II HlsiilHlI I 9xBB608 BBSS IE IB mill ekbilm;: i . LIYES THE BACHELOR KINGS ENGLAND BY AUTHOR OF 'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND' AND 'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND ■ The treasures of antiquity laid up In old historic rolls I opened— Beaumon t LONDON SIMPKIN, MAESHALL, AND CO The right of translation is reserved by the Author ,j 7 ipswich : printed by j. m. burton and co. TO THE READERS 'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND' THIS NEW SERIES OF ROYAL BIOGRAPHIES Jfs 6raM»lIg Qratmbtb BY THEIR FAITHFUL FRIEND AGNES STRICKLAND CONTENTS, PAGE PREFACE ...... IX LIFE OF WILLIAM RUFUS— CHAP. I. . . • 1 ii 28 in. . . . . 61 LIFE OF EDWARD V— CHAP. I. . . . 101 II 126 III. . .. ,166 LIFE OF EDWARD VI— CHAP. I. . . .193 ii 228 • in. .... 260 iv. . 297 v. .336 vi. . . . . 375 APPENDIX . . . .429 ILLUSTRATIONS. FRONTISPIECE— PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM RUFUS. From an ancient illuminated MS. Chronicle of the Anglo-Norman Monarchs, preserved in the Cottonian Collection, Vitellius, British Museum, Rich MSS. room. (See page 33.) VIGNETTE— EDWARD VI., attended by his Ministers of State, granting the Charter of Bridewell, for a Reformatory Prison, to sir George Barne, the Lord Mayor of London. From the original by Hans Holbein, Bridewell Hall. (See page 400). WILLIAM KUFUS. CHAPTER I.— TAIL-PIECE : AUTOGRAPH OF WILLIAM RUFUS. (See page 21.) CHAPTER III.— TAIL-PIECE ; EQUESTRIAN FIGURE of WILLIAM RUFUS, from the Great Seal of England. (See page 98.) EDWAED V. PORTRAIT OF EDWARD V., from an Ancient Painting, copied by Hou- braken. (See pages 101, 186, 187.) CHAPTER I.— TAIL- PIECE : EQUESTRIAN EFFIGY of EDWARD V. as Prince of Wales, from one of his Welsh Charters. (Seepage 125.) CHAPTER U.— TAIL-PIECE : AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD V., likewise of his uncle, the PROTECTOR, RICHARD, duke of Gloucester, from Royal Autographs, British Museum. (See page 165.) V1U ILLUSTRATIONS. CHAPTER III.— TAIL-PIECE : WAKEFIELD TOWER and PORTCULLIS GATE-WAY, from an Original Drawing. (See page 190.) EDWAED VI. PORTRAIT OF EDWARD VI.— From the Original Painting by Hans Holbein in the great hall at Bridewell. (See pages 193, 400.) CHAPTER I.— TAIL-PIECE : THE FONT and CANOPY with the arrange- ments of State in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court, used at the baptism of EDWARD VI. reduced from the contemporary drawing in the Heralds MS., College of Arms, and engraved by permission for this work. (See page 227.) CHAPTER II.— TAIL-PIECE : AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD VI. Royal Autographs, Choice MSS. room, British Museum. (See page 259.) CHAPTER III.— TAIL-PIECE : STATUE OF EDWARD VI., Christ-church School. (See page 296.) CHAPTER IV.— TAIL-PIECE : THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET showing EDWARD VI. to the PEOPLE gathered at the Lower or Western Gate, Hampton Court. (See page 335.) CHAPTER V.— TAIL-PIECE: EQUESTRIAN EFFIGY of EDWARD VI. in TILTING ARMOUR. From the Tower, as arranged by sir Samuel Merrick. (See page 374.) CHAPTER VI.—T AIL-PIECE : BRONZE ALTAR, formerly in Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, where obsequies were performed in memory of Edward VI. (See page 427.) PEEFACE. The Royal Biographies in our present series are those of the three unmarried Kings of England — William Rufus, Edward V., and Edward VI. The intermediate reigns of these Bachelor Sovereigns occasioned chasms in the chronological chain of royal and domestic national history, comprised in our Lives of the Queens or England, which this volume is calculated to supply. But, although a desirable adjunct to that work, it is a volume complete in itself, with distinct and independent claims to the attention of our readers, both with regard to the individual interest of the biographical narratives it contains, and, more especially, as illustrating three very important epochs of our annals. In the Reign of William Rufus we trace the commencement of our national greatness, the dawn of the age of chivalry, of poetry, historical literature, and X FREFACE, of the fine arts, as indicated in illuminated penmanship, monumental sculpture, and, above all, the glorious style of architecture, which for strength and beauty has never been surpassed. With the Life of Edward V. we enter upon a still more interesting era; the erection of England's first printing press — that true organ of civiliza- tion and liberty- — was coeval with his birth. He was the first prince in whose education printed books were used, and one of the earliest works printed in Eng- land was dedicated to him. The Life and Reign of our third Bachelor King, Edward VI., are blended with the third momentous period of English history, that of the Reformation. Much curious information is introduced into this por- tion of the volume, derived from sources not accessible* to the general reader, of the personal characteristics and court of our first Protestant Sovereign — " Who, born to guide such high emprize, For Albion's weal was early wise. Alas ! to whom the Almighty gave, For Albion's sins, an early grave!" The reign of Edward V. was merely nominal. In the reigns of William Rufus and Edward VI. the ab- sence of a queen was severely felt. Female royalty has always been most beneficial to England, both PREFACE. XI from its refining influence on the manners of the court, and the impetus it has given to trade, the encouragement of domestic manufactures, and the employment of native produce and native industry. "A court without ladies," observed Francis I. of France, "is like a spring without flowers." But a court full of ladies, without a queen, would soon fall into disrepute with the nation at large. It is, there- fore, sincerely to be hoped that we may never be required to write the Biography of a Bachelor King of Great Britain.* Reydon Hall, Suffolk, May 27, 1861. * Edward the VI. was the twenty-first king of England, and the last monarch to whom that ancient title can, properly speaking, be applied, as the next male sovereign, James the I., and his successors, claim the more important dignity of kings of Great Britain. THE BACHELOB KINGS OF ENGLAND. WILLIAM BUFUS, CHAPTER I. William Rufus first Bachelor King of England — Parentage — Birth — Brought to England by his mother Queen Matilda — Educated by Lanfranc — Knighted by Lanfranc — His personal appearance at eighteen — Early promise —Fracas between the royal brothers — Insult to Robert — Rufus' s attachment to his father — "Wounded by his side in battle — Attends his death bed — Conqueror's desire that Rufus should possess England — Their tender parting — Rufus sails for England— Proceeds to Winchester- Gets possession of the royal treasury — Crowned at Westminster by Lanfranc — Wise commencement of his reign — His uncle Odo intrigues in favour of Robert — Norman barons' revolt — Rufus conciliates his English subjects — Their hearty assistance — He captures Odo — Odo violates his pledge — Fall of Rochester — Rufus threatens to hang Odo and rebel lords — Consents to spare them — Establishes himself firmly on the English throne — Visited by his brother Henry— His sarcastic remark on the result of Henry's loan to Robert— Oppressive conduct of Norman barons — Ivo de Taillebois* and the monks of Croyland — Lanfranc shows their charter to Rufus — Equitable decision of Rufus— Establishes a court of appeal called Curia Regis— Breaks his pledge to his English subjects — Reproached by his aged primate, Lanfranc — His shameless rejoiuder — Death of Lanfranc — Rufus commences an evil course — His taste for architecture — Great public buildings erected by him. William II., surnamed, from his sanguine complexion and the warm colour of his hair, Rufus, or the Red King, was the first Bachelor King of England. He was the third son of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, with whom the readers of the " Lives of the Queens of England "* are already familiar. * " Lives of the Queens of England," by Agnes Stkickland, vol. 1, page 21, Library Edition. 1 WILLIAM RUFUS. William Rufus was born in Normandy, in tlie year 1060, and was therefore about six years old when his royal father invaded England, and in his ninth year when he accompanied his mother, Queen Matilda, thither for her coronation in April, 1068. Under the tutelage of that celebrated scholar, states- man, and divine, Lanfranc, abbot of Bee, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who was his preceptor, he enjoyed the advantages of a far more liberal education than most of the princes, his contemporaries, could boast. He was carefully instructed in classic lore, and all the branches of the learning of the period, as well as the use of arms ; riding, tilting, and other manly exercises of strength and skill requisite for a prince.* . "When his education was considered sufficiently ad- vanced to admit of his entering the arena of public life, William was knighted by his reverend preceptor,! it being perfectly in accordance with the customs of the period for abbots to bestow the acolade of knighthood as well as princes and military chiefs. An accurate idea of the person and costume of William Rufus in his early youth may be gathered from the curious engraving in Montfaucon J of his statuette on the tomb of his cousin Philip I. of France, at St. Benoit Sur Loire, also from an illuminated MS. of the 13th century in the Bibliothecque Colbert. He is there represented, in his eighteenth or nineteenth year, holding a falcon on his left wrist, and feeding it with his right hand. He is bareheaded, and has an oval contour of countenance, regular features, and luxuriant hair, parted in thick picturesque curls on either side his face. His throat is long and elegantly turned; his figure slight and graceful, enveloped in a long gown, over * William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. I " Monuraens de la Monarchie Fra^aise/'rol. 1, plate 55. WILLIAM RUFUS. 6 which he wears a short mantle, fastened with a brooch on his left shoulder. "William Eufus was at that period regarded as a prince of the fairest promise.* He energetically competed with the noble youth of England, Normandy, and France in all manly and chivalric exercises and feats of arms, esteeming it injurious to his reputation if he were not seen foremost in posts of danger, the first to challenge an adversary, and when challenged, if he did not vanquish his opponent. " Stalwart lie was in battle, good knight, through all thing, In battle and tournament, ere that he was king," says Robert of Gloucester, who does not,' in general, bear a favourable testimony of this prince. All contemporary chroniclers, however, record that Rufus was most dutiful and affectionate to his royal father, whom he invariably studied to please, always exerting himself to second him in battle, and rarely absent from his side in peace. The partial favour with which, in consequence, he was regarded by the Conqueror, excited the jealousy of his eldest brother Robert, especially after the death of Richard, the second and previously favourite son of their royal father. The doting fondness of Queen Matilda, their mother, for Robert her firstborn, on whom she lavished all the treasures and precious things in her power, increased the domestic feud which, a few years after the conquest of England, broke out between the princely brethren. Robert gathered round him all the young, disaffected, and reckless of the Norman nobility, and became the leader of a faction opposed to the political measures of the king, his father, whom he .desired to supplant in the government of Normandy and Maine. f * William of Malmesbury. f See Life of Matilda of Flanders, " Lives of the Queens of England," by Agnes Strickland, vol. 1, pages 79 — 82, Library Edition. 4 WILLIAM RUFUS. William Rufus warmly espoused his father's cause, arid taught his youngest brother, Henry, who was yet of tender age, to unite with him in defying and expressing contempt for Robert. These feelings, being too openly manifested in the wild thoughtlessness of youth, led to what Ordericus Vitalis calls " a diabolical quarrel " between Robert and the two younger princes, his brothers. It happened that the Conqueror, being on his way to quell an insurrection in that part of Maine called the Corbonnais, accompanied by his favourite son, William Rufus, and the boy Henry, came to sup and pass the night at the castle of I/Aigle, where his malcontent son, Robert, who had for some time withdrawn himself from the court, was then sojourning, on a visit to Robert College, a Norman noble of his faction. While their royal sire was occupied with his council, the two younger princes went into the balcony of the banqueting room to amuse themselves with playing at dice and other games. Unluckily, in the midst of their glee, espying their elder brother walking in the court below, with a party of his chosen associates and followers, they, either out of rude play, or to manifest contempt for him and his adherents, threw some dirty water from the balcony on their heads, with uproarious shouts of laughter.* If Robert had been disposed to treat the matter as a joke, his companions would not allow him to do so. " Here is an insult ! " cried the two youngest sons of Hugh, count de Grantmesnil. "If you bear such an indignity tamely, my lord, you are a lost man, and can never lift up your head again. See how your younger brothers have exalted themselves above you, and will you allow them to offer, with impunity, marks of contempt so gross as this to you and your faithful friends P" Infuriated at these observations, Robert drew his sword, and rushed into the banqueting room, to take vengeance on the * Ordericus Yitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. D youthful offenders, who would probably have paid dearly for their fun, if the cries of their attendants had not brought the king, their father, to the spot, who sternly interposed his authority to compose the fray. Robert, goaded by his bad advisers, deserted from his royal father's army, with the troop of horse under his command. The next night he made an attempt to surprise and seize the castle of Rouen ; but it was so successfully defended by the careful and intrepid Roger d'lvry, to whom the charge of that important fortress had been committed, that his treasonable design proved a failure. His adherents were arrested and severely pun- ished. He escaped and took refuge with the king of France, by whom he was secretly encouraged and sup- ported in his unfilial rebellion. During the reverses which, almost for the first time, were experienced by William the Conqueror in his Breton campaign, where he lost the greater part of his fine army before the castle of Dol, Rufus faithfully adhered to his fortunes, shared his perils and hardships, and was dangerously wounded while fighting valiantly by his side at Grerborai, the memorable battle where Robert encountered and unhorsed their royal father in the melee, but recognising him by his voice, remounted him on his own charger, and besought his forgiveness with tears. The Norman prelates and nobles endeavoured to effect a reconciliation, but the king was at first too deeply incensed to listen to their intercessions. "Why," exclaimed he, passionately, " do you urge me in favour of a traitor, who has not only seduced my soldiers from their allegiance, but rendered himself the tool of envious foreign princes, to disturb the peace of my realm?" He yielded, however, to the tears and entreaties of his beloved consort, Matilda, and a temporary reconciliation was effected by her mediation.* * William of Malmesbary ; Ordericus Vitalis; R. Hoveden ; Florence of Worcester. 