EDWARD VI (ii), 1549-53--THE DUDLEY ASCENDANCY
When Somerset fell, the state of affairs which his successors had to face
was singularly threatening, calling for the most skilful statesmanship both
at home and abroad.
[Sidenote: 1549 (Winter) The Situation]
Externally, the chance of maintaining the hold on Boulogne was
disappearing: but while it was maintained, the hostility of France was
assured. Scotland, defiant, allied with France and helped by French troops,
might become actively embarrassing. Within two months of the Protector's
fall Pope Paul died. He was succeeded by Julius III. who promptly made
friends with the Emperor; to whom there was now hardly any open resistance
save at Magdeburg which stubbornly refused to accept the Interim. With the
Protestants apparently under his heel, and on good terms with the Papacy,
he might assume a hostile attitude to England. The one hope for her lay in
buying from France the friendship of the party in that country which, ever
mindful of the Italian provinces, might make common cause against the
Emperor if the immediate source of friction with England were removed.
[Sidenote: State of the Country]
At home there were the rural discontents and the swelling ardours of
religious partisanship to deal with, while the financial position was
growing worse from day to day. The natural fall in the value of silver
everywhere, owing to the quantities of the metal now beginning to pour into
Spain from America, depreciated the purchasing power of wages; and this was
made infinitely worse in England by the persistent debasement of the
coinage. The rulers of the country rewarded their own very inconspicuous
merits with the forfeited spoils of the Church, instead of applying them to
the public needs. The Treasury was nearly empty, and was maintained even at
its alarmingly low level only by borrowing from foreign bankers at usurious
interest. For the time being, the country had lost its moral balance;
landowners, merchants, and manufacturers were absorbed in rapid
money-making at the expense of their traditional integrity. Religion had
fallen into a controversial wrangle between contradictory dogmas; the most
earnest of the Reformers have given us the blackest pictures of the
prevailing irreligion and moral anarchy, rampant products of theological
acrimony. It is true that the Moralists of all ages have usually been
engaged in expressing a vehement conviction that the decadence of their own
age exceeds that of any other known to history; and within the next decade,
the denunciations of Latimer were to be lost in the paean of the martyrs.
Had the corruption he depicts been vital, those sublime tragedies would
never have taken place. But for the time, chaos prevailed. It is true that
some of the subjects of controversy were logically vital ultimately; but it
is true also that, absorbed in them, the controversialists lost sight of
other matters more spiritually vital immediately. If the Christian is
taught that his duty to God is comprised in the acceptance or
non-acceptance of dogmas and ceremonial observances, while his duty towards
his neighbour comprises the whole of his moral conduct; if then his
spiritual guides omit to preach the latter in their devotion to the former
subject; his morality is in danger of being entirely neglected. "This ought
they to have done, but not to leave the other undone."
[Sidenote: 1550 Terms with France]
In one respect, the new Government recognised the force of facts. It made
up its mind that France must be reconciled by the evacuation of Boulogne,
if any colourable concession could be obtained in return. France however
so obviously held the whip-hand that even Paget's diplomacy could do little
to qualify the completeness of the surrender. There was a brave display of
preparation for a determined defence, but the negotiators on both sides
were fully aware of its emptiness. There was nothing that Henry II. desired
more than the termination of strife with his excellent neighbours, provided
that they would hand over Boulogne, cancel most of the money claim under
the treaty of 1546 for which they held it as security, and withdraw their
troops from the forts they still retained in Scotland. The reconciliation
might then be sealed by the betrothal of Edward to a French princess, the
young Queen of Scots being bespoken by the Dauphin--only nothing
considerable in the way of a dowry could be expected. France however would
pay within a few months what might pass as a ransom for Boulogne. Such were
the terms which Paget, the cleverest statesman in England, was obliged to
advise the Council to accept: though the suggested marriage project was
dropped. The treaty of peace was signed on March 24th (1550).
