THE COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. BOOK VI.-CONTINUED. CHAPTER IX.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1547-1549. EDWARD VI.-ACCESSION, A.D. 1547-DEATH, A.D. 1553. Edward VI. succeeds to the crown-Character of the late king-Education of Edward VI.-His early proficiency -His governors during his minority-The Earl of Hertford's intrigues for power-He is appointed protector -His difficulty in fulfilling the late king's engagements-Pensions and promotion of several courtiers-The protector becomes Duke of Somerset-Burial of the old king and coronation of the new-The protector's endeavours to increase his power-He displaces the Chancellor Southampton-He takes into his own hands the executive government-Preparations for a war with Scotland-Troubled state of Scotland at this period -The protector invades Scotland-His progress on the Borders-His encampment at Prestonpans-The position of the Scottish army-Battle of Pinkie-Defeat of the Scots-The protector, after his victory, returns to England-Causes of his hasty return-Difficulties of the Reformation in England-The kingdom divided into six circuits-Visitation over these circuits to establish the Reformation-Opposition of the bishops Bonner and Gardiner-Reforms in church and state enacted by parliament-Laws against mendicity-Cranmer's ecclesiastical alterations-They are opposed by Bishop Gardiner-Gardiner sent to the Tower-Affairs of Scotland-Scotland invaded-The Scots assisted by troops from France-Mary of Scotland sent to France and affianced to the dauphin-Skirmishes in Scotland-Unfavourable close of this invasion-Troubles of the protector from his brother, Sir Thomas Seymour-Sir Thomas appointed high-admiral-Characters of the two brothers-Ambitious proceedings of the admiral-He marries Catherine Parr, the queen-dowager-Endeavours to supplant the protector-Intrigues for the office of governor to the king-Charges brought against him on his trial-He submits, and is reconciled to his brother-He continues his ambitious practices-He is accused of attempting to marry the Princess Elizabeth-He is sent to the Tower-His trial and execution. LTHOUGH King Henry had breathed his last at an early hour on the morning of Friday, the 28th of January, it is remarkable that the parliament, which, as the law then stood, was dissolved by his death, met, pursuant to adjournment, on Saturday the 29th, and proceeded to business as usual. In fact, the demise of the crown was kept concealed till Monday the 31st, when it was announced to the two houses, assembled together, by the Chancellor Wriothesley. The news, according to the Lords' Journals, was unspeakably sad and sorrowful to all the hearers, the chancellor himself being almost disabled by his tears from uttering the words." They soon, however, "composed their lamentations and consoled their griefs" by calling to mind the promise of excellence already held ont by the youthful successor to the throne. The Vol. II. same rapid transition "from grave to gay," the ordinary formality on such occasions, was observed in like manner at the first meeting of the privy council with the new king. It is hard to believe that, either in high places or in low, any other feeling than a sense of relief and of freer breathing could have been produced by the dissolution of so terrible a tyranny as that of Henry VIII. had latterly become. It has been the fashion with our historians to hold forth this king, the storm of whose selfish passions fortunately chanced to throw down or to shake some old and strong abuses that might not otherwise have been so readily got rid of, as the object of the love and pride of his subjects, as well as of the respect of foreign nations, to the last. His position and the circumstances of the time must have always given him an importance abroad, and made his movements be watched with considerable anxiety, which would not be dimin 107 other accomplishments. In all these studies he had made an uncommon progress for his years, and had been distinguished for a docility and diligence that would have been remarkable even in one who was not a prince and heir to a throne. "He was so forward in his learning," says Burnet, "that, before he was eight years old, he wrote Latin letters to his father, who was a prince of that stern severity that one can hardly think that those about his son durst cheat him by making letters for him."" All Prince Edward's tutors were favourers of the Reformed opinions in religion, to which also his mother had been attached; and they had been perfectly successful in instilling ished by his extreme wilfulness, and the sudden- | according to Strype, was Sir Anthony Cook, ness of those gusts of temper and inclination "famous for his five learned daughters." He that chiefly determined his course, although the | had also masters for the French language and very same causes impaired his real power of being either serviceable or formidable to his neighbours. But, at home, no higher sentiment than one of self-interest can well be supposed to have attached anybody to so sanguinary and heartless a despot; and it is