Anne of Cleves. The commons concurred mons, and was once more passed by the with the lords, and the king granted their lords without a dissentient voice. He was prayer, referring the consideration of the charged by the bill of attainder with heresy subject to the convocation.* The whole and treason: the first, because he favored of this drama was arranged, and all the heretical preachers, patronized their works, parts of it were cast, three days before, at and discouraged informations against them; the privy-council, who communicated it to the second, because he had received bribes, Clark bishop of Bath, minister at Cleves, in released many prisoners confined for misa dispatch of the 3d of July. It is a la- prision of treason, and performed several mentable fact that a man with so many good acts of royal authority without warrant qualities as Cranmer should be a party to from the king; but more especially because such a mockery. The whole convocation, he had declared, two years before, "that however, vied in compliance with the par- if the king would turn from the preachers liament. They declared the marriage to of the new learning, yet he, Cromwell, be null, by the consent of the lady Anne, would not; but would fight in the field in and after a full consideration of all the cir- his own person, with his sword in his hand, cumstances, none of which they deign to to defend it against the king himself." specify. Her consent was insured by a But the condemnation of a man unheard is liberal income of 3000l. a year, and she a case in which the strongest presumptions lived for sixteen years in England with the against the prosecution are warranted. That title of princess Anne of Cleves. The loyal he was zealous for further reformation is nobles hastened to entertain a bill for the certain: that he may have used warm lannullity. On the 13th of July it was read guage to express his zeal; that he may twice and passed. Two archbishops and have transgressed the bounds of official eighteen bishops were present; of whom duty to favor the new opinion, are allegaBonner of London and Gardiner of Win- tions in themselves not improbable: but as chester were two. This bill received the we do not know the witnesses who gave royal assent on the 24th of July, 1540, the testimony; as we do not even know whether day of the close of the session and of the there were any examined; and, indeed, dissolution of the parliament. know nothing but that he was not heard in It is singular, though very characteristic his own defence; it is perfectly evident that of the reign, that this annulment once more whether the words or deeds ascribed to displayed the triumph of an English lady Cromwell were really his or not, is a quesover a foreign princess; and that the tri- tion, without any decision on which the juumphant beauty should be the cousin-ger- dicial proceedings (if they deserve that man of Anne Boleyn. This was lady Cath- name) may be pronounced to be altogether arine Howard, niece to the duke of Nor-void of any shadow of justice. Cranmer, folk, whom the king wedded on the 8th of in a very earnest and persuasive letter, August, 1540, about a fortnight after the endeavored to obtain from the king the parliament had enabled him to form another preservation of Cromwell's life. The archunion. But before we proceed to relate the bishop, like Atticus, never forsook his friends sequel of this fourth marriage, it is neces- in their distress; but, like that famous Rosary to throw a glance backward on the man, he too often bent the knee to their fate of Cromwell, who was the author of oppressors.** the marriage with Anne. The execution of Cromwell, though an Seldom has any statesman fallen from act of flagrant injustice, was for a time the summit of power and greatness more popular. The most active conductor of a suddenly than Cromwell. A bill to attaint him of high treason was read a first time "Communi omnium procerum tunc presentium on the 17th of June, 1540; on which day consensu, nemine dissentiente." he took his place as earl of Essex, and ¶ Burn. Hist of Reform. book iii. A. D. 1540. The vicegerent of the king, in the royal charac-bill of attainder at length, in Burn. Rec. book iii. ter of supreme head of the church. So ** The character of Cromwell may be estimated far was the accused from being heard in by the following extracts from a memorandum-book his own defence, that in two days more, viz. of that minister, published by Mr. Ellis: on the 19th, the bill was read a second and No. 16. "Item-the abbot of Reding to be sent down to be tried and executed at Reding, with his complices." "Item-the abbot of Glastonbury to be tried at Glaston, and also to be executed there, with his complices." "Item-to advertise the king of the ordering of maister Fisher" (the bishop). "Item-to know his pleasure touching maister More" (Sir Thomas More). "Item-when maister Fisher shall go." "Item-to send unto the king by Raffe the behavior of maister Fisher." "To send Gurdon to the Tower, to be rakked." wide system of confiscation must do much cere in his urgent invitations and ample wrong, besides what is involved in the very