  of 
Scotland,  and  labored  for  almost  a  year  to  persuade  James  to 

*  Bacon,  iii.  322.  f  Holinshed,  iii.  54.    Hall,  472. 

;  Bacon,  ut  sup.  324. 

Vol.  II.  G 


74  IIISTOKY    OF    ENGLAND.  1497. 

accede  to  an  amicable  arrangement,  to  which  the  pledged 
faith  of  the  Scottish  prince  never  to  desert  Warbeck  was  an 
obstacle  so  formidable,  that  it  was  at  last  thought  fit  to  evade 
it  by  omitting  all  mention  of  Warbeck  by  name,  on  James's 
promise  that  he  should  be  persuaded  to  leave  Scotland.  A 
long  truce  supplied  in  other  respects  the  place  of  a  treaty  of 
peace.  Nothing  was  accounted  essential  to  James's  honor 
but  that  the  adventurer  should  not  seem  to  be  driven  from  his 
refuge  by  force.  He  accordingly  went  away  with  six  score 
of  adherents,  in  four  vessels :  he  touched  at  Cork,  but  vainly 
labored  to  rekindle  the  zeal  of  the  earl  of  Desmond,  and  landed 
his  handful  of  followers  on  the  7th  of  September  at  Whitsand 
Bay,  in  Cornwall,  whence  he  advanced  to  Bodmin,  and  there 
was  proclaimed  with  the  royal  standard  of  Richard  IV.  un- 
furled before  him. 

He  now  found,  for  the  first  time,  a  considerably  body  of 
native  Englishmen  in  arms,  who  were  ready  to  espouse  his 
cause.  In  1496  parliament  had  granted  a  subsidy  equal  to 
two  tenths  and  two  fifteenths,  on  the  conditions  that  it  should 
be  expended  for  the  purposes  of  the  Scottish  war,  and  that  its 
payments  should  be  suspended  if  active  hostilities  were  dis- 
continued. A  singular  provision  was  added,  that  the  farmers 
might  retain  from  their  next  payment  a  sum  equivalent  to 
any  distress  levied  on  them  for  non-payment  of  these  contin- 
gents till  there  should  be  time  to  hear  and  determine  by  the 
course  of  law  the  legality  of  the  assessment*  Commissioners 
were  named  to  carry  this  grant  into  effect  in  all  the  counties 
and  great  towns.  They  were  vested  with  full  power  to  ap- 
portion the  assessment  and  to  levy  the  payments ;  and  though 
every  impost  laid  on  a  man  by  an  estimate  or  conjecture  re- 
specting his  wealth  is  liable  to  be  oppressive,  yet  it  is  hard  to 
discover  any  unusual  traces  of  severity  on  this  occasion.  On 
the  imposition  of  a  like  tax  in  1497,  the  discontents  of  the 
people  broke  out  into  revolts,  signalized  in  one  instance  by 
the  assassination  of  the  earl  of  Northumberland.  In  the 
present  year  the  same  spirit  throughout  Cornwall  manifested 
itself  with  more  strength  and  system.  A  remote  and  almost 
insular  county,  speaking  a  distinct  language,  among  whom 
the  introduction  of  extraordinary  aids  to  the  king  was  in  all 
likelihood  later  than  in  nearer  and  more  thriving  districts,  and 
whose  hardy  and  licentious  occupations  were  the  natural  nur- 
series of  a  mutinous  spirit,  presented  a  scene  of  action  very 
favorable  to  the  invader. 

The  insurgents  of  Cornwall  had  marched  to  Wells,'  under 

*  Rot.  Parl.  vi.  513.  519. 


1497.  PERKIN    WAEBECK.  75 

Hamock,  "  a  gentleman  learned  in  the  law,"  and  Joseph  the 
blacksmith,  when  lord  Audley  was  chosen  by  them,  gladly 
and  gratefully,  to  be  their  commander.  They  marched 
through  Wiltshire  and  Hampshire  into  Kent,  with  no  dis- 
cernible object,  unless  they  were  encouraged  by  the  tra- 
ditional fame  of  the  men  of  Kent,  as  unconquered  lovers  of 
liberty.  Audley,  seemingly  with  no  aid  from  the  turbulence 
of  London,  but  entertaining  vague  hopes  from  the  populace 
of  a  great  city,  took  his  position  at  Blackheath,  and  waited 
till  the  movements  of  the  royal  army  should  determine 
whether  he  must  either  give  them  battle,  or  attack  the  capital 
himself;  Henry  having  planted  troops  at  the  most  convenient 
avenues  and  passages  on  Blackheath,  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of 
the  Cornish  men,  encamped  on  St.  George's  Fields.  The 
Cornish  army  was  depressed  by  so  long  a  march,  without  any 
appearance  of  support.  Assailed  on  all  sides,  rashness,  was 
follfcwed  by  its  frequent  attendants,  sudden  apprehension  and 
general  panic.  The  men  of  Cornwall  did  not  struggle  against 
difficulties  with  their  wonted  manhood.  In  the  action,  which 
occurred  on  the  23d  of  June,  1497,  they  were  totally  defeated. 
The  loss  of  the  king  amounted  to  three  hundred :  two  thou- 
sand were  left  dead  by  the  revolters.  Audley  was  beheaded 
on  the  next  day.  "  Hamock  and  Joseph  were  hanged,  drawn, 
and  quartered,  after  the  manner  of  traitors.  Their  heads 
and  quarters  were  pitched  upon  stakes.  The  king  meant  to 
send  them  to  Cornwall  for  a  terror  to  others ;  but  fearing 
that  the  Cornish  men  would  be  the  more  irritated  and  pro- 
voked, he  changed  his  purpose."* 

The  remains  of  the  Cornish  army  retreated  to  their  own 
provinces,  and  soon  after  received  the  pretender  in  his  regal 
style  and  character.  They  were  treated  with  a  lenity  which 
perhaps  proceeded  from  the  policy  of  suffering  the  inflamma- 
tion of  men's  minds  to  subside  spontaneously,  rather  than 
from  the  clemency  or  the  contempt  to  which  it  has  been  va- 
riously ascribed  by  historians.  Exeter  was  the  only  town  in 
the  west  which  preserved  its  Lancastrian  loyalty.  Perkin 
was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  that  city,  which  had  been 
blockaded,  and  sometimes  assaulted,  during  a  siege  of  three 
weeks.  He  was  at  this  time  deserted  by  Frion,  a  discarded 
secretary  of  Henry,  who,  from  the  seasonableness  of  his  de- 
fection, may  be  suspected  at  all  times  to  have  been  more  a 
spy  on  Perkin  than  a  traitor  to  Henry.  His  three  remaining 
counsellors  in  his  last  faint  struggle,  are  thus  sarcastically 
enumerated  by  Bacon, — "  Sterne  a  bankrupt  mercer,  Skelton 

*  Holinshcd,  iii.  514. 


76  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1499. 

a  tailor,  and  Astley  a  scrivener."  After  the  siege  of  Exeter, 
he  was  still  at  the  head  of  ten  thousand  men,  and  made  a 
show  of  preparations  for  battle  at  Taunton,  in  September, 
1497 ;  but  while  he  amused  his  followers  by  the  hope  of  a 
victory,  he  escaped  from  them  by  night,  with  fourscore  fol- 
lowers, and  registered  himself  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  abbey 
of  Beaulieu,  in  Hampshire. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1498,  the  sanctuary  was,  by 
Henry's  command,  surrounded  by  soldiers,  who  were  required 
to  keep  their  captive  constantly  within  view.  In  this  situa- 
tion, when  he  was  beset  by  spies,  weary  of  confinement,  irri- 
tated by  all  the  countless  annoyances  which  that  word  may 
involve  in  it,  and  probably  doubtful  whether  Henry's  respect 
for  sanctuary  would  long  continue  a  match  for  his  policy  or 
revenge,  he  was  advised  by  the  royal  emissaries,  "  on  his 
having  pardon  and  remission  of  his  heinous  offences,  of  his 
own  will  frankly  and  freely  to  depart  from  sanctuary,  and 
commit  himself  to  the  king's  pleasure."  "  Perkin,  being 
now  destitute  of  all  hope,  lacking  comfort,  aid,  and  refuge, 
when  he  knew  not  to  what  country  to  fly  for  succor,  having 
now  his  pardon  offered  to  him,  and  trusting  to  the  open  prom- 
ise of  men,"*  yielded  to,  perhaps,  honest  advice.  The  strong 
language  in  which  the  chronicle  describes  the  forlorn  and 
desperate  condition  of  Perkin,  justly  despairing  of  aid  from 
any  prince,  or  of  asylum  in  any  other  country,  manifestly  in- 
dicates the  cause  of  his  temporary  importance,  and  of  the 
utter  rum  which  now  fell  upon  him.  He  was  important  as 
long  as  it  was  the  interest  of  neighboring  princes  to  throw, 
when  they  pleased,  a  firebrand  into  the  English  dominions. 
Political  circumstances  had  varied,  and,  with  the  change,  the 
importance  of  Warbeck  disappeared. 

He  at  first  experienced  somewhat  of  that  scornful  pity, 
which  it  was  thought  safe  to  squander  on  the  notorious  Sym- 
nel.  He  was  allowed  to  walk  about  London,  where  he  ex- 
cited the  wonder  of  the  populace,  and  was  the  object  of  their 
base  sports.  He  next  made  his  escape,  and  took  refuge  in 
the  priory  of  Bethlehem  at  Richmond,  now  called  Shene, 
where  he  prevailed  on  the  prior  to  intercede  with  the  king 
for  his  life.  The  king,  anxious  to  escape  the  odium  of  a  vio- 
lation of  sanctuary,  agreed  to  spare  Perkin's  life,  and  com- 
manded that  he  should  stand  in  the  stocks,  once  at  West- 
minster, and  once  in  Cheapside ;  at  both  which  places  he  read 
a  confession  of  his  imposture,  on  the  14th  and  15th  of  June, 
1499. 

*  Grafton,  ii.  215. 


1499.  PERKIN    AND    WARWICK.  77 

In  the  Tower  of  London  he  met  a  singular  companion. 
Edward  Plantagenet  earl  of  Warwick,  son  of  George  duke 
of  Clarence,  the  undisputed  successor  to  the  crown,  according 
to  the  principles  of  the  house  of  York,  who  had  been  confined 
a  prisoner  in  that  fortress  for  the  period  of  fourteen  years. 
The  earliest  fact  which  the  unfortunate  youth  could  recollect 
was  the  murder  of  his  father,  with  the  aggravation  that  it 
was  perpetrated  by  an  unnatural  brother,  in  a  manner  which 
bore  the  appearance  of  turning  fratricide  into  a  jest.  For 
three  years  he  was  imprisoned  at  Sheriff-Hutton  in  Yorkshire, 
whence,  after  the  battle  of  Bos  worth,  he  was  conveyed  to  the 
Tower.  He  passed  his  life  in  captivity,  for  no  other  offence 
than  that  he  was  the  sole  survivor  of  the  male  descendants 
of  Edward  III.  This  unhappy  youth  listened  with  eager 
credulity  to  projects  suggested  by  Perkin  for  their  joint  de- 
liverance. They  were  charged  with  a  conspiracy  to  set 
themselves  free,  by  seducing  some  of  their  guards,  and  dis- 
abling or  destroying  the  rest.  Whether  Perkin  was  himself 
the  contriver  of  this  plot,  or  was  excited  by  the  government 
to  inveigle  Warwick  into  acts  which  might  give  a  color  of 
law  to  his  destruction,  is  a  question  which  cannot  now  be 
satisfactorily  answered.  The  latter  supposition  seems  to  cor- 
respond best  with  the  events  whicli  followed.  That  Henry 
should  once,  if  not  twice,  have  spared  the  life  of  Perkin,  is 
an  inexplicable  occurrence,  which  leads  to  no  certain  conclu- 
sion, but  that  the  adventurer  was  not  the  son  of  Edward  IV., 
and  that  he  was  not  then  believed  to  be  a  person  so  formi- 
dable. 

It  is  true  that  the  situation  of  Henry  exposed  him  to  some 
fluctuations  in  his  counsels,  otherwise  unlikely  in  a  sagacious 
and  inflexible  prince.  But  the  time  was  approaching  when 
the  death  of  Elizabeth  of  York,  which  actually  took  place  in 
1503,  was  about  to  divest  him  of  one  of  his  irregular  titles  to 
regal  authority.  He  was  then  to  be  no  more  than  an  illegiti- 
mate descendant  of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  who  were  them- 
selves usurpers  in  the  eye  of  all  the  zealous  of  hereditary 
right.  His  son  Hemy,  who  had  probably  betrayed  a  character 
not  disposed  to  yield  his  pretensions,  would  then  become  the 
legitimate  sovereign,  according  to  the  maxims  of  the  Yorkists. 
As  there  is,  perhaps,  nothing  in  human  affaire  so  hard  to  be 
foreseen  as  the  effect  of  punishment,  it  is  natural  to  a  prince, 
however  free  from  the  infirmity  of  compassion,  to  fluctuate 
between  pardon  and  rigor,  as  he  may,  sometimes,  be  most 
fearful  of  offending  one  party,  and  sometimes  more  apprehen- 
sive of  strengthening  another. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  not  probable  that,  after  pardon- 
G2 


78  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1499. 

ing  Perkin  for  so  many  rebellions,  the  king  should  have 
brought  him  to  trial  for  a  plot  which,  even  if  true,  amounted 
only  to  the  comparatively  venial  offence  of  an  attempt,  by 
prisoners,  to  escape  from  their  prison.  The  fact  is  intelligible, 
if  we  adopt  the  narrative  of  those  who  represent  Perkin  as 
being  instructed  or  tempted  to  decoy  Warwick  into  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  plot;  by  whom  we  are  told,  that  when  the 
destruction  of  that  prince  was  resolved  on,  the  criminal  pro- 
ceedings against  the  adventurer  were  deemed  necessary,  to 
bestow  the  exterior  of  reality  and  importance  on  the  con- 
spiracy. Whatever  the  secret  motives  may  have  been  of  the 
change  from  contempt  to  rigor,  Warbeck  was  tried  and  con- 
victed, on  the  16th  of  November,  1499,  of  treasons,  says  Lord 
Bacon,  done  by  him  after  he  landed ;  though  it  does  not 
appear  what  these  could  be,  which  were  not  comprehended 
in  the  pardon. 

At  his  execution  he  repeated  his  confession  that  he  was  an 
impostor.  It  was  not  treason  to  attempt  his  own  escape ;  and 
it  could  not  have  been  treason  to  aid  the  like  attempt  of  lord 
Warwick,  for  whose  confinement  there  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  a  legal  warrant.  Perhaps,  the  subservient  judges 
held  the  conspiracy  to  effect  his  own  deliverance  by  the  aid 
of  some  military  retainers  of  the  lieutenant  of  the  Tower  to 
be  an  overt  act  of  conspiring  to  rebel,  which  might  be  then, 
for  it  is  now,  held  to  be  an  overt  act  of  compassing  the  king's 
death. 

The  only  interesting  circumstance  in  the  true  story  of 
Warbeck  is,  that  he  retained  to  the  last  the  faithful  attach- 
ment of  lady  Catharine,  "  the  pale  rose  of  England ;"  an 
appellation  originally  usurped  by  her  husband,  but  transferred 
by  the  people  to  her,  as  emblematical  of  her  drooping  beauty 
and  unsullied  purity.  Warbeck,  when  he  advanced  towards 
the  east,  had  placed  her  in  St  Michael's  Mount,  in  Cornwall, 
where  she  was  found  by  Henry's  troops,  after  her  husband  had 
taken  sanctuary  at  Beauliou.  Henry  feared  that  she  might 
be  pregnant,  ami  thus  prolong  the  race  of  impostors.  The 
beauty  of  the  faithful  and  afflicted  lady  is,  however,  said  to 
have  touched  his  cold  heart.  He  sent  her  to  the  queen,  who 
placed  lady  Catharine  in  an  honorable  station  in  the  royal 
household.  She  ended  her  days,  long  after,  as  the  wife  of 
Sir  Matthew  Caradoc,  or  Craddock,  beside  whose  remains  she 
was  interred  in  the  church  of  Swansea. 

On  the  21st  of  November,  1499,  two  days  before  the  exe- 
cution of  the  pretender,  the  earl  of  Warwick  was  brought  to 
trial  for  treason,  in  conspiring  with  some  servants  of  the  lieu- 
tenant of  the  Tower  to  slay  their  master,  and  to  seize  that 


1499.  EXECUTION    OF   WARWICK.  79 

opportunity  of  escaping ;  to  which  it  was  added  by  some,  that 
he  was  charged  with  a  design  to  raise  Warbeck  to  the  throne. 
Fifteen  years  of  lonely  imprisonment,  chequered  by  the  per- 
nicious indulgence  of  one  warder  and  the  dark  severity  of 
another,  had  produced  one  of  their  most  natural  effects  on  this 
unhappy  boy,  deprived  almost  from  infancy  of  light  and  air, 
sport  and  exercise,  separated  from  companions  and  from  kin- 
dred, without  instruction  or  occupation.  Our  ancient  histo- 
rians describe  him  in  pithy  though  homely  terms,  as  reduced 
to  the  most  abject  condition  of  idiocy.  "  He  was,"  says  Holins- 
hed,  "  a  very  innocent."*  Another  contemporary  writer  says, 
"  Being  kept  for  fifteen  years  without  company  of  men  or  sight 
of  beasts,  he  could  not  discern  a  goose  from  a  capon."f  In 
this  state  of  utter  incapacity  to  commit  a  crime,  or  to  defend 
himself  against  an  accusation,  he  was  convicted  by  a  jury  of 
peers,  before  the  earl  of  Oxford,  the  lord  high  steward,  of  high 
treason,  and  immediately  after  put  to  death  for  an  offence 
which  his  faculties  did  not  enable  him  to  comprehend.  Thus 
perished  the  last  male  of  the  Plantagenets,  counts  of  Anjou, 
who  had  reigned  over  England  for  near  four  hundred  years, 
with  a  general  character  of  originality  and  boldness ;  but 
who,  as  Bacon  owns,  were  a  race  often  dipped  in  their  own 
blood4 

The  extinction  of  such  a  harmless  and  joyless  life,  in  defi- 
ance of  justice,  and  in  the  face  of  mankind,  is  a  deed  which 
should  seem  to  be  incapable  of  aggravation ;  but  the  motives 
of  this  merciless  murder,  the  base  interests  to  which  the  vic- 
tim was  sacrificed,  and  the  horrible  coolness  of  the  two  vete- 
ran tyrants  who  devised  the  crime,  are  aggravations  perhaps 
without  parallel.  Henry  had  been  for  some  time  engaged  in 
a  negotiation  for  the  marriage  of  Arthur,  his  eldest  son,  with 
Catherine,  infanta  of  Spain.  In  the  course  of  the  personal 
correspondence  between  the  two  monarchs,  "  these  two  kings 
understanding  each  other  at  half  a  wdrd,  there  were  letters 
shown  out  of  Spain,  whereby,  in  the  passages  concerning  the 
treaty  of  marriage,  Ferdinand  had  written  to  Henry  in  plain 
terms,  that  he  saw  no  assurance  of  the  succession  as  long  as 
the  earl  of  Warwick  lived,  and  that  he  was  loth  to  send  his 
daughter  to  troubles  and  dangers."^ 

It  was  not  till  the  murder  of  Warwick  might  have  been 
foreseen,  that  the"  ill-omened  nuptials  between  Arthur  and 
Catherine  were  celebrated  by  proxy  in  Spain, ||  of  which  the 

*  Holinshed,  iii.  529.  f  Hall,  491.  J  Bacon,  iii.  3C5.         §  Ibid. 

K  Rymer,  xii.  C.V,  C0f>.  Tract,  inter  Reges  Hisp.  et  Angl.  The  first  formal 
authority  to  conclude  the  treaty  of  marriage  seems  to  be  a  commission  to  the 
bishop  of  London,  22d  of  September,  14%.— Rymer,  xii.  633.— May  14,  1499. 


80  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1500. 

remembrance  caused  that  princess,  deeply  imbued  by  the  reli- 
gion or  superstition  of  her  country,  to  exclaim  loner  after,  in 
the  most  melancholy  moments  of  her  life — "  The  divorce  is  a 
judgment  of  God,  for  that  my  former  marriage  was  made  in 
blood ! "  The  length  of  the  proceedings  preliminary  to  the 
matrimonial  negotiation  suggests  a  suspicion  that  hard  condi- 
tions were  secretly  sought  by  one  of  the  parties.  How  came  the 
espousal  by  proxy  to  occur  only  six  months  before  the  execu- 
tion of  Warwick,  when  it  was  easy  to  see  that  the  disorders 
and  revolts  of  the  kingdom  would  afford  a  pretext  for  involv- 
ing him  in  a  charge  of  treason  1  The  personal  union  was 
delayed  till  1501.  Will  it  be  thought  an  over-refinement  to 
discover,  in  these  dates,  a  delay  till  the  removal  of  Warwick 
could  be  made  sure,  without  bringing  the  marriage  so  near 
to  the  murder  as  still  further  to  shock  the  feelings,  and  to 
strengthen  the  unfavorable  judgment  of  mankind?  Lord 
Bacon,  a  witness  against  Henry,  above  exception,  positively 
affirms,  that  the  flagitious  correspondence  had  been  seen  in 
England,  and  that  it  was  shown  by  the  king  to  excuse  his 
assent  to  a  deed  of  blood. 

Letters  of  such  murderous  import  allow  very  little  interval 
between  a  breach  of  the  intercourse  and  an  acquiescence  in 
its  proposals ;  but  when  it  terminates  in  the  success  of  the 
negotiation,  arid  the  opportune  removal  of  the  only  obstacle 
known  to  us  which  stood  in  its  way,  there  seems  little  reason 
for  doubting  either  the  correspondence  which  Bacon  expressly 
attributes  to  his  hero,  or  the  criminal  agreement  which  is 
imputed  to  him,  in  language  as  clear,  though  not  so  directly 
expressed.* 

The  prevalent  opinion  that  there  was  a  secret  correspond- 
ence with  Spain  relating  to  the  removal  of  Warwick,  singu- 
larly corresponds  with  the  intrinsic  probability  of  such  a  de- 
sign; both  are  corroborated  by  the  otherwise  inexplicable 
change  of  the  king's  dealing  with  the  hitherto  despised  im- 
postor ;  and  they  all  concur  in  leading  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  offences  of  the  unhappy  Warwick,  if  not  altogether 
imaginary,  were  the  result  of  a  snare  laid  by  Henry  for  the 
inoffensive  simpleton. 

The  extinction  of  the  male  descendants  of  the  reigning 
house  of  Burgundy  and  Britany  was  attended  with  considera- 
ble disturbance  of  that  part  of  the  European  system  to  which 

*  "  This  marriage  was  almost  seven  years  in  treaty,  which  was,  in  part, 
caused  by  the  tender  years  of  the  marriage  couple,  especially  of  the  prince  ; 
but  the  true  reason  was,  that  these  two  princes,  being  princes  of  great  policy 
and  profound  judgment,  stood  a  great  time  looking  one  upon  another's  for- 
tunes how  they  would  go."— Bacon,  iii.  374.  Mont.  edit. 


1500.  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  81 

England  was  particularly  attached.*  Maximilian  archduke 
of  Austria,  emperor  of  the  Romans,  had  obtained  the  Burgun- 
dian  dominions  by  marriage  with  Mary,  the  heiress  of  these 
fine  provinces,  which  were  inferior  to  few  monarchies  in  Eu- 
rope. Louis  XI.  might  have  united  the  Low  Countries  to 
France  amicably,  by  the  marriage  of  Mary  to  a  prince  of 
French  blood,  if  the  impolitic  rapacity  with  which  he  seized 
Burgundy  and  part  of  Picardy  had  not  offended  the  princess 
and  the  people.  Anne,  heiress  of  Britany,  had  many  suitors 
for  her  hand,  before,  by  her  marriage  with  Charles  VIIL,  she 
united  that  great  fief  to  the  crown  of  France.  In  this  case,' 
Henry  was  influenced  by  various  and  dissimilar  motives  to 
profess  an  interest,  if  not  to  take  a  share,  in  the  contests  be- 
tween France  and  Britany  which  preceded  the  union.  When 
earl  of  Richmond,  he  had  been  long  sheltered  in  Britany. 
There  he  formed  the  coalition  with  the  Yorkists  which  placed 
the  crown  on  his  head.  But  the  duke  of  Britany  was  induced, 
either  by  a  simplicity  scarcely  credible,  or  by  the  bribes  of 
Edward  IV.,  to  surrender  Richmond  to  that  formidable  prince. 
Henry  made  his  escape,  and  found  a  safe  asylum  in  France, 
where  the  government  supplied  him  with  the  men  and  money 
which  enabled  him  to  undertake  a  successful  invasion  of  Eng- 
land. He  was  outwitted  by  the  French  in  the  affairs  of  Brit- 
any, where  he  considered  conquest  and  marriage  as  improba- 
ble. Influenced  in  some  degree  by  this  error,  he  long  confined 
himself  to  speeches  and  memorials,  which  filled  his  coffers 
with  parliamentary  grants,  and  kept  up  a  certain  disposition 
to  resistance  both  in  England  and  Britany.  He  was  easily 
satisfied  with  any  political  reasoning  which  gave  him  a  pre- 
tence for  the  indulgence  of  his  wary  and  penurious  disposi- 
tion. He  was  more  lukewarm  than  insincere  in  his  regard 
for  the  independence  of  his  neighbors,  but  was  too  sagacious 
not  to  perceive  its  connexion  with  his  own.  Being  at  length 
induced  to  make  a  tardy  effort  for  the  balance  of  power,  he 
landed  in  France  in  1492,  and  laid  siege  to  Boulogne.  The 
situation  of  all  Europe  threw  a  considerable  weight  into  his 
scale.  Maximilian,  sovereign  of  the  Low  Countries,  courted 

*  The  negotiations  with  the  duchess  of  Britany,  Rymer,  xii.  355.  .172. ; 
Maximilian,  393.397.;  with  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  411. ;  with  the  duke 
of  Milan,  429;  with  the  grandees  of  Britany,  433;  alliance  with  Spain 
against  France,  4(>2;  preparations  against  that  kingdom,  446 — 464.;  the 
indentures  for  the  French  war,  477. ;  are  sufficient  examples  of  the  activity 
and  watchfulness  of  Henry  between  the  defeat  of  Symnel  in  1487.,  and  the 
diversion  of  French  policy  towards  Italy  in  1493,  to  show  the  English 
monarch's  ambitious  neighbors  that,  if  they  desired  to  prosecute  their 
schemes  of  aggrandizement  without  disturbance,  they  would  do  well,  by 
supporting  a  pretender  to  his  crown,  to  provide  such  a  neighbor  with  occu- 
pation at  home. 


82  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1500. 

the  alliance  of  England, — a  power  more  interested  than  any 
other  in  the  independence  of  the  Belgic  territory.  Charles 
VIII.  was  now  engrossed  by  his  designs  against  Naples, — the 
first  attempt,  since  the  Suabian  emperors,  to  reduce  a  large 
portion  of  Italy  under  a  foreign  yoke.  Though  Naples  was 
as  speedily  lost  as  won,  though  the  French  incursions  into 
Italy  proved  to  be  only  brilliant  inroads  where  victory  was  its 
own  sole  reward ;  yet  the  stream  of  French  policy  long  flow- 
ed towards  Lombardy  and  Naples  in  spite  of  the  mountain 
barrier,  of  the  climate,  unfriendly  to  northern  soldiers,  and  of 
the  national  aversion  to  the  yoke  of  the  transalpine  barba- 
rians. By  these  wars,  however,  the  Alps  were  divested  of 
their  defensive  terrors ;  the  road  to  the  most  beautiful  regions 
of  Europe  was  laid  open ;  and  the  Italians  were  taught,  that 
the  nations  beyond  the  mountains  had  acquired  the  rudiments 
of  the  art  of  war,  and  had  increased  in  territory  and  numbers, 
so  much  that  the  attempt  of  the  feeble  states  of  Italy  to  cope 
with  them  in  the  field  became  vain. 

Spain  had  now  reached  the  highest  point  in  her  fortunes, 
and  had  prospects  more  bright  than  any  other  country  could 
boast.  The  fall  of  Grenada  established  the  Christian  author- 
ity in  every  province  of  the  peninsula ;  and  the  discovery  of 
a  new  world  seemed  to  open  boundless  hopes  of  splendor, 
wealth,  and  power.  The  connexion  of  John  of  Gaunt  and 
his  children  with  the  royal  families  of  Spain  and  Portugal 
facilitated,  perhaps,  that  union  between  Spain  and  England, 
to  which  both  were  attracted  by  common  interest.  This  union 
appeared  to  be  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  Arthur  prince 
of  Wales  to  Catherine,  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella ;  and  if  a  human  victim  was  sacrificed  at  the  celebration 
of  these  unhappy  nuptials,  it  does  not  appear,  from  the  temper 
of  those  who  have  related  that  horrible  crime,  that  it  either 
excited  the  indignation  of  contemporaries  or  the  remorse  of 
the  assassins. 

In  the  treaties  of  peace  with  France,  and  of  alliance  with 
Burgundy,  a  stipulation  of  no  small  importance  to  Henry's 
quiet  was  obtained  by  him, — that  no  rebel  subjects  of  either 
power  should  be  harbored  or  aided  by  the  other.  It  is  observ- 
able that  the  treaty  of  Etaples  with  France  was  ratified  by 
the  three  estates  of  Aquitain,  Normandy,  and  Languedoc,  and 
probably  of  all  the  considerable  provinces  of  France  ;*  and 
that  in  a  few  months  after,  the  same  treaty,  from  which  hopes 
were  doubtless  entertained  of  lasting  quiet,  was  confirmed 
and  ratified  by  the  three  estates  of  the  parliament  of  England, 

*Rymer,  xii.  592.  &c. 


1503.  PLOT   AGAINST   THE    SCOTTISH    KING.  83 

represented  on  that  occasion  in  a  manner  unusual,  if  not 
unexampled,  by  deputations  from  the  three  estates  in  each 
bishopric  in  the  kingdom.*  It  may  be  added,  that  the  king 
did  not  conclude  the  peace  of  Etaples  till  more  than  twenty 
of  the  highest  class  of  his  subjects  had  addressed  him  as  fol- 
lows : — "  We  all  and  every  of  us  humbly  beseech  and  require 
(request}  the  king's  grace  tenderly  to  take  to  his  gracious 
consideration  the  jeopardies  likely  to  ensue  ;  and  for  the  con- 
servation of  his  royal  person,  of  us  his  subjects,  and  also  of 
his  realm  of  England,  to  accept  the  said  peace."f 

Peace  was  also  concluded  with  Scotland;  and  Margaret 
Tudor,  the  king's  eldest  daughter,  then  given  in  marriage  to 
the  Scottish  king,  became  the  stock  from  whom  sprung  all 
the  sovereigns  who  have  since  reigned  in  Great  Britain.  This 
princess  had  been  solemnly  wedded  on  behalf  of  king  James, 
by  his  proxy,  Patrick  Hepburn  earl  of  Both  well,  in  the  palace 
of  Richmond,  on  the  27th  of  January,  1503.  She  did  not 
begin  her  journey  to  Scotland  till  the  following  summer, 
where,  on  the  8th  of  August,  the  marriage  was  completed, 
and  the  queen  was  crowned  with  the  usual  parade.  This 
union  gave  quiet  to  the  borders,  and  established  friendship 
between  the  monarchs,  which  a  little  while  before  was  foreign 
to  the  minds  of  both.  In  the  year  1491,  a  very  singular  inci- 
dent occurred,  which  has  received  less  notice  than  it  deserves 
from  historians,  either  as  a  specimen  of  the  sentiments  of 
good  will,  of  good  faith,  or  of  international  law  which  were 
then  almost  openly  avowed  by  European  princes.!  On  the 
16th  of  April  in  that  year,  a  secret  agreement  was  entered 
into  by  Henry  at  Westminster,  with  John  lord  BothwellJ  and 
Sir  Thomas  Toddie,  Scottish  knights,  by  which  it  was  stipu- 
lated "  that  the  right  honorable  lord  James  earl  of  Boughan 
(probably  Buchan),  and  the  said  Sir  Thomas,  should  take, 
bring,  and  deliver  into  the  said  king  of  England's  hands  the 
king  of  Scots  now  reigning,  and  his  brother  the  duke  of  Roos 
(Ross),  or  at  least  the  said  king  of  Scotland :  the  king  of  Eng- 
land, for  the  achieving  of  their  said  purpose,  having  lent  and 
delivered  unto  them  (Boughan  and  Todd)  the  sum  of  266?. 
13*.  4rf.,  to  be  by  them  repaid  to  him."  Of  this  extraordinary 
conspiracy  we  have  no  information  but  that  Vhich  this  docu- 

*  Rymer,  xii.  710.  Commoners  or  persons  not  knighted  ar  called  "  duarn- 
plures  alii." 

t  Id.  490.  Request  and  supplication  of  the  captains  of  England  for  a 
peace,  November,  149?. 

J  Rymer,  xii.  440. 

§The  signature  in  Rymer  is  Bothvaile,  though  in  the  body  of  the  agree- 
ment the  usual  manner  of  writing  Bothwell  is  adopted  by  the  English 
clerk. 


84  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1503. 

ment  contains.  We  know,  however,  that  John  Ramsay  of 
Balmain,  created  lord  Bothwell  in  1486,  was  one  of  the  favor- 
ites  whose  invidious  ascendant  over  James  III.  brought  defeat 
and  death  on  that  prince  in  1488  at  Stirling ;  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  he  and  Todd  had  been  driven  to  take  shelter 
in  England  by  the  violence  of  the  victorious  factions,  for  their 
adherence  to  the  cause  of  that  obnoxious  prince.  Whether 
they  were  influenced  by  indigence,  or  actuated  by  a  desire  of 
revenging  the  death  of  their  master  ;  whether  they  were  se- 
duced by  Henry,  or  courted  his  aid ;  are  questions  which  no 
historical  evidence  known  to  be  extant  will  enable  us  to  an- 
swer. Other  parts  of  Bothwell's  life  warrant  the  worst  in- 
terpretation of  his  actions.  Though  he  was  pardoned  by  James 
IV.,  we  find  him,  within  two  years  of  his  pardon,  acting  as  a 
spy  for  Henry  VII.  at  the  court  of  Edinburgh.* 

The  conduct  of  Henry,  however,  which  is  more  important, 
can  occasion  no  difference  of  opinion  or  hesitation  of  judg- 
ment James  IV.,  for  whose  abduction  this  plot  was  formed, 
was  then  in  the  nineteenth  year  of  his  age,  and  already  rank- 
ed as  the  most  accomplished  of  the  royal  youth  of  Europe. 
One  of  the  truces  which  had  served  for  nearly  a  century  as 
substitutes  for  treaties  of  peace  between  the  two  British  na- 
tions was  now  recognized  as  in  force  by  both  parties.  It  was 
concluded  on  the  20th  of  February,  1491,  and  was  to  be  in 
force  to  the  20th  of  November,  1492.  The  ink  with  which 
the  articles  of  the  truce  were  written  was  scarcely  dry,  when 
a  new  agreement  was  executed  by  the  king  of  England  to 
tear  James  from  his  palace,  and  to  drag  him  to  a  foreign 
prison.  That  young  prince  naturally,  but  it  seems  vainly, 
trusted,  that  if  neighborhood  and  consanguinity,  and  the  dig- 
nity of  crowns,  did  not  secure  him  against  these  perfidious 
machinations,  at  least  he  might  repose  under  the  faith  of  a 
treaty  of  armistice  which  was  the  latest  solemn  transaction 
between  the  two  nations.  Death,  accidentally  or  intentionally, 
was  so  natural  a  consequence  of  the  projected  outrage,  that 
a  statesman  so  sagacious  as  Henry  must  have  been  prepared 
for  its  probable  occurrence.  To  reduce  this  murderous  pur- 
pose to  paper  is  a  contempt  of  shame  and  infamy  rarely  ex- 
hibited by  assassins.  To  clothe  it  with  all  the  formalities  of 
a  treaty,  to  bestow  on  it  the  solemnities  intended  for  the  pre- 
servation of  peace  and  justice,  is  not  only  to  bid  defiance  to 
all  principles  of  morality,  but  to  trample  under  foot  the  last 
fragments  of  a  show  of  duty  between  nations.  It  might  be 
alleged,  indeed,  that  as  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  attempt 

*  Pinkerton,  i.  47.    Douglas's  Peerage. 


1506.  PHILIP   THE    FAIR    IN    ENGLAND.  85 

being  made  to  carry  this  agreement  into  execution,  the  offer 
may  have  been  finally  rejected  by  the  English  monarch.  But, 
in  answer,  we  may  ask  how  the  wages  of  the  assassins  were 
paid  beforehand.  A  mind  must  be  little  susceptible  of  honor- 
able scruples,  which  has  steadily  contemplated  such  a  project, 
and  taken  measures  so  serious  to  realize  it. 

The  king,  on  another  occasion,  showed  symptoms  of  dispo- 
sitions of  the  same  nature.  Philip  the  Fair,  the  son  of  the 
emperor  Maximilian,  being  on  a  voyage  to  Spain,  was  driven 
by  storms  into  Weymouth,  in  January,  1506.  Wearied  by 
sea-sickness,  he  ventured  to  trust  himself  on  shore,  against 
the  advice  of  his  more  wary  counsellors.  Trenchard  and 
Carey,  two  gentlemen  of  the  west,  understanding  it  to  be 
the  maxim  of  their  master  to  consider  strangers  as  enemies, 
immediately  brought  together  an  armed  force.  They  appear- 
ed before  Weymouth,  and  invited  Philip  to  remain  with  them 
until  they  should  apprize  their  sovereign  of  the  arrival  of  this 
illustrious  gueat.  Henry  dispatched  the  earl  of  Arundel  with 
directions  to  offer  an  immediate  visit  from  the  king  to  Philip. 
The  latter  prince  felt  that  he  was  no  longer  master  of  his  own 
movements,  and,  anticipating  the  king's  visit,  repaired  to 
Windsor,  to  pay  his  court  to  his  royal  kinsman,  who  received 
him  with  every  mark  of  friendship  and  honor,  but  soon  began 
to  turn  to  account  the  involuntary  residence  of  Philip  in  the 
English  dominions.  Occasion  was  now  taken  to  obtain  a  re- 
newal of  the  treaties  of  commerce  and  alliance,  which  if  they 
contained  no  amendment  unduly  favorable  to  England,  owed 
their  freedom  from  actual  wrong  more  to  the  unskilfulness 
than  to  the  honesty  of  the  more  powerful  party.* 

But  the  persecution  of  a  Yorkist  was  still  the  favorite  pur- 
suit of  the  English  monarch.  He  chose  a  moment  of  cour- 
teous and  kind  intercourse  to  sound  Philip  on  the  means  of  re- 
moving the  jealousy,  or  satisfying  the  revenge,  of  which  one 
of  the  most  unhappy  of  these  exiles  was  the  object.  "  Sir," 
said  Henry  to  Philip,  "  you  have  been  saved  upon  my  coast ; 
I  hope  you  will  not  suffer  me  to  be  wrecked  on  yours."  '  The 
latter  asked  what  he  meant  "  I  mean,"  said  the  king,  "  that 
hare-brained  wild  fellow,  the  earl  of  Suffolk,  who  is  protected 
in  your  dominions." — "  I  thought,"  replied  Philip,  "  your  fe- 
licity had  been  above  such  thoughts ;  but  if  it  trouble  you,  I 
will  banish  him." — "  These  hornets,"  said  the  king,  "  are  best 
in  their  nest,  and  worst  when  they  fly  abroad.  Let  him  be 
delivered  to  me."—"  That,"  said  Philip,  "  can  I  not  do  with 

*  The  Flemings,  however,  thought  otherwise;  for  they  called  the  treaty 
Intercursus  mains,  as  the  great  commercial  treaty  was  called  Intercursvs 
magnus.  These  treaties  are  in  Dumont,  Corps  Diplom.  ii.  30.  76.  83. 

VOL.  II.  H 


86  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND  1506. 

my  honor,  and  less  with  yours ;  for  you  will  be  thought  to 
have  used  me  as  a  prisoner." — "  Then,"  said  the  king,  with 
ready  shrewdness  and  craft,  "  the  matter  is  at  an  end ;  for  I 
will  take  that  dishonor  upon  me,  and  so  your  honor  is  saved." 
Philip  closed  the  conversation  with  equal  quickness  and  more 
honorable  address : — "  Sir,  you  give  law  to  me ;  so  will  I  to 
you.  You  shall  have  him  ;  but  upon  your  honor  you  shall  not 
take  his  life."*  The  very  ill-fated  man  in  question  was  John 
de  la  Pole,  the  nephew  of  Edward  IV.  He  was  committed  to 
the  Tower  on  his  arrival  in  England.  The  king  kept  the 
word  of  promise  during  the  short  sequel  of  his  own  reign, 
but  left  directions  for  perpetrating  "the  perfidious  murder 
among  the  dying  injunctions  to  his  son.  The  command  was 
not  executed  till  the  30th  of  April,  1515,  when  Henry  VIII. 
was  about  to  invade  France.  It  being  said,  that  "  the  people 
were  so  well  affected  to  the  house  of  York  as  that  they  might 
take  Edmund  de  la  Pole  out  of  the  Tower  and  set  him  up,  it 
was  thought  fit  that  he  should  be  dispatched  out  of  the  way ; 
whereupon  they  cut  off  his  head."f 

The  object  of  Philip's  winter  voyage  to  Spain  suggested 
thoughts  not  likely  to  calm  the  apprehensions  by  which  Henry 
was  haunted  after  the  deaths  of  the  queen  and  of  Arthur  prince 
of  Wales.  Ferdinand  king  of  Aragon,  by  his  marriage  with 
Isabella  queen  of  Castile,  had  united  all  the  Christian  territo- 
ries of  the  peninsula  except  Portugal.  But  as  Isabella  retain- 
ed her  independent  sovereignty  over  Castile,  the  continuance 
of  the  union  of  the  two  crowns  depended  on  the  lives  of  the 
two  sovereigns.  When  Isabella  died,  on  the  25th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1504,  Castile  and  its  dependencies  were  inherited  by  Jo- 
anna her  eldest  daughter,  the  wife  of  Philip  the  Fair.  That 
unfortunate  princess,  surrounded  as  she  was  with  all  the  ma- 
jesty and  magnificence  of  the  world,  was  not  only  sunk  be- 
low the  duties  of  royalty,  but  unable  to  taste  its  amusements 
and  gratifications.  She  was  early  reduced  to  a  state  of  men- 
tal disorder,  which  fluctuated  between  a  sluggish  melancholy 
and  the  illusions  of  insanity.  Her  fond  passion  for  her  hus- 
band, ill  requited  from  the  commencement  of  the  union,  was 
rendered  fulsome  and  lothesome  by  her  malady ;  and  it  was 
not  till  his  decease,  when  she  herself  was  in  the  sixth  month 
of  her  pregnancy,  that  she  had  fc.  full  scope  for  her  wild  but 
harmless  fancies,  which  indulged  themselves  by  arraying  him 
in  his  royal  ornaments,  and  watching  by  the  bed  of  state  for 
his  restoration  from  death. 

In  consequence  of  her  total  incapacity,  Ferdinand,  though 

*  Bacon,  iii.  397  t  Dugdale,  ii.  190. 


1506.       MARRIAGE    OF   THE    PRINCE    OF    WALES.  87 

he  proclaimed  Joanna  and  Philip  king  and  queen,  at  the  same 
time  declared  himself  regent  of  that  kingdom,  in  virtue  of 
Isabella's  will,  of  the  assent  of  the  Cortez,  and  of  a  real  or 
supposed  ancient  custom  of  the  monarchy.*  Philip,  who  car- 
ried everywhere  the  poor  lunatic  with  whose  name  he  cov- 
ered his  power,  was,  at  the  time  of  his  visit  to  England,  on 
his  voyage  for  the  recovery  of  the  regency  of  Castile ;  which 
attempt,  being  seconded  by  the  dislike  of  the  Castilians  for 
Ferdinand  and  the  Aragonese,  very  speedily  succeeded.  But 
his  success  was  almost  immediately  followed  by  his  death, 
while  his  wretched  wife  was  doomed  to  bear  the  burden  of  life 
for  nearly  fifty  years  longer,  f 

These  occurrences  seemed  to  foreshow  the  danger  to  which 
Henry  might  be  exposed  by  circumstances  hi  the  condition 
of  his  own  family  not  wholljr  dissimilar.  The  death  of  Eliza- 
beth has  already  been  mentioned.  Arthur  prince  of  Wales 
espoused  Catherine  of  Spain,  on  the  14th  of  November,  1501 : 
he  died  on  the  2d  of  April  following.  A  treaty  was  signed 
in  June  by  Henry,  and  in  September  by  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella, for  the  marriage  of  Henry,  then  prince  of  Wales  (af- 
terwards Henry  VIII.),  to  his  brother's  widow.J  This  union 
was  sanctioned  by  a  bull  of  pope  Julius  II.,  certainly  indi- 
cating no  doubts  of  the  extent  of  his  authority,  and  no  mis- 
givings of  the  validity  of  his  dispensation,  hi  which,  after  re- 
citing the  previous  marriage,  §  he  proceeds  to  pronounce  that 
even  if  the  union  with  Arthur  were  perhaps  consummated, 
yet  he,  by  the  present  dispensation,  relieves  both  parties  from 
all  censure  which  might  be  otherwise  incurred  by  such  an  al- 
liance, dispenses  with  the  impediment  to  their  nuptials  which 
the  affinity  had  caused,  authorizes  them  to  solemnize  their 
marriage,  and  to  remain  conjoined  in  lawful  wedlock ;  and, 
lastly,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  decrees  that  the  children 
who  may  be  the  progeny  of  their  union  shall  be  held  and 
deemed  to  be  legitimate.  The  prince  of  Wales  was  then  in 
his  thirteenth  year,  and  his  aspiring  and  domineering  charac- 
ter probably  even  then  betrayed  a  determination  to  assert  all 
his  plausible  pretensions. 

None  of  the  sayings  recorded  of  Henry  VII.,  though  he 
was  called  the  Solomon  of  England,  show  so  much  sagacity 
as  his  answer  to  the  counsellors  who  objected  to  the  Scottish 

*  Bacon,  iii.  30^. 

t  She  died  in  1555,  only  three  years  before  the  death  of  her  son  Charles, 
called  the  Fifth  in  Germany,  and  the  Second  in  Spain. 

f  Rymer,  xiii.  76.  Sep.  Kal.  Jan.  1503,  which  I  understand  to  be  the  26th 
of  December  of  that  year.  Nicholas  Calendar,  53. 

§  Ibid.  89. 


88  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1506. 

marriage,  that  the  kingdom  might  by  that  connexion  fall  to 
the  king  of  Scotland.  "  Scotland  would  then,"  said  he,  "  be- 
come an  accession  to  England,  not  England  to  Scotland ;  the 
greater  would  draw  the  less :  it  is  a  safer  union  for  England 
than  one  with  France."* 

An  examination  of  the  laws  of  this  reign  would  neither 
suit  the  purpose  nor  the  limits  of  this  undertaking.  Several 
reforms  in  private  legislation,  principally  founded,  however, 
on  practice  introduced  by  the  judges,  honorably  distinguish  it 
from  many  others.f  The  statute-book  attests  the  universal 
distempers  of  the  community  during  the  civil  wars,  and  bears 
frequent  marks  of  the  vigorous  arm  of  a  severe  reformer, 
employed  in  extirpating  the  evils  of  long  license.  Of  these, 
not  the  least  remarkable  is  the  act  commonly  entitled  The 
Act  for  the  Authority  of  the  Star  Chamber,!  of  which  the 
first  object  seems  to  have  been  the  suppression  of  the  unlaw- 
ful combinations  which  endanger  the  public  quiet,  or  disturb 
the  ordinary  dispensation  of  law.  No  words  in  the  statute 
expressly  comprehend  libels  or  other  political  misdemeanors, 
in  which  the  court  of  the  star  chamber  became  deservedly 
odious.  Neither  does  it  appear  from  the  statute  that  the 
name  of  Star  Chamber  was  then  bestowed  upon  it,  or  that  it 
was  regularly  composed  of  the  king's  council,  either  ordinary 
or  privy.  The  early  history  of  these  councils  is  obscure ;  but 
they  appear  to  have  derived  jurisdiction  sometimes  from  acts 
of  parliament,  and  oftener,  perhaps,  to  have  assumed  it  by  an 
usurpation,  which  usage  in  due  time  legitimated.  The  court 
established  by  this  statute  was  composed  of  the  chancellor, 
the  treasurer,  the  privy-seal,  "  calling  to  themselves  a  bishop 
and  a  temporal  lord  of  the  king's  most  honorable  council," 
and  the  two  chief  justices ;  and  they  appear  early  to  have  ap- 
propriated to  themselves  many  fragments  of  the  authority  an- 
ciently exercised  by  the  council,  as  well  as  to  have  stretched 
their  jurisdiction  beyond  the  boundaries  prescribed  to  it  by  the 
statute.  A  tribunal  composed  of  five  of  the  king's  servants, 
removable  by  him  at  pleasure,  invested  with  a  right  of  select- 
ing two  other  members  on  whose  subserviency  they  could 
best  rely,  would  have  had  resistless  temptations  to  incessant 
encroachment  on  the  rights  of  the  subject,  even  if  the  judges 
had  not  been  so  powerful  as  to  defy  all  ordinary  consequences, 
and  if  the  very  letter  of  the  law  had  not  quickened  their 
passion  for  discretionary  powers,  by  alleging  the  disturbance 

*  Bacon,  iii.  379. 

t  Mr.  Hallam,  Constitutional  History.   Reeves's  History  of  English  Law. 

12  Hen.  VII.  c.l. 


1506.  STAR   CHAMBER.  89 

and  failure  of  justice  in  its  ordinary  course  through  juries,  as 
the  reason  for  the  establishment  of  the  new  tribunal.  Their 
jurisdiction  over  juries,  in  effect,  subjected  the  laws  to  their 
will.  When  they  animadverted  on  a  verdict,  they  had  an  op- 
portunity of  re-trying  the  cause  in  which  it  was  given,  and 
thus  of  taking  cognizance  of  almost  all  misdemeanors,  es- 
pecially those  of  a  political  nature,  which  they  might  plausibly 
represent  as  offering  most  obstacles  to  the  course  and  order 
of  the  common  law.  From  these  and  the  like  causes  sprang 
that  rapid  growth  of  the  arbitrary  power  of  this  court,  which 
if  the  constitution  had  not  overthrown,  must  have  worked  the 
downfall  of  the  constitution.* 

Lord  Bacon,  indeed,  tells  us,  that  "  this  court  is  one  of  the 
sagest  and  noblest  institutions  of  this  kingdom."  "  There 
was  always  a  high  and  pre-eminent  power  in  causes  which 
might  concern*  the  commonwealth ;  which,  if  they  were 
criminal,  were  tried  in  the  star  chamber."  "  As  the  chancery 
had  the  praetorian  power  for  equity,  so  the  star  chamber  had 
the  censorian  power  in  offences  under  the  degree  of  capital."f 

Such  opinions,  expressed  by  a  man  whose  fell  from  public 
life  had  released  him  from  its  restraints,  in  a  book  rather 
addressed  to  the  king  than  to  the  people,  are  a  pregnant 
proof  how  little  the  secret  doctrines  of  eminent  statesmen 
concerning  the  comparative  value  of  various  institutions  may 
sometimes  correspond  to  the  language  with  which  the  plau- 
sibilities of  political  life  may  compel  them  to  amuse  the  mul- 
titude. 

In  the  year  1494  a  law  was.  passed,  which  provided  that 
those  who  serve  a  king  for  the  time  being  shall  in  no  wise  be 
convicted  or  attainted  of  high  treason,  nor  of  other  offences, 
for  that  cause. J  "  The  spirit  of  this  law,"  says  lord  Bacon, 
"  was  wonderfully  pious  and  noble,"§  with  much  more  justice, 
doubtless,  than  when  he  applied  the  like  terms  of  honor  to 
the  court  of  star  chamber.  But  we  are  left  without  the 
means  of  ascertaining  what  were  the  inducements  of  Henry 
to  pass  a  law  against  which  the  historian  insinuates  some 
censure,  as  "  being  rather  just  than  legal,  and  more  magnani- 
mous than  provident"  Monarchs  and  ministers  seldom  change 
the  laws  spontaneously  on  general  grounds  of  policy.  The 
greater  part  of  them  can  seldom  be  roused  by  any  stimulant 
weaker  than  a  present  and  urgent  interest  to  undertake  inno- 
vation, from  which  they  too  much  dread  unforeseen  evils.  In 

*  See  Mr.  Hallam's  Constitutional  History,  chap,  i.,  a  work  from  which  I 
seldom  differ,  and  never  without  distrust  of  my  own  judgment, 
f  Bacon,  iii.  224.  t  2  Hen.  VII.  c.  i.  §  Bacon,  iii.  310. 

H2 


90  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1506. 

this  case  the  popularity  of  the  measure  among  the  nobility 
for  saving  their  estates  from  forfeiture,  was  probably  one  of 
the  motives  of  its  adoption.  There  can  hardly  be  any  doubt 
that  the  apprehension  of  danger  to  the  king  himself,  if  he 
survived  the  queen,  from  the  prince  of  Wales,  or  from  any 
one  of  the  numerous  body  who,  being  legitimate  descendants 
of  the  Plantagenets,  had  better  claims  than  he  to  inherit  the 
crown,  was  another  and  probably  a  very  prevalent  motive  for 
passing  the  law. 

After  all,  perhaps,  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  ruling  pas- 
sion of  the  king's  public  life,  a  furious  zeal  against  the  parti- 
sans of  the  house  of  York.  This  act  of  parliament  tacitly 
condemned  their  distinction  between  actual  and  legitimate 
kings,  and  satisfied  his  revenge  for  the  insult  which  had  been 
offered  to  all  the  Lancastrian  princes  by  branding  them  as 
usurpers. 

It  might,  perhaps,  be  plausibly  stated  by  the  advocates  of 
Perkin,  that  this  act,  passed  in  1494,  is  a  testimony  to  the 
importance  of  the  pretender,  and  affords  a  proof  that  Henry 
entertained  fears  from  him,  which  can  only  be  explained  rea- 
sonably by  a  suspicion,  if  not  a  conviction,  of  his  legitimacy. 
The  other  causes,  however,  seem  to  be  adequate ;  and  it 
appears  to  be  a  more  natural  inference,  to  consider  as  proofs 
of  Henry's  contempt  for  the  title  of  the  pretender,  that  such 
a  law  was  then  passed,  and  that  not  long  after  Perkin  was 
pardoned,  and  might  have  probably  lived  as  long  as  Symnel, 
if  it  had  not  been  convenient  to  use  his  death  as  one  of  the 
means  of  bringing  Warwick  to  destruction. 

Henry,  prompted  by  the  marvellous  tales  of  gold  and  silver 
in  America,  which  the  Spanish  adventurers  had  spread  over 
Europe,  commissioned  a  Venetian  mariner,  Sebastian  Cabot, 
who  was  settled  in  Bristol,  to  fit  out  a  small  squadron  for 
the  discovery,  conquest,  and  occupation  of  the  lands  beyond 
the  western  ocean,  inhabited  by  heathens  and  infidels,  and  till 
these  times  unknown  to  Christians.* 

Unaided  as  he  was  by  the  niggardly  king,  it  was  not  until 
1497  that  Cabot  succeeded  in  fitting  out  one  ship  from  Bristol, 
and  three  small  vessels  from  London,  fraught  with  some  gross 
and  slight  wares  adapted  for  commerce  with  barbarians.!  He 
related  on  his  return  that  he  had  sailed  to  the  north-westward 
as  far  as  the  coast  of  Labrador,  in  the  sixty-eighth  degree  of 
north  latitude,  and  that  he  had  coasted  the  vast  territories  to 
the  southward  of  the  gulf  of  Florida.  Whether  Cabot,  or 

*  Rymer,  xii.  595.    5th  March,  1496. 

t  Bacon,  iii.    Macpherson's  Hist,  of  Commerce,  ii.  2. 


1506*  TREATY    OF   COMMERCE.  91 

Columbus  himself,  or  Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  Florentine,  was 
the  first  European  who  saw  the  continent  since  called  Amer- 
ica, has  been  disputed  with  a  zeal  which  often  burns  most 
fiercely  in  questions  seemingly  the  least  adapted  to  kindle 
passionate  controversy. 

The  commercial  treaty  between  England  and  Burgundy,  in 
1496,  called  "  the  great  intercourse,"  is  not  only  an  important 
event  in  the  history  of  the  most  industrious  and  opulent  of  the 
Transalpine  states,  but  deserves  attention,  as  foreboding  those 
revolutions  in  the  state  of  society  both  in  Europe  and  America, 
with  which  the  great  importance  ascribed  to  such  negotiations 
now  shows  that  the  world  was  pregnant.  A  reciprocal  liberty 
of  trading  in  all  commodities  to  each  other's  ports  without 
passport  or  license,  and  of  fishing  on  the  coasts  of  either  party, 
was  stipulated.  They  agreed  to  protect  each  other  from  wrong 
by  pirates.  All  ship-masters  were  required  to  find  security 
that  they  shall  not  commit  piracy  against  the  contracting 
parties.  The  ships  of  one  party,  driven  by  storm  or  enemies 
into  the  havens  of  the  other,  were  entitled  to  protection 
during  their  stay,  and  may  freely  depart  when  they  please. 
The  licentious  practice  of  pillaging  ships  wrecked  on  their 
coast  was  restrained  till  a  year  shall  elapse  from  the  time  of 
the  wreck.  The  privileges  of  the  traders  of  one  nation  on  the 
land  of  the  other  were  secured.  The  arrest  of  foreign  debtors 
was  regulated.  The  importation  into  either  country  of  the 
goods  of  its  enemy  was  forbidden.  An  attempt  was  even 
made  to  abolish  one  branch  of  that  species  of  private  war 
which  civilized  nations  even  at  this  day  carry  on.  It  was 
stipulated  that  no  letters  of  marque  or  reprisal  should  be 
granted  to  individuals,  till  after  due  warning  to  the  sovereign 
of  the  wrong-doer,  and  "  that  all  such  letters  shall  be  now 
recalled,  unless  it  be  otherwise  determined  by  a  congress  of 
both  parties."* 

Some  of  the  articles  of  this  treaty,  which  mitigate  the 
excesses  of  war,  indicate,  if  not  a  sense  of  justice,  which 
must  be  equal  and  universal,  at  least  a  sense  of  common  in- 
terest, which  is  the  road  to  the  higher  principle.  No  other 
transaction  had  before  so  strongly  evinced  that  Europe  began 
to  recognize  a  reciprocity  of  rights  and  duties  between  states, 
and  to  reverence  a  code  of  rules  and  usages  as  much  morally 
obligatory  on  nations  as  the  ordinary  maxims  of  private  duty 
are  on  the  conscience  of  individuals. 

The  vast  importance  of  a  free  and  active  exchange  of  all 

*  Dumont,  Corpe  Diplom.  iv.  30.  83.  Rymer,  xiii.  6. 132.  Macpherson's 
Annals  of  Commerce,  ii.  8. 


92  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1506. 

the  products  of  human  industry  manifestly  appears,  from  this 
treaty,  to  have  become  an  article  in  the  political  belief  of 
some,  in  the  states  which  had  been  taught  the  value  of  traffic 
by  experience.  When  we  now  read  such  national  transac- 
tions, we  feel  our  approach  to  those  mighty  but  then  unob- 
served changes  which  were  about  to  raise  the  middle  classes 
of  men  to  more  influence  than  they  had  ever  before  enjoyed ; 
to  restore  personal  property  to  that  equality  with  real,  of 
which  the  feudal  institutions  had  robbed  it ;  in  due  time  to 
extend  political  importance  to  the  lowest  limits  of  liberal  edu- 
cation ;  and  at  length  to  diffuse  that  education  so  widely  as 
to  alter  the  seat  of  power,  and  to  bring  into  question  many 
opinions  hitherto  prevalent  among  statesmen. 

That  the  rise  of  the  pacific  and  industrious  classes  should 
coincide  with  the  discoveries  of  a  new  continent  and  of  eastern 
commerce,  can  only  be  thought  accidental  by  shallow  observ- 
ers of  human  affairs.  When  we  consider  the  previous  dis- 
coveries, the  coincidence  of  the  voyages  of  Columbus  with 
that  of  Gama,  and  with  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  now  under 
consideration,  it  appears  evident  that  the  growing  wealth  of 
the  trading  body  was  the  parent  of  the  passion  for  discovery, 
and  the  most  important  agent  in  the  expeditions  against  the 
new  world.  The  attractions  of  romantic  adventure,  the  im- 
pulse of  the  fancy  to  explore  unknown  lands,  doubtless,  added 
dignity  to  such  enterprises,  and  some  of  the  higher  classes 
engaged  in  them  with  a  portion  of  the  warlike  and  proselytiz- 
ing spirit  of  crusaders.  But  the  hope  of  new  produce,  and 
of  exchanges  more  profitable,  were  the  impelling  motives  of 
the  discovery.  The  commercial  classes  were  the  first  movers. 
The  voyages  first  enriched  them,  and  contributed  in  the  course 
of  three  centuries  to  raise  them  to  a  power  of  which  no  man 
can  now  either  limit  the  extent  or  foretell  the  remote  conse- 
quences. As  America  was  discovered  by  the  same  spirit 
which  began  to  render  all  communities  in  their  structure 
more  popular,  it  is  not  singular  that  she  should  herself  most 
widen  the  basis  of  government,  and  become  the  most  demo- 
cratical  of  states.  That  vast  continent  was  first  settled  for 
her  rich  commodities.  She  is  now  contemplated  at  a  higher 
stage  of  her  progress,. — for  her  prospects,  her  men,  and  her 
laws,  to  which  the  wisest  men  will  not  be  the  most  forward  to 
apply  the  commonplace  arguments  and  opinions  founded  on 
the  ancient  systems  of  Europe. 

The  hoard  amassed  by  Henry,  and  "  most  of  it  under  his 
own  key  and  keeping  in  secret  places  at  Richmond,"  is  said 
to  have  amounted  to  near  1,800,0007.  which,  according  to  our 
former  conjecture,  would  be  equivalent  to  about  16,000,000/. ; 


1506.  THE  KING'S  WEALTH.  93 

an  amount  of  specie  so  immense  as  to  warrant  a  suspicion  of 
exaggeration,  in  an  age  when  there  was  no  control  from  pub- 
lic documents  on  a  matter  of  which  the  writers  of  history 
were  ignorant  Our  doubts  of  the  amount  amassed  by  Henry 
are  considerably  warranted  by  the  computation  of  Sir  W.  Petty, 
who,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  calculated  the  whole  specie 
of  England  at  only  6,000,OOOZ.  This  hoard,  whatever  may 
have  been  its  precise  extent,  was  too  great  to  be  formed  by 
frugality,  even  under  the  penurious  and  niggardly  Henry.  A 
system  of  extortion  was  employed,  which  "  the  people,  into 
whom  there  is  infused  for  the  preservation  of  monarchies,  a 
natural  desire  to  discharge  their  princes,  though  it  be  with 
the  unjust  charge  of  their  counsellors,  did  impute  unto  cardi- 
nal Morton  and  Sir  Reginald  Bray,  who,  as  it  after  appeared, 
as  counsellors  of  ancient  authority  with  him,  did  so  second 
his  humors  as  nevertheless  they  did  temper  them.  Whereas 
Empson  and  Dudley,  that  followed,  being  persons  that  had  no 
reputation  with  him,  otherwise  than  by  the  servile  following 
of  his  bent,  did  not  give  way  only  as  the  first  did,  but  shaped 
.his  way  to  those  extremities  for  which  himself  was  touched 
with  remorse  at  his  death."*  The  means  of  exaction  chiefly 
consisted  in  the  fines  incurred  by  slumbering  laws,  in  com- 
muting for  money  other  penalties  which  fell  on  unknowing 
offenders,  and  in  the  sale  of  pardons  and  amnesties.  Every 
revolt  was  a  fruitful  source  of  profit.  When  the  great  confis- 
cations had  ceased,  much  remained  to  be  gleaned  by  true  or 
false  imputations  of  participation  in  treason.  To  be  a  dweller 
in  a  disaffected  district,  was,  for  the  purposes  of  the  king's 
treasure,  to  be  a  rebel.  No  man  could  be  sure  that  he  had 
not  incurred  mulcts,  or  other  grievous  penalties,  by  some  of 
those  numerous  laws  which  had  so  fallen  into  disuse  by  their 
frivolous  and  vexatious  nature  as  to  strike  before  they  warned. 
It  was  often  more  prudent  to  compound  by  money,  even  in 
false  accusations,  than  to  brave  the  rapacity  and  resentment 
of  the  king  and  his  tools.  Of  his  chief  instruments,  "Dudley 
was  a  man  of  good  family,  eloquent,  and  one  that  could  put 
hateful  business  into  good  language.  Empson,  the  son  of 
a  sieve-maker  of  Towcester,  triumphed  in  his  deeds,  putting 
off  all  other  respects.  They  were  privy-counsellors  and  law- 
yers, who  turned  law  and  justice  into  wormwood  and  rapine. "f 
They  threw  into  prison  every  man  whom  they  could  indict, 
and  confined  him,  without  any  intention  to  prosecute,  till  he 
ransomed  himself.  They  prosecuted  the  mayors  and  other 
magistrates  of  the  city  of  I^ondon  for  pretended  or  trivial  ne- 

*  Bacon,  iii.409.  f  Ibid.  iii.  380. 


94  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1509. 

gleets  of  duty,  long  after  the  time  of  the  alleged  offences ; 
subservient  judges  imposed  enormous  fines,  and  the  king  im- 
prisoned during  his  own  life  some  of  the  contumacious  offend- 
ers. Alderman  Hawes  is  said  to  have  died  heart-broken  by 
the  terror  and  anguish  of  these  proceedings.*  They  imprison- 
ed and  fined  juries  who  hesitated  to  lend  their  aid  when  it 
was  deemed  convenient  to  seek  it.  To  these,  lord  Bacon  tells 
us,  were  added  "  other  courses  fitter  to  be  buried  than  repeat- 
ed."f  Emboldened  by  long  success,  they  at  last  disdained  to 
observe  "  the  half  face  of  justice  "\  but  summoning  the 
wealthy  and  timid  before  them  in  private  houses,  "  shuffled 
up"  a  summary  examination  without  a  jury,  and  levied  such 
exactions  as  were  measured  only  by  the  fears  and  fortunes  of 
their  victims. 

Henry,  who  had  enjoyed  sound  health  during  his  life,  was, 
at  the  age  of  fifty-two,  attacked  by  a  consumption,  which, 
early  in  the  distemper,  he  deemed  likely  to  prove  fatal.  He 
died  on  the  22d  day  of  April,  1509,  in  the  twenty-fourth  year 
of  a  troublous  but  prosperous  reign,  in  his  palace  at  Rich- 
mond, which  he  had  himself  built.  He  was  interred  in  that 
beautiful  chapel  at  Westminster,  which  bears  his  name,  and 
which  is  a  noble  monument  of  the  architectural  genius  of  his 
age.  He  was  pacific  though  valiant,  and  magnificent  in  pub- 
lic works,  though  penurious  to  an  unkingly  excess  in  ordinary 
expenditure.  The  commendation  bestowed  on  him,  that  "  he 
was  not  cruel  when  secure,"§  cannot  be  justified  otherwise 
than  as  the  general  color  of  his  character,  nor  without  excep- 
tions, which  would  allow  a  dangerous  latitude  to  the  care  of 
personal  safety.  His  sagacity  arid  fortitude  were  conspicu- 
ous, -but  his  penetrating  mind  was  narrow,  and  in  his  wary 
temper  firmness  did  not  approach  the  borders  of  magnanimity. 
Though  skilled  in  arms,  he  had  no  spirit  of  enterprise. 

No  generosity  lent  lustre  to  his  purposes;  no  tenderness 
softened  his  rigid  nature.  We  hear  nothing  of  any  appear- 
ance of  affection,  but  that  towards  his  mother,  which  it  would 
be  unnatural  to  treat  as  deserving  praise,  and  which  in  him 
savored  more  of  austere  duty  than  of  an  easy,  delightful,  and 
almost  universal  sentiment.  His  good  qualities  were  useful, 
but  low ;  his  vices  were  mean  ;  and  no  personage  in  history 
of  so  much  understanding  and  courage  is  so  near  being  des- 
pised: He  was  a  man  of  shrewd  discernment,  but  of  a  mean 
spirit  and  a  contracted  mind.  His  love  of  peace,  if  it  flowed 
from  a  purer  source,  would  justly  merit  the  highest  praise,  as 

*  See  examples  in  Bacon,  iii.  404.  f  Bacon,  iii.  382. 

J  Ibid.  381.  §  Ibid. 


1509.  HENRY    VIII.  95 

one  of  the  most  important  virtues  of  a  ruler ;  but  in  Henry  it 
is  deeply  tinged  by  the  mere  preference  of  craft  to  force, 
which  characterizes  his  whole  policy.  In  a  word,  he  had  no 
dispositions  for  which  he  could  be  admired  or  loved  as  a  man. 
But  he  was  not  without  some  of  the  most  essential  of  those 
qualities  which  preserve  a  ruler  from  contempt,  and,  in  gene- 
ral, best  secure  him  against  peril :  activity,  perseverance, 
foresight,  vigilance,  boldness,  both  martial  and  civil,  conjoined 
with  a  wariness  seldom  blended  with  the  more  active  quali- 
ties, eminently  distinguished  his  unamiable  but  commanding 
character. 

His  religion,  as  far  as  we  are  informed,  never  calmed  an 
angry  passion,  nor  withheld  him  from  a  profitable  wrong.  He 
seems  to  have  shown  it  chiefly  in  the  superstitious  fears 
which  haunted  his  death-bed,  when  he  made  a  feeble  at- 
tempt to  make  amends  for  irreparable  rapine  by  restoring 
what  he  could  no  longer  enjoy,  and  struggled  to  hurry  through 
the  formalities  of  a  compromise  with  the  justice  of  Heaven 
for  his  misdeeds. 


CHAP.  IV. 
HENRY   VIII. 

TO    THE    REFORMATION. 

1509—1547. 

HENRY  VIII.  ascended  the  throne  of  England  on  the  20th 
day  of  April,  1509.  He  was  the  first  prince  for  more  than  a 
century  who  had  ruled  that  kingdom  with  an  undisputed  title. 
Every  other  monarch  since  the  deposition  of  Richard  II.  had 
been  accounted  a  usurper  by  a  portion  of  the  people.  Henry 
united  in  himself  the  titles  of  York  and  Lancaster ;  he  had  no 
visible  competitor  for  the  crown,  nor  was  he  disquieted  by  the 
shadow  of  a  pretender;  for  the  descendants  of  John  of  Gaunt 
through  the  royal  families  of  the  Spanish  peninsula,  never 
having  disturbed  England  by  setting  up  pretensions,  cannot 
with  propriety  be  called  pretenders.  Their  claims,  forgotten 
perhaps  by  themselves,  and  obstructed  by  the  formidable  im- 
pediments of  distance  and  language,  were  scarcely  legible  by 
the  keen  eye  of  the  most  peering  genealogist* 

*  Sandford'a  Genealogical  History  of  the  Kings  of  England,  248.  256.  260. 
John  of  Gaunt'B  eldest  daughter  Philippa  was  queen  of  Portugal.  His  third 


96  HISTORY    OP   ENGLAND.  1509. 

He  was  crowned  at  the  age  of  eighteen ;  a  period  of  life 
which  a  bystander  naturally  regards  with  indulgence,  with 
hope,  with  a  warm  fellow-feeling  in  its  joys.     The  cure  of 
youthful  disorders  was  intrusted  to  experience ;  and  though 
his  youth  unfitted  him  for  the  arduous  duties  of  royalty,  such 
considerations  cannot  consistently  be  allowed  to  have  much 
weight  in  an  hereditary  government     The  prospect  of  the 
length  of  his  reign  was  enough  to  deter  the  timid  and  the 
selfish  from  incurring  his  displeasure,  and  disposed  the  greater 
number  of  courtiers  and  statesmen  to  vie  with  each  other  in 
eagerness  for  the  favor  of  a  master  whom  few  of  them  could 
hope  to  survive.  The  description  of  him,  ten  years  after  his  ac 
cession,  by  a  Venetian  minister  in  London,  shows  the  lively  hn 
pression  made  on  grave  personages  by  the  gifts  and  graces 
with  which  nature  had  loaded  the  fortunate  and  not  unac- 
complished youth.     "  His  majesty  is  about  twenty-nine  years 
of  age,*  as  handsome  as  nature  could  form  him,  above  every 
other  Christian  prince ;  handsomer  by  far  than  the  king  of 
France  (Francis  L,  then  in  the  flower  of  youth),  he  is  exceed 
ing  fair,  and  as  well  proportioned  in  every  part  as  possible, 
He  is  an  excellent  musician  and   composer,  an  admirable 
horseman  and  wrestler,  and  possesses  a  good  knowledge  of 
the  French,  Latin,  and  Spanish  languages.     On  the  days  on 
which  he  goes  to  the  chase  he  hears  mass  three  times,  on 
other  days  he  goes  as  often  as  five  times.     He  has  daily  ser- 
vice at  vespers  in  the  queen's  chamber.     He  is  uncommonly 
fond  of  the  chase,  and  never  engages  in  it  without  tiring 
eight  or  ten  horses.     He  takes  great  delight  in  bowling ;  and 
it  is  the  pleasantest  sight  in  the  world  to  see  him  engaged  in 
this  exercise,  with  his  fair  skin  covered  with  a  beautifully  fine 
shirt.     Affable  and  benign,  he  offends  none.     He  often  said  to 
the  ambassador,  *  I  wish  every  one  was  content  with  his  con- 
dition; we  are  content  with  our  islands.'  He  is  very  desirous 
of  preserving  peace,  and  possesses  great  wealth."     Yet  even 
in  his  golden  age,  closer  and  keener  observers  had  remarked, 
that  "  he  is  a  prince  of  royal  courage,  and  hath  a  princely 
heart,  and  rather  than  he  will  miss  or  want  any  part  of  his 
will  or  appetite,  he  will  put  the  one-half  of  his  reign  in  dan- 
ger.    I  warn  you  to  be  well  advised  what  matter  ye  put  in 
his  head,  for  ye  shall  never  put  it  out  again."f 

daughter  Catherine  was  queen  of  Castile.  Her  granddaughter  Isabella  was 
the  wife  of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon.  The  heirs  of  these  princesses  may,  per- 
haps, be  found  in  the  houses  of  Braganza  and  Austria.  Their  blood  flows 
in  the  veins  of  most  of  the  reigning  families  of  Europe. 

*  More  exactly,  twenty-eight. 

f  Cavendish's  Life  of  Wolsey.     Ellis. 


1509.  HENRY'S  COUNCIL.  97 

No  historian  has  failed  to  relate  what  was  originally  told  by 
Paolo  Sarpi,  that  Henry  VII.  educated  his  second  son  for  the 
church,  hi  order  to  provide  for  him  amply  without  charge  to 
the  crown,  "  to  leave  a  passage  open  to  ambition,"*  (of  which 
a  father  more  shrewd  than  fond  already  perhaps  descried  the 
seeds),  which,  with  safety  to  the  quiet  of  England,  might  be 
thus  turned  towards  the  papal  tiara.  A  writer,!  who  did  not 
allow  his  matchless  acuteness  as  a  metaphysician  to  disturb 
the  sense  and  prudence  which  are  more  valuable  qualities  in 
an  historian,  has  deplored  the  time  wasted  by  the  royal  youth 
on  the  writings  of  Aquinas ;  rightly,  if  the  acquirement  of 
applicable  knowledge  be  the  sole  purpose  of  education ;  but 
not  so,  certainly,  if  it  rests  on  the  supposition  that  any  other 
study  could  have  more  strengthened  and  sharpened  his  rea- 
soning powers. 

His  council  was  composed,  by  the  advice  of  the  countess 
of  Richmond,  his  only  surviving  parent,  from  a  judicious  se- 
lection of  his  father's  least  obnoxious  ministers.  Archbishop 
Morton,  chancellor ;  bishop  Fox,  secretary ;  Surrey,  the  trea- 
surer; Shrewsbury,  the  high-steward;  Somerset,  the  cham- 
berlain; Lovel,  Poynings,  Marney,  and  Darcy,  with  Ruthall, 
a  doctor  of  civil  law.  It  is  remarked  as  a  singularity  by 
lord  Herbert,  that  his  council  contained  no  common  lawyers ; 
perhaps  from  the  odium  brought  upon  the  profession  by  Dudley 
and  Empson,  which  alienated  the  king  from  them  during  the 
early  part  of  his  reign,  though  he  was  always  glad  to  find  a 
pretext,  if  he  could  not  discover  a  ground,  for  his  measures  in 
the  common  law. 

The  solemnities  of  his  father's  funeral  being  completed,  he 
was  to  determine,  before  his  coronation,  whether  he  should 
fulfil  the  nuptial  engagement  with  his  brother's  wife,  against 
which  he  had  secretly  protested,  in  order  to  reserve  to  him- 
self the  liberty  of  a  more  active  dissent  in  due  season.  It  is 
hard  to  suppose  that  any  serious  deliberation  should  arise  on 
the  question  of  fulfilling  sacred  engagements  to  a  blameless 
princess,  the  richly  portioned  daughter  of  a  powerful  monarch, 
then  probably  the  most  natural  and  useful  ally  of  England.  If 
any  doubt  then  occurred  of  the  validity  of  the  marriage,  the 
last  moment  for  trying  the  question  was  at  that  time  come. 
Faith  and  honor,  if  not  law,  required  that  actual  acquiescence 
in  its  legality  at  that  moment  should  be  deemed  to  silence  all 
such  objections  to  it  for  ever.  Ample  time  had  been  indeed 
allowed  for  a  more  thorough  and  speedy  examination  of  scru- 

*  Lord  Herbert.  t  Hume. 

Vol.  U.  I 


98  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1509. 

pies,  for  the  dispensation  of  pope  Julius  II.  had  been  in  Eng- 
land six  years. 

Henry  and  Catharine  were  finally  joined  in  wedlock  on 
the  6th  of  June,  1509,  about  six  weeks  after  his  father's 
demise.  They  were  crowned  on  the  24th  of  the  same  month, 
with  a  splendor  which  those  who  are  curious  about  the  shows 
and  manners  of  that  age  will  find  painted  by  the  chroniclers.* 

When  Dudley  and  Empson  were  brought  before  the  coun- 
cil, the  latter  is  reported  to  have  delivered  a  speech  abounding 
in  the  ingenious  turns  of  a  rhetorician,  but  glaringly  defective 
in  whatever  constitutes  an  effective  defence,  and  even  with- 
out that  resemblance  to  it  which  dramatic  propriety  would 
require  in  the  mouth  of  a  man  earnestly  contending  for  his 
life.  The  substance  of  his  speech  consisted  in  a  complaint 
that  he  was  now  prosecuted  for  obeying  and  causing  others  to 
obey  the  laws ;  to  which  it  was  answered,  "  that  he  should 
be  brought  to  trial  only  for  passing  the  bounds  of  his  commis- 
sion, and  for  stretching  laws  in  themselves  very  severe."! 
From  these  charges,  however,  it  was  discovered  that  no  inge- 
nuity could  extract  a  capital  accusation ;  and  perhaps  the 
ministers  were  ashamed  of  bringing  men  to  the  scaffold  for 
acts  at  which  they  had  themselves  connived,  if  they  did  not 
share  them  with  their  late  colleagues.  To  obviate  these  in- 
conveniences, it  was  thought  fit  to  indict  them  for  a  conspira- 
cy, during  the  last  illness  of  Henry,  to  seize  on  London  with 
an  armed  force,  and  to  assume  the  powers  of  government  as 
soon  as  his  demise  was  known.  Of  the  conspiracy,  which,  if 
it  were  true,  would  certainly  amount  to  treason,  Dudley  was 
convicted  at  London,  on  the  16th  of  July,  1509,  and  Empson 
at  Northampton,  on  the  1st  of  October.  They  were  attainted 
in  the  next  parliament.!  The  bill  of  attainder  passed  the 
house  of  peers  in  two  days,}  with'out  the  appearance  of  dis- 
sent from  one  man,  in  an  assembly  composed  of  thirty-six 
temporaljl  and  forty-seven  spiritual  lords,  under  circumstances 
when  it  is  hard  to  suppose  that  the  majority  did  not  consider 
the  charge  as  incredible.  It  was,  perhaps,  intended  to  secure 
the  delinquents  by  the  excessive  severity  of  the  punishment. 
They  were  suffered  to  remain  in  jail  till  August ;  but  the  peo- 
ple raised  a  loud  and  honest,  but  fierce  cry  against  the  real 
crimes.  There  are  none  who  are  held  in  such  just  contempt 
by  an  arbitrary  government  as  their  own  tools.  The  minis- 

*  Hall.   Holinshed.  t  Lord  Herbert,  in  Rennet,  Hi.  3—5. 

|  January  21,  1509—1510.  §  Lords'  Journals,  Feb.  21.  1510. 

|j  There  were  only  about  twenty -seven  temporal  lords  present  at  the  first 
parliament  of  Henry  VIII. 


1509.  ITALIAN    WARS.  99 

ters,  regarding  the  lives  of  the  extortioners  as  formally  for- 
feited, thought  the  sacrifice  of  their  heads  a  cheap  mode  of 
appeasing  the  multitude,  who  in  reality  demanded  justice 
only,  but  being  ignorant  of  what  was  or  ought  to  be  law, 
gave  occasion  to  the  infliction  of  an  unjust  death  for  an  ima- 
ginary crime  on  these  great  delinquents.  The  speedy  rever- 
sal of  the  attainders,  on  the  petitions  of  their  sons,  seems  to 
show  the  general  belief  of  the  groundlessness  of  the  charge 
of  conspiracy.* 

Louis  XII.,  otherwise  a  good  prince,  though  his  character 
has  been  injured  by  undue  praise,  was,  like  his  predecessor, 
allured  by  visions  of  conquest  in  Italy,  which  was  then  called 
"  the  grave  of  the  French."f  A  regard  to  the  principle  of 
preventing  a  state  from  unjustly  aggrandizing  herself  so  as 
to  endanger  her  neighbors  both  by  the  example  and  by  the 
fruits  of  triumphant  iniquity,  had  been  in  some  degree  prac- 
tised among  the  subtle  politicians  of  Italy  before  it  attracted 
much  attention  from  the  great  transalpine  monarchs,  who 
were  too  powerful,  turbulent,  and  improvident,  to  think  much 
of  distant  and  uncertain  danger.  The  petty  usurpers  and 
declining  common  wealths  of  Italy,  like  those  of  ancient  Greece, 
whose  contracted  territory  daily  exposed  them  to  a  surprise 
of  their  capital  and  the  loss  of  their  independence,  were  under 
the  necessity  of  jealously  watching  the  slightest  vibration  in 
the  scales  op  the  balance.  Their  existence  might  be  hazarded 
by  a  moment's  slumber.  Among  them,  therefore,  the  bal- 
ancing policy  became  the  cause  of  some  wars,  and  the  pretext 
of  others.  Under  this  color,  Julian  de  la  Rovere,  a  politic 
and  ambitious  pontiff,  found  it  easy  to  rouse  the  envy  of  the 
European  sovereigns  against  Venice  for  her  riches  and  gran- 
deur, on  which  they  looked  with  all  the  passions  kindled  in 
the  minds  of  freebooters  by  a  view  of  the  booty  which  glitters 
among  the  magnificent  works  of  industry.^  The  code  of 
Venetian  policy  was,  indeed,  as  faithless  and  merciless  as  the 
administration  of  the  transalpine  monarchs ;}  but  the  councils 
of  the  republic  were  more  considerate  and  circumspect ;  they 
checked  all  needless  cruelty,  confined  their  tyranny  to  those 
who  intermeddled  with  the  affairs  of  government,  and  pro- 
tected from  wanton  oppression  those  whose  well-being  was 
the  basis  of  their  own  grandeur.  Such  was  the  terror  and 

*  Billa  restitut.  pro  heredibus  Edraundi  Dudley.  Lords'  Journals,  i.  16. 
Empson's  Petition.  Id.  14. 

fComines." — Few  of  La  Tremouillc's  flourishing  army  returned  to 
France  in  1505,  though  a  very  email  number  perished  by  the  sword.  Gu- 
iccard.  vi. 

\  Sismondi,  Rep.  Ital.  xvii.  427.  §  Daru.  Histoire  de  Venise. 


100  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1511. 

hatred  inspired  by  the  power  of  that  renowned  republic,  that 
there  were  allied  against  her  the  pope  and  the  emperor,  the 
kings  of  France  and  Spain,  with  the  Burgundian  govern- 
ment. 

The  avowed  object  of  the  league  of  Cambray, — the  first 
treaty  which  was  the  joint  act  of  the  representatives  of  all 
Christian  princes, — was  to  require  the  republic  to  restore  all 
her  conquests,  without  any  suggestion  of  the  same  restitution 
on  the  part  of  the  allied  powers.*  Venice,  thus  attacked  by 
all  Christendom,  made  a  manful  stand,  confident  that,  if  she 
could  bear  the  first  shock,  a  coalition  composed  of  discordant 
elements  would  of  itself  crumble  to  pieces.  The  Venetians, 
whose  best  army  was  routed,!  suddenly  recalled  their  garri- 
sons from  the  fortresses  on  the  main  land,  and  released  their 
continental  subjects  from  the  ties  of  allegiance ;  limiting 
themselves  to  the  dominion  of  the  sea,  the  possession  of  the 
colonies,  and  the  defence  of  the  native  marshes  which  had 
been  the  ancient  shelter  of  their  infant  independence.  It  is 
uncertain  whether  this  measure  solely  arose  from  panic ;  or 
from  a  generous  despair,  which  might  see  a  glimpse  of  hope 
in  this  species  of  appeal  to  the  people ;  or  from  the  shrewd- 
ness and  forecast  of  the  craftiest  of  those  whom  they  called 
"sages,"  who  are  likely  to  have  foreseen  that  the  desertion 
of  the  continent  might  excite  the  animosities  incident  to  the 
division  of  rich  spoils,  and  inspire  some  of  the  allies  with 
apprehensions  of  the  accession  of  too  much  power  to  others. 

The  people  of  the  Venetian  provinces  actually  manifested 
an  unexpected  attachment  to  the  republic,  especially  after 
experience  of  the  effects  of  invasion ;  and  the  allies  became 
daily  more  fearful  that  some  of  themselves  might  be  danger- 
ously aggrandized.  Louis  XII.,  the  master  of  the  Milanese, 
had  a  strong  temptation  to  strengthen  his  territory  by  seizing 
on  the  neighboring  part  of  the  Venetian  dominions.  Neither 
Ferdinand  nor  Henry  had  any  interest  in  the  destruction  of 
the  republic.  The  emperor  had  at  one  time  collected  a  vast 
army,  and  threatened  to  reconquer  Italy,  of  which  he  held 
himself  to  be  the  legitimate  sovereign.  But  poverty  dispersed 
his  troops,  and  exposed  his  pretensions  to  ridicule.  Julius  II. 
gradually  caught  those  more  natural  and  generous  sentiments, 
which  disposed  him  to  promote  a  league  for  the  expulsion  of 
the  barbarians  from  Italy.  With  this  view  he  sought  the  aid 
of  the  Swiss,  a  brave  and  hardy  people,  who,  though  weak  in 
men-at-arms,  hitherto  the  main  strength  of  armies,  were  cele- 
brated for  their  excellent  infantry,  a  species  of  force  of  which 

*  Dumont,  iv.  p.  i.  113,  f  May  14, 1509.    Sismondi,  xvii.  454. 


1511.  DEBATES    IJf    THE    COUNCIL.  101 

the  growing  importance  indicated  the  progressive  improve- 
ment of  the  art  of  war.  The  wars  which  sprung  from  the 
league  of  Cambray  languished  under  various  forms  till  1516, 
when  they  were  closed  by  treaties  which  restored  nearly  all 
the  territories  of  Venice :  but  from  that  moment  her  greatness 
declined.  A  blow  was  struck  at  her  fame,  which  fatally 
affected  her  vigor.  The  cost  of  such  a  defence  emptied  her 
hoards;  and  the  opening  of  the  maritime  trade  with  India 
dried  up  the  sources  from  which  they  were  wont  to  be  re- 
plenished. 

These  Italian  wars  were  the  first  events  in  which  all  the 
nations  of  Europe  were  engaged  since  the  crusades.  The 
civil  wars  of  England  had  ceased ;  the  great  feudatories  of 
France  had  become  subjects;  the  nations  of  the  Spanish 
peninsula  were  released,  by  the  reduction  of  Grenada,  from 
their  natural  task  of  watching  over  Mussulman  ambition.  At 
the  same  time,  the  contests  of  the  house  of  Aragon  and 
Anjou  for  Naples,  led  Spanish  and  French  armies  into  Italy, 
where  hostilities  were  afterwards  kept  up  by  the  pretensions 
of  the  royal  families  of  Valois  and  Orleans  to  the  succession 
of  the  duchy  of  Milan.  The  jealousy,  if  not  the  arms,  of 
England  was  excited  by  schemes  of  conquest  on  the  part  of 
her  ancient  ally,  which  proved  in  themselves  sufficiently  inju- 
rious to  successive  kings  of  France.  Maximilian  shone  at 
the  head  of  German  and  Burgundian  hosts;  but  his  lustre 
was  momentary,  and  his  victories  were  barren.  The  nations 
of  Europe  were  thus,  however,  mingled,  and  the  mass  of 
Christendom  began  to  form  more  remote  and  complicated  ties 
with  each  other  than  in  any  former  age.  The  period  which 
followed  would  have  been  remarkable,  if  it  had  been  chiefly 
distinguished  by  rulers  so  memorable,  in  various  respects,  as 
Leo  X.,  Charles  V.,  Francis  I.,  and  Henry  VIII.  The  barbaric 
greatness  of  Solyman  deserves  notice ;  and  it  may  surprise 
some  readers  to  learn,  that  hi  the  same  period  Hindostan  was 
conquered  by  Babar,  a  sovereign  who  employed  the  pen  and 
the  sword  with  equal  success.* 

The  counsels  of  Henry  VIII.  were  divided,  if  we  may 
believe  lord  Herbert,  by  a  diversity  of  opinions  concerning 
the  fitness  of  the  time  for  an  attack  on  France.  But,  accord- 
ing to  that  historian'*;  own  account  of  the  debate  of  the  council, 
the  arguments  against  the  pursuit  of  this  disastrous  chimera 
preponderated  so  much  as  to  render  it  doubtful  whether  the 
question  could  have  been  the  subject  of  grave  discussion 

*  Babar's  Commentaries,  translated  partly  by  Dr.  Leyden,  completed  au«l 
illustrated  by  Mr.  W.  Erskine;  one  of  the  most  instructive,  and,  to  well 
prepared  mind*,  one  of  the  most  interesting  publications  of  the  present  age. 


102  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1511. 

among-  experienced  statesmen.  The  blessing  of  the  pope; 
the  aid  of  Ferdinand ;  the  possibility  of  succor  from  Maxi- 
milian; and  the  occupation  of  Louis  XII.  in  Italy,  are  the 
only  reasons  assigned  for  the  renewal  of  a  war  for  the  con- 
quest of  Prance, — a  project  still  more  visionary  than  the 
French  schemes  of  aggrandizement  beyond  the  Alps.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  was  unanswerably  urged* — "  if,  when  Gas- 
cony  and  Normandy  were  ours,  when  the  duke  of  Britany 
was  our  friend,  and  the  house  of  Burgundy  our  assured  ally, 
we  could  not  advance  our  designs  in  that  kingdom,  what  hope 
is  there  now  to  attain  them  1  What  though  with  12,000  or 
15,000  we  have  defeated  their  50,000  or  60,000  men?  stands 
it  with  reason  of  war  to  expect  the  like  success  still,  especially 
since  the  use  of  arms  is  changed,  and  for  the  bow  (proper  for 
men  of  our  strength)  the  caliverf  begins  to  be  used  1  a  more 
costly  weapon,  requiring  longer  practice,  and  capable  of  being 
used  by  the  weakest.  If  we  must  enlarge  ourselves,  let  it 
be  by  the  road  which  Providence  seems  to  have  appointed  for 
us — by  sea.  The  Indies  are  discovered,  and  vast  treasures 
brought  from  thence ;  let  us  bend  our  endeavors  thitherward. 
If  the  Spaniard  and  Portuguese  suffer  us  not  to  join  them, 
there  will  yet  be  region  enough  for  all  to  enjoy."  This  was 
probably  the  earliest  debate  in  an  English  council,  on  the 
often-discussed  question,  whether  Great  Britain  should  aim  at 
continental  dominion,  or  confine  her  ambition  to  maritime 
greatness  and  colonial  empire.  The  boyish  vanity  of  Henry 
was,  however,  moved  by  the  title  of  "  most  Christian,"  held 
out  by  the  pope,  which  tempted  this  young  prince  to  send 
Young,  the  master  of  the  rolls,  with  a  message  demanding  his 
inheritance  of  Gascony,  and  in  case  of  refusal  denouncing 
war.  The  league  against  France  received  from  the  pope  the 
title  of  the  holy  alliance ;  and  Ferdinand  prevailed  on  the 
English  monarch  16  send  his  troops  to  Biscay,  in  order  that, 
with  the  aid  of  a  Spanish  army,  they  might  immediately  re- 
cover Gascony,  a  splendid  and  legitimate  dependency  of  the 
crown  of  England.  The  marquess  of  Dorset  landed  in  Biscay 
with  10,000  troops,  of  whom  5000,  though  archers,  carried 
also  halberds,  which  they  pitched  on  the  ground  till  their 
arrows  were  shot,  and  then  took  up  again,  to  do  execution  on 
the  enemy.  They  were  to  be  joined,  in  June,  1511,  by  a 
Spanish  army  of  1000  men-at-arms,  1500  light  horse,  and  6000 
infantry,  commanded  by  the  duke  of  Alva.  Ferdinand  then 
alleged  that  it  was  impossible  to  cross  the  Pyrenees  into  Gas- 
cony till  Navarre  was  secured ;  which  exposed  the  invaders 

*  Herbert,  8.  t  A  hand-gun,  or  arquebuse. 


1512.  TROOPS    RETURN    FROM    SPAIN.  103 

to  have  their  communications  cut  off,  and  their  retreat  depend- 
ent on  the  faith  of  Jean  d'Albret,  the  sovereign  of  that  small 
kingdom,  who  had  been  excommunicated  by  the  pope  as  an 
abettor  of  Louis  against  the  holy  alliance.  Louis  XII.  required 
this  border  prince  to  declare  for  France,  under  pain  of  the 
confiscation  of  the  province  of  Beam,  a  fief  of  the  French 
crown  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Pyrenees.  Ferdinand 
required  the  like  declaration  in  his  favor,  with  a  threat  that 
if  it  were  refused  he  must  secure  himself  by  the  seizure  of 
Navarre.  For  several  months  he  amused  lord  Dorset  with 
promises  of  the  immediate  advance  of  the  duke  of  Alva  and 
the  Spanish  forces.  In  the  mean  time  he  took  possession  of 
Navarre,  which  is  still  subject  to  his  successors.  The  Eng- 
lish army,  unused  to  discipline,  worn  down  by  intemper- 
ance* and  disease,  weary  of  the  arts  of  Spanish  procrastina- 
tion, and  negligently  supplied  with  arms  and  provisions, 
exclaimed  against  the  treachery  of  their  allies,  and  with  loud 
cries  required  their  leaders  to  reconduct  them  to  England. 
They  had  made  their  own  condition  worse,  by  burning  and 
destroying  the  country.  Discord  broke  out  among  their  chiefs, 
some  of  whom  went  to  England  to  represent  the  necessity  of 
recalling  the  army.  The  king  in  vain  sent  a  herald  to  com- 
mand the  army  to  remain  in  Spain ;  the  discontents  swelled 
into  mutiny;  and  the  reluctant  leaders  were  compelled  to 
land  with  their  troops  at  Portsmouth,  in  December,  1512.J 
Ferdinand  professed  his  resolution  to  adhere  to  the  treaties, 
and  to  prosecute  the  invasion  of  Gascony.  Henry  affected 
satisfaction  with  his  assurances,  but  was  really  displeased  by 
the  mutinous  embarkation  of  his  troops.  The  English  minis- 
ter sent  with  the  army  expressed  the  general  sentiment  con- 
cerning Ferdinand  in  a  few  significant  words :  "  The  king  of 
Aragon  is  determined  always  against  a  good  conscience."! 
In  the  ensuing  year,  Sir  Edward  Howard,  the  admiral,  who 
thought  no  man  fit  to  command  at  sea  who  was  not  almost 
mad,  after  ravaging  the  coasts  of  Britany,  fought  an  action 
with  a  French  squadron,  of  which  the  most  remarkable  result 
was  the  explosion  of  one  of  the  English  ships,  which  was 
accounted  the  largest  vessel  then  in  Europe. 

Henry  pursued  his  warfare  with  more  success  on  the  north- 
western frontier  of  France.  He  defeated  the  French  army 
in  an  engagement  on  the  4th  of  August,  1513,  afterwards 

*  "The  Englishmen,  for  the  most  part,  were  victualled  with  garlick,  and 
drank  hot  wines  and  ate  hot  fruits,  where  by  they  fell  sick,  and  more  than 
eight  hundred  died."— Stmcc. 

t  Knight's  Letters  to  Wolsoy  :  second  series  of  Ellis's  Letters,  i.  IPS  210. 

t  Ibid.  207 


104  HISTORY  Or  ENGLAND.  1513. 

called  the  Battle  of  the  Spurs,  in  mockery  of  the  vanquished, 
who  were  said  on  that  day  to  have  trusted  more  to  their  speed 
than  to  their  valor.  Terouenne  and  Tournay  surrendered. 
But  the  event  most  alarming  to  him  strictly  belongs  to  Scot- 
tish history.  James  IV.  king  of  Scotland  was,  like  his  fore- 
fathers, easily  tempted  by  French  counsels  to  an  irruption 
into  England,  which  Henry  seemed  to  desert  for  continental 
aggrandizement.  The  earl  of  Surrey,  commander  of  the 
English  army  on  the  borders,  brought  the  Scots  to  action  at 
Flodden  Field  on  the  7th  of  September,  1513,  where  they 
were  defeated  with  extraordinary  slaughter.  Amon^  those 
who  fell  on  that  disastrous  day  were,  the  king,  a  prince  of 
more  than  usual  value  to  his  army  and  people ;  his  natural 
son,  Alexander  Stewart  the  primate,  a  favorite  pupil  of  Eras- 
mus; with  twelve  earls,  thirteen  lords,  and  four  hundred 
knights  and  gentlemen ;  in  which  number  we  find,  in  that 
age  without  surprise,  the  bishop  of  the  Isles,  and  the  abbots 
of  Kilwinning  and  Inchefray.  So  great  a  loss  among  the 
more  conspicuous  class  seems  to  denote  a  carnage  from  which 
a  narrow  and  disordered  country  could  not  soon  recover. 
Margaret  Tudor  was  ill  qualified,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four, 
to  supply  her  husband's  place.  Her  subsequent  life  was  dis- 
solute and  agitated.  She  early  displeased  her  brother  by  a 
marriage  with  the  earl  of  Angus,  the  head  of  the  potent  house 
of  Douglas ;  and  her  grandchildren,  by  two  husbands,  Mary 
Stuart  and  lord  Darnley,  were  afterwards  doomed  to  a  fatal 
union. 

The  fate  of  James,  together  with  the  exhausted  and  lan- 
guid state  of  all  Europe,  disposed  Henry  and  Louis  to  peace. 
It  was  facilitated  by  the  deatli  of  Anne  of  Britany,  which 
enabled  Louis  to  cement  the  treaty  by  marriage,  in  his  fifty- 
third  year,  with  Mary  Tudor,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  young 
women  of  the  two  courts,  at  the  immature  and  unbecoming 
age  of  fourteen.  She  was  conducted  to  the  court  of  France 
by  Charles  Brandon,  a  favorite  of  the  king,  who  created  him 
duke  of  Suffolk  ;  a  handsome  youth,  audacious  enough  to  pay 
court  to  the  princess.  Louis  received  her  with  a  doting  fond- 
ness.* He  died  in  a  few  weeks  after  marriage,  f  Brandon 
openly  renewed  his  court  to  her.  Henry  intimated  to  Mary, 
that,  if  she  must  wed  Brandon,  the  best  expedient  was  to 
offend  first,  and  beg  forgiveness  afterwards.  By  this  mar- 
riage she  became  the  stock  of  a  body  of  claimants  to  the 
crown,  who,  notwithstanding  the  momentary  occupation  of 


*  Ellis's  Letters,  second  series.  |  Herbert.  Kcnnet,  iii.  22. 


1513.  WOLSEY.  105 

the  throne  by  lady  Jane  Grey,  are  not  usually  numbered 
among  pretenders. 

Thomas  Wolsey  had  risen  to  trust  and  employment  under 
Henry  VII.  After  the  return  of  Henry  VIII.  from  his  French 
campaign,  in  1513,  the  administration  of  Wolsey  began, 
which  rapidly  grew  to  be  a  dictatorship.  It  was  overthrown 
only  by  the  first  shock  of  the  religious  revolution  which  has 
rendered  this  reign  memorable.  It  is  peculiarly  difficult  to 
form  a  calm  estimate  of  a  man  to  whose  memory  the  writers 
of  the  two  ecclesiastical  factions  are  alike  unfriendly ;  the 
Catholics,  for  some  sacrifices  by  a  minister  to  the  favorite  ob- 
jects of  an  imperious  sovereign  ;  the  Protestants,  for  the  un- 
willingness of  a  cardinal  to  renounce  the  church,  and  to 
break  altogether  with  the  pope.  Yet  it  was  natural  for  Wol- 
sey to  confine  his  exertions  for  the  king's  service  to  quiet 
means,  without  assailing  a  church  of  which  he  was  a  digni- 
tary of  the  highest  class,  whose  authority  he  probably  deemed 
useful,  and  whose  doctrines  it  is  not  likely  that  he  had  ever 
regarded  with  positive  disbelief. 

Wolsey  was  of  humble  parentage,  but  not  below  the  bene- 
fits of  education.  In  that  age  the  church  was,  what  the  law 
has  been  in  modern  times,  the  ladder  by  which  able  men  of 
the  lowest  classes  to  which  the  opportunities  of  liberal  edu- 
cation reached,  climbed  to  the  highest  stations  which  a  subject 
can  fill.  The  rank  attained  by  friars  of  the  begging  orders 
seems  indeed  to  warrant  us  in  ascribing  a  wider  extension  to 
this  democratical  principle  of  the  middle  age  than  to  those 
which  have  succeeded  it  in  modern  times.  He  had  many 
of  the  faculties  which  usually  lead  to  sudden  elevation,  and 
most  of  the  vices  which  often  tarnish  it.  Pliant  and  supple 
towards  the  powerful,  he  freely  indulged  his  insolence  towards 
the  multitude,  though  he  was  often  kind  and  generous  to 
faithful  followers  and  useful  dependants.  The  celibacy  of  his 
order  stood  in  the  way  of  accumulation  of  fortune.  He  was 
rapacious,  but  it  was  in  order  to  be  prodigal  in  his  household, 
in  his  dress,  in  his  retinue,  in  his  palaces,  and,  it  must  be 
added  in  justice  to  him,  in  the  magnificence  of  his  literary 
and  religious  foundations.  The  circumstances  of  his  time 
were  propitious  to  his  passion  of  acquiring  money.  The 
pope,  the  emperor,  the  kings  of  France  and  Spain,  desirous 
of  his  sovereign's  alliance,  outbade  each  other  at  the  sales  of 
a  minister's  influence,  which  change  of  circumstances,  and 
inconsistency  of  connexion,  rendered  during  that  period  more 
frequent  than  in  most  other  times.  His  preferment  was  too 
enormous  and  too  rapid  to  be  forgiven  by  an  envious  world. 
Born  in  1471,  he  became  bishop  of  Tournay  in  1513,  of  Lin- 


106  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1517. 

coin,  1514,  and  archbishop  of  York  in  the  same  year.  In  1515 
he  received  a  cardinal's  hat,  and  in  the  same  year  succeeded 
archbishop  Warham  in  the  office  of  chancellor.  In  1519  he 
was  made  papal  legate,  with  the  extraordinary  power  of  sus- 
pending the  laws  and  canons  of  the  church.  His  expectations 
of  the  papacy  itself  did  not  appear  extravagant.  His  pas- 
sion for  shows  and  festivities,  not  an  uncommon  infirmity  in 
men  intoxicated  by  sudden  wealth,  perhaps  served  him  with 
a  master,  whose  ruling  folly  long  seemed  to  be  of  the  same 
harmless  and  ridiculous  nature.  He  encouraged  and  cultivated 
the  learning  of  his  age ;  and  his  conversations  with  Henry  on 
the  doctrines  of  their  great  master  Aquinas  are  represented 
as  one  of  his  means  of  pleasing  a  monarch  so  various  in  his 
capricious  tastes.  He  was  considered  as  learned ;  his  man- 
ners had  acquired  the  polish  of  the  society  to  which  he  was 
raised ;  his  elocution  was  fluent  and  agreeable ;  his  air  and 
gesture  were  not  without  dignity.  He  was  careful,  as  well 
as  magnificent,  in  apparel. 

His  administration  of  justice  as  chancellor  has  been  cele- 
brated by  those  who  forget  how  simple  the  functions  of  that 
office  probably  then  were ;  and  his  rigid  enforcement  of  crim- 
inal justice  appears  only  to  have  been  a  part  of  that .  harsh 
but  perhaps  needful  process  by  which  the  Tudor  princes  rather 
extirpated  than  punished  criminals,  in  order  to  reclaim  the 
people  from  the  long  license  of  civil  wars.  As  he  was  chiefly 
occupied  in  enriching  and  aggrandizing  himself,  or  in  display- 
ing his  power  and  wealth,— objects  which  are  to  be  promoted 
either  by  foreign  connexions  or  by  favor  at  court,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  determine  what  share  of  the  merit  or  demerit  of 
internal  legislation  ought  to  be  allotted  to  him.  His  part  in 
the  death  of  the  duke  .of  Buckingham  was  his  most  conspicu- 
ous crime ;  yet,  after  all,  it  is  probable  that  he  was  no  worse 
than  his  contemporary  statesmen.  The  circumstance  most 
favorable  to  him  is  the  attachment  of  dependants. 

