CHAP. XXXVI.

MARY.

Lady Jane Gray proclaimed queen——Deserted by the people——The queen proclaimed and acknowledged——Northumberland executed——Catholic religion restored——A parliament——Deliberations with regard to the queen's marriage——Queen's marriage with Philip——Wyat's insurrection——Suppressed——Execution of Lady Jane Gray——A parliament——Philip's arrival in England.

1553. THE title of the princess Mary, after the demise of her brother, was not exposed to any considerable difficulty; and the objections, started by the lady Jane's partizans, were new and unheard-of by the nation. Though all the protestants, and even many of the catholics, believed the marriage of Henry VIII. 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 seemingly founded on those principles of law and religion, which then prevailed, few imagined, that their issue ought on that account to be regarded as illegitimate. A declaration to that purpose had indeed been extorted from parliament by the usual violence and caprice of Henry; but as that monarch had afterwards been induced to restore his daughter to the right of succession, her title was now become as legal and parliamentary as it was ever esteemed just and natural. The public had long been familiarized to these sentiments: During all the reign of Edward, the princess was regarded as his lawful successor: And though the protestants dreaded the effects of her prejudices, the extreme hatred, universally entertained against the Dudleys^[1], who, men foresaw, would, under the name of Jane, be the real sovereigns, was more than sufficient to counterbalance, even with that party, the attachment to religion. This last attempt, to violate the order of succession, had displayed Northumberland's ambition and injustice in a full light; and when the people reflected on the long train of fraud, iniquity, and cruelty by which that project had been conducted; that the lives of the two Seymours, as well as the title of the princesses, had been sacrificed to it; they were moved by indignation to exert themselves in opposition to such criminal enterprizes. The general veneration also, paid to the memory of Henry VIII. prompted the nation to defend the rights of his posterity; and the miseries of the ancient civil wars were not so entirely forgotten, that men were willing, by a departure from the lawful heir, to incur the danger of like bloodshed and confusion.

Northumberland, sensible of the opposition which he must expect, had carefully concealed the destination made by the king; and in order to bring the two princesses into his power, he had had the precaution to engage the council, before Edward's death, to write to them in that prince's name, desiring their attendance, on pretence that his infirm state of health required the assistance of their counsel and the consolation of their company^[2]. Edward expired before their arrival; but Northumberland, in order to make the princesses fall into the snare, kept the king's death still secret; and the lady Mary had already reached Hoddesden, within half a day's journey of the court. Happily, the earl of Arundel sent her private intelligence, both of her brother's death and of the conspiracy formed against her^[3]: She immediately made haste to retire; and she arrived, by quick journies, first at Kenning-hall in Norfolk, then at Framlingham in Suffolk; where she purposed to embark and escape to Flanders, in case she should find it impossible to defend her right of succession. She wrote letters to the nobility and most considerable gentry in every county in England; commanding them to assist her in the defence of her crown and person. And she dispatched a message to the council; by which she notified to them, that her brother's death was no longer a secret to her, promised them pardon for past offences, and required them immediately to give orders for proclaiming her in London^[4].

Northumberland found that farther dissimulation was fruitless: He went to Sion-house^[5], accompanied by the duke of Suffolk, the earl of Pembroke, and others of the nobility; and he approached the lady Jane, who resided there, with all the respect usually paid to the sovereign. Jane was, in a great measure, ignorant of these transactions; and it was with equal grief and surprize, that she received intelligence of them^[6]. Lady Jane Gray proclaimed queen. She was a lady of an amiable person, an engaging disposition, accomplished parts; and being of an equal age with the late king, she had received all her education with him, and seemed even to possess greater facility in acquiring every part of manly and polite literature. She had attained a familiar knowledge of the Roman and Greek languages, besides modern tongues; had passed most of her time in an application to learning; and expressed a great indifference for other occupations and amusements, usual with her sex and station. Roger Ascham, tutor to the lady Elizabeth, having one day paid her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato, while the rest of the family were engaged in a party of hunting in the park; and on his admiring the singularity of her choice, she told him, that she received more pleasure from that author than the others could reap from all their sport and gaiety^[7]. Her heart, full of this passion for literature and the elegant arts, and of tenderness towards her husband, who was deserving of her affections, had never opened itself to the flattering allurements of ambition; and the intelligence of her elevation to the throne was no-wise agreeable to her. She even refused to accept of the present; pleaded the preferable title of the two princesses; expressed her dread of the consequences attending an enterprize so dangerous, not to say so criminal; and desired to remain in the private station, in which she was born. Overcome at last by the entreaties, rather than the reasons, of her father and father-in-law, and above all of her husband, she submitted to their will, and was prevailed on to relinquish her own judgment. It was then usual for the kings of England, after their accession, to pass the first days in the Tower; and Northumberland immediately conveyed thither the new sovereign. All the counsellors were obliged to attend her to that fortress; and by this means became, in reality, prisoners in the hands of Northumberland; whose will they were necessitated to obey. Orders were given by the council to proclaim Jane throughout the kingdom; but these orders were executed only in London, and the neighbourhood. No applause ensued: The people heard the proclamation with silence and concern: Some even expressed their scorn and contempt: and one Pot, a vintner's apprentice, was severely punished for this offence. The protestant teachers themselves, who were employed to convince the people of Jane's title, found their eloquence fruitless; and Ridley, bishop of London, who preached a sermon to that purpose, wrought no effect upon his audience.

The people of Suffolk, meanwhile, paid their attendance on Mary. As they were much attached to the reformed communion, they could not forbear, amidst their tenders of duty, expressing apprehensions for their religion; but when she assured them, that she never meant to change the laws of Edward, they enlisted themselves in her cause with zeal and affection. The nobility and gentry daily flocked to her, and brought her reinforcement. The earls of Bath and Sussex, the eldest sons of lord Wharton and lord Mordaunt, Sir William Drury, Sir Henry Benningfield, Sir Henry Jernegan, persons whose interest lay in the neighbourhood, appeared at the head of their tenants and retainers^[8]. Sir Edward Hastings, brother to the earl of Huntingdon, having received a commission from the council to make levies for the lady Jane in Buckinghamshire, carried over his troops, which amounted to four thousand men, and joined Mary. Even a fleet, which had been sent by Northumberland to lie off the coast of Suffolk, being forced into Yarmouth by a storm, was engaged to declare for that princess.