6 WILLIAM RUFUS. God's peace, the holy re-union of the royal father and his erring first-born, was too soon broken by the evil passions, jealousies, and suspicions, that once more sowed divisions between them. Robert left Normandy for the third time, in sullen discontent, pursued by the malison of his offended sire. Robert had indeed stolen the hearts of the young men of Normandy ; but Rufus was regarded by deep-seeing and experienced statesmen as the rising sun. William Rufus was in close attendance on his royal father, during his last fatal sickness at Hermentrude, near Rouen ; and when the prelates and nobles were summoned to listen to the verbal testament that monarch dictated, with his expiring breath, to the clerks and notaries in their presence, he, with his youngest brother, Henry, stood beside the bed of death. "My greatest desire/' said the dying Conqueror, "is that my son William, whom you here behold, should be my successor to the throne of England ; but fearing that my demission of that fair realm, which I won by violence, and where I have shed much blood, should be deemed too presumptuous by the Most High, to whom pertain the disposition of all the sceptres of this earth, I resign it into His hands, beseeching Him to bestow it, with His blessing, on this, my son, William, and permit him to wear the crown thereof ; provided it be for the welfare of the people, and the good of the churches there."* Then he ordered a letter, which he had written some time previously to Rufus's former preceptor, Arch- bishop Lanfranc, his chancellor and prime minister, to be brought to him, and looking earnestly on this, his favourite son, who sighed deeply, he said to him : " My son, the death of kings is generally followed by great commotions, therefore, in contemplation of mine, I * Ordericus Vitalis ; William of Malmesbury ; Wace ; Historie General of Normandy, by Gabriel Moulin. WILLIAM RUFUS. 7 give you this letter, signed by my hand and scaled with my seal, which I have written to the Archbishop Lanfranc, directing him to consecrate and crown you King of England, in order to prevent future disputes on this subject. Now, then, hasten with God's blessing to England, and receive this last kiss as a token of my most tender love." At these words Rufus, bursting into a flood of tears, embraced and took leave of his dying sire, and attended by Robert Bloet, the Conqueror's private secretary, a most able clerk, rode post haste to the sea coast. Early the next morning, Sept. 10th, 1087, the Con- queror breathed his last. The tidings of that event reached Rufus at the port of Wissand, by a swift messenger, before he sailed for England.* He hastened to Winchester, where the treasures of his royal father were kept, and prevailed on William de Pont de l'Arche, to whose charge they had been confided, to surrender the keys to him. He proceeded in a business-like manner, by taking inventories of everything, and carefully weighing the silver, which amounted to £600,000, besides a large sum in gold, many valuable jewels, much costly plate, rich array, tapestry, and other pre- cious moveables. f Rufus had a very difficult game to play, for the right of primogeniture was with Robert, an incalculable advan- tage in those days ; besides, Robert, being in opposition to his father, had a strong party both in Normandy and England, especially in England, where his easy temper and generous friendship for the representative of the ancient royal line, Edgar, the Atheling, greatly endeared him to the people. Had he been on the alert as soon as Rufus, it is more than probable he would have been chosen in preference. But his dilatoriness in * Saxon Chronicle ; Ordericus Vitalis ; Florence of Worcester ; William of Malmesbury ; Wendover. f Ingnlphns; Thierry's "Norman Conquest." O WILLIAM RUFUS. regard to his own interests had become a proverb, and gained him the reproachful sobriquet of " Robert the Unready/' William concealed his father's death till he had gathered his own friends about him, and taken measures for securing the castles of Dover, Hastings, Pevensey, the principal fortresses on the south and south-west coast, and won Eudes, the great steward, and other powerful officers of the crown, to his interests. He then returned to "Winchester, announced his father's death, and desire for him to succeed to the realm of England, promised to relax the yoke under which the deceased sovereign had crushed the people of the land, to grant them the righteous laws of Edward the Confessor, and, in short, to redress all the grievances of which they justly com- plained.* His fair words, and liberal disbursements from the rich exchequer that had fallen into his possession, pre- vailed, and he was crowned by Lanfranc in Westminster Abbey, on the 27th of September, seventeen days after his royal father's death, and received the homage of all the bishops and nobles, who had larger estates in England than in Normandy. One of the first, acts of William Eufus was to deliver to Otho, the goldsmith, a large quantity of gold, silver, and precious stones for the decoration of his royal father's tomb, in St. Stephen's Abbey, at Caen, ordering him, at the same time, to superintend the erection of a monument of extraordinary magnificence over the remains of that illustrious monarch, sparing neither pains nor expense to testify his filial affection and respect for his memory, f Otho, who is supposed to be the same person men- tioned, in Domesday-Book, among the King's goldsmiths, as " Otto aurifaber," being an artificer of much skill and taste, executed the task assigned to him in an admirable manner, and the tomb, says Ordericus Vitalis, " may * Brompton ; Saxon Chronicle ; S. Dunelra ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. V now be seen resplendent with gold, silver, and gems." When we trace the heartless desecration and barbarous spoliation of this noble monument of one of the most distinguished men the world ever saw,* we may well exclaim with Scott — 11 Oh failing honours of the dead ! Oh high ambition lowly laid! " Guided by the prudent counsels of the venerable Lanfranc, his prime minister, William commenced his reign so wisely, "that it was hoped he would be the very mirror of kings," observes the contemporary chronicler, William of Malmesbury, whom truth afterwards com- pels to give a very different report of this versatile and excitable prince. Everything went on smoothly till the arrival of Odo, bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent, the son of William the Conqueror's mother Arlotta, by her husband Herluin, of Couteville. Odo, who had, during many years of the reign of his illustrious maternal brother, acted as prime minister, and governed England with despotic sway, had, in consequence of his rapacity, abuse of power, seditious practices, and underhand intrigues, to obtain the Papacy, been arrested by his royal kinsman, and imprisoned in Normandy, f It was with great difficulty that an order for his release had been wrung from the Conqueror on his death bed. Odo, having assisted his favourite nephew Robert, to settle himself in the government of JNormandy, where he was given — by that ease-loving prince — absolute authority to rule as the director of affairs, both spiritual and temporal, now presented himself at the court of England, to pray for the restitution of the earldom of Kent, and the numerous manors which had been confiscated by his brother, the late king. William * See Life of Matilda of Flanders, in " Lives of Queens of England," by Agnes Strickland, page 104, Library Edition. + William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Yitalis ; Roger of Wendover. 10 WILLIAM RUFUS. Rufus restored everything Odo could justly claim, and received his homage as earl of Kent. This was not enough to satisfy the ambitious prelate; he aimed at being re-instated in the authority he had for so many years abused, and which he now with jealous ire saw exercised by Lanfranc, assisted by William, bishop of Durham. Lanfranc was turned of ninety years of age, but prudently declined associating Odo in the govern- ment of which he was the responsible head. Independently of the envy and ill-will excited by this circumstance, Odo was aware that Lanfranc had acted as the voice of those who desired the evil report of his extortions and oppressions to be laid before the late king ; and when William hesitated to arrest him on account of his high rank in the church, had quieted that scruple with the following clever logic, " My lord, you will not arrest your brother as the bishop of Bayeux, but the traitor earl of Kent." * On this hint the Conqueror had acted, and when Odo pleaded the inviolability of his cloth, replied by repeating those words. Odo had never forgiven Lanfranc, and earnestly desired both to supplant and punish him. Aware that there was no chance of doing either as long as Rufus wore the crown of England, he organised an extensive conspiracy for transferring it to Robert, calculating on having everything then his own way, because of the ascendency he possessed over the mind of that prince. Odo succeeded in seducing several of the most powerful of Rufus's nobles, especially those who possessed demesnes in Normandy, from their allegiance. William, bishop of Durham, united with him in his seditious practices, and declared that the peace of England and Normandy could only be ensured by both realms being under one sovereign, and as the right of primogeniture belonged to Robert, it would be for the general good to dethrone and put Rufus to death. A most formidable confederation of the great * William of Malraesbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 11 Norman barons, in every quarter of England, was formed for this purpose. They did not wait for the advent of a chief who bore the proverbial surname of the Unready, but rose in revolt in all parts of the country, and com- mitted the most barbarous devastations.* Rufus, when he found himself thus unexpectedly beset with treachery, his authority openly defied in all parts of his realm, and his supplies, from the northern counties, cut off, through the defection of the bishop of Durham, " was far," says the contemporary chronicler, Ordericus Yitalis, "from skulking, like a frighted fox, in the depths of caverns ; but roused himself boldly, with a lion's courage, to strike a terrible blow at the rebels." His great reliance was on the English, whose yoke he had lightened, and he now successfully appealed to their gratitude and affection for support in the general defection of his Norman baronage. He had spent more time in England than Eobert, and understanding somewhat of the language and the heroic spirit of the people, he called a national council, at which they were requested to meet him, Archbishop Lanfranc, and such of the prelates and nobles who still remained attached to his cause. He addressed them in a short, energetic speech, acquainting them with the treacherous and disloyal proceedings of his uncle and his own countrymen, and frankly stated that he confided in the support and valour of his brave English subjects, and concluded with this exhortation : "Let every man who would not be accounted a nidering" — literally, a nothing, or ignoble person — " arm and follow me, and assist me to chastise these insolent traitors." f "Well did the Eed King understand the temper of those whom he addressed, the epithet of a nidering being regarded as the most contemptuous of all reproaches. Every Englishman present volunteered his services to quell the revolt, exclaiming, " We will fight for you to * William of Malmesbury. f Ibid. 12 WILLIAM RUFUS. the death, and never shall a foreign prince supplant in our affections, yon whom we have freely acknowledged for our king. Send your orders through England, and you will find yourself freely obeyed by our people. See you not how they are flocking to your standard, and are ready to crush yon false rebels with the weight of your lawful power ? Search well the chronicles of the English, and you will find that they have always been faithful to their kings. " * Encouraged by this generous burst of feeling, William Rufus immediately took the field at the head of the native chivalry of the land, marched against the Nor- man insurgents, and besieged his uncle Odo's castles at Tunbridge and Pevensey, and after a seven weeks 7 siege, compelled him to surrender. William gave him his life, and promised him his liberty, on condition of his swearing to deliver up the strong castle of Rochester, where he had bestowed the principal part of his plunder. Odo took the oath without hesitation, and being con- ducted by a party of the royal troops under the walls of the castle, required the commanders of the garrison, Eustace son of the count de Boulogne, and Robert de Belesme, to surrender it to King William. TJiese noblemen were much surprised at the injunction, for it was a place of the utmost importance to the insur- gents, as it gave them the command of the whole country, even to London, and they were well provided for defence. While they were deliberating, they observed that Odo was accompanied by a very small party, and that his gesticulations contradicted his words, whereupon they sallied out, captured his escort, rescued him, and brought him back into the castle with them in triumph, f Rufus was in a towering passion at the manner in which his uncle had evaded the performance of his oath, and * Ordericus Yitalis ; "William of Malmesbury ; Roger of Wendover. f William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Yitalis ; Roger of Wendover. WILLIAM RUFUS. 13 vowed that if he fell into his hands a second time, he should not escape so lightly. Odo was resolved to hold out both the castle and town till the arrival of Robert with his promised succours. Robert only despatched a small squadron of ships with troops, which were inter- cepted, defeated, and sunk by William's fleet, without effecting a landing. Having obtained a conference with Roger Montgomery, who was second in authority to Odo, in the confederacy for dethroning him, King "William inquired on what grounds he and the other Norman barons had revolted from him.* "Because," replied Montgomery, "you have not a legal title to the throne, which of right belongeth to your eldest brother." "But," rejoined the king, "I hold it by right of my father's nomination, who, having won England, appointed me for his successor by the authority of his own will and pleasure, even as he had previously given fair portions of this same realm to you and others of his nobles, by making you earls, therefore if you dispute his power to make me king of England, do you not at the same time invalidate your own titles to your English earldoms, which you hold on no sounder tenure than the gift of the Conqueror, my father ? " Montgomery considered the royal rhetoric unanswerable, and agreed to renew his allegiance. His defection was the death-blow to the rebel cause. William shut up Odo and his adherents in the city of Rochester, by raising two forts against them, and cutting off all supplies. The besieged were at the same time grievously tormented with a plague of flies, which is compared by the chroniclers to that which tormented the Egyptians, of old, never ceasing for a moment from whizzing round them and attacking them. " So severely," continues Ordericus Yitalis, "was the insolent band of rebels afflicted with the annoyance of these swarms that they could not eat their meals either by night or day, unless a great number of * William of Malmesbury. 