Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

petence to absolute want. Some of the heads of the sup pressed houses had small pittances allowed them for their lives; but the monks and nuns were turned adrift, a helpless race of creatures, who could do little towards their own maintenance.

It was a hard measure to those countrymen and farmers who had enjoyed the church lands at easy rents; and there remained also a still more numerous body of sufferers, the idle poor, who had been daily fed at the convent gates, and scarcely knew how to work. All these were now reduced to want, and obliged to seek their bread by labor.

These causes, with others, made the year 1549 a period of insurrections and tumults all over England. The protector, who really compassionated the poor, did all in his power to relieve their distresses. But, while he was befriending them, he gave offence to the rich, by the great state and almost royal dignity which he assumed.

A confederacy, headed by the earl of Warwick, was formed against him. He soon saw himself deserted by all except by Cranmer, and by Paget, his secretary; and, sinking into despondency, he resigned the protectorship. He was then committed to the Tower; and after a few weeks' imprisonment, was heavily fined, deprived of all his offices, and then restored to liberty. A new council of regency was appointed, and the earl of Warwick placed at the head

of it.

Warwick, not satisfied with the degradation of Somerset, determined on his death, and accused him, in 1551, of a plot to raise a rebellion, and to assassinate himself and other privy counsellors. On these charges he was tried, condemned, and executed, to the sincere grief of the people, to whom his goodness of heart had much endeared him.

The work of the Reformation was still continued, but with more intemperance, under Warwick, than had been ever visible while the affairs of the nation were conducted

What effect had the destruction of religious houses upon the condi tion of the poor in England?

How did Somerset regard the poor?

By whom was Somerset deprived of the regency?

By what false charge was Somerset degraded and destroyed?
Did the reformers commit any acts of injustice in the reign of Ed

ward VI.?

by the milder counsels of Somerset. Gardiner was deprived of his bishopric, and thrown into prison. Bonner, bishop of London, was also committed to the Tower; and many of the clergy were obliged to have recourse to trades for a maintenance, being reduced to poverty by the greedy cour tiers, who seized on a large portion of the revenues of the church.

The earldom of Northumberland having some years since become extinct, Warwick, a short time before the death of Somerset, had prevailed with Edward to make. him duke of Northumberland, and to bestow on him the estates which had belonged to the earldom, and which had been forfeited to the crown.

The young king was now entirely in the power of Northumberland, who placed his son, Robert Dudley, about his person. Edward's health declined from that time, and Northumberland formed the project of raising one of his own sons to the throne. He began by persuading Edward, that as both his sisters had been declared illegitimate, they could not possibly succeed to the crown, and that, therefore, by virtue of his father's will, the succession devolved on the children of Mary, the dowager queen of France, by her second husband the duke of Suffolk, whose eldest daughter, the duchess of Dorset, was the undoubted heir to the crown. The duchess, who had no son, was willing to resign her claim to her eldest daughter, lady Jane Grey, and Northumberland married her to his son, Guildford Dudley.

Edward felt no scruple about depriving his sister Mary of her birthright, fearing that her bigotry would be hurtful to the Protestant cause. But he felt many regrets in regard to the princess Elizabeth, whom he affectionately loved. He, however, consented to settle the succession on lady Jane Grey; and the patent of settlement was signed by all the great officers of state.

de

The king, who had been for many months in a very licate state of health, grew rapidly worse; and soon after

How was the earl of Warwick rendered more powerful than ever?
How did Northumberland overrule the succession, and what was

Lady Jane Grey's title to the crown of England?

Upon whom was the succession settled?

When did Edward VI, die?

died, on the 6th of July, 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age, and seventh of his reign.

Though during this reign the country was in a distracted and divided state on the score of religion, and though the officers of the state were not less divided and distracted by their own private jealousies and cabals, still there never had been any former time when the commerce of England flourished so much.

An expedition, consisting of two ships and a bark, was sent out by Edward VI. under the command of sir Hugh Willoughby, for the discovery of a north-east passage to India; but the attempt failed; and sir Hugh, and all the people both of his own ship, and of the bark which kept company with him, were frozen to death in a harbor of Lapland. Richard Chancellor, the captain of the other vessel, was more fortunate, and returned home after wintering at Archangel. This voyage first led the way to a lucrative trade with Russia.

