tion. The lovers of liberty foretold the ing life by hypocrisy. It is uncertain overthrow of their ancient constitution; whether the consummate prudence which foresaw that England, become a province distinguished her subsequent conduct preof Spain, would be ruled with the same vailed over her natural feelings so entirely iron sceptre under which the Netherlands, as to induce her to decline all suspicious Milan, Naples and Sicily groaned. Men intercourse and dangerous propositions. of common humanity shuddered at the yoke Even if she was thus prematurely wise, of those who were inured to blood and she could not fail to be represented as rapine amidst the extirpation of the natives sharing all daring projects by those who of America. Charles V., the sovereign of hoped much from her name, as well as by a great part of the old and the new world, those who sought a pretext for her destrucif his son were once established in Eng- tion. The French minister, who was deepland, would have no difficulty in deluging ly engaged in the plot, was a credulous it with the veteran mercenaries and hard- witness respecting the princess's share in ened adventurers who covered his vast it. Accusation and rumors, however gendominions. eral, are of little or no value where they A plan of revolt was resolved on to avert would be as certainly pointed against the all these evils, which had in its first out- innocent as against the guilty. But it must line some chance of success. Sir Thomas be owned that her forbearance, if complete, Wyatt the younger was to take the field must be attributed more to prudence than in Kent. The duke of Suffolk was to to loyalty. raise his tenants in the midland counties. The conspirators had at first decided to Sir Peter Carew was the expected leader postpone the rising till the arrival of Philip, in Devonshire. Henry II. king of France, who was expected in April, should raise to who dreaded the aggrandizement of Charles its highest point the unpopularity of the V., gave hopes of aid to the malcontent marriage. The discovery of their designs, chiefs. Noailles his ambassador entered in the middle of January, broke their meaeagerly into these projects, and greedily sures. They took up arms to escape from swallowed every rumor which magnified their enemies before their preparations were the strength of the revolters. It is the lot in forwardness, and Carew fled to France. of such ministers to be deceived, and their The duke of Suffolk, a Protestant so zealgeneral disposition to exaggerate circum- ous as to have already forgotten the recent stances which exalt their own importance. mercy shown to him, displayed his boldness The earl of Devonshire, an imprudent youth, by an attempt to excite his tenants in Warlent an ear to Carew's temptations. The wickshire to revolt. His success was small: princess Elizabeth refused to attend her his followers were routed by lord Huntingsister to mass.* Incessantly urged by those don, and he was himself betrayed to his whose importunities were threats, she tried enemies by one of his park-keepers. On to gain time, by throwing herself at her the 25th of January, 1554, the day on which sister's feet, and with tears in her eyes she Suffolk left London, Sir Thomas Wyatt prayed that she might not be pressed to raised the standard of insurrection at Maidabandon the religion in which she was stone. He established his head-quarters at reared till they had afforded the means of Rochester, and was joined by no contemptreligious instruction through books and ible number of the men of Kent. After teachers. On the eve of the coronation several skirmishes, with various results, the she yielded to the same apparent conformity duke of Norfolk was sent to quell the rewhich Mary had practised in obedience to bellion. He arrived at Stroud, a suburb of Henry VIII. Her attachment to religion Rochester, on the 27th of January. As he was, however, so well known that this was about to begin the attack, Breté and compulsory conformity deceived neither other officers of the Londoners, who comparty. She was incensed at the sentence posed a large part of Norfolk's force, fell of bastardy virtually pronounced against back from their post with their soldiers; her in the statute which established the and as soon as the first gun was fired against throne of the reigning queen. She was the insurgents, the London bands, who were displeased by the precedence over her given in the rear of the queen's army, shouted to other ladies of the court, as a clear, aloud sundry times, "We are all Englishthough in itself frivolous, mode of display-men!" The duke made an effort to turn ing her illegitimacy. She was impatient his artillery against them, but the national of the importunities which had beset her, feeling prevailed. Norfolk, attended only and indignant at the necessity of purchas- by the captain of his guard, shifted for * Noailles, Sept. 6. 1553. Emb. ii. 141. himself. Such was the terror spread by this defection, that the imperial ambassador § Holinshed.. fled from London,* and the court opened are not at all abated, but, on the contrary, an ineffectual negotiation with Wyatt, now increase daily.”