[Illustration: 1-403-edward6.jpg EDWARD VI.]
EDWARD VI.
CONTEMPORARY MONARCHS.
{1547.} THE late king, by the regulations which he imposed on the
government of his infant son, as well as by the limitations of the
succession, had projected to reign even after his decease; and he
imagined that his ministers, who had always been so obsequious to him
during his lifetime, would never afterwards depart from the plan which
he had traced out to them. He fixed the majority of the prince at the
completion of his eighteenth year; and as Edward was then only a few
months past nine, he appointed sixteen executors; to whom, during the
minority, he intrusted the government of the king and kingdom. Their
names were, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury; Lord Wriothesely,
chancellor; Lord St. John, great master; Lord Russel, privy seal; the
earl of Hertford, chamberlain: Viscount Lisle, admiral; Tonstal, bishop
of Durham; Sir Anthony Brown, master of horse; Sir William Paget,
secretary of state; Sir Edward North, chancellor of the court of
augmentations; Sir Edward Montague, chief justice of the common pleas;
Judge Bromley, Sir Anthony Denny, and Sir William Herbert, chief
gentlemen of the privy chamber; Sir Edward Wotton, treasurer of Calais;
Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury. To these executors, with whom was
intrusted the whole regal authority, were appointed twelve counsellors,
who possessed no immediate power, and could only assist with their
advice when any affair was laid before them. The council was composed
of the earls of Arundel and Essex; Sir Thomas Cheney, treasurer of
the household; Sir John Gage, comptroller; Sir Anthony Wingfield,
vice-chamberlain; Sir William Petre, secretary of state; Sir Richard
Rich, Sir John Baker, Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour, Sir Richard
Southwell, and Sir Edmund Peckham.[*] The usual caprice of Henry appears
somewhat in this nomination; while he appointed several persons of
inferior station among his executors, and gave only the place of
counsellor to a person of such high rank as the earl of Arundel, and to
Sir Thomas Seymour, the king’s uncle.
But the first act of the executors and counsellors was to depart from
the destination of the late king in a material article. No sooner were
they met, than it was suggested that the government would lose its
dignity for want of some head who might represent the royal majesty,
who might receive addresses from foreign ambassadors, to whom despatches
from English ministers abroad might be carried, and whose name might be
employed in all orders and proclamations: and as the king’s will seemed
to labor under a defect in this particular, it was deemed necessary to
supply it by choosing a protector; who, though he should possess all the
exterior symbols of royal dignity, should yet be bound, in every act of
power, to follow the opinion of the executors.[**]
* Strype’s Memor. vol. ii. p. 457.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 5.
This proposal was very disagreeable to Chancellor Wriothesely. That
magistrate, a man of an active spirit and high ambition, found himself
by his office entitled to the first rank in the regency after the
primate; and as he knew that this prelate had no talent or inclination
for state affairs, he hoped that the direction of public business
would, of course, devolve in a great measure upon himself. He opposed,
therefore, the proposal of choosing a protector; and represented that
innovation as an infringement of the late king’s will, which, being
corroborated by act of parliament, ought in every thing to be a law
to them, and could not be altered but by the same authority which had
established it. But he seems to have stood alone in the opposition. The
executors and counsellors were mostly courtiers who had been raised by
Henry’s favor, not men of high birth or great hereditary influence; and
as they had been sufficiently accustomed to submission during the reign
of the late monarch, and had no pretensions to govern the nation by
their own authority, they acquiesced the more willingly in a proposal
which seemed calculated for preserving public peace and tranquillity. It
being therefore agreed to name a protector, the choice fell, of course,
on the earl of Hertford, who, as he was the king’s maternal uncle, was
strongly interested in his safety; and possessing no claims to inherit
the crown, could never have any separate interest which might lead him
to endanger Edward’s person or his authority.[*] The public was informed
by proclamation of this change in the administration; and despatches
were sent to all foreign courts to give them intimation of it. All those
who were possessed of any office resigned their former commissions, and
accepted new ones in the name of the young king. The bishops themselves
were constrained to make a like submission. Care was taken to insert in
their new commissions, that they held their office during pleasure:[**]
and it is there expressly affirmed, that all manner of authority and
jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical as civil, is originally derived
from the crown.[***]
The executors, in their next measure, showed a more submissive deference
to Henry’s will, because many of them found their account in it. The
late king had intended, before his death, to make a new creation of
nobility, in order to supply the place of those peerages which had
fallen by former attainders, or the failure of issue; and that he might
enable the new peers to support their dignity, he had resolved either to
bestow estates on them, or advance them to higher offices. He had even
gone so far as to inform them of this resolution; and in his will he
charged his executors to make good all his promises.[****] That they
might ascertain his intentions in the most authentic manner Sir William
Paget, Sir Anthony Denny, and Sir William Herbert, with whom Henry had
always conversed in a familiar manner, were called before the board
of regency; and having given evidence of what they knew concerning
the king’s promises, their testimony was relied on, and the executors
proceeded to the fulfilling of these engagements. Hertford was created
duke of Somerset, mareschal, and lord treasurer; Wriothesely, earl of
Southampton; the earl of Essex, marquis of Northampton; Viscount
Lisle, earl of Warwick; Sir Thomas Seymour, Lord Seymour of Sudley, and
admiral; Sir Richard Rich, Sir William Willoughby, Sir Edward Sheffield
accepted the title of baron.[v]
* Heylin, Hist. Ref. Edward VI.
** Collier, vol. ii. p. 218. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 6. Strype’s
Mem. of Cranm. p. 141.
*** Strype’s Mem. of Cranm. p. 141.
**** Fuller, Heylin, and Rymer.
v Stowe’s Annals, p. 594
Several, to whom the same dignity was offered, refused it; because the
other part of the king’s promise, the bestowing of estates on these new
noblemen, was deferred till a more convenient opportunity. Some of
them, however, as also Somerset, the protector, were, in the mean time,
endowed with spiritual preferments, deaneries, and prebends. For, among
many other invasions of ecclesiastical privileges and property, this
irregular practice of bestowing spiritual benefices on laymen began now
to prevail.
The earl of Southampton had always been engaged in an opposite party
to Somerset; and it was not likely that factions which had secretly
prevailed even during the arbitrary reign of Henry, should be suppressed
in the weak administration that usually attends a minority. The former
nobleman, that he might have the greater leisure for attending to public
business, had, of himself and from his own authority, put the great
seal in commission, and had empowered four lawyers Southwell,
Tregonel, Oliver, and Bellasis, to execute in his absence the office of
chancellor. This measure seemed very exceptionable; and the more so, as,
two of the commissioners being canonists, the lawyers suspected that,
by this nomination, the chancellor had intended to discredit the
common law. Complaints were made to the council, who, influenced by the
protector, gladly laid hold of the opportunity to depress Southampton.
They consulted the judges with regard to so unusual a case; and received
for answer, that the commission was illegal, and that the chancellor, by
his presumption in granting it, had justly forfeited the great seal, and
was even liable to punishment. The council summoned him to appear before
them. He maintained that he held his office by the late king’s will,
founded on an act of parliament, and could not lose it without a trial
in parliament; that if the commission which he had granted were found
illegal, it might be cancelled, and all the ill consequences of it be
easily remedied; and that the depriving him of his office for an error
of this nature, was a precedent by which any other innovation might be
authorized. But the council, notwithstanding these topics of defence,
declared that he had forfeited the great seal; that a fine should be
imposed upon him; and that he should be confined to his own house during
pleasure.[*]
* Holingshed, p. 979
The removal of Southampton increased the protectors’ authority, as
well as tended to suppress faction in the regency yet was not Somerset
contented with this advantage; his ambition carried him to seek still
further acquisitions. On pretence that the vote of the executors
choosing his protector, was not a sufficient foundation for his
authority, he procured a patent from the young king, by which he
entirely overturned the will of Henry VIII., produced a total revolution
in the government, and may seem even to have subverted all the laws
of the kingdom. He named himself protector with full regal power, and
appointed a council, consisting of all the former counsellors, and all
the executors, except Southampton; he reserved a power of naming any
other counsellors at pleasure; and he was bound to consult with such
only as he thought proper. The protector and his council were likewise
empowered to act at discretion, and to execute whatever they deemed for
the public service, without incurring any penalty or forfeiture from any
law, statute, proclamation, or ordinance whatsoever.[*] Even had this
patent been more moderate in its concessions, and had it been drawn by
directions from the executors appointed by Henry, its legality might
justly be questioned; since it seems essential to a trust of this
nature to be exercised by the persons intrusted, and not to admit of a
delegation to others: but as the patent, by its very tenor, where
the executors are not so much as mentioned, appears to have been
surreptitiously obtained from a minor king, the protectorship of
Somerset was a plain usurpation, which it is impossible by any arguments
to justify. The connivance, however, of the executors, and their present
acquiescence in the new establishment, made it be universally submitted
to; and as the young king discovered an extreme attachment to his
uncle, who was also, in the main, a man of moderation and probity, no
objections were made to his power and title. All men of sense, likewise,
who saw the nation divided by the religious zeal of the opposite sects,
deemed it the more necessary to intrust the government to one person,
who might check the exorbitancies of faction, and insure the public
tranquillity. And though some clauses of the patent seemed to imply a
formal subversion of all limited government, so little jealousy was then
usually entertained on that head, that no exception was ever taken
at bare claims or pretensions of this nature, advanced by any person
possessed of sovereign power. The actual exercise alone of arbitrary
administration, and that in many, and great, and flagrant, and unpopular
instances, was able sometimes to give some umbrage to the nation.