A code of articles in relation to public worship having been thought advisable, the better to bring the people to a conformity in religion, Cranmer was appointed to make one; and he drew up forty-two articles, from which, with some slight alterations and retrenchments, the present Thirty-nine Articles are formed.

The Thirty-nine Articles are articles of belief, which contain a short summary of the doctrines of the church of England. Besides the forty-two articles, Cranmer also drew up the church catechism, which he compiled in great measure from that used by the German reformers, making some additions of his own. The latter part of the catechism concerning the sacraments, was added in the reign of James 1.

Cranmer, notwithstanding the natural moderation of his mind, was at times betrayed into the furious zeal of the age; and it must be lamented that he condemned two persons, if not more, to be burned, for being Anabaptists; and

Did commerce flourish in the reign of Edward VI. ?
What voyage of discovery was undertaken in this reign?

What articles of faith to be acknowledged by all members of the Church of England were promulgated?

What are the thirty-nine articles?

Were there any martyrs in the time of Edward VI,?

this, notwithstanding the entreaties of the young king, that they might be spared to live, and to be converted from their

errors.

Edward's early promise was very great, and his abilities were of a high order. His Latin exercises have been preserved, and if he was not much assisted by his masters, do him great credit. His chief study was theology, and his greatest delight was listening to sermons.

It will be interesting to know what became of all the old monasteries and nunneries. Some were levelled with the ground; others, stripped of their timber and lead, were left in ruin, and still remain objects of admiration to all who delight in the relics of antiquity. Many were given or sold to laymen, who converted them into dwelling-houses, and others were turned into hospitals.

Henry bestowed many of the religious houses on those who attended on his person. One of his attendants was rewarded with some abbey lands for having wheeled his chair farther from the fire; and a lady, whose name is not handed down to us, had a monastic house given to her for making the king a pudding which he liked.

In this reign the convenience of ladies' dress was very much assisted by the invention of pins. To serve the purposes for which we employ that article, there were previously to the invention of pins, a variety of contrivances, buttons, hooks and eyes, laces and loops; and ladies used even wooden skewers to fasten on their dress. A needle was a very valuable implement at this time. None were made in England till the next reign, when a Spanish negro came to London, and made some.

CHAP. XXVII.

MARY.

[Years after Christ, 1553-1558.]

As soon as Edward had breathed his last, the duke of Northumberland went to Sion-house, where lady Jane Grey

What were the favorite pursuits of Edward VI.?

What became of the religious houses sequestered by Henry VIII.? Were the useful arts improved in this reign?

Who saluted lady Jane Grey as queen of England ?

lived, and saluted her as queen: but she, far from being ambitious of this dignity, entreated that it might not be forced upon her, and pleaded the superior claims of the two princesses. But the duke had gone too far to be stopped by the scruples of a young creature of sixteen; and lady Jane, who was naturally of a timid and gentle disposition, was soon persuaded by her father-in-law, and suffered herself to be proclaimed. No applause followed the proclamation, and no one seconded this bold step of Northumberland.

Lady Jane, after a joyless reign of ten days, thankfully returned from the royal apartments in the Tower, in which she had been placed, to the privacy of her own house: and the princess Mary, arriving from her retreat in Suffolk, was welcomed by the people with the loudest acclamations. For though the consequences of her stern bigotry were dreaded by those of the new religion, they yet dreaded still more the unprincipled character of Northumberland.

When the duke saw his project entirely overthrown, he sought to save his own life by the meanest supplications. He fell on his knees before lord Arundel, who was sent by the queen to apprehend him; and while in that posture, a woman rushed up to him, and held a handkerchief to his face, which she told him was stained with the blood of his innocent victim the duke of Somerset. Northumberland was condemned, and beheaded on Tower-hill. His son, Guildford, and lady Jane, were also condemned to death: but on account of their youth and innocence, their sentence was not then executed; but they were kept in prison.

Mary was in her thirty-seventh year at the time of her brother's death. Her person is described as having been very ordinary, and her manner unengaging. Her educa tion had probably been much neglected, and she inherited her mother's gravity, with her father's violence and obstinate temper. She was old enough at the time of Catharine's divorce to feel keenly the king's injustice, and the being forbidden to see her injured mother, was a great aggravation of her wrongs. She and Anne Boleyn never concealed their mutual dislike.

When was queen Mary proclaimed?
What happened to Northumberland?
What was the character of queen Mary?

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »