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Mrs. Ashley professes to have been duly shocked, | who held an office in his establishment, stated to and to have rebuked the admiral as he deserved. the council that he and others of his friends had Other instances of the admiral's audacity are given, but these may serve as sufficient specimens. Mrs. Ashley admits she had reason to suppose that the queen was jealous of the familiarity betwixt her husband and the princess; and "she saith also, that Mr. Ashley, her hushand, hath divers times given this examinate warning to take heed, for he did fear that the Lady Elizabeth did bear some affection to my lord-admiral; she seemed to be well pleased therewith; and sometimes she would blush when he were spoken of." Elizabeth also makes her "Confession" among the rest; but it relates merely to what had passed between her and Mrs. | immediate adherents, in addition to the forces Ashley after the queen's death, on the subject of his friends; and that he had got ready money of the lord-admiral's wish to marry her, and, as enough to pay and maintain the said 10,000 might be expected, contains nothing to her own men for a month.' He is also charged with disadvantage. She maintains that Mrs. Ashley having, in various ways, abused his authority never advised the marriage except on condition and powers as lord-admiral, and of having acit should prove agreeable to the protector and tually taken part with pirates against the lawthe council. In a letter, however, which she ful trader, "as though," says one of the articles, wrote from Hatfield to the protector in January, "you were authorized to be the chief pirate, and 1549, while the proceedings against Seymour to have had all the advantage they could bring were in progress, she mentions a circumstance unto you."2 All these proceedings, it is affirmed, which we should not otherwise have known-were "to none other end and purpose but, after namely, that rumours had got abroad that she was "in the Tower and with child by my lordadmiral." These imputations she declares to be "shameful slanders," and requests that, to put them down, she may be allowed to come immediately to court. It appears, however, that all these examinations gave her no little disturbance and alarm, though, young as she was-only entering upon her sixteenth year-she bore herself, in the delicate and difficult position in which she was thereby placed, with a wonderful deal of the courage and politic management that she evinced on so many occasions in her after life.

earnestly dissuaded him "from writing of such sharp and unsavoury letters to my lord-protector's grace," but without effect. It is asserted that, seeing he could not otherwise achieve his object, he resolved to seize the king's person, and to carry him away to his castle of Holt, in Denbighshire, one of the properties he had acquired by the late royal grant; that for the furtherance of this and his ulterior designs, he had confederated with various noblemen and others; that he had so travailed in the matter as to have put himself in a condition to raise an army of 10,000 men out of his own tenantry and other

The lord-admiral's renewal of his pretensions to the hand of Elizabeth after the death of his queen, seems to have at once brought matters to another open quarrel between him and his brother. The Marquis of Northampton, one of the persons whom he had sought to seduce to a participation in his designs, relates in his examination, or confession, that Seymour had told him "he was credibly informed that my lord-protector had said he would clap him in the Tower if he went to my Lady Elizabeth. These threats, and the obstacle that presented itself to his schemes in the clause of the late king's will, which provided that, if either of the princesses should marry without the consent of the council, she should forfeit her right of succession, roused all the natural impetuosity and violence of his temper, and drove him again to intrigues and plots, and other measures of desperation. One Wightman,

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a title gotten to the crown, and your party made
strong both by sea and land, with furniture of
men and money sufficient, to have aspired to
the dignity royal by some heinous enterprise
against the king's majesty's person.” The coun-
cil do not venture to include in their indictment
what Burnet has set down as one of the lord-
admiral's chief crimes, his having "openly com-
plained that his brother intended to enslave the
nation, and make himself master of all;" as a
glaring proof of which he particularly pointed to
a force of lansquenets which the protector had
brought over and kept in his pay. It appears,
from the Burghley Papers, that the immediate
occasion of proceedings being taken against Sey-
mour was a confession made to the council by
Sir William Sharington, master of the mint at
Bristol, who had been taken up and examined
on a charge of clipping, coining base money,
other frauds. Sharington had been, in the first
instance, defended by the admiral, who, it appears,
was his debtor to a considerable amount; but he
eventually admitted his guilt, and informed the
council, in addition, that he had been in league
with the admiral to supply him with money for
the designs that have just been recounted. There
can be no doubt that Sharington made this con-
fession to save his own life; in point of fact, he
was, after a short time, not only pardoned, but
restored to his former appointment. But the