14 "WILLIAM RUFUS. them were employed, in turn, in flapping them away from their comrades' faces/' The cause of this terrible nuisance was the dirty habits of the besieged having engendered a deadly pestilence, of which numbers of the townspeople and garrison died. Odo and his confederates, being unable to endure the miseries of the siege, sent envoys to William, offering to capitulate, provided he would guarantee their property and restitution to all the manors, lands, and titles they possessed in England. On these conditions being named to the king, he burst into a furious passion, and told the envoys " he was astonished at their audacity in proposing any such terms to him," and swore " he would presently storm the town and castle, and hang the bishop and the rest of the false traitors who were shut up there, or sweep them from the earth by other means." This terrible answer filled the besieged with consternation and terror. Fortunately, those of the Norman nobles who had re- mained faithful to the king, took upon themselves to intercede, and endeavour to prevail on him to rescind his vindictive resolution to put every one of the leaders of the revolt to death. They proposed to his imitation the clemency of David to Absalom and Shimei, and entreated him to behave with mercy and magnanimity. "When we spare perjurers, robbers, plunderers, and execrable traitors," replied William, passionately, " we destroy the peace and security of the well- disposed. In what have I offended these criminal men? What injury have I done them that they should thus have sought to destroy me by raising insurrections and causing so much public loss and misery? David, whose example you propose to me, caused the murderers of Ishbosheth to be hanged, and I am determined to punish these seditious traitors in such a manner as to deter others from following the same pernicious courses."* The nobles answered by reminding William that " the * Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. 15 leader of the insurgents being his own uncle and a bishop, it would be impossible to punish him in the manner he threatened, and as many of the others had been his renowned father's devoted followers and valiant assist- ants in his conquest of England, it would be wrong to shed their blood, however deeply they had offended him." Under these considerations, William suffered himself to be persuaded to spare his vanquished foes from death or mutilation, and permitted them to depart with their horses and arms. Odo wished to obtain the further concession, that the flourish of trumpets, customary at the marching out of the garrison from a surrendered town and fortress, might be omitted ; but when this petition was preferred to the king, he swore, with a fresh burst of anger, " that he would not grant it for a thousand marks of gold." The royal trumpeters, we are told, sounded their most insulting notes of triumph, as the humiliated confederates and their garrison dejectedly marched out, while the crowds of English, who had so materially contributed to the victory of the Red King shouted in derision, " Halters, halters ! bring halters and hang this traitor bishop and his accomplices on a gallows ! " while others angrily exclaimed, " Great king, permit not this author of our woes to escape unpunished. This perjured homicide, who hath caused the death of thousands by his cruelties and oppressions, ought not to live." * William Rufus, with all his faults, many of which proceeded from the excessive excitability of his fiery temperament, was too manly to abandon his fallen foes to the vengeance of his victorious English lieges, who were with difficulty restrained from tearing them to pieces. From this well merited fate, Odo and his noble Norman associates were protected by his royal nephew, who satisfied himself with seizing all their acquired property in England, and banishing them from * Ordericus Vitalis. 16 WILLIAM RUFUS. his realm for ever. It was expected that a signal punishment would be inflicted on the bishop of Durham, whose treason had been of a very aggravated cha- racter, as a minister high in the confidence of his sovereign; but William contented himself with depriv- ing him of his benefice, and sending him away with the others, telling him at the same time he remitted " all further penalties for old acquaintance' sake, and the remembrance of the long friendship that had been between them."* The insurrection being thus happily crushed by the energy and address of the king, he returned in triumph to London. His younger brother, Henry, soon after presented himself at his court, and requested to be put in possession of the deceased queen, his mother's, appanage, to which he was by her will entitled. Rufus received him very kindly, and acceded to his suit, although he had great reason to be offended with him, seeing that Robert, who was entirely destitute of means to assist the insur- gents, had obtained from Henry the loan of the five thousand pounds the late king, their father, had bequeathed to that prince on his death-bed, and which appears to have comprised all the ready money in Normandy. Robert had mortgaged the rich province of the Cotentin to Henry for the above sum, but having expended it in fitting out the ineffectual arma- ment intended for the invasion of England, he most dishonourably withheld the promised pledge, on which his brother had advanced the money, and forced a quarrel with him for complaining of his broken faith. This was well known to Rufus, who had now ample opportunity of punishing Henry for supplying his adversary with the means of disturbing his govern- ment ; but he contented himself with sarcastically inquiring of the defrauded prince, "how he liked the interest Robert had given him for his money?" f * Ordericus Vitalis. f William of Malmesbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 17 The banishment of the great Norman nobles who had taken part in the late insurrection against King William, was a source of thankfulness to both church and laity of the people of the land. The aggressions of Ivo de Taillebois, as recorded by Ingulphus, the abbot and chronicler of Croyland Abbey,* afford too amusing a page in the domestic history of the country, in the early part of the reign of William Bufus, to be omitted. This place, so interesting to all lovers of liberty, as the refuge where the last patriotic opposers of the Norman invaders were wont to retreat, is a nucleus of marsh, situated between the rivers Nene, Assendyke, and Welland, in the fens of Lincolnshire, inaccessible to wheeled carriages. But it possessed rich and valu- able lands and dependencies in the neighbourhood of Spalding, Cappelade, and Deeping, which were coveted and lawlessly seized by their powerful neighbour, Ivo de Taillebois, on the death of William the Conqueror. Ingulphus, in consequence of this aggression, proceeded to Canterbury, to consult his old friend Archbishop Lanfranc, and ask his intercession with his royal pupil, the' new king, William Eufus, against the powerful spoiler of the abbey. Lanfranc received him affection- ately, promised to use his influence with Rufus, appointed a day for hearing • the cause in London, and advised Ingulphus to come, prepared with the best charter he possessed, for proving the rights of the abbey to the * Ingulphus, the son of a London visited all the celebrated christian citizeu, was one of the literary lights stations in the East ; but falling into of England. His early intelligence as the hands of robbers on his way a "Westminster scholar had attracted home, and suffering much from the notice of Queen Editha, the con- hardships, he bade adieu to the sort of Edward the Confessor, and world, and embraced a monastic in riper years obtained for him the life in the convent of Fonteville. place of private secretary to William After passing many tranquil years the Conqueror, when duke of Nor- there, he was appointed by William mandy. He afterwards performed a the Conqueror, in the year 1075, to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in company perform the duties of Wulketul, the with many distinguished persons, and deprived abbot of Croyland. 2 1 8 WILLIAM ' EXTFTTS. lands in dispute, but not to bring forward the whole of their voluminous documents, "for," added the vene- rable chancellor archbishop, " of making many books there is no end." The impatient temperament of his august pupil was too well known to Lanfranc for him to allow the chronicler of Croyland to risk provoking unbecoming expletives, at the sight of such a superfluous weight of evidence, in the shape of ancient deeds and muniments, as that zealous antiquary was prepared to show in substantiation of the invaded rights of the abbey. Ingulphus, acting on this discreet hint, produced, on the day appointed, the charter of earl Algar, endowing the abbey with the said lands, written in Saxon characters, which Lanfranc, after having duly investigated, carried to the king, and explained the case so clearly, that Rufus forthwith addressed a royal letter to the sheriff, commanding inqui- sition to be made as to the lawful proprietorship of the lands, when judgment being given in favour of the abbey, Ivo de Taillebois was ordered to restore them in full. On the death of Lanfranc, the greedy spoiler renewed his aggression, taking advantage of the calami- tous fire at the abbey of Croyland, which had destroyed the precious library, and, as he hoped, the muniments belonging to that establishment. " Our charters of extreme beauty," says Ingulphus, "formed of materials of matchless value, and written in capital letters, adorned with golden crosses and rich paintings ; the privileges also granted by the kings of Mercia, documents of extreme antiquity, and of the greatest value, written in the Saxon characters, and exquisitely adorned with pictures in gold, were all burned ; the whole of these muniments of ours, both great and small, nearly four hundred in number, were in one night — which proved to us of the blackest hue — lost and utterly destroyed. The whole of our library also perished, which contained more than three hundred volumes of original works, besides more than WILLIAM RTJFtTS. ' 19 four hundred smaller volumes. A few j^cars before, however, I had of my own accord taken from our muniment room several charters, written in Saxon charac- ters, and as we had duplicates, and in some instances even triplicates of them, I had put them into the hands of our chanter, the lord Fulmar, to be kept in the cloisters, in order to instruct the juniors in the Saxon characters, as this kind of writing had for a long time, on account of the Normans, been neglected. These charters having been deposited in an ancient press, which was kept in the cloisters, and surrounded on every side by the wall of the church, were the only ones that were preserved from the fire. These now form our principal and especial muniments, having been long neglected and despised, on account of the bar- barous characters in which they were written, in accord- ance with the words of blessed Job, ' The things that my soul refused to touch have become my sorrowful meat.' " These were, however, as it proved, of the utmost importance, being the rude original documents from which the gaily decorated, gilded, and illuminated copies whereof the brethren of Croyland were so proud, had been made. Not, however, to follow Ingulphus in his pathetic lamentations for the losses the monastery had sustained in the destructive fire, of the ravages of which he gives an eloquent and truly poetic description ; let us now relate the legal use that was made of the preservation of the antiquated documents that were happily preserved from the devouring flames. "Ivo de Taillebois, who had always been our implacable enemy, supposing that, as common report asserted, all our charters had perished in the conflagration, caused us to be cited to shew by what title we held our lands that lay in his demesne, although he had often seen our charters, and heard them read. Brother Trig, our proctor, ap- peared at Spalding on the day of trial, and produced the charters of sheriff Thorold, and also those of both the 20 * WILLIAM RUFUS. earls Algar, still safe and unburned ; whereupon the said Ivo de Taillebois, being disappointed in his expecta- tions, resorted to raillery and abuse, saying, that such ' barbarous writing was only worthy of laughter and derision, and could not be esteemed of any weight or validity.' " It is impossible to refrain from smiling at the criticisms which, for lack of more cogent objections, the rapacious Anjevin baron thought proper to pass on the ancient penmanship, which, in reality, proved the authenticity of the charters securing to the monastery of Croyland the lands he desired to appropriate. Probably, the clerkly skill of Ivo de Taillebois, if it enabled him "to frame the letters that composed his mighty name," did not extend to the power of reading that of any other man. "On this," continues Ingulphus, "brother Trig made answer to him, 'that these documents had been read in the presence of the renowned King William, and also the king, his son, "William Eufus, and had been praised and confirmed both by them and their council; and that after they had been recited and established by the royal authority, it was not in his power to invalidate them; but if he should hereafter make such an attempt, we should appeal to our lord the king, and demand a hearing at his tribunal.' Our brother Trig then rolled up our charters, and delivered them, before every one, to his clerk to carry ; but after they had left the court, he received them back from the clerk, and taking charge of them himself, brought them safely back to the monastery. The clerk, however, by his command, returned into the court, in order to give attentive ear to any further proceedings of Ivo, in regard to the monastery lands. In the evening, after the court adjourned, as he was returning to Croyland, he was waylaid by three of Ivo's servants, who rushed out upon him just as he was about to cross our river Assendyk, struck him from his horse, and searched his WILLIAM RUFUS. 21 wallet and his garments, for the charters, which they intended to seize, but finding they were not in his possession, they left him for dead, covered with wounds and bruises. After a while, he succeeded in crawling to a boat that happened to be going his way, and arrived at Croyland that night in a piteous condition. On hearing of this unprecedented malice on the part of our foe, I took our charters, and in order to guard against his devices, and other accidents, placed them in such safe custody, that so long as my life lasts neither fire shall consume, nor adversary steal them, our Lord Jesus Christ, and our blessed patron the most holy Guthlac, showing themselves propitious, and as I firmly believe, extending their protection to their servants. Within a fortnight afterwards, our said enemy, Ivo de Taillebois, was proclaimed an enemy to the king, in consequence of being engaged in the conspiracy against him, for which he was outlawed, and is still living in Anjou a banished man." * In contrast to the cruel and rapacious proceedings of the lawless baron, Ingulphus gratefully records the kindly offerings sent for relief of the distressed, by more chris- tian-like neighbours, after the calamitous fire. " Richard de Eulos, the lord of Burne and of Depyng, as being our faithful brother, and in time of our tribulation a most loving friend, gave us ten quarters of wheat, ten quarters of malt, ten quarters of peas, ten quarters of beans, and ten pounds of silver. Haco of Malton gave us, at the same time, twelve quarters of wheat, and twenty fat bacon hogs. Elsin of Pyncebek also gave us one hundred shillings in silver, and ten bacon hogs. Andhurst of Spalding gave us six quarters of corn, two carcasses of oxen, and twelve bacon hogs. Many others also presented us with various gifts, by which our indigent state was greatly relieved. May our Lord Jesus Christ write their * Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland. Translated by H. J. Riley. 