ill, brought about a marriage between his fourth son Lord Guildford Dudley, and the Lady Jane Grey, eldest daughter to the Duke of Suffolk, and persuaded Edward to settle the crown on her; his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, having both been declared illegitimate during the life of their father; and the young king, hoping to save the Reformation from impending destruction, appointed the Lady Jane Grey as his successor.

Immediately after this act, the king became rapidly worse. His physicians were dismissed by order of Northumberland, and he was put under the care of an ignorant old woman, who had undertaken to restore him to health. The use of her medicines appeared to increase the violence of the disease; and the youthful monarch expired on the 6th of July, 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age, and the seventh of his reign. He was well skilled in the Latin and French tongues, and had obtained some knowledge of the Greek, Italian, and Spanish. His person was handsome, and he was remarkable for his piety and humanity.

XXII.

CHARACTER OF QUEEN MARY.

MARY was the first princess that ever swayed the sceptre of England. The Empress, Matilda, was crowned during the reign of Stephen, but she was obliged to retire without performing any act of sovereignty.

The chief characteristic of Queen Mary was bigotry,

added to this she was proud, imperious, and avaricious; and possessed of few agreeable qualifications. She was far from being happy, particularly in her marriage; for her husband, being much younger than herself, treated her with cold neglect and haughty reserve; and after a very short stay in England, left it, and never returned.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

LADY JANE GREY.-Immediately after the death of King Edward, the Duke of Northumberland had his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, proclaimed Queen. This lady, a young woman of singular virtue and talents, had taken no part whatever in the transactions by which she was brought to the throne; indeed, she was totally ignorant of them. She received the news of her elevation with equal surprise and grief; but was obliged to yield to circumstances, and suffered herself to be conveyed to the Tower, where it was then usual for the sovereigns of England to reside some days after their accession. Learning, however, that the Princess Mary, determined to support her claim, was at the head of forty thousand men, she resigned the crown, and immediately retired to her own habitation. Her fatherin-law endeavoured to quit the kingdom, but was arrested.

MARY now took undisputed possession of the throne. Northumberland, with several of his adherents, was condemned and executed. Sentence of death was also pronounced against Lady Jane Grey, and her husband Lord Dudley, a young man whose character resembled This young couple, neither of whom had reached the age of eighteen, after a year's imprisonment

her own.

in the Tower, were both beheaded by Mary's order. Their sad fate excited universal pity and indignation.

Soon after Mary's accession to the throne, she married Philip, afterwards King of Spain, son of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who was then living; and, in violation of the most sacred promises, immediately commenced a most dreadful persecution of the Protestants, which was carried on by Bonner, Bishop of London, and Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. Great numbers of persons suffered martyrdom at the stake, among whom were Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, and Ferrar; and all the prisons in the kingdom were crowded with pious sufferers, who chose to submit to persecution, and even death, in the most horrible form, rather than violate their consciences. Even the Princess Elizabeth was closely watched, and obliged to conceal her religious sentiments.

These inhuman persecutions, which began with persons of station and influence, soon extended to all classes and degrees. Even women and children were among the victims. During four years, in which these proceedings lasted, near three hundred persons were put to death at the stake; among whom were one archbishop, four bishops, twenty-one clergymen, eight gentlemen, eighty-four tradesmen and artificers, a hundred husbandmen, servants, and labourers, fifty-five women, and four children.

The last remarkable event in Mary's reign, was her engaging the nation in a war, which her husband was carrying on against France. Its result was the loss of Calais, which had been in the possession of England above two hundred years. This circumstance occasioned a clamorous discontent among the people, and

so afflicted the queen, that she was heard to say, that when dead, the name of Calais would be found engraven on her heart. She did not long survive it, but died on the 17th of November, 1558, in the forty-third year of her age, after a cruel reign of five years and four months. She was buried in Henry the Seventh's chapel, Westminster Abbey.

XXIII.

CHARACTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

ELIZABETH is represented by the Papists as a monster of cruelty, which is not to be wondered at, considering her severity to them. It is, indeed, difficult to excuse her beheading Mary Queen of Scots, and the rigour with which she sometimes punished both Papists and Protestant dissenters; but she certainly understood the art of governing in an eminent degree, and, by her wise administration, raised England to a high pitch of prosperity and power. Her Court was the school of able ministers, great statesmen, and distinguished warriors. She understood the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Dutch languages, and makes a considerable figure among the learned ladies of her time. Her conversation was sprightly and agreeable, her judgment solid, and her application indefatigable. But though she possessed all the highest qualities of a monarch, she had a large share of the weaknesses of a woman; being excessively vain of her person, very open to flattery, and remarkably

susceptible of tender feelings; and her glorious reign, on which Providence for a long time poured innumerable blessings, ended at length in a most dismal manner, occasioned, it was generally believed, by the death of her favourite minister, the Earl of Essex.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

RE-ESTABLISHMENT

OF THE PROTESTANT FAITH. Elizabeth, immediately after her accession, proceeded to re-establish the Protestant religion. She began by recalling all who were banished, and setting free all who were in prison for their religious opinions; and her first parliament passed a series of acts which settled the Religion of the State in the manner in which we have ever since enjoyed it. She also assisted the Protestants in Scotland, France, and the Netherlands, against their respective sovereigns, by whom they were cruelly oppressed and persecuted.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.-The events of Mary's unhappy life belong to the history of Scotland. When she had been deprived of the crown, and forced to take refuge in England, Elizabeth, prompted by personal dislike, as well as apprehension of the claims of a rival to the English throne, treated her with a persevering cruelty, which has fixed a deep stain on the memory of the English queen. Though Mary had entered the kingdom as a suppliant for protection, she kept her for eighteen years in confinement, on the pretext that she had been guilty of crimes in her own country; and at last, procured her condemnation on the charge that she was concerned in a conspiracy against Elizabeth's life. A conspiracy of this nature had been attempted, in which