1 Articles of High Treason, &c., 12-18.
3 Ibid. 22.

and

2 Ibid. 29.

But neither this bribe nor the escape he had king's majesty's person, and peril of the state of made drew Seymour from the path of his restless the same." The evidence contained in the Burghambition. We have seen, that before the end of ley Papers, if it does not completely sustain this this same year he had again begun to practise charge, at least supplies a very interesting and upon the king and the persons about his majesty remarkable chapter in the biography of the great by secret gifts of money. For some time, how- Elizabeth. It should appear that Seymour, ever, he restrained his bold and haughty temper whatever were his designs upon the princess, had so far as not to commit himself in any direct at- in his interest, or at any rate as favourably distempt to upset his brother's power. While he posed to him as he could desire, no less convewas thus lying in wait for what the course of nient a personage than her highness' governess, events might produce, his wife, the Queen-dowa-a Mrs. Catherine Ashley. Thomas Parry, the ger Catherine, died, at Sudley Castle, on the 5th cofferer of the princess' household, relates a con

RUINS OF SUDLEY CASTLE.-From Lysous' Antiquities of Gloucestershire.

day of September, 1548, seven days after having given birth to a daughter. From some expressions that fell from her in her last hours, a suspicion arose that she had been poisoned, or otherwise made away with by the act of her husband; but we are not entitled, from anything that is known of Seymour, to think it probable that he could be guilty of so black a crime as this; and the circumstances, as far as they have come down to us, do not lend any countenance to a surmise which the partiality of some modern writers to the memory of the one brother seems chiefly to have inclined them to adopt against the other.

"It is objected, and laid unto your charge," say the council, in one of their articles exhibited against the lord-admiral, "that you have not only, before you married the queen, attempted and gone about to marry the king's majesty's sister, the Lady Elizabeth, second inheritor in remainder to the crown, but also, being then let (hindered) by the lord-protector and others of the council, sithence that time, both in the life of the queen continued your old labour and love, and after her death, by secret and crafty means, practised to achieve the said purpose of marrying the said Lady Elizabeth, to the danger of the

versation he had with this lady,

in which she admitted to him that even the Duchess of Somerset had found great fault with her "for my Lady Elizabeth's going in a night in a barge upon Thames, and for other light parts," and had told her, in consequence, that she was not worthy to have the governance of a king's daughter. On the subject of the court paid by the admiral to the princess, "I do remember also," says Parry, "she told me that the admiral loved her but too well, and had so done a good while, and that the queen (Catherine Parr) was jealous on her and him, in so much that one time the queen, suspecting the often access of the admiral to the Lady Elizabeth's grace, came suddenly upon them when they were all alone, he having her in his arms, wherefore the queen fell out both with the lord-admiral and with her grace also. And hereupon the queen called Mrs. Ashley to her, and told her fancy in that matter; and of this was much displeasure." At this time, it appears, the princess was living with the queen-dowager; but, immediately after the above incident, she either removed of her own accord, or was sent away. But Mrs. Ashley may be allowed to speak for herself, at least in so far as her somewhat naïvely expressed details will bear to be quoted. In her "Confession," in which of course she confesses as little as possible against herself, she states that at Chelsea, immediately after he was married to the queen, the admiral used frequently to come into the Lady Elizabeth's chamber before she was ready, and sometimes before she was out of bed. If she were up, he would slap her familiarly o the back or on the hips; "and if she were in her bed, he would put open the curtains and bid her good morrow, and make as though he would come at her; and she would go further in the bed, so that he could not come at her. And one morning he strave to have kissed her in her bed." At this last and some other instances of boldness

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earnestly dissuaded him "from writing of such sharp and unsavoury letters to my lord-protector's grace," but without effect. It is asserted that, seeing he could not otherwise achieve his object, he resolved to seize the king's person, and to carry him away to his castle of Holt, in Denbighshire, one of the properties he had acquired by the late royal grant; that for the furtherance of this and his ulterior designs, he had confederated with various noblemen and others; that he had so travailed in the matter as to have put himself in a condition to raise an army of 10,000 men out of his own tenantry and other