In  April,  1517,  the  lower  laborers  of  London,  being  offend- 
ed that  their  chief  customers  were  won  from  them  by  the 
diligence  and  industry  of  strangers  ;*  instigated  by  Bell,  a 
preacher,  and  led  by  Lincolne,  a  broker,  rose  in  revolt  for  the 
destruction  of  foreigners ;  some  of  whom  they  killed,  while 
they  burnt  the  houses  of  others.  They  were  subdued  after 
some  resistance.  Of  nearly  three  hundred  prisoners,  five 
ringleaders  were  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered ;  ten  were 
hanged ;  the  rest,  in  white  shirts,  and  with  halters  round  their 
necks,  were  led  before  the  king  at  Westminster,  surrounded 


*  ITrrbevt 


1520.  HENRY'S  FRIENDSHIP  COURTED.  107 

by  his  principal  nobles,  where,  on  their  knees,  they  craved 
mercy,  and  received  it.  Henry  graciously  permitted  the 
gibbets,  which  much  scandalized  the  citizens,  to  be  taken 
down. 

The  interview  of  Henry  with  Francis  L,  between  Ardres 
and  Guines,  in  1520,  has  been  so  frequently  described,  and  is 
so  well  known  as  a  characteristic  specimen  of  the  pomps  and 
sports  of  the  age,  that  it  would  be  perhaps  unnecessary  to 
mention  it  in  this  place,  if  it  were  not  an  example  of  the  as- 
siduous address  with  which  the  continental  princes  ingratiated 
themselves  with  Henry,  by  a  skilful  management  of  his  per- 
sonal foibles,  after  they  had  discovered  that  he  was  the  crea- 
ture of  impulse,  who  sacrificed  policy  to  temper,  and  acted 
more  from  passion  than  interest.  Influenced  by  these  motives, 
Charles  V.  paid  his  personal  court  to  Henry  at  Dover,  when 
that  monarch  was  on  his  journey  to  the  tournament  on  the 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold.  The  kings  of  France,  England, 
and  Spain  were  candidates  for  the  imperial  throne  on  the 
death  of  Maximilian  in  the  end  of  1519.  Henry  was  amused 
by  his  competitors  with  expectations  and  excuses ;  but  not  se- 
riously considered  as  a  competitor  by  any  of  them.  Charles 
V.,  who  was  elected  emperor  in  June,  1520,  made  his  visit  of 
parade  to  Dover,  partly  to  soothe  the  wounded  vanity  of  the 
English  king.  The  emperor,  was,  however,  not  enabled  by 
this  courtesy  to  prevail  on  Henry  to  abandon  the  jousts  which 
were  to  be  celebrated  at  his  meeting  with  Francis. 

About  the  same  tune  with  these  festivities  and  amusements, 
a  crime  was  perpetrated,  which  might  be  considered  as  the 
first  of  the  king's  offences,  if  it  be  not  rather  to  be  ascribed  to 
the  revenge  of  Wolsey,  according  to  the  account  of  historians 
of  respectable  authority.* 

Edward  Stafford,  duke  of  Buckingham,  was  the  fifth  in 
descent  from  Anne  Plantagenet,  daughter  and  heiress  of 
Thomas  of  Woodstock,  the  youngest  son  of  king  Edward  III. 
The  line  of  his  pedigree  is  marked  in  civil  blood.  His  father 
was  beheaded  by  Richard  III. ;  his  grandfather  was  killed  at 
the  battle  of  St.  Alban's ;  his  great-grandfather  at  the  battle 
of  Northampton ;  and  the  father  of  this  last  at  the  battle  of 
Shrewsbury.  More  than  a  century  had  elapsed  since  any 
chief  of  this  great  family  had  fallen  by  a  natural,  death, — a 
pedigree  which  may  be  sufficient  to  characterize  an  age. 
Edward  was  doomed  to  no  milder  fate  than  his  forefathers. 
Knivett,  a  discarded  officer  of  Buckingham's  household,  fur- 
nished information  to  Wolsey,  which  led  to  the  apprehension 

*  Herbert. 


108  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1521. 

of  his  late  master.  As  those  who  are  perfidious  must  submit 
to  the  suspicion  that  they  may  likewise  be  false,  it  may  be 
safely  assumed  that  Knivett  gave  the  darkest  color  to  what- 
ever unguarded  language  might  have  fallen  from  his  ill-fated 
lord.  The  most  serious  charges  against  that  nobleman*  were, 
that  he  had  consulted  a  monk  about  future  events ;  that  he 
had  declared  all  the  acts  of  Henry  VII.  to  be  wrongfully 
done ;  that  he  had  told  Knivett,  that  if  he  had  been  sent  to 
the  Tower  when  he  was  in  danger  of  being  committed,  he 
would  have  played  the  part  which  his  father  had  intended  to 
perform  at  Salisbury ;  where,  if  he  could  have  obtained  an 
audience,  he  would  have  stabbed  Richard  III.  with  a  knife ; 
and  that  he  had  told  lord  Abergavenny,  if  the  king  died  he 
would  have  the  rule  of  the  land.f  All  these  supposed  offences 
if  they  could  be  blended  together,  did  not  amount  to  an 
overt  act  of  high  treason ;  even  if  we  suppose  the  consulta- 
tion of  the  soothsayer  to  relate  to  the  time  of  the  king's 
death.  The  only  serious  imputation  on  his  prudence  rests  on 
the  testimony  of  the  spy.  Buckingham  confessed  the  real 
amount  of  his  absurd  inquiries  from  the  friar.  He  defended 
himself  with  eloquence.  He  was  tried  in  the  court  of  the 
lord  high  steward,  by  a  jury  of  peers,  consisting  of  one  duke, 
one  marquess,  seven  earls,  and  twelve  barons,  who  convicted 
him  ;  although  the  facts,  if  true,  amounted  to  no  more  than 
proofs  of  indiscretion  and  symptoms  of  discontent.  The  duke 
of  Norfolk,  lord  steward  for  the  occasion,  shed  tears  on  pro- 
nouncing sentence.  The  prisoner  said,  "  May  the  eternal  God 
forgive  you  my  death,  as  I  do ! "  The  only  favor  which  he 
could  obtain  was,  that  the  ignominious  part  of  a  traitor's  death 
should  be  remitted.  He  was  accordingly  beheaded  on  the 
17th  of  May,  1521 ;  while  the  surrounding  people  vented 
their  indignation  against  Wolsey  by  loud  cries  of  "The 
butcher's  son !" 

The  events  which  occurred  in  England  from  the  death  of 
Buckingham  in  1521  to  the  first  public  measures  taken  by 
Henry  for  a  divorce,  were  not  very  numerous  or  important. 
The  history  of  Europe  during  that  period  teems,  indeed,  with 
memorable  occurrences,  but  their  connexion  with  the  affairs 
of  England  is  secondary,  and  their  effects  on  the  countries 
where  they  occurred  are  generally  more  brilliant  than  lasting. 
A  brief  summary  will,  therefore,  suffice  to  conduct  us  to  the 
dawn  of  those  revolutions  of  religious  opinion,  which  are  so 
remote  from  the  common  path  of  the  statesman  that  he  gene- 
rally disregards  or  misjudges  them,  till  he  is  otherwise  taught 

*  Herbert,  41.  t  M-  >b»d. 


1523.  A    PARLIAMENT.  109 

by  fatal  experience ;  which  almost  alike  concern  all  nations, 
and  of  which  the  influence,  as  far  as  our  dim  foresight  reaches, 
never  will  cease  to  be  felt  by  the  whole  race  of  man. 

The  administration  of  Wolsey  continued,  seemingly  with 
unabated  sway,  till  1527.  That  minister,  who  delighted  as 
much  in  displaying  as  in  exercising  power,  became  at  last  un- 
popular from  the  haughtiness  of  his  demeanor,  rather  than 
from  his  public  measures.  The  principles,  however,  of  his 
government  gave  just  alarm.  From  1516  to  1523  no  parlia- 
ment was  assembled.  While  the  assembly  which  held  the 
public  purse  was  thus  interrupted,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
raise  money  by  the  expedients  of  forced  loans  and  pretended 
benevolences,  which  had  already  been  condemned  by  the 
legislature.  But  these  attempts  produced  more  discontent 
than  supply:  the  parliament  which  met  in  1523  manifested  a 
displeasure,  which  shows  the  distrust  and  apprehension  of 
Wolsey  entertained  by  these  assemblies.  We  have  an  ac- 
count of  their  temper  and  deportment  from  an  eye-witness, 
which  is  not  a  little  remarkable  :* — "  There  has  been  the 
greatest  and  sorest  hold  in  the  lower  house  for  the  payment 
of  the  subsidy  that  was  seen  in  any  parliament.  It  has  been 
debated  sixteen  days  together ;  the  resistance  was  so  great 
that  the  house  was  like  to  have  been  dissevered.f  The  king's 
knights  and  servants  being  of  one  party,  it  may  fortune  con- 
trary to  their  heart,  will,  and  conscience.  Thus  hanging  the 
matter  yesterday,  the  more  part  being  for  the  king,  his  de- 
mand was  granted  to  be  paid  in  two  years.  Never  was  one 
half  given  to  any  former  at  once :  I  beseech  the  Almighty  it 
may  be  peaceably  levied,  without  losing  the  good  will  and 
true  hearts  of  the  king's  subjects,  which  I  reckon  a  far 
greater  treasure  than  gold  and  silver.":}:  This  instance  of  a 
grant  of  money  so  obstinately  contested,  and  the  example  of  a 
party  of  placemen  and  courtiers,  who  are  represented  as  its 
sole  supporters,  shows  clearly  enough  that  the  spirit  of  the 
house  of  commons  was  not  abated,  nor  its  importance  lessen- 
ed, by  Tudor  rule,  at  least  on  those  matters  which  were  justly 
considered  as  most  exclusively  within  their  province.  Sir 
Thomas  More,  the  first  Englishman  known  to  history  as  a 
public  speaker,  who  had  distinguished  himself  by  opposition  to 
former  grants,  was  now  speaker  of  the  house  of  commons, 
and  supported  the  measures  of  the  court.  Neither  his  elo- 

*  Ellis's  Letters,  i.  220.  Strype.  Hallam.  This  report  of  the  debates  is,  in 
substance,  confirmed  by  that  of  lord  Herbert,  59:— "Letter  from  a  Member 
of  the  flouse  of  Commons  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk." 

t  Probably  this  means,  come  to  a  division,  then  a  very  rare  occurrence. 

;  Ellis.    Herbert. 

VOL.  II.  K 


110  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1523. 

quence  nor  his  virtue  could  gain  more  than  a  temporary  ad- 
vantage. Wolsey  is  said  to  have  gone  into  the  house  of  com- 
mons with  a  train  of  retainers,  and  to  have  expressed  his  won- 
der at  the  profound  silence  that  followed  his  entrance.  The 
speaker,  whatever  might  be  his  coalition  with  the  court,  did 
not  forget  the  duty  and  dignity  of  his  office,  but  "  protested 
that,  according  to  the  ancient  liberties  of  the  house,  they  were 
not  bound  to  make  an  answer,  and  that  he,  as  speaker,  could 
make  no  reply  till  he  had  received  their  instructions ;"  an  an- 
swer which  was  perhaps  the  pattern  of  that  made  by  a  succes- 
sor to  the  chair  at  one  of  the  most  critical  moments  of  Eng- 
lish history. 

As  France  was  now  bounded  on  either  side  by  the  Spanish 
and  Burgundian  dominions  of  Charles  V.,  the  occasion  of  en- 
mity and  pleas  for  war  were  necessarily  multiplied  between 
that  young  monarch  and  Francis  I.    The  pope  easily  prevailed 
upon  the  emperor  to  turn  his  arms  to  the  expulsion  of  the 
French  from  Italy.    Henry  also  supported  the  imperial  cause, 
but  hesitated  for  a  time  about  an  open  rupture  with  Francis. 
The  death  of  Leo  X.  in  1520,  after  a  short  but  most  memora- 
ble pontificate,  in  which  a  mortal  blow  was  struck  at  the 
greatness  of  the  Roman  see,  displayed  the  bold  ambition  of 
Wolsey,  who  then  declared  himself  a  candidate  for  the  papa- 
cy; rather,  probably,  to  strengthen  his  pretensions  on  the 
next  vacancy,  than  with  hopes  of  immediate  success.     This 
faint  attempt  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  emperor,  who  be- 
stowed the  triple  crown  on  his  preceptor  Adrian ;  a  man  in 
almost  all  points  the  opposite  of  his  celebrated  predecessor. 
Leo,  a  patron  of  art  and  a  lover  of  literature,  ignorant  of 
theology  and  indifferent  to  it,  was  little  qualified  to  foresee 
the  danger  to  which  his  throne  was  about  to  be  exposed  by 
the  controversies  of  obscure  monks  in  the  northern  provinces 
of  Germany :  a  man  of  the  world,  a  man  of  taste,  and  a  man 
of  pleasure, — he  had  the  manners  and  accomplishments  then 
only  to  be  learnt  in  the  Italian  capitals.     Adrian,  a  native  of 
Utrecht,  was  a  learned  and  conscientious  schoolman,  of  sin- 
cere zeal  for  his  religion,  and  desirous  of  reforming  the  man- 
ners of  the  clergy  according  to  the  model  of  his  own  austere 
life ;  but  as  intolerant  as  any  of  his  contemporaries,  ignorant 
of  mankind,  and  not  sharing  that  taste  for  polite  literature 
which  now  shed  a  lustre  over  Italy.     At  Adrian's  death,  in 
1523,  Wolsey  renewed  his  canvass,  to  promote  the  success  of 
which  seems  to  have  been  the  main-spring  of  his  policy  dur- 
ing the  eight  years  before,  which  guided  him  in  disposing  of 
the  influence  of  England  to  Francis  or  to  Charles.     Several 
cardinals  voted  for  him  ;  but  neither  of  the  continental  princes 


1525.  THE  WAR  IN  ITALY.  Ill 

could  seriously  intend  to  make  an  English  minister  their  mas- 
ter, or  indeed  to  throw  the  scarcely  shaken  power  of  the  papa- 
cy into  the  hands  of  a  turbulent  and  ambitious  man.  Henry 
himself,  who  in  his  moments  of  facility  or  impetuosity  had 
promoted  his  minister's  project,  was  too  acute  not  to  perceive, 
in  his  calmer  moods,  the  peril  of  placing  such  a  spiritual 
sovereign  over  his  head.  Had  Wolsey  been  successful,  we 
now  see  how  vainly  he  must  have  struggled  against  the  cur- 
rent of  human  affairs :  he  would  have  withstood  it  manfully, 
but  he  must  have  fallen  after  more  bloodshed  than  that  un- 
availing struggle  actually  cost :  for  he  was  bolder  than  most 
men ;  he  held  the  necessity  of  general  ignorance  to  good 
government ;  and  he  doubtless  would  have  punished  heretics 
with  more  satisfaction,  in  defence  of  his  own  authority,  than 
he  had  done  in  defending  that  of  others.* 

During  this  period,  the  war  was  waged  between  Charles 
and  Francis,  in  Italy,  with  various  fortune.  Clement  VII.  es- 
poused the  French  interest ;  but  the  desertion  of  the  national 
cause  by  Charles  of  Bourbon,  a  prince  of  the  royal  blood,  and 
his  conspiracy  with  England  and  Austria  against  his  own 
country,  proved  to  Francis  the  forerunner  of  calamities  sel- 
dom experienced  by  princes.  At  the  battle  of  Pavia,  on  the 
24th  of  February,  1525,  the  French  army  was  totally  routed, 
and  Francis  I.  was  himself  made  prisoner.  Bourbon,  feeling, 
perhaps,  a  momentary  shame  at  the  misfortunes  which  he 
helped  to  bring  on  his  native  country,  with  tears  in  his  eyes 
addressed  the  captive  monarch,  saying,  "  Had  you  followed  my 
counsel,  you  should  not  have  needed  to  be  in  this  estate." 
The  king  answered  by  turning  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  ex- 
claiming "  Patience !  since  fortune  has  failed  me,"  in  the  na- 
tive language  of  a  man  who  regarded  the  pity  of  a  traitor  as 
the  last  of  insults.  Henry  VIII.  affected  joy  at  the  victory 
of  his  ally,  but  demanded  the  aid  of  Charles  to  recover  his  in- 
heritance in  France,  and  in  return  offered  to  complete  the 
nuptials  of  the  emperor  with  his  daughter  Mary,  which  had 
been  stipulated  long  before,  f  The  English  government,  how- 
ever, dreaded  the  success  of  the  emperor,  and  in  August  con- 
cluded a  treaty  of  peace  and  alliance  with  France,  in  which 
the  states  of  Italy  which  still  retained  their  political  exist- 
ence concurred.  Charles  V.,  feeling  this  jealousy  throughout 
Europe,  consented  to  open  a  negotiation  at  Madrid  for  the  re- 
lease of  Francis ;  to  which  the  chief  impediment  was  the  re- 
luctance of  the  latter  to  restore  to  Charles  the  duchy  of  Bur- 
gundy, the  wrongful  acquisition  of  Louis  XI.  The  French 

*  Herbert,  61.  f  Ibid.  7. 


112  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1527. 

monarch  at  last  yielded ;  a  peace  seemed  to  be  made  by  the 
treaty  of  Madrid  in  1526,  which  restored  Francis  to  his  do- 
minion, after  a  captivity  of  more  than  a  year.  When  his 
horse  sprung  on  the  French  territory,  he  joyfully  exclaimed, 
"  I  am  again  a  king !"  When  pressed  to  perform  the  treaty 
by  swearing  to  observe  which  he  earned  his  release  from 
prison,  he  answered  by  declaring,  that  "  he  had  no  right  to 
dismember  the  kingdom,  which  at  his  coronation  he  had  sworn 
to  preserve  entire ;  that  the  states  of  Burgundy  refused  to 
concur  in  the  cession ;  that  the  parliament  of  Paris,  the  sen- 
ate of  the  monarchy,  had  pronounced  the  stipulation  to  that 
effect  to  be  void ;  and  that  the  pope  had  dispensed  with  the 
oath,  which  his  holiness  treated  as  null,  because  it  was  a 
promise  to  do  a  wrong.  He  even  carried  his  solicitude  to 
multiply  pretexts  so  far  as  to  allege,  that,  in  consequence  of 
Henry's  rights  as  duke  of  Normandy,  the  cession  of  Burgun- 
dy could  not  be  valid  without  his  consent.  To  all  these  eva- 
sions it  was  a  sufficient  answer,  that  he  was  bound  to  know 
the  extent  of  his  powers  when  he  had  signed  the  treaty ;  that 
if  he  had,  however,  discovered  that  he  had  exceeded  his  au- 
thority, he  ought  to  surrender  himself  again  a  prisoner ;  that 
the  resistance  of  the  states  of  Burgundy,  and  of  the  parliament 
of  Paris,  were  obviously  and  notoriously  prompted  by  himself: 
and  that  Clement  VII.  had  dishonored  his  authority  by  a  scan- 
dalous approbation  of  the  perjury  of  a  prince  whose  ally  he 
was  about  to  become.  It  is  remarkable  that  neither  party  ap- 
pealed to  the  people  of  Burgundy,  who  were  seized  as  lawful 
booty  by  Louis  XL,  and  agreed  to  be  restored  as  stolen  goods 
by  Francis  I.  In  the  league  against  the  emperor,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  pope,  and  thence  called  most  clement  and  most 
holy,  Henry  VIII.  was  declared  protector  of  the  holy  league, 
with  an  estate  in  Naples  of  30,000  crowns  a  year  for  himself, 
and  of  10,000  crowns  a  year  to  the  cardinal.  The  bribes  were 
afterwards  increased  to  much  larger  sums.  In  the  course  of 

1526  the  disturbances  in  Italy  were  somewhat  composed.     In 

1527  an  event  occurred,  unparalleled  perhaps  in  all  its  cir- 
cumstances, and  considered  in  that  age  as  the  most  extraor- 
dinary which  the  chances  and  changes  of  war  could  have  pro- 
duced.    On  the  6th  of  May,  the  constable  of  Bourbon,  at  the 
head  of  an  imperial  army  of  30,000  men,  marched  to  the  sack 
of  the  city  of  Rome.     He  was  at  the  head  of  the  army  with  a 
ladder  in  his  hand,  with  which  he  meant  to  scale  the  walls. 
At  the  moment  when  he  was  lifting  his  foot  to  place  it  on  the 
first  step  of  the  ladder,  he  was  shot  dead. 

*  Hrrlwrt,  7. 


1527.  SACK   OF   ROME.  113 

Though  the  taking  a  great  city  is  always  one  of  the  most 
horrible  scenes  of  human  guilt  and  misery,  we  are  assured 
by  all  writers  that  the  storming  of  Rome  surpassed  every 
other  in  horror.  More  exasperated  than  dispirited  by  the  fall 
of  their  leader,  the  soldiers  entered  the  city  with  cries  of  re- 
venge. On  their  first  rushing  into  the  streets,  they  butchered 
some  of  the  defenceless  prelates,  who  were  flying  from  de- 
struction. They  had  permission  to  pillage  for  five  or  six  days, 
•which  includes  the  impunity  for  that  time  of  every  form  of 
human  criminality  which  men  greedy  of  plunder,  smarting 
with  wounds,  intoxicated  by  liquor,  or  tempted  by  other  lures, 
can  imagine  or  perpetrate.  Five  thousand  men  are  said  to 
have  perished ;  the  number  of  women  and  children,  on  whom 
such  assaults  often  fall  with  most  severity,  it  would  be  horri- 
ble to  conjecture ;  but  war  in  most  of  its  horrors  raged  in  the 
unhappy  city  for  several  months  during  the  siege  of  the  castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  where  the  pope  and  the  college  of  cardinals 
had  taken  refuge.  Some  peculiar  circumstances  render  it 
probable  that  the  horrors  of  this  assault,  however  heightened 
by  rhetorical  amplification,  are  in  the  chief  particulars  conso- 
nant to  historical  truth.  The  death  of  Bourbon  left  his  army 
uncurbed  by  a  leader ;  and  the  scenes  which  followed  were 
peculiarly  unfitted  for  attempts  to  restore  discipline.  The 
army  was  composed  of  a  mercenary  soldiery,  called  together 
from  every  country  by  the  sole  lure  of  pay  and  plunder ; 
without  national  character ;  without  habits  of  co-operation ; 
without  favorite  chiefs ;  often  without  that  acquaintance  with 
each  other's  language,  by  means  of  which  some  of  them 
might  be  reclaimed ;  to  all  which  it  may  be  added,  that  some 
of  the  assailants,  otherwise  the  most  likely  to  be  merciful, 
were  impelled  by  religious  zeal  not  to  spare  the  altars,  the 
temples,  or  even  the  priests,  of  idols.  Many  German  soldiers 
might  have  imbibed,  from  the  preaching  of  Luther,  that  ab- 
horrence of  popery  which  they  had  now  the  means  of  in- 
dulging, in  the  great  city  where  that  religion  had  triumphed 
for  a  thousand  years. 

Such  was  the  hypocrisy  of  Charles  V.,  that,  on  learning 
the  misfortunes  of  the  pope,  he  gave  orders  for  a  general 
mourning,  suspended  the  rejoicings  for  the  birth  of  his  son, 
and  commanded  prayers  to  bo  offered  throughout  Spain  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  pontiff,  whom  the  emperor  himself  had 
commanded  his  generals  to  imprison. 
K2 


114  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1527. 

CHAP.  V. 
HENRY   VIII.— CONTINUED. 

RISE    AND   PROGRESS    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

1527. 

THE  reformation  of  religion  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
regarded  only  from  a  civil  .point  of  view,  is  doubtless  one  of 
the  most  memorable  transactions  in  the  history  of  the  civi- 
lized and  Christian  world.  For  a  century  and  a  half  almost 
all  the  important  wars  of  Europe  originated  in  the  mutual 
animosity  of  the  Christian  parties. 

All  the  inventions  and  discoveries  of  man  are  only  various 
exertions  of  his  mental  powers ;  they  depend  solely  upon  the 
improvement  of  his  reason.  With  the  vigor  of  reason  must 
keep  pace  the  probability  of  adding  new  discoveries  to  our 
stock  of  truth,  and  of  applying  some  of  them  to  the  enjoyment 
and  ornament,  as  well  as  to  the  more  serious  and  exalted 
uses  of  human  life.  By  a  parity  of  reasoning  we  perceive, 
that  those  who  remove  impediments  on  the  road  to  truth  as 
certainly  contribute  to  advance  its  general  progress,  as  if  they 
were  directly  employing  the  same  degree  of  sagacity  in  the 
pursuit  of  a  particular  discovery.  The  contrary  may  be  af- 
firmed of  all  those  who  oppose  hindrances  to  free,  fearless, 
calm,  unprejudiced,  and  dispassionate  inquiry :  they  lessen  the 
stores  of  knowledge ;  they  relax  the  vigor  of  every  intellec- 
tual effort ;  they  abate  the  chances  of  future  discovery. 

Every  impediment  to  the  utmost  liberty  of  inquiry  or  dis- 
cussion, whether  it  consists  in  the  fear  of  punishment,  in 
bodily  restraint,  in  dread  of  the  mischievous  effects  of  new 
truth,  or  in  the  submission  of  reason  to  beings  of  the  like 
frailties  with  ourselves,  always,  in  proportion  to  its  magni- 
tude, robs  a  man  of  some  share  of  his  rational  and  moral 
nature. 

Truth  is  not  often  dug  up  with  ease :  when  it  is  a  general 
object  of  aversion, — when  it  is  represented  as  an  immoral  or 
even  impious  search, — the  difficulties  that  impede  our  labors 
are  increased ;  the  most  irresistible  passions  of  our  nature, 
and  the  most  lasting  interests  of  society,  conspire  against  im- 
provement of  mind ;  and  it  is  thought  a  crime  to  ascertain 
what  is  generally  advantageous,  though  thereby  only  can  be 
learned  the  arduous  art  of  doing  good  with  the  least  alloy  of 
evil.* 

*  Whoever  is  desirous  of  estimating  the  value  of  knowledge,  will  find 
the  nobluRt  observations  on  that  <rrand  subject,  which  have  been  made 


15'27.  THE    REFORMATION.  115 

The  reformation  of  1517  was  the  first  successful  example 
of  resistance  to  human  authority.  The  reformers  discovered 
the  free  use  of  reason ;  the  principle  came  forth  with  the 
Lutheran  revolution,  but  it  was  so  confused  and  obscured  by 
prejudice,  by  habit,  bf  sophistry,  by  inhuman  hatred,  and  by 
slavish  prostration  of  mind,  to  say  nothing  of  the  capricious 
singularities  and  fantastic  conceits  which  spring  up  so  plenti- 
fully in  ages  of  reformation,  that  its  chiefs  were  long  uncon- 
scious of  the  potent  spirit  which  they  had  set  free.  It  is  not 
yet  wholly  extricated  from  the  impurities  which  followed  it 
into  the  world.  Every  reformer  has  erected,  all  his  followers 
have  labored  to  support,  a  little  papacy  in  their  own  commu- 
nity. The  founders  of  each  sect  owned,  indeed,  that  they 
had  themselves  revolted  against  the  most  ancient  and  univer- 
sal authorities  of  the  world ;  but  they,  happy  men  !  had  learnt 
all  truth,  they  therefore  forbad  all  attempts  to  enlarge  her 
stores,  and  drew  the  line  beyond  which  human  reason  must 
no  longer  be  allowed  to  cast  a  glance. 

The  popish  authority  claimed  by  Lutherans  and  Calvinists 
was  indeed  more  odious  and  more  unreasonable,  because  more 
self-contradictory,  than  that  which  the  ancient  church  in- 
herited through  a  long  line  of  ages ;  inasmuch  as  the  reform- 
ers did  not  pretend  to  infallibility,  perhaps  the  only  advan- 
tage, if  it  were  real,  which  might  in  some  degree  compensate 
for  the  blessings  of  an  independent  mind,  and  they  now  pun- 
ished with  death  those  dissenters  who  had  only  followed  the 
examples  of  the  most  renowned  of  Protestant  reformers,  by  a 
rebellion  against  authority  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  the 
paramount  sovereignty  of  reason. 

The  flagrant  inconsistency  of  all  Protestant  intolerance  is 
a  poison  in  its  veins  which  must  destroy  it.  The  clerical  des- 
potism was  directly  applicable  only  to  works  on  theology;  but, 
as  religion  is  the  standard  of  morality,  and  politics  are  only  a 
portion  of  morality,  all  great  subjects  were  interdicted,  and 
the  human  mind,  enfeebled  and  degraded  by  this  interdict, 
was  left  with  its  cramped  and  palsied  faculties  to  deal  with 
inferior  questions,  on  condition,  even  then,  of  keeping  out  of 
view  every  truth  capable  of  being  represented  as  dangerous  to 
any  dogma  of  the  established  system.  The  sufferings  of  the 
Wickliffites,  the  Vaudois,  and  the  Bohemians,  seemed  indeed 
to  have  fully  proved  the  impossibility  of  extinguishing  opinion 

since  Bacon,  in  Mr.  Herschell's  "  Discourse  on  Natural  Philosophy;"  tin- 
finest  work  of  philosophical  <:•  nnis  which  this  age  has  seen.  In  reading  it, 
a  momentary  regret  may  sometimes  pass  through  the  fancy,  that  the  author 
of  the  "Novnm  Organum"  could  not  «ee  the  wonderful  fruits  of  his  labor 
in  two  centuries. 


116  HISTORY    OP   ENGLAND.  1527. 

by  any  persecution  in  which  a  large  body  of  men  can  long 
concur.  But  the  two  centuries  which  followed  the  preaching 
of  Luther,  taught  us,  by  one  of  the  most  sanguinary  and  ter- 
rific lessons  of  human  experience,  that  in  the  case  of  assaults 
on  mental  liberty,  providence  has  guarded  that  paramount 
privilege  of  intelligent  beings,  by  confining  the  crimes  of 
mankind,  as  it  has  seen  fit  for  a  season  to  allow  that  their  vir- 
tues should  be  circumscribed.  Extirpation  is  the  only  perse- 
cution which  can  be  successful,  or  even  not  destructive  of  its 
own  object.  Extirpation  is  conceivable ;  but  the  extirpation 
of  a  numerous  sect  is  not  the  work  of  a  moment.  The  per- 
severance of  great  bodies  in  such  a  process,  for  a  sufficient 
time,  and  with  the  necessary  fierceness,  is  happily  impracti- 
cable. Rulers  are  mortal :  shades  of  difference  in  capacity, 
character,  opinion,  arise  among  their  successors.  Aristocra- 
cies themselves,  the  steadiest  adherents  to  established  maxims 
and  revered  principles  of  rule,  are  exposed  to  the  contagion 
of  the  times.  Julius  aimed  at  Italian  conquest ;  Leo  thought 
only  of  art  and  pleasure ;  Adrian  burned  alike  with  zeal  for 
reforming  the  clergy  and  for  maintaining  the  faith.  Higher 
causes  are  in  action  for  the  same  purpose.  If  pity  could  be 
utterly  rooted  out,  and  conscience  struck  dumb;  if  mercy  wera 
banished,  and  fellow-feeling  with  our  brethren  were  extin- 
guished ;  if  religion  could  be  transformed  into  bigotry,  and 
justice  had  relapsed  into  barbarous  revenge,  even  in  that  dire- 
ful state,  the  infirmities,  nay,  the  vices,  of  men,  indolence, 
vanity,  weariness,  inconstancy,  distrust,  suspicion,  fear,  anger, 
mutual  hatred,  and  hostile  contest,  would  do  some  part  of  the 
work  of  the  exiled  virtues,  and  dissolve  the  league  of  persecu- 
tion long  before  they  could  exterminate  the  conscientious. 

Many  causes  had  combined  to  prepare  the  soil  for  the  re- 
formation. Even  the  subtleties  of  the  schools,  and  their  appeal 
to  the  authority  of  a  pagan  reasoner,  raised  up  against  the 
papacy  and  the  priests  a  rivalry,  which  was  followed,  in  the 
first  instance,  by  the  masters  of  the  Roman  law,  and  after- 
wards by  the  revivers  of  ancient  literature.  The  council  of 
Constance,  though  cruel  persecutors  of  those  who  outran  their 
own  dissent,  yet  asserted  the  jurisdiction  of  councils  over 
popes,  even  so  far  as  to  maintain  not  only  their  power  to  con- 
demn the  errors  of  pontiffs,  but  even  their  authority  to  depose, 
elect,  or  otherwise  chastise  the  sovereign  pontiffs.  A  predis- 
position against  the  ecclesiastical  claims  had  prevailed  so  gen- 
erally and  reached  so  high,  that  the  emperor  Maximilian  him- 
self was  not  indisposed  to  the  new  opinions.*  The  kindness 

*  Sleidan.  de  Stat.  Relig.  et  Imper.  Cnr.  V.  Cwsare,  i.  21.  edit.  1685. 


1527.  THE    REFORMATION.  117 

and  patronage  immediately  granted  to  the  great  heresiarch  by 
the  excellent  elector  of  Saxony,  seems  either  to  indicate  some 
previous  concert,  or  to  evince  so  extensive  an  alienation  from 
the  clergy,  that  express  words  were  not  needful. 

The  letters  of  Erasmus,  the  prince  of  the  restorers  of  lite- 
rature, who  gave  too  much  proof  of  preferring  peace  to  truth, 
bear  the  weightiest  testimony  to  the  joy  and  thanks  of  Euro- 
pean scholars  at  the  hopes  of  deliverance  held  out  by  the  Saxon 
reformation,  during  its  earliest  and  most  pacific  period.  At 
the  same  time,  with  an  excess  of  wariness  not  suited  to  the 
temperament  of  his  correspondent,  he  exhorts  Luther  to  ob- 
serve more  moderate  and  temperate  language,  and  to  attack 
the  papal  agents  more  than  the  holy  see  itself.*  In  the  first 
negotiations  of  the  papal  agents  with  the  heretical  chiefs,  it 
was  insinuated  by  the  former,  that  their  opponents  might 
maintain  their  doctrines  in  the  private  disputations  of  the 
learned,  if  they  would  only  desist  from  the  mischievous  prac- 
tice of  inflaming  the  ignorant  by  preaching  or  writing  on  such 
subjects.  These  suggestions  were  natural  to  the  statesmen, 
the  courtiers,  and  the  semi-pagan  scholars  of  the  court  of  Leo, 
at  a  time  when  a  double  doctrine  and  a  system  of  secret  opinions 
had  rendered  the  well-educated  among  the  Italians  unbeliev- 
ers, who  regarded  the  ignorant  as  doomed  to  be  their  dupes, 
and  thought  the  art  of  deluding  the  multitude  beneficial  to 
most  men,  as  well  as  easy  and  agreeable  to  their  rulers. 

But  Martin  Luther  was  of  a  character  thoroughly  exempt 
from  falsehood,  duplicity,  and  hypocrisy.  Educated  in  the 
subtleties  of  schools,  and  the  severities  of  cloisters,  he  annexed 
an  undue  importance  to  his  own  controversies,  and  was  too 
little  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  the  world,  to  see  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  might  be  disturbed  by  such  disputes.  It  is 
very  probable,  that,  if  he  had  perceived  it,  his  logical  obstinacy 
would  unwillingly,  if  at  all,  have  sacrificed  a  syllogism  to  a 
public  interest.  Two  extraordinary  circumstances  appeared 
a  little  before  this  time,  so  opportunely,  that  they  might  be 
said  to  be  presented  to  him  as  instruments  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  purpose :  these  were,  the  invention  of  the  art  of 
printing,  and  the  use  of  the  German  tongue  in  addresses  to 
the  people.  His  ordinary  duties  led  him  to  make  weekly 
addresses  to  all  classes.  The  use  of  the  vernacular  language 
rendered  him  as  easily  understood  by  the  low  as  by  the  high ; 
and  printing  had  so  lessened  the  cost  of  copying,  that  the 
poorest  man,  or  club,  or  society,  could  buy  a  copy  of  his  ser- 
mons and  tracts,  which  were  written  with  clearness  and 

*  March  29, 1519.  London.  Erasm.  Epist.  lib.  vi.  p.  4.    Sleidan,  i.  85. 


118  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1527. 

brevity,  as  well  as  with  such  a  mastery  over  his  language,  as 
to  have  raised  the  spoken  dialect  of  his  own  province  into  the 
literary  language  of  Germany,  and  to  rank  him  as  the  first  of 
the  writers  who  have  disclosed  the  treasures  of  that  copious 
and  nervous  tongue.  These  distinctions  he  doubtless  owed 
partly  to  the  veneration  entertained  for  his  translation  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  partly  to  popular  tracts,  which  were  not  only 
most  skilfully  adapted  to  the  capacity  of  the  multitude,  but 
perhaps  too  much  accommodated  to  their  taste  by  a  plentiful 
seasoning  of  those  personalities  and  scurrilities,  which,  though 
they  promoted  his  purpose  for  the  time,  cannot  be  perused 
without  displeasure  by  his  warmest  admirers  in  succeeding 
ages. 

This  great  reformer  of  mankind  was  born  at  Eisleben,  in 
the  county  of  Mansfeldt,  in  the  year  1483,  about  thirty  years 
after  the  invention  of  printing,  and  about  twelve  before  the 
discoveries  of  America  and  of  a  maritime  road  to  India ;  a 
time  when  the  papacy  had  not  recovered  the  blow  struck 
against  it  by  the  council  of  Constance ;  and  sufficiently  late 
to  draw  help  from  the  revival  of  ancient  literature,  which  the 
writings  of  Erasmus  show  to  have  been  spread  beyond  the 
Alps,  and  even  beyond  the  Rhine.  The  ardor  of  his  mind,  the 
elevation  of  his  genius,  and  the  meditative  character  of  his 
country,  early  led  him  to  that  contemplation  of  the  vast  and 
the  invisible,  to  that  aspiring  pursuit  of  the  perfect  and  the 
boundless,  which  lift  the  soul  of  man  above  the  vulgar  objects 
of  sense  and  appetite,  of  fear  and  ambition. 

The  fate  of  a  comrade,  who  was  struck  dead  by  lightning 
while  walking  in  the  fields  with  Luther,  alarmed  and  agitated 
him ;  and  in  1505  he  devoted  himself  to  a  religious  life,  as  a 
monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Augustin.  It  is  a  characteristic  fact, 
that  he  had  been  two  years  in  the  monastery  before  he  had 
seen  a  Latin  bible,*  which  he  embraced  with  delight;  so 
human  and  traditional  had  Christianity  then  become. 

He  was  speedily  regarded  as  the  most  learned  member  of 
his  order  in  the  empire,  f  The  elector  of  Saxony,  who  had 
just  founded  an  university  at  Wittemberg,  appointed  the 
young  monk  to  a  professorship  of  philosophy,  and  at  the  same 
time  made  him  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  town.  Such  a 
policy  has  often  induced  the  absolute  princes  of  small  states, 
whose  limited  revenues  are  insufficient  for  the  support  of  an 

*  Milner,  Christ.  Church,  iv.  424. 

t  "  Polichius  often  declared  that  there  was  a  strength  of  intellect  in  this 
man  which,  he  plainly  foresaw,  would  produce  a  revolution  in  tho  popular 
and  scholastic  religion  of  the  times." — Melancthon,  quoted  by  Milner 
Church  History,  iv.  32G. 


1527.  THE    REFORMATION.  119 

university,  to  select  men  of  reputation  for  their  academical 
offices,  who  may  attract  multitudes  to  the  seminary.  They 
are  often  content  to  connive  at  the  eccentricities  and  to  screen 
the  errors  of  men  of  genius,  provided  their  halls  are  crowded 
with  admiring'  hearers  and  pupils. 

In  1510  he  visited  Rome  on  the  affairs  of  his  monastery, 
where  he  was  shocked  by  finding-  that  the  sincerity  and  fervor 
of  his  own  devotion  were  looked  at  with  wonder  and  with 
derision  by  his  Italian  brethren,  who  hurried  and  muttered 
over  their  liturgy.  It  was  not,  however,  till  the  year  1517 
that  he  made  any  public  opposition  to  practices  directed  or 
allowed  by  the  church.  The  occasion  of  this  resistance  was 
the  issue  and  sale  of  indulgences,  to  raise  a  sum  of  money 
adequate  to  the  cost  of  completing  St.  Peter's  church  at  Rome. 
These  indulgences-  appear  to  have  been  granted  in  early 
times :  their  original  purpose,  and  the  only  efficacy  ascribed 
to  them  by  the  church,  was  grounded  on  the  acceptance  of 
sums  of  money  instead  of  the  often  very  severe  penances 
which  the  ecclesiastical  law  imposed  on  penitents  as  the  tem- 
poral punishment  of  the  offences.  No  pope  or  council  taught 
that  indulgences  were  a  permission  for  future  offences,  still 
less  that  they  had  any  relation  to  those  punishments  which 
supreme  justice  may  finally  employ  in  the  administration  of 
the  moral  world.  With  some  apparent  inconsistency,  how- 
ever, and  with  much  additional  danger  to  the  community,  they 
stretched  their  authority  into  the  unseen  world,  by  teaching 
that  indulgences  extended  to  a  part,  or  to  the  whole,  of  the 
purification  of  minds  of  imperfect  excellence  in  purgatory. 
The  produce  of  the  indulgences  was,  in  general,  avowedly 
destined  for  purposes  which  were  accounted  pious :  they  were 
at  first  rare,  being  granted  with  apparent  consideration,  and 
in  cases  which  might  be  deemed  favorable.  But  in  a  series 
of  ages  caution  and  decorum  disappeared.  The  practice  of 
the  distributors  of  indulgences  widely  deviated  from  the  pro- 
fessed principle  of  such  grants,  and  they  threw  off  all  the  re- 
straints by  which  the  pious  prudence  of  former  time  had 
labored  to  render  such  a  practice  safe,  or  indeed  tolerable. 

The  execution  of  the  bull  for  indulgences  in  Germany  was 
intrusted  to  men  who  rendered  all  the  abuses  to  which  they 
were  liable  most  offensively  conspicuous.  Tetzel,  a  Dominic- 
an, one  of  the  chief  distributors,  vended  his  infallible  specific 
with  the  exaggeration  and  fiction  of  the  coarsest  empiric. 
Wittemberg  was  one  of  the  towns  which  he  visited  on  his 
journey.  A  scene  here  opened  for  the  learning,  the  integrity, 
the  piety,  the  ardor  and  impetuosity  of  Luther.  A  great 
practical  abuse  was  brought  to  his  dwelling,  with  all  the  ag- 


120  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1527. 

gravations  which  it  could  receive  from  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  a  country  remote,  undisturbed,  and  unawakened  by 
controversy,  and  from  the  character  of  the  shameless  collect- 
ors, who  extolled  the  sovereign  efficacy  of  their  specific  in 
language  disclaimed  by  all  the  authorities,  and  by  all  the  schol- 
ars of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  That  church  must,  never- 
theless, bear  the  grave  disapprobation  due  to  her  sanction  of 
a  practice,  the  abuse  of  which  was  so  inevitable,  and  so  easily 
foreseen,  that  on  this  account  alone  it  must  be  regarded  as 
irreligious  and  immoral.  A  doctrine  or  a  practice,  however 
guarded  in  the  words  that  describe  it,  which  has  for  centuries 
produced  a  preponderance  of  evil,  must  in  its  nature  be  evil. 
It  was  fortunate  that  it  might  be  impugned  without  question- 
ing the  authority  of  the  church ;  or  of  the  supreme  pontiff 
which  the  reformer,  magnanimous  as  he  was,  might  not  have 
yet  dared  to  assail.  It  was  fortunate,  also,  that  the  enormi- 
ties of  Tetzel  found  Luther  busied  in  the  contemplation  of 
the  principle  which  is  the  basis  of  all  ethical  judgment,  and 
by  the  power  of  which  he  struck  a  mortal  blow  at  supersti- 
tion :  "  Men  are  not  made  truly  righteous  by  performing  cer- 
tain actions  which  are  externally  good  ;  but  men  must  have 
righteous  principles  in  the  first  place,  and  then  they  will  not 
fail  to  perform  virtuous  actions."*  Whether  Luther  rightly 
understood  the.  passages  of  the  New  Testament  on  which  he 
founded  the  peculiar  doctrines  for  the  sake  of  which  he  ad- 
vanced this  comprehensive  principle,  is  a  question  of  pure 
theology,  not  in  the  province  of  history  to  answer.  But  the 
general  terms  which  are  here  used  enunciate  a  proposition 
equally  certain  and  sublime ;  the  basis  of  all  pure  ethics,  the 
cement  of  the  eternal  alliance  between  morality  and  religion, 
and  the  badge  of  the  independence  of  both  on  the  low  mo- 
tives and  dim  insight  of  human  laws.  Luther,  in  a  more  spe- 
cific application  of  his  principle,  used  it  to  convey  his  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith ;  but  the  very  generality  of  his  own 
terms  prove  the  applicability  of  the  principle  to  be  far  more 
extensive. 

He  saw  the  pure  moral  principle  in  its  religious  form  ;  but 
his  words  enounce  it  as  it  exists  in  itself,  independent  of  all 
application.  He  did  not  perceive  that  this  doctrine  rendered 
the  use  of  fear  and  force  to  make  men  more  virtuous  and  re- 
ligious, the  most  absurd  of  all  impossible  attempts ;  since  vir- 
tue and  religion  have  their  seats  in  an  inviolable  sanctuary, 
which  neither  force  nor  fear  can  approach ;  and  that  it  placed 
in  the  clearest  light  the  natural  unfitness  of  law,  which  seeks 

*  Epist.  Luth.  ad  Spalat,  Oct.  1516,  in  Milncr,  iv.  331. 


1527.  THE   REFORMATION.  121 

only  to  restrain  outward  acts,  and  which  has,  indeed,  no  means 
of  going  farther,  for  a  coalition  with  those  purer  and  more 
elevated  principles  which  regard  human  actions  as  only  valu- 
able when  they  are  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of  inward 
and  mental  excellence. 

But  it  is  evident  that  a  mind  engrossed  by  considerations  of 
this  nature  was  not  in  a  mood  to  endure  with  patience  the 
monstrous  language  of  Tetzel.  Luther  had  not  travelled  in 
search  of  grievances ;  he  had  even  buried  in  respectful  silence 
the  result  of  his  observation  on  the  immorality  and  irreligion 
of  Rome.  He  was  assailed  at  home  by  representations,  which, 
if  our  accounts  be  accurate,  were  little  less  than  dissuasives 
from  the  cultivation  of  virtuous  dispositions.  It  is  now  no 
longer  contended  that  he  was  instigated  by  resentment  at  a 
supposed  transfer  of  the  distribution  of  indulgences  to  the 
Dominicans,  from  his  own  order  the  Augustinians,  who,  in 
truth,  had  very  seldom  enjoyed  that  privilege.  It  had  been 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  Dominicans  for  two  hundred  years, 
and  only  bestowed  on  one  Augustinian  for  more  than  half  a 
century  before  Luther.* 

He  published  in  1517  ninety-five  theses,  in  the  usual  form 
of  themes  for  disputation,  in  which  he  impugned  the  abuse  of 
indulgences,  and  denied  the  power  extravagantly  ascribed  to 
them,  not  without  striking  some  blows  at  the  doctrine  itself, 
thus  ready  to  be  turned  to  evil  purposes,  but  concluding  with 
a  solemn  declaration,  that  he  affirmed  nothing,  but  submitted 
the  whole  matter  to  the  judgment  of  the  church.  Nor  is 
there  any  reason  to  question  his  sincerity ;  he  at  that  time, 
doubtless,  confined  his  views  to  the  evil  which  awakened  his 
zeal.  In  after-times,  the  inflexible  obstinacy  with  which  the 
church  refused  to  reform  abuse  compelled  him  to  explore  the 
foundations  of  her  authority.  This  undistinguishing  main- 
tenance of  all  established  evils,  together  with  the  wrong  done 
to  himself  and  his  adherents,  obliged  him  in  self-defence  to 
examine  the  nature  of  ecclesiastical  power ;  and  the  result 
of  a  wider  inquiry  warranted  him  in  carrying  the  war  into 
the  enemy's  country.  No  other  means  of  effecting  the  most 
temperate  amendments  were  left  in  his  possession ;  his  op- 
tion lay  between  an  assault  on  Rome,  and  the  destruction  of 
Protestantism.  Fortunately  for  the  success  of  his  mission, 
the  great  reformer,  penetrating,  inventive,  sagacious,  and 
brave  as  he  was,  had  little  of  the  temerity  of  those  intellect- 
ual adventurers  who,  often  at  the  expense  of  truth,  and  almost 
always  at  the  cost  of  immediate  usefulness,  affect  singularity 

*  Sleidan,  i.  22;  Seeker,  Hist.  Lutherenismi ;  especially  Mosheim,  iv.  31. 

Vol.  II.  L 


122  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1527. 

in  all  things,  and  are  more  solicitous  to  appear  original,  than 
to  make  certain  additions  to  the  stock  of  knowledge  and  well- 
being.  In  the  gradual  progress  of  dissent  which  thus  natu- 
rally arose,  the  variations  in  his  words  and  deeds  at  different 
stages  of  it  are  no  proof  of  levity,  but  rather,  by  being  gradu- 
al, afford  evidence  that  they  were  considerate ;  and  they  still 
less  justify  a  suspicion  of  insincerity  against  one  of  the  frankest 
and  boldest  of  men.  Nothing  can  be  a  stronger  proof  of  his 
honesty  than  the  language  in  which  he  many  years  after 
spoke  of  his  own  original  theses :  "  I  allow  these  propositions 
still  to  stand,  that  by  them  it  may  appear  how  weak  I  was, 
and  in  how  fluctuating  a  state  of  mind  I  was  when  I  began 
this  business.  I  was  then  a  monk  and  a  mad  papist ;  ready 
to  murder  any  person  who  denied  obedience  to  the  pope." 
For  about  three  years  after  the  first  publication  of  Luther's 
themes,  the  court  of  Rome  did  not  proceed  to  extremities 
against  him.  Leo  originally  smiled  at  the  little  squabbles  of 
Saxony,  and  was  wont  to  say,  "  Brother  Martin  has  a  very 
fine  genius;  but  these  are  only  the  scuffles  of  friars !"  He 
despised  this  controversy  so  long,  that  he  was  too  late  either 
for  timely  concession,  or  for  immediately  destroying  the  her- 
esy, which  perhaps  he  might  have  strangled  if  he  had  seized 
it  in  the  cradle.  At  last  he  was  persuaded  by  the  divines,  or 
probably  by  the  politicians,  of  his  court  to  crush  a  revolt,  of 
which  the  example  might  become  dangerous. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  1520,  he  issued  the  damnatory  bull, 
in  which  forty-five  propositions,  extracted  from  the  writings 
of  Luther,  were  condemned  as  heretical ;  and  if  he  himself 
did  not  recant  within  sixty  days,  he  was  pronounced  to  be  an 
obstinate  heretic,  was  excommunicated,  and  delivered  unto 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  his  flesh ;  and  all  secular  princes 
were  required,  under  pain  of  incurring  the  same  penalties, 
with  the  forfeiture  of  all  their  dignities,  to  seize  his  person, 
that  he  might  be  punished  as  he  deserved. 

To  follow  Luther  through  the  perils  which  he  braved,  and 
the  sufferings  which  he  endured,  would  lead  us  too  far  from 
our  proper  province ;  but,  in  justice  to  him,  the  civil  historian 
should  never  omit  the  benefits  which  accrued  to  the  moral 
interests  of  society,  from  the  principle  on  which,  to  the  end, 
he  founded  his  doctrine, — that  all  rites  and  ceremonies,  all 
forms  of  worship,  nay,  all  outward  acts,  however  conformable 
to  morality,  are  only  of  value  in  the  judgment  of  God,  and  in 
the  estimate  of  conscience,  when  they  flow  from  a  pure  heart, 
and  manifest  right  dispositions  of  mind.  Wherever  the  out- 
ward acts  are  considered  as  in  themselves  meritorious,  it  is 
apparent  that  the  performance  of  one  outward  act  may  be 


1527.  THE    REFORMATION.  123 

conceived  to  make  amends  for  the  disregard  or  omission  of 
other  duties.  Some  notion  may  be  formed  of  the  possibility 
that  the  justice  of  a  superior  may  be  satisfied  for  a  theft  or  a 
fraud,  by  a  self-inflicted  suffering,  or  by  an  outward  act  of 
unusual  benefit  to  mankind.  But  it  is  evident  that  no  such 
substitute  can  be  conceived  for  a  grateful  and  affectionate 
heart,  for  piety  or  benevolence,  for  a  compassionate  and  con- 
scientious frame  of  mind.  Where  these  are  wanting,  outward 
acts  can  make  no  compensation  for  their  absence ;  because 
the  mental  qualities  themselves  are  the  sole  objects  of  moral 
approbation.  When  the  whole  moral  value  of  outward  acts 
is  ascribed  to  the  dispositions  and  intentions,  which,  in  the 
case  of  our  fellows,  we  can  understand  only  from  the  lan- 
guage of  their  habitual  conduct,  it  becomes  impossible  for  any 
reasonable  being  to  harbor  so  vain  a  conceit,  as  that  he  can 
compromise  with  his  conscience  for  deficiency  in  one  duty  by 
practising  more  of  another.  From  the  promulgation  of  this 
principle,  therefore,  may  be  dated  the  downfall  of  superstition, 
which  is  founded  on  commutations,  compromises,  exchanges, 
substitutes  for  a  pure  mind,  fatal  to  morality ;  and  upon  the 
exaggerated  estimate  of  practices,  more  or  less  useful,  but 
never  beneficial  otherwise  than  as  means. 

It  has  been  already  observed,  that  Ulrich  Zuinglius,  a  Swiss 
priest,  preached  against  indulgences  about  the  same  time 
with  Luther  himself.  He  inculcated  milder  doctrines,  and 
was  distinguished  by  a  more  charitable  spirit,  than  any  other 
reformer ;  but  though  some  of  his  opinions  have  been  adopted 
by  many  Protestants,  his  premature  death  prevented  him  from 
establishing  an  ascendant  even  in  his  own  country.  The 
sceptre  of  the  reformation  in  Switzerland  fell  into  the  power- 
ful hands  of  John  Calvin,*  a  native  of  Noyon  in  Picardy, 
who,  in  1534,  established  the  Protestant  religion  and  a  demo- 
cratical  form  of  government  in  the  city  of  Geneva,  The 
second  of  the  German  reformers  was  Melancthon,f  one  of  the 
restorers  of  ancient  learning,  who  did  much  to  recover  Gre- 
cian philosophy  from  the  mountainous  masses  under  which  it 
lay  buried  among  the  schoolmen,  but  who  would  have  been 
of  too  gentle  a  spirit  for  an  age  of  reformation,  if  that  very 
gentleness  had  not  disposed  him  to  seek  steadiness  in  submis- 
sion to  the  commanding  and  energetic  genius  of  Luther.  After 
the  death  of  his  master,  he,  like  Zuinglius,  rejected  the  stern 
dogma  of  absolute  predestination,  in  which  he  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  the  Lutheran  body,  leaving  it  to  become,  in  after 

*  Jean  Chauvin.  t  Schwarzerde. 


124  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1527. 

ages,  the  distinction  of  the  followers  of  Calvin,  and  still  more 
of  his  successor  Beza.* 

At  a  somewhat  later  moment,  the  whole  body  of  dissenters 
from  the  Roman  Catholic  church  received  the  name  of  Pro- 
testants, from  their  common  protest  against  an  intolerant 
edict  of  the  imperial  diet  holden  at  Spire. 

The  Lutherans  called  themselves  evangelical  Christians, 
from  their  profession  of  drawing  their  doctrines  from  the 
scriptures  alone.  They  were  called  followers  of  the  confes- 
sion of  Augsburg,  from  a  confession  of  their  faith  delivered 
to  the  diet  in  that  city  by  Melancthon.  The  followers  of 
Calvin  assumed  the  designation  of  the  reformed  church,  per- 
haps with  the  intention  of  marking  more  strongly  that  they 
had  made  more  changes  in  church  government  than  their 
Protestant  brethren.  A  Calvinist  and  a  Presbyterian  became 
in  England  synonymous  terms.  The  word  Calvinist  now  de- 
notes all  who,  in  any  Protestant  communion,  embrace  the 
doctrine  of  absolute  predestination.  It  is  synonymous  with 
predestinarian.  Many  Episcopalians  are  now  Calvinists; 
many  Presbyterians  are  anti-Calvinists. 

The  subject  of  fiercest  controversy  among  Protestants  was 
the  nature  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper.  A  rejec- 
tion by  all  Protestants  of  the  ancient  doctrine  or  language, 
which  represented  the  bread  and  wine  to  be,  in  that  sacred 
rite,  transubstantiated  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  was, 
of  all  Protestant  deviations,  that  which  most  excited  the 
dread  and  horror  of  pious  Catholics,  who  considered  the  here- 
tics as  thus  cutting  asunder  the  closest  ties  which  bound  the 
devout  heart  to  the  Deity.  Yet  Luther  only  substituted  one 
unintelligible  term, « consubstantiation,'  for  the  more  ancient 
but  equally  unintelligible  term,  '  transubstantiation.'  Even 
Calvin  paid  so  much  regard  to  ancient  dogmas,  as  to  maintain 
the  real  though  not  bodily  presence  of  the  body  of  Christ  in 
the  sacrament ;  and  the  church  of  England,  in  her  solicitude 
to  avoid  extreme  opinions,  and  to  reject  no  language  asso- 
ciated with  devotion,  has  not  altogether  avoided  the  same  in- 
comprehensible and  seemingly  contradictory  forms  of  speech. 
Zuinglius,  and  some  of  the  Lutherans,  who  openly  declared 
their  conviction  that  this  venerable  rite  was  merely  a  com- 
memoration of  the  death  of  Christ,  were  the  only  reformers 
who  made  a  substantial  alteration  in  the  old  creed,  and  ex- 
pressed themselves,  on  this  subject  at  least,  with  perfect  per- 
spicuity. 

Erasmus,  the  prince  of  European  scholars,  was  in  the  fif- 

*  Theodore  de  Bez€,  a  Rurgimdian. 


1527.  THE   REFORMATION.  125 

tieth  year  of  his  age,  and  in  the  full  maturity  of  his  feme, 
when  Luther  began  to  preach  the  reformation  at  Wittemberg. 
No  man  had  more  severely  lashed  the  superstitions  which 
were  miscalled  acts  of  piety,  or  scourged  the  frauds  and  de- 
baucheries of  the  priesthood  with  a  more  vigorous  arm.  The 
ridicule  which  he  so  plentifully  poured  on  the  monks  during 
his  residence  in  England  doubtless  contributed  to  their  easy 
overthrow  in  this  country.  He  was  pleased  with  Luther  as 
long  as  the  reformer  confined  himself  to  the  amendment  of 
faults,  without  impugning  the  authority,  or  assailing  the  con- 
stitution, of  the  church.  Erasmus,  however,  as  early  as 
1520,  informed  Luther  that  he  did  not  court  martyrdom,  for 
which  he  felt  himself  to  be  unfit ;  that  he  would  rather  be 
mistaken  in  some  points,  than  fight  for  truth  at  the  expense 
of  division  and  disturbance ;  that  he  should  not  separate  from 
the  church  of  Rome,  though  he  was  very  desirous  that  her 
errors  should  be  amended  by  her  own  established  authorities. 
Nor  was  the  demeanor  of  the  Saxon  reformer  towards  this 
illustrious  scholar,  in  the  beginning,  worthy  of  much  censure. 
Erasmus  was  not  required  to  commit  any  absolute  breach  of 
the  neutrality  which  his  age  and  character  seemed  to  impose 
on  him.  But,  when  all  differences  had  been  widened  by  the 
excesses  of  the  German  boors  and  of  the  Dutch  Anabaptists, 
Erasmus  recoiled  more  violently  from  approaches  to  the  Lu- 
therans. Though  the  monks  abated  naught  of  their  hatred, 
the  Roman  politicians  felt  the  necessity  of  courting  the  dic- 
tator of  literature;  they  appealed  to  former  good  offices;  they 
held  out  the  hope  of  further  favors.  Their  displeasure  was 
still  formidable,  and  Erasmus,  it  must  be  owned  with'  regret, 
made  too  large  sacrifices  to  his  poverty  and  his  fears.  On 
the  other  hand,  every  concession  or  approach  to  the  ancient 
church  was  treated  as  an  act  not  only  of  insincerity,  but  an 
example  of  apostasy  and  desertion;  charges  which,  as  he 
never  enlisted  hi  the  Lutheran  army,  he  did  not  strictly  de- 
serve. He  was  incensed  at  their  invectives ;  yet  even  then 
he  deplored  the  dreadful  bloodshed  which  attended  the  sup- 
pression of  the  boors'  revolt,  in  which  a  hundred  thousand 
persons  were  put  to  death.  In  his  latter  years,  a  cardinal's 
hat  was  offered  to  him :  he  declined  it ;  but  it  is  not  to  be 
denied  that,  if  the  convulsions  of  the  age  did  not  make  him  a 
true  papist,  at  least  they  rendered  him  a  member  of  the  papal 
faction.  Perhaps  he  did  not  dare  to  form  decisive  opinions 
concerning  fiercely  controverted  dogmas  in  theology.  He  was 
accused,  but  without  proof,  of  unbelief  in  the  Trinity.  The 
creed  which  he  had  brought  his  mind  to  embrace  distinctly 
seems  to  have  been  short  and  simple ;  and  that  of  which  he 
L2 


126  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1527. 

would  have  desired  a  profession  from  others  would  probably 
have  comprehended  the  greater  part  of  Christian  communities. 
He  died  in  1536  in  the  sixty-ninth  year  of  his  age — certainly 
not  reconciled  to  Luther  by  the  cruel  murder  of  his  illustrious 
friend  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  last  and  most  mournful  event 
of  which  he  lived  to  be  a  witness.  It  may  be  said  of  him, 
without  the  suspicions  of  exaggeration,  that  his  learning,  his 
powers  of  reason,  imagination,  and  wit,  were  in  his  own  age 
unmatched,  that  his  attainments  were  stupendous,  and  that, 
if  his  lot  had  fallen  on  happier  times,  his  faults  and  infirmities 
would  have  been  lost  in  the  mild  lustre  of  the  neighboring 
and  kindred  virtues. 

The  Calvinists  adopted  a  democratic  constitution  for  their 
church,  in  which  all  the  ministers  were  of  equal  rank  and 
power.  The  Lutherans  retained  bishops,  but  very  limited  in 
jurisdiction,  and  much  lowered  in  revenue.  The  church  of 
England,  generally  but  prudently  and  moderately  inclining  to 
an  agreement  with  Calvin  in  doctrine,  retained  the  same 
ranks  of  secular  clergy,  and  much  of  the  same  forms  of  pub- 
lic worship,  which  prevailed  in  the  ancient  church ;  while 
she,  in  some  respects,  enlarged  episcopal  authority  by  releas- 
ing it  from  the  supreme  jurisdiction  of  the  see  of  Rome. 

It  is  unfit  to  continue  these  sketches  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, brief  as  they  must  needs  be.  It  will,  however,  be  neces- 
sary to  return  to  them  when  their  influence  on  the  affairs  of 
England  becomes  more  conspicuous.  The  civil  history  of 
Europe  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  preva- 
lent opinions  of  the  eighteenth,  and  the  revived  activity  of 
principles  of  reformation  in  the  nineteenth,  are  all  of  them 
unintelligible  without  reference  to  the  opinions  and  disputes 
of  religious  parties. 

A  revolt  of  the  boors  of  Suabia  in  the  year  1525,  spread 
alarm  through  Germany,  and  was  triumphantly  appealed  to 
by  the  antagonists  of  the  reformation  as  a  decisive  proof  of  the 
fatal  tendency  of  its  anarchical  principles.  These  unhappy 
peasants  were  in  a  state  of  villanage ;  the  grievances  from 
which  they  prayed  for  deliverance  were  real  and  great. 
Among  the  most  conspicuous  of  their  demands  were,  emanci- 
pation from  personal  bondage,  the  right  of  electing  their  re- 
ligious teachers,  that  of  killing  untamed  animals  without  the 
restraint  of  game-laws,  and  a  participation  of  the  people  witli 
the  clergy  in  tithes,  which  they  desired  to  limit  to  corn  alone.* 
These  demands  were  hi  themselves  not  unreasonable,  though 
urged  by  armed  revolters.  The  conduct  of  Luther  at  this 

*  Sleidan,  i.  285. 


1527.  THE    REFORMATION.  127 

trying  moment  was  unexceptionable;  he  condemned  alto- 
gether the  insurgents,  and  earnestly  exhorted  their  lords  to 
humanity  and  forbearance.  If  he  departed  somewhat  from 
"  fair  equality,  fraternal  law,"  it  was  in  favor  of  the  hard  mas- 
ters ;  to  which  extreme  he  was  driven  by  his  solicitude  to  res- 
cue the  reformation  from  the  charge  of  fomenting  rebellion. 
His  policy,  however,  was  vain ;  his  antagonists  were  not  to 
be  conciliated.  If  he  was  silent  or  cool,  he  was  said  to  con- 
nive at  the  rebellion ;  if  it  continued  to  rage  in  spite  of  his 
warmest  censures,  he  was  said  to  show  that  the  principles  of 
anarchy  inherent  in  revolt  against  religion  rendered  the  Pro- 
testant boors  ungovernable  by  their  own  favorite  leaders.  The 
lords  subdued  the  rebellion ;  and,  according  to  the  usage  in 
like  cases,  disregarded  the  grievances,  while  they  drowned 
the  revolt  in  a  deluge  of  blood. 

Such  disorders  are  incident  to  the  greatest  and  most  bene- 
ficial movements  of  the  human  mind;  because  such  move- 
ments awaken  the  strongest  interests  and  excite  the  deepest 
passions  of  multitudes ;  and  are  often  as  much  perverted  by 
the  expectations  and  the  violences  of  ignorant  and  impatient 
supporters  as  they  are  by  the  systematical  resistance  of  avow- 
ed enemies.  It  sometimes  happens,  that  the  very  grievous- 
ness  of  the  evils  unfits  the  sufferers  for  the  perilous  remedies 
which  are  alone  efficacious;  because,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
German  boors,  it  disables  them  from  applying  these  ambigu- 
ous agents  with  the  moderation  and  caution  which  are  seldom 
joined  to  the  spirit  of  political  enterprise.  Poisons  are  often 
efficacious  remedies;  but  their  powers  of  destruction  are 
quickly  restored  by  a  slight  excess  in  their  use. 

While  the  enemies  of  the  reformation  were  exulting  over 
the  violence  of  the  oppressed  boors,  the  better  and  more  natu- 
ral fruits  of  it  sprung  up  in  all  those  situations  where  the  soil 
was  well  prepared  to  receive  it.  The  greatest  of  the  imperial 
cities,  which,  from  Strasburgh  and  Cologne  to  Hamburgh, 
preserved  a  republican  constitution,  adopted  the  Lutheran 
protest  against  the  papacy.  The  Low  Countries,  containing 
the  most  industrious  and  opulent  communities  to  the  north- 
ward of  the  Alps,  showed,  like  the  German  towns,  that  the 
disposition  to  religious  liberty,  which  began  to  steal  iinper- 
ceived  on  the  partisans  of  the  reformation,  was  best  received, 
and  most  heartily  welcomed,  by  the  commercial  interest ;  that 
new  and  rising  portion  of  the  community,  the  mere  fact  of 
whose  growth  indicated  the  advances  of  civilization.  Of  the 
two  monarchies  of  the  North,  then  among  the  most  free  gov- 
ernments of  Europe,  Denmark  was  the  first  to  embrace  the 


128  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1527. 

Lutheran  doctrine  ;*  and  in  Sweden,!  Gustavus  Vasa,  who  de- 
livered his  country  from  a  foreign  yoke,  and  bestowed  on  it 
the  blessings  of  civil  liberty,  paved  the  way  for  religious  free- 
dom by  the  introduction  of  the  Protestant  religion. 


CHAP.  VI. 

HENRY  VIII — CONTINUED. 

1527—1535. 

TO  THE  EXECUTION  OF  SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 

THERE  is  no  doubt,  from  succeeding  events,  that  the  seed 
sown  by  Wickliffe  in  England  was  never  destroyed.  Wolsey 
paid  his  court  to  Rome  by  burning  some  obscure  Lollards, 
who  were  lured  from  their  darkness  by  Luther's  light.  Sir 
Thomas  More,  though  a  reformer  of  criminal  law,  deviated 
so  far  from  his  principles,  when  he  entered  the  world  of  ambi- 
tion and  compliance,  as  to  be  present  at  the  torture  of  here- 
tics. Henry,  as  a  disciple  of  Aquinas,  took  up  the  pen  against 
the  Lutheran  heresy,  and  on  that  account  received  from  Rome 
the  title  of  defender  of  the  faith,  which  has  been  retained  for 
three  centuries  by  sovereigns  of  whom  some  might  be  more 
fitly  called  the  chiefs  of  Protestant  Europe.  There  was  no 
country  on  whose  fidelity  the  papal  see  might  seem  entitled 
to  rely  with  more  confidence  than  on  that  of  England.  A 
single  circumstance  shook  the  apparently  solid  connexion,  and 
in  the  end  detached  Henry  from  communion  with  the  Roman 
church.  Whether  he  really  felt  any  scruples  respecting  the 
validity  of  his  marriage  during  the  first  eighteen  years  of  his 
reign,  may  be  reasonably  doubted.  No  trace  of  such  doubts 
can  be  discovered  in  his  public  conduct  till  the  year  1527. 
Catherine  had  then  passed  the  middle  age :  personal  infirmi- 
ties are  mentioned  which  might  have  widened  the  alienation. 
About  the  same  time  Anne  Boleyn,  a  damsel  of  the  court,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-two,  in  the  flower  of  youthful  beauty,  and 
full  of  graces  and  accomplishments,  touched  the  fierce  but  not 
unsusceptible  heart  of  the  king.  One  of  her  ancestors  had 
been  lord-mayor  of  London  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI, ;  her 
family  had  since  been  connected  with  the  noblest  houses  of  the 
kingdom ;  her  mother  was  the  sister  of  the  duke  of  Norfolk. 
At  the  age  of  eight,  she  attended  the  princess  Mary  into 

*  1522.  J  1526. 


1527.  ANNE    BOLEYN.  129 

France  as  a  maid  of  honor,  during  that  lady's  short-lived  union 
with  Louis  XII.  On  the  death  of  that  monarch,  she  was 
taken  into  the  household  of  Claude,  queen  of  France,  for  her 
girlish  or  childish  attractions:  and  on  the  approach  of  the  rup- 
ture between  the  two  countries  in  1522,  Henry  required  her 
being  returned  to  England  before  he  declared  war ;  because, 
being  a  lady  of  the  royal  household,  she  could  not  with  pro- 
priety quit  France  without  the  king's  permission.  That  her 
eldest  sister,  and  even  her  mother,  preceded  her  in  the  favor 
of  her  royal  lover,  are  assertions  made  by  her  enemies  with  a 
boldness  equal  to  the  total  absence  of  every  proof  of  their 
truth.*  There  is  nothing  in  the  known  conduct  of  Henry 
himself  which  warrants  the  imputation  of  so  ostentatious  a 
dissolution  of  manners,  even  to  him.  Anne  appears  to  have 
entered  into  a  precontract,  or  given  some  promise  of  marriage 
to  one  of  the  sons  of  the  earl  of  Northumberland ;  but  whe- 
ther serious  or  frivolous,  and  how  far  binding  in  honor  or  in 
law,  are  questions  which  we  are  unable  to  answer.  The  terms 
used  in  that  age  to  describe  such  engagements  are  so  loose, 
that  it  is  unsafe  to  make  any  important  inference  from  them ; 
but  as  this  supposed  precontract  was  afterwards  considered  as 
a  sufficient  ground  for  the  sentence  which  declared  the  mar- 
riage of  Henry  and  Anne  to  be  null,  it  may  be  regarded  as 
some  presumption  that  a  family,  with  whom  one  of  the  noblest 
houses  in  England  negotiated  a  matrimonial  union,  was  at 
least  exempt  from  notorious  and  disgraceful  profligacy.  The 
antagonists  of  her  memory  load  her  with  the  inconsistent 
charges  of  yielding  to  the  king's  licentious  passions,  and  of 
having  affected  austere  purity  to  reduce  him  to  the  necessity 
of  marriage ;  but  the  peculiar  character  of  Henry  rendered 
him  often  a  scrupulous  observer  of  rules  without  much  regard 
to  their  principles.  The  forms  of  law  stood  higher  in  his  eye 
than  the  substance  of  justice :  this  peculiarity  affords  the  best 
key  to  his  proceedings  relating  to  the  divorce  of  which  he  was 
desiroua  A  legal  divorce,  however  cruel,  and  even  substan- 
tially unjust,  satisfied  his  coarse  and  shallow  morality.  Catha- 
rine was  then  in  her  forty-sixth  year ;  Anne  Boleyn,  as  has 
been  already  said,  was  in  her  twenty-second :  Henry  was  in 
his  thirty-eighth.  Sir  Godfrey  Boleyn,  lord-mayor  of  London 
in  1458,  married  the  daughter  of  lord  Hastings,  by  whom  he 
had  one  son,  the  husband  of  lady  Margaret  Butler,  co-heiress 

*  The  angry  addresses  of  cardinal  Pole  to  Henry  have  been  lately  quoted 
in  evidence  acair.st  the  Boleyn  family ;— as  if  a  cruelly  proscribed  man,  ex- 
iled in  a  distant  land,  and  glowing  with  just  resentment,  were  not  likely  or 
sure  to  believe  any  evil  of  his  barbarous  enemy.  The  virtues  of  cardinal 
Pole  destroy  on  this  occasion  the  weight  of  his  testimony. 


130  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1527. 

of  the  earl  of  Ormond ;  and  the  issue  of  this  alliance  was  Sir 
Thomas  Boleyn,  created  lord  Rochfort,  who  served  the  king 
with  distinction  in  some  diplomatic  missions,  and  especially 
in  the  important  embassy  to  Paris. 

The  light  which  shone  from  Anne  Boleyn's  eyes  might 
have  awakened  or  revived  Henry's  doubts  of  the  legitimacy 
of  his  long  union  with  the  faithful  and  blameless  Catharine. 
His  licentious  passions,  by  a  singular  operation,  recalled  his 
mind  to  his  theological  studies,  and  especially  to  the  question 
relating  to  the  papal  power  of  dispensing  with  the  Levitical 
law,  which  must  have  been  the  subject  of  conversation  at  the 
time  of  his  unusual,  if  not  unprecedented,  espousal  of  his 
brother's  widow.  Scruples,  at  which  he  had  once  cursorily 
glanced  as  themes  of  discussion,  now  borrowed  life  and 
warmth  from  his  passions.  In  the  course  of  examining  the 
question,  his  assent  was  likely  at  last  to  be  allured  into  the 
service  of  desire.  The  question  was,  in  itself,  easily  dis- 
putable :  it  was  one  on  which  honest  and  skilful  men  differed ; 
and  it  presented,  to  say  the  least,  ample  scope  for  self-delusion. 
His  nature  was  more  depraved  than  lawless  (if  that  word  may 
be  so  used);  and  it  is  possible  that  his  passion  might  have 
yielded  to  other  obstacles,  if  he  had  not  at  length  persuaded 
himself  that  by  the  means  of  a  divorce  his  gratification  might 
be  reconciled  with  the  letter  of  the  law.  His  conduct  has  the 
marks  of  that  union  of  confidence  and  formality  often  observed 
in  men  whose  immorality  receives  treacherous  aid  from  a  mis- 
taken conscience. 

It  was  about  this  period,  that  on  occasion  of  a  project  for 
the  marriage  of  the  princess  Mary  Tudor,  now  in  her  eleventh 
year,  to  Francis  L,  a  hint  is  said  to  have  been  thrown  out  by 
the  bishop  of  Tarbes,  the  French  ambassador  in  London,  that 
the  young  princess  might  be  illegitimate,  being  the  issue  of  a 
marriage  of  doubtful  validity.*  If  we  believe  this  fact,  it 
affords  some  ground  for  a  conjecture,  that  a  suggestion,  which 
must  have  been  shunned  as  offensive,  if  it  had  not  been  known 
to  be  acceptable,  was  procured  from  the  ambassador  by  Henry 
or  by  Wolsey.  But  such  an  anecdote,  reported  by  no  impar- 
tial writer,  without  any  account  of  the  preceding  or  conse- 
quent facts,  is  hardly  admissible,  except  as  a  proof  of  the  sus- 
picion of  the  experienced  negotiator,  that  doubts  of  the  validity 
of  the  king's  marriage  would  not  be  regarded  at  court  as  an 
unpardonable  offence.  The  king  now  treated  his  scruples  as 
at  least  specious  enough  to  make  a  favorable  impression  on  a 

*  Cavendish,  Life  of  Wolsey. 


1527.  HENRY    SEEKS    DIVORCE.  131 

pope  to  whom  he  had  just  rendered  the  most  momentous 
services. 

He  might,  indeed,  reasonably  expect  any  favor  from  Rome 
which  that  court  could  justly  bestow.  To  the  armaments  and 
negotiations  of  Henry,  Clement  VII.  owed  his  release  from 
prison ;  but  the  pope  had  felt  the  power  of  the  emperor,  and 
dreaded  a  resentment  which  could  not  foil  to  be  awakened  by 
the  degradation  of  an  Austrian  princess.  Clement,  an  Italian 
priest  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  more  strongly  influenced 
by  fear  of  the  future  than  by  gratitude  for  the  past.  Henry 
VIII.  was  distant,  Charles  V.  was  at  his  gates ;  the  benefit 
from  English  interposition  was  never  likely  to  be  repeated, 
the  injury  and  outrage  might  easily  be  again  inflicted  by  the 
master  of  Naples  and  of  Lombardy.  The  wary  pontiff  however, 
spared  no  pains  to  gratify  one  great  prince  without  displeasing 
another ;  or,  at  worst,  to  postpone  his  determination  so  long, 
that  time  or  accident  might  relieve  him  from  the  painful 
necessity  of  pronouncing  it  Perhaps  these  considerations 
might  be  excusable  in  a  pontiff,  who  was  also  a  feeble  tempo- 
ral sovereign;  but  they  were  as  worldly  as  the  motives 
ascribed  to  Henry  were  blended  with  the  suggestion  of  the 
senses.  The  one,  under  pretences  of  religion,  consulted  his 
own  interest;  while  the  other  abused  the  same  venerable 
name  to  cover  the  gratification  of  his  passion.  If  any  degree 
of  sincerity  belonged  to  the  religious  professions  of  either  (and 
it  is  not  improbable  that  some  portion  did  mingle  with  stronger 
motives),  the  excuse  was  as  admissible  in  the  case  of  Henry 
as  in  that  of  Clement 

The  French  embassy,  of  whom  Grammont,  bishop  of  Tarbes 
was  one,  appears  to  have  arrived  in  England -in  March,  1527. 
In  May,  Henry  gave  a  magnificent  entertainment  at  Green- 
wich, at  which  Anne  was  his  partner  in  the  dance.  In  July 
of  the  same  year,  Knight,  then  a  secretary  of  state,  was  dis- 
patched to  Rome  to  obtain  the  divorce ;  and,  on  the  1st  of 
August,  Wolsey  informed  Henry,  hi  a  dispatch  from  France 
addressed  to  that  prince,  that  his  project  of  seeking  a  divorce 
from  Catharine  was  already  rumored  at  Madrid.  Whether 
Anne  Boleyn  made  any  visits  to  England  while  her  residence 
was  in  Paris ;  whether  her  final  return  to  England  took  place 
on  the  death  of  Claude,  queen  of  France,  in  1522,  or  on  that 
of  Margaret,  duchess  of  Alencon,  to  whose  household  she  is 
said  by  some  to  have  been  transferred,  after  the  two  remaining 
years  of  that  princess's  life ;  or,  finally,  whether  she  was  de- 
tained hi  France  till  the  return  of  her  father  from  his  last 
embassy  to  Paris,  in  1527 ;  are  questions  of  fact  on  which  our 
knowledge  is  hitherto  incomplete. 


132  HISTORY    OP   ENGLAND.  1527. 

During  the  early  part  of  these  transactions,  the  situation  of 
Wolsey  induced  him  to  play  a  perilous  game.  On  the  one 
hand,  he  is  said  to  have  disengaged  Anne  from  Percy,  and 
appears  through  his  agent  Pace  to  have  secretly  procured  aid 
to  the  king's  suit  from  the  venal  pen  of  Wakefield,  Hebrew 
professor  at  Oxford,  who  had  before  declared  for  the  validity 
of  the  marriage  with  Catharine.*  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
was  really  desirous  of  wedding  his  master  to  a  French  princess, 
to  forward  his  own  designs  on  the  papacy,  and  to  cover  by  the 
popularity  of  a  valuable  and  illustrious  alliance  the  odium 
which  he  must  have  foreseen  to  be  a  consequence  of  a  justly 
obnoxious  divorce.  It  is  probable,  also,  that  Wolsey  was 
apprehensive  of  the  power  which  the  Boleyns  and  their  con- 
nexions would  acquire  by  the  elevation  of  their  young  and 
beautiful  relation.  He  threw  himself,  we  are  told,  on  his 
knees  before  the  king,  and  earnestly  entreated  him  to  desist 
from  a  purpose  unworthy  of  his  birth,  f  It  need  scarcely  be 
added,  that  the  minister  who  made  up  by  pliancy  to  an  im- 
petuous master  for  his  insufferable  arrogance  towards  herds 
of  dependants,  made  haste  to  atone  for  the  indiscreet  zeal 
which,  on  this  single  occasion,  he  presumed  to  oppose  to  the 
royal  desires.  He  redoubled  his  activity  and  apparent  zeal  to 
promote  the  marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn,  so  as  to  draw  from 
that  lady  a  letter  to  him  overflowing  with  gratitude. 

Sir  Thomas  More,  the  most  illustrious  Englishman  of  his 
time,  not  being  convinced  by  the  king's  reasons,  declined  the 
support  of  his  divorce.  Fisher,  bishop  of  Rochester,  acted 
with  the  like  hazardous  integrity.  No  name  is  preserved  of 
any  other  divine  or  lawyer  who  gave  the  same  pledge  of 
courageous  honesty.  The  people,  ignorant  of  law,  but  moved 
by  generous  feeling,  saw  nothing  in  the  transaction  but  the 
sacrifice  of  an  innocent  woman  to  the  passions  of  a  dissolute 
monarch,  which  was  in  truth  its  most  important  and  essential 
character. 

On  the  arrival  of  Cassalis,  an  Italian  agent  from,  Henry  at 
Rome,  in  September,  1527,  to  sue  or  to  sound  Clement  on  the 
divorce,  he  found  that  pontiff  in  a  situation  not  favorable  to 
the  success  of  the  application.  He  had  surrendered,  on  the 
7th  of  June,  to  the  imperialists,  on  condition  of  paying  a  hun- 
dred thousand  ducats  of  gold  in  two  months ;  and,  being  unable 
to  make  the  payment,  was  so  closely  watched  in  his  rigorous 
imprisonment,  which  ensued,  that  he  durst  not  give  a  public 
audience  to  Knight,  who  was  sent  as  an  extraordinary  ambas- 

*  Knight's  Erasm.  App.  25—29.    The  date  is  1527. 
t  Cavendish,  Life  of  Wolsey. 


1527.  QUESTION   OF   THE    DIVORCE.  133 

sador,  nor  venture  to  communicate  with  him,  but  secretly 
through  cardinal  Pisani.*  After  the  pope  made  his  escape  to 
Orvieto,  in  December,  access  to  him  was  somewhat  more  free. 
English  emissaries,  well  furnished  with  money,  repaired  to 
Italy ;  among  whom  was  Stephen  Gardiner,  who  afterwards 
reached  a  place  in  English  history  more  conspicuous  than 
honorable.  Various  expedients  were  suggested  to  deliver  the 
pope  from  his  painful  responsibility.  Hopes  were  entertained 
of  prevailing  on  the  queen  to  retire  into  a  monastery,  but  she 
generously  rejected  all  projects  which  involved  in  them  a 
suspicion  of  the  illegitimacy  of  her  daughter.  Clement 
yielded  so  far  to  the  EngHsh  ministers  at  Viterbo  as  to  grant 
a  commission  to  legates  to  hear  and  determine  the  validity  of 
the  marriage,  and  a  pollicitation  (or  written  and  solemn  prom- 
ise) not  to  recall  the  commission,  or  to  do  any  act  which 
should  annul  the  judgment  or  prevent  the  progress  of  the 
trial.  Gardiner  and  Fox  found  the  pope  lodged  in  an  old  and 
ruinous  monastery,  with  his  antechamber  altogether  unfur- 
nished, and  a  bed  which,  with  the  hanging,  did  not  amount  to 
more  than  the  value  of  twenty  nobles,  f  which  were  equiva- 
lent to  five  pounds  of  that  age.  In  executing  these  docu- 
ments, he  earnestly  and  pathetically  implored  the  king  not 
to  put  them  in  execution  till  the  evacuation  of  Italy  by  the 
German  and  Spanish  armies  should  restore  him  to  real  liberty. 
A  very  brief  statement  of  the  points  in  dispute  may  find  a 
fit  place  here.  The  advocates  of  Henry  observed"  that,  by  the 
law  of  Moses,  a  man  was  forbidden  to  marry  the  sister  of  his 
deceased  wife ;{  a  prohibition  to  which,  being  of  divine  au- 
thority, the  dispensing  power  could  not  extend ;  but  it  was 
contended  on  his  part,  also,  that  even  if  this  were  not  granted 
or  proved,  the  bull  of  Julius  II.  was,  at  all  events,  void,  be- 
cause it  was  obtained  under  the  false  pretences  (recited  in  the 
bull  as  its  ground)  that  the  marriage  was  sought  by  the  par- 
ties for  the  sake  of  peace  between  England  and  Spain,  though 
such  peace  then  actually  subsisted ;  and,  also,  that  such  dis- 
pensation was  sought  at  the  desire  of  both  parties,  although 
Henry,  being  then  only  twelve  years  of  age,  was  not  compe- 
tent to  express  any  wish  on  the  subject,  which  ought  to  be 
regarded  as  a  valid  ground  of  the  proceeding.  But  undoubt- 
edly the  desire  of  consolidating  and  securing  peace  might 
well  be  comprehended  in  the  words  of  the  bull ;  and  it  is 
equally  obvious,  that  the  desires  of  a  boy  might  be  faithfully 
conveyed,  or  sufficiently  represented,  by  those  of  his  father 

*  Knight  to  Henry,  13th  Sept.  1527,  in  lord  Herbert.    Rennet,  ii.  100. 
t  Herbert.  I  Leviticus,  xv.  3.  ib.  xx.  21.  Deuteronomy,  xxv.  5. 

Vol.  n.  M 


134  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND. 

and  sovereign.  Another  preliminary  objection  was 
against  Henry,  that  the  nuptials  of  Arthur  and  Catharine 
were  never  consummated,  in  other  words,  that  there  was  no 
marriage  in  fact,  and,  consequently,  that  the  espousal  of 
Catharine  by  Henry  was  perfectly  lawful,  even  if  it  were  not 
protected  by  a  valid  dispensation  from  the  pope;  but  the 
evidence  of  the  completion  of  the  nuptials  was  considerably 
stronger  than  is  usual  in  the  case  of  a  childless  matron. 

The  advocates  of  the  king  did  not  question  the  dispensing 
power  farther  than  in  its  application  to  a  divine,  and  gene- 
rally binding,  prohibition.  The  court  of  Rome  did  not  dare 
distinctly  to  lay  claim  to  such  a  power  in  the  case  of  prohibi- 
tions acknowledged  to  be  of  divine  authority,  which  no  decree 
of  the  Catholic  church  had  ever  sanctioned :  but  they  were 
loth  to  renounce  it,  from  a  desire  not  to  narrow  a  great  pre- 
rogative of  the  popedom.  Neither  did  they  choose  to  rest  their 
cause  upon  its  most  rational  foundation,  lest  they  might  be 
charged  with  rashly  lowering  the  obvious  and  literal  sense  of 
a  divine  law. 

For,  surely,  the  law  in  Leviticus  may  be  understood  as  di- 
vine, and  yet  prescribed  only  to  the  Jewish  people.  It  seems, 
indeed,  to  be  a  part  of  their  purely  national  code ;  yet  there 
would  be  no  inconsistency  in  holding  that  the  Catholic  church 
had  by  long  usage,  and  by  its  written  canons,  extended  to 
Christians  the  Mosaic  prohibitions.  Though  such  prohibitions 
are  undoubtedly  not  so  necessary  to  the  domestic  morality  of 
youth  in  the  case  of  connexion  through  marriage  as  they  are 
generally  and  justly  held  to  be  in  the  relation  of  blood,  yet 
they  promote  the  same  most  momentous  purpose  in  some  de- 
gree, however  inferior.  The  law  forbidding  marriage  between 
a  brother  and  sister,  owned  to  be  indispensable,  might  by  no 
very  strained  analogy  be  stretched  to  that  of  a  man  to  his 
brother's  widow,  a  view  of  the  subject  which  borrows  a  delu- 
sive speciousness  from  the  employment  of  very  similar  words 
to  express  relations,  which  have  but  a  slight  resemblance  to 
each  other.  It  might  be  added,  that  the  sovereigns  of  all 
Christian  countries  had  in  effect  transplanted  the  prohibitions 
into  their  respective  codes,  and  sanctioned  them  by  long 
usage  and  frequent  recognition.  It  was  a  natural  though  not 
a  necessary  consequence,  that  the  highest  authority  of  the 
church  might  dispense  with  a  regulation  to  which  the  church 
had  probably  first  subjected  its  members.  This  reasonable 
construction  would  have  been  fatal  to  Henry's  pretensions : 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  a  presumptuous  attempt  to 
give  a  new  sense,  and  a  more  limited  authority,  to  the  Le- 
vitical  law. 


1529.  QUESTION    OP   THE    DIVORCE.  135 

It  was  not,  however,  either  by  legal  or  theological  argument, 
that  the  passions  of  the  monarch  were  to  be  controlled,  or  the 
fears  of  the  pontiff  were  to  be  removed. '  Francis  I.,  the  most 
decisive  opponent  of  the   emperor,  befriended  Henry,  and 
seconded  his  suit  at  Rome.     A  French  army  under  Lautrec 
threatened  to  reduce  Naples.    As  long  as  success  promised  to 
attend  that  commander,  Clement  adopted  the  measures  already 
mentioned  favorable  to  the  projects  of  the  English  monarch. 
But  it  was  not  even  then  without  the  hesitation  and  well-dis- 
guised reservations  with  which  he  thought  it  necessary  to 
tread  warily  amidst  the  shock  of  combatants  equally  potent 
and  merciless.   In  June,  1529,  however,  he  concluded  a  treaty 
of  alliance*  with  the  emperor,  in  which,  among  warm  pro- 
fessions of  friendship,  and  some  cessions  or  guarantees  of  ter- 
ritory, it  was  stipulated  that  Charles  should  restore  the  house 
of  Medici,  the  pope's  family,  to  their  former  station  at  Flor- 
ence, which  they  had  governed  by  overruling  influence ;  and 
that  Clement,  after  being  received  with  all  due  homage  and 
reverence  by  Charles,  should,  when  that  monarch  came  to 
Italy,  solemnize  his  coronation,  which  was  necessary  to  com- 
plete the  dignity  of  the  emperor  of  the  Romans,  for  want  of 
which,  all  his  successors  designated  themselves,  not  as  empe- 
rors, but  as  emperors  elect.     The  temper  as  well  as  terms  of 
this  alliance  denote  that  close  connexion  which,  in  parties  of 
very  unequal  strength,  naturally  degenerates  into  the  depend- 
ence of  the  weaker  ally.    Clement  accordingly  now  resolved 
to  provide  for  the  repose  of  his  age  by  a  submission  to  the 
emperor,  the  only  potentate  who  could  shield  him  from  all 
other  foes.  Henceforward  we  must  consider  Clement  as  having 
taken  his  final  part  against  the  degradation  of  the  queen  of 
England,  an  Austrian  princess.     But  though  his  fluctuations 
really  ceased  during  the  short  remainder  of  his  life,  it  was 
still  desirable  to  amuse  so  pwerful  a  prince  by  ingenious  de- 
lays and  plausible  formalities. 

Already  impatient  of  forensic  artifices,  Henry  had  been  ad- 
vised to  adopt  a  very  specious  expedient  for  obtaining  the 
object  of  his  desires,  which,  if  it  did  not  alarm  the  court  of 
Rome  into  concession,  might  almost  render  its  sanction  need- 
less. The  bold  proceedings  of  the  council  of  Constance  in 
deposing  and  electing  popes  (to  say  nothing  of  their  decrees) 
had  deeply  rooted  and  widely  spread  the  belief,  that  whatever 
might  be  the  power  of  popes  when  there  was  no  council,  the 

*Dumont,  Corps  Diplomatique,  iv.,  part  ii.  p.  1.  The  marriage  of  Alex- 
ander de  Medici  to  Margaret  of  Austria,  the  emperor's  natural  daughter, 
was  a  badge  of  the  friendship  between  his  holiness  and  his  imperial  ma- 
jesty. Treaty,  art.  iv.  Corps  Diplom.  supra,  3. 


136  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1529. 

Catholic  church  assembled  in  a  general  council  had  an  au- 
thority paramount  to  that  of  the  supreme  pontiff;  but  a  gene- 
ral council  could  not  be  now  assembled  without  the  consent 
of  the  emperor,  who  would  certainly  withstand  every  project 
for  facilitating  the  divorce.  In  this  perplexity  a  species  of 
irregular  appeal  to  the  church  in  its  dispersed  state  appeared 
to  be  the  best  substitute  for  a  favorable  council  or  pope.  Ques- 
tions were,  therefore,  framed  by  Henry's  command,  addressed 
to  the  universities  of  Europe,  to  obtain  their  opinion  on  the 
validity  of  the  king's  marriage  with  his  brother's  widow. 
These  learned  bodies,  at  the  head  of  whom  were  theologians, 
canonists,  and  jurists,  did  seem,  indeed,  to  be  the  virtual  re- 
presentatives of  the  church  in  its  state  of  compulsory  inac- 
tivity, since  they  were  certainly  the  men  who  would  exercise 
the  greatest  share  of  moral  influence  over  the  determinations 
of  a  general  council.  The  cases  submitted  to  their  judgment 
were  clear,  and  the  points  in  dispute  were  fairly  stated  ;*  the 
questions  were,  whether  marriage  with  a  brother's  widow  was 
prohibited  by  the  divine  law,  and  if  it  were,  whether  a  papal 
dispensation  could  release  the  parties  from  its  obligation.  The 
most  moderate  of  them  answered,  that  such  a  marriage  could 
not  be  attempted  without  a  breach  of  the  divine  law,  even 
with  a  dispensation  or  permission  from  the  supreme  pontiff. 
The  French  universities  of  Orleans,  Angers,  Bourges,  and 
Toulouse,  and  the  Italian  universities  of  Ferrara,  Padua,  and 
Pavia,  concurring  with  Bologna  and  Paris,  the  two  most  fa- 
mous schools  of  civil  and  canon  law  on  the  Continent,  decreed 
that  the  marriage  with  Catharine  was  so  mere  a  nullity  as  to 
be  incurable  even  by  a  papal  dispensation.  The  doctors  of 
Bolognaf  deviated  somewhat  in  their  language  from  the  calm- 
ness of  a  recluse  and  studious  character ;  for  they  pronounced 
the  marriage  to  be  not  only  horrible  and  detestable  to  a  Chris- 
tian, but  utterly  abominable  among  infidels ;  that  the  most 
holy  father,  to  whom  were  intrusted  the  keys  of  heaven,  and 
who  could  do  almost  all  other  acts,  could  not  release  a  man 
from  a  prohibition  fenced  round  by  all  laws  human  and  divine. 
Bologna,  a  recent  and  imperfect  acquisition  of  the  holy  see, 
which  had  surrendered  only  twenty  years  before  to  Julius  II. 

*  Rymer,  xiv.  290,  &c.  1529. 

t  Rymer,  xiv.  393 ;  and  the  disclaimer  of  influence  by  force  or  fear.  Ib. 
395.  by  the  Bolognese  doctors  on  oath.  An  acute  writer  of  the  present  age 
has  referred  his  readers  for  proof  to  Rymer,  xiv.  393.  397 ,  which,  to  me. 
seems  to  prove  nothing  but  the  anxiety  of  the  doctors  to  conceal  their  de- 
cree from  the  pope's  governor  of  Bologna,  who  must  have  been  adverse  to 
it.  This  sort  of  secrecy  brings  no  discredit  on  the  instrument  which  pur- 
ports to  be  the  act  of  all  the  doctors  of  theology  in  the  university.  "  Omnes 
doctores  theolofi  convenimus."  Rymer,  tit  supra. 


1529.  QUESTION    OF   THE    DIVORCE.  137 

on  conditions,  which,  if  fairly  executed,  left  the  external  ad- 
ministration in  the  hands  of  the  people,  affected,  perhaps, 
while  the  pope  was  a  prisoner,  to  display  somewhat  wantonly 
the  remains  of  ancient  independence.  Still  the  university  of 
that  city,  and  the  two  universities  of  the  Venetian  states, 
were  placed  in  circumstances  favorable  to  impartiality.  All 
the  universities  of  France  can  hardly  be  suspected  of  dread- 
ing so  much  the  displeasure  of  Francis  for  unfavorable  an- 
swers to  his  ally,  as  to  have  disgraced  themselves  by  false- 
hood. That  money  was  plentifully  distributed,  seems  to  be 
certain;  but  that  the  apparent  consent  of  all  the  learned 
Catholics,  who  gave  an  opinion  relating  to  this  affair,  was 
chiefly  purchased  by  the  distribution  of  bribes,  is  an  assertion 
improbable  in  itself,  and  which  would  redound  more  to  the 
dishonor  of  the  established  church  than  most  of  the  charges 
made  against  her  by  the  hottest  zealots  of  reformation. 

Some  of  the  universities  are  said  by  the  Catholics  to  have 
been  obtained  by  packed  meetings,  some  by  minorities  usurp- 
ing the  character  of  majorities.  These  are  the  too  frequent 
faults  of  public  bodies,  and  the  constant  imputation  thrown  on 
their  decisions  by  defeated  parties ;  and  they  are  too  general 
to  deserve  much  attention  until  new  and  more  successful  at- 
tempts shall  be  made  to  support  specific  charges  by  reasonable 
proof.  The  doubt,  be  it  remembered,  entirely  relates  to  the 
share  which  undue  practices  had  in  influencing  the  English 
and  foreign  universities.  Those  transactions  of  better  times 
which  have  affected  the  interests  of  statesmen,  or  the  pas- 
sions of  princes,  have  not  been  untainted  by  the  like  evil  mo- 
tives and  impure  means.  The  English  universities  were 
thought  at  first  to  be  unfriendly  to  the  king's  cause,  and  came 
over  to  him  slowly,  not  from  undue  influence  alone,  but  prob- 
ably also  by  a  fellow-feeling  with  the  people,  who,  after  hav- 
ing listened  only  to  pity  for  an  illustrious  lady,  gradually,  al- 
lowed their  generous  zeal  to  be  damped  by  time.  The  Ger- 
man Protestants  refused  to  purchase  the  good-will  of  Henry 
by  sanctioning  the  divorce.*  No  answer  was  made  by  the 
Catholic  universities  of  Germany,  because  they  were  under 
the  domineering  power  of  the  emperor,  whose  universities  in 
Italy  and  Spain  were  also  totally  silent  That  monarch  must 
have  prevented  the  English  agents  from  access  to  professors ; 
or  he  must  have  commanded  these  last  to  make  no  answer  to 
the  questions  on  which  they  would  otherwise  have  been  con- 
sulted. In  either  case  the  undue  influence  used  by  Charles 

*  "  All  Lutherans  be  utterly  against  your  highness  in  this  cause."  Croke 
from  Venice,  July  1,  15:!0.  Burnet's  Hist.  Reform.  Appendix  to  Rec.  of 
book  ii.  number  33. 

M2 


138  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1529. 

seems  to  be  as  certain  in  Catholic  Germany,  in  Lombardy, 
Naples,  and  the  Spanish  peninsula,  as  that  of  Henry  in  Eng- 
land, or  of  his  ally  Francis  in  France. 

Dr.  Thomas  Cranmer,  a  divine  of  note  at  Cambridge,  who, 
though  born  in  the  dark  period  of  1483,  began  to  cultivate 
the  more  polite  and  humane  literature  introduced  by  Erasmus 
into  northern  Europe,  early  caught  some  sparks  of  that  gene- 
rous zeal  for  liberty  of  writing,  which  the  humanists  (so  the 
followers  of  that  great  scholar  were  called)  were  accused  of 
carrying  to  excess.  His  preference  of  the  new  learning  did 
not  arise  from  ignorance  of  the  old :  he  was  eminent  both  as 
a  theologian  and  canonist ;  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the 
ornaments  of  the  university.  His  nature  was  amiable,  and 
his  conduct  hitherto  spotless.  He  suggested  the  appeal  to  the 
universities  in  a  conversation  with  Fox  and  Gardiner,  the 
king's  confidential  counsellors  and  subservient  agents.  It  was 
relished  and  adopted :  Cranmer  was  sent  on  missions,  origin- 
ating in  that  question,  to  France  and  Italy ;  and  it  appears 
from  his  private  marriage  with  the  niece  of  Osiander,  a  Pro- 
testant divine  of  Nuremburg,  that  during  his  more  important 
mission  to  Germany,  he  on  some  points  approached,  if  he  did 
not  overpass,  the  threshold  of  Lutheranism.  On  the  death 
of  Warham  on  the  30th  of  March,  1533,  he  was  raised  to  the 
archiepiscopal  see  of  Canterbury  ;  a  station  for  which  he  was 
fitted  by  his  abilities  and  virtues,  but  which  was,  in  fact,  the 
unsuitable  reward  of  diplomatic  activity  for  a  very  ambiguous 
purpose. 

The  history  of  public  events  in  this  and  the  two  following 
reigns,  will,  better  than  any  general  description,  display  the 
excellent  qualities  of  his  nature,  and  the  undeniable  faults  of 
his  conduct. 

At  Viterbo,  on  the  8th  of  June,  1528,*  a  commission  issued 
to  cardinals  Wolsey  and  Campeggio,  conjointly,  or  to  either 
separately,  to  hear  and  determine  the  matrimonial  suit,  and 
to  do  all  acts  that  are  necessary  for  the  execution  of  their  sen- 
tence. On  the  arrival  of  Campeggio,  in  October,  1528,  he 
made  an  attempt  to  smooth  the  way,  by  persuading  Catharine 
to  embrace  a  religious  life,  as  he  had  endeavored  previously 
to  dissuade  Henry  from  farther  pursuing  the  divorce.  Both 
these  attempts  were  unsuccessful.  Catharine  once  more 
spurned  the  unmotherly  proposal.  The  popular  feeling,  which 
was  favorable  to  her,  obliged  her  husband  to  remove  Anne 
Boleyn  for  a  while  from  court,  and  to  assure  a  great  council 
of  peers,  prelates,  and  judges,  whom  he  convoked  on  Sunday 

*  Rymer,  xiv.  295. 


1529.  WOLSEY    PERSECUTED.  139 

the  8th  of  November,  in  the  great  hall  of  his  palace  of  Bride- 
well, that  he  was  moved  in  his  late  proceedings,  solely  by  a 
desire  to  know  whether  his  marriage  was  void,  and  conse- 
quently whether  his  daughter  Mary  was  the  rightful  heir  of 
the  crown ;  whether,  "  he  begot  her  on  his  brother's  wife, 
which  is  against  God's  law.  Think  you,  my  lords,"  added  he, 
"  that  these  words  touch  not  my  body  and  soul?  For  this  only 
cause  I  protest  before  God,  and  on  the  word  of  a  prince,  I 
have  asked  counsel  of  the  greatest  clerks  in  Christendom,  and 
sent  for  the  legate  as  a  man  indifferent  between  the  parties."* 
The  countenances  of  the  hearers  formed  a  strangely  diversi- 
fied sight :  some  sighed  and  were  silent,  some  showed  tender- 
ness to  the  king's  scruples :  the  queen's  most  sagacious  friends 
were  sorry  that  the  matter  was  now  so  far  published  as  to  cut 
off  retreat  or  reconciliation.  These  perplexities  afforded  a 
plausible  pretext  to  Campeggio  to  desire  time  for  new  instruc- 
tions from  Rome,  in  order  to  obtain  delay,  of  which  he  knew 
the  pope  to  be  desirous.  The  dangerous  illness  of  the  pope 
in  the  spring  of  1529  retarded  the  answer,  and  is  said  to  have 
once  more  turned  the  ambition  of  Wolsey  towards  the  tiara, 
now  more  than  ever  inaccessible  to  him. 

Among  other  expedients  for  prolonging  the  suit  before  the 
legate's  court,  Campeggio  suggested  one  drawn  from  the 
storehouse  of  Roman  chicane.  The  courts  of  Rome  having 
a  long  vacation,  from  July  to  October  (the  period  of  greatest 
danger  to  health  from  the  Roman  atmosphere),  the  legate 
maintained  that  all  courts  deriving  authority  from  the  pope 
were  bound  to  suspend  their  sittings  during  that  time.  Wol- 
sey consented,  and  the  king  began  to  consider  him  as  a  min- 
ister of  too  much  refinement  and  duplicity,  who,  as  he  aimed 
at  doing  equally  well  with  the  papal  and  royal  courts,  was  to 
be  no  longer  suitable  to  the  impatience  prevalent  at  the  latter. 
Catharine,  who  had  secret  friends  at  court,  excited  the  sus- 
picions of  the  king  against  her  enemy  the  cardinal,  without 
perhaps  knowing  that  her  rival  Anne  Boleyn  was  already  em- 
ployed as  one  of  the  instruments  of  his  overthrow.  The 
man  who  had  been  so  long  a  domineering  favorite  all  parties 
openly  or  privily  joined  to  destroy.  The  attorney-general,  on 
the  9th  of  October,  1529,  commenced  a  prosecution  against 
him  for  procuring  bulls  from  Rome  without  the  king's  license. 
On  the  17th  of  the  same  month  the  great  seal  was  taken 
from  him.  The  charge  was  doubtless  the  consummation  of 
injustice,  since  Wolsey  had  obtained  these  bulls  with  the 
knowledge  and  for  the  service  of  the  king,  and  had  executed 

*  Hall,  754. 