[Sidenote: Warwick's Protestant zeal]
On the religious question, Warwick lost little time in showing that he was
on the same side as Somerset. For a moment, the Protector's fall raised
vain hopes in the breasts of those who supported the Old Learning. Gardiner
appealed from his prison: so did Bonner who not long before had not only
been incarcerated for the second time, but even, in October, deprived of
his see. It was useless. Warwick saw that he must either pose as an
enthusiastic reformer, or bring the reactionaries into power. In the former
case, he could lead; in the latter, he would have to throw himself on the
support of the old nobility. Not only Gardiner but Norfolk also would have
to be released from the Tower, and he himself would inevitably drop to the
second rank. Warwick, with a fine consistency, never permitted any other
motive to influence him when his own aggrandisement was involved in the
issues. The first step of the parliament which re-assembled in November
(1549) was to pass an Act for the removal of Images. Gardiner, and Bonner,
remained in prison. Even an attempt of the whole body of Bishops to have
something of their disciplinary jurisdiction restored, in the interests of
public morality, was quietly suppressed. Three more bishops of the Old
learning were at intervals sent to prison and deprived--Heath, Day, and
Tunstal. Every vacancy was filled from the ranks of the advanced reformers.
[Sidenote: A new treasons and felonies Act]
Norfolk, like the bishops, continued a prisoner. Somerset on the other
hand, no longer regarded as dangerous, was released in February, the major
part of the fine imposed on him was remitted, and after a brief interval he
was even re-instated in the Privy Council, and his official reconciliation
with Warwick sealed by a family marriage. But while his anti-clerical
policy was carried to much greater lengths, his social policy and his
relaxation of the treason laws were entirely reversed. Parliament made
felony or treason out of assemblages presumed to intend disturbance of the
peace, to some extent legalised enclosures, made acts against Privy
Councillors treasonable as if they were against the King, and included in
the ban assemblies for the purpose of altering the laws.
[Sidenote: Activity of the extreme Reformers]
The peace with France still left opportunities for friction; but Warwick's
reforming enthusiasm drove him into the course--manifestly irritating to
the Emperor--of interfering with the private devotions of the Princess
Mary, who was ordered to give up the Mass: to which she replied that she
was bound by the law as left by her father, and would not recognise orders
in contravention thereof, as long as her brother was a minor. Charles
himself was at this very time reverting to an intolerant policy in the Low
Countries, and Protestants were hastening to England from Flanders. The
risk that the Emperor might adopt Mary's cause in arms was obvious, and it
was known that the Guise party at the French court would miss no
opportunity of reviving the war with England in the hope of capturing
Calais. In the meantime, the extreme reformers of the Swiss school were
steadily gaining weight, in comparison with that section which, like
Cranmer, continued to favour less drastic changes. One of their chiefs,
Hooper, being nominated to a bishopric, for a long time declined to accept
it on account of the vestments ordered to be worn at consecration--an
attitude however for which he was condemned by all the cooler heads,
including some of the most advanced. Hooper ultimately gave way--a
narrow-minded but sincere man, who at the last won the crown of
martyrdom. An unsuccessful effort was made to obtain Gardiner's
release--the failure being the more pointed because Somerset interested
himself on the bishop's part. Gardiner, with thorough consistency, declared
himself ready to accept the Prayer-book since it did not preclude his view
of the Sacrament; but he would not profess opinions in contradiction of the
doctrines formally affirmed in the last reign. In the end, he was not only
kept in prison, but deprived of his see of Winchester.