Mrs. Ashley professes to have been duly shocked, | who held an office in his establishment, stated to and to have rebuked the admiral as he deserved. | the council that he and others of his friends had Other instances of the admiral's audacity are given, but these may serve as sufficient specimens. Mrs. Ashley admits she had reason to suppose that the queen was jealous of the familiarity betwixt her husband and the princess; and "she saith also, that Mr. Ashley, her husband, hath divers times given this examinate warning to take heed, for he did fear that the Lady Elizabeth did bear some affection to my lord-admiral; she seemed to be well pleased therewith; and sometimes she would blush when he were spoken of." Elizabeth also makes her "Confession" among the rest; but it relates merely to what had passed between her and Mrs. | immediate adherents, in addition to the forces Ashley after the queen's death, on the subject of the lord-admiral's wish to marry her, and, as might be expected, contains nothing to her own disadvantage. She maintains that Mrs. Ashley never advised the marriage except on condition it should prove agreeable to the protector and the council. In a letter, however, which she wrote from Hatfield to the protector in January, 1549, while the proceedings against Seymour were in progress, she mentions a circumstance which we should not otherwise have knownnamely, that rumours had got abroad that she was "in the Tower and with child by my lordadmiral." These imputations she declares to be "shameful slanders," and requests that, to put them down, she may be allowed to come immediately to court. It appears, however, that all these examinations gave her no little disturbance and alarm, though, young as she was-only entering upon her sixteenth year-she bore herself, in the delicate and difficult position in which she was thereby placed, with a wonderful deal of the courage and politic management that she evinced on so many occasions in her after life.

The lord-admiral's renewal of his pretensions to the hand of Elizabeth after the death of his queen, seems to have at once brought matters to another open quarrel between him and his brother. The Marquis of Northampton, one of the persons whom he had sought to seduce to a participation in his designs, relates in his examination, or confession, that Seymour had told him "he was credibly informed that my lord-protector had said he would clap him in the Tower if he went to my Lady Elizabeth. These threats, and the obstacle that presented itself to his schemes in the clause of the late king's will, which provided that, if either of the princesses should marry without the consent of the council, she should forfeit her right of succession, roused all the natural impetuosity and violence of his temper, and drove him again to intrigues and plots, and other measures of desperation. One Wightman,

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193

of his friends; and that he had got ready money
enough to pay and maintain the said 10,000
men for a month.' He is also charged with
having, in various ways, abused his authority
and powers as lord-admiral, and of having ac-
tually taken part with pirates against the law-
ful trader, "as though," says one of the articles,
"you were authorized to be the chief pirate, and
to have had all the advantage they could bring
unto you." All these proceedings, it is affirmed,
were "to none other end and purpose but, after
a title gotten to the crown, and your party made
strong both by sea and land, with furniture of
men and money sufficient, to have aspired to
the dignity royal by some heinous enterprise
against the king's majesty's person."
The coun-
cil do not venture to include in their indictment
what Burnet has set down as one of the lord-
admiral's chief crimes, his having "openly com-
plained that his brother intended to enslave the
nation, and make himself master of all;" as a
glaring proof of which he particularly pointed to
a force of lansquenets which the protector had
brought over and kept in his pay. It appears,
from the Burghley Papers, that the immediate
occasion of proceedings being taken against Sey-
mour was a confession made to the council by
Sir William Sharington, master of the mint at
Bristol, who had been taken up and examined
on a charge of clipping, coining base money, and
other frauds. Sharington had been, in the first
instance, defended by the admiral, who, it appears,
was his debtor to a considerable amount; but he
eventually admitted his guilt, and informed the
council, in addition, that he had been in league
with the admiral to supply him with money for
the designs that have just been recounted. There
can be no doubt that Sharington made this con-
fession to save his own life; in point of fact, he
was, after a short time, not only pardoned, but
restored to his former appointment. But the

1 Articles of High Treason, &c., 12-18.
3 Ibid. 22.

2 Ibid. 29.

admiral was instantly (19th January, 1549) sent the lord-admiral was brought into the House of to the Tower.