140  HISTORY    OP    ENGLAND.  1529. 

them  for  years  under  the  eye  of  his  ungrateful  master.  On 
the  1st  of  December,  1529,  the  lords,  with  Sir  Thomas  More, 
the  new  chancellor,  at  their  head,  presented  an  address  to  the 
king,  enumerating  various  articles  of  accusation  against  the 
tottering  cardinal,  and  praying  that  he  might  no  more  have 
any  power,  jurisdiction,  or  authority  within  the  realm :  this 
address  was  sent  to  the  commons  for  their  concurrence  ;  but 
the  more  serious  parts  of  it  were  confuted  with  such  ability 
as  well  as  fidelity  by  the  cardinal's  grateful  servant  Thomas 
Cromwell,  that  it  was  found  impossible  to  prosecute  the  accu- 
sation of  treason. 

The  dilatory  proceedings  of  the  legatine  court  had  much 
contributed  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  king  and  his 
minister.  They  seem  indeed  to  have  been  spun  out  to  a  length 
which  an  impatient  prince  was  not  likely  much  longer  to  en- 
dure. The  only  memorable  circumstance  in  the  progress  of 
the  suit  was  the  calm  dignity  with  which  the  queen  asserted 
her  own  wronged  innocence,  and  displayed  the  superiority  of 
plain  sense  and  natural  feeling  over  those  legal  formalities 
which  are  so  hateful  when  they  are  abused.  Kneeling  before 
her  husband,  she  is  said  to  have  addressed  him  in  words  to 
the  following  effect : — "  I  am  a  poor  woman,  and  a  stranger 
in  your  dominions,  where  I  can  neither  expect  good  counsel 
nor  indifferent  judges.  But,  sir,  I  have  long  been  your  wife, 
and  I  desire  to  know  wherein  I  have  offended  you.  I  have 
been  your  spouse  twenty  years  and  more.  I  have  borne  you 
several  children.  I  have  ever  studied  to  please  you,  and  I 
appeal  to  your  conscience  whether  in  the  earliest  moments 
of  our  union  you  were  not  satisfied  that  my  marriage  with 
your  brother  was  not  complete.  Our  parents  were  accounted 
the  wisest  princes  of  their  age,  and  they  were  surrounded  by 
prudent  counsellors  and  learned  canonists.  I  must  presume 
their  advice  to  have  been  right.  I  cannot  therefore  submit  to 
the  court,  nor  can  my  advocates,*  who  are  your  subjects, 
speak  freely  for  me." 

In  the  progress  of  this  trial  the  unwonted  humility  of  Wol- 
sey  in  yielding  the  precedence  to  Campeggio  awakened  sus- 
picions of  his  cordiality,  which  were  countenanced  by  his  ac- 
quiescence in  his  colleague's  procrastination. 

A  remarkable  coincidence  of  circumstances  now  occurred 
which  might  have  alarmed  a  less  jealous  monarch.  On  the 
15th  of  July,  Clement,  in  spite  of  promises,  removed  the  suit 
from  the  legatine  court  to  be  heard  before  himself  at  Rome. 

*  The  bishops  of  Rochester  and  St.  Asaph,  with  Dr.  Ridley.  The  first 
eoon  after  fell  for  his  religion.  The  last,  at  the  distance  of  twenty  years, 
displayed  equal  virtue. 


1530.  INTRIGUES  AT  ROME.  141 

The  bull  of  avocation  was  in  three  days  after  dispatched  to 
England,  where  the  messenger  found  the  legatine  court  ad- 
journed for  two  months,  under  the  pretence  of  the  necessary 
conformity  of  all  papal  courts  to  the  usages  of  the  Roman 
tribunals.  This  unreasonable  suggestion  originated  indeed 
with  Campeggio,  but  was  connived  at  by  Wolsey.  It  is  not 
easy  to  believe  that  it  was  not  concerted  with  Clement  to  af- 
ford ample  time  for  his  avocation  before  the  legates  could 
again  assemble,  and  thereby  to  silence  the  most  effective 
species  of  legal  resistance.  Campeggio,  in  obedience  to  the 
instructions  of  Clement,  quitted  England,  and  the  pope  sum- 
moned the  English  monarch  to  appear  before  him  at  Rome  in 
forty  days, — an  insult  which,  though  in  some  measure  repair- 
ed, was  never  forgiven. 

To  the  other  circumstances  of  suspicion  against  the  cardi- 
nal must  be  added  that  Sir  Francis  Bryan  was  said  to  have 
obtained  possession  of  a  secret  letter  from  Wolsey  to  the 
pope,  which  gave  reasonable  grounds  for  apprehending  that 
the  cardinal  covered  an  illicit  and  clandestine  intercourse  un- 
der his  official  correspondence  with  the  holy  see.  Anne 
Boleyn  is  said  by  her  enemies  to  have  stolen  this  letter  from 
Bryan,  and  to  have  showed  it  to  the  king.*  These  practices 
were  not  peculiar  to  one  of  the  parties.  The  emperor  did 
not  fail  to  communicate  to  his  aunt,  the  queen  of  England, 
the  intrigues  carried  on  at  Rome,  and  her  remaining  friends 
at  court  conveyed  the  intelligence  from  her  to  the  king. 

Wolsey  confessed  his  offence  against  the  statute  of  pre- 
raunire,f  of  which  he  was  technically  guilty,  inasmuch  as  he 
had  received  the  bulls  without  a  formal  license.  The  court 
necessarily  pronounced  by  their  sentence,  "  that  he  was  out 
of  the  protection  of  the  law ;  that  his  lands,  goods,  and  chat- 
tels were  forfeited,  and  that  his  person  was  at  the  mercy  of 
the  king."  The  cardinal,  with  his  vast  possessions,  fell  by 
this  sentence  into  the  king's  hands.  That  prince  sent  presents 
and  kind  messages  to  the  discarded  minister,  and  suffered  him 
to  remain  at  Esher,  in  Surrey,  a  country-house  of  his  bishop- 
ric of  Winchester.  Here,  however,  Henry,  with  character- 
istic caprice,  left  him  with  some  relaxation  of  apparent  rigor; 
but  without  provision  for  his  table,  or  furniture  for  his  apart- 
ments. The  sequel  of  his  residence  near  London  was  mark- 
ed by  the  same  fluctuation  on  the  part  of  Henry,  whose  in- 
consistencies probably  resulted  from  his  proneness  to  be 

*  Herbert,  123,  124. 

t  25  Ed.  3.  1..  especially  16  R.  2.  c.  5,  called  by  Pope  Martin  V.  "  txtcra- 
bile  statutum  quod  omni  divinte  et  humanec  rationi  contrarium  est."  Dod,  CIi. 
Hist.  i.  267. 


142  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1530. 

moved  to  action  by  every  impulse  of  a  present  passion.  In 
February,  1530,  Wolsey  was  pardoned  and  restored  to  his  see 
of  Winchester,  and  to  the  abbey  of  St.  Alban's,*  with  a  grant 
of  6000Z.,  and  of  all  other  rents  not  parcel  of  the  archbishop- 
ric of  York.  Even  that  great  diocese  was  afterwards  re- 
stored. He  arrived  at  Cawood  Castle  about  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember, 1530,  where  he  employed  himself  in  magnificent 
preparations  for  his  installation  on  the  archiepiscopal  throne. 
At  that  moment  his  final  ruin  seems  to  have  been  resolved  on. 
The  earl  of  Northumberland,  the  former  suitor  or  betrothed 
spouse  of  Anne  Boleyn,  was  chosen  to  apprehend  him  for 
high  treason.  He  was  carried  first  to  lord  Shrewsbury's  cas- 
tle of  Sheffield,  where  he  was  compelled  by  his  distempers  to 
rest,  and  afterwards  to  the  abbey  of  Leicester.  He  breathed 
his  last  at  that  place,  on  the  30th  of  November,  1530.  A 
journey  from  York  to  Leicester  on  horseback  so  near  to  mid- 
winter rendered  a  disorder  in  his  bowels,  under  which  he 
labored,  mortal.  His  dying  words  were,  "  If  I  had  served 
God  as  diligently  as  I  have  done  the  king,  he  would  not  have 
given  me  over  in  my  gray  hairs.  This  is  the  just  reward 
that  I  must  receive  for  the  pains  I  have  taken  to  do  him  ser- 
vice, not  regarding  my  service  to  God."f  Had  such  feelings 
pervaded  his  life,  instead  of  shining  at  the  moment  of  death, 
his  life  would  have  been  pure,  especially  if  his  conception  of 
duty  had  been  as  exact  as  his  sense  of  its  obligation  was 
strong.  "  If  he  had  been  more  humble,  or  less  wealthy," 
says  lord  Herbert,  "  he  was  capable  of  the  king's  mercy."| 
The  sudden  and  violent  fall  of  a  man  from  the  pinnacle  of 
greatness  to  an  unexpected  grave  is  one  of  the  tragic  scenes 
in  human  affairs,  which  has  a  power  over  the  heart,  even 
when  unaided  by  esteem  ;  and  often  reflects  back  on  his  life 
an  unmerited  interest,  which  though  inspired  by  the  downfall 
is  in  some  degree  transferred  to  the  fallen  individual. § 

It  is  manifest  that  as  Henry  approached  a  final  determina- 
tion to  set  at  naught  the  papal  authority,  he  must  have  per- 
ceived that  Wolsey  was  an  unsuitable  instrument  for  that 
high  strain  of  daring  policy.  The  church  and  court  of  Rome « 
had  too  many  holds  on  the  cardinal.  As  their  political 
schemes  diverged,  the  ties  of  habit  and  friendship  were  grad- 
ually loosened  between  the  king  and  the  cardinal ;  perhaps  at 
last  a  touch  from  the  hand  of  Anne  Boleyn  brought  him  to  the 

*  17th  Feb.  1530.    Rymer,  xiv. 

t  Holinshed,  iii.  755.  t  Herbert,  125. 

§  Of  chance  and  change  and  fate  in  human  life, 
High  actions  and  high  passions  best  describing. 

Paradise  Regained. 


1533.  LETTER   TO   THE    POPE.  143 

ground,  to  clear  the  field  for  counsellors  more  irreconcilable 
to  the  supreme  pontiff. 

A  strong  symptom  of  the  king's  growing  determination 
appeared  in  June,  1530,  in  a  letter  to  the  pope  from  two  arch- 
bishops, two  dukes,  two  marquesses,  thirteen  earls,  five  bish- 
ops, twenty-five  barons,  twenty-two  mitred  abbots,  and  eleven 
knights  and  doctors,  beseeching  his  holiness  to  bring  the 
king's  suit  to  a  speedy  determination ;  and  at  the  same  time 
intimating,  in  very  intelligible  and  significant  language,  that 
if  he  should  delay  to  do  justice  he  would  find  that  desperate 
remedies  may  at  length  be  tried  in  desperate  distempers.* 
On  the  27th  of  September  an  answer  to  this  alarming  address 
was  dispatched,  containing  specious  explanations  and  fair 
promises.  But  a  few  days  before,  Gregory  Casallis,  the  Eng- 
lish agent  at  Rome,  acquainted  his  master  that  the  pope  had 
secretly  proposed  to  allow  Henry  to  wed  a  second  wife  during 
the  life  of  the  first,  f  Casallis  suspected  this  suggestion  to  be 
an  artifice  of  the  imperial  party,  perhaps  to  bring  odium  on 
Henry  if  he  accepted  it,  but  it  was  more  probably  intended  to 
save  the  house  of  Austria  from  seeing  one  of  her  daughters 
repudiated.!  This  expedient  was  naturally  more  acceptable 
to  the  pope,  because  it  implied  no  charge  of  usurpation  on  his 
predecessor,  and  perhaps,  also,  because  polygamy  was  not  pro- 
hibited by  the  letter  of  the  Mosaic  law.  Had  the  proposal 
been  made  at  an  earlier  period,  Casallis  might  have  welcomed 
a  suggestion  which  would  gratify  the  passion  of  his  master, 
protect  the  dignity  of  an  Austrian  princess,  and  preserve  con- 
sistency between  the  acts  of  successive  pontiffs.  But  the 
Roman  court  with  all  its  boasted  state-craft  was  unpractised 
in  the  policy  of  concession,  and  had  lingered  till  after  the 
return  of  a  spring-tide  had  rendered  retreat  no  longer  prac- 
ticable. 

The  king  and  people  of  England  were  prepared  by  several 
circumstances  for  resistance  to  the  papacy,  though  not,  per- 
haps, for  separation  from  the  church.  The  ancient  statutes 
for  punishing  unlicensed  intercourse  with  the  popedom,  which 
were  passed  when  the  residence  of  the  popes  at  Avignon 
threw  them  into  the  hands  of  France,  had  familiarized  the 
English  nation  to  the  lawfulness  of  curbing  papal  encroach- 
ments. The  long  schism  which  had  divided  the  western 
church  into  separate  and  adverse  bodies,  the  adherents  of 
various  pretenders  to  the  triple  crown,  had  inured  all  Europe 

*  Rymer,  xiv.    Herbert,  141.    Wolsey  is  the  first  subscriber  to  this  letter. 

t  Herbert,  141. 

t  Casallis  gives  no  such  hint,  and  considers  the  proposal  hostile. 


144  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1533. 

to  the  perilous  opinion,  that  a  pope  might  usurp,  and  that  a 
revolt  against  him  might  become  a  duty.  The  council  of 
Constance  closed  the  schism,  but  struck  a  more  fatal  blow  at 
the  pontifical  power,  by  subjecting  the  papal  crown  to  the 
representative  assemblies  of  the  church.  The  remains  of  the 
English  Lollards  were  roused  from  their  places  of  refuge  by 
the  noise  of  a  more  mighty  revolt  on  the  neighboring  conti- 
nent against  the  mystical  Babylon.  The  prevalence  of  the 
Lutherans  along  the  line  of  coast  which  stretches  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Meuse  to  that  of  the  Oder,  gave  the  utmost 
facility  to  the  importation  of  dreaded  opinions  from  Germany 
and  the  Netherlands,  with  which  England  had  her  chief  traffic. 
They  were  gladly  received  by  the  traders  of  the  southern  sea- 
ports, the  most  intelligent  and  prosperous  body  of  men  in  the 
kingdom.  The  martyrdom  of  Bilney  and  of  others,  who  laid 
down  their  lives  for  Protestantism,  served  rather  to  signalize 
the  growing  strength  of  the  revolters  than  to  damp  the  spirit 
of  reformation. 

But  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  bulk  of  the  people 
were  not  yet  as  unprepared  as  their  sovereign  for  a  total  revo- 
lution in  doctrine  and  worship.  There  was  no  previous  exam- 
ple of  success  in  an  attempt  so  extensive.  Henry  and  his 
subjects  seemed  at  the  period  of  the  divorce  to  be  ready  only 
to  reform  ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  to  confine  the  pontifical 
authority  within  due  limits. 

In  the  spring  of  1533,  the  queen  resided  at  the  royal  honor 
of  Ampthill  in  Bedfordshire.*  Cranmer  came  to  the  neigh- 
boring priory  of  St.  Peter,  at  Dunstable,  where,  by  virtue  of 
his  duties  as  primate  and  legate,  he  instituted  a  judicial  in- 
vestigation into  the  validity  of  the  alleged  marriage.  The 
evidence  for  the  king  was  laid  before  the  court.  Catharine, 
with  the  firmness  of  a  royal  matron,  maintained  her  own  dig- 
nity and  the  rights  of  her  daughter.  After  being  summoned 
for  fifteen  successive  days,  she  was  pronounced  to  be  contu- 
macious. On  the  23d  day  of  May,  1533,  Cranmer  pronounced 
his  final  judgment,  declaring  the  alleged  marriage  between 
the  king  and  the  lady  Catharine  of  Castile  to  have  been  null 
and  void,  and  enjoining  the  parties  ho  longer  to  cohabit.  On 
his  return  to  Lambeth,  by  another  judgment,  of  which  he  did 
not  assign  the  grounds,  bearing  date  on  the  28th  of  May,  1533, 
he  confirmed  the  marriage  of  the  king  with  the  lady  Anne, 
which  had  been  privately  solemnized  by  Dr.  Lee,  afterwards 
bishop  of  Lichfield,  about  St.  Paul's  day.  She  was  crowned 

*  In  days  of  old  here  Ampthill  towers  were  seen, 
The  mournful  refuge  of  an  injured  queen. 


1533.  PENALTIES   AGAINST   THE   CLERGY.  145 

on  the  1st  of  June.  As  the  archbishop  had  long  before  pub- 
licly avowed  his  conviction  of  the  invalidity  of  Catharine's 
marriage,  there  was  no  greater  fault  than  indecorum  in  his 
share  of  these  proceedings ;  for  the  sentence  of  nullity  only 
declared  the  invalidity  of  a  contract  which  had  from  the 
beginning  been  void.  But  it  must  be  owned  that  Cranmer, 
who  knew  of  the  private  marriage  about  a  fortnight  after  it 
was  solemnized,  is  exposed  to  a  just  imputation  of  insincerity, 
throughout  his  subsequent  judicial  trial  of  the  question,  on 
which  the  legitimacy  of  that  ceremony  depended.  Several 
preparations  had  been  made  for  these  bold  measures.  Wolsey 
had  exercised  the  legatine  power  so  long,  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  clergy  had  done  acts  which  subjected  them  to  the 
same  heavy  penalties,  under  the  ancient  statutes,  which  had 
crushed  the  cardinal.  No  clergyman  was  secure.  The  attor- 
ney-general appears  to  have  proceeded  against  the  bishops  in 
the  court  of  king's  bench,  and  the  conviction  of  the  prelates 
would  determine  the  fate  of  their  clergy.  After  this  demon- 
stration of  authority,  the  convocation  agreed  to  petition  the 
king  to  pardon  their  fault.  The  province  of  Canterbury  bought 
this  mercy  at  the  price  of  a  grant  of  100,000/. :  that  of  York 
contributed  only  18,0007.  Occasion  was  then  taken  to  intro- 
duce a  new  title  among  those  by  which  the  petitioners  ad- 
dressed the  king,  who  was  petitioned  as  "  Protector  of  the 
Clergy,  and  supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of  England ;"  a 
mode  of  expression  which  seemed  suitable  to  the  prayer  of 
their  petition,  rather  than  intended  to  be  a  legal  designation. 
Archbishop  Warham  supported  the  designation.  Even  Fisher 
consented,  on  condition  of  the  insertion  of  the  words,  "  as  far 
as  the  law  of  Christ  allows."  This  amendment  was,  indeed, 
large  enough  to  comprehend  every  variety  of  opinion.  But 
thus  amended  it  answered  the  purpose  of  the  court,  which 
was  to  take  this  unsuspected  opportunity  of  insinuating  an 
appellation,  pregnant  with  pretension,  amidst  the  ancient 
formularies  and  solemn  phraseology  consecrated  by  the  laws, 
and  used  by  the  high  assemblies  of  the  commonwealth.  The 
new  title,  full  of  undefined  but  vast  claims,  soon  crept  from 
the  petitions  of  the  convocation  into  the  heart  of  acts  of  par- 
liament A  bill  against  ecclesiastical  abuses  was  (fatally  for 
themselves)  with  success  combated  by  the  bishops  and  abbots. 
In  the  following  session  more  attacks  were  made  against  the 
established  church,  which  seem  to  have  supplied  lord  Herbert 
with  a  pretext  for  the  ingenious  speech  on  this  subject  which 
he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  an  anonymous  and  probably  imagi- 
nary commoner.* 

*  Herbert,  137,  138. 
VJ.  II.  N 


146  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1533. 

The  principal  members  of  the  administration  which  suc- 
ceeded Wolsey  were  the  dukes  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  and 
the  lord-chancellor  More.  They  were  friendly  to  a  reforma- 
tion of  abuses  in  the  church,  though  not  prepared  for  a  revolu- 
tion in  her  doctrine  and  constitution.  The  pure  and  illus- 
trious name  of  More  seemed  to  suffice  as  a  pledge  for  a  reform- 
ation which  should  be  effectual  without  being  subversive  of 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  church.  To  this  government 
was  not  long  after  added  Thomas  Cromwell,  a  man  whose 
life  was  a  specimen  of  the  variety  of  adventures  and  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune  incident  to  the  leading  actors  of  a  revolu- 
tionary age.  The  son  of  a  fuller  near  London,  he  had  served 
as  a  trooper  in  the  wars  of  Italy,  and  as  a  clerk  at  the  desk  of 
a  merchant  of  Venice.  On  his  return  to  England  he  studied 
the  law,  but  was  soon  taken  into  the  service  of  Wolsey,  whom 
he  defended  in  adversity,  not  only  with  great  ability,  but  with 
a  fidelity  still  more  respectable.  His  various  experience,  his 
shrewdness  and  boldness,  recommended  him  to  Henry,  who 
required  a  minister  more  remarkable  for  the  vigor  of  his  mind 
than  for  the  delicacy  of  his  scruples.  He  had,  perhaps,  heard 
the  preaching  of  Luther,  he  might  have  taken  an  active  part 
in  the  sack  of  Rome.  He  tempted  his  master  with  the  spoils 
of  the  church :  he  hinted  at  the  success  which  had  attended 
the  daring  policy  of  the  German  princes.  No  practical  mea- 
sure had  hitherto  been  adopted  against  the  Roman  see,  but 
the  stoppage  of  the  annates,  a  first  year's  income  of  vacant 
bishoprics,  from  which  the  revenue  of  the  cardinals  resident 
at  Rome  was  derived.  This  statute  provides  every  softening 
compatible  with  an  effective  prohibition,  and  makes  ample  pro- 
vision for  private  adjustment ;  becoming  coercive  only  on  the 
failure  of  all  spontaneous  compromise.*  But  it  touched  the  con- 
nexion with  Rome  at  the  critical  point  of  money,  and  gave  it 
to  be  understood  that  still  larger  sources  of  revenue  might  be 
turned  to  another  channel.  The  convocation  had  been  obliged 
to  undertake  that  they  should  make  no  canons  without  the 
king's  license ;  and,  though  this  measure  was  softened  by 
limitations,  it  nevertheless  served  to  throw  light  on  the  king's 
being  "  head  of  the  church,"  a  phrase  which  it  was  evident 
was  not  intended  to  remain  a  vain  and  barren  title.  In  all 
these  movements  Luther  was  the  prime,  though  the  uncon- 
scious, mover.  His  importance  would  be  imperfectly  esti- 

*  23  Hen.  8.  c  20.  Stat.  of  the  Realm,  iii.  385.  The  pardon  to  the  clergy 
of  the  province  of  Canterbury  is  confirmed  by  22  Hen.  8.  c.  15.  Stat.  Realm, 
iii.  334.  The  like  to  those  of  the  province  of  York  by  23  Hen.  8.  c.  19.  The 
language  respecting  the  king's  supremacy  is  not  repeated  in  these  acts  of 
parliament. 


1533.  PAPAL    AUTHORITY    REJECTED.  147 

mated  by  the  mere  number  of  those  who  openly  embraced 
his  doctrine.  Many  there  were  who,  though  not  Lutherans, 
were  moved  by  the  spirit  which  Luther  had  raised.  Some 
became  moderate  reformers  to  avert  his  reformation,  which 
they  feared  and  hated.  Others  adopted  a  cautious  and  mild 
reformation,  from  inclination  towards  the  principles  of  the 
great  reformer.  Many  were  influenced  by  a  persuasion  that 
it  was  vain  to  struggle  against  the  stream ;  and  not  a  few 
must,  in  all  such  times,  be  infected  by  that  mysterious  conta- 
gion which  spreads  over  the  world  the  prevalent  tendencies 
of  an  age.  Cranmer  was  raised  to  the  see  of  Canterbury  on 
the  death  of  Warham,  who  is  celebrated  by  Erasmus  among 
his  kindest  friends  and  most  generous  patrons. 

Henry  was  now  on  the  brink  of  an  open  breach  with  the 
apostolic  see,  and  was  about  to  appear  as  the  first  great  mon- 
arch, since  the  extinction  of  the  race  of  Constantine,  who  had 
broken  asunder  the  bonds  of  Christian  communion.  At  the 
next  step  he  might,  perhaps,  find  no  footing.  He  paused.  He, 
as  well  as  his  contemporaries,  doubtless  felt  misgivings  that 
the  example  of  this  hitherto  untried  policy  might  not  only 
eradicate  religious  faith,  but  shake  the  foundations  of  civil 
order,  and  perhaps  doom  human  society  to  a  long  and  barba- 
rous anarchy. 

By  a  series  of  statutes  passed  in  the  year  1533  and  1534, 
the  church  of  England  was  withdrawn  from  obedience  to  the 
see  of  Rome,  and  thereby  severed  from  communion  with  the 
other  churches  of  the  west  Appeals  to  Rome  were  prohibit- 
ed, under  the  penalties  of  premunire  ;*  the  clergy  acknow- 
ledged that  they  could  not  adopt  any  constitution  without  the 
king's  assent  ;f  a  purely  domestic  election  and  consecration 
of  all  prelates  was  established ; \  all  pecuniary  contributions, 
called  Peter-pence,  imposed  by  "  the  bishop  of  Rome,  called 
the  pope,"  were  abolished ;  all  lawful  powers  of  licensing  and 
dispensing  were  transferred  from  him  to  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury;  and  his  claims  to  them  are  called  usurpations 
made  in  defiance  of  the  true  principle,  "  that  your  grace's 
realm  recognizing  no  superior  under  God  but  only  your  grace 
has  been,  and  is,  free  from  subjection  to  the  laws  of  any  for- 
eign prince,  potentate,  or  prelate."  After  thus  excluding  for- 
eign powers  by  so  strong  a  denial  of  their  jurisdiction,  the 
same  important  statute  proceeds  to  affirm  that  "  your  majesty 
is  supreme  head  of  the  church  of  England,  as  the  prelates  and 
clergy  of  your  realm  representing  the  said  church  in  their 

*  24  Hen.  8.  c.  2.  Stat.  of  the  Realm,  iii.  427. 

t  25  Hen.  8.  c.  19.  J  25  Hen.  8.  c.  20. 


148  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1534. 

synods  and  convocations  have  recognized,  in  whom  consisteth 
the  authority  to  ordain  and  enact  laws  by  the  assent  of  your 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  commons,  in  this  present  par- 
liament assembled."*  This  bold  statute  was  qualified  by  a 
singular  proviso,  which  suspended  its  execution  till  midsum- 
mer, and  enabled  the  king  on  or  before  that  day  to  repeal  it ; 
probably  adopted  with  some  remaining  hope  that  it  might 
have  terrors  enough  to  countervail  those  which  were  inspired 
by  the  imperial  armies.  By  the  next  statute!  provision  was 
made  for  the  succession  to  the  crown,  the  object  and  the  bul- 
wark of  the  ecclesiastical  reformation.  It  confirmed  the  judg- 
ments of  Cranmer,  which  had  pronounced  the  marriage  with 
Catharine  to  be  void,  and  that  with  Anne  to  be  valid.  It  di- 
rected that  the  lady  Catharine  should  be  henceforth  called 
and  reputed  only  dowager  to  prince  Arthur,  and  settled  the 
crown  on  the  heirs  of  the  king  by  his  lawful  wife,  queen 
Anne.  This  succession  was  guarded  by  a  clause,  perhaps 
unmatched  in  the  legislation  of  Tiberius,  which  enacted, 
"  that  if  any  person,  by  writing,  print,  deed,  or  act,  do,  or 
cause  to  be  procured  or  done,  any  thing  to  the  slander,  preju- 
dice, disturbance,  or  derogation  of  the  lawful  matrimony  be- 
tween your  majesty  and  the  said  queen  Anne ;  or  as  to  the 
peril,  slander,  or  disherison  of  any  of  the  issue  of  your  high- 
ness, limited  by  this  act  to  inherit  the  crown ;  such  persons, 
and  their  aiders  and  abettors,  shall  be  adjudged  high  traitors, 
and  they  shall  suffer  death  as  in  cases  of  high  treason."  All 
the  king's  subjects  were  required  to  swear  to  the  order  of  suc- 
cession, under  pain,  if  they  did  not,  of  the  consequence  of 
misprision  of  treason. 

In  the  next  session  all  these  enactments  were  sanctioned 
and  established  by  a  brief  but  comprehensive  act  "  concerning 
the  king's  majesty  to  be  supreme  head  upon  earth  of  the 
church  of  England,  which  granted  him  full  power  to  correct 
and  amend  any  errors,  heresies,  abuses,  &c.,  which  by  any  ec- 
clesiastical jurisdiction  might  be  reformed  or  redressed."}: 
The  oath  to  the  succession  was  also  re-enjoined,§  and  its  terms 
were  somewhat  altered.  The  first-fruits,  and  the  tenth  of 
the  income  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices,  were  granted  to  the 
king,  and  commissioners  were  appointed  to  value  the  bene- 
fices, with  a  machinery  afterwards  so  enlarged  as  to  be  in- 
strumental in  promoting  rapine  on  a  more  extended  scale. || 

The  acquiescence,  or  rather  the  active  co-operation,  of  the 
established  clergy  in  this  revolution  is  not  one  of  its  least  re- 

*  25  Hen.  8.  c.  2J.  t  25  Hen.  8.  c.  22.          J  23  Hen.  8.  e.  1. 

§  Ibid.  c.  2.  |j  Ibid.  c.  3. 


1534.  jlIOLY    MAID    OF    KENT.  149 

markable  features.  Several  bishoprics  were  then  vacant,  in 
consequence  of  the  disturbance  of  intercourse  with  Rome. 
Six  bishops,  however,  sanctioned  by  their  vote  every  blow 
struck  at  the  church.  Fourteen  abbots  were  generally  pres- 
ent, when  the  number  of  temporal  peers  who  attended  were 
somewhat  more  than  forty.  They  did  not  shrink  from  the 
deposition  of  Catharine,  by  reducing  her  title  to  that  of 
princess-dowager  of  Wales.  By  ratifying  the  marriage  of 
Anne  Boleyn,  they  adopted  those  parts  of  the  king's  conduct 
which  most  disgusted  the  people.  The  bill  for  subjecting  the 
clergy  to  the  king  as  their  sole  head  was  so  favorably  treated 
as  in  one  day  to  be  read  three  times  and  passed :  no  division 
appears  on  these  measures.  After  the  vacancies  in  the  epis- 
copal order  were  filled  up,  the  usual  number  of  bishops  at- 
tending without  opposition  was  sixteen*.  Two  prelates, 
Heath  of  York,  and  Tunstall  of  Durham,  were  the  messen- 
gers chosen  to  convey  to  Catharine  the  tidings  of  her  solemn 
degradation  in  parliament  Whether  we  ascribe  this  non-re- 
sistance to  dread  of  the  king's  displeasure,  or  to  a  lukewarm 
zeal  for  the  established  religion,  it  affords  a  striking  and  in- 
structive contrast  to  the  stubborn  resistance  of  the  best  and 
most  honest  of  them  in  the  beginning  to  the  moderate  reform 
of  such  odious  grievances  as  pluralities  and  non-rssidence. 
They  were  now  compelled  to  sacrifice  more  than  it  was  fit 
so  suddenly  to  require;  and  very  considerably  more  than 
what,  while  the  people  were  calm,  would  have  satisfied  their 
wishes. 

Elizabeth  Barton  (the  holy  maid  of  Kent)  was  at  this  time 
a  nun  profest  in  the  priory  of  St.  Sepulchre  at  Canterbury. 
She  had  for  years  been  held  in  reverence  among  the  adhe- 
rents of  the  ancient  faith  for  her  spotless  life,  and  the  more 
than  usual  ardor  of  her  devotional  feelings.  She  believed 
herself  (for  what  could  be  her  motive  for  fraud  ?)  to  be  divine- 
ly endowed  with  the  powers  of  working  miracles,  in  which 
was  comprehended  that  of  foretelling  future  events ;  in  order 
that  by  a  timely  manifestation  of  such  mighty  powers  wielded 
by  a  feeble  virgin  an  evil  and  corrupt  generation  might  be  re- 
called from  that  universal  apostasy  to  which  they  were  has- 
tening. Several  gentlemen  and  clergymen  of  Kent  believed 
in  her  mission.  Even  the  learned  and  the  wise, — the  honest 
bishop  Fisher,  and  the  amiable  archbishop  Warham,  gave 
credit  or  countenance  to  her  pretensions.  The  mighty  intel- 
lect and  conscious  purity  of  Sir  T.  More  himself  did  not  so 
far  preserve  the  serenity  of  his  rnind  as  to  prevent  him  from 
yielding  to  this  delusion, — enough  at  least  to  enable  his  ene- 

*  1  Lords1  Journals,  56,  &.c. 

N2 


150  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1534. 

mies  to  charge  him  with  a*share  in  it.  At  first  it  should 
seem  that  she  and  her  Kentish  associates  were  tried  only  in 
the  star-chamber,  where  it  was  thought  sufficient  to  punish 
them  by  standing  at  Paul's  Cross  during  the  sermon,  and  by 
reading  on  that  occasion  a  public  confession  of  their  impos- 
ture.* The  unhappy  woman  was  subject  to  faintings  and 
convulsions,  the  natural  consequence  of  religious  emotions 
agitating  a  frame  which  had  been  weakened  by  fasts  below 
its  ordinary  feebleness.  In  these  trances  she  saw  marvellous 
visions  which  naturally  turned  on  the  extraordinary  events 
which  were  passing  around  her.  A  transient  delirium  proba- 
bly often  clouded  her  senses,  when  on  every  subject  but  her 
prevalent  illusion  she  spoke  and  thought  rationally.  She 
might  have  heard  the  death  of  Henry  spoken  of  as  probable 
in  troublous  times,  and  perhaps  represented  as  a  desirable 
event  by  Catholics  incapable  of  contributing  to  it.  The  pre- 
sumptuous belief  in  divine  judgments  prepared  her  mind  to 
receive  deep  impressions  from  such  topics.  Nothing  could 
be  more  natural  than  that  in  her  wild  agitation  she  should 
prophesy  evil  to  evil-doers ;  or  that  she  should  denounce  pun- 
ishment against  those  whom  she  deemed  the  greatest  crimi- 
nals. She  and  her  abettors  were  attainted  for  high  treason, 
inasmuch  as  "  she,"  says  the  statute,  "  declared  that  she  had 
knowledge  by  revelation  from  God,  that  God  was  highly  dis- 
pleased with  our  said  sovereign  lord,  and  that,  if  he  proceeded 
in  the  said  divorce  and  separation  and  married  again,  he 
should  no  longer  be  king  of  this  realm  ;  and  that  in  the  esti- 
mation of  Almighty  God  he  should  not  be  a  king  one  hour  ; 
and  that  he  should  die  a  villain's  death."f  She  was  executed 
for  misfortunes  which  ignorance  and  superstition  regarded  as 
crimes  ;  for  the  incoherent  language  and  dark  visions  of  a  dis- 
turbed if  not  alienated  mind. 

Fisher,  bishop  of  Rochester,  was  attainted  by  the  act 
against  Barton :  by  a  separate  statute  he  was  afterwards  at- 
tainted of  misprision  of  treason  for  not  taking  the  oath  to  the 
succession.  But  it  seems  that  his  age,  learning,  and  virtue, 
might  have  preserved  his  life,  if  Paul  III.  had  not  endeavored 
to  secure  it  more  perfectly  by  the  dignity  of  a  prince  of  the 
church.  Henry,  who  deemed  it  an  indignity  to  him  to  act 
as  if  a  grace  granted  by  Rome  could  protect  the  object  of  it 
from  his  anger,  commanded  the  aged  prelate  to  be  put  to 
death,  saying,  that  the  pope  might  send  a  cardinal's  hat,  but 
that  Fisher  should  have  no  head  to  wear  it  With  this  scurvy 
jest,  and  with  such  brutal  defiance,  did  Henry  begin  his  new 
career  of  sanguinary  tyranny. 

*  ilolinshed.  f  2a  Hen.  8.  c.  12. 


1535.  SIR    THOMAS    MORE.  151 

The  next  of  his  deeds  of  blood  has  doomed  his  name  to 
everlasting  remembrance.  The  fate  of  Sir  Thomas  More 
was  unequalled  by  any  scene  which  Europe  had  witnessed 
since  the  destruction  of  the  best  and  wisest  of  the  Romans 
by  those  hideous  monsters  who  wielded  the  imperial  sceptre 
of  the  West  It  will  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  point  out  any 
man  like  More  since  the  death  of  Boethius,  the  last  sage  of 
the  ancient  world.  Others  imitated  the  Grecian  arts  of  com- 
position more  happily ;  but  when  we  peruse  those  writings 
of  More  which  were  produced  during  the  freedom  and  bold- 
ness of  his  youth,  we  must  own  that  no  other  man  had  so 
deeply  imbibed,  from  the  works  of  Plato  and  Cicero,  their 
liberty  of  reasoning,  their  applications  of  philosophy  to  affairs 
and  institutions,  to  manners  and  tastes ;  in  a  word,  their  in- 
most habits  of  thinking  and  feeling.  He  faithfully  transmits 
the  whole  impression  which  they  made  on  his  nature.  He 
imprinted  it  with  some  enlargement  and  variation  on  the 
minds  of  his  readers.  Those  who  know  only  his  Utopia  will 
acknowledge  that  he  left  little  of  ancient  wisdom  unculti- 
vated, and  that  it  anticipates  more  of  the  moral  and  political 
speculation  of  modern  times  than  can  be  credited  without  a 
careful  perusal  of  it.  It  was  the  earliest,  model  among  the 
moderns  of  imaginary  voyages  and  ideal  commonwealths. 
Among  the  remarkable  parts  of  it  may  be  mentioned  the  ad- 
mirable discussions  on  criminal  law,  the  forcible  objections  to 
capital  punishment  for  offences  against  property,  the  remarks 
on  the  tendency  of  the  practice  of  inflicting  needless  suffer- 
ing on  animals  in  weakening  compassion  and  affection  towards 
our  fellow-men.  The  specious  chimera  of  a  community  of 
goods  allured  him,  as  it  had  seduced  his  master  Plato.  The 
guilt  and  misery  caused  by  property  lie  on  the  surface  of  so- 
ciety ;  the  infinitely  greater  evils  from  which  it  guards  us  re- 
quire much  sagacity  and  meditation  to  unfold  ;  insomuch  that 
it  is  hard  to  determine  what  sort  of  instinct  restrains  multi- 
tudes in  troubled  times  from  making  terrible  experiments  on 
this  most  tempting  of  all  subjects. 

The  most  memorable  of  Sir  Thomas  More's  speculations 
was  the  latitude  of  his  toleration,  which  in  Utopia,  before  he 
was  scared  by  the  tumults  of  the  Reformation,  he  expressly 
extends  even  to  atheists.  "  On  the  ground  that  a  man  can- 
not make  himself  believe  what  he  pleases,  the  Utopians  do 
not  drive  any  to  dissemble  their  thoughts  by  threats,  so  that 
men  are  not  tempted  there  to  lie  or  disguise  their  opinions."* 

*  Utopia  (English  translation),  180.  London  edition,  IfSJ.  Utopia  ap- 
pears, from  internal  evidence,  to  have  f»wn  written  in,  or  before,  the  year 
J51G,  and  consequently  a  year  before  the  first  preaching  of  Luther. 


152  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1535. 

It  must  be  owned  that  he  deviated  from  his  fair  visions  of  in- 
tellectual improvement,  after  he  was  alarmed  by  the  excesses 
of  some  of  Luther's  followers.  He  took  a  part  in  the  execu- 
tion of  the  barbarous  laws  against  heretics,  as  many  judges 
since  his  time  have  enforced  criminal  laws  which  punish 
secondary  crimes  with  death,  and  in  which  no  good  man  not 
inured  to  such  inflictions  by  practice  could  have  taken  a  share. 
Yet  even  in  his  polemical  writings  against  Luther,  he  repre- 
sents the  severities  of  sovereigns  against  the  new  reformers 
as  caused  by  their  tumults  and  revolts ;  and  at  last  declares 
that  he  heartily  wishes  for  the  exclusion  of  violence  on  both 
sides,  trusting  to  the  final  triumph  of  truth. 

He  was  the  first  Englishman  who  signalized  himself  as  an 
orator,  the  first  writer  of  a  prose  which  is  still  intelligible, 
and  probably  the  first  layman  since  the  beginning  of  authentic 
history  who  was  chancellor  of  England,  a  magistracy  which 
has  been  filled  by  as  many  memorable  men  as  any  office  of  a 
civilized  community. 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  from  his  merits,  his  rank,  and  his  fame, 
to  the  mournful  contemplation  of  his  last  days.  He  had  been 
imprisoned  for  about  twelve  months,  apparently  in  pursuance 
of  his  attainder  for  misprision  in  not  having  taken  the  oath  to 
maintain  the  succession.  He  was  brought  to  trial  on  the  7th 
of  May,  1535,  before  lord  Audley  the  chancellor,  the  duke  of 
Norfolk,  the  chief  justice,  and  six  judges,  of  whom  Spelman 
and  Fitzherbert  were  lawyers  of  considerable  note.  The  ac- 
cusation against  him  was  high  treason,  grounded  (if  on  any 
legal  pretext)  on  the  monstrous  clause  of  the  recent  act,* 
which  made  it  treason  "  to  do  any  thing  by  writing  or  act 
which  was  to  the  slander,  disturbance,  or  prejudice  of  the  mar- 
riage with  the  lady  Anne ;  or  to  the  disherison  or  disturbance  of 
the  king's  heirs  by  her,"  Both  he  and  Fisher  proposed  their 
readiness  to  swear  that  they  would  support  the  succession  to 
the  crown  as  established  by  parliament ;  but  they  declined  to 
take  that  oath,  if  it  were  understood  to  involve  an  affirmation 
of  the  facts  recited  in  the  preamble  of  the  statute,  as  the  prem- 
ises from  which  the  statute  infers  the  practical  conclusion 
respecting  the  legitimacy  of  the  succession.  They  abstained 
thereby  from  affirming  or  denying,  first,  that  Henry's  mar- 
riage with  Catharine  was  invalid  ;  or,  secondly,  that  his  mar- 
riage with  Anne  was  valid ;  and,  thirdly,  they  refused  to  dis- 
claim all  foreign  authority  in  the  kingdom,  the  disclaimer 
extending  to  spiritual  authority,  although  that  is  in  its  own 
nature  no  more  than  a  decisive  ascendant  over  the  minds  of 

*  25  Hen.  8.  c.  22  s.  5. 


1535.  SIR    THOMAS    MORE.  153 

those  who  spontaneously  submit  to  it.  More  was  so  enfeebled 
by  imprisonment  that  his  limbs  tottered  when  he  came  into 
the  court,  and  he  supported  himself  with  difficulty  in  coming 
forward  by  a  staff.  The  commissioners  had  sufficient  pity  on 
their  late  illustrious  colleague  to  allow  him  the  indulgence  of 
a  chair.  His  countenance  was  pale  and  wan,  yet  composed 
and  cheerful.  His  faculties  were  undisturbed :  and  the  mild 
dignity  of  his  character  did  not  forsake  him.  The  first  wit- 
nesses against  him  were  the  privy-councillors  who  had  at  various 
times  examined  him  during  his  imprisonment.  Their  testi- 
mony amounted  only  to  his  repeated  declaration,  "  that  being 
loth  to  aggravate  the  king's  displeasure,  he  would  say  no  more 
than  that  the  statute  was  a  two-edged  sword ;  for  if  he  spoke 
against  it,  he  should  be  the  cause  of  the  death  of  his  body ;  and 
if  he  assented  to  it,  he  should  purchase  the  death  of  his  soul." 
It  is  obvious  that  this  answer  might  be  perfectly  innocent, 
even  according  to  Henry's  own  code ;  and  that,  even  if  it  had 
been  a  positive  refusal  to  take  the  oath,  it  was  only  a  misprision. 
Hales,  the  attorney-general,  said,  that  the  prisoner's  silence 
proved  his  malice.*  More  replied  that  he  had  said  nothing 
against  the  oath,  but  that  his  own  conscience  forbade  him  to 
take  it,  which  could  be  no  more  than  not  taking  it.  The 
court  were  driven  to  the  very  odious  measure  of  examining  a 
law-officer  of  the  crown  concerning  the  real  or  pretended  lan- 
guage of  Sir  Thomas  More  in  a  private  conversation,  where 
one  man  might  have  spoken  freely  from  some  trust  in  the 
honor  of  another,  where  disclosures  were  alleged  to  have 
been  made  by  More  at  an  interview,  in  the  course  of  which 
it  soon  appeared  that  More  had  been  betrayed  by  the  reason- 
ings of  the  crown-lawyer.  Sir  Robert  Rich,  the  solicitor- 
general,  was  then  called  as  a  witness,  and  said  that  he  had 
visited  More  in  the  Tower,  and  after  protesting  he  came  there 
without  authority,  which  rendered  the  communication  confi- 
dential, he  asked  More  whether  if  the  parliament  had  enacted 
that  Rich  should  be  king,  and  that  it  should  be  treason  to  deny 
it,  what  offence  would  it  be  to  contravene  the  act  ?  that  More 
owned  in  answer  that  he  was  bound  to  obey  such  a  statute  ;f 

*  "  Ambitiose  silcbat."  Herbert,  183.,  quotes  the  words  of  the  indictment, 
as  if  he  had  read  them,  or  heard  them  from  those  who  had. 

t  The  sincerity  of  More's  statement  is  corroborated  by  the  uniformity  of 
his  opinion  respecting  popular  consent  as  a  necessary  condition  of  the  justice 
of  all  civil  government,  which  appears  by  his  writings,  twenty  years  before 
his  trial. 

Populus  consentiens  regnum  dat  et  aufert.' 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  A 

Quicumque  multis  vir  viris  units  prseest, 

Hoc  debet  his  qtiibus  praeeet ; 
rrscesse  debet  neutiquam  diutius 

Hi  quam  volcnt  quibus  protest. 
Thorn.  Mori  Epigram,  p.  53.  Basil,  1518—1520. 


154  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1535. 

because  a  parliament  can  make  a  king,  and  depose  him,  and 
that  every  parliament-man  may  give  his  consent  thereunto ; 
but  asked  whether,  if  it  were  enacted  by  parliament  that  God 
was  not  God,  it  would  be  an  offence  to  say  according  to  such 
an  enactment :  that  More  concluded  by  observing,  that  the 
parliament  might  submit  to  the  king  as  head ;  but  that  the 
other  churches  of  Christendom  would  not  follow  their  exam- 
ple or  hold  communion  with  them. 

On  hearing  this  testimony,  Sir  Thomas  More  said,  "  If  I 
were  a  man,  my  lords,  that  had  no  regard  to  my  oath,  I  had 
no  need  to  be  now  here ;  and  if  this  oath  which  Mr.  Rich  have 
taken  be  true,  I  pray  I  may  never  see  God's  face,  which,  were 
it  otherwise,  is  an  imprecation  I  would  not  be  guilty  of  to 
gain  the  whole  world.  I  am  more  concerned  for  your  perjury 
than  for  my  own  danger.  I  am  acquainted  with  your  manner 
of  life  from  your  youth,  you  well  know ;  and  I  am  very  sorry 
to  be  forced  to  speak  it — you  always  lay  under  the  odium  of  a 
very  lying  tongue.  Could  I  have  acted  so  unadvisedly  as  to 
trust  Mr.  Rich,  of  whose  truth  and  honesty  I  had  so  mean  an 
opinion,  with  the  secrets  of  my  conscience  respecting  the 
king's  supremacy,  which  I  had  withheld  from  your  lordships, 
and  from  the  king  himself]  If  his  evidence  could  be  be- 
lieved, are  words,  thus  dropt  in  an  unguarded  moment  of 
familiar  conversation,  to  be  regarded  as  proofs  of  malice  and 
enmity  against  the  established  order  of  succession  to  the 
crown  ?" 

This  speech  touched  the  reputation  of  Rich  to  the  quick. 
He  called  two  gentlemen  of  the  court,  who  were  present  at 
the  conversation ;  but  they  did  not  corroborate  his  story,  al- 
leging, most  improbably,  that  their  minds  were  so  much  occu- 
pied by  their  own  business  that  they  did  not  attend  to  such  a 
conversation.  The  truth  or  falsehood  of  Rich's  account  of  a 
confidential  conversation  very  little  affects  the  degree  of  his 
baseness.  But  its  falsehood,  which  is  much  the  more  proba- 
ble supposition,  throws  a  darker  shade  on  the  character  of  the 
triers  who  convicted  More,  and  of  the  judges  who  condemned 
him.  After  his  condemnation,  he  avowed,  as  he  said  then 
(when  there  was  no  temptation  to  suppress  truth),  for  the  first 
time,  that  he  had  studied  the  question  for  seven  years,  and 
could  not  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  the  king's  marriage 
with  Catharine  was  valid.  Audley  the  chancellor  incautiously 
pressed  him  with  the  weight  of  authority.  "  Would  you," 
says  Audley,  "be  esteemed  wiser,  or  of  purer  conscience, 
than  all  the  bishops,  doctors,  nobility,  and  commons  in  this 
land  1"—"  For  one  bishop,"  answered  More,  "  on  your  side,  I 
can  produce  a  hundred  holy  and  Catholic  bishops  on  mine ; 


1535.  AFFECTION   OF   MORE's   DAUGHTER.  155 

and  against  one  realm,  the  consent  of  Christendom  for  a  thou- 
sand years."  He  was  sentenced  to  die  the  death  of  a  traitor ; 
but  Henry  mercifully  changed  it  to  beheading ;  and  he  suf- 
fered that  punishment  on  the  7th  day  of  July,  1535,  in  the 
55th  year  of  his  age. 

On  his  return  from  his  arraignment  at  Westminster,  Mar- 
garet Roper,  his  first-born  child,  waited  on  the  Tower  wharf, 
where  he  landed,  to  see  her  father,  as  she  feared,  for  the  last 
time ;  and  after  he  had  stretched  out  his  arms  in  token  of  a 
blessing,  while  she  knelt  at  some  distance  to  implore  and 
receive  it,  "  she,  hastening  towards  him,  without  consideration 
or  care  of  herself,  pressing  in  amongst  the  throng,  and  the 
arms  of  the  guard,  that  with  halberds  and  bills  went  around 
him,  ran  to  him,  and  openly,  in  presence  of  them  all,  embraced 
him,  took  him  about  the  neck,  and  kissed  him.  He,  well  liking 
her  most  natural  and  dear  daughterly  affection,  gave  her  again 
his  fatherly  blessing.  After  she  was  departed,  she,  like  one 
that  had  forgotten  herself,  being  all  ravished  with  the  entire 
love  of  her  dear  father,  having  respect  neither  to  herself  nor 
to  the  multitude,  turned  back,  ran  to  him  as  before,  took  him 
about  the  neck,  and  divers  times  kissed  him  most  lovingly ; 
the  beholding  of  which  made  many  who  were  present,  for 
very  sorrow  thereof,  to  weep  and  mourn."*  In  his  answer  to 
her  on  the  last  day  of  his  life,  he  expressed  himself  thus 
touchingly,  in  characters  traced  with  a  coal,  the  only  means 
of  writing  which  was  left  within  his  reach : — "  Dear  Megg, 
I  never  liked  your  manner  better  towards  me  as  when  you 
kissed  me  last  For  I  like  when  daughterly  love  and  dear 
charity  have  no  leisure  to  look  to  worldly  courtesy."  On  the 
morning  of  his  execution  he  entreated  that  his  darling  daugh- 
ter might  be  allowed  to  attend  his  funeral.  He  was  noted 
among  friends  for  the  strength  of  his  natural  affection,  and  for 
the  warmth  of  all  the  household  and  family  kindnesses  which 
bless  a  home.  But  he  prized  Margaret  above  his  other  pro- 
geny, which  she  merited  by  resemblance!  to  himself  in  beauty 
of  form,  in  power  of  mind,  in  variety  of  accomplishments,  and, 
above  all,  in  a  pure  and  tender  nature.  His  innocent  playful- 
ness did  not  forsake  him  in  his  last  moments.  His  harmless 
pleasantry,  in  which  he  habitually  indulged,  now  showed  his 
perfectly  natural  character,  together  with  a  quiet  and  cheer- 

*  Roper's  More,  91.,  Singer's  edition. 

f  Margareta  filiarurn  Mori  natu  maxima  rnulier  prater  eximiam  forme 
venuatatem  cum  pumma  dignitate  conjunctam,  judicio  ingeniomoribus  eru- 
ditione  patris  simillima. 

"  Erat  Morua  erga  auoa  omnes  $«Aooropyo?  ut  non  aliua  magis,  sed  earn 
filiam  ut  erat  eximiia  praedita  dotibus  ita  diligebat  impensiua." — Erasmus. 


156  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1535. 

fulness  of  mind,  which  formed  the  graceful  close  of  a  virtuous 
life.* 

The  only  petition  he  made  on  the  day  of  execution  was, 
that  his  beloved  Margaret  might  be  allowed  to  be  present  at 
his  burial.  His  friend,  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  who  was  sent  to 
announce  to  More  his  doom,  answered,  "  The  king  is  already 
content  that  your  wife,  children,  and  other  friends,  may  be 
present  thereat."  Pope,  on  taking  his  leave,  could  not  refrain 
from  weeping :  More  comforted  him :  "  I  trust  that  we  shall 
once  in  heaven  see  each  other  full  merrily,  where  we  shall  be 
sure  to  live  and  love  together  in  joyful  bliss."  When  going 
up  the  scaffold,  which  was  so  weak  that  it  seemed  ready  to 
fall,  he  said  to  the  lieutenant,  "  I  pray  you,  Mr.  Lieutenant, 
see  me  safe  up ;  and  as  to  coming  down,  let  me  shift  for  my- 
self." Observing  some  signs  of  shame  in  the  executioner,  he 
said,  "  Pluck  up  thy  spirits,  man,  my  neck  is  very  short ;  take 
heed  therefore  of  a  stroke  awry,  by  which  you  will  lose  your 
credit."f  On  kneeling  to  receive  the  fatal  stroke,  he  said  to 
the  executioner,  "  My  beard  has  not  offended  the  king,  let  me 
put  it  aside."  That  the  whole  of  his  deportment  in  dying 
moments,  thus  full  of  tenderness  and  pleasantry,  of  natural 
affection,  of  benevolent  religion,  came  without  effort  from  his 
heart,  is  apparent  from  the  perfect  simplicity  with  which  he 
conducted  his  own  defence,  in  every  part  of  which  he  avoided 
all  approaches  to  theatrical  menace  or  ostentatious  defiance ; 
and,  instead  of  provoking  his  judges  to  violence,  seemed  by 
his  example  willing  to  teach  them  the  decorum  and  mildness 
of  the  judgment-seat.  He  used  all  the  just  means  of  defence 
which  law  or  fact  afforded,  as  calmly  as  if  he  expected  justice. 
Thoughout  his  sufferings  he  betrayed  no  need  of  the  base  aids 
from  pride  and  passion,  which  often  bestow  counterfeit  forti- 
tude on  a  public  death. 

The  love  of  Margaret  Roper  continued  to  display  itself  in 
those  outwardly  unavailing  tokens  of  tenderness  to  his  remains 
by  which  affection  seeks  to  perpetuate  itself;  ineffectually, 
indeed,  for  the  object,  but  very  effectually  for  softening  the 
heart  and  exalting  the  soul.  She  procured  his  head  to  be 

*  "  His  death  was  of  a  piece  with  his  life.  There  was  nothing  in  it  new, 
forced,  or  affected.  He  did  not  look  upon  the  severance  of  his  head  from  his 
body  as  a  circumstance  that  ought  to  produce  any  change  in  the  disposition 
of  his  mind;  and  as  he  died  under  a  fixed  hope  of  immortality,  he  thought 
any  unusual  degree  of  sorrow  or  concern  improper  on  such  an  occasion  as 
had  nothing  in  it  which  could  deject  or  terrify  him."  The  modest  beauty 
of  this  composition  renders  it  almost  needless  to  inform  an  English  reader, 
that  it  is  that  of  Addison. 

t  "  Honesty"  in  Roper,  from  whose  beautiful  narrative  the  greater  part 
of  the  text  is  taken.  See  also,  State  Trials,  vol.  i. 


1535.  FAME  OP  MORE.  157 

taken  down  from  London  Bridge,  where  more  odious  passions 
had  struggled  in  pursuit  of  a  species  of  infernal  immortality 
by  placing  it  She  kept  it  during  her  life  as  a  sacred  relic, 
and  was  buried  with  that  object  of  fondness  in  her  arms,  nine 
years  after  she  was  separated  from  her  father.  Erasmus  calls 
her  the  ornament  of  her  Britain,*  and  the  flower  of  the  learned 
matrons  of  England,  at  a  time  when  education  consisted  only 
of  the  revived  study  of  ancient  learning.  He  survived  More 
only  a  few  months,  but  composed  a  beautiful  account  of  his 
martyrdom,  though,  with  his  wonted  fearfulness,  under  an 
imaginary  name.f 

Perhaps  the  death  of  no  individual  ever  produced,  merely 
by  his  personal  qualities,  so  much  sorrow  and  horror  as  that 
of  Sir  Thomas  More.  A  general  cry  sounded  over  Europe. 
The  just  fame  of  the  sufferer,  the  eloquent  pen  of  his  friend 
Erasmus,  the  excusable  pride  of  the  Roman  church  in  so  glo- 
rious a  martyr,  and  the  atrocious  effrontery  of  the  means  used 
to  compass  his  destruction,  contributed  to  spread  indignation 
and  abhorrence.  Perhaps  the  more  considerate  portion  of  men 
began  to  pause  at  the  sight  of  the  first  illustrious  blood  spilt 
on  the  scaffold  in  these  religious  divisions  which  already 
threatened  some  part  of  the  horrors,  of  which  they  soon  after 
became  the  occasion  or  the  pretext.  Giovio,  an  Italian  histo- 
rian, compared  the  tyranny  of  Henry  with  that  preternatural 
wickedness  which  the  Grecian  legends  had  embodied  under 
the  appellation  of  Phalaris.  Cardinal  Pole,  an  exiled  prince 
of  the  royal  family  of  England,  lashed  the  frenzy  of  his  kins- 
man with  vehement  eloquence,  and  bewailed  the  fate  of  the 
martyr  in  the  most  affecting  strains  of  oratory.  Englishmen 
employed  abroad  almost  everywhere  found  their  country  the 
object  of  dread  and  of  execration.  The  emperor  Charles  V. 
on  the  arrival  of  these  tidings,  sent  for  Sir  Thomas  Elliot,  the 
English  ambassador,  and  said  to  him,  "  My  lord,  we  under- 
stand that  the  king  your  master  has  put  his  faithful  servant  and 
wise  counsellor,  Sir  Thomas  More,  to  death."  Elliot  answer- 
ed, "  I  understand  nothing  thereof."—"  But,"  replied  Charles, 
"  it  is  too  true ;  and  had  we  been  master  of  such  a  servant,  we 
would  rather  have  lost  the  best  city  in  our  dominions  than 
such  a  counsellor.''!  Mason,  who  was  Henry's  agent  in  Spain, 
writes  with  strong  feeling  of  the  horror  which  he  sees  around 

*  "  Brittanise  SUED  decus."    Erasm.  Ep.  Ulreco  ab  Hutten. 

t  Conrad.  Jfucerinut,  Epist.  de  Morti  T.  Mori :  probably  from  Nocera.  a 
town  in  the  papal  states,  which  was  the  bishopric  of  Paolo  Giovio,  a  noted 
historical  wiiter  of  that  period. 

t  Roper's  More,  95. ;  "  which  matter,"  says  William  Roper.  "  was  reported 
by  Sir  Thomas  Elliot  to  myself,  to  my  wife  (Margaret),  and  to  others." 

Vol.  II.  O 


158  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1535. 

him  at  the  imprisonment  of  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  the  de- 
struction of  More,  "  the  greatest  of  men,"  and  at  the  execu- 
tion of  the  holy  maid  of  Kent*  "  What  end  this  tragedy  will 
come  to  God  wot  (knows),  if  that  may  be  called  a  tragedy 
which  begins  with  a  wedding."  Harvey,  the  resident  at 
Venice,  reports  the  anger  of  the  Italians  at  the  death  of  men 
of  such  honor  and  virtue,  against  all  laws  of  God  and  man. 
They  openly  speak,  he  says,  of  Catharine  being  put  to  death, 
and  of  the  princess  Mary  speedily  following  her  mother,  f  He 
declares  that  all  he  hears  disgusts  him  with  public  life,  and 
disposes  him  to  retire  from  such  scenes. 

Cranmer  often  wanted  the  courage  to  resist  crimes,  but 
never  desired  to  do  evil.  In  April,  1535,  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
Cromwell,  earnestly  advising  the  acquiescence  of  the  king  in 
the  proposal  of  Fisher  and  More,  who  were  ready  to  swear  to 
the  succession  as  settled  by  the  statute,  provided  that  they 
were  not  obliged  to  include  the  preamble  in  their  oath.  Such 
a  compliance  on  the  part  of  such  eminent  men  would  extin- 
guish all  scruples  about  the  succession  through  the  kingdom, 
and  silence  even  the  most  zealous  partisans  of  Catharine  and 
Mary .|  He  may  be  thought  blameworthy  for  thus  limiting 
himself  to  topics  of  no  very  exalted  policy,  in  a  case  where 
justice  and  humanity  were  so  deeply  concerned.  But  it  is 
a  decisive  proof  of  his  good  faith,  that  he  employed  the  only 
reasons  which  he  knew  could  affect  the  minds  with  which  he 
had  to  deal. 

Even  Henry  himself  confidently  expected  that  he  should 
overawe  More  into  submission,  and  embarked  in  the  proceed- 
ings without  meditating  any  farther  result  At  every  step  of 
his  progress,  the  anger  of  a  self-willed  man  against  those  who 
thwart  his  passions  grew  stronger  as  the  hope  of  subduing 
the  conscience  of  More  was  enfeebled.  More  at  last  died  be- 
cause his  sincerity  was  perfect,  and  his  probity  incapable  of 
being  shaken.  For  in  all  other  respects  we  know,  that  though 
the  disorders  of  a  revolution  had  frightened  him  out  of  his 
youthful  free-thinking,  he  was  no  slave  of  Rome,  no  bigoted  ad- 
vocate for  the  papal  authority ;  but  zealously  maintained  the  in- 
dependence of  the  civil  power,  and  the  principles  of  the  council 
of  Constance, — known  in  modern  times  as  those  of  the  Galil- 
ean church, — 

Who,  with  a  generous  but  mistaken  zeal, 
Withstood  a  brutal  tyrant's  lustful  rage.§ 

*  Ellie's  Letters,  second  series,  vol.  ii.  56.  Mason's  words  are,  "  Ter 
maximus  ille  Morns." 

t  Ellis's  Letters,  second  aeries,  vol.  ii.  73 — 11. 
\  Strype's  Cranmer,  695.     App.,  No.  xi.  Oxford,  1812. 
§  Thomson. 


1535.  CHARACTER    OF    HENRY    VIII.  159 

CHAP.  VII. 
HENRY  VIII — CONTINUED. 

PROCEEDINGS   AGAINST   QUEEN    ANNE   BOLEYN,   AND   HER   EXECU- 
TION. 

1535,  1536. 

HAD  Henry  died  in  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  his 
name  might  have  come  down  to  us  as  that  of  a  festive  and 
martial  prince,  with  much  of  the  applause  which  is  lavished 
on  gaiety  and  enterprise,  and  of  which  some  fragments,  pre- 
served in  the  traditions  of  the  people,  too  long  served  to  screen 
the  misrule  of  his  latter  years  from  historical  justice.  In  the 
divorce  of  his  inoffensive  wife,  the  disregard  of  honor,  of  grati- 
tude, of  the  ties  of  long  union,  of  the  sentiments  which  grow 
out  of  the  common  habitudes  of  domestic  union,  and  which 
restrain  the  greater  number  of  imperfect  husbands  from  open 
outrage,  throw  a  deeper  stain  over  the  period  employed  in  ne- 
gotiating and  effecting  that  unjustifiable  and  unmanly  separa- 
tion. Most  readers  justly  consider  this  defiance  of  the  most 
respectable  feelings,  and  the  most  ordinary  decencies,  as  being 
very  little  mitigated  by  superstitious  scruples  and  unamiable 
prejudices,  of  which  some  admixture  may  have  colored  his 
passion  for  a  youthful  beauty.  But  the  execution  of  More 
marks  the  moment  of  the  transition  of  his  government  from 
joviality  and  parade  to  a  species  of  atrocity  which  distin- 
guishes it  from,  and  perhaps  above,  any  other  European  tyr- 
anny. This  singular  revolution  in  his  conduct  has  been  as- 
cribed to  the  death  of  Wolsey,  which  unbridled  his  passions, 
and  gave  a  loose  to  his  rage.  That  this  was  not  the  opinion 
formed  by  Wolsey  himself  of  the  king,  we  know  from  the 
dying  words  of  that  minister,  who  knew  his  master  enough  to 
foretell  that  Henry  would  prove  unmanageable  whenever 
a  sharp  enough  spur  should  strike  his  passions.  Had  Wolsey 
refused  to  concur  in  the  divorce,  he  was  not  likely  to  be  better 
treated  than  More.  Had  he  stept  into  blood,  he  must  have 
waded  onward,  or  he  would  have  been  struck  down  on  his 
first  attempt  to  fly.  No  change  of  administration  could  ac- 
count for  more  than  that  part  of  his  conduct  which  had  the 
form  of  acts  of  state,  and  consisted  in  measures  of  civil  or  ec- 
clesiastical policy.  But  the  total  change  of  Henry's  conduct 
relates  still  more  to  his  deeds  as  a  man,  than  to  his  system  as 
a  king.  He  is  the  only  prince  of  modern  times  who  carried 
judicial  murder  into  his  bed,  and  imbrued  his  hands  in  the 


160  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

blood  of  those  whom  he  had  caressed.  Perhaps  no  other  mon- 
arch, since  the  emancipation  of  women  from  polygamy,  put 
to  death  two  wives  on  the  scaffold  for  infidelity,  divorced  an- 
other, whom  he  owned  to  be  a  faultless  woman,  after  twenty- 
four  years  of  wedded  friendship,  and  rejected  a  fourth  with- 
out imputing  blame  to  her,  from  the  first  impulse  of  personal 
disgust 

The  acts  of  Henry  which  the  order  of  time  now  requires 
to  be  related  must  have  been  much  more  his  own  than  those 
of  his  political  counsellors. 

Anne  Boleyn  is  acknowledged  on  all  sides  to  have  perse- 
vered in  her  resistance  to  the  unlawful  desires  of  Henry  for  a 
considerable  period.  She  was  secretly  married  to  the  king  in 
January,  1533,  and  she  was  crowned  on  Whitsunday  of  that 
year.*  The  princess  Elizabeth,  the  only  surviving  child,  was 
born  on  the  7th  of  September  following.  It  should  seem  from 
Cranmer's  language,  in  a  confidential  letter,  that  he  believed 
the  princess  to  have  been  conceived  as  well  as  born  in  wed- 
lock ;  and  it  seems  to  be  generally  believed,  that  a  child  who 
came  into  the  world  at  eight  months  might  exhibit  no  marks 
of  premature  birth.  If  we  should  suspect,  however,  after  a 
matrimonial  connexion  between  her  and  the  king  had  for  years 
been  the  talk  and  business  of  Europe,  and  when  every  cir- 
cumstance at  London  or  Rome  combined  to  persuade  her  that 
she  was  on  the  eve  of  her  elevation,  that  she  at  last  suf- 
fered her  watchfulness  to  slumber,  how  much  soever  we  may 
regret  the  stain,  we  must  wonder  more  'at  her  steady  resist- 
ance than  at  her  ultimate  fall. 

The  death  of  Catharine,  which  happened  at  Kimbolton  on 
the  29th  of  January,  1536,  seemed  to  leave  queen  Anne  in 
undisturbed  possession  of  her  splendid  seat.  The  king  of 

*  The  alleged  time  of  the  secret  marriage  varies  very  considerably.  Hall 
says  that  it  took  place  "  on  St.  Erkeriwald's  day.  Holinshed  fixes  that  day 
to  be  the  fourteenth  of  November.  Grafton  makes  the  same  saint's  day  to 
be  on  the  thirtieth  of  April.  His  name  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  list  of 
saints  prefixed  to  "  L'Art  de  verefier  les  Dates."  But  his  feast  is  placed  in 
contemporary  calendars,  and  by  Mr.  Butler,  on  the  last  day  of  April.  The 
fourteenth  of  November,  however,  appears  from  Dugdale  to  be  the  feast  of 
the  translation  of  his  body,  which  might  be  commonly  called  his  day;  hence, 
probably,  the  origin  of  these  contradictions.  Cranmer  says,  however,  "  that 
it  was  much  about  St.  Paul's  day,"  by  which  we  must  here  understand  the 
twenty-fifth  of  January,  the  feast  of  his  conversion  ;  though  there  seems  to 
have  been  another  St.  Paul's  day,  on  the  fourth  of  January.  Cranmer  cor- 
roborates his  own  recollection  by  adding,  that  "she  is  now  somewhat  big 
\vith  child."  He  is,  unquestionably,  the  best  witness,  though  he  was  not 
present,  and  did  not  hear  of  it  till  a  fortnight  after.  His  letter  must  have 
been  written  in  June,  a  circumstance  which  excludes  the  thirtieth  of  April. 
as  the  birth  of  the  princess  is  incompatible  with  the  fourteenth  of  November. 
—Cranmer  to  Hawkins,  the  minister  at  the  imperial  court.  Archffol.  xviii. 
Republished  in  Ellis's  Letters,  first  series,  vol.  ii.  33. 


1536.  HENRY'S  INCONSTANCY.  161 

France  made  some  attempts  to  reconcile  his  ally  of  England 
to  the  holy  see ;  a  treaty  in  which  Anne  would  doubtless  have 
been  comprehended. 

At  this  moment,  when  her  enemies  were  removed,  and  her 
prospects  were  cloudless,  a  storm  broke  out  against  her  in  the 
breast  of  the  monarch  who  had  a  few  months  before  sacrificed 
the  best  of  his  subjects  to  the  honor  of  her  bed  and  the  legiti- 
macy of  her  issue.  We  are  still  uncertain  whether  he  was 
moved  by  jealousy,  well  or  ill  founded,  of  her,  or  by  passion 
for  another,  or  by  both  these  motives  conjoined.  Lord  Herbert, 
a  writer  of  research,  who  lived  not  far  from  the  time,  affirms, 
"  she  had  lived  in  the  French  court  first,  and  after  in  this,  with 
the  reputation  of  a  virtuous  lady;  insomuch  that  the  whisperings 
of  her  enemies  could  not  divert  the  king's  good  opinion.  The 
king  had  cast  his  affections  on  Jane  Seymour,  daughter  of  Sir 
John  Seymour,  a  young  lady  then  of  the  queen's  bedchamber,"* 
as  Anne  herself  had  been  in  that  of  Catharine.  The  love-letters 
between  Henry  and  Anne,  though  not  free  from  all  grossness, 
yet,  when  considered  as  the  letters  of  a  royal  lover,  and  of  a 
damsel  of  his  court  in  the  sixteenth  century,  will  be  regarded 
as  prodigies  of  delicacy  by  the  readers  of  Brantome.f  One  of 
the  unrefined  passages  seems  even  to  be  a  proof  of  fidelity, 
inasmuch  as  it  breathes  the  most  ardent  desire  to  be  honora- 
bly united  to  her,  and  exhibits  every  mark  of  an  humble  suit 
for  her  hand.  He  obliged  lord  Piercy  and  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt 
to  relinquish  their  pursuit  of  her.  Though  the  suit  of  the 
former  had  advanced  far  enough  to  be  thought  a  promise,  he 
was  compelled  to  quiet  the  king's  suspicions  by  a  hurried 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  lord  Shrewsbury .{  From  one 
of  the  most  authentic  accounts  we  learn,  that  "  she  only  at 
the  end  yielded  to  give  her  consent  of  marriage  to  him  whom 
hardly  any  other  was  found  able  to  keep  their  hold  against." $ 
That  she  resisted  is  on  all  sides  allowed ;  but  it  is  difficult,  if 
it  be  possible,  to  assign  any  time  when  that  resistance  ceased, 
without  bringing  it  so  near  the  period  of  the  secret  marriage 
as  to  take  away  the  only  urgent  motive  which  must  be  assign- 
ed by  Anne's  enemies  for  that  union.  No  pregnancy  occur- 
red from  the  first  acquaintance  till  near  or  after  the  marriage ; 
a  circumstance  which  cannot  be  referred  to  any  defect  in  the 
constitution  of  a  lady  who  was  twice  brought  to  bed  within 
little  more  than  two  years  after  the  time  of  marriage.  He 

*  Herbert,  ii.    Kenn.  193, 

t  Lettres  de  Henri  VIII.  et  Anne  Boleyn,  iii.  117.  139. 

t  Cavendish's  Life  of  Wolsey,  128 :  second  edition,  by  Singer,  London, 

§  Idem,  421-449.    Wyatt's  Mem.  of  Anne  Boleyn.  438. 
O2 


162  HISTORY    OP    ENGLAND.  1536. 

reproaches  her  for  cruelty  to  one  "  who  was  one  whole  year 
struck  with  the  dart  of  love ;"  which  fixes  the  commencement 
of  his  passion  in  1527.  Had  she  yielded  before  the  marriage, 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  the  motive  of  Henry  for  such  persevering- 
ardor.  "  Waxing  great  again,  the  time  was  taken  to  steal  the 
king's  affection  from  her*  when  most  of  all  she  ought  to  have 
been  cherished."  The  sycophants  watched  the  growth  of  his 
unnatural  distaste.  "  Unkindness  grew,  and  she  was  brought 
to  bed  before  her  time,  with  much  peril  of  her  life,  of  a  male 
child  dead-born,  to  her  most  extreme  sorrow."  The  king  is 
said  to  have  in  these  circumstances  brutally  reproached  her 
for  the  loss  of  his  boy.  "  Some  words  broke  out  from  her 
heart  laying  the  fault  on  the  king's  unkindness,"f  and  on  his 
visible  passion  for  Jane  Seymour.  Other  equally  credible  ac- 
counts ascribe  her  abortion  to  the  alarming  intelligence  of  the 
king  having  been  thrown  from  his  horse  while  hunting; 
which,  independent  of  affection  or  humanity,):  would  have  en- 
dangered her  own  greatness  and  the  succession  of  her  daugh- 
ter. Both  circumstances  might  have  concurred.  Sir  John 
Spelman,  one  of  her  judges,^  mentions  a  dying  declaration  of 
lady  Wingfield,  transmitted  to  the  king  by  lady  Rochford,  the 
wife  of  Anne's  brother,  as  having  made  a  strong  impression 
on  that  prince.  These  narratives  are  rather  various  than  con- 
tradictory ;  but  none  of  them  would  probably  have  been  thought 
of  seriously,  if  the  rumor  had  not  received  life  and  strength 

*  Wyatt,  443. 

\  Wyatt.  Histoire  de  Anne  Boleyn,  par  im  Con  temporal  n,  178;  the 
earliest  account  bearing  date  at  London,  on  the  second  of  June,  153(3.  This 
metrical  narrative  is  believed  by  some,  on  no  certain  proof,  to  be  that  which 
Meteren,  the  Dutch  historian,  quoted  as  the  work  of  Crispin,  seigneur  de 
Mihelve.  Meteren  died  at  London  in  1612,  where  he  had  long  resided  as 
the  Dutch  consul-general.  Some  part  of  his  narrative  is  a  literal  transla- 
tion of  the  metrical  narrative.  The  verbal  coincidence  with  a  part  of  Mete- 
ren is  better  proof  of  tho  authorship  of  the  lord  of  Mihelve  than  has  as  yet 
appeared  of  the  claims  of  others  ;  as,  for  example,  of  Marot,  to  whom  it  was 
ascribed  by  the  Jesuit  Le  Grand.  We  do  not  find  it  proved  that  he  ever 
was  in  England.  In  1535  and  1530  he  took  refuge  at  the  courts  of  Beam 
and  Ferrara,  and  in  the  city  of  Venice.  The  metrical  narrative  states  the 
facts  alleged  against  Anne  by  three  lords  of  the  court,  on  the  information  of 
the  sister  of  one  of  them,  who  was  herself  reproached  by  her  brother  with 
the  like  offences,  without  contradicting,  or  appearing  to  doubt,  the  truth  of 
the  accusation.  But  as  the  writer  changes  his  tone  so  entirely  after  her  im- 
prisonment, he  seems  to  be  rather  reporting,  in  the  more  animated  manner, 
the  speeches  against  her,  than  adopting  their  contents;  just  as,  in  the  s^- 
qncl.  he  describes  her  suffering*,  without  intending  to  give  any  intimation 
of  his  judgment  for  her  or  against  her. 
I  Hist,  de  Anne  Boleyn,  178. 

"  A  done  le  roi  s'en  allant  a  la  chasse 

Client  de  cheval  rudement  en  la  place, 

Quand  la  reyne  cut  la  nouvelle  entendue 

Pen  s'en  faillit  que  nechcnt  estendu,  <j 

Morte  d'ennui." 
§  Burnet. 


1536.  ANNE   COMMITTED    TO    THE    TOWER.  163 

from  the  rising  passion  for  Jane  Seymour.  The  popular  story 
of  the  scene  in  the  tilt-yard  at  Greenwich,  on  May-day,  1536, 
of  a  handkerchief  .dropped  by  the  queen,  taken  up  and  gallant- 
ly returned  to  her  by  Henry  Norris,  her  supposed  lover,  hav- 
ing- rekindled  the  jealousy  and  wrath  of  Henry  so  that  he  sud- 
denly left  the  joust,  commanding  the  queen  to  be  confined  to 
her  apartments,  and  her  accomplices  to  be  sent  to  the  Tower, 
must  be  either  altogether  a  pretext,  or  one  of  those  "  trifles 
light  as  air"  which  are  proofs  only  "  to  the  jealous."  For  it 
has  lately  been  discovered,  that  about  a  week  before,  namely, 
on  the  24th  of  April,*  a  commission  was  issued,  directing  cer- 
tain peers  and  judges  (one  of  whom,  Thomas  earl  of  Wilt- 
shire, was  her  father,)  to  inquire  into  her  alleged  misdeeds. 
Facts  must  have  been  collected,  and  some  deliberation  on 
their  effect  must  have  occurred,  before  the  formal  completion 
of  such  a  commission :  the  act  of  executing  the  commission 
was  a  deliberate  and  conclusive  measure.  Whatever  oc- 
curred afterwards  could  have  no  more  than  a  iaint  influence 
on  the  succeeding  events.  These  measures  must,  therefore, 
have  begun  when  she  was  scarcely  recovered  from  the  birth 
of  her  still-born  son,  and  while  her  husband,  her  father,  and 
her  uncle,  though  conscious  of  her  destiny,  still  treated  her 
with  courtesy,  and  probably  with  apparent  kindness. 

A  tolerable  diary  of  the  last  seventeen  days  of  her  life  may 
be  collected,  chiefly  from  the  letters  of  Sir  W.  Kingston,  lieu- 
tenant of  the  tower,  to  Cromwell,  f  On  the  2d  of  May  she 
was  brought  from  Greenwich  to  the  Tower  by  her  uncle  of 
Norfolk.  ^  She  knelt  at  the  gate  of  that  fortress,  late  her  pal- 
ace, now  to  be  her  prison,  and  ejaculated  a  short  prayer,J — 
"  O  Lord,  help  me,  as  I  am  guiltless  of  this  whereof  I  am 
accused !" — She  said  to  the  lieutenant, — "  Mr.  Kingston,  do 
I  go  into  a  dungeon  ?" — "  No,  madam,"  he  answered ;  "  you 
shall  go  into  your  lodging  where  you  lay  at  your  coronation." 
The  recollection  overpowered  her ;  she  cried  out, — "  It  is  too 
good  for  me :  Jesus,  h^ve  mercy  upon  me  I"  She  knelt,  weep- 
ing at  a  great  pace,  and  in  the  same  "  sorrow  fell  into  a  great 
laughing."  Her  female  attendants,  and  even  her  aunt  Mrs. 
Boleyn  (as  if  to  keep  up  the  consistency  of  this  unnatural  tra- 
gedy), were  placed  about  her  as  spies.  They  reported,  with 
atrocious  accuracy,  all  the  incoherent  ravings  of  her  hysteri- 

*This  Record  is  abridged  by  Mr.  Turner.  The  contents  would  offend 
every  modest  eye,  even  seen  through  a  Latin  medium. 

fStrype's  Memorials,  i.  430—440.  Oxford  ed.  I82SJ.  Ellis,  first  Series,  pp. 
41—52.  Hurnet,  State  Trials, 

I  Wyatt,  444. 


164  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1536. 

cal  agitation.*  They  used  the  arts  of  tormentresses  to  invei- 
gle her  into  admissions  of  criminality.  They  cross-questioned 
her  with  respect  to  the  logical  consequence  and  grammatical 
construction  of  the  words  which  burst  from  her  in  an  almost 
frenzied  condition.  But  she  declared  to  Kingston  from  the 
beginning,  and  repeatedly  affirmed  in  other  words,  "  I  am  as 
clear  from  the  company  of  men  as  I  am  from  you  :  I  am  the 
king's  true  wife." 

On  the  5th  of  May,  Cranmer,  who  had  been  forbidden  to 
approach  the  court,  wrote  a  skilful  and  persuasive  letter,!  (if 
any  skill  could  curb  furious  appetites — if  any  persuasion  could 
allay  raging  passions,)  imploring  the  king's  mercy  towards 
her,  "  his  life  so  late  and  sole  delight."  On  the  same  day  is 
dated  that  no  less  touching  than  beautiful  letter  to  the  king, 
which,  seemingly  with  reason,  has  been  ascribed  to  the  pen 
of  Anne  Boleyn  herself.!  ^  is  not  wonderful  that  the  excite- 
ment of  such  a  moment,  if  it  left  her  calmness  enough  to 
write,  should  raise  her  language  to  an  energy  unknown  to 
her  other  writings.  If  this  explanation  from  lord  Herbert 
should  be  deemed  inadequately  to  account  for  the  singular  ex- 
actness and  elegance  of  the  composition,  why  may  we  not 
suppose,  consistently  with  its  substantial  authenticity,  that  a 
compassionate  confessor,  or  one  lingering  friend,  may  have 
secretly  lent  his  hand  to  refine  and  elevate  the  diction?  Sir 
Thomas  Wyatt,  one  of  the  fathers  of  English  poetry  (to  take 
an  instance),  could  not  have  forgotten  that  his  heart  had  once 
been  touched  by  her  youthful  loveliness ;  and  if  he  had  been 
moved  by  a  generous  remembrance  of  affection  to  lend  his 
help  "  at  her  utmost  need,"  he  would  assuredly  not  have  dis- 
turbed any  of  the  inimitable  strokes  of  nature  which  she 
could  scarcely  avoid,  but  which  it  is  unlikely  that  he,  with  all 
his  genius,  could  have  invented. 

In  a  day  or  two  after,  she  was  carried  to  Greenwich  to  be 
examined  before  the  privy-council,  where  all  the  artifices  of 

*  Report  of  Mrs.  Cosyns,  in  Kingston's  first  letter  to  Cromwell. 

t "  Scirent  si  ignoscere  manes." 

I  In  the  appendix  is  inserted  at  length  this  celebrated  letter,  the  insertion 
of  the  parts  destroyed  by  the  fire  of  1731  being  marked  by  italics.  A  part  of 
it  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum,  with  marks  of  partial  destruc- 
tion by  fire.  It  will  be  seen  to  be  a  copy  by  the  affecting  words  written  on 
it : — "  From  the  Lady  in  the  Tower."  The  handwriting  is  believed  to  be 
about  the  latter  part  of  Henry's  reign.  This  date  of  a  copy  carries  the  ori- 
ginal to  the  time.  That  lord  Herbert  modernized  the  orthography,  which 
somewhat  varies  the  color  of  the  whole  diction,  is  also  true  of  his  edition 
of  Kingston's  letters,  which  may  be  compared  with  the  originals.  It  now  is 
and  appears  to  have  always  been,  kept  with  Kingston's  correspondence,  the 
authenticity  of  which  no  man  can  pretend  to  doubt.  Kingston  himself  tells 
us,  that  sin-  said  to  him,  "  I  shall  desire  you  to  bear  a  letter  from  me  to  Mr. 
Secretary ;"  which  letter  agrees  in  time  with  the  one  now  in  question. 


1536.      QUEEN  ANNE'S  INDICTMENT.       165 

veteran  pettifogging  were  exhibited  by  the  hoary  counsellors 
in  the  examination  of  this  young  woman  of  twenty-seven, 
whose  ears  were  wont  to  be  soothed  by  the  softest  sounds  of 
admiration  and  tenderness.  Norfolk  interrupted  her  defence 
with  a  sort  of  contemptuous  disgust, — muttering  tut,  tut,  tut! 
She  complained,  on  her  return  to  the  Tower,  to  the  lieutenant 
and  to  her  more  merciless  attendants, — "  I  have  been  cruelly 
handled  by  the  council." 

On  the  10th  of  May,  an  indictment  for  high  treason*  was 
found  by  the  grand  jury  of  Westminster  against  the  lady  Anne, 
queen  of  England ;  Henry  Norris,  groom  of  the  stole ;  Sir 
Francis  Weston  and  William  Brereton,  gentlemen  of  the 
privy-chamber ;  and  Mark  Smeaton,  a  performer  on  musical 
instruments,  and  a  person  "  of  low  degree,"  promoted  to  be  a 
groom  of  the  chamber  for  his  skill  in  the  fine  art  which  he 
professed.  It  charges  the  queen  with  having,  by  all  sorts  of 
bribes,  gifts,  caresses,  and  impure  blandishments,  which  are 
described  with  unblushing  coarseness  in  the  barbarous  Latinity 
of  the  indictment,  allured  these  members  of  the  royal  house- 
hold into  a  course  of  criminal  connexion  with  her,  which  had 
been  carried  on  for  three  years.  It  included  also  George 
Boleyn  viscount  Rochford,  the  brother  of  Anne,  as  enticed  by 
the  same  lures  and  snares  with  the  rest  of  the  accused,  so  as 
to  have  become  the  accomplice  of  his  sister,  by  sharing  her 
treachery  and  infidelity  to  the  king.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that 
Anne  could  have  dared  to  lead  a  life  so  unnaturally  dissolute, 
without  such  vices  being  more  early  and  very  generally  known 
in  a  watchful  and  adverse  court.  It  is  still  more  improbable 
that  she  should  in  every  instance  be  the  seducer ;  and  that  in 
all  cases  (as  it  is  alleged  in  the  indictment)  the  enticement 
should  systematically  occur  on  one  day,  while  the  offence 
should  be  completed  several  days  after.  Norris,  Weston, 
Brereton,  and  Smeaton  were  tried  before  a  commission  of 
oyer  and  terminer  at  Westminster,  on  the  12th  of  May,  two 
days  after  the  bill  against  them  was  found.  They  all,  except 
Smeaton,  firmly  denied  their  guilt  to  the  last  moment  On 

*Two  legal  explanations  of  this  proceeding  have  been  attempted.  The 
first  is  founded  on  the  statute  of  treasons.  25  Ed.  3.,  which  made  it  high  trea- 
son to  "  violate"  the  queen  ;  a  word  which  had  been  understood  as  applica- 
ble to  any  illicit  connexion  with  her.  As  accessory  to  the  treason  of  her 
paramours,  she  became,  by  operation  of  law,  a  principal  in  the  crime.  The 
other  represents  the  indictment  as  under  the  late  statute,  which  made  it 
treason  "  to  dander  the  succession  of  her  issue"  by  the  profession  of  love 
to  others,  with  which  she  was  charged.  It  is  hard  to  say  which  of  these 
constructions  was  the  most  forced  and  fantastic.  But  it  seems  evident,  from 
the  use  of  the  word  "violavit"  in  the  indictment,  that  the  prosecutors,  in 
spite  of  the  common  meaning  of  this  word,  which  implies  force,  chose  to  rely 
on  the  statute  of  Edward  III. 


166  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

Smeaton's  confession  it  must  be  observed  that  we  know  not 
how  it  was  obtained,  how  far  it  extended,  or  what  were  the 
conditions  of  it;  that  his  humble  condition  might  render  it 
more  easy  to  subdue  his  spirit ;  and  that  his  ignorance  would 
naturally  lead  him  to  interpret  every  word  which  denoted  the 
faintest  shade  of  favor  to  himself  in  a  stronger  sense  than 
those  would  do  who  better  understood  the  cajoling  language 
of  courts. 

That  statesmen,  eager  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  their 
master,  in  examinations  shrouded  from  every  impartial  eye, 
should  have  religiously  abstained  from  explicit  or  implied 
promises  and  threats,  is  at  least  a  very  improbable  hypothesis. 
It  is  easy  to  excite  hopes  of  mercy,  though  all  intention  or 
authority  to  do  so  be  expressly  disclaimed.  In  this  case  we 
know  that  the  usual  artifice  of  saying  or  hinting  to  each  pris- 
oner that  his  fellows  had  confessed,  was  amply  practised.  In- 
deed, the  terrors  of  the  confessional  might  have  accounted  for 
groundless  admissions  of  guilt  from  men  more  enlightened, 
or  more  liable  to  be  degraded  by  falsehood,  than  Smeaton. 
The  confessor,  seated  in  a  place  where  he  could  neither  be 
heard  nor  seen  by  men,  might  overawe  his  penitent  into  a  be- 
lief that  an  acknowledgment  of  the  justice  of  legal  and  royal 
acts  was  the  only  amends  which  could  be  made  for  the  offence 
charged,  or  for  the  other  misdeeds  of  the  party.  The  exer- 
cise of  this  invisible  and  inscrutable  power  can  never  be  safely 
committed  to  human  frailty.  The  sincerity  and  probity  of 
a  confessor  might  be  no  security  in  such  a  case  as  hers.  The 
majority  of  these  English  priests,  who  believed  every  story 
circulated  against  Anne — who  firmly  credited  the  pending 
accusation — who  regarded  with  horror  the  usurper  of  the 
excellent  Catharine's  throne,  the  adulterous  seductress  of  king 
and  people  from  the  church,  and  thereby  from  salvation, — 
might  have  been  the  most  exemplary  men  of  the  ecclesiastical 
body ;  but  they  were  also  the  most  credulous  and  partial  in 
whatever  regarded  her,  and  the  most  prone  to  magnify  the 
merits  of  confession,  without  strictly  defining  its  boundaries, 
in  a  case  where  they  believed  that  every  confession  was  short 
of  the  whole  truth. 

On  the  12th  of  May,  the  four  commoners  were  condemned 
to  die.*  Their  sentence  was  carried  into  effect  amidst  the 
plaints  of  the  bystanders.  Sir  Francis  Weston  was  a  youth 
whose  birth,  beauty,  and  graceful  skill  in  every  manly  exer- 

'  *  The  description  of  a  trial  by  jury  (as  it  is  called)  by  "the  council  of 
twelve,"  which  has  been  preserved  in  the  Frencli  narrative  of  the  anony- 
mous contemporary,  though  unlike  modern  trials  in  substance,  resembles 
them  in  form  with  a  curious  minuteness.  Hist,  de  Anne  Boleyn,  192.  195. 


1536.  TRIAL    OF    ANNE.  '  167 

else,  excited  such  general  pity,  as  to  embolden  his  mother 
and  his  wife  to  throw  themselves  at  the  feet  of  Henry,  and 
to  tempt  him  by  a  ransom  of  a  hundred  thousand  crowns. 
Pride,  or  revenge,  or  mere  hardheartedness,  prevailed  over 
the  bribe. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  queen  Anne  and  her  brother  Roch- 
ford  were  tried,  in  a  temporary  hall  erected  for  that  purpose 
within  the  Tower,  before  the  duke  of  Norfolk,  created  lord 
high  steward  for  the  occasion,  assisted  by  twenty-six  "  lords 
triers,"  who  in  some  degree  performed  the  functions  of  jurors 
in  this  tribunal,  formerly  often  used  during  the  vacation  or 
interruption  of  parliament.  The  reason  assigned  for  the 
choice  of  the  Tower  was  kindness  to  the  feeling  and  dignity 
of  the  royal  culprit,  which  disposed  the  king  to  spare  her  a 
public  trial  for  such  disgusting  offences.  "  But,"  says  an  an- 
cient writer,  "  it  could  not  be  to  conceal  the  heinousness  of 
the  accusation,  though  that  might  be  the  pretence ;  for  that 
was  published  in  parliament  a  few  weeks  after."*  "The 
proceeding,"  says  he,  "was  inclosed  in  strong  walls."  At 
all  events,  the  place  of  trial,  even  if  chosen  for  state  or  deli- 
cacy, concealed  from  the  public  eye  whatever  might  be  want- 
ing in  justice. 

Rochford  was  first  brought  to  trial,  seemingly  apart  from 
his  unhappy  sister.  "  There  was  brought  against  him,  as  a 
witness,  his  wicked  wife,  accuser  of  her  own  husband  to  the 
seeking  of  his  blood."f  His  defence  was  at  that  time  cele- 
brated for  force  and  effect  "Not  even  More,  so  rich  in 
learning  and  eloquence,  defended  himself  better  against  his 
enemies.}:  His  triers  are  said  '  to  have  been  at  first  divided.'  "§ 
After  his  trial,  Anne  Boleyn  was  required  by  a  gentleman 
usher  to  come  to  the  bar,  where  she  appeared  immediately 
without  an  adviser,  and  attended  only  by  the  ignorant  and 
treacherous  women  of  her  household.  "  It  was  everywhere 
muttered  abroad,  that  the  queen  in  her  defence  had  cleared 
herself  in  a  most  noble  speech."  ||  All  writers  who  lived 
near  the  time  confirm  this  account  of  her  defence.  "  For 

*  Wyatt,  in  Singer.  Second  edition  of  Cavendish's  Life  of  Wolsey,  p. 
444.  Lond.  1827. 

t  Wyatt,  446.  This  detestable  woman,  whose  name  never  should  be  for- 
gotten, was  Jane  Parker,  the  daughter  of  Henry  lord  Parker  and  Mount- 
eagle.  Dugdale,  ii.  207. 

\  Histoire  de  Anne  Boleyn,  198. 

"  Non  pas  Moms  meme,  qui  d'eloquence 
Et  de  scavoir  avoit  tant  d'affluence, 
Ne  repondait  mieuz  a  tous  ses  adversaires." 
§  "  Trouvez  se  sont  d'opinion  diverse."  p.  199. 

||  Wyatt,  in  Singer's  Cavendish,  448.  "  She  made  such  wise  and  discreet 
answers,  that  she  seemed  fully  to  clear  herself." — Holinsh.  iii.  796. 


168  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

the  evidence,"  says  Wyatt,  "  as  I  never  could  hear  of  any, 
small  I  believe  it  was.  The  accusers  must  have  doubted 
whether  their  proofs  would  prove  their  reproofs,  when  they 
durst  not  bring  them  to  the  proof  of  the  light  in  an  open 
place."  The  description  of  this  scene  by  the  narrative  ver- 
sifier bears  marks  of  accurate  intelligence  and  minute  obser- 
vation. "  The  queen,"  says  he,  "  defended  her  honor  calmly 
against  the  imputation  of  unutterable  turpitudes.  She  proved 
that  she  was  conscious  of  a  righteous  cause,  more  by  a  serene 
countenance  than  by  the  power  of  language.  She  spoke  lit- 
tle ;  but  no  man  who  looked  on  her  could  see  any  symptoms 
of  criminality.  She  listened  with  an  unchanged  face  to  the, 
sentence  of  death  passed  upon  her  by  her  uncle.  When  he 
had  closed,  clasping  her  hands,  and  turning  up  her  eyes  to- 
wards heaven,  she  uttered  a  short  prayer : — '  Oh  Father  of 
mankind!  the  way,  the  life,  and  the  truth,  thou  knowest 
whether  I  have  deserved  this  death.'  Then  turning  round 
to  the  judges  (among  whom  it  was  some  satisfaction  to  in- 
cline to  the  belief  that  her  father  did  not  sit),  she  said  to 
them, — *  I  will  not  call  your  sentence  unjust,  nor  imagine  my 
reasons  can  prevail  against  your  convictions :  I  will  rather 
believe  that  you  have  some  good  reason  for  what  you  have 
done ;  but  I  hope  it  is  different  from  those  which  you  alleged 
in  giving  judgment,  for  I  am  clear  from  all  the  offences  which 
you  then  laid  to  my  charge.  I  have  been  ever  faithful  to  the 
king,  though  I  do  not  say  that  I  have  not  been  wanting  in  due 
humility  to  him,  and  have  allowed  my  fancy  to  nurse  some 
foolish  jealousy  of  him.  Other  misdeeds  against  him  I  have 
never  committed.' "  In  the  mean  time  the  four  commoners 
were  executed.  Norris,  Weston,  and  Brereton  persisted  in 
the  denial  of  the  charge:  Smeaton,  who  owned  his  own 
guilt,  and  declared  that  of  the  rest,  was  the  last  executed ; 
so  that  he  may  have  harbored  hopes  of  life  till  it  was  too 
late.* 

From  the  apprehension  of  Anne,  to  her  cruel  examination 
at  Greenwich,  her  existence  was  a  moral  torture.  Every 
wild  and  rambling  word  uttered  in  that  agony,  every  answer 
extracted  from  her  by  an  insidious  or  threatening  inquisition, 
every  misremembrance  into  which  hurry  or  faintness  plunged 
her,  were  registered  minutely ;  and  in  the  depositions  of  her 
treacherous  attendants  became  sufficient  evidence.  She  fell 

*  If  we  suppose  any  rules  of  law  to  have  been  observed  on  this  occasion, 
it  is  a  suspicious  circumstance  that  Smeaton,  who  might  otherwise  have 
been  confronted  with  the  queen,  was  disabled  from  being  examined  as  a 
witness  by  condemnation  for  high  treason  before  her  trial ;  which  might 
easily  have  been  avoided  by  a  delay  for  three  dayi. 


1536.   QUEEN'S  MARRIAGE  DECLARED  NULL.    169 

from  laughter  to  weeping,  from  hysterical  convulsions  to  a 
trembling  delirium.  At  every  stage  she  was  equally  watched 
and  harassed  by  these  wicked  women ;  and  her  distempered 
language  rose  up  in  unrighteous  judgment  against  her.  After 
her  day  of  suffering  at  Greenwich,  she  betrayed  no  more  mor- 
bid weakness.  She  contemplated  death  firmly,  and  seems  to 
have  felt  that  her  only  remaining  objects  were  the  propriety 
and  dignity  of  her  own  conduct.  Conscience,  even  when 
the  exercise  of  her  power  is  painful,  engrosses  the  whole 
soul,  and  lifts  it  above  the  fear  of  bodily  harm.  She  from 
that  moment  regarded  death  with  calmness ;  and  in  the  end 
looked  forward  to  it  as  to  the  means  of  relief. 

One  other  trial  awaited  her,  of  which  the  particulars  are 
very  little  known  to  us.  In  a  letter  of  the  earl  of  Northum- 
berland, dated  on  the  12th  of  May,  that  nobleman  states  that 
he  had  disclaimed  upon  oath  the  pre-contract  with  queen 
Anne,  which  had  once  more  been  imputed  to  him. 

On  the  morning  of  the  17th  of  May,  about  thirty-six  hours 
after  sentence  of  death  was  pronounced  on  her,  and  about  or 
after  the  time  when  her  brother  was  suffering  his  punish- 
ment, she  was  brought  to  Lambeth,  where  she  was  to  go 
through  the  forms  of  trial  once  more,  in  order  that  Cranmer 
(who  must  then  have  been  either  the  most  unhappy  or  the 
most  abject  of  men)  might  act  the  mockery  of  pronouncing 
the  nullity  of  her  marriage  with  the  king.  He  pronounced 
it  never  to  have  been  good,  "  but  utterly  void,  in  consequence 
of  certain  just  and  lawful  impediments,  unknown  at  the  time 
of  her  pretended  marriage,  but  confessed  by  the  said  lady 
Anne  before  the  most  reverend  father  in  God  sitting  judi- 
cially."* No  authentic  record  is  known  to  exist  of  the  par- 
ticulars of  this  seemingly  wanton  disturbance  of  her  almost 
dying  moments.  It  is  singular,  but  it  forms  an  additional 
presumption  against  the  prosecutors,  that  even  the  general 
nature  of  the  alleged  "impediment"  is  not  hinted  in  the 
statute.  No  supposition  is  so  probable  as  that  it  was  the  pre- 
contract with  Northumberland,  which  it  might  be  pretended 
was  recently  "  known"  by  new  evidence.!  The  motive  for 

*  28  Hen.  8.  c.  7.  This  statute,  which  passed  within  a  month  of  Anne's 
death,  recites  her  attainder  for  treason,  but  separately  from  the  ecclesias- 
tical sentence  of  nullity. 

t  An  acute  writer  has  supposed  that  the  unnamed  impediment  on  which 
the  sentence  of  nullity  rested  was  the  cohabitation  of  Henry  with  Mary 
Boleyn,  which  created  a  canonical  impediment  to  his  marriage  with  Anne  ; 
taken  away,  indeed,  by  the  dispensation  of  Clement  VII.,  but  revived  in 
England  by  the  rejection  of  the  papal  authority.  This,  however,  is  no  more 
than  a  bare  supposition,  and  not  quite  so  much  to  those  who  do  not  hold 
Banders,  or  even  Pole,  Anne's  mortal  enemies,  to  be  conclusive  witnesses 
against  her.  If  there  had  been  such  a  commerce,  the  statute  and  the  sen- 

Vol.  II.  P 


170  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

this  suit  was  perhaps  a  desire  of  the  king  to  place  both  his 
daughters  at  his  mercy,  on  the  same  level  of  illegitimacy ; 
and  the  fears  of  his  ministers,  solicitous  to  involve  the  primate 
in  their  own  criminality,  and  to  cover  by  various  forms  of 
law*  what  never  could  have  any  semblance  of  justice.  On 
the  18th  of  May  we  find  an  order  issued  for  the  expulsion  of 
strangers  from  the  Tower;  a  minute  fact,  but  characteristic 
of  tyranny,  which  dreads  pity  as  a  natural  enemy. 

In  spite  of  this  exclusion  of  those  who  might  commiserate 
the  fate  of  the  victim,  the  reports  of  the  lieutenant  to  his 
master  Cromwell  throw  some  light  on  the  last  morning  of  her 
life.  When  he  came  to  her,  after  repeating  her  solemn  pro- 
testations of  innocence,  she  said  to  him, — "  '  Mr.  Kingston,  I 
hear  that  I  am  not  to  die  before  noon,  and  I  am  very  sorry  for 
it,  for  I  thought  to  be  dead  and  past  my  pain.'  I  told  her  it 
should  be  no  pain.  She  answered, — '  I  heard  say,  that  the 
executioner  of  Calais,  who  was  brought  over,  is  more  expert 
than  any  in  England :  tRat  is  very  good :  I  have  a  little  neck,' 
putting  her  hand  about  it,  and  laughing  heartily."!  A  tran- 
sient and  playful  recurrence  to  the  delicacy  of  her  form,  which 
places  in  a  stronger  light  the  blackness  of  the  man  who  had 
often  caressed  that  delicate  form,  and  now  commanded  that  it 
should  be  mangled.  "  I  have  seen  men,"  says  Kingston,  "  and 
also  women,  executed,  and  they  have  been  in  great  sorrowing. 
This  lady  has  much  joy  and  pleasure  in  death."  Is  there  any 
example  in  history  of  so  much  satisfaction,  and  so  much  calm- 
ness, in  any  dying  person  who  is  ascertained  to  be  guilty  of 
acts  owned  by  him  to  be  great  offences,  and  perseveringly 
denied  by  him  to  be  perpetrated  by  himself] 

When  she  was  brought  to  the  scaffold,  which  was  erected 
within  the  Tower,  she  saw  herself  surrounded  by  those  who, 
a  month  before,  would  have  trembled  at  her  frown.  The 
dukes  of  Suffolk  and  Richmond,  the  chancellor  Audley,  and 
secretary  Cromwell,  together  with  the  mayor  and  aldermen 
of  London,  constituted  her  auditory.  On  the  scaffold  she 
uttered  a  few  words:  "Good  Christian  people,  I  am  come 

tence  must  have  stated,  as  their  main  ground,  a  notorious  falsehood;  for 
the  commerce,  if  at  all,  must  have  been  before  the  act  of  settlement.  Add 
to  this,  that  Anne  is  declared,  in  both  the  sentence  and  the  statute,  to  have 
confessed  the  impediment,  which  she  could  not  have  done  if  the  nullity  had 
depended  on  the  supposed  intercourse  of  Henry  with  Mary  Boleyn. 

*  It  seems  to  be  doubtful  whether  these  proceedings  for  treason  were  not, 
after  Cranmer's  sentence  of  nullity,  illegal.  It  is,  at  least,  questionable 
whether,  as  soon  as  Anne's  marriage  was  decreed  to  be  null,  the  attainder 
was  not  necessarily  overthrown ;  since  no  union  but  that  of  legal  matrimony 
could  transmute  her  infidelity  into  treason. 

t  Ellis,  ii.  64—67. 


