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"to the intent," as it was expressed, "that rash and seditious preachers should not abuse his highness' people." Remarks were made, Burnet tells us, upon the conduct of the council in thus going on creating new offences with arbitrary punishments, although the act was now repealed that had formerly given them such extraordinary powers. It was argued, in their vindication, that they might still issue such proclamations in the king's name, in virtue of the royal supre

any other their moveable goods or chattels." A | the bishop of the diocese in which he so preached; master was likewise authorized to put a ring of iron about the neck, arm, or leg of his slave, "for a more knowledge and surety of the keeping of him." By another clause, it was ordered, that, although there should be no man to demand the services of such idle persons, the justices of the peace should still inquire after them, and, after branding them, convey them to the places of their birth, there to be nourished and kept in chains or otherwise, either at the common works in amending highways, or in servitude to private | macy in matters ecclesiastical; “yet this,” adds persons. Finally, all persons that chose were authorized to seize the children of beggars, and to retain them as apprentices-the boys till they were twenty-four, the girls till they were twenty years of age; and if they ran away before the end of their term, the master was permitted, upon recovering them, to punish them in chains or otherwise, and to use them as slaves till the time of their apprenticeship should have expired. This law can be characterized as nothing else than the formal re-establishment of slavery in England; but it would prove no mere matter of form: from the extent to which, owing to a concurrence of causes, beggary and vagrancy had now spread, its despotic and oppressive character would be actually and severely felt by no inconsiderable portion of the people. Indeed, it helped, along with other elements of popular exasperation, to produce the result that ensued not long after this in many parts of the kingdom, where mendicancy was converted into open and general rebellion.

the historian, "was much questioned, though universally submitted to." The next order that appeared, directed the removal of all images from all churches and chapels. At the same time it was commanded that all rich shrines, with all the plate belonging to them, should be seized for the use of the king: the council, it seems, were not ashamed to add, that the clothes that covered them should be converted to the use of the poor. Soon after this was issued a royal proclamation, setting forth a new office for the public administration of the Lord's Supper, which had been drawn up by a committee of bishops and divines: it directed that the sacrament should be given to the people in both kinds; that there should be no elevation of the host; and that the whole service should be in the English language. These regulations were soon after followed by the publication of a short English catechism by Cranmer, "for the profit and instruction of children and young people." Finally, the committee of bishops and divines proceeded to the composition of an entire new Liturgy, or book of the public services of religion, in English; but the publication of this important work was deferred till it should have received the sanction of parliament.

Parliament rose on the 24th of December, its last measure having been an act confirming the king's general pardon of state offenders, from which, however, was excluded, along with a few others, the Duke of Norfolk, who still remained a prisoner in the Tower. Cranmer, nevertheless, continued to urge on his ecclesiastical alterations Meanwhile, some further trouble had been with unrelaxing activity. On the representation given by the dexterous opposition, or at least of the archbishop, that such things were contrary passive resistance, of Gardiner to these proceedto the gravity and simplicity of the Christian re-ings of Cranmer and the government. The act ligion, an order was issued by the council, prohibiting the carrying of candles on Candlemas Day, of ashes on Ash Wednesday, or of palms on Palm Sunday. This innovation was far from being relished by the bulk of the nation; for "the country people," as Burnet observes, “generally loved all these shows, processions, and assemblies, as things of diversion, and judged it a dull business only to come to church for Divine worship and the hearing of sermons; therefore they were much delighted with the gaiety and cheerfulness of those rites." Another proclamation soon followed, denouncing imprisonment against whosoever should take upon him to preach, except in his own house, without a license from the king, the visitors, the .Archbishop of Canterbury, or

of general pardon had restored him to liberty at the end of the session; and, accordingly, on the 8th of January, 1548, he was brought before the council and discharged, with a grave admonition to carry himself henceforth reverently and obediently. He retired to his diocese, but there still appeared in his whole behaviour what Burnet calls "great malignity to Cranmer and to all motions for reformation." "Yet," it is added, "he gave such outward compliance that it was not easy to find any advantage against him, especially now since the council's great power was so much abridged." After a few months, however, he was again summoned before the council, on