Northumberland, hitherto blinded by ambition, saw at last the danger gather round him, and knew not to what hand to turn himself. He had levied forces, which were assembled at London; but dreading the cabals of the courtiers and counsellors, whose compliance, he knew, had been entirely the result of fear or artifice, he was resolved to keep near the person of the lady Jane, and send Suffolk to command the army. But the counsellors, who wished to remove him^[9], working on the filial tenderness of Jane, magnified to her the danger, to which her father would be exposed; and represented, that Northumberland, who had gained reputation by formerly suppressing a rebellion in those parts, was more proper to command in that enterprize. The duke himself, who knew the slender capacity of Suffolk, began to think, that none but himself was able to encounter the present danger; and he agreed to take on him the command of the troops. The counsellors attended on him at his departure with the highest protestations of attachment, and none more than Arundel, his mortal enemy^[10]. As he went along, he remarked the disaffection of the people, which foreboded a fatal issue to his ambitious hopes. Many, said he to lord Gray, come out to look at us, but I find not one who cries, God speed you.^[11]

The duke had no sooner reached St. Edmond's-bury, than he found his army which did not exceed six thousand men, too weak to encounter the Queen's^[12], which amounted to double the number. He wrote to the council, desiring them to send him a reinforcement; and the counsellors immediately laid hold of the opportunity to free themselves from confinement. They left the Tower, as if they meant to execute Northumberland's commands; Lady Jane deserted by the people. but being assembled in Baynard's castle, a house belonging to Pembroke, they deliberated concerning the method of shaking off his usurped tyranny. Arundel began the conference, by representing the injustice and cruelty of Northumberland, the exorbitancy of his ambition, the criminal enterprize which he had projected, and the guilt in which he had involved the whole council; and he affirmed, that the only method of making atonement for their past offences, was by a speedy return to the duty, which they owed to their lawful sovereign^[13]. This motion was seconded by Pembroke, who, clapping his hand to his sword, swore he was ready to fight any man that expressed himself of a contrary sentiment. The mayor and aldermen of London were immediately sent for, who discovered great alacrity in obeying the orders they received to proclaim Mary. The people expressed their approbation by shouts of applause. Even Suffolk, who commanded in the Tower, finding resistance fruitless, opened the gates, and declared for the queen. The lady Jane, after the vain pageantry of wearing a crown during ten days, returned to a private life with more satisfaction than she felt when the royalty was tendered to her^[14]. And the messengers, who were sent to Northumberland, with order to lay down his arms, found that he had despaired of success, The queen proclaimed and acknowledged. was deserted by all his followers, and had already proclaimed the queen, with exterior marks of joy and satisfaction^[15]. The people every where, on the queen's approach to London, gave sensible expressions of their loyalty and attachment. And the lady Elizabeth met her at the head of a thousand horse, which that princess had levied in order to support their joint title against the usurper^[16].

The queen gave orders for taking into custody the duke of Northumberland, who fell on his knees to the earl of Arundel that arrested him, and abjectly begged his life^[17]. At the same time were committed the earl of Warwic his eldest son, lord Ambrose and lord Henry Dudley, two of his younger sons, Sir Andrew Dudley, his brother, the marquis of Northampton, the earl of Huntingdon, Sir Thomas Palmer, and Sir John Gates. The queen afterwards confined the duke of Suffolk, lady Jane Grey, and lord Guilford Dudley. But Mary was desirous, in the beginning of her reign, to acquire popularity by the appearance of clemency; and because the counsellors pleaded constraint as an excuse for their treason, she extended her pardon to most of them. Suffolk himself recovered his liberty; and he owed this indulgence, in a great measure, to the contempt entertained of his capacity. But the guilt of Northumberland was too great, as well as his ambition and courage too dangerous, to permit him to entertain any reasonable hopes of life. When brought to his trial, he only desired permission to ask two questions of the peers, appointed to sit on his jury; whether a man could be guilty of treason that obeyed orders given him by the council under the great seal? and whether those who were involved in the same guilt with himself, could sit as his judges? Being told, that the great seal of an usurper was no authority, and that persons, not lying under any sentence of attainder, were still innocent in the eye of the law, and might be admitted on any jury^[18]; he acquiesced, and pleaded guilty. 22d Aug. Northumberland executed. At his execution, he made profession of the catholic religion, and told the people, that they never would enjoy tranquillity till they returned to the faith of their ancestors: Whether that such were his real sentiments, which he had formerly disguised, from interest and ambition, or that he hoped, by this declaration, to render the queen more favourable to his family^[19]. Sir Thomas Palmer, and Sir John Gates suffered with him; and this was all the blood spilled on account of so dangerous and criminal an enterprize against the rights of the sovereign. Sentence was pronounced against the lady Jane and lord Guilford; but without any present intention of putting it in execution. The youth and innocence of the persons, neither of whom had reached their seventeenth year, pleaded sufficiently in their favour.

When Mary first arrived in the Tower, the duke of Norfolk, who had been detained prisoner during all the last reign; Courtney, son of the marquis of Exeter, who, without being charged with any crime, had been subjected to the same punishment ever since his father's attainder; Gardiner, Tonstal, and Bonner, who had been confined for their adhering to the catholic cause, appeared before her, and implored her clemency and protection^[20]. They were all of them restored to their liberty, and immediately admitted to her confidence and favour. Norfolk's attainder, notwithstanding that it had passed in Parliament, was represented as null and invalid; because, among other informalities, no special matter had been alledged against him, except wearing a coat of arms, which he and his ancestors, without giving any offence, had always made use of, in the face of the court and of the whole nation. Courtney soon after received the title of earl of Devonshire; and though educated in such close confinement, that he was altogether unacquainted with the world, he soon acquired all the accomplishments of a courtier and a gentleman, and made a considerable figure during the few years, which he lived after he recovered his liberty^[21]. Besides performing all those popular acts, which, though they only affected individuals, were very acceptable to the nation, the queen endeavoured to ingratiate herself with the public, by granting a general pardon, though with some exceptions, and by remitting the subsidy voted to her brother by the last parliament^[22].

The joy arising from the succession of the lawful heir, and from the gracious demeanor of the sovereign, hindered not the people from being agitated with great anxiety concerning the state of religion; and as the bulk of the nation inclined to the protestant communion, the apprehensions, entertained concerning the principles and prejudices of the new queen, were pretty general. The legitimacy of Mary's birth had appeared to be somewhat connected with the papal authority; and that princess, being educated with her mother, had imbibed the strongest attachment to the catholic communion, and the highest aversion to those new tenets, whence, she believed, all the misfortunes of her family had originally sprung. The discouragements, which she lay under from her father, though at last they brought her to comply with his will, tended still more to encrease her disgust to the reformers; and the vexations, which the protector and the council gave her, during Edward's reign, had no other effect than to confirm her farther in her prejudices. Naturally of a sour and obstinate temper, and irritated by contradiction and misfortunes, she possessed all the qualities fitted to compose a bigot; and her extreme ignorance rendered her utterly incapable of doubt in her own belief, or of indulgence to the opinions of others. The nation, therefore, had great reason to dread, not only the abolition, but the persecution of the established religion from the zeal of Mary; and it was not long ere she discovered her intentions.

Catholic religion restored. Gardiner, Bonner, Tonstal, Day, Heath, and Vesey, were reinstated in their sees, either by a direct act of power, or, what is nearly the same, by the sentence of commissioners, appointed to review their trial and condemnation. Though the bishopric of Durham had been dissolved by authority of parliament, the queen erected it a-new by letters-patent, and replaced Tonstal in his regalities as well as in his revenue. On pretence of discouraging controversy, she silenced, by an act of prerogative, all the preachers throughout England, except such as should obtain a particular licence; and it was easy to foresee, that none but the catholics would be favoured with this privilege. Holgate, archbishop of York, Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, Ridley of London, and Hooper of Glocester, were thrown into prison; whither old Latimer also was sent soon after. The zealous bishops and priests were encouraged in their forwardness to revive the mass, though contrary to the present laws. Judge Hales, who had discovered such constancy in defending the queen's title, lost all his merit by an opposition to those illegal practices; and being committed to custody, was treated with such severity, that he fell into frenzy, and killed himself. The men of Suffolk were brow-beaten; because they presumed to plead the promise, which the queen, when they enlisted themselves in her service, had given them, of maintaining the reformed religion: One, in particular, was set in the pillory, because he had been too peremptory, in recalling to her memory the engagements which she had taken on that occasion. And though the queen still promised, in a public declaration before the council, to tolerate those who differed from her, men foresaw, that this engagement, like the former, would prove but a feeble security, when set in opposition to religious prejudices.

