THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI.
Accession of Edward VI.--Hertford's Intrigues--He becomes Duke
of Somerset and Lord Protector--War with Scotland--Battle of
Pinkie--Reversal of Henry's Policy--Religious Reforms--Ambition
of Lord Seymour of Sudeley--He marries Catherine Parr--His
Arrest and Death--Popular Discontents--Rebellion in
Devonshire and Cornwall--Ket's Rebellion in Norfolk--Warwick
Suppresses it--Opposition to Somerset--His Rapacity--Fall
of Somerset--Disgraceful Peace with France--Persecution of
Romanists--Somerset's Efforts to regain Power--His Trial and
Execution--New Treason Law--Northumberland's Schemes for Changing
the Succession--Death of Edward.
The country was doomed once more to experience the inconveniences of
a regal minority, to witness the struggles and manifold mischiefs of
ambitious nobles, while the hand of the king was too feeble to keep
them in restraint. The execution of Surrey, and the imprisonment and
attainder of the great Duke of Norfolk, left the Seymours completely
in the ascendant; and having recently risen into note and power, they
very soon showed all the inflated ambition of such parvenus. The Earl of
Hertford, as uncle of the king, was in reality the man now in possession
of the chief power. The king was but a few months more than nine years
of age. Henry, his father, acting on the discretion given him by an
Act of Parliament of the twenty-eighth year of his reign, had by will
settled the crown on Edward, and had appointed sixteen individuals as his
executors, who should constitute also the Privy Council, and exercise
the authority of the Crown till the young monarch was eighteen years of
age. To enable these executors, or rather, to enable Hertford, to secure
the person of the king, and take other measures for the establishment
of their position, the death of Henry was kept secret for four days.
Parliament, which was virtually dissolved by his death, met on the 29th
of January, and proceeded to business as usual, so that any acts passed
under these circumstances would have clearly become null. On the 31st
Edward entered London amid the applause of the people.
On the day after his arrival at the Tower, that is, on February 1st,
1547, the greater part of the nobility and the prelates were summoned,
and assembled there about three o'clock in the afternoon, in the
presence-chamber, where they all successively knelt and kissed his
majesty's hands, saying every one of them, "God save your grace!" Then
Wriothesley, the Chancellor, produced Henry's will, and announced from it
that sixteen persons were appointed to be his late majesty's executors,
and to hold the office of governors of the present king and of the
kingdom till he was eighteen years of age. To these were added twelve
others, who were to aid them in any case of difficulty by their advice.
Yet, although these formed a second council, it was totally destitute of
any real authority and could only tender advice when asked.
The announcement of these names excited much animadversion and some
censure. It was remarked that the greater part of them were new men; and
the chief council consisted of those who had been about Henry in his
last illness. But what next was disclosed was more extraordinary. The
executors, when assembled in the Tower on the day of the young king's
proclamation, declared that "they were resolved not only to stand to and
maintain the last will and testament of their master, the late king, and
every part and parcel of the same, to the uttermost of their powers,
wits, and cunning, but also that every one of them present should
take a corporal oath upon a book, for the more assured and effectual
accomplishment of the same." And now it was announced that the Privy
Council, for the better despatch of business, had resolved to place
the Earl of Hertford at their head. This was so directly in opposition
to the will, which had invested every member of the council with equal
power, that it was received with no little wonder. The fact was that
Hertford--who, before the old king's death, had determined to seize the
supreme power during the minority of his nephew--had secured a majority
in the council, who, as we shall soon find, had their object to attain.
Wriothesley was the only one who stood out. He assured them that such
an act invalidated the whole will. But he argued in vain and, finding
it useless, he gave way; and thus Hertford was now proclaimed Protector
of the realm and guardian of the king's person, with the understood but
empty condition, that he should attempt nothing which had not the assent
of a majority of the council. His triumph was completed by the titles of
Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England.
[Illustration: EDWARD VI.]
Essex, that is Parr, brother of the late queen, became Marquis of
Northampton; Lisle, Earl of Warwick; Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton;
Sir Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, and Lord High Admiral;
Rich became Baron Rich; Willoughby, Baron Willoughby; Sheffield, Baron
Sheffield. Southampton was, however, soon compelled to resign office on
the charge of having illegally put the Great Seal in commission.
Having thus seized and secured the actual sovereign power in England,
Somerset began to turn his attention to foreign affairs. Henry VIII. had
left it as a strict injunction to his council to secure the marriage of
the Queen of Scots with his son Edward. Somerset, therefore, addressed
a letter to the Scottish nobility, calling upon them to complete an
arrangement which he recommended as equally advantageous with that to
which they were bound by oaths, promises, and seals. The Scots took
little notice of this communication from the man who had carried the
commands of the late king through their land with fire and sword. The
castle of St. Andrews, which the murderers of Cardinal Beaton held out
against Arran, had in the course of this summer been surrendered to a
French force, and the conspirators were conveyed to France. Some of them
were confined in fortresses on the coast of Brittany, and others, amongst
whom was John Knox, were sent to work in the galleys, whence they were
not released till 1550. By the month of August, Somerset was once more
prepared to invade Scotland, and to force, if possible, the young queen
from the hands of Arran and the queen-mother. The forces were reviewed,
and on the 29th they commenced their march. On the 2nd of September they
were at Berwick, where they found Lord Clinton with the fleet, and from
that point the army marched along the shore, supported by the ships at
sea. Somerset took Douglas Castle, the property of Sir George Douglas,
without resistance. The castle being rifled, was then blown up with
gunpowder, as were also the peels of Thornton and Anderwick. Passing
by Dunbar and the castle of Tantallon, the army, on Friday, the 8th of
September, sat down near Prestonpans, the fleet being stationed opposite
the town of Musselburgh.
To meet this invasion, Arran had sent the Fiery Cross from clan to clan
through the Highlands, and had ordered every Scot capable of bearing arms
to meet at Musselburgh. The two armies now lay at Pinkie, not much more
than a couple of miles from each other. On the 9th the Scottish horse
were seen parading themselves boldly on the height which lay between the
hosts, called Falside, or Fawside Brae. The two armies had the sea to
the north, while Falside rose facing the west, and having on its summit
a castellated keep and a few huts.
Somerset and Warwick resolved to occupy the height on which stood St.
