A.D. 1542.]

REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND.

117

that is to say in 1538, the Marquis of Exeter, grandson of Edward IV., and Lord Montague, son of the Countess of Salisbury, had been beheaded for treasonable correspondence with Cardinal Pole, brother of Lord Montague. Cardinal Pole was a fierce antagonist of the Reformation, who went from country to country preaching a crusade against England and its heretical king.

In Scotland the Reformation had its disciples and martyrs. Foremost among them appeared Patrick Hamilton, the Earl of Arran's nephew. He was tried and convicted of Lutheranism, by Cardinal Beaton, and burned before the Old College of St. Andrews (1528). But his "smoke infected those it blew upon,” and the Reformation spread and took root in the rich deep soil of Scottish hearts. Whilst Beaton was exerting himself to burn out heresy, John Knox and George Wishart were gathering the people round them, and calling on them to give up superstitious practices, and lead sober, pure, industrious lives. Wishart was hanged, and his body burnt in the presence of Cardinal Beaton (1546). In May of the same year, Beaton was killed in his archiepiscopal palace of St. Andrews, by John Leslie and James Melville. James v. of Scotland cast in his lot with the Roman Catholics. In 1537 he had married Magdalen, daughter of Francis 1., king of France, who dying almost immediately, he then married Mary, daughter of the Duke of Guise. Henry had made every effort and every concession to establish amicable relations with Scotland, but, under Cardinal Beaton's administration, these had failed, and war broke out in 1542 between the two countries. Scotland was divided. The nobility felt jealous of the favour shown by the king to the clergy, and they withheld their support. James mustered what troops he could, and, crossing the borders, laid waste Cumberland. Although taken by surprise, the English borderers assembled their forces, and a panic seizing the Scotch, their troops were either killed or made prisoners at Solway Moss. James died of disappointment and vexation a few days after, leaving an infant daughter, the celebrated Mary queen of Scots, to be heiress of his throne and misfortunes.

In 1541, the venerable Countess of Salisbury, daughter of the Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward iv., and last of the long line of Plantagenet, perished on the scaffold, a victim of Henry's unrelenting hatred of the Yorkists, and of her own son's (Cardinal Pole) violence and treason.

Immediately after Henry's divorce from Anne of Cleves, he married Catherine Howard, who, like Anne Boleyn, was the Duke of Norfolk's niece. She was a profligate woman, and she paid the penalty. The Parliament passed a bill of attainder against her and her accomplices. She was beheaded in the Tower (1542); and, shortly after, Henry married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, widow of Lord Latimer.

As Francis I. had encouraged and assisted the Scotch in their opposition to and invasion of England, and as long-standing money debts had not been liquidated by France, Henry listened to Charles v.'s solicitations for an alliance, and a treaty was concluded between them, by which they agreed to invade France (1543). Henry landed at Calais with 30,000 men, and proceeded at once to lay siege to Boulogne, which, after a brave resistance of two months, surrendered to the English. Charles, meanwhile, under pretext that Henry had not kept to the terms of their treaty, listened to the overtures of peace made by Francis, and peace between them was accordingly concluded and signed at Cressy (1544). The year fol lowing Francis assembled a fleet of 200 ships and 60,000 men, for the purpose of making a descent on England, and of destroying at the same time the English fleet. He hoped to make himself master of the Channel, and to cut off all communication between the English and their garrisons at Boulogne and Calais, and oblige them to evacuate the French territory. But Henry had 120,000 men under arms, and the fortresses along the coast were well provided. Although the French succeeded in effecting a momentary landing on the Isle of Wight, the expedition failed to accomplish its purpose, partly in consequence of a pestilence which broke out on board the crowded French ships. In May 1546, peace was concluded between England and France. Francis

A.D. 1547.]

HENRY'S DEATH AND CHARACTER.

119

agreed to pay his debts, and to leave Boulogne in the hands of the English for eight years as security.

This arbitrary and sanguinary, though vigorous reign, was now drawing to a close. Henry's life was fast ebbing, and to secure a tranquil regency during his son's minority, he ordered the arrest of the Duke of Norfolk and his brilliant, brave, but unprincipled son the Earl of Surrey, both of whom were opposed to the Reformation, and enemies to the Seymour family. The Earl had assumed the quarterings belonging specially to the heir to the throne, and they were both known to aspire to the government. The Earl of Surrey was beheaded 13th January 1547, and orders were issued for the Duke of Norfolk's execution on the 29th, but Henry himself expiring the preceding night, the warrant was not obeyed.

During this reign, the laws of England were extended to Wales, and that country was admitted to representation in Parliament. Ireland was constituted a kingdom, having been previously styled a Lordship. Landed property in England had been for a century rapidly changing hands, and as those who purchased it naturally looked upon it as a commercial investment, they entertained none of that feudal sense of obligation to inferiors, which had been one of the great features of the old system. Many of the humbler peasantry consequently finding no employment, wandered about the country without food or work-a state of things which was much aggravated by the abolition of monasteries and their charities, to which we have already referred. Hence the numerous laws against vagabondism passed by Henry.