The merits of Cranmer towards the queen, during the reign of Henry had been considerable; and he had successfully employed his good offices in mitigating the severe prejudices which that monarch had entertained against her. But the active part, which he had borne in promoting her mother's divorce, as well as in conducting the reformation, had made him the object of her hatred; and though Gardiner had been equally forward in soliciting and defending the divorce, he had afterwards made sufficient atonement, by his sufferings in defence of the catholic cause. The primate, therefore, had reason to expect little favour during the present reign; but it was by his own indiscreet zeal, that he brought on himself the first violence and persecution. A report being spread, that Cranmer, in order to pay court to the queen, had promised to officiate in the Latin service, the archbishop, to wipe off this aspersion, published a manifesto in his own defence. Among other expressions, he there said, that, as the devil was a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies, he had at this time stirred up his servants to persecute Christ and his true religion: That this infernal spirit now endeavoured to restore the Latin satisfactory masses, a thing of his own invention and device; and in order to effect his purpose, had falsely made use of Cranmer's name and authority: And that the mass is not only without foundation, either in the Scriptures or in the practice of the primitive church, but likewise discovers a plain contradiction to antiquity and the inspired writings, and is besides replete with many horrid blasphemies^[23]. On the publication of this inflammatory paper, Cranmer was thrown into prison, and was tried for the part which he had acted, in concurring with the lady Jane, and opposing the queen's accession. Sentence of high treason was pronounced against him; and though his guilt was shared with the whole privy council, and was even less than that of the greater part of them, this sentence, however severe, must be allowed entirely legal. The execution of it, however, did not follow; and Cranmer was reserved for a more cruel punishment.

Peter Martyr, seeing a persecution gathering against the reformers, desired leave to withdraw^[24]; and while some zealous catholics moved for his commitment, Gardiner both pleaded, that he had come over by an invitation from the government, and generously furnished him with supplies for his journey: But as bigotted zeal still encreased, his wife's body, which had been interred at Oxford, was afterwards dug up by public orders, and buried in a dunghill^[25] The bones of Bucer and Fagius, two foreign reformers, were about the same time committed to the flames at Cambridge^[26]. John a Lasco was first silenced, then ordered to depart the kingdom with his congregation. The greater part of the foreign protestants followed him; and the nation thereby lost many useful hands for arts and manufactures. Several English protestants also took shelter in foreign parts; and every thing bore dismal aspect for the reformation.

5th Oct. A parliament. During this revolution of the court, no protection was expected by protestants from the parliament, which was summoned to assemble. A zealous reformer^[27] pretends, that great violence and iniquity were used in the elections; but besides that the authority of this writer is inconsiderable, that practice, as the necessities of government seldom required it, had not hitherto been often employed in England. There still remained such numbers devoted, by opinion or affection, to many principles of the ancient religion, that the authority of the crown was able to give such candidates the preference in most elections; and all those, who hesitated to comply with the court religion, rather declined taking a seat, which, while it rendered them obnoxious to the queen, could afterwards afford them no protection against the violence of prerogative. It soon appeared, therefore, that a majority of the commons would be obsequious to Mary's designs; and as the peers were mostly attached to the court, from interest or expectations, little opposition was expected from that quarter.

In opening the parliament, the court showed a contempt of the laws, by celebrating, before the two houses, a mass of the Holy Ghost, in the Latin tongue, attended with all the ancient rites and ceremonies, though abolished by act of parliament^[28]. Taylor, bishop of Lincoln having refused to kneel at this service, was severely handled, and was violently thrust out of the house^[29]. The queen, however, still retained the title of supreme head of the church of England; and it was generally pretended, that the intention of the court was only to restore religion to the same condition in which it had been left by Henry; but that the other abuses of popery, which were the most grievous to the nation, would never be revived.

The first bill, passed by the parliament, was of a popular nature, and abolished every species of treason, not contained in the statute of Edward III. and every species of felony, that did not subsist before the first of Henry VIII^[30]. The parliament next declared the queen to be legitimate, ratified the marriage of Henry with Catherine of Arragon, and annulled the divorce pronounced by Cranmer^[31], whom they greatly blamed on that account. No mention, however, is made of the pope's authority, as any ground of the marriage. All the statutes of king Edward, with regard to religion, were repealed by one vote^[32]. The attainder of the duke of Norfolk was reversed; and this act of justice was more reasonable than the declaring of that attainder invalid, without farther authority. Many clauses of the riot act, passed in the late reign, were revived: A step which eluded, in a great measure, the popular statute enacted at the first meeting of parliament.

Notwithstanding the compliance of the two houses with the queen's inclinations, they had still a reserve in certain articles; and her choice of a husband, in particular, was of such importance to national interest, that they were determined not to submit tamely, in that respect, to her will and pleasure. There were three marriages^[33], concerning which it was supposed that Mary had deliberated after her accession. The first person proposed to her, was Courtney, earl of Devonshire, who, being an Englishman, nearly allied to the crown, could not fail of being acceptable to the nation; and as he was of an engaging person and address, he had visibly gained on the queen's affections^[34], and hints were dropped him of her favourable dispositions towards him^[35]. But that nobleman neglected these overtures; and seemed rather to attach himself to the lady Elizabeth, whose youth and agreeable conversation he preferred to all the power and grandeur of her sister. This choice occasioned a great coldness in Mary towards Devonshire; and made her break out in a declared animosity against Elizabeth. The ancient quarrel between their mothers had sunk deep into the malignant heart of the queen; and after the declaration made by parliament in favour of Catherine's marriage, she wanted not a pretence for representing the birth of her sister as illegitimate. The attachment of Elizabeth to the reformed religion offended Mary's bigotry; and as the young princess had made some difficulty in disguising her sentiments, violent menaces had been employed to bring her to compliance^[36]. But when the queen found, that Elizabeth had obstructed her views in a point, which, perhaps, touched her still more nearly, her resentment, excited by pride, no longer knew any bounds; and the princess was visibly exposed to the greatest danger^[37].

Cardinal Pole, who had never taken priest's orders, was another party proposed to the queen; and there appeared many reasons to induce her to make choice of this prelate. The high character of Pole for virtue and humanity; the great regard paid him by the catholic church, of which he had nearly reached the highest dignity on the death of Paul III.^[38]; the queen's affection for the countess of Salisbury, his mother, who had once been her governess; the violent animosity to which he had been exposed on account of his attachment to the Romish communion; all these considerations had a powerful influence on Mary. But the cardinal was now in the decline of life; and having contracted habits of study and retirement, he was represented to her as unqualified for the bustle of a court, and the hurry of business^[39].

The queen, therefore, dropped all thoughts of that alliance: But as she entertained a great regard for Pole's wisdom and virtue, she still intended to reap the benefit of his counsel in the administration of her government. She secretly entered into a negociation with Commendone, an agent of cardinal Dandino, legate at Brussels; she sent assurances to the pope, then Julius III. of her earnest desire to reconcile herself and her kingdoms to the holy see; and she desired that Pole might be appointed legate for the performance of that pious office^[40].