Michael's Church, and for this purpose, early on the morning of the 10th,
long called "Black Saturday" in Scotland, they advanced upon it about
eight o'clock. But the Scots had also concluded to advance, and on the
English approaching the first height, they were astonished to find that
the Scots had quitted their strong position beyond the river, and were
occupying the ground they had intended for themselves. It seems that the
Scots had somehow got the idea that the English meant to retreat and
escape them, and to prevent this they determined to surprise them in
their camp, and were on the way for this purpose. At the sight of the
English, the Scots pushed forward impetuously, hoping to get possession
of Fawside Brae, but they were checked by a sharp discharge of artillery
from the admiral's galley, which mowed down about thirty of them, as they
defiled over the bridge near the sea. Seeing the English posted on the
height with several pieces of artillery, the Scots halted in a fallow
field, having in their front a deep ditch. The English, however, reckless
of this obstacle, dashed on and, with Lord Grey at their head, made
their way up to them. Standing in an almost impenetrable mass, the Scots
kept crying, "Come here, loons! come here, tykes! come here, heretics!"
and the like, and the English charging upon them, seemed for a moment
to have disconcerted them, but soon were fain to turn and retreat. The
flight became general, and the Scots rushing on expected to reap an easy
victory. Lord Grey himself was severely wounded in the mouth, and the
Scottish soldiers pressing on seized the Royal standard, when a desperate
struggle ensued and, the staff of the standard being broken, part of it
remained in the hands of the enemy, but the standard itself was rescued.
The fight now became general and fierce, and there was a hand-to-hand
contest in which many fell on both sides; but the English commanders were
men proved in many a great battle, and exerted themselves to restore
order amongst their troops. Warwick was seen everywhere encouraging,
ordering, and ranking his men afresh; while the artillery from the
height, directed over the heads of their own regiments, mowed down the
assailing Scots. The ardour of the soldiers restored, advantage was taken
of the position of a large body of the enemy who in their impetuosity had
rushed forward beyond the support of the main army. They were surrounded
and attacked on all sides. Confounded by this unexpected occurrence, the
Scots were thrown into confusion, and began to take to flight. Arran
himself soon put spurs to his horse; Angus followed, and the Highland
clans--who had never been engaged--fled _en masse_. The rout was general
and the slaughter terrible, some making for Leith, some direct for
Edinburgh, by fields or woods as they could, and others endeavoured to
cross the marsh and reach Dalkeith.
Now was the time to push the object for which this expedition had been
undertaken--the securing the young queen for the king. Somerset had
attained a commanding position. He held the capital, as it were, under
his hand, and fresh forces brought up, and judiciously employed, must
have put the country so far into his power as to enable him to treat
on the most advantageous terms for the accomplishment of this great
national object; or if he could not obtain it by treaty, he might make
himself master of her person by arms. But all this demonstration, this
signal victory, this sanguinary butchery, which must add finally to the
antipathy of the Scottish people if no real gain followed it, was cast
aside with a strange recklessness which shewed that though Somerset
could conquer in the field, he was totally destitute of the qualities
of a statesman. Instead of making his success the platform of wise
negotiation, and of a great national union, he converted it into a
fresh aggravation of the ill-will of the Scots, by depriving it of all
rational result. Being, it is supposed, apprised of some machinations
of his brother, the admiral, in his absence, he commenced an instant
march homeward, like a man that was beaten rather than a victor. On the
17th of September, only a week from the battle of Pinkie, he took his
departure southwards. On entering England, he made the best of his way to
London, the whole term of his absence having been only some six weeks.
A Parliament was then summoned, and the Protector proceeded to carry
out the contemplated reform in the Church. Already an ecclesiastical
commission had been busily engaged in visitation of dioceses. For this
purpose, the kingdom was divided into six circuits, to each of which was
appointed a certain number of visitors, partly laymen partly clergymen,
who, the moment they arrived in a diocese, became the only ecclesiastical
authority there. They were empowered to call before them the bishop,
the clergy, and five, six, or eight of the principal inhabitants of
each parish, and put into their hands a body of royal injunctions,
seven-and-thirty in number. These injunctions regarded religious
doctrines and practice, and the visitors required an answer upon oath to
every question which they chose to put concerning them. The injunctions
were similar to those which had been framed and used by Cromwell, but the
present practice of joining the laity with the clergy was an innovation
of a more sweeping character. The commission promptly imprisoned Bonner
and Gardiner, the leaders of the Roman Catholic party.
Parliament assembled on the 4th of November, and proceeded to mitigate
some of the severities of the last reign. It repealed those monstrous
acts of Henry VIII., which gave to Royal proclamations all the force of
Acts of Parliament; likewise all the penal statutes against the Lollards,
and all the new felonies created in the last reign, including the statute
of the Six Articles. It admitted the laity as well as the clergy to
receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in both kinds. It determined
that the old fiction of electing bishops by "congé d'élire" should cease,
and that all such appointments should proceed directly by nomination of
the Crown; that all processes in the episcopal courts should be carried
on in the king's name, and all documents issuing thence should be sealed,
not with the bishop's seal, but with that of the Crown. The claim of
spiritual supremacy was placed on the same level as the other rights of
the Crown, and it was made a capital offence to deny that the king was
supreme head of the Church; but with this distinction, that what was
printed of that nature was direct high treason--what was merely spoken
only became so by repetition. A bill for legalising the marriages of the
clergy was brought into the Commons, and carried by a large majority;
but, from some cause, was not carried to the Lords during the present
session.
Parliament terminated its sitting on the 24th of December, and the
council, carrying forward its measures for the advancement of the
Reformation, issued an order prohibiting the burning of candles on
Candlemas-Day, and the use of ashes on Ash Wednesday, and of palms on
Palm Sunday. The order against images was repeated, and the clothes
covering them were directed to be given to the poor. The people, however,
who delighted in religious ceremonies, processions, and spectacles,
and thought the sermons very dull, were by no means pleased with these
innovations. There was to be no elevation of the Host, and the whole
service was to be in English.
Cranmer employed himself in composing a catechism, which was published
"for the singular profit and instruction of children and young people;"
and a committee of bishops and divines sat to compile a new liturgy
for the use of the English Church. They took the Latin missals and
breviaries for the groundwork, omitting whatever they deemed superfluous
or superstitious, and adding fresh matter. Before Christmas they had
compiled a book of common prayer, differing in various particulars from
the one now in use, and all ministers were ordered to make use of that
book, under penalty, on refusal, of forfeiture of a year's income, and
six months' imprisonment for the first offence; for the second, loss of
all preferments, with twelve months' imprisonment; and for the third,
imprisonment for life. Any one taking upon him to preach, except in his
own house, without licence from the king's visitors, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, or the bishop of the diocese, was liable to imprisonment.
Latimer, who had resigned his bishopric in 1539, was now called forward
again, and appointed to preach at St. Paul's Cross, and also in the
king's privy garden, where Edward, attended by his court, used to listen
to his bold and quaint eloquence for an hour together.
Towards the close of 1547, as we have seen, a bill passed the Commons
authorising the marriage of the clergy, but on the 9th of February, 1548,
a different bill for the same object was carried in the House of Lords,
and accepted by the Commons.
While these events had been taking place in England, the war had been
steadily prosecuted against Scotland, and led to the result which
might naturally be expected, but which was least expected by the
Protector--that of the passing of the young queen of Scotland into the
hands of the French. Very soon after the battle of Pinkie, a council was
summoned at Stirling, where the queen-dowager proposed that, to put an
end to those barbarous inroads of the English on pretence of seeking the
hand of the queen, they should apply to France for its assistance; that
as a means of engaging it in effectual aid, they should offer the young
queen in marriage to the Dauphin; and that for her better security she
should be educated in the French court. There, in August, 1548, she was
solemnly contracted to the Dauphin, afterwards Francis II.
But during the session of Parliament commencing on the 24th of November,
a question of most serious import was brought forward concerning the
Protector's brother. The lord high admiral, Thomas Seymour, had all
the ambition of his elder brother, the Protector, but from some cause
he had failed to acquire the same position at court. Henry VIII. had
not only employed Somerset in great commissions, but had given him such
marks of his confidence that, on his death, he easily engrossed all
the power of the State under his son. The admiral did not witness this
with indifference. The Protector, to satisfy him, got him created Baron
Seymour of Sudeley, and with this title he received in August, 1548,
the lordship of Sudeley in Gloucestershire, together with other lands
and tenements in no less than eighteen counties. He made him, moreover,
high admiral, a post which had been held by the Earl of Warwick, who
received instead of it that of lord great chamberlain. These honours
and estates might have well contented a man of even high ambition, but
the aspiring of the Seymours brooked no limits. As he did not seem to
succeed in his desire of rising to a station as lofty as that of his
brother the Protector, through the Council and political alliance, he
sought to achieve this by means of marriage. There were several ladies
on whom he cast his eyes for this purpose. The Princesses Mary and
Elizabeth were the next in succession, and he did not hesitate to aim at
securing the hand of one of them, which would have realised his soaring
wishes, or plunged him down at once to destruction. He seems then to have
weighed the chances which a union with Lady Jane Grey might give him;
but, as if not satisfied with the prospect, he suddenly determined on
the queen-dowager. He had, indeed, paid his addresses to Catherine Parr
before her marriage with Henry VIII., and Catherine was so much attached
to him that she at first listened with obvious reluctance to Henry's
proposal. No sooner was Henry dead than Seymour seems to have renewed
his addresses to Catherine, and, with all her piety and prudence, the
queen-dowager seems to have listened to him as promptly and readily.
Though Henry only died at the end of January, 1547, in a single month,
according to Leti, she had consented to a private contract of marriage,
and she and Seymour had exchanged rings of betrothal. According to King
Edward's journal, their marriage took place in May, but the courtship
had been going on long before, and was only revealed to him when it
was become dangerous to conceal it any longer, and they were privately
married long before that. The marriage was publicly announced in June--a
rapidity for such a transaction as strange as it was indecorous.
Catherine Parr gave birth to a daughter on the 30th of August, 1548, and
on the 7th of September, only eight days after, she died of puerperal
fever. Rumours that her husband had poisoned her to enable him to aspire
to the hand of the Princess Elizabeth, were spread by his enemies, but
there does not appear the slightest foundation for the horrible charge.
[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF EDWARD VI.]
The lord admiral, who had found it difficult to keep out of danger
during the life of his wife, partly through his own rash ambition, and
partly through the malice of his near relatives, soon fell into it
after her death. In July of 1548, he had been called before the Council
on the charge of having endeavoured to prevail on the king to write a
letter, complaining of the arbitrary conduct of the Protector and of the
restraint in which he was kept by him. Seymour was seeking, in fact, to
supersede the Protector, and was threatened with imprisonment in the
Tower; but the matter for that time was made up, and the Protector added
£800 per annum to his income, by way of conciliating him.
But with Catherine departed his good genius. He gave a free play to his
ambitious desires, and renewed his endeavours to compass a clandestine
marriage with the Princess Elizabeth, as he had done with Catherine.
Finding, however, that such a marriage would annul the claims of
Elizabeth to the throne, he next devised means to extort from the Council
a consent, which he was well aware it would never yield voluntarily.
For this purpose he is said to have courted the friendship of the
discontented section of the nobility, and made such a display of his
wealth and retainers as was calculated to alarm the Protector and his
party. The Protector now resolved to get rid of so dangerous an enemy,
though he was his own brother. Sharrington, master of the mint at
Bristol being accused of gross peculation by clipping the coin, issuing
testoons, or shilling pieces, of a false value, and making fraudulent
entries in his books, was boldly defended by the admiral, who owed him
£3,000. But Sharrington, to save his life, ungratefully betrayed that of
his advocate. He confessed that he had promised to coin money for the
admiral, who could reckon on the services of 10,000 men, with whose aid
he meant to carry off the king and change the government. This charge,
made, no doubt, solely to save his own life, was enough for Somerset.
Seymour was arrested on the 16th of January, 1549, on a charge of high
treason, and committed to the Tower.
There was no lack of charges against him, true or false. It was stated
that he had resolved to seize the king's person, and carry him to his
castle of Holt, in Denbighshire, which had come to him in one of the
royal grants; that he had confederated for this purpose with various
noblemen and others, and had laid in large stores of provisions and a
mass of money at that castle. He was also charged with having abused his
authority as lord admiral, and encouraged piracy and smuggling, and with
having circulated reports against the Lord Protector and Council too vile
to be repeated. But the most remarkable were the charges against him of
endeavouring, both before and after his marriage with the queen-dowager,
to compass a marriage with the king's sister, the Lady Elizabeth, second
inheritor to the Crown, to the peril of the king's person and danger
to the throne. A Bill of Attainder was brought in against him; he was
condemned without a hearing and executed on the 27th of March.
The Protector no sooner had put his brother out of his path into a bloody
grave, than he was called upon to contend with a whole host of enemies.
A variety of causes had reduced the common people to a condition of
deep distress and discontent. The depreciation of the coinage by Henry
VIII. had produced its certain consequence--the proportionate advance
of the price of all purchasable articles. But with the rise in price of
food and clothing, there had been no rise in the price of labour. The
dissolution of the monasteries had thrown a vast number of people on the
public without any resource. Besides the large number of monks and nuns
who, instead of affording alms, were now obliged to seek a subsistence of
some kind, the hundreds of thousands who had received daily assistance
at the doors of convents and monasteries were obliged to beg, work, or
starve. But the new proprietors who had obtained the abbey and chantry
lands, found wool so much in demand, that instead of cultivating the
land, and thus at once employing the people and growing corn for them,
they threw their fields out of tillage, and made great enclosures where
their profitable flocks could range without even the superintendence of
a shepherd.
The people thus driven to starvation were still more exasperated by
the change in the religion of the country, by the destruction of their
images, and the desecration of the shrines of their saints. Their
whole public life had been changed by the change of their religion.
Their oldest and most sacred associations were broken. Their pageants,
their processions, their pilgrimages were all rudely swept away as
superstitious rubbish; their gay holidays had become a gloomy blank. What
their fathers and their pastors had taught them as peculiarly holy and
essential to their spiritual well-being, their rulers had now pronounced
to be damnable doctrines and the delusions of priest-craft; and whilst
smarting under this abrupt privation of their bodily and spiritual
support, they beheld the new lords of the ancient church lands greedily
cutting off not only the old streams of benevolence, but the means of
livelihood by labour, and showing not the slightest regard for their
sufferings. The priests, the monks, the remaining heads of the Papist
party did not fail to point assiduously at all these things, and to fan
the fires of the popular discontent.