* Burnet, vol. ii. Records, No. 6.
The extensive authority and imperious character of Henry had retained
the partisans of both religions in subjection; but upon his demise, the
hopes of the Protestants and the fears of the Catholics began to
revive, and the zeal of these parties produced every where disputes and
animosities, the usual preludes to more fatal divisions. The protector
had long been regarded as a secret partisan of the reformers; and being
now freed from restraint, he scrupled not to discover his intention of
correcting all abuses in the ancient religion, and of adopting still
more of the Protestant innovations. He took care that all persons
intrusted with the king’s education should be attached to the same
principles; and as the young prince discovered a zeal for every kind of
literature, especially the theological, far beyond his tender years,
all men foresaw, in the course of his reign, the total abolition of the
Catholic faith in England; and they early began to declare themselves in
favor of those tenets, which were likely to become in the end entirely
prevalent. After Southampton’s fall, few members of the council seemed
to retain any attachment to the Romish communion; and most of the
counsellors appeared even sanguine in forwarding the progress of the
reformation. The riches which most of them had acquired from the spoils
of the clergy, induced them to widen the breach between England and
Rome; and by establishing a contrariety of speculative tenets, as well
as of discipline and worship, to render a coalition with the mother
church altogether impracticable.[*] Their rapacity also, the chief
source of their reforming spirit, was excited by the prospect of
pillaging the secular, as they had already done the regular clergy; and
they knew that while any share of the old principles remained, or any
regard to the ecclesiastics, they could never hope to succeed in that
enterprise.
* Goodwin’s Annals. Heylin.
The numerous and burdensome superstitions with which the Romish church
was loaded had thrown many of the reformers by the spirit of opposition,
into an enthusiastic strain of devotion; and all rites, ceremonies,
pomp, order, and exterior observances were zealously proscribed by them,
as hinderances to their spiritual contemplations, and obstructions to
their immediate converse with Heaven. Many circumstances concurred to
inflame this daring spirit; the novelty itself of their doctrines, the
triumph of making proselytes, the furious persecutions to which they
were exposed, their animosity against the ancient tenets and practices,
and the necessity of procuring the concurrence of the laity by
depressing the hierarchy, and by tendering to them the plunder of the
ecclesiastics. Wherever the reformation prevailed over the opposition
of civil authority, this genius of religion appeared in its full extent,
and was attended with consequences, which, though less durable, were,
for some time, not less dangerous than those which were connected
with the ancient superstition. But as the magistrate took the lead in
England, the transition was more gradual; much of the ancient religion
was still preserved, and a reasonable degree of subordination was
retained in discipline, as well as some pomp, order, and ceremony in
public worship.
The protector, in his schemes for advancing the reformation, had always
recourse to the counsels of Cranmer, who, being a man of moderation and
prudence, was averse to all violent changes, and determined to bring
over the people, by insensible innovations, to that system of doctrine
and discipline which he deemed the most pure and perfect. He probably
also foresaw, that a system which carefully avoided the extremes of
reformation, was likely to be most lasting; and that a devotion, merely
spiritual, was fitted only for the first fervors of a new sect, and
upon the relaxation of these naturally gave place to the inroads of
superstition. He seems therefore to have intended the establishment of a
hierarchy, which, being suited to a great and settled government,
might stand as a perpetual barrier against Rome, and might retain
the reverence of the people, even after their enthusiastic zeal was
diminished, or entirely evaporated.
The person who opposed with greatest authority any further advances
towards reformation, was Gardiner, bishop of Winchester; who, though he
had not obtained a place in the council of regency, on account of
late disgusts which he had given to Henry, was entitled, by his age,
experience, and capacity, to the highest trust and confidence of his
party. This prelate still continued to magnify the great wisdom and
learning of the late king, which, indeed, were generally and sincerely
revered by the nation; and he insisted on the prudence, of persevering,
at least till the young king’s majority, in the ecclesiastical model
established by that great monarch. He defended the use of images, which
were now openly attacked by the Protestants; and he represented them
as serviceable in maintaining a sense of religion among the illiterate
multitude.[*] He even deigned to write an apology for “holy water,”
which Bishop Ridley had decried in a sermon; and he maintained that, by
the power of the Almighty, it might be rendered an instrument of doing
good, as much as the shadow of St. Peter, the hem of Christ’s garment,
or the spittle and clay laid upon the eyes of the blind.[**] Above all,
he insisted that the laws ought to be observed, that the constitution
ought to be preserved inviolate, and that it was dangerous to follow the
will of the sovereign, in opposition to an act of parliament.[***]
But though there remained at that time in England an idea of laws and a
constitution, sufficient at least to furnish a topic of argument to such
as were discontented with any immediate exercise of authority; this plea
could scarcely, in the present case, be maintained with any plausibility
by Gardiner. An act of parliament had invested the crown with a
legislative power; and royal proclamations, even during a minority, were
armed with the force of laws. The protector, finding himself supported
by this statute, was determined to employ his authority in favor of the
reformers; and having suspended, during the interval, the jurisdiction
of the bishops, he appointed a general visitation to be made in all the
dioceses of England.[****] The visitors consisted of a mixture of clergy
and laity, and had six circuits assigned them. The chief purport
of their instructions was, besides correcting immoralities and
irregularities in the clergy, to abolish the ancient superstitions, and
to bring the discipline and worship somewhat nearer the practice of the
reformed churches. The moderation of Somerset and Cranmer is apparent
in the conduct of this delicate affair. The visitors were enjoined to
retain for the present all images which had not been abused to idolatry;
and to instruct the people not to despise such ceremonies as were not
yet abrogated, but only to beware of some particular superstitions,
such as the sprinkling of their beds with holy water, and the ringing
of bells, or using of consecrated candles, in order to drive away the
devil.[v]
* Fox, vol. ii. p. 712.
** Fox, vol. ii. p. 724
*** Collier, vol. ii. p. 228. Fox, vol. ii.
**** Mem. Cranm. p. 146, 147, etc.
v Burnet, vol. ii. p. 28.
But nothing required more the correcting hand of authority than the
abuse of preaching, which was now generally employed throughout England
in defending the ancient practices and superstitions. The court of
augmentation, in order to ease the exchequer of the annuities paid to
monks, had commonly placed them in the vacant churches; and these
men were led by interest, as well as by inclination, to support those
principles which had been invented for the profit of the clergy. Orders
therefore were given to restrain the topics of theft sermons: twelve
homilies were published, which they were enjoined to read to the people:
and all of them were prohibited, without express permission, from
preaching any where but in their parish churches. The purpose of this
injunction was to throw a restraint on the Catholic divines; while
the Protestant, by the grant of particular licenses, should he allowed
unbounded liberty. Bonner made some opposition to these measures; but
soon after retracted and acquiesced. Gardiner was more high-spirited and
more steady. He represented the peril of perpetual innovations, and the
necessity of adhering to some system. “‘Tis a dangerous thing,” said
he, “to use too much freedom in researches of this kind. If you cut the
old canal, the water is apt to run farther than you have a mind to.