Burnet, however, although he mentions this order in his History, has not inserted it in his Collection of Records.

occasion of some new complaints; and this time the affair ended by his being sent to the Tower. The council here seem to have proceeded with as little regularity as legal right; for it appears that the order for the bishop's imprisonment was not signed when it was made, but only some years after; as entered on the council-book, it has attached to it the names of Somerset, Cranmer, St. John, Russell, and Cheyney; but Lord Russell had, in the first instance, subscribed himself "Bedford," till, recollecting that he had not that title at the time of making the order, he drew his pen through the word, and substituted "J. Russell!" Gardiner, however, was thus once more placed where he could give no active annoyance; and he remained in close confinement throughout the reign, steadily refusing all proposals of submission or compromise, till at last he was deprived of his bishopric.

All this time the war in Scotland had not ceased to give both anxiety and occupation to the government, though the military operations that took place were not attended with any very important results. In an assembly of the Scottish | nobility held at Stirling soon after the battle of Pinkie, a resolution had been adopted on the suggestion of the queen-dowager to apply for the assistance of France, and with that object to offer their infant queen in marriage to the dauphin, | and even to propose to send her immediately to be educated at the French court. This was, in other words, an offer to the French king of the Scottish crown. It was at once accepted by Henry, nor did he lose a moment in making preparations for the vigorous defence of a kingdom which he might now consider as his own. On learning what had been done, Somerset published an earnest address in English and Latin, to the people of Scotland, pointing out to them all the advantages they were throwing away by the rejection of the matrimonial alliance with England, as well as the loss of their independence and the other evils that were sure to follow from the French marriage, and calling upon them to draw back from the ruinous course on which their government was leading them. This appeal was followed up by the arrival, towards the end of April, of a powerful English army under the conduct of the Lord Gray of Wilton, which advanced straightway upon the neighbourhood of the capital. The town of Haddington was taken and fortified, a garrison of two thousand men being left to hold it; some isolated castles were battered down, or compelled to surrender; Dalkeith and Musselburgh were burned; but all these terrors had no effect in damping the spirit of the Scots-buoyed up as they were by the highest hopes of the revenge they were soon to be en

Burnet.

abled to take by means of the ample aid promised them by the French king. About the middle of June, the squadron conveying the expected foreign auxiliaries arrived at Leith. The force consisted of about six thousand veterans 2—partly French, partly German-under the command of D'Esse D'Espanviliers, a general of great gallantry and experience. No time was lost in proceeding to active operations. It was resolved that the first enterprise of the allied forces should be the recovery of Haddington; and accordingly an army composed of the whole of D'Esse's men, and of about eight thousand Scots, under the command of Arran, marched upon that town. It was in the camp before Haddington that the parliament or convention of estates was assembled which ratified, amid the hurry and tumult of arms, and against not a little opposition, the treaty with the French king. The fleet which had brought over the French soldiers still remained in the Firth of Forth; it now put to sea, and proceeded at first in the direction of the French coast, but as soon as it was fairly out of sight of land it changed its course, and having sailed round by the north of Scotland, entered the Clyde, and touched at Dumbarton, where it received on board the young queen with her attendants.3 Mary reached the harbour of Brest in safety on the 13th of August, and was immediately conducted to St. Germain-en-Laye, where she was contracted in the usual form to the Dauphin of France, then a child of five years of age, she herself being only a few months older. Meanwhile, Haddington remained unreduced, though still invested. At first the place had been sharply cannonaded, and various breaches had been made in the walls; but D'Esse still did not think it prudent to venture upon an assault, and resolved to trust to the hope of starving the garrison into a surrender. The strength and spirit of the latter, however, were soon after recruited by the arrival of a body of two hundred of their countrymen, who "found means one night to pass through all the watches on that side where the Scots lay, and entering the town, and bringing with them great plenty of powder and other necessaries, greatly relieved them within, and so encouraged them that they seemed to make small account of their enemy's forces." A similar attempt that was afterwards made by a troop of 1300 horse from Berwick, under the command of Sir Thomas Palmer, had a different issue. The English horse were met by the French and Scots under D'Esse and Lord Hume, and were completely environed and put to the rout. The

2 Curiously translated by Sir James Balfour, into "olde beaten shouldiours," in his patriotic aversion to admit that these foreign auxiliaries were of any use to his countrymen.

