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1549, in which they called on the lord mayor, the lieutenant of the Tower, and the chief nobility and gentry, to aid them, and in future to obey their orders, and not those of the protector. Somerset finding himself deserted by his friends, fled with the young king to Windsor, but he was there arrested and sent to the Tower, on the charge of usurping sovereign power. Six lords were then chosen to be the king's governors, and the chief administration committed to Warwick, who assumed the arms and title of duke of Northumberland, and was made great master and lord high admiral. When parliament met on the 4th of November, it sanctioned these proceedings of the council, and passed an act depriving Somerset of his places, and confiscating his lands, to the value of £2000 per annum, to the crown: shortly after, however, on offering his submission and giving security in £10,000, Somerset was again released, and on the 16th of February (1550) he received his pardon, and was readmitted to the council-board. In this parliament the eldest sons of peers were first permitted to sit in the house of commons, and the first journal taken of that house.

On the accession of Northumberland (Warwick) to power, a treaty was concluded with France and Scotland, (reserving always the claim of England to either of those crowns,) by which it was agreed to surrender Boulogne to the French king for the sum of 400,000 crowns, and to affiance Edward to a French princess; but these measures were generally disapproved of by the people, and Warwick now found it requisite to court the friendship of Somerset, who, although deprived of power, was still looked up to by the people, and possessed a considerable amount of influence at court. Their apparent reconciliation, however, was of short duration, for Northumberland, ambitious of supreme authority, devised a scheme to entrap his unwary rival, and Somerset at length, incensed by continued provocation and insult, was induced to propose the murder of the three noblemen, Warwick, Northampton, and Pembroke. Laying hold of this accusation, his enemies brought him to trial before a committee of the lords on the charge of treason and intended murder; of the former he was acquitted, but his judges found him guilty of the latter and committed him to the Tower. When the people saw him come forth without the fasces borne before him, which was the sign of a peer's condemnation, they raised a shout of joy; and this more than any other reason is supposed to have decided Warwick on his execution. After a delay of three months the warrant for execution was signed, and on the morning of the 22nd of January, 1552, he was led to Tower-hill, and there executed. Although the inhabitants had been warned to keep to

their houses, a numerous assembly collected at the place of execution before daylight, and when the head was severed from his body many persons ran forward and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood as in that of a martyr. Several of his friends were likewise executed, and the lords Arundel and Paget compelled to offer a most humble submission. The young king, who was really religious and merciful at heart, would never have consented to his uncle's execution, had he not been persuaded by his enemies that he was guilty of much more serious offences than those of which he had been convicted. The people had just cause to lament the death of the good protector,' as Somerset was called; for the government was much worse administered, and Northumberland even had a design of restoring the Roman catholic religion; but finding the king passionately devoted to the protestant doctrines, he deserted the party who had helped him to power, and used every art to ingratiate himself in the good-will and confidence of the king. As Edward grew up, his health gradually declined, and in the year 1553 it was so far broken that the physicians reported his recovery hopeless. Thinking to avail himself of the statute of illegitimacy which had bastardized the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, and so to bring a crown matrimonial into his own family, Northumberland obtained the king's consent for the marriage of his fourth son, lord Guildford Dudley, to the lady Jane Grey, who had a good prospect of succeeding to the throne, as she was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII., being the grand-child of Mary queen of France, by the duke of Suffolk; and as there were legal objections against all the nearer claimants, Northumberland thought that through his influence he might succeed in placing her on the throne, and so far wrought on the scruples of the young king as to persuade him to draw up an entail to that effect. The princesses Mary and Elizabeth, as we have before observed, had been bastardized by act of parliament, and although Henry VIII. had named them to succeed after Edward VI., the statute had never been reversed. Further, Mary was a bigoted catholic. These reasons appeared sufficient in the young king's mind to exclude them from the succession, and thus the nearest claimants were the descendants of Henry VII.'s daughters, the queens of Scotland and France: the former had been excluded by the late king's will, and the duchess of Suffolk, the representative of the latter, consented to surrender her rights in favour of her daughter the lady Jane Grey. Edward therefore determined to make her his heir, and on the 11th of June, 1553, sent for the law officers and required them to draw out an instrument to that effect: they, however, declined to interfere in any such matter, assuring the council that such an instrument would

subject both the advisers and drawers of it to the penalties of treason, and recommended that it should be left till the next meeting of parliament; but Northumberland persuaded the king to insist that it should be done without delay, and at length the judges were persuaded to consent, under condition that they should receive a warrant under the king's hand, sealed with the broad seal of England, and a pardon in full, exempting them from any molestation on this account. The instrument was accordingly presented to the king and council, who all attached their signatures to it, except sir James Hales and archbishop Cranmer, who alone remonstrated, affirming that they had already sworn to the succession of the lady Mary, and could not depart from their oaths without perjury. In vain the king urged the expedience of a protestant succession, and the evils which might result to the kingdom if Mary should succeed to the crown. Cranmer still held out, and it was not until he had received the assurance of the judges that the king might lawfully devise his crown, that he gave his consent. After lingering for some months, Edward died on the 6th of July, 1553, in the sixteenth of his age.

