CHAPTER IV. THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 1547-1558. SECTION I. THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI. 1547-1553. EDWARD VI. Reigned six years and five months, from January 28th, 1547, to July 6th, 1553. Born at Hampton Court, October 12th, 1537. Died in Greenwich Palace, July 6th, 1553. I. THE PROTECTORSHIP OF SOMERSET. The 1547-1549. 1. First proceedings of the Council of Executors. The executors whom Henry appointed to hold the office of governors of his son and of the kingdom consisted almost entirely of "the new nobility," who owed their fortunes and rank to the share they had each obtained in the spoils of the church. The chief of them were Cranmer; Lord Wriothesley, lord chancellor; Lord St. Executors. John, great master; the Earl of Hertford, the King's uncle, great chamberlain; Lord Russell, privy seal; Viscount Lisle, high admiral; Tunstal, bishop of Durham; Montague, chief justice of the Common Pleas; Mr. Justice Bromley; North, chancellor of the Court of Augmentations; Sir William Paget, chief secretary; Sir Edward Wotton, treasurer of Calais; and Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury and York. To them were added twelve councillors, the chief of whom were the Earls of Arundel and Essex; Sir Thomas Cheyney, treasurer, and Sir John Gage, comptroller of the household; Sir Anthony Wingfield, vice-chamberlain; Sir Ralph Sadler; Sir Thomas Seymour, brother to the protector; and Sir Richard Rich. These had no authority, but were privileged to tender their advice when occasion required. The first act of the new council was the elevation of many of the executors to higher rank. The Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset, and was enriched with incomes and lands taken from the church; the Earl of Essex, Catherine Parr's brother, was made Marquis of Northampton; Viscount Lisle was made Earl of Warwick;* and Wriothesley became Earl of Southampton. The executors next proceeded to appoint Somerset protector of the King and realm; but they afterwards illegally enlarged Protector. his authority, by giving him full power to act as he thought Somerset made John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, was the son of Edward Dudley, who had been one of the instruments of Henry VII.'s oppressions. 1547 proper, without the advice or intervention of the council. Wriothesley boldly resisted these proceedings, and was compelled to resign his chancellorship to Lord St. John. His own misconduct, however, led to his fall. He preferred his political power to his judicial duties; and, without the knowledge of his colleagues, he authorized four persons to hear and determine all causes in his court during his absence, an act which was declared by the judges to be a high misdemeanour. The council, thus no longer restrained by his presence, proceeded to the work of Reformation. Death of 2. The Protector's invasion of Scotland. While the council was thus engaged, Somerset invaded Scotland, to enforce the late King's projected marriage of his son with the young Queen of Scots. The murderers of Cardinal Beaton were now being besieged by the Earl of Arran, the leader of the Roman Catholic party, in the castle of St. Andrews; but, aided by English ships, they compelled Arran to raise the siege, and then concluded a treaty of alliance with Somerset (March 15th, 1547). Before the treaty could be carried into effect, the relations of the two countries were materially affected by the death of Francis I. That King's successor, Henry II., was not inclined to continue the alliance with England, and at the instigation of the Duke Francis I. of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, the brothers of the Queen Dowager of Scotland, he sent a strong force to assist the regent in reducing St. Andrews. The castle was taken, and the garrison sent prisoners to France. Amongst them was John Knox (July, 1547), who, as he hung over his oar, in the French galley, forlorn and helpless, watching the white steeple of St. Andrew's sink in the sea, prophesied that he should again preach to the glory of God in that place.* He kept his word, amidst the army of the Congregation lords in the perilous days of Queen Mary. In the meantime, Somerset had assembled 20,000 men, and a fleet of 24 galleys, with which he determined to lay siege to Edinburgh. Arran, with 30,000 men, met him on Pinkie Brae, near Musselburgh (September 10th), and was Pinkie. totally defeated. The battle had no decisive effect, for the young Queen of Scots was soon after sent to France, and married to the Dauphin. Battle of 3. Political intrigues of Lord Seymour. The protector's younger brother, Sir Thomas Seymour, was apparently a dangerous and unprincipled man,† whose ambition it was natural that Somerset should dread, conscious as he was of his own * Froude VII., 115. + Hallam's Const. Hist., I., 38, His character: CHAP. IV.. usurped authority. A broad distinction had been drawn between the brothers by the late King: while one was raised to rank and office, the other was left without a title, and only admitted to the council. The protector endeavoured to rectify this inequality of fortune by granting his brother a peerage, with the title of Baron Seymour, of Sudley, the office of lord high admiral, and extensive estates in various counties. But these did not satisfy the ambition of Seymour, whose abilities were far superior to his brother's, whose boldness and determination contrasted strongly with the other's timidity and want of self-dependence, and whose popularity with the nobility was as great as the other's was with the people.