If you indulge the humor of novelty, you cannot put a stop to people’s
demands, nor govern their indiscretions at pleasure.” “For my part,”
said he, on another occasion “my sole concern is, to manage the third
and last act of my life with decency, and to make a handsome exit off
the stage. Provided this point is secured, I am not solicitous about the
rest. I am already by nature condemned to death: no man can give me
a pardon from this sentence; nor so much as procure me a reprieve. To
speak my mind, and to act as my conscience directs, are two branches of
liberty which I can never part with. Sincerity in speech, and integrity
in action, are entertaining qualities: they will stick by a man when
every thing else takes its leave; and I must not resign them upon any
consideration. The best on it is, if I do not throw them away myself, no
man can force them from me: but if I give them up, then am I ruined by
myself, and deserve to lose all my preferments.”[*] This opposition of
Gardiner drew on him the indignation of the council; and he was sent to
the Fleet, where he was used with some severity.
* Collier, vol. ii. p. 228, ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab.
Bibliotheca Britannica, article Gardiner.
One of the chief objections urged by Gardiner against the new homilies
was, that they defined with the most metaphysical precision the
doctrines of grace, and of justification by faith; points, he thought,
which it was superfluous for any man to know exactly, and which
certainly much exceeded the comprehension of the vulgar. A famous
martyrologist calls Gardiner, on account of this opinion, “an insensible
ass, and one that had no feeling of God’s spirit in the matter of
justification.”[*] The meanest Protestant imagined, at that time, that
he had a full comprehension of all those mysterious doctrines; and he
heartily despised the most learned and knowing person of the ancient
religion, who acknowledged his ignorance with regard to them. It is
indeed certain, that the reformers were very fortunate in their
doctrine of justification; and might venture to foretell its success, in
opposition to all the ceremonies, shows, and superstitions of Popery.
By exalting Christ and his sufferings, and renouncing all claim to
independent merit in ourselves, it was calculated to become popular, and
coincided with those principles of panegyric and of self-abasement which
generally have place in religion.
* Fox. vol. ii.
Tonstal, bishop of Durham, having, as well as Gardiner, made some
opposition to the new regulations, was dismissed by the council; but no
further severity was for the present exercised against him. He was a man
of great moderation, and of the most unexceptionable character in the
kingdom.
The same religious zeal which engaged Somerset to promote the
reformation at home, led him to carry his attention to foreign
countries; where the interests of the Protestants were now exposed to
the most imminent danger. The Roman pontiff, with much reluctance, and
after long delays, had at last summoned a general council, which was
assembled at Trent, and was employed both in correcting the abuses of
the church, and in ascertaining her doctrines. The emperor, who desired
to repress the power of the court of Rome, as well as gain over the
Protestants, promoted the former object of the council; the pope, who
found his own greatness so deeply interested, desired rather to employ
them in the latter. He gave instructions to his legates, who presided in
the council, to protract the debates, and to engage the theologians in
argument, and altercation, and dispute concerning the nice points of
faith canvassed before them; a policy so easy to be executed, that the
legates soon found it rather necessary to interpose, in order to
appease the animosity of the divines, and bring them at last to some
decision.[*] The more difficult task for the legates was, to moderate
or divert the zeal of the council for reformation, and to repress the
ambition of the prelates, who desired to exalt the episcopal authority
on the ruins of the sovereign pontiff. Finding this humor become
prevalent, the legates, on pretence that the plague had broken out at
Trent, transferred of a sudden the council to Bologna, where they hoped
it would be more under the direction of his holiness.
The emperor, no less than the pope, had learned to make religion
subservient to his ambition and policy. He was resolved to employ the
imputation of heresy as a pretence for subduing the Protestant princes,
and oppressing the liberties of Germany; but found it necessary to cover
his intentions under deep artifice, and to prevent the combination
of his adversaries. He separated the Palatine and the elector of
Brandenburgh from the Protestant confederacy: he took arms against the
elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse: by the fortune of war
he made the former prisoner: he employed treachery and prevarication
against the latter, and detained him captive, by breaking a safe-conduct
which he had granted him. He seemed to have reached the summit of his
ambition; and the German princes, who were astonished with his success,
were further discouraged by the intelligence which they had received
of the death, first of Henry VIII., then of Francis I., their usual
resources in every calamity.[**]
Henry II., who succeeded to the crown of France, was a prince of vigor
and abilities; but less hasty in his resolutions than Francis, and
less inflamed with rivalship and animosity against the emperor Charles.
Though he sent ambassadors to the princes of the Smalcaldic league, and
promised them protection, he was unwilling, in the commencement of his
reign, to hurry into a war with so great a power as that of the emperor;
and he thought that the alliance of those princes was a sure resource,
which he could at any time lay hold of.[***] He was much governed by the
duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorraine; and he hearkened to their
counsel, in choosing rather to give immediate assistance to Scotland,
his ancient ally, which, even before the death of Henry VIII. had loudly
claimed the protection of the French monarchy.
* Father Paul, lib. ii.
** Sleidan.
*** Père Daniel
The hatred between the two factions, the partisans of the ancient and
those of the new religion, became every day more violent in Scotland;
and the resolution which the cardinal primate had taken, to employ the
most rigorous punishments against the reformers, brought matters to
a quick decision. There was one Wishart, a gentleman by birth, who
employed himself with great zeal in preaching against the ancient
superstitions, and began to give alarm to the clergy, who were justly
terrified with the danger of some fatal revolution in religion. This
man was celebrated for the purity of his morals, and for his extensive
learning; but these praises cannot be much depended on; because we know
that, among the reformers, severity of manners supplied the place of
many virtues; and the age was in general so ignorant, that most of the
priests in Scotland imagined the New Testament to be a composition of
Luther’s, and asserted that the Old alone was the Word of God.[*] [19]
But however the case may have stood with regard to those estimable
qualities ascribed to Wishart, he was strongly possessed with the desire
of innovation; and he enjoyed those talents which qualified him
for becoming a popular preacher, and for seizing the attention and
affections of the multitude. The magistrates of Dundee, where he
exercised his mission, were alarmed with his progress; and being unable
or unwilling to treat him with rigor, they contented themselves with
denying him the liberty of preaching, and with dismissing him the bounds
of their jurisdiction. Wishart, moved with indignation that they had
dared to reject him, together with the word of God, menaced them, in
imitation of the ancient prophets, with some imminent calamity; and he
withdrew to the west country, where he daily increased the number of his
proselytes.
* See note S, at the end of the volume.
Meanwhile, a plague broke out in Dundee; and all men exclaimed, that
the town had drawn down the vengeance of Heaven by banishing the pious
preacher, and that the pestilence would never cease, till they bed made
him atonement for their offence against him. No sooner did Wishart hear
of this change in their disposition, than he returned to them, and
made them a new tender of his doctrine: but lest he should spread the
contagion by bringing them together, he erected his pulpit on the top of
a gate; the infected stood within, the others without. And the preacher
failed not, in such a situation, to take advantage of the immediate
terrors of the people, and to enforce his evangelical mission.[*]
The assiduity and success of Wishart became an object of attention to
Cardinal Beatoun; and he resolved, by the punishment of so celebrated a
preacher, to strike a terror into all other innovators. He engaged
the earl of Bothwell to arrest him, and to deliver him into his hands,
contrary to a promise given by Bothwell to that unhappy man; and being
possessed of his prey, he conducted him to St. Andrews, where, after a
trial, he condemned him to the flames for heresy. Arran, the governor,
was irresolute in his temper; and the cardinal, though he had gained him
over to his party, found that he would not concur in the condemnation
and execution of Wishart. He determined, therefore, without the
assistance of the secular arm, to bring that heretic to punishment; and
he himself beheld from his window the dismal spectacle. Wishart suffered
with the usual patience, but could not forbear remarking the triumph of
his insulting enemy. He foretold that, in a few days, he should, in the
very same place, lie as low as now he was exalted aloft in opposition to
true piety and religion.[**]
* Knox’s Hist. of Ref. p. 44. Spotswood.