offers; but it might have been unsafe for so nature of rapine. He must often cover his near a connexion of the house of York to robberies by false accusations and unjust trust himself to the inconstant friendship executions. He treats the complaints of of his royal cousin. the spoiled as crimes. He excites revolt, He could not forget the murder of his and is the author of that necessity which uncle, the earl of Warwick, by Henry VII. ; compels him to punish the revolters. He more especially as he himself assured his connives at the atrocities of his subalterns; biographer Beccatelli of the agreement of for with what face can the leader of a gang Henry and Ferdinand, in 1499, that the reprove banditti for the injustice and cru- death of Warwick should precede the marelty which are the cement of their disci- riage of Arthur and Catharine. It is also pline and the wages of their obedience? probable, though, considering the religious The Roman Catholic party, incensed opinions then prevalent among Italian men against Cromwell, neither unnaturally nor of letters, it cannot be certainly known, unjustly, had now resumed much of their that Pole's piety was sincere, and his zeal ascendant. The act of the six articles was for the papal authority honest. At all events, in the full vigor of its cruelty. In all the generosity and honor forbade the desertion course of Henry's fluctuations between his of faithful companions. Pole declined the schismatic establishment and his Catholic advances of the king, and openly professed doctrines, there probably was no period at his condemnation of the divorce. Henry's which he was driven to a greater distance hatred was kindled in proportion to the arfrom Protestants than during the six months dor of his desires to obtain Pole's friendship of his apparent union with a princess of a and approbation. The monarch took a dreadLutheran family. The duke of Norfolk, ful revenge. Margaret Pole, a Plantagenet, the leader of the Catholic laity, was sus- the cardinal's mother, was attainted of high pected of being influenced by another mo- treason, perhaps under the pretext of a tive besides the interest of his party, in the mother's correspondence with her son. She share which he took in the destruction of was imprisoned for two years in the Tower; Cromwell. He confidently expected that and was treated variously, as might seem it would be followed by the elevation of conducive to the purposes of subduing or his niece, lady Catharine Howard, to the melting down her resistance. She was bethrone; a promotion which promised, in-headed on the 27th of May, 1541. She redeed, to serve his cause, as well as to fused to lay her head on the scaffold, saying honor his person and enlarge his power. that "it was for traitors to do so, which she Among the various circumstances which was not." She moved, or was thought to caused Cromwell to die unpitied, it was move, aside a hair-breadth from the spot, not the least, that he had himself set the seemingly as a sort of protest against an example of attainder without trial oftener execution without trial. The executioner, than any other minister. He fell by his alarmed and confounded, struck several cuts at her, which covered her gray hairs with One of the most cruel of these iniquitous blood before they altogether extinguished executions was that of Courtney marquis life. own snares. of Exeter, with lord Montague and Sir The king, who had wedded Catharine Edward Nevil, whose guilt seems to have Howard only in August, 1540, received consisted only in their descent from Edward such information in November following of IV. Exeter was charged with the very her dissolute life before marriage, as immeimprobable offence of conspiring to place diately caused a rigid inquiry into her beReginald Pole on the throne, although the havior. The facts are contained in a distitle of Exeter himself was preferable. patch from the privy-council to the ambas Reginald Pole, best known as a cardinal, sador at Paris, dated on the 12th of Novemwas the son of Margaret Plantagenet, ber, and they are related with a circumdaughter to the duke of Clarence, by Sir stantial exactness, forming almost a contrast Richard Pole, a knight of ancient descent to the vagueness of all former proceedings in Wales. He passed much of his life in of the like sort. The particulars, which Italy, where he was the rival and delight are too gross to be stated, the names of the of the most accomplished poets, artists, and witnesses, the share of Cranmer in commuscholars, who adorned that brilliant age. nicating the information to the king (which Henry seemed to have been proud of him. appears indeed to have been inevitable), in He defrayed his relation's expenses munifi- a word, whatever can illustrate or establish cently, and was certainly eager in his wish a charge, are fully related in the dispatch. to obtain the sanction of a learned and cele- There is no evidence that Cranmer was brated person of the royal blood to his mar-ever guilty of a malicious or vindictive act. riages and divorces. He was doubtless sin- The confessions of Catharine and of lady Rochford, upon which they were