+ at the head of 15,000 men. At this mo- On the 3d of November, 1553, lady Jane ment of panic, Mary went to Guildhall, and Grey and lord Guilford Dudley were conharangued the citizens of London, with victed of high treason. But no time was much of the spirit of her race, and with a fixed for the execution, and their treatment success which has often attended female indicated some compassion for involuntary sovereigns in their addresses to a suscepti- usurpers of seventeen years of age. The ble multitude. "On the word of a queen ingratitude of Suffolk proved an incentive I promise and assure you that, if it shall sufficient to prevail over the slender pity not appear to the nobility and commons in of bigots and politicians. On the 8th of the high court of parliament that the mar- February, Mary signed a warrant for the riage is for the singular benefit of the whole execution of " Guilford Dudley and his realm, I will abstain from it." wife," for such was the description by On the second of February, the day of which they were distinguished at a moment the queen's speech, Wyatt advanced to when discourtesy wears its ugliest aspect. Deptford, where he halted, as it seems im- On the morning of the 12th, he was led to prudently, for twenty-four critical hours. execution on Tower Hill. Lord Guilford Twenty thousand men enlisted under Ma- Dudley had requested an interview with ry's standard. Wyatt, whose quarters in his beloved Jane. She, from a fear that it Southwark were commanded by the cannon might unfit both for the scene through of the Tower, being defeated in an attempt which they were to pass, declined it. She to force London Bridge, marched to Kings- saw him go through the gate of the Tower ton, where, on the sixth of February, he towards the scaffold; and, soon afterwards, passed the remains of the bridge at that she chanced to look from the same window place without resistance. He had concert- at his bleeding carcass, imperfectly covered, ed measures with his still numerous friends in the cart which bore it back. Freckenin the city. But he lost their aid by one ham, abbot of Westminster, had endeavored of those defects in punctuality to which to convert her to the Catholic faith. He warfare in the night is peculiarly liable. was acute, eloquent, and of a tender nature; On the seventh of February he arrived at but he made no impression on her considHyde Park-corner. He marched to Cha-erate and steady belief. She behaved to ring-cross, filling the court with such con-him with such calmness and sweetness, sternation, that even Gardiner entreated that he had obtained for her a day's respite. the queen to throw herself into the Tower. So much meekness has seldom been so pure The daughter of Henry VIII. scorned this from lukewarmness. She wrote a letter to counsel. At Charing-cross a conflict en- Harding on his apostasy, couched in ardent sued, in which Wyatt, still eager to resume and even vehement language, partly behis communications with his city adherents, cause she doubted his sincerity. Never advanced at the head of 400 men, being did affection breathe itself in language probably cut off from his main body by the more beautiful than in her dying letter to enemy, till he found Ludgate barred against her father, in which she says, "My guilthim by lord Effingham. Disheartened by less blood may cry before the Lord, Mercy this unexpected resistance, the greater part to the innocent." A Greek letter to her of his followers were either dispersed or sister, lady Catharine, written on a blank slain. With a remnant of about eighty he leaf of a Greek Testament, is needless as fought his way back to St. James's; and, another proof of those accomplishments after performing deeds of prowess worthy which astonished the learned of Europe,§ of his name, he surrendered his sword to but admirable as a token that neither grief Sir Maurice Berkeley. Had his confede- nor danger could ruffle her thoughts, nor rates, Suffolk, Courtenay, and Carew, re- lower the sublimity of her highest sentisembled him; had he delayed the onset ments. In the course of that morning she even a little longer; had he wasted no ir-wrote in her note-book three sentences in recoverable time, when all depended on Greek, Latin, and English, of which the speed, the event might have been very dif- last is as follows:-" If my fault deserved ferent; for the body of the people had not punishment, my youth at least, and my imbeen appealed to: the insurrection of a prudence, were worthy of excuse. county was quelled almost as soon as its and posterity will show me favor." commencement could be known to the She was executed within the Tower, most extensive and martial provinces. "The discontents of the subject," says Noailles, * Holinshed, iv. 15. Noailles, 4th March, 1554. Emb. iii. 97. God Stowe. Biograph. Britan. iv. 24200. 