** Spotswood. Buchanan.
This prophecy was probably the immediate cause of the event which it
foretold. The disciples of this martyr, enraged at the cruel execution,
formed a conspiracy against the cardinal; and having associated to them
Norman Lesly, who was disgusted on account of some private quarrel, they
conducted their enterprise with great secrecy and success. Early in
the morning, they entered the cardinal’s palace, which he had strongly
fortified, and though they were not above sixteen persons, they thrust
out a hundred tradesmen and fifty servants, whom they seized separately,
before any suspicion arose of their intentions; and having shut the
gates, they proceeded very deliberately to execute their purpose on the
cardinal. That prelate had been alarmed with the noise which he heard
in the castle, and had barricadoed the door of his chamber; but finding
that they had brought fire in order to force their way, and having
obtained, as is believed, a promise of life, he opened the door, and
reminding them that he was a priest, he conjured them to spare him. Two
of the assassins rushed upon him with drawn swords; but a third, James
Melvil, more calm and more considerate in villany, stopped their career,
and bade them reflect, that this sacrifice was the work and judgment of
God, and ought to be executed with becoming deliberation and gravity.
Then turning the point of his sword towards Beatoun, he called to him,
“Repent thee, thou wicked cardinal, of all thy sins and iniquities,
especially of the murder of Wishart, that instrument of God for the
conversion of these lands: it is his death which now cries vengeance
upon thee: we are sent by God to inflict the deserved punishment. For
here, before the Almighty, I protest that it is neither hatred of thy
person, nor love of thy riches, nor fear of thy power, which moves me to
seek thy death; but only because thou hast been, and still remainest,
an obstinate enemy to Christ Jesus and his holy gospel.” Having spoken
these words, without giving Beatoun time to finish that repentance to
which he exhorted him, he thrust him through the body; and the cardinal
fell dead at his feet.[*] This murder was executed on the twenty-eighth
of May, 1546. The assassins, being reenforced by their friends to
the number of a hundred and forty persons, prepared themselves for the
defence of the castle, and sent a messenger to London craving assistance
from Henry. That prince, though Scotland was comprehended in his
peace with France, would not forego the opportunity of disturbing the
government of a rival kingdom; and he promised to take them under his
protection.
* The famous Scotch reformer, John Knox, calls James Melvil
(p. 65) a man most gentle and most modest. It is very
horrid, but at the same time somewhat amusing, to consider
the joy, and alacrity, and pleasure which that historian
discovers in his narrative of this assassination; and it is
remarkable, that in the first edition of his work, these
words were printed in the margin of the page: “The godly
Fact and Words of James Melvil.” But the following editors
retrenched them. Knox himself had no hand in the murder of
Beatoun; but he afterwards joined the assassins, and
assisted them in holding out the castle. See Keith’s Hist.
of the Rcf. of Scotland, p. 43.
It was the peculiar misfortune of Scotland, that five short reigns had
been followed successively by as many long minorities; and the execution
of justice, which the prince was beginning to introduce, had been
continually interrupted by the cabals, factions, and animosities of the
great. But besides these inveterate and ancient evils, a new source of
disorder had arisen, the disputes and contentions of theology which were
sufficient to disturb the most settled government; and the death of
the cardinal, who was possessed of abilities and vigor, seemed much
to weaken the hands of the administration. But the queen dowager was a
woman of uncommon talents and virtue; and she did as much to support the
government, and supply the weakness of Arran, the governor, as could be
expected in her situation.
The protector of England, as soon as the state was brought to some
composure, made preparations for war with Scotland; and he was
determined to execute, if possible, that project of uniting the two
kingdoms by marriage, on which the late king had been so intent, and
which he had recommended with his dying breath to his executors. He
levied an army of eighteen thousand men, and equipped a fleet of
sixty sail, one half of which were ships of war, the other laden with
provisions and ammunition. He gave the command of the fleet to Lord
Clinton; he himself marched at the head of the army, attended by the
earl of Warwick. These hostile measures were covered with a pretence of
revenging some depredations committed by the borderers: but besides that
Somerset revived the ancient claim of the superiority of the English
crown over that of Scotland, he refused to enter into negotiation on any
other condition than the marriage of the young queen with Edward.
The protector, before he opened the campaign, published a manifesto,
in which he enforced all the arguments for that measure. He said, that
nature seemed originally to have intended this island for one empire,
and having cut it off from all communication with foreign states, and
guarded it by the ocean, she had pointed out to the inhabitants the
road to happiness and to security; that the education and customs of the
people concurred with nature; and, by giving them the same language, and
laws, and manners, had invited them to a thorough union and coalition:
that fortune had at last removed all obstacles, and had prepared an
expedient by which they might become one people, without leaving any
place for that jealousy either of honor or of interest, to which rival
nations are naturally exposed: that the crown of Scotland had devolved
on a female; that of England on a male; and happily the two sovereigns,
as of a rank, were also of an age the most suitable to each other: that
the hostile dispositions which prevailed between the nations, and which
arose from past injuries, would soon be extinguished, after a long and
secure peace had established confidence between them: that the memory of
former miseries, which at present inflamed their mutual animosity,
would then serve only to make them cherish with more passion a state of
happiness and tranquillity so long unknown to their ancestors: that when
hostilities had ceased between the kingdoms, the Scottish nobility,
who were at present obliged to remain perpetually in a warlike posture,
would learn to cultivate the arts of peace, and would soften their minds
to a love of domestic order and obedience: that as this situation was
desirable to both kingdoms, so particularly to Scotland, which had been
exposed to the greatest miseries from intestine and foreign wars, and
saw herself every moment in danger of losing her independency by the
efforts of a richer and more powerful people: that though England had
claims of superiority, she was willing to resign every pretension for
the sake of future peace; and desired a union which would be the more
secure, as it would be concluded on terms entirely equal; and that,
besides all these motives, positive engagements had been taken for
completing this alliance; and the honor and good faith of the
nation were pledged to fulfil what her interest and safety so loudly
demanded.[*]
Somerset soon perceived that these remonstrances would have no
influence; and that the queen dowager’s attachment to France and to
the Catholic religion would render ineffectual all negotiations for the
intended marriage. He found himself, therefore, obliged to try the force
of arms, and to constrain the Scots by necessity to submit to a measure
for which they seemed to have entertained the most incurable aversion.
He passed the borders at Berwick, and advanced towards Edinburgh,
without meeting any resistance for some days, except from some small
castles, which he obliged to surrender at discretion. The protector
intended to have punished the governor and garrison of one of these
castles for their temerity in resisting such unequal force: but they
eluded his anger by asking only a few hours’ respite, till they should
prepare themselves for death; after which they found his ears more open
to their applications for mercy.[**]
* Sir John Haywood in Kennet, p. 279. Heylin, p. 42.
** Haywood. Patten.
The governor of Scotland had summoned together the whole force of the
kingdom; and his army, double in number to that of the English, had
taken post on advantageous ground, guarded by the banks of the Eske,
about four miles from Edinburgh. The English came within sight of them
at Faside; and after a skirmish between the horse, where the Scots were
worsted, and Lord Hume dangerously wounded, Somerset prepared himself
for a more decisive action. But having taken a view of the Scottish camp
with the earl of Warwick, he found it difficult to make an attempt upon
it with any probability of success. He wrote, therefore, another letter
to Arran; and offered to evacuate the kingdom, as well as to repair all
the damages which he had committed, provided the Scots would stipulate
not to contract the queen to any foreign prince, but to detain her at
home till she reached the age of choosing a husband for herself. So
moderate a demand was rejected by the Scots merely on account of its
moderation; and it made them imagine that the protector must either be
reduced to great distress, or be influenced by fear, that he was now
contented to abate so much of his former pretensions. Inflamed also by
their priests, who had come to the camp in great numbers, they believed
that the English were detestable heretics, abhorred of God, and exposed
to divine vengeance; and that no success could ever crown their arms.
They were confirmed in this fond conceit when they saw the protector
change his ground, and move towards the sea; nor did they any longer
doubt that he intended to embark his army, and make his escape on board
the ships which at that very time moved into the bay opposite to him.[*]
Determined therefore to cut off his retreat, they quitted their camp;
and passing the River Eske, advanced into the plain. They were divided
into three bodies: Angus commanded the vanguard; Arran the main body;
Huntley the rear: their cavalry consisted only of light horse, which
were placed on their left flank, strengthened by some Irish archers whom
Argyle had brought over for this service.
* Holingshed, p. 985.
Somerset was much pleased when he saw this movement of the Scottish
army; and as the English had usually been superior in pitched battles,
he conceived great hopes of success. He ranged his van on the left,
farthest from the sea; and ordered them to remain on the high grounds on
which he placed them, till the enemy should approach: he placed his main
battle and his rear towards the right; and beyond the van he posted
Lord Grey at the head of the men at arms, and ordered him to take the
Scottish van in flank, but not till they should be engaged in close
fight with the van of the English.
