perious and insolent of the spoiled children of fortune. The lord-admiral was certainly not a better man than the protector; but the vices of his character were for the most part of a different kind. They were not vices that attempted to assume the guise of virtues-whether that be a commendation or the reverse; they did not so far do homage to morality as to skulk out of sight: the admiral seems to have openly led a dissolute life, and was probably very regardless of imputations on the score of freedom or laxity of manners, at which his brother would have been ready to sink into the earth with shame and fear. It is doubtful to which of the two religions he belonged, but pretty certain that he neither cared, nor professed to care, much for either. In point of abilities he was reckoned far the protector's superior. The popular breath, which the elder brother so solicitously courted, the younger, as bold and reckless in this as in all things else, held in avowed contempt. Of the credit of high principle, or principle of any kind, very little can be awarded to either; each equally-the one in his adulation of the multitude, the other by his haughty aristocratic professions and bearing pursued, in the way that his peculiar tastes and temper dictated, the path of the same selfish and rapacious ambition. What small amount of honesty may have belonged to either was, in Somerset, merely a natural attachment which he probably had to those opinions in religion which were the distinction of his party, and upon the profession of which he had taken his stand; in Seymour, the effrontery of a profligate man, of too violent passions, and too proud a spirit, even to pretend to virtues which he did not possess.

Burnet's relation of the story of the lord-admiral, upon which the accounts of later writers are principally founded, is given by him as if the particulars were either notorious, or had been obtained from some source that left no doubt as to their authenticity; but it will be found, upon examination, that the whole detail is little more than a transcript of the charges made against Seymour by his brother and the council-that is, of the mere assertions of his enemies, upon which, as we shall find, although he was condemned and put to death, he was never brought to trial, and of the truth of many things in which we have really no evidence whatever. The statement, therefore, cannot be received with perfect confidence, although it may probably, in the main, be founded in truth. It is, however, in parts, confirmed by documents that have been brought to light since Burnet wrote, especially by those contained in the collection known by the name of the Burghley Papers.1

A collection of State Papers relating to affairs in the reigns of King Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen

One of the lines of pursuit in which Seymour's talents, address, and personal advantages, enabled him greatly to distinguish himself, was that of gallantry: his success with women was so brilliant, that he had the popular reputation of catching hearts by art-magic. He now resolved that riches and power as well as pleasure should wait upon his victories in this career; and it is alleged that, in the first instance, he aspired so high as to have cherished the hope of gaining the hand either of the Princess Mary or of her sister Elizabeth, the two persons next in the order of succession to the throne. His views seem also to have been at one time directed to the Lady Jane Grey, in the presentiment that hers might possibly, after all, be the head upon which the crown would light. He found, however, that there were difficulties in the way of each of these projects, and for the present he contented himself with the hand of Catherine Parr, the queendowager-" whom you married," say the council in their charge, "so soon after the late king's death, that, if she had conceived straight after, it should have been a great doubt whether the child born should have been accounted the late king's or yours; whereupon a marvellous danger and peril night and was like to have ensued to the king's majesty's succession and quiet of the realm." In fact, Catherine appears to have thrown herself into his arms.

Seymour had a twofold object in this marriage first, the acquisition of the wealth Catherine had accumulated while she was queen, and the dower to which she was now entitled; secondly, that he might gain the easier access to the king, and be the better able to win him over to his purposes through the influence of Catherine, to whom Edward had always been accustomed to look up with respect and affection. In the first of these expectations he was in part disappointed, by his wife being compelled to surrender certain jewels of great value, which Henry had given to her, but which the protector and the council insisted that she had no right to retain, after she had ceased to be queen-consort. In a letter to Seymour upon the subject of this and other points in which she thought she was ill-used, she seems to impute the treatment she had received to Somerset's proud and violent wife. Whether it was the loss of her jewels, however, or whether the same consequence would have followed without that provocation, poor Catherine soon became little an object of envy to any of her sex; the husband, to whom she had given herself with such preci

Elizabeth, transcribed from papers left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, now at Hatfield House, in the library of the Earl of Salisbury, by the Rev. Samuel Haynes, A.M., fol. London, 1740. This first volume of the Burghley Papers extends from A.D. 1542 to 1570; a second volume, extending from 1571 to 1596, was published by the Rev. William Murdin, fol. London, 1759.