* Marries Intrigues Seymour first endeavoured to improve his fortune by marrying Catherine Parr, the Queen Dowager. The jealousy of rank which thus sprang up between the wives of the two brothers Catherine considerably embittered the ill feeling between them; Parr. Anne Stanhope, the protector's second wife, could not brook the superiority allowed by all to the Queen Dowager, over whom she claimed precedence, as the wife of the first subject in the realm. The next object of the admiral was to win and monopolise the affections of the King. For this purpose he indulged the young Edward in all his wishes, secretly supplied him with money, blamed the severity with which he was used by the protector, and purchased the goodwill of his preceptors and attendants. He contended that the offices of protector and guardian ought not to be joined in the same person; King. and he endeavoured to persuade Edward to write a letter of complaint, which should be laid before parliament, in support of a bill which was to be introduced for the purpose of separating the two offices. But the bill was not so much as debated, and the matter fell to nothing. Seymour then entertained a wild scheme for carrying off the King, and thus seizing the guardianship by force. This plot was betrayed to the protector, who summoned his brother to appear before the council to explain his conduct. The admiral boldly defied the summons, and yet in the face of so open an insult, the protector, thinking to quiet his brother with fresh liberality, gave him a further grant of lands, to the yearly value of eight hundred pounds. Such foolish and unjust kindness only encouraged the admiral to persevere in his misconduct. with the • Seymour was one of those hard landlords and oppressors of the poor, whom Latimer often denounced in his sermons, and who was guilty, he said, of so much wretchedness, that he ever wondered what would be the end of him. (See previous chapter, par. 23.) 1549 The English Channel was at that time infested with pirates, who, when pressed too closely by the King's ships, sought shelter among the dangerous shoals of the Scilly Islands, or the distant creeks and coves on the south coast of Ireland. It was Seymour's duty, as admiral, to suppress them; but instead of doing this, he purchased the islands, and secretly granted the marauders his protection. He released those whom the royal cruisers brought in, and distributed their plunder among his followers. The violence of his designs was soon manifested in other directions. He established foundries, where he kept men constantly employed casting cannon and shot, and he made the plainest overtures to the nobility to join him in his daring projects. No sooner was his wife dead than he immediately proposed for the hand of the Princess Elizabeth, and when remonstrated with, he gave vent to his rage in the most violent and dangerous language, which being reported to the protector, he was again required to appear before the council, and at once arrested and committed to the Tower. His chief accomplices were taken with him. One of these was Sir William Sharington, master of the mint at Bristol, who confessed that he had coined and issued base money to the amount of £100,000, for Seymour's benefit. Information of all his other acts of misconduct was given at the same time, and he was attainted of high treason. The bill was passed in the House of Lords without one dissenting voice, Somerset being present during the readings. But the Commons, among whom Seymour had a strong party, petitioned that they might hear the witnesses and the accused; their prayer was rejected, and the bill of attainder was carried in their house with a few negative voices. Somerset himself signed the death warrant, and on the 27th of March, the admiral was beheaded on Tower Hill, without having been once heard in his own defence.* country Somerset.] 4. The Rising of the West. In the following summer a series of popular tumults broke out, such as had not been known in England since the rebellion of Jack Cade. Some of the Condition causes of the general discontent have been already spe- of the cified in the previous chapter, and it may be here under repeated that the condition of the country under the protectorship of Somerset was far from being satisfactory. The revenues of the crown were wasted in extravagance and plunder; the public officials were mostly dishonest; and the currency was regularly debased to compensate for pecuniary deficiencies. Heavy * Hallam's Coust. Hist., I.. 38-39; Mackintosh, II., 144-145; Froude, V., 128-140. † Paragraphs 21, 22, 23, 24. CHAP. IV. loans were also contracted, and the interest paid by the spoil of churches and abbeys. The Imperial agents abroad were active in their attempts to plunge England into a war with France, and Cardinal Pole was equally zealous in spreading rumours of the Emperor's preparations for invading the country and deposing the King. It would have been the part of a wise ruler not to have added to these embarrassments, the irritation which must necessarily be caused by forcing upon the people, alterations in religious ceremony for which they were not prepared, indeed to Somerset was imperious and -obstinate. The use of the New Liturgy which the majority of them were directly opposed. But Somerset was not such a ruler; he was impatient and haughty, and his imperiousness and obstinacy increased with the obstacles which beset him. The state of a realm and the current of public opinion cannot be altered by royal commands, yet Somerset met all difficulties by proclamations, new laws, or new commissions; heresy should be put down by one, inclosures done away with by another, and the people should be made to sympathise with the religious changes by a third. They had acquiesced in the separation from Rome; they would therefore approve of innovations upon their creed. Thus persuaded, the Protector issued an order that the New Prayer Book should come into use on Whit Sunday (9th June, 1549). This order was obeyed by the priest of Sampford Courtenay, in Devonshire, as it was by his brethren in other parts of the country. caused the But his parishioners would have none of the new fashions, rising. and the next day they compelled him to array himself in his old popish attire, and say mass, as in times past. This was the signal for a general insurrection, and a new Pilgrimage of Grace was set on foot throughout the whole of the west country. At first the gentry could only oppose the insurgents by their own tenantry, the rebels therefore gained some advantages, and in less than a month they laid siege to Exeter with 10,000 men, under the command of Arundel, the governor of St. Michael's Mount. They drew up a petition of fifteen articles, in which they demanded the restoration of the mass, and of all the Roman Catholic ceremonies; that the Statute of the Six Articles should be insurgents. re-enforced; that Cardinal Pole should be allowed to return to England; and that the abbey lands should be partially appropriated to religious uses. Demands of the Although reports were brought in daily that disaffection was spreading, and that the whole of the south of England would be astir if the insurrection was not met with energy, the protector |