1535.  EXECUTION    OF   ANNE    BOLEYN.  171 

hither  to  die  according  to  law ;  by  the  law  I  am  judged  to 
die,  and  therefore  I  will  speak  nothing  against  it.  I  am  come 
hither  to  accuse  no  man,  nor  to  speak  any  thing  of  that 
whereof  I  am  accused.  I  pray  God  save  the  king,  and  send 
him  long  to  reign  over  you ;  for  a  gentler*  or  more  merciful 
prince  was  there  never.  To  me  he  was  ever  a  good,  gentle, 
and  sovereign  lord.  If  any  person  will  meddle  with  my  cause, 
I  require  them  to  judge  the  best:  thus  I  take  my  leave  of  the 
world  and  of  you,  and  I  heartily  desire  you  all  to  pray  for  me." 
Even  the  hardhearted  courtiers  who  surrounded  her  could  not 
affect  displeasure  at  this  guarded  language,  probably  suggested 
by  Cranmer  in  the  sad  interview  of  the  preceding  day :  for  it 
is  the  phraseology  of  a  canonist,  and  betrays  the  wariness  of 
a  timorous  man  who  clings  to  some  petty  hope  in  the  worst 
event,  and  on  this  occasion  accounted  it  an  advantage  that 
Anne  should  not  provoke  Henry  against  their  child ;  and  at 
the  same  time  that  she  should  not  be  importuned  to  make  a 
confession  of  guilt  She  seemed  to  be  the  only  person  present 
who  had  a  perfectly  composed  mind.  All  the  bystanders  not 
corrupted  by  the  court  melted  into  tears,  being  recovered,  like 
the  rest  of  the  public,  from  their  original  prejudices  against 
her.f  She  removed  the  hat  and  collar,  which  might  hinder 
the  speedy  action  of  the  sword ;  and,  humbly  kneeling,  she 
repeated  several  tunes  before  the  blow, — "  Christ,  I  pray  thee, 
receive  my  spirit!" 

Those  of  her  female  attendants  who  were  faithful,  though 
fainting  and  drowned  in  tears,  would  not  trust  the  remains  of 
their  beautiful  and  beloved  mistress  to  the  executioner  and 
his  brutal  assistants.  They  washed  away  the  blood  which 
now  made  her  face  ghastly  and  her  fair  form  an  object  of 
horror.  "  They  wandered,"  says  the  metrical  narrator,  who 
describes  this  scene  as  if  he  had  been  an  eye-witness,  "  like 
sheep  without  a  shepherd."  Her  body  was  thrown  into  a  box, 
and  interred  without  ceremony  in  the  chapel  of  the  Tower. 

In  surveying  this  case,  it  may  be  concluded  that  her  de- 
parture from  honor,  even  on  the  eve  of  marriage,  is  not 
proved ;  and  that  the  general  profligacy  of  her  youth  is  the 
mere  assertion  of  her  enemies,  inconsistent  with  probability 
and  unsupported  by  proof.  Whether  in  her  last  year  she 
touched,  or  she  overpassed,  the  boundaries  which  separate 
female  honor  from  the  delicacy  and  decorum  which  are  its 
bulwarks,  is  a  question  which,  though  it  gives  rise  to  more 
doubtful  inquiries,  can  never  be  considered  as  answered  in 
the  affirmative  by  the  frantic  language  uttered  in  the  agony 

*  Perhaps  in  the  nense  of  nobler.  f  Hist,  de  Anne  Boleyn,  211. 


172  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

of  her  mind  and  body  during  the  first  eight  days'  imprison- 
ment ;  nor  by  the  testimony  of  Smeaton,  contradicted  by  all 
whom  he  called  his  accomplices ;  still  less  by  the  brief  state- 
ments of  such  originally  inadequate  evidence  in  historians 
unacquainted  with  legal  proceedings ;  and  least  of  all  by  the 
verdicts  and  judgments  of  such  a  reign  as  that  of  Henry  VIII., 
in  which,  though  guilt  afforded  no  security,  virtue  was  the 
surest  path  to  destruction. 

The  infliction  of  death  upon  a  wife  for  infidelity  might  be  a 
consistent  part  of  the  criminal  code  of  Judea,  which  permitted 
polygamy  on  account  of  the  barbarous  manners  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and,  by  consequence,  allowed  all  females  to  remain  in 
a  state  of  slavery  and  perpetual  imprisonment.  Even  then, 
the  man  would  not  be  accounted  good  who  should  avail  him- 
self of  such  a  permission,  so  far  as  to  put  a  woman  to  death, 
unless,  perhaps,  as  a  palliation  of  an  act  done  in  the  first  trans- 
ports of  jealous  rage. 

Henry  alone,  it  may  be  hoped,  was  capable  of  commanding 
his  slaves  to  murder,  on  the  scaffold,  her  whom  he  had  lately 
cherished  and  adored,  for  whom  he  had  braved  the  opinion  of 
Europe,  and  in  maintenance  of  whose  honor  he  had  spilt  the 
purest  blood  of  England,  after  she  had  produced  one  child  who 
could  lisp  his  name  with  tenderness,  and  when  she  was  recov- 
ering from  the  languor  and  paleness  of  the  unrequited  pangs 
of  a  more  sorrowful  and  fruitless  child-birth.  The  last  cir- 
cumstance, which  would  have  melted  most  beings  in  human 
form,  is  said  to  have  peculiarly  heightened  his  aversion.  Such 
a  deed  is  hardly  capable  of  being  aggravated  by  the  consider- 
ations that,  if  she  was  seduced  before  marriage,  he  had  cor- 
rupted her ;  and  if  she  was  unfaithful  at  last,  the  edge  of  the 
sword  that  smote  her  was  sharpened  by  his  impatience  to 
make  her  bed  empty  for  another  woman.  In  a  word,  it  may 
be  truly  said  that  Henry,  as  if  he  had  intended  to  levy  war 
against  every  various  sort  of  natural  virtue,  proclaimed,  by 
the  executions  of  More  and  of  Anne,  that  he  henceforward 
bade  defiance  to  compassion,  affection,  and  veneration.  A  man 
without  a  good  quality  would  perhaps  be  in  the  condition  of  a 
monster  in  the  physical  world,  where  distortion  and  deformity 
in  every  organ  seem  to  be  incompatible  with  life.  But,  in 
these  two  direful  deeds,  Henry  perhaps  approached  as  nearly 
to  the  ideal  standard  of  perfect  wickedness  as  the  infirmities 
of  human  nature  will  allow. 


1536.  SUPREMACY    OF   THE    CHURCH.  173 

CHAP.  VIII. 
HENRY  VIII.— CONTINUED. 

TO    THE    DEATH   OF   HENRY. 

1536—1547. 

WHILE  Henry  was  thus  spreading  horror  around  him, 
which,  as  we  are  told  by  Erasmus,  rendered  the  most  intimate 
friends  fearful  of  corresponding  with  each  other,  his  difference 
with  Rome  had  not  yet  extended  to  doctrine,  but  was  confined 
to  the  rejection  of  the  papal  jurisdiction,  and  to  a  consequent 
separation  from  the  churches  which  maintained  their  alle- 
giance to  the  holy  see.  He  was  a  schismatic  or  separatist, 
inasmuch  as  he  had  thrown  off  the  ancient  jurisdiction  of  the 
Roman  patriarch  over  the  church  of  England.  He  was  not  a 
heretic,  inasmuch  as  he  had  affirmed  no  proposition  contra- 
dictory to  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  church. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  title  of  supreme  head  of  the  church 
of  England  was  assumed  by  Henry  with  considerable  wari- 
ness, in  language  which  might  be  addressed  to  subjects  in  one 
sense,  and  defended  against  antagonists  in  another;  which 
was  capable  of  a  larger  meaning  in  prosperity,  or  of  being 
contracted  in  a  season  of  adverse  fortune ;  and  which  was 
remarkable  for  the  gross  but  common  fallacy,  of  giving  a  false 
appearance  of  consistency  to  jarring  reasons,  by  the  use  of  the 
same  words  in  different  acceptations.  These  arts  or  artifices 
of  policy,  which  discovered  the  extent  and  importance  of  the 
revolution  only  by  slow  degrees  to  the  people,  are  observable 
in  the  statutes  of  the  25th  and  26th  of  Henry  VIII. 

The  preamble  to  these  statutes  recites,  "that  the  crown  of 
England  is  independent,  and  that  all  classes  of  men,  whether 
of  the  spiritualty  or  of  the  temporally,  owe  obedience  to  it  ;* 
that  the  church  of  England  has  been  accustomed  to  exercise 
jurisdictions  in  courts  spiritual;  and  that  the  encroachments 
of  the  bishop  of  Rome  from  ancient  times  had  been  checked 
by  the  king'e  renowned  progenitors."  It  is  evident  that  the 
doctrine  concerning  the  king's  supremacy  might  well  be 
reconciled  with  the  papal  authority,  if  the  latter  were  con- 
fined to  a.strictly  spiritual  jurisdiction  on  the  part  of  the  pope, 
and  if  the  former  were  limited  to  civil  and  coercive  powers 
on  that  of  the  kh%g.  But  though  the  most  learned  Romanists 
have  generally  agreed  that  the  coercive  powers  of  the  eccle- 

*  24  Hon  8.  c.  12.  Stnt.  of  the  Realm. 

P2 


174  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

siastical  courts  arose  from  grants  of  certain  portions  of  civil 
jurisdiction  made  by  the  state  to  the  clergy,*  yet  the  court  of 
Rome  has  never  been  willing  to  limit  itself  by  any  formal  act 
to  this  narrow  and  dependent  jurisdiction.  On  the  other  hand, 
however  the  words  of  this  statute  might  be  otherwise  con- 
strued, it  was  intended  by  such  swelling1  novelties  of  expres- 
sion to  inure  the  minds  of  the  people  to  unwonted  modes  of 
thinking  on  the  relation  between  the  papal  jurisdiction  and 
the  regal  power. 

Willing,  however,  to  maintain  the  equipoise  between  eccle- 
siastical factions,  he  passed,  in  the  year  following,  a  statute 
for  the  punishment  of  heresy,  in  which  he  inscribed  his  ad- 
herence to  orthodox  doctrines  in  characters  of  blood,  directing 
that  "  all  persons  convicted  of  heresy  before  the  ordinary  of 
the  diocese,  and  refusing  to  abjure,  or  relapsing-  after  abjura- 
tion, shall  be  committed  to  the  lay  power,  to  be  burned  in 
open  places  for  the  example  of  others:"  at  the  same  time  pro- 
viding, "  that  no  speaking  against  the  bishop  of  Rome's  au- 
thority made  and  given  by  human  law  and  not  by  holy  scrip- 
ture, or  against  such  authority,  where  it  is  repugnant  to  the 
laws  of  this  realm,  shall  be  deemed  to  be  heresy."f  The 
series  of  statutes  on  this  head  is  closed  by  a  short  but  compre- 
hensive act  of  the  parliament  which  met  in  November,  1534, 
wherein  it  is  enacted,  that  "  the  king  of  this  realm  shall  be 
reputed  to  be  the  only  supreme  head  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land; that  as  such  he  shall  enjoy  all  titles,  jurisdiction,  and 
honors  to  the  said  dignity  appertaining;  and  that  he  shall 
have  full  authority  to  correct  all  errors  and  abuses  which 
might  lawfully  be  corrected  by  any  spiritual  jurisdiction ;  any 
usage,  prescription,  foreign  laws,  or  foreign  authority  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding."! 

It  is  obvious  that  the  first  provision,  as  it  does  not  define 
the  office  enacted  to  be  vested  in  the  king,  would  of  itself 
confer  nothing  but  a  title ;  that  the  second  provision  contains 
a  falsehood,  as  far  as  it  intimates  the  previous  existence  of  this 
office,  or  any  knowledge  of  its  rights ;  while,  on  the  other 
side,  it  leaves  without  elucidation,  whether  it  was  intended  to 
assert  only,  like  the  former  acts,  the  identical  proposition  that 
the  king  is  the  sovereign  of  all  classes  of  his  subjects.  It 
passes  over  the  essential  distinction  between  what  the  king 
may  do  out  of  parliament  by  his  royal  prerogative,  and  what 
he  can  do  only  in  parliament  by  the  consent  of  the  estates  of 
the  people  of  the  realm.  It  may  mean  that  the  king  and  par- 

*  For  example,  in  testamentary  and  matrimonial  causes. 
1 25  Hen.  8.  c.  14.  }  26  Hen.  8.  c.  1. 


1536.  SUPREMACY    OF    THE    CHURCH.  175 

liament  are  dependent  in  no  respect  on  foreign  power,  and 
that  the  legislature  may  change  by  new  laws  the  arrange- 
ments of  any  institution,  however  respectable,  which  can  owe 
its  being  and  establishment  only  to  law.  It  is  under  the  cover 
of  all  this  vague  and  loose  language,  which  treats  the  head- 
ship of  the  church  as  if  it  were  an  ancient  and  well-known 
magistracy,  that  the  unwary  reader  is  betrayed  into  a  notion 
(in  which  he  could  not  otherwise  have  acquiesced)  that  this 
statute  is  declaratory,  and  that  the  power  of  jurisdiction  and 
amendment  in  all  cases  where  ecclesiastical  superiors  formerly 
exercised  such  powers,  in  spite  of  any  usage,  prescription, 
foreign  law,  or  foreign  custom  to  the  contrary,  was  here  not 
so  much  granted  to  the  crown  as  acknowledged  to  be  a  por- 
tion of  the  ancient  prerogative.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  pope 
seemed  thus  to  be  totally  superseded  by  the  powers  vested  in 
the  crown.  But  it  was  not  till  the  parliament  of  1536,  that  it 
was  universally  disavowed,  insomuch  that  the  disclaimer  of  it 
upon  oath  was  required  from  the  most  considerable  part  of  his 
majesty's  subjects.  By  the  "  act  to  extinguish  the  authority 
of  the  bishop  of  Rome,"  the  maintenance  of  that  authority  was 
subjected  to  the  formidable  penalties  of  preinunire;  and  every 
public  officer,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  every  person 
holding  place  or  fee  from  the  crown,  or  retained  in  the  king's 
service,  or  who  sue  out  livery  of  land*  from  him,  or  do  fealty 
to  him  as  their  superior,  all  religious  profest,  all  persons  taking 
holy  orders,  and  all  who  take  a  degree  in  a  university,  before 
the  exercise  of  their  office  must  make  oath  that  they  utterly 
renounce  the  bishop  of  Rome  and  his  power,  and  instead  of 
consenting  to  the  exercise  of  papal  authority  in  this  realm, 
will  resist  it  to  the  utmost ;  that  he  will  take  the  king  to  be 
the  only  head  of  the  church  of  England,  and  will  defend  all 
statutes  made  or  to  be  made  in  extirpation  of  the  bishop  of 
Rome  and  of  his  authority,  under  the  pains  of  high  treason, 
to  be  inflicted  on  all  such  of  the  above  persons  who,  being 
duly  required,  refuse  to  make  such  oath. 

This  memorable  statute  was  the  first  which  introduced  into 
civil  legislation  the  union  of  a  promise  of  submission  with  a 
declaration  of  assent  to  opinions;  which  had  been  long  known 
among  ecclesiastics  in  the  cases  of  submission  to  superiors, 
and  of  subscription  to  creeds.  It  treats  the  refusal  to  take  the 
prescribed  oath  as  a  species  of  political  heresy,  the  real  exist- 
ence of  which  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  refusal  to  swear. 
In  the  confusion  of  its  savage  haste,  it  punishes  the  refusal  to 
abjure  the  pope  as  a  higher  offence  than  acts  in  maintenance 
of  his  authority. 

*  «8  Hen.  P.  c.  10. 


176  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

By  these  statutes,  together  with  others  prohibiting  official 
intercourse  with  Rome,  the  revolution  in  church  government 
contemplated  by  Henry  VIII.  was  consummated  in  England, 
which  was  placed  in  a  situation  unlike  that  of  any  other 
state  in  Christendom,  acknowledging  the  ancient  doctrine  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  church,  but  placing  the  king  as  a  sort 
of  lay  patriarch  at  the  head  of  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment. 

Thomas  Cromwell,  who  had  become  Henry's  chief  minis- 
ter, was  at  this  critical  juncture  raised  to  the  new  office  of 
the  king's  vicegerent,  "  for  good  and  true  ministration  of  jus- 
tice in  all  causes  and  cases  touching  the  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction, and  for  the  godly  reformation  and  redress  of  all  errors, 
heresies,  and  abuses  in  the  church."*  This  royal  appointment, 
which  had  been  made  in  the  interval  between  the  parliament 
of  1536  and  that  of  1539,  the  latter  of  these  assemblies  seized 
the  earliest  moment  of  confirming  by  their  recognition ; 
avoiding,  however,  the  appearance  of  the  necessity  of  their 
sanction,  by  introducing  the  fact  of  appointment  and  the  de- 
scription of  the  office  into  the  preamble  of  a  statute  for  regu- 
lating precedence  in  parliament,!  where  a  matter  so  weighty 
otherwise  appears  to  be  exceedingly  misplaced.  It  was  en- 
acted that  the  vicegerent  should  take  his  seat  in  the  house  of 
peers  before  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  consequently 
be  ranked  above  all  temporal  lords,  except  those  princes  of 
the  royal  family  on  whom  the  dignity  of  the  peerage  had 
been  conferred,}  or  had  descended.  The  objects  of  Crom- 
well's office  were  so  various  that  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  define  his  powers  by  law,  and  being  wholly  new  they  could 
not  be  circumscribed  by  usage.  'They  were,  therefore,  really 
unbounded.  The  first  experiment  on  this  immense  force  was 
made  by  the  progressive  suppression  of  various  classes  of  re- 
ligious houses,  and  the  seizure  of  their  estates,  at  that  time 
amounting  to  a  large  share  of  the  landed  property  of  the 
kingdom.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  utmost  jealousy 
and  animosity  had  prevailed  between  the  secular  and  regular 
clergy  from  the  establishment  of  the  latter  class,  who  had  for 
ages  been  regarded  as  constituting  the  peculiar  force  of  the 
Roman  see.  The  indolence,  the  ignorance,  the  indulgence  of 
malignant  as  well  as  of  gross  passions,  which  are  apt  to  fol- 
low the  fugitives  from  the  common  vices  of  life  into  their  re- 

*  31  Hen.  8.  c.  10.  t  Ibid. 

t  Perhaps  the  letter  of  the  statutes  excepts  only  princes  who  have  been 
made  dukes.  As  I  do  not  know  any  example  of  a  prince  sitting  by  an 
inferior  title,  this  matter,  which  can  affect  only  precedence,  seems  to  be 
unsettled. 


1536.  SUPPRESSION   OF   MONASTERIES.  177 

treat,  and  to  grow  up  with  more  noisome  rankness  in  the 
dark  recesses  where  they  have  hidden  themselves  from  the 
wholesome  control,  as  much  as  from  the  baleful  example  of 
their  fellows,  are  all  such  palpable  consequences  of  specious 
and  well-meant  institutions,  that  their  existence  requires  lit- 
tle positive  testimony,  and  that  they  are  rather  to  be  calmly 
examined  as  results  of  the  general  nature  of  man,  than  looked 
at  with  disgust  as  the  inherent  malady  of  those  who  only 
breathe  a  mephitic  atmosphere. 

The  Franciscan  and  Dominican  orders,  who  had  revived 
the  religious  spirit  in  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  zeal 
of  the  more  ancient  fraternities  was  buried  under  their  vast 
possessions,  were  .preserved  from  utter  languor  by  the  abso- 
lute poverty  which  was  the  basis  of  their  institution.  Though 
they  had  long  ceased  to  be  actuated  by  the  fervid  activity  of 
their  youth,  and  though  the  revivers  of  ancient  literature  be- 
gan to  share  the  conduct  of  education,  which  the  friars  had 
long  monopolized,  they  continued  to  predominate  in  all  the 
universities,  to  occupy  exclusively  the  schools  of  theology, 
the  master  science,  and  to  exhibit  occasionally  some  models 
of  that  austere  life  which  first  gave  them  general  popularity. 
They  were  still  the  most  eloquent  and  admired  preachers  of 
their  age.*  The  subordination  of  all  monasteries  to  the  pro- 
vincials, the  regularity  of  the  obedience  of  these  last  to  the 
general,  and  the  constant  residence  of  the  generals  at  the 
court  of  Rome,  formed  an  uninterrupted  chain  of  communi- 
cation, by  means  of  which  the  commands  of  the  supreme  pon- 
tiff were  conveyed  to  the  humblest  friar,  with  all  the  secrecy, 
speed,  and  order  of  military  discipline.  It  will  not,  therefore, 
excite  wonder  that  of  all  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  of 
whom  the  far  greater  part  were  not  the  less  dissatisfied  with 
Henry's  innovations,  because  they  were  compelled  to  show 
subserviency  to  them  in  the  conspicuous  stations  where  re- 
sistance was  dangerous,  the  monastic  orders  should  be  the 
most  bitter  and  irreconcilable  enemies  of  a  church  with  a  lay 
head,  and  an  establishment  calling  itself  Catholic  without  a 
pope.  They  were  also  his  most  formidable  opponents ;  for 
they  preached  to  the  lowest  classes  of  the  people,  while  their 
general  sat  on  the  steps  of  the  papal  throne.  The  advances 
towards  the  destruction  of  such  a  body  were  conducted  with 

*  Savonarola  joined  to  both  these  characters  tliat  of  a  friend  of  liberty. 
When  called  to  the  death-bed  of  lx>renzo  de  Medici,  lie  had  the  courage, 
before  absolution,  to  require  Lorenzo's  renunciation  of  usurped  power  and 
the  restoration  of  liberty.  He  perished  in  the  flames  on  account  of  soint; 
miraculous  pretensions  which  he  seems  to  have  been  almost  forced  into 
making,  in  consequence  of  his  just  invectives  against  the  jiolicy  and  man- 
ners of  Alexander  VI. 


178  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1536. 

the  caution  required  in  the  execution  of  measures  deemed 
indeed  to  be  necessary,  but  acknowledged  to  be  beset  with 
perils.  The  first  attack  was  made  by  the  parliament  of  1536, 
already  so  memorable  for  the  blows  which  they  had  struck 
at  the  church,  and  the  steps  which  they  had  made  towards 
an  ecclesiastical  revolution.  They  now  passed  an  act  to  dis- 
solve and  grant  to  the  king  all  religious  houses  of  all  orders 
and  of  both  sexes,  who  could  not  spend  200Z.  yearly.*  Some 
appearances  were  kept  up  with  respect  to  what  in  point  of 
justice  was  the  most  important  part  of  the  case — the  provision 
for  the  superiors  and  members  of  these  communities  during 
their  lives.  "  His  majesty,"  says  the  statute,  "  was  pleased 
and  contented,  of  his  most  excellent  charity,  to  provide  for 
the  heads  such  pensions  as  shall  be  reasonable."  But,  vague 
and  utterly  unsatisfactory  as  it  was,  no  such  promise  was 
vouchsafed  to  the  humble  dwellers  of  the  suppressed  houses, 
who,  it  seems,  were  deemed  beneath  any  assurances  "  of  the 
king's  excellent  charity."  It  was  only  promised  that  they 
were  either  to  be  supported  in  some  new  charitable  founda- 
tion, or  committed  for  their  lives  to  such  of  the  great  monas- 
teries as  the  king  should  appoint.  The  great  monasteries 
then  spared  were  alleged,  in  the  preamble  of  the  act,  to  be 
regular,  devout,  and  exemplary.  It  is  probable  enough  that 
discipline  was  more  easily  maintained  in  great  establishments, 
where  the  means  of  severe  punishment  were  abundant,  and 
the  eyes  of  a  numerous  community  were  fixed  on  the  actions 
of  each  member.  But  though  the  assertion  of  this  had  been 
universally  true,  yet  the  allegation  of  it  in  the  statute  would 
have  been  in  substance  and  effect  a  falsehood,  inasmuch  as  it 
was  not  the  true  motive  of  the  suppression. 

Stokesley,  bishop  of  London,  in  a  debate  on  this  bill,  re- 
marked, "  that  these  lesser  houses  were  as  thorns,  soon  pluck- 
ed up ;  but  the  great  abbots  were  like  putrefied  old  oaks ;  yet 
they  must  needs  follow,  and  so  would  others  do  in  Christen- 
dom."f  This  prelate  deserves  to  be  mentioned  for  having  had 
the  sense  to  foresee,  and  the  courage  to  foretell,  the  events 
which  were  immediately  following,  and  their  connexion  with 
a  general  revolution  throughout  Europe.  The  number  of 
monasteries  which  either  had  been  dissolved,  or  had  surren- 
dered, or  ransomed  themselves  by  payments  of  large  sums  to 
the  king,  amounted  to  three  hundred  and  seventy-six.J  They 
were  the  legal  owners  of  a  large  part  of  the  landed  property 
of  the  kingdom.  The  numbers  of  the  religious  were  proba- 

*  27  Hen.  8.  c.  28.  Stats,  of  the  Realm,  iii.  576. 

t  Burnet.  Reform,  book  iii.  t  Ibid. 


1536.  SUPPRESSION    OF   MONASTERIES.  179 

bly  about  six  or  seven  thousand  :  that  of  their  servants,  de- 
pendents, and  retainers,  may  be  estimated,  moderately,  at  an 
equal  number.  One  hundred  thousand  pounds  (probably  a 
million  and  a  half  of  the  present  value)  came  immediately 
into  the  exchequer :  thirty  thousand  pounds  (probably  half  a 
million  according  to  our  wages  and  prices)  were  added  to  the 
annual  revenue  of  the  crown.*  At  the  moment,  however, 
the  confiscation  was  so  unpopular  as  to  occasion  revolts  in 
those  counties  where  the  ancient  religion  most  retained  its 
ascendant  The  people  lamented  the  loss  of  the  perhaps  per- 
nicious alms  distributed  by  the  monks.  Great  lords  might 
live  at  a  distance.  Small  proprietors,  who  might,  in  some 
respects,  have  replaced  the  monks,  were  then  thinly  scattered. 
The  ruins  of  magnificent  edifices,  the  spoliation  of  their 
richest  decorations,  hitherto  regarded  by  the  people  as  the  or- 
naments of  their  little  neighborhood,  and  the  boast  of  village 
pride,  must  have  been  keenly  regretted,  in  proportion  to  the 
rudeness  of  their  private  accommodations,  and  to  the  mean- 
ness of  their  domestic  architecture.  They  were  robbed  of 
their  ancient  and  their  only  ornaments.  Every  church  con- 
tained relics,  for  which  a  very  mitigated  reverence  might 
have  been  excused,  and  an  undue  veneration  was  actually 
entertained.  Many  small  chapels  were  visited  by  pilgrims 
from  distant  lands.  Every  parish  had  miraculous  legends,  to 
be  deplored,  doubtless,  as  the  offspring  of  credulity,  and  still 
more  as  occasionally  the  means  of  fraud ;  but  endearing  to 
the  peasants  the  parochial  church,  the  adjacent  convent,  and 
every  point  of  a  neighborhood  over  which  tradition  had 
strewed  her  tales  of  prodigy.  The  people  were  most  affected 
by  the  sight  of  the  friars  themselves,  expelled  from  their  home 
and  their  land,  often  at  an  advanced  age,  and  generally  after 
they  had  been  unfitted  for  bodily  toil ;  all  of  whom  bore  out- 
ward marks  of  goodness,  and  many  of  whom  were  doubtless 
known  to  the  laborers  and  farmers  of  the  vicinage  only  by 
their  prayers  and  their  alms.  The  vices  of  some,  the  useless- 
ness  of  most,  were  forgotten  in  the  calamity  of  all,  and  in  the 
merits  of  a  few.  The  proscribed  religious  inflamed  all  these 
feelings  by  popular  harangues. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  revolt  was  supplied  by  the  in- 
junction of  the  vicegerent  to  the  clergy,  in  autumn  1536, 
which  directed  them  "  to  proclaim,  for  a  time,  on  every  Sun- 
day, and  afterwards  twice  in  each  quarter,  that  the  bishop  of 
Rome's  usurped  power  had  no  foundation  in  the  law  of  God ; 
to  abstain  from  extolling  images,  relics,  or  pilgrimages,  and 

*  Herbert.    Burnet. 


180  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1536. 

to  exhort  the  people  to  teach  their  children  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
the  Creed,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  in  English."*  These 
injunctions  seemed  to  be  inoffensive  and  almost  inefficacious ; 
but  some  risk  must  be  incurred  by  attempts  to  introduce  in- 
novations, however  small,  into  the  public  worship  of  a  people 
— the  most  frequently  recurring  of  all  collective  acts,  and  the 
only  solemnity  in  which  all  take  an  active  and  equal  part.  It 
was  easy  for  the  clergy  to  represent  the  measures  of  govern- 
ment as  only  experiments  on  the  patience  and  simplicity  of 
the  people,  preparatory  to  that  daring  plan  of  revolution  in 
doctrine  and  worship  which  was  meditated  by  the  king's  heret- 
ical advisers. 

An  insurrection  first  broke  out  hi  Lincolnshire,  the  county 
where  the  first  visitation  of  religious  houses  had  taken  place. 
Twenty  thousand  men  appeared  in  open  revolt,  headed  or  in- 
cited by  Mackrel,  who  assumed  the  name  of  captain  Cobler. 
Their  proposals  were  extremely  moderate,  chiefly  directed, 
indeed,  against  the  upstarts  preferred  in  church  and  state.  In 
the  month  of  October,  1536,  this  body  of  insurgents  melted 
away  without  a  struggle.  The  king,  alarmed  by  more  serious 
risings,  granted  a  pardon  to  them,  and  the  more  stubborn  and 
needy  of  them  fled  to  their  insurgent  brethren  in  the  north. 
There,  the  whole  people  between  the  Humber  and  the  Tweed, 
together  with  those  of  Cumberland,  of  Westmoreland,  and  of 
the  northern  portion  of  Lancashire,  had  during  the  commo- 
tions in  Lincolnshire  taken  up  arms.  They  were  led  into  the 
field  by  Robert  Ask,  a  man  of  Yorkshire,  whose  station  en- 
titled him  to  be  called  "  a  gentleman."  They  assumed  the 
title  of  a  "  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,"  proceeding  in  this  array  to 
implore  with  joint  prayers  "  the  grace  or  favor  of  God."  The 
priests  marched  before  them  bearing  crucifixes  and  banners, 
on  which  the  sufferings  of  Christ  were  painted.  They  obliged 
all  their  prisoners  to  swear  "  that  they  should  enter  into  this 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace  for  the  love  of  God,  the  preservation  of 
the  king's  person,  the  purifying  of  the  nobility,  and  expelling 
all  villain  blood  and  evil  counsellors ;  taking  before  them  the 
cross  of  Christ,  his  faith,  and  the  restitution  of  the  church ; 
the  suppression  of  heretics  and  their  opinions."  The  garrison 
of  Scarborough  were  faithful.  Clifford,  earl  of  Cumberland, 
held  out  in  his  castle  of  Skipton.  The  other  strong  holds  of 
the  north,  such  as  York  and  Hull,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
insurgents.  At  Pomfret  castle,  Ask  persuaded  or  compelled 
the  archbishop  of  York,  and  the  lord  Darcy,  to  take  the  oath 
and  join  his  army.  Lord  Dacre  of  Gilliesland  bravely  refused 

*  Burnet.  Reform,  book  iii.    Holinshed.    Herbert. 


1536.  REVOLT  IN  THE  NORTH.  181 

to  make  any  concessions  to  thoso  who  were  masters.  In  the 
course  of  negotiations  which  ensued,  Ask,  seated  on  a  chair 
of  state  in  the  castle  of  Pomfret,  having  the  archbishop  of 
York  on  his  right  hand,  and  the  lord  Darcy  on  his  left,  re- 
ceived a  herald  from  the  earl  of  Shrewsbury  the  commander 
of  the  king's  troops.  Ask  refused  to  allow  the  herald  to  read 
out  the  proclamation  of  which  he  was  the  bearer,  but  sent 
him  back  to  lord  Shrewsbury,  with  a  safe-conduct.  On  the 
6th  of  December,  1536,  after  the  king  had  arrived  at  Doncas- 
ter  with  a  superior  force,  the  lords  Scroop,  Latimer,  Lumley, 
and  Darcy,  Sir  T.  Piercy,  Robert  Ask,  and  about  300  others, 
on  the  part  of  the  insurgents,  met  the  duke  of  Norfolk  and 
Sir  William  Fitzwilliam,  on  behalf  of  the  king,  in  order  to 
consider  terms  of  compromise.  The  revolters  began  by  ask- 
ing a  hostage  for  the  safety  of  Ask.  Henry,  who  by  long  de- 
lay had  got  them  into  his  snare,  haughtily  answered  "  that  he 
knew  no  gentleman  or  other  whom  he  esteemed  so  little  as  to 
put  him  in  pledge  for  such  a  man."  The  demands  of  the  com- 
mons, which  included  the  restoration  of  the  princess  Mary  to 
her  legitimacy,  of  the  pope  to  his  wonted  jurisdiction,  and  of 
the  monks  to  their  houses,  were  rejected  with  scorn,  and  the 
insurgents  were  compelled  to  accept  a  full  satisfaction  and 
general  pardon,*  on  condition  that  they  should  submit  to  Nor- 
folk and  Shrewsbury  (the  king's  lieutenant),  and  that  the 
northern  commons  should  rebel  no  more. 

Norfolk,  who  commanded  against  the  revolters,  was  unwill- 
ing to  obtain  too  complete  a  victory  over  Catholic  opponents ; 
and  he  had  secretly  warned  the  king  against  the  danger  of 
strengthening  the  Lutheran  party  by  the  destruction  of  their 
most  irreconcilable  antagonists.  But  the  embers  of  rebellion 
still  glowed. 

Various  circumstances  contributed  to  exasperate  Henry 
against  the  Catholic  clergy,  or  afforded  him  plausible  pretexts 
for  the  execution  of  those  more  extensive  confiscations  which 
he  or  Cromwell  originally  meditated.  It  is  the  nature  of  all 
severe  policy,  even  if  justified  by  necessity,  to  provoke  new 
resistance,  where  it  does  not  extinguish  the  spirit  of  disaffec- 
tion. Rigor  often  revives  rebellion,  and  rebellion  calls  out 
for  redoubled  rigor.  There  are  critical  moments  in  the  his- 
tory of  most  countries,  when  a  government  appears  to  be,  as 
it  were,  doomed  to  move  in  this  unhappy  circle ;  which  often 
doubles  the  righteous  punishment  of  bad  rulers,  but  some- 
times also  is  a  severe  trial  of  those  who  desire  to  do  well. 
Another  insurrection  in  the  north,  though  quickly  subdued, 

*9th  Dec.  1536.    Herbert,  213. 
Vol.  II.  Q 


182  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1537. 

was  sufficient  to  show  the  fellow-feeling  of  the  people  with 
the  clergy.  A  second  general  visitation  of  monasteries  took 
place  in  1537,  and  a  board  of  commissioners  was  appointed  for 
the  superintendence  of  the  revenue  confiscated,  under  the  title 
of  "  The  Court  of  Augmentation  of  the  King's  Revenue."  To 
prepare  the  way  for  these  commissioners,  the  richest  shrines 
and  the  most  revered  relies  were  pillaged  or  destroyed  (more 
especially  those  of  St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury,*)  on  allega- 
tions, too  often  very  true,  that  they  were  scenes  of  gross  im- 
posture, where  pretended  miracles  had  long  undermined  all 
reverence  for  religion.  The  aim  of  these  destroying  measures 
was  to  disgrace  and  desecrate  religious  houses  in  the  eyes  of 
the  people.  Of  all  the  evils  of  false  religion,  the  worst,  per- 
haps, is,  that  it  engages  a  multitude  of  ecclesiastics  in  the 
performance  of  fraudulent  mummeries,  which  must  divest 
both  of  piety  and  sincerity  a  body  who  are  chosen  to  teach 
virtue  to  their  fellows.  The  objects  of  the  visitors  were  so 
well  known,  that  zealous  witnesses  against  the  devoted  mon- 
asteries were  nowhere  wanting.  In  some  cases,  great  abuses 
were  detected,  and  perhaps  sufficiently  proved.  It  must  also 
be  owned  that  some  of  the  most  disgusting  and  odious  offences 
with  which  they  were  charged  are  not  the  most  unlikely  to 
creep  into  monastic  retreats.  But  it  never  can  be  forgotten 
in  such  cases,  that  revenue  not  reformation,  plunder  not  pun- 
ishment, were  the  objects  of  which  the  visitors  were  hi  quest ; 
so  that  proofs  of  innocence  were  altogether  unavailing,  and 
not  even  proofs  of  poverty  could  save  the  smallest  houses 
from  the  paws  of  the  inferior  beasts  of  prey.  Some,  indeed, 
sought  favor  by  a  more  promising  road  ;  by  blackening  them- 
selves, their  fellows,  and  their  order,  and  thus  helping  to  ren- 
der destruction  popular,  by  averring  that  "  the  pit  of  hell  was 
ready  to  swallow  them  up  for  their  ill  life ;"  by  professing 
that  "they  were  now  convinced  of  the  wickedness  of  the 
manner  and  trade  of  living  that  they  and  others  of  their  pre- 
tended religion  followed."  A  hundred  and  fifty  abbots  and 
other  superiors  had  surrendered  their  houses  and  lands  to  the 
crown  before  the  year  1539.  Very  effectual  examples  de- 
terred most  ecclesiastics  from  walking  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
refractory  monks.  The  abbots  of  Reading,  Glastonbury,  and 
Colchester  (three  of  the  greatest),  those  of  Whalley,  Gerveaux, 
and  Savvley,  together  with  the  priors  of  Woburn  and  Burling- 
ton, had  been  executed  under  color  of  having  aided  the  insur- 
gents. Several  suffered  within  sight  of  their  monasteries. 
The  nature  of  the  proceedings  may  be  estimated  by  the  fact,f 

*  Burnet.  Reform,  book  iii.  |  Burnet.  Reform,  book  iii. 


1539.  RIGHTS  OF  PROPERTY.  183 

that  it  has  been  scarcely  found  possible  to  ascertain  with  due 
precision  the  particulars  of  the  respective  accusations.  Those 
abbots,  on  the  other  hand,  who  had  been  most  forward  to  be- 
tray the  communities  which  they  ruled,  and  the  property 
which  they  held  in  trust,  were  rewarded  by  Henry  with  pen- 
sions proportioned  to  their  dishonesty.*  At  length  the  system 
of  confiscation  was  closed  and  sealed  by  a  statute  passed  in 
1539,  which  provided  "  that  all  monasteries  or  other  reli- 
gious houses  dissolved,  suppressed,  surrendered,  renounced, 
relinquished,  forfeited,  or  by  any  means  come  to  his  high- 
ness, shall  be  vested  in  him,  his  heirs,  and  successors,  for 
ever."f 

Thus  was  completed  the  confiscation  of  a  fifth  or  a  fourth 
part  of  the  landed  property  of  England  and  Wales  within  the 
space  of  five  years.  It  may  be  a  fit  moment  therefore  to 
pause  here,  in  order  calmly  and  shortly  to  review  some  of  the 
weighty  questions  which  were  involved  in  this  measure. 
There  is  no  need  of  animadverting  upon  the  means  by  which 
it  was  effected,  though  we  must  assent  to  the  affirmation  of  a 
great  man,  "  that  an  end  which  has  no  means  but  such  as  are 
bad,  is  a  bad  end."  But  the  general  question  may  be  best 
considered,  keeping  out  of  view  any  of  those  attendant  mis- 
deeds which  excite  a  very  honest  indignation,  but  which  dis- 
turb the  operation  of  the  judgment.  Property  is  legal  posses- 
sion. Whoever  exercises  a  certain  portion  of  power  over  any 
outward  thing  in  a  manner  which,  by  the  laws  of  the  country, 
entitles  him  to  an  exclusive  enjoyment  of  it,  is  deemed  a 
proprietor.  But  property,  which  is  generally  deemed  to  be 
the  incentive  to  industry,  the  guardian  of  order,  the  preserver 
of  internal  quiet,  the  channel  of  friendly  intercourse  between 
men  and  nations,  and,  in  a  higher  point  of  view,  as  affording 
leisure  for  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  means  for  the  exercises 
of  generosity,  occasions  for  the  returns  of  gratitude  ;  as  being 
one  of  the  ties  which  join  succeeding  generations,  strength- 
ening domestic  discipline,  and  keeping  up  the  affections  of 
kindred ;  above  all,  because  it  is  the  principle  to  which  all 
men  adapt  their  plans  of  life,  and  on  the  faith  of  whose  per- 
manency every  human  action  is  performed ;  is  an  institution 
of  so  high  and  transcendent  a  nature,  that  every  government 
which  does  not  protect  it,  nay,  that  does  not  rigorously  punish 

*  The  abbot  of  Thierney,  the  prior  of  Coventry,  and  the  prior  of  North- 
ampton, are  named  as  deserters;  and  the  warden  of  New  College,  Oxford, 
and  the  dean  of  York,  labor  under  the  like  imputation,  though  of  different 
classes.  The  income  of  the  abbot  of  Glastonbury  was  rated  at  3500/.,  and 
that  of  the  abbot  of  Reading  at  HI  ,0007. 

t  31  Hen.  8.  c.  13. 


184  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1539. 

its  infraction,  must  be  guilty  of  a  violation  of  the  first  duties 
of  just  rulers.  The  common  feelings  of  human  nature  have 
applied  to  it  the  epithets  of  sacred  and  inviolable.  Property 
varies  in  the  extent  of  the  powers  which  it  confers,  according 
to  the  various  laws  of  different  states.  Its  duration,  its  de- 
scent, its  acquisition,  its  alienation,  depend  solely  upon  these 
laws.  But  all  laws  consider  what  is  held  or  transmitted 
agreeably  to  their  rules  as  alike  possessing  the  character  of 
inviolable  sacredness.  There  may  be,  and  there  is,  property 
for  a  term  of  years,  for  life,  or  for  ever.  It  may  be  absolute 
as  to  the  exercise  of  the  proprietor's  rights,  or  it  may  be  con- 
ditional, or  in  other  words,  held  only  as  long  as  certain  condi- 
tions are  performed.  There  are  specimens  of  all  tkese  sorts 
of  property  in  the  codes  of  most  civilized  nations.  But  in 
all  these  cases  the  essence  of  property  is  preserved,  which 
consists  in  such  a  share  or  kind  of  power  as  the  laws  con- 
fer. The  advantages  may  be  extremely  unequal.  The  invio- 
lable right  must  (by  the  force  of  the  terms)  continue  perfectly 
equal. 

The  legal  limits  of  the  authority  of  the  supreme  legislature 
are  not  a  reasonable  object  of  inquiry,  nor  indeed  an  intelligi- 
ble form  of  expression.  But  to  conclude  that,  because  the 
law  may,  in  some  sense,  be  said  to  create  property,  the  law  is 
to  be  deemed  on  that  account  as  entitled  rightfully  to  take  it 
away,  is  a  proposition  founded  on  a  gross  confusion  of  two 
very  distinguishable  conceptions.  It  uses  the  word  property 
in  the  premises  for  a  system  of  rules,  and  in  the  conclusion 
for  a  portion  of  external  nature,  of  which  the  dominion  is 
acquired  by  the  observance  of  these  rules.  It  is  only  in  the 
first  of  these  senses  that  property  can  be  truly  called  the  crea- 
ture of  law.  In  the  second  sense  it  is  acquired  or  transmit- 
ted not  by  law  but  by  the  acts  of  a  man  when  the  acts  are 
conformable  to  legal  rules.  It  is  impossible  within  our  pres- 
ent limits  to  canvass  the  small  or  apparent  objections  which 
may  occur  to  this  scheme  of  reasoning.  It  is  sufficient,  per- 
haps, here  to  remark,  that  these  are  the  generally  acknow- 
ledged principles,  and  that  deviations  from  them  in  practice 
are  no  more  than  partial  irregularities,  to  which  the  disturbing 
forces  of  passion  and  interest  expose  human  society. 

The  clergy,  though  for  brevity  sometimes  called  a  corpora- 
tion, were  rather  an  order  in  the  state  composed  of  many 
corporations.  Their  share  of  the  national  wealth  was  im- 
mense, consisting  of  land  devised  by  pious  men,  and  of  a  tenth 
part  of  the  produce  of  the  soil  set  apart  by  the  customary  law 
of  Europe,  for  the  support  of  the  parochial  clergy.  Each 
clergyman  had  only  in  this  case  an  estate  for  life,  to  which 


1539.  RIGHTS    OP    PROPERTY.  185 

during  its  continuance  the  essential  attribute  of  inviolable 
possession  was  as  firmly  annexed  by  law  as  if  it  had  been  per- 
petual. The  corporate  body  was  supposed  to  endure  till  it 
was  abolished  in  some  of  the  forms  previously  and  specially 
provided  for  by  law. 

For  one  case,  however,  of  considerable  perplexity  there  was 
neither  law  nor  precedent  to  light  the  way.  Whenever  the 
supreme  power  deemed  itself  bound  to  change  the  established 
church,  or  even  materially  to  alter  the  distribution  of  its  reve- 
nues, a  question  necessarily  arose  concerning  the  moral  bound- 
aries of  legislative  authority  in  such  cases.  It  was  not,  in- 
deed, about  a  legal  boundary ;  for  no  specific  limit  can  be  as- 
signed to  its  right  of  exacting  obedience  within  the  national 
territory.  The  question  was,  what  governments  could  do 
morally  and  righteously, — what  it  is  right  for  them  to  do,  End 
what  they  would  be  enjoined  to  do  by  a  just  superior,  if  such 
a  personage  could  be  found  among  their  fellow-men  J  At  first 
it  may  seem  that  the  lands  should  be  restored  to  the  heirs  of 
the  original  grantor.  But  no  provision  for  such  a  reversion 
was  made  in  the  grant.  No  expectation  of  its  occurrence  was 
entertained  by  their  descendants.  No  habit  or  plan  of  life  had 
been  formed  on  the  probability  of  it.  The  grantors  or  founders 
had  left  their  property  to  certain  bodies  under  the  guardian 
power  of  the  commonwealth,  without  the  reserve  of  any  re- 
mainder to  those  who,  after  the  lapse  of  centuries,  might 
prove  themselves  to  be  their  representatives.  It  is  a  case  not 
very  dissimilar  to  that  of  an  individual  who  died  without  dis- 
coverable heirs,  and  whose  property  for  that  reason  falls  to  the 
state.  It  appeared,  therefore,  meet  and  righteous,  that  in  this 
new  case,  after  the  expiration  of  the  estates  for  life,  the  prop- 
erty granted  for  a  purpose  no  longer  deemed  good  or  the  best, 
should  be  applied  by  the  legislature  to  other  purposes  which 
they  considered  as  better.  But  the  saoredness  of  the  life  es- 
tates is  an  essential  condition  of  the  justice  of  such  measures. 
No  man  thinks  an  annuity  for  life  less  inviolable  during  his 
life,  than  a  portion  of  land  granted  to  him  and  to  his  heirs  for 
ever.  That  estate  might,  indeed,  be  forfeited  by  a  misper- 
formance  of  duty ;  but  perfect  good  faith  is  in  such  a  case 
more  indispensable  than  in  most  others.  Fraud  can  convey 
no  title ;  false  pretences  justify  no  acts.  There  were  gross 
abuses  in  the  monasteries ;  but  it  was  not  for  their  offences 
that  the  monastic  communities  foil.  The  most  commendable 


application  of  their  revenues  wouM  have  been  to  purposes  as 

like  those  for  which  they 

ligious  opinion  would  allow.  These  were  religious  instruction 


those  for  which  they  were  granted  as  the  changes  in  re- 


and  learned  education.  Some  faint  efforts  were  made  to  apply 
Q2 


186  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1539. 

part  to  the  foundation  of  new  bishoprics;  but  this  was  only  to 
cover  the  profusion  with  which  the  produce  of  rapine  was 
lavished  on  courtiers  and  noblemen,  to  purchase  their  support 
of  the  confiscations,  and  to  insure  their  zeal  and  that  of  their 
descendants  against  the  restoration  of  popery. 

It  is  a  melancholy  truth,  and  may  be  considered  by  some  as 
a  considerable  objection  to  the  principles  which  have  been 
thus  shortly  expounded,  that  if  in  "the  seizure  of  abbey 
lands"  the  life  estates  had  been  spared,  the  monks,  who  were 
the  main  stay  of  papal  despotism,  and  the  most  deadly  foes  of 
all  reform,  would  have  had  arms  in  their  hands  which  might 
have  rendered  them  irresistible.  It  must,  perhaps,  be  acknow- 
ledged, that  it  was  more  necessary  to  the  security  of  Henry's 
partial  reformation  to  strip  the  monasteries  at  that  moment, 
than  to  dissolve  communities  which  a  better  regulation  might 
in  future  reconcile  to  the  new  system. 

We  are  assured  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  «« that  in  all  the  time 
while  he  was  conversant  with  the  court,  of  all  the  nobility  of 
this  land  he  found  no  more  than  seven  that  thought  it  right  or 
reasonable  to  take  away  their  possessions  from  the  clergy." 
So  inconsiderable  was  the  original  number  of  those  who,  not 
many  years  after,  accomplished  an  immense  revolution  in 
property.* 

To  which  it  must  be  answered,  that  the  observance  of  jus- 
tice is  more  necessary  than  security  for  any  institution  ;  that 
many  regulations  might  have  stood  instead  of  one  deed  of  ra- 
pine ;  that  the  milder  expedients  would  have  provoked  fewer 
and  more  reconcilable  enemies ;  that  if,  on  the  whole,  they 
afford  less  security,  the  legislature  were  at  least  bound  to  try 
all  means  before  they  who  were  appointed  to  be  the  guardians 
of  right  set  the  example  of  so  great  a  wrong.  Rulers  can 
never  render  so  lasting  a  service  to  a  people  as  by  the  exam- 
ple, in  a  time  of  danger,  of  justice  to  formidable  enemies,  and 
of  mercy  to  obnoxious  delinquents.  These  are  glorious  ex- 
amples, for  which  much  is  to  be  hazarded.  , 

The  next  act  of  Henry,  as  head  of  the  church,  was  to  frame 
a  creed  guarded  by  sanguinary  penalties  for  the  species  of 
neutral  and  intermediate  religion  which  he  had  established. 
In  1536  the  bishops  were  divided  into  two  parties ;  of  whom 
one,  with  Cranmer  and  Latimer  at  its  head,  inclined  towards 
reformation,  though  professing  to  be  of  no  denomination  of 
Protestants;  another,  led  by  Lee  and  Gardiner,  who,  without 
professing  any  communion  with  the  pope,  strongly  leant  to 
the  papal  system.  The  king  attempted  to  settle  all  differences 

*  Apology  of  Sir  T.  More,  1533. 


1539.  CREED  OP  HENRY.  187 

by  a  proclamation  (issued  after  long  debates  in  the  convoca- 
tion), which  uses  high  language  on  the  bodily  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  speaks  in  a  more  mitigated 
tone  of  images,  saints,  purgatory,  and  of  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies ;  matters  deemed  by  many  more  important  than  doctrines, 
inasmuch  as  they  touched  the  ordinary  and  daily  worship  of 
the  people.*  Gardiner,  bishop  of  Winchester,  so  conspicuous 
in  after  times  for  his  activity  in  maintaining  the  papal  power, 
now  wrote  against  the  primacy  of  St.  Peter  himself,  in  a  book, 
to  which  Bonner,  afterwards  bishop  of  London,  contributed  a 
preface.  The  case  of  Lambert  may  be  selected  as  a  speci- 
men of  the  numerous  deaths  inflicted  on  those  who  disbelieved 
more  articles  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  than  the  king.  He 
is  called  by  Cromwell  "  a  sacramentary ;"  one  who  held  the 
Lord's  Supper  to  be  only  a  pious  rite  appointed  to  commemo- 
rate the  death  of  Christ.  "  The  king's  majesty,"  says  Crom- 
well, "  for  the  reverence  of  the  holy  sacrament,  did  sit  and 
preside  at  the  disputation  process  of  the  miserable  heretic  who 
was  burned  on  the  20th  November  (1537).  It  was  a  wonder 
to  see  with  how  excellent  majesty  his  highness  executed  the 
office  of  supreme  head.  How  benignly  he  essayed  to  con- 
vert the  miserable  man:  how  strong  his  highness  alleged 
against  him."t 

The  creed  was  neither  completed,  nor  sufficiently  fenced 
round  by  terrible  penalties,  till  an  act  was  passed  by  the  par- 
liament which  sat  in  April,  1539,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  abol- 
ishing diversity  of  opinions."!  By  tm?  act,  whoever  preaches 
against  the  natural  body  of  Jesus  Clirist  being  present  in  the 
sacrament,  or  that  there  remaineth  any  substance  of  bread 
and  wine  in  it,  is  declared  and  adjudged  a  heretic,  and  shall 
suffer  the  pins  of  death  by  burning.  The  fluctuating  creed 
of  Henry  is  extended  by  the  second  enactment  of  this  clause, 
which  includes,  for  the  first  time,  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of 
consubstantiation ;  thus  marking  the  least  deviation  from  the 
orthodox  doctrine  on  this  point  as  criminal  in  the  highest  de- 
gree.} All  those  who  preach  the  necessity  of  the  communion 
in  both  kinds  to  laymen,  or  for  the  marriage  of  priests,  or 
against  the  observance  of  vows  of  chastity,  or  the  propriety  of 
private  masses,  or  the  fitness  of  auricular  confession ;  all 
priests  who  shall  marry  after  having  advisedly  made  vows  of 
chastity,  shall  suffer  the  pains  of  death  as  felons  ;  and  all  those 
who  maintain  the  same  errors  in  any  other  manner  may  be 
imprisoned  during  the  king's  pleasure. 

*  Collier,  ii.  122,  &c.        t  Noll's  Surrey,  ii.  328.        J  31  Hen.  8  c.  14. 
§  Craiuner  and  Lalinx.'r  uere  then  of  the  same  opinion. 


188  HISTORV    OF   ENGLAND.  1537. 

Cranmer  was  compelled  by  the  terrors  of  this  statute  to 
send  his  wife  secretly  to  Germany.  The  partisans  of  the  old 
faith  openly  rejoiced  at  so  decisive  a  pledge  that  the  king 
would  not  wade  more  deeply  into  heresy.  Latimer,  bishop  of 
Worcester,  the  most  upright,  sincere,  and  frank  of  men, 
braved  the  king's  resentments  by  resigning  his  bishopric  with- 
in a  week  after  this  sanguinary  law  was  passed.  His  exam- 
ple was  followed  by  Shaxton,  bishop  of  Salisbury,  one  of  the 
shining  lights  of  "  the  new  learning."  But  the  old  religion 
still  retained  so  much  power,  or  the  late  policy  of  the  king 
was  so  odious  to  a  large  part  of  the  people,  that  the  persecut- 
ing law  was  popular,  and  contributed  to  eiface  the  odium  in- 
curred by  the  spectacle  of  so  many  proprietors  expelled  from 
their  homes  as  the  suffering  monks. 

The  variations  of  policy  in  this  reign  have  generally  some 
connexion  with  revolutions  in  Henry's  palace  and  in  his  bed. 
The  fate  of  Anne  Boleyn,  who,  if  not  attached  to  the  Protest- 
ant religion  by  her  faith,  was  at  least  bound  to  the  Protestant 
party  by  her  honor,  was  deeply  deplored  by  Cranmer,  by  Me- 
lancthon,  and  by  all  the  leaders  of  reformation  at  home  and 
abroad.  Jane  Seymour  became  friendly  to  the  Protestants  from 
circumstances,  of  which  enough  is  not  known  of  her  private 
history  to  explain.  She  died  in  childbed  of  Edward  VI.  on 
the  13th  of  October,  1537. 

The  next  choice  made  by  or  for  Henry,  who  remained  a 
widower  for  the  period  of  more  than  two  years,  afforded  an 
indication  of  the  progress  of  men  in  general  towards  reforma- 
tion. The  princess  Anne,  sister  of  the  duke  of  Cleves,  a  con- 
siderable prince  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  who  had  lately  estab- 
lished Lutheranism  in  his  principality,  was  sought  in  marriage 
by  the  king  of  England.  The  pencil  of  Holbein  was  employed 
to  paint  this  lady  for  the  king,  who,  pleased  by  the  execution, 
gave  the  flattering  artist  credit  for  a  faithful  likeness.  He  met 
her  at  Dover,  and  almost  immediately  betrayed  his  disappoint- 
ment. Without  descending  into  disgusting  particulars,  it  is 
necessary  to  state,  that  though  the  marriage  was  solemnized, 
the  king  treated  the  princess  of  Cleves  as  a  friend.  He  early 
declared  that  he  had  felt  a  repugnance  to  her  from  some  per- 
sonal peculiarities  which  are  not  alluring,  and  which  he  de- 
scribed in  their  full  grossness.  The  king's  indisposition  to  the 
princess  of  Cleves  continued  to  increase  during  six  months  of 
cohabitation,  though  we  are  not  told  that  it  prompted  him  to 
actual  discourtesy.  The  common  pretext  of  pre-contract,  in 
this  case  alleged  to  be  with  a  prince  of  Lorraine,  was  at  first 
suggested.  It  was  at  last  resolved  to  accomplish  the  purpose 
by  means  still  more  undisguised.  On  the  6th  of  July,  1540, 


1540.  ANNE   OP   CLEVES.  189 

the  king's  ministers  consulted  the  house  of  lords  on  his  dis- 
tress. These  obsequious  peers  humbly  addressed  their  master, 
to  remind  him  of  the  calamities  suffered  by  the  nation  from 
disputed  successions,  and  entreated  him  to  prevent  their  re- 
currence, by  ordering  inquiry  to  be  made  into  the  doubts 
respecting  the  validity  of  his  marriage  with  the  lady  Anne  of 
Cleves.  The  commons  concurred  with  the  lords,  and  the 
king  granted  their  prayer,  referring  the  consideration  of  the 
subject  to  the  convocation.*  The  whole  of  this  drama  was 
arranged,  and  all  the  parts  of  it  were  cast,  three  days  before, 
at  the  privy-council,  who  communicated  it  to  Clark  bishop  of 
Bath,  minister  of  Cleves,  in  a  dispatch  of  the  3d  of  July.  It  is 
a  lamentable  fact  that  a  man  with  so  many  good  qualities  as 
Cranmer  should  be  a  party  to  such  a  mockery.  The  whole 
convocation,  however,  vied  in  compliance  with  the  parliament. 
They  declared  the  marriage  to  be  null,  by  the  consent  of  the 
lady  Anne,  and  after  a  full  consideration  of  all  the  circum- 
stances, none  of  which  they  deign  to  specify,  f  Her  consent 
was  insured  by  a  liberal  income  of  3000Z.  a  year,  and  she 
lived  for  sixteen  years  in  England  with  the  title  of  princess 
Anne  of  Cleves.  The  loyal  nobles  hastened  to  entertain  a  bill 
for  the  nullity.  On  the  13th  of  July  it  was  read  twice  and 
passed.  Two  archbishops  and  eighteen  bishops  were  present ; 
of  whom  Bonner  of  London  and  Gardiner  of  Winchester  were 
two.J  This  bill  received  the  royal  assent  on  the  24th  of  July, 
1540,  the  day  of  the  close  of  the  session  and  of  the  dissolution 
of  the  parliament 

It  is  singular,  though  very  characteristic  of  the  reign,  that 
this  annulment  once  more  displayed  the  triumph  of  an  English 
lady  over  a  foreign  princess ;  and  that  the  triumphant  beauty 
should  be  the  cousin-german  of  Anne  Boleyn.  This  was  lady 
Catharine  Howard,  niece  to  the  duke  of  Norfolk,  whom  the 
king  wedded  on  the  8th  of  August,  1540,  about  a  fortnight 
after  the  parliament  had  enabled  him  to  form  another  union. 
But  before  we  proceed  to  relate  the  sequel  of  this  fourth  mar- 
riage, it  is  necessary  to  throw  a  glance  backward  on  the  fate 
of  Cromwell,  who  was  the  author  of  the  marriage  with  Anne. 

Seldom  has  any  statesman  fallen  from  the  summit  of  power 
and  greatness  more  suddenly  than  Cromwell.  A  bill  to  attaint 
him  of  high  treason  was  read  a  first  time  on  the  17th  of  June, 
1540 ;  on  which  day  he  took  his  place  as  earl  of  Essex,  and 
vicegerent  of  the  king,  in  the  royal  character  of  supreme  head 

*  Lords'  Journals,  153. 

t  32  Hen.  8  c.  25.   The  act  for  dissolving  the  pretended  marriage  with  the 
lady  Anne  recites  this  determination  of  the  clergy. 
1  1  Lords'  Journals,  155. 


190  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1540. 

of  the  church.*  So  far  was  the  accused  from  being"  heard  in 
his  own  defence,  that  in  two  days  more,  viz.  on  the  19th,  the 
bill  was  read  a  second  and  third  time,  passed  unanimously, 
and  sent  down  to  the  house  of  commons.  On  the  29th  of  June 
it  came  back  from  the  commons,  and  was  once  more  passed 
by  the  lords  without  a  dissentient  voice,  f  He  was  charged 
by  the  bill  of  attainder  with  heresy  and  treason :  the  first, 
because  he  favored  heretical  preachers,  patronized  their  works, 
and  discouraged  informations  against  them :  the  second,  be- 
cause he  had  received  bribes,  released  many  prisoners  con- 
fined for  misprision  of  treason,  and  performed  several  acts  of 
royal  authority  without  warrant  from  the  king;  but  more 
especially  because  he  had  declared,  two  years  before,  "  that 
if  the  king  would  turn  from  the  preachers  of  the  new  learn- 
ing, yet  he,  Cromwell,  would  not ;  but  would  fight  in  the  field 
in  his  own  person,  with  his  sword  in  his  hand,  to  defend  it 
against  the  king  himself."{  But  the  condemnation  of  a  man 
unheard  is  a  case  in  which  the  strongest  presumptions  against 
the  prosecution  are  warranted.  That  he  was  zealous  for  fur- 
ther reformation  is  certain:  that  he  may  have  used  warm 
language  to  express  his  zeal ;  that  he  may  have  transgressed 
the  bounds  of  official  duty  to  favor  the  new  opinion,  are  alle- 
gations in  themselves  not  improbable :  but  as  we  do  not  know 
the  witnesses  who  gave  testimony;  as  we  do  not  even  know 
whether  there  were  any  examined ;  and,  indeed,  know  nothing 
but  that  he  was  not  heard  in  his  own  defence ;  it  is  perfectly 
evident  that  whether  the  words  or  deeds  ascribed  to  Cromwell 
were  really  his  or  not,  is  a  question,  without  any  decision  on 
which  the  judicial  proceedings  (if  they  deserve  that  name) 
may  be  pronounced  to  be  altogether  void  of  any  shadow  of 
justice.  Cranmer,  in  a  very  earnest  and  persuasive  letter, 
endeavored  to  obtain  from  the  king  the  preservation  of  Crom- 
well's life.  The  archbishop,  like  Atticus,  never  forsook  his 
friends  in  their  distress ;  but,  like  that  famous  Roman,  he  too 
often  bent  the  knee  to  their  oppressors. $ 

*  1  Lords'  Journals,  145. 

t  "Communi  omnium  procerum  tune  presentium  consensu,  nemine 
dissente." 

J  Burn.  Hist,  of  Reform,  book  iii.  A.  D.  1540.  The  bill  of  attainder  at 
length,  in  Burn.  Rec.  book  iii.  No.  16. 

§  The  character  of  Cromwell  may  be  estimated  from  the  following  extracts 
from  a  memorandum  book  of  that  minister,  published  by  Mr.  Ellis: — 

"  Item— the  abbot  of  Reding  to  be  sent  down  to  be  tried  and  executed  at 
Reding,  with  his  complices." 

"  Item— the  abbot  of  Glastonbury  to  be  tried  at  Glaston,  and  also  to  be 
executed  there,  with  his  complices." 

"  Item— to  advertise  the  king  of  the  orderingof  maisterFisfier"  (the  bishopV 

"  Item — to  know  his  pleasure  touching  maister  More  "  (Sir  Thomas  More). 


1540.  CARDINAL   POLE.  191 

The  execution  of  Cromwell,  though  an  act  of  flagrant  in- 
justice, was  for  a  time  popular.  The  most  active  conductor 
of  a  wide  system  of  confiscation  must  do  much  wrong,  besides 
what  is  involved  in  the  very  nature  of  rapine.  He  must  often 
cover  his  robberies  by  false  accusations  and  unjust  executions. 
He  treats  the  complaints  of  the  spoiled  as  crimes.  He  excites 
revolt,  and  is  the  author  of  that  necessity  which  compels  him 
to  punish  the  revolters.  He  connives  at  the  atrocities  of  his 
subalterns ;  for  with  what  face  can  the  leader  of  a  gang  re- 
prove banditti  for  the  injustice  and  cruelty  which  are  the 
cement  of  their  discipline  and  the  wages  of  their  obedience  ? 

The  Roman  Catholic  party,  incensed  against  Cromwell, 
neither  unnaturally  nor  unjustly,  had  now  resumed  much  of 
their  ascendant  The  act  of  the  six  articles  was  in  the  full 
vigor  of  its  cruelty.  In  all  the  course  of  Henry's  fluctuations 
between  his  schismatic  establishment  and  his  Catholic  doc- 
trines, there  probably  was  no  period  at  which  he  was  driven 
to  a  greater  distance  from  Protestants  than  during  the  six 
months  of  his  apparent  union  with  a  princess  of  a  Lutheran 
family.  The  duke  of  Norfolk,  the  leader  of  the  Catholic  laity, 
was  suspected  of  being  influenced  by  another  motive  besides 
the  interest  of  his  party,  in  the  share  which  he  took  hi  the 
destruction  of  Cromwell.  He  confidently  expected  that  it 
would  be  followed  by  the  elevation  of  his  niece,  lady  Catha- 
rine Howard,  to  the  throne;  a  promotion  which  promised, 
indeed,  to  serve  his  cause,  as  well  as  to  honor  his  person  and 
enlarge  his  power.  Among  the  various  circumstances  which 
caused  Cromwell  to  die  unpitied,  it  was  not  the  least,  that  he 
had  himself  set  the  example  of  attainder  without  trial,  oftener 
than  any  other  minister.  He  fell  by  his  own  snares. 

One  of  the  most  cruel  of  these  iniquitous  executions  was 
that  of  Courtney  marquis  of  Exeter,  with  lord  Montague  and 
Sir  Edward  Nevil,  whose  guilt  seems  to  have  consisted  only 
in  their  descent  from  Edward  IV.  Exeter  was  charged  with 
the  very  improbable  offence  of  conspiring  to  place  Reginald 
Pole  on  the  throne,  although  the  title  of  Exeter  himself  was 
preferable.  Reginald  Pole,  best  known  as  a  cardinal,  was 
the  son  of  Margaret  Plantagenet,  daughter  to  the  duke  of 
Clarence,  by  Sir  Richard  Pole,  a  knight  of  ancient  descent 
in  Wales.  He  passed  much  of  his  life  in  Italy,  where  he 
was  the  rival  and  delight  of  the  most  accomplished  poets,  ar- 
tists, and  scholars,  who  adorned  that  brilliant  age.  Henry 

"  Item— when  maister  Fisher  shall  go." 

"  Item— to  send  unto  the  king  by  Rafie  the  behaviour  of  maister  Fisher." 

"  To  send  Ourdon  to  the  Tower,  to  be  rakkcd." 


192  HISTORY    OP    ENGLAND.  1541. 

seemed  to  have  been  proud  of  him.  He  defrayed  his  rela- 
tion's expenses  munificently,  and  was  certainly  eager  in  his 
wish  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  a  learned  and  celebrated  person 
of  his  royal  blood  to  his  marriages  and  divorces.  He  was 
doubtless  sincere  in  his  urgent  invitations  and  ample  offers ; 
but  it  might  have  been  unsafe  for  so  near  a  connexion  of  the 
house  of  York  to  trust  himself  to  the  inconstant  friendship 
of  his  royal  cousin. 

He  could  not  forget  the  murder  of  his  uncle,  the  earl  of 
Warwick,  by  Henry  VII. ,  more  especially  as  he  himself  as- 
sured his  biographer  Beccatelli  of  the  agreement  of  Henry 
and  Ferdinand,  in  1499,  that  the  death  of  Warwick  should 
precede  the  marriage  of  Arthur  and  Catharine.  It  is  also 
probable,  though,  considering  the  religious  opinion  then 
prevalent  among  Italian  men  of  letters,  it  cannot  be  certainly 
known,  that  Pole's  piety  was  sincere,  and  his  zeal  for  the  papal 
authority  honest.  At  all  events,  generosity  and  honor  forbade 
the  desertion  of  faithful  companions.  Pole  declined  the  ad- 
vances of  the  king,  and  openly  professed  his  condemnation  of 
the  divorce.  Henry's  hatred  was  kindled  in  proportion  to 
the  ardor  of  his  desires  to  obtain  Pole's  friendship  and  appro- 
bation. The  monarch  took  a  dreadful  revenge.  Margaret 
Pole,  a  Plantagenet,  the  cardinal's  mother,  was  attainted  of 
high  treason,  perhaps  under  the  pretext  of  a  mother's  corre- 
spondence with  her  son.  She  was  imprisoned  for  two  years 
in  the  Tower ;  and  was  treated  variously,  as  might  seem  con- 
ducive to  the  purposes  of  subduing  or  melting  down  her  re- 
sistance. She  was  beheaded  on  tiae'i&jjb  of  May,  1541.  She 
refused  to  lay  her  head  on  the  scaffold,  saying  that  "  it  was 
for  traitors  to  do  so,  which  she  was  not.'  She  moved,  or 
was  thought  to  move,  aside  a  hair-breadth  from  the  spot, 
seemingly  as  a  sort  of  protest  against  an  execution  ^without 
trial.  The  executioner,  alarmed  and  confounded,  struck 
several  cuts  at  her,  which  covered  her  gray  hairs  with  blood 
before  they  altogether  extinguished  life. 

The  king,  who  had  wedded  Catharine  Howard  only  in 
August,  1540,  received  such  information  in  November  follow- 
ing of  her  dissolute  life  before  marriage,  as  immediately 
caused  a  rigid  inquiry  into  her  behavior.  The  facts  are  con- 
tained in  a  dispatch  from  the  privy-council  to  the  ambassador 
at  Paris,  dated  on  the  12th  of  November,  and  they  are  re- 
lated with  a  circumstantial  exactness,  forming  almost  a  con- 
trast to  the  vagueness  of  all  former  proceedings  of  the  like 
sort.  The  facts,  which  are  too  gross  to  be  stated,  the  names 
of  the  witnesses,  the  share  of  Cranmer  in  communicating 
the  information  to  the  king  (which  appears  indeed  to  have 


1541.       CATHARINE  HOWARD  EXECUTED.        193 

been  inevitable),  in  a  word,  whatever  can  illustrate  or  estab- 
lish a  charge,  are  fully  related  in  the  dispatch.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  Cranmer  was  ever  guilty  of  a  malicious  or  vin- 
dictive act  The  confessions  of  Catharine  and  of  lady  Roch- 
ford,  upon  which  they  were  attainted  in  parliament,  and  exe- 
cuted in  the  Tower  on  the  14th  of  February,  are  not  said  to 
have  been  at  any  time  questioned.  It  is  difficult  to  withhold 
belief  from  the  facts ;  but  the  baseness  of  the  parliament, 
who  entreated  the  king  not  to  give  his  assent  in  person  to 
the  bill,  and  the  facility  with  which  he  doomed  these  females 
to  execution,  in  spite  of  the  sensibility  which  the  slavish 
parliament  ascribed  to  him,  are  very  slightly,  if  at  all,  exten- 
uated by  the  truth  of  the  charge.  The  authentic  accounts 
known  to  us  relate  chiefly  to  the  vices  of  Catharine  before 
marriage. 

Some  acts  of  infidelity  subsequent  to  the  marriage  are  in- 
deed recited,  and  were  necessary  to  bring  the  charge  within 
the  most  forced  construction  of  the  statute  of  Edward  III. 
It  contains,  however,  another  abominable  clause,  which  makes 
it  high  treason  in  any  woman  whom  the  king  is  about  to 
marry,  not  to  confess  her  unchastity  to  him,  if  she  has  been 
actually  unchaste.  This  clause,  it  may  be  supposed,  would 
have  occurred  to  no  tyrant,  if  there  had  been  no  misgiving, 
in  the  particular  case,  of  acts  done  after  marriage.*  To 
make  the  concealment  of  vices  a  capital  offence  was  worthy 
of  such  a  reign.  The  mind  of  Henry,  under  color  of  pre- 
serving the  public  quiet  by  guarding  the  succession,  was  in- 
tent on  fencing  round  a  sort  of  successive  seraglio,  by  all  the 
horrors  which  could  deter  intruders  from  its  approaches. 
Every  woman  who  now  aspired  to  share  his  throne  might, 
without  a  very  powerful  fancy,  imagine  that  she  saw  the 
heads  of  her  predecessors  planted  on  the  walls  of  his  palace. 
His  regard  to  the  mere  forms  of  wedlock,  joined  to  a  contempt 
for  kindness  and  tenderness,  "  the  weightier  matters  of  the 
law,"  made  him  a  more  cruel  tyrant  than  he  could  have  been, 
if  he  had  disregarded  the  exterior  as  much  as  he  offended 
against  the  substance  of  that  important  union.  It  appears, 
accordingly,  that  after  the  tremendous  enactment  which  made 
the  concealment  of  incontinency  a  capital  offence,  the  offer 
of  his  hand  was  more  dreaded  than  courted ;  so  that  the 
youthful  beauties  stood  off  from  a  royal  seat,  which  placed 
their  lives  at  the  mercy  of  the  king's  mistakes  as  well  as  of 
his  passions,  f 

*  31  Hen.  8.  c.  21.  An  act  for  the  attainder  of  Catharine  Howard  and  her 
accomplices, 
f  Herbert,  ii.   Kenn.  238. 

Vol.  n.  R 


194  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1543. 

On  the  10th  of  July,  1543,  Henry  wedded  Catharine  Parr, 
the  widow  of  lord  Latimer,  a  lady  of  mature  age,  who  showed 
the  same  favorable  disposition  to  the  reformation  with  all  his 
English  wives,  except  Catharine  Howard.  By  her  elevation 
to  the  throne,  the  reformers  obtained  a  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  lord  Audley,  the  chancellor,  their  secret  but  steady 
friend,  who  was  succeeded  by  Wriothesley,  a  patron  of  the 
old  doctrine.  The  prebendaries  of  Canterbury,  excited,  as  it 
was  believed,  by  Gardiner,  preferred  a  voluminous  accusation 
against  Cranmer ;  the  substance  of  which  was,  that  he  dis- 
couraged orthodox  preachers  and  protected  the  heretical ;  that 
under  him  the  law  of  the  six  articles  was  unexecuted,  and 
that  he  had  a  constant  correspondence  with  the  heretics  of 
Germany.  The  conduct  of  Cranmer  had  been  wary,  and  the 
king  showed  a  friendship  for  the  primate,  which  the  uniform 
compliance  of  the  latter  had  too  well  earned.  He  escaped 
from  this  conspiracy  of  his  clergy.  Sir  John  Gortwick,  mem- 
ber of  parliament  for  Bedfordshire,  complained  to  the  house 
of  commons  against  Cranmer  for  preaching  heresy.  The 
king  rebuked  Gortwick  severely.  The  Roman  Catholic  party 
renewed  their  attack  in  the  privy-council,  complaining  that 
"Cranmer  and  his  learned  men  had  so  infected  the  whole 
realm  with  their  unsavory  doctrines,  that  three  parts  of  the 
land  were  become  abominable  heretics."  The  king  termi- 
nated the  affair  by  declaring,  that  he  accounted  "  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  to  be  as  faitliful  a  man  to  the  crown  as 
ever  was  prelate  in  this  realm." 

Catharine  had  read  Lutheran  books,  and  even  presumed  to 
enter  into  theological  controversy  with  her  imperious  lord. 
Wriothesley  and  Gardiner  were  directed  to  give  order  for 
her  imprisonment,  and  to  prepare  articles  of  impeachment 
against  her.  Hearing  this  intelligence,  she  fell  into  a  succes- 
sion of  fits,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was  carried  to  her 
apartment  (for  he  was  now  too  unwieldy  to  walk),  where  he 
said,  "  Kate,  you  are  a  doctor." — "  No,"  said  she,  "  sir,  I  only 
wished  to  divert  you  from  your  pain  by  an  argument,  in 
which  you  so  much  shine." — "  Is  it  so,  sweetheart!"  said  he ; 
"then  we  are  friends  again."  By  this  stratagem  did  she 
escape  the  vengeance  of  the  royal  polemic,  which,  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  she  never  again  ventured  to  pro- 
voke.* 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1543,  Henry  renewed  his 
friendship  with  the  emperor,  long  suspended  by  the  discussions 
respecting  the  divorce  and  marriage  of  the  English  monarch. 

*  Strype's  Cranmer,  c.  26,  27,  28. 


1544.  WAR  WITH  FRANCE.  195 

They  concluded  an  alliance  against  Francis,  whom  they  repre- 
sented as  "  the  ally  of  the  Turks."*  The  beginning  of  the 
war  was  inconsiderable.  On  the  14th  of  July,  1544,  Henry, 
who  still  affected  a  fondness  for  warlike  shows,  passed  the 
seas  in  a  ship  with  sails  of  cloth  of  gold,  leaving  the  regency 
in  the  hands  of  Catharine.  The  imperial  ambassador  urged 
his  immediate  advance  to  Paris :  but  the  king  of  England 
rather  followed  the  example  than  the  counsel  of  the  emperor, 
who  had  already  added  several  French  towns  to  his  Burgun- 
dian  territory.  The  duke  of  Suffolk  marched  to  invest  Bou- 
logne, which  was  gallantly  defended  by  Vervins,  the  French 
governor.  The  English  general  was  speedily  followed  by  the 
duke  of  Albuquerque,  the  commander  of  the  imperial  auxilia- 
ries, and  by  Henry  himself,  who,  in  spite  of  his  huge  and  dis- 
tempered body,  came  "armed  at  all  points  upon  a  great 
courser."  The  lower  town  was  taken  before  the  21st  of  July ; 
but  the  high  town  did  not  surrender  till  the  14th  of  Septem- 
ber, and  then  on  terms  well  merited  by  a  brave  defence.  The 
king  made  his  triumphant  entry  on  the  18th  into  this  city,  of 
which  the  reduction  was  somewhat  characteristic  of  Henry's 
warfare  ;  having  a  sort  of  middle  character  between  a  siege 
and  a  tournament,  and  chiefly  remarkable  as  a  display  of 
prowess,  and  an  exhibition  of  the  feats  of  arms  of  the  youth 
of  two  warlike  nations.!  On  the  same  day  with  Henry's  tri- 
umphal entrance  into  Boulogne,  the  emperor  made  a  separate 
peace  with  France  at  Cressy,  alleging  Henry's  attack  on  Bou- 
logne as  a  departure  from  the  general  objects  of  the  alliance. 
A  secret  article  is  said  to  have  formed  a  part  of  that  treaty  of 
Cressy,  for  the  destruction  of  the  religious  revolt  which  was 
now  spreading  in  France,  in  the  Netherlands,  and  in  Switzer- 
land. But  it  is  not  probable  that  the  projects  of  Charles  V. 
and  Henry  II.  were  at  that  period  so  mature  as  to  be  reduced 
to  diplomatic  formalities.  The  French,  under  the  mareschal 
de  Monluc,  were  repulsed  in  an  attempt  to  retake  Boulogne. 
They  disembarked  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  in  Sussex.  Seve- 
ral indecisive  skirmishes  occurred  at  sea.  These  unimportant 
hostilities  were  closed  by  a  treaty  signed  on  the  7th  of  June, 
1546,  and  somewhat  singularly  dated  "under  tents  in  the 
fields  between  Ardres  and  Guinea,"  of  which  the  principal 
stipulation  was,  that  within  eight  years  Henry  should  receive 
two  millions  of  crowns,  with  arrears  and  costs  which  are 

*  Rymer,  xiv.  768,  &.c.  "Contra  Franciscum  cum  Turckii  confederatum." 
llth  Feb.  1542(1543). 

t  Diary  of  the  siege  of  Boulogne,  21st  July  to  25th  September,  15M,  Her- 
hert,  245. 


196  HISTORY    OP    ENGLAND.  1546. 

enumerated ;  and  on  payment  of  these  sums,  Boulogne  and 
its  dependencies  should  be  restored  to  Francis. 

The  cruelty  of  Henry  continued  conspicuous  to  the  last,  in 
the  alternate  but  impartial  persecution  of  the  Lutherans  as 
heretics,  and  of  the  papists  as  traitors.  But  it  seems  to  have 
been  somewhat  mitigated  in  his  last  years  to  his  court  and 
kindred ;  probably  from  the  languor  of  distemper,  which  might 
put  on  some  appearance  of  mildness,  and  produce  some  of  the 
effects  of  good-nature  towards  those  on  whose  kind  offices  he 
was  necessarily  dependent  This  general  softening  was 
chequered  by  occasional  acts  of  extreme  harshness,  which, 
for  the  sake  of  equal  justice,  may  be  laid  to  the  account  of  his 
occasional  paroxysms  of  pain,  which  are  said  to  have  been 
unusually  acute.  His  body  had  become  so  unwieldy,  that  he 
could  not  be  moved  without  machines  contrived  for  the  pur- 
pose. An  oppression  on  his  breathing  rendered  it  difficult  for 
him  to  relieve  himself  by  a  recumbent  posture.  The  signa- 
ture of  his  name  became  too  heavy  a  task  for  his  feeble  or 
overloaded  hands.  Stamps  with  his  initials  were  affixed  in 
his  presence,  and  by  his  verbal  command,  to  all  the  instru- 
ments which  required  the  royal  signature.  He  became  offen- 
sive to  his  humblest  attendants  by  an  ulcer  in  one  of  his 
swollen  limbs,  which  often  subjected  him  to  the  extremity  of 
pain. 

It  was  in  this  miserable  condition  of  Henry  that  an  act  was 
done  by  him,  or  in  his  name,  which  has  become  memorable 
and  interesting  from  the  fame  of  an  illustrious  sufferer.  Henry 
Howard,  earl  of  Surrey,  is  so  justly  renowned  by  his  poetical 
genius,  which  was  then  surpassed  in  his  own  country  by  none 
but  that  of  Chaucer ;  by  his  happy  imitations  of  the  Italian  mas- 
ters ;  by  a  version  of  the  ^Eneid,  of  which  the  execution  is  won- 
derful, and  the  very  undertaking  betokens  the  consciousness  of 
lofty  superiority ;  by  the  place  in  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  behold  him,  at  the  head  of  the  uninterrupted  series  of  Eng- 
lish poets ;  that  we  find  it  difficult  to  regard  him  in  those  in- 
ferior points  of  view,  of  a  gallant  knight,  a  skilful  captain,  and 
an  active  statesman,  which,  in  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries, 
eclipsed  the  lustre  of  his  literary  renown.  He  had  served 
with  distinction  in  the  late  war  against  France,  where  differ- 
ences with  the  earl  of  Hertford,  whom  Surrey  accused  of 
having  supplanted  him  in  command,  were  widened.  Hertford 
was  the  brother  of  Jane  Seymour,  and  the  uncle  of  the  young 
prince.  The  rapid  decay  of  the  king  added  daily  to  his  con- 
sequence, and  increased  his  desire  to  insure  an  undivided 
power  over  his  nephew.  Hertford  so  soon  after  gave  full 
scope  to  his  attachment  for  the  reformation,  that  we  cannot 


1546.  HOWARD,    EARL    OF    SURREY.  197 

suppose  him  not  to  have  been  a  Protestant  while  Henry  yet 
lived.  As  none  of  the  reformed  nobility  exposed  themselves 
to  legal  punishment  by  an  avowal  of  their  faith,  so  the  Catho- 
lic lords  concealed  their  attachments  to  the  papal  power, 
which  would  have  been  an  unpardonable  crime  in  the  eyes  of 
Henry.  These  circumstances  render  it  difficult  to  ascertain 
the  real  opinions  of  the  earl  of  Surrey.  But  we  know  the 
opinions  of  his  father,  and  the  inclinations  of  his  family,  so 
perfectly,  that  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  Surrey  being  at 
least  an  adherent  of  the  Catholic  party.  The  house  of  How- 
ard alone  stood  in  the  way  of  the  Seymours  in  their  pursuits, 
under  the  approaching  minority.  Personal  pique,  religious 
dissension,  political  jealousy,  all  pointed  in  the  same  direction. 
The  means  by  which  Henry  was  enlisted  in  the  service  of 
this  confederacy  of  passions  are  unknown  ;  but  it  is  likely  that 
he  was  easily  filled  with  apprehension  by  representations  of 
the  power  and  greatness  of  the  Howards,  who  alone  could  en- 
danger the  royal  seat  of  his  son. 

Whatever  were  the  motives  or  means  employed,  the  earl 
of  Surrey,  together  with  his  father,  was,  on  the  12th  of  De- 
cember, 1546,  imprisoned  in  the  Tower.*  The  legal  ground 
of  proceeding  was  the  sweeping  section  of  more  than  one  re- 
cent statute  which  made  it  high  treason  "  to  do  any  thing,  by 
word,  writing,  or  deed,  to  the  scandal  or  peril  of  the  establish- 
ed succession  to  the  crown."  The  only  overt  act  alleged 
against  him  was  hie  having  assumed  the  armorial  bearing  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  "  which  had  been  hitherto  exclusively 
used  by  his  majesty  and  his  predecessors,  kings  of  England."! 

Of  the  witnesses  who  were  examined  in  support  of  this 
charge,  the  first  was  Mrs.  Holland,  the  mistress  of  the  duke 
of  Norfolk.  She  only  mentioned  the  duke  having  blamed  his 
son  for  want  of  skill  in  quartering  the  family  arms,  and  "  had 
spoken  with  warmth  against  the  new  nobility  (meaning  the 
Seymours),  who  did  not  love  him."  The  second  witness  was 
the  duchess  of  Richmond,  the  widow  of  Henry's  natural  son, 
a  young  and  very  beautiful  woman,  who,  though  the  daughter 
of  Norfolk,  now  appeared  to  swear  away  the  lives  of  her  father 
and  her  brother.  She  deposed  that  her  brother  Surrey  had 
spoken  with  asperity  of  Hertford ;  that  he  had  professed  a  dis- 
like of"  the  new  nobility,"  and  complained  of  the  king  as  the 
cause  of  the  defeat  of  the  English  before  Boulogne.  She  add- 
ed, seemingly  of  her  own  accord,  that  Surrey  wore  on  his 

*  2H  Hen.  8.  c.  7.  was  the  last.  Similar  clauses  are  in  the  acts  of  the  25th 
and  of  the  27th  of  Henry. 
t  Nott's  Works  of  Surrey,  i.  Appen.  No.  33. 

R2 


198  HISTORY   OP   ENGLAND.  1547. 

arms,  instead  of  a  ducal  coronet,  what  seemed  to  her  judg- 
ment very  like  a  close  crown,  and  a  cipher,  which  she  took  to 
be  the  king's  H.  R. ;  two  matters,  however,  which  had  no  con- 
nexion with  the  accusation. 

Surrey  was  tried  on  the  13th  of  January,  1547,  at  Guild- 
hall ;  and  on  this  absurd  charge,  supported  by  such  monstrous 
evidence,  he  was  convicted  of  high  treason.*  On  the  19th 
or  21st  of  January  he  was  executed,  either  six  or  eight  days 
before  Henry  died,  "  who,"  says  Holinshed,  "  on  the  day  of 
lord  Surrey's  execution,  was  lying  in  the  agonies  of  death." 
As  the  king's  sick  bed  was  surrounded  by  Surrey's  enemies, 
it  must  be  always  uncertain  whether  the  hand  of  Henry  was, 
even  in  the  lowest  bodily  sense,  affixed  to  the  instrument  which 
warranted  the  execution. 

The  duke  of  Norfolk,  who  seems  to  have  owed  his  misfor- 
tunes originally  to  the  resentment  of  the  duchess,  whom  he 
had  long  deserted  for  Mrs.  Holland,  was  importuned  into  an 
imperfect  confession  of  acts  which  were  almost  blamable.  A 
bill  of  attainder  was  introduced  against  him,  founded  on  his 
confession.  The  royal  assent  was  given  to  it  in  virtue  of  a 
commission  signed  by  the  stamps  on  the  27th  of  January,  and 
orders  were  sent  to  the  Tower  for  the  execution  in  the  morn- 
ing. But  Henry  died  in  the  night.  The  execution  was  sus- 
pended. The  duke  was  confined  during  the  next  reign ;  but 
in  that  of  Mary  the  attainder  was  reversed,  on  the  grounds 
that  the  act  could  not  be  treason,  because  the  arms  had  been 
long  publicly  borne  in  the  presence  of  the  kings  of  England ; 
that  the  king  died  in  the  night  following  the  day  on  which 
the  commission  bears  date ;  and  that  the  commission  is  not 
signed  with  his  name,  but  with  stamps  put  thereunto  not  in 
the  place  where  he  was  accustomed  to  put  them ;  and  it  was 
also  declared  that  the  royal  assent  can  only  be  given  hy  the 
king,  either  in  his  own  person  or  by  letters  patent  under  the 
great  seal,  according  to  a  statute  of  33  Henry  VIII.,  and  that 
the  pretended  act  of  attainder  shall  be  taken  and  deemed  to 
be  no  act  of  parliament.! 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  night  between  the  27th  and  28th  of 
January,  1547,  Henry  VIII.  breathed  his  last  in  his  palace  at 
Westminster,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  reign  and  fifty- 
sixth  of  his  age.  On  Saturday,  the  29th,  parliament  met 

*  Six  of  the  twelve  jurors  appear,  from  their  names,  to  be  men  of  ancient 
note  in  Norfolk,  from  which  county  thev  were  summoned  :  Fasten,  Boleyn, 
Woodhouse,  L'Estrange,  Hobart,  Bedingfield. 

jNott's  Surrey,  i.  Appen.  No.  50.,  from  the  original  at  Norfolk  -lion*!. 
Nothing  is  contained  in  the  authentic  edition  of  the  statutes,  but  the  title 
of  .the  statute  of  Mary,  "  An  act  to  declare  the  pretended  attainder  of 
Thomas  duke  of  Norfolk  to  be  void  and  of  no  effect." 


1547.  DEATH  OP  HENRY.  199 

according  to  their  adjournment,  and  transacted  ordinary  busi- 
ness. It  was  not  till  Monday,  the  last  day  of  January,  "  that, 
in  presence  of  all  the  peers,  and  of  the  knights  and  burgesses, 
Wriothesley  the  chancellor  announced  to  them  the  decease 
of  their  late  dread  lord,  which,"  says  the  record,  "  was  un- 
speakably sad  and  sorrowful  to  all  the  hearers ;  the  chancellor 
himself  being  almost  disabled  by  his  tears  from  uttering  the 
words:  at  last,  however,  when  they  had  composed  their  lament- 
ations and  consoled  their  grief  by  calling  to  mind  the  promise 
of  ability  and  virtue  already  given  by  prince  Edward,  and 
having  heard  a  great  part  of  the  king's  testament  read  by 
Sir  William  Paget,  secretary  of  state,  the  present  parliament 
was  declared  by  the  lord  chancellor  to  be  dissolved  by  the 
demise  of  the  crown."* 

This  parliamentary  consideration  of  a  royal  testament  im- 
plying that  right  of  bequeathing  a  nation  which  had  been  so 
decisively  repelled  in  the  minority  of  Henry  VI.,  requires 
some  explanation.  The  act  of  settlement  passed  on  Henry 
VIII.'s  marriage  with  Jane  had  vested  the  power  of  bequeath- 
ing the  realm  in  the  crown  on  failure  of  the  king's  legitimate 
issue,  no  such  issue  being  then  in  existence.!  About  three 
years  before  the  king's  decease,  this  unbounded  and  oriental 
power  was  abridged  by  a  statute,  which,  after  the  failure  of 
male  progeny,  limited  the  succession  to  Mary  and  Elizabeth, 
without  any  consideration  of  their  irreconcilable  claims,  or 
of  their  common  illegitimacy  ;  on  condition,  however,  of  these 
princesses  observing  the  terms,  if  any,  to  be  prescribed  by 
the  king ;  and  in  the  case  of  their  death  or  forfeiture,  the 
unlimited  power  of  devise  was  revested  in  the  crovvn.J  The 
king's  property  in  his  people  was  still  maintained,  as  his 
daughters  were  not  to  inherit  by  the  fundamental  laws,  but  to 
receive  a  conditional  and  defeasible  authority  under  his  will. 
By  the  will  of  Henry,  executed  on  the  30th  of  December 
preceding  his  death,  all  the  powers  of  government  were,  du- 
ring the  minority,  vested  in  fifteen  persons  therein  namedg 
(called  in  the  will  executors,  to  keep  up  the  language  of  the 
doctrine  of  ownership.) 

In  1539,11  the  submissive  parliament  passed  an  act  "  that 
proclamations  by  the  king  in  council  should  be  obeyed  as 

*  Lords'  Journals,  i.  K»l.  t  28  Hen.  8.  c.  7.  a.  9. 

J  35  Hen.  8.  c.  4. 

§  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  lord  chancellor  Wriothesley,  Sir  John  Hert- 
ford, Rus^oll,  Lisle,  bishop  Tunstall,  Brown,  master  of  the  horse;  Montague, 
chief  justice  of  tlw  Common  Pleas;  Bromley,  a  justice;  North,  Paget, 
JK:nny,  Harberd,  and  tivo  Wool  tons. 

|j  31  Hen.  8.  c.  8. 


200  HISTORY  OP  ENGLAND.  1547, 

though  they  were  made  by  act  of  parliament,  under  such 
pains  as  such  proclamations  shall  appoint :"  providing1,  how- 
ever, that  the  punishment  shall  not  extend  to  death  or  forfeit- 
ure, except  in  case  of  heresy ;  and  that  the  proclamation 
shall  not  have  the  power  of  repealing  laws,  or  of  abolishing 
the  ancient  usages  of  the  realm.  Offenders  were  to  be  tried 
in  the  court  of  star-chamber ;  and  if  they  took  refuge  from 
its  mercy  in  a  foreign  land,  were  declared  to  be  guilty  of  high 
treason.  One  of  the  reasons  assigned  for  ft,  (as  Mr.  Hallam 
has,  with  his  usual  sagacity  and  manliness,  observed,)  "  that 
the  king  should  not  be  driven  to  extend  the  liberty  and  su- 
premacy given  him  by  God,  by  the  wilfulness  of  froward  sub- 
jects," is  more  shocking  than  the  statute  itself.  The  excep- 
tion of  heresy  showed  how  widely  the  undefined  supremacy 
had  thrown  open  the  door  for  the  entrance  of  despotism ;  for 
no  bounds  seemed  possible  to  an  authority  which  united  the 
power  of  the  king  with  that  of  the  pope,  and  the  pretext  of 
heresy  furnished  the  ready  means  of  crushing  any  opponent.* 
But  though  no  language  can  adequately  condemn  the  base 
subserviency  of  Henry's  parliament,  it  may  be  reasonably 
doubted  whether  his  reign  was,  in  its  ultimate  consequences, 
injurious  to  public  liberty.  The  immense  revolutions  of  his 
time  in  property,  in  religion,  and  in  the  inheritance  of  the 
crown,  never  could  have  been  effected  without  the  concurrence 
of  parliament.  Their  acquiescence  and  co-operation  in  the 
spoliation  of  property,  and  the  condemnation  of  the  innocent, 
tempted  him  to  carry  all  his  purposes  into  execution,  through 
their  means.  Those  who  saw  the  attainders  of  queens,  the 
alteration  of  an  established  religion,  and  the  frequent  disturb- 
ance of  the  regal  succession,  accomplished  by  acts  of  parlia- 
ment, considered  nothing  as  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  so 
potent  an  assembly.!  If  the  supremacy  was  a  tremendous 
power,  it  accustomed  the  people  to  set  no  bounds  to  the  au- 
thority of  those  who  bestowed  it  on  the  king.  The  omnipo- 
tence of  parliament  appeared  no  longer  a  mere  hyperbole. 
Let  it  not  be  supposed,  that  to  mention  the  good  thus  finally 
educed  from  such  evils,  is  intended  or  calculated  to  palliate 
crimes,  or  to  lessen  our  just  abhorrence  of  criminals.  Nothing, 
on  the  contrary,  seems  more  to  exalt  the  majesty  of  virtue 
than  to  point  out  the  tendency  of  the  moral  government  of 
the  world,  which,  as  in  this  instance,  turns  the  worst  enemies 

*  An  old  writer  very  significantly  said,  "  Henry  was  a  king  with  a  pope 
in  his  belly." 

t  The  observations  of  Nathaniel  Bacon,  or  rather  of  Selden,  from  whos<» 
MS.  notes  he  is  said  to  have  written  his  book,  deserve  serious  consideration. 
Bacon  on  the  Laws  and  Government  of  England.  «hap.  27. 


1547.         PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.  201 

of  all  that  is  good  into  the  laborious  slaves  of  justice.  Of  all 
outward  benefits,  the  most  conducive  to  virtue  as  well  as  to 
happiness  is,  doubtless,  popular  and  representative  govern- 
ment It  is  the  reverse  of  a  degradation  of  it  to  observe,  that 
its  establishment  among  us  was  perhaps  partially  promoted 
by  the  sensuality,  rapacity,  and  cruelty  of  Henry  VIII.  The 
course  of  afiairs  is  always  so  dark,  the  beneficial  consequences 
of  public  events  are  so  distant  and  uncertain,  that  the  attempt 
to  do  evil  in  order  to  produce  good  is  in  men  a  most  criminal 
usurpation. 

Some  direct  benefits  the  constitution  owes  to  this  reign. 
The  act  whch  established  a  parliamentary  representation  in 
so  considerable  a  territory  as  Wales  may  be  regarded  as  the 
principal  reformation  in  the  composition  of  the  house  of  com- 
mons since  its  legal  maturity  in  the  time  of  Edward  I.  That 
principality  had  been  divided  into  twelve  shires ;  of  which 
eight  were  ancient,*  and  four  owed  their  origin  to  a  statute 
of  Henry's  reign,  f  Knights,  citizens,  and  burgesses  were 
now  directed  to  be  chosen  and  sent  to  parliament  from  the 
shires,  cities,  and  burghs,  of  Wales.!  A  short  time  before, 
the  same  privileges  were  granted  to  the  county  palatine  of 
Chester,  of  which  the  preamble  contains  a  memorable  recog- 
nition and  establishment  of  the  principles  which  are  the  basis 
of  the  elective  part  of  our  constitution.  §  Nearly  thirty  mem- 
bers were  thus  added  to  the  house  of  commons  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Chester  bill :  that  it  is  disadvantageous  to  a  prov- 
ince to  be  unrepresented ;  that  representation  is  essential  to 
good  government ;  and  that  those  who  are  bound  by  the  laws 
ought  to  have  a  reasonable  share  of  direct  influence  on  the 
passing  of  laws.  As  the  practical  disadvantages  are  only  gene- 
rally alleged,  and  could  scarcely  have  been  proved,  they  must 
have  been  inferred  from  the  nature  of  a  house  of  commons. 
The  British  constitution  was  not  thought  to  be  enjoyed  by  a 
district  till  a  popular  representation  was  bestowed  on  it. 

*  Glamorgan,  Carmarthen,  Pembroke,  Cardigan,  Flint,  Carnarvon,  Angle- 
sea,  and  Merioneth. 

t  Radnor,  Brecknock,  Montgomery,  and  Denbigh.  27  Hen.  8.  c.  26. 

I  34  &  35  Hen.  8.  c.  26.  s.  50 

§  34  &  35  Hen.  8.  c.  13.  "  That  the  said  county  have  hitherto  been  ex- 
cluded from  the  high  court  of  parliament,  to  have  any  knights  and  burgesses 
within  the  said  court,  by  reason  whereof  the  inhabitants  have  sustained 
manifold  damages  in  their  lands,  goods,  and  bodies,  as  well  as  in  the  good  gov- 
ernance of  the  commonwealth  of  their  said  country;  and  forasmuch  as  they 
have  been  bound  by  the  acts  of  the  said  court,  and  yet  have  had  no  knights 
and  burgesses  therein,  for  lack  whereof  they  have  been  often  touched  and 
grieved  by  the  acts  of  the  said  parliament,  prejudicial  to  the  commonwealth, 
quietness,  rest,  and  peace  of  your  highness's  bounden  subjects,  inhabiting 
within  the  said  county,"  &c. 


202  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1547. 

Election  by  the  people  was  regarded,  not  as  a  source  of 
tumult,  but  as  the  principle  most  capable  of  composing  dis- 
order in  territories  not  represented. 

But  it  is  chiefly  by  its  relation  to  the  infant  reformation  of 
religion  that  this  reign  became  a  period  of  great  importance 
in  the  general  history  of  Europe.  The  last  twenty  years  of  it 
is  to  be  considered  as  a  time  of  transition  from  Popery  to  Pro- 
testantism. It  must  be  owned  that  it  required  a  vigorous,  and 
even  a  harsh  hand,  to  keep  down  all  the  fear  and  hatred ;  all 
the  conscientious  but  furious  zeal  of  Catholics  and  Gospellers ; 
the  whole  mass  of  passion  and  of  interest  which  were  stirred 
up  by  so  prodigious  a  revolution  in  human  opinion. 

An  ecclesiastical  dictatorship  might  have  been  excused  in 
a  time  full  of  peril.  At  the  beginning  the  Protestants  (even 
if  we  number  all  the  anti-papists  among  them)  formed  a  small, 
though  intelligent  and  bold  minority.  They  grew  stronger  by 
degrees,  as  opinions  and  parties  which  are  the  children  of  the 
age  naturally  do.  Their  strength  lay  in  the  towns  on  the 
southern  and  eastern  coasts,  and  among  the  industrious  classes 
of  society.  In  the  northern  and  midland  provinces,  and  in  the 
mountains  of  Wales,  far  removed  from  commerce  with  the 
heretics  of  Flanders  and  Germany,  the  ancient  faith  main- 
tained its  authority.  At  the  end  of  this  reign  it  is  still  doubt- 
ful whether  the  majority  had  changed  sides.  Henry  had  few 
qualifications  for  an  umpire.  But  it  was  a  public  service  that 
he  restrained  both  factions,  and  kept  the  peace  during  this 
dangerous  process.  Had  he  been  only  severe  and  stern, 
instead  of  plunging  into  barbarism  and  butchery,  his  services 
might  be  commended,  and  some  allowance  might  be  made  for 
the  necessity  of  curbing  uncivilized  men  by  rough  means. 

Had  the  Protestant  party  risen  against  him  they  must  have 
been  vanquished,  and  he  would  have  been  driven  back  into 
the  arms  of  Rome.  The  iron  hand  which  held  back  both 
parties  from  battle  was  advantageous  to  the  Protestant  cause, 
humanly  speaking ;  only  because  the  opinions  and  institutions 
which  spring  up  in  an  age  are  likely  to  be  the  most  progressive. 
His  grotesque  authority  as  head  of  the  church,  his  double  per- 
secution of  Romanists  and  Lutherans,  his  passion  for  transub- 
stantiation,  and  his  abhorrence  of  appeals  to  a  court  at  Rome, 
may  be  understood,  if  we  regard  his  reign  as  a  bridge  which 
the  nation  was  to  pass  on  its  road  to  more  complete  reforma- 
tion. This  peculiar  character  was  given  to  the  latter  portion 
of  his  reign  by  the  combined  power  of  his  adherence  to  the 
Catholic  doctrines,  and  of  his  impatience  of  papal  authority, 
by  the  connexion  of  this  last  disposition  with  the  validity  of  his 
marriages  and  the  legitimacy  of  his  children  ;  by  the  manifold 


1547.  MARTIN    LUTHER.  203 

and  intricate  ties  which  at  various  times  blended  the  interest 
of  each  religious  party  with  the  succession  to  the  crown ;  an 
object  which  the  recent  remembrance  of  the  war  of  the  Roses 
might  render  very  important  to  any  prince,  but  which  became 
the  ruling  frenzy  of  Henry's  mind.  The  reformers  needed 
the  acquisition  of  one  great  state  for  the  stability  and  solidity 
of  their  reform.  They  gained  England.  As  soon  as  the  hand 
was  withdrawn  which  held  the  statesmen  and  the  people 
dumb,  the  reformation  was  established.  England  continues  to 
this  day  to  be  the  only  power  of  the  first  class  which  main- 
tains the  reformed  doctrines. 

Eleven  months  before  the  decease  of  the  English  monarch, 
Luther  breathed  his  last  in  his  native  town  of  Eisleben,  which 
he  had  not  visited  for  many  years.  He  died  of  an  inflamma- 
tion in  his  chest,  which  cut  him  off  in  twenty-four  hours,  in 
the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age.  His  last  moments  were  placid, 
and  employed  in  prayers  for  the  well-being  of  the  church,  now 
more  than  ever  threatened  by  the  Roman  pontiff,  supported  as 
he  was  by  the  great  council  of  his  followers  convoked  at 
Trent.  It  ought  not  to  be  doubted  by  a  just  man,  of  whatever 
communion,  that  Martin  Luther  was  an  honest,  disinterested, 
and  undaunted  man,  magnanimous  in  prosperous  as  well  as 
adverse  fortune,  without  the  slightest  taint  of  any  disposition 
which  rested  on  self  as  its  final  aim,  elevated  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  this  purity  in  his  motives,  and  by  the  humble 
desire  to  conform  his  mind  to  the  model  of  supreme  perfection, 
and  to  adapt  his  actions  to  the  laws  which  flowed  from  the 
source  of  all  good,  through  reason  and  through  revelation. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  allowed  that  his  virtues  were 
better  fitted  for  revolutions  than  for  quiet ;  that  he  often  sacri- 
ficed peace  and  charity  to  trivial  differences  of  opinion,  or 
perhaps  unmeaning  oppositions  of  language;  and  that  his 
scurrilous  and  merciless  writings,  as  a  controversialist,  both 
manifested  and  excited  very  odious  passions.  But  the  object 
of  his  life  was  religious  truth ;  and,  in  the  pursuit  of  this 
single  and  sublime  end,  he  delivered  reason  from  the  yoke  of 
human  authority,  and  contributed  to  set  it  free  from  all  sub- 
jection, except  that  which  is  due  to  Supreme  Wisdom  — 
"  whose  service  is  perfect  freedom." 