[Sidenote 1: 1551 The Council and the Emperor]
[Sidenote 2: Charles's difficulties]
In the early months of 1551 the friction with the Emperor on the subject of
the Princess Mary's Mass was becoming alarming; Charles was refusing to let
the English Ambassador in his dominions use the English Communion Service;
and the Council went so far as to propose making the Princess personally
and alone exempt from Conformity: fortunately, however, for them, affairs
in Italy took a turn which gave fresh impulse to the anti-Imperialists in
France. The Protestant city of Magdeburg was still holding out against the
Imperial troops which were under the command of Maurice of Saxony, and the
French King was becoming inclined to give active support to the
resistance. The Pope had devoted himself to Charles's interests, and
assented to the return of the Council to Trent; and there were hints that
Henry might call a Gallican synod, instead of allowing the French
ecclesiastics to attend, unless the Lutherans were also represented. The
Emperor could no longer imagine himself to be completely master of the
situation. In April, the Council felt that he was so far hampered that they
could venture to assume a bold front. They informed him that the Act of
Uniformity was the Law; that it applied to all subjects, including the
Princess; and that they claimed the same freedom for their own ambassador
which they were willing to concede reciprocally to his. About the same time
the German Diet foiled a pet scheme of Charles, who wished his son Philip
(afterwards Philip II. of Spain) to be nominated as his successor to the
Imperial crown in place of his brother Ferdinand [Footnote: Charles had
ceded the Austrian dominions of the house of Habsburg to Ferdinand in
1522.] who was already King of the Romans. The Germans however preferred
the Austrian to the Spanish succession, and rejected the proposal. In June
he found that the English and French had come to terms, and had agreed to a
French marriage for Edward, on exceedingly easy conditions for France. He
still continued to threaten war unless England gave way on the disputed
points; but the Council answered only by temporising, and he was soon in no
position to threaten. The unrest of the German Protestants and later in the
year the assembling of the Council at Trent demanded all his attention. In
fact, though he did not suspect it, Maurice of Saxony was even now laying
his plans for snapping the bonds which the Emperor was seeking to rivet
upon his German subjects. The incompetent hand-to-mouth conduct of foreign
affairs in England did not bring disaster on the country, mainly because
Charles had not rightly taken the measure of his own strength and of the
forces in the Empire adverse to his policy.
[Sidenote: Groups among the Reformers]
The domestic history of England during 1551 is not marked by events of
magnitude, but the general trend of affairs is not without significance.
No serious attempt was made to deal with any of the existing causes of
disorder and uneasiness. Warwick, a man whose entire career presents no
evidence of his having possessed any religious convictions whatever, had
fixed upon the ultra-protestants as the party whose support would be most
valuable to him. Honest enough themselves, these men, typified by Bishop
Hooper, were ready to credit with a like honesty any one who talked their
particular jargon with sufficient fervour, and to stigmatise as Laodiceans
any one who did not go to every length along with them. Cranmer and more
positively his right-hand man Ridley--recently made bishop of London in
Bonner's room--were now leaning more towards them than when the Prayer-book
of 1549 was promulgated; and a considerable personal animus cannot but have
entered into their feeling towards Gardiner, whose present unimpeachable
attitude of legality was discounted by his participation in the intrigues
against Cranmer during the last reign.
[Sidenote: Attitude of Somerset]
It is less really surprising than it seems at first sight to find in
Somerset the one man who really interested himself on the side of
toleration towards individuals, in the cases both of Mary and of
Gardiner. As a matter of fact, although when Protector he had been
particularly zealous in the war against images, had carried desecration to
abnormal lengths in his private appropriation of spoils, and had grossly
transgressed his constitutional powers for the repression of the bishop of
Winchester as the ablest of the opponents of his policy: yet he was not
generally vindictive, was probably quite satisfied with the compromise of
the first prayer-book which did not actually contravene the _King's
Book_, and--except when he was commanding troops in Scotland--liked at
least the posture of magnanimity. Entirely devoid of statesmanlike
qualities, but afflicted with inordinate vanity, he had been an intolerably
incompetent ruler: yet his intentions were usually quite commendable; while
the government which succeeded the Protectorate had failed in every
particular to establish a claim to respect, nor could he be, like the
zealots, hoodwinked into a belief in its honesty. Apart therefore from
personal considerations he did not favour its extreme policy, and personal
considerations suggested that he might once more oust his rival from
power. Lacking the capacity to organise an opposition, he still lent
himself to intrigues. He was a possible danger to the Government for one
reason and only one--that popularity with the commonalty which had been
gained by his well-meant but ill-directed efforts to espouse their cause
against the oppression of the wealthier classes.