While the Scots were advancing on the plain, they were galled with the
artillery from the English ships: the eldest son of Lord Graham was
killed: the Irish archers were thrown into disorder; and even the other
troops began to stagger; when Lord Grey, perceiving their situation,
neglected his orders, left his ground, and at the head of his
heavy-armed horse made an attack on the Scottish infantry, in hopes of
gaining all the honor of the victory. On advancing, he found a slough
and ditch in his way; and behind were ranged the enemy armed with
spears, and the field on which they stood was fallow ground, broken with
ridges which lay across their front, and disordered the movements of
the English cavalry. From all these accidents, the shock of this body
of horse was feeble and irregular; and as they were received on the
points of the Scottish spears, which were longer than the lances of
the English horsemen, they were in a moment pierced, over-thrown, and
discomfited. Grey himself was dangerously wounded: Lord Edward Seymour,
son of the protector, had his horse killed under him: the standard was
near being taken: and had the Scots possessed any good body of cavalry,
who could have pursued the advantage, the whole English army had been
exposed to great danger.[*]
* Patter. Holingshed, p. 986.
The protector, meanwhile, assisted by Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir Ralph
Vane, employed himself with diligence and success in rallying the
cavalry. Warwick showed great presence of mind in maintaining the ranks
of the foot, on which the horse had recoiled: he made Sir Peter Meutas
advance, captain of the foot harquebusiers, and Sir Peter Gamboa,
captain of some Italian and Spanish harquebusiers on horseback; and
ordered them to ply the Scottish infantry with their shot. They marched
to the slough, and discharged their pieces full in the face of the
enemy: the ships galled them from the flank: the artillery, planted on
a height, infested them from the front: the English archers poured in a
shower of arrows upon them: and the vanguard, descending from the hill,
advanced leisurely and in good order towards them. Dismayed with all
these circumstances, the Scottish van began to retreat: the retreat soon
changed into a flight, which was begun by the Irish archers. The panic
of the van communicated itself to the main body, and passing thence to
the rear, rendered the whole field a scene of confusion, terror, flight,
and consternation. The English army perceived from the heights the
condition of the Scots, and began the pursuit with loud shouts and
acclamations, which added still more to the dismay of the vanquished.
The horse in particular, eager to revenge the affront which they had
received in the beginning of the day, did the most bloody execution on
the flying enemy; and from the field of battle to Edinburgh, for the
space of five miles, the whole ground was strowed with dead bodies. The
priests, above all, and the monks, received no quarter; and the
English made sport of slaughtering men who, from their extreme zeal
and animosity, had engaged in an enterprise so ill befitting their
profession. Few victories have been more decisive, or gained with
smaller loss to the conquerors. There fell not two hundred of the
English; and according to the most moderate computation, there perished
above ten thousand of the Scots. About fifteen hundred were taken
prisoners. This action was called the battle of Pinkey, from a
nobleman’s seat of that name in the neighborhood.
The queen dowager and Arran fled to Stirling, and were scarcely able
to collect such a body of forces as could check the incursions of small
parties of the English. About the same time, the earl of Lenox and Lord
Wharton entered the west marches, at the head of five thousand men; and
after taking and plundering Annan, they spread devastation over all
the neighboring counties.[*] Had Somerset prosecuted his advantages, he
might have imposed what terms he pleased on the Scottish nation: but he
was impatient to return to England, where, he heard, some counsellors,
and even his own brother, the admiral, were carrying on cabals against
his authority. Having taking the castles of Hume, Dunglass, Eymouth,
Fastcastle, Roxborough, and some other small places, and having
received the submission of some counties on the borders, he retired
from Scotland. The fleet, besides destroying all the shipping along the
coast, took Broughty, in the Frith of Tay; and having fortified it,
they there left a garrison. Arran desired leave to send commissioners
in order to treat of a peace; and Somerset, having appointed Berwick for
the place of conference, left Warwick with full powers to negotiate: but
no commissioners from Scotland ever appeared. The overture of the Scots
was an artifice, to gain time till succors should arrive from France.
* Holingshed, p. 992.
The protector, on his arrival in England, summoned a parliament: and
being somewhat elated with his success against the Scots, he procured
from his nephew a patent, appointing him to sit on the throne, upon
a stool or bench at the right hand of the king, and to enjoy the same
honors and privileges that had usually been possessed by any prince of
the blood, or uncle of the kings of England. In this patent the
king employed his dispensing power, by setting aside the statute of
precedency enacted during the former reign.[*] But if Somerset gave
offence by assuming too much state, he deserves great praise on account
of the laws passed this session, by which the rigor of former statutes
was much mitigated, and some security given to the freedom of the
constitution. All laws were repealed which extended the crime of treason
beyond the statute of the twenty-fifth of Edward III.;[**] all laws
enacted during the late reign extending the crime of felony; all the
former laws against Lollardy or heresy, together with the statute of
the six articles. None were to be accused for words, but within a month
after they were spoken. By these repeals several of the most rigorous
laws that ever had passed in England were annulled; and some dawn, both
of civil and religious liberty, began to appear to the people. Heresy,
however, was still a capital crime by the common law, and was subjected
to the penalty of burning. Only there remained no precise standard by
which that crime could be defined or determined; a circumstance which
might either be advantageous or hurtful to public security, according to
the disposition of the judges.
A repeal also passed of that law, the destruction of all laws, by which
the king’s proclamation was made of equal force with a statute.[***]
That other law, likewise, was mitigated, by which the king was empowered
to annul every statute passed before the four-and-twentieth year of his
age: he could prevent their future execution; but could not recall any
past effects which had ensued from them.[****]
* Rymer, vol. xv. p. 164.
** 1 Edward VI. c. 12.
*** 1 Edward VI. c. 2.
**** 1 Edward VI. c. 2.
It was also enacted, that all who denied the king’s supremacy, or
asserted the pope’s, should, for the first offence, forfeit their goods
and chattels, and suffer imprisonment during pleasure; for the second
offence, should incur the penalty of a “præmunire;” and for the third,
be attainted of treason. But if any, after the first of March ensuing,
endeavored, by writing, printing, or any overt act or deed, to deprive
the king of his estate or titles, particularly of his supremacy, or to
confer them on any other, he was to be adjudged guilty of treason. If
any of the heirs of the crown should usurp upon another, or endeavor to
break the order of succession, it was declared treason in them, their
aiders and abettors. These were the most considerable acts passed
during this session. The members in general discovered a very passive
disposition with regard to religion: some few appeared zealous for
the reformation: others secretly harbored a strong propensity to the
Catholic faith: but the greater part appeared willing to take any
impression which they should receive from interest authority, or the
reigning fashion.[*]
The convocation met at the same time with the parliament and as it was
found that their debates were at first cramped by the rigorous statute
of the six articles, the king granted them a dispensation from that law,
before it was repealed by parliament.[**] The lower house of convocation
applied to have liberty of sitting with the commons in parliament; or
if this privilege were refused them, which they claimed as their
ancient right, they desired that no law regarding religion might pass
in parliament without their consent and approbation. But the principles
which now prevailed were more favorable to the civil than to the
ecclesiastical power; and this demand of the convocation was rejected.
{1548.} The protector had assented to the repeal of that law which gave
to the king’s proclamations the authority of statutes; but he did not
intend to renounce that arbitrary or discretionary exercise of power,
in issuing proclamations, which had ever been assumed by the crown, and
which it is difficult to distinguish exactly from a full legislative
power. He even continued to exert this authority in some particulars,
which were then regarded as the most momentous. Orders were issued by
council, that candles should no longer be carried about on Candlemas
day, ashes on Ash Wednesday, palms on Palm Sunday.[***]
* Heylin, p. 48.
** Ant. Brit. p. 339.
*** Burnet, vol. ii p. 59. Collier, vol. ii. p. 241. Heylin,
p. 55.
These were ancient religious practices, now termed superstitions;
though it is fortunate for mankind, when superstition happens to take
a direction so innocent and inoffensive. The severe disposition which
naturally attends all reformers prompted likewise the council to abolish
some gay and showy ceremonies which belonged to the ancient religion.[*]
An order was also issued by council for the removal of all images from
the churches; an innovation which was much desired by the reformers,
and which alone, with regard to the populace, amounted almost to a total
change of the established religion.[**] An attempt had been made to
separate the use of images from their abuse, the reverence from the
worship of them; but the execution of this design was found, upon trial,
very difficult, if not wholly impracticable.