pitate fondness, began openly to show how tired he was become of her, and to resume his old gallantries, before many months had elapsed. In the meanwhile he had taken advantage of his opportunities to commence practising upon the young mind of his royal nephew. The object of ambition which, in the first instance at least, he had proposed to himself, seems to have been, to wrest from his brother the one of his two great offices which gave him the custody of the royal person, though it is probable enough that, if he had succeeded in that, he would not have been long in making an attempt to get into his hands the government of the kingdom also. It is charged against him by the council that, after he had agreed and given his consent in writing to the appointment of his brother as "governor of the king's majesty's person, and protector of all his realms and dominions, and subjects;" he had "attempted and gone about by indirect means to undo this order," and to get the government of the king into his own hands;-that, "by corrupting with gifts and fair promises, divers of the privy chamber," he had gone about to allure the king to condescend and agree to the same, his "most heinous and perilous purposes;"-that he had "for that intent," with his own hand, written a letter in the king's name, which he had given to his majesty to copy and sign, and which he intended to have delivered personally to the House of Commons; "and there," it is added, "with your fautors and adherents before prepared, to have made a broil, or tumult, or uproar, to the great danger of the king's majesty's person, and subversion of the state of this realm;"-that he had spoken to "divers of the council, and laboured with divers of the nobility of the realm, to stick and adhere" to him for the attainment of his purposes;-that he had said openly, that [if he were crossed in his designs] he would make that the blackest parliament that ever was in England; that "the king's majesty being of those tender years, and as yet, by age unable to direct his own things," the admiral had gone about to instil into his grace's head, and to persuade him to take upon himself the government and managing of his own affairs;-that he had fully intended to have taken his majesty's person into his own hands and custody;-that he had corrupted with money certain of the privy chamber to persuade the king to "have a credit towards" him," and so," the article proceeds, "to insinuate you to his grace, that when he lacked anything, he should have it of you, and none other body, to the intent he should mislike his ordering, and that you might the better, when you saw time, use his king's highness for an instrument to this purpose." In a sort of answer which was wrung from him to part of

the charges of the council, Seymour admitted that about Easter, 1547, he had said to one of the royal attendants, "that if he might have the king in his custody as Mr. Page had, he would be glad; and that he thought a man might bring him (the king) through the gallery to his (Seymour's) chamber, and so to his house; but this, he said, he spoke merrily, meaning no hurt.” He owned also that, having some time after heard that, when there was formerly a lord-protector in England, the government of the king's person was put into other hands, "he had thought to have made suit to the parliament house for that purpose, and he had the names of all the lords, and totted them whom he thought he might have to his purpose, to labour them; but afterwards communing with Mr. Comptroller at Ely Place, being put in remembrance by him of his assenting and agreeing with his own hand that the lord-protector should be governor to the king's person, he was ashamed of his doings, and left off that suit and labour." These, it is to be remembered, are not his own words under his own hand, but merely those put into his mouth by the persons sent to examine him, in their report to the council of what he said. He further acknowledged that he had drawn up the letter, or "bill,” as he calls it, to be laid before the House of Commons, and had proffered it either to the king or Cheke, he forgot which. This had been done, after having "caused the king to be moved by Mr. Fowler, whether he could be contented that he should have the governance of him as Mr. Stanhope had." What answer he had got either to this suggestion, or to his proposal that the king should sign the letter, he professed not to remember. To the charge of giving money to the king, and to those about him, he said that at Christmas, 1547, he had given to Mr. Cheke £40, "whereof to himself £20, the other for the king, to bestow where it pleaseth his grace amongst his servants." He had also given some money-he did not remember how much-to the grooms of the chamber. To Fowler, he admitted that he had given money for the king since the beginning of the parliament then (February, 1549) sitting, to the amount of £20. "And divers times, he saith, the king hath sent to him for money, and he hath sent it. And what time Mr. Latimer hath preached before the king, the king sent to him to know what he should give Mr. Latimer; and he sent to him by Fowler £40, with this word, that £20 was a good reward for Mr. Latimer, and the other he might bestow amongst his servants." These confessions made it apparent enough that he had sought to gain an ascendency over the king by supplying him with pocketmoney, of which it appears that his majesty was kept very bare by my lord-protector. But the

