the Portuguese, under the conduct of three brothers of the name of Barton e. A.D. 1509. Henry dies at Richmond, April 21; he is buried in the chapel he had built at Westminster, May 10. • The Portuguese had several years before seized a ship belonging to the father of the Bartons, and refusing to restore it, his sons obtained letters of reprisal, but the contest soon degenerated into piracy. HENRY, the second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, was born at Greenwich, June 28, 1491. In his fourth vear he was created duke of York; on the death of his elder brother he became prince of Wales, and he had many important offices bestowed on him in his boyhoodf. In 1509, on the death of his father, he became king. The first act of the new king was the popular, but unjust one, of condemning Empson and Dudley, the agents of his father's extortions, while he retained the fruits of their iniquity; his second, the marriage with Katherine of Arragon, his brother's widow, from which such important consequences afterwards arose. He was He was made lord lieutenant of Ireland Sept. 11, 1494, Sir Edward Poynings being named his deputy two days after. soon engaged in war, was successful against both France and Scotland, and mainly from his vast, though illgotten treasure, aided by the talents of Wolsey 5, established an influence for England on the continent which This able but unprincipled man was born at Ipswich in 1471, his father being perhaps, as is commonly asserted, a butcher, but evidently wealthy. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and found patrons in Thomas, marquis of Dorset, and Dean, archbishop of Canterbury, whose chaplain he became. He also served as chaplain to Sir John Nanfan, the treasurer of Calais and shewed so much aptitude for secular business, that he was by him recommended to Henry VII., who employed him in embassies. On the accession of Henry VIII. Wolsey continued at court, accompanied the king to France, received high promotion in the Church, (he held at different times the sees of Tournay, Lincoln, Winchester, and York, and the dignity of cardinal and papal legate,) and for several years appeared to dispose of the affairs of Europe almost at his pleasure, although he once fell into disgrace through the failure of an attempt to raise money independently of the parliament, and had to surrender his newly-built palace of Hampton Court to make his peace. He induced the king alternately to league with and to make war on the emperor and the king of France, his great object being to secure the papacy for himself. His schemes, however, were foiled, and his temporizing conduct with regard to the king's divorce at last produced his own ruin. Though he had received the royal permission to do so, Wolsey was, in 1529, accused of an offence against the statutes of Præmunire for acting as papal legate, was stripped of most of his vast possessions, and sent to reside on his diocese of York. He now began to devote himself to those duties of a Christian bishop which he had before neglected, but was soon apprehended on a charge of treason, and died at Leicester on his way as a prisoner to London, Nov. 29, 1530. Wolsey had always patronized learning, and had bestowed large estates (some of them obtained, however, by the suppression of small monasteries) on a college at Oxford, which he called Cardinal's College; the estates, through the neglect of certain legal formalities, fell into the hands of the Crown, but they were re-granted a few years after, when the college of Christ Church, Oxford, was founded by Henry VIII.; not, however, on the magnificent scale which the cardinal had intended, as his foundation was for a dean and a subdean, 100 canons, 13 chaplains, 10 professors and tutors, beside singing men and choristers, and other officers, making in the whole 186 persons. has never since been lost, though it has suffered occasional diminution from various temporary causes. He several times crossed the sea, sometimes for pomp and negotiations only, but at others for actual warfare, and he retained until his death his conquest of Boulogne. Henry's government at home does not present so favourable a picture. His scruples, whether real or affected, about his marriage, brought him into collision with the pope, and his imperious temper led him to endeavour to destroy the power which thwarted his views. Hence many of the violent and cruel measures which disgraced his reign. His quarrel really was, not with the doctrines, but with the supremacy of the pope and the riches of the monastic orders; he burnt as heretics those who disbelieved transubstantiation, and he hanged as traitors those who refused to allow his new title of Head of the Church. Among these the monastics were conspicuous, and partly from anger, but probably much more from covetousness, he threw down the establishments which his predecessors from time immemorial had endowed, and turned monks and nuns out to starve. The suppression of the monasteries was doubtless necessary to the purification of the Church, and if such purification had been Henry's real object, his proceedings in the matter might be justified as a whole; but no such defence can be offered for the jealous tyranny of which Buckingham, Fisher, More i, the kin h Pensions, it is true, were granted, but they were ill paid, and thousands of monastics became beggars, against whom acts perhaps the most atrocious in any Statute-book were passed in the next reign, [1 Edw. VI. c. 3]. See p. 208. í The cruel fate of these two eminent men affixes a blot on the personal character of Henry which nothing can remove. He had dred of Cardinal Pole and so many others, were the victims. Even in matters which did not belong to the great political or religious questions of his reign, his government was harsh, and numerous severe laws were acknowledged them as his intimate friends, but as in their consciences they could not approve of his proceedings in the matter of the divorce, he suffered them to be brought to the block by the inquisitorial diligence of Rich, the attorney-general. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and a Roman cardinal, was born in 1459, at Beverley, and was educated at Michael- house, Cambridge. He became confessor to Margaret, countess of Richmond, and was greatly instrumental in carrying out her pious intentions in the Universities. In 1504 he became bishop of Rochester, but continued his care of the University of Cambridge, of which he was the first chancellor chosen for life. He greatly pleased Henry by taking up his pen against Luther, but entirely lost his favour by maintaining with firmness the cause of Katherine of Arragon. His affection for that unfortunate queen induced him to listen to the declarations of the Maid of Kent, and he was in consequence attainted, sentenced to be imprisoned for life in the Tower, and was treated with extreme hardship. After a time his death was determined on, and being entrapped into a declaration that the king, as a layman, could not with a good conscience style himself Head of the Church, he was tried, condemned, and beheaded, at the age of 76, July 22, 1535. Thomas More was the son of Sir John More, a judge, and was born in London in 1480. He was brought up in the household of Cardinal Morton, studied at Oxford, and obtained an important legal post in the city of London. He cultivated literature, and being introduced at court about 1521, he soon became a favourite with the king, whom he assisted in the composition of his work against Luther. More was made speaker of the House of Commons, and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, sent on an embassy to France, and at length succeeded Wolsey as chancellor. This last high office he resigned in 1532, as he disapproved of the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn. More was looked on with suspicion by Wriothesley and others, and harassed with false charges of treasonable correspondence; these were abandoned, but the oath of supremacy being offered to him, he refused to take it, and for this he was condemned and executed in the year 1535, preserving in his last moments the serenity and cheerfulness which had ever distinguished him. More was a most amiable character in every domestic relation; he conscientiously opposed the opinions of the Reformers, and laboured to suppress their translation of the Bible, yet he solemnly denied a charge of cruel persecution which they urged against him, and the whole tenor of his life leads us to hope that it is greatly exaggerated, if not wholly untrue, |