[Sidenote 1: Fresh attack on Somerset]
[Sidenote 2: 1552 Execution of Somerset]
Warwick therefore, endowed with plentiful cunning and no scruples, decided
to be rid of him once for all, and put in the mouth of an accomplice a
story, with enough truth in it to be plausible, which sufficed for his
purpose. In October Warwick, having procured his own elevation to the
Dukedom of Northumberland, that of Dorset to the Dukedom of Suffolk, and
that of Herbert to the Earldom of Pembroke, arrested Somerset at the
Council. The Duke was accused of compassing the deaths of several Lords of
the Council, and of preparations for an armed revolt and for appealing to
the populace. On the greater part of the specific charges, the evidence was
quite inadequate--but finding that Somerset might be held to have gone far
enough to incur the death-sentence for felony under the law passed by the
parliament of 1549-50, Northumberland (as Warwick must now be called) made
a show of magnanimously withdrawing the accusations so far as he was
personally affected. Somerset was duly condemned; but it was not till the
end of January (1552) that he was actually executed, in spite of the
somewhat pathetic demonstrations in his favour of the populace, who refused
to the last to believe that the sentence would really be carried out, and
lamented his doom with tears.
[Sidenote: Pacification of Passau]
While Somerset's trial was still going on, agents arrived in England from
the German Protestants, inviting assistance in the contemplated revolt
against Charles--a movement carried out with sudden and triumphant
effectiveness by Maurice of Saxony in the following spring. Had
Northumberland given his adhesion, the formation of a Lutheran alliance at
this juncture might have very materially altered the subsequent course of
events. The opportunity however was not taken. Indeed it is scarcely
surprising that the signs of the times should have been misread. Maurice
had helped Charles against the Schmalkaldic League before; yet everything
depended on his discarding the apparently erratic politics of his past
career, and displaying in full measure the organising and military genius
of which he had given promise, though it still remained to be conclusively
proved. He did in fact prove it a few months later, when he all but
succeeded in pouncing on the Emperor at Innsbruck. Charles was forced to a
hasty flight, and, finding a practically united Germany in arms against
him, was reduced to accept the pacification of Passau (July), conceding all
that the Lutherans demanded. Maurice's brilliant exploit not only
terminated Charles's resistance to the Reformation in Germany; it also
released England from all danger of his active hostility.
[Sidenote: England stands aside]
In view however of the uncertainty still, at the end of 1551, attendant on
the motives, the aims, and the capacity of Duke Maurice, the decision of
the professedly enthusiastic protestants in England to stand aside is
hardly a ground for reproach. Disaster had so often been escaped during
recent years, through some lucky turn of events abroad supervening on the
purely temporising policy of the Government, that they had good reason to
hesitate about committing themselves to any irrevocable course; while
personal intrigues and the strife of religious parties gave the individual
leaders sufficient occupation. Possibly also the influence of the Swiss
school, antagonistic as ever to the peculiar tenets of Lutheranism, was not
altogether in favour of a too intimate association with German
protestantism.
[Sidenote: The Reformation;]
We have remarked upon the increasing influence of this party in the Church;
an influence which, as far as concerns the formularies of the Anglican
body, was to reach its high-water mark in 1552 and 1553, in the revised
prayer-book authorised by Parliament immediately after Somerset's death,
and the "Forty-two Articles" promulgated about a year later.
