and nine months after the auspicious day which saw the young idol of the people's heart walking 'mid deafening clamours of Long live Henry !" "Bless our noble king!" "Gallant Harry!" to his coronation at Westminster, the royal vault at Windsor received the bloated body of the most tyrannical, heartless, and cruel monarch that ever made his country weep, and at whose death every one rejoiced.* Kings of England, p. 90. CHRONICLE. 1510, Aug. 17. Empson and Dudley executed on Tower-hill. 1513, August 16. The battle of the Spurs. Sept. 9. The Earl of Surrey gained a great victory over the Scots at Flodden Field; among the slain were James IV. of Scotland, three bishops, two abbots, twenty-five barons, and a vast number of gentlemen, in all 10,000 men. 1517, May 1. The rising of the London apprentices, on account of strangers being permitted to trade, called Evil May Day; fifteen of the rioters were executed. The sweating sickness raged in this year, it usually carried off the patient in three hours; in some towns half the population was swept away. Martin Luther's writings began to appear. 1521. This year muskets were invented. 1525. Divers things were imported into England, whereupon this rhyme was made "Turkeys, carps, hops, pippins, and beer, 18th June, 1525. Wolsey gave his palace of Hampton Court to the king, and built Whitehall. 1530. The palace of St. James's built. Doctor Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury. April 20. Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent, executed for pretending to foretel the king's death if he proceeded in his divorce from Queen Catherine. August. Tindal's translation of the bible burnt; it was the first printed translation. 1535. Henry commanded all persons at court to cut their hair short; he showed the example, and began to wear his beard knotted, and was no more shaved. June 22. Bishop Fisher executed. July 7. The most learned and accomplished Sir Thomas More executed.† 1536. * Of Henry, Fuller, remarks" All the virtues and vices of his predecessors may seem in him fully represented, both to their kind and degree, learning, wisdom, valour, magnificence, cruelty, avarice, fury, lust, following his pleasures whilst he was young, and making them come to him when he was old :- "Three Kates, two Nans, and one dear Jane I wedded; From two I was divorced, two I beheaded, One died in childbed, and one me survives." The royal vault in the middle of the choir at Windsor was opened in 1813, by command of George the Fourth (then Prince Regent), and the lid of the coffin containing the body of Henry being raised, the remains of the great king were found in good preservation; his beard had grown to such a great length that it nearly reached to his knees. Erasmus says of this excellent man--"More's general benevolence had imprinted his memory 30 deep in all men's hearts, that they bewail his death as that Tindal, who translated the bible, was burnt as a heretic at Geneva. Wales united and incorporated with England by act of parliament. The bible printed in English. May 19. Execution of Anne Boleyn. 1540, July 28th. Cromwell beheaded on Tower hill, for high treason. Ignatius Loyola, a Spaniard, founded the order of the Jesuits. Cherries were this year first planted in Kent, where an orchard of thirty-two acres produced a thousand pounds. 1543. The better sort of people only are allowed the use of bibles. 1546. Martin Luther died, aged sixty-three. It was not until the end of this reign that salads, carrots, turnips, and other edible roots were produced in England. Immediately after the tumult of the apprentices on the Evil May Day a curious proclamation was issued, directing that women should not meet together to babble and talk, and that all men should keep their wives in their houses. REIGN OF EDWARD VI. FROM 1547 TO 1553-6 YEARS, 5 MONTHS, 8 DAYS. EDWARD'S EXTRAORDINARY ABILITIES. Edward VI., only son of Henry VIII. by his third wife, Jane Seymour, was nine years and three months old when he ascended the throne by the death of the king his father. His majority was fixed to the eighteenth year of his age by the late king's will, but he died before he came to it, after a short reign of six years, five months, and eight days. There was reason to hope extraordinary things from this young prince, had it pleased God to bless him with a longer life. He had an excellent memory, a wonderful solidity of mind, and withal, he was laborious, sparing no pains to qualify himself for the well-governing of his kingdom. At eight years of age he wrote Latin letters to his father. French was as familiar to him as English; he learnt, also, Greek, Spanish, and Italian. After that he applied himself to the liberal sciences, wherein he made an astonishing progress, so much so, that in his fifteenth year he was considered the wonder of his time. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 3. EXECUTION OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET. On the 22nd January, 1552, this ill-fortuned nobleman, the protector of the kingdom, was brought to the block by the intrigues of the Duke of Northumberland, on the ground of his having intended seizing the king's person, and taking upon himself the government. He met his fate with calmness and dignity, protesting his innocence, and praying for the king's safety and the of their own father. Nay, as I write, tears flow from my eyes, whether I will or not. How many persons hath that axe wounded which severed More's head from his body!" Protestant faith. So generally was the duke a favourite with the people, and so greatly were they affected by his death, that many dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, to preserve in remembrance of him; and a lady on seeing Northumberland himself, a few years afterwards, led a prisoner to the Tower, condemned for treason, is said to have shaken one of these tokens, saying, "Behold! the blood of that worthy man, which was shed by thy malicious practices, doth now begin to revenge itself on thee." Bayley's History of the Tower, p. 417. ALTERATION OF THE SUCCESSION. The young king had been seized ever since January with the small pox and measles, which, turning to a consumption, wasted him by degrees, and daily grew more dangerous. Some plainly affirm a slow poison was given him, and throw the suspicion upon the Duke of Northumberland. Others only insinuate such a thing, without saying it positively. But after all, both speak only by conjecture, without giving any proof. The young king saw death approaching without any fears as to himself, but could not reflect, without an extreme concern, on the future state of religion under his sister Mary, who was to succeed him. Very probably the Duke of Northumberland, who constantly attended him in his illness, took care to increase his fears, on purpose to lead him to the point he desired. All hopes, however, of the king's recovery were not given over till the middle of May, when, 'tis likely, the physicians told the Duke of Northumberland his case. was desperate. Then it was that he married the Lord Guilford Dudley, his fourth son, to Jane Grey, eldest daughter of the new Duke of Suffolk, by Frances Brandon, who was in Henry VIII's will the next in succession after the Princess Elizabeth. This marriage was solemnized about the end of May, when there was no hope of the king's recovery. At last, one day, as the young king was expressing his great concern at the thoughts that his sister, the Princess Mary (being a strict Catholic), would do her utmost to destroy the Reformation, the Duke of Northumberland broke the ice. He represented to the king that there was but one way to prevent the misfortunes England was threatened with in case the Princess Mary should ascend the throne after him, and that was, to settle the crown on the Lady Jane Grey, his daughter-in-law. Indeed, it was natural, in excluding Mary, to transfer the crown to his sister Elizabeth, whom the king tenderly loved, and who was a hearty friend to the Reformation. probably the duke told the king it could exclude Mary but on the specious pretence of her being illegitimate; the same reason subsisted with regard to Elizabeth, since the marriage of their mothers were equally annulled. Very likely the young king, who found himself dying, and only thought of saving the Reformation from the impending destruction, was prevailed on by this argument to sacrifice the Princess Elizabeth. Besides, he had a great esteem and affection for Jane Grey, who was an accomplished lady But both in mind and body. At last the judges, who at first demurred, by threats from Northumberland, and the expedient of a pardon under the great seal, were wrought upon to draw the instrument. Hales alone refused his signature, and could never be prevailed on to give it. All the privy councillors set their hands to it, likewise, on the 21st of the same month. Cranmer was absent that day to avoid signing; but the king importuned him so much that he set his hand at last as a witness, as it is pretended, not as a privy councillor. Rapin, vol. ii., p. 26. DEATH OF EDWARD VI. The king's distemper increasing, without the possibility of finding any remedy, the council thought fit to dismiss the physicians, and put him into the hands of a certain woman who undertook his cure. It was said that this was done