The timidity of the Protector forced the ferment to a climax by the
very means which he resorted to in order to mitigate it. He ordered
all the new enclosures to be thrown open by a certain day. The people
rejoiced at this, believing that now they had the Government on their
side. But they waited in vain to see the Protector's order obeyed. The
Royal proclamation fully bore out the complaints of the populace. It
declared that many villages, in which from one hundred to two hundred
people had lived, were entirely destroyed; that one shepherd now dwelt
where numerous industrious families dwelt before; and that the realm
was injured by turning arable land into pasture, and letting houses and
families decay and lie waste. Hales, the commissioner, stated that the
laws which forbade any one to keep more than 2,000 sheep, and which
commanded the owners of church lands to keep household on the same,
were disobeyed, the result being that numbers of the king's subjects
had diminished. But though the Government admitted all this, it took no
measures to make its proclamation effective; the landowners disregarded
it, and the people, believing that they were only seconding the law,
assembled in great numbers, chose their captains or leaders, broke down
the enclosures, killed the deer in the parks, and began to spoil and
waste, according to Holinshed, after the manner of an open rebellion.
The day approached when the use of the old liturgy was to cease, and
instead of the music, the spectacle, and all the imposing ceremonies of
high Mass, they would be called on to listen to a plain sermon. Goaded to
desperation by these grievances, the people rose in almost every part of
the country.
In Wiltshire, Sir William Herbert raised a body of troops and dispersed
the insurgents, killing some, and executing others according to martial
law. The same was done in other quarters by the resident gentry. The
Protector, alarmed, sent out commissioners to hear and decide all causes
about enclosures, highways, and cottages. These commissioners were armed
with great powers, the exercise of which produced as much dissatisfaction
amongst the nobility and gentry as the enclosures had done amongst the
people. The spirit of remonstrance entered into the very Council, and
the Protector was checked in his proceedings; whereupon the people, not
finding the redress they expected, again rose in rebellion.
In Devonshire the religious phase of the movement appeared first, and
rapidly assumed a very formidable air. The new liturgy was read for the
first time in the church of Sampford Courtenay, on Whit Sunday, and
the next day the people compelled the clergyman to perform the ancient
service. Having once resisted the law, the insurgents rapidly spread.
Humphrey Arundel, the governor of St. Michael's Mount, took the lead,
and a few days brought ten thousand men to his standard. As the other
risings had been easily dispersed, the Government were rather dilatory in
dealing with this; but finding that it steadily increased, Lord Russell
was despatched with a small force against the malcontents, accompanied by
three preachers, Gregory, Reynolds, and Coverdale, who were licensed to
preach in such public places as Lord Russell should appoint.
The rebels had sat down before Exeter when Russell came up with them;
but conscious of the great inferiority of his force, and expecting no
miracles from the eloquence of his preachers, he adopted the plan of the
Duke of Norfolk in the late reign, and offered to negotiate. Upon this,
Arundel and his adherents drew up and presented fifteen articles, which
went, indeed, to restore everything of the old faith and ritual that
had been taken away. The Statute of the Six Articles was to be put in
force, the Mass to be in Latin, the Sacrament to be again hung up and
worshipped, all such as refused it homage were to be treated as heretics,
souls in purgatory should be prayed for, images again be set up, the
Bible be called in, and Cardinal Pole was to be of the king's Council.
Half of the Church lands were to be restored to two of the chief abbeys
in each county; in a word, Popery was to be restored and Protestantism
abolished.
All this time Lord Russell lay at Honiton, not venturing to attack, the
Government sending him instead of troops only proclamations, by one of
which a free pardon was offered to all who would submit; by another, the
lands, goods, and chattels of the insurgents were given to any who chose
to take them; by a third, punishment of death by martial law was ordered
for all taken in arms; and by a fourth, the commissioners were commanded
to break down all illegal enclosures. None of these produced the least
effect. Lord Russell had sent Sir Peter Carew to urge the Protector and
Council to expedite reinforcements; but the Protector and Rich charged
Sir Peter with having been the original cause of the outbreak. The
bold baronet resented this imputation so stoutly, and charged home the
Protector in a style so unaccustomed in courts, with his own neglect,
that men and money were promised. Nothing, however, but the proclamations
just mentioned arrived, and at length the rebels despatched a force
to dislodge Russell from his position at Honiton. To prevent this, he
advanced to Feniton Bridge, where he encountered the rebel detachment and
defeated it. Soon after Lord Grey arrived with 300 German and Italian
infantry, with which assistance he marched on Exeter, and again defeated
the rebels. They rallied on Clifton Downs, and Lord Grey coming suddenly
upon them and fearing they might overpower him, he ordered his men to
despatch all the prisoners they had in their hands, and a sanguinary
slaughter took place. A third and last encounter at Bridgewater completed
the reduction of the Rising of the West.
But the most formidable demonstration was made by the rebels in Norfolk.
It commenced at Aldborough, and appeared at first too insignificant for
notice. But the rumours of what had been done in Kent, where the new
enclosures had been broken down, gradually infected the people far and
wide. They did not trouble themselves about the religious questions,
but they expressed a particular rancour against gentlemen, for their
insatiable avarice and their grasping at all land, their extortionate
rents, and oppressions of the people. They declared that it was high time
that not only the enclosure mania should be put a stop to, but abundance
of other evils should be reformed.
On the 6th of July, at Wymondham, a few miles from Norwich, on occasion
of a play which was annually performed there, the people, stimulated by
what was being done elsewhere, began to throw down the dykes, as they
were called, or fences round enclosures, and they found a leader in one
Robert Ket, a tanner. Under an oak tree, called the Tree of Reformation,
which stood on Mousehold Hill, near Norwich, Ket erected his throne, and
established courts of chancery, king's bench, and common pleas, as in
Westminster Hall; and, with a liberality which shamed the Government of
that and of most succeeding times, he allowed not only the orators of his
own but of the opposite party to harangue them from this tree. Ket, it is
clear, was a man far beyond his times, sincerely seeking the reform of
abuses, and not destruction of the constituted authority. The tree was
used as a rostrum, and all who had anything to say climbed into it. Into
the tree mounted frequently Master Aldrich, the mayor of Norwich, and
others, who used all possible persuasions to the insurgents to desist
from spoliation and disorderly courses. Clergymen of both persuasions
preached to them from the oak, and Matthew Parker, afterwards Archbishop
of Canterbury, one day ascended it, and addressed them in the plainest
possible terms on the unwisdom of their attempt, and the ruin it was
certain to bring upon them.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL HERALD IN KET'S CAMP. (_See p._ 212.)]
