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also be remembered that several of her near relatives concurred in the judgment pronounced upon her.

Parliament and Convocation confirmed the sentence against the Queen; and Elizabeth, her infant daughter, was declared illegitimate.

19. Many of the lower classes were strongly opposed to the late religious innovations, and in 1536 insurrections broke out in Lincolnshire, and the Northern Counties, for restoring the religious houses. They were headed by Robert Aske, a lawyer, and Lord Darcy; and numbered at one time 40,000 men. The insurgents defied the royal proclamations for several months; but were at last suppressed, and their leaders executed. They called their march "The Pilgrimage of Grace ;" and took for their badge the five wounds of Christ.

20. Henry's two daughters being now declared illegitimate, the council again became anxious about the succession and urged the king to a speedy marriage. His choice fell upon Lady Jane Seymour, an amiable lady, who died the following year, after giving birth to Edward VI.

21. In 1538 a bull was issued by the Pope, excommunicating and deposing Henry; and Reginald Pole, an English renegade, was appointed to publish it.

Henry had brought up Pole as his own child, had pensioned him and given him an excellent education. This kindness was repaid by the vilest ingratitude. He quarrelled with Henry, and went to the Continent; where for many years he strove to persuade France and Germany to invade England and dethrone Henry.

Three of Pole's relatives, who were still residing in England, were found guilty of a treasonable correspondence with him, and were executed. His mother, the Countess of Salisbury, was condemned by Parliament for the same offence; and, after two years' imprisonment, and a fresh provocation by her son, was also beheaded.

22. About this time the adherents of the old creed gained an ascendency in the Council; and a statute was issued, called The Six Articles, for checking the new dogmas on transubstantiation, communion in both kinds, celibacy of the priests, religious vows, private masses and auricular confession. At the head of this party was Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, the brutal persecutor of the reign of Mary.

Many suffered from the enforcement of this statute. Cranmer sent his wife and children abroad in alarm for their safety. Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, was thrown into prison.

As the influence of the Romanists increased, Cromwell's influence fell. In order to regain it, and to strengthen Henry's position, which was threatened by Charles V., he advised him to marry Anne of Cleves, a Protestant princess. Through Cromwell's agents Henry was led to infer that Anne was beautiful and accomplished; but, on her arrival, he found that she was neither. He went through the form of a marriage with her; but was shortly after divorced.

With his accustomed liberality, Anne was pensioned, and allowed to retire to Richmond, where she died (1557).

Shortly after, Cromwell, who was now Earl of Essex, was arrested by the Duke of Norfolk on a charge of treason. He was accused by his enemies of exceeding the limits of his power, attainted, and executed.

23. Henry married next Catherine Howard, niece of the Duke of Norfolk, who was soon discovered to be a woman of the most abandoned character. She was attainted by Parliament in consequence, and executed

Henry, on hearing of her crimes from Cranmer, could not for a time credit it; but Catherine acknowledged her guilt with her own lips.

24. For the next eighteen months, Henry was chiefly occupied in trying to establish a uniformity in the national religion.

"Behold," said he, to his Parliament, "what love and charity

are among you, when the one calleth another Anabaptist, and he calleth him again Papist, hypocrite, and pharisee! Alas! how can the poor souls live in concord, when you, preachers, sow amongst them, in your sermons, debate and discord? Of you they look for light, and ye bring them to darkness."

25. In 1543 Henry married Catherine Parr, the widow of Lord Latimer, whose wit and tenderness enabled her to preserve Henry's affections to the last. During the last few years of his life he suffered acute agony from an ulcerated leg; but though disease irritated him, it never crushed his lofty spirit.

Cranmer attended his deathbed; and desired him to give some sign that he died in Christ's faith. He replied by grasping the prelate's hand with all his remaining energy, and then expired.

A short time before his death, the Duke of Norfolk, and his son, the Earl of Surrey, were imprisoned on a charge of treason; and the latter was executed. Norfolk's life was spared by the opportune death of the King, which took place the night before the day appointed for the execution,

Henry was brave, accomplished, forgiving, and generous. In his administration he ever sought to protect the poor against the oppression of the rich; and he never spared a criminal however exalted might be his position. He was a skilful warrior and politician; and, in spite of enemies abroad and at home, succeeded in maintaining the honour of his country. He was unfortunate in his domestic relations; but even his enemies admitted the general purity of his life.