22 WILLIAM RUFUS. names in the Book of Life, and reward them with his heavenly glory. Nor should, among so many of our wealthy benefactors, the holy memory of Juliana, a poor old woman of Weston, be consigned to oblivion, who, ' of her want ' did give unto us ' all her living,' namely, a great quantity of spun thread, for the purpose of sewing the vestments of the brethren of our monas- tery." The lawless proceedings of Ivo de Taillebois towards the monks of Croyland were much on a par with those of the Norman barons, his compeers, whose oppressions rendered it necessary for their inferiors, in order to obtain justice, to carry their causes into the king's court, then called Curia Regis, where the sovereign sat in person to receive appeals and pronounce judgment upon them. This court, which was a revival of the primitive ones held by the early British and Anglo-Saxon kings beneath the canopy of heaven, under some spreading oak, was always open for the redress of grievances, and contributed to the popularity of the regal office in England from remote antiquity. The Norman lawyers, however, contrived to introduce the payment of certain fines and fees as an indispensable prelude to the removal of causes and appeals by plaintiffs into Civria Regis* Sorry I am to be compelled to record that William no sooner found himself firmly established on his throne, and in no fear of rivalry in his realm from the attempts of his elder brother, than he forgot his promises to his oppressed English subjects, and instead of restoring the righteous laws of Edward the Confessor, continued to practise the vexatious system introduced by the late king, his father, especially in regard to the game laws. When Lanfranc took the liberty of remonstrating with him on the guilt and dishonour he was incurring, by forfeiting his royal word and acting in a manner so contrary to what he had promised, Eufus flew into a * Madox's " History of the Exchequer." WILLIAM RUFUS. 23 furious passion, and asked Lis right reverend admonisher, " Whether he thought it possible for a king to keep all his promises ? " * The death of Lanfranc, which occurred in June, 1089, in the ninety-third year of his age, removed the only restraint to which the stormy passions of Rufus were ever known to yield. His loss was mourned as a national misfortune, so beneficial had been his influence over the mind and conduct of the king. To his honour be it recorded, he successfully exerted himself to put a stop to the barbarous and disgraceful custom, probably intro- duced during the Danish reigns of terror — of exporting young females to the continent, and selling them for slaves — a sin which had, doubtless, provoked the ven- geance of God against the people of the land where it was practised. The native of a country where learning and the polished arts were in a far more advanced state than in Normandy or England, f he greatly promoted the progress of civilization and education in both realms, and introduced a nobler style of architecture, of which Can- terbury Cathedral is a fine specimen. The attempts to introduce the elaborate music of the south into the ser- vices of the churches, which originated during the latter years of his superintendence of ecclesiastical discipline, was by no. means relished. The English choirs and congre- gations clung to the old Gregorian chants, to which they and their forefathers had been accustomed. The foreign innovations, as they were considered, instead of improving the harmony of the choral services, were the cause of the greatest discord, and in many instances led to scenes of sacrilegious violence, even more frightful than the disgraceful riots that have recently taken place in one of the metropolitan churches on the score of ceremonies. Thurstan, the newly appointed abbot of Glastonbury, who had lately been translated thither from Caen, in jSorrnandy, called in the aid of a body of soldiers * Eadmer ; Rapin. t Lanfranc was born and educated at Pavia. 24 WILLIAM RUFUS. to settle the dispute between liim and his monks, who insisted on retaining their old familiar Gregorian chant.* This he despised, and ordered them to adopt that of "William, the organist of Feschamp. The monks persisted in using their old music, notwithstanding his requisition. One day, when they least expected such compulsory argu- ments, in the time of divine service, Thurstan directed the men at arms to send a shower of arrows among the choristers the moment they raised the Gregorian chant. The monks fled affrighted to the altar for refuge, and being pursued by the armed ruffians, two were butchered there, and fourteen grievously wounded. The rest of the community then facing about fought manfully with benches and candlesticks, and inflicting in their turn wounds and bruises, drove the soldiers and Norman abbot out of the church, and barricaded the doors against their return. f The king found it necessary, in conse- quence of the scandal caused by these sacrilegious scenes, to deprive Thurstan, and send him back to Caen ; but he finally repurchased the abbey, through the intervention of some of William Rufus's corrupt ministers, who, in an evil hour for England, succeeded Lanfranc in his confi- dence. The most pernicious of these was a Norman ecclesiastical lawyer of low birth, who could boast of no other appellative than Ralph, till Robert Le De Spencer, the king's domestic steward, put upon him, on account of his extortions, the cognomen of Flambard, or the Devouring Flame, J by which reproachful epithet he was ever after- wards distinguished, and it has passed into history as his surname. This adventurer was the son of an obscure priest of Bayeux ; and his mother, from whom he probably inherited his abilities, enjoyed the evil reputation of a sorceress. Being possessed of a handsome person, speci- ous manners, intimate acquaintance with the subtleties of the law, some literary power, for he was the first legal * William of Malmesbury ; Florence of Worcester, f Florence of Worcester ; William of Malmesbury. % Ordericus Yitalis. . WILLIAM HUFFS. 25 writer of the age,* great financial talent, and still greater skill in flattery, he, from small beginnings, made his way rapidly in the court, and became first the king's chaplain, and then his treasurer, an office similar to what is now styled chancellor of the exchequer, or principal minister of finance. He took advantage of Kufus's love of pleasure to arrange everything despotically on his own authority, making many impertinent and vexatious accusations and pursuits in the king's name, of which he was ignorant, so that, says the chronicler, who records his evil doings, f " like a devouring flame he tormented the people, and turned the chants of the church into lamen- tations by the new practices he introduced into the country. He disquieted the young king by his perfidious suggestions, recommending him to revise the record which had been taken of all property through England, and to take the surplus that was found above that return. Having obtained the king's consent to this vexatious process, he had all the lands strictly re-measured, and thus added largely to the royal revenues at the expense of the happiness of the people and the popularity of the sovereign." It was, in compliance with the pernicious advice and representations of Flambard, that the king, under the specious pretext of not being able to name a suitable successor to Lanfranc as primate, retained the rich see of Canterbury and all its dependencies in his own hands ; and finding this a fruitful source of wealth, he pursued the same covetous practice in regard to all the other bishoprics and rich abbeys, as they became vacant by the deaths of their respective incumbents. This involved the king in endless disputes with the church, and deprived the poor, not only of the charity and judicious employment they had been accustomed to receive, but of pastoral instruction in their religious * He wrote a book on the Laws of England, now lost. Note by J. Forrester, translator of Ordericus Vitalis. See also Ingram. f Ordericus Vitalis. 26 WILLIAM RUFUS. and moral duties, and increased the miseries the great changes of property had occasioned.* William Rufus is accused by the chroniclers of wasting in riotous living, and lavishing on profligate favourites, the wealth of which he wrongfully deprived the church. In justice, however, to his memory the reader should be informed that during nearly the whole of his reign he was engaged in various great public works, which were a constant drain on his resources. He completed the Tower of London, begun by his father in 1078, f adding thereto a castellated edifice between the "White Tower and the Thames, called St. Thomas's Tower, and made it both a citadel of defence from foreign invaders, and a stately royal residence, surrounding it with a wall and strong fortifications. He also built London Bridge, finished Battle Abbey, and rebuilt a great part of London, which had been unfortunately destroyed first by a conflagration and afterwards by a violent hurricane, the houses of the mechanics and humbler classes being at that time built of wood, thatched with reeds and straw. The natural love for architecture, which Rufus un- doubtedly inherited from both his royal parents, William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, had been fostered and increased by the refined taste of his accomplished preceptor, Lanfranc, J and he availed himself of his royal power to gratify it most fully. " This William," records the chronicler Knyghton, * Ordericus Vitalis ; Saxon Chronicle. f S tow's Survey of London. J William of Sens, the architect portion and every ornament intended employed by Lanfranc in building to be introduced. He also invented Canterbury Cathedral, was a most many ingenious machines for load- exquisite artist, both in wood and ing and unloading the ships, for stone. He made a model of his pro- all the stone employed in these jected mighty work for the direction buildings was brought from Nor- of the workmen, minutely delineat- mandy. — Gervase of Canter- ing and describing every particular bury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 27 "was much addicted to building royal castles and palaces, as the castles of Dover, Windsor, Norwich, Exeter, the banqueting hall at Westminster, and many others can testify. Nor was there a king of England before him that erected so many and such noble edifices." He also built and endowed the abbey of Bermondsey for a com- munity of brothers of charity whom he introduced. William Rufus had the good fortune to possess an able and skilful assistant in designing and working out his plans in Grundulph, bishop of Rochester, the builder or restorer of Rochester cathedral and castle. These noble and stupendous works, which were the glory of his short reign, have been accounted among his crimes, because people were severely taxed both for money and labour in their progress. The fine autograph beneath, written in 1088, the year after his accession, when he was on his good behavi- our, under the guidance of his venerable tutor, Lanfranc, proves how well this learned prince " could frame the letters that compose his mighty name," written withal as English William, not Norman Gruillaume. Charter of William Rufus to the Church of St. Andrew, Rochester, a.d., 10S From the Choice MS. Room, British Museum. WILLIAM EUFUS. CHAPTER II. Rufus's address to his nobles — Invades Normandy — Keeps court at Chateau d'Eu — Norman nobles flock to him — His munificence and popularity — King of France mediates peace between him and Eobert — They combine against Prince Henry — Adventures at the siege of Mount St. Michael — Rufus's reckless valour — Defends his saddle at peril of life — His facetious speeches — Personal traits — His illuminated portrait, (see frontispiece) — He returns to England, defeats Welsh and Scotch invaders — Enters Scotland — Gets into difficulties — Edgar Atheling mediates a peace — Malcolm performs his homage — Is royally entertained by Rufus — Rufus re-builds Carlisle— Introduces husbandmen and manufacturers— Breaks faith with Robert — They part in anger — He seizes church property — Petitioned by the monks of St. Augustine — Recognises his cousin Floriaco — Retains bishoprics and abbeys in his own hands — His reckless speeches — Public calamities attributed to him — His dangerous illness at Gloucester— In dread of death — His penitence and resolutions of amend- ment — Forces the primacy on Anselm — Converts Jew physician — Promises to be his godfather — Convert changes his mind — The perverse bishop — Rufus relapses into his evil ways — His dealings with the Jews — King of Scots invades England— His defeat and death — Generous conduct of Rufus to his children — Takes offence at Anselm* s sermons— Extravagance of his dress and fashions — Blames his chamberlain for the cheapness of his hose — His angry disputes with Anselm — Novel method of raising money — Conspiracy against his life revealed— Revolt of Mowbray, earl of North- umberland — Rufus defeats the Welsh, captures Mowbray, puts down the insurrection — Hangs his godfather. William Rufus, being now firmly established in his authority, summoned his nobles to meet him at Win- chester, in the autumn of 1089, and unfolded to them his desire of avenging the late attempt of his brother Eobert in the following speech from the throne : " You are well aware, Hlustrious lords, how my brother Eobert, in the first year of my reign, incited many of my liegemen WILLIAM RUFUS. 29 to rebel against me, and conspired to deprive me of my life and crown, in which things he might perchance have succeeded, had not Divine Goodness averted the evil he meditated. And now the Holy Church beyond the sea addresses her complaints to me, and calls upon me to protect her from the ravening wolves to whom he aban- dons her ; for he who aims at usurping my dominions by fraud or force, takes no care to defend his own. There- fore, I require you, who were my father's liegemen, to support me loyally, manfully, and unanimously in my just enterprises. It behoves me, who inherit both the name and the crown of the great William, to pursue zealously the same course he did for the restoration of domestic peace and good order in Normandy. We ought not to suffer dens of robbers to exist there, to harass the well disposed and ruin the abbeys. Counsel me then, my valiant peers, as to what ought to be done under these circumstances : my desire being, if you approve it, to lead an army into Normandy, to make reprisals for the mischief which my brother, without any provocation, devised against me ; and I purpose to succour the church of God, to protect widows and orphans, and punish robbers and murderers, with the sword of justice/'* The warlike barons, without pausing to inquire how these high sounding professions of sympathy for the oppressed church in Normandy agreed with the king's aggressions on the see of Canterbury, enthusiastically applauded, and promised to support him in his enterprise. William, accordingly, crossed the Channel the last week in January, 1091, and landed in Normandy. Duke Eobert and his nobles, who were engaged in the siege of Conches, were greatly troubled at the news of his arrival, broke up their camp, and hastily retreated to Eouen. All the fortresses on the sea coast immediately submitted to king William, who established himself at Chateau d'Eu, where he kept court in royal pomp. Almost all the Norman * Ordericus Vitalis. 