At length on the 31st of July, a Royal herald appeared in the camp, "and,
standing before the Tree of Reformation, apparelled in his coat-of-arms,
pronounced there, before all the multitude, with loud voice, a free
pardon to all that would depart to their houses and, laying aside their
armour, give over their traitorous enterprise." Some of the insurgents,
who were already weary of the affair, and only wanted a good excuse for
drawing off safely, took the offered pardon and disappeared; but Ket and
the chief part of the people held their ground, saying they wanted no
pardon, for they had done nothing but what was incumbent on true subjects.
Expecting that now some attack would soon be made upon them, they marched
into Norwich to seize on all the artillery and ammunition they could, and
carry it to their camp. The herald made another proclamation to them in
the market-place, repeating the offer of pardon, but threatening death
to all who did not immediately accept it. They bade him begone, for
they wanted no such manner of mercy. From that day the number of Ket's
followers grew again rapidly, for he seemed above the Government; and
the herald returning to town, dissipated at Court any hope of the rebels
dispersing of themselves. A troop of 1,500 horse, under the Marquis of
Northampton, accompanied by a small force of mounted Italians, under
Malatesta, were, therefore, sent down to Norwich, of which they took
possession. But the next day Ket and his host descended from their hill,
found their way into the city, engaged, defeated, and drove out the
king's troops, killing Lord Sheffield and many gentlemen, and, their
blood being up, set fire to the town, and plundered it as it burnt.
Northampton retreated ignominiously to town, where the Protector now saw
that the affair was of a character that demanded vigorous suppression.
An army of 8,000 men, 2,000 of whom were Germans, under the Earl of
Warwick, about to proceed against Scotland, was directed to march to
Norwich and disperse the rebels. Warwick arriving, made an entrance,
after some resistance, into the city. But there he was assailed on every
side with such impetuosity, that he found it all that he could do to
defend himself, being deficient in ammunition. On the 26th of August,
however, arrived a reinforcement of 1,400 lansquenets, with store of
powder and ball, and the next day he marched out, and the enemy having
imprudently left their strong position on the hill, he attacked them in
the valley of Dussingdale, and at the first charge broke their ranks.
They fled, their leader, Ket, galloping off before them. They were
pursued for three or four miles, and the troopers cut them down all the
way with such ruthless vengeance, that 3,500 of them were said to have
perished. The rest, however, managed to surround themselves by a line of
waggons, and, hastily forming a rampart of a trench and a bank fortified
with stakes, resolved to stand their ground. Warwick, perceiving the
strength of the place, and apprehensive of a great slaughter of his men,
offered them a pardon; but they replied that they did not trust to the
offer; they knew the fate that awaited them, and they preferred to die
with arms in their hands rather than on the gallows. Warwick renewed his
offer, and went himself to assure them of his sincerity, on which they
laid down their arms, or retired with them in their hands. Ket alone was
hanged on the walls of Norwich Castle, his brother on the steeple of
Wymondham Church, and nine of the ringleaders on the Oak of Reformation.
[Illustration: OLD SOMERSET HOUSE, LONDON.]
Circumstances were now fast environing the Protector with danger. The
feebleness of his government, his total want of success, both in Scotland
and France, with which country he had become involved in an undeclared
war, emboldened his enemies, who had become numerous and determined from
the arrogance of his manners and his endeavours to check the enclosures
of the aristocracy. Henry VIII. had never drawn any signal advantages
from his hostile expeditions; but the forces which he collected and
the determined character of the man impressed his foreign foes with a
dread of him. It was evident that the neighbouring nations had learned
Somerset's weakness, and therefore despised him. He had driven the Queen
of Scots into the hands of the French, and they had driven him out of
the country. He was on the very verge of losing Boulogne, which Henry
had prided himself so much on conquering. At home the whole country had
been thrown into a state of anarchy and insubordination by the reforms in
religion, of which he was the avowed patron, and in the meantime he had
allowed another to reap the honour of restoring order.
It was intended that the Protector himself should have proceeded against
the rebels; but probably he thought that the man who had encouraged them
to pull down the enclosures would appear with a very bad grace to punish
them for doing it. Dudley, Earl of Warwick, was, therefore, selected
for this office--a man quite as ambitious, quite as unprincipled, and
far more daring than Somerset. He returned from Norfolk like a victor,
and his reputation rose remarkably from that moment. He was looked up
to as the able and successful man, and his ambitious views were warmly
seconded by the wily old ex-Chancellor, Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton,
who hated Somerset for having dismissed him from office, and for having
banished him from the Council. He now took up Warwick as a promising
instrument for his revenge. He flattered him with the idea that he was
the only man to restore the credit and peace of the nation.
Nor was it Warwick only whom Southampton stimulated to enmity against
Somerset. He had arguments adapted to all; and where he found any
seemingly resolved to stand by the Protector, he would significantly ask
what friendship they hoped from a man who had murdered his own brother.
Little art was needed to influence the old nobility against Somerset,
and his hostility to the enclosures had raised up a host of enemies
amongst the new, who should have been his natural friends. The people
he had lost favour with, from his total want of success against the
enemies of the country, and if there were any whom all these causes had
not alienated, these were disgusted with his insolence and rapacity.
He had bargained for large slices from the manors of bishoprics and
cathedrals as the price of promotion to the clergy. He had obtained from
the puppet king in his hands, grants of extensive Church lands for his
services in Scotland, services which now were worse than null; and in
the patent which invested him with these lands, drawn up under his own
eye, he had himself styled "Duke of Somerset, _by the grace of God_,"
as if he were a king. He was accused of having sold many of the chantry
lands to his friends at nominal prices, because he obtained a heavy
premium upon the transaction; but what more than all shocked the public
sense of religious decorum was that he had erected for himself a splendid
palace in the Strand, where the one called from him Somerset House now
stands, and had spared no outrage upon public rights and decencies in
its erection. Not only private houses, but public buildings, and those
of the most sacred character, had been displaced to make room for his
proud mansion. To clear the ground for its site and to procure materials
for its building, he pulled down three episcopal houses and two churches
on the spot, St. Mary's and a church of St. John of Jerusalem, also a
chapel, a cloister, and a charnel-house in St. Paul's Churchyard, and
he carted away the remains of the dead by whole loads, and threw them
into a pit in Bloomsbury. When he attempted to pull down St. Margaret's
Church in Westminster, for the stones, the parishioners rose in tumult
and drove his men away. Whatever profession of Reformed religion he might
make, such proceedings as these stamped it as a pretence, hollow and even
impious, in the minds of the public.
The feeling (which originated out of doors) had now made its way into
the heart of the Council. Somerset's friends were silenced. His enemies
spoke out boldly. During September there were great contentions in the
Council; and by the beginning of October the two parties were ranged in
hostile attitudes under their chiefs. Warwick and his followers met at
Ely Place; the Protector was at Hampton Court, where he had the king.
