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§ 8. Learned men were brought over to England to spread a knowledge of the new doctrines; for Cranmer was painfully aware of the almost incredible ignorance of the great majority of the clergy, whose whole accomplishment, under the old routine system of the breviary, had not extended beyond the faculty of reading the words of their prayers. So few indeed were judged capable of preaching, that a book of homilies was prepared for their use, in which the distinctive doctrines of the Reformation were clearly set forth. A few more years of the gradual extension of knowledge, and the benefits of royal countenance and support, might have settled the Reformation beyond the chances of a reaction; but this was not to be.

§ 9. Edward fell into a decline at the beginning of the year 1553, and terrible forebodings fell upon the rulers in Church and State. Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, procured a gift of all the great lands belonging to the princely See of Durham, and, throwing for the most desperate stakes, married his younger son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to a cousin of the royal house, Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and grandchild, by her mother, of the Princess Mary of England, sister of Henry VIII. While the boyking was dying, Northumberland prevailed on him to make a disposition of the crown in favour of his daughter-inlaw, which by force and threatening he induced the Council to ratify, and on the demise of Edward had the boldness or madness to proclaim her queen. (July 6, 1553.)

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CHAPTER IV.

QUEEN MARY.

A.D. 1553 TO A.D. 1558.

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

FRANCE.-Henry II.

SCOTLAND.-Mary.

SPAIN. Charles I.

Of Navarre.-Joan of Albret and her husband; An-
thony of Bourbon.

EMPERORS OF GERMANY.-Charles V., King of Spain.
POPES.-Julius III.; Marcellus II.; Paul IV.

§ 1. State of parties in England. Proclamation of Lady Jane Grey. Want of enthusiasm in her favour. § 2. Accession of Mary.§ 3. Northumberland and his abettors tried and executed. Gardner made Chancellor.-§ 4. Mary restores the Popish religion, and negotiates a marriage with Philip of Spain.-§ 5. General dissatisfaction. Wyatt's rebellion. His capture and execution.-§ 6. Mary's persecuting spirit. § 7. Imprisonment of the Princess Elizabeth. Execution of Lady Jane Grey and numerous others.-§ 8. Acquittal of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and the persecutions of the jury.§ 9. The Queen's marriage with Philip of Spain. Personal appearance of the two royal personages.-§ 10. Cardinal Pole. The Roman Catholic Church once more dominant in the land.-§ 11. The reign of terror begins; the fires of Smithfield, and execution of Rogers, Ridley, and Latimer. Resistance of the people.-§ 12. Trial, recantation, and execution of Cranmer.-§ 13. The horrible persecutions of "bloody Mary's" reign. Her reported pregnancy.-§ 14. Visit of her husband Philip of Spain. War with France at the instigation of Philip.-§ 15. The French defeated at St. Quintin. Calais surrendered to the French. Lamentations of Mary. Her death.

§ 1. BOLDNESS or madness, it depended entirely on the result which of these descriptions should apply to the Duke of Northumberland's action. If fear of popery, as represented by the Princess Mary, and desire to retain the new pro

one.

prietors in possession of the Church lands and livings they had obtained, had been strong enough to gain a national corroboration of the formal instrument under which he proclaimed the accession of Lady Jane Grey, history would have looked on him as a great and sagacious statesman, who saw the fitting time for converting a dubious title into a true But we have seen that Protestantism was not understood among the body of the people; the new proprietors had alienated their neighbours by abridging their ancient privileges; parishes lay at such a distance from each other, and even towns had so little communication, that there must have been large tracts of country where the late proceedings had never been heard of; and therefore it was impossible to get up any enthusiasm on behalf of a Protestant defender of the faith, without any hereditary right to the throne, amidst such a mass of ignorance, apathy, and discontent. Honest English sense of justice also, and the regard for lofty birth which has always distinguished our countrymen, were revolted by an attempt to exclude the eldest sister of Edward, and the daughter of a royal pair, in favour of the nominee of an unnatural brother on his death-bed, and wife of the grandson of Dudley the informer.