As private masses were abolished by law, it became necessary to compose
a new communion service; and the council went so far, in the preface
which they prefixed to this work, as to leave the practice of auricular
confession wholly indifferent.[***] This was a prelude to the entire
abolition of that invention, one of the most powerful engines that ever
was contrived for degrading the laity, and giving their spiritual guides
an entire ascendant over them. And it may justly be said, that, though
the priest’s absolution, which attends confession, serves somewhat to
ease weak minds from the immediate agonies of superstitious terror, it
operates only by enforcing superstition itself, and thereby preparing
the mind for a more violent relapse into the same disorders.
The people were at that time extremely distracted by the opposite
opinions of their preachers; and as they were totally unable to judge of
the reasons advanced on either side, and naturally regarded every thing
which they heard at church as of equal authority, a great confusion
and fluctuation resulted from this uncertainty. The council had first
endeavored to remedy the inconvenience by laying some restraints on
preaching; but finding this expedient ineffectual, they imposed a total
silence on the preachers, and thereby put an end at once to all the
polemics of the pulpit.[****] By the nature of things, this restraint
could only be temporary. For in proportion as the ceremonies of public
worship, its shows and exterior observances, were retrenched by the
reformers, the people were inclined to contract a stronger attachment
to sermons, whence alone they received any occupation or amusement. The
ancient religion, by giving its votaries something to do, freed them
from the trouble of thinking: sermons were delivered only in the
principal churches, and at some particular fasts and festivals: and the
practice of haranguing the populace, which, if abused, is so powerful
an incitement to faction and sedition, had much less scope and influence
during those ages.
* Burnet, vol. ii.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 60. Collier, vol. ii. p. 241. Heylin,
p. 55.
*** Burnet, vol. ii.
**** Fuller. Heylin. Burnet.
The greater progress was made towards a reformation in England, the
farther did the protector find himself from all prospect of completing
the union with Scotland; and the queen dowager, as well as the clergy,
became the more averse to all alliance with a nation which had so far
departed from all ancient principles. Somerset, having taken the town
of Haddington, had ordered it to be strongly garrisoned and fortified by
Lord Grey: he also erected some fortifications at Lauder; and he
hoped that these two places, together with Broughty and some smaller
fortresses which were in the hands of the English, would serve as a curb
on Scotland, and would give him access into the heart of the country.
Arran, being disappointed in some attempts on Broughty, relied chiefly
on the succors expected from France for the recovery of these places;
and they arrived at last in the frith, to the number of six thousand
men; half of them Germans. They were commanded by Dessé, and under him
by Andelot, Strozzi, Meilleraye, and Count Rhingrave. The Scots were at
that time so sunk by their misfortunes, that five hundred English horse
were able to ravage the whole country without resistance, and make
inroads to the gates of the capital:[*] but on the appearance of the
French succors, they collected more courage; and having joined Dessé
with a considerable reënforcement, they laid siege to Haddington.[**]
This was an undertaking for which they were by themselves totally unfit;
and even with the assistance of the French, they placed their chief
hopes of success in starving the garrison. After some vain attempts
to take the place by a regular siege, the blockade was formed, and the
garrison was repulsed with loss in several sallies which they made upon
the besiegers.
* Beagué, Hist. of the Campaigns, 1548 and 1549. p. 6.
** Holingshed, p. 993.
The hostile attempts which the late king and the protector had made
against Scotland, not being steady, regular, nor pushed to the last
extremity, had served only to imitate the nation, and to inspire them
with the strongest aversion to that union which was courted in so
violent a manner. Even those who were inclined to the English alliance
were displeased to have it imposed on them by force of arms; and the
earl of Huntley in particular said, pleasantly, that he disliked not the
match, but he hated the manner of wooing.[*] The queen dowager, finding
these sentiments to prevail, called a parliament in an abbey near
Haddington; and it was there proposed that the young queen, for her
greater security, should be sent to France, and be committed to the
custody of that ancient ally. Some objected that this measure was
desperate, allowed no resource in case of miscarriage, exposed the
Scots to be subjected by foreigners, involved them in perpetual war with
England, and left them no expedient by which they could conciliate the
friendship of that powerful nation. It was answered, on the other hand,
that the queen’s presence was the very cause of war with England; that
that nation would desist when they found that their views of forcing
a marriage had become altogether impracticable; and that Henry, being
engaged by so high a mark of confidence, would take their sovereign
under his protection, and use his utmost efforts to defend the kingdom.
These arguments were aided by French gold, which was plentifully
distributed among the nobles. The governor had a pension conferred on
him of twelve thousand livres a year, received the title of duke of
Chatelrault, and obtained for his son the command of a hundred men at
arms.[**] And as the clergy dreaded the consequences of the English
alliance, they seconded this measure with all the zeal and industry
which either principle or interest could inspire. It was accordingly
determined to send the queen to France; and, what was understood to be
the necessary consequence, to marry her to the dauphin. Villegaignon,
commander of four French galleys lying in the Frith of Forth, set sail
as if he intended to return home; but when he reached the open sea he
turned northwards, passed by the Orkneys, and came in on the west coast
at Dunbarton; an extraordinary voyage for ships of that fabric.[***] The
young queen was there committed to him; and, being attended by the lords
Ereskine and Livingstone, she put to sea, and, after meeting with some
tempestuous weather, arrived safely at Brest, whence she was conducted
to Paris, and soon after she was betrothed to the dauphin.
* Heylin, p. 46. Patten.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 83. Buchanan, lib. xv. Keith, p. 55.
Thuanus, lib. v. c. 15.
*** Thuanus, lib. v. c. 15.
Somerset, pressed by many difficulties at home and despairing of success
in his enterprise against Scotland, was desirous of composing the
differences with that kingdom, and he offered the Scots a ten years’
truce; but as they insisted on his restoring all the places which he had
taken, the proposal came to nothing. The Scots recovered the fortresses
of Hume and Fastcastle by surprise, and put the garrisons to the sword:
they repulsed with loss the English, who, under the command of Lord
Seymour, made a descent, first in Fife, then at Montrose: in the former
action, James Stuart, natural brother to the queen, acquired honor; in
the latter, Ereskine of Dun. An attempt was made by Sir Robert Bowes and
Sir Thomas Palmer, at the head of a considerable body, to throw relief
into Haddington; but these troops, falling into an ambuscade, were
almost wholly cut in pieces.[*] And though a small body of two hundred
men escaped all the vigilance of the French, and arrived safely in
Haddington with some ammunition and provisions, the garrison was reduced
to such difficulties, that the protector found it necessary to provide
more effectually for their relief. He raised an army of eighteen
thousand men, and adding three thousand Germans, who, on the dissolution
of the Protestant alliance, had offered their service to England, he
gave the command of the whole to the earl of Shrewsbury.[**] Dessé
raised the blockade on the approach of the English; and with great
difficulty made good his retreat to Edinburgh, where he posted himself
advantageously. Shrewsbury, who had lost the opportunity of attacking
him on his march, durst not give him battle in his present situation;
and contenting himself with the advantage already gained of supplying
Haddington, he retired into England.
* Stowe, p. 595. Holingshed, p, 994.
** Hayward, p. 291.
Though the protection of France was of great consequence to the Scots in
supporting them against the invasions of England, they reaped still more
benefit from the distractions and divisions which have crept into the
councils of this latter kingdom. Even the two brothers, the protector
and admiral, not content with the high stations which they severally
enjoyed, and the great eminence to which they had risen, had entertained
the most violent jealousy of each other; and they divided the whole
court and kingdom by their opposite cabals and pretensions. Lord Seymour
was a man of insatiable ambition; arrogant, assuming, implacable; and
though esteemed of superior capacity to the protector, he possessed
not to the same degree the confidence and regard of the people. By his
flattery and address, he had so insinuated himself into the good graces
of the queen dowager, that, forgetting her usual prudence and decency,
she married him immediately upon the demise of the late king; insomuch
that, had she soon proved pregnant, it might have been doubtful to
which husband the child belonged. The credit and riches of this alliance
supported the ambition of the admiral, but gave umbrage to the duchess
of Somerset, who, uneasy that the younger brother’s wife should have
the precedency, employed all her credit with her husband, which was
too great, first to create, then to widen the breach between the two
brothers.[*]
* Hayward, p. 301. Heylin, p. 72. Camden. Thuanus, lib. vi.
p. 6. Haynes, p. 69.