On the 5th of October, Somerset, in the king's name, sent the Secretary
of the Council to know why the lords were assembling themselves in that
manner, and commanding them, if they had anything to lay before him, to
come before him peaceably and loyally. When this message was despatched,
Somerset, fearful of the spirit in which this summons might be complied
with, ordered the armour to be brought down out of the armoury at
Hampton Court, sufficient for 500 men, to arm his followers, and had the
doors barricaded, and people fetched in for the defence. But, instead
of coming, Warwick and his party ordered the Lieutenant of the Tower,
and the Lord Mayor and aldermen, to be summoned, who duly attended and
proffered their obedience. They then despatched letters to the nobility
and gentry in different parts of the kingdom, informing them of their
doings and the motives for them. Alarmed at the aspect of affairs,
Somerset conveyed the king to Windsor, under escort of 500 men; Cranmer
and Sir William Paget alone, of all the Council, accompanying them.
Finding himself rapidly deserted by his friends, Somerset judiciously
submitted and signed a confession of his guilt, his presumption, and
incapacity. Having signed this, he was promised his life, on condition
that he should forfeit all his appointments, his goods and chattels,
and so much of his estates as amounted to £2,000 a year. A bill to this
effect passed both Houses of Parliament in January, 1550. Somerset
remonstrated against the extent of this forfeiture, but the Council
replied to him with so much sternness that the abject-spirited man shrank
in terror, and on the 2nd of February signed a still more ignominious
submission, disclaiming all idea of justifying himself, and expressing
his gratitude to the king and Council for sparing his life and being
content with a fine. On the 6th of February he was discharged from the
Tower, and ten days after received a formal pardon. His officers and
servants, who had been imprisoned, also recovered their liberty, but were
heavily fined.
Warwick had humbled Somerset, but he could not prevent the country from
being humbled with him. His party had blamed the Protector for proposing
to surrender Boulogne, but they were now compelled, by the exhausted and
disordered state of the nation, to accept even more disgraceful terms.
During the winter the French had cut off all communication between
Boulogne and Calais, and the Earl of Huntingdon found himself unable to
re-open it, though he led against the enemy all his bands of mercenaries
and 3,000 English veterans. His treasury and his storehouses were empty,
and the French calculated confidently on taking the place at spring.
Unable to send the necessary aid, a fresh proposal was made to the
Emperor to occupy it, and this not tempting him, the Council next offered
to cede it to him in full sovereignty, on condition that it should never
be surrendered to France. Charles declined, and as a last resource a
Florentine merchant, Antonio Guidotti, was employed to make the French
aware that England was not averse from a peace. The French embraced the
offer, but under such circumstances they were not likely to be very
modest in their terms of accommodation.
The conference between the ambassadors was opened on the 21st of
January, and the English proposed that, as an equivalent for the
surrender of Boulogne, Mary of Scotland should be contracted to Edward.
To this the French bluntly replied that that was impossible, as Henry had
already agreed to marry her to the Dauphin. The next proposition was that
the arrears of money due from the Crown of France should be paid up, and
the payment of the fixed pension continued. To this the ambassadors of
Henry replied, in a very different tone to that which English monarchs
had been accustomed to hear from those of France, that their king would
never condescend to pay tribute to any foreign Crown; that Henry VIII.
had been enabled by the necessities of France to extort a pension
from Francis; and that they would now avail themselves of the present
difficulties of England to compel Edward to renounce it. The English
envoys appeared, on this bold declaration, highly indignant, and as if
they would break off the conference; but every day they receded more and
more from their pretensions, and they ended by subscribing, on the 24th
of March, to all the demands of their opponents.
These conditions were that there should be peace and union between the
two countries, not merely for the lives of the present monarchs, but
to the end of time; that Boulogne should be surrendered to the King of
France with all its stores and ordnance; and that, in return for the
money expended on the fortifications, they should pay to Edward 200,000
crowns on the delivery of the place, and 200,000 more in five months. But
the English were previously to surrender Douglas and Lauder to the Queen
of Scots, or, if they were already in the hands of the Scots, to raze
the fortresses of Eyemouth and Roxburgh to the ground. Scotland was to
be comprehended in the treaty if the queen desired it, and Edward bound
himself not to make war on Scotland unless some new provocation were
given.
So disgraceful was this treaty, such a surrender was it of the nation's
dignity, that the people regarded it as an eternal opprobrium to the
country; and from that hour the boastful claims of England on the French
Crown were no more heard of, except in the ridiculous retention of the
title of King of France by our sovereigns.
Freed from the embarrassments of foreign politics, the Council now
proceeded with the work of Church reform; and during 1550 and part of
1551 was busily engaged checking on the one hand the opposition of the
Romanist clergy, and on the other the latitudinarian tendencies of the
Protestants. Bonner and Gardiner were the most considerable of the
uncomplying prelates, and they were first brought under notice. Bonner
had been called before the Council in August of 1549, for not complying
with the requisitions of the Court in matters of religion; and in
April, 1550, he was deprived of his see of London, and remanded to the
Marshalsea, where he remained till the king's death. Ridley was appointed
to the bishopric of London. Gardiner and Heath, Bishop of Worcester, were
also imprisoned.
From the bishops, the reforming Council proceeded to higher game. The
Princess Mary, the king's eldest sister, from the first had expressed
her firm resolution of not adopting the new faith or ritual. She had,
moreover, declared to Somerset, that during Edward's minority things
ought to remain as the king her father had left them. Somerset replied
that, on the contrary, he was only carrying out the plans which Henry
had already settled in his own mind, but had not had time to complete.
On the introduction of the new liturgy, she received in June, 1549, an
intimation that she must conform to the provisions of the statute. Mary
replied with spirit, that her conscience would not permit her to lay
aside the practice of the religion that she believed in, and reminded
the lords of the Council that they were bound by their oaths to maintain
the Church as left by her father; adding, that they could not, with
any decency, refuse liberty of worship to the daughter of the king who
had raised them to what they were. The appeal to the liberality, the
consciences, or the gratitude of these statesmen producing no effect,
she next applied to a more influential person, the Emperor, Charles V.,
her great relative. He intervened on her behalf with such vigour that
war between England and Germany seemed at one time inevitable, and the
Council gave way. The persecutions were shortly afterwards renewed, but
Mary remained firm, and finally was completely victorious.
The ungenerous conduct of the Warwick party towards Mary, and the
disgraceful conditions of the peace with France, naturally caused a
considerable revival of Somerset's influence at Court, and the remainder
of the summer was spent by him in intriguing for the increase of his
favour. He surrounded himself with a strong body of armed men; there
were secret debates among his friends on the possibility of raising
the City in his behalf, and he did not hesitate to drop hints that
assassination only could free him from his implacable enemies. But
whilst the irresolute Somerset plotted, Warwick acted. He secured for
himself the appointment of warden of the Scottish marches, thus cutting
off the danger which had lately appeared of Somerset's retreat thither.