attainted, to the throne, the reformers obtained a comin parliament, and executed in the Tower pensation for the loss of lord Audley, the on the 14th of February, are not said to chancellor, their secret but steady friend, have been at any time questioned. It is who was succeeded by Wriothesley, a difficult to withhold belief from the facts; patron of the old doctrine. The prebenbut the baseness of the parliament, who daries of Canterbury, excited, as it was beentreated the king not to give his assent in lieved, by Gardiner, preferred a volumiperson to the bill, and the facility with ous accusation against Cranmer, the subwhich he doomed these females to execu- stance of which was, that he discouraged tion, in spite of the sensibility which the orthodox preachers and protected the heslavish parliament ascribed to him, are retical; that under him the law of the six very slightly, if at all, extenuated by the articles was unexecuted, and that he had a truth of the charge. The authentic ac- constant correspondence with the heretics counts known to us relate chiefly to the of Germany. The conduct of Cranmer vices of Catharine before marriage. had been wary, and the king showed a Some acts of infidelity subsequent to the friendship for the primate, which the unimarriage are indeed recited, and were form compliance of the latter had too well necessary to bring the charge within the earned. He escaped from this conspiracy most forced construction of the statute of of his clergy. Sir John Gortwick, memEdward III. It contains, however, another ber of parliament for Bedfordshire, comabominable clause, which makes it high plained to the house of commons against treason in any woman whom the king is Cranmer for preaching heresy. The king about to marry, not to confess her unchas- rebuked Gortwick severely. The Roman tity to him, if she has been actually un- Catholic party renewed their attack in the chaste. This clause, it may be supposed, privy-council, complaining that "Cranmer would have occurred to no tyrant, if there and his learned men had so infected the had been no misgiving, in the particular whole realm with their unsavory doctrines, case, of acts done after marriage.* To that three parts of the land were become make the concealment of vices a capital abominable heretics." The king terminoffence was worthy of such a reign. The ated the affair by declaring, that he acmind of Henry, under color of preserving counted "the archbishop of Canterbury to the public quiet by guarding the succession, be as faithful a man to the crown as ever was intent on fencing round a sort of suc- was prelate in this realm.” cessive seraglio, by all the horrors which Catharine had read Lutheran books, and could deter intruders from its approaches. even presumed to enter into theological Every woman who now aspired to share controversy with her imperious lord. Wrihis throne might, without a very powerful othesley and Gardiner were directed to fancy, imagine that she saw the heads of give order for her imprisonment, and to her predecessors planted on the walls of prepare articles of impeachment against his palace. His regard to the mere forms her. Hearing this intelligence, she fell of wedlock, joined to a contempt for kind- into a succession of fits, in consequence of ness and tenderness, "the weightier mat- which he was carried to her apartment (for ters of the law," made him a more cruel he was now too unwieldy to walk), where tyrant than he could have been, if he had he said, "Kate, you are a doctor."- No," disregarded the exterior as much as he of said she, "sir, I only wished to divert you fended against the substance of that im- from your pain by an argument, in which portant union. It appears, accordingly, you so much shine.""Is it so, sweetthat after the tremendous enactment which heart?" said he; "then we are friends made the concealment of incontinency a again." By this stratagem did she escape capital offence, the offer of his hand was the vengeance of the royal polemic, which, more dreaded than courted; so that the during the remainder of his life, she never youthful beauties stood off from a royal again ventured to provoke.‡ seat, which placed their lives at the mercy In the beginning of the year 1543, of the king's mistakes as well as of his Henry renewed his friendship with the passions.† emperor, long suspended by the discussions On the 10th of July, 1543, Henry wed-respecting the divorce and marriage of the ded Catharine Parr, the widow of lord English monarch. They concluded an alLatimer, a lady of mature age, who show-liance against Francis, whom they repreed the same favorable disposition to the sented as "the ally of the Turks." The reformation with all his English wives, ex- beginning of the war was inconsiderable. cept Catharine Howard. By her elevation On the 14th of July, 1544, Henry, who * 31 Hen. 8. c. 21. An act for the attainder of Catharine Howard and her accomplices. Herbert, ii. Kenn. 238. Strype's Cranmer, c. 26, 27, 28. § Rymer, xiv. 768, &c. "Contra Franciscum cum Turckâ confederatum." 