most curious evidence upon this point, as well as upon some of the other charges brought against Seymour, is supplied by the Burghley Papers. Here we have, in the first place, the testimony of the king himself, given in several statements drawn up and subscribed by himself. Edward, as both men and children will do when in similar circumstances, may be supposed to soften what was blameable in his own part of the business as much as possible, even if in so doing he should be led to bear a little hard upon his unfortunate uncle; but the true state of the case may be easily gathered from his self-exculpatory detail. After an account of his refusing to write some letter at Seymour's request, his majesty proceeds: "At another time, within this two year at least, he said, ye must take upon you yourself to rule, for ye shall be able enough, as well as other kings; and then ye may give your men somewhat, for your uncle is old, and I trust will not live long. I answered, it were better that he should die. Then he said, ye are but even a very beggarly king now; ye have not to play, or to give to your servants. I said, Mr. Stanhope had for me. Then he said he would give Fowler money for me; and so he did, as Fowler told me. And he gave Cheke money, as I bade him; and also to a bookbinder, as Balmain can tell; and to divers others at that time, I remember not to whom." In another paper, Edward speaks of Seymour as trying to prejudice him against the protector, by representing the expedition to Scotland, in which he was then engaged, as a very foolish and wasteful business. "At the return of my lord, my uncle," he goes on, "the lord-admiral said I was too bashful in mine own matters; and asked me why I did not speak to bear rules, as other kings do. I said I needed not, for I was well enough. When he went into his country he desired me, that if anything were said against him, I should not believe it till he came himself." That Edward, however, was not a mere passive recipient in these money dealings with his uncle, appears from another paper in this collection, being a letter written by the king's command, in June, 1547, to the lord-admiral, by Fowler. After conveying to Seymour some warm expressions of regard from his nephew, who had desired him to say, "that his mind and love, notwithstanding your absence, is toward your lordship as much as to any man within England "-the writer proceeds: "Also his grace willed me to write to your lordship, desiring you, as your lordship has willed him to do, if he lack any money to send to your lordship. His grace desires you, if you conveniently may, to let him have some money. I asked his grace what sum I should write to your lordship for; his grace would name no sum, but as it pleased your lordship to send him, for

he determines to give it away, but to whom he will not tell me as yet." "The king's majesty," it is added, in a style of some importunity, "desires your lordship to send him this money as shortly as you can; and because your lordship may credit me the better, his grace has written in the beginning of my letter himself." The paper accordingly has the following words written by Edward in his own hand, and with his name subscribed :-"I commend me to you, my lord, and pray you to credit this writer." To this we may subjoin, from the same repository, a part of the testimony of the Marquis of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who was examined principally touching another of the charges brought against Seymour-his undertaking to marry the king at his own will and pleasure, and endeavouring to seduce the marquis to his interests by a promise that Edward should be united to his daughter, the Lady Jane Grey. Dorset declares, "that the king's majesty hath divers times made his moan unto him, saying, that my uncle of Somerset dealeth very hardly with me, and keepeth me so strait that I cannot have money at my will; but my lord-admiral both sends me money and gives me money." These revelations illustrate the characters both of the king and Somerset, as well as the doings of the lord-admiral.

Intimation of Seymour's practices was given to his brother, while he was in Scotland in September, 1547, by Paget, who had previously remonstrated with the admiral on the course he was pursuing. It is uncertain whether there was any reconciliation between them before the parliament met in November; but soon after matters were brought to a crisis, by the lord-admiral's project of inducing the king to write the letter recommending his appointment as governor of the royal person. Burnet's narrative would seem to imply that the letter had been actually copied and subscribed by the king; but this is inconsistent both with what the admiral is made to say in his answer to the charges of the council, and with Edward's own account. When the council discovered what he was about, they sent some of their members to confer with him in his brother's name, and to urge him to proceed no farther; but he refused to listen to them; and he paid as little regard to an order of the council, which was then issued, summoning him to appear before them. When they passed a resolution, however, that he should be sent to the Tower, and deprived of all his offices, he deemed it prudent to make his 'submission; and, for the present, the affair ended by a seemingly perfect reconciliation being effected between the two brothers. In the course of the following year the admiral was gratified by a grant of a large addition to his revenues from the crown.