These two marriages being rejected, the queen cast her eye towards the emperor's family, from which her mother was descended, and which, during her own distresses, had always afforded her countenance and protection. Charles V who a few years before was almost absolute master of Germany, had exercised his power in such an arbitrary manner, that he gave extreme disgust to the nation, who apprehended the total extinction of their liberties from the encroachments of that monarch^[41]. Religion had served him as a pretence for his usurpations; and from the same principle he met with that opposition, which overthrew his grandeur, and dashed all his ambitious hopes. Maurice, elector of Saxony, enraged that the landgrave of Hesse, who, by his advice, and on his assurances, had put himself into the emperors hands, should be unjustly detained a prisoner, formed a secret conspiracy among the protestant princes; and covering his intentions with the most artful disguises, he suddenly marched his forces against Charles, and narrowly missed becoming master of his person. The protestants flew to arms in every quarter; and their insurrection, aided by an invasion from France, reduced the emperor to such difficulties, that he was obliged to submit to terms of peace, which insured the independency of Germany. To retrieve his honour, he made an attack on France; and laying siege to Metz, with an army of a hundred thousand men, he conducted the enterprize in person, and seemed determined, at all hazards, to succeed in an undertaking which had fixed the attention of Europe. But the duke of Guise, who defended Metz, with a garrison composed of the bravest nobility of France, exerted such vigilance, conduct, and valour, that the siege was protracted to the depth of winter; and the emperor found it dangerous to persevere any longer. He retired with the remains of his army into the Low-Countries, much dejected with that reverse of fortune, which, in his declining years, had so fatally overtaken him.

No sooner did Charles hear of the death of Edward, and the accession of his kinswoman Mary to the crown of England, than he formed the scheme of acquiring that kingdom to his family; and he hoped, by this incident, to balance all the losses which he had sustained in Germany. His son Philip was a widower; and though he was only twenty-seven years of age, eleven years younger than the queen, this objection, it was thought, would be overlooked, and there was no reason to despair of her still having a numerous issue. The emperor, therefore, immediately sent over an agent to signify his intentions to Mary, who, pleased with the support of so powerful an alliance, and glad to unite herself more closely with her mother's family, to which she was ever strongly attached, readily embraced the proposal. Norfolk, Arundel, and Paget, gave their advice for the match. And Gardiner, who was become prime minister, and who had been promoted to the office of chancellor, finding how Mary's inclinations lay, seconded the project of the Spanish alliance. At the same time, he represented, both to her and the emperor, the necessity of stopping all farther innovations in religion, till the completion of the marriage. He observed, that the parliament, amidst all their compliances, had discovered evident symptoms of jealousy, and seemed at present determined to grant no farther concessions in favour of the catholic religion: That though they might make a sacrifice to their sovereign of some speculative principles, which they did not well comprehend, or of some rites, which seemed not of any great moment, they had imbibed such strong prejudices against the pretended usurpations and exactions of the court of Rome, that they would with great difficulty be again brought to submit to its authority: That the danger of resuming the abbey lands would alarm the nobility and gentry, and induce them to encourage the prepossessions, which were but too general among the people, against the doctrine and worship of the catholic church: That much pains had been taken to prejudice the nation against the Spanish alliance; and if that point were urged, at the same time with farther changes in religion, it would hazard a general revolt and insurrection: That the marriage, being once completed, would give authority to the queen's measures, and enable her afterwards to forward the pious work, in which she was engaged: And that it was even necessary previously to reconcile the people to the marriage, by rendering the conditions extremely favourable to the English, and such as would seem to ensure to them their independency, and the entire possession of their ancient laws and privileges^[42].

The emperor, well acquainted with the prudence and experience of Gardiner, assented to all these reasons; and he endeavoured to temper the zeal of Mary, by representing the necessity of proceeding gradually in the great work of converting the nation. Hearing that cardinal Pole, more sincere in his religious opinions, and less guided by the maxims of human policy, after having sent contrary advice to the queen, had set out on his journey to England, where he was to exercise his legantine commission; he thought proper to stop him at Dillinghen, a town on the Danube; and he afterwards obtained Mary's consent for this detention. The negociation for the marriage mean-while proceeded apace; and Mary's intentions of espousing Philip became generally known to the nation. The commons, who hoped that they had gained the queen by the concessions which they had already made, were alarmed to hear, that she was resolved to contract a foreign alliance; and they sent a committee to remonstrate in strong terms, against that dangerous measure. 6th Dec. To prevent farther applications of the same kind, she thought proper to dissolve the parliament.

A convocation had been summoned at the same time with the parliament; and the majority here also appeared to be of the court religion. An offer was very frankly made by the Romanists, to dispute concerning the points controverted between the two communions; and as transubstantiation was the article, which, of all others, they deemed the clearest, and founded on the most irresistible arguments, they chose to try their strength by defending it. The protestants pushed the dispute as far as the clamour and noise of their antagonists would permit; and they fondly imagined, that they had obtained some advantage, when, in the course of the debate, they obliged the catholics to avow, that, according to their doctrine, Christ had, in his last supper, held himself in his hand, and had swallowed and eaten himself^[43]. This triumph, however, was confined only to their own party: The Romanists maintained, that their champions had clearly the better of the day; that their adversaries were blind and obstinate heretics; that nothing but the most extreme depravity of heart could induce men to contest such self-evident principles; and that the severest punishments were due to their perverse wickedness. So pleased were they with their superiority in this favourite point, that they soon after renewed the dispute at Oxford; and to show, that they feared no force of learning or abilities, where reason was so evidently on their side, they sent thither Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, under a guard, to try whether these renowned controversialists could find any appearance of argument to defend their baffled principles^[44]. The issue of the debate was very different from what it appeared to be few years before, in a famous conference, held at the same place, during the reign of Edward.

1554. After the parliament and convocation were dismissed, the new laws with regard to religion, though they had been anticipated, in most places, by the zeal of the catholics, countenanced by government, were still more openly put in execution: The mass was every where reestablished; and marriage was declared to be incompatible with any spiritual office. It has been asserted by some writers, that three fourths of the clergy were, at this time, deprived of their livings; though other historians, more accurate^[45], have estimated the number of sufferers to be far short of this proportion. A visitation was appointed, in order to restore more perfectly the mass and the ancient rites. Among other articles, the commissioners were enjoined to forbid the oath of supremacy to be taken by the clergy on their receiving any benefice^[46]. It is to be observed, that this oath had been established by the laws of Henry VIII. which were still in force.

Queen's marriage with Philip. This violent and sudden change of religion inspired the protestants with great discontent; and even affected indifferent spectators with concern, by the hardships, to which so many individuals were on that account exposed. But the Spanish match was a point of more general concern, and diffused universal apprehensions for the liberty and independance of the nation. To obviate all clamour, the articles of marriage were drawn as favourable as possible for the interest and security, and even grandeur of England. It was agreed, that, though Philip should have the title of king, the administration should be entirely in the queen; that no foreigner should be capable of enjoying any office in the kingdom; that no innovation should be made in the English laws, customs, and privileges; that Philip should not carry the queen abroad without her consent, nor any of her children without the consent of the nobility; that sixty thousand pounds a year should be settled as her jointure; that the male issue of this marriage should inherit, together with England, both Burgundy and the Low-Countries; and that, if Don Carlos, Philip's son by his former marriage, should die and his line be extinct, the queen's issue, whether male or female, should inherit Spain, Sicily, Milan, and all the other dominions of Philip^[47]. 15th Jan. Such was the treaty of marriage signed by count Egmont, and three other ambassadors sent over to England by the emperor^[48].