30 WILLIAM RUFUS, nobles came to pay their compliments to him and offer him presents, in the expectation of receiving still greater in return. Their example was followed by the Bretons, the Flemings, and even the French, who resorted to him in crowds to share his hospitality and his gifts, of which he was profusely lavish. They admired his great magni- ficence, and extolled him far above their own princes, for his wealth and generosity.* Robert, who was destitute of money or the means of raising an efficient military force to compete with his brother's victorious troops, besought his suzerain and old familiar friend, Philip, king of France, to come to his assistance. Philip marched a powerful army over the frontier, but the large bribes of William disarmed him, and he confined his good offices to offers of mediating a peace, of which he proposed to be the umpire. He exhorted the royal rivals " to have an amicable meeting, kiss and embrace each other, as became Christian princes and brethren, instead of engaging in deadly warfare, and shedding the blood of their relations and friends." A pacification was effected, manifestly to William's advan- tage. He kept possession of St. Vallery, and all the Norman castles he had acquired, engaging to assign an equivalent in England to Eobert, to pay him an annual pension of three thousand crowns, and pardon and restore those who had taken part in the late insurrection. Robert, in return, consented to deprive Edgar Atheling of the estates and refuge he had given him in Normandy. It was then solemnly covenanted that Robert should continue to enjoy Nor- mandy, and William England, unmolested, during the term of their natural lives, each appointing the other for his successor, in case of leaving no lawful issue, so that the survivor would unite and reign over both realms, f Henry, their youngest brother, considered himself treated * Ordericus Vitalis, f William of Malmesbury ; Henry of Huntingdon ; Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFIS. 31 with contempt, because he was not named in the treaty. Robert persisted in withholding the pledge on which he had advanced his five thousand pounds to fit out the expedition against England, and now William, to punish him, deprived him of his English posses- sions.* Driven to desperation by finding himself left destitute, Henry seized the strong isolated fortress of Mount St. Michael, garrisoned it with a troop of daring adventurers, and making frequent predatory sorties, became the terror of the whole neighbourhood. The fortress was deemed impregnable, being perched on a lofty rock, which, by the influx of the tides, was twice a day cut off from the mainland, and surrounded with waves. Robert and "William, making common cause against Henry, united to besiege him in his eyrie, and so effectually prevented him and his company from obtaining supplies that they were soon in distress for water. Henry, on this, sent a reproachful message to Robert, representing the tortures he suffered from thirst, and inviting him, "if he desired his death, to come on like a valiant knight, and fight hand to hand with him in an open field, but not to slay him by so cruel an expedient as depriving him of water, which was the gift of God to all." f Robert's naturally kind heart being touched by this representation, he, in a truly chivalric spirit, ordered his troops to allow the besieged to supply themselves with water and provisions also. When this circumstance was related to Rufus, he scornfully observed, " You are a pretty person to carry on a siege, truly, when you indulge the adversary with food and drink." But Robert, with a burst of generous feeling, replied, " It were foul shame to me if I suffered my brother to perish with thirst ; and where shall we find another if we lose him?" J Though the sarcastic disposition of the Red King led him to scoff at the magnanimity of his eldest brother, on * William of Malmesbury. f Wace ; Malraesburv ; Ordericus Yitalis. % "William of Malmesbury. 32 WILLIAM RUFUS. this occasion he distinguished himself during the siege by traits well worthy of the age of chivalry. One day, while he was reposing himself in his tent, he observed a small party of horsemen, who had just descended from St. Michael's Mount, and were prancing in pride on the plain with defiant gestures. His excitable temperament being stirred at this sight, he immediately called to arms, and springing on his fine new charger, which he had that morning purchased for fifteen marks, he, with his usual reckless hardihood, rushed forth, and impetuously attacked them. In consequence of having outstripped his followers, he was unsupported in his fiery charge, and was immedi- ately surrounded, his horse mortally wounded, and him- self pitched from his saddle by one of the knights whom he had assailed. It was impossible for the royal champion to recover himself, for his foot having caught in the stirrup as he fell, his head was dragged along the ground. While he was in this defenceless position, perceiving that the victor was drawing his sword to slay him, Rufus called out to him in an authoritative tone, " Hold, rascal ! I am the king of England." The whole party started at the well-known sound of his voice, and respectfully raising the prostrate monarch, offered him another horse, his own being slain. He leaped into the saddle without waiting for assistance, and casting a searching glance among his late antagonists exclaimed sharply, "Who unhorsed me ? " " It was I," intrepidly replied the knight who had performed the feat ; " I wist not you were a king ; I only took you for a soldier." * "By the crucifix of Lucca," exclaimed Rufus, "thou art a brave knight ! Follow me, and from henceforth thou shalt be my knight, placed on my roll, and marked to receive meet recompense for thy gallant deed.' 5 He took him into his service, and treated him with peculiar favour. * William of Malmesbury, WILLIAM RUFUS. 33 On another occasion, during the siege of St. Michael, when riding between the rivers Ardenon and Coisnon, Rufus was surprised and surrounded by a party of Henry's knights. He fought with his wonted intrepidity, till his horse, receiving a thrust in the breast, from the lance of one of his assailants, reared and flung hiTYi backwards from the saddle, the girths of which giving way with the shock, it came to the ground with him. Recovering himself with his usual activity and presence of mind, Rufus sprang to his feet, and snatching up the saddle, used it as a shield, while he defended himself with his drawn sword till succour arrived. When his assailants were beaten off, one of whom had wounded him severely while endeavouring to wrest the saddle from him, his knights asked him, in surprise, "why he increased his peril by defending his saddle?" " Think ye," replied Rufus, " that I would allow mine adversary to carry it off, and boast like a fool-Breton that he had won my saddle from me, and point to it as a trophy of his valour ? I tell you it would have vexed me to my heart's core."* The portrait of "William Rufus, which forms the frontispiece of this volume, is from an ancient illumi- nated French chronicle, " Les Roys d'Angleterre." f It was probably executed on his accession to the throne of England in his thirty-first year, for it represents him with a slender, graceful figure, long oval face, and classical features ; an energetic but somewhat sarcastic expression of countenance ; bearing a striking resemblance to the engraving of his statuette in Montfaucon,J only at a maturer period of life, and before he had given way to those reckless habits of dissipation which proved no less * Wace ; Roman de Rou. t Cottonian MS. Vitellius, A. xiii ; British Museum. I u Monumens de la Monarchic Franchise," tome 1, plate 55, described Life of William Rufus, page 2. 34 WILLIAM RTJFUS. injurious to his person than to his character. The original illumination is a miniature whole length, in his regal costume, a dalmatiea of blue velvet, sitting very closely to the shoulders, edged with pearls, and fastened in front with a jewel. His throat is bare ; it is long and finely moulded. Under his regal blue mantle he wears a scarlet gown, tightly belted to his waist in plaited folds. He is seated on a marble enamelled bench, probably intended for the King's Bench, then considered more sacred than the throne, as the fountain of royal justice. His attitude is imposing ; the right hand, with the monitory finger held up, renders the commanding cast of his features more impressive. In his left hand he holds a sceptre, or regal staff, of unusual length and weight, greatly resembling a lord mayor's mace, with a head ponderous enough to render it a formidable weapon of offence or defence, as occasion might, haply, demand. The regal robe, in which he is enveloped, is partially unfolded, as if for the purpose of displaying one very handsome leg, crossed over the other, in a closely fitting black velvet high boot, rather long and pointed at the toe, and slightly turned up. Quaint old Robert of Gloucester describes Rufus, in his rhyming chronicle, not as he was when this illumination was made, in the days of his early manhood and chivalry, but after intemperance had done its work in debasing all that was noble and knightly in his appearance and manners, and he had become bloated and vulgar : " Thick man lie was enow, and not well long ; Throughout red, with a great weem* well bound and strong ; Reinablet he was not of tongue, and of speech positive ; BofflingJ and most when in wrath, ready in strife." " Greatness of soul," observes William of Malmesbury, " was at first pre-eminent in this king, but in process of time * Abdomen. f No fluency of speech. J Loud, stammering, and thick of utterance, especially in anger. WILLIAM RUFUS. 35 became obscured. Vices instead of virtues insensibly crept into his bosom, and were so mingled, that it was difficult to distinguish them. At last, the desire after good grew cold, and the crop of evil increased to ripeness. He feared God but little, and man not at all. He was, when abroad, and in public assemblies, of supercilious look, darting his threatening eyes on the bystanders, and with assumed sternness and rough voice endeavouring to daunt such as presumed to contradict him." At home and at table with his intimate companions he gave loose to levity and mirth. He was a most facetious railer at anything he had himself done amiss, in order to encourage others to laugh at his faults, instead of treating them with condign censure. His eyes were of two different colours, fierce, sparkling, full of bright spots, and appeared to flash fire when he was angry, which was very often, for he was of a choleric, quick temper. He was addicted to swearing ; his favourite oath was " by the holy crucifix of Lucca/' an image which was then held in supersti- tious veneration, as the reputed work of Nicodemus. The aggressions of the Welsh and the Scotch, who had taken the opportunity of the warlike sovereign's absence from his realm, simultaneously to plunder the border counties, rendering his return necessary, he invited his brother Robert to accompany him to England, and assist in expelling these unwelcome visitors. Robert willingly complied, in the hope of receiving the promised equivalent for the Norman castles he had ceded to Rufus. Rufus, proceeding with his usual energy, as soon as he arrived in England, despatched one of his late father's experienced chiefs, Robert Fitz-Hamon, with an army to drive out the Welsh, in which he fully succeeded, and slew their leader. He took the field in person against Malcolm, king of Scotland, who had overrun the northern counties and advanced as far as Chester. The Scottish monarch and his predatory troops retreated before the 36 WILLIAM RTJFTJS. terror of his arms. William Rufus pursued him into the Lothians, which at that time formed part of England. But when Malcolm crossed " The Great Water/' as the Forth, then the boundary of the two countries, was called, he was secure from the pursuit of the English and Norman troops. -William encamped on the southern side, having no means of crossing the swollen stream. After a brief pause the Scotch monarch sent a herald with this defiant message to the invading sovereign, "King William, I owe you nothing but war, if you are willing to try my strength in battle ; but to Robert, the eldest son of the late King William, I hm ready to pay the homage due to him." This was a virtual assertion that Eobert, not William, was king of England, for as duke of Normandy, he had no claim to homage from the king of Scotland. Offensive as such an intimation was to the proud and choleric Rufus, policy, and the advice of his military council, induced him to overlook the insult, and send Robert to endeavour to mediate an accommodation between him and Malcolm, for he found himself in evil case. The cold had set in unusually early, and his Norman troops, unaccustomed to the severity of a northern climate, and unprovided with warm clothing, destitute of proper shelter, and famishing with hunger, were dying fast, many valiant knights having been already frozen to death.* Robert, who was personally acquainted with Malcolm, and had, on a former occasion, acted as godfather to his eldest daughter, f undertook the mission, and, attended by a small retinue, crossed over with the returning herald. He was received with great courtesy by Malcolm, who entertained him honourably and hospitably for three days ; then conducted him to the top of a lofty hill, from whence he shewed him a large body of men * Ordericus Vitalis, f See " Lives of the Queens of England," vol. 1, Life of Matilda of Scotland. WILLIAM RUFUS. 37 encamped in the valley below ; and afterwards, from a spot between two hills, he bade him observe a still mightier army, occupying the level plain. " You see," observed Malcolm, " I am prepared to give a good recep- tion to your brother, if he dare to cross the Firth. I wish he may do so, for he will then feel the points of our spears. When Edward, king of England, gave me his niece Margaret in marriage, he endowed her with the Lothians, as her portion. King William, your father, confirmed what his predecessor granted to me, and com- mended me to you, his eldest son. The engagements made with you I am ready to renew, but I promised nothing, and I owe nothing to your brother."* Eobert, instead of taking so favourable an opportunity for asserting publicly the rights which were thus volun- tarily acknowledged by the king of Scotland, and uniting with him to crush William, of whose difficulties he was well aware, stood on honour, and fulfilled the mission he had undertaken, with implicit fidelity. He admitted the truth of all the king of Scotland had said, but under the existing state of circumstances, advised him to make peace with William, who was a nearer and more power- ful neighbour. Strange to say, a pacification was finally arranged, through the good offices of Kobert's friend, Edgar Atheling, who, as the representative of the ancient royal Saxon line, was the rightful king of England. This prince, whom William had so recently compelled Eobert to expel from Normandy, was then residing at the court of his brother-in-law, the king of Scotland, and though it was manifestly to his interest to foment instead of com- pose the differences between Malcolm and the Norman occupant of the English throne, was chosen as the umpire between the belligerent powers, and negociated an amicable treaty whereby Malcolm consented to perform homage to William for the English fiefs he held of him, in the * Ordericua Yitalis. 