Armed with the preponderating influence which that office conferred in
the northern districts, on the 27th of September or the 17th of October
he was announced as Duke of Northumberland, a title venerated by the
Border people, and which had been extinct since the attainder of Earl
Percy in 1527. In this formidable position of power and dignity he was
strengthened by his friends and partisans being at the same time elevated
in the peerage. The Marquis of Dorset was created Duke of Suffolk, the
Earl of Wiltshire, Marquis of Winchester, and Sir William Herbert, Baron
of Cardiff and Earl of Pembroke. Cecil, Cheke, Sidney, and Nevil received
the honour of knighthood.
This movement in favour of Warwick was followed by consequences of still
more startling character to the Duke of Somerset. His enemies now felt
safe, and on the 16th of October, 1551, the news flew through London that
he was arrested on a charge of conspiracy and high treason, and committed
to the Tower. He had been apprised that depositions of a serious
character had been made against him by Sir Thomas Palmer, a partisan
of Warwick's, whereupon he sent for Palmer, and strictly interrogated
him, but on his positive denial, let him go. Not satisfied, however, he
wrote to Cecil, telling him that he suspected something was in agitation
against him. Cecil replied with his characteristic astuteness, that if
he were innocent he could have nothing to fear; if he were guilty, he
could only lament his misfortune. Piqued at this reply, he sent a letter
of defiance, but took no means for the security of his person. Palmer,
notwithstanding his denial, had, however, it seems, really lodged this
charge against him on the 7th of the month with Warwick:--That in a
conference with Somerset in April last, in his garden, the duke assured
him that at the time that the solemn declaration of Sir William Herbert
had prevented him from going northward, he had sent Lord Grey to raise
their friends there; that after that he had formed the design of inviting
Warwick, Northampton, and the chiefs of that party, and of assassinating
them, either there, or on their return home; that at this very moment he
was planning to raise an insurrection in London, to destroy his enemy,
and to seize the direction of Government; that Sir Miles Partridge was
to call out the apprentices of the City, kill the City guard, and get
possession of the Great Seal; and that Sir Thomas Arundel had secured
the Tower, and Sir Ralph Vane had a force of 2,000 men ready to support
them.
[Illustration: THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. (_After the Portrait by Holbein._)]
Probably this was a mixture of some truth with a much larger portion of
convenient falsehood. The duke was accordingly arrested, and the next
day the duchess, with her favourites, Mr. and Mrs. Crane, Sir Miles
Partridge, Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Thomas Holcroft, Sir Michael Stanhope,
and others of the duke's friends, were also arrested, and committed
to the Tower. The king was already brought up from Hampton Court to
Westminster for greater security and convenience during the trials of the
conspirators. A message was sent in the king's name to the Lord Mayor and
Corporation, informing them that the conspirators had agreed to seize the
Tower, kill the guards of the City, seize the Great Seal, set fire to the
town, and depart for the Isle of Wight; and they were, therefore, ordered
to keep the gates well, and maintain a strong patrol in the streets.
The trial of the duke, such as it was, took place on the 1st of December,
in Westminster Hall. Twenty-seven peers were summoned to sit as his
judges, the Marquis of Winchester being appointed Lord High Steward,
to preside. On that morning Somerset was brought from the Tower, with
the axe borne before him; whilst a great number of men carrying bills,
glaives, halberds, and poll-axes, guarded him. A new platform was raised
in the hall, on which the lords, his judges, sat; and above them was the
Lord High Steward, on a raised seat ascended by three steps, and over
it a canopy of State. The judges consisted almost wholly of the duke's
enemies, and conspicuous amongst them were Northumberland, Northampton,
and Pembroke. The witnesses against him were not produced, but merely
their depositions read. Somerset denied the whole of the charges
respecting his intention to raise the City of London, declaring that the
idea of killing the City guard was worthy only of a madman. As to the
accusation of proposing to assassinate the Duke of Northumberland and
others, he admitted that he had thought of it, and even talked of it, but
on mature consideration had abandoned it for ever.
On this confession the judges declared him guilty of felony without
benefit of clergy. They were desirous to adjudge it treason, but this
Northumberland himself overruled. When this sentence was pronounced,
Somerset fell on his knees, and thanked the lords for the fair trial they
had given him, and implored pardon from Northumberland, Northampton, and
Pembroke, for his design against their lives, entreating them to pray
the king's mercy to him and his grace towards his wife, his children,
and his servants. On the sentence being pronounced only felony, the
axe of the Tower was withdrawn; and the people, seeing him returning
without that fatal instrument, imagined that he was acquitted, and
gave such shouts, that they were heard from Charing Cross to the hall.
According to Holinshed, the Duke of Somerset landed from the river "at
the crane of the Vine-tree, and so passed through London, where were both
acclamations--the one cried for joy that he was acquitted, the other
cried that he was condemned."
Six weeks after his sentence, the warrant for his execution was signed.
The chronicler quaintly remarks that "Christmas being thus passed and
spent with much mirth and pastime, it was thought now good to proceed to
the execution of the judgment against the Duke of Somerset." The day of
execution was the 22nd of January, 1552. To prevent the vast concourse
which, from the popularity of his character among the common people, from
his opposition to enclosures during his Protectorship, was sure to take
place, the Council had issued a precept to the Lord Mayor, commanding him
to take all necessary measures for restraining the rush towards Tower
Hill. The constables in every ward had, therefore, strictly charged
every one not to leave their houses before ten o'clock that morning.
But, by the very dawn, Tower Hill was one mass of heads, assembled more
in expectation of the duke's reprieve than of his execution. At eight
o'clock he was delivered to the sheriffs of London, who led him out to
the scaffold on Tower Hill. He died calmly and nobly.
Parliament met the day after the execution of Somerset; and as it had
been originally summoned by him, it appeared to act as inspired with a
spirit which resented his treatment and his death; and this spirit tended
greatly during this session to revive that ancient independence which
Henry VIII. had so completely quelled during his life. Most deserving
of notice was the enactment which ordered the churchwardens in every
parish to collect contributions for the support of the poor. This, though
it appeared at first sight a voluntary contribution under the sanction
of Government, was in reality a compulsory one, for the bishop of the
diocese had authority to proceed against such as refused to subscribe.
From this germ grew the English poor-law, with all its machinery and
consequences.
The Crown attempted to re-enact some of the most arbitrary and oppressive
laws of Henry VIII., though they had been repealed in the first
Parliament of this reign. A bill was sent to the Lords, making it treason
to call the king, or any of his heirs, a heretic, schismatic, tyrant, or
usurper. The Lords passed it without hesitation, for it most probably
proceeded from Warwick, and the Lords were strongly devoted to him; but
the Commons drew the same line which had been drawn regarding the deniers
of the supremacy. They would admit the offence to be treason only when
it was done by "writing, printing, carving, or graving," which indicated
deliberate purpose; but what was spoken, as it might result from
indiscretion or sudden passion, they decreed to be only a minor offence,
punishable by fine or forfeiture, and only rendered treasonable by a
third repetition. The Commons also added a most invaluable clause, the
necessity of which had been constantly pressing on the public attention,
and had just been strikingly demonstrated by the trial of Somerset.