These articles, when published, gave no satisfaction to the nation: It was universally said, that the emperor, in order to get possession of England, would verbally agree to any terms; and the greater advantage there appeared in the conditions which he granted, the more certainly might it be concluded, that he had no serious intention of observing them: That the usual fraud and ambition of that monarch might assure the nation of such a conduct; and his son Philip, while he inherited these vices from his father, added to them tyranny, sullenness, pride, and barbarity, more dangerous vices of his own: That England would become a province, and a province to a kingdom which usually exercised the most violent authority over all her dependant dominions. That the Netherlands, Milan, Sicily, Naples groaned under the burthen of Spanish tyranny; and throughout all the new conquests in America there had been displayed scenes of unrelenting cruelty, hitherto unknown in the history of mankind: That the inquisition was a tribunal invented by that tyrannical nation; and would infallibly, with all their other laws and institutions, be introduced into England: And that the divided sentiments of the people with regard to religion would subject multitudes to this iniquitous tribunal, and would reduce the whole nation to the most abject servitude^[49].

These complaints being diffused every where, prepared the people for a rebellion; and had any foreign power given them encouragement, or any great man appeared to head them, the consequences might have proved fatal to the queen's authority. But the king of France, though engaged in hostilities with the emperor, refused to concur in any proposal for an insurrection, lest he should afford Mary a pretence for declaring war against him^[50]. And the more prudent part of the nobility thought, that, as the evils of the Spanish alliance were only dreaded at a distance, matters were not yet fully prepared for a general revolt. Some persons, however, more turbulent than the rest, believed, that it would be safer to prevent than to redress grievances; and they formed a conspiracy to rise in arms, and declare against the queen's marriage with Philip. Wiat's insurrection. Sir Thomas Wiat purposed to raise Kent, Sir Peter Carew, Devonshire; and they engaged the duke of Suffolk, by the hopes of recovering the crown for the lady Jane, to attempt raising the midland counties^[51]. Carew's impatience or apprehensions engaged him to break the concert, and to rise in arms before the day appointed: He was soon suppressed by the earl of Bedford, and constrained to fly into France. On this intelligence, Suffolk, dreading an arrest, suddenly left the town, with his brothers, lord Thomas, and lord Leonard Gray; and endeavoured to raise the people in the counties of Warwic and Leicester; where his interest lay: But he was so closely pursued by the earl of Huntingdon, at the head of 300 horse, that he was obliged to disperse his followers, and being discovered in his concealment, he was carried prisoner to London^[52]. Wiat was at first more successful in his attempt; and having published a declaration at Maidstone in Kent, against the queen's evil counsellors and against the Spanish match, without any mention of religion, the people began to flock to his standard. The duke of Norfolk with Sir Henry Jernegan was sent against him, at the head of the guards and some other troops, reinforced with 500 Londoners commanded by Bret: And he came within sight of the rebels at Rochester, where they had fixed their head-quarters. Sir George Harper here pretended to desert from them; but having secretly gained Bret, these two malcontents so wrought on the Londoners, that the whole body deserted to Wiat, and declared that they would not contribute to enslave their native country. Norfolk, dreading the contagion of the example, immediately retreated with his troops, and took shelter in the city^[53].

After this proof of the dispositions of the people, especially of the Londoners, who were mostly protestants, Wiat was encouraged to proceed: He led his forces to Southwark, where he required of the queen, that she should put the Tower into his hands, should deliver four counsellors as hostages, and in order to ensure the liberty of the nation, should immediately marry an Englishman. Finding that the bridge was secured against him, and that the city was overawed, he marched up to Kingston, where he passed the river with 4000 men; and returning towards London, hoped to encourage his partizans, who had engaged to declare for him. He had imprudently wasted so much time at Southwark, and in his march from Kingston, that the critical season, on which all popular commotions depend, was entirely lost: Though he entered Westminster without resistance, his followers, finding that no person of note joined him, insensibly fell off, and he was at last seized near Temple-Bar by Sir Maurice Berkeley^[54]. 6th Feb. Four hundred persons are said to have suffered for this rebellion^[55]: Four hundred more were conducted before the queen with ropes about their necks; and falling on their knees, received a pardon, and were dismissed. Wiat was condemned and executed: Insurrection suppressed. As it had been reported, that, on his examination, he had accused the lady Elizabeth and the earl of Devonshire as accomplices, he took care on the scaffold, before the whole people, fully to acquit them of having any share in his rebellion.

The lady Elizabeth had been, during some time, treated with great harshness by her sister; and many studied instances of discouragement and disrespect had been practiced against her. She was ordered to take place at court after the countess of Lenox and the dutchess of Suffolk, as if she were not legitimate^[56]: Her friends were discountenanced on every occasion: And while her virtues, which were now become eminent, drew to her the attendance of all the young nobility, and rendered her the favourite of the nation^[57], the malevolence of the queen still discovered itself every day by fresh symptoms, and obliged the princess to retire into the country. Mary seized the opportunity of this rebellion; and hoping to involve her sister in some appearance of guilt, sent for her under a strong guard, committed her to the Tower, and ordered her to be strictly examined by the council. But the public declaration made by Wiat rendered it impracticable to employ against her any false evidence, which might have offered; and the princess made so good a defence, that the queen found herself under a necessity of releasing her^[58]. In order to send her out of the kingdom, a marriage was offered her with the duke of Savoy; and when she declined the proposal, she was committed to custody, under a strong guard, at Wodestoke^[59]. The earl of Devonshire, though equally innocent, was confined in Fotheringay castle.

But this rebellion proved still more fatal to the lady Jane Gray, as well as to her husband: The duke of Suffolk's guilt was imputed to her; and though the rebels and malcontents seemed chiefly to rest their hopes on the lady Elizabeth and the earl of Devonshire, the queen, incapable of generosity or clemency, determined to remove every person from whom the least danger could be apprehended. Warning was given the lady Jane to prepare for death; a doom which she had long expected, and which the innocence of her life, as well as the misfortunes, to which she had been exposed, rendered nowise unwelcome to her. The queen's zeal, under colour of tender mercy to the prisoner's soul, induced her to send divines, who harassed her with perpetual disputation; and even a reprieve for three days was granted her, in hopes that she would be persuaded, during that time, to pay, by a timely conversion, some regard to her eternal welfare. The lady Jane had presence of mind, in those melancholy circumstances, not only to defend her religion by all the topics then in use, but also to write a letter to her sister^[60], in the Greek language; in which, besides sending her a copy of the Scriptures in that tongue, she exhorted her to maintain in every fortune, a like steady perseverance. 12th Feb. On the day of her execution, her husband, lord Guilford, desired permission to see her; but she refused her consent, and informed him by a message, that the tenderness of their parting would overcome the fortitude of both, and would too much unbend their minds from that constancy, which their approaching end required of them: Their separation, she said, would be only for a moment; and they would soon rejoin each other in a scene, where their affections would be for ever united, and where death, disappointment, and misfortunes could no longer have access to them, or disturb their eternal felicity^[61].