1

Lords; all the judges and the king's council gave
it as their opinion that the articles amounted to
treason; various lords, who had already made
depositions against the accused repeated their
evidence; and the bill was at last passed without
a division. Somerset himself was present at each
reading. On the same day (the 27th) it was sent
down to the commons. But here it encountered,
at first, considerable opposition. "Many argued
against attainders in absence, and thought it an
odd way, that some peers should rise up in their
places in their own house, and relate somewhat
to the slander of another, and that he should be
thereupon attainted; therefore it was pressed
that it might be done by a trial, and that the
admiral should be brought to the bar, and be
heard plead for himself." This hesitation was
at first attempted to be met by a message from
the other house, repeating, what had been inti-
mated when the bill was first sent down, that the
lords who were acquainted with the facts would,
if required, repeat their evidence before the com-
mons. But it was not deemed requisite even to
go through this formality. On the 4th of March
a message came from the king, which stated that
"he thought it was not necessary to send for the
admiral;" and thereupon the bill was agreed to,
in a house of about 400 members, not more than
ten or twelve voting in the negative. The par-
liament having been prorogued on the 14th-on
which day the royal assent was given to the bill
-on the 17th the council issued the warrant for
the admiral's execution. Burnet notices it as “a
little odd," that this order of blood should be

Seymour had now no chance of escape. Abandoned by every friend on earth, he lay passive and helpless in his prison-house, while "many complaints," as Burnet observes, "being usually brought against a sinking man," all who sought to make their own positions more secure, or to advance themselves in court favour, hastened to add their contribution to the charges or the evidence by which he was to be destroyed. Attempts were made to persuade him to submit himself, by working both upon his fears and his hopes: but he would confess no part of the treasonable designs imputed to him. There is, indeed, no proof or probability whatever that his views extended to anything beyond the supplanting of Somerset; it was a struggle for ascendency between the two brothers, and nothing more. The proceedings taken against the accused were, from the beginning to the end, a flagrant violation of all law and justice. After he had been several times secretly examined, without anything material being extracted from him, by deputations of the privy council, on the 23d of February the whole council proceeded in a body to the Tower, with the charges against him drawn out in thirtythree articles, to endeavour to bring him to submission. But to all their threats and persuasions he insisted, as he had all along done, upon an open trial, and being brought face to face with his accusers. At last he so far yielded to their importunities as to say that, if they would leave the articles with him, he would consider of them; but even with this proposal they refused to comply. The next day, "after dinner," the lord-chan-signed by Cranmer-a thing which he says was cellor, in the presence of the other councillors, "opened the matter to the king, and delivered his opinion for leaving it to the parliament." It is pretended that this was the first time the subject had been mentioned at least at the councilboard-to Edward; and, therefore, the greater admiration was called forth by the prompt judgment of the youthful sovereign, and the equanimity with which he consented to sacrifice his uncle to the public weal. After each of the othering of justice." The bishop reported to the councouncillors had expressed his approbation of the course recommended by the chancellor, and, last of all, the protector, who protested "this was a most sorrowful business to him, but were it son or brother, he must prefer his majesty's safety to them, for he weighed his allegiance more than his blood," his majesty answered, "We perceive that there are great things objected and laid to my lord-admiral, my uncle, and they tend to treason; and we perceive that you require but justice to be done; we think it reasonable, and we will that you proceed according to your request." The very next day, a bill of attainder against

contrary to the canon law; but he makes no remark upon what will appear to most persons a still stranger indecorum, and a violation almost of the law of nature that the first name attached to it should be that of the condemned man's own brother! The Bishop of Ely was immediately sent to convey to Seymour the determination of the government, and "to instruct and teach him the best he could to the quiet and patient suffer

cil that the prisoner "required Mr. Latimer to come to him; the day of execution to be deferred; certain of his servants to be with him; his daughter to be with my Lady Duchess of Suffolk to be brought up; and such like." To these requests the council instructed their secretary to write

1 Burnet.

2 Strype, in his notes to Hayward, has given a full account of these proceedings from the Journals of the two houses, to prove "how fairly he (the admiral) was judged and dealt with in the parliament."

3 See it as published by Burnet himself in his Collection of Records.

Entry in Council Book, printed by Strype, Eccles. Mem

"their resolute answer to the said lord-admiral;" | man; I would there were no mo in England. He by which appears to be meant that they put their negative upon most of them. The execution took place on Wednesday, the 20th, on Tower-hill, when Seymour died protesting that he had never committed or meant any treason against the king or the realm. It should appear that he was attended, as he had requested, in his last moments by Latimer, who made some extraordinary remarks, both on his death and his life, in a sermon he preached before the king, a few days after. It was commonly observed, it seems, that the adiniral had died very boldly, and that "he would not have done so, had he not been in a just quarrel." This Latimer declares to be "a deceivable argument." "This I will say," he proceeds, "if they ask me what I think of his death, that he died very dangerously, irksomely, horribly." "He was," concludes the zealous orator, "a man farthest from the fear of God that ever I knew or heard of in England. . . . I have heard say he was of the opinion that he believed not the immortality of the soul—that he was not right in the matter." Some additional touches are given to the picture in another sermon:-"I have heard say, when that good queen (Catherine Parr) that is gone, had ordained in her house daily prayer both before noon and after noon, the admiral gets him out of the way, like a mole digging in the earth. He shall be Lot's wife to me as long as I live. He was a covetous man, an horrible covetous

was an ambitious man; I would there were no mo in England. He was a seditious man, a contemner of Common Prayer; I would there were no mo in England. He is gone; I would he had left none behind him." In ambition and covetousness, if not in contempt of the Common Prayer, Seymour, it is to be feared, did leave at least one man behind him who was fully his match. His daughter, of whom Queen Catherine had died in childbed, was an infant of scarce six months old when she lost her second parent; soon after which event she was, as her father had requested, committed to the charge of the Duchess of Suffolk. As the child was utterly penniless, as well as an orphan, her uncle, the wealthy and powerful lord-protector, in thus consigning her to the hands of strangers, promised that an annual sum should be allowed for her maintenance, and that a quantity of plate and other furniture which she had had in her nursery should be sent along with her to the house of the Duchess of Suffolk. It will hardly be believed that neither the allowance in money, nor even the plate and other articles, could be got for many months out of the hard grip of Somerset and his duchess: indeed, it is probable they never were obtained. But if Somerset ever did make any allowance for the support of his niece, he was very soon delivered from the burden, for in a few months more the poor child followed its parents to the grave.

CHAPTER X.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1549-1553.

EDWARD VI.

l'opular tumults in England-Their causes-Religious character imparted to them-Their progress in Devonshire -Their suppression-Rebellion in Norfolk-Its violence and excesses-It is suppressed by the Earl of Warwick-Peculiar character of these insurrections-State of Scotland-Quarrels between the Scots and their allies the French-Dissatisfaction against the Protector Somerset-Offence occasioned by his arrogance and rapacity-The Earl of Warwick and the nobles combine against him-He is placed under arrest-He is imprisoned, tried, and fined-Peace concluded with France and Scotland-Trial and execution of Joan of Kent -Bishop Bonner sent to prison-Ecclesiastical events-Opposition of the Princess Mary-The Duke of Somerset intrigues to regain power and office-The Earl of Warwick created Duke of Northumberland-The Duke of Somerset arrested on a charge of treason-Accusations brought against him-His trial and executionProceedings of parliament-Ambition of the Duke of Northumberland-He strengthens himself by family alliances-Endeavours to procure the succession to the throne for his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey-Edward in his last illness moved to that effect-His consent obtained-Death of Edward V1.

HE tragedy of the lord-admiral was followed by a summer of popular tumult and confusion, such as had not been known in England since the rebellion of Jack Cade, almost exactly 100 years before. Several causes of various kinds concurred at this crisis VOL. II.

to throw the peasantry in all parts of the country into a state of extraordinary excitability, or what may be called a predisposition to disorder and insurrection. The following passage occurs in a

1 Stow.

2 Latimer's Fourth Sermon, in the first edition of his sermons, 8vo. The passage is erased in subsequent editions. 110

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