The  tales  propagated  against  this  great  man  prove  his  for- 
midable power.  He  was  said  openly  to  deride  all  that  he 
taught,  to  have  composed  hymns  to  his  favorite  vice  of  drunk- 
enness, to  disbelieve  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  nay,  even 
to  have  been  an  atheist  He  was  represented  to  have  been 
the  fruit  of  the  commerce  of  his  mother  with  a  demon, — a 
fable  which,  in  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  writers 


204  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1547. 

of  some  reputation  thought  it  necessary  to  disavow.  Notes  of 
his  table-talk,  published  many  years  after  his  death,  and  then, 
perhaps,  very  inaccurately,  continued  to  furnish  the  viler  sort 
of  antagonists  with  means  of  abuse,  in  the  ardent  phrases 
which  fell  from  him  amidst  the  negligence  of  familiar  con- 
versation.* 

At  the  moment  of  his  death,  Lutheranism  was  established 
only  in  Scandinavia,  and  in  those  parts  of  Germany  which 
had  embraced  it  when  it  was  first  preached.  The  extent, 
however,  of  its  invisible  power  over  the  minds  of  men  was 
not  to  be  measured  by  the  magnitude  of  the  countries  where 
it  was  legally  predominant.  Bold  inquiry,  active  curiosity, 
excited  reason,  youthful  enthusiasm,  throughout  every  country 
of  Europe,  in  secret  cherished  a  Lutheran  spirit  Henry,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  impelled,  by  a  singular  combination  of 
circumstances,  to  prepare  the  way  in  England  for  embodying 
that  spirit  in  a  civil  establishment  Calvin,  who  was  called 
by  his  eminent  contemporariesf  the  greatest  divine  since  the 
apostles,  had  now  spread  the  seeds  of  reformation  throughout 
France.  Had  Luther  survived  a  few  years  longer,  he  would 
have  seen  the  second  and  more  terrible  eruption  of  the  refor- 
mation in  the  civil  wars  of  France,  in  which  the  Protestant 
party  maintained  their  ground  for  thirty  years,  and  obtained 
a  partial  establishment  for  near  a  century,  though  they  were 
finally  doomed  to  defeat  and  dispersion.  In  Italy,  most  well- 
educated  men,  who  were  not  infidels,  became  secret  Protest- 
anta  The  inquisition  did  not  entirely  exempt  the  Spanish 
peninsula  from  innovation.  If  100,000|  or  50,000  Protestants 
suffered  for  religion  in  the  Netherlands,  during  the  govern- 
ment of  Charles  V.,  we  can  desire  no  better  proof  of  the 
prevalence  of  the  reformation  in  these  rich  and  lettered  prov- 
inces. Already  monarchs,  now  become  absolute,  began  to 
apprehend  that  the  spirit  of  inquiry  would  extend  from  reli- 
to  civil  government,}  or,  in  their  language,  prove  as 
ital  to  the  state  as  to  the  church.  Such,  at  a  much  earlier 
period,  were  the  fears  with  which  the  insurrection  of  the 
German  peasants  had  filled  the  mind  of  Sir  Thomas  More.|| 

*  Bayle,  art.  Luther.  f  Scaliger. 

I  "  Postquam  carnificata  plusquam  centum  millia." — Grot.  j3nn.  lib.  i. 

§  "Plerisque  principibus  infix  urn,  unum  roipublicas  corpus  una  religione 
veliit  spiritu  contineri.  Ciesari  perstiasum  fuit  proculcata  sacerdotum  re- 
verentia  ne  ipsi  quidem  mansurum  obsequium." — Ibid. 

On  the  other  side  a  decisive  principle  had  begun  to  dawn  on  the  mind  of 
the  wise, — "  NEMINKM  VOLENTEM  ERRARE  AUT  NOLENTEM  CREDERE."  Grot. 
Jinn.  lib.  ii. 

||  "Of  this  sect  (the  Lutherans)  was  the  great  part  of  those  ungracious 
people  who  of  late  entered  Rome  with  the  duke  of  Bourbon,  who  like  very 


1547.  EFFECTS    OF   THE    PsEFORMATION.  205 

The  intention  of  quelling  this  general  revolt  of  the  minds  of 
men  by  a  confederacy  of  princes,  although  not  fully  unfolded, 
was,  we  are  told,  one  of  the  motives  of  the  treaty  of  Francis 
I.  with  Charles  L,  which  preceded  the  last  peace  between 
France  and  England.*  But  points  like  these  are  long  discussed 
among  statesmen,  and  acquire  some  steady  place  in  their 
minds,  before  the  perils  grow  large  enough  and  come  near 
enough  to  be  contemplated  with  practical  seriousness,  and 
long  before  they  are  felt  to  make  urgent  demands  on  rulers 
for  the  security  of  the  commonwealth  against  the  threatening 
tempest  At  the  death  of  Henry  VIII.  the  preponderance 
of  visible  force  in  the  scale  of  establishment  was  immense ; 
and  even  the  moral  force  of  the  state  and  the  church  retained 
its  commanding  posture  and  its  aspect  of  authority,  at  the 
moment  when  its  foundation  in  opinion  was  silently  crumb- 
ling from  beneath  it.  It  is  easy  to  blame  this  want  of  fore- 
sight after  events  have  taught  knowledge.  But  contemporary 
statesmen  would  have  acted  unwisely,  if  they  were  to  be  in- 
fluenced in  their  deliberations  concerning  present  events  by 
probabilities  of  future  danger  so  uncertain,  even  from  their 
distance,  as  to  be  beyond  the  scope  of  the  active  politician, 
who  is  never  to  forget  the  shortness  of  his  foresight,  and  the 
moral  duty  of  walking  warily  when  he  cannot  see  clearly.  It 
was  not  wonderful  that  the  masters  of  Europe  should  adjourn 
the  consideration  of  perils  which  still  seemed  to  belong  more 
to  speculation  than  to  practice,  and  of  a  religious  revolution 
which,  in  the  course  of  thirty  years,  had  gained  no  outward 
dominion  in  the  more  cultivated  parts  of  Europe,  except  a 
small  number  of  German  cities  and  principalities. 

beasts  outraged  wives  in  the  sight  of  their  husbands,  and  slew  the  children 
in  the  sight  of  their  fathers."— Morels  Dialogue  on  the  pestilent  Sect  of  Lu- 
tker  and  Tindal,  book  iv  c.  7.  London,  1530. 

"They  teach  the  common  people  that  they  be  in  full  freedom,  and  dis- 
charged from  all  lams  spiritual  and  temporal.'1'' — Ibid. 

"  If  the  world  were  not  near  an  end,  it  never  could  have  come  to  pass 
that  so  many  people  should  fall  to  the  following  of  so  beastly  a  sect." — c.  9. 

*  Fra  Paolo,  lib.  ii.  in  the  beginning.  The  speech  ascribed  by  this  great 
writer,  in  his  first  book,  to  the  cardinal  de  Volterra,  is  such  as  might  have 
been  made  in  any  age  of  revolutions,  by  an  undistinguishing  antagonist 
of  reformation. 


vol.  n.  s 


206  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1547. 

CHAP.  IX. 

EDWARD  VI. 

1547—1553. 

IN  the  list  of  executors  appointed  by  the  will  of  Henry 
VIII.  we  see  the  decisive  predominance  of  "  the  new  nobili- 
ty," invidiously  so  called  by  their  enemies,  both  because  they 
were  partisans  of  the  new  reformers,  and  because  they  owed 
their  sudden  rise  in  wealth  to  a  share  in  the  spoils  of  the 
church.  Generally  speaking  they  were  gentlemen  of  ancient 
lineage ;  but  their  fortune  and  rank  commonly  sprung  from 
this  dubious  source.  Few  of  the  highest  houses  were  with- 
out some  taint  of  it  The  main  body  of  the  English  peerage 
are  a  modern  nobility  raised  out  of  an  ancient  gentry.  The 
description  is,  however,  only  accurate  when  the  words  are 
strictly  confined  to  their  English  sense  ;  for  in  the  vocabularies 
of  continental  nations  the  class  whom  we  call  "gentry" 
would  be  considered  as  a  portion  of  the  nobility. 

As  the  selection  was  made  at  the  very  moment  of  the 
downfall  of  the  house  of  Howard,  the  leaders  of  the  old  no- 
bility and  the  chiefs  of  the  old  faith,  the  preponderating  in- 
fluence of  the  earl  of  Hertford  must  be  supposed  to  have 
presided  over  the  choice  of  the  executors.  The  will  was 
executed  when  the  king  lay  on  his  death-bed,  in  the  hands 
of  Seymour,  Catharine  Parr,  and  Cranmer.  The  delay  of 
three  days  in  taking  any  formal  measures  relating  to  the 
demise,  if  it  could  in  our  time  legally  occur,  would  be  cen- 
sured as  a  daring  assumption.  At  that  time  no  notice  was 
taken  of  it.  The  young  prince,  who  was  at  the  royal  mansion 
of  Hatfield,  was  conducted  to  his  sister  Elizabeth  at  her  resi- 
dence at  Enfield ;  whence  he  was  brought  in  regal  state,  and 
proclaimed  king  of  England,  on  Monday,  the  31st  of  January, 
1546,  or  rather  1547.  He  was  born  on  the  12th  of  October, 
1537;  and  his  proclamation  took  place  when  he  was  nine 
years  and  about  three  months  old.  As  the  late  king,  in  exe- 
cution of  a  power  vested  in  him  by  statute,  had  appointed  the 
council  called  executors  to  exercise  the  royal  authority  hi  the 
minority  of  his  son,  they  do  not  seem  to  have  gone  substan- 
tially beyond  their  power,  by  nominating  one  of  their  num- 
ber to  preside  in  their  deliberations,  and  to  represent  the 
state  on  fit  and  urgent  occasions.  Hertford  was  created  duke 
of  Somerset,  and  assumed,  or  received,  the  titles  of  "  gover- 
nor of  his  majesty,  lord-protector  of  all  his  realms,  lieutenant- 
general  of  all  his  armies."  This  appointment  was  vainly  re- 


1547.  CHARACTER    OF   EDWARD.  207 

sisted  by  the  chancellor  Wriothesley,  who  considered  it  as . 
the  grave  of  the  ancient  institutions,  of  which  he  was  now 
the  most  forward  champion.  In  February  Edward  was 
crowned ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  great  seal  was  taken 
from  the  refractory  chancellor,  and  placed  in  the  more  trust- 
worthy hands  of  lord  St.  John.  It  might  have  been  difficult 
to  have  regularly  removed  the  chancellor,  placed  as  he  was 
among  the  executors  by  the  late  king's  appointment.  But  he 
afforded  a  pretext,  perhaps  a  reason,  for  his  removal  by  a  very 
rash  usurpation  on  his  part.  Preferring  his  political  power 
to  his  judicial  duties,  he,  without  the  knowledge  of  his  col- 
leagues, issued  a  commission  under  the  great  seal,  to  four 
persons,  therein  named,  to  hear  and  determine  all  causes  in 
the  court  of  chancery  during  the  chancellor's  absence.  The 
judges,  twice  consulted,  pronounced  the  chancellor's  act  to 
be  an  offence,  punishable  by  imprisonment,  fine,  and  loss  of 
office,  or  in  other  words,  a  high  misdemeanor ;  and,  perhaps, 
the  forfeiture  of  office  was  thought  a  necessary  consequence 
of  imprisonment  The  terror  of  these  penalties  compelled 
Wriothesley  to  resign. 

The  panegyrics  on  Edward  at  this  time  are  a  good  example 
of  the  folly  of  excessive  praise.  He  was  in  truth  a  diligent, 
docile,  gentle,  sprightly  boy,  whose  proficiency  in  every 
branch  of  study  was  remarkable,  and  who  showed  a  more  than 
ordinary  promise  of  capacity.  Sycophants,  declaimers,  enthu- 
siasts, lovers  of  the  marvellous,  almost  drowned  in  a  flood  of 
panegyric  his  agreeable  and  amiable  qualities.  The  manu- 
scripts still  extant,  either  essays  or  letters,  might  have  been 
corrected  or  dictated  by  his  preceptors.  It  is  not  probable  that 
"  the  diary  of  his  life,"  which  is  the  most  interesting  of  them, 
should  be  copied  from  the  production  of  another  hand ;  neither 
does  it  indicate  the  interposition  of  a  corrector.  It  is,  perhaps, 
somewhat  brief  and  dry  for  so  young  an  author ;  but  the  adop- 
tion of  such  a  plan,  and  the  accuracy  .with  which  it  is  writ- 
ten, bear  marks  of  an  untainted  taste  and  of  a  considerate 
mind. 

On  the  13th  of  March  the  council,  no  longer  restrained  by 
the  presence  of  Wriothesley,  proceeded  to  enlarge  the  protec- 
tor's authority,  in  a  manner  which  was  at  variance  with  the 
foundation  of  their  own  power.  They  addressed  the  king  to 
name  the  duke  of  Somerset  protector  of  the  king  and  the 
kingdom ;  and  the  royal  boy,  like  Henry  VI.  in  his  earliest 
infancy,  was  made  to  go  through  the  ceremony  of  ordering 
the  great  seal  "  to  be  affixed  to  letters  patent,  granting  the 
title  of  protector  to  that  nobleman,  with  full  authority  to  every 
thing  that  he  thought  for  the  honor  and  good  of  the  kingdom ; 


208  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1547. 

to  swear  such  other  commissioners  as  he  should  think  fit ;  and 
to  annul  and  change  what  they  thought  fitting ;  provided  that 
the  council  was  to  act  by  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  pro- 
tector." 

The  populace  now  began  to  destroy  the  images  in  churches, 
which  Luther  had  tolerated  as  aids  to  devotion,  and  of  which 
Cranmer  vindicated  the  moderate  use,  as  constantly  preach- 
ing to  the  eyes  of  the  ignorant.  The  likelihood  of  gross  and 
extensive  abuse  is,  indeed,  the  only  solid  objection  to  this  an- 
cient practice.  The  government,  almost  entirely  Protestant, 
proceeded  to  the  grand  object  of  completing  the  religious  revo- 
lution, and  of  establishing  a  church  not  only  independent  of 
the  discipline  of  the  see  of  Rome,  but  dissenting  from  many 
doctrines  which  had  been  for  ages  held  sacred  by  the  whole 
western  church.  The  protector  began  his  task  through  the 
ancient  prerogative  of  the  crown,  through  the  supremacy  over 
the  church,  and  by  means  of  the  statute  which  gave  to  procla- 
mations the  authority  of  laws. 

Persecutions  under  the  act  of  the  six  articles  ceased ;  pris- 
oners were  released,  exiles  were  recalled.  The  obedience  of 
the  clergy  was  enforced  by  the  adoption  of  the  principle,  that 
the  appointment  of  bishops,  like  every  other,  was  determined 
by  the  demise  of  the  crown,  which  compelled  all  prelates  to 
receive  their  bishoprics  by  letters  patent  from  the  king,  dur- 
ing good  behavior.  Preaching,  which  had  been  so  rare  in 
Catholic  times,  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  impose 
it  on  an  untrained  clergy,  was  in  some  measure  supplied  by 
homilies,  composed  by  Cranmer,  which  the  parish  priests 
were  directed  to  read  to  their  congregations.  Visitors  were 
dispatched  throughout  the  kingdom,  with  a  scarcely  limited 
authority  in  ecclesiastical  cases,  who  were  instructed  to  re- 
quire that  four  sermons  in  the  year  should  be  preached  in 
every  church  against  the  papal  authority ;  that  sermons  should 
be  directed  against  the  honor  or  worship  of  images ;  that  all 
images  abused  by  being  the  object  of  pilgrimages  and  offer- 
ings should  be  destroyed ;  that  the  English  Bible,  with  Eras- 
mus's commentary  on  the  gospels,  should  be  placed  in  every 
church  for  the  use  of  the  people  ;  together  with  many  other 
points  selected,  not  always  so  much  on  account  of  their  in- 
trinsic importance,  as  because  they  were  brought  by  public 
worship  into  daily  contact  with  the  minds  of  the  people ;  and 
because,  taken  altogether,  they  carried  into  every  hamlet  the 
assurance  that  the  government  were  no  longer  to  be  neutral. 
Gardiner,  bishop  of  Winchester,  a  man  of  great  learning  and 
ability,  but  one  of  Henry's  devoted  agents  in  the  suit  for  a  di- 
vorce, and  who  did  not  scruple  to  hold  his  diocese  during  the 


1547.  PROGRESS    OF   REFORMATION.  209 

whole  schismatic  establishment,  now  made  a  manly  and  be- 
coming resistance  to  these  injunctions,  on  principles  of  civil 
liberty,  as  much  as  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  He  was  im- 
prisoned for  his  disobedience.  Bonner  of  London,  more  vio- 
lent and  more  subservient,  escaped  a  prolonged  imprisonment 
by  an  humble  submission.  Tunstall,  bishop  of  Durham,  a  pre- 
late of  various  and  eminent  merit,  was  excluded  from  the 
privy-council,  to  impress  on  the  people,  by  the  strongest  ex- 
ample, the  disinclination  of  the  protector  towards  the  ancient 
faith.  After  these  preparatory  measures,  a  parliament  was 
assembled  on  the  4th  of  November,  1547,  in  which  several 
bills  were  passed  to  promote  and  enlarge  the  reformation. 
The  communion  was  appointed  to  be  received  in  both  kinds 
by  the  laity  as  well  as  clergy,  without  condemning  the  usages 
of  other  churches,*  in  a  statute,  drawn  with  address,  which 
professes  to  be  passed  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  irrever- 
ence towards  the  sacrament,  and  which  covers  the  conces- 
sions to  the  people  by  many  provisions  for  the  former  object. 
Bishops  were  to  be  formally  nominated  by  the  king ;  process 
in  the  ecclesiastical  courts  was  to  run  in  the  king's  name.f 
In  another  act  the  statutes  of  Richard  II.  and  Henry  IV. 
against  the  Lollards  were  repealed,  together  with  all  the  acts 
in  matters  of  religion  passed  under  Henry  VIII.,  except  those 
directed  against  the  papal  supremacy.}:  All  the  treasons  cre- 
ated by  Henry  underwent  the  same  fate,  and  that  offence  was 
restored  to  the  simplicity  of  the  statute  of  Edward  III.  The 
act  which  gave  legislative  power  to  proclamations  was  also 
abrogated  by  the  last-quoted  statute,  which  at  the  same  time 
guards  the  order  of  succession  as  established  in  the  last  act  of 
settlement  §  Though  Bonner  was  daily  present  during  the 
session,  there  were  only  two  divisions ;  one  in  which  that  pre- 
late, with  four  of  his  brethren,  voted  against  the  allowance  of 
the  cup  to  laymen,  there  being  twenty-two  prelates  in  the 
majority  ;  another))  for  vesting  the  possessions  of  chantries, 
with  certain  colleges  and  free  chapels  in  the  crown,  on  which 
Cranmer  was  not  deterred  from  voting  against  rapine,  by 
finding  himself  in  a  minority  with  Bonner.  In  the  next  ses- 
sion the  uniformity  of  public  worship  was  established,  in 
which  all  ministers  were  enjoined  to  use  only  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  prepared  by  the  primate  and  his  brethren,^ 
the  foundation  of  that  which,  after  various  alterations  in  the 
reigns  of  Elizabeth,  James  I.,  and  Charles  II.,  continues  in 

*  1  Edw.  G.  c.  1.  f  1  Edw.  6.  c.  2. 

t  1  Edw.  6.  c.  12.  §  33  Hen,  8, 

H  1  Edw.  6.  c.  14.  IT  2  Edw.  6.  c.  I. 

S2 


210  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1547. 

use  to  this  day.  A  singular  law  was  passed  to  enforce  the 
observance  of  fast-days  and  of  Lent,  by  the  infliction  of  a  fine 
of  ten  shillings  and  ten  days'  imprisonment  upon  fast-break- 
ers, "  Albeit,"  says  the  statute,  "  one  day  is  not  more  holy 
than  another,*  yet  it  is  proper,  to  prevent  this  knowledge 
from  turning  into  sensuality,  to  subdue  men's  bodies  to  their 
souls,  and  especially  that  fishers  may  the  rather  be  set  at 
work."  This  strange  enactment  was  immediately  followed 
by  the  emancipation  of  the  English  clergy  from  compulsory 
celibacy,f  which  is  prefaced  by  the  admission,  that  "  it  would 
be  much  better  for  priests  to  live  separate  from  the  bond  of 
marriage  for  their  own  estimation,  and  that  they  might  attend 
solely  to  the  ministration  of  the  gospel." 

Although  there  were  no  Protestant  nonconformists  at  this 
period,  yet  the  last  act  of  uniformity  passed  in  this  reign  may 
be  considered  as  the  earliest  instance  of  penal  legislation 
pointed  against  mere  dissenters.!  It  commanded  all  persons 
to  attend  public  worship  under  pain  of  ecclesiastical  censures, 
and  of  six  months'  imprisonment  for  the  first  offence,  twelve 
for  the  second,  and  for  the  third  confinement  for  life.  Not- 
withstanding the  merciful  repeal  of  Henry's  treasons,  which 
opened  the  new  reign  with  a  benignant  aspect,  it  was  deem- 
ed necessary  before  Its  close  to  pass  a  riot  act  of  great  severi- 
ty against  tumultuous  assemblies,  and  to  punish  those  who 
call  the  king,  or  any  successor,  under  the  thirty-fifth  of  Henry 
VIIL,  a  heretic,  schismatic,  tyrant,  infidel,  or  usurper,  for  the 
first  offence  with  forfeiture  and  imprisonment  during  pleasure, 
and  for  the  third  with  the  pains  of  high  treason. 

The  war  against  Scotland,  begun  with  little  justice,  and 
conducted  with  no  humanity,  is  better  related  by  the  histori- 
ans of  Scotland  than  it  could  be  in  a  summary  of  English  his- 
tory. The  confusions  and  revolts  of  this  and  of  the  last  reign, 
in  Ireland,  where  the  reformation  made  no  progress,  and  had 
no  other  effect  than  that  of  widening  the  ancient  breach  be- 
tween the  two  races,  will  also  soon  employ  the  brilliant  pen  of 
a  patriotic  historian.  The  government  of  England,  intent  on 
their  grand  object  of  completing  the  reformation  at  home, 
withdrew  themselves  from  that  officious  intrusion  into  conti- 
nental policy  to  which  the  restless  spirit  of  Henry  VIIL  from 
time  to  time  prompted  him.  During  Edward's  reign  England 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  a  member  of  the  European 
confederacy. 

*  2 1 3  Edw.  6.  c.  19.  |  2  &  3  Edw.  6.  c.  21. 

t  5  &  6  Edw.  6.  1. 


1547.         PROGRESS  OF  REFORMATION.          211 

The  Protestant  portion  of  Europe  did  not,  like  the  Catholic 
world,  compose  one  religious  community :  strictly  speaking, 
it  was  divided  into  as  many  churches  as  it  contained  states. 
Lutheranism  prevailed  in  Germany,  and  had  exercised  sole 
dominion  in  the  northern  kingdoms.  Calvinism,  proceeding 
from  a  Frenchman,  found  repose  and  safety  in  Switzerland, 
whence  it  agitated  France,  and  made  considerable  acquisitions 
in  Germany.  Both  unanimously  received  the  scripture  as  the 
only  infallible  authority :  they  agreed  in  great  reverence  for 
the  decrees  of  the  first  four  general  councils,  if  not  as  a  stand- 
ard of  orthodoxy,  yet  as  a  guide  of  high  authority  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  New  Testament.  None  of  them  could  ex- 
plicitly deny  the  weight  of  general  tradition,  and  of  very 
ancient  usage.  By  the  constant  discussion  of  the  opinions 
and  practice  of  former  ages,  they  implicitly  allowed  their 
value  as  evidence  worthy  of  consideration,  though  varying 
according  to  their  distance  from  the  sacred  source:  they 
unanimously  rejected  the  infallibility  of  the  see  of  Rome, 
which  some  zealots  began  to  represent  as  Antichrist,  while  a 
few  individuals  among  the  more  learned  and  moderate  were 
privately  less  unwilling  than  they  could  venture  to  avow,  to 
submit  to  a  limited  supremacy  in  that  ancient  patriarchate  as 
a  preservative  of  ecclesiastical  order  and  peace. 

Each  of  the  reformed  churches  left  undetermined  the  mo- 
mentous question  which  their  separation  from  Rome  had 


yy  the  government, 
theran  and  in  most  Calvinistic  countries,  as  well  as  in  Eng- 
land, the  received  opinion  was  that  this  authority  belonged  to 
the  civil  lawgivers  of  each  country;  a  doctrine  which,  if 
understood  of  the  belief,  the  feelings,  and  the  worship  of  re- 
ligion, entirely  overthrows  its  nature,  but,  if  limited  to  its 
legal  endowments  and  privileges,  is  no  more  than  an  identical 
proposition.  All  these  churches  agreed  in  the  grosser  depar- 
ture from  their  own  principles,  which  led  them  to  punish  even 
with  death  a  dissent  from  the  creeds  which  they,  by  their  dis- 
sent from  human  authority,  had  built  on  the  ruins  of  a  system 
adopted  by  all  nations  for  many  ages :  they  acted  as  if  they 
were  infallible,  though  they  waged  war  against  that  proud 
word.  In  order  to  escape1  the  visible  necessity  of  granting 
that  liberty  of  private  judgment  to  all  mankind,  which  could 
alone  justify  their  own  assaults  on  popes  and  councils,  they  in 
effect  vested  a  despotic  power  over  the  utterance  of  religious 
doctrines  in  lay  sovereigns,  who  had  not  even  the  recom- 
mendation of  professing  to  know  the  subject  in  dispute. 


212  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1547. 

The  Lutherans  adopted  a  poor  and  limited  episcopacy.  The 
Calvinists  established  a  perfect  equality  among-  the  ministers 
of  religion,  holding-  that  the  term  which  we  render  bishop 
meant  no  more  than  that  which  we  distinguish  in  our  versions 
as  presbyter.  The  church  of  England,  by  the  preservation  of 
the  revenues  of  most  of  the  bishoprics,  and  by  releasing  the 
prelates  from  their  subjection  to  the  court  of  Rome,  exalted  in 
many  respects  the  dignity,  and  strengthened  the  influence,  of 
the  episcopal  order.  The  doctrines  of  absolute  decrees  and 
irresistible  grace,  abandoned  if  not  by  Luther  at  least  by  the 
Lutherans,  but  to  this  day  rigorously  maintained  by  all  who 
call  themselves  Calvinists,  were  in  some  measure  adopted  by 
the  English  church,  but  in  terms  studiously  inoffensive,  and 
accompanied  by  warnings,  which,  instead  of  being  blamed  as 
at  variance  with  the  dogma  to  which  they  are  subjoined, 
ought  rather  to  be  commended  for  the  solicitude  which  they 
breathe  to  guard  the  affections  of  the  heart  and  the  rule  of 
human  life  against  the  dangerous  influence  of  abstruse  and 
dark  speculations.  On  the  disputes  respecting  the  sacrament, 
then  the  most  popular,  and  accounted  the  most  important  of 
all,  the  Anglican  church  approached  more  to  the  opinion,  or 
(perhaps  we  ought  to  call  it)  the  phraseology,  of  Calvin,  than 
to  that  of  any  other  leader  in  reformation. 

Among  civil  occurrences  one  took  place  in  the  second  ses- 
sion of  parliament  during  this  reign,  which  too  evidently 
showed  how  thoroughly  the  protector  was  trained  in  the  law- 
less and  unnatural  practices  of  Henry  VIII.  Sir  Thomas 
Seymour,  lord  Sudeley  and  admiral  of  England,  was  a  brave 
soldier,  a  stately  and  magnificent  courtier,  more  acceptable  to 
the  nobility  than  to  the  people ;  open,  passionate,  ambitious, 
he  had  none  of  that  reputation  which  belonged  to  his  brother 
the  protector,  as  the  founder  of  the  English  reformation.  He 
paid  court  to  Catharine  Parr  while  she  was  lady  Latimer,  and 
would  have  been  successful  if  he  had  not  been  supplanted  by 
Henry.  Scarcely  had  that  monarch  breathed  his  last*  when 
Seymour  secretly  espoused  Catharine,  said  to  have  been  in- 
duced to  take  that  measure  by  a  letter  from  Edward,  which 
if  real  could  only  have  been  a  promise  of  pardon.  By  this 
marriage  he  acquired  some  part  of  the  great  fortune  which 
the  fondness  of  Henry  had  suffered  her  to  accumulate.  The 
jealousy  of  power  appears  to  have  early  existed  between  the 

*  "  You  married  the  late  queen  so  soon  after  the  late  king's  death,  that  if 
she  had  conceived  straight  after,  it  would  have  been  a  doubt  whether  the 
child  was  the  king's  or  yours; — to  the  peril  of  the  succession." 

An  accusation  is  perhaps  sufficient  proof  of  a  date. 

Burn.  App.  to  book  1.  No.  xxxi. 


1548.         CONDEMNATION  OF  SEYMOUR.         213 

two  brothers :  they  were  embittered  by  a  jealousy  of  rank, 
which  sprung  up  between  their  wives.  Catharine  Parr  re- 
tained her  regal  station  as  queen-dowager ;  Anne  Stanhope, 
the  lady  of  Somerset,  the  second  wife  of  the  protector,  who  is 
charged  with  intolerable  pride  and  violence,  could  not  brook 
the  superiority  allowed  by  all  others  to  the  modest  Catharine, 
but,  as  the  spouse  of  the  first  person  in  the  realm,  claimed  the 
rank  of  the  first  female.  The  death  of  Catharine  in  Septem- 
ber, 1547,  followed  her  marriage  so  soon  as  to  occasion  rumors 
that  it  was  not  left  to  nature.  Lord  Sudeley  was  then  sus- 
pected of  seeking  the  hand  of  the  princess  Elizabeth,  though 
then  only  hi  the  fourteenth  year  of  her  age.  Seymour  seems 
pretty  certainly  to  have  taken  measures  for  forming  a  party 
against  his  brother,  to  have  excited  the  nobility  against  him, 
to  have  meditated  the  seduction  of  the  young  king  from  the 
protector's  custody,  to  have  aimed  at  the  custody  of  the  boy's 
person  for  himself,  and  at  sharing  the  authority  which  he 
thought  the  elder  brother  ought  not  to  monopolize.*  These 
projects  were  very  likely  to  end  in  treason ;  but  there  is  no 
appearance  that  they  reached  the  mature  state  in  which  they 
constituted  that  offence ;  he  appears  to  have  treated  the  whole 
matter  with  considerable  levity,  f  It  soon,  however,  assumed 
a  serious  aspect  On  the  25th  of  February,  1548-9,  a  bill  was 
read  a  first  time  to  attaint  him  of  high  treason ;  on  the  26th 
it  was  read  a  second  time ;  on  the  27th  it  was  passed  unani- 
mously. The  presence  of  his  brother  the  duke  of  Somerset 
at  the  head  of  the  lords  during  the  three  days  is  a  circum- 
stance which  resembles,  and,  indeed,  surpasses,  the  conduct 
of  the  judges  of  Anne  Boleyn.  Seymour  was  at  the  time  a 
prisoner  in  the  Tower :  no'  man  proposed  to  send  for  him ;  he 
was  not  heard  in  his  own  defence;  no  witnesses  were  ex- 
amined against  him  in  parliament.  The  lords  could  only  rest 
their  bill  upon  the  assurance  of  his  brother,  and  of  other  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  that  lord  Sudeley  was  guilty.  He  had 
demanded  in  vain  that  he  should  be  openly  tried  and  con- 
fronted with  his  accusers ;  the  house  of  commons  paused  at 
this  demand :  but  their  hesitation  to  condemn  an  unheard  man 
in  his  absence  was  easily  overruled. 

On  Monday  the  4th  of  March,  the  master  of  the  rolls 
brought  down  a  message  from  the  throne,  assuring  the  house 
that  "  it  was  not  necessary  for  the  admiral  to  appear  before 
them ;  but,  if  they  thought  it  essential,  some  lords  should 
come  to  them  to  confirm  their  evidence."  Even  this  was 

*  See  Burnet  above,  &c. 

f  "  The  lord  admiral's  answer  to  three  of  the  articles."— Burnet. 


214  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1548. 

deemed  superfluous.  The  impression  of  the  message  was 
such  that  the  bill  was  passed  on  the  4th,  brought  back  to  the 
lords  on  the  5th,  and  it  received  the  royal  assent  with  the 
other  bills  of  the  session  on  the  14th  of  March,  the  last  day 
of  it.  On  the  17th  the  warrant  for  his  execution  was  issued 
with  his  brother's  name  at  the  head  of  the  subscribers.  On 
the  20th  he  was  beheaded  on  Tower-Hill,  where  he  solemnly 
repeated  his  frequent  disavowal  of  treasonable  purposes  against 
the  king  or  kingdom. 

Though  the  new  liturgy  was  as  moderate  and  comprehen- 
sive as  was  consistent  with  the  sincerity  of  the  Protestant 
clergy  who  framed  it,  yet  it  is  impossible  for  men  of  one  com- 
munion to  weigh  the  scruples  of  those  of  a  different  persua- 
sion. No  man's  conscience  can  act  for  that  of  any  other. 
Still  less  is  it  conceivable  that  one  party  should  impartially 
allow  for  all  the  prejudices  and  antipathies  of  their  old  oppo- 
nents. A  change  in  the  form  of  public  worship  was  sufficient 
of  itself  to  offend  the  simple  peasants  of  remote  provinces, 
especially  when  these  religious  solemnities  were  their  chief 
occasions  of  intercourse,  and  the  only  festivals  which  diversi- 
fied their  lives.  The  substitution  of  a  simple  and  grave  wor- 
ship for  a  ceremonial  full  of  magnificence  could  be  grateful 
only  to  the  eyes  of  hearty  reformers.  "  The  country  people 
loved  those  shows,  processions,  and  assemblies,  as  things  of 
diversion,"*  against  which  the  zeal  of  the  reformers  was 
peculiarly  pointed.  The  most  conspicuous,  if  not  the  most 
efficient  cause  of  the  commotions  which  followed,  was  the 
religious  feelings  to  which  we  have  adverted  more  than 
once. 

It  cannot  be  doubted,  however,  that  other  agents  contributed 
to  these  and  to  most  other  disorders  and  revolts  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  inclosure  and  appropriation  of  common 
fields,  from  the  produce  of  which  the  poorer  classes  had  de- 
rived a  part  of  their  subsistence,  was  now  hastened  by  the 
profits  to  be  gained  by  the  proprietors  from  wool,  the  raw 
material  of  the  growing  manufactures  of  the  realm.  A  new 
impulse  was,  perhaps,  too  suddenly  given  to  this  economical 
revolution  by  the  grantors  of  abbey  lands,  who  were  in  gene- 
ral rich  and  intelligent.  The  people  (the  learned  as  well  as 
the  illiterate)  were  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  truth,  that  in- 
crease of  produce  must  be  finally  beneficial  to  all  classes  of 
men.  They  were  equally  unacquainted  with  that  influx  of 
the  precious  metals  from  America,  which  enhanced  the  money 
price  of  commodities  in  general  before  it  had  caused  a  pro- 

*Burnet,  1548. 


1549.  POPULAR    DISCONTENT.  215 

portional  rise  in  the  wages  of  labor.  The  depreciation  of 
money  in  England,  by  the  wretched  debasements  of  the  coin 
to  which  Henry  had  so  often  recurred,  had  powerfully,  though 
secretly,  disturbed  every  interest  in  the  community.  The 
wages  of  laborers  were  paid  in  a  debased  coin,  when  it  re- 
quired a  greater  quantity  of  gold  and  silver  in  their  unalloyed 
state  to  purchase  the  necessaries  of  life.  All  these  and  many 
like  agencies  were  now  at  work,  the  nature  of  which  was  as 
unknown  as  the  laws  which  regulate  the  planetary  system. 

The  protector,  who  courted  the  people,  and  to  whom  their 
discontent  was  at  least  painful,  endeavored  to  appease  the 
prevalent  dissatisfaction  by  issuing  a  proclamation  against 
inclosures,  which  enjoined  the  landholders  to  break  up  their 
parks.  In  general  they  disregarded  this  illegal  injunction. 
The  laborers  accepted  it  as  their  warrant  for  the  demolition 
of  inclosures.  Risings  occurred  in  Wiltshire,  Oxfordshire, 
and  Gloucestershire,  which  were  speedily,  but  not  without 
bloodshed,  quelled.  Disorders  in  Hampshire,  Sussex,  and 
Kent,  were  more  easily  composed.  But  the  rapid  diffusion  of 
these  alarming  revolts  indicated  the  prevalence  of  a  danger- 
ous distemper.  Fears  were  entertained  of  a  general  insur- 
rection of  the  commonalty.  In  so  feverish  and  irritable  a 
temper  of  the  nation,  there  were  not  wanting^  causes  which 
brought  the  religious  passions  into  contact  with  the  distress 
of  the  people,  and  melted  them  together  into  a  mass  of  disaf- 
fection. The  rapacity  of  the  new  owners  of  abbey  lands  was 
contrasted  with  the  indulgence  of  the  monks,  often  the  most 
lenient  of  landlords,  because  they  lived  with  the  people,  be- 
cause the  share  of  advantage  allotted  to  each  individual  was 
so  small,  and  because  a  clergy  without  families  had  few  calls 
upon  their  purse. 

On  the  10th  of  June,  1549,  a  formidable  insurrection  broke 
out  in  Cornwall,  under  a  gentleman  of  ancient  and  noble  lin- 
eage, Humphrey  Arundel,  governor  of  St.  Michael's  Mount. 
The  insurgents  amounted  to  10,000  men.  They  were  ani- 
mated by  tales  of  the  succession  of  the  princess  Mary.  Their 
revolt  was  first  directed  against  inclosures;  but  a  zealous 
clergyman  found  no  difficulty  in  blending  the  Catholic  cause 
with  the  injustice  of  the  intrusive  landholders.  They  demand- 
ed the  restoration  of  the  mass,  of  abbey  lands,  and  of  the  law 
of  the  six  articles,  together  with  the  recall  of  cardinal  Pole 
from  exile.  Lord  Russell,  who  commanded  the  royal  troops^ 
found  means  to  retard  the  advance  of  the  rebels  by  negotia- 
tion, until  he  was  reinforced,  not  only  by  an  English  force,  but 
by  bodies  of  mercenary  veterans  from  Germany  and  Italy. 
Exeter  held  out  against  the  insurgents.  On  the  6th  of  Au- 


216  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1549. 

gust,  Russell  raised  the  siege,  and  pursued  the  revolters  to 
Launceston,  where  they  were  utterly  routed.  Severe  military 
execution  was  inflicted  on  the  country:  Arundel  and  the 
mayor  of  Bodmin,  with  some  other  leaders,  were  tried  and 
executed  in  London ;  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  at  Exeter 
was  hanged  from  his  own  tower,  in  his  sacerdotal  vestments, 
and  with  the  beads  which  he  used  in  prayer  hung  from  his 
girdle. 

The  flame  which  was  thus  extinguished  in  the  west  broke 
out  with  new  violence  in  Norfolk.  In  that  county  the  gene- 
ral disaffection  assumed  the  form  of  a  war  against  the  gentry, 
who  were  most  heavily  loaded  with  charges  of  oppressing 
farmers  and  laborers.  In  July,  1549,  Ket,  a  tanner,  but  also 
a  considerable  landholder,  encamped  on  Mousewold  Hill,  near 
Norwich,  with  an  army  of  20,000  men.  He  repulsed  the 
marquis  of  Northampton  in  an  assault  on  the  city,  in  which 
lord  Sheffield  was  killed.  The  protector  was  obliged  to  recall 
troops  from  Scotland,  under  Dudley  earl  of  Warwick,  who 
would  not  have  been  intrusted  with  such  an  occasion  of  gain- 
ing reputation  and  followers,  if  Ket  had  not  rendered  extreme 
measures  necessary.  The  earl,  on  his  arrival,  forced  his  way 
into  Norwich,  and  kept  his  ground  there,  till  Ket,  compelled 
by  famine,  abandoned  his  encampment,  and  with  it  the  com- 
mand of  the  city.  On  the  27th  of  August  he  was  defeated 
by  Warwick.  Two  thousand  insurgents  perished  in  the  ac- 
tion and  pursuit ;  the  remainder,  hastily  throwing  up  rude 
defences  of  wagons  and  stakes,  refused  a  pardon,  which  they 
naturally  distrusted.  Warwick,  however,  at  last  persuaded 
these  brave  men  to  surrender.  He  kept  his  word  more  faith- 
fully than  is  usually  practised  on  such  occasions.  Ket  was 
hanged  on  Norwich  castle,  his  brother  on  Windham  steeple, 
and  nine  others  on  "  the  branches  of  the  oak  of  reformation," 
under  which  Ket  was  wont  to  sit  on  Mousewold  Hill,  with  a 
sort  of  imitation  of  royalty,  to  administer  grace  and  justice. 
He  had,  indeed,  assumed  the  title  of  king  of  Norfolk  and  Suf- 
folk. On  the  24th  of  July,  1549,  the  first  commissions  were 
issued  for  lord-lieutenants  of  counties ;  a  species  of  civil  gov- 
ernors and  commanders  of  the  armed  men  of  whom  the  late 
confusions  occasioned  the  appointment* 

During  this  season  of  confusion  the  advocates  of  rigor  loud- 
ly cried  against  the  feebleness  of  the  duke  of  Somerset,  who 
dreaded  unpopularity  too  much  to  be  capable  of  executing 

*Strype,  Eccl.  Mem.  vol.  ii.  c.  21.  The  office  of  custos  rotulorum,  now 
usually  joined  to  that  of  lord-lieutenant  was  an  old  office  regulated  by  a 
statute  of  Henry  VIII. 


1549.  THE    PROTECTOR    UNPOPULAR.  217 

justice.  To  this  infirmity  they  imputed  the  repetition  and 
prolongation  of  the  revolts,  which  might  have  been  quickly 
extinguished  if  the  peasantry  ha,d  not  been  tempted  into  them 
by  an  almost  total  impunity  of  the  early  rebels.  He  professed 
to  think  "  it  not  safe  to  hold  such  a  strict  hand  over  the  com- 
mons, and  to  press  them  down  and  keep  them  in  slavery." 
But  if  he  pursued  the  favor  of  the  people  rather  than  their 
well-being,  he  soon  found,  when  the  hour  of  peril  came,  that 
their  favor  stood  him  in  little  stead.  The  Catholic  priesthood, 
who  detested  him,  still  retained  a  mighty  influence,  especially 
over  the  distant  provinces.  He  retained  popularity  enough  to 
render  him  odious  to  the  old  nobility.  The  employment  of 
foreign  troops  in  quelling  the  insurrection  was  unacceptable. 
His  last  usurpation  of  the  protectorship  dwelt  in  the  minds  of 
many  besides  his  competitors.  He  began  the  erection  of 
Somerset-house,  his  palace  in  the  Strand,  on  a  scale  of  invi- 
dious magnificence.  Architects  were  brought  from  Italy  to 
construct  it,  and  professors  of  other  fine  arts  to  adorn  it.  It 
was  said  to  be  raised  out  of  bishops'  houses  and  churches,  of 
which  the  surrender  was  extorted  from  the  owners  by  dread 
of  his  displeasure.  The  demolition  of  the  parish  church  of 
St.  Mary,  to  leave  a  wider  space  for  the  basis  of  this  ostenta- 
tious structure,  was  considered  as  an  offensive  symptom  of 
disregard  to  religion  and  to  the  people.  These  extortions 
were  not  deemed  the  less  flagrant  acts  of  rapine  for  being 
formally  sanctioned  by  a  minor  king,  who  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  protector.  Like  many  other  candidates  for  the  applause 
of  the  multitude,  he  was  arrogant  and  negligent  towards  his 
equals.  To  every  cry,  to  every  insinuation  against  him  was 
added  the  formidable  question,  "  What  friendship  could  be  ex- 
pected from  a  man  who  had  no  pity  on  his  own  brother  1" 

A  question,  whether  peace  ought  to  be  made  with  France 
and  Scotland,  produced  considerable  differences  of  opinion  in 
the  king's  council.  The  protector  and  his  friends  contended 
that  the  object  of  the  Scottish  war,  which  was  the  marriage 
of  Edward  to  the  Scottish  queen,  no  longer  existed,  since  the 
arrival  of  that  young  princess  in  France ;  and  that  Boulogne, 
which  the  treaty  required  to  be  soon  restored,  should  be  im- 
mediately surrendered  on  payment  of  an  adequate  sum :  a  ne- 
gotiation which  might  happily  end  in  a  coalition  of  France 
and  England  to  save  the  German  Protestants  from  ruin.  Som- 
erset disappointed  his  opponents,  by  giving  up  his  own  better 
opinion  for  unanimity ;  but  the  dispute  had  already  served  its 
most  important  purpose,  by  keeping  out  of  view  the  motives 
and  projects  of  personal  ambition  which  aimed  at  the  over- 
throw of  the  proud  protector.  Lord  Southampton,  the  son  of 

Vor,  II.  T 


218  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1549. 

the  late  Catholic  chancellor  Wriothesley,  inherited  his  father's 
resentment  against  the  Protestant  protector.  Dudley  earl  of 
Warwick  was  the  soul  of  the  confederacy  against  him.  He 
was  supposed  to  have  really  earned  in  the  Scottish  war,  the 
laurels  which  were  borne  away  by  Somerset,  under  whose 
command  he  served ;  and  his  success  in  quelling  the  insur- 
rection contributed  to  strengthen  that  opinion  of  his  military 
desert 

In  the  month  of  September,  1549,  when  the  protector  in 
his  private  correspondence  speaks  with  complacence  of  his 
success  in  extinguishing  the  revolts,  the  plot  for  his  overthrow 
was  matured,*  the  discontented  lords  gradually  withdrew 
from  the  court,  and  resorted  with  bodies  of  armed  retainers  to 
London :  they  and  their  followers  paraded  the  streets  in  mar- 
tial array.  Sir  William  Paulet,  the  treasurer,  "  by  his  poli- 
cy" (which  probably  consisted  in  the  seasonable  use  of  money) 
obtained  for  them  the  peaceable  possession  of  the  Tower,  f  As 
soon  as  the  protector  learnt  this  intelligence,  on  the  6th  of 
October,  1549,  he  carried  the  king  with  him  from  Hampton- 
court  to  Windsor,  where  he  began  to  strengthen  the  castle, 
and  wrote  circular  letters  to  his  friends,  requiring  them  to 
pair  thither  with  all  their  force  for  the  defence  of  the  kin 
The  answer  of  lord  Russell,  the  privy-seal,!  on  the  8th  was, 
that  he  should  be  ready  to  guard  the  king,  to  defend  the  king- 
dom against  foreign  invasion,  and  to  stay  bloodshed  between 
factions;  but  that  he  could  take  no  part  in  the  personal  quar- 
rels of  the  protector  with  the  counsellors.  Both  parties  col- 
lected their  armed  adherents.  On  the  7th,  Sir  William  Petre, 
secretary  of  state,  was  sent  from  Windsor  to  London  to  ascer- 
tain the  demands  of  the  seceding  lords,  and  to  desire  assist- 
ance from  the  city  of  London ;  but  these  attempts  were  fruit- 
less ;  Petre  remained  with  the  lords,  who  were  now  joined  by 
nearly  all  the  surviving  executors:  numerous  bodies  of  troops 
flocked  to  them ;  and  the  palace  at  Windsor  was,  as  usual, 
left  a  solitude  by  the  inconstant  courtiers.  Sir  Philip  Hobby, 
who  was  dispatched  to  Windsor  with  the  answer  of  the  lords, 
urged  their  request  so  effectually,  that  on  the  13th  of  October 
the  vast  powers  of  Somerset  were  withdrawn  from  him,  and 
on  the  next  day  he  was  brought  prisoner  to  the  Tower  under 
an  escort  of  300  men.  Articles  were  prepared  against  him, 

*  Somerset  to  Sir  P.  Hobby,  minister  at  the  Imperial  Court,  24th  August, 
1549.  Burners  Collection  of  Records,  No.  xxxvi.  "The  people  concerned 
in  the  revolts,"  says  he,  "  were  without  head  and  rule,  that  would  have 
they  wot  not  what." 

t  Holinshed,  iii.  1014. 

t  He  was  created  earl  of  Bedford  on  the  19th  of  January,  1550. 


1550.  PROTECTOR    DISGRACED.  219 

which,  from  their  extreme  vagueness,  cannot  be  considered 
as  a  judicial  charge,  but  must  be  regarded  either  as  a  popular 
manifesto,  or  at  best  as  the  materials  of  an  address  for  his  re- 
moval from  power.  On  the  28th  of  October,  the  great  office 
of  lord  high-admiral  was  conferred  on  his  formidable  and 
mortal  enemy  the  earl  of  Warwick  ;*  and,  after  many  ex- 
aminations, in  the  month  of  February  following  he  was  en- 
larged, on  the  payment  of  a  fine  and  ransom,  amounting  to 
yOOOJ.  per  annum  in  land,  all  his  personal  goods,  besides  the 
forfeiture  of  his  offices.  Theee  transactions  were  afterwards 
confirmed  by  act  of  parliament.!  Hitherto  the  circumstances 
which  attended  this  great  nobleman's  fall  from  power  do  not 
exceed  the  usual  accompaniments  of  a  violent  change  of  ad- 
ministration in  the  sixteenth  century. 

Warwick,  who  was  by  no  very  slow  degrees  attracting  to 
himself  all  the  powers  of  government,  hastened  to  assure  the 
nation  that  the  Protestant  interest  would  suffer  nothing  by 
the  protector's  removal.  The  earl  of  Southampton,  the  stay 
of  the  Catholics,  was  obliged  to  leave  the  court ;  and  the 
bishops  were  apprized  by  circular  letters  of  the  king's  deter- 
mination}: to  carry  on  the  reformation.  These  measures  were, 
however,  rather  the  result  of  Warwick's  position  than  of  his 
inclination :  he  declared  at  his  death  that  he  had  always  been 
a  Catholic;  and  the  most  zealous  Protestants  bewailed  the 
fall  of  Somerset  as  dangerous  to  their  cause. 

Warwick,  now  the  undisputed  chief  of  the  government,  al- 
lowed Somerset  to  resume  his  seat  in  council  on  the  8th  of 
April,  1550;  and  lord  Lisle,  the  eldest  son  of  Warwick,  was 
married  on  the  3d  of  June  to  Somerset's  daughter.  But  under 
a  fair  surface  of  friendship  the  sores  of  fear  and  anger  still 
rankled.  Somerset  could  not  persuade  himself  that  he  could 
be  safe  without  power.  Warwick  apprehended  continual  at- 
tempts on  the  part  of  Somerset  to  recover  the  protectorship. 
Somerset  assembled  armed  retainers  in  circumstances  where 
it  was  very  difficult  to  separate  defence  from  offence.  On  the 
17th  of  October,  1551,  the  duke  and  duchess  of  Somerset, 
with  many  of  their  friends,  were  committed  to  the  Tower ; 
and  on  the  1st  of  December  following,  the  duke  was  brought 
to  trial  before  the  high-steward  and  lords-triers  for  high  trea- 
son, as  conspiring  to  seize  the  king,  and  for  felony  under  the 
riot  act  of  the  preceding  session,  in  assembling  to  imprison 

*  Rymer,  xv.  194. 

t  Very  improperly  omitted  in  the  authentic  edition  of  the  statutes,  as  a 
private  act. 

1  Privy  council  to  the  bishops,  25th  Decemlwr,  1549.  Burnet,  Coll.  Records, 
book  i. 


220  IIISTORST  OF  ENGLAND.  1552. 

the  earl  of  Warwick,  a  privy-counsellor,  who  had  since  been 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  duke  of  Northumberland.  The  lords 
unanimously  acquitted  him  of  the  treason  :*  they  convicted 
him  of  the  felony ;  a  verdict  of  which  the  strict  legality  may 
be  questioned ;  for  though  the  tenth  section  of  the  statutef 
makes  it  felony  to  stir  up  rebellious  assemblies,  yet  that  enact- 
ment is  qualified  by  restricting  it  to  cases  where  there  is  "  an 
intention  to  do  any  of  the  things  above  mentioned."  Now, 
this  refers  to  the  treasons  created  by  this  act,  of  all  which  the 
duke  was  acquitted ;  and  it  is  an  essential  condition  of  the 
felony  that  the  unlawful  assemblies  shall  continue  their  meet- 
ings after  they  have  been  legally  commanded  to  disperse.  In 
this  case  no  such  command  or  disobedience  was  pretended. 
This  objection,  however,  is  technical.  It  is  probably  true  that 
the  duke  of  Somerset  meditated  a  revolution  as  violent  as 
that  by  which  he  had  been  deposed :  his  principal  anxiety  was 
to  vindicate  himself  from  the  charge  of  plotting  the  death  of 
Northumberland  and  his  colleagues.  After  his  condemnation, 
the  ax  not  being  carried  naked  before  him  as  he  left  West- 
minster Hall,  the  people,  who  hailed  this  circumstance  as  a 
proof  of  his  acquittal,  expressed  their  joy  by  loud  acclama- 
tions. "  On  the  22A  of  January,  1552,"  says  the  diary  of  his 
royal  nephew,  "  he  had  his  head  cut  off  upon  Tower  Hill  be- 
tween eight  and  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning."}: 

We  learn  from  those  on  whom  the  protector  had  fewer 
claims,  that  the  particulars  of  the  death  thus  shortly  and 
coolly  mentioned  were  not  uninteresting.  A  false  alarm  had 
thrown  the  spectators  of  the  execution  into  confusion  ;  some 
of  them  fell  into  ditches,  or  were  otherwise  hurt.  Amidst 
their  apprehensions,  they,  observing  Sir  Antony  Brown  riding 
up  to  the  scaffold,  conjectured,  what  was  not  true,  but  which 
they  all  wished  to  be  true,  that  the  king  had  sent  a  pardon 
for  his  uncle ;  and,  with  great  rejoicing  and  casting  up  their 
caps,  they  cried  out,  "Pardon — pardon  is  come,  God  save 
the  king!"  The  duke  showed  some  emotion;  but  his  de- 
portment in  death,  and  his  address  to  the  bystanders,  of  whom 
many  were  deeply  affected,  were  signalized  by  firmness  and 
dignity. 

The  parliament,  which  met  on  the  day  after  the  execution 
of  the  duke  of  Somerset,  betrayed  some  sense  of  the  unjust 
mode  of  proceeding  against  him,  by  reforming  at  that  moment 

*  State  Trials,  i.  518,  510.,  where  the  whole  record  is  to  be  found.  See 
also  an  account  of  the  trial  by  Edward  VI.  to  Barn  a  by  Pitzpatrick,  Fuller, 

t  2  &  3  Edw.  6.  c.  5. 

J  Journal  of  Edw.  VI.  in  Burnet. 


1552.  GARDINER    AND    BONNER.  221 

one  of  the  most  grievous  abuses  in  the  criminal  law.  A  bill 
was  passed  to  make  it  high  treason  to  call  the  king  or  his 
successors  under  Henry's  act  of  settlement,  usurpers,  here- 
tics, or  schismatics,*  into  which  a  clause  was  introduced  of 
greater  moment  than  the  bill  itself,  providing  that  no  person 
shall  be  convicted  of  these  or  other  treasons,  unless  he  be  ac- 
cused by  two  lawful  witnesses,  who  if  alive  shall  be  confront- 
ed with  him  on  his  trial.  In  spite  of  this  provision,  the  bar- 
barous iniquity  of  former  times  continued  to  be  practised  long 
after  it  was  thus  forbidden  by  law. 

The  policy  adopted  in  the  reign  of  Edward  respecting  dis- 
sent from  the  established  church  deserves  some  consideration. 
The  toleration  of  heresy  was  deemed  by  men  of  all  persua- 
sions to  be  as  unreasonable  as  it  would  now  be  thought  to 
propose  the  impunity  of  murder.  The  open  exercise  of  any 
worship  except  that  established  by  law  was  considered  as  a 
mutinous  disregard  of  lawful  authority,  in  which  perseverance 
was  accounted  a  very  culpable  contumacy.  In  considering 
the  harsh  proceedings  against  those  prelates  who  refused  to 
give  the  security  required  by  law  of  their  attachment  to  the 
Protestant  church,  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  legislature, 
which  had  the  power  to  change  the  civil  establishment  of  rer 
ligion,  is  justified  in  employing  moderate  means  of  securing 
the  church,  of  which  the  exclusion  of  Roman  Catholics  from 
the  dignities  of  the  Protestant  church  cannot  be  denied  to  be 
in  itself  unexceptionable,  A  competent  and  liberal  allow- 
ance, however,  towards  those  who  lose  their  station  without 
any  fault,  by  a  mere  change  of  belief  in  their  rulers,  is  even 
in  this  case  an  indispensable  part  of  equitable  policy.  The 
simple  deprivation,  especially  if  attended  with  fair  compensa- 
tion, of  Bonner  and  Gardiner,  does  not  appear  to  be  blama- 
ble.  Gardiner,  a  man  of  extraordinary  abilities,  learning, 
and  resolution,  had  been  a  pliant  tool  in  Henry's  negotiations 
for  divorce.  Many  attempts  were  made  to  compel  him  to 
conform  to  the  new  system.  '  Imprisonment,  with  very  un- 
warrantable aggravations,  was  chiefly  trusted  to  for  subduing 
his  haughty  spirit.  But  he  defended  himself  with  spirit  and 
address.  It  was  easy  to  gain  a  personal  advantage  over  some 
of  his  opponents,  by  quoting,  in  justification  of  his  own  opin- 
ions, their  language  in  the  time  of  the  late  king  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  communion.  The  creed  of  the  more  reformed 
church  on  the  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  was 
couched  in  cloudy  language,  which  the  bishop  could  represent 
as  favorable  to  his  opinion.  Some  of  the  most  zealous  Pro- 

*  5  &  6  Edw.  r,.  c.  xi.  p.  9.  authentic  edition. 

T2 


222  HISTORY    OP    ENGLAND.  1552. 

testants  had  already  controverted  the  Roman  Catholic  system 
with  a  warmth  which  gave  him  specious  pretexts  for  assailing 
them  as  Zuinglians  and  Sacramentaries ;  heretics  whom  the 
body  of  orthodox  Protestants,  whether  Lutherans,  Calvinists, 
or  Anglicans,  held  in  especial  abhorrence.  Notwithstanding 
what  his  enemies  called  contumacy,  they  still  shrunk  from  a 
conflict  with  a  man  of  so  much  courage  and  resource.  It 
was  thought  fit  to  make  the  first  experiment  on  a  meaner 
subject,  Bonner,  bishop  of  London,  a  canonist  of  note,  be- 
lieved to  be  of  a  fierce  temper  and  prone  to  cruelty ;  a  belief 
well  justified  by  his  subsequent  deeds.  A  commission  issued 
for  the  examination  of  the  complaints  against  this  prelate. 
The  commissioners  assembled  at  Lambeth  on  the  10th  of 
September,  1549,  He  deported  himself  insolently,  manifest- 
ing that  he  was  one  of  those  inferior  spirits  who  need  coarse- 
ness  to  whet  the  edge  of  their  courage.  He  complained  that 
he  was  not  deprived  by  a  tribunal  proceeding  according  to 
the  canon  law.  This  jurisdiction,  however,  seemed  to  have 
fallen  with  the  ancient  church.  It  was  answered  with  great 
force  as  far  as  related  to  Bonner,  that  he  had  waived  such  ob- 
jections when  he  consented  to  receive  his  bishopric  from  the 
king  by  letters  patent.  Sentence  of  deprivation  was  pro- 
nounced against  him  on  the  4th  of  October,  and,  on  the  bad 
ground  of  his  indecorum  at  the  trial,  he  was  sent  to  the  Mar- 
shalsea,  where  he  continued  a  prisoner  till  the  king's  death. 
Gardiner  was  brought  to  trial  before  the  commissioners  on 
the  14th  of  December,  1550.  He  made  so  many  concessions, 
that  in  what  remained  he  geems  to  have  rather  consulted 
pride  than  conscience ;  unless  we  may  suspect  that  he  was 
influenced  by  a  desire  not  to  take  a  decisive  part  on  the  con- 
tested points,  until  he  could  better  foresee  the  issue  of  very 
uncertain  revolutions.  He  too  suffered  a  very  rigorous  im- 
prisonment ;  an  aggravation  which  cannot  be  too  much  con- 
demned in  a  case  which  was  extenuated  by  the  partial  influ- 
ence or  even  the  specious  color  of  conscience. 

The  treatment  of  the  princess  Mary  was  still  more  odious, 
if  it  be  considered  as  the  conduct  of  a  brother  towards  a  sis- 
ter, or  if  it  be  triod  by  the  standard  of  religious  liberty  in 
modern  times.  But  the  first  would  be  a  false  point  of  view, 
and  the  second  too  severe  a  test.  Somerset  and  Northumber- 
land, who  were  the  successive  masters  of  the  king  and  king- 
dom, saw  the  immense  advantage  to  accrue  to  the  Protestant 
cause  from  the  conversion  of  the  presumptive  heir  to  the 
throne.  The  feeble  infancy  of  Edward  was  the  only  protec- 
tion of  the  reformation  against  a  princess  already  suspected 
of  bigotry,  and  who  had  grievous  wrongs  to  revenge.  Her 


MARY    ATTD    ELIZABETH.  223 

conversion  was  therefore  the  highest  object  of  policy.  Justice 
requires  this  circumstance  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  a  case 
where  every  generous  feeling  rises  up  in  arms  against  the 
mere  politician,  and  prompts  us  warmly  to  applaud  the  steady 
resistance  of  the  wronged  princess. 

There  is  no  known  instance  in  family  history,  in  which  a 
brother  and  his  two  sisters  appeared  to  be  doomed  to  be  each 
other's  enemies  by  a  destiny  inseparable  from  their  birth,  so 
extraordinary  as  that  of  Edward  and  the  two  princesses  Mary 
and  Elizabeth.  The  legitimacy  of  Mary  necessarily  rendered 
Elizabeth  illegitimate.  The  innocence  of  Anne  Boleyn  threw 
a  deep  shade  over  the  nuptials  of  which  Edward  was  the  sole 
offspring.  One  statute  had  declared  Mary  to  be  illegitimate, 
for  the  sake  of  settling  the  crown  on  Elizabeth.  The  latter 
princess  was  condemned  to  the  same  brand,  to  open  the  door 
for  the  nuptials  with  Edward's  mother.  Both  were  afterwards 
illegitimatized,  as  it  might  seem,  to  exalt  the  lawful  superi- 
ority of  their  brother  Edward.  At  his  accession,  Mary  was 
in  the  thirty-second  year  of  her  age,  Elizabeth  in  her  four- 
teenth, and  Edward  hi  his  ninth  year.  Mary  was  of  an  age 
to  remember  with  bitterness  the  wrongs  done  to  her  innocent 
mother.  Her  few  though  faithful  followers  were  adherents 
of  the  ancient  religion ;  to  which  honor  and  affection,  as  well 
as  their  instruction  and  example,  bound  her.  The  friends, 
the  teachers,  the  companions  of  Edward,  were,  in  many  in- 
stances, bound  to  the  reformation  by  conscience.  Many  others 
had  built  their  character  and  their  greatness  upon  its  estab- 
lishment. The  pretensions  of  young  Elizabeth  were  some- 
what more  remote ;  but  the  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn  was 
still  dear  to  those  zealous  Protestants  who  considered  Anne 
(whether  inviolably  faithftil  to  Henry  or  not)  as  having  died 
for  her  favor  to  the  Protestant  cause.  The  guardians  of  the 
young  king  deserve  commendation  for  the  decorum  which 
they  caused  him  to  observe  towards  both  his  sisters,  though 
he  did  not  conceal  his  affection  for  Elizabeth,  whom  he  used 
fondly  to  call  "sweet  sister  Temperance."  His  mild  temper 
and  gentle  nature  made  the  task  of  the  guardians,  as  far  as 
regarded  him,  easy.  Neither  of  the  ladies  were  likely  to 
jrive  equal  help  to  those  who  labored  to  keep  peace  between 
them. 

When  the  injunctions  of  1549  had  directed  the  discontinu- 
ance of  the  mass,  and  commanded  the  liturgy  to  be  used  in  its 
.'•tead,  the  emperor's  ambassador  had  interposed  to  procure  an 
exemption  by  letters  patent  for  the  lady  Mary  from  this  rigor- 
ous prohibition.*  She  probably  experienced  some  connivance, 

*  Edward's  Jonrn.,  Wh  April,  15JP,  in  Biirnot. 


224  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1552. 

though  this  formal  license  was  refused.  But,  in  the  autumn 
following,  intelligence  was  received  of  designs  formed  by  the 
English  exiles  to  carry  her  to  the  Netherlands;  in  conse- 
quence of  which,  she  was  desired  to  repair  to  her  brother's 
court  She  declined  coming  nearer  to  London  than  Hunsdon  ; 
reasonably  enough  disliking  the  close  observation  and  mali- 
cious scrutiny  of  her  enemies.  On  the  15th  of  December, 
Dr.  Mallet,  her  principal  chaplain,  was  committed  to  the 
Tower  for  solemnizing  mass  at  her  residence,  but  when  she 
was  absent,  and  before  some  who  were  not  members  of  her 
household.*  The. mention  of  these  circumstances  seems  to 
show  that  in  practice,  though  not  by  law,  a  connivance  with 
her  family  worship  had  arisen,  from  an  understanding  with 
the  imperial  ministers.  The  most  ungracious  act  of  the  gov- 
ernment was  to  employ  the  tongue  and  pen  of  her  brother  in 
attacks  on  her  religious  opinions.! 

On  the  18th  of  March,t  1551,  she  had  an  interview  with 
the  council,  in  the  presence  of  Edward.  She  was  told  that 
"  the  king  had  long  suffered  her  mass,  hi  hope  of  her  recon- 
ciliation ;  and  there  being  now  no  hope,  which  he  perceived 
by  her  letters,  except  he  saw  some  speedy  amendment  he 
could  not  bear  it."  She  answered  well,  that  "  her  soul  was 
God's;  and  her  faith  she  would  not  change  nor  dissemble.' 
She  was  answered  somewhat  evasively,  "  The  king  does  not 
constrain  your  faith ;  but  willeth  you,  not  as  a  king  to  rule, 
but  as  a  subject  to  obey."  The  emperor's  minister  hinted  at 
war,  if  his  master's  cousin  were  thus  treated  with  discourtesy. 
Cranmer  and  his  friends  allowed  "  that  it  was  a  sin  to  license 
sin ;  but  they  thought  that  to  wink  at  it  for  a  time  might  be 
borne,  if  haste  were  used  to  get  rid  of  it."  Edward  thought 
their  casuistry  lax,  and  on  their  principles  he  was  right.  Soon 
after,  twenty-four  privy-counsellors,  who  were  assembled  at 
Richmond  to  consider  the  case,  determined  that  it  was  not 
meet  to  suffer  the  practices  of  the  lady  Mary  any  longer.  It 
should  seem,  however,  from  the  instructions  to  Wotton,  the 
minister  at  the  imperial  court,  that  there  was  a  disposition  in 
the  administration  to  spare  Mary,  though  they  could  not 
avowedly  dispense  with  the  laws.  In  that  temper  they 
probably  continued ;  but  with  a  fluctuation  between  the  poli- 
ticians who  dreaded  a  rupture  with  the  emperor,  and  the 
Protestant  zealots  who  still  more  dreaded  a  toleration  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  worship:  a  state  of  things  very  mortifying 

*  Edward's  Journ.,  13th  July,  and  14th  of  August. 

t  Ibid.,  15th  December.  j  Ibid.,  18th  March. 


1553.  OF   BELIGIOUS    PERSECUTION.  225 

and  precarious ;  which  exposed  the  princess  to  be  frequently 
vexed  and  harassed  on  points  where  she  required  the  most 
secure  quiet. 

But,  on  the  whole,  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  was  the  most 
pure  from  religious  persecution  of  any  administration  of  the 
same  length,  in  any  great  country  of  Europe,  since  Christen- 
dom was  divided  between  Catholics  and  Protestants.  "  Ed- 
ward,"* says  a  Catholic  writer,  "  did  not  shed  blood  on  that 
account.  No  sanguinary,  but  only  penal,  laws  were  executed 
on  those  who  stood  off."  As  long  as  both  parties  considered 
it  their  duty  to  convert  or  exterminate  their  antagonists,  a 
peace  between  them  was  impossible.  Whatever  glimpses  of 
insecure  truce  occurred  were  due  to  the  humanity  or  policy 
of  individual  sovereigns,  or  of  their  ministers.  In  the  present 
case,  the  suspension  of  arms  may  be  attributed  to  the  humane 
temper  of  Cranmer,  in  a  greater  measure  than  to  any  other 
circumstance.  It  is  praise  enough  for  young  Edward,  that  his 
gentleness,  as  well  as  his  docility,  disposed  him  not  to  shed 
blood.  The  fact,  however,  that  the  blood  of  no  Roman  Catho- 
lic was  spilt  on  account  of  religion,  in  Edward's  reign,  is 
indisputable.  The  Protestant  church  of  England  did  not 
strike  the  first  blow.  If  this  proceeded  from  the  virtue  of  the 
counsellors  of  Edward,  we  must  allow  it  to  outweigh  their 
faults.  If  it  followed  from  their  fortune,  they  ought  to  have 
been  envied  by  their  antagonists.  This  great  commendation, 
however,  must  be  restricted  to  the  war  between  the  two 
bodies  which  shared  Europe.  Other  small  and  obscure  com- 
munities, holding  opinions  equally  obnoxious  to  the  great 
communions,  were  excluded  from  the  truce.  A  distinction 
was  devised  between  the  essential  and  unessential  parts  of 
Christianity,  by  means  of  which  all  the  supposed  errors  com- 
prehended under  the  first  denomination  might  be  treated  with 
the  severity  of  the  ancient  laws  against  heresy.  No  statute 
or  canon  had  established  this  distinction,!  yet  it  slowly  grew 
out  of  opinion  and  usage.  It  was  then  a  great  advance  to- 
wards religious  liberty ;  for  it  withdrew  the  greater  number 
of  Christians  from  the  reach  of  the  persecutor's  sword.  At  a 
far  later  period,  persecutors,  when  driven  from  their  strong- 
holds, have  sometimes  fallen  back  on  the  same  distinction  as 
a  tenable  post ;  where,  if  they  could  not  maintain  themselves 
permanently,  their  retreat  would  be  at  least  covered.  In 

*  Dod,  i.  360. 

t  It  ie,  however,  to  be  observed,  that  the  third  articl*:  of  the  Reformatio 
Legiim  Ecclesiasticarum  do*;*  in  effect  recognize  the  distinction,  and  per- 
haps goes  farther,  by  confining  the  punishment  of  death  to  apostates,  and 
eucli  as  opposed  ChriBtianity  in  general. 


226  HISTORY:  or  ENGLAND.  1553. 

Edward's  reign,  the  doctrine  that  only  the  denial  of  the 
essentials  of  Christianity  could  lawfully  be  punished  with 
death,  was  a  station  in  the  retreat  from  more  wide-wasting 
evil.  A  century  later  it  became  a  position,  from  which  the 
advance  towards  good  might  be  impeded  and  retarded. 

The  most  remarkable  instances  of  these  deviations  from 
humanity  were  those  of  fugitives  from  the  Netherlands,  who 
held  many  unpopular  and  odious  opinions.     Before  the  time 
of  Luther  there  were  small  sects  in  the  Low  Countries,*  who 
combined  a  denial  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  whose  divine  mis- 
sion they  revered,  with  a  disbelief  in  the  validity  of  infant 
baptism,  and  joined  the  rejection  of  oaths  with  the  non-resist- 
ance adopted  afterwards  by  the  Quakers;  proceeding,  how- 
ever, farther  than  that  respectable  persuasion,  by  denying  the 
lawfulness  of  magistracy,  the  obedience  to  human  laws,  and 
the  legitimacy  of  separate  property.     Their  early  history  is 
buried  in  obscurity.     The  reformation  gave  them  a  shock 
which  roused  them  from  lethargy.     They  were  involved  in 
the  same  sufferings  with  the  Lutherans  and  Calvinists.   Many 
of  them  took  refuge  in  England,  where  a  small  number  of  the 
natives  imbibed  some  portion  of  their  doctrines.     In  April, 
1549,  commissions  were  issued  to  Cranmer  "  to  inquire  into 
heretical  pravity,"f  being  nearly  the  same  words  by  which 
the  power  of  ihe  court  of  inquisition  is  described.   Champneys, 
a  priest  at  Stratford  on  the  Bow,  being  brought  before  the 
commissioners  on  some  of  the  lighter  of  these  charges,  con- 
fessed and  recanted  them.     Ashton,  a  priest,  who  maintained 
that  "  Christ  was  not  God,  but  brought  men  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God,"  escaped  in  the  same  manner.     Thumb,  a 
butcher,  and  Putton,  a  tanner,  went  through  the  like  process. 
These  feeble  heresies  seem  indeed  to  have  prevailed  almost 
solely  among  the  inferior  class.  Joan  Becher,  commonly  called 
Joan  of  Kent,  a  zealous  Protestant,  who  had  privately  im- 
ported Lutheran  books  for  the  ladies  of  the  court  in  Henry's 
reign,  had  now  adopted  a  doctrine,  or  a  set  of  words,  which 
brought  her  to  be  tried  before  the  commissioners  for  heresy. 
As  her  assertions  are  utterly  unintelligible,  the  only  mode  of 
fully  displaying  the  unspeakable  injustice  of  her  sentence  is 
to  quote  the  very  words  in  which  she  vainly  struggled  to  con- 
vey a  meaning :  "  she  denied  that  Christ  was  truly  incarnate 
of  the  Virgin,  whose  flesh  being  sinful  he  could  take  none  of 
it,  but  the  word,  by  the  consent  of  the  inward  man  in  the 

*  See  the  account  of  the  Mennonites  and  of  the  Family  of  Love,  in 
Mosheim. 
f  Rymer,  xv.  181. 


1553.  ECCLESIASTICAL   LAWS.  227 

Virgin,  took  flesh  of  her."  The  execution  was  delayed  for  a 
year  by  the  compassionate  scruples  of  Edward,  who  refused  to 
sign  it  It  must  be  owned  with  regret,  that  his  conscientious 
hesitation  was  borne  down  by  the  authority  and  importunity 
of  Cranmer,  though  the  reasons  of  that  prelate  rather  silenced 
than  satisfied  the  boy,  who,  as  he  set  his  hand  to  the  warrant, 
said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  to  the  archbishop,  "  If  I  do  wrong, 
since  it  was  in  submission  to  your  authority,  you  must  answer 
for  it  to  God."  It  was  not  till  the  2d  of  May,  1550,  that  this 
unfortunate  woman  was  burnt  to  death.  On  the  24th  of  May, 
1551,  Von  Panis,  an  eminent  surgeon  in  London,  of  Dutch 
extraction,  having  refused  to  purchase  life  by  recanting  his 
heresy,  which  consisted  in  denying  the  divine  nature  of 
Christ,  was  burnt  to  death. 

Opinions  subversive  of  human  society  having  been  avowed 
by  some  of  the  accumulation  of  sects  in  Lower  Germany,  who 
were  called  Anabaptists,  a  strong  prejudice  against  that  sect, 
whose  distinguishing  tenet  is  perfectly  consistent  with  social 
order,  had  a  part  in  these  lamentable  executions.  The  found- 
ers of  the  Anglican  church  were  solicitous  to  clear  their  es- 
tablishment from  the  odium  of  suffering  such  attacks  to  be 
made  on  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  they 
considered  all  who  were  desirous  to  carry  change  farther  as 
impediments  to  the  completion,  and  enemies  to  the  safety,  of 
the  reformation. 

Of  the  forty-two  articles  of  belief  promulgated  in  this  reign, 
the  principal  propositions  omitted  under  Elizabeth  were,  a 
condemnation  of  those  who  asserted  that  the  resurrection  was 
already  past,  or  that  souls  sleep  from  death  to  the  last  judg- 
ment, as  well  as  of  those  who  maintain  the  final  salvation  of 
all  men,  or  the  reign  of  the  Messiah  for  a  thousand  years, 
which  last  opinion  the  forty-first  article  styles  "The  fable  of 
the  millenaries,  a  Jewish  dotage."  The  doctrine  of  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ  in  the  communion  was  expressed  in  terms  more 
unfavorable  to  the  church  of  Rome  than  those  chosen  by  Eliza- 
beth's divines. 

In  consequence  of  the  changes  introduced  by  the  reforma- 
tion, it  became  necessary  to  reform  the  ecclesiastical  laws. 
The  canon  law,  consisting  of  constitutions  of  popes,  decrees 
of  councils,  and  records  of  usages  (many  of  which  have  been 
long  universally  acknowledged  to  be  frauds),  was  the  re- 
ceived code  of  the  courts  termed  spiritual,  in  every  country 
of  Europe.  The  appeals  allowed,  by  every  country,  to  Rome 
preserved  a  consistency  of  decision  and  unity  of  legislation. 
But  the  whole  system  of  canon  law  was  so  interwoven  with 
papal  authority,  and  so  favorable  to  the  most  extravagant  pre- 


228  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1553. 

tensions  of  the  Roman  see,  as  to  become  incapable  of  execu- 
tion in  a  Protestant  country.  An  act  had  been  accordingly 
passed  in  1549,*  providing  that  "  the  king  shall  have  full 
power  to  nominate  sixteen  ecclesiastics,  of  whom  four  to  be 
bishops,  and  sixteen  laymen,  of  whom  four  to  be  lawyers,  to 
order  and  compile  such  laws  ecclesiastical  as  shall  be  thought 
convenient."  A  work  was  accordingly  composed  for  this  pur- 
pose by  Cranmer,  and  translated  into  Latin  with  a  happy  imi- 
tation of  the  clear  method  and  elegant  brevity  of  the  Roman 
jurists  by  Sir  John  Cheke  and  Dr.  Haddon,  two  of  the  restorers 
of  classical  literature  in  England.  This  work  was  not  pre- 
pared for  the  royal  confirmation  before  the  close  of  Edward's 
reign.  The  greater  part  being  strictly  theological,  or  relating 
to  the  order  of  proceedings  in  courts,  is  beyond  our  present 
province.  The  articles  on  marriage  relate  to  questions  of 
very  difficult  solution,  and  affect  the  civil  rights  of  all  men, 
as  well  as  the  highest  of  all  the  moral  interests  of  society. 
The  book,  not  having  received  the  royal  confirmation,  is  not 
indeed  law,  but  it  is  of  great  authority,  and  conveys  the  opin- 
ions of  our  first  reformers  on  problems,  which  the  law  of 
England  has  not  yet  solved.  A  very  brief  summary  of  the 
chapter  on  divorce  may  therefore  be  proper. 

By  the  tenth  title,  divorce  was  allowed  for  adultery,  and 
the  unoffending  party  was  suffered  to  marry ;  but  the  sen- 
tence of  a  court  was  declared  to  be  necessary  to  the  dissolu- 
tion. Desertion,  long  absence,  mortal  enmities,  the  lasting 
fiercenessf  of  a  husband  to  his  wife,  were  adjudged  to  be  law- 
ful ground  of  divorce.  Separation  from  bed  and  board  was 
abolished,  being  superseded  by  the  extension  of  divorce.  It 
is  impossible  to  reconcile  these  enactments  with  the  avowed 
opinions  of  its  authors,  without  believing  that  they  considered 
the  answers  of  Christ  in  the  Gospel,  on  divorce  for  adultery, 
as  confined  to  the  national  legislation  of  the  Jews,  and  not 
intended  to  have  legal  force  in  other  countries.}: 

These  dispositions  of  the  proposed  code  were  probably  oc- 
casioned by  the  case  of  Parr,  marquis  of  Northampton,  who 
had  divorced  his  wife,  Anne  Boucher,  for  adultery,  in  the 
ecclesiastical  court ;  which  divorce,  however,  had  no  certain 
and  immediate  effect  beyond  that  of  a  legal  separation  from 
bed  and  board.  A  commission  was  appointed  to  inquire 
whether,  by  a  divorce  on  this  ground,  he  was  not  so  divorced 
from  lady  Anne  that  no  divine  law  prohibited  his  marriage. 
He  was  too  impatient  to  wait  for  the  issue  of  their  researches, 

*  3  &  4.  Edw.  6.  c.  11. 

|  Reformatio  Leg  urn  Ecclesiasticarum,  1571. , 


1553.  LAW    OF    DIVORCE.  229 

and  married  Elizabeth  Brooke,  daughter  to  lord  Cobham.  The 
Protestant  canonists,  to  whose  judgment  the  case  of  North- 
ampton was  referred,  made  answer  to  the  queries  put  to  them, 
"  that  the  band  of  wedlock  being  broken  by  the  mere  fact  of 
infidelity,  the  second  marriage  was  lawful."  The  parliament 
of  1551  confirmed  this  answer,  by  declaring  the  marriage  of 
Northampton  with  Elizabeth  Brooke  to  be  valid ;  but,  as  this 
statute  was  repealed  by  a  law  passed  in  the  following  reign,* 
nothing  is  left  of  these  proceedings  but  the  advised  and  lasting 
belief  of  Cranmer  and  his  associates  in  reformation,  that  a 
more  extensive  liberty  of  divorce  ought  to  be  allowed. 

The  law  of  England  is  now,  in  its  letter  and  theory,  con- 
formable to  the  ancient  principle  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
church,  which  regarded  marriage  as  indissoluble.  It  was  not 
till  a  century  and  a  half  afterwards  that  a  practice  gradually 
crept  in  of  dissolving  marriage  for  infidelity,  by  acts  of  par- 
liament specially  passed  for  each  separate  case — a  rude  and 
most  inconvenient  expedient,  which  subjects  proceedings  which 
ought  to  be  judicial  to  the  temper  of  numerous  and  open  as- 
semblies, while,  by  its  expense,  it  excludes  the  vast  majority 
of  men  from  the  relief  which,  by  long  usage,  it  may  be  con- 
sidered as  permanently  holding  out  to  suitors  who  are  not 
themselves  uncommonly  faulty.  The  reader  needs  not  to  be 
reminded  that  whatever  requires  an  act  of  legislature  to  le- 
galize must  in  its  nature  be  illegal. 

It  must  be  admitted,  that  the  intrinsic  difficulties  of  the 
subject  are  exceedingly  great.  The  dangerous  extremes  are, 
absolute  and  universal  indissolubility,  which  has  been  found 
to  be  productive  of  a  general  connivance  at  infidelity,  and, 
consequently,  of  a  general  dissolution  of  manners  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other,  of  a  considerable  facility  of  divorce 
in  cases  very  difficult  to  be  defined — a  practice,  to  say  no- 
thing of  other  evil  consequences,  which  would  be  at  variance 
with  the  institution  of  marriage,  intended  chiefly  to  protect 
children  from  the  inconstancy  of  parents,  and  next  to  guard 
women  against  the  inconstancy  of  husbands,  who,  if  divorce 
were  procurable  for  any  but  clearly  defined  and  most  satis- 
factorily proved  facts,  would  be  enabled,  as  soon  as  they  were 
tired  of  their  wives,  to  make  the  situation  of  the  helpless 
female  so  uneasy  that  they  must  consent  to  divorce.  To 
make  the  dissolution  of  marriage  in  the  proper  case  alike 
accessible  to  all,  is  one  of  the  objects  to  which,  in  great  cities 

*  Private  act,  5t  6  Edw.  6.  not  printed  in  the  authentic  or  common  col- 
lections of  statute*. 

VOL.  II.  U 


230  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1553. 

and  in  highly  civilized  countries,  it  is  hardest  to  point  out  a 
safe  road. 

The  duke  of  Northumberland  ruled  the  kingdom  with  ab- 
solute authority,  by  means  of  the  privy-council,  with  the  title 
of  Admiral  and  Earl  Marshal ;  but  the  health  of  Edward  be- 
gan to  occasion  serious  apprehensions.  His  constitution, 
originally  weak  and  puny,  was  so  much  injured  by  measles 
and  small-pox,*  that  he  was  visited  by  a  disorder  in  the  lungs, 
which,  in  spite  of  the  numerous  improvements  in  the  art  of 
medicine,  continues  to  baffle  the  skill  of  the  physician. 
Jerome  Cardan,  an  Italian  physician  of  great  ability  and 
knowledge,  whose  name  is  justly  celebrated  in  the  history  of 
mathematical  science,  when  on  his  return  from  Scotland, 
whither  he  had  gone  to  cure  the  archbishop  of  St  Andrew's 
in  1552,  was  consulted  in  the  case  of  Edward.  This  physi- 
cian was  addicted  to  all  the  follies  and  frauds  of  magic  and 
astrology.  He  believed  in  intercourse  with  the  devil,  yet  he 
was  charged  by  his  enemies  with  atheism.  He  has  left  an 
account  of  his  own  life,  in  which  he  confessed  himself  to  be 
guilty  of  many  of  the  vices  which  men  are  generally  most 
solicitous  to  conceal.  His  passion  for  paradox  led  him  to  com- 
pose a  serious  and  earnest  panegyric  on  Nero.  He  was  unable 
to  deliver  Edward  from  his  malady,  but  he  ventured  from 
that  prince's  horoscope  to  foretell  that  he  was  to  have  a  long 
reign ;  and  when  the  event  would  have  silenced  most  men, 
he,  with  ready  assurance,  threw  the  blame  on  those  who  sup- 
plied him  with  the  particulars  of  the  king's  birth,  f  We  are 
indebted  to  him  for  a  character  of  his  royal  patient,  which, 
notwithstanding  the  perverseness  and  obliquity  of  the  writer, 
derives  some  value  from  his  abilities,  especially  as  it  was 
written  when  Edward  had  no  longer  the  power  to  reward  a 
panegyrist  "  He  knew  Latin  and  French  well,  was  not  ig- 
norant of  Greek,  Italian,  and  Spanish,  and  was  not  without  a 
competent  knowledge  of  logic,  of  physic,  and  of  music.  A 
boy  of  such  genius  and  expectation  was  a  prodigy  in  human 
affairs.  I  do  not  speak  with  rhetorical  exaggeration,  but 
rather  speak  under  the  truth."  In  the  conversation  of  Car- 
dan with  the  king,  in  Latin,  which  he  spoke  readily  and  ele- 
gantly, Edward  put  some  astronomical  questions,  which  Car- 
dan evaded  instead  of  confessing  his  ignorance ;  a  circum- 
stance which  so  acute  a  man  was  hardly  likely  to  have 
invented  to  his  own  disparagement. 

On  the  1st  of  March,  1553,  Northumberland  assembled  a 

*  Edw.  6.  Diary,  2d  April.    The  diary  ends  in  November, 
t  Cardan,  de  Genituris,  quoted  in  Burner's  Collections. 


1553.  KING'S  HEALTH  DECLINES.  231 

parliament,  after  preparations  which  indicate  the  importance 
to  which  the  house  of  commons  had  arisen,  from  the  share 
which  they  had  taken  in  the  revolutions  of  church  and  state, 
in  an  age  of  conflicting  titles  and  disputed  successions.  A 
circular  letter  was  sent  to  the  sheriffs,  commanding  them 
"  to  give  notice  to  the  freeholders,  citizens,  and  burgesses, 
within  their  county,  to  nominate  men  of  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience," and  "  declaring  it  to  be  the  king's  pleasure,  that 
whenever  the  privy-council  shall  recommend  men  of  learning 
and  wisdom,  their  directions  be  followed."*  Fifteen  knights 
were  accordingly  recommended,  by  name,  to  the  sheriffs  of 
Huntingdon],  Suffolk,  Bedford,  Surrey,  Cambridge,  Bucks, 
Oxford,  and  Northampton.  "These,"  says  Strype,  "were 
such  as  belonged  to  the  court,  and  were  in  places  of  trust 
about  the  king."  Such  recommendations  from  the  crown 
were  continued  occasionally  for  more  than  a  century  longer ; 
but  it  must  be  owned  that  the  exercise  of  influence  at  this 
time  was  neither  immoderate  nor  clandestine. 

In  April,  after  the  prorogation  of  parliament,  Edward  had 
been  carried  to  Greenwich  for  his  health.  He  returned  in  a 
somewhat  amended  state,  and  a  gleam  of  hope  seems  to  have 
cheered  the  public;  but  Northumberland  did  not  relax  his 
measures  for  aggrandizing  his  own  family,  and  for  securing  a 
Protestant  successor.  If  Henry  VII.  be  considered  as  the 
stock  of  a  new  dynasty,  it  is  clear  that  on  mere  principles  of 
hereditary  right,  the  crown  would  descend,  first,  to  the  issue 
of  Henry  VTII. ;  secondly,  to  those  of  Margaret  Tudor,  queen 
of  Scots ;  thirdly,  to  those  of  Mary  Tudor,  queen  of  France. 
The  title  of  Edward  was  on  all  principles  equally  undisputed ; 
but  Mary  and  Elizabeth  might  be  considered  as  excluded  by 
the  sentence  of  nullity,  which  had  been  pronounced  in  the 
case  of  Catharine  and  in  that  of  Anne  Boleyn,  both  which 
sentences  had  been  confirmed  in  parliament  They  had  been 
expressly  pronounced  to  be  illegitimate  children.  Their 
hereditary  right  of  succession  seemed  thus  to  be  taken  away, 
and  their  pretensions  rested  solely  on  the  conditional  settle- 
ment of  the  crown  on  them,  made  by  their  father's  will,  in 
pursuance  of  authority  granted  to  him  by  act  of  parliament. 
After  Elizabeth,  Henry  had  placed  the  descendants  of  Mary, 
queen  of  France,  passing  by  the  progeny  of  his  eldest  sister 
Margaret.  Mary  of  France,  by  her  second  marriage  with 
Charles  Brandon,  duke  of  Suffolk,  had  two  daughters, — lady 
Frances,  who  wedded  Henry  Grey,  marquis  of  Dorset,  created 
duke  of  Suffolk ;  and  lady  Elinor,  who  espoused  Henry  Clif- 

*  Strype,  Ecclesiastic.  Mem.  A.  D.  1552. 


232  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1553. 

ford,  earl  of  Cumberland.  Henry  afterwards  settled  the  crown 
by  his  will  on  the  heirs  of  these  two  ladies  successively, 
passing  over  his  nieces  themselves  in  silence.  Northumber- 
land obtained  the  hand  of  lady  Jane  Grey,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  Grey  duke  of  Suffolk,  by  lady  Frances  Brandon,  for  lord 
Guilford  Dudley,  the  admiral's  son.  The  marriage  was  sol- 
emnized in  May,  1553,  and  the  fatal  right  of  succession 
claimed  by  the  house  of  Suffolk  devolved  on  the  excellent 
and  unfortunate  lady  Jane. 

It  was  easy  to  practise  on  the  religious  sensibility  of  young 
Edward,  whose  heart  was  now  softened  by  the  progress  of  in- 
firmity and  the  approach  of  death.  It  was  scarcely  necessary 
for  Northumberland  to  remind  him,  gently  and  seasonably, 
that  it  was  his  duty  not  to  confine  his  exertions  for  the  inter- 
ests of  religion  to  the  short  and  uncertain  period  of  his  own 
life ;  that  he  was  bound  to  provide  for  the  security  of  the 
Protestant  cause  after  he  himself  should  be  no  more ;  and 
that  without  the  most  energetic  measures  for  that  purpose,  he 
must  leave  the  reformers  of  the  church  and  the  faithful 
servants  of  the  crown  exposed  to  the  revenge  of  those  whom 
they  had  incensed  by  their  loyalty  and  their  religion.  The 
zeal  and  rigor  of  Mary  were  well  known,  and  their  tremen- 
dous consequences  could  be  prevented  only  by  her  exclusion. 
The  princess  Elizabeth,  who  had  only  a  secondary  claim,  de- 
pendent on  the  death  of  her  elder  sister,  had  been  declared 
illegitimate  by  parliament,  and  the  will  under  which  she  must 
claim  would  be  in  effect  deprived  of  all  authority  by  the  ne- 
cessary exclusion  of  Mary.  Mary  queen  of  Scots,  the  grand- 
daughter of  Margaret  Tudor,  was  educated  a  Catholic,  and 
had  espoused  the  dauphin.  She  was  necessarily  the  irrecon- 
cilable enemy  of  the  pure  and  reformed  church,  which  Ed- 
ward had  been  the  providential  instrument  of  establishing  in 
England.  If  the  will  of  Henry  VIII.  was  valid,  why  should 
not  Edward,  hi  whose  hands  the  royal  prerogatives  were  as 
full  and  entire  as  in  those  of  his  father,  supersede  by  a  new 
will  the  arrangements  of  the  former,  and  settle  the  crown  in 
such  a  manner  that  it  might  continue  to  be  the  bulwark  of  the 
Protestant  faith  1  Only  to  the  house  of  Suffolk  it  was  possible 
to  look  for  the  maintenance  of  the  reformation.  Northumber- 
land could  not  fail  to  remind  the  young  king  of  the  excellent 
qualities  of  his  playmate  and  the  companion  of  his  studies, 
lady  Jane  Grey. 

The  religion  of  Elizabeth,  a  princess  of  the  age  of  twenty, 
might  not  always  prove  unshaken  amidst  the  importunities, 
flatteries,  promises,  and  perhaps  insinuations  of  danger,  which 
might  be  directed  against  her.  She  would  be  left  an  uncon- 


1553.  EDWARD    APPOINTS   HIS    SUCCESSOR.  233 

nected  and  defenceless  female,  without  those  trustworthy  ad- 
visers who  are  engaged  by  personal  attachment  as  well  as 
public  duty  to  support  the  throne.  On  the  other  hand,  was 
the  powerful  house  of  Suffolk,  with  its  experienced  states- 
men and  veteran  commanders,  already  in  possession  of  the 
whole  authority  and  force  of  the  realm:  in  their  hands  the  se- 
curities of  the  Protestant  religion  would  be  entire,  perfect, 
ready  for  instantaneous  action.  In  those  of  all  other  claimants 
there  was  wanting  either  the  will  or  the  strength  to  protect 
the  reformed  faith.  Northumberland  might  safely  repeat  his 
appeal  to  Edward's  reliance  on  lady  Jane  Grey's  steady  ad- 
herence to  her  religion,  arising  from  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  her  sincere  piety,  her  undisturbed  reason,  and  her  firm 
though  gentle  disposition. 

By  these  and  the  like  reasons  of  policy,  or  topics  of  persua- 
sion, was  Edward  induced  to  make  a  new  testamentary  dis- 
posal of  the  crown. 

On  the  llth  of  June,  1553,  Montague,  chief  justice  of  the 
common  pleas,  and  two  judges  of  that  court,  were  commanded 
to  attend  his  majesty  at  Greenwich,  and  were  there  ordered 
by  him  to  reduce  his  notes  of  an  intended  new  settlement  of 
the  crown  to  the  form  of  letters  patent.  He  said,  "  that  he 
had  considered  the  inconveniences  of  the  measure,  but  thought 
them  outweighed  by  the  consideration  that  if  he  should  de- 
cease without  an  heir  of  his  body,  the  realm  and  succession 
must  go  to  the  lady  Mary,  who  might  marry  a  stranger  born, 
whereby  the  laws  might  be  changed,  and  the  proceedings  in 
religion  totally  altered.  Wherefore  he  directed  them  to  draw 
up  a  settlement  of  the  crown  upon  the  lady  Jane,  the  heiress 
of  the  house  of  Suffolk."  The  judges  desired  time  to  con- 
sider this  alarming  proposal.  On  the  12th,  they  were  brought 
before  the  privy-council,  from  which  Northumberland  was  ab- 
sent. They  represented  the  danger  of  incurring  the  pains  of 
treason,  to  which  they,  and  indeed  all  the  lords,  would  be  lia- 
ble, by  an  attempt  to  set  aside  in  this  manner  a  settlement 
made  under  the  authority  of  parliament.  Northumberland 
rushed  into  the  council  trembling  with  anger,  and  in  a  tone 
of  fury,  among  other  tokens  of  rage,  called  Montague  a  trai- 
tor, offering  to  fight  in  his  shirt  any  man  in  this  cause.  On 
the  14th  they  were  once  more  summoned  to  attend  the  coun- 
cil, where  the  king,  "  with  sharp  words  and  an  angry  counte- 
nance," reproved  them  for  their  contumacy.  Montague  repre- 
sented that  the  instrument,  if  made,  would  be  without  effect, 
because  the  succession  could  not  be  altered  without  the  au- 
thority of  parliament  which  had  established  it  To  which  the 
king  answered,  "  We  mind  to  have  a  parliament  shortly :  we 
U2 


234  HISTORY    OP   ENGLAND.  1553. 

will  do  it,  and  afterwards  ratify  it  by  parliament."*  The  judges 
yielded  after  this  promise. 

Fifteen  lords  of  the  council,  with  nine  judges,  and  other 
civil  officers,  subscribed  a  paper,  promising  to  maintain  the 
limitation  of  the  succession  as  contained  in  his  majesty's  notes, 
which  were  delivered  to  the  judges  to  clothe  them  with  legal 
formality.  Cranrner  is  at  the  head  of  the  first,  though,  as  he 
afterwards  protested,  unwillingly,  and  without  being  allowed 
to  communicate  with  the  king  in  private.  Sir  W.  Cecil  also 
denied  that  he  signed  it  in  any  other  character  than  as  a  wit- 
ness. But  the  denial  seems  to  have  been  postponed  till  it  was 
no  longer  safe  to  withhold  itf 

The  most  inexplicable  circumstance  in  this  transaction  is, 
that,  after  so  much  care  to  influence  the  elections,  a  parlia- 
ment should  not  have  been  called  to  perform  the  task  of  ex- 
cluding a  popish  successor.  At  a  time  when  all  communions 
professed  and  practised  intolerance,  the  exclusion  of  a  succes- 
sor of  a  hostile  persuasion,  believed  to  be  of  a  persecuting 
temper,  and  likely  to  be  under  the  influence  of  the  Austrian 
princes,  who  already  gave  frightful  samples  of  their  disposi- 
tion towards  heretics,  had  such  an  exclusion  been  accomplish- 
ed by  the  king  in  parliament,  could  only  have  been  regarded 
as  an  act  of  indispensable  self-defence.  During  the  session 
of  parliament,  which  closed  on  the  30th  of  March,  the  dan- 
ger of  the  king  was  not  thought  so  urgent  as  to  require  im- 
mediate precautions.  In  May!  there  was  an  apparent  amend- 
ment in  his  health.  A  sudden  disappearance  of  favorable 
symptoms  compelled  Northumberland  to  recur  to  measures  of 
an  illegal  and  violent  description,  which  he  might  still  hope 
that  Fxlward  would  live  long  enough  to  legalize  in  parlia- 
ment. Writs  for  a  convocation  of  that  assembly  in  Septem- 
ber were  issued  about  the  time  of  the  conferences  with  the 
judges.^ 

Henry  II.  took  early  measures  to  sound  the  court  of  Eng- 
land, the  dispositions  of  which  were  of  great  importance  to 
him  in  his  differences  with  Charles  V.  Noailles  his  ambassa- 
dor, who  arrived  in  London  early  in  May,  represented  the  ru- 
mors of  recovery,  as  spread  by  Northumberland  to  gain  time 
for  his  preparations.  He  considered  a  promise  to  present  him 

*  Sir  Edward  Montague's  narrative,  in  Fuller's  Church  History,  book 
viii.  in  the  beginning. 

t  The  documents  are  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  Strype's  Cranmer,  No. 
104;  and  in  Burners  Collection  of  Records  to  book  iv.  No.  10. 

J  Northumberland  to  Cecil,  6th  May,  1553;  and  princess  Mary  to  the 
king,  ICtli  May,  published  by  Strype. 

§  Strypo'K  Mt-iii.  of  Kdw.  C.  book  ii.  rh.  xxii. 


1553.  KING'S  ILLNESS  CONTINUES.  235 

speedily  to  the  king  as  a  feint  to  cover  other  designs,  and 
treated  a  festival,  given  by  the  minister  professedly  for  the 
king's  recovery,  as  an  artifice  of  the  same  sort.  He  had  been 
informed  that  the  opinion  of  the  physicians  was,  that  Ed- 
ward's complaint  was  pulmonary,  and  had  symptoms  of  an  ad- 
vanced stage  of  consumption.*  But  the  ambassador  five  days 
afterwards  tells  his  master  that  Edward  was  "  thought  out  of 
danger."  Some  part  certainly  of  the  ministerial  language, 
which  he  described  as  proceeding  from  a  deep  plot,  arose  only 
from  the  natural  anxiety  of  most  ministers  to  speak,  and  some- 
times to  think,  as  favorably  as  they  can  of  their  master's 
health.  The  French  ambassador  had  good  reason  to  be  watch- 
ful ;  for  on  the  23d  of  June,  Henry  II.  had  been  informed  that 
measures  were  on  foot  at  Brussels  to  revive  the  old  treaty  of 
marriage  with  Mary.f 

The  deathbed  devotions  of  Edward  bear  testimony  to  his 
love  of  his  people,  and  of  his  fervid  zeal  against  what  he 
conscientiously  believed  to  be  corruptions  of  true  religion. 
"  O  Lord,  save  thy  chosen  people  of  England.  Defend  this 
realm  from  papistry,  and  maintain  thy  true  religion."  What- 
ever were  the  motives  of  others  in  the  irregular  measures 
which  had  been  adopted,  the  prayer  of  Edward  discloses  the 
purity  of  his  spirit,  and  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  he  consented 
to  deviate  from  law,  only  because  the  deviation  seemed  to 
him  to  be  warranted  by  the  necessity  of  defending  religion. 
He  now  sunk  rapidly.  On  the  day  before  his  demise,  the 
council  made  an  attempt  to  lure  the  princess  Mary  into  their 
hands,  by  desiring  her,  in  the  name  of  her  brother,  to  repair 
to  London.  After  she  had  made  some  progress  in  her  journey, 
she  received  from  lord  Arundel  private  warning  at  Hunsdon, 
which  induced  her  to  shun  the  snare,  and  to  resort  to  her  resi- 
dence in  Norfolk.  Had  Northumberland  acted  with  more  ra- 
pidity and  foresight,  he  might  have  secured  Mary  and  Eliza- 
beth, by  obtaining  a  few  days  sooner  the  king's  commands, 
that  they  should  come  to  attend  the  sick-bed  of  a  brother.  On 
his  procrastination,  the  immediately  following  events  hinged. 
Perhaps,  however,  he  thought  that  Mary  would  be  more  dan- 
gerous as  a  prisoner  in  England  than  as  an  exile  at  Brussels ; 
and  he,  perhaps,  connived  at  her  journey  towards  the  coast, 

*  "  Les  iii'-rlt'-rins  ont  pen  d'esperance,  elant  en  doute  qu'il  ne  crache  eon 
poulmon."  Noailles,  13  Mai,  155J.  Embassade,  ii.  25. 

t  Henry  II.  a  Noailles,  St.  Germ.,  23d  June.  The  interpretation  of  Ver- 
tot,  the  editor,  is  adopted  in  the  text;  but  the  words  "L'Empereur  s'etoit 
resolu  d'entreprendre  la  poursuite  de  la  practicqtie  ja  encommencee  avec 
Madame  Marie,"  may  bethought  more  probaltly  to  refer  to  more  recent  in- 
tercourse. Emb.  ii.  45. 


236  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND  1553. 

that  she  might  he  driven  to  that  unpopular  asylum.  On  the 
6th  of  July,  "  towards  nighte,"  this  amiable  and  promising 
boy  breathed  his  last  in  his  palace  at  Greenwich.  "  His  dis- 
ease," says  the  privy-council,  "  whereof  he  died,  was  of  the 
putrefaction  of  the  lungs;  being  utterly  incurable  of  this 
evil.1'*  His  position  in  English  history,  between  a  tyrant  and 
a  bigot,  adds  somewhat  to  the  grace  of  his  innocent  and  attrac- 
tive character,  which  borrows  also  an  additional  charm,  from 
the  mild  lustre  which  surrounds  the  name  of  lady  Jane  Grey, 
the  companion  of  his  infancy,  and  the  object  of  his  dying 
choice  as  a  successor  on  the  throne. 

A  solemn  embassy  from  the  imperial  court  at  Brussels 
arrived  too  late  to  find  Edward  alive,  instructed  to  declare, 
that,  if  the  king  should  die  and  the  crown  should  descend  to 
Mary,  the  emperor  would  approve  her  marrying  an  English- 
man ;  and  of  her  promising  that  there  should  be  no  change  in 
religion,  if  the  people  required  such  an  assurance.  On  the  13th 
of  July  they  openly  threatened  that  Charles  would  not  endure 
such  a  wrong  to  his  kinswoman  as  her  exclusion.  From  this 
moment  Simon  Bernard,  who  conducted  the  imperial  business 
and  left  the  grandeur  of  the  embassy  to  his  noble  colleagues, 
became  the  secret  counsellor  of  Mary,  and  the  soul  of  her 
political  measures.  It  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  his 
ascendant  in  the  royal  closet  that  Noailles  paid  court  to  every 
discontented  party,  nourished  the  hopes  of  French  aid,  sup- 
plied the  needy  and  the  covetous  with  money,  made  wary 
approaches  to  the  members  of  the  royal  family,  whose  name 
might  be  used  by  the  disaffected,  and  very  probably  magnified 
the  success  of  this  policy  to  himself  before  he  represented  it 
in  such  bright  colors  to  his  court.  It  need  not,  however,  be 
imputed  to  diplomatic  contrivance  that  he  calls  the  young 
queen  Jane  "  wise,  virtuous,  and  beautiful,"  for  in  this  lan- 
guage he  agrees  with  all  who  saw  and  heard  her.f 

*  Council  to  Sir  P.  Hobby,  ambassador  to  the  emperor,  8th  July.   Strype'i 
Eccl.Mem.    Ibid. 
t  Noailles,  13th  July,  Emb.  ii.  58. 


1553.  LADY  JANE  GREY.  237 

CHAP.  X. 

LADY   JANE  GREY. 

1553. 