It had been intended to execute the lady Jane and lord Guilford together on the same scaffold at Tower-hill; but the council, dreading the compassion of the people for their youth, beauty, innocence, and noble birth, changed their orders, and gave directions that she should be beheaded within the verge of the Tower. Execution of lady Jane Gray. She saw her husband led to execution; and having given him from the window some token of her remembrance, she waited with tranquillity till her own appointed hour should bring her to a like fate. She even saw his headless body carried back in a cart; and found herself more confirmed by the reports, which she heard of the constancy of his end, than shaken by so tender and melancholy a spectacle. Sir John Gage, constable of the Tower, when he led her to execution, desired her to bestow on him some small present, which he might keep as a perpetual memorial of her: She gave him her table-book, on which she had just written three sentences on seeing her husband's dead body; one in Greek, another in Latin, a third in English^[62]. The purport of them was, that human justice was against his body, but divine mercy would be favourable to his soul; that, if her fault deserved punishment, her youth at least, and her imprudence were worthy of excuse; and that God and posterity, she trusted, would show her favour. On the scaffold, she made a speech to the by-standers; in which the mildness of her disposition led her to take the blame wholly on herself, without uttering one complaint against the severity, with which she had been treated. She said, that her offence was not the having laid her hand upon the crown, but the not rejecting it with sufficient constancy: That she had less erred through ambition than through reverence to her parents, whom she had been taught to respect and obey: That she willingly received death, as the only satisfaction, which she could now make to the injured state; and though her infringement of the laws had been constrained, she would show, by her voluntary submission to their sentence, that she was desirous to atone for that disobedience, into which too much filial piety had betrayed her: That she had justly deserved this punishment for being made the instrument, though the unwilling instrument, of the ambition of others: And that the story of her life, she hoped, might at least be useful, by proving that innocence excuses not great misdeeds, if they tend any wise to the destruction of the commonwealth. After uttering these words, she caused herself to be disrobed by her women; and with a steddy serene countenance submitted herself to the executioner^[63].

The duke of Suffolk was tried, condemned, and executed soon after; and would have met with more compassion, had not his temerity been the cause of his daughter's untimely end. Lord Thomas Gray lost his life for the same crime. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was tried in Guildhall; but there appearing no satisfactory evidence against him, he was able, by making an admirable defence, to obtain a verdict of the jury in his favour. The queen was so enraged at this disappointment, that, instead of releasing him as the law required, she re-committed him to the Tower, and kept him in close confinement during some time. But her resentment stopped not here: The jury, being summoned before the council, were all sent to prison, and afterwards fined, some of them a thousand pounds, others two thousand a-piece^[64]. This violence proved fatal to several; among others to Sir John Throgmorton, brother to Sir Nicholas, who was condemned on no better evidence than had formerly been rejected. The queen filled the Tower and all the prisons with nobility and gentry, whom their interest with the nation, rather than any appearance of guilt, had made the objects of her suspicion. And finding, that she was universally hated, she determined to disable the people from resistance, by ordering general musters, and directing the commissioners to seize their arms, and lay them up in forts and castles^[65].

Though the government laboured under so general an odium, the queen's authority had received such an encrease from the suppression of Wiat's rebellion, that the ministry hoped to find a compliant disposition in the new parliament, which was summoned to assemble. The emperor, also, in order to facilitate the same end, A parliament. 5th April. had borrowed no less a sum than 400,000 crowns, which he had sent over to England, to be distributed in bribes and pensions among the members: A pernicious practice, of which there had not hitherto been any instance in England. And not to give the public any alarm with regard to the church lands, the queen, notwithstanding her bigotry, resumed her title of supreme head of the church, which she had dropped three months before. Gardiner, the chancellor, opened the session by a speech; in which he asserted the queen's hereditary title to the crown; maintained her right of chusing a husband for herself; observed how proper a use she had made of that right, by giving the preference to an old ally, descended from the house of Burgundy; and remarked the failure of Henry VIII's posterity, of whom there now remained none but the queen and the lady Elizabeth. He added, that, in order to obviate the inconveniencies, which might arise from different pretenders, it was necessary to invest the queen, by law, with a power of disposing of the crown, and of appointing her successor: A power, he said, which was not to be thought unprecedented in England, since it had formerly been conferred on Henry VIII^[66].

The parliament was much disposed to gratify the queen in all her desires; but when the liberty, independency, and very being of the nation were in such visible danger, they could not by any means be brought to compliance. They knew both the inveterate hatred, which she bore to the lady Elizabeth, and her devoted attachment to the house of Austria: They were acquainted with her extreme bigotry, which would lead her to postpone all considerations of justice or national interest to the establishment of the catholic religion: They remarked, that Gardiner had carefully avoided, in his speech, the giving to Elizabeth the appellation of the queen's sister; and they thence concluded, that a design was formed of excluding her as illegitimate: They expected, that Mary, if invested with such a power as she required, would make a will in her husband's favour, and thereby render England for ever a province to the Spanish monarchy: And they were the more alarmed with these projects, as they heard, that Philip's descent from the house of Lancaster was carefully insisted on, and that he was publicly represented as the true and only heir by right of inheritance.

The parliament, therefore, aware of their danger, were determined to keep at a distance from the precipice, which lay before them. They could not avoid ratifying the articles of marriage^[67], which were drawn very favourable for England; but they declined the passing of any such law as the chancellor pointed out to them: They would not so much as declare it treason to imagine or attempt the death of the queen's husband, while she was alive; and a bill introduced for that purpose, was laid aside after the first reading. The more effectually to cut off Philip's hopes of possessing any authority in England, they passed a law, in which they declared, that her majesty as their only queen, should solely and as a sole queen, enjoy the crown and sovereignty of her realms, with all the pre-eminencies, dignities, and rights thereto belonging, in as large and ample a manner after her marriage as before, without any title or claim accruing to the prince of Spain, either as tenant by courtesy of the realm, or by any other means^[68].

A law passed in this parliament for re-erecting the bishopric of Durham, which had been dissolved by the last parliament of Edward^[69]. The queen had already, by an exertion of her power, put Tonstal in possession of that see: But though it was usual at that time for the crown to assume authority which might seem entirely legislative, it was always deemed more safe and satisfactory to procure the sanction of parliament. Bills were introduced for suppressing heterodox opinions contained in books, and for reviving the law of the six articles, together with those against the Lollards, and against heresy and erroneous preaching: But none of these laws could pass the two houses. A proof, that the parliament had reserves even in their concessions with regard to religion; about which they seem to have been less scrupulous. 5th May. The queen, therefore, finding that they would not serve all her purposes, finished the session by dissolving them.

Mary's thoughts were now entirely employed about receiving Don Philip, whose arrival she hourly expected. This princess, who had lived so many years in a very reserved and private manner, without any prospect or hopes of a husband, was so smitten with affection for her young consort, whom she had never seen, that she waited with the utmost impatience for the completion of the marriage; and every obstacle was to her a source of anxiety and discontent^[70]. She complained of Philip's delays as affected; and she could not conceal her vexation, that, though she brought him a kingdom as her dowry, he treated her with such neglect, that he had never yet favoured her with a single letter^[71]. Her fondness was but the more encreased by this supercilious treatment; and when she found that her subjects had entertained the greatest aversion for the event, to which she directed her fondest wishes, she made the whole English nation the object of her resentment. A squadron, under the command of lord Effingham, had been fitted out to convoy Philip from Spain, where he then resided; but the admiral informing her, that the discontents ran very high among the seamen, and that it was not safe for Philip to entrust himself in their hands, she gave orders to dismiss them^[72]. She then dreaded, lest the French fleet, being masters of the sea, might intercept her husband; and every rumour of danger, every blast of wind, threw her into panics and convulsions. Her health, and even her understanding, were visibly hurt by this extreme impatience; and she was struck with a new apprehension, lest her person, impaired by time, and blasted by sickness, should prove disagreeable to her future consort. Her glass discovered to her how hagard she was become; and when she remarked the decay of her beauty, she knew not whether she ought more to desire or apprehend the arrival of Philip^[73].