The first symptoms of this misunderstanding appeared when the protector
commanded the army in Scotland. Secretary Paget, a man devoted to
Somerset, remarked that Seymour was forming separate intrigues among the
counsellors; was corrupting by presents the king’s servants; and even
endeavoring, by improper indulgences and liberalities, to captivate the
affections of the young monarch. Paget represented to him the danger of
this conduct; desired him to reflect on the numerous enemies whom the
sudden elevation of their family had created; and warned him, that any
dissension between him and the protector would be greedily laid hold
of to effect the ruin of both. Finding his remonstrances neglected,
he conveyed intelligence of the danger to Somerset, and engaged him to
leave the enterprise upon Scotland unfinished, in order to guard against
the attempts of his domestic enemies. In the ensuing parliament, the
admiral’s projects appeared still more dangerous to public tranquillity;
and as he had acquired many partisans, he made a direct attack upon
his brother’s authority. He represented to his friends, that formerly,
during a minority, the office of protector of the kingdom had been
kept separate from that of governor of the king’s person; and that the
present union of these two important trusts conferred on Somerset an
authority which could not safely be lodged in any subject.[*] The young
king was even prevailed on to write a letter to the parliament desiring
that Seymour might be appointed his governor; and that nobleman had
formed a party in the two houses, by which he hoped to effect his
purpose. The design was discovered before its execution; and some common
friends were sent to remonstrate with him, but had so little influence,
that he threw out many menacing expressions, and rashly threatened that,
if he were thwarted in his attempt, he would make this parliament the
blackest that ever sat in England.[**] The council sent for him to
answer for his conduct; but he refused to attend: they then began to
threaten in their turn, and informed him that the king’s letter, instead
of availing him any thing to the execution of his views, would be
imputed to him as a criminal enterprise, and be construed as a design to
disturb the government, by forming a separate interest with a child and
minor. They even let fall some menaces of sending him to the Tower for
his temerity; and the admiral, finding himself prevented in his design,
was obliged to submit, and to desire a reconciliation with his brother.
The mild and moderate temper of Somerset made him willing to forget
these enterprises of the admiral; but the ambition of that turbulent
spirit could not be so easily appeased. His spouse, the queen dowager,
died in childbed; but so far from regarding this event as a check to
his aspiring views, he founded on it the scheme of a more extraordinary
elevation. He made his addresses to the lady Elizabeth, then in the
sixteenth year of her age; and that princess, whom even the hurry of
business and the pursuits of ambition could not, in her more advanced
years, disengage entirely from the tender passions, seems to have
listened to the insinuations of a man who possessed every talent proper
to captivate the affections of the fair.[***]
* Haynes, p. 82, 90.
** Haynes, p. 75.
*** Haynes, p. 95, 96, 102, 108.
But as Henry VIII. had excluded his daughters from all hopes of
succession if they married without the consent of his executors, which
Seymour could never hope to obtain, it was concluded that he meant to
effect his purpose by expedients still more rash and more criminal. All
the other measures of the admiral tended to confirm this suspicion. He
continued to attack, by presents, the fidelity of those who had more
immediate access to the king’s person: he endeavored to seduce the
young prince into his interest, he found means of holding a private
correspondence with him; he openly decried his brother’s administration;
and asserted that, by enlisting Germans and other foreigners he intended
to form a mercenary army, which might endanger the king’s authority, and
the liberty of the people: by promises and persuasion he brought over to
his party many of the principal nobility; and had extended his interest
all over England: he neglected not even the most popular persons of
inferior rank; and had computed that he could, on occasion, muster
an army of ten thousand men, composed of his servants, tenants, and
retainers:[*] he had already provided arms for their use; and having
engaged in his interests Sir John Sharington, a corrupt man, master
of the mint at Bristol, he flattered himself that money would not be
wanting. Somerset was well apprised of all these alarming circumstances,
and endeavored, by the most friendly expedients, by entreaty, reason,
and even by heaping new favors upon the admiral, to make him desist from
his dangerous counsels: but finding all endeavors ineffectual, he
began to think of more severe remedies. The earl of Warwick was an ill
instrument between the brothers; and had formed the design, by inflaming
the quarrel, to raise his own fortune on the ruins of both.
* Hayne, p. 105, 106.
Dudley, earl of Warwick, was the son of that Dudley, minister to Henry
VII., who, having, by rapine, extortion, and perversion of law, incurred
the hatred of the public, had been sacrificed to popular animosity in
the beginning of the subsequent reign. The late king, sensible of the
iniquity, at least illegality, of the sentence, had afterwards restored
young Dudley’s blood by act of parliament; and finding him endowed
with abilities, industry, and activity, he had intrusted him with
many important commands, and had ever found him successful in his
undertakings. He raised him to the dignity of Viscount Lisle, conferred
on him the office of admiral, and gave him by his will a place among his
executors. Dudley made still further progress during the minority; and
having obtained the title of earl of Warwick, and undermined the
credit of Southampton, he bore the chief rank among the protector’s
counsellors. The victory gained at Pinkey was much ascribed to his
courage and conduct; and he was universally regarded as a man equally
endowed with the talents of peace and of war. But all these virtues were
obscured by still greater vices; an exorbitant ambition, an insatiable
avarice, a neglect of decency, a contempt of justice: and as he found
that Lord Seymour, whose abilities and enterprising spirit he chiefly
dreaded, was involving himself in ruin by his rash counsels, he was
determined to push him on the precipice, and thereby remove the chief
obstacle to his own projected greatness.
When Somerset found that the public peace was endangered by his
brother’s seditious, not to say rebellious schemes, he was the more
easily persuaded by Warwick to employ the extent of royal authority
against him; and after depriving him of the office of admiral, he signed
a warrant for committing him to the Tower. Some of his accomplices were
also taker into custody; and three privy counsellors, being sent to
examine them, made a report, that they had met with very full and
important discoveries. Yet still the protector suspended the blow, and
showed a reluctance to ruin his brother. He offered to desist from the
prosecution, if Seymour would promise him a cordial reconciliation, and,
renouncing all ambitious hopes, be contented with a private life, and
retire into the country. But as Seymour made no other answer to these
friendly offers than menaces and defiances, he ordered a charge to be
drawn up against him, consisting of thirty-three articles;[*] and the
whole to be laid before the privy council. It is pretended, that every
particular was so incontestably proved, both by witnesses and his own
handwriting, that there was no room for doubt; yet did the council think
proper to go in a body to the Tower, in order more fully to examine the
prisoner. He was not daunted by the appearance: he boldly demanded a
fair trial; required to be confronted with the witnesses; desired
that the charge might be left with him, in order to be considered; and
refused to answer any interrogatories by which he might accuse himself.
* Buruet, Tol. ii. coll. 31. 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 18.
It is apparent that, notwithstanding what is pretended, there must have
been some deficiency in the evidence against Seymour, when such demands,
founded on the plainest principles of law and equity, were absolutely
rejected. We shall indeed conclude, if we carefully examine the charge,
that many of the articles were general, and scarcely capable of
any proof many of them, if true, susceptible of a more favorable
interpretation; and that though, on the whole, Seymour appears to have
been a dangerous subject, he had not advanced far in those treasonable
projects imputed to him. The chief part of his actual guilt seems to
have consisted in some unwarrantable practices in the admiralty, by
which pirates were protected and illegal impositions laid upon the
merchants.
But the administration had at that time an easy instrument of vengeance,
to wit, the parliament; and needed not to give themselves any concern
with regard either to the guilt of the persons whom they prosecuted,
or the evidence which could be produced against them. A session of
parliament being held, it was resolved to proceed against Seymour
by bill of attainder; and the young king being induced, after much
solicitation, to give his consent to it, a considerable weight was put
on his approbation. The matter was first laid before the upper house;
and several peers, rising up in their places, gave an account of what
they knew concerning Lord Seymour’s conduct, and his criminal words or
actions.