NORTHUMBERLAND  concealed  the  death  of  the  king  for  two 
days.  On  the  8th  of  July,  as  has  already  been  related,  the 
council  apprized  the  ambassadors  of  this  event,  and  commu- 
nicated it  to  the  lord  mayor  and  aldermen  of  London,  that 
they  might  prepare  for  the  coronation  of  lady  Jane.  Mary 
received  this  intelligence  from  her  friends  at  court,  and  on  the 
9th  wrote  a  letter  to  the  privy-council,  expostulating  with 
them  for  their  undutiful  concealment,  solemnly  affirming  her 
right,  and  tendering  an  unreserved  pardon  on  condition  of 
their  causing  her  to  be  immediately  proclaimed.  In  then- 
answer  they  declared  their  unshaken  adherence  to  the  lawful 
title  of  queen  Jane :  both  parties  prepared  to  decide  the  con- 
test by  an  appeal  to  arms.  Mary  fixed  her  residence  at  Fram- 
lingham  Castle  in  Suffolk,  where  the  people,  retaining  an 
indignant  remembrance  of  the  severities  employed  to  suppress 
Ket's  rebellion,  hated  Northumberland ;  and  where  she  might 
easily  receive  assistance  from  the  Low  Countries,  or  make  her 
escape  thither  in  case  of  need. 

It  was  on  the  9th  of  July,  also,  that  Northumberland  and 
Suffolk  communicated  to  lady  Jane  the  tidings  of  Edward's 
death,  and  of  her  own  elevation  to  the  throne.  She  fainted 
at  the  announcement,  apparently  as  much  affected  by  the 
latter  as  by  the  former  of  these  occurrences.  Afterwards, 
describing  the  transaction  in  a  letter  to  Mary,  she  says,  "  As 
soon  as  I  had,  with  infinite  pain  to  my  mind,  understood  these 
things,  how  much  I  remained  beside  myself,  stunned  and 
agitated,  I  leave  to  those  lords  to  testify  who  saw  me  fall  to 
the  ground,  and  who  knew  how  grievously  I  wept."* 

When  she  recovered  her  mind,  she  is  said  to  have  urged 
the  very  simple  and  natural  topics  of  the  preferable  claim  of 
the  princesses,  agreeably  to  the  law  of  the  realm  and  the 
commandments  of  God.  Her  dignified  reserve  probably  pre- 
vented her,  in  the  letter  to  Mary  cited  above,  from  adverting 
to  that  and  to  many  other  parts  of  the  conference  farther  than 
by  a  general  reference  to  eye-witnesses.  They  pressed  her 
with  the  authority  of  the  judges.  She  gave  the  strongest 
proof,  that  a  woman  of  her  piety  could  offer,  of  her  desire  to 
act  conscientiously,  by  imploring  the  guidance  of  Supreme 
Wisdom. 

Polini  Stor.  ecc.  della  Revol.  de  1'Inghilterra,  from  Mr.  Turner,  v.  216. 


238  HISTORY    OF  ENGLAND.  1553. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  the  proclamations  of  Jane 
in  London,  and  of  Mary  at  Norwich,  excited  no  cries  of  ap- 
plause, and  produced  no  outward  marks  of  interest,  in  the 
choice  of  a  sovereign.  The  uncertainty  of  the  event  probably 
smothered  the  zeal  of  both  parties.  The  whole  public  au- 
thority and  ordinary  force  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Protestant 
lords ;  but  Northumberland's  supineness  delayed  the  advance 
of  the  troops  long  enough  to  suffer  the  friends  of  Mary  to 
assemble  in  force :  he  now  felt  the  fatal  effects  of  the  popu- 
larity of  Somerset,  whom  he  had  destroyed.  The  remem- 
brance of  the  popular  protector  divided  the  Protestants;  a 
great  part  of  them  co-operated  with  the  still  powerful  party 
of  Catholics.  The  concealed  followers  of  the  ancient  religion 
threw  off  the  mask ;  the  lukewarm,  the  hesitating,  the  timid, 
stood  aloof.  Scarcely  any  but  those  adherents  to  the  reforma- 
tion, who  were  ready  to  sacrifice  all  for  it,  could  now  be  relied 
on,  if  there  were  an  appearance  of  a  serious  struggle.  Even 
they  must  have  felt  many  painful  misgivings  at  the  prospect 
of  the  triumph  of  the  tyrannical  Northumberland :  never  was 
there  a  more  striking  contrast  than  that  between  the  most 
amiable  of  sovereigns  and  one  of  the  most  odious  of  ministers. 
Though  he  was  now  the  champion  of  the  Protestant  cause, 
the  sincerity  of  his  attachment  to  it  was  much,  and,  as  it 
appeared  afterwards,  not  unjustly  doubted. 

Shelley,  who  was  sent  by  Northumberland  to  the  emperor, 
was  refused  an  audience  by  that  monarch,  who  also  refused  to 
receive  a  letter  in  which  Jane  notified  her  accession. 

On  Sunday,  the  16th  of  June,  bishop  Ridley,  one  of  the 
most  zealous  of  the  Protestant  prelates,  preached  a  sermon  at 
Paul's  Cross  in  support  of  the  title  of  Jane,  with  severe  ani- 
madversions on  the  religion  of  Mary ;  almost  the  only  perilous 
act  of  homage  to  the  unfortunate  Jane  after  she  began  her 
fleeting  reign.  Both  Mary  and  Jane  issued  commands  to  lord- 
lieutenants  and  sheriffs  to  march  with  the  power  of  their 
counties  to  the  aid  of  the  rightful  sovereign.  Northumberland 
was  desirous  of  watching  over  the  capital  and  the  court,  while 
Suffolk  was  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  army  against 
the  followers  of  Mary ;  but  Northumberland  was  persuaded, 
either  treacherously  (according  to  general  opinion)  or  at  least 
fatally,  to  take  the  armed  force  into  his  own  veteran  and  vic- 
torious hands,  and  leave  queen  Jane  and  the  council  to  Suf- 
folk, who  had  no  name  in  war.  On  the  18th  of  July,  the  earls 
of  Oxford,  Bath,  and  Sussex,  with  some  commoners  of  note, 
seceded  from  the  council.  Intelligence  poured  in  from  all 
quarters  of  the  turn  of  the  populace  towards  Mary;  the  farmers 
refused  to  follow  their  lords  to  the  standard ;  in  a  squadron  of 


1553.  LADY  JANE  GREY.  239 

six  ships  of  war  sent  to  Yarmouth  to  intercept  Mary's  expected 
flight  to  Brussels,  the  seamen  mutinied  against  their  officers, 
and  brought  over  the  vessels  to  Mary.*  On  the  19th,  lord 
Arundel,  a  concealed  Catholic,  manifested  the  motives  which 
induced  him  to  advise  Northumberland  to  take  the  field  in 
person  by  deserting  the  council.  The  duke  of  Suffolk  had 
been  persuaded  to  suffer  some  lords  to  leave  the  Tower ;  they 
assembled,  with  other  lords  favorable  to  Mary,  at  Baynard's 
Castle,  the  house  of  the  earl  of  Pembroke,  where,  after  long 
invectives  against  Northumberland,  lord  Arundel  concluded 
with  an  exhortation  to  heal  the  disorders  of  the  kingdom  by 
proclaiming  the  lady  Mary,  who  had  already  declared  to  the 
people  of  Suffolk  that  she  would  disturb  nothing  established 
in  religion.  Pembroke  seconded  this  proposal  with  extreme 
violence.  The  lords,  attended  as  usual  by  the  magistrates  of 
the  city,  rushed  into  the  street  and  proclaimed  Mary :  they 
surprised  the  Tower,  which  Suffolk,  overwhelmed  by  this 
sudden  defection,  abandoned  to  the  prevalent  faction.  He 
caused  the  ceremonial  of  royalty  to  cease,  and  its  ensigns  to 
be  displaced  in  the  apartment  of  his  daughter,  who,  when  she 
was  exhorted  by  him  to  bear  her  fall  with  fortitude,  answered 
him  with  modest  composure, — "  This  is  a  more  welcome  sum- 
mons than  that  which  forced  me  against  my  will  to  an  eleva- 
tion to  which  I  am  not  entitled,  and  for  which  I  am  not  quali- 
fied. In  obedience  to  you,  my  lord,  and  to  my  mother,  I  did 
violence  to  myself:  the  present  is  my  own  act,  and  I  willingly 
resign."  On  the  next  day  she  returned  to  her  retirement  in 
the  monastery  of  Sion.  She  reigned  ten  days,  and  was  called 
"a  twelfth-day  queen,"f  by  some  paltry  buffoon,  who  could  look 
on  the  misfortunes  of  the  good  as  the  subject  of  a  sorry  jest. 
Before  these  decisive  events  in  London,  Northumberland  had 
been  obliged  to  fall  back  from  Newmarket  to  Cambridge,  at 
which  last  town  the  rapid  progress  of  adversity  compelled  him 
to  proclaim  Mary.  This  humiliating  measure  did  not  save  him 
from  being  led  a  prisoner  for  high  treason,  to  the  Tower  of 
London,  lately  his  palace. 

*  This  general  defection  is  described  by  respectable  authorities  as  being 
"  Non  tarn  studio  Marie  quam  odio  Northumbrii  ducis." — Sleidan,  lib.  xxv. 

"Toutes  ces  choses  sont  arrivees  plus  par  la  grande  haine  qu'on  porte  a 
celui  due  que  par  1'amite  qu'on  a  pour  la  dite  reine  Marie." 

Jfoaillu,  20th  July. 

t  "  La  pauvre  reine  de  la  (eve."— Ibid. 


240  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1553. 

CHAP.  XI. 

MARY. 
155&— 1558. 

MARY,  accompanied  by  her  sister  Elizabeth,  who  for  a  mo- 
ment had  a  common  interest  with  her,  and  had  joined  her  at 
the  head  of  2000  horse,  made  her  triumphal  entry  into  Lon- 
don on  the  3d  of  August  The  day  before  she  had  bestowed 
the  great  seal  on  Gardiner,  who  had  atoned  for  his  former 
hostility  to  her  mother's  marriage  by  recent  services  as  well 
as  sufferings,  and  was  still  more  recommended  to  her  by  the 
importance  of  employing  his  abilities  in  her  councils.  The 
first  act  of  Mary's  reign  was  gracious,  and  must  have  been 
grateful  to  her.  On  the  afternoon  of  her  entrance  into  the 
Tower,  she  found  there  several  sufferers  for  her  party,  and 
others  who  at  least  suffered  from  the  same  enemies.  She  had 
the  satisfaction  of  releasing  the  aged  duke  of  Norfolk,  and 
her  kinsman  Edward  Courtenay,  whom  she  soon  after  created 
earl  of  Devonshire.  The  haughty  duchess  of  Somerset  owed 
her  liberty  to  the  generosity  of  a  princess  from  whom  no 
gratitude  was  due  to  her.  The  duke  of  Suffolk  was  commit- 
ted to  the  Tower,  but  enlarged  and  pardoned  in  a  few  days. 
On  the  18th  of  August,  1553,  the  duke  of  Northumberland, 
the  marquis  of  Northampton,  and  the  earl  of  Warwick,  were 
tried  for  high  treason  in  the  court  of  the  lord  steward,  that 
office  being  for  the  time  granted  to  the  duke  of  Norfolk. 
Northumberland  defended  himself  by  alleging  the  authority 
of  the  privy-council ;  a  defence  in  some  degree  equivalent  to 
an  appeal  to  the  statute  of  Henry  VII. ,  which  justifies  obe- 
dience to  one  who  is  an  actual,  though  not  a  rightful,  possessor 
of  supreme  power :  though  it  seems  doubtful  whether  an  au- 
thority owned  in  the  capital  for  ten  days  be  not  too  transient 
and  partial  to  deserve  the  name  of  actual  possession.  On  the 
19th  of  August  Sir  John  Gates,  Sir  Henry  Gates,  Sir  Andrew 
Dudley,  and  Sir  Thomas  Palmer,  were  tried  for  the  same 
offence  by  a  jury :  all  the  culprits  were  convicted.  On  the 
22d  of  August  Northumberland,  with  Sir  John  Gates,  and 
Sir  Thomas  Palmer,  were  executed.  Northumberland  owned 
on  the  scaffold  that  he  had  never  ceased  to  be  a  Roman 
Catholic  ;  a  confession  not  attended  with  those  marks  of  peni- 
tence which  might  render  it  respectable ;  it  served  only  to 
strip  his  conduct  of  any  palliation  which  the  mixture  of  a  mo- 
tive, in  its  general  nature  commendable,  might  have  in  some 
degree  afforded. 


1553.  MARY.  241 

All  the  deprived  Catholic  bishops,  Gardiner,  Bonner,  Tun- 
stall,  Day,  and  Heath,  were  restored ;  the  deprivation  being 
pronounced  to  be  uncanonical.  The  Protestant  bishops,  in  the 
eyes  of  their  Roman  Catholic  judges,  had  incurred  depriva- 
tion by  marriage,  or  more  extreme  penalties  by  preaching 
heresy.  The  gentle  and  kind  but  timid  and  pliant  Cranmer 
was  committed  to  the  Tower  on  the  2d  of  September,  and  on 
the  13th  he  was  followed  by  Latimer,  a  man  in  all  respects 
but  religion  directly  opposite  to  the  primate ; — brave,  sincere, 
honest,  inflexible,  not  distinguished  as  a  writer  or  a  scholar, 
but  exercising  his  power  over  men's  minds  by  a  fervid  elo- 
quence flowing  from  the  deep  conviction  which  animated  his 
plain,  pithy,  and  free-spoken  sermons.  As  he  passed  through 
Smithfield  on  his  road  to  the  Tower,  he  said,  "  Smithfield  has 
long  groaned  for  me."*  The  liberty  of  speech,  for  which  he 
resigned  his  bishopric  under  Henry  VIII.,  was  now  treated  by 
the  council  as  "  insolence,"  and  alleged  in  their  books  to  be 
the  ground  of  his  committal. 

Charles  V.,  who  continued  his  instructions  to  Mary  through 
Renard,  when  he  had  heard  of  the  revolution  in  her  favor, 
advised  her  to  marry ;  and  added,  that  if  she  consulted  him 
on  the  choice,  he  should  freely  give  his  advice.  It  was  by 
the  counsel  of  his  ministers  in  London  that  the  funeral  of 
Edward  was  performed  by  Cranmer  according  to  the  English 
ritual.  He  recommended,  in  the  commonplaces  of  state- 
paper  phraseology,  a  judicious  selection  of  examples  both  of 
justice  and  mercy :  the  merciful  part  of  his  advice  was  not, 
however,  that  on  which  he  most  relied  ;  for  Renard  strongly 
urged  the  execution  of  Jane,  and,  after  a  month's  considera- 
tion, Charles  earnestly  repeated  his  advice  "  to  punish  without 
mercy  all  those  who  had  attempted  to  rob  her  of  the  crown."  If 
her  scruples  in  the  case  of  the  involuntary  criminal  of  seven- 
teen should  prevail,  he  at  least  counselled  the  most  rigorous 
imprisonment^  The  king  of  France  earnestly  advised  the 
queen  to  wait  for  the  result  of  the  parliament  before  she  con- 
tracted irrevocable  engagements,  "  knowing  the  humors  of 
her  people,  easily  excited,  and  hard  to  be  reconciled  to  a  for- 
eign master."! 

The  advice  of  the  emperor  on  ecclesiastical  policy  was 
prudent ;  but  the  minister  Gardiner,  and  Paget,  the  old  ser- 
vants of  Henry  VIII.,  who  well  rememberecl  the  ease  and 

*For. 

tGriffet,  Eclaire.,  56.  "  garder  a  vue,"  a  phrase  for  which  the  humanity 
of  the  English  language  has  no  equivalent. 
J  Enibass.  de  Noaille?,  ii.  193. 

VOL.  II.  V 


242  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1553. 

safety  which  the  ready  concurrence  of  slavish  parliaments  had 
given  to  that  monarch's  innovations,  must  have  felt  the  neces- 
sity of  the  same  apparently  national  sanction  after  the  long 
period  since  the  people  had  been  separated  from  the  commu- 
nity of  Rome,  and  the  not  inconsiderable  time  which  they 
had  passed  under  a  Protestant  church.  One  of  Mary's  ear- 
liest measures  was  a  proclamation  on  the  18th  of  August,  de- 
claring that  "  she  could  not  hide  her  religion,  but  that  she 
mindeth  not  to  compel  any  of  her  said  subjects  thereunto  until 
such  time  as  farther  order  by  common  consent  shall  be  taken 
therein;"*  a  declaration  which  probably  conveys  the  true 
sense  of  the  emperor's  advice,  and  justifies  the  expectations 
expressed  by  the  upright  Latimer,  however  it  might  lull  the 
alarms  of  the  credulous  multitude.  The  parliament  assembled 
on  the  5th  of  October,  1553 ;  and,  in  a  session  of  nineteen 
days,  passed  only  three  acts :  one  for  the  abolition  of  all  the 
treasons  and  felonies  of  Henry  VIII. ;  one  for  the  restoration 
in  blood  of  Gertrude  marchioness  of  Exeter ;  and  another  for 
the  like  restitution  of  that  lady's  son,  Edward  Courtenay,  now 
created  earl  of  Devonshire.  It  seemed  becoming  to  separate 
these  acts  of  personal  and  public  grace  from  all  other  matter : 
the  royal  assent  was  immediately  given  to  them ;  a  proceed- 
ing which,  according  to  the  practice  of  that  age,  terminated 
the  session  of  sixteen  days.  The  second  session  of  the  same 
parliament  was  assembled  on  the  24th  of  October,  after  a 
prorogation  of  three  days,  and  it  continued  until  a  dissolution 
of  parliament  on  the  6th  day  of  December,  after  passing 
several  momentous  and  memorable  laws.  The  object  of  the 
firstf  was  to  declare  the  validity  of  Henry's  first  marriage,  to 
pronounce  his  divorce  to  be  void,  and  to  repeal  those  statutes 
made  in  affirmance  of  it  which  had  declared  Mary  to  be  ille- 
gitimate. All  titles  under  the  will  of  Henry  were  thus  for- 
feited ;  and,  not  content  with  the  necessary  implication,  by 
whicli  the  whole  statute  set  aside  Elizabeth,  the  parliament 
excluded  her  as  much  as  if  she  had  been  named,  by  expressly 
confining  the  abrogation  of  illegitimacy  to  Mary.  The  road 
to  Rome  was  by  this  act  thrown  open :  and  it  required  little 
discernment  to  foresee  that  a  reconciliation  with  the  ancient 
church  was  fast  approaching. 

The  progress  of  the  revolution,  however,  was  in  some  de- 
gree cautious ;  for,  though  the  acts  of  Edward  VI.  respecting 
the  sacraments,  the  election  of  bishops,  the  marriages  of 
priests,  the  mass  and  images,  the  ordering  of  ministers,  the 
uniformity  of  public  worship,  the  keeping  of  fasts  and  holi- 

*  Collier,  ii.  App.  No.  6a  1 1  Mary,  stat.  2.  c.  1. 


1553.  CORONATION    OF   MARY.  243 

days,  and  the  legitimation  of  the  children  of  priests,  were  re- 
pealed, yet  it  was  at  the  same  time  provided,  "  that  the  divine 
service  used  in  England  in  the  last  year  of  Henry  VIIL,  and 
no  other,  shall  be  used."  The  outward  innovations  were, 
therefore,  thus  far  founded  on  the  apparent  principle  of  re- 
storing the  worship  and  discipline  established  by  Henry.  The 
clauses  respecting  the  marriage  and  divorce,  though  Gardi- 
ner had  framed  them  with  such  dexterity  as  to  elude  the 
mention  of  the  still  alarming  name  of  pope,  could  only  be  jus- 
tified by  papal  authority  ;  they  led  by  necessary  consequence 
to  a  recognition  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  supreme  pontiff, 
and  with  it  the  whole  of  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church. 

The  pause  which  preceded  the  perfect  reunion  with  the 
church  of  Rome  was  occupied  by  events  of  considerable  im- 
portance, both  in  themselves  and  as  they  contributed  towards 
that  sole  object  of  the  queen's  policy.  Zealous  Catholics 
outran  the  course  of  the  government,  and  the  parochial  clergy 
restored  the  altars  and  resumed  their  Latin  prayers  before 
they  were  authorized  tot  make  these  changes ;  but,  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  queen,*  Romanists  more  discerning, 
who  saw  the  predilection  of  the  people  for  the  cause  of  the 
innovators,  blamed  their  party  for  setting  the  example  of  these 
tumultuary  reformations,  from  which  the  ancient  religion  had 
more  to  fear  than  to  hope. 

On  the  last  day  of  September,  Mary  was  crowned  at  West- 
minster with  the  accustomed  solemnity  and  splendor,  of  which 
the  description  sometimes  renders  our  picturesque  chroniclers 
prolix.  In  the  carriage  which  immediately  followed  her  were 
seated  her  sister  Elizabeth  and  the  princess  Anne  of  Cleves ; 
two  ladies  singularly  unlike  in  their  lot  and  unequal  in  their 
fame.  The  latter  princess,  either  above  or  below  ambition, 
escaped  from  the  doom  of  heresy,  and  enjoyed,  for  the  re- 
mainder of  her  days,  the  gratification  of  an  ample  income, 
and  the  safety  of  a  private  condition.  The  imperial  ambas- 
sadors reported  to  Charlesf  that  they  overheard  Elizabeth, 
who  carried  the  crown,  whisper  to  M.  de  Noailles  that  it  was 
very  heavy,  and  she  was  tired  of  carrying  it ;  to  which  he 
replied,  that  it  would  be  lighter  on  her  head ; — an  anecdote 
doubtful  on  several  accounts,  but  especially  because  Noailleg 
does  not  mention  it  in  his  correspondence  with  his  court. 
Elizabeth,  who  had  just  completed  her  twentieth  year,  was 

*  Band,  de  Schism.  Angl..  in  Collier,  ii.  346. 

t  Griffet,  60.  Noailles'  account  of  the  coronation  (Emb.  ii.  196.).  is  con- 
fined to  the  ceremonial,  of  which  seventy  ladies,  married  and  unmarried, 
riding  on  horses  covered  with  crimson  velvet,  formed  a  remarkable  part. 


244  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1553. 

about  to  close  the  studious  quiet  of  her  early  life,  that  she 
might  enter  on  those  sharp  trials  of  adverse  fortune  which 
were  to  exercise  her  vigorous  faculties  and  to  strengthen  her 
commanding  genius;  thus  fitting  her  for  that  stormy  and 
glorious  reign  which,  if  it  had  some  stain  of  Tudor  vices,  yet, 
besides  the  prudence  of  her  grandfather  and  the  energy  of 
her  father,  displayed  many  great  and  some  good  qualities,  of 
which  the  rudest  outline  cannot  be  traced  in  the  character  of 
these  bad  princes. 

Her  position  was  at  this  moment  difficult.  The  Protest- 
ants already  began  to  turn  their  eyes  with  trembling  hope  to 
the  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn.  From  her  alone,  after  the  de- 
feat of  Northumberland,  the  Catholics  had  to  dread  an  adverse 
administration.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  both  parties  were 
prone  to  spread  and  to  believe  every  rumor,  ascribing  to  her 
projects  of  aggrandizement  which,  in  her  case,  seemed  to 
offer  the  sole  chance  of  safety.  The  main  object  of  the  Catho- 
lic party  was  to  secure  their  church  by  obtaining  a  suitable 
marriage  for  Mary.  Some  spoke  of  cardinal  Pole ;  but  his 
age  of  fifty-three  was  an  insurmountable  objection.  The 
youth  and  beauty  of  her  cousin,  Edward  Courtenay,  earl  of 
Devonshire,  perhaps  pleased  for  a  moment  the  stern  and 
gloomy  queen.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  betrayed  any  par- 
tiality for  Elizabeth  till  Mary  openly  declared  against  him  ; 
though  Burnet  tells  us  that  the  queen  "  was  thought  to  have 
some  inclination  to  marry  him,  had  he  not  shown  an  inclina- 
tion for  Elizabeth,  who  had  much  the  better  share  of  the 
beauty  that  was  between  them."  She  objected  to  some  of  his 
irregularities,  but  as  there  was  little  scope  for  them  in  his 
long  imprisonment,  it  is  very  improbable  that  she  should  have 
considered  them  as  without  excuse.  It  may  be  believed  that 
he  might  have  contracted  in  the  Tower  connexions,  propen- 
sities, and  manners  unsuitable  to  his  station.  True  English- 
men of  both  religions  must  have  preferred  a  native  to  a  foreign 
husband,  especially  if  the  latter  was  formidable  by  his 
strength,  and  tyrannical  in  his  temper  and  policy ;  but  there 
was  little  time  for  debate.  On  the  24th  of  July,  as  soon  as 
Charles  had  learnt  the  revolution  in  his  cousin's  favor,  he  ad- 
vised her  to  marry,  and  "said  he  was  ready  to  give  his  advice 
on  the  choice  if  she  desired  it.  On  the  29th  of  July  she 
referred  herself  entirely  to  his  judgment.  Her  ministers 
proposed  his  nephew,  the  archduke,  as  one  who  would  be  ac- 
ceptable in  England,  from  the  small  power  and  remote  do- 
minions of  which  he  was  the  heir.  He  dissuaded  her  from 
that  selection.  She  yielded,  but,  shortly  after,  complained  of 
the  delay  of  Charles's  decision.  On  the  20th  of  September 


1553.  NEGOTIATIONS    FOR    MARRIAGE.  245 

lie  answered,  that  "  seeing  Courtenay  was  not  agreeable  to 
her,  and  that  Pole  would  not  quit  his  ecclesiastical  character, 
he  thought  with  her  that  a  powerful  prince  would  suit  her 
better  than  a  private  subject  of  Great  Britain ;  that  if  his 
own  age  and  health  had  not  unfitted  him  for  marriage,  he 
should  have  the  greatest  satisfaction  in  wedding  her;  but 
that,  as  he  could  not  propose  himself,  he  had  nothing  more 
dear  to  offer  to  his  beloved  kinswoman  than  his  son  Don 
Philip."  The  emperor  begged  that  the  queen  should  not 
communicate  this  proposition  to  any  of  her  English  ministers. 
However  singular  it  may  be,  there  appears  to  be  a  species  of 
coyness  in  Mary's  advances,  and  of  pedantic  chivalry  in 
Charles's  replies,  which  throw  over  their  correspondence  a 
ludicrous  semblance  of  superannuated  gallantry.  The  empe- 
ror's declaration,  that  he  agreed  with  Mary  in  thinking  a 
powerful  prince  a  more  suitable  husband  for  her  than  a  pri- 
vate subject,  sufficiently  indicated  a  previous  intimation  from 
her  of  her  inclination  towards  a  Spanish  match ;  which  she 
must  have  intelligently  conveyed  to  Charles  hi  the  first  month 
of  her  reign. 

Gardiner's  former  life,  and  Uis  present  station,  were  pecu- 
liar motives  for  his  not  wishing  success  to  the  Spanish  match, 
even  if  he  must  be  supposed  to  be  void  of  the  generous  pre- 
judices which  excite  the  lovers  of  their  country  against  a 
foreign  ruler.  Philip  was  already  known  to  be  no  supine,  no 
indulgent  master.  It  was  well  remembered  by  the  most  con- 
stant Catholics  that  the  bishop  of  Winchester  had  been  the 
most  active  agent  in  obtaining  the  divorce  between  Henry 
and  Catharine,  which  he  now  persuaded  the  parliament  to 
condemn  in  the  severest  terms  of  reprobation.  It  is  likely 
that  Gardiner  did  not  very  ardently  desire  a  more  rapid  and 
complete  reconciliation  with  Rome  than  was  absolutely  ex- 
acted by  the  scruples  of  Mary's  conscience;  but  rather  wished 
to  moderate  a  victory  in  which  he  might  apprehend  that  he 
would  be  entirely  eclipsed  by  the  royal  descent,  the  refined 
literature,  and  the  stainless  life,  of  Pole. 

The  Spanish  match  was  so  decisive  an  advance  towards 
Rome,  that  the  same  cautious  policy  was  thought  necessary 
in  conducting  it  which  is  discoverable  in  the  rest  of  the  mea- 
sures of  Gardiner's  administration.  Charles  V.  apprehended 
the  indiscretion  of  Pole,  whose  generous  nature  as  well  as 
sincere  religion  made  him  so  impatient  of  artifice  as  to  be 
averse  even  from  that  management  and  address  which  he  con- 
sidered as  arts  of  worldly  policy  peculiarly  unsuited  to  the 
re-establishment  of  the  orthodox  faith.  Pole  distrusted  such 
a  veteran  politician  as  the  emperor,  whom  he  justlv  consider- 
V2 


246  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  155J 

ed  as  too  habitually  employed  in  projects  of  aggrandizement 
be  capable  of  fixing  his  mind  mainly  and  constantly  on 
interests  of  religion,  however  he  might  coldly  assent  to  hi 
doctrines. 

A  secret  communication  between  Mary  and  the  papal  coui 
began  very  early.  Commendone,  a  Roman  courtier,  was 
into  England  by  the  legate  at  Brussels.  He  landed  secretly, 
and,  having  hired  servants  at  Newport  unacquainted  with  hi 
true  name,  arrived  safely  in  London.  There,  however,  " 
was  perplexed  how  to  proceed,  till  by  accident  he  met 
one  of  the  queen's  servants,  who  had  fled  beyond  sea  in 
former  reign,  where  he  was  known  to  Commendone.  Lee  in- 
troduced him  to  a  secret  audience  of  the  queen,  who  owned 
her  design  of  restoring  religion,  but  added,  that  prudence  and 
secrecy  were  necessary  to  prevent  her  intention  from  being 
obstructed.  She  intrusted  him  with  letters  of  this  tenor  for 
the  pope  and  Pole ;  and  after  having,  on  the  22d  of  August, 
seen  the  execution  of  Northumberland,  an  earnest  of  the  firm- 
ness of  her  purpose,  he  repaired  with  these  acceptable  tidings 
to  the  court  of  Rome.* 

The  pope,  without  delay,  nominated  Pole  to  be  legate  to 
Mary.  The  pious  cardinal  eagerly  hastened  to  perform  this 
apostolic  duty  to  his  royal  kinswoman,  to  his  deluded  country, 
and  to  the  memory  of  his  martyred  parents.  But  Charles  re- 
quired the  mission  to  be  delayed  :  he  urged  the  necessity  of 
adopting  every  measure  of  precaution  before  the  papal  author- 
ity should  appear  in  the  person  of  a  legate.  He  distrusted  the 
English  spirit  of  Pole,  who  might,  on  his  return  to  his  coun- 
try, catch  the  disinclination  of  his  countrymen  to  a  foreign 
master,  f  He  could  not,  after  his  correspondence  with  the 
queen,  have  been  actuated  by  jealousy  of  Mary's  inclination 
to  espouse  her  kinsman,  though  that  circumstance  has  been 
alleged  as  one  of  the  motives  of  his  conduct  It  is  very  proba- 
ble that  Charles  urged  and  believed  the  necessity  of  a  power- 
ful marriage,  with  the  assurance  of  foreign  aid,  as  a  measure 
preliminary  to  the  re-establishment  of  religion ;  though  the 
sharpest  of  the  stimulants  which  excited  him  might  have  been 
the  prospect  of  an  immense  and  immediate  accession  to  his 
mighty  empire.  The  emperor  feared  the  opposition  of  Pole 
to  the  Spanish  match,  not  only  as  an  Englishman,  but  as  jeal- 
ous of  Spanish  greatness,  and  unwilling  that  his  influence 

*  Commendone  returned  to  Brussels  before  the  28th  of  August,  and  trav- 
elled day  and  night  to  Rome,  making  a  small  deviation  to  visit  Pole  at  the 
Lago  de  Garda.  Pallavic.  Istor.  del  Cone,  di  Tirnto,  1.  xii.  c.  7. 

Pallavicino,  who  writes  from  dispatches,  is  very  valuable  in  dates. 

t  Pallavic.  Istor.  del  Cone,  di  Tirnto,  1.  xiii.  c.  7. 


1553.         ADDRESS  OF  THE  COMMONS.          247 

over  Mary  should  be  shared  with  a  husband  of  commanding 
character.  These  were  two  palpable  objects  of  irreconcilable 
difference  between  Pole  and  the  English  ministers  who  were 
supported  by  the  emperor.  They  urged  the  necessity  of  pro- 
ceeding by  very  cautious  steps  to  the  total  restoration  of 
popery.  Pole  was  indignant  at  the  continuance  of  any  re- 
mains of  the  schism.  They  considered  a  papal  confirmation 
of  all  sales  and  grants  of  church  lands  as  essential  to  the  con- 
solidation of  their  political  system.  Pole  protested  against 
this  demand,  and  prayed  the  pope  rather  to  recall  him  than  to 
require  his  participation  in  sacrilegious  rapine.  Mary  took 
the  politic  side  on  both  these  points,  because  it  was  that  of  the 
court  of  Brussels,  and  wrote  to  her  kinsman  to  assure  him 
that  the  life  of  a  papal  legate  would  not  at  that  time  be  safe 
in  England.  It  is  to  be  considered  that  Gardiner  had  now 
yielded  to  the  marriage,  the  final  arrangement  of  which  could 
not  then  have  been  known  to  Pole.* 

As  soon  as  the  intended  marriage  was  noised  abroad,  the 
house  of  commons  took  the  alarm.  They  presented  an  hum- 
ble address  to  the  queen,  beseeching  that  she  would  be  pleased 
to  provide  for  the  continuance  of  quiet  by  a  matrimonial  union ; 
but  earnestly  imploring  her  to  prefer  a  native  Englishman  to 
a  foreigner.f  She  resented  this  address.  Her  answer  was 
haughty,  probably  dictated  by  the  imperial  ministers.  She 
was  moved  by  it  to  a  step  not  a  little  remarkable  in  a  princess 
otherwise  decorous  in  her  manners  and  delicate  in  her  senti- 
ments. On  the  evening  of  the  address,  which  was  the  30th 
of  October,  she  sent  for  the  imperial  minister,  whom  she  con- 
ducted to  her  private  oratory,  and  there  kneeling  before  the 
altar,  after  reciting  the  hymn  "Veni,  Creator,"  she  called 
God  to  witness  that  she  solemnly  plighted  her  troth  to  Philip 
prince  of  Castile.}:  She  was  driven  to  this  act  of  forwardness 
by  the  popular  discontent  which  the  address  of  the  commons 
had  embodied.  By  the  advice  of  Gardiner,  who  had  now  con- 
quered whatever  repugnance  he  might  have  formerly  felt 
against  the  marriage,  Charles  V.  borrowed  1,200,000  crowns, 
which  then  amounted  to  400,000  pounds  in  English  money, 
from  the  imperial  cities,^  to  be  employed  in  softening  the  hos- 
tility of  the  lords  and  commons  on  this  occasion ;  "  the  first 
instance  of  any  rumor  of  the  corruption  of  parliament." || 

*  Griffet,  120.     Noaillcs.  iii.  216. 

t  Burnet,  p.  ii.  b.2.  Griffet  and  Noailles.  The  journals  of  the  lords  in 
the  first  parliament  of  Mary  are  lost,  or  not  published.  The  short  notes  of 
journals  of  the  commons  take  no  notice  of  the  address. 

|  Griflet.    Noailles.  §  Burnet,  p.  ii.  b.  2.  '  Burnet. 


248  .         HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1554. 

Philip,  nine  years  younger  than  the  unattractive  queen,  did 
not  sacrifice  taste,  to  aggrandizement  without  hesitation. 
After  the  prorogation  of  parliament,  which  one  writer  as- 
cribes to  their  refusal  to  bastardize  Elizabeth  by  name,*  a 
magnificent  embassy  came  from  the  emperor,  publicly  to 
solicit  her  majesty's  hand  for  Don  Philip,  the  heir  of  the  Span- 
ish, Italian,  and  Burgundian  dominions  of  the  house  of  Austria. 
The  count  of  Egmont,  who  was  at  the  head  of  this  embassy, 
at  his  landing  found  so  great  was  the  national  dislike  to  the 
union,  that  he  and  his  colleagues  had  some  difficulty  in  es- 
caping decisive  marks  of  popular  disapprobation.!  They  were 
presented  to  the  queen  on  the  2d  of  January,  1554.  She  re- 
ferred them  to  her  ministers,  who  were  easily  persuaded  to 
advise  her  in  the  manner  which  they  well  knew  to  be  most 
agreeable  to  her  wishes.  Gardiner  represented  it  in  the  fairest 
colors  of  his  eloquence  to  a  willing  privy-council,  and  an- 
nounced it  afterwards  to  the  mayor  and  magistrates  of  the 
capital,  with  a  skilful  parade  of  its  advantages.  As  he  con- 
tinued in  office  during  his  life,  which  lasted  eighteen  months 
after  the  marriage  of  Philip,  it  is  not  probable  that  the  chan- 
cellor ever  carried  his  opposition  on  so  delicate  a  subject  to 
an  inconvenient  extent. 

Though  the  treaty  was  not  ratified  in  March,  the  conditions 
were  substantially  fixed  in  January.  The  most  important 
were,  that  the  appointment  to  all  offices  in  the  English  do- 
minions should  be  left  to  her  majesty,  and  confined  to  natural- 
born  subjects ;  that  the  laws  and  privileges  of  England  should 
be  preserved ;  and  that  the  English  nation  should  continue  to 
employ  in  their  affairs  the  languages  to  which  they  had  been 
anciently  accustomed.  Don  Carlos,  Philip's  eldest  son,  was 
declared  heir  of  Spain,  the  two  Sicilies,  and  Lombardy ;  these 
territories,  in  failure  of  him  and  his  progeny,  were  to  devolve 
on  the  issue  of  the  present  marriage,  who  were  to  be  the  im- 
mediate heirs  of  the  provinces  of  Lower  Germany4 

But  these  specious  conditions  were  far  from  appeasing  the 
national  discontent.  The  object  of  Charles  V.,  it  was  said, 
is  attained.  He  has  obtained  a  footing  for  his  son  in  England. 
That  prince  might  smile  at  terms  which  he  could  and  would 
cancel  or  break  at  the  head  of  a  foreign  army.  All  true  Pro- 
testants must  see  with  horror  that  they  were  to  be  subjected 
to  a  Spanish  inquisition.  The  lovers  of  liberty  foretold  the 
overthrow  of  their  ancient  constitution ;  foresaw  that  Eng- 
land, become  a  province  of  Spain,  would  be  ruled  with  the 

*  Carte;  but  without  citing  any  authority.  t  Burnet. 

I  Dumont,  Corps  Diploin.  iv.  part  iii.  p.  10G.    Rymcr,  xvi.  37? 


1554.  REVOLT    AGAINST    MAKY.  249 

same  iron  sceptre  under  which  the  Netherlands,  Milan,  Na- 
ples, and  Sicily  groaned.  Men  of  common  humanity  shud- 
dered at  the  yoke  of  those  who  were  inured  to  blood  and  ra- 
pine amidst  the  extirpation  of  the  natives  of  America.  Charles 
V.,  the  sovereign  of  a  great  part  of  the  old  and  the  new 
world,  if  his  son  were  once  established  in  England,  would 
have  no  difficulty  in  deluging  it  with  the  veteran  mercena- 
ries and  hardened  adventurers  who  covered  his  vast  domin- 
ions. 

A  plan  of  revolt  was  resolved  on  to  avert  all  these  evils, 
which  had  in  its  first  outline  some  chance  of  success.  Sir 
Thomas  Wyatt  the  younger  was  to  take  the  field  in  Kent 
The  duke  of  Suffolk  was  to  raise  his  tenants  in  the  midland 
counties.  Sir  Peter  Carew  was  the  expected  leader  in  Dev- 
onshire. Henry  II.  king  of  France,  who  dreaded  the  aggran- 
dizement of  Charles  V.,  gave  hopes  of  aid  to  the  malcontent 
chiefs.  Noailles  his  ambassador  entered  eagerly  into  these 
projects,  and  greedily  swallowed  every  rumor  which  magni- 
fied the  strength  of  the  revolters.  It  is  the  lot  of  such  minis- 
ters to  be  deceived,  and  their  general  disposition  to  exaggerate 
circumstances  which  exalt  their  own  importance.  The  earl 
of  Devonshire,  an  imprudent  youth,  lent  an  ear  to  Carew's 
temptations.  The  princess  Elizabeth  refused  to  attend  her 
sister  to  mass.*  Incessantly  urged  by  those  whose  importu- 
nities were  threats,  she  tried  to  gain  time,  by  throwing  her- 
self at  her  sister's  feet,  and  with  tears  in  her  eyes  she  prayed 
that  she  might  not  be  pressed  to  abandon  the  religion  in 
which  she  was  reared  till  they  had  afforded  the  means  of  re- 
ligious instruction  through  books  and  teachers.f  On  the  eve 
of  the  coronation,  she  yielded  to  the  same  apparent  conformi- 
ty which  Mary  had  practised  in  obedience  to  Henry  VIII. 
Her  attachment  to  religion  was,  however,  so  well  known  that 
this  compulsory  conformity  deceived  neither  party. J  She  was 
incensed  at  the  sentence  of  bastardy  virtually  pronounced 
against  her  in  the  statute  which  established  the  throne  of  the 
reigning  queen.  She  was  displeased  by  the  precedence  over 
her  given  to  other  ladies  of  the  court,  as  a  clear,  though 
in  itself  frivolous,  mode  of  displaying  her  illegitimacy.  She 
was  impatient  of  the  importunities  which  had  beset  her,  and 
indignant  at  the  necessity  of  purchasing  life  by  hypocrisy. 
It  is  uncertain  whether  the  consummate  prudence  which  dis- 
tinguished her  subsequent  conduct  prevailed  over  her  natural 


*  Noailles,  Sept.  6,  1553.  Emb.  ii.  141. 
t  Griflet,  10**.  from  Renard's  dispatches, 
t  Noailles,  2$l  ficpt.  1553.  Em!),  ii.  100. 


250  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1554. 

feelings  so  entirely  as  to  induce  her  to  decline  all  suspicious 
intercourse  and  dangerous  propositions.  Even  if  she  was  thus 
prematurely  wise,  she  could  not  fail  to  be  represented  as  shar- 
ing all  daring  projects,  by  those  who  hoped  much  from  her 
name,  as  well  as  by  those  who  sought  a  pretext  for  her  de- 
struction. The  French  minister,  who  was  deeply  engaged  in 
the  plot,  was  a  credulous  witness  respecting  the  princess's 
share  in  it.  Accusation  and  rumors,  however  general,  are  of 
little  or  no  value  where  they  would  be  as  certainly  pointed 
against  the  innocent  as  against  the  guilty.  But  it  must  be 
owned  that  her  forbearance,  if  complete,  must  be  attributed 
more  to  prudence  than  to  loyalty. 

The  conspirators  had  at  first  decided  to  postpone  the  rising 
till  the  arrival  of  Philip,  who  was  expected  in  April,  should 
raise  to  its  highest  point  the  unpopularity  of  the  marriage. 
The  discovery  of  their  designs,  in  the  middle  of  January, 
broke  their  measures.  They  took  up  arms  to  escape  from 
their  enemies  before  their  preparations  were  in  forwardness, 
and  Carew  fled  to  France.  The  duke  of  Suffolk,  a  Protestant 
so  zealous  as  to  have  already  forgotten  the  recent  mercy 
shown  to  him,  displayed  his  boldness  by  an  attempt  to  excite 
his  tenants  in  Warwickshire  to  revolt.  His  success  was 
small :  his  followers  were  routed  by  lord  Huntingdon,  and  he 
was  himself  betrayed  to  his  enemies  by  one  of  his  park-keep- 
ers. On  the  25th  of  January,  1554,  the  day  on  which  Suffolk 
left  London,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  raised  the  standard  of  insur- 
rection at  Maidstone.  He  established  his  head-quarters  at 
Rochester,  and  was  joined  by  no  contemptible  number  of  the 
men  of  Kent.  After  several  skirmishes,  with  various  results, 
the  duke  of  Norfolk  was  sent  to  quell  the  rebellion.  He  ar- 
rived at  Stroud,  a  suburb  of  Rochester,  on  the  27th  of  Janu- 
ary. As  he  was  about  to  begin  the  attack,  Brete  and  other 
officers  of  the  Londoners,  who  composed  a  large  part  of  Nor- 
folk's force,  fell  back  from  their  post  with  their  soldiers ;  and 
as  soon  as  the  first  gun  was  fired  against  the  insurgents,  the 
London  bands,  who  were  in  the  rear  of  the  queen's  army, 
shouted  aloud  sundry  times,  "  We  are  all  Englishmen !"  The 
duke  made  an  effort  to  turn  his  artillery  against  them,  but 
the  national  feeling  prevailed.  Norfolk,  attended  only  by  the 
captain  of  his  guard,  shifted  for  himself.*  Such  was  the  ter- 
ror spread  by  this  defection,  that  the  imperial  ambassador  fled 
from  London,!  and  the  court  opened  an  ineffectual  negotia- 
tion with  Wyatt,  now  at  the  head  of  15,000  men.  At  this 
moment  of  panic,  Mary  went  to  Guildhall,  and  harangued  the 

*  Holinshcd.  1  Idem,  iv.  15. 


1554.  INSURRECTION   SUPPRESSED.  251 

citizens  of  London,  with  much  of  the  spirit  of  her  race,  and 
with  a  success  which  has  often  attended  female  sovereigns  in 
their  addresses  to  a  susceptible  multitude.  "  On  the  word  of 
a  queen  I  promise  and  assure  you  that,  if  it  shall  not  appear 
to  the  nobility  and  commons  in  the  high  court  of  parliament 
that  the  marriage  is  for  the  singular  benefit  of  the  whole 
realm,  I  will  abstain  from  it" 

On  the  second  of  February,  the  day  of  the  queen's  speech, 
Wyatt  advanced  to  Deptford,  where  he  halted,  as  it  seems 
imprudently,  for  twenty-four  critical  hours.  Twenty  thousand 
men  enlisted  under  Mary's  standard.  Wyatt,  whose  quarters 
in  Southwark  were  commanded  by  the  cannon  of  the  Tower, 
being  defeated  in  an  attempt  to  force  London  bridge,  marched 
to  Kingston,  where,  on  the  6th  of  February,  he  passed  the  re- 
mains of  the  bridge  at  that  place  without  resistance.  He  had 
concerted  measures  with  his  still  numerous  friends  in  the 
city.  But  he  lost  their  aid  by  one  of  those  defects  in  punctu- 
ality to  which  warfare  in  the  night  is  peculiarly  liable.  On 
the  seventh  of  February  he  arrived  at  Hyde  Park  corner.  He 
marched  to  Charing-cross,  filling  the  court  with  such  conster- 
nation, that  even  Gardiner  entreated  the  queen  to  throw  her- 
self into  the  Tower.  The  daughter  of  Henry  VIII.  scorned 
this  counsel.  At  Charing-cross  a  conflict  ensued,  in  which 
Wyatt,  still  eager  to  resume  his-communications  with  his  city 
adherents,  advanced  at  the  head  of  400  men,  being  probably 
cut  off  from  his  mam  body  by  the  enemy,  till  he  found  Lud- 
gate  barred  against  him  by  lord  Effingham.  Disheartened  by 
this  unexpected  resistance,  the  greater  part  of  his  followers 
were  either  dispersed  or  slain.  With  a  remnant  of  about 
eighty  he  fought  his  way  back  to  St.  James's ;  and,  after  per- 
forming deeds  of  prowess  worthy  of  his  name,  he  surrendered 
his  sword  to  Sir  Maurice  Berkeley.  Had  his  confederates, 
Suffolk,  Courtenay,  and  Carew  resembled  him ;  had  he  de- 
layed the  onset  even  a  little  longer ;  had  he  wasted  no  irre- 
coverable time,  when  all  depended  on  speed,  the  event  might 
have  been  very  different;  for  the  body  of  the  people  had  not 
been  appealed  to :  the  insurrection  of  a  county  was  quelled 
almost  as  soon  as  its  commencement  could  be  known  to  the 
most  extensive  and  martial  provinces.  "  The  discontents  of 
the  subject,"  says  Noailles,  "  are  not  at  all  abated,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  increase  daily."* 

On  the  3d  of  November,  1553,  lady  Jane  Grey  and  lord 
Guilford  Dudley  were  convicted  of  high  treason.  ,  But  no 
time  was  fixed  for  the  execution,  and  their  treatment  indi- 

*  Noailles,  4th  March,  1554.  Emb.  iii.  97. 


252  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1554. 

cated  some  compassion  for  involuntary  usurpers  of  seventeen 
years  of  age.  The  ingratitude  of  Suffolk  proved  an  incentive 
sufficient  to  prevail  over  the  slender  pity  of  bigots  and  poli- 
ticians. On  the  8th  of  February,  Mary  signed  a  warrant  for 
the  execution  of  "  Guilford  Dudley  and  his  wife," — for  such 
was  the  description  by  which  they  were  distinguished  at  a 
moment  when  discourtesy  wears  its  ugliest  aspect  On  the 
morning  of  the  12th,  he  was  led  to  execution  on  Tower  Hill. 
Lord  Guilford  Dudley  had  requested  an  interview  with  his 
beloved  Jane.  She,  from  a  fear  that  it  might  unfit  both  for 
the  scene  through  which  they  were  to  pass,  declined  it.  She 
saw  him  go  through  the  gate  of  the  Tower  towards  the  scaf- 
fold ;  and,  soon  afterwards,  she  chanced  to  look  from  the  same 
window  at  his  bleeding  carcass,  imperfectly  covered,  in  the 
cart  which  bore  it  back.  Freckenham,  abbot  of  Westminster, 
had  endeavored  to  convert  her  to  the  Catholic  faith.  He  was 
acute,  eloquent,  and  of  a  tender  nature ;  but  he  made  no  im- 
pression on  her  considerate  and  steady  belief.  She  behaved 
to  him  with  such  calmness  and  sweetness,  that  he  had  obtained 
for  her  a  day's  respite.  So  much  meekness  has  seldom  been 
so  pure  from  lukewarmness.  She  wrote  a  letter  to  Harding 
on  his  apostasy,  couched  in  ardent  and  even  vehement  lan- 
guage, partly  because  she  doubted  his  sincerity.  Never  did 
affection  breathe  itself  in  language  more  beautiful  than  in  her 
dying  letter  to  her  father,  in  which  she  says,  "  My  guiltless 
blood  may  cry  before  the  Lord,  Mercy  to  the  innocent"*  A 
Greek  letter  to  her  sister,  lady  Catharine,  written  on  a  blank 
leaf  of  a  Greek  Testament,  is  needless  as  another  proof  of 
those  accomplishments  which  astonished  the  learned  of  Eu- 
rope,f  but  admirable  as  a  token  that  neither  grief  nor  danger 
could  ruffle  her  thoughts,  nor  lower  the  sublimity  of  her  high- 
est sentiments.  In  the  course  of  that  morning  she  wrote  in 
her  note-book  three  sentences  in  Greek,  Latin,  and  English, 
of  which  the  last  is  as  follows : — "  If  my  fault  deserved  pun- 
ishment, my  youth  at  least,  and  my  imprudence,  were  worthy 
of  excuse.  God  and  posterity  will  show  me  favor." 

She  was  executed  within  the  Tower,  either  to  withdraw 
her  from  the  pitying  eye  of  the  people,  or  as  a  privilege  due 
to  the  descendant  of  Henry  VII.  She  declared  on  the  scaffold 
that  "  her  soul  was  as  pure  from  trespass  against  queen  Mary 
as  innocence  was  from  injustice :  I  only  consented  to  the  thing 
I  was  forced  into." 

In  substance  the  last  allegation  was  true.     The  history  of 

*  Stow.e.     Biograph.  Britan.  iv.  24200.  1  Ed.  1757. 
f  Heylin.    Biograph.  Britan. 


1554.  ELIZABETH    AT    ASHR1DGE.  253 

tyranny  affords  no  example  of  a  female  of  seventeen  by  the 
command  of  a  female,  and  a  relation,  put  to  death  for  acqui- 
escence in  the  injunction  of  a  father,  sanctioned  by  the  con- 
currence of  all  that  the  kingdom  could  boast  of  what  was 
illustrious  in  nobility,  or  grave  in  law,  or  venerable  in  reli- 
gion. The  example  is  the  more  affecting,  as  it  is  that  of  a 
person  who  exhibited  a  matchless  union  of  youth  and  beauty 
with  genius,  with  learning,  with  virtue,  with  piety;  whose 
affections  were  so  warm,  while  her  passions  were  so  perfectly 
subdued.  It  was  a  death  sufficient  to  honor  and  dishonor  an 
age. 

The  execution  of  her  father  occurred  a  few  days  afterwards. 
Sir  Nicholas  Throgmorton  was  tried,  and  made  so  good  a  de- 
fence, on  grounds  of  law,  that  the  jury  acquitted  him ;  for 
which  several  of  them  were  heavily  fined,"  according  to  an 
usage  then  of  unquestioned  legality.  Wyatt  was  convicted  on 
the  15th  of  March.  Nearly  a  month  appears  to  have  been  em- 
ployed in  laboring  to  extract  information  from  him  against  the 
princess  Elizabeth.  The  attorney-general  at  the  trial  aggra- 
vated the  criminality  of  Wyatt  by  saying,  "  Your  attempt 
reached,  as  far  as  in  you  lay,  to  the  second  person  in  the 
realm,  whereby  her  honor  is  brought  in  question."  Wyatt 
wholly  disclaimed  the  imputation.  "  Being  in  this  wretched 
estate,"  said  he,  "  I  beseech  you  not  to  overcharge  me,  nor  to 
make  me  seem  that  I  am  not"*  This  brave  youth  was  be- 
headed on  the  llth  of  April. 

It  was  not  till  the  beginning  of  December  that  Elizabeth 
obtained  leave  to  retire  to  her  house  at  Ashridge,  where  it 
was  possible  for  her  to  escape  the  constrained  participation  in 
a  worship  which  she  disapproved.  There  she  received  propo- 
sitions and  suggestions  from  the  chief  of  the  revolters,  who 
probably  intended,  in  due  time,  to  act  in  her  name ;  but  her  con- 
sent or  acceptance  was  not  shown,  nor  even  seriously  alleged. 
Her  utmost  offence  seems  to  have  been  the  misprision,  or  con- 
cealment, of  projects  of  revolt,  which  was  not  a  capital  crime. 

About  the  8th  of  February,  immediately  after  the  utter  dis- 
comfiture of  Wyatt,  Sir  Richard  Southwell,  Sir  Edward  Hast- 
ings, and  Sir  Thomas  Cornwallis,  were  sent  to  Ashridge  with 
a  body  of  troops  to  conduct  Elizabeth  to  London,  f  They  were 
enjoined  to  bring  her  "  quick  or  dead,"  or,  in  other  words,  to 

*  Holinshed,  iv.  29. 

t  Compare  Strype,  Mem.  v.  H4.  146.  with  Griffet,  150. 

Dispatch  of  Noailles,  llth  February,  1553-4.  Emb.  iii.  p.  63. ;  six  hundred 
soldiers  sent  to  Ashridge.  They  probably  arrived  on  the  13th.  Six  days 
are  assigned  by  Holinshed  for  the  journey  to  London.  Three  or  four  more 
were  necessary  before  she  could  be  shown  in  London. 

VOL.  II.  W 


254  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1554. 

use  any  force  necessary  to  their  purpose,  if  the  court  physi- 
cians, who  were  sent  with  them,  should  pronounce  her  capable 
of  being1  carried  to  the  capital  without  danger  of  her  life  from 
the  journey.  They  arrived  after  she  had  retired  to  rest ;  but 
though  she  declined  to  see  them  till  the  morning,  they  imme- 
diately forced  their  way  into  her  bed-chamber.  "  Is  the  haste 
such,"  said  she,  "  that  it  might  not  have  pleased  you  to  come 
to-morrow  in  the  morning]"  They  professed  "  that  they  were 
right  sorry  to  see  her  in  such  a  case."  She  replied,  **  And  I 
am  not  glad  to  see  you  here  at  this  time  of  night"  Her  ill- 
ness was  so  unfeigned  that  it  compelled  the  courtiers  and 
their  physicians  to  allow  her  an  unusual  time  for  her  journey, 
and  she  did  not  enter  London  till  the  23d.  "  While  the  city," 
says  Noailles,  "was  covered  with  gibbets,*  and  the  public 
buildings  were  crowded  with  the  heads  of  the  bravest  men  in 
the  kingdom,  the  princess  Elizabeth,  for  whom  no  better  lot 
is  foreseen,  is  lying  ill  about  seven  or  eight  miles  from  hence, 
so  swollen  and  disfigured  that  her  death  is  expected."!  He 
doubted  whether  she  would  reach  London  alive.J  In  passing 
along  the  streets  of  the  capital,  she  ordered  her  litter  to  be 
opened,  in  order  to  show  herself,  and  was  apparelled  in  white, 
as  the  emblem  of  innocence.  The  paleness  produced  by  her 
distemper  was  perceived  and  pitied  by  the  beholders,  notwith- 
standing the  lofty  port  which  she  assumed.  Her  youth  and 
strength  triumphed  over  the  disease.  She  demanded  an  audi- 
ence of  the  queen,  asserted  her  innocence  with  the  utmost 
boldness,}  and  claimed  the  interview  on  the  grounds  of  a 
promise  made  by  her  sister.  But  the  request  was  vain.  "  The 
lady  Elizabeth  has  recovered  her  health,  but  it  is  a  recovery 
of  little  importance ;  for  her  death  is  determined." ||  "  The 
queen,"  continues  the  French  ambassador,  "goes  to  Rich- 
mond before  Easter,  to  do  penance,  and  to  command  acts  of 
cruelty." 

Two  councils  were  held  on  the  fate  of  Elizabeth.  One 
party,  supported  to  the  last  by  the  advice  of  the  emperor, 
urged  the  absolute  necessity  of  destroying  her,  and  the  folly 
of  sparing  a  traitress,  who  defeated  the  law  more  effectually 
by  a  mere  evasion  of  it,  whatever  lawyers  might  think  of  her 

*  On  Monday,  the  12tb  of  February,  fifteen  gallowses  were  erected ;  on 
which  fifty- two  men  were  hanged.  The  day  was  called  Black  Monday,  as 
being  that  of  the  killing  of  lady  Jane. 

t  21st  February,  Emb.  iii.  78.  $  Emb.  iii.  88. 

§  Ellis'9  Letters,  second  series,  it.  255.    Princess  Elizabeth  to  Queen  Mary. 

|j  La  pauvre  madame  Elizabeth  est  amendee  de  sa  sante.  Mais  peu  lui 
servira  cet  amendement,  puisque  sa  mort  est  resolve. — Noailles,  Emb.  iii. 
121.  March  19,  1554. 


1554.  TREATMENT    OF   ELIZABETH.  255 

escape  from  its  letter.  Lord  Arundel  and  lord  Paget  were 
the  authors  of  these  lawless  counsels.  On  the  other  side, 
the  more  experienced  of  the  English  counsellors  doubted,  per- 
haps denied,  that  Elizabeth  could  be  legally  convicted  of  trea- 
son under  the  25th  of  Edward  III.,  the  only  law  applicable  to 
that  offence ;  since  the  late  statute,  one  of  the  earliest  and 
happiest  of  her  majesty's  measures,  had  swept  away  the  odious 
heap  of  treasons  raised  up  by  her  father.  That  ancient  law, 
dear  to  the  people  by  contrast  with  the  late  bloody  statutes, 
required  open  and  outward  acts  to  be  done  by  the  accused  in 
furtherance  of  their  criminal  designs.  Gardiner,  though  he 
professed  to  think  Elizabeth  deserving  of  death,  yet  considered 
her  confinement  at  Ashridge  and  Courtenay's  residence  at 
St  James's  as  irreconcilable  with  a  just  conviction  for  trea- 
son. If  the  present  construction  of  the  statute  of  Edward 
then  prevailed,  he  must  not  only  have  held  that  they  did  not 
levy  war,  but  that  a  conspiracy  to  rebel  was  not  capable  of 
being  proved  against  them.  Our  information,  which  flows 
from  foreign  ministers,  throws  no  light  on  such  subtle  distinc- 
tions. But  it  is  so  probable  as  to  allow  little  doubt  that  Gar- 
diner would  not  have  harbored  any  scruples  about  the  removal 
of  a  person  so  obnoxious,  and  of  whose  desert  he  professed  to 
think  no  better  than  his  colleagues,  if  there  had  been  any 
sufficient  evidence  of  Elizabeth's  substantial  assent  to  the  pro- 
jects of  revolt  suggested  to  her  by  Wyatt,  and  perhaps  by 
Courtenay.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  a  man  grown  gray  in 
affairs  of  state  should  have  shrunk  from  the  public  and 
personal  danger  likely  to  attend  the  illegal  execution  of  the 
second  person  in  the  commonwealth.  No  other  motive  can 
reasonably  be  supposed  to  have  influenced  his  conduct.  Eliz- 
abeth often  assured  a  French  minister,  long  after  these  events, 
that  she  expected  death,  and  that  the  queen  thirsted  for  her 
sister's  blood  ;*  a  circumstance  which  exactly  tallies  with  the 
expectations  of  Noailles.  She  probably  owed  her  life  to  the 
illness  and  distemper  at  Ashridge,  which  hindered  her  from 
being  tempted  or  carried  into  the  camp  of  the  insurgents. f 
A  subordinate  question  arose  in  the  council,  whether  Eliza- 
beth, being  absolved  from  a  capital  charge  should  be  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower.  On  this  question,  fearing  to  disple 


•  M.  m.  deCastelnau,  i. 

t  Elizabeth  etoit  demount:  inalade  dans  sa  ntaison  de  campagno.  Elle 
n'etpit  done  dans  le  cas  de  pubir  la  peine  de  mort.  C'est  ce  qui  lui  sauva 
la  vie;  sans  quoi  elle  auroit  eu  la  tele  tranche.  Elizabeth  s'y  atteudoit 
oomme  elle  I'avotia  dans  le  suite  a  monsieur  de  Castelnau.  Griflet,  166.  In 
p.  171,  be  tells  us  on  the  authority  of  Renanl,  that  Gardiner  prevailed  over 
the  desire  of  Mary  for  Elizabeth's  death. 


256  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1554. 

the  queen  by  too  frequent  opposition,  Gardiner  took  the  severe 
side. 

Elizabeth  was  committed  to  the  Tower,  certainly  with  no 
other  expectation  than  that  of  mounting  the  scaffold  of  her 
unhappy  mother;  of  which  all  the  horrors  were  revived 
by  the  recent  fate  of  lady  Jane  Grey, — the  first  intelligence 
which  welcomed  the  princess  on  her  arrival  in  London.  For 
some  time  after  her  imprisonment  in  that  fortress,  she  was 
harassed  by  examinations,  which,  after  the  resolution  of  the 
council,  could  have  been  prompted  only  by  a  desire  to  discover 
some  means  of  satisfying  the  lingering  hatred  of  Mary  and 
the  bloody  policy  of  Charles  V.  In  the  middle  of  April  there 
seemed  no  remaining  means  of  gratifying  Mary's  revengeful 
spirit  by  keeping  up  the  appearance  of  an  inquiry ;  for  Eliza- 
beth was  then  permitted  to  walk  round  the  Tower.  On  the 
19th  of  May  she  was  transferred  to  the  custody  of  Sir  F. 
Williams,  a  gentleman  of  the  same  lineage  with  the  Crom- 
wells,  who,  though  created*  a  baron  only  a  month  before, 
treated  the  young  princess  with  more  mildness  than  pleased 
the  court ;  for  she  was  shortly  imprisoned  at  Woodstock,  un- 
der the  jailership  of  Sir  Henry  Bedingfield,  a  man  so  much 
more  anxious  to  gratify  his  employers  than  to  act  as  became 
his  original  station,  that  he  ranks  among  the  jailers  who  have 
derived  a  lasting  infamy  from  the  fame  of  their  prisoners. 
When  he  came  with  a  hundred  newly-equipped  soldiers  to 
conduct  her  to  Woodstock,  she  said  to  him  with  her  usual 
quickness  and  poignancy,  "  Is  the  scaffold  of  lady  Jane  yet 
taken  away  T'f  The  princess,  when  she  afterwards  became 
queen,  carried  her  anger  no  farther  than  to  forbid  him  from 
visiting  the  court.  She  said  to  him,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
prohibition,  "  God  forgive  you,  and  we  do ;  and  if  we  have 
any  prisoner  whom  we  would  have  hardly  handled  and  straitly 
kept,  then  we  will  send  for  you."| 

Philip  landed  at  Southampton  on  the  19th  of  July,  1554, 
attended  by  a  train  magnificent  and  formidable,  composed  of 
Spanish  grandees  and  Burgundian  lords,  who  were  followed 
by  four  thousand  soldiers,  and  had  been  conveyed  from  Corun- 
na  by  a  fleet§  containing  the  choice  of  the  armed  vessels  of 

*  Dugdale,  ii.  393. 

jit  is  singular  that  Dr.  Lingard  should  have  laid  more  stress  on  a  slight 
intimation  in  a  note  of  Warton  (Life  of  Sir  T.  Pope,  74.)  than  upon  the 
narrative  in  his  text. 

J  Holinsh.  iv.  56. 

§  Noailles,  iii.  283.,  who  gives  a  list  of  the  Spanish  and  Flemish  nobility. 
There  were  150  Spanish  vessels,  28  English  ships  with  other  vessels,  and  14 
ships  from  the  Low  Countries. — Holinsh.  iv.  57. 


4- 


1554.  PHILIP   AND    MARY.  257 

the  Netherlands,  of  Spain,  and  of  England.  The  marriage 
between  Philip  and  Mary  was  solemnized  on  the  25th  by 
Gardiner  in  his  cathedral  of  Winchester.  Philip  was  at  that 
time  in  the  twenty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  Mary  in  her  thirty- 
eighth  year.  The  countenance  and  form  of  the  prince  were 
in  his  youth  not  void  of  symmetry,  and  began  to  show  marks 
of  his  firm  and  sagacious  mind :  but  the  stately  reserve  of 
his  Spanish  manners  did  not  lessen  the  repugnance  of  the 
English  people  to  the  marriage.  "  No  English  lord  remained 
at  court  but  Gardiner.  When  the  king  and  queen  removed 
to  Hampton-court  the  hall  door  was  continually  shut,  so  that 
no  man  might  enter  unless  his  errand  were  first  known,  which 
seemed  strange  to  Englishmen."  In  September  a  proclama- 
tion enjoining  all  vagabonds  and  servants  out  of  place  to  quit 
Ixjndon  hi  five  days,  bore  marks  of  the  like  gloomy  distrust 
In  October  the  queen  or  her  sycophants  began  to  countenance 
rumors  of  her  pregnancy,  very  naturally  believed  by  a  lady  in 
her  circumstances. 

On  the  12th  of  November  a  parliament  was  holden  at 
Westminster  to  complete  that  imperfect  restoration  of  reli- 
gion which  had  been  faintly  sketched  in  the  former  year. 
This  national  assembly  was  at  its  opening  honored  by  the  un- 
wonted or  rather  unexampled  presence  of  two  sovereigns, 
king  Philip  and  queen  Mary ;  of  whom  the  first,  though  in 
England  only  titular,  was  distinguished  from  all  others  by  a 
statute,  which  made  it  treason  to  compass  his  death.*  A  bill 
passed  both  houses  in  four  days  "  for  the  restitution  in  blood 
of  the  lord  cardinal  Pole;"f  an  act  in  itself  of  just  reparation, 
but  thus  hastened  by  alacrity  in  paying  homage  to  the  rising 
religion  of  the  court.  The  lords  were  unanimous.  Lord 
Paget,  who  had  been  raised  by  Somerset,  and  Sir  William  Ce- 
cil, afterwards  distinguished  in  a  policy  more  acceptable  to 
Protestants,  were  among  the  most  forward  persons  in  their 
respective  parts  of  the  reconciliation.  For  a  time  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  reconcile  the  pious  cardinal  or  the  indignant  pontiff" 
to  the  condition  most  essential  to  the  peace  of  the  papacy  with 
England, — that  of  security  to  the  possessors  of  abbey  lands. 
At  last,  as  an  expedient  for  reconciling  the  unquiet  minds  of 
dishonest  possessors  to  the  indelible  claims  of  the  church  on 
her  ancient  property,  powers  were  given  by  the  pope  to  the 
legate  "  to  remove  all  trouble  or  danger  which  by  canons  or 
ecclesiastical  decrees  might  touch  the  possession  of  such 

*  1  &  2  Philip  and  Mary,  c.  10.  s.  3. 
f  Lords'  Journ.  17th  to2Ist  November. 

W2 


258  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

goods."*  This  form  was  adopted,  and  it  seems  to  have  been 
sufficient  according  to  the  doctrines  of  all  reasonable  Roman 
Catholics ;  since  it  left  all  questions  which  directly  concerned 
property  to  the  municipal  law  and  the  lay  tribunals.  It  would, 
perhaps,  have  been  impossible  to  frame  a  more  comprehensive 
form  of  words  which  did  not  contain  an  express  renunciation 
of  the  papal  authority  over  civil  causes,  and  thus  be  subject 
to  the  very  serious  inconvenience  of  being  liable  to  be  under- 
stood as  an  admission  by  the  state,  that  such  papal  authority 
previously  subsisted,  or  interpreted  as  a  confession  by  the  pope, 
that  his  predecessors  had  been  guilty  of  flagrant  usurpation. 
Practically  speaking,  it  is  evident  that  whoever  could  violate 
the  obvious  sense  of  this  dispensation  would  not  be  more  bound 
by  stronger  words. 

On  the  20th  of  November,  1554,  cardinal  Pole  arrived  at 
Dover,  armed  with  apparently  full  power  to  do  all  the  acts 
which  were  necessary  to  reconcile  the  English  nation  to  the 
church  of  Rome.  At  Gravesend  he  was  presented  by  the 
earl  of  Shrewsbury  and  the  bishop  of  Durham  with  the  act 
which  reversed  his  attainder.  A  royal  barge  was  sent  by 
their  majesties  to  convey  him ;  and  as  they  desired  that  he 
should  display  the  ensigns  of  his  legatine  powers,  a  silver 
cross  was  placed  on  high  on  the  prow  of  the  barge.  After  a 
joyful  reception  at  court,  he  withdrew  to  the  palace  of  Lam- 
beth, which,  being  now  vacant  by  Cranmer's  attainder,  was 
magnificently  furnished  for  the  purposes  of  accommodation 
and  state. 

On  the  28th  of  November  he  came  to  the  house  of  peers, 
and  being  introduced  by  Gardiner  the  chancellor,  he  address- 
ed both  houses  in  a  speech,  in  which  he  said,  "  that  having 
for  many  years  been  excluded,  not  only  from  that  assembly, 
but  also  from  his  country,  by  laws  enacted  personally  against 
himself,  he  should  ever  be  grateful  for  the  repeal  of  those 
laws ;  and  that  in  return  he  was  come  to  inscribe  them  deni- 
zens of  heaven,  and  to  restore  them  to  that  Christian  great- 
ness which  they  had  forfeited  by  renouncing  their  fealty. 
That  to  reap  so  great  a  blessing  it  only  remained  that  they 
should  repeal  the  laws  which  they  had  enacted  against  the 
holy  see,  and  by  which  they  had  cut  themselves  off  from  the 
body  of  the  faithful."  On  Thursday  the  29th  of  November, 
1554,  the  formal  reconciliation  to  the  Catholic  church  of  the 
only  great  monarchy  which  had  separated  from  her  commu- 
nion was  solemnized  with  that  dignity  and  splendor  which 

*  1  &  2  Philip  anil  Mary,  c.  8.    Stat.  of  the  Realm. 


1554.  REUNION   WITH    ROME.  259 

b?came  the  most,  momentous  transaction  which  had  for  seve- 
ral ages  occurred  in  Christendom. 

The  queen  and  the  king  being  placed  in  regal  state  in  the 
great  hall  of  the  palace,*  the  legate,  who  was  a  prince  of  the 
blood  as  well  as  of  the  church,  took  his  seat  beside  them  at 
some  distance.  An  humble  supplication  of  the  lords  spiritual 
and  temporal,  and  commons,  in  parliament  assembled,  on  be- 
half of  the  whole  realm,  was  then  presented  to  their  majes- 
ties, beseeching  those  royal  persons,  unpolluted  themselves 
by  heresy,  to  make  intercession  with  the  lord  cardinal,  the 
legate  of  the  apostolic  see,  for  their  readmission  within  the 
sacred  pale  of  the  church,  and  for  an  absolution  from  the  con- 
sequences of  their  offences,  on  condition  of  their  proving 
themselves  to  be  true  penitents  by  the  repeal  of  all  the  laws 
against  the  Catholic  religion  and  the  holy  see,  passed  in  the 
season  of  their  delusion.  The  intercession  having  been  made 
by  Philip  and  Mary,  the  legate  then  pronounced  an  absolution 
of  the  parliament  and  the  whole  realm  from  all  heresy  and 
schism,  and  from  all  judgments  and  pains  for  that  cause  in- 
curred. Many  of  the  persons  present  burst  into  tears  of  joy 
at  this  most  happy  of  all  human  occurrences.  The  news 
spread  over  Europe  with  gladness  and  speed.  The  pope 
celebrated  the  second  conversion  of  England  to  Christianity 
by  a  solemn  procession,  and  ratified  all  the  acts  of  his  faithful 
legate. 

The  king,  queen,  and  legate,  together  with  both  houses  of 
parliament,  chanted  Te  Deum  in  the  chapel  of  the  palace. 
The  agitation  of  Mary  was  so  great,  that  she  imagined  some 
internal  disturbance  to  be  the  firgt  movement  of  an  unborn 
infant,  who  gave  this  sign  of  life.  So  entire  was  the  belief 
yielded  to  this  female  fancy,  that  the  parliament  besought  the 
king  to  undertake  the  guardianship  of  the  child  thus  an- 
nounced at  an  auspicious  moment.  The  privy-council  had 
on  the  day  before  enjoined  Bonner  to  direct  Te  Deum  to  be 
sung  throughout  his  diocese  "  for  the  good  hope  of  certain 
succession  to  the  crown."  Weston,  dean  of  Westminster, 
framed  a  form  of  prayer  for  the  safe  delivery  of  Mary.  An- 
other prayer  contained  these  petitions :  "  Give  therefore  unto 
thy  servants  Philip  and  Mary  a  male  issue,  which  may  sit  in 
the  seat  of  thy  kingdom.  Give  unto  our  queen  a  little  infant, 
in  fashion  and  body  comely  and  beautiful,  in  pregnant  wit  no- 
table and  excellent" 

It  was  not  long  before  the  hopes  so  fondly  nursed  were  ut- 
terly dispelled.  The  queen,  soured  by  early  injustice,  derived 

*  At  Whitehall. 


260  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1554. 

little  consolation  from  an  austere  and  morose  husband,  who 
was  as  capable,  indeed,  of  faithful  attachment,  as  he  was  in- 
flexible in  his  odious  qualities,  but  who  placed  his  dignity  in 
coldness,  and  was  not  likely  to  be  taught  by  Mary  to  feel 
emotions  so  foreign  to  his  character  as  those  of  tender  affec- 
tion. It  is  probable  that  he  saved  the  life  of  Elizabeth,  not 
from  pity,  for  of  that  infirmity  he  would  have  been  ashamed,* 
but  from  the  influence  of  one  of  those  under-currents  in 
human  affairs  which  often  counteract  a  general  course  of 
policy.  With  all  his  zeal  and  ambition,  one  of  his  prevailing 
dispositions  was  jealousy,  and  fear  of  his  formidable  neighbor 
and  rival  the  king  of  France.  As  soon  as  he  despaired  of 
issue  by  Mary,  he  perceived  that  all  consistent  Catholics 
would  consider  the  hereditary  right  to  the  crown  of  England 
as  devolving  on  Mary  Stuart  queen  of  Scots,  the  niece  of 
Henry  VIII.  by  his  eldest  sister  Margaret. 

England  and  France  had  struggled  for  the  disposal  of  the 
hand  of  this  beautiful  child.  The  ancient  connexion  with 
France,  and  long  jealousy  of  the  designs  of  the  nearer  neigh- 
bor against  national  independence,  together  with  the  blind 
and  passionate  measures  of  the  English  government,  threw 
the  prize  into  the  hands  of  the  French  monarch.  Her  mar- 
riage to  the  dauphin  was  hastened  by  a  grasping  policy,  be- 
fore the  natural  age  of  such  connexions ;  after  which  the 
wedded  pair  were  made  to  assume  the  title  of  king  and  queen 
dauphin.  To  prevent  England  from  falling  under  their 
power,  after  the  death  of  a  hypochondriacal  and  childlo.g 
queen,  it  became  an  object  of  Philip's  policy  to  preserve  Eli- 
zabeth, who  by  the  will  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  in  the  opinion 
of  her  Protestant  subjects,  had  a  preferable  title  to  that  of  the 
queen-dauphiness.  To  have  a  hostage  in  his  hands,  with 
pretensions  so  specious,  was  on  all  suppositions  an  object  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  him.  Whether  he  destined  her  for 
the  duke  of  Savoy  or  the  king  of  Sweden,  or  already  contem- 
plated the  possibility  of  espousing  her  himself,t  it  was  equally 
necessary  to  his  design  that  he  should  put  on  the  unwonted 
garb  of  clemency.  Elizabeth  had  hitherto  lived  in  a  contin- 
ued expectation  of  death.  Bedingfield  was  disgusted  at  the 
indulgence  shown  to  her  by  Williams.  He  forbade  her  to 
amuse  herself  by  looking  at  a  game  of  chess.  The  access 
of  her  own  attendants  was  on  one  occasion  prohibited,  and 

*  Cabrera,  Filipe  Segundo.    Madrid,  1619. 

t  That  he  proposed  himself  to  her  on  the  death  of  her  sister  is  asserted  in 
the  Memoires  de  Nevers,  and  somewhat  countenanced  by  the  president 
Henault.  The.  last  writer  inquired  and  knew  more  than  the  shortness  of 
his  narrative,  and  a  certain  prudery  of  station,  allowed  him  to  disclose. 


1554.  PUNISH8IENT    FOR    HERESY.  261 

she  suspected  that  orders  hod  been  given  to  put  her  privately 
to  death.  Many  traces  of  her  residence  were  discoverable  at 
Woodstock  in  very  recent  times.*  A  New  Testament  is  still 
preserved,  which  bears  the  initials  of  Elizabeth  the  captive, 
in  her  own  beautiful  handwriting.  She  wrote  the  following 
words  on  it,  with  a  mixed  allusion  to  her  religious  consola- 
tions and  solitary  walks,  which,  though  quaint,  are  yet  touch- 
ing : — "  I  walk  many  times  into  the  pleasant  fields  of  Holy 
Scriptures,  where  I  pluck  up  goodly  sentences  by  pruning, 
eat  them  by  reading,  chew  them  by  musing,  and  lay  them  up 
at  length  in  the  high  seat  of  memory ;  that  having  tasted 
their  sweetness,  I  may  the  less  perceive  the  bitterness  of  this 
miserable  life."}  One  of  her  visits  to  her  sister  at  Hampton- 
court  displayed  the  subtle  devices  of  a  Spanish  politician  in 
that  age.  Being  conducted  at  midnight,  by  torch-light,  to  the 
queen's  apartment,  when  she  had  fallen  on  her  knees,  and 
poured  forth  professions  of  loyalty,  Philip  was  concealed  be- 
hind the  tapestry,  in  order  that  he  might  seem,  if  it  had  been 
necessary,  the  protector  of  the  princess  from  the  passionate 
temper  of  her  sister.  She  was  sent  to  Hatfield,  a  royal 
palace,  under  the  mild  guardianship  of  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  a 
Catholic  gentleman,  who  did  as  much  as  he  could  to  mitigate 
her  imprisonment ;  although  the  stress  laid  by  historical  wri- 
ters on  some  instances  of  common  civility  manifests  their 
sense  of  the  rigor  of  his  instructions. 

The  situation  of  Elizabeth  must  have  been  embittered  by 
the  sufferings  of  all  those  who  were  attached  to  her,  or  whom 
she  was  accustomed  to  respect  An  act  was  passed  by  the 
parliament  of  1554,  previous  to  the  absolution,  and,  as  if  it 
were  a  fit  preparation  for  it,  for  the  revival  of  the  statutes  of 
Richard  II.,  Henry  IV.,  and  Henry  V.  against  heretics,  and 
especially  against  Lollards ;  which  revival  was  to  take  effect 
from  the  20th  of  January,  1555.  The  most  important  of  these 
persecuting  statutes  was  that  of  Henry  IV.,|  which  seems 
alone  to  have  prescribed  or  pointed  out  a  regular  mode  of  in- 
flicting capital  punishment  on  heretics  either  refusing  to  ab- 
jure their  errors  or  relapsed  into  them  after  abjuration.  In 
either  of  these  cases,  when  the  diocesan  pronounced  that  the 
heretic  should  be  left  to  the  secular  arm,  the  sheriff  or  other 
local  magistrate  was  required  "to  receive  the  heretics,  and 
then,  on  a  high  place,  before  the  people,  to  cause  them  to  be 

*  Warton's  Life  of  Sir  T.  Pope,  71.  To  the  singularly  bad  taste  of  lord 
treasurer  Godolphin,  who  complained  to  the  duchess  of  Maryborough  that  a 
pile  of  ruins  in  front  of  her  palace  was  an  unseemly  object,  we  owe  the 
destruction  of  "  Queen  Kli-abcth's  chamber:' 

t  Warton's  Pope,  73.  f  2  Hen.  4.  c.  15.  de  htretico  comburendo. 


262  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1554. 

burnt."  On  this  statute  v/as  founded  the  ancient  writ  "  on 
burning  a  heretic,"  which  appears  to  have  been  the  only  legal 
warrant  for  execution  by  the  lay  magistrate.  The  act  of  the 
six  articles*  had  virtually  abrogated  the  ancient  statute 
against  Lollardy,  by  denouncing  inferior  punishments  against 
the  greater  part  of  such  offences.  With  the  statute  was  now 
revived  the  process  for  its  execution.  Before  that  revival  it 
does  not  appear  that  there  was  any  system  of  jurisdiction  or 
mode  of  procedure  for  the  trial  of  heresy ;  though  hi  the  case 
of  Anabaptists  and  Anti-trinitarians,  who  were  considered  as 
offenders  against  the  essentials  of  Christianity,  the  ancient 
law  was  followed  as  if  it  had  been  still  in  force.  The  Roman 
Catholic  church  was  regarded  as  having  preserved  the  funda- 
mental articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  though  encumbered  and 
obscured  by  corruptions.  No  Roman  Catholic  was  treated  as 
a  heretic  in  the  reign  of  Edward.  It  has  been  said  that 
"  the  Reformation  of  Laws,"  composed  in  the  latter  part  of 
that  prince's  reign,  does  indicate  preparations  for  severity 
against  the  adherents  of  the  old  religion.  This  statement  is 
chiefly  grounded  on  a  text  of  that  projected  code,  which  di- 
rects that  contumacious  and  incorrigible  heretics,  after  all 
other  means  have  been  exhausted,  shall  be  at  length  deliv- 
ered to  the  civil  magistrate  to  be  punished,^  It  is  assumed 
that  the  punishment  must  be  death.  Yet  in  the  very  first 
article  of  the  code,  which  relates  to  atheists  and  unbelievers 
in  Christianity,  death  is  denounced  against  them  in  express 
words.  \ 

The  admission  of  it  into  another  article,  by  mere  implica- 
tion, is  therefore  unreasonable.  It  is  too  terrible  an  enactment 
to  be  admitted  without  express  words.  If  punishment  is  held 
to  be  synonymous  with  capital  punishment,  by  force  of  this 
clause  death  must  be  applied  to  all  heresies.  If  it  was  in- 
tended to  confer  on  the  civil  magistrate  a  large  discretion  in 
the  infliction  of  inferior  punishments  for  the  enumerated  here- 
sies, the  article  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  practice  of  the 
framers,  and  the  opinions  of  the  times.  It  is  incredible  that 
capital  punishment  could  be  denounced  against  the  whole  of 
.1  long  series  of  heresies,  of  which  the  catalogue  nearly  occu- 

*  31  Hen.  8.  c.  14. 

t  "  Ad  extremum  ad  civilem  magistratum  ablegatur  puniendns."  (Re- 
form. Leg.,  de  Judic.  contra  haeresis,  c.  3.) 

The  interval  between  '•  to  be  jnm&M"  and  "  to  be  deprived  of  life"  is 
rather  wide.  Another  passage  is  equally  conclusive:  heretics  are  expressly 
declared  to  be  punishable  by  infamy  and  civil  disabilities,— surely  excluding 
death.  Reform.  Leg.  de  Judic.  con'i  i  lucres,  c  10. 

I  rather  wonder  at  my  friend  Mr.  Hallam's  hesitation  in  a  case  which 
seems  to  me  to  allow  none. 

|  "  Jit  am  illis  al>ju<!i<  amlum  stattiimus."    Reform.  Leg.  r.  1. 


1555.          PROTESTANTS  PERSECUTED.  263 

pies  twenty  quarto  pages,  besides  what  is  called  a  monstrous 
heap  of  other  errors*  less  necessary  to  be  specified,  as  being 
less  prevalent  in  that  age.  Even  admitting  this  unreasonable 
construction  of  the  plan  for  a  reformed  code,  it  affects  only 
the  reputation  of  the  projectors.  It  never  was  adopted  by 
public  authority.  It  was  not  laid  before  parliament.  There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  Protestant  parliament  would 
have  altered  the  very  articles  in  question,  if,  when  they  were 
communicated  to  that  assembly,  they  could  be  supposed  to 
establish  or  countenance  a  practice  perfectly  at  variance  with 
that  of  the  king  and  parliament  of  England  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.  To  hold  that  a  few  words  in  a  Latin  manuscript, 
of  projected  but  not  adopted  laws,  not  printed  till  many  years 
afterwards,  could  have  been  the  incentive  of  those  who  kindled 
the  fires  of  Smithfield  under  Mary,  is  one  of  the  most  unten- 
able of  all  positions.  Truth  and  justice  require  it  to  be  posi- 
tively pronounced,  that  Gardiner  and  Bonner  cannot  plead  the 
example  of  Cranmer  and  Latimer  for  the  bloody  persecution 
which  involved  in  its  course  the  destruction  of  the  Protestant 
prelates.  The  Anti-trinitarian  and  the  Anabaptist,  if  they  had 
regained  power,  might  indeed  have  urged  such  a  mitigation, 
but  the  Roman  Catholic  had  not  even  the  odious  excuse  of 
retaliation. 

The  year  1555  opened  under  the  saddest  and  darkest 
auguries  for  the  now  devoted  Protestants.  A  solemn  embassy 
was  sent  to  Rome,  to  lay  at  the  feet  of  his  holiness  the  peni- 
tential homage  of  his  erring  children  in  England.  On  the  23d 
of  January,  the  bishops  went  to  Lambeth  to  receive  cardinal 
Pole's  blessing.  He  advised  them  to  treat  their  flocks  with 
gentlenesa  On  the  25th,  Bonner,  with  eight  bishops,  and  a 
hundred  and  sixty  priests,  made  a  procession  throughout  Lon- 
don, to  return  thanks  to  heaven  for  the  recovery  of  the  kingdom. 
In  the  midst  of  these  joyful  thanksgivings  effectual  preparation 
was  made  for  scenes  of  another  kind.  As  soon  as  the  solem- 
nities of  reconciliation  were  completed,  at  the  earliest  moment 
that  the  nation  could  be  regarded  as  once  more  a  member  of 
the  Catholic  church,  a  sanguinary  persecution  was  not  threat- 
ened or  prepared,  but  inflicted,  on  the  prelates,  ministers,  and 
members  of  the  reformed  communion.  It  was  the  first  mea- 
sure of  the  restored  church  of  Rome.  On  the  28th  of  Janu- 
ary, a  commission,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Gardiner,  lord- 
chancellor,  and  bishop  of  Winchester,  sat  in  the  church  of 
St  Mary  Overies,  in  Southwark,  for  the  trial  of  Protestants. 

*  "  Possit  inagna  colluvics  aliarum  haDresium  accumulari."— Epilog.  de 
hteres. 


264  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1555. 

His  great  abilities,  his  commanding  character,  and  the  station 
which  he  was  now  chosen  to  fill,  do  not  allow  us  to  doubt  that 
he,  at  least  in  the  beginning,  was  the  main  author  of  these 
bloody  counsels,  although  perhaps  he  did  not  mean  that  the 
persecution  should  extend  beyond  the  eminent  ecclesiastics 
whom  he  called  the  ringleaders  of  sacrilegious  rebellion.  This 
is  at  least  agreeable  to  the  maxim  said  to  have  been  uttered 
by  him  against  mercy  to  the  princess  Elizabeth,  which,  if  he 
ever  used  it,  must  have  been  pronounced  when  the  imperial 
ambassadors  urged  a  similar  advice,  "  that  it  was  vain  to  cut 
away  the  leaves  and  branches,  if  the  root  and  trunk  of  re- 
bellion were  spared."* 

Hooper,  bishop  of  Gloucester,  an  ardent,  austere,  and  scru- 
pulous Protestant,  inclined  to  some  of  the  opinions  afterwards 
called  puritanical,  and  Rogers,  a  clergyman  of  Essex,  were 
the  first  martyrs  in  this  persecution.  Rogers,  on  his  examina- 
tion, said  to  Gardiner,  "  Did  you  not  pray  against  the  pope  for 
twenty  years  1 " — "  I  was  forced  by  cruelty,"  answered  Gardi- 
ner.— "  Will  you,"  replied  Rogers,  "  use  cruelty  to  others  ?  "f 
After  his  condemnation,  he  besought  his  judges  to  grant  him 
an  interview  with  his  wife,  a  helpless  foreign  woman,  who 
had  borne  to  him  ten  children.  So  much  had  the  sophistries 
of  a  canonist  silenced  the  feelings  of  nature  in  the  breast  of 
Gardiner,  that  he  had  the  brutality  to  aggravate  his  refusal  at 
such  a  moment  by  saying,  "  She  is  not  your  wife."  On  his 
way  to  Smithfield,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1555,  he  met  his 
faithful  and  beloved  wife  with  her  ten  childred,  one  of  whom 
she  was  suckling.  He  was  unshaken  by  that  sad  scene,  and 
he  breathed  his  last  triumphantly  in  the  midst  of  suffocating 
flames.J 

Hooper  was  sent  to  die  in  his  episcopal  city.  He,  too,  was 
vainly  tempted  by  a  pardon  held  out  at  the  edge  of  the  pyre 
which  was  about  to  be  kindled  to  consume  him.  The  green 
wood  burnt  weakly.  He  called  upon  the  people  to  bring  more 
fire,  for  the  flames  burnt  his  limbs  without  reaching  his  vitals. 

*  Fuller,  book  viii.  sect.  2. 

1 1  quote  with  pleasure  from  the  work  of  a  tolerant  and  liberal  Roman 
Catholic,  my  learned  and  venerable  friend  Mr.  Butler.  Hist.  Account  of 
English  Catholics,  i.  133. 

t  "  The  married  clergy  were  observed  to  suffer  with  most  alacrity.  They 
were  bearing  testimony  to  the  validity  and  sanctity  of  their  marriage  ;  the 
honor  of  their  wives  and  children  were  at  stake ;  the  desire  of  leaving  them 
an  unsullied  name,  and  a  virtuous  example,  combined  with  a  sense  of  reli- 
gious duty;  and  thus  the  heart  derived  strength  from  the  very  ties  which  in 
other  circumstances  might  have  weakened  it."  These  are  the  just  and 
beautiful  reflections  of  a  fine  writer,  who  should  have  transplanted  into  hia 
writings  more  of  the  benevolence  of  his  nature  and  of  his  life.— Southey, 
Book  of  the  Church,  ii.  151. 


1555.  PROTESTANTS    PERSECUTED.  265 

He  was  three  quarters  of  an  hour  in  dying.  One  of  his  hands 
dropped  off  before  his  death.  But  he  died  with  feelings  of 
triumphant  piety.  To  pursue  the  particulars  of  these  cruelties 
more  minutely  is  beside  the  purpose  of  such  an  undertaking 
as  the  present  They  excited  general  horror,  aggravated, 
doubtless,  by  the  consideration  that  they  were  not  acts  of 
retaliation  for  like  cruelties  suffered  by  Catholics.  Gardiner, 
disappointed  by  so  firm  a  resistance,  withdrew  from  a  share  in 
vain  bloodshed.  Even  Philip  was  compelled  to  cause  one  of 
the  most  celebrated  of  his  Spanish  divines  to  preach  against 
these  odious  proceedings.*  Many  of  the  Catholic  prelates  are 
recorded  by  Protestant  writers  to  have  exercised  effectual  and 
perhaps  hazardous  humanity.  Tunstall,  bishop  of  Durham, 
appears  to  have  sometimes  spoken  to  the  accused  with  a  vio- 
lence foreign  from  the  general  tenor  of  his  life.  It  has  been 
suggested  that,  according  to  a  practice  of  which  there  are 
remarkable  instances  in  other  seasons  of  tyranny  and  terror, 
he  submitted  thus  far  to  wear  the  disguise  of  cruelty,  in  order 
that  he  might  be  better  able  to  screen  more  victims  from 
destruction.  The  task  of  continuing  the  system  of  blood 
devolved  on  Bonner,  bishop  of  London,  a  man  who  seems  to 
have  been  of  so  detestable  a  nature,  that  if  there  had  been  no 
persecution  he  must  have  sought  other  means  of  venting  his 
cruelty.  Petitions  against  the  proceedings  of  government  were 
transmitted  to  the  queen  from  the  Protestant  exiles  who  took 
refuge  abroad,  and  who  too  transiently  and  scantily  imbibed 
somewhat  of  the  spirit  of  religious  liberty  in  the  severe  school 
of  beggary  and  banishment. 

While  the  humanity  of  the  people  was  roused  against  cru- 
elty, the  alarm  of  the  nobility  for  their  large  share  in  the 
plunder  of  the  church  was  excited  by  causes  of  a  very  differ- 
ent and  much  more  ignoble  nature. 

The  pope,  who  had  received  the  English  ambassadors  at 
Rome  with  all  the  splendor  fit  for  the  ministers  of  a  great 
crown  dispatched  on  so  happy  an  errand,  thought  it  necessary 
to  expostulate  with  them  in  private  on  the.  detention  of  the 
goods  of  the  church,  of  which  it  was  necessary  to  restore  the 
uttermost  farthing,  because  the  things  that  belong  to  God 
never  can  be  applied  to  human  uses,  and  they  who  withhold 

*  Burn,  book  ii.  A.  D.  1555.  Carranza,  afterwards  the  celebrated  and  un- 
fortunate archbishop  of  Toledo,  was  one  of  the  preachers  who  accompanied 
Philip.  He  attended  the  emperor  in  his  last  moments.  But  though  eighteen 
years  a  prisoner  in  Spain  and  at  Rome,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  zealous 
Catholic.  Llorente,  Hist.  Crit.  de  1'Inquisition  de  1'Espagne,  iii.  183. 904. 

He  boasts,  in  his  dying  confession,  of  having  caused  the  bones  of  heretics 
to  be  dug  from  their  graves  in  England.  Yet  he  might  have  preached  a  sin- 
cerely tolerant  sermon. 

VOL.  H.  X 


266  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1555. 

the  least  part  of  them  are  in  a  state  of  damnation.*  It  is  not 
difficult  to  understand  the  expedients  by  which  the  ingenious 
and  refined  sophists  of  Rome  might  reconcile  this  private  lan- 
guage of  the  pope  with  his  public  acts.  "  True,"  it  might  be 
said,  "his  holiness  had  remitted  all  ecclesiastical  censures, 
and  dispensed  with  all  ecclesiastical  prohibitions  respecting 
the  property  of  the  church  in  England;  but  he  could  noti 
wash  out  the  indelible  turpitude  of  rapine,  nor  profane  the  \ 
things  set  apart  for  the  worship  of  God.  From  the  penalties 
of  the  canon  law  he  had  released  the  holders  of  church  lands, 
but  he  could  not  release  them  from  being  answerable  to  God 
for  a  breach  of  the  eternal  and  immutable  laws  of  justice." 
Whoever,  indeed,  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  important 
distinction  between  an  immoral  and  an  illegal  act,  will  own 
that  this  dangerously  applied  reasoning  is  not  in  itself  alto- 
gether void  of  some  color. 

Mary  was  not  slow  in  listening  to  the  counsels  of  the  su- 
preme pastor.  She  restored  that  portion  of  the  confiscated 
property  which  still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  crown.  But 
the  pious  princess,  if  we  may  believe  Pallavicino,  "  deemed  it 
advantageous  to  use  condescension  to  private  individuals  who 
held  the  greater  part  of  the  confiscations,  lest  she  might  enrol 
tlje  numerous  usurpers  of  abbey  lands  under  the  standard  of 
an  ill-suppressed  heresy."! 

The  number  of  sufferers  in  the  very  humblest  conditions  of 
life  has  sometimes  been  mentioned  as  extenuating  the  merit 
of  their  martyrdom.  It  may  assuredly  be  represented  with 
more  reason  as  an  instance  of  the  power  of  conscience  to  ele- 
vate the  lowest  of  human  beings  above  themselves,  and  as  a 
proof  of  the  cold-blooded  cruelty  of  the  persecutors,  who,  in 
order  to  spread  terror  through  every  class,  laboriously  dug  up 
victims  from  the  darkest  corners  of  society,  whose  errors  might 
have  hoped  for  indulgence  from  any  passion  less  merciless 
than  bigotry.  Among  the  leaders  of  the  reformed  church, 
Ridley,  the  most  moderate,  and  Latimer,  the  simplest  and 
frankest  of  Protestant  prelates,  perished  in  the  flames  at  Ox- 

*  Fra  Paolo,  lib.  v.  A.  D.  J555.  Storia  del  Cone.  Trident.  In  this  case 
cardinal  Pallavicino,  who  wrote  from  the  archives  of  the  court  of  Rome 
for  the  purpose  of  discrediting  Fra  Paolo,  confirms  it  by  a  remarkable 
and  otherwise  inexplicable  silence.  For  while  he  impugns  at  great  length 
the  narrative  of  the  Venetian  respecting  the  conversation  of  the  pope  with 
ambassadors  about  the  title  of  kingdom  conferred  on  Ireland,  he  passes 
over  in  silence  the  remonstrances  of  the  same  pontiff  against  the  detention 
of  ecclesiastical  property  in  England,  which  BO  acute  and  vigilant  an  an- 
tagonist would  certainly  have  contradicted  if  he  durst.— Pallav.  Istor.  del 
Cone.  Trident,  lib.  xiii.  c.  12. 

In  c.  13.  there  is  almost  a  positive  admission  of  the  veracity  of  Fra  Paolo. 

t  Card.  Pallav.  lib.  xiii.  c.  13. 


1555.  CRANMER.  267 

ford,  on  the  16th  of  October,  1555.  In  tins  persecution,  it  is 
needless  to  add  that  their  death  was  worthy  of  their  cause ; 
for  all  the  martyrs  deported  themselves  fearlessly,  and  often 
joyfully.  Among  the  expedients  employed  to  annoy  them,  one 
of  the  most  effectual  was  that  of  pretended  conferences  on 
the  disputed  doctrines,  in  which  the  audience  was  so  carefully 
selected,  that  they  always  gave  the  honors  and  applauses  of 
victory  to  the  prevailing  faction.  These  conferences  were  a 
series  of  insolent  triumphs.  On  one  of  them  being  proposed 
by  Bonner  to  Philpot,  a  noted  divine  among  the  Protestants, 
he  answered  well,  by  quoting  the  words  of  Ambrose  arch- 
bishop of  Milan  to  the  emperor  Valentinian :  "  Take  away 
the  law,  and  I  will  reason  with  you  ;"*  an  answer  to  which, 
though  perfectly  conclusive,  few  but  the  weaker  party  appeal. 
Every  reader  of  this  part  of  history  will  desire  somewhat 
more  information  respecting  the  fate  of  Cranmer,  the  first  pa- 
triarch of  the  Protestant  church  of  England, — a  man  who, 
with  all  his  infirmity,  would  have  been  blameless  in  an  age 
so  calm  as  to  require  no  other  virtues  than  goodness  and  be- 
nignity. He  was  committed  to  the  Tower  for  treason  in  Sep- 
tember, 1553.  In  October  he  was  convicted  of  high  treason 
for  his  share  in  the  lady  Jane's  proclamation.  In  the  next 
year  he  obtained  a  pardon,  the  government  purposing  to  con- 
vict him  of  heresy,  which  from  them  he  considered  as  no  re- 
proach, though  he  had  earnestly  solicited  a  pardon  for  a  breach 
of  allegiance.  The  Tower  was  for  a  time  so  crowded,  that 
Cranmer,  Ridley,  Latimer,  and  Bradford,  were  thrust  together 
into  one  chamber.  In  the  month  of  April  of  the  succeeding 
year,  Cranmer,  Ridley,  and  "  old  father  Latimer,"  were  re- 
moved from  the  Tower  to  Oxford,  for  the  purpose  of  a  dispu- 
tation. The  demeanor  of  Cranmer  was  acknowledged  by  his 
opponents  to  be  grave  and  modest.  Latimer  declared  that, 
by  reason  of  his  old  age,  his  infirmities,  and  the  weakness  of 
his  memory,  he  could  not  bear  a  debate.  Weston  the  prolo- 
cutor, the  enemy  of  Cranmer,  commended  his  modesty  and 
gentleness,  as  well  as  his  learning  and  skill  as  a  disputant. 
He  was  permitted  to  survive  his  colleagues  for  many  months. 
A  new  commission  was  obtained  from  Rome,  in  order  that  the 
more  rigorous  adherence  to  the  forms  of  law  might  be  perfect- 
ly evident  in  the  case  of  this  eminent  primate.  Unhappily  for 
his  reputation,  he  made  some  of  those  repeated  applications 
to  Mary  for  pardon  by  which  he  had  before  escaped  out  of  ex- 
traordinary peril :  it  is  true  that  in  his  successive  letters  to 
her  he  reasoned  and  expostulated  with  her  upon  her  own  ad- 

*  "  Tolle  Icgcm  et  fiet  certanien." 


268  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND  1556. 

ministration ;  but  his  enemies  saw  his  infirmity  through  the 
disguise  of  apparent  boldness  and  liberty.  He  was  entertain- 
ed, if  we  may  entirely  trust  Protestant  writers,  by  the  Catho- 
lic dean  of  Christ-church,  where  he  was  treated  with  much 
courtesy  and  hospitality,  while  his  hopes  and  his  fears  were 
practised  on  by  men  of  whom  some  might  have  really  wished 
to  save  his  life :  in  an  evil  hour  he  signed  his  recantation.  It 
has  been  plausibly  conjectured  by  Burnet,  that  the  writ  for 
putting  him  to  death  was  sent  down  to  Oxford  early  in  the 
long  period  between  the  date  and  the  execution,  to  be  shown 
to  him  in  order  to  work  more  effectually  on  the  fears  incident 
to  feeble  age.  Whether  he  could  have  been  persuaded  to  ad- 
here to  that  disgraceful  act  for  the  miserable  sake  of  a  few 
years  of  decrepitude,  is  a  question  which  the  unrelenting 
temper  of  Mary  renders  it  impossible  for  us  to  answer.  On 
Saturday  the  22d  of  March,  1556,  he  was,  without  warning, 
though  not  without  expectation,  brought  forth  to  be  burnt  in 
front  of  Baliol  College,  after  a  sermon  preached  in  St  Mary's 
before  the  university,  by  Cole,  provost  of  Eton  College,  who 
was  sent  by  the  queen  to  Oxford  to  preach  on  that  dire  occa- 
sion. After  the  sermon,  the  demeanor  of  the  archbishop  can- 
not be  so  well  described  as  it  is  in  the  letter  of  an  eye-wit- 
ness, a  humane  Catholic,  who  condemned  the  error  of  Cran- 
mer,  but  was  touched  by  his  gentle  virtues,  and  could  pity  his 
infirmities.*  "  I  shall  not  need  to  describe  his  behavior  for 
the  time  of  the  sermon ;  his  sorrowful  countenance,  hi«  face 
bedewed  with  tears,  sometimes  lifting  his  eyes  to  heaven  in 
hope,  sometimes  casting  them  down  to  the  earth  for  shame ; 
an  image  of  sorrow,  but  retaining  ever  a  quiet  and  grave  be- 
havior, which  so  increased  the  pity  in  men's  hearts,  that  they 
unfeignedly  loved  him ;  hoping  that  it  had  been  his  repent- 
ance for  his  transgressions  and  errors."  But  Cranmer,  in  hia 
address  to  the  audience,  undeceived  them  concerning  the 
cause  of  his  contrition  and  the  object  of  his  regret.  "  Now," 
said  he,  "  I  am  come  to  the  great  thing  that  troubleth  my  con- 
science more  than  any  other  thing  that  I  ever  said  or  did 
in  my  life,  and  that  is  the  setting  abroad  of  writings  con- 
trary to  the  truth ;  which  here  now  I  renounce  and  refuse 
as  things  written  vvitli  my  hand,  contrary  to  the  truth 
which  I  thought  in  my  heart,  and  writ  for  fear  of  death 
and  to  save  my  life  if  might  be,  and  that  is  all  such  papers  as 
I  have  written  or  signed  since  my  degradation,  wherein  I 
have  written  many  things  untrue.  And  forasmuch  as  my  hand 
offended  in  writing  contrary  to  my  heart,  my  hand,  when  I 

*  Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  i.  544.  ed.  Oxford,  1812. 