[Sidenote: Its Limits under Henry and under Somerset]
In the reign of the late King, the Reformation which had taken place was
almost entirely political and financial--in the constitution of the
government of the ecclesiastical body, and the allocation of its
endowments. The Sovereign had claimed and enforced his own supremacy,
involving the repudiation of papal authority, the submission of the clergy
to the Supreme Head, and the appropriation by the Crown of Monastic
property. As a necessary corollary, the Crown had also taken upon itself to
sanction formularies of belief and to regulate rites and ceremonies; but in
doing so it had held by the accepted dogmas, suppressed little except
obvious and admitted abuses, and affirmed no heresies. The Archbishop had
been in favour of further innovations, but these had not been allowed. All,
however, that Cranmer had then advocated, was adopted by Somerset's
administration--the extended destruction of images, the liturgy in the
vulgar tongue, the marriage of the clergy, the Communion in both kinds; the
last being perhaps the most marked deviation from the established
order. But though the new liturgy might be reconciled with acceptance of
doctrines hitherto accounted heretical, it did not enjoin them; it was
still reconcilable also with the _King's Book_. It had aimed, in short
at the maximum of comprehension. The result was to include within the same
pale the adherents of a very slightly modified Mass and the extremists of
the Swiss school, for whom the Communion Service was purely and simply
commemorative.
[Sidenote: The extremists dissatisfied]
Until the death of Henry, the English clergy from the Archbishop down had
almost without exception held the hitherto authorised view of the
Eucharist. Since then however Cranmer had followed the lead of Ridley,
under the influence of the foreign theologians, and had adopted personally
a conception [Footnote: This conception is expressed in the phrase of the
Catechism that "the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken
and received by the faithful," coupled with the direct repudiation of
Transubstantiation, _i.q._ the doctrine that the substance of the
bread and wine is changed by the Act of Consecration.] which rejected
alike in set terms the Transubstantiation of the Roman Mass, the
Consubstantiation of the Lutherans, and, implicitly though not explicitly,
the purely commemorative theory of Hooper and the Zwinglians.
[Sidenote: 1552 The Liturgy revised]
Thus the extreme comprehensiveness of the first Prayer-book failed to
satisfy the school who could not away with the Mass, and those who regarded
the Swiss doctrine as heretical. Greater precision, closer definitions,
were called for--by way not of changing doctrines but of removing
uncertainties. To this end a revision of the volume had been taken in hand,
and now received the sanction of Parliament: a revision favouring in the
main the Swiss interpretations, the term "minister" taking the place of
"priest," "altar" giving way to "table," and the doctrine of
transubstantiation being clearly eliminated. At the same time the
instruction that the Sacrament was to be received kneeling conveyed a
presumption, though not the necessity, that the rite involved a Mystery,
that it implied an act of adoration. This was most unsatisfactory to the
ultra-protestants, recently re-inforced by the vigorous presence in the
North of England of John Knox the Scottish reformer; and before the volume
was issued from the press at the end of the year a determined attempt was
made to have the obnoxious instruction removed by order. The Archbishop
however with resolute dignity protested against the arbitrary subversion of
what Parliament had sanctioned. He carried his point, and the instruction
was retained, though an explanatory note (known as the Black
Rubric)[Footnote: _Cf_. Dixon, iii., 475 ff.] was appended, with which
Knox and his friends were forced, however reluctantly, to be satisfied.
[Sidenote: Nonconformity]
This episode, with that of the consecration of Hooper as bishop of
Gloucester, are illustrative of the original sense of the term
Nonconformity. Nonconformity, of which Hooper is often referred to as the
"father," did not seek separation from the ecclesiastical organisation, but
expressed dissatisfaction with particular observances, which it sought to
have modified in the Swiss sense: not as being in themselves intolerable,
but as tending to encourage superstitious and papistical ideas. So Hooper,
after an obstinate struggle, submitted to don the vestments ordered at his
consecration; so also Knox, when he was finally worsted in the "kneeling"
controversy, submitted to the order though with a very ill grace. The
Nonconformists in short may be defined as Puritans who still remained
within the pale of the Church. The idea of forming sects outside her
borders, of challenging the right to enforce uniformity where points in
dispute were not "essential" but "convenient," was still opposed to all
recognised principles; the Nonconformists themselves being by no means
disposed to surrender the position that if they became predominant they
would be entitled to enforce their own views no less rigidly. No one
thought of protesting against the burning of one Joan Bocher, in 1550, for
affirming a peculiarly unintelligible heresy concerning the mode of the
Incarnation.