1 Ed. 1757 § Heylin. Biograph. Britan. either to withdraw her from the pitying and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, were sent to eye of the people, or as a privilege due to Ashridge, with a body of troops, to conduct the descendant of Henry VII. She declared Elizabeth to London. They were enjoinon the scaffold that "her soul was as pure ed to bring her "quick or dead," or, in from trespass against queen Mary as inno- other words, to use any force necessary to cence was from injustice: I only consented their purpose, if the court physicians, who to the thing I was forced into." were sent with them, should pronounce her In substance the last allegation was true. capable of being carried to the capital withThe history of tyranny affords no example out danger of her life from the journey. of a female of seventeen by the command They arrived after she had retired to rest; of a female, and a relation, put to death for but though she declined to see them till the acquiescence in the injunction of a father, morning, they immediately forced their way sanctioned by the concurrence of all that into her bed-chamber. "Is the haste such," the kingdom could boast of what was illus- said she, "that it might not have pleased trious in nobility, or grave in law, or ven- you to come to-morrow in the morning?" erable in religion. The example is the They professed "that they were right sorry more affecting, as it is that of a person who to see her in such a case.' She replied, exhibited a matchless union of youth and "And I am not glad to see you here at this beauty with genius, with learning, with time of night." Her illness was so unfeignvirtue, with piety; whose affections were ed that it compelled the courtiers and their so warm, while her passions were so per-physicians to allow her an unusual time fectly subdued. It was a death sufficient to for her journey, and she did not enter Lonhonor and dishonor an age. don till the 23d. "While the city," says 99 He The execution of her father occurred a Noailles, "was covered with gibbets, and few days afterwards. Sir Nicholas Throg- the public buildings were crowded with the morton was tried, and made so good a heads of the bravest men in the kingdom, defence, on grounds of law, that the jury the princess Elizabeth, for whom no better acquitted him; for which several of them lot is foreseen, is lying ill about seven or were heavily fined, according to an usage eight miles from hence, so swoln and disthen of unquestioned legality. Wyatt was figured that her death is expected." convicted on the 15th of March. Nearly a doubted whether she would reach London month appears to have been employed in alive. In passing along the streets of the laboring to extract information from him capital, she ordered her litter to be opened, against the princess Elizabeth. The attor- in order to show herself, and was apparelled ney-general at the trial aggravated the in white, as the emblem of innocence. The criminality of Wyatt by saying, "Your at- paleness produced by her distemper was tempt reached, as far as in you lay, to the perceived and pitied by the beholders, notsecond person in the realm, whereby her withstanding the lofty port which she ashonor is brought in question." Wyatt whol- sumed. Her youth and strength triumphed ly disclaimed the imputation. "Being in over the disease. She demanded an audi this wretched estate," said he, "I beseech ence of the queen, asserted her innocence you not to overcharge me, nor to make me with the utmost boldness, and claimed the seem that I am not."* This brave youth interview on the grounds of a promise made was beheaded on the 11th of April. by her sister. But the request was vain. It was not till the beginning of Decem-"The lady Elizabeth has recovered her ber that Elizabeth obtained leave to retire health, but it is a recovery of little importto her house at Ashridge, where it was pos- ance; for her death is determined."**"The sible for her to escape the constrained par- queen," continues the French ambassador, ticipation in a worship which she disap proved. There she received propositions 150. Compare Strype, Mem. v. 144. 146. with Griffet, and suggestions from the chiefs of the re- Dispatch of Noailles, 11th February, 1553-4. Emb. volters, who probably intended, in due time, iii. p. 63.: six hundred soldiers sent to Ashridge. They probably arrived on the 13th. Six days are to act in her name; but her consent or ac- assigned by Holinshed for the journey to London. ceptance was not shown, nor even serious-Three or four more were necessary before she could be shown in London. ly alleged. Her utmost offence seems to On Monday, the 12th of February, fifteen galhave been the misprision, or concealment, lowses were erected; on which fifty-two men were of projects of revolt, which was not a cap- hanged. The day was called Black Monday, as beital crime. ing that of the killing of lady Jane. §21st February, Emb. iii. 78. Emb. iii. 88. Ellis's Letters, second series, ii. 255. Princess About the 8th of February, immediately after the utter discomfiture of Wyatt, Sir Richard Southwell, Sir Edward Hastings, * Holinshed, iv. 29. Elizabeth to Queen Mary. **"La pauvre madame Elizabeth est amendée de sa santé. Mais peu lui servira cet amendement, puisque sa mort est résolvé."