1556.        MARTYRDOM  OF  CRANMER.  269 

come  to  the  fire,  shall  first  be  burned."  He  added  some  terms 
of  needless  insult  against  the  pope,  which  he  perhaps  thought 
necessary  as  a  pledge  of  his  sincerity ;  whereupon,  "  admon- 
ished of  his  recantations  and  dissembling',  he  said,  *  Alas !  my 
lord,*  I  have  all  my  life  loved  plainness,  and  never  dissem- 
bled till  now  against  the  truth,  which  I  am  most  sorry  for ;' 
and  here  he  was  suffered  to  speak  no  more." — "  Then  he  was 
carried  away.  Coming  to  the  stake  with  a  cheerful  counte- 
nance and  willing  mind,  he  put  off  his  garments  with  haste 
and  stood  upright  in  his  shirt.  He  declared  that  he  repented 
his  recantation  right  sore  ;  whereupon  the  lord  William  cried 
'  Make  short,  make  short  ,'f  Fire  being  now  put  to  him,  he 
stretched  out  his  right  hand  and  thrust  it  into  the  flame,  and 
held  it  there  a  good  space  before  the  fire  came  to  any  other 
part  of  his  body,  where  his  hand  was  seen  of  every  man  sen- 
sibly burning,  crying  with  a  loud  voice,  *  This  hand  hath  of- 
fended.'"— "His  patience  in  the  torment,  his  courage  in 
dying,  if  it  had  been  for  the  glory  of  God,  the  weal  of  his 
country,  or  the  testimony  of  truth,  as  it  was  for  a  pernicious 
error,  I  could  worthily  have  commended  the  example,  and 
marked  it  with  the  fame  of  any  father  of  ancient  time.  His 
death  much  grieved  every  man :  his  friends  for  love,  his  ene- 
mies for  pity ;  strangers  for  a  common  kind  of  humanity, 
whereby  we  are  bound  one  to  another."  To  add  any  thing  to 
this  equally  authentic  and  picturesque  narration  from  the 
hand  of  a  generous  enemy,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  beauti- 
ful specimen  of  ancient  English,  would  be  an  unskilful  act  of 
presumption.  The  language  of  Cranmer  speaks  his  sincerity, 
and  demonstrates  that  the  "love  of  truth  still  prevailed  in  his 
inmost  heart.  It  gushed  forth  at  the  sight  of  death,  full  of 
healing  power,  which  engendered  a  purifying  and  ennobling 
penitence,  and  restored  the  mind  to  its  own  esteem  after  a 
departure  from  the  onward  path  of  sincerity.  Courage  sur- 
vived a  public  avowal  of  dishonor,  the  hardest  test  to  which 
that  virtue  can  be  exposed ;  and  if  he  once  fatally  failed  in 
fortitude,  he  in  his  last  moments  atoned  for  his  failure  by  a 
magnanimity  equal  to  his  transgression.  Let  those  who  re- 

*  Probably  lord  Williams  of  Tharae.  The  privy-council  wrote  circular 
letters  to  the  nobility  and  gentry,  desiring  their  attendance  at  the  Inirn- 
in^s,  with  that  of  all  those  whom  they  could  influence.  They  even  thanked 
tlioee  gentlemen  for  compliance,  and  addressed  letters  of  thanks  to  those  of 
UH-  u<;ntry  of  EPSCX,  who,  though  not  written  to,  had  (in  the  words  of 
the  privy-council)  "honestly  and  of  themselves  gone  thither;"  that  is, 
"  to  the  burnings  at  Colchester."— Book  of  P.  C.  in  Bum.  book  ii.  A.  D.  1555. 

t  It  is  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that  lord  William  was  considered  as  the 
mildest  of  the  princess  Kli/.aheth's  jailorn.  Of  what  stiitl'must  the  sterner 
liav.:  been  made? 

X  2 


270  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1556. 

quire  unbending  virtue  in  the  most  tempestuous  times  condemn 
the  amiable  and  faulty  primate ;  others,  who  are  not  so  cer- 
tain of  their  own  steadiness,  will  consider  his  fate  as  perhaps 
the  most  memorable  example  in  history,  of  a  soul  which, 
though  debased,  is  not  depraved  by  an  act  of  weakness,  and 
preserved  an  heroic  courage  after  the  forfeiture  of  honor,  its 
natural  spur,  and,  in  general,  its  inseparable  companion. 

The  firm  endurance  of  sufferings  by  the  martyrs  of  con- 
science, if  it  be  rightly  contemplated,  is  the  most  consolatory 
spectacle  in  the  clouded  life  of  man  ;  far  more  ennobling  and 
sublime  than  the  outward  victories  of  virtue,  which  must  be 
partly  won  by  weapons  not  her  own,  and  are  often  the  lot  of 
her  foulest  foes.  Magnanimity  in  enduring  pain  for  the  sake 
of  conscience  is  not,  indeed,  an  unerring  mark  of  rectitude  ; 
but  it  is,  of 'all  other  destinies,  that  which  most  exalts  the 
sect  or  party  whom  it  visits,  and  bestows  on  their  story  an 
undying  command  over  the  hearts  of  their  fellow-men. 

It  is  painful  to  relate  that  Pole  was  installed  in  the  archie- 
piscopal  throne  of  Canterbury  on  the  day  of  Cranmer's  cruel 
death.  There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  his  temper  disin- 
clined him  to  severity,  if  his  convictions  did  not  allow  him  to 
regard  toleration  as  a  duty.  "  He  never,"  says  Burnet,*  "  set 
on  the  clergy  to  persecute  heretics,  but  to  reform  themselves." 
Yet,  "even  in  Canterbury,  he  left  the  Protestants  to  the 
cruelties  of  the  fiercer  clergy,  and  thought  he  did  enough 
when  he  discouraged  persecution  in  private."  In  a  word,  he 
did  not  do  evil,  but  he  did  not  withstand  it.  His  accomplish- 
ments were  far  more  bright  than  those  of  Cranmer ;  but,  in 
a  good  heart  not  enough  seconded  by  a  brave  spirit,  these  ad- 
verse prelates  resembled  each  other  not  a  little. 

The  sufferings  of  Pole's  family  and  his  own  from  the 
tyrant  whom  they  regarded  as  the  representative  of  the  Pro- 
testant religion  are,  doubtless,  no  inconsiderable  alleviation  of 
his  acquiescence  in  cruelties  which  were  alien  from  his  dis- 
position. His  suffragan  bishop  of  Dover,  and  the  archdeacon 
of  Canterbury,  appear  to  have  been  among  the  most  active 
persecutors. 

Of  fourteen  bishoprics,  the  Catholic  prelates  used  their  in- 
fluence so  successfully  as  altogether  to  prevent  bloodshed  in 
nine,  and  to  reduce  it  within  limits  in  the  remaining  five. 
Justice  to  Gardiner  requires  it  to  be  mentioned  that  his  dio- 
cese was  of  the  bloodless  class.  Thirlby  bishop  of  Ely,  who 
wept  plentifully  when  he  was  employed  in  desecrating  Cran- 
mer, perhaps  thought  himself  obliged  to  cause  one  man  to  be 

*  Bui  net,  Reform,  v.  ii.  part  i.  511.  cd.  London,  1820. 


1556.  PERSECUTION    OP    PROTESTANTS.  271 

burned  at  Cambridge  as  an  earnest  of  his  zeal.  "  Bonner," 
says  Fuller,  "  whom  all  generations  shall  call  bloody,"  raged 
so  furiously  in  the  diocese  of  London,  as  to  be  charged  with 
burning  about  one  half  of  the  martyrs  of  the  kingdom.  Truth, 
however,  exacts  the  observation,  that  the  number  brought  to 
the  capital  for  terrific  example  swells  the  apparent  account 
of  Bonner  beyond  even  his  desert  Christopherson,  bishop  of 
Chichester,  who,  in  his  youth,  had  translated  the  account  of 
the  persecutions  of  the  Christians  by  Eusebius,  practised  the 
like  cruelties  in  his  unfortunate  diocese  with  the  hardness 
and  bitterness  of  an  old  polemic.* 

The  total  number  of  those  who  suffered  in  this  persecution, 
from  the  martyrdom  of  Rogers,  in  February  1555,  to  Septem- 
ber 1558,  when  its  last  ravages  were  felt,  is  variously  related, 
in  a  manner  sufficiently  different  to  assure  us  that  the  relators 
were  independent  witnesses,  who  did  not  borrow  from  each 
other,  and  yet  sufficiently  near  to  attest  the  general  accuracy 
of  their  distinct  statements.  By  Cooper  they  are  estimated 
at  about  290.  According  to  Burnet  they  were  284.  Speed 
calculates  them  at  274.  The  most  accurate  account  is  prob- 
ably that  of  lord  Burleigh,  who,  in  his  treatise  called  "  The 
Execution  of  Justice  in  England,"  reckons  the  number  of 
those  who  died  in  that  reign  by  imprisonment,  torments,  fam- 
ine, and  fire,  to  be  near  400,  of  which  those  who  were  burnt 
alive  amounted  to  290.  From  Burnet's  Tablesf  of  the  sepa- 
rate years,  it  is  apparent  that  the  persecution  reached  its  full 
force  in  its  earliest  years ;  since,  in  ten  months  of  1555,  there 
were  seventy-two  persons  burnt ;  and  the  number  of  thirty- 
nine  i^seven  months  of  1558,  proves  that  it  had  retained  its 
vigor  HUic  last.  The  delay  of  its  commencement  is  impu- 
table  toro)  cause  but  the  impossibility  of  adopting  it  till  the 
formalities  of  the  national  reconciliation  with  Rome  were 
completed.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose,  that  if  Mary  had 
continued  to  live  and  to  reign,  the  persecution  would  have 
been  slackened  in  its  course.  The  stories  in  Fox's  "  Martyr- 
ology"  are  not,  indeed,  to  be  indiscriminately  believed.  That 
honest  but  zealous  and  credulous  writer  would  himself  reject 

*  Fuller,  book  viii. 

t  Strype'8  Eccle».  Mem  c.  Isiv.    Btirne.t's  Table  is  as  follows  :— 

)55.>.  burnt  7'J 

I.V.i;    burnt !'  I 

1557.  burnt  ?'.» 
1559.  from  February  to  September  3!> 

284  ;  an  average  of  71  a  year. 

Had  the  reign  been  ;i<  long  as  that  of  Eli/.ubcth,  the  whole  amount  would 
Lave  exceeded  3500. 


272  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1550. 

the  commendation  of  impartiality :  but  lord  Burleigh,  who, 
if  he  be  wrong1,  has  not  the  same  excuse  with  Fox,  positively 
affirms  that  more  than  threescore  women  and  more  than  forty 
children*  were  burnt ;  that  among-  the  women  "  some  were 
great  with  child,  out  of  whose  bodies  the  child  by  fire  was 
expelled  alive,  and  yet  also  cruelly  burnt."f  To  determine 
the  probability  of  these  "  examples  of  morq  than  heathen 
cruelties,"  it  is  proper  to  observe  that  they  would  be  incredi- 
ble if  they  were  represented  as  part  of  the  deliberate  scheme 
and  original  design  of  a  persecution ;  but  in  the  dreadful  con- 
fusion of  such  scenes  very  violent  acts  are  likely  to  spring 
up,  of  which  the  persecutor  himself  did  not  purpose  to  sow 
the  seeds.  When  the  victims  were  crowded,  when  they  were 
regarded  by  most  visitors  on  such  occasions  as  children  of 
Satan,  when  some  bigots  were  incensed  at  the  obstinate  dis- 
sent of  the  heretics,  others  were  provoked  by  just  reproaches, 
and  even  by  the  cries  excited  by  torture  which  ought  to  have 
rilled  them  with  pity.  The  wicked  took  an  active  part,  to 
satiate  their  malice ;  the  weak,  sometimes,  perhaps,  to  silence 
their  remorse ;  the  base,  very  often  to  recommend  them  by 
forward  zeal,  to  patrons  who  would  in  general  have  disowned 
them.  Originally  composed  of  the  most  ignorant  and  the 
worst  men  of  a  country,  the  habitual  attendants  on  such  oc- 
casions became  in  process  of  time  more  and  more  hardened, 
until  wanton,  unprofitable,  disinterested  cruelty,  the  most 
hellish  of  all  the  inducements  to  human  action,  might  stimu- 
late a  few  chosen  miscreants  to  deeds  which  men  who  live  in 
better  times  are  unable  to  comprehend,  and  all  good  men  are 
loth  to  believe.  A  country  in  such  circumstances  may^gxhibit 
some  of  those  unutterable  horrors  wiiich  are  perp^flHl  in 
great  cities  taken  by  ctorm. 

To  complete  the  estimate  of  the  horrible  consequences  of 
the  persecution,  the  number  of  fugitives  who  sought  an  asy- 
lum from  it  among  foreign  Protestants  ought  not  to  be  over- 
looked. The  free  cities  of  Frankfort  and  Geneva,  together 
with  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland,  opened  their  gates 
to  the  English  exiles.  Calvin  and  Beza  at  Geneva  received 
them  with  open  arms.  Many  of  them  imbibed  a  preference 
for  the  simple  worship  and  republican  equality  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  churches,  which  became  visible  in  their  conduct  after 
their  return,  and  in  the  next  century  generated  controversies 
which  shook  the  British  dominions  to  their  deepest  foundations. 
In  this  exile,  John  Knox  learned  the  rudiments  of  that  ec- 
clesiastical polity  which  kindled  the  spirit  of  civil  liberty  in 

*  Strype,  ibid.  {  Lord  Burleigh. 


1556.  RELIGIOUS    PERSECUTION.  273 

Scotland.  The  principles  of  absolute  monarchy  and  religious 
intolerance  gave  birth  to  the  emigration  of  those  Protestants 
who  were  provoked  and  prepared  by  exile  for  the  overthrow 
of  these  principles,  and  for  widening  the  distance  from  their 
grand  seat  and  support  at  Rome.  These  Protestants,  after- 
wards called  Puritans,  came  at  length  to  estimate  their  ap- 
proach to  truth  by  their  remoteness  from  the  Romish  church, 
and  to  consider  usages  in  themselves  innocent,  or  even  useful, 
as  almost  criminal  if  they  bore  any  likeness  to  the  ancient 
ritual  common  to  the  Latin  church  with  all  other  Christian 
communions.  No  sooner  had  these  exiles  obtained  any  asy- 
lum at  Embden,  Wesel,  Arau,  Strasburg,  Zurich,  and  Frank- 
fort, than  they  began  to  differ  from  each  other  with  tempers 
embittered  by  misfortune.  Among  other  matters  which  ex- 
cited war  among  the  exiles  at  Frankfort,  whence  dissension 
spread  to  the  other  towns,  was  the  resolution  of  that  church 
to  exclude  the  responses  of  the  congregation  in  public  pray- 
ers, and  to  reject  as  superfluous  and  superstitious  the  litany, 
the  surplice,  and  other  parts  of  the  ceremonial  litany,  which 
the  Anglican  church  had  adopted  from  the  practice  of  vener- 
able antiquity.  Who  could  have  foreseen  that  such  controver- 
sies would  have  subverted  thrones,  and  deluged  kingdoms 
with  blood]  Calvin  himself  recommended  a  conformity  to 
the  English  liturgy  for  which  martyrs  were  now  spilling  their 
blood,  until  its  compliances  with  superstition  could  be  reformed 
by  competent  authority.  Cox,  the  tutor  of  Edward  VI.,  was 
confident  in  his  learning,  and  attached  to  every  part  of  the 
reformation  in  which  he  had  a  share.  The  unconquered  soul 
of  Knoxdwdained  submission  to  human  authority,  and  regard- 
ed eveM^oge  of  the  church  of  Rome  as  polluted  by  her 
adoption^TOisfortune  disturbs  the  judgment  as  much  as  pros- 
perity, or,  as  a  quaint  but  very  significant  writer  expresses  it, 
"  Man  in  misery  as  well  as  man  in  honor  hath  no  understand- 
ing."* The  attempts  of  the  magistrates  of  Frankfort  and  of 
the  clergy  o£  Geneva  to  compose  the  discords  of  the  exiles, 
although  in  the  presence  of  a  common  and  cruel  enemy,  were 
utterly  unavailing.  The  ceremonial  of  worship,  though  in  the 
eye  of  religion  as  well  as  of  reason  of  secondary  importance, 
is  better  adapted  than  doctrines  to  be  the  visible  symbols  of  a 
party  and  the  badges  of  the  hostility  of  factions  to  each  other. 
The  greens  and  blues  of  Constantinople,  the  blacks  and  whites 
of  Florence,  the  white  and  red  roses  of  ancient  England,  the 
orange  and  blue  parties  of  more  recent  times,  were  differences 
legible  to  the  most  ignorant  eyes.  The  colors  often  serve  to 

*  Fuller,  b.  viii. 


274  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1556. 

assemble  the  adherents  of  each  party  after  they  have  altered, 
nay  exchanged,  their  original  opinions.  But  in  the  case  be- 
fore us,  though  what  struck  the  eye  of  the  bystander  might 
seem  frivolous,  yet  principles  of  high  importance  lurked  under 
this  surface.  When  the  minds  of  men  are  full  of  reforming 
spirit,  and  predisposed  to  the  distempers  which  are  engendered 
by  such  fullness,  a  little  matter  sometimes  occasions  rather 
than  causes  dangerous  symptoms  to  appear.  The  same  quaint 
but  very  interesting  writer  who  has  been  already  quoted,  ap- 
peals, in  his  account  of  their  division,  to  an  adage  of  Solomon, 
which,  however  homely  in  expression,  is  of  remarkable  wis- 
dom :  "  The  wringing  of  the  nose  bringeth  forth  blood ;  so 
the  forcing  of  wrath  bringeth  strife."* 

The  pretensions  of  the  English  church  to  an  authority  over 
conscience  in  the  form  of  prayer,  seemed  to  the  Puritans  to  be 
a  remnant  of  papal  despotism.  It  was  apparently  the  surplice 
and  the  litany  to  which  the  Puritans  objected.  It  was  partly 
so  in  reality,  inasmuch  as  the  usages  and  devotions  employed 
by  the  English  church  appeared  to  the  most  zealous  of  Pro- 
testants, badges  of  the  papacy  which  they  abhorred.  But 
another  principle  worked  at  the  bottom,  of  which  they  were 
themselves  unconscious,  namely,  that  of  hostility  to  the  impo- 
sition of  these  ceremonies  by  human  authority. 

John  Fox  the  martyrologist  was  one  of  the  stricter  sect. 
His  reputation  for  learning  and  honesty,  however,  made  him 
a  tutor  in  the  first  Catholic  family  of  England.  He  was  con- 
cealed by  the  duke  of  Norfolk  from  a  severe  search  made  for 
him  by  Gardiner.  His  account  of  the  sufferings  of  his  follow 
religionists  under  Mary  was,  perhaps,  the  most  effectual  of 
all  dissuasives  from  reconciliation  with  Rome.  He  abhorred 
falsehood,  but  he  was  very  often  deceived.  When'lalled  be- 
fore archbishop  Parker  to  subscribe  a  declaration  that  he  ap- 
proved the  ecclesiastic  vestments,  he  took  a  small  Greek  new 
testament  out  of  his  pocket,  and  said, — "  To  this  I  will  sub- 
scribe!" Through  tho  friendship  of  the  bishops,  however, 
who  were  mostly  his  fellow  exiles,  he  retained  a  prebend  of 
Salisbury  till  his  death.  Elizabeth  called  him  constantly  her 
"father  Fox,"  but  she  unhappily  rejected  his  eloquent  suppli- 
cation for  sparing  the  lives  of  Flemish  Anabaptists,  for  which 
he  ought  to  be  held  in  everlasting  honor,  f  He  was  probably 

*  Proverbs,  xxx. 

t  "  Vermn  ignilmset  flammis  teptuantibus  viva  niiaeroruin  corpora  torre- 
facera,  judicii  inagis  coecitnte  quam  imjxjtu  voluntatia  errantium,  durum 
istud  ac  Romani  inagis  exempli  quam  evangelicrc  consuetudinis  videtur." 
"  Id  Minna  valdc  deprecor  ne  pyros  ac  flaminas  Smithficliiianas  jamdiu  faus- 
tiseimia  tuis  aiispiciis  line  usque  sopitas  shins  mine  rewindc-scere." — Fuller, 
kiX.A.D.1575. 


1556.  EXILED    PROTESTANTS.  275 

among  the  first  Protestants  who  combined  a  zeal  so  ardent 
with  so  wide  a  toleration. 

It  is  consolatory  to  learn  that  the  pious  exiles  were  liberally 
relieved  by  the  bounty  of  their  countrymen.  Sir  John  Clerke, 
Sir  Richard  Morison  of  Cashiobury,  Sir  Francis  Knollis,  Sir 
Anthony  Cook  the  father  of  the  ladies  Burleigh  and  Bacon, 
celebrated  for  their  learning1,  together  with  dame  Dorothy 
Stafford,  and  dame  Elizabeth  Berkeley,  were  among  the  most 
conspicuous  benefactors  of  the  exiles.  "Although  great  the 
distance  between  London  and  Zurich,  merchants,"  says  Fuller, 
"  have  long  arms,  and  by  their  bills  of  exchange  reach  all  the 
world  over,"  The  king  of  Denmark,  the  elector-palatine,  the 
dukes  of  Wirtemberg  and  Deux  Fonts,  with  all  the  Protest- 
ant free  cities,  stretched  forth  their  arms  for  the  relief  of  the 
sufferers  for  conscience'  sake.  Even  the  divines  of  Germany 
and  Switzerland  learned,  on  this  occasion,  a  generous  frugal- 
ity, which  enabled  them, to  exact  from  their  own  modest  sti- 
pends the  means  of  giving  alms  to  their  brethren.  Some  of 
them  earned  their  bread  by  writing  books ;  others  by  correct- 
ing the  press. 

The  exiles  and  the  Protestants  who  remained  at  home  saw 
in  the  Netherlands,  a  country  nearly  connected  with  England, 
and  under  a  sovereign  not  otherwise  of  a  cruel  nature,*  per- 
secutions carried  on,  by  which  they  were  led  to  consider  their 
own  sufferings  as  only  a  foretaste  of  what  might  be  inflicted 
on  the  followers  of  their  religion.  Father  Paul  assures  us, 
that  from  the  first  edict  of  Charles  V.  to  the  treaty  of  Cateau- 
Cambresis,  in  1558,  50,000  men  had  been  hanged,  beheaded, 
burned,  and  buried  alive  for  their  religion  ;f  andGrotius,  who 
computes  the  number  to  be  double,  may  be  easily  reconciled 
with  the  Italian  historian,  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  admi- 
rable annalist  of  Holland  comprehended  the  period  of  thirty 
years  later.  These  enormities,  under  the  rule  of  an  expe- 
rienced and  politic  monarch,  taught  the  English  what  they 
had  to  dread  from  those  who  not  only  were  actuated  by  the 
fiercest  passions  of  bigots,  but  who  also  considered  bigotry  as 
the  first  principle  of  civil  prudence. 

Two  days  before  the  death  of  Charles  V.  he  added  a  codicil 
to  his  will,  in  which  he  exhorts  his  son  to  inflict  signal  and 
severe  punishment  on  heretics,  "  without  exception,"  says  he, 
"of  any  criminal,  and  without  regard  to  the  prayers  or  to  the 
rank  of  the  person."  "  It  is  dangerous  to  dispute  with  here- 

The  writ  de  heretico  comburendo  had  then  slumbered  for  seventeen  years 
before  this  application. 
*  "  Ingenio  alias  haud  immiti."— Grot. 
t  Fra  Paolo,  lib.  v.  A.  D.  1558.    Grot.  lib.  i. 


276  HISTORY  OP  ENGLAND.  1556. 

tics.  I  always  refused  to  argue  with  them,  and  referred  them 
to  my  theologians ;  alleging  with  truth  my  own  ignorance ; 
for  I  had  scarcely  begun  to  read  a  grammar  when  I  was  called 
to  the  government  of  great  nations."* 

The  history  of  the  persecution  is  that  of  Mary's  reign.  The 
foreign  affairs  of  her  last  two  years,  however,  require  to  be 
summarily  told.  Philip  was  a  cold  husband.  The  scanty 
attractions  and  importunate  fondness  of  Mary  were  not  likely 
to  prevail  over  his  reserved  and  haughty  disposition.  When 
it  became  apparent  that  the  prospect  of  children  by  her  was 
visionary,  he  hastened  to  quit  England,  and  afterwards  disre- 
garded the  affairs  of  a  turbulent  people,  on  whom  he  had  no 
hold  but  the  slight  thread  of  the  life  of  a  hypochondriacal 
woman.  The  only  remaining  inducement  for  his  interference 
in  English  business  was  the  hope  of  deriving  present  supply 
and  support,  from  the  passion  of  his  enamored  wife,  in  his 
war  against  France. 

In  the  mean  time  Philip  succeeded  to  the  greatest  monarchy 
of  the  world,  not  by  the  death  but  by  the  voluntary  abdication 
of  his  father.  Charles  V.,  depressed  and  enfeebled  by  disease, 
weary  of  the  vulgar  irritation  of  business,  and  seeking  for  that 
sweet  repose  which  every  man  in  his  own  case  fancies  that 
he  will  taste  in  retirement,  determined  on  the  abdication  of 
his  vast  dominions,  and  on  hiding  himself  in  the  seclusion  of 
a  Spanish  monastery.  On  the  25th  of  October,  1555,  he 
solemnly  resigned  the  sovereignty  of  the  Belgic  provinces  to 
his  son  Philip,  in  the  capital  city  of  Brussels.  At  this  magni- 
ficent though  mournful  ceremony  the  emperor  wept.  Many 
of  the  beholders  were  melted  into  tears.  As  he  delivered  his 
speech,  he  leaned  on  the  shoulder  of  William  of  Nassau, 
prince  of  Orange,  the  chief  of  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
houses  of  Europe,  who  had  been  trained  from  childhood  in  the 
court,  and  almost  in  the  chamber,  of  the  emperor,  in  whom 
that  sagacious  monarch  discerned  the  seeds  of  great  qualities, 
though  it  was  altogether  beyond  the  foresight  of  man  to  con- 
jecture the  purposes  to  which,  in  twenty  years  after,  they 
were  to  be  gloriously  applied.!  The  whole  monarchy  in 
Spain,  in  Italy,  in  the  Indies,  was  abdicated  soon  after.  All 
devolved  on  Philip,  except  the  imperial  dignity ;  and  the  ter- 
ritories in  Germany,  with  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  which  fell 
to  Ferdinand  king  of  the  Romans,  the  brother  of  the  emperor, 
and  are  to  this  day  ruled  by  his  descendants. 

As  soon  as  the  first  cares  of  the  government  of  so  vast  an 

*  Llorente,  Hist  de  1'Inquisition  tie  1'Espagne,  ii.  155. 
t  Thuan.  Hist,  sui  Temp.  lib.  xvi.  c.  20. 


1557.  RUSSIAN    AMBASSADOR.  277 

empire  allowed  Philip  leisure,  he  once  more  visited  England, 
in  the  spring  of  1557,  and  had  little  difficulty  in  obtaining 
from  Mary  a  declaration  of  war  against  France,  in  which  the 
injuries  most  strongly  urged  were  Henry  II.'s  connexion  with 
Northumberland's  usurpation,  and  his  support  of  Wyatt's  re- 
bellion. Both  these  wrongs  were  resented  too  late ;  and  the 
war  was  not  founded  on  any  regard  to  the  safety,  the  honor, 
or  even  the  greatness,  of  England. 

Among  more  recent  wrongs  were  urged  the  encouragement 
by  France  of  some  revolted  Protestants  in  the  district  of  Calais, 
and  the  connivance  of  Henry  II.  at  the  equipment  of  a  force 
with  which,  in  the  year  1557,  Thomas  Stafford,  a  descendant 
of  the  house  of  Buckingham,  landed  from  France,  and  pos- 
sessed himself  of  Scarborough  Castle,  which  he  retained  only 
two  days.  He  and  his  small  band  were  made  prisoners  by  the 
earl  of  Westmoreland,  who  sent  them  to  London,  where,  on 
the  26th  of  May,  about  a  month  after  their  disembarkation,  he 
was  beheaded  on  Tower-hill,  and  three  of  his  adherents  were 
hanged  at  Tyburn.  The  fires  of  Smithfield  threw  light  enough 
on  the  cause  of  such  revolts ;  and  the  interest  of  Henry  to 
avoid  giving  offence  to  Mary  renders  it  probable  that  he  used 
no  means  of  aiding  her  revolted  subjects. 

It  was  during  the  visit  of  the  king  to  England  that  "  an 
ambassador  from  the  emperor  of  Cathaie,  Muscovia,  and  Rus- 
sia *  arrived  at  London.  The  prince  thus  designated  by  our 
ancient  historians  was  Ivan  Vassilo witch  II.,  a  barbarian  of 
genius,  who  reduced  the  powerful  monarchies  of  Casan  and 
Astracan  to  Russian  provinces,  and,  by  introducing  the  two 
contending  powers  of  standing  armies  and  of  printing-presses 
into  his  country,  prepared  it  for  admission  into  the  common- 
wealth of  Christendom.  The  English  mariners,  whose  daring 
skill  penetrated  every  sea,  had  found  their  way  to  Archangel, 
on  the  Frozen  Ocean,  at  that  time  the  only  sea-port  by  which 
a  commerce  could  be  opened  with  the  vast  dominions  of  Ivan. 
The  commercial  enterprise  of  England,  even  in  that  imma- 
ture infancy,  raised  the  intercourse  with  these  barbaric  regions 
into  such  importance  as  to  produce  this  embassy.  "  The  am- 
bassador was  honorably  received  at  Tottenham  by  the  mer- 
chants of  London  having  trade  in  these  countries,  riding  in 
velvet  coats  and  chains  of  gold,  who  bare  all  his  costs  and 
charges,  from  the  time  of  his  entry  into  England,  out  of  Scot- 
land, whither  by  tempest  of  weather  he  was  driven." 

Even  in  this  reign  Philip  might  have  seen  an  instructive 
example  of  regard  to  that  perfect  equality  in  the  administra- 
tion of  criminal  justice,  which  an  habitual  share  in  its  execu- 
tion as  jurors  has  probably  contributed  to  root  so  deeply  in  the 

VOL.  II.  Y 


278  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1557. 

hearts  of  the  English  people.  Charles  lord  Stourton,  a  noble- 
man of  ancient  lineage  and  fair  possessions  in  Wiltshire,  had, 
by  the  help  of  four  of  his  servants,  committed  a  murder  on 
two  persons  of  the  name  of  Hargill,  with  whom  he  had  been 
at  variance,  but  whom  he  seems  to  have  basely  lured  into  his 
own  mansion  for  the  purpose  of  assassination.  He  had  buried 
their  bodies  fifteen  feet  deep  in  the  earth;  and  when  the  crime 
was  discovered,  petitions  for  pardon  were  conscientiously  re- 
jected by  Mary.  On  the  6th  of  March,  1557,  he  was  hanged 
at  Salisbury,  by  a  halter  of  silk,  which  he  obtained  as  a  badge 
of  his  nobility,  but  which,  in  effect,  became  a  trophy  of  the 
victory  of  justice  over  dishonored  and  abused  rank.* 

Soon  after  the  declaration  of  war,  the  English  troops,  con- 
sisting of  four  thousand  infantry,  a  thousand  cavalry,  and  two 
thousand  pioneers,  joined  the  Spanish  army  on  the  frontiers 
of  Flanders.  They  were  commanded  by  the  earl  of  Pembroke, 
and  led  by  the  flower  of  the  nobility  of  England,  among  whom 
we  are  somewhat  surprised  to  find  the  names  of  Sir  Peter 
Carew  and  Sir  William  Courtenay,  as  well  as  of  lord  Robert 
and  lord  Henry  Dudley,  f  It  is  not  wonderful  that  some  of 
the  English  exiles,  indignant  at  their  fellow-protestants  who 
fought  the  battles  of  their  deadly  enemy,  should  have  expostu- 
lated "  with  those  that  are  called  Gospellers,  and  yet  have 
armed  themselves  against  the  Gospellers  to  please  Jezebel."]: 
Whoever  gainsays  the  indignant  reformer  is  assuredly  trans- 
ported by  the  excellent  virtues  of  obedience  and  patriotism 
beyond  their  reasonable  boundaries. 

The  combined  army  was  commanded  by  Philibert  duke  of 
Savoy,  the  most  renowned  captain  of  his  age,  whom  Henry  II. 
had  robbed  of  his  dominions.  Gaspar  Chatillon,  better  known 
as  the  admiral  Coligny,  threw  himself  as  governor  into  the 
place  of  St.  Quentin,  which  was  speedily  invested  by  the 
enemy ;  his  uncle,  the  constable  de  Montmorency,  advancing 
at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  intended  to  raise  the  siege. 
These  combinations  led  to  the  celebrated  battle  of  St  Quentin, 
which  was  fought  on  the  10th  of  August,  1557.  The  constable 
advanced  very  near,  to  cover  a  detachment,  intended  to  be 
carried  over  a  morass,  or  lake,  which  extended  to  the  walls 
of  the  city.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  boats  were  so 
unexpectedly  great,  that  the  Spanish  army  attacked  Montmo- 
rency while  his  troops  were  divided  and  exposed.  The  defeat 

*  Dugdale,  ii.  229.    Holinshed.  t  Holinshed,  i  v. 

t  Strype's  Mem.  vol.  iii.  part  ii.  p.  604.  Oxford,  1822.  Christopher  Good- 
man, the  author  of  this  language,  justly  represents  those  "  who  maintained 
wicked  Jezebel  in  her  tyranny  at  home,  and  her  ungodly  wars  abroad,  as 
aides  and  helpers  of  her  tyranny." 


1558.  BATTLE    OF   ST.    QtJENTIN.  279 

was  total.  The  greater  part  of  the  artillery  was  captured. 
The  loss  of  the  Spaniards  was  inconsiderable.  Three  thou- 
sand Frenchmen  were  killed,  among  whom  were  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  nobles,  and  the  most  skilful  of  the  veteran 
officers.  The  constable  himself  was  made  prisoner,  with  6000 
men  who  remained  with  him. 

In  spite  of  the  immense  loss,  and  of  the  dismay,  which  is 
generally  far  more  than  proportioned  to  the  other  evils  of  dis- 
comfiture, Coligny,  with  his  little  garrison,  maintained  his 
ruined  fortress  after  the  defeat  and  dispersion  of  his  country- 
men. The  earl  of  Pembroke  with  the  English  auxiliaries 
seem  to  have  been  very  active  in  the  attack,  perhaps  because 
they  were  not  so  much  exhaused  in  the  previous  engagement. 
Henry  Dudley  was  killed.  Philip  rewarded  the  English  with 
the  horrible  monopoly  of  sacking  the  town.  The  black  Reu- 
ters, or  mercenary  cavalry  of  Germany,  were  jealous  of  this 
license  for  all  crimes  granted  to  a  favored  nation.  A  bloody 
scuffle  between  the  two  bands  of  plunderers  closed  the  scene. 

In  spite  of  this  defeat  the  French  monarch  speedily  collect- 
ed a  considerable  army,  which,  about  the  beginning  of  Jan- 
uary, 1558,  advanced,  under  the  command  of  the  celebrated 
due  de  Guise,  to  avenge  the  discomfiture  at  St.  Quentin,  and 
to  deprive  the  English  of  Calais,  the  only  remaining  fragment 
of  the  Plantagenet  monarchy  which  had  once  comprehended 
the  moiety  of  France.  This  town  was  dear  to  the  English, 
as  the  representative  of  their  ancient  renown  in  war.  Brave 
nations  often  value  possessions  more  which  are  the  mere 
prize  of  valor,  than  those  which  produce  vulgar  advantage. 
There  is  something  noble,  and  seemingly  raised  above  base 
interest,  in  prizing  most  highly  those  places  which  have  no 
value  but  that  which  arises  from  being  the  scene  of  a  virtue 
which  reminds  a  people  of  the  glory  of  their  forefathers.  The 
garrison  of  Calais  amounted  only  to  800  men.  They  were 
aided  by  200  townsmen ;  and  the  whole  population  within  the 
walls  was  4200.  To  reduce  it  cost  Edward  III.  eleven 
months ;  and  the  English  flag  had  waved  from  its  battlements 
for  two  hundred  years  and  more.  The  due  de  Guise,  having 
surprised  and  mastered  the  outposts,  made  a  feint  of  preparing 
for  an  assault,  by  a  cannonade  which  destroyed  part  of  the 
walls.  He  really  contemplated  the  capture  of  the  castle 
which  commanded  the  town.  Scarcely  had  he  turned  his 
artillery  against  the  castle,  when  it  was  evacuated  by  the 
garrison,  who  relied  upon  the  efficacy  of  a  stratagem.  They 
placed  several  barrels  of  gunpowder  under  the  castle,  and 
connected  them  with  the  place  to  which  they  had  retired  by 
a  train,  to  which  they  were  to  set  fire  as  soon  as  the  French 


280  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1558. 

should  enter  the  keep.  But,  if  we  may  believe  the  chronicler, 
the  French,  who  had  waded  through  the  ditch,  were  so  wetted 
that  the  moisture  dropping1  from  their  clothes  damped  the 
gunpowder,  probably  that  which  formed  the  train ;  a  small 
interruption  of  which  must  have  been  fatal  to  the  whole  pro- 
ject, which  seems  also  to  have  been  rendered  abortive  by  a 
partial  explosion.  Some  defence  was  made  after  this  disas- 
trous occurrence.*  But  on  the  sixth  night  of  the  siege,  terms 
of  capitulation  were  offered  to  Guise  by  lord  Wentworth,  the 
English  governor  of  Calais.  A  capitulation  was  concluded 
next  morning,  by  which  the  surrender  of  the  town,  with  all 
its  military  instruments  and  stores,  was  stipulated ;  and  all 
the  inhabitants  were  allowed  to  go  where  they  listed,  except 
the  governor  and  fifty  persons  to  be  named  by  the  due  de 
Guise,  who  were  to  be  enlarged  only  on  the  payment  of  ran- 
som. Thus  fell  Calais,  after  a  siege  of  eight  days ;  and  the 
dishonor  of  the  English  arms  was  the  more  signal,  because 
the  place  was  taken  in  the  midst  of  winter,  when  the  adjacent 
ground  was  covered  with  water.  The  surrender  was  as- 
cribed by  general  rumor  to  treachery,  the  usual  expedient  by 
which  the  mortified  pride  of  a  nation  seeks  to  escape  from 
imagined  degradation.  No  nation  has  less  need  of  such  sup- 
positions than  the  English,  yet  none,  perhaps,  is  more  prone 
to  them.  It  is  apparent  that  the  fall  of  Calais  arose  from  the 
inadequacy  of  the  garrison  to  the  defence  of  the  fortress, 
which  must  have  been  the  fault  either  of  the  government  at 
home  or  of  the  earl  of  Pembroke,  the  commander  of  the  army 
in  France  ;  if  it  was  not  occasioned  by  the  overruling  influ- 
ence of  Philip  II.  intent  on  other  objects.  The  town  was 
cruelly  pillaged.  "Thus,"  says  old  Holinshed,  "dealt  the 
French  with  the  English  in  recompense  of  the  like  usage  to 
the  French  when  the  forces  of  king  Philip  prevailed  at  St. 
Quentin,  where,  not  content  with  the  honor  of  victory,  the 
Englishmen  sought  nothing  more  than  the  satisfying  of  their 
greedy  vein  of  covetousness."f  Lord  Grey  made  an  obstinate 
defence  of  the  small  fortress  of  Guines,  but  was  compelled  to 
surrender  on  the  20th  of  January,  with  a  loss  of  800  of  his 
garrison,  and  after  having  slain  about  an  equal  number  of  the 
enemy.  From  the  small  fortress  of  Hammes,  which  was  the 
only  place  unsubdued  in  the  English  pale,  the  garrison  made 
their  escape  by  night  over  a  marsh. 

The  triumphs  in  France,  the  sorrow  in  England,  were 
equally  excessive,  or,  at  least,  equally  disproportionate  to  their 
professed  and  immediate  object ;  for  it  must  be  owned  that  a 

*  Holinshed,  iv.  90.  t  Ibid-  92- 


1558.  DEATH  OF  MARY.  281 

keen  sense  of  the  bitterness  of  defeat  is  one  of  the  firmest 
safeguards  of  every  nation.  In  the  end  of  January,  Henry 
II.  visited  Calais  in  triumph,  and  loaded  the  due  de  Guise 
with  honors  which  were  well  earned  by  that  renowned  cap- 
tain. The  greatness  of  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Lorraine 
received  a  new  accession  by  the  marriage  of  their  niece, 
Mary  Stuart  queen  of  Scotland,  to  Francis  the  dauphin, 
which  was  celebrated  on  the  28th  of  September,  at  Paris, 
with  a  festal  magnificence  worthy  of  the  union  of  the  most 
beautiful  queen,  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her 
age,  to  the  heir  of  the  greatest  among  the  European  monar- 
chies.* 

In  the  month  of  September,  the  emperor  Charles  V.  expired 
at  his  seclusion  in  Estremadura.  In  England  the  persecution 
still  vainly  raged.  On  the  17th  of  November,  Mary,  deserted 
by  an  ungrateful  husband,  perhaps  overcome  by  misgivings 
on  reviewing  her  fruitless  barbarity,  or  at  least  occasionally 
haunted  by  those  visitings  of  nature  which  never  leave  an 
undisturbed  sway  to  the  artificial  power  of  dogmas,  breathed 
her  last  in  London,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  larger  portion 
of  her  subjects.  She  died  of  dropsy,  of  which  the  earlier 
attacks  had  probably  excited  her  illusive  hopes  of  offspring. 
When  on  the  point  of  death,  she  said — "  If  you  open  me,  you 
will  find  Calais  written  on  my  heart ;"  mistaking,  probably, 
the  subject  on  which  her  desponding  thoughts  brooded  for 
the  source  of  disorder,  and  thus  ennobling,  by  the  fiction  of  a 
mental  origin,  a  distemper  which  sprung  from  causes  of  a 
more  bodily  and  humiliating  nature. 

Mary  is  a  perfect  and  conspicuous  example  of  the  fatal 
effects  of  error  in  rulers ;  for  to  error  alone  the  greater  part 
of  the  misery  caused  by  her  must  be  ascribed.  The  stock 
was  sour,  and,  perhaps,  no  culture  could  have  engrafted  ten- 
derness and  gentleness  upon  it  She  adhered  to  her  princi- 
ples ;  she  acted  agreeably  to  conscience :  but  her  principles 
were  perverted  and  her  -conscience  misguided  by  false  notions 
of  the  power  of  sovereigns  and  of  laws  over  religious  opin- 
ion*. A  right  judgment  on  that  single  question  would  have 
changed  the  whole  character  of  her  administration,  and  alto- 

*  Buchan.  Hpithal.  Franciaci  Valesii  et  Marirv  Stuart ;e. 
Fortuuati  ambo  et  felicc  teinpore  oati, 
Et  thalamis  juncti! 

Sine  niilite  Scoto. 
Nulla  unquam  Francis  fulsit  victoria  castris. 

Eximice  delectat  gralia  -forma1  ? 

A  spice  quantus  honor  frontia,  qux  gratia, 

Blandis  interfusa  gcnio,  &c. 

Y2 


282  HISTORY  or  ENGLAND.  1558. 

gether  varied  the  impression  made  on  posterity  by  the  history 
of  her  reign. 

On  the  next  day  the  death  of  Mary  was  followed  by  the 
demise  of  her  relation,  cardinal  Pole,  a  person  far  more  amia- 
ble by  nature ;  who,  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  was,  both  by 
learning  and  virtue,  regarded  throughout  Europe  as  the  most 
distinguished  ornament  of  the  old  church.  Messages  passed 
between  them  to  the  last  moment;  and  when  he  was  ap- 
prized of  her  departure,  he  calmly  prepared  for  his  own. 
This  dying  friendship  between  the  two  remnants  of  a  royal 
race,  the  stays  of  an  ancient  religion,  has  a  natural  power  of 
raising  the  thoughts  and  touching  the  feelings  of  man. 

Unhappily,  Pole  acquiesced  in  the  systematic  persecution 
of  Protestants.  His  opinions,  indeed,  appear  to  have  been 
those  of  a  good  man,  disposed  to  a  very  merciful  application 
of  intolerant  laws,  rather  than  denying  the  justice,  or  refusing, 
in  cases  where  all  other  remedies  failed,  to  carry  them  into 
execution.*  But  it  is  probable  that  if  he  had  been  the  sole 
master  of  Mary's  councils,  his  lenient  temper  and  Christian 
compassion  would  have  almost  stood  instead  of  the  principles 
of  religious  liberty. 

The  last  act  of  Mary's  reign  was  the  dispatch  of  ambassa- 
dors, to  negotiate  a  general  peace,  to  Cambray,  then  a  city  of 
the  Low  Countries.  This  important  negotiation  was  not 
closed  till  the  month  of  march  following :  but  it  was  opened 
by  Mary  under  the  influence  of  considerations  which  began 
to  outweigh  those  of  local  and  temporary  policy  in  the  minds 
of  Roman  Catholic  monarchs.  The  king  of  France  agreed  to 
restore  Calais  and  its  territory  to  England  within  eight  years, 
under  a  penalty  of  500,000  crowns ;  and  the  treaty  compre- 
hended Francis  and  Mary,  "  king  and  queen  dolphin,"  with 
the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  f  The  stipulations  of  this  treaty, 
however,  as  they  affected  the  British  islands,  were  of  little 
moment  compared  with  the  fears  of  religious  revolution  be- 
coming universal,  which  for  a  time  suspended  the  rivalships 
and  enmities  of  Catholic  monarchs.  It  was  now  evident  to 
the  great  sovereigns  that  an  alliance  between  France  and 
Spain  (originally  intended  to  comprehend  England)  was  ne- 
cessary, to  reduce  an  armed  heresy,  which  threatened  not 
only  to  level  the  church  to  the  ground,  but,  in  their  opinion, 

*  Thuanus,  lib.  xvii.  Philip's  Life  of  Pole,  sect,  x  London,  17(57  ;  an  ele- 
gant work,  of  which  this  portion  is  stained  by  the  attempt  of  the  writer  to 
cover  his  church  by  an  appeal  to  the  exhortation  lo  the  civil  power,  to  be 
merciful  on  delivering  a  heretic  into  their  hands,  which  is  an  aggravation 
of  cruelty  by  hypocrisy.  He  rightly  remarks,  that  Pole's  speeches  for  toler- 
ation are  the  offspring  of  Mr.  Hume's  ingenuity. 

t  Durnont,  Corps  Diplom.  loin.  v.  part  i.  pp.  28,  29. 


1558.  DESIGNS   AGAINST   PROTESTANTISM.  283 

to  overthrow  the  thrones  of  kings,  and  to  bury  the  whole 
order  of  human  society  under  the  ruins  of  government  and 
religion.  Experience  had  taught,  in  all  ages,  that  these  great 
principles  stood  or  fell  together.  Two  religions,  it  was  then 
believed,  were  no  more  reconcilable  in  a  state  than  two  gov- 
ernments ;  and  recent  events  had  demonstrated,  to  the  con- 
viction of  the  ruling  ministers,  that  men  could  not  be  taught 
to  throw  off  the  dependence  on  priests,  without  learning  to 
examine  the  limits  of  the  power  of  kings.  There  are  many 
dispersed  and  indistinct  traces  of  such  reflections  and  projects 
having  been  the  subject  of  discussion  in  1545,  at  the  first 
meeting  of  the  council  of  Trent.  To  forward  a  concert  against 
heresy  seems  to  have  been  avowed  by  cardinal  Pole  as  one  of 
the  motives  for  the  zeal  with  which  he  promoted  peace  be- 
tween France  and  Spain.  These  projects  ripened  in  the 
spring,  1558,  at  the  private  conferences  of  Perrenot  bishop  of 
Arras,  better  known  to  history  under  his  subsequent  name  of 
cardinal  Granville,  with  the  cardinal  of  Lorraine,  at  Pe- 
ronne,  in  which  the  former  minister  strongly  represented 
"  the  infatuation  and  dishonor  of  the  continuance  of  hostilities 
between  the  two  first  crowns  of  Christendom,  in  which  France 
and  Spain  turned  against  each  other  those  arms  which  ought 
to  be  combined  against  the  Turk,  the  common  enemy  of  the 
Christian  name ;  but  if  not  against  that  odious  but  distant  and 
not  formidable  adversary,  then  surely  against  those  far  more 
perilous  foes,  fostered  in  the  bosom  of  the  great  monarchies 
themselves,  the  modern  heretics,  who,  during  the  Anabaptist 
domination  in  Lower  Germany,  had  furnished  the  most  ample 
proofs  of  a  cruelty  which  spared  neither  age  nor  sex,  and  of 
the  tendency  of  their  doctrines  to  destroy  property,  as  well  as 
to  overthrow  lawful  authority  in  church  and  state."*  Peace 
and  friendship  between  the  two  monarchs,  with  the  conceal- 
ment of  these  designs  for  the  present  from  all  Frenchmen  (the 
cardinal  was  a  prince  of  Lorraine),  were  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  probability  of  success  in  an  enterprise  so  hazardous. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  ten  years  before,  at  the  first 
convocation  of  the  council  of  Trent,  Perrenot  had  prepared 
the  young  prince  for  the  favorable  reception  of  these  political 
doctrines.  Some  historians  tell  us  that  secret  articles  against 
the  Protestants  had  been  adopted  in  the  meeting  at  Peronne. 
Certain  it  is,  that  Henry  II.  was  induced,  by  the  plausibility 
of  Perrenot's  reasonings,  and  by  their  concurrence  with  the 
most  approved  policy  of  that  age,  to  make  peace  with  Spain, 

*  Thuani  Hist.  lib.  xx.  c.  9.  and  lib.  xxii.  c.  10.  Wagenaar  Vaderlandsche 
Historic,  part  vi.  pp.  30,  31.  Walsingham's  Letters,  xcix. 


284  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1558. 

and  to  begin  that  persecution  of  his  Protestant  subjects  which 
grew  into  civil  wars  of  forty  years'  duration,*  attended  with 
events  so  horrible  as  to  be  without  parallel  in  the  history  of 
civilized  Europe.  These  alanning  confederacies  were  acci- 
dentally disclosed  to  one  of  the  illustrious  persons  who  were 
most  deeply  interested  in  their  discomfiture.  William  of  Nas- 
sau, prince  of  Orange,  was,  according  to  the  usage  of  that 
period,  sent  to  Paris  at  the  head  of  the  hostages  for  the  ob- 
servance of  the  treaty  of  Cateau-Cambresis.  He  was  receiv- 
ed with  the  honors  of  an  independent  sovereign,  and  with  the 
respect  due  to  his  high  descent.  Henry  treated  him  with  un- 
reserved freedom ;  as  one  who  lived  in  the  chamber  of  the 
emperor,  and  privy  to  all  the  thoughts  of  that  great  monarch, 
and  who  was  now,  as  he  had  been  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
thought  to  be,  admitted  into  the  most  secret  councils  of  his 
royal  master.  At  one  of  the  hunting  parties  of  the  court, 
when  Henry  and  the  prince  were  in  the  same  carriage,  the 
king  spoke  to  William  as  to  a  man  who  knew  the  secret  stipu- 
lations or  understanding  between  the  crowns  for  the  extirpa- 
tion of  heresy.  William  spoke  little,  which  his  ordinary  mod- 
esty and  taciturnity  enabled  him  to  do  without  affectation.  He 
thus  concealed  his  ignorance,  and  yet  avoided  an  express 
breach  of  truth.  He  suffered  the  French  monarch  gradually 
to  betray  the  full  extent  of  the  designs  of  the  royal  allies.  "  I 
heard,"  says  the  prince  himself,  "  from  the  mouth  of  king 
Henry,  that  the  duke  of  Alva  had  agreed  with  the  French 
minister  on  the  means  of  exterminating  all  who  were  sus- 
pected of  Protestantism  in  France,  in  the  Netherlands,  and 
throughout  Christendom,  by  the  universal  establishment  of  an 
inquisition  worse  and  more  cruel  than  that  of  Spam.  I  con- 
fess that  I  was  moved  to  pity  by  the  thoughts  of  so  many  good 
men  doomed  to  the  slaughter,  and  I  deliberately  determined 
to  do  my  utmost  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Spanish  army,  the 
instrument  of  these  wicked  designs,  from  a  country  to  which 
I  was  bound  by  the  most  sacred  ties."f  Henry  had  then  no 
suspicion  that  William  secretly  inclined  to  the  cause  of  the 
reformation,  which  was  openly  embraced  by  some  branches 
of  his  family;  and  that  Philip  disliked  and  distrusted  the  fa- 
vorite of  his  lather,  who  was  now  confined  to  missions  or  em- 
ployments of  magnificent  parade,  but  was  excluded  from 

*  The  account  received  by  Thuanus  from  his  father,  who  vainly  endeav- 
ored to  stem  the  tide,  is  equally  authentic  and  curious. 

t  Apologie  de  Guill.  Prince  d'Orange,  13th  Dec.  1580.  in  Dumout,  Corps 
Diplomat  torn.  v.  part  i.  p.  392.  Vander  Vinkt,  Troubles  des  Pays  Bas,  i. 
p.  ISO.  Wagenaar,  Vaderl.  Hist.  lib.  xxi.  c.  xi.  part  ii.  p.  35. 


1558.  MEASURES   AGAINS?   HERESY.  285 

those  mysterious  counsels  oa  which  Perrenot  and  Alva  only 
were  consulted. 

The  Roman  court  had  generally  betrayed  the  same  disincli- 
nation to  assemble  general  councils,  as  absolute  monarchs 
have  usually  manifested  to  the  convocation  of  representative 
or  legislative  Rssemblies.* 

For  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  dissent  of  Luther  from 
the  church,  the  demands  of  the  emperor  and  the  empire  for 
the  convocation  of  a  general  council  were  evaded  by  succes- 
sive pontiffs  on  various  pretexts.  The  history  of  this  period 
is  full  of  instruction  relating  to  the  course  of  human  affairs 
in  those  critical  periods  of  general  changes  in  opinions  and 
institutions  of  mankind,  which  are  seldom  accomplished  with- 
out terrible  collisions  of  immense  masses,  attended  by  such 
ruin,  rapine,  and  bloodshed,  that  good  men  too  often  recoil 
from  any  share  in  them,  and  thus  leave  them  to  the  exclusive 
guidance  of  those  whose  most  eminent  quality  is  boldness,  and 
who  often  make  amends  for  the  want  of  that  two-edged  quality, 
by  servility  towards  every  prevalent  faction.  In  the  writings  of 
the  period  now  under  consideration,  we  see  all  the  common- 
places, on  the  side  either  of  establishment  or  innovation,  as 
ably  presented  and  as  thoroughly  exhausted  as  in  any  age  of 
the  world.  The  forms  and  language  are,  indeed,  peculiar  to 
the  time :  but  the  substance  is  that  struggle  between  the  prin- 
ciples of  preservation  and  improvement,  on  the  right  balance 
of  which,  the  quiet  and  well-being  of  society  are  suspended 
often  by  too  slender  a  thread. 

Of  the  various  projects  now  proposed  for  the  extinction  of 
the  heresies  of  the  age,  the  first  place  seemed  to  be  due  to 
the  plan  of  extending  to  all  Christendom  the  system  of  "  in- 
quisition into  heretical  pravity,"  which  subsisted  in  full  vigor 
only  in  Spain.  This  famous  tribunal  originated  in  the  com- 
missioners for  inquest  or  inquiry  regarding  the  crime  of  here- 
sy, who  were  appointed  by  successive  popes  to  aid  the  bishops, 
or,  in  case  of  necessity,  to  act  with  them  during  the  wars 
which  in  the  thirteenth  century  were  waged  with  unmatched 
cruelty  against  the  people  of  Languedoc.f  The  emperor 
Frederic  II.,  about  1220,  had  added  the  sanction  of  the  im- 
perial authority  (then  deemed  to  have  a  certain  influence 
among  all  European  nations)  to  the  decrees  of  the  council  of 
Lateran,  by  an  edict,  in  which  he  commanded  all  incorrigible 
heretics  to  be  punished  with  death.  The  formalities  of  an  in- 

*  The  repugnance  is  owned,  and  the  parallel  admitted  by  Pallavicino. 
t  Llorente,  Hist.  Crit.  de  1'Inquisit.  d'Espagno,  i.chap.  ii.  Sismondi,  Hist, 
des  Francois. 


286  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1558. 

quisition  spread  over  several  countries,  where  it  preserved  a 
languid  existence  for  more  than  two  centuries.  But  it  was  in 
the  latter  years  of  the  fifteenth  century  that  it  was  established 
with  terrific  powers,  and  moved  to  sanguinary  activity  over 
the  Spanish  peninsula,  of  which  every  part,  except  Portugal, 
was  united  under  one  sceptre  by  the  marriage  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  the  sovereigns  of  Aragon  and  Castile.  It  was  at 
first  chiefly  pointed  against  the  Jews,  who,  though  always 
plundered  by  the  kings  of  Spain,  and  not  seldom  massacred 
by  the  populace,  had,  by  their  experience  in  commerce,  and 
their  knowledge  of  books  and  business,  found  their  way, 
through  intermarriage  and  feigned  conversion,  into  the  centre 
of  the  Spanish  nobility.  All  the  nonconforming  Jews  were 
banished  from  the  whole  monarchy  by  an  edict  which  imme- 
diately followed  the  conquest  of  Grenada.  The  avowed  Ma- 
homedans  of  Grenada  were  afterwards  subjected  to  the  same 
banishment,  in  spite  of  the  promises  made  to  them  when  they 
were  finally  subjugated,  under  a  pretext,  copied  by  tyrants  in 
after  times,  "  tbat,  it  having  pleased  God  that  there  were  no 
longer  any  unbelievers  in  the  kingdom  of  Grenada,  their 
majesties  were  pleased  to  forbid,  under  pain  of  death,  the 
entry  of  the  Moors  into  that  province,  lest  they  might  shake 
the  faith  of  the  new  converts."*  The  power  of  the  inquisi- 
tion, now  more  and  more  relieved  from  the  restraints  of  an 
appeal  to  Rome,  was  exerted  in  every  case  where  suspicions 
were  entertained  of  the  sincerity  of  the  new  Christians.  Such 
was  the  unwearied  cruelty  of  the  tribunal  in  its  state  of  youth- 
ful vigor,  that  Torquemada,  the  first  inquisitor  general,  is 
believed,  in  the  eighteen  years  of  his  administration,  to  have 
committed  to  the  flames  more  than  10,000  victims,  f  To  these 
are  added  more  than  90,000  persons  condemned  to  the  punish- 
ments which  were  called  secondary — infamy,  confiscation, 
perpetual  imprisonment..  They  were  apprehended  on  slight 
suspicion ;  they  never  heard  the  names  of  their  accusers ;  the 
inquisitors  communicated  only  such  parts  of  the  supposed  evi- 
dence to  the  accused  as  such  judges  deemed  fit ;  the  prisoners 
remained  for  years  in  their  dungeons,  alone,  ignorant  of  what 
passed  without,  and  in  a  state  where  no  man  dared  to  attempt 
to  correspond  with  them,  who  was  not  willing,  without  serv- 
ing them,  to  share  their  fate.  Torture  was  applied  to  them 
in  the  presence  of  two  inquisitors.  Sentence  was  pronounced 

*  20th  July,  1501,  and  12th  February,  1502.    Llorente.  i.  335. 

t  Llorente,  i.  280.  His  calculations  appear  to  be  fairly  made  from  reason- 
able data.  The  last  person  burnt  alive  by  the  inquisition  was  an  unfortu- 
nate woman  at  Seville,  in  1781,  for  licentious  intercourse  with  a  demon. 
Llorente,  ir.  270. 


1558.  SPANISH    INQUISITION.  287 

in  secrecy,  and  executed  at  "  the  acts  of  faith"  as  they  were 
called,  where  multitudes  of  the  impenitent  heretics,  clad  in 
woollen  garments,  on  which  were  painted  monstrous  forms  of 
fiends,  and  hideous  representations  of  hell-fire,  walked  in  pro- 
cession to  the  flames.  These  acts  of  faith  were  solemnized 
with  a  religious  ceremonial,  combined  with  such  splendor  and 
magnificence  as  fitted  them  for  exhibition  at  the  coronation 
of  a  king  or  the  nuptials  of  a  young  queen.  In  the  year  1560, 
when  Philip  II.  wedded  the  princess  Elizabeth  of  France,  the 
inquisitors  of  Toledo,  among  other  preparations  for  the  wel- 
come and  becoming  reception  of  a  queen  of  thirteen  years 
old,  exhibited  one  of  the  acts  of  faith,  when  Lutherans,  Ma- 
hometans, Jews,  and  sorcerers,  were  burnt  alive  in  her  pres- 
ence, before  the  eyes  of  many  nobles  and  prelates,  and  of  the 
assembled  cortez  of  the  kingdom,  who  met  together  to  swear 
allegiance  to  the  wretched  Don  Carlos,  the  heir  apparent  of 
the  crown.*  Forty-five  persons,  of  whom  many  were  distin- 
guished men,  had  been  burnt  alive  as  Lutherans  at  Valladolid, 
in  the  year  before,  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and  a  numerous 
assembly  of  noble  Spaniards  and  of  foreign  guests  of  high 
station.  We  find  the  names  of  at  least  six  Englishmen  in 
two  years  in  the  list  of  victims,  though  the  two  countries 
were  then  at  peace,  and  though  the  persons  put  to  death  were 
probably  traders  or  mariners  earning  their  subsistence  under 
the  faith  of  treaties. 

John  Louis  Vives,  a  Spaniard  of  great  learning  and  reputa- 
tion, bewails  the  fate  of  moderate  and  charitable  Catholics  in 
Spain,  nearly  thirty  years  before  the  period  which  we  are  now 
contemplating.  "  We  live,"  says  he  in  a  letter  to  Erasmus, 
on  the  18th  of  May,  1534,  "  in  hard  times,  in  which  we  can 
neither  speak  nor  be  silent  without  danger."  In  the  forty- 
three  years  of  the  administrations  of  the  first  four  inquisitors 
general,  which  closed  in  the  year  1524,  they  committed  18,000 
human  beings  to  the  flames,  and  inflicted  inferior  punishments 
on  200,000  persons  more,  with  various  degrees  of  severity, 
indeed,  but  the  least  of  which  the  judges  intended  that  bigoted 
and  frantic  multitudes  should  look  on  with  aversion  and  abhor- 
rence, as  an  indelible  brand  of  infamy  and  a  badge  of  perpetual 
proscription.  Some  of  these  occurrences  in  Spain,  and  the 
numerous  executions  in  the  Netherlands,  must  have  been 
well  known  in  England  about  the  period  of  the  death  of  Mary, 
and  could  not  fail  to  affect  the  state  of  opinion  in  this  island 
so  much  that  a  writer  of  English  history  cannot  with  justice 
exclude  all  mention  of  them  from  his  narrative ;  especially 

*  Llorente,  ii.  chap.  24. 


288  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1558. 

when  the  memorable  circumstances  are  considered,  which  we 
learn  from  the  weighty  testimony  of  the  prince  of  Orange, 
that  the  Spanish  and  French  monarchs  meditated  the  exten- 
sion over  all  Christendom  of  such  a  tribunal  as  the  inquisition 
had  already  shown  itself  to  be  by  its  exercise  of  authority  in 
Spain. 

The  second  expedient  proposed  for  quieting  the  disorders 
of  Europe,  was  that  of  assembling  a  general  council.  Had 
such  an  assembjy  been  convened  early,  had  they  then  adopted 
effective  reforms  in  the  constitution  of  the  church,  and  rigor- 
ously enforced  amendment  in  the  conduct  of  the  clergy ;  had 
they,  before  the  breach  was  visible  and  wide,  seasonably 
granted  two  concessions, — the  marriage  of  ecclesiastics  and 
the  use  of  the  cup  by  the  laity,  which,  as  both  were  owned  to 
be  prohibited  by  mere  human  authority,  might  have  been  sur- 
rendered without  any  sacrifice  of  the  highest  pretensions  of 
Rome  herself, — it  seems  very  probable  that  farther  reforma- 
tion might  have  been  evaded,  that  its  progress  might  have 
been  retarded,  and  that  its  complete  accomplishment  at  some 
remote  period,  after  a  long  course  of  insensible  approximation, 
might  have  at  last  occurred  without  a  shock.  The  ambition 
or  avarice  of  princes ;  the  furious  zeal  of  multitudes,  espe- 
cially of  sectaries,  who  swelled  the  animosities  of  the  great 
parties  by  their  absurd  and  odious  opinions ;  and  the  anger, 
the  pride,  the  passion  for  mental  domination,  which  tarnished 
the  piety  and  sincerity  of  the  Protestants;  were  formidable 
obstacles  to  what  seems  to  us  the  most  desirable  consumma- 
tion. In  the  reigning  church,  the  absolute  want  of  the  policy 
of  seasonable  concession,  not  indeed  an  infallible  remedy,  but 
the  sole  resource  in  times  of  general  trouble  from  lasting 
causes,  is  more  remarkable  and  more  blameworthy.  Among 
them,  however,  ample  allowance  is  due  to  the  sincere  reve- 
rence for  what  was  anciently  established,  and  to  those  pious 
affections  which  were  so  interwoven  with  the  doctrines  and 
worship  of  their  fathers,  that  their  hearts  fondly  clung  to 
every  rite  and  to  every  word,  which  were  hallowed  in  their 
eyes  as  being  blended  from  their  infancy  with  the  most  sacred 
feelings,  and  the  most  awful  truths.  How  painful  it  must 
have  been  to  many  an  affectionate  heart,  to  condemn  a  long 
line  of  forefathers  as  guilty  of  fatal  and  irreparable  error ! 
Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten  that  many  wise  statesmen,  without 
sharing  the  amiable  infirmities  of  the  pious,  might  tremble  at 
the  impenetrable  consequences  of  stirring  that  vast  mass  of 
opinions,  sentiments,  habits,  and  prejudices,  of  which  a  large 
part  of  the  religion  and  morality  of  men  is  composed. 

The  court  of  Rome,  according  to  its  established   policy, 


1558.  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT.  289 

eluded  the  meeting  of  the  council  successfully,  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  after  Luther  had  struck  the  first  blow  at  the 
pontifical  throne. 

At  length  a  council  was  summoned  to  meet,  and  actually 
assembled  at  Trent,  in  December,  1545.  There  were  present 
only  four  archbishops,  twenty-eight  bishops,  three  abbots,  and 
four  generals  of  religious  orders ;  who,  with  the  three  le- 
gates* and  the  Cardinal  of  Trent,  made  a  total  of  forty-three. 
In  the  beginning  of  1547,  the  council  was  transferred  to  Bo- 
logna, where  they  slumbered  for  two  years.  Their  second 
session  at  Trent  was  suspended  for  two  years,  in  1552,  and 
was  not,  in  fact,  assembled  for  ten  years  afterwards.  At  the 
second  assembly,  which  met  in  April,  1562,  and  continued  till 
December,  1563,  the  number  of  prelates  present  at  the  open- 
ing was  only  ninety-two ;  but  it  increased  in  its  progress  so 
much,  that  the  decrees  were  finally  subscribed  by  four  legates, 
two  cardinals,  three  patriarchs,  twenty-five  archbishops,  two 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  bishops,  seven  abbots,  thirty-nine 
proxies,  and  seven  generals  of  religious  orders.  The  ambas- 
sadors of  the  empire  of  France  and  of  Spain  attended  the 
council.  England  declined  to  receive  a  legate  from  the  pope, 
who  was  sent  to  desire  that  the  representatives  of  the  British 
islands  should  appear  in  the  assembly  of  the  Christian  church. 
The  Protestant  states  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia  demanded 
safe-conducts  more  ample  and  precise  than  it  was  thought  fit 
to  grant.  Moreover,  they  refused  to  acknowledge  the  au- 
thority of  the  pope,  under  which  the  council  was  assembled. 
It  was  suggested  that  they  might  appear  and  confer  under  a 
protestation,  affirming  that  they  did  not  thereby  waive  their 
rights :  but  the  real  difficulties  lay  too  deep  to  be  reached  by 
any  temporary  expedients.  The  Protestants  allowed  no  au- 
thority but  the  Scriptures ; — a  noble  principle,  if  they  had 
adopted  more  consistently  in  their  practice  the  legitimate 

*  Of  whom  cardinal  Pole  was  one.  The  history  of  this  celebrated  council 
has  been  related  by  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi,  a  Venetian  of  the  order  of  the  Servites, 
with  extraordinary  ability,  with  the  liberty  of  an  Athenian  philosopher^ 
but  with  an  almost  Protestant  hostility  to  the  court  of  Rome.  Many  years 
after  the  death  of  the  illustrious  friar,  cardinal  Pallavicino,  at  the  desire  of 
the  supreme  pontiff,  who  caused  him  to  be  supplied  with  the  correspondence 
of  the  papal  legates  at  Trent,  composed  a  controversial  history,  avowedly 
written  to  confute  the  statement  of  Father  Paul.  His  materials,  however, 
though  we  cannot  know  the  fairness  with  which  he  employed  them,  stamp 
a  value  on  his  work,  especially  as  a  report  of  the  debates,  and  a  record 
of  the  formal  proceedings  of  this  famous  assembly,  the  last  general,  or,  as 
it  is  called,  oecumenical  council.  Pallavicino,  whose  ecclesiastical  policy 
was  that  of  a  cardinal  and  a  Jesuit,  is,  notwithstanding,  commended  by 
Algernon  Sidney,  who  personally  knew  him ;  probably  on  account  of  the 
purity  of  his  style, — the  only  particular  in  which  he  is  generally  preferred 
to  the  philosophic  Servite. 

VOL.  II.  Z 


290  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1558 

consequence  of  it — that  every  man  must  judgfe  for  himself 
of  all  religious  doctrines.  The  Catholics  maintained,  that 
whatever  was  spoken  by  Christ  was  at  least  as  sacred  as 
what  was  written  by  his  followers  ;  that  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament  were  occasional,  and  intended  either  to  cor- 
rect misapprehension,  or  to  supply  deficiencies  in  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Christian  missionaries ;  that  usage  deduced  from 
apostolical  times  was  the  sole  foundation  for  the  substitution 
of  the  first  day  of  the  week  for  the  seventh,  as  the  time  of 
public  worship,  for  the  baptism  of  infants  incapable  of  mental 
participation  in  any  rite  of  religion,  and  for  other  practices, 
which,  though  not  authorized,  much  less  enjoined,  by  any 
passage  of  the  Scriptures,  were,  nevertheless,  retained  by  the 
Lutherans  as  much  as  by  the  Catholic  church.  Connected 
with  these. doctrines,  the  adherents  of  the  ancient  religion 
maintained,  that  as  God  had  promised  never  to  desert  his 
church,  he  would  always  preserve  her  from  error  in  funda- 
mental matters,  and  that  a  visible  authority,  whether  vested 
in  general  councils  or  in  the  pope,  to  determine  the  sense  of 
doubtful  texts,  and  to  ascertain  the  genuineness  of  alleged 
traditions,  was  not  less  necessary  than  the  written  word  it- 
self. The  doctrine  of  infallibility,  though  destructive  alike 
of  sound  reason  and  of  pure  religion,  bestowed  consistency 
on  the  Roman  Catholic  system,  and  afforded  them  a  much 
more  plausible  color  than  their  adversaries  could  employ,  for 
the  persecution  from  which  neither  party  abstained. 

In  many  points  of  doctrine,  the  reconciliation  of  the  Lu- 
therans, or  at  least  the  concealment  of  differences  by  ambigu- 
ous terms,  was  then  more  practicable  than  it  may  now  be 
supposed  to  be.  The  bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the  eu- 
charist  was  held  by  both  parties,  nor  is  the  Lutheran  doctrine 
or  term  consubstantiation  more  intelligible  than  the  ancient 
word  transubstantiation.  In  the  controversies  respecting  the 
divine  decrees,  the  aid  of  grace,  and  the  nature  of  justifica- 
tion, the  Protestants  were  more  decidedly  favorable  to  the 
stern  doctrines  of  Augustine  than  the  Catholics ;  but  the  high 
authority  of  that  renowned  doctor  prevented  a  condemnation 
of  his  opinions  in  the  Catholic  church.  The  Dominicans, 
who  were  the  most  learned  divines  of  the  council,  defended 
the  Augustinian  system  against  the  Franciscans  and  Jesuits, 
who,  with  the  majority  of  ecclesiastics,  had  adopted  princi- 
ples more  consonant  with  the  common  sense  and  natural  feel- 
ings of  mankind.  The  Lutherans  themselves,  after  the  de- 
parture of  their  great  master,  slid  into  milder  and  more  popu- 
lar tenets.  If  the  whole  state  of  opinion  on  both  sides,  as 
practically  prevalent,  be  compared,  it  will  be  seen,  that  the 


1558.  RELIGIOUS    CONTROVERSIES.  291 

difference  on  these  mysterious  questions  between  the  Catholics 
and  Protestants  was  more  apparent  than  real.  It  is,  how- 
ever, very  observable  that  those  who  are  most  distinguished 
for  fervid  piety  and  severe  morals  on  either  side  have,  in 
general,  either  adopted,  or  inclined  to  adopt,  the  system 
which  their  opponents  plausibly  represent  as  so  tainted  with 
fatalism  as  to  take  away  the  foundations  of  morality  and  re- 
ligion. 

The  great  abuses  of  non-residence  and  pluralities,  to  which 
the  progress  of  the  Reformation  was  in  a  great  measure  as- 
cribed, were  prohibited  by  the  council,  but  with  so  many  ex- 
ceptions as  to  impair  the  rule.  The  Spanish  divine's,  who 
were  anti-papal,  made  a  vain  attempt  to  obtain  a  decree  that 
the  residence  of  bishops  was  prescribed  by  the  divine  au- 
thority, which  would  have  established  episcopacy  on  the  same 
foundation,  and  thereby  would  have  proved  fatal  to  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  bishops  of  Rome  to  be  universal  bishops,  whose 
delegates  all  other  prelates  were  holden  by  them  to  be.  The 
council  declared  all  marriages  without  the  observance  of  cer- 
tain rules  to  be  null ;  the  first  instance  of  a  nullity  of  mar- 
riage professedly  introduced  by  a  mere  human  power.  In 
this  important  particular  the  example  and  the  provisions  of  the 
council  of  Trent  were  adopted  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  by  the  English  marriage  act ;  an  odious  statute,  now 
happily  abrogated. 

In  1562,  the  pope  took  occasion  from  the  meetings  of  the 
council  to  make  an  attempt  to  excite  a  general  war  of  Catho- 
lic princes  against  heretics.  But  he  found  that  their  mutual 
jealousy  and  separate  interests  were  obstacles  too  formidable 
to  be  surmounted.  On  the  10th  of  May,  1563,  a  letter  from 
Mary  queen  of  Scots  to  the  council  was  presented  by  her 
uncle  the  cardinal  of  Lorrain,  in  which  that  unfortunate 
princess  submitted  herself  to  the  council,  and  declared  her 
determination,  in  case  of  her  succession  to  the  crown  of 
England,  to  subject  both  her  kingdoms  to  the  apostolic  see.* 
The  thanks  of  the  sacred  synod  were  returned  to  her  for  an 
act  which  assuredly  contributed  to  the  calamities  of  her  sub- 
sequent life. 

The  council  of  Trent  raised  several  dogmas  of  the  schools 
to  the  rank  of  doctrines  of  the  church,  at  a  period  when 
wisdom  would  rather  have  loosened  than  tightened  the  bands 
of  submission.!  They  timidly  and  partially  reformed  a  few 

*  Fra  Paolo,  lib.  vii. 

f  "  II  est  bien  certain  au  moins  que  plusieurs  des  opinions  6rig6es  en 
dogmes  dans  le  concile,  avaient  6t6  jusque  la  librement  agi tecs  dans  lea 
."— Le  Courayer,  Pref.  d  la  Traducl.  de  Fra  Paolo. 


292  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1558. 

abuses,  but  they  redressed  no  grievance  with  such  hearty 
zeal  and  conspicuous  energy  as  to  silence  opponents,  to  satisfy 
malcontents,  or  even  to  confirm  the  allegiance  of  those  adhe- 
rents whose  fidelity  was  shaken. 

The  institution  of  the  Jesuits  was  a  third  means  of  op- 
posing the  rebellious  and  heretical  spirit  of  the  Lutheran  age. 
Ignatius  or  Inigo  Loyola,  a  Spanish  Biscayan,  of  ardent  and 
meditative  temper,  had  imbibed  a  more  than  usual  portion  of 
the  hatred  towards  the  enemies  of  the  Catholic  religion, 
which  Spaniards  had,  beyond  other  nations,  learnt  in  the 
course  of  the  mortal  feuds  and  fierce  wars  which  had  for  cen- 
turies raged  between  the  Christians  and  Mahometans  of  the 
peninsula,  rather  with  the  fury  of  civil  discord  than  with  the 
more  regulated  hostilities  of  foreign  warfare.  He  was  dis- 
tinguished by  imagination  and  feeling.  His  breast  glowed 
with  sincere  piety ;  but  his  religion  was  that  of  a  soldier  de- 
termined to  defend  his  faith,  and  ready  to  spread  it  by  the 
sword.  All  the  noble  feats  of  Spaniards  had  been  achieved 
for  religion.  It  was  the  basis  of  their  martial  renown  and 
of  their  national  honor.  He  who  was  not  an  orthodox  Catho- 
lic could  not  be  embraced  as  a  true  Spaniard.  Loyola  and  his 
first  associates  amounted  only  to  eight,  all  superior  to  other 
men  in  enthusiasm  and  fortitude :  some  possessed  of  those  great 
qualities  which  enable  men  to  produce  mighty  changes  in  the 
opinions  of  their  fellows,  and  to  exercise  a  lasting  sway  over 
willing  minds.  Their  original  purpose  was  limited  to  pilgrim- 
ages to  the  holy  sepulchre  and  missions  into  unbelieving  lands. 
Faure,  Jai,  and  Coduri,  of  Geneva ;  Lainez,  Salmeron,  and 
Bobadilla,  Spaniards;  Roderic  and  Xavier,  Portuguese;  and 
Broet  from  Dauphine,  were  the  original  Jesuits, 'of  whom 
Francis  Xavier,  the  apostle  of  the  Indies,  was  a  man  worthy 
of  everlasting  honor,  for  devoting  himself  to  a  life  of  suffer- 
ing for  what  he  believed  to  be  the  supreme  good  of  mankind ; 
and  the  name  of  Lainez,  the  second  general,  cannot  be  for- 
gotten as  the  man  of  legislative  genius,  who  formed  the  plan 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  that  system  which  rendered  the 
order  memorable.  Pope  Paul  III.  approved  of  their  institu- 
tion, under  the  name  of  "  the  Society  of  Jesus,"  on  condition 
that  their  number  should  not  exceed  sixty.  In  1543,  when 
the  restriction  was  removed,  they  increased  to  eighty.  In  the 
course  of  about  fifty  years  their  number  was  estimated  at 
more  than  10,000,  or,  according  to  some  accounts,  at  nearly 

"  II  suffit  qu'on  sache  le  commencement  d'une  opinion  pour  assurer 
qu'elle  ne  sera  jamais  declaree  etre  de  foi." — Fleury,  Discours  V.  sur  rffi*t 

Eotlesiast. 


1558.  THE    JESUITS.  293 

double  that  great  number.*  They  were  neither  confined  nor 
apparelled  like  monks.  They  were  allowed  to  live  in  the 
world  dressed  like  the  secular  clergy.  They  were  destined  to 
preach,  to  teach,  to  confute  heretics,  to  convert  unbelievers, 
to  confess  dying  penitents,  or  to  act  in  any  manner  required 
by  the  holy  see  for  the  interests  of  religion.  The  authority 
of  their  general  was  more  absolute  than  that  of  the  chief  of 
any  other  order ;  and  they  were  dispensed  from  the  obligation 
of  offering  daily  prayers  in  public,  that  they  might  have  more 
leisure  for  their  special  and  momentous  destination. 

Having  arisen  in  the  age  of  reformation,  they  became  the 
chosen  champions  of  the  church  against  her  new  enemies. 
They  used  some  generous  and  liberal  weapons  in  their  war- 
fare. Instead  of  following  the  unlettered  monks,  who  decried 
knowledge  as  the  parent  of  heresy,  they  joined  in  the  general 
movement  of  mankind  towards  polite  literature,  which  they 
cultivated  with  splendid  success.  They  were  the  earliest 
reformers  of  European  education.  "  For  education,"  said  lord 
Bacon,  "  consult  the- colleges  of  the  Jesuits.  Nothing  hitherto 
tried  in  practice  surpasses  them."f  "Education,"  says  he, 
"  has  been  in  some  sort  revived  in  the  colleges  of  the  Jesuits, 
of  whom,  in  regard  to  this  and  other  sorts  of  human  learning 
and  moral  discipline,  tails  cum  sis  utinam  noster  esses." 

Peculiarly  subjected  to  the  see  of  Rome  by  their  constitu- 
tion, they  were  devoted  to  its  highest  pretensions  from  feel- 
ing the  necessity  of  a  monarchical  power,  to  conduct  their 
efforts  against  formidable  enemies.  While  the  nations  of  the 
Spanish  peninsula,  with  barbaric  chivalry,  carried  religion 
at  the  point  of  the  sword  to  the  uttermost  extremes  of  the 
East  and  the  West,  the  Jesuits  reclaimed  the  American  can- 
nibals from  savage  customs,  and  taught  them  the  arts  and 
duties  of  civilized  life.  In  India  they  suffered  martyrdom 
with  heroic  constancy.  They  penetrated  the  barrier  which 
shuts  out  strangers  from  China :  and  by  the  obvious  usefulness 
of  their  scientific  acquirements,  they  obtained  toleration, 
patronage,  and  honors  from  the  most  jealous  of  governments, 
They  were  fitted  by  their  release  from  conventual  life,  and 
from  their  allowed  intercourse  with  the  world,  to  be  the  con-, 
fessors  of  kings ;  and  while  some  guided  the  conscience  of  a, 
royal  penitent  at  Versailles  or  Vienna,  others  were  teaching 
the  use  of  the  spade  and  the  shuttle  in  California,  and  a  third 
body  were  braving  a  death  of  torture  from  the  mountain  chiefs 

*  Perhaps  the  exclusion  or  inclusion  of  novices  and  lay  brethren  may 
account  for  the  variation.— Dupin,  Biblioth.  xv.  438.  Miiller,  Allg.  Oesch. 
book  xix.  c.  4. 

t  Bacon  de  Augment,  lib.  vi.  cap.  4. 

Z2 


294  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1568. 

of  southern  India.  No  community  ever  practised  with  so 
much  success  the  art  of  discerning  the  fitness  of  a  peculiar 
frame  of  mind  for  some  specific  station.  Hence  this  society 
of  missionaries  and  schoolmasters  had  to  boast  of  the  most 
vigorous  controversialists,  the  most  polite  scholars,  the  most 
refined  courtiers,  and  (unfortunately)  the  most  flexible  casu- 
ists, of  their  age. 

They  are  the  strongest  if  not  the  only  proof  afforded  by 
authentic  history,  that  an  artificial  system  of  government  and 
education,  formed  at  once  by  human  contrivance,  is,  in  some 
circumstances,  more  capable  of  attaining  its  proposed  object 
than  the  general  experience  of  mankind  would  warrant  us  to 
expect.  The  Jesuits  had  not  leisure  for  works  of  genius  or 
for  discoveries  in  science,  to  say  nothing  of  philosophical  spec- 
ulation, from  which  last  they  were  interdicted  by  the  adoption, 
or  sometimes  only  by  the  profession,  of  implicit  faith.  Though 
they  covered  the  world  for  two  centuries  with  their  fame  and 
their  power,  they  had  no  names  who  could  be  opposed  to 
Racine  and  Pascal ;  the  produce  of  the  little  persecuted  com- 
munity of  Port  Royal  during  its  short  and  precarious  exist- 
ence. This  observation,  however,  only  imports  that  their 
powers  were  more  applied  to  active  than  to  contemplative  life. 
It  is  foreign  from  our  present  purpose  to  trace  the  story  of 
their  downfall.  They  were  hated  by  the  secular  clergy,  and 
envied  by  other  regulars,  because  they  were  the  most  potent 
of  all  associations  of  a  monastic  nature.  They  were  watched 
with  jealousy  by  statesmen  and  magistrates  on  account  of  their 
boundless  obedience  to  the  see  of  Rome.  To  exalt  the  papal 
power,  they  renewed  the  scholastic  doctrine  of  the  popular 
delegation  of  the  powers  of  government  to  rulers.  The  peo- 
ple themselves  were,  in  all  controversies  between  them  and 
their  chiefs,  to  listen  with  reverential  awe  and  unconditional 
subjection  to  the  holy  pontiff,  the  pastor  of  all  subjects  and 
sovereigns. 

The  doctrines  of  deposition  and  regicide*  were  not  peculiar 
to  the  Jesuits.  They  had  been  taught  by  other  religious 
orders ;  and  the  first  of  them  had  been  inculcated  by  Aquinas 
himselfj  the  main  column  of  the  theological  schools.  It  had 
been  adopted  by  eminent  persons  among  those  Protestants 
who,  under  Calvin,  had  risen  against  the  civil  authority, 
instead  of  being  influenced  by  its  guidance,  like  the  followers 
of  Luther.  But  the  whole  odium  belonging  to  some  of  these 
opinions  fell  on  the  Jesuits,  the  stanchest  polemics  of  the 
court  of  Rome,  who  were  looked  on  with  an  evil  eye  by  those 

*  Mariana  de  Regis  Institutione. 


1553.  THE  JESUITS.  295 

true  Catholics,  who  acknowledged  no  final  jurisdiction  but 
that  of  the  universal  church,  while  they  religiously  respected 
the  independent  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate.  As  the 
Jesuits  were  a  militia  called  out  to  combat  the  reformation,  it 
is  no  wonder  that  they  were  regarded  throughout  all  the  re- 
formed communions  as  incendiaries,  always  engaged  in  plot- 
ting the  overthrow  of  Protestant  thrones,  and  in  heaping  up 
fuel  to  feed  the  flames,  by  which  alone  Protestant  nations 
could  be  recalled  from  heresy. 

But  they  owed  their  decay  to  the  use  of  the  fatal  expedients 
to  which  many  of  them,  doubtless,  trusted  as  the  strongest 
props  of  their  greatness.  However  shallow  statesmen  may  be 
deluded  by  some  short  and  superficial  appearances  to  the  con- 
trary, it  is  a  truth  proclaimed  by  the  whole  course  of  human 
affairs,  that  public  bodies  and  associations  vested  with  legal 
rights  cannot  very  long  survive  the  decline  and  downfall  of 
their  moral  character.  General  contempt  and  disgust  are 
fatal  to  institutions  which  can  flourish  only  by  reverence. 
The  corruption  of  those  who  profess  to  teach  morality,  or  are 
appointed  to  enforce  it,  is  an  inconsistency  which  in  the  course 
of  time  shocks  even  the  profligate.  The  Jesuits  split  on  this 
rock.  They  had  too  carefully  cultivated  the  dangerous  sci- 
ence of  casuistry,  the  inevitable  growth  of  the  practices  of 
confession  and  absolution,  which,  by  inuring  the  mind  to  the 
habitual  contemplation  of  those  extreme  cases  in  which  there 
is  a  conflict  of  duties,  and  where  one  virtue  may  or  must  be 
sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  a  greater,  does  more  to  lessen  the 
authority  of  conscience  than  to  guide  its  perplexities.  Casuis- 
try has  generally  vibrated  between  the  extremes  of  impracti- 
cable severity  and  contemptible  indulgence.  The  irresponsi- 
ble guides  of  the  conscience  of  kings  were  led  to  treat  their 
penitents  with  a  very  compliant  morality,  by  the  belief  that 
no  other  could  be  observed  by  such  penitents,  by  making  too 
large  allowances  for  the  allurements  which  palliate  royal 
vices,  by  the  real  difficulty  of  discovering  when  more  austeri- 
ty might  plunge  a  prince  into  deeper  depravity,  by  the  im- 
mense importance  of  rendering  his  measures  and  councils,  if 
not  his  example,  favorable  to  religion :  to  say  nothing  of  the 
subtle  snares  with  which  selfishness  and  ambition,  often  with- 
out the  consciousness  of  the  individuals,  surrounded  their  nar- 
row and  slippery  path.  These  and  the  like  circumstances  betray- 
ed some  of  their  doctors  into  shocking  principles,  which  were 
held  out  to  the  world  as  the  maxims  of  the  society  itself  by 
the  wit  and  eloquence  of  Pascal,  one  of  the  greatest,  and,  ex- 


296  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1558. 

cept  to  the  Jesuits,  one  of  the  most  just  of  men.*  The  order 
certainly  did  not  adopt  the  odious  extravagancies  of  some 
members.  But  the  immoralities  were  not  sufficiently  disa- 
vowed. The  selection  of  particular  cases,  as  matter  of  charge 
against  a  large  body,  has  often  the  unjust  effect  of  exaggera- 
tion. Yet  it  must  be  owned  that  invidious  selection  and  even 
gross  exaggeration  are  the  indications  of  a  proneness  in  the 
accused  body  towards  the  vice  which  appears  in  its  harshest 
and  most  hideous  shape  in  some  of  their  worst  members ;  and 
that  they  are  a  sort  of  natural,  though  not  nicely  equal,  pun- 
ishment of  the  wrong  disposition  which  has  infected  the  whole 
mass. 

These  were  the  principal  preparations  for  those  wars  of  re- 
ligious opinion,  in  which  the  most  conspicuous  leaders  on  the 
side  of  the  ancient  establishment  were  Philip  II.  and  the  duke 
of  Alva ;  while  the  party  who  contended  for  reformation  were 
conducted  by  William  of  Nassau  prince  of  Orange,  Henry  of 
Bourbon  king  of  Navarre,  and  Elizabeth  Tudor  queen  of  Eng- 
land. The  mention  of  these  names  suggests  to  every  writer 
of  English  history  that  he  is  about  to  enter  on  a  more  arduous 
task ;  to  relate  events  which  more  powerfully  command  the 
fellow-feeling  of  after-times. 

*  No  man  is  a  stranger  to  tlje  fame  of  Pascal ;  but  those  who  may  desire 
to  form  a  right  judgment  on  the  contents  of  the  "  Lettres  Provinciates" 
would  do  well  to  cast  a  glance  over  the  "  Entretiens  d'Ariste  et  d'Eugenie" 
by  Bouhours,  a  Jesuit,  who  has  ably  vindicated  his  order. 


APPENDIX. 


PROPORTION   OF    DIFFERENT   TROOPS   IN   THE   ARMY   OF   HENRY   VII. 

INDENTURE  between  H.  VII  and  Earl  of  Kent,  dated  9th  May, 
1492.  Witnesseth  that  sd  Earl  is  reteigned  to  serve  as  long  as  it 
shall  please  our  Sov :  with  the  retinue  and  number  of  vi  men  of 
armes ;  his  own  person  comprised  in  the  same,  every  of  them 
havyng  with  them  his  crestrel  and  his  page. 

XVI  Launces    ....      at  ix*  a  day. 
XXI  Archers  on  hors  back     .    vid     — 
LX     Archers  on  foot    -     -     -    vid     — 
(Men  of  armes     -     -     xviiid     — ) 


Similar  Indenture. 


Archers. 


Lord  Latymer,  to  supply 

Powys 

Barnes 

Grey 

Devon     ...... 

Scroop  of  Bolton   -     -    - 

Scroop  of  Upsal     -    .    - 

Surrey    ...... 

Audeley 

Straunge 

Thomas  Bryan,  Esq. 

(of  the  King's  Body) 
Welles 


Men  of  Armes.    DiLaunc.    Horse.   Foot. 


3 
1 
2 
9 
6 
3 
1 
5 
3 
10 


Other  13  Knights  supplied         26 


10 
60 

6 
10 

2 
11 

0 
12 
20 

5 

1 

20 

~68 
225 


2 

0 

4 

25 

25 

10 

15 

20 

11 

24 

4 
15 

190 
345 


6 

0 

7 

60 

66 

10 

15 

46 

20 

249 

14 
45 

"432 

970 


Here  the  printed  account  closes,  so  that  it  only  affords  informa- 
tion of  the  proportions  of  different  sorts  of  soldiers  in  an  English 
army  three  centuries  ago. 


298  APPENDIX. 

II. 

(At  the  close  of  Henry  VWs  Reign.) 

LORD   BACON. 

LORD  BACON  was  the  man  of  highest  intellect  among  the  writers 
of  history ;  but  he  was  not  the  greatest  historian.  History  ought 
to  be  without  passion ;  but  if  it  be  without  feeling,  it  loses  the 
interest  which  bestows  on  it  the  power  of  being  useful.  The 
narrative  of  human  actions  would  be  thrown  aside  as  a  mere 
catalogue  of  names  and  dates,  if  it  did  not  maintain  its  sway  by 
inspiring  the  reader  with  pity  for  the  sufferer,  with  anger  against 
the  oppressor,  and  with  earnest  desires  for  the  triumph  of  right 
over  might.  The  defects  of  Bacon's  nature  conspired  with  the 
faults  of  his  conception  of  history  to  taint  his  work  with  luke- 
warm censure  of  falsehood  and  extortion,  with  a  cool  display  of 
the  expedients  of  cunning,  and  with  too  systematic  a  representa- 
tion of  the  policy  of  a  monarch  in  whose  history  he  chose  to  con- 
vey a  theory  of  kingcraft,  and  the  likeness  of  its  ideal  model.  A 
writer  who  has  been  successful  in  unravelling  an  intricate  char- 
acter, often  becomes  indulgent  to  the  man  whose  seeming  incon- 
sistencies he  has  explained,  and  may  at  length  regard  the  work- 
ings of  his  own  ingenuity  with  a  complacency  which  prevails 
over  his  indignation.  Aristotle,*  who  first  attempted  a  theory  of 
usurpation,  has  escaped  the  appearance  of  this  fault,  partly  be- 
cause sensibility  is  not  expected,  and  would  displease  in  a  treatise 
on  government.  Machiavel  was  unhappily  too  successful  in  si- 
lencing his  abhorrence  of  crimes ;  but  this  fault  is  chiefly  to  be 
found  in  "  The  Prince,"  which  is  a  treatise  on  the  art  of  winning 
and  keeping  tyrannical  power;  which  was  destined  by  the  writer 
neither  to  instruct  tyrants,  nor  to  warn  nations  against  their  arts, 
but  simply  to  add  the  theory  of  these  arts  to  the  stock  of  human 
knowledge;  as  a  philosophical  treatise  on  poisons  might  be  in- 
tended only  to  explain  their  nature  and  effects,  though  the  inform- 
ation contained  in  it  might  be  abused  by  the  dealer  in  poison, 
or  usefully  employed  for  cure  or  relief  by  the  physician. 

Lord  Bacon  displayed  a  much  smaller  degree  of  this  vice,  but 
he  displayed  it  in  history,  where  it  is  far  more  unpardonable.  In 
the  singular  passage  where  he  lays  down  the  theory  of  the  ad- 
vancement of  fortune  (which  he  knew  so  well  and  practised  so 
ill),  he  states  the  maxim  which  induced  the  Grecian  and  Italian 
philosophers  to  compose  their  dissertations,  "that  there  be  not 
any  thing  in  being  or  action  which  should  not  be  drawn  into  con- 
templation or  doctrine."t  He  almost  avows  an  intention  of  em- 
bodying in  the  person  of  his  hero  (if  that  be  the  proper  term)  too 
much  of  the  ideal  conception  of  a  wary,  watchful,  unbending 

*  Arist.  Polit.  lib.  v.  c.  3. 

t  Dignity  and  Advantage  of  Knowledge,  book  ii. 


APPENDIX.  299 

ruler,  who  considers  men  and  affairs  merely  as  they  affect  him 
and  his  kingdom ;  who  has  no  good  quality  higher  than  prudence ; 
who  is  taught  by  policy  not  to  be  cruel  when  he  is  secure,  but 
who  treats  pity  and  affection  like  malice  and  hatred,  as  passions 
which  disturb  his  thoughts  and  bias  his  judgment.  So  systematic 
a  purpose  cannot  fail  to  distort  character  and  events,  and  to  divest 
both  of  their  power  over  feeling.  It  would  have  been  impossible 
for  lord  Bacon,  if  he  had  not  been  betrayed  by  his  chilling  scheme, 
to  prefer  Louis  XI.  to  Louis  XII.,  and  to  declare  that  Louis  XL, 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  and  Henry  VII.,  were  the  "  three  magi 
among  the  kings  of  the  age ;"  though  it  be  true  that  Henry  was  the 
least  odious  of  the  three  royal  sages. 

It  is  due  in  the  strictest  justice  to  lord  Bacon  not  to  omit,  that 
the  history  was  written  to  gratify  James  L,  to  whom  he  was  then 
suing  for  bitter  bread,  who  revised  it,  and  whom  he  addressed  in 
the  following  words : — "  I  have  therefore  chosen  to  write  the  reign 
of  king  Henry  VII.,  who  was  in  a  sort  your  forerunner ;  and 
whose  spirit,  as  well  as  his  blood,  is  doubled  upon  your  majesty." 
Bacon  had  just  been  delivered  from  prison ;  he  had  passed  his  six- 
tieth  year,  and  was  galled  by  unhonored  poverty.  What  wonder, 
i£  in  these  circumstances,  even  his  genius  sunk  under  such  a 
patron  and  such  a  theme  ! 


300  APPENDIX. 

III. 
ANNE  BOLEYN'S  LETTER  TO  HENRY  VIII. 

The  MS.  was  partly  destroyed  by  fire  in  1731.    The  following  is  the 
document  at  length ;  the  insertions  in  the  parts  destroyed  by  the  fire 
are  printed  in  Italics : — 
SIR, 

Your  Grace's  displeasure  and  my  imprisoment  are  things  soe 
strange  unto  me,  as  what  to  wrighte,  or  what  to  excuse,  I  am  alto- 
gether  ignorant.  Wheras  you  send  unto  me,  (willing  me  to  con- 
fesse  a  truth,  and  soe  to  obteyne  your  favour)  by  such  an  whome 
you  know  to  be  mine  antient  professed  enemy,  I  noe  sooner  re- 
ceived  this  message  by  him,  then  I  rightly  conceaved  your  mean- 
ing ;  and  if  as  you  say,  confessing  a  truth  indeed  may  procure  my 
saftie  I  shall  wse  all  willingnesse  and  dutie  perform  your  command. 
But  let  not  your  Grace  ever  imagine  that  your  poore  wife  will  ever 
be  brought  to  acknowledge  a  fault,  where  not  soe  much  as  a  thought 
ever  proceeded.  And  to  speake  a  truth,  never  a  prince  had  wife 
more  loyall  in  all  duty,  and  in  all  true  affection,  then  you  have 
ever  found  in  Anne  Bolen,  with  which  name  and  place  I  could  will- 
ingly have  contented  myself,  if  God  and  your  Grace's  pleasure  had 
so  bene  pleased.  Neither  did  I  at  any  time  soe  farre  forgett  my 
selfe  in  my  exaltation,  or  receaved  queenshipp,  but  that  I  alwayes 
looked  for  such  an  alteration  as  now  I  finde ;  for  the  ground  of  my 
preferment  being  on  noe  surer  foundation  then  your  Grace'*  fancye, 
the  least  alteration  was  fitt  and  sufficient  (I  knowe)  to  draw  that 
fancye  to  some  other  subjecte.  You  have  chosen  me  from  a  low 
estate  to  be  your  queene  and  companion  farre  beyond  my  desert 
or  desire ;  if  then  you  found  me  worthy  of  sucA  honour,  good  your 
Grace  let  not  any  light  fancye,  or  bade  counsell  of  my  enemies  with- 
draw your  princely  favour  from  me ;  nether  lett  that  slayne,  that 
unworthy  stayne  of  a  disloyall  hart  towards  your  good  Grace,  ever 
cast  soybule  a  blott  one  your  most  dutifull  wife,  and  the  infant  prin- 
cesse  your  daughter.  Trye  me,  good  king,  but  let  me  have  a  lawful! 
/ryall ;  and  let  not  my  sworne  enemyes  sit  as  my  accusers  and 
judges  ;  yee  let  me  receave  an  open  tryall,  for  my  truth  shall  feare 
noe  open  shames.  Then  shall  you  see  either  mine  i?inocenbye  cleered, 
your  suspition  and  conscience  satisfied,  the  ignominye  and  slander 
of  the  world  stopped,  or  my  guilt  openly  declared.  Soe  that  what- 
soever God  or  you  may  determine  of  your  Grace  may  be  freed  from 
an  open  censure,  and  mine  offence  being  soe  lawfully  proved,  your 
Grace  is  at  liberty  both  before  God  and  man,  not  only  to  execute 
worthy  punishment  on  me  as  an  unfaythfull  wife,  but  to  follow  your 
affection  already  setled  on  that  partie,  for  whose  sake  I  am  now  as  I 
am,  whose  name  I  could  some  good  while  since  have  pointed  unto,  your 
Grace  being  not  ignorant  of  my  suspition  therein. 

But  if  you  have  already  determined  of  me,  and  that  not  only  my 
death,  but  an  infamous  slander  must  bring  you  the  joying  of  your 
desired  happines,  then  I  desire  of  God  that  he  will  pardon  your 
great  sinne  herein,  and  likewise  my  enemyes  the  instruments 
thereof,  and  that  he  will  not  call  you  to  a  straight  accompt  for 
your  unprincly  and  cruell  usage  of  me,  at  his  generall  judgement 


APPENDIX. 


301 


seat,  where  both  you  and  my  selfe  must  shortly  appeare,  and  in 
whose  just  judgement  I  doubt  not,  what  soever  the  world  may 
thinke  of  mee,  mine  inocencye  shall  be  openly  knowene,  and 
sufficiently  cleared.  My  last  and  only  request  shall  be,  that  my 
selfe  may  only  beare  the  burthen  of  your  Grace's  displeasure  ;  and 
that  it  may  not  touch  the  innocent  souls  of  those  poor  gentlemen, 
whome  as  I  undersftntd  are  likewise  in  straight  imprisoment  for 
my  sake.  If  I  ever  have  found  favoure  in  your  sight,  if  ever  the 
name  of  Ann  Bulen  have  ben'  pleasing  in  your  eares,  then  let  me 
obteyne  this  request ;  And  soe  I  will  leave  to  t«>ble  your  Grace  any 
further.  With  mine  earnest  prayer  to  the  Trinitie  to  have  your 
Grace  in  his  good  keeping,  and  to  direct  you  in  all  yor  actions,  from 
my  dolefutt  prison  in  the  Tower  the  6th  of  Maye. 

Your  most  iioyatt  and 
ever  faythfulZ  Wife, 

ANN  BULEJV. 
The  Ladye     .... 
.  to  the  Kinge  he     ... 
of  the  Towe     .... 

At  the  foot  of  the  MS.  the  following  memorandum  appears  in 
the  same  handwriting.  We  have  attempted  to  supply  the  part 
destroyed  by  fire  : — 

On  the  King  sending  a  messenger  to  Queen  Ann  Bulen  in  the 
Tower  willing  her  to  confesse  the  truth,  she  said  that  she  could  con- 
fesse  noe  more,  then  shee  had  already  done.  But  as  he  sayd  she 
must  conceale  nothing  she  would  add  this,  that  she  did  acknowledge 
her  selfe  indebted  to  the  king  for  many  favours,  for  raysing  her  first 
to  be  *  *  *  next  to  be  a.  Marques,  next  to  be  his 
Queene,  and  that  now  he  could  bestowe  noe  further  honor  upon  her 
than  if  he  were  soe  pleased  to  make  her  by  martirdome  a  saint. 

The  handwriting  appears  to  be  that  of  the  period  between  the 
latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  and  the  earliest  years  of 
Elizabeth.  As  it  seems  to  be  a  copy,  -by  the  title  inscribed  on  it, 
the  original  from  which  it  was  transcribed  may,  with  great  proba- 
bility, be  considered  as  contemporary  with  the  events  to  which  it 
relates.  It  is  in  the  same  volume  with  Kingston's  letters  to  Crom- 
well during  Anne's  imprisonment,  and  with  them  it  was  a  part  of 
the  Cotton  ian  library  which  was  formed  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth 
or  James  by  Sir  Robert  Cotton,  a  skilful  antiquary,  not  likely  to 
collect  counterfeits,  who  probably  possessed  the  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  handwriting  of  Anne,  and  the  history  of  the  manu- 
script. It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  age* of  Charles  I.,  Herbert, 
who  has  been  followed  by  all  subsequent  -writers,  has  modernized 
the  orthography.  An  inspection  of  Kingston's  letters,  as  printed 
by  Mr.  Ellis,  if  compared  with  one  of  them  published  by  Herbert 
in  his  history,  will  show  that  he  performed  exactly  the  same  ope- 
ration upon  them — that  of  modernizing  the  spelling :  their  authen- 
ticity has  never  been  doubted,  and  perhaps  the  reader  may  be  dia- 
VOL.  IT.  2  A 


302  APPENDIX. 

posed  to  think  that  the  doubts  entertained  of  the  genuineness  of 
this  letter  are  not  warranted  by  reason.  To  these  remarks  it  may 
be  added,  that  from  the  authentic  letters  she  appears  to  have  writ- 
ten a  letter  through  Cromwell  at  the  very  time  to  which  the  dis- 
puted letter  must  be  referred ;  and  that  this  contested  letter  an- 
swers exactly  to  the  circumstances  of  the  one  sent  or  attempted 
to  be  sent  through  the  secretary.  Enough  has  been  said  in  the 
text  on  the  argument  from  internal  evidence  employed  to  prove 
that  it  is  spurious.  We  do  not  know  the  extent  of  Anne's  capa- 
city ;  we  do  not  know  how  far  she  might  have  been  lifted  above 
herself  by  the  vindication  of  her  innocence ;  and  we  are  ignorant 
whether  some  friendly  hand  might  not  have  corrected  the  errors 
and  raised  the  diction  of  the  forlorn  lady,  without  defacing  the 
natural  beauties  of  her  composition.  The  modern  orthography 
in  which  lord  Herbert  has  arrayed  the  letter  has  much  contributed 
to  take  away  that  character  of  a  somewhat  rude  simplicity,  which, 
when  exhibited  in  its  original  state,  as  has  been  done  above,  it  ap- 
pears in  some  measure  to  recover. 


IV. 

SINCE  this  volume  was  printed,  I  have  been  favored  by  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel  with  the  loan  of  that  gentleman's  own  copy  of  the  first 
volume  of  "  State  Papers  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  Vlllth,"  about 
to  be  published  under  the  authority  of  a  royal  commission.  Con- 
stant occupation  has  hitherto  hindered  me  from  examining  it  care- 
fully ;  but  had  it  been  otherwise,  it  came  into  my  hands  too  late 
to  allow  me  to  interweave  the  results  of  such  an  examination  with 
the  narrative.  I  believe  nevertheless  that  a  few  extracts  from  it 
may  interest  the  reader. 


The  first  distinct  allusion  to  the  projected  divorce  that  I  have 
found  in  this  volume  is  in  a  dispatch  of  Wolsey  to  the  king. 
1st  July,  1527. 