19th July. Philip's arrival in England. At last came the moment so impatiently expected; and news was brought the queen of Philip's arrival at Southampton^[74]. A few days after, they were married in Westminster; and having made a pompous entry into London, where Philip displayed his wealth with great ostentation, she carried him to Windsor, the palace in which they afterwards resided. The prince's behaviour was ill calculated to remove the prejudices, which the English nation had entertained against him. He was distant and reserved in his address; took no notice of the salutes even of the most considerable noblemen; and so entrenched himself in form and ceremony, that he was in a manner inaccessible^[75]: But this circumstance rendered him the more acceptable to the queen, who desired to have no company but her husband's, and who was impatient when she met with any interruption to her fondness. The shortest absence gave her vexation; and when he showed civilities to any other woman, she could not conceal her jealousy and resentment.

Mary soon found, that Philip's ruling passion was ambition; and that the only method of gratifying him and securing his affections, was to render him master of England. The interest and liberty of her people were considerations of small moment, in comparison of her obtaining this favourite point. She summoned a new parliament, in hopes of finding them entirely compliant; and that she might acquire the greater authority over them, she imitated the precedent of the former reign, and wrote circular letters directing a proper choice of members^[76]. 12th Nov. The zeal of the catholics, the influence of Spanish gold, the powers of prerogative, the discouragement of the gentry, particularly of the protestants; all these causes, seconding the intrigues of Gardiner, had procured her a house of commons, which was, in a great measure, to her satisfaction; and it was thought, from the disposition of the nation, that she might now safely omit, on her assembling the parliament, the title of supreme head of the church, though inseparably annexed by law to the crown of England^[77]. Cardinal Pole had arrived in Flanders, invested with legantine powers from the pope: In order to prepare the way for his arrival in England, the parliament passed an act, reversing his attainder, and restoring his blood; and the queen, dispensing with the old statute of provisors, granted him permission to act as legate. The cardinal came over; and after being introduced to the king and queen, he invited the parliament to reconcile themselves and the kingdom to the apostolic see, from which they had been so long and so unhappily divided. This message was taken in good part; and both houses voted an address to Philip and Mary, acknowledging that they had been guilty of a most horrible defection from the true church; professing a sincere repentance of their past transgressions; declaring their resolution to repeal all laws enacted in prejudice of the church of Rome; and praying their majesties, that, since they were happily uninfected with that criminal schism, they would intercede with the holy father for the absolution and forgiveness of their penitent subjects^[78]. The request was easily granted. The legate, in the name of his holiness, gave the parliament and kingdom absolution, freed them from all censures, and received them again into the bosom of the church. The pope, then Julius III. being informed of these transactions, said, that it was an unexampled instance of his felicity, to receive thanks from the English, for allowing them to do what he ought to give them thanks for performing^[79].

Notwithstanding the extreme zeal of those times, for and against popery, the object always uppermost with the nobility and gentry, was their money and estates: They were not brought to make these concessions in favour of Rome, till they had received repeated assurances, from the pope as well as the queen, that the plunder, which they had made on the ecclesiastics, should never be enquired into; and that the abbey and church lands should remain with the present possessors^[80]. But not trusting altogether to these promises, the parliament took care, in the law itself^[81], by which they repealed the former statutes enacted against the pope's authority, to insert a clause, in which, besides bestowing validity on all marriages celebrated during the schism, and fixing the right of incumbents to their benefices, they gave security to the possessors of church lands, and freed them from all danger of ecclesiastical censures. The convocation also, in order to remove apprehensions on that head, were induced to present a petition to the same purpose^[82]; and the legate, in his master's name, ratified all these transactions. It now appeared, that, notwithstanding the efforts of the queen and king, the power of the papacy was effectually suppressed in England, and invincible barriers fixed against its reestablishment. For though the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastics was, for the present, restored, their property, on which their power much depended, was irretrievably lost, and no hopes remained of recovering it. Even these arbitrary, powerful, and bigotted princes, while the transactions were yet recent, could not regain to the church her possessions so lately ravished from her; and no expedients were left to the clergy for enriching themselves, but those which they had at first practised, and which had required many ages of ignorance, barbarism, and superstition, to produce their effect on mankind^[83].

The parliament, having secured their own possessions, were more indifferent with regard to religion, or even to the lives of their fellow-citizens: They revived the old sanguinary laws against heretics^[84], which had been rejected in the former parliament: They also enacted several statutes against seditious words and rumours^[85]; and they made it treason to imagine or attempt the death of Philip, during his marriage with the queen^[86]. Each parliament hitherto had been induced to go a step farther than their predecessors; but none of them had entirely lost all regard to national interests. Their hatred against the Spaniards, as well as their suspicion of Philip's pretensions, still prevailed; and though the queen attempted to get her husband declared presumptive heir of the crown, and to have the administration put into his hands; she failed in all her endeavours, and could not so much as procure the parliament's consent to his coronation^[87]. All attempts likewise to obtain subsidies from the commons, in order to support the emperor in his war against France, proved fruitless: The usual animosity and jealousy of the English against that kingdom, seemed to have given place, for the present, to like passions against Spain. Philip, sensible of the prepossessions entertained against him, endeavoured to acquire popularity by procuring the release of several prisoners of distinction; lord Henry Dudley, Sir George Harper, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Sir Edmond Warner, Sir William St. Lo, Sir Nicholas Arnold, Harrington, Tremaine, who had been confined from the suspicions or resentment of the court^[88]. But nothing was more agreeable to the nation than his protecting the lady Elizabeth from the spite and malice of the queen, and restoring her to liberty. This measure was not the effect of any generosity in Philip, a sentiment of which he was wholly destitute; but of a refined policy, which made him foresee, that, if that princess were put to death, the next lawful heir was the queen of Scots, whose succession would for ever annex England to the crown of France. The earl of Devonshire also reaped some benefit from Philip's affectation of popularity, and recovered his liberty: But that nobleman, finding himself exposed to suspicion, begged permission to travel^[89]; and he soon after died at Padua, from poison, as is pretended, given him by the Imperialists. He was the eleventh and last earl of Devonshire of that noble family, one of the most illustrious in Europe.

The queen's extreme desire of having issue, had made her fondly give credit to any appearance of pregnancy; and when the legate was introduced to her, she fancied, that she felt the embryo stir in her womb^[90]. Her flatterers compared this motion of the infant to that of John the Baptist, who leaped in his mother's belly at the salutation of the virgin^[91]. Dispatches were immediately sent to inform foreign courts of this event: Orders were issued to give public thanks: Great rejoicings were made: The family of the young prince was already settled^[92]; for the catholics held themselves assured that the child was to be a male: And Bonner, bishop of London, made public prayers be said, that Heaven would please to render him beautiful, vigorous, and witty. But the nation still remained somewhat incredulous; and men were persuaded, that the queen laboured under infirmities, which rendered her incapable of having children. Her infant proved only the commencement of a dropsy, which the disordered state of her health had brought upon her. The belief, however, of her pregnancy was upheld with all possible care; and was one artifice, by which Philip endeavoured to support his authority in the kingdom. 1555. The parliament passed a law, which, in case of the queen's demise, appointed him protector during the minority; and the king and queen, finding they could obtain no further concessions, came unexpectedly to Westminster, and dissolved them.