[Sidenote: Parliament]
The session at the beginning of 1552 was the last held by this, the first,
Parliament of Edward VI. Besides authorising the revised Prayer-book, it
passed a second Act of Uniformity, of which the novel feature was that
penalties were imposed on laymen for non-compliance. In other respects, it
did not show itself altogether subservient to Northumberland. A new
Treasons Act further reviving some of Henry's provisions was introduced in
the Upper House, but rejected by the Commons; who did indeed restore
"verbal treason," but pointedly required that two witnesses at least should
prove the guilt of the accused to his face-with evident reference to the
recent trial of Somerset.
Cranmer had been occupied not only with the Prayer-book, but also with the
preparation of Articles of Belief, and of a scheme which, as drawn up, was
generally known as the _Reformatio Legum_, elaborating a plan of
ecclesiastical administration. The latter appears to have seen the light
either in 1551 or 1552, but it was never authorised. The Forty-two
articles, substantially the same as the Thirty-nine of the present
Prayer-book, certainly did not come before parliament and probably did not
come before Convocation, [Footnote: Dixon, iii., 513 ff. Gairdner,
_English Church_, 311.] but were sanctioned by almost the last act of
the King in Council in 1553.
[Sidenote: 1553 A new Parliament]
The national finances continued in an increasingly chaotic condition, and
Northumberland's struggles to raise money during 1552 were attended with
such inadequate results that he found it necessary to summon a new
Parliament in the spring of 1553. There were not wanting, from the last
reign, precedents for bringing royal pressure to bear on constituencies to
secure the selection of amenable representatives, and the principle was now
applied with a reckless comprehensiveness. Nevertheless the Houses when
assembled were by no means prepared to carry out a programme which would
satisfy Northumberland.
[Sidenote: Northumberland's programme]
In fact that man of many wiles lacked the art, necessary for one with his
ambitions, of securing a devoted personal following. For some time past the
probability of the young King's early decease had been recognised, and
Northumberland's intrigues had been directed to excluding Mary from the
succession, and securing a sovereign whom he would himself be able to
dominate. He had had his chance, when the Protector was overthrown in 1549,
of taking the line of policy which would bring him into accord with the
heir presumptive; he made his election, and thenceforward was committed to
the Reforming party and to political destruction if Mary should become
Queen. He devoted his attention then primarily to gaining a predominant
influence over the young King, with great success-the result, in no small
measure, of his posing as a puritan; for the boy had all the uncompromising
partisanship natural to the morbid precocity which his ill-health and Tudor
cleverness combined to develop. If Edward had lived, no doubt the Tudor
penetration would have unmasked Northumberland in due course; but this the
Duke would hardly have anticipated in any case, and, as it was, he laid his
plans on the hypothesis that Edward would die without leaving an heir of
his body. Now the succession was fixed by Henry's Will, ratified by Act of
Parliament, first on Mary and then on Elizabeth, though both had been
declared illegitimate. If they could be set aside, the first claim by
descent would lie with Mary Stewart, grandchild of Henry's sister Margaret;
but the country would not take her at any price. The next claimant,
confirmed also by Henry's Will, would be Lady Jane Grey, passing over her
mother Frances Brandon, daughter of Henry's second sister Mary. Frances
Brandon had married Lord Dorset, created Duke of Suffolk at the same time
that Dudley became Duke of Northumberland.
[Sidenote: Plot to change the succession]
The Duke's scheme then was to supplant the Tudor princesses, on the score
of their illegitimacy once officially affirmed, by Lady Jane Grey; having
first secured a dominating influence over his unhappy puppet by marrying
her to one of his sons, Guildford Dudley. It might plausibly be argued
that, since the courts had definitely declared that neither Mary nor
Elizabeth was born in lawful wedlock, no subsequent legitimation could give
them precedence over an indubitably legitimate descendant of Henry VII. and
Elizabeth of York: while political expediency excluded the sole claimant
with a prior hereditary right.