88 WILLIAM RUFUS. same manner as he had formerly done to his father, and received in return the grant of twelve manors in Cumberland.* A meeting took place between the two kings, for the performance of the homage, on the borders of England. William entertained Malcolm royally, and at parting presented bim with magnificent gifts. He was also reconciled to Edgar Atheling, and invited him to his court.f While in Cumberland, William's attention was directed to the important object of establishing a strong garrison and fortress, for the purpose of defending his frontier from further aggressions. Carlisle, which had never been repaired since it was burned by the Danes, two centuries before, lay a desolate field of ruins, and the country round it a depopulated desert. The king now took immediate steps for repairing the castle, restoring the churches, and rebuilding the houses on a better scale. In this he availed himself of the plans and assistance of a Norman architect, named Walter, whom he observed engaged in repairing the priory of St. Mary; and being pleased with his talents, appointed him to the superintendence of his works, having first, as a matter of necessity, expelled the intrusive Danish chief, Dolfin, who had established himself with a band of predatory ruffians for many years in that neighbourhood, calling himself the sheriff, but was the terror of all travellers, and peaceably disposed persons. William placed a strong garrison in the castle, and sent a number of English husband- men, with their wives, children, and cattle, to colonize the depopulated district and cultivate the land. He bestowed great privileges on the new flourishing city he had re-edified ;$ he founded a priory at Wetheral, about six miles from Carlisle, and established a colony of Flemings in the neighbourhood, who practised and taught the useful arts of spinning and weaving, and contributed * Saxon Chronicle ; William of Malmesbury ; Walsingham. f Ordericus Vitalis. % Histories of Carlisle and Cumberland. WILLIAM RUFUS. 39 to extend the civilization of that wild country, where his name is still held in more respect than in any other part of his dominions. With equally beneficial and more lasting effects, than his excellent statistical arrangements produced in the north, William Rufus established colonies of his Flemish soldiers and their families on the borders of Wales, where they flourished, and imparted their valuable craft and industrious habits to their neighbours, and from the testimony of Greraldus Cambriensis,*it appears certain that the woollen manufactures, for which Wales has been for so many centuries celebrated, owe their origin to these colonies. Among the other improvements which were effected in England, by the Normans, that of horticulture may be mentioned. William of Malmesbury celebrates, not only the fruit, but the wine that was made in the vale of Gloucester at this period. "This vale," he says, "is planted thicker with vineyards than any other part of England, and they produce grapes in the greatest abund- ance and of the sweetest taste. The wine that is made in these vineyards hath no disagreeable tartness in the mouth, and is very little inferior to the wines of France."f The beverages most used in England, at that time, were cider, perry, mead, and beer. Hypocras morat and pigment, which were preparations of claret, spice, and honey, were confined to the banquets of the great. Two full meals in. the day were all that were then taken ; these were called dinner and supper, more properly breakfast and supper, for the first meal was taken at nine in the morning, the last at five in the afternoon. Compliance with these regulations was considered to ensure health and longevity, and gave rise to the following proverbial triplet : — " To rise at five, to dine at nine, To sup at five, to bed at nine, Makes a man live to ninety-nine." * Itinerary of Wales. f Pontefex Angl. 40 WILLIAM RTJFUS. William Rufus, when in England, summoned his peers and prelates to attend him and meet in council to com- municate their advice three times a year, namely, at the great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, at Westminster, Winchester, Gloucester, or some other royal city. On these occasions he sat among them at the banquet, in his great hall, wearing his crown and royal robes : they also wore their state dresses.* Rufus feasted his brother Robert royally, and enter- tained him with tilts, tourneys, and music after their return from Scotland ; but as he neither gave him money nor lands, in fulfilment of the treaty into which they had entered in Normandy, Robert withdrew in disgust to his own dominions, taking his friend, Edgar Atheling, who had also been a partaker in the festivities of the English court, with him.f About this time the monks of St. Augustine's, Canter- bury, petitioned the king to permit them to elect a new abbot to supply the place of their late superior, Wido, who died early in the year 1091. William being in the enjoy- ment of the revenues of the monastery, not only refused to grant the licence they craved, but forbade them, under severe penalties, to proceed to an election, as it was his pleasure to retain the temporalities and authority in his own hands. The monks vainly remonstrated against this sacrilegious resolution, and implored him to be of an- other mind. They only got angry words in reply. Now, there was in that monastery a probationer, who had lately entered, named Hugh Floriaco, a Norman noble- man of the highest rank, a near relation and formerly a familiar friend of the king, who had won great renown for his valiant exploits in the wars of the Con- queror, and had also performed good service for the king, both in England and Normandy ; but having, while in attendance on him, during one of William's previous * Henry's History of England, f William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM KUFUS. 41 visits to Canterbury, become deeply impressed by the preaching and holy lives of the monks of St. Augus- tine, he determined to renounce the world, lay aside his knightly accoutrements, distribute his estates and money among his relations and the poor, receive the tonsure, and take the cowl in their abbey. This notable convert, of whom the brethren were justly proud, was chosen by them to wait upon the king, accompanied, as he was still in his noviciate, by two of the most discreet and experienced members of the community, to use his influence with his royal kinsman to accede to their petition, or in case the king continued obdurate in his refusal, to endeavour to purchase his permission to proceed to the election of a new abbot. AYilliani, being the most excitable of men, was so deeply moved when he beheld his brave kinsman, who had so often fought by his side, both under his father's banner and his own, dressed in the habit of a monk, that he burst into a flood of tears, and, turning to the deputation, exclaimed with passionate emotion, " I do grant your petition/ and appoint this cousin of mine to be your abbot. I give the government of the abbey of St. Augustine to him. I forbid you to elect any other for your abbot, but him, whom unless you presently receive, I will burn your abbey to ashes/' The monks had not intended to choose the novice Floriaco for their superior, but seeing no remedy, they submitted to the royal nomination. Floriaco modestly demurred for some time, declaring "that it was an honour of which he was not only unworthy but incompetent, being an unlettered man, without either clerkly learning or ecclesiastical experience and judgment;" but the king would not be gainsaid, and the monks compelled Floriaco to accept the dignity which was thus forced upon him.* It was now hoped that the king, having made this * W. Thome's Chronicle. 42 WILLIAM E.TJFUS. unexpected concession, might be prevailed upon to ap- point an archbishop of Canterbury ; but, finding him deaf to all entreaties and remonstrances, his bishops and clergy at last presented a petition, beseeching him to allow them to compose a prayer, to be used in all the churches of England, " That it might please Almighty Gfod to move his majesty's heart to choose a primate." " You may pray as you please," replied Eufus, bluntly, " but I shall do as I please." This uncourteous and uncompromising answer plunged the clergy in despair. The king had now thrown off all restraints, even of that conventional conformity to religion, behind which irreligion frequently masks itself. One day, fifty English gentlemen, having been falsely accused of some offence against the forest laws, after vainly protesting their innocence, boldly appealed to the test of ordeal by red hot iron. This they bore unshrinkingly ; and when, on the third day, the hands of every one of the accused, on being examined, were found perfectly unscathed, the king, who had conceived a great prejudice against them, being told that God had decided in their favour by this manifest token of their innocence, profanely replied, "What # then? God has nothing to do with passing judgment in this matter, which is not His business, but mine." Many fearful signs and portents of the wrath of Heaven against so impious a sovereign are gravely related by the chroniclers as occurring in his reign. A great earth- quake had been felt all over England. The church of Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, had been struck with lightning on the 5th of October, 1091, which cast down the tower, .and prostrated the rood and the image of the Virgin Mary, both of which were broken to pieces ; the shock was followed with a great volume of smoke, which filled the whole church, a marvellous evil smell, at the same time, pervading it, which no singing of the monks could, for a while, allay, nor all the incense and holy water, WILLIAM RUFUS. 43 they used for the purification of the holy fane, mitigate. The Red King appears to have been considered account- able for the said bad smell, although as far off as Carlisle when it occurred. Among the other calamitous events of his reign, is mentioned the fearful hurricane of wind, which blew down six hundred houses in London, the roof of Bow church, and caused much damage to the royal works in progress at the Tower.* In the midst of a wild, reckless career of profligacy, a dangerous illness attacked Rufus in the beginning of Lent, 1093, while at his royal manor of Alvestone, in Gloucestershire. He removed in great haste to Gloucester, where he rapidly became worse, insomuch that very faint hopes of his recovery were entertained by his courtiers and physicians, while his subjects, both English and Normans, united, we are told, in praying for his death. The prospect of entering into eternity filled Rufus with mortal terror. He demanded priestly aid, and not con- tented with the time-serving crowd of ecclesiastics who haunted his court, flattered and consented to his godless doings, crying, " Peace, peace ! when there was no peace," he sent for the celebrated Anselm, abbot of Bee, a stern ascetic of saintly reputation, a disciple and friend of Lanfranc, withal, who chanced to be in attendance on the sick bed of another notable penitent, Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, f Anselm obeyed the royal summons, but, being no respecter of persons, he spoke so plainly to Rufus of his sins, especially of his appropriation of the property of the church, that the sick monarch, trembling at the prospect of death, judgment, and the wrath to come, professed his penitence, and eagerly promised to comply with the only conditions on which absolution could be obtained — restitution of the contraband goods he had seized and detained in his own ungodly hands, including the rich benefices of Canterbury and Lincoln, which he * William of Malmesbury; Eadmer; Florence of Worcester ; Lingard. f Ibid. 44 WILLIAM RUFITS. had repeatedly declared lie would never part with during life. But now his term of existence appeared to be rapidly drawing to a close, he saw things in a very different light, and his greatest fear appeared to be lest he should die while they were in his possession.* He promised everything Anselm suggested, and in his haste to rid himself of the reproach of holding the sees of Lincoln and Canterbury, he bestowed the first on Robert Bloet, his secretary, one of the most unscrupulous ecclesiastical lawyers in the court, and insisted on endow- ing Anselm with the primacy. To the surprise of every one, Anselm refused this mighty and unlooked-for prefer- ment. " It was incompatible," he said, " with his vows of poverty, humility, and seclusion from the world, to occupy so elevated a position. Besides, he was the subject of the duke of Normandy, and did not consider himself free to transfer his allegiance to another, "f William would listen to no excuses nor take any denial, but, calling for a ring and crozier, ordered Anselm to be brought to his bedside. Anselm was dragged thither, vi et armis, and the royal invalid passionately entreated him "to accept the archbishopric without further hesi- tation, lest, in consequence of the delay, his soul should be plunged into everlasting perdition by departing before he could rid himself of what he had so long sacrilegiously detained." But as Anselm was deaf to all persuasions, Rufus, who was determined to carry his own point, forced the ring on his finger, and the crozier into his reluctant hand, which was held there in spite of his resistance and earnest cries -"Noli Episcopali," and saluted him archbishop of Canterbury, while the assistants at this irreverent consecration sang the Te Deum.% Anselm continued for a long time to protest against accepting the dignity to which he was called, and when requested to state his objections, he replied : * Eadmer; Ordericus Vitalis. f Eadmer. % William of Malmesbury ; Henry's History of England ; Lingard. WILLIAM RUFUS. 45 "The plough of the church of England should be drawn by two oxen well matched, and of equal strength, the king and the archbishop of Canterbury; but if you yoke me, who am an aged and feeble sheep, with this king, who is a mad young bull, the plough will not go even."* The prediction of Anselm, founded as it was on profound judgment of character, was literally verified in the sequel, as we shall show. William's memorable sickness and penitence are thus noted by Robert of Gloucester ; 11 So that in his wickedness to Gloucester he wend, And while he bided there sickness God him send ; In the year of grace, a thousand fourscore and thirteen, It was then that he lay sick at Gloucester, I ween, Then drad he sore of death, of his misdede thought sore, And promised to God he luthev\ would be no more, And that he wolde to England and holy church also, Be good and amend all he amiss did do." During the brief season that the religious excitement produced by the eloquence of Anselm lasted, which was only till he became thoroughly convalescent and out of danger, William amused himself by endeavouring to persuade his Jewish physician to become a christian, promising to bestow large rewards upon him, and to do him the honour of acting as his godfather, if he would renounce his errors and receive baptism. After much controversy, the Jew declared that the king's learning and eloquence had prevailed, and proclaimed himself a convert to Christianity. Highly elated at this achieve- ment, Rufus desired that the christening and admission of his convert into the christian church should be publicly performed, with the greatest solemnity, by the bishop of Gloucester. Unfortunately, the neophyte-elect, when brought in procession to the font, suddenly changed his * Ordericus Vitalis. f Luther is an old Saxon word, much used by Old Robert of Gloucester ; it means lewd, reckless, or profligate. 