evident that an oppressive fear and bewilderment was the state into which his ferocious rule had thrown the generality of men in all classes. We see this alike in the prostrate servility of the parliament, and in the silent, despairing submission, after the failure of one or two convulsive local revolts, of the great body of the people. His son Edward, indeed, has set it down in his Journal,' that when "the death of his father was showed in London," the same day on which the announcement was made to parliament, there" was great lamentation and weeping;" and he had no doubt been informed that such was the case, or, possibly, with a simplicity natural to his age and station, he took it for granted that it could not have been otherwise. But it I would have been interesting to be told by which of the two great parties that divided the population Henry was thus regretted by the adherents of the Roman EDWARD VI.-After Holbein. their own views into the mind of their pupil, who, even in his early boyhood, was already a very zealous if not a learned theologian. Edward, when his father died, was residing at Hertford,' whither his uncle, the Earl of Hertford, and Sir Thomas Brown, master of the horse, immediately proceeded, and, having brought him to Enfield, there announced the event to him and his sister Elizabeth." The grief of the new king did not last long, any more than that of his sub church, or by the friends of the new opinions. | jects. He entered London on the afternoon of The former could hardly have remembered him with any feelings that would find their vent in tears; to the latter the accession of the new king was the dawning of a fresh day from which they had everything to hope. Monday, the 31st, on the morning of which the news of Henry's decease had been made public and his own accession proclaimed, and, amid a great concourse of the nobility and others, took his way straight to the Tower. The next day, Tuesday, the 1st of February, the greater part of the nobility, both spiritual and temporal, assembled about three o'clock in the afternoon, in the presence chamber, where, after they had all knelt and kissed his majesty's hand, saying every one of them, "God save your Grace!" the lord Edward, when the crown thus descended upon his head, had entered his tenth year, having been born, as before related, on the 12th of October, 1537. He had been "brought up," as he tells us himself, "till he came to six years old, among the women." He was then placed under the tuition of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheke, "two well-learned men, who sought to bring him up in learning ther and others may be found in Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, of tongues, of the Scripture, of philosophy, and | and are reprinted in Sir Henry Ellis Original Letters Illustrative all liberal sciences." Another of the persons of English History. Others are in Fox's Martyrology, and in intrusted with the direction of his education, 1 Printed by Burnet, in his History of the Reformation (Appendix of Records to vol. ii.), from the original, in the king's own haud, preserved in the British Museum, Cotton MS. Nero, C. 10. 2 Some of the early Latin letters of Prince Edward to his fa Fuller's Church History. 3 So he tells us himself, in his Journal. Holinshed, whom some late writers have followed, says he was at Hatfield. Life and Reign of Edward VI. in Kennet, ii. 275. 5 Eccles. Mem. ii. 21. Strype quotes as his authority for these details an official record in the Heralds' College. plans for securing to himself the chief place in the government. The following anecdote is related by Strype: -"While King Henry lay on his death-bed in his palace at Westminster,' Sir Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, and Sir William Paget, among others, were at court; and Paget, being secretary of state, was much about chancellor proceeded to declare the purport of the deceased king's last will and testament, which, however, had been in part read to the parliament the day before. It appeared that Henry had nominated the following sixteen persons to be his executors, and to hold the office of governors of his son and of the kingdom till Edward should have completed his eighteenth year-Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; Thomas Wriothesley, Baron Wriothesley, the lord-chancellor; William Paulet, Baron St. John, master of the household; John Russell, Baron Russell, lord privy-seal; Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, lord great-chamberlain; John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, lord-admiral; Cuthbert Tonstal, Bishop of Durham; Sir Anthony Brown, master of the horse; Sir William Paget, secre tary of state; Sir Edward North, chancellor of the court of augmentations; Sir Edward Montague, chief-justice of the Common Pleas; Thomas Bromley, one of the justices of the King's Bench; Sir Anthony Denny and Sir John Herbert, gentlemen of the privy chamber; Sir Edward Wotton, treasurer of Calais; and Dr. Nicolas Wotton, dean of Canterbury. To these were added twelve others, under the name of a privy