There remained, however, the inconvenient fact that the whole country from
the Council down had deliberately and unhesitatingly pledged itself to
maintain the order of succession laid down in Henry's Will. Something more
than an abstract argument from legitimacy was needed to cancel a decision
arrived at and established after mature deliberation. Had Mary made
herself feared or detested--had Lady Jane been a popular favourite with an
organised following--there might have been some chance for a _coup
d'état_. But the treatment of Mary coupled with her dignified and
courageous conduct had made her the object of popular sympathy; the only
people who feared her were those who had been prominent in attacking the
Old Learning, and their following in the country was by no means
proportionate to their political and theological activity. Their
support--all that Northumberland could hope for--would be quite
insufficient for carrying his plan through; while the Duke himself, very
unlike his late rival Somerset, was an object of such general aversion that
any scheme calculated to maintain him in power would have excited keen
popular antagonism.
[Sidenote 1: Northumberland gains over Edward and the Council]
[Sidenote 2: Death of Edward]
The marriage of Lady Jane was accomplished early in May (1553); Pembroke,
as well as Suffolk, was apparently secured by the marriage [Footnote: After
Northumberland's fiasco, this marriage was judiciously voided.] of his son
to a sister, Katharine Grey. Besides these Northumberland could count on
Northampton. Further, he could be sure that France would go as far as
diplomacy permitted to prevent the accession of Mary, on account of her
relationship with the Emperor, to whom she had all her life looked for
counsel. As Edward's death drew nearer, the Duke prepared his final
_coup_. If Henry by Will could lay down the course of succession, his
son was equally free to change it. It was not difficult to persuade the
dying boy of the woes that would follow when a reactionary monarch was on
the throne--though there had hitherto been no sign that the reaction would
go beyond a reversion to the position of Henry's last years. Under
Northumberland's influence, he devised the crown to the issue of the
Duchess of Suffolk who was herself passed over in favour of her eldest
daughter. In June this "device" was submitted to the Council, with whom
however it found little favour. But in view of the personal danger in which
they stood, they gave assent subject to the approval of Parliament, arguing
that it was unprecedented for a King, to say nothing of one who was still a
minor, to set aside an Act of Parliament by his own authority. The Judges,
summoned to the Royal presence, unanimously declared that it would be
unconstitutional--in effect treason--if they drew up letters patent in the
sense desired without authority of parliament; and the more they examined
the law, the more convinced they were of their position. But the King was
insistent; and at last one by one, they reluctantly gave way, on condition
of receiving positive instructions under the Great Seal and an anticipatory
pardon in case their obedience should prove--as they believed it--to be a
crime. The Letters were drawn, and at last signed by a number of peers and
representative men, Cranmer finally yielding his adhesion after prolonged
resistance, on the strength of the assertion that the judges had given
their sanction. He was not informed how that sanction had been
obtained. Cecil, the Burghley of a later reign, would only sign "as a
witness". The signatures were appended on June 21st. The affair was still
kept secret--though the existence of some conspiracy to supplant Mary was
becoming generally suspected. The interval was spent in making preparations
to support the _coup d'état_ in arms. On July 4th the rumour that the
King was already dead was only partially dispelled by letting his face be
seen at a window. On the 6th he actually died. On the 8th the fact began to
leak out, and on the 10th Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen in London.
[Sidenote: A memorable voyage]
One incident of note occurred during King Edward's last months--the
departure of Chancellor and Willoughby's expedition in search of a
North-East passage, an entirely novel direction. Chancellor reached the
White Sea, and from thence was conveyed to Moscow, with the result that
relations were opened between England and Russia. In other respects there
was some private activity in the voyages of this and the ensuing reign, but
nothing else demanding special attention.