1547.] EXECUTION OF SURREY. 73 sions, the duke and his son were committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason. Feebler or more ill-supported charges never were made than on this occasion. Surrey's principal offences were his having quartered the arms of the Confessor with his own, a thing in which he was warranted by the heralds; his having spoken contemptuously of the new nobility; and his having two Italians in his service, whom one of the witnesses suspected to be spies. Being a commoner he was tried by a jury at Guildhall (Jan. 13, 1547), before the chancellor and other commissioners. He defended himself with eloquence and spirit; but vain was all defence in this reign; he was condemned as a traitor, and six days after (19th) he was beheaded on Tower Hill. The duke of Norfolk was accused of various trifling acts of treason, and every effort was made to get up evidence against him. A good deal of the misfortune of himself and his son originated in family dissension; the duchess, who was separated from her husband, actuated by jealousy, wrote to the lord privy seal, accusing him; and his daughter, the duchess of Richmond, was one of the witnesses against her brother. Mrs. Holland, who was supposed to be the duke's mistress, testified all she could against him. The duke was induced to sign a confession of having divulged the king's secrets, concealed his son's treason in quartering the arms of the Confessor, and having himself quartered those of England. But all availed not; a bill of attainder was hurried through parliament, the royal assent was given by commission on the 27th, and he was ordered for execution the next morning. Fortunately for Norfolk the king died in the night, and a respite was sent to the Tower. The king had gradually been growing worse, but his friends feared to apprise him of his danger. At length sir Anthony Denny ventured to inform him of his approaching dissolution. He received the intelligence with meekness, expressing his reliance on the merits of his Saviour. Sir Anthony asked if he would have any divine to attend him; he said, if any, it should be the archbishop of Canterbury; but "Let me take a little sleep first," said he, "and when I awake again I shall think more about the matter." When he awoke he directed that Cranmer should be fetched from Croydon. The prelate came in all haste, but found him speechless. He desired him to give a sign of his faith in the merits of Christ; the king pressed his hand and expired. Nothing can be more injudicious than the conduct of those Protestant writers who, identifying Henry with the Reformation, seem to think themselves bound to apologise for and even justify the various enormities with which his memory is charged. A slight knowledge of history will suffice to show that the worst instruments are often employed to produce the greatest and best results. We may therefore allow Henry to have been a bad man, and yet regard the Reformation, of which he was an instrument, as a benefit to mankind. It is, on the other hand, weak in the Romanists to charge the Reformation with the vices. of Henry; it would be equally so in us were we to impute to their religion the atrocities of pope Alexander VI. and his children Cæsar and Lucretia Borgia. Thorough selfishness formed the basis of Henry's character*. He never was known to sacrifice an inclination to the interest or happiness of another. "He spared no man in his anger, no woman in his lust ;" everything must yield to his will. He was rapacious and profuse, vain and self-sufficient. At the same time he was courteous and * See Wolsey's opinion of him (supra, p. 15). He went to dine one day with Sir T. More, at Chelsea. After dinner he walked for an hour in the garden with him, with his arm round his neck. When More's son-in law Roper congratulated him on the favour he seemed to be in, "I thank our Lord, son, (quoth he,) I find his Grace my very good lord indeed, and I believe he doth as singularly favour me as any subject within this realm; howbeit, son Roper, I may tell thee I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if my head would win him a castle in France it should not fail to go." This was in 1522 in Henry's jovial days. 1547.] CHARACTER OF HENRY. 75 affable, and when in good humour had a gay jovial manner highly captivating in a ruler. His people remembered the magnificence of his early reign, his handsome person, his skill in martial exercises, and he was popular with them to the very last. The constancy of his friendship to Cranmer is the most estimable trait in his character; but the primate never had dared to oppose his will. Henry's patronage of letters was also highly commendable; he was skilful in selecting those whom he employed in church and state, and rarely promoted an inefficient person. 76 CHAPTER VI. EDWARD VI*. 1547-1553. The council.-Progress of the Reformation.-Invasion of Scotland and battle of Pinkey.-Lord Seymour.-Joan Bocher.-Risings of the peasantry.-Fall of Somerset.-Bonner and Gardiner.-The lady Mary.-Trial and execution of Somerset.-Settlement of the crown.-Death of the king. THE new monarch being only in his tenth year, Henry had in his will nominated a council of sixteen persons to administer the government till he should have completed his eighteenth year. A second council of twelve persons was appointed to aid them in cases of difficulty. Hertford and his friends formed a majority in the council of regency, and one of its first acts was to invest him with the office of protector of the realm and guardian of the king's perThe chief, or rather sole opponent of this measure was the chancellor Wriothesley, who being from his office next in rank to the primate, whom he knew to have little talent or inclination for public affairs, had reckoned that the chief direction of them would fall to himself. son. The members of the council next proceeded to bestow titles and estates on themselves, sir Anthony Denny, sir William Paget, and sir William Hertford, having deposed that such was the late king's intention. Hertford was created duke of Somerset; Essex (the queen's brother), marquis of Northampton; lord Lisle, earl of Warwick; Wriothesley, earl of Southampton; and Seymour, Rich, Willoughby, and Sheffield, barons of the same names. Manors and lordships were to be bestowed on them out etc. * Authorities: Hayward, Godwin, Foxe, Burnet, Strype, the Chroniclers, 1547.j THE COUNCIL. 77 of the church lands, to enable them to support their new dignities. Meantime Somerset and others took to themselves the revenues of sundry deaneries and prebends. When they had thus provided for themselves they proceeded to the ceremony of the young king's coronation, which was performed with the usual magnificence (Feb. 20). The chief obstacle in the way of Somerset's ambition being the chancellor, he was on the watch for a pretext to get rid of him, and Southampton's imprudence soon furnished him with one. In order to be able to devote himself more exclusively to politics, he had, without consulting his colleagues, put the great seal into commission, and appointed four lawyers to hear and decide causes in chancery. Complaint was made to the council; the judges, on being consulted, declared the act illegal. The chancellor, when summoned before the council, defended himself, but he was obliged to surrender the great seal, and to remain a prisoner in his own house till the amount of the fine to be imposed on him should be settled. Southampton's opposition being thus removed, Somerset proceeded to enlarge his own authority, and he procured letters patent under the great seal, now held provisionally by lord St. John, making him Protector, with full regal power. He appointed a council, composed of the members of those nominated in the late king's will, but he reserved the power of increasing their number, and did not bind himself to follow their advice. By this plain usurpation Somerset was invested with more power than had ever yet been placed in the hands of a subject. The Protestants, as we shall henceforth style the reformers*, now looked forward to the rapid spread of their *We will call the other party Catholics, at the same time protesting against their claim to the exclusive right to this title. Catholic signifying universal, no church can have less right to it than the one which denies salvation to all without its pale. Roman Catholic (though, as Milton says, "one of the pope's bulls, as if he should say, universal particular, a Catholic schismatic,") is perhaps appropriate enough as denoting the Romish branch of the church. We |