16th Jan. There happened an incident this session, which must not be passed over in silence. Several members of the lower house, dissatisfied with the measures of the parliament, but finding themselves unable to prevent them, made a secession, in order to show their disapprobation, and refused any longer to attend the house^[93]. For this instance of contumacy they were indicted in the King's-bench after the dissolution of parliament: Six of them submitted to the mercy of the court, and paid their fines: The rest traversed; and the queen died before the affair was brought to an issue. Judging of the matter by the subsequent claims of the house of commons, and, indeed, by the true principles of free government, this attempt of the queen's ministers must be regarded as a breach of privilege; but it gave little umbrage at the time, and was never called in question by any house of commons, which afterwards sat during this reign. The count of Noailles, the French ambassador, says, that the queen threw several members into prison for their freedom of speech^[94].

Sleidan, lib. 25.

Heylin, p. 154.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 233.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 14.

Thuanus, lib. xiii. c. 10.

Godwin in Kennet, p. 329, Heylin, p. 149. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 234.

Ascham's works, p. 222, 223.

Heylin, p. 160. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 237.

Godwin, p. 330. Heylin, p. 159. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 239. Fox, vol. iii. p. 15.

Heylin, p. 161. Baker, p. 315. Hollingshed, p. 1086.

Speed, p. 816.

Godwin, p. 331.

Godwin, p. 331, 332. Thuanus, lib. xiii.

Godwin, p. 332. Thuanus, lib. xiii. c. 2.

Stowe, p. 612.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 240. Heylin, p. 19. Stowe, p. 613.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 239. Stowe, p. 612. Baker, p. 315. Hollingshed, p. 1088.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 243. Heylin, p. 18. Baker, p. 316. Hollingshed, p. 1089.

Heylin, p. 19. Burnet, vol. iii. p. 243. Stowe, p. 614.

Heylin, p. 20. Stowe, p. 613. Hollingshed, p. 1088.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 246, 247.

Stowe, p. 616.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 94. Heylin, p. 25. Godwin, p. 336. Burnet, vol. ii. Coll. No 8. Cranm. Mem. p. 305. Thuanus, lib. xiii. c. 3.

Heylin, p. 26. Godwin, p. 336. Cranm. Mem. p. 317.

Heylin, p. 26.

Saunders de Schism. Anglic.

Beale. But Fox, who lived at the time, and is very minute in his narratives, says nothing of the matter. See vol. iii. p. 16.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 19.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 252.

Mariae, sess. i. c. 1. By this repeal, though it was in general popular, the clause of 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. II. was lost, which required the confronting of two witnesses, in order to prove any treason.

Mariae, sess. 2. c. 1.

Mariae, sess. 2. c. 1.

Thuan. lib. ii. c. 3.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 147, 163, 214, 215. vol. iii. p. 27.

Godwin, p. 339.

Dep. de Noailles, vol. ii. passim.

Heylin, p. 31. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 255.

Father Paul, book iii.

Heylin, p. 31.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 258.

Thuanus, lib. iv. c. 17.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 261.

Collier, vol. ii. p. 356. Fox, vol. iii. p. 22.

Mem. Cranm. p. 354. Heylin, p. 50.

Harmer, p. 138.

Collier, vol. ii. p. 364. Fox, vol. iii. p. 38. Heylin, p. 35. Sleidan, lib. 25.

Rymer, xv. p. 377.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 299.

Heylin, p. 32. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 268. Godwin, p. 339.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 249. vol. iii. p. 17, 58.

Heylin. p. 33. Godwin, p. 340.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 30.

Heylin, p. 33. Godwin, p. 341. Stowe, p. 619. Baker, p. 318. Hollingshed, p. 1094.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 31. Heylin, p. 34. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 270. Stowe, p. 621.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 124.

Ibid. vol. ii. p. 273, 288.

Ibid. p. 273.

Godwin, p. 343. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 273. Fox, vol. iii. p. 99, 105. Strype's Mem. vol. iii. p. 85.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. iii. p. 226.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 35. Heylin, p. 166.

Heylin, p. 167. Baker, p. 319.

Heylin, p. 167.

Heylin, p. 167. Fox, vol. iii. p. 36, 37. Hollingshed, p. 1099.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 99. Stowe, p. 624. Baker, p. 320. Hollingshed, p. 1104, 1121. Strype, vol. iii. p. 120. Dep. de Noailles, vol. iii. p. 173.

Dep. de Noailles, vol. iii. p. 98.

Depeches de Noailles.

Mar. Parl. 2. cap. 2.

Ibid. cap. 1.

Ibid. cap. 3.

Strype, vol. iii. p. 125.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. iii. p. 248

Ibid. p. 220.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. iii. p. 222, 252, 253.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 99. Heylin, p. 39. Burnet, vol. iii. p. 392. Godwin, p. 345. We are told by Sir William Monson, p. 225, that the admiral of England fired at the Spanish navy, when Philip was on board; because they had not lowered their top-sails, as a mark of deference to the English navy in the narrow seas. A very spirited behaviour, and very unlike those times.

Baker, p. 320.

Mem. of Cranm. p. 344. Strype's Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. p. 154, 155.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 291. Strype, vol. iii. p. 155.

Fox, vol. iii. p. 3. Heylin, p. 42. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 293. Godwin, p. 247.

Father Paul, lib. iv.

Heylin, p. 41.

1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 8.

Heylin, p. 43. 1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 8. Strype, vol. iii. p. 159.

The pope at first gave cardinal Pole powers to transact only with regard to the past fruits of the church lands; but being admonished of the danger attending any attempt towards a resumption of the lands, he enlarged the cardinal's powers, and granted him authority to ensure the future possession of the church lands to the present proprietors. There was only one clause in the cardinal's powers that has given occasion for some speculation. An exception was made of such cases as Pole should think important enough to merit the being communicated to the holy see. But Pole simply ratified the possession of all the church lands; and his commission had given him full powers to that purpose. See Harleyan Miscellany, vol. vii. p. 264, 266. It is true, some councils have declared, that it exceeds even the power of the pope to alienate any church lands; and the pope, according to his convenience, or power, may either adhere to or recede from this declaration. But every year gave solidity to the right of the proprietors of church lands, and diminished the authority of the popes; so that men's dread of popery in subsequent times was more founded on party or religious zeal, than on very solid reasons.

1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 6.

Ibid. c. 3. 9.

Ibid. c. 10.

Godwin, p. 348. Baker, p. 322.

Heylin, p. 39. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 287. Stowe, p. 626. Depeches de Noailles, vol. iv. p. 1, 6, 147.

Heylin, p. 40. Godwin, p. 349.

Depeches de Noailles, vol. iv. p. 25.

Burnet, vol. ii. p. 292. Godwin, p. 348.

Heylin, p. 46.

Coke's Institutes, part iv. p. 17. Strype's Memor. vol. i. p. 165.

Vol. v. p. 296.