-Noailles, Emb. iiù 121. March 10, 1554. goes to Richmond before Easter, to do in the council, whether Elizabeth, being penance, and to command acts of cruelty." absolved from a capital charge, should be Two councils were held on the fate of committed to the Tower. On this quesElizabeth. One party, supported to the last tion, fearing to displease the queen by too by the advice of the emperor, urged the frequent opposition, Gardiner took the seabsolute necessity of destroying her, and vere side. the folly of sparing a traitress, who defeat- Elizabeth was committed to the Tower, ed the law more effectually by a mere eva- certainly with no other expectation than sion of it, whatever lawyers might think of that of mounting the scaffold of her unhapher escape from its letter. Lord Arundel py mother; of which all the horrors were and lord Paget were the authors of these revived by the recent fate of lady Jane lawless counsels. On the other side, the Grey,—the first intelligence which welmore experienced of the English counsel-comed the princess on her arrival in Lonlors doubted, perhaps denied, that Elizabeth don. For some time after her imprisonment could be legally convicted of treason under in that fortress, she was harassed by examthe 25th of Edward III., the only law appli- inations, which, after the resolution of the cable to that offence; since the late statute, council, could have been prompted only by one of the earliest and happiest of her ma- a desire to discover some means of satisfyjesty's measures, had swept away the odi- ing the lingering hatred of Mary and the ous heap of treasons raised up by her father. bloody policy of Charles V. In the middle That ancient law, dear to the people by of April there seemed no remaining means contrast with the late bloody statutes, re- of gratifying Mary's revengeful spirit by quired open and outward acts to be done by keeping up the appearance of an inquiry; the accused in furtherance of their criminal for Elizabeth was then permitted to walk designs. Gardiner, though he professed to round the Tower. On the 19th of May think Elizabeth deserving of death, yet con- she was transferred to the custody of Sir F. sidered her confinement at Ashridge and Williams, a gentleman of the same lineage Courtenay's residence at St. James's as ir-with the Cromwells, who, though created‡ reconcilable with a just conviction for trea- a baron only a month before, treated the If the present construction of the young princess with more mildness than statute of Edward then prevailed, he must pleased the court; for she was shortly imnot only have held that they did not levy prisoned at Woodstock, under the jailerwar, but that a conspiracy to rebel was not ship of Sir Henry Bedingfield, a man so capable of being proved against them. Our much more anxious to gratify his employers information, which flows from foreign min- than to act as became his original station, isters, throws no light on such subtle dis- that he ranks among the jailers who have tinctions. But it is so probable as to allow derived a lasting infamy from the fame of little doubt that Gardiner would not have their prisoners. When he came with a hunharbored any scruples about the removal dred newly-equipped soldiers to conduct of a person so obnoxious, and of whose de- her to Woodstock, she said to him with her sert he professed to think no better than usual quickness and poignancy, "Is the his colleagues, if there had been any suffi- scaffold of lady Jane yet taken away?" cient evidence of Elizabeth's substantial The princess, when she afterwards became assent to the projects of revolt suggested queen, carried her anger no farther than to to her by Wyatt, and perhaps by Courtenay. forbid him from visiting the court. She It is not wonderful that a man grown gray said to him, on the occasion of the prohibiin affairs of state should have shrunk from tion, "God forgive you, and we do; and if the public and personal danger likely to at- we have any prisoner whom we would have tend the illegal execution of the second hardly handled and straitly kept, then we person in the commonwealth. No other will send for you.”|| son. motive can reasonably be supposed to have Philip landed at Southampton on the influenced his conduct. Elizabeth often as- 19th of July, 1554, attended by a train sured a French minister, long after these magnificent and formidable, composed of events, that she expected death, and that Spanish grandees and Burgundian lords, the queen thirsted for her sister's blood ;* a circumstance which exactly tallies with the expectations of Noailles. She probably owed her life to the illness and distemper at Ashridge, which hindered her from being tempted or carried into the camp of the insurgents. A subordinate question arose * Mém. de Castelnau, i. † Elizabeth étoit demeurée malade dans sa maison de campagne. Elle n'étoit donc dans le cas de subir quoi elle auroit eu la tête tranchée. Elizabeth s'y la peine de mort. C'est ce qui lui sauva la vie; sans attendoit comme elle l'avoua dans le suite à monsieur de Castelnau. Griffet, 166. In p. 171. he tells us, on the authority of Renard, that Gardiner prevailed over the desire of Mary for Elizabeth's death. Dugdale, ii. 393. § It is singular that Dr. Lingard should have laid more stress on a slight intimation in a note of Warton (Life of Sir T. Pope, 74.) than upon the narra. tive in his text. Holinshed, iv. 56. 