In this reign Wales first returned representatives to Parlia ment; church registers were introduced; the colleges of Christchurch at Oxford, and Trinity in Cambridge, were founded; and the Bible was printed in English.

Contemporaries.-26. Scotland, James IV., James V., Mary; France, Louis XII., Francis I.; Germany, Maximilian I., Charles V.; Howard, Earl of Surrey, son of the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Skelton, famous poets; Tyndale and Coverdale, translators of the Bible; Erasmus, a famous scholar and friend of Sir Thomas More; Linacre, the first teacher of Greek in England.

EDWARD VI.

Born A.D. 1537; Reigned 6 years (1547-1553).

Family.-1. Edward was the son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour. He was never married.

Chronicle.-2. At his accession the young king was only ten years of age, and the government was entrusted to a council of twenty-eight persons, who had been nominated by Henry before his death. In order to facilitate business, this council appointed the King's uncle, the Earl of Hertford, Protector of the Realm.

Shortly after, he was made Duke of Somerset, and several of his colleagues received similar advancements. Among them was the son of the infamous Dudley, who was made Earl of Warwick.

3. In pursuance of Henry's desire that a marriage should be effected between Edward and Mary, the infant Queen of Scotland, Somerset conducted an army into that country for the purpose of bringing it about. The Scotch were greatly opposed to the match, and gave battle to the Protector at Pinkie, near Edinburgh, 1547; but they were disastrously defeated. News of his brother's plots prevented Somerset from following up this advantage; and he returned to England, leaving the army in charge of Warwick.

Mary was now sent for security to the court of France, where she married the French Dauphin, afterwards Francis II. Some of the Scotch nobles would have favoured an English alliance, but were opposed to Somerset's mode of effecting it. The Earl of Huntley said-" I dislike not the match, but I hate the manner of wooing."

4. In the first Parliament of this reign, the Act of Six Articles was repealed; and various measures were taken for the advance of the Reformed faith.

Somerset was himself a Protestant; and Edward was brought up in the same creed.

The English Bible was placed in all churches; a book of homilies was published; the Latin mass was superseded by

an English service; pilgrimages were abolished; images were destroyed; and forty-two articles were drawn up, containing a clear summary of the Protestant faith.

5. When Somerset returned from Scotland, he found that his brother, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, the husband of the Queen-Dowager, and High Admiral, had been concerting measures for overthrowing the government. He immediately caused him to be arrested and tried, on the charge of high treason. He was found guilty, and executed, 1549.

Seymour was a dissolute and ambitious man; and has been accused of having hastened the death of his wife in order to marry the Princess Elizabeth. It is said that, when on the scaffold, he charged his servant to deliver a letter, concealed in the sole of his shoe, to the two princesses, urging them to conspire against their brother.

6. Several important insurrections broke out the following year, in consequence of the low state of the labour-markets, and of the late religious innovations.

One

The former was partly the result of the increasing practice of turning arable into pasture land. The demand for English wool was so great, that landowners found it more profitable to turn their estates into sheep-walks than to till them. owner possessed a flock of 24,000 sheep. Sir Thomas More said that a sheep had become in England a more ravenous animal than a lion or wolf, and devoured whole villages, cities, and provinces.

The first outbreak occurred in Devonshire, but it was soon suppressed. The next, under Ket, a Norfolk tanner, was more formidable. Warwick was sent against him; and, after dispersing his troops, caused him to be hanged on Norwich Castle.

Nine other ringleaders were hanged on the Oak of Reformation, a tree under which Ket had sat, dispensing justice to the Norfolk gentry, who were brought before him.

7. In order to acquire popular favour, Somerset affected to sympathize with the insurgents, and thereby gave offence to the nobles, who were already jealous of his power and disgusted with his arrogance. His reckless appropriation of church property, for the pur

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