"  It  may  please  Your  Highnes  to  understande,  that  the  mes- 
sage, sent  unto  me  this  mornyng  from  the  same,  by  Master  Wol- 
man,  hath  not  a  little  troubled  my  mynde,  considering  that  Your 
Highnes  shuld  thinke  or  conjecte,  upon  such  message  as  I  sent 
unto  Your  (Highness)  by  Master  Sampson,  that  I  shuld  eyther 
doubte,  or  shuld  your  secrete  matier.  For  I  take 

God  to  recorde,  that  there  is  nothing  erthely,  that  I  covet  so  moch, 
as  the  avauncyng  thereof;  not  doubting,  for  any  thing  that  I  have 
herde  this  overture  hath  cumme  to  the  Queue's 

knowledge  thenne  I  have  doon  bifore  :  and,  as  I  said  unto 

Master  Sampson,  if  your  brother  had  never  knowen  her,  by  rea- 
son whereof  there  was  noo  affinite  contracted ;  yet,  in  that  she 
was  maried  in  facie  ecclesie,  and  contracted  per  verba  de  presenti, 


APPENDIX.  303 

there  did  arrise  impedimentum  publice  honestatis,  which  is  noo 
lesse  impedimentum  ad  dirimendum  matrimonium  thenne  affinite, 
whereof  the  bul  makith  noo  expresse  mencion :  and  the  woordes 
that  I  said  unto  Master  Sampson  imported  noo  doubt  in  me,  for 
these  folowing  were  my  very  wordes.  Whenne  he  shewed  unto 
me,  that  the  Quene  was  very  stif  and  obstinate,  afferming  that 
your  brother  did  never  knowe  her  carnally,  and  that  she  desired 
counsail  aswel  of  your  subgettes  as  of  straungiers,  I  said,  this  de- 
vise coulde  never  cumme  of  her  hed,  but  of  summe  that  were 
lerned ;  and  these  wer  the  worst  poyntes  that  could  be  imagened, 
for  the  empeching  of  this  matier :  for  that  she  wold 

resorte  unto  the  counsail  of  straungiers,  or  she  in- 

tended to  make  al  the  counsail  of  the  worlde,  Fraunce  except,  as 
a  partie  against  it;  wherefbr,  I  (think)  convenient,  tyl  it  wer 
knowen  what  shuld  succede  of  the  Pope,  and  to  what  point  the 
French  King  might  be  brought,  Your  Grace  shuld  handle  her 
both  g(m%)  and  doulcely,  as  I  instructed  the  said  Master  Samp- 
son. This  was  in  effecte  the  hoi  substaunce  of  .my  charge  com- 
mitted unto  him ;  at  the  declaration  whereof  was  the  Dukes  of 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk  present. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  194. 

5th  July,  1525.    WOLSEY  TO  THE  KING. 

INTERVIEW    WITH    ARCHBISHOP   WAREHAM. 

The  first  night  of  this  my  said  journay  I  lodged  at  Sir  John 
Wiltesheres  howse*,  where  met  me  my  Lord  of  Canntourbury ; 
with  whom  after  communication  had  of  your  secrete  matier  and 
such  other  thinges  as  have  been  hitherto  doon  therin,  I  shewed 
him  howe  the  knowleage  therof  is  cumme  to  the  Quenes  Grace, 
and  howe  displeasantly  she  takith  it,  and  what  Your  Highnes  hath 
doon  for  the  staying  and  pacification  of  her ;  declaring  unto  her, 
that  Your  Grace  hath  hitherto  nothing  intended,  nc  doon,  but  oonly 
for  the  serching  and  trying  out  of  the  trouth,  preceding  upon  oc- 
casion given  by  the  French  partie,  and  doubtes  moved  therein  by 
the  Bishop  of  Tarbe.t  Which  facion  and  maner  liked  my  said 
Lorde  of  Canntourbury  very  wel.  And  noting  his  countenaunce, 
gesture,  and  manour,  although  he  sumwhat  marveled,  howe  the 
Quene  shuld  cumme  to  the  knowleage  therof,  and  by  whom  ; 
thinking  that  Your  Grace  might  constrayne  and  cause  her  to 
shewe  the  discoverers  therof  unto  Your  Highnes  :  yet,  as  I  per- 
ceyve,  he  is  not  moch  altered  or  turned  from  his  first  facion  ;  ex- 
pressely  affermyng  that,  howesoever  displeasantly  the  Quene  toke 
this  matier,  yet  the  trowth  and  jugement  of  the  lawe  must  have 
place  and  be  fblowed.  And  soo  preceding  further  with  him  in 
communication,  I  have  sufficiently  instructed  him,  howe  he  shall 

*  Cavendish  describes  this  house  to  have  been  two  miles  beyond  Dartford. 
t  Gabriel  do.  Grammorit,  bishop  of  Tarbes,  was  one  of  those  who  came  on 
an  embassy  from  France  in  the  spring  of  1527. 


304  APPENDIX. 

ordre  himself,  in  cace  the  Quene  doo  dernannde  his  counsail  in 
the  said  matier,  which  myn  advertisement  he  doth  not  oonly  like, 
but  also  hath  promised  me  to  folovve  accordingly. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  196. 

INTERVIEW    WITH    BISHOP    FISHER,    IN    THE    SAME    LETTER. 

After  which  communication,  I  asked  him,  whether  he  had  hard 
lately  any  tidings  from  the  Court,  and  whether  any  man  had  been 
sent  unto  him  from  the  Quenes  Grace.  At  which  question  he 
sumwhat  stayed  and  pawsed ;  nevertheles,  in  conclusion,  he  an- 
swered, howe  truth  it  is,  that  of  late  oon  was  sent  unto  him  from 
the  Quenes  Grace,  who  brought  him  a  message  oonly  by  mowth, 
without  disclosure  of  any  particularite,  that  certain  matiers  there 
were,  betweene  Your  Grace  and  her  lately  chaunced,  wherein  she 
(mould  be)  glad  to  have  his  counsail,  alleging  that  Your  Highnes 
was  content  she  shuld  soo  have ;  whereunto,  as  he  saith,  he  made 
answer,  likewise  by  mowth,  that  he  was  redy  and  prone  to  geve 
unto  her  his  counsail,  in  any  thing  that  concerned  or  towched 
oonly  herself,  but  in  matiers  concerning  Your  Highnes  and  here, 
he  wold  nothing  doo,  without  knowlege  of  your  pleasour  and  ex- 
presse  commaundement,  and  herwith  dismissed  the  messanger. 
After  declaracion  wherof,  I  replied  and  said  ;  "  My  Lord,  ye  and 
"  I  have  been  of  an  olde  acquayntaunce,  and  the  oon  hath  loved 
"  and  trusted  the  other  ;  wherfore  postponyng  al  doubte  and  fearc, 
"  ye  may  be  franke  and  playne  with  me,  like  as  I,  for  my  partie, 
"  wil  be  with  youe."  And  soo  I  demaunded  of  him,  whither  he 
had  any  special  conjecture  or  knowlege,  what  the  matier  shuld  be; 
wherin  the  Quene  desired  to  have  his  advise.  Wherunto  he  an- 
swered, that  by  certain  reaport  and  relation  he  knewe  nothing ; 
howbeit  upon  conjecture,  rysing  upon  such  thinges  as  he  had 
harde,  he  thinketh  it  was  for  a  divorce  to  be  had  bitwene  Your 
Highnes  and  the  Quene ;  which  to  conjecte,  he  was  specially 
moved,  upon  a  tale  brought  unto  him  by  his  brother  from  London  ; 
who  shewed  hym,  that  being  there,  in  a  certain  company,  he  hardc 
saye  that  thinges  wer  set  forth,  sounding  to  such  a  purpose : 
wherupon,  and  thenne  calling  to  remembraunce  the  question  I 
moved  unto  him,  by  Your  Graces  commaundment,  with  the  mes- 
sage sent  unto  him  from  the  Quene,  he  verayly  supposed  such  a 
matier  to  be  in  hande,  and  this  was  al  he  knowith  therin,  as  he 
constantly  affermith,  without  that  ever  he  sent  any  worde  or 
knowlege  therof,  by  his  fayth,  to  the  Quenes  Grace,  or  any  other 
lyving  personne.  Upon  this  occasion  I  said  unto  him,  that  although 
for  such  considerations,  as  in  further  hering  of  the  matier  he  shal 
perceyve,  Your  Highnes  was  mynded  not  to  disclose  the  same  to 
many,  but  as  secretly  to  handle  it  as  might  be,  and  therfore  did 
communicate  it  unto  very  fewe  ;  yet  nowe,  perceiving  your  good 
mynde  and  gracious  cntent  to  be  otherwise  taken  by  suspicions 
and  conjectures,  thenne  was  purposed,  Your  Highnes  had  given  me 
special  charge  and  commission  to  disclose  the  same  unto  him ;  taky  ng 


APPENDIX.  305 

oil  othe  of  him  to  kepe  it  close  and  secrete,  and  to  shewe  his 
mynde  and  opinion,  what  he  thought  therin.  After  the  which 
othe  taken,  I  repeted  unto  him  the  hoi  matier  of  Fraunce,  and  of 
the  marriage  entended  bitwen  the  French  King  and  my  Lady 
Princesse ;  and  howe  that  when,  in  processe  of  that  matier,  be- 
sides  the  expectacion  of  the  Ambassadours  of  Fraunce,  it  was  on 
this  side  objected,  that  before  further  entree  in  to  the  treatie  of  the 
said  matrimonie,  it  shuld  first  be  necessary  and  requisite  to  see, 
whither  the  French  King  ever  in  such  state  and  condition,  as  he 
might,  by  the  lawe,  contracte  marriage  with  my  Lady  Princesse, 
fbrasmoch  as  it  wns  noysid  abrode,  that  he  had  made  a  precon- 
tracte*  with  Madam  Elienor ;  and  that  they,  having  noo  commis- 
sion to  treate  therupon,  wer  compelled  to  staye  for  a  season ;  al- 
leging, nevertheless,  that  such  objection  seemed  unto  them  very 
strange,  and  that  it  was  not  to  be  thought,  that  a  Prince  of  iion- 
nour,  as  ther  master  is,  wolde  sende  them  in  such  facion  to  so 
noble  a  Prince,  requiring  his  doughter  in  marriage,  oonless  he 
might  by  the  lawe  accomplish  the  same ;  the  Bishop  of  Tarba, 
oon  of  the  said  Ambassadours,  wrote  unto  me  from  his  lodging, 
shewing  howe  he  was  very  sory  for  such  allegacions  made  on  this 
side ;  and  that  for  reciproque  maner,  on  ther  partie,  they  wer  com- 
pelled to  demaunde  likewise,  that,  on  Your  Graces  behaulf,  it 
shuld  be  shewed  and  opened  unto  them,  what  had  been  here  pro- 
vided for  taking  awaye  the  impediment  of  that  marriage,  wherof 
my  Lady  Princesse  cumeth  ;  and  that  although  he  doubted  not, 
but  your  Graces  counsail  had  wel  fbrseen  that  same,  yet,  for  dis- 
charge of  ther  duties  towardes  ther  master,  they  must  nedes  re- 
quire a  sight  therof ;  fearing,  lest  upon  such  altercacion,  on  both 
sides,  litel  effecte  shuld  euccede.  Whe(rupon)  Your  Highnes  had 
commaundement  to  make  enserch  for  such  dispensacions  as  wer 
obtayned  therfbr,  to  shewe  unto  them,  when  they  shuld  require  it. 
And,  finally,  for  the  said  Bishoppes  satisfaction,  shewed  unto  him 
the  bul  of  dispensacion ;  which,  after  he  had  deliberatly  perused 
and  red,  noting  and  marking  every  material  point  therof,  although 
he  said,  for  the  first  sight,  he  supposed  the  said  bul  was  not  suffi- 
cient, as  wel  for  that  this  impediment  was  de  jure  divino,  wher- 
with  the  Pope  coulde  not  dispense  nisi  ex  urgentissima  causa,  as 
for  other  thinges  deprehended  in  the  same ;  yet  further  disputa- 
cion  upon  vaTidite  of  the  said  tulle,  and  the  impediment  of  the 
French  Kinges  parte,  was,  by  mutual  consent,  put  over,  untyl  my 
cumming  in  to  France  :  mynding  in  the  meane  season  to  see  what 
might  be  said  for  the  justificacion  therof,  and  to  be  riped  in  al 
poyntcs,  to  make  answer  to  any  thing,  that  might  be  objected  on 
eyther  partie ;  and  howe  that,  by  Your  Graces  commaundement, 
I  had  sworn  certain  lerned  men  in  the  lawe,  to  wryte  their  minds 
in  that  .matier,  who  have  right  clerkly  handled  the  same,  soo  as 
the  bokes  excrescunt  in  magna  volumina.  And  forasrnoch  as  the 

*  By  the  treaty  of  Madrid. 

2A2 


806 


APPENDIX. 


Bishop  of  Tarbe  wrote  unto  me,  that  the  impediment  shuld  be  dc 
jure  divino,  I  moved  that  question  unto  him  in  another  case,  to 
know  his  mynde.  And  thus  declaring1  the  hoi  matier  unto  him  at 
lenght,  as  was  divised  with  Your  Highnes  at  Yorke  Place,  I  added 
that,  by  what  meanes  it  was  not  yet  deprehended,  an  ending  of 
this  matier  is  cunime  to  the  Quene's  knowlege  ;  who,  being  sus- 
picious, and  casting  further  doubles,  thenne  was  ment  or  entcndcd, 
hath  broken  with  Your  Grace  thcrof,  after  a  veray  displeasaunt 
maner  ;  saying  that,  by  my  procurement  and  setting  forth,  a  di- 
vorce was  purposed  bitween  her  and  Your  Highnes ;  and  bi  her 
maner,  behavour,  wordes,  and  messages  sent  to  diverse,  hath  pub- 
lished, divulged,  and  opened  the  same ;  and  what  Your  Highnes 
hath  said  unto  her  therin,  to  the  purging  of  the  matier,  howe,  and 
after  what  sorte,  Your  Grace  have  used  yourself,  to  attayne  to  the 
knowlege  of  him,  that  shuldc  be  author  of  that  tale  unto  her.  And 
I  assure  Your  Grace,  my  Lorde  of  Rochester,  hering  the  processe 
of  the  matier  after  this  sorte,  did  arrecte  gret  blame  unto  the 
Quene,  as  wel  for  giving  soo  light  credence  in  soo  weighty  a 
matier,  as  also,  when  she  harde  it,  to  handle  the  same  in  such 
facion,  as  rumor  and  brute  shuld  sprede  therof ;  which  might  not 
oonly  be  summe  staye  and  let  to  the  universal  peace,  which  is  now 
in  mayning  and  treating,  but  also  to  the  gret  daungcr  and  peril 
of  Your  Graces  succession,  if  the  same  shulde  be  further  sprcd 
and  divulged ;  and  doubted  not,  but  that  if  he  might  speke  with 
her,  and  disclose  unto  her  al  the  circumstances  of  the  matier  as 
afore,  he  shulde  cause  her  gretly  to  repent,  humjlle,  and  submitte 
herselfe  unto  Your  Highnes ;  considering  that  the  thing  doon  by 
Your  Grace  in  this  matier  was  soo  necessary  and  expedient,  and 
the  Quenes  acte  herin  soo  perilous  and  daungerous,  if  it  be  not 
redubbed.  Howbeit  I  have  soo  persuaded  hym,  that  he  wil  no- 
thing speke  or  doo  therin,  ne  any  thing  counsail  her,  but  as  shal 
stande  with  your  pleasour ;  for  he  saith,  although  she  be  Quene 
of  this  realme,  yet  he  knowelegith  youe  for  his  high  Souverain 
Lord  and  King ;  and  will  not  therfor  otherwise  behave  himself,  in 
al  matiers,  concerning  or  touching  your  personne,  thenne  as  he 
shalbe  by  Your  Grace  expressely  commaunded ;  like  as  he  made 
answer  unto  the  messanger  sent  from  the  Quene,  as  I  have  before 
writen.  Wherfore  there  restith  oonly  the  advertisement  of  your 
pleasour  to  be  given  unto  him,  wheruppon  he  wil  incontinently 
repare  unto  Your  Highnes,  and  further  ordre  himselfe  to  the 
Quene  in  wordes,  maner,  and  facion,  as  he  shalbe  by  Your  Grace 
enfburmed  and  enstructed. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  198, 

19th  July,  1527.    WOLSEY  TO  THE  KING. 

And  as  touching  the  going  of  Fraunces  Phillippes  in  to  Spayne, 
fayning  the  same  to  be  for  visiting  of  his  mother,  now  sikely  and 
aged.  Your  Highnes  takith  it  suerly  in  the  right,  that  it  is  chiefly 
for  disclosing  of  the  secrete  matier  unto  thEmperour,  and  to  divis* 


APPENDIX.  307 

meanes  and  wayes,  howe  your  ontended  purpose  might  be  em- 
peched.  Wherfbr  Your  Highnes  hath  right  substancially  and 
prudently  divised,  like  as  it  is  more  thenne  necessary,  that  his 
j>assage  in  to  Spayne,  in  any  wise,  shuld  be  letted  and  stopped ; 
for  if  the  said  matier  shuld  cumme  to  thEmperours  knowleage,  it 
shuld  be  noo  litel  hinderaunce  to  Your  Graces  particuler,  and  the 
common  affayres  of  Christendom,  which  be  nowe  in  hande.  En- 
suying,  therfbre,  Your  Graces  pleasour,  if  he  cumme  by  this  way, 
I  shal  not  fayle  soo  to  ordre  al  thinges,  that  he  shalbe  stopped  in 
summe  convenient  place,  without  suspecting  that  the  same  pro- 
cedith  eythcr  of  Your  Highnes,  or  of  me.  Howbeit,  if  he  passe 
by  see,  there  canne  be  noo  provision  divised,  but  that  he,  arryved 
in  Spayne,  shal  have  opportunitc  and  meanes  ynowe  to  cause  the 
said  matier  to  be  brought  to  thEmperours  knowledge,  althuwe  he 
be  not  seen  in  his  Courte,  or  repare  unto  his  presence. 

Slate  Papers,  Hen,  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  220. 

29th  July,  1527.     WOLSEY  TO  THE  KING. 

SIRE, — Dayly  and  hourely  musing  and  thinking  on  Your  Graces 
gret  and  secret  affayre,  and  howe  the  same  maye  cumme  to  good 
eflfecte  and  desired  ende,  aswel  for  the  delyveraunce  of  Your  Grace 
out  of  the  thraulde,  pensif,  and  dolerous  lif  that  the  same  is  in,  as 
for  the  continuance  of  your  helth,  and  the  suertie  of  your  realme 
and  succession,  I  considre  howe  that  the  Popes  Holynes  consent 
must  concurre,  aswel  for  the  approbation  of  such  processe,  as 
shalbe  made  by  me  in  the  said  matier,  as  in  cace  the  Quene  wold 
appelle,  (as  it  is  not  unlike  she  wil  doo)  or  declyne  from  my  juris- 
diction ;  whose  consent  fayling,  and  not  possible  to  be  had,  then 
the  approbation  of  the  Cardinalles,  to  be  convoked  in  to  oon  place, 
representing  the  state  of  the  College,  is  necessaryly  requisite  :  for 
the  spcdy  atteyning  of  the  which  consentes,  I  canne  imagine  but 
two  remedies ;  the  oon  is  the  Poopes  delyveraunce  and  restitucion 
to  libertie ;  that  fayling,  the  other  is  the  convocation  of  the  said 
Cardinalles  in  to  summe  convenient  place  in  Fraunce ;  for  the 
which  purpose,  both  Your  Highnes,  the  French  King,  and  I,  have 
not  oonly  sent  forth  our  letters  to  al  such  Cardinalles  as  be  absent, 
but  also  divised  offres,  allectives,  and  practises  to  be  set  forth,  to 
induce  them  to  assemble  in  Fraunce ;  of  whose  repare  thither  ther 
is  good  hope  and  apparaunce. 


In  cace  the  said  peace  cannot  be  by  these  meanes  brought  to 
cffecte,  whereupon  might  ensue  the  Poopes  delyveraunce,  by  whose 
auctorite  and  consent  Your  Graces  aflfayre  shuld  take  most  sure, 
honnorable,  effectual,  and  substancial  ende;  and  who,  I  doubte 
not,  considering  Your  Graces  gratitude,  wold  facyly  be  induced 
to  doo  al  thyng  therin,  that  might  be  to  Your  Graces  good  satis- 
faction and  purpose ;  thenne,  and  in  that  cace,  there  is  noon  other 
rcmedye,  but  the  convocation  of  the  said  Cardinalles ;  who,  as  I 


308  APPENDIX. 

am  enformed,  wil  not,  ne  canne,  conveniently  convene  in  any  other 
place  but  at  Avinion,  where  the  administracion  of  the  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  hath  been  in  scinblable  caces  heretofore  exercised  :  to 
the  which  place,  if  the  said  Cardinalles  canne  be  induced  to 
cumme,  Your  Highnes  being  soo  contented,  I  purpose  also  to  re- 
pare;  not  sparing  any  labour,  travayl,  or  payne  in  my  body, 
charges,  or  exspences,  to  doo  service  unto  Your  Grace  in  that  be- 
haulf,  according  to  my  most  bounden  dutie  and  hartes  desire, 
there  to  consulte  and  divise  with  them,  for  the  governaunce  and 
administracion  of  the  auctorite  of  the  church  during  the  said  cap- 
tivite,  which  shalbe  a  good  grounde  and  fundament  for  the  effectual 
execution  of  Your  Graces  secrete  affayre. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  230. 

llth  August,  1527.    WOLSEY  TO  THE  KING,  FROM  AMIENS. 

And  fbrasmoch  as,  sythens  my  cummyng  hither,  I  have  re- 
ceyved,  out  of  Flanders,  letters  from  Master  Haket,  Your  Graces 
Agent  there,  conteyning  that  it  is  cumme  to  my  Lady  Margarettes 
knowlege,  by  secrete  wayes  and  meanes,  as  she  affermith,  that 
Your  Grace  entendith  to  be  separate  and  divorsed  from  the  Quene, 
and  that  the  said  Lady  hath  broken  with  the  said  Master  Haket 
therein ;  wherby  it  may  be  conjected  and  veryly  supposed,  that 
not  oonly  thEmperour  hath  knowlege  therof,  but  also  they  wyl  doo 
and  set  forth  al  that  they  canne  at  Rome  for  the  interruption  and 
letting  of  Your  Graces  purpose  :  I  have  therfbre,  by  thadvise  of 
my  Lorde  of  Bath,  divised  certain  expeditions  to  be  made  to  Rome, 
aswel  by  the  Bishop  of  Worcetour,  for  whom  I  have  sent  with  al 
diligence  to  cumme  hither,  as  by  Gregory  de  Cassales,  and  the 
Poopes  Ambassadour,*  ut  in  omnem  eventum  et  casum,  of  the 
oon  expedition  fayle  the  other  maye  take  effecte.  And  I  have  set 
forth  such  practises,  not  sparing  for  offering  of  money,  that  by 
oon  meane  or  other,  ther  is  gret  appearaunce  that  oon  of  these,  I 
purpose  to  sende  for  the  said  expeditions,  shal  have  accesse  unto 
the  Poopes  personne ;  to  the  which  if  they,  or  any  of  them,  may 
attayne,  there  shalbe  al  possible  wayes  and  practises  set  forth  for 
the  obtayning  of  the  Poopes  consent,  aswel  in  the  convocation  of 
Cardinafies,  and  administracione  usum  ecclesiasticarum  durante 
captivitate  sua,  as  making  of  protestacions,  and  graunting  of  other 
thinges,  which  may  conferre  and  be  beneficial  to  Your  Graces 
purpose. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  254. 

[Wolsey,  during  his  visit  to  France  in  summer  1527,  commu- 
nicates to  Henry  the  particulars  of  his  negotiations  for  an  intended 
marriage  between  him  and  Elinor  the  Emperor's  sister,  afterwards 
the  second  queen  of  Francis  I.,  without  apparently  incurring  any 
displeasure.  On  the  13th  September,  1527,  there  is  a  letter  of  the 
Cardinal,  full  of  gratitude  for  his  master's  approbation.] 

*  Cardinal  John  Salviati. 


APPENDIX.  309 

January  or  February,  1529.    TUKE  TO  WOLSEY. 

Mr.  Brian's  letter  forasmany  clauses  as  the  King  shewed  me, 
whiche  was  here  and  there  as  His  Grace  red  it,  was  totally  of  des- 
j>eracion,  afFerrnyng  plainly  that  he  coude  not  bileve  the  Poope 
woldc  do  any  thing  for  His  Grace,  with  these  wordes  added ;  '  It 
myght  wel  be  in  his  Pater  Noster,  but  it  was  nothing  in  his  crede.' 
He  wrote,  also,  at  other  thinges  that  wer  in  the  common  letters, 
bothe  of  their  commyng  to  the  Poopes  presence,  the  good  mes- 
sage sent  from  the  Poope,  that  he  wolde  not  speke  with  thEmpe- 
rours  Oratour,  withoute  their  knowledge,  and  otherwise,  except 
the  maters  in  cifer.  I  alwais  satisfied  the  King,  as  wel  as  I  coude, 
with  the  contynue  of  the  last  letters,  whernnto  was -more  respect 
to  be  had  then  to  thise,  seeing  then  they  knewe  and  herde  more 
than  afore.  The  Kinges  Grace  said  that  those  last  letters  also 
conteyn  smal  comfort.  Howbcit,  finally,  His  Grace  causing  me 
to  rede  the  common  letters  and  the  newes,  and  liking  wel  the 
clause  discifred,  that  the  registre  of  the  brefe  coude  not  be  founde, 
rested  upon  some  better  knowlege  by  the  next  letters,  and  so  re- 
versed his  letters,  with  on  that  was  inclosed  in  Mr.  Brians  letters, 
directed  I  wot  not  to  home,  but  I  suppose  to  Mastres  Anne*  with 
liymself. 

4th  August,  1529.    GARDINER  TO  WOLSEY^ 

His  Highness  having  (great}  trust  and  confidence  in  Your 
Graces  dexterite  and  ,  doubteth  not  but  Your  Grace,  by 

good  handeling  (of  the)  Cardinal  Campegius,  and  the  Quenes  Coun- 
sail,  the  execution  of  those  letters  citatorial,  also  on  your 

,  and  to  cause  them  to  be  content  the  same  inhibition 
(be)  doon  and  executed  by  vertue  of  the  Popes  brief 
to  Your  Grace,  and  mencyouning  that  matier,  which  I  sende  unto 
the  same  herwith ;  which  brief  fbrasmoch  as  it  rehersith  and  tes- 
tifith  unto  youe  the  cause  to  be  ad(voked),  the  Kinges  Highnes  sup- 
posith  that  to  be  sufficient,  wherupon  ye  may  ground  the  cessation 
of  your  processe,  and  that  it  should  not  be  nedeful  any  such  let- 
ters citatorial,  conteyning  matier  prejudicial  to  his  personne,  and 
royal  estate,  to  be  shewed  to  his  subget,  within  his  owne  realme. 
For  which  considerations,  His  Highness  wold  gladly  this  breve  to 
be  taken  in  the  lieu  of  the  said  letters  citatorial,  if,  upon  any  such 
reasons  as  be  bifore  rehersed,  or  other  as  Your  Grace,  of  your 
high  wisedom,  can  divise,  it  may  be  compassed  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  Quenes  Counsail,  without  any  suspition  to  arrise  thereof, 
that  any  other  respect  wer  coloured  therby. 

Stale  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  336. 

[The  supplications  of  Wolsey  for  mercy  are  earnest,  and  too 
importunate  (see  State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  347—371). 
Those  to  Cromwell  are  honorable  to  the  fidelity  of  that  minister, 

*  Anne  Boleyn. 


310  APPENDIX. 

whom  the  Cardinal  addresses  as  "  mine  only  aider,  my  assured 
refuge."  His  letters  to  Gardiner  evince  the  favor  and  influence 
then  enjoyed  by  him  at  court.] 


4th  June,  1535.     INTERROGATORIES  OF  BISHOP  FISHER. 

INTERROGATORIES,  ministered,  on  the  Kinge's  behalf,  (unto)  John 
Fissher,  Doctour  of  Divinitie,  late  Busshop*  (of  Rochester),  the  14th 
daie  of  June,  in  the  27th  yere  of  (the  Reign  of]  King  Henrie  th' 
eight,  within  the  Toure  ((if  London  by  the)  right  worshippful  Mr. 
Thomas  Bedyll,  (Mr.  Doctour  Aldrige),  Mr.  Richard  Layton,  and 
Mr.  Richard  (Curvien  being  of  the)  Kinges  counsail,  in  the  presence 
of  Harrie  (Polstede  and  John)  Whalley,  witnesses,  and  me  John  ap 
Rice,  Notary  (Publick),  with  the  answeres  of  the  said  Mr.  Doctour 
Fissher  to  the  (Fame.tf 

FIRSTE,  whether  he  wolde  obeye  the  Kinges  Highnes,  as  Su- 
preme Hedde  in  Erthe  under  Christe,  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  hym  so  repute,  take,  and  accepte  according  to  the  Statute  in 
that  behalf  made  ? 

To  this  interrogatorie,  he  answered  and  said  thus ;  that  in  thende 
of  the  communication  and  examynacion,  had  last  bifore  this  tyme, 
with  this  respondent,  one  of  (them  did)  make  mocion  unto  hym, 
(lyJte  as)  this  respondent  thought  -  -,  to  the  which 

mocion  (he  gave)  than  a  certain  ansvvere,  (and  to  the)  same  he  is  yet 
content  (the  Kinges  Highnes  pleasure  signified  to  him.  therein)  fully 
to  stande  ;  and  th(at  he)  woll  further,  with  his  owne ,  hande,  more 
at  length  write  and  (declare)  the  same ;  which  answer  being  eftsones 
nowe  repeted  by  mouth,  (with)  all  the  circumstances  of  the  (sa)me, 
he  required  the  said  Counsail  to  s(hew)  unto  the  Kinges  Majestic. 

Item,  whether  he  woll  consent,  approve,  and  affirme  (the  Kinges) 
Highnes  mariage  with  the  moste  noble  Quenc  Anne,  (that  now)  is 
to  be  good  and  lawfull,  and  affirme,  saye,  and  pr(onounce)  thother 
pretended  marriage  betwene  the  Kinges  said  High(nes  and)  my 
Lady  Catherine  Princesse  Dowager,  was  and  is  (uidawfuLJ)  nought, 
and  of  no  (ne  effect),  or  no  ? 

To  this  interrogatorie,  he  answered  and  said ;  that  (he  wold) 
obeye  this,  and  all  o(ther  articles  and  particles  conteign(ed  in  the 
Acte)  of  Succession  in  all  (points,  (saving  allweys  his  conscience) : 
(and)  as  touching  the  succession,  he)  saith  he  is  not  onlie  content 
to  accepte  and  approve  the  same  ;  ye,  and  swcre  thereto,  but  also 
to  defende  the  same,  and  dampne  the  tother.  Albe  it  to  answer 
absolutely  to  this  interrogatorie,  ye  or  nae,  he  desireth  to  be  par- 
doned. 

Item,  examined  wherein,  and  for  what  cause,  he  wolde  not  an- 
swere  resolutelye  to  the  said  interrogatories  ? 

*  Biahop  Fisher  was  attainted  by  parliament  in  December,  1534,  for  re- 
fusing to  take  the  oath  of  succession ;  but  he  was  not  beheaded  till  25M 
June,  1535. 

t  This  paper,  which  is  mutilated  by  damp,  is  among  'Tracts  Theological 
and  Political'  in  the  Chapter  House,  vol.  vii.  leaf  5v 


APPENDIX.  311 

To  this  interrogatorie  he  desireth,  that  he  maye  not  be  driven 
to  answere,  lest  he  shulde  fall  therby  into  the  daungers  of  the 
Statutes. 

(Signed}  J.  (Notarial  Mark)  R. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  431, 


INTERROGATORIES,  ministered  to  Sir  Thomas  More,  Knight,* 

1.  FIRSTE,  whether  he  had  any  communication,  reasonyng,  or 
consultacion  with  any  man  or  person,  syns  he  cam  to  the  Towre, 
touching  thActes  of  Succession,t  thActe    of  Supreme  Hedde,t 
wherin  speaking  of  certain  wordes  by  the  Kinges  Highnes  is 
made  treason^,  or  no  ?  and  yf  he  saye,  yes ;  than  be  he  asked 
whan,  howe  ofte,  with  whomc,  and  to  what  effecte  ? 

2.  Item,  whether  he  receaved  any  letters  of  any  man,  or  wrote 
any  man,  or  wrote  any  letters  to  other  men,  sens  he  cam  to  the 
Toure,  touching  the  said  actes,  or  any  of  theym,  or  any  other  busi- 
nes  or  affaires  concernyng  the  Kinges  Highnes,  his  succession,  or 
this  his  royalme  ?  and  if  he  saye,  yes ;  then  be  he  enquired,  howe 
many,  of  whome,  and  to  whome,  whan,  and  of  what  tenour  or 
efFecte  ? 

3.  Item,  whether  the  same  letters  be  foorth  commyng  or  no  ? 
and  yf  he  saye  no ;  then  be  he  asked,  why,  and  to  what  entent 
they  were  doon  aweye  and  by  whose  meanes  ? 

4.  Item,  whether  any  man  of  this  royalme,  or  without  this 
royalme,  did  sende  unto  hym  any  letters  or  message,  counsailling 
or  exhorting  hym  to  continue  and  persiste  in  the  opinion,  that  he 
is  in  ?  Yf  he  saye,  yes ;  than  be  inquired,  howe  many  theye  were, 
of  whome,  and  to  what  efFecte  ? 


Thansweres  of  Sir  Thomas  Moore,  Knyght,  made  to  certain  in- 
terrogatories ministered  unto  hym,  the  14th  daie  of  June,  Anno 
Regni  Regis  Henrici  Octavi  27°,  within  the  Toure  of  London, 
on  the  behalf  of  the  Kinges'  aid  Highnes,  before  Mr.  Bedle,  Mr. 
Doctour  Aldrige,  Mr.  Doctour  Layton,  Mr.  Doctour  Gurwen,  in 
the  presence  of  Polstede,  Whalley,  and  Rice  aforesaid. 

To  the  firste  he  answereth,  that  he  never  had  any  communica- 
cion,  or  consultacion,  touching  any  of  the  actes  or  matiers  speci- 
fied in  this  interrogatory,  sens  he  cam  to  the  Toure,  with  any  per- 
son, as  he  saith. 

To  the  seconde  inter»gatorie  he  saitb,  that  sens  he  cam  to  the 
Toure,  he  wrote  divers  scrolles  or  letters  to  Mr.  Doctour  Fissher, 

*  From  the  same  volume,  leaves  6  and  7.  Sir  Thomas  More  was  attainted 
for  the  same  cause,  and  at  the  same  time,  as  Bishop  Fisher ;  his  execution 
was  delayed  a  few  days  longer,  viz.  to  (5th  July,  1535. 

t  25  Hen.  VIII.  cap.  22.  t  26  Hen.  VIII.  cap.  1. 

§  26  Hen.  VIII.  cap.  13. 


312  APPENDIX. 

and  receaved  from  him  some  other  agein  ;  wherof  the  moste  parts 
(as  he  saith)  conteigned  nothing  els,  but  comforting  wordes  from 
either  to  other,  and  declaracion  of  the  state  that  they  were  in,  in 
their  bodies,  and  gevyng  of  thankcs  for  such  meate  or  drinke, 
that  the  tone  had  sent  to  the  tother.  But  he  saith,  that  he  remem- 
breth,  that  apon  a  quarter  of  a  yere  to  his  remembrance,  after  the 
commyng  of  this  deponent  to  the  Toure,  this  respondent  wrote  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Fissher,  wherein  he  certified  hym  that  this  examinat 
had  refused  the  othe  of  succession ;  and  never  shewed  the  Coun- 
saill,  nor  intended  ever  to  shewe  any  other,  the  cause,  wherefor 
he  did  so  refuse  the  same.  And  the  said  Mr.  Fissher  made  hym 
answere  by  a  nother  letter,  agcin,  wherein  he  declared  what  an- 
swere  he  had  made  to  the  Counsaill,  and  remembreth  that  this 
was  parte  of  the  contentes  thereof:  "howe  he  had  not  refused  to 
"  swere  to  the  succession."  And  saith,  that  there  went  no  other 
letters  betwene  theym,  that  any  thing  touched  the  Kinges  busynes, 
lawes,  or  affaires,  till  the  Counsail  cam  hether,  firste  of  all,  to  ex- 
amyn  this  deponent  upon  thActe  of  Supreme  Hed.  After  which 
examination,  this  examinat  receaved  a  letter  from  Mr.  Fissher,  of 
this  effect,  viz.  "  Howe  he  was  desirous  to  knowe  of  this  respondent, 
"  what  answere  he  had  made  to  the  Counsaill."  And  therupon 
thys  respondent  answered  hym  by  a  nother  letter,  other  thus : 
"  My  Lorde,  I  am  determyned  to  medle  of  no  thing,  but  only  to 
"  geve  my  mynde  uppon  Godd,  and  the  summe  of  my  hole  studie 
"  shalbe,  to  thinke  upon  the  Passion  of  Christe,  and  my  passage 
"  out  of  this  worlde,  with  the  dependences  therupon" ; — or  els 
thus :  "  My  Lorde,  myne  answer  was  this,  that  I  was  determyned 
to  medle  with  no  thing,"  &c.  as  above  :  he  can  not  well  remembre, 
whether  of  bothe  the  seid  weys  he  wrote  the  same  letter.  Than, 
within  a  while  after,  he  saith,  he  receaved  a  nother  letter  from  the 
said  Mr.  Fissher,  of  this  effect ;  "  That  he  was  infourmed  that 
"  there  was  a  worde  in  the  statute,*  "  MALICIOUSELY  ;"  and  yf  it 
"  were  so,  that  he  thought  therby,  that  a  man,  speking  nothing  of 
"  malice,  did  not  offende  the  statute  ;  and  desired  this  respondent 
"  to  shew  hym,  whether  he  sawe  any  otherwise  in  it."  And  this 
respondent  answered  hym  agen,  by  a  nother  letter,  shortely  after, 
of  this  effect,  viz.  "  Howe  this  examinat  toke  it  to  his  thinking,  as 
"  he  did  ;  but  the  understanding  or  interpretacion  of  the  said  stat- 
"  ute  shulde  nother  be  taken  after  his  mynde,  nor  after  this  depo- 
"  nentes  mynde ;  and  therefor  it  was  not  good  for  any  man  to 
"  truste  unto  any  suche  thing." 

And  saith  farther,  that  other  in  this  laste  letter,  or  in  a  nother 
meane  letter,  betwene  this  and  the  firste*  he  wrote  never,  whether 
this  examinat,  confessing  how  he  had  spoken  to  the  Counsaill,  that 
he  woldc  medle  with  nothing,  but  wolde  thinke  on  the  Passion  of 
Christe,  and  his  passage  out  of  the  worlde,  and  that  he  had  writ- 
ten  the  same  wordes  to  Mr.  Fissher ;  and  fearing,  leste  it  might 

*  26  Hen.  VIII.  cap.  13. 


AJ»PENDIX.  313 

happen  hyin  to  speake  the  same  wordes,  or  like,  in  his  answere  to 
the  Counsaill,  this  examinat  desired  hym  to  make  hys  answere  ac- 
cording to  his  owne  mynde,  and  to  medle  with  no  suche  thing,  as 
he  had  written  unto  hynv  lest  he  shulde  geve  tlie  Counsaill  occa- 
sion to  wene,  that  there  were  some  confederacie  between  theyrn 
botlie. 

Also,  saith,  that  syns  the  last  examination  of  hym,  this  examinat 
did  sende  Mr.  Fissher  worde,  by  a  letter  that  Mr.  Sollicitour*  had 
shewed  hym,  that  it  was  all  one  not  to  answere,  and  to  seye  agein 
the  statute  what  a  man  wolde,  as  all  the  lerned  men  of  England 
wolde  Justine,  as  he  said  than ;  and  therfore  he  said,  he  coulde 
reken  upon  nothing-  else,  but  upon  the  uttermoste :  wherfor  he 
prayed  him  to  praye  for  this  examinat,  and  he  wolde  agein  praye 
for  hym. 

Also,  he  saith,  that  he,  considering  howe  it  shulde  comme  tc 
his  doughters  eare,  Mr.  Ropers  wife,t  that  the  Counsaill  had  been 
with  hym,  and  shulde  here  thinges  abrode  of  hym  therupon,  that 
might  put  her  to  a  soden  flight ;  and  fearing  leaste  she,  being  (as 
he  thoughte)  with  ohilde,  shulde  take  some  harme  by  that  soden 
flight,  and  therfbr  mynding  to  prepare  her  bifore,  to  take  well 
awoorth,  what  so  ever  thing  shulde  betide  of  hym,  better  or  worse  ; 
did  sende  unto  her,  bothe  after  the  first  examination,  and  also  after 
the  laste,  letters,  by  the  whiche  he  did  signifie  unto  her,  howe  that 
the  Counsaill  had  ben  to  examine  hym,  and  had  asked  hym  cer- 
tain questions  touching  the  Kinges  statutes,  and  that  he  had  an- 
swered theym,  that  he  wolde  not  medle  with  no  thing,  but  wolde 
serve  God :  and  what  thende  thereof  shulde  be,  he  coulde  not  tell ; 
but  what  so  ever  it  were,  better  or  worse,  he  desired  her  to  take  it 
pacientlye,  and  take  no  thought  therfor,  but  onlie  praye  for  hym. 
And  saith,  that  she  had  written  unto  him,  bifore,  divers  letters,  to 
exhorte  hym,  and  advertise  hym  to  accomodate  hymself  to  the 
Kinges  pleasure ;  and  specially,  in  the  last  letter,  she  used  greate 
vehemence  and  obsecration,  to  persuade  this  examinat  to  incline 
to  the  Kingee  desire.  And  other  letters,  than  are  bifore  touched, 
he  nother  sent,  nor  receaved,  to  or  from  any  person,  sens  he  cam 
to  the  Toure,  to  his  remembrance ;  and  saith  that  George,  the 
Lieutenauntes  servaunt,  did  carie  the  said  letters  to  and  fro. 

To  the  third  interrogatory  he  saith,  that  there  is  non  of  the  said 
letters  fborth  commyng,  wfrere  he  knoweth ;  but  this  examinat 
wolde  have  had  George  to  kepe  them,  and  George  allweys  sajid, 
that  there  was  no  better  keper  than  the  fire,  and  so  bourned  theym.. 
And  whan  he  sawe,  that  he  coulde  not  persuade  George  to  kepe 
theym,  ho  wolde  have  had  George  to  shewe  them,  firste  to  somme 
trustie  freende  of  his,  that  coulde  reade,  and  yf  he  saw  that  there 
were  any  matier  of  importance  in  theym,  that  he  shulde  carie  the 
same  to  the  Counsaill,  and  geate  the  thankes  hymself,  first  of  any 

*  Richard  Rich. 

f  M;ii>.arct,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  was  the  wife  of  William  Ro- 
\-r.  Esq.  of  Teynham  and  EHham.  in  Kent. 

.  2  B 


314  APPENDIX. 

man,  therfor :  and  yf  there  were  non  such  matiers  in  theym,  that 
he  shulde  deliver  theym,  where  he  be  directed.  Yet  the  said 
George  feared  so  (as  he  allweys  said)  his  master,  the  Lieutenaunte, 
which  had  charged  him  highcly,  that  he  shulde  medle  with  no 
such  matiers,  leaste  he  wolde  have  ben  extremely  displeased  with 
hym  if  he  had  seen  that  he  had  doon  any  thing,  were  it  never  of 
so  small  importaunce,  ageinst  (his)  commaundement ;  and  therfor 
he  wolde  nedes  bourne  theym. 

To  the  4th  interrogatorie  he  answereth,  nae. 

Examined  further,  to  what  intent  he  did  sende  the  said  letters 
to  the  said  Mr.  Doctour  Fissher?  saith,  that  considering  they 
were  bothe  in  one  prison,  and  for  one  cause,  he  was  glad  to  sende 
unto  hym,  and  to  here  from  hym  agein. 

(Signed)  J.  (Notarial  Mark)  R. 

Interrogatories,  ministered,  on  tlie  Kinges  behalf,  unto  Sir  Thomas 
Moore,  Knyght,  the  daie,  yere,  and  place  above  recited,  by  the 
Counsaill  afore  named,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  said  wit- 
nesses ;  with  his  answers  unto  the  same. 

Firste,  whether  he  wolde  obeye  the  Kinges  Highnes,  as  Su- 
preme Hedde  in  erthe,  immediately  under  Christe,  of  the  Churche 
of  England,  and  hym  so  repute,  take,  accepte,  and  recognise,  ac- 
cording unto  the  statute  in  that  behalf  made  ? 

To  the  which  interrogatorie  he  saieth,  that  he  can  make  no  an- 
swere. 

Item,  whether  he  woll  consent  and  approve  the  Kinges  High- 
nes marriage  with  the  moste  noble  Quene  Anne,  that  now  is,  to 
be  good  and  lawfull ;  and  afferme  that  the  mariage  betwene  the 
Kinges  said  Highnes,  and  the  Lady  Catherine,  Princesse  Dowa- 
ger, pretensed,  was  and  is  unjuste  and  unlawful! ;  or  no  ? 

To  the  same  he  saieth,  that  he  did  never  speke  nor  mcdle  ayenst 
the  same,  nor  thereunto  make  no  annswere. 

Item,  where  it  was  objected  unto  hym,  that  by  the  said  statute, 
he,  being  one  of  the  Kinges  subjectcs,  is  bounde  to  annswere  to 
the  said  question,  and  to  recognise  the  Kinges  Highnee  to  be  Su- 
preme Hedde,  as  is  aforesaid,  as  all  other  his  said  subjectes  are 
bounden  to  recognise,  according  unto  the  said  statute. 

To  the  same,  he  saieth,  that  he  can  make  no  answere. 

(Signed)  J.  (Notarial  Mark)  R. 

State  Papers,  Hen.  VIII.  vol.  i.  p.  432. 


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"  We  think  there  are  few  readers  who  will  not  be  delighted  (we  are  certain  all 
will  be  instructed)  by  the  •  Journal  of  a  Naturalist.'  "—Monthly  Review. 

"  This  is  a  most  delightful  book  on  the  most  delightful  of  all  studies.  We  are 
acquainted  with  no  previous  work  which  bears  any  resemblance  to  this,  except 
*  White's  History  of  Selborne,'  the  most  fascinating  piece  of  rural  writing  anil 
cound  English  philosophy  that  ever  issued  from  the  press." — Athcnccum. 

•*  The  author  of  the  charming  volume  before  us  has  produced  one  of  the  most 
interesting  volumes  we  remember  to  have  seen  fora  long  time."— New  Monthly 
Mag.  June,  1829. 

3.  MILITARY  MEMOIRS  of  the  DUKE  of  WELLING- 

TON.    By  Captain  MOYLK  SHEUKR.     Nearly  ready. 

XIV.  A  DISCOURSE  on  the  REVOLUTIONS 
of  the  SURFACE  of  the  GLOBE  and  the  Changes  thereby  pro- 
duced in  the  ANIMAL  KINGDOM.  By  Baron  G  CUVIER. 
Translated  from  the  French,  with  Illustrations  and  a  Glossary 
In  12mo.  with  plates. 


4  Valuable  Works 

XV.  OUTLINES  of  HISTORY,  from  the  Earliest 
Records   to   the    Present   Time.     Prepared  for  the  Use  of 
Schools,  with  Questions,  by  JOHN  FKOST,  A.  M. 

"  We  have  glanced  over,  with  much  satisfaction,  the  second  American  edition 
of  a  work  entitled,  *  Outlines  of  History;  embracing  a  concise  history  of  the 
World,  from  the  earliest  period  to  the  pacification  of  Europe  in  1815,'  which  is 
just  published  by  Messrs.  Carey  &  Lea.  This  edition  contains  some  important 
additions,  and  a  set  of  questions  for  examination  of  students — arranged  by  John 
Frost,  A.  M.  The  main  object  of  the  work  is,  by  giving  a  selection  of  interest- 
ing and  striking  facts  from  more  elaborate  histories,  properly  and  carefully  ar- 
ranged with  chronological  tables,  to  render  the  study  of  general  history  less  dry 
and  repulsive  than  it  has  been  heretofore.  This,  we  think  is  fully  accomplished. 
Very  great  care  appears  to  have  been  bestowed  on  the  selections,  and  in  arrang- 
ing the  chronological  tables,  as  well  as  in  the  classification  of  the  historical  mat- 
ter into  parts  and  chapters.  The  work  will  sufficiently  recommend  itself  to  all 
who  examine  it." — Sat.  Eve.  Post. 

XVI.  ATLAS   of    ANCIENT   GEOGRAPHY, 

consisting-  of  21  Coloured  Maps,  with  a  Complete  Accentuated 
Index.  By  SAMUEL  BCTLKR,  D.  D.,  F.  K.  S.  &c.  Archdeacon  of 
Derby. 

By  the  same  Author. 

XVII.  GEOGRAPHIA  CLASSIC  A:  a  Sketch  of 
Ancient  Geography,  for  the  Use  of  Schools.    In  8vo.    Nearly 
ready. 

XVIII.  ENCYCLOPAEDIA   AMERICANA;    a 

Popular  Dictionary  of  Arts,  Sciences,  Literature,  History,  and 
Politics :  brought  down  to  the  Present  Time,  and  including  a 
Copious  Collection  of  Articles  in  American  Biography.  On 
the  basis  of  the  Seventh  Edition  of  the  German  Conversations 
Lexicon.  Edited  by  Dr.  FRANCIS  LEIBER,  assisted  by  EDWARD 

WiGGLESWORTH,  Esq. 

*„*  This  work  will  be  completed  in  twelve  large  octavo  volumes,  price  two 
dollars  and  a  half  each,  strongly  bound  in  cloth.  Five  volumes  are  already  pub- 
lished, and  the  sixth  is  nearlv  ready. 

XIX.  The  WATER  WITCH,  or  the  SKIMMER 

of  the  SEAS.  By  the  Author  of  the  PILOT,  RED  ROVER,  &c. 
In  2  vols. 

"  We  have  no  hesitation  in  classing  this  among  the  most  powerful  of  the  ro- 
mances of  our  countryman." — U.  States  Cazeftc. 

"  We  could  not  break  from  the  volumes,  and  may  predict  that  they  will  excite 
the  same  interest  in  the  minds  of  almost  every  reader.  The  concluding  chapters 
produce  intense  emotion."— National  Gazette. 

New  Editions  of  the  following  Works  by  the  same 
Author. 

NOTIONS  of  the  AMERICANS,  by  a  Travelling  Bachelor, 
2  vols.  I2mo. 

The  WISH-TON-WISH,  in  2  vols.  12mo. 

The  RED  ROVER,  2  vols.  I2mo. 

The  SPY,  2  vols.  12mo. 

The  PIONEERS,  2  vols.  12mo. 

The  PILOT,  a  Tale  of  the  Sea,  2  vols.  12mo. 


Published  by  Carey  4*  Lea.  5 

LIONEL  LINCOLN,  or  the  LEAGURR  of  BOSTON,  2vols. 

The  LAST  of  the  MOHICANS.  2  voJs.  I2mo. 

The  PRAIRIE,  2  vols.  12mo. 

XX.  JOURNAL  of  the  HEART,  edited  by  the 

Authoress  of  FLIRTATION. 

"  This  is  a  most  charming  and  feminine  volume,  one  delightful  for  a  woman 
to  read,  and  for  a  woman  to  have  written."— Literary  Gazette. 

XXL   The  ARMENIANS,  a  Tale  of  Constantino- 
ple.   By  .1.  MACFARLANK.  In  2  vols. 

"  The  author  will  appreciate  our  respect  for  his  talents,  when  we  say  that  he 
has  done  more  than  any  other  man  to  complete  the  picture  of  the  East,  dashed 
off  by  the  bold  pencil  of  the  author  of  Anastasius."— Edln.  Lit.  Journ. 

XXII.  TALES  of  a  GRANDFATHER,  being  a 
Series  from  French  History.     By  the  Author  of  WATEHLET. 

XXIII.  CONSIDERATIONS  on  the  CURRENCY 
and  BANKING   SYSTEM  of  the.  UNITED    STATES.     By 
ALBERT  GALLATIX.     Republished,  with  additions  and  correc- 
tions, from  the  American  Quarterly  Review. 

XXIV.  The  YOUNG  LADIES'  BOOK,  a  Manual 

of  Instructive  Exercises,  Recreations,  and  Pursuits.  With 
numerous  plates. 

XXV-  ATLANTIC  SOUVENIR, 

FOR  1831. 

Embellishments.— 1.  Frontispiece.  The  Shipwrecked  Family,  engraved  by 
Ellis,  from  a  picture  by  Bumet.— 2.  Shipwreck  off  Foil  Rouge,  Calais,  engrav- 
ed by  Ellis,  from  a  picture  by  Stanfield.— 3.  Infancy,  engraved,  by  Kelly,  from 
a  picture  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence.— 4.  Lady  Jane  Grey,  engraved  by  Kelly, 
from  a  picture  by  Leslie. — 5.  Three  Score  and  Ten,  engraved  by  Kearny,  fro  in 
a  picture  by  Bumet  —6.  The  Hour  of  Rest,  engraved  by  Kelly,  from  a  picture 
by  Burnet.— 7.  The  Minstrel,  engraved  by  Ellis,  from  a  picture  by  Leslie.— 8. 
Arcadia,  engraved  by  Kearny,  from  a  picture  by  Cockerell.— 9.  The'Fisherman'* 
Return,  engraved  by  Ncagle,  from  a  picture  by  Collins.— 10.  The  Marchioness 
of  Carmarthen,  granddaughter  of  Charles  Can-oil  of  Carrollton,  engraved  by  111 
man  and  Pillbrow,  from  a  picture  by  Mi».  Mee. — 11.  Morning  amoagthe  Hills, 
engraved  by  Hatch, from  a  picture  by  Doughty. — 12.  Los  Musicos,  engraved  by 
Ems,  from  a  picture  by  Watteau. 

A  few  copies  of  the  ATLANTIC  SOUVENIR,  for  1829  and 
1830,  are  still  for  sale.  - 

XXVI.  The  POETICAL  WORKS  of  CAMPBELL, 

ROGERS,  MONTGOMERY,  LAMBE,  and  KIRKE  WHITE, 
beautifully  printed,  1  vol.  8vo.  to  match  Byron,  Scott,  Moore, 
&c.  With  Portraits  of  the  Authors. 

XXVII.  The  CHEMISTRY  of  the  ARTS,  on  the 

Basis  of  Gray's  Operative  Chemist,  being  an  Exhibition  of  the 
Arts  and  Manufactures  dependent  on  Chemical  Principles, 
with  numerous  Engravings,  by  AIITHUU  L.  PORTER,  M.  D.  late 
Professor  of  Chemistry,  &c.  in  the  University  of  Vermont.  In 
8vo.  With  numerous  plates. 

The  popular  and  valuable  English  work  of  Mi.  Gray,  which  forms  the  ground- 
work of  the  present  volume,  was  published  in  London  in  1829,  and  designed  to 
exhibit  a  Systematic  and  Practical  view  of  the  numerous  Arts  arid  Manufactures 
which  involve  the  application  of  Chemical  Science.    The  author  himself,  a 
1* 


Valuable,  Works 

skilful,  manufacturing,  as  well  as  an  able,  scientific  chemist,  enjoying  the  mul- 
tiplied advantages  afforded  by  the  metropolis  of  the  greatest  manufacturing  na- 
tioii  on  earth,  was  eminently  qualified  for  so  arduous  an  undertaking,  and  the 
popnl&rity  of  the  work  in  England,  as  well  as  its  intrinsic  merits  attest  the 
fidelity  and  success  with  which  it  has  been  executed.  In  the  work  now  offered 
to  the  American  public,  the  practical  character  of  the  Operative  Chemist  has 
been  preserved,  and  much  extended  by  the  addition  of  a  great  variety  of  origi- 
nal matter,  by  numerous  corrections  of  the  original  text,  and  the  adaptation 
of  the  whole  to  the  state  and  wants  of  the  Arts  and  Manufactures  of  the  United 
States;  among  the  most  considerable  additions  will  be  found  full  and  extended 
treatises  on  the  Bleaching  of  Cotton  and  Linen,  on  the  various  brandies  of  Ca- 
lico Printing,  on  the  Manufacture  of  the  Chloride  of  Lime,  or  Bleaching  Pow- 
der, and  numerous  Staple  Articles  used  in  the  Aits  of  Dying,  Calico  Printing, 
and  various  other  processes  of  Manufacture,  such  as  the  Salts  of  Tin,  Lead, 
Manganese,  and  Antimony;  the  most  recent  Improvements  on  the  Manufacture 
of  the  Muriatic,  Nitric,  and  Sulphuric  Acids,  the  Chromates  of  Potash,  the 
latest  information  on  the  Comparative  Value  of  Different  Varieties  of  Fuel,  on  the 
Construction  of  Stoves,  Fire-places,  and  Stoving  Rooms,  on  the  Ventilation  of 
Apartments,  &c.  &c.  To  make  room  for  the  additional  practical  matter,  and 
not  to  enhance  the  price  of  the  work  to  the  American  reader,  between  two  and 
three  hundred  pages  of  the  theoretical  or  doctrinal  part  of  the  original  work 
have  been  omitted;  indeed,  roost  of  the  articles  on  the  theory  of  chemistry,  such 
as  Electricity,  Galvanism,  Light,  &c.  which  have  little  or  no  immediate  ap- 
plication to  the  aits,  and  which  the  chemical  student  will  find  more  fully 
discussed  in  almost  every  elementary  work  on  the  science,  have  been  either 
wholly  omitted  or  abridged.  Many  obsolete  processes  in  the  practical  part  of 
the  work,  used  in  some  instances,  the.  description  of  arts  not  practised,  and  from 
their  nature  not  likely  to  be  practised  in  the  United  States,  have  also  been 
omitted;  in  short,  the  leading  object  kas  been  to  improve  and  extend  \ht  prac- 
tical character  of  the  Operative  Chemist,  and  to  supply,  as  the  publishers  natter 
themselves,  a  deficiency  which  is  felt  by  every  artist  and  manufacturer,  whose 
processes  involve  the  principles  of  chemical  science,  the  want  of  a  Systematic 
Work  which  should  embody  the  most  recent  improvements  in  the  chemical 
arts  and  manufactures,  whether  derived  from  the  researches  of  scientific  men, 
or  the  experiments  and  observations  of  the  operative  manufacturer  and  aoti- 
zans  themselves. 

XXVIII.  ARNOTT'S  ELEMENTS  of  PHYSICS. 

Vol.  II.  Part  I.  Containing  Light  and  Heat. 

"Dr.  Amott's  previous  volume  has  been  so  well  received,  that  it  has  almost 
banished  all  the  flimsy  productions  called  popular,  which  falsely  pretend  to  strip 
science  of  its  mysterious  and  repulsive  aspect,  and  to  exhibit  a  holyday  apparel. 
The  success  of  such  a  work  shows  most  clearly  that  it  is  plain,  but  sound  know- 
kdge  which  the  public  want."— Monthly  Review. 

XXIX.  ELEMENTS  of  PHYSICS,  or  NATU- 
RAL PHILOSOPHY,  GENERAL  and   MEDICAL,  explained 
independently  of  TECHNICAL  MATHEMATICS,  and  con- 
taining-  New    Disquisitions   and   Practical    Suggestions.     By 
NEILL  ARXOTT,  M.  D.     First  American  from  the  third  London 
edition,  with  additions,  by  ISAAC  HAYS,  M.  D. 

*,*  Of  this  work  four  editions  have  been  printed  in  England  in  a  very  short 
time.  All  the  Reviews  speak  of  it  in  the  highest  terms. 

XXX.  MORALS  of  PLEASURE,  illustrated  by 
Stories  designed  for  Young  Persons,  in  1  vol.  I2mo. 

"  The  style  of  the  stories  is  no  less  remarkable  for  its  ease  and  gracefulness, 
than  for  the  delicacy  of  its  humour,  and  its  beautiful  and  at  times  affecting  sim- 
plicity. A  lady  must  have  written  it — for  it  is  from  the  bosom  of  woman  alone, 
that  s-uch  tenderness  of  feeling  and  such  delicacy  of  sentiment— such  sweet  les- 
ions of  morality— such  deep  and  pure  streams  of  virtue  ani!  piety,  gush«foith  to 
cleanse  the  juvenile  mind  from  the  grosser  impurities  of  our  nature,  and  prepare 
the  young  for  lives  of  usefulness  here,  and  happiness  hereafter.  We  advise  pa- 
rents of  young  families  to  procure  this  little  book— assuring  them  that  it  will 
have  a  tendency  to  render  their  offspring  as  swec-t  as  innocent,  as  innocent  as 


Published  by  Carey  fy  Lea.  7 

*ay,  as  gay  as  happy.  It  is  dedicated  by  the  author  '  to  her  young  Bedford 
Friends,  Anna  and  Maria  Jay'— but  who  this  fair  author  is,  we  cannot  even  guess. 
We  would  advise  some  sensible  educated  bachelor  to  find  out."— N.  T.  Com.  Adv. 

XXXI.  SKETCHES  of  CHINA,  with  Illustrations 
from  Original  Drawings.  By  W.  W.  WOOD.    In  1  vol.  12mo. 

"  The  residence  of  the  author  in  China,  during  the  years  1826-7-8  and  9,  has 
enabled  him  to  collect  much  very  curious  information  relative  to  this  singular 
people,  which  lie  has  embodied  in  his  work;  and  will  serve  to  gratify  the  curi- 
osity of  many  whose  time  or  dispositions  do  not  allow  them  to  seek,  in  the  volu- 
minous writings  of  the  Je suits  and  early  travellers,  the  information  contained 
in  the  present  work.  The  recent  discussion  relative  to  the  renewal  of  the  East 
India  Company's  Charter,  has  excited  much  interest;  and  among  ourselves,  the 
desire  to  be  further  acquainted  with  the  subjects  of  '  the  Celestial  Empire'  has 
been  considerably  augmented." 

XXXII.  CLARENCE;  a  Tale  of  our  own  Times.  By 
the  Author  of  REDWOOD,  HOPE  LESLIE,  &c.  In  two  volumes. 

XXXIII.  FALKLAND,  a  Novel,  by  the  Author  of 
PELHAM,  &c.  1  vol.  12mo. 

XXXIV.  A   COLLECTION   of  COLLOQUIAL 

PHRASES  on  every  Topic  necessary  to  maintain  Conversation, 
arranged  under  different  heads,  with  numerous  remarks  on 
the  peculiar  pronunciation  and  use  of  various  words — the 
•whole  so  disposed  as  considerably  to  facilitate  the  acquisition 
of  a  correct  pronunciation  of  the  French.  By  A.  BOLMAR.  One 
vol.  18mo. 

XXXV.  A  SELECTION  of  ONE  HUNDRED 

PERRIN'S  FABLES,  accompanied  by  a  Key,  containing  the 
text,  a  literal  and  free  translation,  arranged  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  point  out  the  difference  between  the  French  and  the 
English  idiom,  also  a  figured  pronunciation  of  the  French,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  French  works  extant  on  the  subject;  the 
whole  preceded  by  a  short  treatise  on  the  sounds  of  the  French 
language,  compared  with  those  of  the  English. 

XXXVI.  NEUMAN'S  SPANISH  and  ENGLISH 

DICTIONARY,  New  Edition. 

XXXVII.  A  TOUR  in  AMERICA,  by  BASIL  HALL, 

Captain  R.  N.  in  2  vols.  12mo. 

XXXVIII.  AMERICAN  ORNITHOLOGY,  orNA- 
TURAL    HISTORY    of    BIRDS    inhabiting    the    UNITED 
STATES,  by  CHAHLES  LUCIAX  BONAPARTE;  designed  as  a  con- 
tinuation of  Wilson's  Ornithology,  vols.  I.,  II.  and  III. 

V  Gentlemen  who  possess  Wilson,  and  are  desirous  of  ren- 
dering the  work  complete,  are  informed  that  the  edition  of 
this  work  is  very  small,  and  that  but  a  very  limited  number  of 
copies  remain  unsold.  Vol.  IV.  in  the  press. 

XXXIX.  The  AMERICAN  QUARTERLY  RE- 
VIEW, No.  XVII.  Contents.— France,  by  Lady  Morgan— En- 
nui— Dobell's  Travels  in  China  and  Siberia — Physical  Geo- 
graph— Autobiography  of  Thieves— -Tobacco— living's  Spa- 


8  Valuable  Works  in  Medicine,  fyc. 

nish  Voyages  of  Discovery — Martin's  History  of  Louisiana — 
Halsted  on  Dyspepsia — Bank  of  United  States. — Terms,  Jive 
dollars  per  annum. 

XL.  EVANS'S  MILLWRIGHT'S  and  MIL- 
LERS' GUIDE,  new  edition,  with  additions.  By  Dr.  THOMAS 
P.  JONES.  In  8vo.  with  plates. 

XLI.   HISTORICAL,    GEOGRAPHICAL,    and 

STATISTICAL  AMERICAN  ATLAS.     Folio. 

XLII.     Major    LONG'S    EXPEDITION  to   the 

SOURCES  of  the  MISSISSIPPI,  2  vols.  8vo. 

XLIII.  The  HISTORY  of  LOUISIANA,  particu- 
larly of  the  Cession  of  that  Colony  to  the  United  States  of 
North  America;  with  an  Introductory  Essay  on  the  Constitu- 
tion and  Government  of  the  United  States,  by  M.  DEMARBOIS, 
Peer  of  France,  translated  from  the  French  by  an  American 
citizen.  In  1  vol.  8vo. 


VALUABLE  WORKS 

IX 

MEDICINE,  SURGERY,  AND  CHEMISTRY. 

I.  LECTURES  on  INFLAMMATION,  exhibit- 
ing a  view  of  the  General  Doctrines,  Pathological  and  Practi- 
cal, of  Medical  Surgery.  By  .Jom*  THOMPSON,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.  E. 
Second  American  edition. 

II.  BROUSSAIS   on  CHRONIC   INFLAMMA- 
TIONS.   Translated  from  the  French,  in  2  vols.  8vo.    Nearly 
ready. 

By  the  same  Author, 

III.  A  TREATISE  on  PHYSIOLOGY,  applied  to 
PATHOLOGY.  Translated  by  JOHX  BELL,  M.  D.  and  R.  LA 
ROCHE,  M.  D.     Second  edition,  with  additions. 

IV.  EXAMINATION     of    MEDICAL     DOC- 
TRINES and  SYSTEMS  of  NOSOLOGY,  preceded  by  propo- 
sitions containing  the  substance  of  Physiological  Medicine. 
From  the  third  edition.     Translated  by  ISAAC  HATS,  M.  D.  and 
R.  E.  GRIFFITH,  M.  D.     In  2  vols.  8vo.     In  the  press. 

V.  CHEMICAL  MANIPULATION.   Instruction 
to  Students  on  the  Methods  of  Performing  Experiments  of 
Demonstration  or  Research,  with   accuracy  and  success.     By 
MICHAEL  FARADAY,  F.  R.  S.    First  American  from  the  second 
London  edition,  with  additions  by  J.  K.  MITCHELL,  M.  D. 

VI.  SURGICAL  MEMOIRS   of  the  RUSSIAN 


Published  by  Carey  $  Lea.  9 

CAMPAIGN.  Translated  from  the  French  of  Baron  LARHET. 
Nearly  ready. 

VII.  CLINICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS  of  FEVER, 

comprising  a  Report  of  Cases  treated  at  the  London  Fever 
Hospital,  1828-29.  By  ALEXANDER  TWEEDIE,  M.  D.  Member 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  &c.  &c.  8vo. 

VIII.  PARSONS  on  ANATOMICAL  PREPA- 
RATIONS, in  8vo.  with  plates.  Nearly  ready. 

IX.  THE  PRACTICE  of  MEDICINE,  upon  the 
Principles  of  the  Physiological  Doctrine,  by  J.  G.  COSTER,  M.  D. 
Translated  from  the  French. 

X.  COLLES'S    SURGICAL   ANATOMY.     Se- 

cond  American  edition. 

XI.  PATHOLOGICAL  and  PRACTICAL  RE- 
SEARCHES on   DISEASES  of  the   BRAIN   and    SPINAL 
CORD.     By  JOHN  ABERCHOMBIE,  M.  D. 

"  We  have  here  a  work  of  authority,  and  one  which  does  credit  to  the  author 
and  his  country."— Kortb  Amer*  Med.  and  Surg.  Journ. 

By  the  same  Author, 

XII.  PATHOLOGICAL  and  PRACTICAL  RE- 
SEARCHES on  DISEASES  of  the  STOMACH,  the  INTES- 
TINAL CANAL,  the  LIVER,  and   other  VISCERA  of  the 
ABDOMEN. 

"We  hare  now  closed  a  very  long  review  of  a  very  valuable  work,  and,  al- 
though we  have  endeavoured  to  condense  into  our  pages  a  great  mass  of  impor- 
tant matter,  we  feel  that  our  author  has  not  yet  received  justice."— Mcdico-Chi- 
rurgical  Review. 

X11I.  ARATIONAL  EXPOSITION  of  thePHYSI- 

CAL  SIGNS  of  DISEASES  of  the  LUNGS  and  PLEURA;  II- 

lustrating  their  Pathology  and  Facilitating  their  Diagnosis.  By 
CHARLES  J.  WILLIAMS,  M.  D.  In  8vo.  with  plates. 

"  It"  we  are  not  greatly  mistaken,  it  M'ill  lead  to  a  better  understanding,  and  a 
more  correct  estimate  of  the  value  of  auscultation,  than  any  thing  that  has  yet 
appeared."— Am.  Med.  Journ. 

XIV.  BECLARD'S    GENERAL    ANATOMY. 

Translated  by  J.  Toexo,  M.  D.     8vo. 

XV.  A  TREATISE  on  FEVER.  By  SOUTHWOOD 
SMITH,  M.  D.  Physician  to  the  London  Fever  Hospital. 

"  There  is  no  man  in  actual  practice  in  this  metropolis,  who  should  not  possess 
himself  of  Dr.  Smith's  work."— Land.  Med.  and  Surg.  Journ.  Feb. 

"  With  a  mind  so  framed  to  accurate  observation,  and  logical  deduction,  Dr. 
Smith's  delineations  are  peculiarly  valuable." — Medico-Chir.  Rev.  March. 

**  No  work  has  been  more  lauded  by  the  Reviews  than  the  Treatise  on  Fevers, 
by  South  wood  Smith.  Dr.  Johnson,  the  editor  of  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Re» 
view,  says,  *  It  is  the  best  we  have  ever  perused  on  the  subject  of  lever,  and  in 
pur  conscience,  we  believe  it  the  best  that  ever  flowed  from  the  pen  of  physician 
in  any  age  or  in  any  country.' " — Am.  Med.  Journ. 

XVI.  MEMOIR  on  the  TREATMENT  of  VENE- 
REAL DISEASES  WITHOUT  MERCURY,  employed  at  the 
Military  Hospital  of  the  Val-de-Grace.     Translated  from  the 
French  of  H.  M.  J.  Desruelles,  M.  D.  8cc.   To  which  is  added 


10  Valuable  Works  in  Medicine,  fyc. 

Observations  by  G.  J.  Guthrie,  Esq.  and  various  documents, 
showing  the  results  of  this  Mode  of  Treatment,  in  Great  Bri- 
tain, France,  Germany,  and  America,  1  vol.  8vo. 

XVII.  PRINCIPLES  of  MILITARY  SURGERY, 

comprising  Observations  on  the  Arrangements,  Police,  and 
Practice  of  Hospitals,  and  on  the  History,  Treatment,  and 
Anomalies  of  Variola  and  Syphilis;  illustrated  with  cases  and 
dissections.  By  JOHN  HENNEN,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.  E.  Inspector  of 
Military  Hospitals — first  American  from  the  third  London  edi- 
tion, with  Life  of  the  Author,  by  his  son,  Dr.  JOHX  HEXNEX. 

"  The  value  of  Dr.  Hennen's  work  is  too  well  appreciated  to  need  any  praise 
of  ours.  We  were  only  required  then,  to  bring  the  third  edition  before  the  no- 
tice of  our  readers;  and  having  done  this,  we  shall  merely  add,  that  the  volume 
merits  a  place  in  avery  library,  and  that  no  military  surgeon  ought  to  be  without 
it."— Medical  Gazette. 

"  It  is  a  work  of  supererogation  for  us  to  eulogize  Dr.  Hennen's  Military  Sur- 
gery; there  can  be  no  second  opinion  on  its  merits.  It  is  indispensable  to  the  mi- 
litary and  naval  surgeon."— London  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal. 

XVIII.  A   TREATISE    on   PATHOLOGICAL 

ANATOMY,  by  WILLIAM  E.  HORCTBB,  M.  D.  Adjunct  Profes- 
sor of  Anatomy  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  We  can  conscientiously  commend  it  to  the  members  of  the  profession,  as  a 
satisfactory,  interesting,  and  instructive  view  of  the  subjects  discussed,  and 
as  well  adapted  to  aid  them  in  forming  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  diseased 
conditions  they  are  called  on  to  relieve."— American  Journal  of  the  Medical 
Sciences,  Ne.  9. 

XIX.  A  New  Edition  of  a  TREATISE  of  SPE- 
CIAL and  GENERAL  ANATOMY,  by  the  same  author,  2  vols. 
8vo. 

XX.  A  New  Edition  of  a  TREATISE  on  PRAC- 
TICAL ANATOMY,  by  the  same  author. 

XXL    COXE'S  AMERICAN  DISPENSATORY, 

Eighth  Edition,  Improved  and  greatly  Enlarged.  By  JOHJT 
REDMAN  COXE,  M.  D.  Professor  of  Materia  Medica  and  Phar- 
macy in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  In  1  vol.  8vo. 

XXII.  An  ESSAY  on  REMITTENT  and  INTER- 
MITTENT DISEASES,  including  generically  Marsh  Fever 
and  Neuralgia — comprising  under  the  former,  various  anoma- 
lies, obscurities,  and  consequences,  and  under  a  new  systema- 
tic view  of  the  latter,  treating  of  tic  douloureux,  sciatica, 
head-ache,  ophthalmia,  tooth-ache,  palsy,  and  many  other 
modes  and  consequences  of  this  generic  disease;  by  JOHX 
MACCULLOCH,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.  &c.  See.  Physician  in  Ordinary  to 
his  Royal  Highness  Prince  Leopold,  of  Saxe  Cobourg. 

"  In  rendering  Dr.  Macculloeh's  work  more  accessible  to  the  profession,  we 
are  conscious  that  we  are  doing  the  state  some  service."— Med.  Chir.  Revieio. 

"  We  most  strongly  recommend  Dr.  Macculloch's  treatise  to  the  attention  of 
our  medical  brethren,  as  presenting  a  most  valuable  mass  of  information,  on  a 
most  important  subject."— .N.  A.  Mcd.  and  Surg.  Journal. 

XXIII.  CAZENAVE  and  SCHEDEL,  on  DIS- 
EASES OF  THE  SKIN.  Translated  from  the  French.   In  8vo. 

XXIV.  The  PRACTICE  of  PHYSIC,  bj  W.  P. 


Published  by  Carey  fy  Lea.  1 1 

DKWEES,  M.  D.  Adjunct  Professor  of  Midwifery  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  2  vols.  8vo. 

"  We  have  no  hesitation  in  recommending  it  as  decidedly  one  of  the  best 
systems  of  medicine  extant.  The  tenor  of  the  work  in  general  reflects  the  high- 
est honour  on  Dr.  De  wees'*  talents,  industry,  and  capacity,  for  the  execution  of 
the  arduous  task  which  he  had  undertaken.  It  is  one  of  the  most  able  and 
satisfactory  works  which  modern  times  have  produced,  and  will  be  a  standard 
authority."—  Loud.  Med.  and  Sure:  Journ.  dug*  1830. 

XXV.  DEVVEES  on  the  DISEASES  of  CHIL- 
DREN.    Third  edition.     In  8vo. 

The  objects  of  this  work  are,  1st,  to  teach  those  who  have  the  charge  of  chil- 
dren, either  as  parent  or  guardian,  the  most  approved  methods  of  securing  and 
improving  their  physical  'powers.  This  is  attempted  by  pointing  out  the  du- 
ties which  the  parent  or  the  guardian  owes  for  this  purpose,  to  this  interesting, 
but  helpless  class  of  btings,  and  the  manner  by  which  their  duties  shall  be  ful- 
filled. And  2d,  to  render  available  a  long  experience  to  these  objects  of  our  af- 
fections, when  they  become  diseased.  In  attempting  this,  the  author  has  avoided 
as  much  as  was  possible,  "technicality;"  and  has  given,  if  he  does  not  flatter  him- 
self too  much,  to  each  disease  of  which  he  treats,  its  appropriate  and  designat- 
ing characters,  with  a  fidelitv  that  will  prevent  any  two  being  confounded,  to- 
gether with  (.he  best  mode  of  treating  them,  that  either  his  own  experience  or 
that  of  others  has  suggested. 

XXVI.  DEWEES   on    the    DISEASES  of  FE- 
MALES.    Third  edition  with  additions.     In  8vo. 

XXVII.  DEWEES'S  SYSTEM  of  MIDWIFERY. 

Fourth  edition,  with  additions. 

XXVIII.  CHAPMAN'S  THERAPEUTICS  and 

MATEIILV  MEUICA.     Fifth  edition,  with  additions. 

XXIX.  The  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  of  the  ME- 
DICAL SCIENCES,  No.  XV.  for  May,  1831.      Among  the 
Collaborators  of  this  work  are  Professors  Bigelow,  Channing, 
Chapman,  Coxe,  Davidge,  De  Butts,  Dewees,  Dickson,  Dud- 
ley, Francis,  Gibson,  Godman,  Hare,  Henderson,  Horner,  Ho- 
sack,  Jackson,  Macneven,  Mott,  Mussey,  Physick,  Potter,  Se- 
wall,  Warren,  and  Worthington;  Drs.  Daniell,  Emerson,  Fearn, 
Griffith,     Hays,    Hay  ward,   Ives,   Jackson,    King,    Moultrie, 
Spence,  Ware,  and  Wright. — Terms,  five  dollars  per  annum. 

XXX.      HUTIN'S     MANUAL     of   PHYSIO- 
LOGY, in  12mo. 
XXXI.     MANUAL  of  M  ATERTA  MEDIC  A  and 

PHARMACY.  By  II.  M.  EDWAIIDS,  M.  D.  and  P.  VAVASSEUR, 
M.  D.  comprising  a  Concise  Description  of  the  articles  used  in 
Medicine;  their  Physical  and  Chemical  Properties;  the  Bo- 
tanical Characters  of  the  Medicinal  Plants;  the  Formulae  for  the 
Principal  Officinal  Preparations  of  the  American,  Parisian, 
Dublin,  Edinburgh,  &c.  Pharmacopoeias;  with  Observations  on 
the  Proper  Mode  of  Combining  and  Administering  Remedies. 
Translated  from  the  French,  with  numerous  Additions  and 
Corrections,  and  adapted  to  the  Practice  of  Medicine  and  to 
the  Art  of  Pharmacy  in  the  United  States.  By  JOSEPH  TOGXO, 
M.  D.  Member  of  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Society,  and  II. 
Member  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy. 


12  Valuable  Works  in  Medicine,  fyc. 

"  It  contains  all  the  pharmaceutical  information  that  the  physician  can  desire, 
and  in  addition,  a  larger  mass  of  information,  in  relation  to  (he  properties,  &c. 
of  the  different  articles  and  preparations  employed  in  medicine,  than  any  of  the 
dispensatories,  and  we  thtnk  will  entirely  supersede  all  these  publications  in  the 
library  ofthtphysician*'" — Am.  Journ.  of  the  Medical  Sciences* 

XXXtl.  An  EPITOME  of  the  PHYSIOLOGY,  GE- 
NERAL ANATOMY,  and  PATHOLOGY  of  BICHAT,  by 
THOMAS  HKNDEHSOX,  M.  D.  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Prac- 
tice of  Medicine  in  Columbia  College,  Washington  City.  1 
vol.  8vo. 

**  The  epitome  of  Dr.  Henderson  ought  and  must  find  a  place  in  the  library 
of  every  physician  desirous  «f  useful  knowledge  for  himsi'li,  or  of  being  instru- 
mental in  imparting  it  to  others,  whose  studies  he  is  expected  to  superintend.''— 
North  American  Medical  and  Surcicai  Journal,  No.  15. 

XXXIII.  ELLIS' MEDICAL  FORMULARY.  The 

Medical  Formulary,  being  a  collection  of  prescriptions  de- 
rived from  the  writings  and  practice  of  many  of  the  most  emi- 
nent physicians  in  America  and  Europe.  By  BEXJAMIN  ELLIS, 
M.  D.  3d  edition,  with  additions. 

"  A  small  and  very  useful  volume  has  been  recently  published  in  this  city,  en- 
titled '  The  Medical  Formulary.'  We  believe  that  this  volume  will  meet  with  a 
cordial  welcome  from  the  medical  public.  We  would  especially  recommend  it 
to  our  brethren  in  distant  parts  of  the  country,  whose  insulated  situations  may 
prevent  them  from  having  access  to  the  many  authorities  which  have  been  con- 
sulted in  arranging  materials  for  this  work."— Phil.  Med.  and  Phys.  Jour. 

XXXIV.  MARTINET'S  MANUAL  of  PATHO- 
LOGY, containing  the  Symptoms,  Diagnosis,  and  Morbid  Cha- 
racters of  Diseases,  Stc.  2d.  ed.  1  vol.  I2mo. 

XXXV.  The  ANATOMY,  PHYSIOLOGY,  and 
DISEASES  of  the  TEETH.     By  THOMAS  BELL,  F.  R.  S.,  F.  L. 
S.  &c.  In  1  vol.  8vo.  with  plates. 

"Mr.  Bell  has  evidently  endeavoured  to  construct  a  work  of  reference  for  the 
practitioner,  and  a  text-book  for  the  student,  containing  a  '  plain  and  practical 
digest  of  the  information  at  present  possessed  on  the  subject,  and  results  of  the 
author's  o\vn  investigations  and  experience.'  "  *  *  *  "  We  must  now  take  leave 
of  Mr.  Bell,  whose  work  we  have  no  doubt  will  become  a  class  book  on  the  im- 
portant subject  of  dental  surgery,"— Medico-Chirr  ireical  Review. 

XXXVI.  WI STAR'S  ANATOMY,  fifth  edition,  2 
vols.  8vo. 

XXXVII.  GIBSON'S  SURGERY.  Second  edition, 
improved  and  enlarged.  In  2  vols.  8vo. 

PREPARING  FOR  PRESS. 
A  CYCLOP  JEDIA  of  PRACTICAL  MEDICINE, 

Comprising  Treatises  on  the  Nature  and  Treatment  of  Dis- 
eases, Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics,  Medical  Jurispru- 
dence, &c.  &c.  Edited  by  Jonx  FORBES,  M.  D.,F.R.  S.,  ALEX- 
AXDEH  TWEEDIE,  M.  D.  and  JOHX  CONOLLT,  M.  D. 

This  work  will  make  five  or  six  large  8vo.  volumes,  and  will 
be  published  at  intervals  of  three  months.  For  the  revision  and 
adaptation  of  the  work  to  this  country,  the  publishers  have 
engaged  the  assistance  of  many  of  our  most  distinguished  phy- 
sicians. A  detailed  prospectus  will  shortly  be  published. 


Philadelphia,  June,  1831. 

Just  Published,  by  Carey  $  Lea, 

And  sold  in  Philadelphia  by  E.  L.  Carey  $  A.  Ha~t;  in  New- York 
by  G.  $  C.  &  H.  CarviU ;  in  Boston  by  Carter  &  Hendee—in  Charleston 
by  W.  H.  Berrett — in  New-Orleans  by  W.  M'Kean;  by  the  principa, 
booksellers  throughout  the  Union, 

AND  IN  LONDON,  BY  JOHN  MILLER,  ST.  JAMES'S  STREET. 

VOLUME  6. 

CONTAINING  ABOUT  1,5OO  ARTICLES, 
(  To  be  continued  at  intervals  of  three  months,) 

OF  THE 

ENCYCLOPAEDIA  AMERICANA: 

A 

POPULAR  DICTIONARY 

OF 

ARTS,  SCIENCES,  LITERATURE,  HISTORY,  AND  POLITICS, 

BROUGHT  DOWN   TO   THE  PRESENT   TIME  AND  INCLUDING   A  COPIOUS 
COLLECTION   OF   ORIGINAL  ARTICLES  IN 

AMERICAN  BIOGRAPHY: 

On  the  basis  of  the  Seventh  Edition  of  the  German 

CONVERSATIONS-LEXICON. 


EDITED  BY  DR.  FRANCIS  XIEBER, 
ASSISTED  BY  EDWARD  WIGGLESWORTH,  Eso. 

To  be  completed  in  twelve  large  volumes,  octavo,  price  to  subscribers,  bounA 
in  cloth,  two  dollars  and  a  half  each. 

KACH  VOLUME  WILL  CONTAIN  BETWEEN  600  AND  700  PAGES. 


THE  CONVERSATION  LEXICON,  of  which  the  seventh  edition  in 
twelve  volumes  has  lately  been  published  in  Germany,  origin- 
ated about  fifteen  years  since.  It  was  intended  to  supply  a  wan* 
occasioned  by  the  character  of  the  age,  in  which  the  sciences, 
arts,  trades,  and  the  various  forms  of  knowledge  and  of  active 
life,  had  become  so  much  extended  and  diversified,  that  no  in 
dividual  engaged  in  business  could  become  well  acquainted 
with  all  subjects  of  general  interest ;  while  the  wide  diffusion 
of  information  rendered  such  knowledge  essential  to  the  charac- 
ter of  an  accomplished  man.  This  want,  no  existing  works 
were  adequate  to  supply.  Books  treating  of  particular  branch- 
es, such  as  gazetteers,  &c.  were  too  confined  in  character, 
while  voluminous  Encyclopedias  were  too  learned,  scientific, 


, 


; 


2  ENCYCLOPEDIA    AMERICANA. 

and  cumbrous,  being  usually  elaborate  treatises,  requiring  much 
study  or  previous  acquaintance  with  the  subject  discussed.  The 
conductors  of  the  CONVERSATION  LEXICON  endeavored  to  select 
from  every  branch  of  knowledge  what  was  necessary  to  a  well- 
informed  mind,  and  to  give  popular  views  of  the  more  abstruse 
branches  of  learning  and  science ;  that  their  readers  might  not 
be  incommoded,  and  deprived  of  pleasure  or  improvement,  by 
ignorance  of  facts  or  expressions  used  in  books  or  conversation. 
Such  a  work  must  obviously  be  of  great  utility  to  every  class  of 
readers.  It  has  been  found  so  much  so  in  Germany,  that  it 
is  met  with  everywhere,  among  the  learned,  the  lawyers,  the 
military,  artists,  merchants,  mechanics,  and  men  of  all  stations. 
The  reader  may  judge  how  well  it  is  adapted  to  its  object, 
from  the  circumstance,  that  though  it  now  consists  of  twelve 
volumes,  seven  editions,  comprising  about  ONE  HUNDRED  THOU- 
SAND COPIES,  have  been  printed  in  less  than  fifteen  years.  It 
has  been  translated  into  the  Swedish,  Danish  and  Dutch  lan- 
guages, and  a  French  translation  is  now  preparing  in  Paris. 

A  great  advantage  of  this  work  is  its  liberal  and  impartial 
character ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  book  like  the  EN- 
CYCLOP JBDIA  AMERICANA  will  be  found  peculiarly  useful  in  this 
country,  where  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  blessings  of  education, 
and  the  constant  intercourse  of  all  classes,  create  a  great  de- 
mand for  general  information. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  work  thus  far,  the  Editors  have 
been  aided  by  many  gentlemen  of  distinguished  ability ;  and  for 
the  continuation,  no  efforts  shall  be  spared  to  secure  the  aid  of 
all  who  can,  in  any  way,  contribute  to  render  it  worthy  of 
patronage. 

The  American  Biography,  which  is  very  extensive,  will  be 
furnished  by  MR.  WALSH,  who  has  long  paid  particular  atten- 
tion to  that  branch  of  our  literature,  and  from  materials  in  the 
collection  of  which  he  has  been  engaged  for  some  years.  For 
obvious  reasons,  the  notices  of  distinguished  Americans  will  be 
confined  to  deceased  individuals :  the  European  biography  con- 
tains notices  of  all  distinguished  living  characters,  as  well  as 
those  of  past  times. 

The  articles  on  Zoology  have  been  written  expressly  for  the 
present  edition  by  DR.  JOHN  D.  GODMAN  ;  those  on  Chemistry 
and  Mineralogy,  by  a  gentleman  deeply  versed  in  those  de- 
partments of  science. 

In  relation  to  the  Fine  Arts,  the  work  will  be  exceedingly 
rich.  Great  attention  was  given  to  this  in  the  German  work, 
and  the  Editors  have  been  anxious  to  render  it,  by  the  necessary 
additions,  as  perfect  as  possible. 

To  gentlemen  of  the  Bar,  the  work  will  be  peculiarly  valua- 
ble, as  in  cases  where  legal  subjects  are  treated,  an  account  is 


ENCYCLOPAEDIA   AMERICANA.  3 

given  of  the  provisions  of  American,  English,  French,  Prussian, 
Austrian,  and  Civil  Law. 

The  Publishers  believe  it  will  be  admitted,  that  this  work  is 
one  of  the  cheapest  ever  published  in  this  country.  They  havtt 
been  desirous  to  render  it  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  best  libraries, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  have  fixed  the  price  so  low  as  to 
put  it  within  the  reach  of  all  who  read. 

Those  who  can,  by  any  honest  modes  of  economy,  reserve  the  sum  of  Ur» 
dollars  and  fifty  cents  quarterly,  from  their  family  expenses,  may  pay  ftn  tl»* 
work  as  fast  as  it  is  published  ;  and  we  confidently  believe  that  they  will  fln  t 
at  the  end  that  they  never  purchased  so  much  general,  practical,  useful  infor- 
mation at  so  cheap  a  rate. — Journal  of  Education. 

If  the  encouragement  to  the  publishers  should  correspond  with  the  testimo^ 
in  favor  of  their  enterprise,  and  the  beautiful  and  faithful  style  of  its  execu- 
tion, the  hazard  of  the  undertaking,  bold  as  it  was,  will  be  well  compensated; 
and  our  libraries  will  be  enriched  by  the  most  generally  useful  encyclopedin 
dictionary  that  has  br-en  offered  to  the  readers  of  thp  English  langnage.  Fu'I 
enough  for  the  general  scholar,  and  plain  enough  for  every  capacity,  it  is  far 
more  convenient,  in  every  view  and  form,  than  its  more  expensive  and  ponder 
ous  predecessors — American  Farmer. 

The  high  reputation  of  the  contributors  to  this  work,  will  not  fail  to  insure 
it  a  favorable  reception,  and  its  own  merits  will  do  the  rest. — Silliman's  Journ. 

The  work  will  be  a  valuable  possession  to  every  family  or  individual  tha1 
can  afford  to  purchase  it ;  and  we  take  pleasure,  therefore,  in  extending  tht 
knowledge  of  its  merits. — National  Tute.Uifff.ncf.r. 

The  Encyclopaedia  Americana  is  a  prodigious  improvement  upon  all  tha* 
has  gone  before  it ;  a  thing  for  our  country,  as  well  as  the  country  that  gavii 
it  birth,  to  be  proud  of;  an  inexhaustible  treasury  of  useful,  pleasant  and  fa- 
miliar learning  on  every  possible  subject,  so  arranged  as  to  be  speedily  an  i 
safely  referred  to  on  emergency,  as  well  as  on  deliberate  inquiry ;  and  bettei 
still,  adapted  to  tb  j  understanding,  and  put  within  the  reach  of  the  multitude 
*  *  *  The  Encyclopaedia  Americana  is  a  work  without  which  no  library 
worthy  of  the  name  can  hereafter  be  made  up. — Yankee. 

The  copious  information  which,  if  a  just  idea  of  the  whole  may  be  formed 
from  the  first  volume,  this  work  affords  on  American  subjects,  fully  justified 
its  title  of  an  American  Dictionary ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  extent,  varie- 
ty, and  felicitous  disposition  of  its  topics,  make  it  the  most  convenient  and 
satisfactory  Encyclopaedia  that  we  have  ever  seen. — National  Journal. 

If  the  succeeding  volumes  shall  equal  in  merit  the  one  before  us,  we  may 
confidently  anticipate  for  the  Work  a  reputation  and  usefulness  which  ought 
to  secure  for  it  the  most  flattering  encouragement  and  patronage. — Federal 
Gazette. 

The  variety  of  topics  is  of  course  vast,  and  they  are  treated  in  a  manner 
which  is  at  once  so  full  of  information  and  so  interesting,  that  the  work,  in- 
etead  of  being  merely  referred  to,  might  be  regularly  perused  with  as  much 
pleasure  as  profit. — Baltimore  American. 

We  view  it  as  a  publication  worthy  of  the  age  and  of  the  country,  an'!  can- 
not but  believe  the  discrimination  of  our  countrymen  will  sustain  the  publish- 
ers, and  well  reward  them  for  this  contribution  to  American  Literature. — 
Baltimore  Patriot. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  the  succeeding  volumes  will  equal  the  first,  and  wa 
hence  warmly  recommend  the  work  to  the  patronage  of  the  public,  as  beinc  by 
far  the  best  work  of  the  kind  ever  offered  for  sale  in  this  country. —  U.  S.  &az. 

It  reflects  the  greatest  credit  on  those  who  have  been  concerned  in  its  pro- 
duction, and  promises,  in  a  variety  of  respects,  to  be  the  best  as  well  as  the 
most  compendious  dictionary  of  the  arts,  sciences,  history,  politics,  biography, 
&c.  which  has  yet  been  compiled.  The  style  of  the  portion  we  have  read 
is  terse  and  perspicuous;  and  it  is  really  curious  how  so  much  scientific  antl 
other  information  could  have  been  so  satisfactorily  communicated  in  such  brief 
limits.— A*.  Y.  Evening  Post. 

A  coiupendrous  library,  and  invaluable  book  of  reference. — JV.  Y.  American 


4  ENCYCLOPEDIA    AMERICANA. 

This  cannot  hut  prove  a  valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  age.— Mer 
Advertiser. 

The  appearance  of  the  first  volume  of  this  valuable  work  in  this  country,  is 
an  event  not  less  creditable  to  its  enterprising  publishers,  than  it  is  likely  to 
prove  laartngly  beneficial  to  the  public.  When  completed,  according  to  the 
model  presented  by  the  first  volume,  it  will  deserve  to  be  regarded  as  the  spirit 
of  all  the  best  Encyclopedias,  since  it  comprises  whatever  is  really  desirable 
and  necessary  in  them,  and  ia  addition,  a  large  proportion  of  articles  entirely 
original,  or  expressly  written  for  its  pages.  This  is  the  condition  of  all  the 
articles  of  American  Biography,  by  Mr.  Walsh;  those  on  Zoology,  by  Dr.  God- 
man  ,"  and  those  on  Mineralogy  and  Chemistry,  by  a  gentleman  of  Boston, 
distinguished  for  his  successful  devotion  to  those  studies.  The  work  abounds 
with  interesting  and  useful  matter,  presented  in  a  condensed  and  perspicuous 
style ;  nor  is  it  one  of  its  least  commendations  that  it  is  to  be  comprised  in 
twelve  octavo  volumes,  which  may  be  placed  on  an  office  table,  or  occupy  a. 
shelf  in  the  parlor,  ever  ready  for  immediate  reference,  instead  of  requiring 
almost  a  room  to  itself,  like  its  ponderous  predecessors,  the  Britannica,  Edin- 
burgensis,  &c. 

The  vast  circulation  this  work  has  had  in  Europe,  where  it  has  already  been 
reprinted  in  four  or  five  languages,  not  to  speak  of  the  numerous  German  edi- 
tions, of  which  SEVEN  have  been  published,  speaks  loudly  in  favor  of  its  im- 
trinsic  merit,  without  which  such  a  celebrity  could  never  have  been  attained. 
To  every  m<»n  engaged  in  public  business,  who  needs  a  correct  and  ample  book 
of  reference  on  various  topics  of  science  and  letters,  the  Encyclopaedia  Ameri- 
cana will  be  almost  invaluable.  To  individuals  obliged  to  go  to  situations 
where  books  are  neither  numerous  nor  easily  procured,  the  rich  contents  of 
these  twelve  volumes  will  prove  a  mine  which  will  amply  repay  its  purchaser, 
and  be  with  difficulty  exhausted,  and  we  recommend  it  to  their  patronage  in 
the  full  conviction  of  its  worth.  Indped  it  is  difficult  to  say  to  what  class  of 
readers  such  a  book  would  not  prove  useful,  nay,  almost  indispensable,  since 
it  combines  a  great  amount  of  valuable  matter  in  small  compass,  and  at  mode- 
rate expense,  and  is  in  every  respect  well  suited  to  augment  the  reader's  stock 
of  ideas,  and  powers  of  conversation,  without  severely  taxing  time  or  fatiguing 
attention.  These,  at  least,  are  our  conclusions  after  a  close  and  candid  ex- 
animation  of  the  first  volume. — Am.  Daily  Advertiser. 

We  have  seen  and  carefully  examined  the  first  volume  of  the  Encyclopaedia 
Americana,  just  published  by  Carey,  Lea  and  Carey,  and  think  our  readers  may 
be  congratulated  upon  the  opportunity  of  making  such  a  valuable  accession  to 
their  libraries. — Qurora. 

The  department  of  American  Biography,  a  subject  of  which  it  should  be 
disgraceful  to  be  ignorant,  to  the  degree  that  many  are,  is,  in  this  work,  a 
prominent  feature,  and  has  received  the  attention  of  one  of  the  most  indefati- 
gable writers  in  this  department  of  literature,  which  the  present  age  can  fur- 
nish.— Boston  Courier. 

According  to  tho  plan  of  Dr.  Lieber,  a  desideratum  will  be  supplied ;  the  sub- 
stance of  contemporary  knowledge  will  be  brought  within  a  small  compass; — 
and  the  character  and  uses  of  a  manual  will  be  Imparted  to  a  kind  of  publica- 
tion heretofore  reserved,  on  strong  shelves,  for  occasional  reference.  By  those 
who  understand  the  German  language,  the  Conversation  Lexicon  is  consulted 
ten  times  for  one  application  to  any  English  Encyclopedia. — National  Qaz. 

The  volume  now  published  is  not  only  highly  honorable  to  the  taste,  ability 
and  industry  of  its  editors  and  publishers,  but  furnishes  a  proud  sample  of  the 
accuracy  and  elegance,  with  which  the  most  elaborate  and  important  literary 
enterprises  may  now  be  accomplished  in  our  country.  Of  the  manner  in  which 
the  editors  have  thus  far  completed  their  task,  it  is  impossible,  in  the  course  of 
a  brief  newspaper  article,  to  speak  with  adequate  justice.— Boston  Bulletin. 

We  have  looked  at  the  contents,  generally,  of  the  second  voluma  of  this 
work,  and  think  it  merits  the  encomiums  which  have  been  bestowed  on  it  in 
the  northern  papers.  It  continues  to  be  particularly  rich  in  the  departments 
of  Biography  and  Natural  History.  When  we  look  at  the  large  mass  of  mis- 
cellaneous knowledge  spread  before  the  reader,  in  a  form  which  has  never  been 
equalled  for  its  condensation,  and  conveyed  in  a  style  that,  cannot  be  surpassed 
for  propriety  and  perspicuity,  we  cannot  but  think  that  the  American  Ency- 
clopedia deserves  a  place  in  every  collection,  in  which  works  of  reference  form 
a  portion.1' — Southern  Patriot. 


LIBRARY  OF 

ENTERTAINING   KNOWLEDGE, 

NOW    PUBLISHING 

BY  LILLY  &  WAIT,  (late  WELXS  fy  LILLY)  BOSTON, 

G.  &  C.  &  H.  Carvill,  and  E.  Bliss,  N.  York;  Carey  &  Hart, 
Philadelphia;  W.  &  J  Neal,  Baltimore;  Thompson  &  Ho- 
inans,  Washington;  W.  M.  Morrison,  Alexandria;  R.  D. 
Sanxay,  Richmond;  W.  II.  Berrett,  Charleston,  S.  C.  ;  Mary 
Carroll,  N.  Orleans;  Odiorne  &  Smith,  Mobile;  C.  D.  Brad 
ford  &  Co.  Cincinnati;  Little  &  Cummings,  Albany;  II. 
Howe,  New-Haven;  S.  Butler  &  Son,  Northampton;  Whip- 
pie  &  Lawrence,  Salem;  Eli  French,  Dover;  Geo.  Tilden, 
Keene;  and  S.  Colman,  Portland. 


he  publishers  are  happy  in  stating,  that  this  beautiful 
work,  which  proves  to  be  not  only  the  most  entertaining,  but 
one  of  the  most  useful  mediums  of  conveying  knowledge,  con- 
tinues to  receive  as  well  as  to  deserve,  an  extended  and  daily 
increasing  encouragement. 

The  LIBRARY  OF  ENTERTAINING  KNOWLEDGE  is  pub- 
lished under  the  superintendence  of  the  British  Society  for  the 
diffusion  of  Useful   Knowledge,  and  reprinted  page  for  page 
with  the  London  edition, 
A 


Each  part  contains  more  than  200  pages,  and  numerous  en- 
gravings on  wood,  beautifully  executed.  —  I1 'rice  forty  cents  a 
part,  and  continued  on  the  same  terms. 

The  Edinburgh  Review  says,  — '  The  Library  of  Enter- 
taining Knowledge  has  been  instituted,  for  the  purpose  of 
turning  to  some  account  the  reading  of  that  large  class,  in  every 
community,  who  are  not  averse  to  all  reading,  but  will  consent 
only  to  read  what  is  amusing.  So  large  a  portion  of  important 
information  may  be  conveyed  in  this  slripe,  that  the  greatest 
benefit  is  to  be  expected  from  this  Library.  It  is  full  of 
science,  and  yet  as  amusing  as  a  novel.  These  works  are  il- 
lustrated with  a  profusion  of  the  most  beautiful  cuts.  It  is  not 
wonderful  that  the  circulation  should  be  extensive;  it  is  said  to 
be  twenty  thousand  monthly.' 

Among  the  subjects  first  treated  of  in  the  Library  of  Enter- 
taining Knowledge,  are  the  following:  — 

The  Menageries;  Quadrupeds  described  and  drawn  from 
living  subjects. 

Vegetable  Substances;  Timber  Trees  and  Fruits. 

Anecdotes  of  Individuals  remarkable  for  the  Pursuit  of 
Knowledge,  Franklin,  Newton,  Hunter,  &c. 

The  New  Zealanders,  with  beautiful  Illustrations. 

Insect  Architecture  and  Insect  Transformations,  &c,  &c. 

To  be  followed  by  other  subjects  of  great  interest. 

The  committee  of  the  society  (of  which  Mr  Brougham  is 
chairman)  observe,  that  in  this  work  the  main  object  of  the 
society  —  that  of  conveying  useful  information  —  will  be  steadi- 
ly advanced.  They  would  present  the  most  attractive  parts  of 
knowledge  in  an  agreeable  manner;  affording  delight  as  well 
as  improvement,  and  a  grateful  relaxation  without  dissipating 
the  mind,  or  diverting  it  from  more  arduous  pursuits. 

Societies  for  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge,  schools  and 
seminaries,  supplied  on  the  most  favourable  terms. 

IdF^l'welve  numbers  of  the  American  edition  are  now  pub- 
lished, and  several  others  which  are  equally  beautiful  and  in- 
teresting, now  in  press,  and  will  appear  in  speedy  succession. 

A    SPECIMEN    QF    THE    WORK    FOLLOWS. 


THE    ELEPHANT. 


4  THE    ELEPHANT. 

These  decoys  are  generally  kept  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  forests  frequented  by  elephants;  —  and  when 
the  herd  is  joined  by  a  wild  male,  they  are  all  driven 
into  the  capital,  to  a  place  called  the  elephant  palace, 
<  appropriated  for  exhibiting,  for  the  king's  diversion, 
the  taming  of  the  wild  male  elephant.  This  place  is 
a  square  enclosure,  surrounded  everywhere  by  a  dou- 
ble palisade,  composed  of  immense  beams  of  teak  tim- 
ber, each  equal  in  diameter  to  the  main-mast  of  a 
four-hundred-ton  ship.  Between  the  palisades  there 
is  a  stone  wall,  about  fourteen  feet  high  and  twenty 
thick.  On  the  top  of  this  the  spectators  are  seated 
to  view  the  sport.  .  .  .  The  enclosure  has  two  entran- 
ces; the  gates  of  which  are  composed  of  beams,  which 
can  be  moved  at  the  bottom  by  means  of  ropes.' 
We  shall  extract  Mr  Crawfurd's  amusing  descrip- 
tion of  the  scene  which  took  place  in  this  enclosure:  — 

'  A  cloud  of  dust  announced  the  approach  of  the 
elephants,  about  twenty  in  number:  these,  with  the 
exception  of  the  captive,  were  all  females,  several  of 
them  with  their  young  following  them.  A  few  of 
the  best  broken-in  only  were  mounted.  Partly  by 
persuasion,  and  partly  by  force,  these  were  seen 
driving  before  them  a  small  male  elephant,  not,  as 
we  were  told,  above  thirteen  years  old:  it  required  at 
least  half  an  hour  to  induce  him  to  enter  the  gate  of 
the  enclosure.  A  very  docile  female  elephant  led  the 
way,  conducted  by  her  keeper;  but  the  half-tamed 
females  were  nearly  as  reluctant  to  enter  as  the  wild 
male  himself;  they  went  rive  or  six  times  half-way 
in  before  they  were  finally  entrapped;  and,  t\vice 
over,  the  male  had  run  off  to  the  distance  of  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  enclosure,  but  was  again  brought 
back  by  the  females.