66 who were followed by four thousand sol- the indelible claims of the church on her diers, and had been conveyed from Corunna ancient property, powers were given by by a fleet containing the choice of the the pope to the legate "to remove all trouarmed vessels of the Netherlands, of Spain, ble or danger which, by canons or eccleand of England. The marriage between siastical decrees might touch the possession Philip and Mary was solemnized on the of such goods." This form was adopted, 25th by Gardiner in his cathedral of Win- and it seems to have been sufficient accordchester. Philip was at that time in the ing to the doctrines of all reasonable Roman twenty-ninth year of his age, Mary in her Catholics; since it left all questions which thirty-eighth year. The countenance and directly concerned property to the muniform of the prince were in his youth not cipal law and lay tribunals. It would, pervoid of symmetry, and began to show marks haps, have been impossible to frame a more of his firm and sagacious mind; but the comprehensive form of words which did stately reserve of his Spanish manners did not contain an express renunciation of the not lessen the repugnance of the English papal authority over civil causes, and thus people to the marriage. No English lord be subject to the very serious inconvenience remained at court but Gardiner. When the of being liable to be understood as an adking and queen removed to Hampton-court, mission by the state, that such papal authe hall door was continually shut, so that thority previously subsisted, or interpreted no man might enter unless his errand were as a confession by the pope, that his predefirst known, which seemed strange to Eng-cessors had been guilty of flagrant usurpalishmen." In September a proclamation tion. Practically speaking, it is evident enjoining all vagabonds and servants out that whoever could violate the obvious of place to quit London in five days, bore sense of this dispensation would not be marks of the like gloomy distrust. In Oc- more bound by stronger words. tober, the queen or her sycophants began On the 20th of November, 1554, cardinal to countenance rumors of her pregnancy, Pole arrived at Dover, armed with appavery naturally believed by a lady in her rently full power to do all the acts which circumstances. were necessary to reconcile the English On the 12th of November a parliament nation to the church of Rome. At Graveswas holden at Westminster to complete end he was presented by the earl of Shrewsthat imperfect restoration of religion which bury and the bishop of Durham with the had been faintly sketched in the former act which reversed his attainder. A royal year. This national assembly was at its barge was sent by their majesties to convey opening honored by the unwonted or rather him; and, as they desired that he should unexampled presence of two sovereigns, display the ensigns of his legatine powers, king Philip and queen Mary; of whom the a silver cross was placed on high on the first, though in England only titular, was prow of the barge. After a joyful reception distinguished from all others by a statute, at court, he withdrew to the palace of Lamwhich made it treason to compass his death. beth, which, being now vacant by CranA bill passed both houses in four days "for mer's attainder, was magnificently furnishthe restitution in blood of the lord cardinal ed for the purposes of accommodation and Pole;" an act in itself of just reparation, state. but thus hastened by alacrity in paying On the 28th of November he came to homage to the rising religion of the court. the house of peers, and being introduced by The lords were unanimous. Lord Paget, Gardiner, the chancellor, he addressed both who had been raised by Somerset, and Sir houses in a speech, in which he said, "that William Cecil, afterwards distinguished in having for many years been excluded, not a policy more acceptable to Protestants, only from that assembly, but also from his were among the most forward persons in country, by laws enacted personally against their respective parts of the reconciliation. himself, he should ever be grateful for the For a time it was difficult to reconcile the repeal of those laws; and that in return pious cardinal or the indignant pontiff to he was come to inscribe them denizens of the condition most essential to the peace heaven, and to restore them to that Chrisof the papacy with England,—that of se- tian greatness which they had forfeited by curity to the possessors of abbey lands. renouncing their fealty: that, to reap so At last, as an expedient for reconciling the great a blessing it only remained that they unquiet minds of dishonest possessors to should repeal the laws which they had enacted against the holy see, and by which *Noailles, iii. 283., who gives a list of the Span- they had cut themselves off from the body ish and Flemish nobility. There were 150 Spanish of the faithful." On Thursday the 29th vessels, 28 English ships with other vessels, and 14 ships from the Low Countries.-Holinsh. iv. 57. of November, 1554, the formal reconcilia† 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, c. 10. s. 3. Lords' Journ. 17th to 21st Noyember. § 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, c. 8. Stat. of the Realm |