Balfour, Annals.

pointed upon the gate was fired off against his countrymen by a French deserter who served within the town, which made such slaughter among them as to drive them back in disorder; and although D'Esse thrice gallantly led back his men to the encounter, they were finally foiled and beaten off with great loss. On this, the French commander retired to Leith, and fortified himself in that town.

The English parliament re-assembled at Westminster on the 24th of November, having been prorogued to that day from the 15th of October, in consequence of the plague then being in London. The first question of importance that was brought forward was that of the marriage of the clergy. A proposition in favour of this innovation having been submitted to the lower house of convocation during the last session of parlia

Scottish historians assert that the slain and the | ing their enterprise, a cannon that chanced to be prisoners on the part of the English in this affair exceeded 1000 men. Immediately upon receipt of the intelligence at the English court, orders were given for the advance across the Borders of an army of 22,000 men, which had been raised and put under the command of Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, as the lieutenant of the Duke of Somerset. Lord Clinton, at the same time, put to sea with a formidable fleet. On the approach of Shrewsbury, the besieging army retired from Haddington, and the earl entered that town, the gallant defenders of which were now reduced to the utmost extremity.' The earl left abundant supplies, not only of "victuals, munition, and all other things convenient," but likewise of healthy and strong men to assist in maintaining the defence. He then set forth to seek the Scots and French, whom he found posted some ten or twelve miles off, at Musselburgh. They would not, how-ment, had been carried in that assembly by a ever, leave their intrenchments, and the English did not venture to attack them. In fact, the earl and his great army forthwith turned round, and began their march back to England. The only other exploit they performed was to set fire to Dunbar, as they passed by that town on their retreat. Nor were the achievements of Lord Clinton and the fleet more considerable. Balfour informs us that Clinton landed some 5000 men on the coast of Fife, to spoil the country; "but before they did much harm, they were rencountered by the Laird of Wemyss and the barons of Fife, all well horsed, who rode them flat down with their horses, and having killed above 700 of them, forced the remnant to save themselves by wading in the sea to the necks, before they could gain their flat-bottomed boats, having purched (acquired) no better booty than their backful of strokes and wet skins." They afterwards made a descent during the night at Montrose, where in like manner they were driven off by the peasantry, headed by Erskine of Dun; of 800 who had landed, scarcely one in three getting back safe to the ships. "So," it is added, "the admiral returned, having got nothing but loss and disgrace by the expedition." After the Earl of Shrewsbury had returned home, Lord Gray, who had been left as lieutenant of the north, made an inroad into Scotland, and, without encountering any opposition, burned and wasted Teviotdale and Liddesdale for the space of about twenty miles. On the other hand, not long after this, on Tuesday the 9th of October, an attempt was made by D'Esse to surprise the town of Haddington, up to the very gate of which he had got with his men, at an early hour in the morning, before his presence was suspected. But when the assailants were on the point of complet

VOL. II.

1 Holinshed.

1

majority of nearly two to one; and a bill to carry
it into effect had been actually introduced in the
House of Commons, though it was not proceeded
with. A similar bill was now again brought
forward, and, although it met with considerable
opposition, was finally passed and sent up to the
lords on the 13th of December.
In the upper
house it was allowed to lie unnoticed till the 9th
of February, 1549; but, being then taken up, was,
after it had undergone some alterations, to which
the commons eventually assented, read a third
time on the 19th, and passed, by a majority of
thirty-nine to twelve. This was followed by an
act establishing the use of the reformed Liturgy
lately drawn up. Against both of these bills
many of the bishops, and a few also of the lay
lords, entered protests. The only other enact-
ment of this session on the subject of religion
that requires to be here noticed, is one that was
passed "touching abstinence from flesh in Lent
and other usual times." The preamble of this
statute declares, that "one day or one kind of
meat of itself is not more holy, more pure, or
more clean than another;" but, nevertheless, con-
demns those who, "turning their knowledge to
satisfy their sensuality," had, "of late time more
than in times past, broken and contemned such
abstinence which hath been used in this realm
upon the Fridays and Saturdays, the embering
days, and other days commonly called vigils, and
in the time commonly called Lent, and other ac-
customed times." The regulations with regard to
the observance of fish-days which are laid down,
and which need not be detailed, are then ushered
in by a statement of the considerations that had
been kept in view in framing them, which “glances
from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,"
with a most edifying impartiality and compre-
hensiveness of regard.