It was now enacted that no person should be arraigned, indicted,
convicted, or attainted of any manner of treason unless on the oath of
two lawful accusers, who should be brought before him at the time of his
arraignment, and there should openly maintain their charges against him.
But in prosecuting the reforms of the Church, the Parliament proceeded
with a far more arbitrary spirit. The Common Prayer Book underwent much
revision, and an Act was passed by which the bishops were empowered to
compel attendance on the amended form of service by spiritual censures,
and the magistrates to punish corporally all who used any other. Any one
daring to attend any other form of worship was liable to six months'
imprisonment for the first offence, twelve months for the second, and
confinement for life for the third. So little did our Church reformers
of that day understand of the rights of conscience. In the same spirit
Cranmer proceeded to frame a collection of the articles of religion, and
a code of ecclesiastical constitutions.
Parliament, proving too independent, was dissolved, and in preparing for
a new Parliament, Northumberland took such measures as showed that his
own power and aggrandisement were the first things in his thoughts, the
Constitution of the kingdom the last. Letters were sent in the king's
name to all the sheriffs, directing them, in the most straightforward
manner, to abuse their powers in order to return a Parliament completely
subservient to the Government.
[Illustration: SILVER CROWN OF EDWARD VI.]
The only object which the Duke of Northumberland had in view in calling
the new Parliament together was to procure liberal supplies. The
appropriation of the monastic and chartered lands had left the Crown
nearly as poor as it had found it. Such portions of these lands as
still remained in its possession were totally inadequate to meet the
annual demands of the Government. Northumberland, therefore, asked for
two-tenths and two-fifteenths; but even with his care to pack the Commons
he found it no easy task to obtain supplies, and the friends of Somerset
again assembled in considerable force in the House, resenting in strong
terms the pretence thrown out in the preamble to the bill that it was
owing to the extravagance and improvidence of the late Duke of Somerset,
to his involving the country in needless wars, debasing the coin, and
occasioning a terrible rebellion.
But the king's health was fast failing, and it was high time for
Northumberland to make sure his position and fortune. The constitution
of Edward had long betrayed symptoms of frailty. In the early spring of
the past year he was successively attacked by measles and small-pox.
In the autumn, through incautious exposure to cold, he was attacked by
inflammation of the lungs, and so enfeebled was he become by the meeting
of Parliament on the 1st of March, 1553, that he was obliged to receive
the two Houses at his palace of Whitehall. He was greatly exhausted by
the exertion, being evidently far gone in a consumption, and harassed
with a troublesome cough.
Northumberland, from the day on which he rose into the ascendant
at Court, had shown that he was the true son of the old licensed
extortioner. He had laboured assiduously not only to surround himself by
interested adherents, but to add estate to estate. He inherited a large
property, the accumulations of oppression and crimes of the blackest
dye. But during the three years in which he had enjoyed all but kingly
power, he had been diligently at work creating a kingly demesne. He was
become the Steward of the East Riding of Yorkshire, and likewise of all
the Royal manors in the five northern counties. He had obtained Tynemouth
and Alnwick in Northumberland, Barnard Castle in Durham, and immense
estates in Warwick, Worcester, and Somerset shires. The more he saw the
king fail, the more anxious he was to place his brother, his sons, his
relatives, and most devoted partisans in places of honour and profit
around him at Court. This done, he advanced to bolder measures, to which
these were only the stepping-stones. Lady Jane Grey was the daughter
of Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, whose mother was Mary, the sister of
Henry VIII. Mary first married Louis XII. of France, by whom she had no
children, and next, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by whom she had two
daughters. The younger of these married Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, but
the elder, Frances, whose claim came first, had by the Marquis of Dorset
(afterwards Duke of Suffolk) three daughters, Jane, Catherine, and Mary.
Northumberland, casting his eye over the descendants of Henry VIII.,
saw the only son, King Edward, dying, and the two daughters, Mary
and Elizabeth, bastardised by Acts of Parliament still unrepealed. A
daring scheme seized his ambitious mind--a scheme to set aside these
two princesses, the elder of whom, and immediate heir to the throne,
was especially dangerous to the permanence of the newly-established
Protestantism. It was true that Margaret of Scotland, the sister of Henry
VIII., was older than his sister Mary, and her grand-daughter, Mary Queen
of Scots, would have taken precedence of the descendants of Mary, but
she and her issue had been entirely passed over in the will of Henry.
Leaving out, then, this line, and setting aside the Princesses Mary and
Elizabeth as legally illegitimate, Lady Jane Grey would become heir to
the throne. Northumberland resolved, therefore, to secure Lady Jane in
marriage for his son Lord Guilford Dudley; to obtain Lady Jane's sister,
Catherine, for Lord Herbert, son of the Earl of Pembroke, who owed title,
estates, and everything to the favour of Northumberland; and to marry his
own daughter Catherine to the eldest son of the Earl of Huntingdon. The
marriages were celebrated at Durham House, the Duke of Northumberland's
new residence in the Strand.
[Illustration: SIXPENCE OF EDWARD VI.]
[Illustration: SHILLING OF EDWARD VI.]
Northumberland's next step was to induce the king to bequeath the crown
to Lady Jane. The dying prince listened with a mind which had long been
under the influence of the more powerful will of Dudley, and saw nothing
but the most patriotic objects in his recommendations. He no doubt
considered it a great kingly duty to decide the succession by will as his
father had done; and that the whole responsibility might rest on himself,
and not on Northumberland, who had so much at stake, he was easily
induced to sketch the form of his devise of the Crown with his own pen.
In this rough draft he entailed the succession on "the Lady Frances's
heirs masles," next on "Lady Jane's heirs masles," and then on the heirs
male of her sisters. This, however, did not accord with the plans of
Northumberland, for none of the ladies named had any heirs male; and,
therefore, on the death of Edward, the Crown would have passed over the
whole family, and would go to the next of kin. A slight alteration was
accordingly made. The letter "s" at the end of "Jane's" was scored out,
the words "and her" inserted, and thus the bequest stood "to the Lady
Jane and her heirs masles." Northumberland then compelled the judges to
draw out letters patent under the Great Seal confirming the disposition
of the Crown.
[Illustration: POUND SOVEREIGN OF EDWARD VI.]
[Illustration: TRIPLE SOVEREIGN OF EDWARD VI.]
But Northumberland, not satisfied with the will of the king and the act
of the Crown lawyer, produced another document, to which he required the
signatures of the members of the Council and of the legal advisers of the
Crown, who pledged, to the number of four-and-twenty, their oaths and
honour to support this arrangement. The legal instrument, being prepared,
was engrossed on parchment, and was authenticated by the Great Seal.
Northumberland was preparing to secure his position by force of arms,
when the poor young king, whose mind had been overtaxed by his advisers,
died on the 6th of July, 1553.
[Illustration: QUEEN MARY AND THE STATE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER. (_See p._
223.)]