46 WILLIAM RUFUS. mind, and refused to pronounce the baptismal vows or submit to the sacred rite, alleging " that lie had returned to his original faith, which nothing should induce him to abandon." The king tried arguments, persuasions, remonstrances, and threats in vain, and at last worked himself up into a furious passion, and ordered the bishop to baptise his recusant proselyte by force, or to inflict so severe a castiga- tion upon him as should compel him to fulfil his promise of renouncing the errors of Judaism, and becoming a christian. All present applauded the king's behest. But "the perverse bishop/' as the chronicler indig- nantly terms him, instead of complying with the royal requisition, calmly replied : " Nay, my lord king, an' he will not become a servant of God, he must e'en remain a servant of the devil, for there is no compelling a man to go to heaven against his will." A sentiment at least eight centuries in advance of the age, and which wittily exposes the futility of resorting to violent measures for the purpose of securing a reluctant and deceitful conformity to any mode of worship, to which either conscience or prejudice is opposed. William's zeal in behalf of the church was almost as ephemeral as his recusant Jewish proselyte's impressions in favour of Christianity, for, his good resolutions being only the effect of fear, as soon as he regained his health he threw off all religious feelings, and spoke and acted as an open infidel. The Jews having discovered that not only toleration but favour could be purchased by pecuniary offerings from the rapacious sovereign, propitiated him with so large a present in gold, that he swore "by St. Luke's face," one of his favourite oaths, that they were the best subjects he had, and invited them to hold a public dis- putation with his bishops, abbots, and learned clerks, on the differences of their respective creeds, promising them " that they should not only have fair play and a patient WILLIAM RUFUS. 47 hearing, but that he would himself be present at the controversy as umpire, and if they got the better of his hierarchy and ecclesiastics in their arguments, so as by demonstrable proofs to obtain the victory, he would can- didly award it to them, and embrace Judaism himself."* Encouraged by the sarcastic proposition of their profli- gate sovereign, the Jews boldly dared the contest, which was entered upon with some uneasiness by the bishops and clergy, lest, peradventure, the cause of Christianity should suffer in consequence of any profane jests or ribald observations it might please the godless king to make in support of his Hebrew friends. Happily, these apprehen- sions were not realized. Rufus left the Jews to fight their own battle, and as the evidence of their own scriptures was successfully brought against them, they were of course completely defeated in the controversy, which produced, however, the following individual conversion among their own people. A young Jew, the son of one of the richest merchants, of that community in London, having enjoyed the opportunity, probably for the first time, of hearing the opposing but really harmonious doctrines of the old faith and the new openly debated, and the truths and early history of Christianity explained, dreamed St. Stephen appeared to him, and exhorted him to be baptised. The youth immediately complied with this injunction, and declared himself a christian. The misbelieving father, being much annoyed at his. son's conversion, tried every means of inducing him to abandon the christian profession, but in vain. As a last resource, he threw himself at the feet of the king, and entreated him to " compel his son to return to the faith of his own people and kindred. "f " But what advantages shall I gain thereby, an' I speak unto thy son, enjoining him to conform hinself to thy will in this matter ? " demanded Rufus. * Eadmer. f William of Malmesbury. 48 WILLIAM RUFUS. The wealthy father proffered a present of sixty marks in return for the exertions of the royal influence with his son. Rufus, with unkingly avarice, greedily accepted the bribe, sent for the young man, reproved him for his undutiful conduct to his father, in becoming a christian against his wish, and commanded him to return to the faith of his own people. The youthful proselyte exclaimed in surprise, " Surely, my lord king, you are joking." " I joke with thee, thou son of ordure ! " rejoined the king haughtily, "begone, and obey my commands immediately, or, by the holy cross at Lucca, I will have thine eyes torn out/' As the young man firmly refused to apostatise, the king angrily drove him from his pre- sence, and summoned his father to pay the money he had promised. " But," remonstrated the Jew, " your grace has not fulfilled the condition by compelling my son to return to the faith of our people." " Nevertheless," replied the king, "I have made the attempt, and taken as much pains as if I had succeeded, and since I choose not my labour to go unrequited, I insist on having half the money I was promised." The old Jew was fain to submit to the royal composition, and pay the thirty marks demanded.* Many of the Red King's outrageous sayings and doings appear to have proceeded from the coarse humour, or as phrenologists would aptly enough term it, the mirthful destructiveness of his character, unsoftened by the refined delicacy of female society, and the gentle influence of a virtuous consort. He was occasionally urged by his prelates to marry, we are told ; but he positively refused to submit to the restraints of wedlock, and the decorum and stately ceremonials, which the introduction of a queen would necessarily impose on his court. While William was at Gloucester, a fresh dispute * Eadmer ; Historia Novorum ; William of Malmesbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 49 broke out between him and Malcolm, king of Scotland, whom he had invited to visit him, and on his arrival refused to sec, because Malcolm resisted his requisition to perform homage then and there. William declared it was due, not only according to ancient custom, but by the conditions of the late treaty ; while Malcolm objected that the kings of Scotland had never been accustomed to perform the homage, except on the borders of the two realms. William, with characteristic arrogance, rejoined : " It is not usual for vassals to choose the place where to perform their devoir, but to obey the appoint- ment of the suzerain to whom such homage is due." Malcolm indignantly returned to Scotland, and rais- ing an army, invaded Northumberland ; but falling into an ambush, was slain by the steward of Robert Mowbray, earl of Northumberland. His eldest son, Prince Edward, was killed at the same time, and his army defeated with great slaughter. His consort, Queen Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, only survived this mournful news a few hours, leaving a young and helpless family surrounded by perils.* The royal orphans were with some difficulty rescued from the dangers which threatened them during the usurpation of their uncle, Donaldbane. They were conveyed to England by their maternal uncle, Edgar Atheling, who entreated a refuge for them, from King William. This prince generously extended his protection to the family of his deceased foe, and having placed the two young princesses, Matilda and Mary, in the convent of Eumsey, under the charge of their aunt Christiana, the abbess, he assisted Edgar Atheling with the means of driving out the usurper, and restoring the royal inheritance to the eldest surviving son of Malcolm and Margaret, f His naturally strong discrimination of what was right and what was wrong, not unfrequently got the victory * S. Dunelm ; Alured of Beverley ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Turgot. 4 50 WILLIAM RUFUS. over covetousness, and prompted him to righteous deci sions. As a case in point, we are told that on giving audience to a deputation of monks, who came to announce the death of their abbot, and present a petition from the fraternity, for leave to proceed to the election of a successor to his office, two of the monks, imagining that it would be as usual a matter of traffic, began to outbid each other for the appointment. "And what will you give to be made abbot ? " asked the king, turning to another of the brethren, who had remained silent. " Nothing," replied he, " for having embraced a profes- sion which enjoins poverty and humility, I have nothing to offer ; neither do I desire the pomp or dignities of this world." " Then thou art the man," exclaimed the king, " and shalt be their abbot, more worthy in thy poverty than they in their wealth."* In the autumn of 1094, Eobert having vainly demanded of "William the performance of the articles of their late treaty, sent him a formal defiance, branding him with the name of "a perjured knight," and re- nouncing peace and brotherhood with him for the time to come. William was at Hastings, assisting at the consecration of the stately abbey and St. Martin's church, commenced by his father, and completed with great magnificence by himself, when he received Robert's angry message, f This would have troubled him little had he not also learned that Robert had entered Eu, and was taking active measures for recovering the rest of his recent acquisitions in Normandy. In order to raise the needful supplies for engaging in the impending war, William made a large demand on the church. Robert Bloet had paid him £2000 from the first fruits of Lincoln, which encouraged him to demand the like sum from Anselm, the newly appointed archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm objected " that he had found everything in his diocese in a state of decadence, * Polychronicon. fEadmer; Brompton ; William of Malmesbury. i WILLIAM RUFUS. 51 owing to the misrule and extortions practised by the royal commissioners, during the unprecedented time the see had remained vacant/' and earnestly requested the king to allow him to call a synod to consider the best means of putting an end to the abuses and disorders that had been introduced. William angrily refused, and reiterated his demand with threats. Anselm, so far from being a primate after his own mind, had given him and his courtiers great offence, by preaching against their extravagant and effeminate fashions of wearing long hair, curled and braided like women ; garments of gaudy colours and expensive materials, sweeping the ground ; hanging sleeves falling over their hands ; and above all, the absurdity of shoes with long curved points, extending twelve and sometimes eighteen inches beyond the feet, stuffed with tow, and sometimes turned up and fantastically twisted round their legs and fastened to their knees with gilded chains.* This tasteless fashion, which had been invented by Fulke Eechin, earl of Anjou, to conceal the deformity of his club feet, had been introduced into England by one Robert, surnamed, in consequence, The Horned, the beau and leader of the mode in the court of the Red King, and became the rage, being adopted by all who could afford to make themselves ridiculous. Rufus was exces- sively lavish in his wardrobe expenses, and entirely without taste or judgment in such matters. One morn- ing, when putting on a new pair of nether garments, then called hose, he asked his chamberlain what they cost. " Three shillings," was the reply. " Out upon you," exclaimed Rufus, angrily, "are hosen of that price fit for a king to wear ? Begone, and bring me a pair that shall cost a mark at the least." The chamberlain took the garment, to the cheapness of which the king had objected, away, and being unable to procure anything of a higher price, brought him another pair, not so * "William of Malmesbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. good, but told the king they had cost a mark. "■Aye," cried the king, "these are suitable to royal majesty." The chamberlain, perceiving that the king was no judge either of the quality or the current price of apparel, charged him from that time an exorbitant price for everything he wore, and thus enhanced the profits of his office, for the more he charged, the better was his royal master satisfied with his purchases.* Old Robert of Gloucester has thus versified the anecdote in his rhyming chronicle : " As his chamberlain him brought, as he rose at day, On the morning, to wear a pair of hose of say,\ He asked ' what they costened V ' Three shillings/ the other said. ' Fy a dibbles ! ' quoth the king, l when saw ye such vile deed, King to wear any clothj but it costened more ! Buy a pair of a mark, or thou shalt rue it sore.' A worse pair I wis the other sooth him brought, And said they ' cost a mark, and at that price were bought.' < Yea, bel ami/ quoth the king, ' they were well y bought, In this manner serve me, or thou shalt serve me not.' " Rufus was so highly exasperated, both at Anselm's sermons and his excuses for declining to pay the sum he expected from this reluctant primate, that he caused him to be arrested the first day he entered Canterbury, as he was going in procession to the cathedral, for not having * William of Malmesbury. f Say, an ancient fabric of silk and woollen. The name is derived from sole, silk. % This explains that the price of vagance demanded. Shakespeare's the cloth of which his hose were made well known epigrammatic ballad — was three shillings a yard, not that "King Stephen was a worthy peer, the whole cost of the hose was three His breeches cost him but a crown, shillings ; for, as a matter of course, He held them sixpence all too dear, the embroidery, making, and trim- With that he called the tailor loon "— ming, would be the principal expense, was probably the fragment of an old and amount to a much larger sum than political stave, composed by some even the mark named by the king as shrewd partizan of Stephen, and in- the price of cloth meet for his wear, tended to mark the contrast between and which probably had the effect the rigid economy and soldier-like of raising the value of the best quality plainness of the nephew and the reck- to the standard he had in his extra- less extravagance of his roval uncle. i WILLIAM RUFUS. 53 contributed, as in duty bound, tlio sum required by the crown for the expedition against the duke of Normandy. Anselm was only liberated on his promising to do his best to comply with the royal requisition. With great difficulty he raised five hundred pounds, which he brought to the king, who was still at Hastings. Rufus angrily refused to accept so small a sum. " Do not, my lord, spurn my humble offering/' replied Anselm, meekly. "It is the first, but it may not be the last you will receive from your archbishop.