CHA P. minutes of the intended deed were read to them, the XXXV. king required them to draw them up in the form of let ters patent. They hefitated to obey this order; and de1553 fired time to confider of it. The more they reflected, the greater danger they found in compliance. The fettlement of the crown by Henry the eighth had been made in confequence of an act of parliament; and by another act, paffed in the beginning of this reign, it was declared treafon in any of the heirs, their aiders or abettors, to attempt on the right of another, or change the order of fucceffion. The judges pleaded thefe reafons before the council. They urged, that fuch a patent as was intended would be entirely invalid; that it would fubject, not only the judges who drew it, but every counfellor who figned it, to the pains of treafon; and that the only proper expedient, both to give fanction to the new fettlement, and free its partizans from danger, was to fummon parliament, and to obtain the confent of that affembly. The king faid, that he intended afterwards to follow that method, and would call a parliament, in which he propofed to have his fettlement ratified; but in the mean time, he required the judges, on their allegiance, to draw the patent in the form required. The council told the judges, that their refufal would fubject all of them to the pains of treafon. Northumberland gave to Montague the appellation of traitor; and faid that he would in his shirt fight any man in so just a cause as that of lady Jane's fucceffion. The judges were reduced to great difficulties between the dangers of the law, and thofe arifing from the violence of prefent power and authority X THE arguments were canvaffed in feveral different meetings between the council and the judges; and no folution could be found of the prefent difficulties. At laft, Montague propofed an expedient, which fatisfied both his brethren and the counfellors. He defired, that a fpecial commiffion fhould be paffed by the king and council, requiring the judges to draw a patent for the new fettlement of the crown; and that a pardon fhould immediately after be granted them for any offence, which they might have incurred by their compliance. When the patent was drawn and brought to the bishop of Ely, chancellor, In order to pass the great feal, that prelate required, that * Fuller, book viii. No 2. all 1553. all the judges fhould fign it. Gofnald at firft refufed; CHA P. and it was with much difficulty, that he was prevailed XXXV, on, by the violent menaces of Northumberland, to comply; but the conftancy of Sir James Hales, who, though a zealous proteftant, preferred justice on this occafion to the prejudices of his party, could not be fhaken by any expedient. The chancellor next required, for his greater fecurity, that all the privy counsellors fhould fet their hands to the patent: The intrigues of Northumberland, or the fears of his violence, were fo prevalent, that the counsellors complied with this demand. Cranmer alone hefitated during fome time, but yielded at last to the earnest and pathetic entreaties of the king. Cecil, at that time fecretary of ftate, pretended afterwards, that he only figned as a witness to the king's fubfcription. And thus, by the king's letters patent, the two princeffes, Mary and Elizabeth, were fet afide; and the crown was fettled on the heirs of the dutchefs of Suffolk: For the dutchess herself was content to be postponed to her daughter. AFTER this fettlement was made, with fo many inaufpicious circumftances, Edward declined vifibly every day; and fmall hopes were entertained of his recovery. To make matters worfe, his phyficians were dismissed by Northumberland's advice and by an order of council; and he was put into the hands of an ignorant woman, who undertook, in a little time, to restore him to his former state of health. After the ufe of her medicines, all the bad fymptoms encreased to the most violent degree: He felt a difficulty of fpeech and breathing; his pulfe failed, his legs fwelled, his colour became livid; and many other fymptoms appeared of his approaching end. He expired at Greenwich in the fixteenth year of his and death. age, and the feventh of his reign. 