When Northumberland, therefore, after concealing the death of Edward for two days, and failing in his attempt to entrap the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, into his power, ordered the pursuivants and heralds to proclaim Queen Jane, there was an ominous want of enthusiasm among the people. All the beauty, learning, and innocence which bestow so much interest on the person and fortunes of Lady Jane Grey were then unknown. She was considered an usurper, and shared in the obloquy of her father-in-law. The recurrence to the rule of hereditary succession was a step on the way to liberty, as it ignored the power of kings to leave these realms by will; and the falling away from the gentle bride of Lord Guildford Dudley, who had never sighed for a crown, but

A.D. 1553.]

ACCESSION OF MARY.

461

protested against the efforts made in her favour, was universal and complete. Ridley alone, allowing his fear of Popery to exceed his regard for legal rights, preached in favour of Jane. But Cecil, Cranmer, and the rest of the Council yielded to circumstances, and gave in their adhesion to Mary. Suffolk himself, the father of Lady Jane, protested his loyalty and submission, and Northumberland, deserted by all his adherents, made his entrance with the few fragments of his forces which continued true to him, into the town of Cambridge, and hurrying to the market-place, threw up his bonnet in the air, and shouted "God save Queen Mary" as loud as he was able.

§ 2. Within ten days all the chief actors in this extraordinary episode in our history were prisoners in the Tower, and Mary, by slow stages, came up from Norfolk, where her followers were most devoted to her, and was received on her approach to London by her sister Elizabeth, who rode out to meet her at the head of a thousand horse. Mary could not refuse the expression of her gratitude for Elizabeth's uniform loyalty and sisterly affection, and the royal cavalcade proceeded through the streets, and finally reached the Tower. There the prisoners who had suffered for the faith were joyously delivered by the queen. Mary kissed Bishop Gardner and the Duke of Norfolk and the Duchess of Somerset, as she raised them from their knees. There was great joy in all the Roman Catholic States, and fear fell upon the Reformed. Yet at first the, new sovereign conducted herself so circumspectly, that hopes were entertained at home of a reign of moderation and peace. She had masses said for her late brother in her own chapel; but a full Protestant service celebrated his public burial in Westminster Abbey, and a zealous Protestant preached the funeral sermon.

§ 3. Northumberland and his abettors were tried and executed; the meanness and cowardice of the principal sufferer being only exceeded by the want of talent he had displayed throughout. The next step was of evil omen to the Pro

testants. Gardner, embittered by persecution and irritated by personal wrong, was made Chancellor and the queen's chief adviser in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.

§ 4. With all her enemies at her feet with Cranmer, Latimer, and others in confinement-with the married clergymen forcibly dispossessed of their livings, or separated from their wives-with the forms of worship as they existed in Henry the Eighth's time restored by an Act of Parliament, and any attempt to alter the religion so restored declared a felony-the queen did not yet feel that half her work was done. She made overtures to the pope for a complete restoration to the Catholic fold; and as a farther guarantee of her sincerity in the popish cause, concluded a marriage with Philip, Prince of Spain, who, with his father, Charles V., was the most powerful and zealous supporter of the Church of Rome.

But the English, though amazingly ready to submit to the tyranny of their native rulers, were alarmed at the prospect of a foreign master. The grandeur of Spain also at that time induced a fear that England would sink into a mere dependency of the greater power. Moderate Catholics did not approve of what they heard of their proposed sovereign in his hereditary States, and already his name was a word of fear to all the lovers of freedom and enlightenment throughout the world. Great advantages were held forth in the contract of marriage, which was read by Gardner to the Lord Mayor of London and his aldermen. Mary's children were to inherit the vast regions subject to the Spanish crown, and yet he was to have nothing in England but the empty title of king. Whether the Lord Mayor and aldermen saw through these flimsy disguises we cannot know, but they did not blind the more clear-sighted gentlemen of England, who had learned not to put their trust in princes.

§ 5. The most distinguished of these was Sir Thomas Wyatt, who roused the men of Kent by his denunciations of

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