by the Duke of Northumberland's advice, and that the woman shortened the king's days.. But he was now so ill that it was entirely needless to hasten his death. It is true the woman, instead of curing him put him to more pain by the medicines she gave him; and this was sufficient to inspire the people with violent suspicions against the Duke of Northumberland, who was not beloved, and was thought capable of anything. At last the physicians were sent for again, but it was not in their power to stop the violence of his distemper, which carried him out of the world on the 6th July, in the sixteenth year of his age, after his giving sensible proofs of a true piety. Rapin, vol. i., p. 26. PERSON AND CHARACTER. His person was elegant, his disposition affable and humane, and his mind cultivated by extensive learning: his strict attachment to equity and justice filled his people, by whom his death was lamented as a public misfortune, with flattering hopes that his reign would be rendered illustrious by his virtues; and had he been indulged with a longer life there is all reason in the world to suppose he would have made his people happy by a wise and equitable administration. Spencer, p. 315. CHRONICLE. Edward crowned at Westminster, 20th Feb., 1547. The protector (the king's uncle) created Earl of Somerset. March 13th.. Orders issued for keeping a bible in every church, with Erasmus's paraphrase of the New Testament, and the Book of Homilies, compiled by Cranmer, to be read in every church on Sundays and Holidays. 16th April. Evening prayers began to be read in English in the king's chapel, and popish images burnt in London. 10th Sept. The Scots defeated with loss of 8,000 men, at Pinkenclugh. 1549, January 15th. The Book of Common Prayer adopted by the parliament, and its observance enforced by severe penalties. 20th March. The Lord High Admiral beheaded. In this year insurrections took place in various parts of the coun try, chiefly occasioned by the increase of enclosures, the scarcity of employment, and the introduction of the new worship. Exeter was besieged by the rebels, and the inhabitants were driven to great distress so as to eat their horses, till relieved by Lord Russel. In Norfolk the rising was at Aldborough, and was headed by Ket, a tanner, who planted his standard on the summit of Moushold hill, near Norwich, erected for himself a throne under a spreading oak, which he called the Oak of Reformation, and established courts in imitation of those at Westminster. Ket's followers at one time amounted to 20,000, but they were put to the rout by the Earl of Warwick, at the head of a body of German horse; abcut 2,000 were slain, and Ket was hung in chains at the top of Norwich Castle. Bonner, Bishop of London, sent to the Marshalsea prison, where he remained till the king's death, for refusing to comply with the rites of the church. 1551. The sweating sickness raged throughout England which carried off* numbers, with many of the nobility. 1552, Jan. 22nd. The Duke of Somerset beheaded on Tower-hill. 6th April. The king fell sick of the small pox and measles, which brought on consumption. 1553. He gave his palace of Bridewell to the city, for the lodging of poor travellers, and for the correction of vagabonds, and incorporated the Lord Mayor and citizens governors of the hospitals of St. Bartholomew, of Christchurch, and St. Thomas, in Southwark. REIGN OF MARY. FROM 1553 TO 1558-5 YEARS, 4 MONTHS, 11 DAYS. LADY JANE GREY. The guiltless usurpation of this excellent and much lamented youthful victim of an ambitious faction was brief enough. Within ten days after her proclamation and exhibition of queen, and her taking up her residence in that character in the Tower of London, the rightful heiress, Mary, was in full possession of all of which it had been attempted to deprive her, and Queen Jane, and her young consort, had to come down from their thrones, and to bid an eternal farewell to all earthly glory. The Tower palace became almost instantaneously the Tower prison. Northumberland perished at once on the block, but Lady Jane and her husband had probably been spared, but for Wyatt's ill-managed insurrection, which broke out on the news of the queen's intended marriage with the cruel bigot of Spain, King Philip, and was supported by Lady Jane Grey's Father, the Duke of Suffolk. The insurrection failed, and not only involved all those in ruin who had directly promoted it, but those in the Tower, who assuredly desired nothing so much as a peaceable and unambitious life. Within a week after Wyatt's discomfiture it was determined that Lady Jane and her husband should both die, and on the same day. Fecknam, |