council: they were, Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel; William Parr, Earl of Essex; Sir Thomas Cheyney, 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 South-concerning the government. And immediately well; and Sir Edmund Peckham. These latter, however, were to have no real power or authority, their functions being limited to the simple right of giving their opinion or advice when it was asked for. After he had recited the names of the council of government, the chancellor made an announcement which was more important, and must have made a greater sensation among his hearers than anything he had yet communicated. From the first prospect of the new reign, the Earl of Hertford, the uncle of the young king that was to be, had begun to intrigue and lay his THE HOLBEIN GATE, OLD WHITEHALL.-After Hollar. The palace at Westminster called Whitehall, where Henry VIII. died, was bounded on one side by the park which reaches to St. James' Palace, and on the other side by the Thames. It was originally called York House, from its being the palace of the Archbishop of York. Cardinal Wolsey was the last archbishop who resided in it, and when he lost the royal favour, it was taken possession of by Henry VIII. After Henry had appropriated to himself this episcopal residence, he built a magnificent gatehouse in front of it, opposite the entrance into the his person, whom, being a man wise and learned, and well versed in the affairs of state, both by reason of his office and his several embassies abroad, the earl prudently made choice of for his inward friend and counsellor. By the king's desperate condition the earl, well perceiving the crown ready to fall upon Prince Edward's (his nephew's) head; before the breath was out of his body, took a walk with Paget in the gallery, where he held some serious conference with him after the king was departed, they met again, the earl devising with him concerning the high place he was to hold, being the next of kin to the young king. Paget at both meetings freely and at large gave him his advice, for the safe managery of himself and of the mighty trust likely to be reposed in him; and the earl then promised him to follow his counsels in all his proceedings more than any other man's." At the first meeting of the executors after the king's death, Hertford had succeeded in achieving the object of his ambition. When it was proposed that, for the tilt-yard. He received the design of this gatehouse from Holbein, the celebrated painter, and a universal genius, who had been introduced to him by Sir Thomas More, and whom he immediately took into his service. It was "constructed of small square stones and flint boulders, presenting two different colours, glazed and disposed in a tesselated manner." Having been almost reduced to ruins by fire during the reign of James I., the palace was rebuilt by that monarch, and was the residence of Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II., and James II. 2 Eccles. Mem. ii. 16. more convenient despatch of business, one of their number should be appointed merely to be a sort of representative or mouth-piece of the whole, such an arrangement was objected to by the Chancellor Wriothesley, who contended that it would be a violation of the will, which made them all equal, but who at the same time probably hoped to be able, without any formal appointment, to get into his own hands the chief power in the government by means simply of the eminent office he filled. He was also well aware who the president would be if one should be elected, and that with such a choice the whole policy of the government would be turned against the interest to which he attached himself; for Wriothesley was now accounted the head of the Catholic party, as Hertford was the strength and hope of the Protestants. The chancellor, however, seems to have stood alone, or nearly alone in his opposition; on seeing which he gave up the point, and consented to go along with his colleagues; and in the end, after short debate, the Earl of Hertford was unanimously nominated Protector of the Realm and Governor of the king's person, the paramount authority implied in, and necessarily conveyed by these high titles being, however, vainly enough, attempted to be limited by the condition that he should not do any act without the advice and consent of the majority of the executors. The chancellor now announced to the nobility assembled around the king in the presence chamber that all the executors had agreed "that the Earl of Hertford should be governor of the young king during his nonage." Whereupon all the said lords made answer in one voice, that there was none so meet for the same in all the realm as he; and said also that they were well content withal." The boy-king then returned them thanks, from himself, by which he may be understood to have intimated his assent to what the executors had done. 1 Hertford and his associates, however, had a great deal more to do for themselves than they had yet accomplished. A strange clause appeared in Henry's will, requiring them to make good all that he had promised in any