109

But an affair of another kind was also brought | Somerset himself had held, but which he now before the parliament in the course of this session, the history of which, from its commencement nearly two years before, now falls to be related. The Earl of Hertford and his younger brother Sir Thomas Seymour do not appear to have lived on other than friendly terms down to the close of the late reign, during which the terrific temper of Henry made the fiercest and haughtiest spirits quail, and suppress the breath of their mutual animosities and rivalries. But as soon as the furious old despot was dead, and the throne came to be filled by the child, whose near relationship to the two brothers combined with his years and his disposition to throw him entirely into their hands, and to make him the puppet of whichsoever of the two should succeed in getting before the other in their struggle for the prize, the natural opposition of their interests, and of the circumstances in which they were placed, dashed them against each other like two meeting tides. Both were ambitious, by nature as well as by the temptations of their position; and he not the least so who, by the arrangements made on the accession of the new king, found himself without any share in the government, while the other had contrived to concentrate in himself nearly all the powers of the state. The protector tried to purchase the acquiescence of his brother, both by honours and more substantial benefits:

THOMAS, LORD SEYMOUR, OF SUDLEY, Lord High-admiral. After Holbein.

Sir Thomas, as we have seen, was raised to the peerage, with the title of Baron Seymour of Sudley; he was also made high-admiral, the patent of that place being resigned to him by the new Earl of Warwick, who was, in turn, compensated with that of lord great-chamberlain, which

exchanged for those of lord high-treasurer and earl-marshal, forfeited by the attainder of the Duke of Norfolk; and he was furthermore, by a royal grant, in August, 1548, put in possession of the lordship of Sudley, in Gloucestershire, and of other lands and tenements in no fewer than eighteen counties.' But a temper and views such as his were not to be thus satisfied. Though resembling each other in ambition and rapacity, in most of the other points that marked their characters the two brothers were very unlike The protector, slenderly endowed either with capacity or with moral courage, and probably conscious of these deficiencies, was in the habit of trusting in all things more to his instruments than to himself, and of seeking a support for his greatness in any prop he could find to lean upon. This timidity and want of self-dependence, together with his vanity, made him on all occasions an anxious affecter of popular applause, although his whole course demonstrates him to have been in reality one of the most self-regarding men that ever lived, and one of the most unscrupulous in the pursuit of his own aggrandizement. His anxiety, however, to stand well in the public estimation, and perhaps a natural coldness of temperament, preserved him from some of those private irregularities which, more than anything else, destroy reputation, though the mischief they occasion bears no proportion in extent to that inflicted by some other vices of character which are not so immediately offensive; and there was little or nothing to be objected to in his life and conversation under any of the heads of that household morality which is very generally regarded as the whole code of morals. He was no' only cautiously decent in his private demeanour within this circle of duties, but he was a conspicuous professor of religion and piety; and it is probable that he did take a considerable interest in those high questions by which all minds were more or less agitated, and certain strong views in regard to what constituted the peculiar badge and the great cementing element and lifespirit of his party. But although he was extremely cautious of doing anything likely to place him in an unfavourable light with the popular sentiment, it would be a mistake to imagine that he did not give loose to his natural temper, where there was no such risk, in the most violent fashion. While he was all subservience to the huzzaing populace, and was at home completely under the government of his wife-a proud, coarse, cunning woman-at the council-table and elsewhere, to all who were dependent upon him, not excepting the men to whom in great part he owed his elevation, he soon became the most imI See notice of the grant in Strype, Eccles. Mem. ii. 202.

