accounts of the army. This was his last public service during the reign of Henry VIII., who for his eminent services bestowed upon him some considerable and very convenient grants of churchlands, and at his death not only made him one of his sixteen executors, appointed as joint-regents to govern the kingdom during the minority of Edward VI., but added to this honour a legacy of five hundred pounds.

The reader, who remembers by what means Somerset acquired the sole regency, will not be surprised at the enmity which Lord Lisle bore to that nobleman, when he is informed that the important office of High Admiral, though granted to him for life, was transferred to Sir Thomas Seymour, the Protector's brother. To compensate however in some degree this unjust measure, the Ex-Admiral was created Earl of Warwick, and made Great Chamberlain of England. So precipitately did Somerset lay the foundation of his own ruin! He received, likewise, considerable grants from the crown, particularly Warwick-Castle and manor: but these emoluments could not allay his boundless ambition.

Nor did he long wait for an opportunity to cònvince the nation, that his military talents, as well as his political abilities, were superior to those of the Protector. In the Life of Somerset, has been related the issue of the expedition to Scotland; and it must be acknowledged, that the Earl of Warwick, if he had been first in command, would most probably have pushed the war to a more glorious conclusion.

Upon his return to London, he found the nobility divided into two factions, occasioned by the quarrels

between the Protector and his brother; and with true Machiavelian policy, he widened the breach between them, at the very moment when he was labouring, by means of a third party, to accomplish the ruin of both. With this view finding that Sudley had rashly proceeded to overt acts of treason, he warmly urged the necessity of his being attainted in parlia ment; and, after conviction, he continually pressed Somerset to consent to his execution. No greater proof can be given of the Protector's deficiency in the knowledge of mankind, than his having taken upon this occasion the advice of one who had never lost sight of the office of which he had been deprived, and in which he was re-instated, not long after the death of Lord Sudley.

The insurrections, which happened throughout England in the year 1549, on account of the enclosures, have been already noticed in the Life of the Protector. Against the Norfolk insurgents amount ing to 16,000, whose reduction had been in vain attempted by the Marquis of Northampton and Lord Sheffield, the Earl of Warwick was sent with 6000 foot and 1500 horse. It was not, however, till after a general battle, that he was able to get possession of Norwich. Their leader (Robert Ket, a tanner) having taught the rebels some discipline, they drew up in excellent order, and fought with extreme bravery; and though they lost upward of 2000 men in the action, they resolutely entrenched themselves, and prepared for a second. The Earl, unwilling to shed their blood, despatched a herald to offer them a pardon, if they would deliver up their leaders; but this they refused, telling the herald, that they rather chose to fall in the field, than to be deluded by deceit

ful promises to surrender, and then to be put to death like dogs.' Warwick, upon receiving this answer, prepared for action; but, previously to the onset, he again sent to inquire whether they would accept the pardon, if he himself came to them in person, and assured them of it.' To which they replied, "That he was a nobleman of such honour and generosity, that provided they might have this assurance from his own mouth, they were willing to submit." The Earl, accordingly, went in among them; upon which, they threw down their arms. Ket was taken the next day, and was hanged some time afterward at Norwich-Castle: nine of his principal followers were, likewise, hanged on the boughs of what they had stiled in their manifestoes the Oak of Reformation,'

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Flushed with success, Warwick now began his association with the confederated lords, who finding him an enterprising man, an able general, a shrewd politician, and a favourite of the people, resolved to make him their chief instrument in reducing the Protector's power.

His intrigues, from this time to the death of Somerset, have been so amply detailed in the Memoirs of that unfortunate nobleman, that it will not be necessary to dwell upon the most important transactions of that turbulent period.

About the beginning of the year 1551 intelligence was received, that the Emperor intended to despatch a fleet to transport the princess Mary to Antwerp, in order to secure to her the free exercise of the mass; and a rebellion in Essex seeming to favour this design, she was brought up from that county, in which she then resided, to London. In this new abode,

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endeavours were used by the King and council to convert her to the Protestant religion, but in vain. The Emperor now sent an angry message, threatening war; upon which the council deputed Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, with a declaration announcing, that the same favour which the King's protestant subjects should enjoy with respect to their religion in the imperial dominions, the Emperor's Roman Catholic subjects should enjoy in England; but that with respect to the King's own subjects, of whom Mary was one, he had no right whatever to interfere.' It must be confessed indeed, even by Warwick's enemies, that the vigour, which now animated the royal counsels with regard to foreign affairs, was chiefly owing to that nobleman's influence. Edward therefore, finding he possessed the qualifications of an able statesman, and seeing him apparently reconciled to his uncle, appointed him Lord Steward of his household and Earl Marshal of England; and shortly afterward created him Lord Warden of the Northern Marches, and Duke of Northumberland.

By this time, he had contracted alliances with some of the best families in England, and highly advanced his children and his friends: in particular, Sir Robert Dudley, one of his younger sons (subsequently Earl of Leicester) a man "who for lust and cruelty," says Hayward, "was the monster of the court, was made one of the six ordinary gentlemen of the King's chamber; and after his coming into place so near him, all authors agree, the King enjoyed his health but a little while."

That Somerset was not qualified to preside in administration, is generally allowed; but his exclusion from every responsible office was the heaviest

punishment for his past errors, which the other councillors required. The Duke of Northumberland however had a project in agitation, which made him dread the strict integrity, and remaining influence, of his Sovereign's uncle. After his death, having gained an entire ascendency over the King (more perhaps through the operation of fear, than of affection) he began to forward his plot, which was farther hastened by the following circumstance.

The young monarch, notwithstanding every art used to divert him, grew pensive and melancholy. He was frequently found in tears, and upon the slightest mention of Somerset, which in referring to preceding acts of the council could not be avoided, he would sigh, says Hayward, and lament his own wretched situation in these pathetic terms: "How unfortunate have I been to those of my blood! My mother I slew at my birth, and since I have made away two of her brothers, and haply to serve the purposes of others against myself. The Protector had done nothing that deserved death, or if he had, it was very little, and proceeded rather from his wife than himself! Where, then, was the good nature of a nephew? Where the clemency of a prince? Alas! how have I been abused? How little was I master of my own judgement, that both his death, and the blame thereof, must be charged upon me!"

Some writers have asserted that the decay of Edward's health, which commenced about this time, was owing to natural causes, and that neither Northumberland nor his agents had any hand in hastening his death: and they assign as a reason, that the Duke had no cause to anticipate the decline of his power, so long as the King lived. But if we con