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1540.

CHA P. had also obtained the order of the garter, a dignity which XXXII. had ever been conferred only on men of illustrious families, and which feemed to be profaned by its being communicated to fo mean a perfon. The people were averse to him, as the fuppofed author of the violences on the monafteries; establishments, which were ftill revered and beloved by the commonalty. The catholics regarded him as the concealed enemy of their religion: The protestants, obferving his exterior concurrence with all the perfecutions exercised against them, were inclined to bear him as little favour; and reproached him with the timidity, if not treachery, of his condu&t. And the king, who found, that great clamours had on all hands arisen against the administration, was not displeased to throw on Cromwel the load of public hatred; and he hoped, by making fo eafy a facrifice, to regain the affections of his fubje&s.

BUT there was another cause, which fuddenly set all thefe motives in action, and brought about an unexpeced revolution in the ministry. The king had fixed his affection on Catherine Howard, niece to the duke of Norfolk; and being determined to gratify this new pasfion, he could find no other expedient, but by procuring a divorce from his prefent confort, to raise Catherine to his bed and throne. The duke, who had long been engaged in enmity with Cromwel, made the fame use of her infinuations to ruin this minister, that he had formerly done of Anne Boleyn's against Wolfey: And when all engines were prepared, he obtained a commiffion from the king, to arrest Cromwel at the council-board on an accufation of high treason, and to commit him to the tower. Immediately after, a bill of attainder was framed against him; and the houfe of peers thought proper, without trial, examination, or evidence, to condemn to death a man, whom, a few days before, they had declared worthy to be vicar general of the universe. houfe of commons paffed the bill, though not without fome oppofition. Cromwel was accused of herefy and treafon; but the inftances of his treasonable practices are utterly improbable, or even abfolutely ridiculous ^. The only circumftances of his condu&t, by which he feems to have merited this fate, was his being the inftrument of the king's tyranny, in conducting like iniquitous

A Burnet, vol. i. p. 278.

The

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quitous bills, in the former feffion, against the countess CHA P. of Salisbury and others.

CROMWEL endeavoured to foften the king by the most humble fupplications; but all to no purpose: It was not the practice of that prince to ruin his minifters and favourites by halves; and though the unhappy, prisoner wrote once in fo moving a strain as even to draw tears from his eyes, he hardened himself against all movements of pity, and refufed his pardon. The conclufion of Cromwel's letter ran in these words. “I, a most woful death when it fhall

XXXII.

1540.

prifoner, am ready to fubmit to "please God and your majesty; and yet the frail flesh ❝incites me to call to your grace for mercy and pardon "of mine offences. Written at the tower with the "heavy heart and trembling hand of your highness's "most miserable prifoner and poor flave, Thomas "Cromwel." And a little below, "Moft gracious "prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy B." When 28th July. brought to the place of execution, he avoided all earnest His execuproteftations of his innocence, and all complaints against tion. the fentence pronounced upon him. He knew, that Henry would refent on his fon thefe fymptoms of oppofition to his will, and that his death alone would not terminate that monarch's vengeance. He was a man of prudence, induftry, and ability; worthy of a better mafter and of a better fate. Though raised to the fummit of power from a very low origin, he betrayed no infolence or contempt of his inferiors; and was careful to remember all the obligations, which, during his more humble fortune, he had owed to any one. He had ferved as a private sentinel in the Italian wars; where he received fome good offices from a Lucquefe merchant, who had entirely forgot his perfon, as well as the service, which he had rendered him. Cromwel, in his grandeur, happened, at London, to caft his eye on his benefactor, now reduced to poverty, by misfortunes. He immediately fent for him, put him in mind of their antient friendship, and by his grateful affistance, reinstated him in his former profperous circumstances.

THE measures for divorcing the king from Anne of King's diCleves, were carried on at the fame time with the bill vorce from of attainder against Cromwel. The houfe of peers, in Anne of

Burnet, vol. i. p. 281, 282.

conjunction

c Ibid. vol. i. p. 172.

Cleves.

CHA P. conjunction with the commons, applied to him by petiXXXII. tion, defiring that he would allow his marriage to be ex

amined; and orders were immediately given to lay the 1540. matter before the convocation. Anne had been formerly contracted by her father to the duke of Lorrain; but the, as well as the duke, were at that time under age, and the contract had been afterwards annulled by the confent of both parties. The king, however, pleaded this contract as a ground of divorce; and he added two reafons more, which may feem a little extraordinary; that, when he efpoufed Anne, he had not inwardly given his confent, and that he had not thought proper to confummate the marriage. The convocation was fatisfied with these reafons, and folemnly annulled the marriage between the king and queen: The parliament ratified the decifion of the clergy; and the fentence was foon after notified to that princess.