manner of way; and it was affirmed that he had reiterated this injunction verbally, with great earnestness, to those of them who were in attendance upon him while he lay on his death-bed. When the matter came to be inquired into, it was found that these unperformed engagements, or rather intentions (for in most cases they do not seem to have amounted to promises), of the deceased king, nearly all regarded certain additional honours and other good things which he meant to bestow upon the executors themselves. Such at least was the testimony of Paget, Denny, and Herbert, 1 Strype, Eccles. Mem. ii. 21. to whom alone it appeared that he had communicated the particulars. Burnet gives the following account:-"Paget declared that when the evidence appeared against the Duke of Norfolk and his son the Earl of Surrey, the king, who used to talk oft in private with him alone, told him that he intended to bestow their lands liberally; and since, by attainders and other ways, the nobility were much decayed, he intended to create some peers, and ordered him to write a book of such as he thought meetest." Paget then proposed that the Earl of Hertford should be made a duke, and named, besides, a number of other persons who should be ennobled, or raised to a higher rank in the peerage. He "also proposed a distribution of the Duke of Norfolk's estate; but the king liked it not, and made Mr. Gates bring him the books of that estate, which being done, he ordered Paget 'to tot upon the Earl of Hertford' (these are the words of his deposition) 1000 marks; on the Lords Lisle, St. John, and Russell, £200 a-year; to the Lord Wriothesley, £100; and for Sir Thomas Seymour, £300 a-year; but Paget said it was too little, and stood long arguing it with him. And he, putting the king in mind of Denny, who had been oft a suitor for him, but had never yet in lieu of that obtained anything for Denny; the king ordered £200 for him, and 400 marks for Sir William Herbert, and remembered some other likewise." Some of the persons that were mentioned for promotion, however, on being spoken to, desired to remain in their present ranks, on the ground that the lands the king proposed to give were not sufficient for the maintenance of the honours to be conferred on them; and other circumstances also induced the king to change his mind as to some points. At last, after many consultations, the matter was finally settled as follows:-"The Earl of Hertford to be earl-marshal and lord-treasurer, and to be Duke of Somerset, Exeter, or Hertford, and his son to be Earl of Wiltshire, with £800 a-year of land, and £300 a-year out of the next bishop's land that fell void; the Earl of Essex to be Marquis of Essex; the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Coventry; the Lord Wriothesley to be Earl of Winchester; Sir Thomas Seymour to be a baron and lord-admiral: Sir Richard Rich, Sir John St. Leger, Sir William Willoughby, Sir Edward Sheffield, and Sir Christopher Danby, to be barons, with yearly revenues to them and several other persons. And having, at the suit of Sir Edward North, promised to give the Earl of Hertford six of the best prebends that should fall in any cathedral, except deaneries and treasurerships, at his (the duke's) suit, he (the king) agreed that a deanery and a treasurership should be instead of two of the six prebendaries." Pa ings in their new trust was, to provide honours and estates for themselves; whereas it had been a more decent way for them to have reserved their pretensions till the king had come to be of age." He even goes the length of insinuating PROTECTOR SOMERSET.-After Holbein. get's testimony was confirmed in all points by 1 Eccles. Mem. ii. 24. that there was much reason for doubting the whole story of Paget and his fellow-deponents, inasmuch as the will on which they pretended to found it bore date on the 30th of December, whereas their account appeared to imply that it was not drawn up till nearly a month later, when Henry was on his death-bed.2 The ceremonies of burying the old, and crowning the new king, were the first affairs that occupied the government. King Henry, after lying in state at Whitehall till the 14th of February, was removed to Sion House, and thence to Windsor, where he was interred in St. George's Chapel, on the 16th, with extraordinary magnificence.' Four days after the funeral of Henry, the coronation of his son took place in Westminster Abbey, in a manner varied in some respects from the ancient form, partly, as it was declared in the order or programme, "for the tedious length of the same, which should weary and be hurtsome peradventure to the king's majesty, being yet of tender age, fully to endure and bide out; and also for that many points of the same were such as by the laws of the realm at this present were not allowable." The most material innovation, however, was in the commencing ceremony, in which, instead of the king, as heretofore, first taking the oath to preserve the liberties 2 Dr. Lingard has advanced the same objection, without notic 3 See the account printed by Strype at full length, in Eccles. Mem. vi. 266-291. |