11th Feb. 1542 (1543). still affected a fondness for warlike shows, | heretics, and of the papists as traitors. But passed the seas in a ship with sails of cloth it seems to have been somewhat mitigated of gold, leaving the regency in the hands in his last years to his court and kindred; of Catharine. The imperial ambassador probably from the languor of distemper, urged his immediate advance to Paris: but which might put on some appearance of the king of England rather followed the mildness, and produce some of the effects example than the counsel of the emperor, of good nature towards those on whose kind who had already added several French offices he was necessarily dependent. This towns to his Burgundian territory. The general softening was chequered by occaduke of Suffolk marched to invest Bou-sional acts of extreme harshness, which, logne, which was gallantly defended by for the sake of equal justice, may be laid Vervins, the French governor. The Eng-to the account of his occasional paroxysms lish general was speedily followed by the of pain, which are said to have been unuduke of Albuquerque, the commander of sually acute. His body had become so unthe imperial auxiliaries, and by Henry him- wieldy, that he could not be moved without self, who, in spite of his huge and distem- machines contrived for the purpose. An oppered body, came "armed at all points pression on his breathing rendered it diffiupon a great courser." The lower town cult for him to relieve himself by a recumwas taken before the 21st of July; but the bent posture. The signature of his name high town did not surrender till the 14th became too heavy a task for his feeble or of September, and then on terms well mer- overloaded hands. Stamps with his initials ited by a brave defence. The king made were affixed in his presence, and by his his triumphant entry on the 18th into this verbal command, to all the instruments city, of which the reduction was somewhat which required the royal signature. He characteristic of Henry's warfare; having became offensive to his humblest attendants a sort of middle character between a siege by an ulcer in one of his swollen limbs, and a tournament, and chiefly remarkable which often subjected him to the extremity as a display of prowess, and an exhibition of pain. of the feats of arms of the youth of two It was in this miserable condition of warlike nations.* On the same day with Henry that an act was done by him, or in Henry's triumphal entrance into Boulogne, his name, which has become memorable the emperor made a separate peace with and interesting from the fame of an illusFrance at Cressy, alleging Henry's attack trious sufferer. Henry Howard, earl of on Boulogne as a departure from the gene- Surrey, is so justly renowned by his poetral objects of the alliance. A secret ar- ical genius, which was then surpassed in ticle is said to have formed a part of that his own country by none but that of Chautreaty of Cressy, for the destruction of the cer; by his happy imitations of the Italian religious revolt which was now spreading masters; by a version of the Æneid, of in France, in the Netherlands, and in which the execution is wonderful, and the Switzerland. But it is not probable that very undertaking betokens the consciousthe projects of Charles V. and Henry II. ness of lofty superiority; by the place in were at that period so mature as to be re- which we are accustomed to behold him, at duced to diplomatic formalities. The the head of the uninterrupted series of French, under the mareschal de Monluc, English poets; that we find it difficult to were repulsed in an attempt to retake Bou- regard him in those inferior points of view, logne. They disembarked in the isle of of a gallant knight, a skilful captain, and Wight and in Sussex. Several indecisive an active statesman, which, in the eyes of skirmishes occurred at sea. These unim- his contemporaries, eclipsed the lustre of portant hostilities were closed by a treaty his literary renown. He had served with signed on the 7th of June, 1546, and some- distinction in the late war against France, what singularly dated "under tents in the where differences with the earl of Hertfields between Ardres and Guines," of ford, whom Surrey accused of having supwhich the principal stipulation was, that planted him in command, were widened. within eight years Henry should receive Hertford was the brother of Jane Seymour, two millions of crowns, with arrears and and the uncle of the young prince. The costs which are enumerated; and on pay- rapid decay of the king added daily to his ment of these sums, Boulogne and its de- consequence, and increased his desire to in pendencies should be restored to Francis. The cruelty of Henry continued conspicuous to the last, in the alternate but impartial persecution of the Lutherans as *Diary of the siege of Boulogne, 21st July to 25th September, 1544, Herbert, 245. sure an undivided power over his nephew. Hertford so soon after gave full scope to his attachment for the reformation, that we cannot suppose him not to have been a Protestant while Henry yet lived. As none of the reformed nobility exposed themselves to legal punishment by an avowal of their faith, so the Catholic lords concealed their] however, which had no connexion with the attachments to the papal power, which accusation. would have been an unpardonable crime in Surrey was tried on the 13th of January, the eyes of Henry. These circumstances 1547, at Guildhall; and on this absurd render it difficult to ascertain the real opin- charge, supported by such monstrous eviions of the earl of Surrey. But we know dence, he was convicted of high treason.