{1549.} These narratives were received as undoubted evidence; and though
the prisoner had formerly engaged many friends and partisans among the
nobility, no one had either the courage or equity to move, that he
might be heard in his defence, that the testimony against him should be
delivered in a legal manner, and that he should be confronted with the
witnesses. A little more scruple was made in the house of commons:
there were even some members who objected against the whole method of
proceeding by bill of attainder passed in absence; and insisted, that a
formal trial should be given to every man before his condemnation. But
when a message was sent by the king, enjoining the house to proceed, and
offering that the same narratives should be laid before them which had
satisfied the peers, they were easily prevailed on to acquiesce.[*] The
bill passed in a full house. Near four hundred voted for it; not above
nine or ten against it.[**] The sentence was soon after executed, and
the prisoner was beheaded on Tower Hill. The warrant was signed by
Somerset, who was exposed to much blame, on account of the violence of
these proceedings. The attempts of the admiral seem chiefly to have
been levelled against his brother’s usurped authority; and though his
ambitious, enterprising character, encouraged by a marriage with the
lady Elizabeth, might have endangered the public tranquillity, the
prudence of foreseeing evils at such a distance was deemed too great,
and the remedy was plainly illegal. It could only be said, that this
bill of attainder was somewhat more tolerable than the preceding ones,
to which the nation had been inured; for here, at least, some shadow of
evidence was produced.
* 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 18.
** Burnet vol. ii. p. 99.
All the considerable business transacted this session, besides the
attainder of Lord Seymour, regarded ecclesiastical affairs, which were
now the chief object of attention throughout the nation. A committee
of bishops and divines had been appointed by the council to compose
a liturgy; and they had executed the work committed to them. They
proceeded with moderation in this delicate undertaking; they retained
as much of the ancient mass as the principles of the reformers would
permit: they indulged nothing to the spirit of contradiction, which
so naturally takes place in all great innovations: and they flattered
themselves, that they had established a service in which every
denomination of Christians might without scruple concur. The mass had
always been celebrated in Latin; a practice which might have been deemed
absurd, had it not been found useful to the clergy, by impressing the
people with an idea of some mysterious unknown virtue in those rites,
and by checking all their pretensions to be familiarly acquainted with
their religion. But as the reformers pretended in some few particulars
to encourage private judgment in the laity, the translation of the
liturgy, as well as of the Scriptures, into the vulgar tongue, seemed
more conformable to the genius of their sect; and this innovation,
with the retrenching of prayers to saints, and of some superstitious
ceremonies, was the chief difference between the old mass and the new
liturgy. The parliament established this form of worship in all the
churches, and ordained a uniformity to be observed in all the rites and
ceremonies.[*]
* 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 1.
There was another material act which passed this session. The former
canons had established the celibacy of the clergy; and though this
practice is usually ascribed to the policy of the court of Rome, who
thought that the ecclesiastics would be more devoted to their spiritual
head, and less dependent on the civil magistrate, when freed from
the powerful tie of wives and children, yet was this institution much
forwarded by the principles of superstition inherent in human nature.
These principles had rendered the panegyrics on an inviolate chastity
so frequent among the ancient fathers, long before the establishment of
celibacy. And even this parliament, though they enacted a law permitting
the marriage of priests, yet confess in the preamble, “that it were
better for priests and the ministers of the church to live chaste and
without marriage, and it were much to be wished they would of themselves
abstain.” The inconveniences which had arisen from the compelling of
chastity and the prohibiting of marriage, are the reasons assigned for
indulging a liberty in this particular.[*] The ideas of penance also
were so much retained in other particulars, that an act of parliament
passed, forbidding the use of flesh meat during Lent and other times of
abstinence.[**] [20]
The principal tenets and practices of the Catholic religion were now
abolished, and the reformation, such as it is enjoyed at present, was
almost entirely completed in England. But the doctrine of the real
presence, though tacitly condemned by the new communion service, and
by the abolition of many ancient rites, still retained some hold on the
minds of men: and it was the last doctrine of Popery that was wholly
abandoned by the people.[***] The great attachment of the late king
to that tenet might, in part, be the ground of this obstinacy: but the
chief cause was really the extreme absurdity of the principle itself,
and the profound veneration, which, of course, it impressed on the
imagination. The priests, likewise, were much inclined to favor an
opinion which attributed to them so miraculous a power; and the people,
who believed that they participated of the very body and blood of their
Savior, were loath to renounce so extraordinary, and, as they imagined,
so salutary a privilege. The general attachment to this dogma was so
violent, that the Lutherans, notwithstanding their separation from Rome,
had thought proper, under another name, still to retain it; and the
Catholic preachers in England, when restrained in all other particulars,
could not forbear, on every occasion, inculcating that tenet. Bonner,
for this offence among others, had been tried by the council, had been
deprived of his see, and had been committed to custody. Gardiner, also,
who had recovered his liberty, appeared anew refractory to the authority
which established the late innovations; and he seemed willing to
countenance that opinion, much favored by all the English Catholics,
that the king was indeed supreme head of the church, but not the council
during a minority. Having declined to give full satisfaction on this
head, he was sent to the Tower, and threatened with further effects of
the council’s displeasure.
* 2 and 3 Edward VI. cap. 21.
** 2 and 3 Edward VI. cap. 19. See note T. at the end of the
volume.
*** Burnet, vol. ii, p 104.
These severities, being exercised on men possessed of office and
authority, seemed in that age a necessary policy, in order to enforce
a uniformity in public worship and discipline; but there were other
instances of persecution, derived from no origin but the bigotry
of theologians; a malady which seems almost incurable. Though the
Protestant divines had ventured to renounce opinions deemed certain
during many ages, they regarded, in their turn, the new system as so
certain, that they would suffer no contradiction with regard to it; and
they were ready to burn in the same flames from which they themselves
had so narrowly escaped, every one that had the assurance to differ from
them. A commission, by act of council, was granted to the primate and
some others, to examine and search after all Anabaptists, heretics, or
contemners of the Book of Common Prayer.[*]
* Burnet, vol. ii. p. 3. Rymer, tom. xv. p. 181.
The commissioners were enjoined to reclaim them, if possible; to impose
penance on them, and to give them absolution; or, if these criminals
were obstinate, to excommunicate and imprison them, and to deliver them
over to the secular arm: and in the execution of this charge, they were
not bound to observe the ordinary methods of trial; the forms of law
were dispensed with; and if any statutes happened to interfere with
the powers in the commission, they were overruled and abrogated by
the council. Some tradesmen in London were brought before these
commissioners, and were accused of maintaining, among other opinions,
that a man regenerate could not sin, and that, though the outward man
might offend, the inward was incapable of all guilt. They were prevailed
on to abjure, and were dismissed. But there was a woman accused of
heretical pravity, called Joan Bocher, or Joan of Kent, who was so
pertinacious, that the commissioners could make no impression upon her
Her doctrine was, “that Christ was not truly incarnate of the Virgin,
whose flesh, being the outward man, was sinfully begotten, and born in
sin, and, consequently, he could take none of it; but the Word, by
the consent of the inward man of the Virgin, was made flesh.”[*] This
opinion, it would seem, is not orthodox; and there was a necessity for
delivering the woman to the flames for maintaining it. But the
young king, though in such tender years, had more sense than all his
counsellors and preceptors; and he long refused to sign the warrant for
her execution. Cranmer was employed to persuade him to compliance;
and he said, that there was a great difference between errors in other
points of divinity, and those which were in direct contradiction to
the apostles’ creed: these latter were impieties against God, which
the prince, being God’s deputy, ought to repress, in like manner, as
inferior magistrates were bound to punish offences against the king’s
person. Edward, overcome by importunity, at last submitted, though with
tears in his eyes; and he told Cranmer, that if any wrong were done, the
guilt should lie entirely on his head. The primate, after making a new
effort to reclaim the woman from her errors, and finding her obstinate
against all his arguments, at last committed her to the flames. Some
time after, a Dutchman, called Van Paris, accused of the heresy which
has received the name of Arianism, was condemned to the same punishment.
He suffered with so much satisfaction, that he hugged and caressed the
fagots that were consuming him; a species of frenzy of which there is
more than one instance among the martyrs of that age.[**]
These rigorous methods of proceeding soon brought the whole nation to a
conformity, seeming or real, with the new doctrine and the new liturgy.
The lady Mary alone continued to adhere to the mass, and refused to
admit the established modes of worship. When pressed and menaced on
this head, she applied to the emperor, who, using his interest with
Sir Philip Hobby, the English ambassador, procured her a temporary
connivance from the council.[***]
* Burnet, vol. ii. coll. 35 Strype’s Mem. Cranm. p. 181.
** Burnet, vol. ii. p. 112. Strype’s Mem. Cranm. p. 181.
*** Heylin, p. 102