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CHAPTER XVII.

MARY. A. D. 1553-1558.

Disputed succession -- Coronation of the lady Jane Grey--Adherence of the people to the cause of Mary--Her success-Restoration of Romanism-Wyatt's rebellion--Execution of Jane Grey--Interference of the crown in state trials--Case of sir N. Throgmorton--Danger to Elizabeth-Refusal of parliament to renew the six articles--Marriage settlement with PhilipBribery at elections-Statutes against heresy-Religious persecution--Its influence on religion-Mistaken notions of religious indifference-Restoration of tenths and first-fruits-Arbitrary character of Mary's government --War with France--Loss of Calais-The queen's death.

PERCEIVING that the king's strength was daily declining, and knowing that he had everything to fear if the lady Mary should ascend the throne, Northumberland and the members of the council, whom he had won over to his interests, resolved if possible to get possession of the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, and with this object sent a royal mandate requiring them to repair to the court to see their brother, who was dangerously ill. Mary had left Hunsdon in Hertfordshire, and was far on her way towards London when she received secret intelligence from lord Arundel of the true state of affairs; she immediately mounted her horse and rode with all speed to Kenninghall in Norfolk, and then passing into Suffolk, took shelter in Framlingham castle, ready either to head her party, or, if requisite, to escape into Flanders. She wrote letters to all the nobility apprising them of the treachery of the council, and requiring them to support the hereditary succession of the crown. The earls of Bath and Sussex took up arms, and exhorted the people to follow their example, and many responded to the call.

On the fourth day after the king's death, everything being prepared for the coronation of the lady Jane Grey, the king's demise was publicly announced, and a deputation waited on lady Jane to inform her of her cousin's devise in her favour. On first receiving the intelligence she declined to accept the crown, and falling into a flood of tears, fainted away. She was at length reluctantly prevailed on to accept the dignity, and lifting her eyes to heaven, exclaimed, "If indeed the right be truly mine,

O gracious God, give me strength, I pray most earnestly, so to rule as to promote thy honour and my country's good."

Everything appeared to have been conducted with such secrecy and despatch as to have confounded all opposition, and on the next day the lady Jane was conveyed in state to the Tower; but on her accession being proclaimed to the people no shout of applause was heard, and one boy amongst the assembled multitude, more brave than his fellows, ventured to raise his voice in favour of Mary.

This was a moment of intense interest, not only for England, but also for Europe. A storm was imminent in the political horizon, which involved not only a struggle for the crown, but also for the church; and on the success of the cause in England, in a great measure depended the fate of protestantism throughout Europe. The emperor Charles V. beheld with admiration the firmness of his cousin Mary, who, when a child, had been betrothed to him, and highly approved of her resolute conduct,* but France declared in favour of the lady Jane Grey. The command of the army was intrusted to Northumberland, and the lords of the council hastened to summon their retainers; but a gloomy foreboding seized the public mind, and even the hearts of the bravest misgave them. It was impossible to disguise the fact, that although the partisans of Jane had the government, the fortresses, a fleet, an army, and the royal treasury in their hands, the cause of Mary was strong in the popular notion of her right; and as the duke of Northumberland passed through the city at the head of his forces, he is said to have observed to lord Grey, "See you how the people press around to gaze on us, but none wish us good luck.” Sir Edward Hastings, who had been sent to levy troops for the cause of the lady Jane, led them to the support of Mary, and when Northumberland arrived at Bury St. Edmund's, he received intelligence that the enemy amounted to 30,000, and that a reward had been set upon his head: it would not have been the first time that a small and disciplined army under the command of an experienced general had defeated thrice their numbers of new levies in the field, but the duke knew that the fidelity of his troops was not to be relied upon, and his own misgivings made him hesitate to risk the fate of the cause in a single engagement; he retired first to the borders of Suffolk, and then to Cambridge, where he received intelligence that Arundel, Pembroke, and other members of the council, who had been left in London, seeing the turn affairs were likely to take, had proclaimed Mary at St. Paul's, amid the universal rejoicing of the people. Hoping to obtain pardon by a timely submission, he wrote offering his allegiance * Dahlmann's History of the English Revolution, i. P. 66.

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