‡ the opinions of his father, and the inclina- On the 19th or 21st of January he was extions of his family, so perfectly, that there ecuted, either six or eight days before Hencan be little doubt of Surrey being at least ry died, "who," says Holinshed, “on the an adherent of the Catholic party. The day of lord Surrey's execution, was lying house of Howard alone stood in the way of in the agonies of death." As the king's the Seymours in their pursuits, under the sick-bed was surrounded by Surrey's eneapproaching minority. Personal pique, re- mies, it must be always uncertain whether ligious dissension, political jealousy, all the hand of Henry was, even in the lowest pointed in the same direction. The means bodily sense, affixed to the instrument by which Henry was enlisted in the service which warranted the execution. of this confederacy of passions are un- The duke of Norfolk, who seems to have known; but it is likely that he was easily owed his misfortunes originally to the refilled with apprehension by representations sentment of the duchess, whom he had long of the power and greatness of the How-deserted for Mrs. Holland, was importuned ards, who alone could endanger the royal into an imperfect confession of acts which seat of his son. were almost blamable. A bill of attainder Whatever were the motives or means was introduced against him, founded on his employed, the earl of Surrey, together with confession. The royal assent was given to his father, was, on the 12th of December, it, in virtue of a commission signed by the 1546, imprisoned in the Tower.* The stamps on the 27th of January, and orders legal ground of proceeding was the sweep- were sent to the Tower for the execution ing section of more than one recent statute in the morning. But Henry died in the which made it high treason "to do any night. The execution was suspended. The thing, by word, writing, or deed, to the duke was confined during the next reign ; scandal or peril of the established succes- but in that of Mary the attainder was resion to the crown." The only overt act al-versed, on the grounds that the act could leged against him was his having assumed not be treason, because the arms had been the armorial bearing of Edward the Con- long publicly borne in the presence of the fessor, "which had been hitherto exclusive- kings of England; that the king died in ly used by his majesty and his predecessors, the night following the day on which the kings of England."+ commission bears date; and that the comOf the witnesses who were examined in mission is not signed with his name, but support of this charge, the first was Mrs. with stamps put thereunto not in the place Holland, the mistress of the duke of Nor- where he was accustomed to put them; and folk. She only mentioned the duke having it was also declared that the royal assent blamed his son for want of skill in quarter- can only be given by the king, either in his ing the family arms, and "had spoken with own person or by letters patent under the warmth against the new nobility (meaning great seal, according to a statute of 33 the Seymours), who did not love him." Henry VIII., and that the pretended act of The second witness was the duchess of attainder shall be taken and deemed to be Richmond, the widow of Henry's natural no act of parliament.§ son, a young and very beautiful woman, At two o'clock in the night between the who, though the daughter of Norfolk, now 27th and 28th of January, 1547, Henry appeared to swear away the lives of her VIII. breathed his last at Westminster, in father and her brother. She deposed that the thirty-fifth year of his reign and fiftyher brother Surrey had spoken with asper- sixth of his age. On Saturday, the 29th, ity of Hertford; that he had professed a parliament met according to their adjourndislike of "the new nobility," and com-ment, and transacted ordinary business. It plained of the king as the cause of the de- was not till Monday, the last day of Januafeat of the English before Boulogne. She ry, "that, in presence of all the peers, and added, seemingly of her own accord, that Surrey wore on his arms, instead of a ducal coronet, what seemed to her judgment very like a close crown, and a cipher, which she took to be the king's H. R.; two matters, Six of the twelve jurors appear, from their names, to be men of ancient note in Norfolk, from which county they were summoned : Paston, Boleyn, Woodhouse, L'Estrange, Hobart, Bedingfield. at Norfolk-house. Nothing is contained in the au§ Nott's Surrey, i. Appen. No. 50., from the original thentic edition of the statutes, but the title of the statute of Mary," An act to declare the pretended attainder of Thomas duke of Norfolk to be void and of no effect." 2 H |