6th July. ALL the English hiftorians dwell with pleasure on the excellencies of this young prince; whom the flattering promises of hope, joined to many real virtues, had made an object of the most tender affections of the public. He poffeffed mildnefs of difpofition, application to study and bufinefs, a capacity to learn and judge, and an attachment to equity and juftice. He feems only to have contracted, from his education and from the age in which Y Cranm. Mem. p. 295. he CHA P. he lived, too much of a narrow prepoffeffion in matters XXXV. of religion, which made him incline fomewhat to bigo try and perfecution: But as the bigotry of protestants, 1553 leis governed by prieits, lies under more reftraints than that of catholics, the cffects of this malignant quality were the lefs to be apprehended, if a longer life had been granted to young Edward, CHAP. CHA P. XXXVI. MARY. Lady Jane Gray proclaimed queen. Deferted by the people. The queen proclaimed and acknowledged. Northumberland executed. Catholic religion restored. A parliament. the queen's marriage. Deliberations with regard to lip. Wyat's infurrection cution of Lady Jane Gray. lip's arrival in England, TH 1553 HE title of the princess Mary to the crown, after CHAP. the decease of her brother, was not liable to any XXXVI. confiderable difficulty; and the objections, started by the lady Jane's partizans, were new and unheard of by the nation. Though all the proteftants, and even many of the catholics, believed the marriage of Henry the • eighth with Catherine of Arragon to be unlawful and invalid; yet as it had been contracted by the parties without any criminal intention, had been avowed by their parents, recognized by the nation, and feemed founded on those principles of law and religion, which then prevailed, very few imagined, that their iffue ought on that account to be regarded as illegitimate. A declaration to that purpose had indeed been extorted from parliament by the ufual violence and caprice of Henry; but as that monarch had afterwards been induced to restore his daughter to the right of fucceflion, her title was now become as legal and parliamentary as it was ever efteemed juft and natural. The public had been long familiarized to these fentiments: During all the reign of Edward, the princefs was regarded as his lawful fucceffor: And though the proteftants dreaded the effects of her prejudices, the extreme hatred, univerfally entertained against the Dudleys, who, men forefaw, would, under the name of Jane, be the real fovereigns, was more than fufficient to counterbalance, even with that party, the attachment to religion. This last attempt, to violate the order of fucceffion, had difplayed Northumberland's ambition and injustice Sleiden, lib. 25. CHA P. justice in a full light; and when the people reflected on XXXVI. the long train of fraud, iniquity and cruelty, by which that project had been conducted; that the lives of the 1553. two Seymours, as well as the title of the princeffes, had been facrificed to it; they were moved by indignation to exert themselves in oppofition to fuch criminal enterprizes. The general veneration alfo, paid to the memory of Henry the eighth, prompted the nation to defend the rights of his pofterity; and the miferies of the antient civil wars, were not fo entirely forgotten, that men were willing, by a departure from the lawful heir, to incur the danger of like bloodshed and confufion. NORTHUMBERLAND, fenfible of the oppofition which he must expect, had carefully concealed the destination made by the king; and in order to bring the two princeffes into his power, he had the precaution to engage the council, before Edward's death, to write to them in that prince's name, defiring their attendance, on pretence that his infirm state of health required the affiftance of their council and the confolation of their company B. Edward expired before their arrival; but Northumberland, in order to make the princeffes fall into the fnare, kept the king's death still secret; and the lady Mary had already reached Hoddefden, within half a day's journey of the court. Happily, the earl of Arundel fent her private intelligence, both of her brother's death and of the confpiracy formed against her : She immediately made hafte to retire; and arrived by quick journies, first at Kenning-hall in Norfolk, then at Framlingham in Suffolk; where the propofed to embark and retire to Flanders, in cafe fhe thould find it impoffible to defend her right of fucceffion. She wrote letters to the nobility and moft confiderable gentry in every county of England; commanding them to affift her in the defence of her crown and perfon. And the difpatched a meffage to the council; by which he notified to them, that her brother's death was no longer a fecret to her, promised them pardon for paft offences, and required them immediately to give orders for proclaiming her in London D. NORTHUMBERLAND found that farther diffimulation was fruitless: He went to Sion-house E, accompanied C Burnet, vol. ii. p. 233. B Heylin. p. 154: vol. ii. p. 14. with D FOR |