In all his relations, in all his actions, Henry was essentially a practical man, and to every evil his strong will applied an instant remedy. Wherever he saw an abuse or a wrong, he allowed no theory on the liberty of the subject or the rights of property to shield it—he struck it down by an Act of Parliament. His eye, his hand, his laws reached everywhere. His statutes against idleness were sanguinary, and he required that every child should be instructed in some trade, or some occupation, whereby he could earn an honest livelihood.. The very games of the children and

people were laid down by statute. Notwithstanding his cruelty, despotic temper, and numerous defects of character, by which he must ever continue to be judged, his laws and influence may be said to have formed the discipline and school which reared the mighty men over whom his daughter Elizabeth ruled. The resistance of the men of Suffolk to an exorbitant tax which Henry's commissioners wished to impose, and the difficulty with which Parliament could be brought to grant an enormous subsidy for the French war, were almost the only popular checks on Henry's despotic career; and these two incidents, perhaps, secured to England her free institutions, which otherwise might have succumbed to the monarchical power.

Cotemporary Sovereigns and Events.-France: Louis XII. Francis 1. Scotland: James IV. v. and Mary. Distinguished Popes.-Julius 11. (died 1513.) Leo. x. (d. 1523.) Reformers.— Luther (d. 1546), Melanchthon (d. 1560), Zwingle (d. 1531). Great Painters.-Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Titian, the Caracci.-The Bible first translated from the original into the vernacular tongue, by Tyndale (burnt 1536), Coverdale, &c.

Questions.-1. What circumstance, in the very commencement of Henry's reign, indicated the policy which he meant to pursue? 2. What was the object of Henry's two campaigns in France? 3. What political reasons led to the meeting of Francis and Henry on what was called "The Field of the Cloth of Gold?" 4. Name the Reformers before Luther, and give an account of the name Protestant. 5. What led to Wolsey's fall? 6. In what year was the king declared Supreme Head of the Church? 7. What were Henry's views regarding the Reformation? 8. What two events led to Cromwell's loss of favour and execution? 9. What was Henry's personal character; and what was the character of his administration?

2. Edward VI.

A.D. 1547-1553.

PROTECTORATE ESTABLISHED-PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION-WAR WITH SCOTLAND-REPEAL OF HENRY'S ACTS AGAINST HERESY-ABOLITION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION, AND PROMULGATION OF A NEW LITURGY-REVOLTS AMONG THE PEASANTRY-GARDINER AND BONNER-FALL OF SOMERSET AND APPOINTMENT OF A COUNCIL OF REGENCY-INSTITUTION OF HOSPITALS AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

By the will of the late king, the government of the kingdom was to be placed, during his son Edward's minority, in the hands

A.D. 1546.]

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.

121

Contrary to the

of sixteen executors, aided by twelve councillors. king's intention, however, they raised one of the executors, the Earl of Hertford, Edward's maternal uncle, to the position of Protector, endowed with the external symbols of royalty, and with some of its most important privileges. In conformity, too, with the expressed intentions of Henry to make a new creation of nobility, the executors raised Hertford to the rank of Duke of Somerset, and advanced some others to the peerage. As the Chancellor, Lord Southampton, showed himself opposed to the Protectorship, means were found to deprive him of the Great Seal.

The Protector being attached to the reformed religion, took care that the persons intrusted with young Edward's education should be imbued with his own principles, to which the royal pupil showed himself well inclined. The Protector's chief adviser in the work of the Reformation was Cranmer, to whom stood opposed Gardiner bishop of Winchester, who contended against any departure being made from the ecclesiastical system settled by the late king, before Edward should have obtained his majority. The Protector, however, conceiving that he was armed with legal power for the purpose, appointed visitors, by Cranmer's advice, with instructions to make inspection of all the dioceses in England, with a view to the abolition of superstitious practices, and with as little violation to the feelings of the people as possible. Gardiner, persisting in his opposition to this course, was, by the Council, sent to the Fleet prison. Tonstal, bishop of Durham, was for the same cause obliged to leave the Council, of which he was a member.

The Protector turned his eyes to Scotland, then governed by the Earl of Arran, a weak man, and by the Queen Dowager, a woman of sense and spirit, whose daughter Mary would, according to Somerset's idea, if betrothed to Edward, be the means of uniting the two kingdoms. The obstacle opposed by difference of religion would, he fancied, be overcome with the help of the Scotch reformers, of whose zeal recent proof had been afforded in a striking manner, which, though already referred to, may be recorded here again. A gentleman named Wishart, of great learning, had, by his preach