[graphic]

perious and insolent of the spoiled children of fortune. The lord-admiral was certainly not a better man than the protector; but the vices of his character were for the most part of a different kind. They were not vices that attempted to assume the guise of virtues-whether that be a commendation or the reverse; they did not so far do homage to morality as to skulk out of sight: the admiral seems to have openly led a dissolute life, and was probably very regardless of imputations on the score of freedom or laxity of manners, at which his brother would have been ready to sink into the earth with shame and fear. It is doubtful to which of the two religions he belonged, but pretty certain that he neither cared, nor professed to care, much for either. In point of abilities he was reckoned far the protector's superior. The popular breath, which the elder brother so solicitously courted, the younger, as bold and reckless in this as in all things else, held in avowed contempt. Of the credit of high principle, or principle of any kind, very little can be awarded to either; each equally-the one in his adulation of the multitude, the other by his haughty aristocratic professions and bearing pursued, in the way that his peculiar tastes and temper dictated, the path of the same selfish and rapacious ambition. What small amount of honesty may have belonged to either was, in Somerset, merely a natural attachment which he probably had to those opinions in religion which were the distinction of his party, and upon the profession of which he had taken his stand; in Seymour, the effrontery of a profligate man, of too violent passions, and too proud a spirit, even to pretend to virtues which he did not possess. Burnet's relation of the story of the lord-admiral, upon which the accounts of later writers are principally founded, is given by him as if the particulars were either notorious, or had been obtained from some source that left no doubt as to their authenticity; but it will be found, upon examination, that the whole detail is little more than a transcript of the charges made against Seymour by his brother and the council-that is, of the mere assertions of his enemies, upon which, as we shall find, although he was condemned and put to death, he was never brought to trial, and of the truth of many things in which we have really no evidence whatever. The statement, therefore, cannot be received with perfect confidence, although it may probably, in the main, be founded in truth. It is, however, in parts, confirmed by documents that have been brought to light since Burnet wrote, especially by those contained in the collection known by the name of the Burghley Papers.'

A collection of State Papers relating to affairs in the reigns of King Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen

One of the lines of pursuit in which Seymour's talents, address, and personal advantages, enabled him greatly to distinguish himself, was that of gallantry: his success with women was so brilliant, that he had the popular reputation of catching hearts by art-magic. He now resolved that riches and power as well as pleasure should wait upon his victories in this career; and it is alleged that, in the first instance, he aspired so high as to have cherished the hope of gaining the hand either of the Princess Mary or of her sister Elizabeth, the two persons next in the order of succession to the throne. His views seem also to have been at one time directed to the Lady Jane Grey, in the presentiment that hers might possibly, after all, be the head upon which the crown would light. He found, however, that there were difficulties in the way of each of these projects, and for the present he contented himself with the hand of Catherine Parr, the queendowager-" whom you married," say the council in their charge, "so soon after the late king's death, that, if she had conceived straight after, it should have been a great doubt whether the child born should have been accounted the late king's or yours; whereupon a marvellous danger and peril night and was like to have ensued to the king's majesty's succession and quiet of the realm.” In fact, Catherine appears to have thrown herself into his arms.

Seymour had a twofold object in this marriage first, the acquisition of the wealth Catherine had accumulated while she was queen, and the dower to which she was now entitled; secondly, that he might gain the easier access to the king, and be the better able to win him over to his purposes through the influence of Catherine, to whom Edward had always been accustomed to look up with respect and affection. In the first of these expectations he was in part disappointed, by his wife being compelled to surrender certain jewels of great value, which Henry had given to her, but which the protector and the council insisted that she had no right to retain, after she had ceased to be queen-consort. In a letter to Seymour upon the subject of this and other points in which she thought she was ill-used, she seems to impute the treatment she had received to Somerset's proud and violent wife. Whether it was the loss of her jewels, however, or whether the same consequence would have followed without that provocation, poor Catherine soon became little an object of envy to any of her sex; the husband, to whom she had given herself with such preciElizabeth, transcribed from papers left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, now at Hatfield House, in the library of the Earl of Salisbury, by the Rev. Samuel Haynes, A.M., fol. London, 1740. This first volume of the Burghley Papers extends from A.D. 1542 to 1570; a second volume, extending from 1571 to 1596, was published by the Rev William Murdin, fol. London, 1759.

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