ANNE was bleft with a happy infenfibility of temper, even in the points which the moft nearly affect her fex; and the king's averfion towards her, as well as his profecution of the divorce, had never given her the least uneafinefs. She willingly hearkened to terms of compofition with him; and when he offered to adopt her as his fifter, to give her place next the queen and his own daughter, and to make a fettlement of three thousand pounds a year upon her; the accepted of the conditions, and gave her confent to the divorce 2. She even wrote to her brother, (for her father was dead) that he had been very well ufed in England, and defired him to live on good terms with the king. The only inftance of pride which the betrayed was, that the refufed to return into

her

To fhew how much Henry fported with common sense; how fervilely the parliament followed all his caprices; and how much both of them were loft to all fentiment of fhame; an act was paffed this fellion, declaring, that a precontract fhould be no ground of annulling a marriage; as if that pretext had not been made use of both in the cafe of Anne Boleyn and Anre of Cleves. But the king's intention in this law is faid to be a defign of restoring the princefs Elizabeth to her right of legitimacy; and it was his character never to look farther than the prefent object, without regarding the inconfiftency of his conduct. The parliament made it high treafon to deny the diffolution of Henry's marriage with Anne of Cleves. Herbert.

Z Herbert, P. 458, 459.

her own country after the affront which she had received; CHA P. and fhe lived and died in England. XXXII.

NOTWITHSTANDING Anne's moderation, this incident produced a great coldness between the king and 1540. the German princes; but as the fituation of Europe was, now much altered, Henry was the more indifferent about their resentment. The clofe intimacy, which had taken place between Francis and Charles, had subfifted during a very fhort time: The diffimilarity of their characters foon renewed, with greater violence than ever, their former jealousy and hatred. While Charles remained at Paris, Francis had been imprudently engaged, by his open temper, and by that fatisfaction, which a noble mind naturally feels in performing generous actions, to make fome very dangerous confidences to that interested monarch; and now having loft all fufpicion of his rival, he hoped the emperor and he, fupporting each other, might neglect every other alliance. He not only communicated to his gueft the ftate of his negociations with fultan Solyman and the Venetians: He also laid open the folicitations, which he had received from the court of England, to enter into a confederacy against him M Charles had no fooner reached his own dominions, than he fhewed himself unworthy of the friendly reception which he had met with. He flatly refufed to execute his promife, and put the duke of Orleans in poffeffion of the Milanefe: He informed Solyman and the fenate of Venice of the treatment, which they had received from their ally: And he took care that Henry fhould not be ignorant how willingly Francis had abandoned his antient friend, to whom he owed fuch important obligations, and had facrificed him to a new confederate: He even poifoned and mifreprefented many things, which the unfufpecting heart of the French monarch had difclofed to him. Had Henry poffeffed true judgment and generofity, this incident alone had been fufficient to guide him in the choice of his ally. But his domineering pride carried him immediately to renounce the friendship of Francis, who had fo unexpectedly given the preference to the emperor: And as Charles invited him to a renewal of antient amity, he willingly accepted the offer; and thinking himself fecure in this alliance, he neglected

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M Pere Daniel, Du Tillet.

CHA P. neglected the friendship both of France and of the Ger XXXII. man princes.

THE new turn, which Henry had taken with regard 1540. to foreign affairs, was extremely agreeable to his catholic fubjects; and as it had perhaps contributed, among other reafons, to the ruin of Cromwel, it made them entertain hopes of a final prevalence over their antagonists. 8th Aug. The marriage of the king with Catherine Howard, which His mar- followed foon after his divorce from Anne of Cleves, was riage with alfo regarded as a very favourable incident to their cause; Catherine and the fubfequent events correfponded perfectly to their Howard. expectations. The king's councils being now directed

by Norlk and Gardiner, a furious perfecution commenced against the proteftants; and the law of the fix articles was executed with rigour. Dr. Barnes, who had been the cause of Lambert's execution, felt, in his turn, the feverity of the perfecuting fpirit; and, by a bill, which paffed in parliament, without trial, he was condemned to the flames, together with Jerome and Gerrard. He difcuffed theological queftions even at the ftake; and as the difpute between him and the sheriff, turned upon the invocation of faints, he said, that he doubted whether the faints could pray for us; but if they could, he hoped in half an hour, to be praying for the fheriff and all the fpectators. He next entreated the fheriff to carry to the king his dying requests, which he fondly imagined would have authority with that monarch, who had fent him to the stake. The purport of his requests was, that Henry, befides repreffing fuperftitious ceremonies, fhould be extremely vigilant in preventing fornication and common fwearing H.

WHILE Henry was exerting this violence against the proteftants, he fpared not the catholics who denied his fupremacy; and a foreigner, at that time in England, had reafon to fay, that thofe who were against the pope were burned, and thofe who were for him were hanged. The king even difplayed, in an oftentatious manner, this tyrannical equity and impartiality, which reduced both parties to fubjection, and infufed terror into every breast. Barnes, Gerrard, and Jerome had been carried to the place of execution on three hurdles; and along with them there was placed on each hurdle a catholic,

Burnet, vol. i. p. 298. Fox. 1 Fox, vol. ii. p. 539.

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