* Use me like a freeman, and I will devote myself to your service ; but if you treat me like a slave, you will have neither me nor mine." " Begone!" cried the king, in a rage; " I want neither thee nor thine." Anselm withdrew, and distributed the sum that had been so scornfully rejected to the poor. When Rufus heard this, he repented not having accepted it himself, and sent word to Anselm by the other bishops, who had come to take leave of him at Hastings previous to his embarkation for Normandy, "that if he would give him a thousand pounds, paying five hundred down, and five hundred more within a given time, he would be reconciled to him." The archbishop begged the mediators to represent to the king, " that he was without money himself, and his vassals, impoverished by the royal exactions, were unable to supply him with the sums required." Rufus received the excuse with a burst of rage. " Tell him," exclaimed he, "that I hated him yesterday, hate him more to-day, and shall hate him more and more bitterly the longer I live. Let him begone ! He need not wait here to give me his blessing when I sail — I will not receive it." f Rufus sailed for Normandy, unblessed, in the middle of Lent, with his puissance, and through some unaccount- able coincidence, his usual good luck failed him. The * Eadmer. f Ibid. 54 WILLIAM RUFUS. king of France declared in Robert's favour, and came in person to his succour, at the head of a numerous army, and took the town of Argenton and several other places. Eufus retired to Chateau d'Eu, much crestfallen ; and seeing small prospect of vanquishing Robert and his powerful ally by force of arms, prevailed on the king of France, by bribery, to retire from the contest. The means whereby he procured the money for this purpose were ingenious. He had ordered an army of 20,000 men to be levied in England, for his support; but when they were ready to embark at Southampton, each soldier was ordered to pay to the king's commissioners the ten shillings he had received for his subsistence in foreign parts from his lord, or the person who had been compelled to furnish men for the service of the crown, and were then disbanded.* After this disgraceful proceeding Rufus returned to England, and renewed his quarrel with Anselm. Christendom was at that time distracted with the memorable schism of pope and anti-pope. Urban II. was the orthodox pontiff; Clement, the anti-pope, who had been set up in rivalry to him for political purposes, by the Emperor Henry IV. of Germany. England had not as yet acknowledged either, but Anselm considered his spiritual obedience due to Urban, and requested the king's permission to go to Rome and receive his pall from him. Rufus, who wisely refused to allow of any foreign interference in the appointment of his prelates, was highly offended at the proposition, and denounced the intention as treason. Anselm re- ferred the dispute to a council of bishops and nobles, which met at Rockingham, March 11th, 1095, and after long deliberation declared "that unless he yielded obedience to the king, they would not acknowledge his authority as their primate." As Anselm persisted in his resistance to the royal will, the bishop of * Eadmer ; Ordericus Vitalis ; Alured of Beverley. WILLIAM RUFUS. 55 Durham advised the lords to take away his staff and ring, and banish him the realm. They refused to do so, declaring it to be contrary to law and justice. " If this counsel don't please you, what will ? " demanded Poifus ; and finding them still silent, sternly added, "While I live I will not suffer an equal in my kingdom."* The nobles then adjourned the assembly till eight days after Whitsuntide, whereupon the king banished Anselm's able counsellor and chief adviser, Baldwin, thinking he might then prevail over his obstinacy, and in the meantime privately despatched two of his chaplains, Gerard and William, to Eome, to make a private agreement, offering to acknowledge Urban for pope if he would consent to the deposition of his contumacious primate, and send a pall, for him to bestow on whomsoever he pleased. Urban, delighted at the overture, promised everything, and sent the bishop of Alba into England as his legate. f The legate passed through Canterbury without taking any notice of the archbishop, and hastened to the court, where he was< warmly welcomed by the king, who issued his royal proclamation, commanding all his subjects to acknowledge Urban as lawful pope. But when in return for this concession the legate was required to proceed to the deposition of Anselm, and to put the king in posses- sion of the promised pall for the investiture of a new archbishop of Canterbury more to his mind, he replied " that the pope could not consent to the deprivation of so dutiful a son, but on the contrary enjoined the king to be reconciled to him for the health of his soul." Eufus, with some difficulty, allowed himself to be persuaded, and the pallium was bestowed on Anselm in the cathedral of Canterbury by the legate, with great pomp, having been sent by the pope for him and none other 4 The nuncio was also clever enough to obtain the * Eadmer ; Brady. f Eadmer ; Malmesbury. X William of Malmesbury. 56 WILLIAM RUFUS. renewal of the long suspended payment of the " Rome- scot " or Peter's pence.* Such was the hatred of the king to Anselm, that he could not listen to his name with patience. When some one, praising the unworldly spirit of the primate, declared that Anselm loved nothing but his God, " I hope," said the king, with a sarcastic laugh, " you except the revenues of the see of Canterbury, of which he is so tenacious. Howbeit, from henceforth, I will not allow any one to be archbishop of Canterbury but myself." On another occasion, one of the courtiers mentioned a very learned and holy ecclesiastic, as one meet to become successor to the pope. " What manner of man is he ? " inquired Eufus. " Somewhat like Anselm," was the reply. " Like Anselm ! " exclaimed Rufus, "then by the holy crucifix of Lucca, he is good for naught ! " During the king's unsuccessful campaign in Normandy a conspiracy had been formed against him by his northern barons, headed by that pQwerful magnate, Robert Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, who was possessed of 280 English manors. f The distinction gained by the great service of slaying Malcolm, king of Scotland, and driving the invading Scottish army out of England, had so puffed Mowbray up that he determined to act independently of his own sovereign, and obey no law but his own pleasure. He and his fol- lowers established themselves in the impregnable castle of Bamborough, acted as freebooters by land and pirates by sea, according as opportunity served. Among his other exploits he seized four large Norwegian trading vessels, called canards, bound for the port of London, and violently despoiled the unfortunate merchants of all their freight. They made their way in great distress to the court, laid their complaints before the king, and de- manded redress for this violation of the commercial treaty, which had encouraged them to bring their * Eadraer. f Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. 57 goods to England. Hufus sent his commands to the rapacious earl, to restore the goods and make full com- pensation to the merchants for the injury he had done them ; but as Mowbray vouchsafed no attention to the royal requisition, he generously paid it out of his own treasury* — a politic as well as a noble action on the part of the king, for the hostility of the Scandinavian, nations had proved too bitter a scourge to England to be lightly provoked, while their friendship had become a source of commercial prosperity and reciprocal benefit to the now kindred races, who had almost within the memory of men been the deadliest of foes. Mowbray, when summoned to appear before the king in person to answer for his offence, treated the order with contempt. Rufus, not being of a temper to brook any disregard of his authority, marched against him at the head of an army with the declared purpose of chastising him for his insolence, a threat far easier uttered than carried into execution.! Perils of which Rufus had no suspicion surrounded him and beset his path from the moment he entered into the wilds of Northumberland. When, however, he was approaching the territories of the earl, sir Gilbert de Tunbridge, a valiant young knight, son of Richard de Bienfaite, count of Brionne, drew him aside, and throwing himself at his feet, in great agitation, said, " I beseech you, my lord and king, to pardon my guilt, and I will disclose something that will preserve your life." Rufus hesitated a moment ; then, graciously assuring him of pardon, bade him speak out. " Stay your march, noble king," said the penitent conspirator, " and enter not the wood that lies before us. Your enemies lie in ambush there for the purpose of slaying you. We who are in a secret confederacy against you have sworn to compass your death.":}: On receiving this intimation, the king halted, and * Ordericus Vita lis. f Ibid. J Ibid. 58 WILLIAM RUFUS. obtained full information of the traitorous conspiracy, and the members of whom it was composed, and was thus enabled to circumvent the assassins, who were lying in wait for him. He and his army having escaped the ambuscade, proceeded to besiege Bamborough castle. Perceiving, however, the impossibility of re- ducing that impregnable place, William ordered a rival fortress to be erected in the neighbourhood, for the shelter of his own adherents, and gave it the appropriate name of Malvoisin. It was in such close vicinity to Bamborough that Mowbray had a full view, from his battlements, of the progress of the works, and was greatly annoyed at the magnitude and celerity with which they proceeded. Mean- time, Rufus was not inactive. He took Tynemouth, and Newcastle, capturing therein the brothers of Mowbray, and many other prisoners of note. Then darting across the country into "Wales, he drove back the predatory bands, which had taken advantage of the northern rebel- lion, to overrun the marches, fortified the border castles strengthened the garrisons, and multiplied the means of defence. * When he returned to the siege of Bamborough, he had the satisfaction of learning that his formidable rebel, Robert Mowbray, had been lured out of his stronghold, and captured. Rufus immediately summoned the countess Matilda, who had only been married to Mow- bray three months, to a parley. When she appeared on the battlements, Mowbray was led under the walls in fetters, with an executioner by his side, and the lady was assured that unless she surrendered the castle to the king, her husband's eyes would be put out — she would see her husband deprived of sight. Matilda was reluctant to comply with this requisition, but the tenderness of the woman, and the affection of the wife, were not appealed to in vain. She ordered the gates to be thrown open, and admitted the royal troops, * Ordericus Vitalis ; William of Malmesbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 59 without a moment's hesitation, and thus preserved her lord from the frightful doom with which he was menaced;* but instead of being restored to her, he was incarcerated in Windsor Castle, where he remained for upwards of thirty years, surviving Rufus nearly twenty-five. His nephew saved his own life, and pur- chased the favour of the king, by revealing the secret history of the confederacy, and betraying the names of the conspirators. Eufus thus learned that its object was to depose and put him to death, and place his cousin, Stephen, earl of Aumale, on the throne. Infuriated at the extent of this treason, he ordered the arrest of all the parties who were within reach. They were arraigned at Salisbury, and several persons of the highest rank suffered cruel and ignominious punishments. He did not even spare his own godfather, "William de Alveric, the son of his aunt, and sewer of his household, who was accused of being deeply implicated in this plot ; notwithstand- ing their near relationship, and the ties of spiritual affinity which connected them, this luckless nobleman was sentenced to be scourged through the town of Salisbury, and hanged. Osmund, the good bishop of Salisbury, who attended Alveric to the scaffold, testified the greatest sympathy for him, and bore witness that his confession had fully exon- erated him from the guilty design that had been imputed to him. Alveric, who was scourged before every church in Salisbury, divided his garments among the poor who followed him, and walked naked to the place of execution, covered with blood, but edifying every one with his courage and the fervour of his devotion. When he arrived at the gallows, he exclaimed aloud, " God help me, as I am guiltless of the foul crime for which I am condemned. I know full well that the sentence will not be revoked, but I wish all men to be certified of my * Lingard ; History of England. This lady was a great Norman heiress, Matilda de L'Aigle. 60 WILLIAM RUFUS. innocence."* The compassionate bishop, after com- mending his soul to heaven, and sprinkling him with holy water, departed. The executioner performed his office amidst the tears and lamentations of the people ; but Alveric, himself, underwent his sentence without a sigh, leaving an example of the most heroic courage. f Well, as he could write, the Red King did not always put himself to the trouble of affixing his sign manual to his charters and deeds of endowment, for in the year 1096, he gave the abbey of Tavistock, J seisin of the land or manor of Wlurinton by an ivory hafted knife, per cultellum eberneum ; which knife was laid up in a shrine at that abbey, and had inscribed on its haft words signifying that donation. * William of Malmesbury ; Florence of Worcester ; Saxon Chronicle ; Sim of Dunelm ; J. Brompton. f Ibid. J Observations on Ancient Methods appendant." The handle of this of Conveyance in England ; by Henry knife is made of horn, and is nearly Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Archeeologia, vol. black. The date of the charter, 1135, xvii. — " Many donors it should seem, proves that it was granted in the last desirous of making their conveyances year of the younger brother and as firm as possible, when written successor of William Rufus, Henry charters came into more general use, I. This curious relic of the Anglo- united the more ancient and simple Norman era is in the custody of the form with them. Hence, we find, Master of Trinity College, Cam- occasionally, that such articles were bridge. Du Cange, in his Dictionary sometimes attached to deeds like of Mediae val Latin, states, under the word Investituteniy " tbat lands were " In the archives of Trinity Col- often assigned and deeds executed by lege, Cambridge, a deed is still the transmission of a knife, or by preserved, to which a knife is laying a knife on an altar." WILLIAM BUFUS, CHAPTER III. Normandy pledged to Eufus by Robert — Heavy taxes to raise the sum — Remonstrances of clergy— Rufus takes possession of Normandy — Robert joins the crusade — Maine refuses to receive Rufus — His altercation with Helie, count of Maine — He invades France — Returns in triumph to England — Fresh disputes with Anselm — Their last interview — Anselm departs for Rome — Pope censures Rufus — Scornful letter of Rufus in reply — Daring abduction of his premier, Ralph Flambard — Rufus' s price for a bishopric — His venturous voyage and chivalric emprize to succour his friends in Maine — Narrow escape of his life before Maiet — Eaises the siege— Capture of his antagonist, count Helie — Their interview — Rufus gives him his liberty — Rufus' s generosity to captive knights — Mans submits to him — He returns to England — His first court in "Westminster Hall — He quells fresh revolt in Maine — Brilliant anticipations of extended sway — Robert redeems Normandy with the portion of his bride — Rufus desires to retain his pledge — Marvellous signs and portents — King's frightful dream — Ominous dreams and visions of monks about Rufus — His facetious remark on abbot Serlo's letter — Determines to hunt in the New Forest — New arrows presented to him by an armourer — He gives the sharpest to "Walter Tirel with a compliment — Invites Tirel to accompany him to the chase — The two stags — TirePs fatal shot — The king slain — Legends, predictions, omens, and localities connected with his death — His corpse conveyed to Winchester in a charcoal cart — His hasty obsequies— Joy of the people for his death — His tomb — Exhuma- tion of his remains — Relics found in his coffin — Last resting place for his bones — Memorial of the spot where he fell. The eager desire of WiUiam Rufus to extend his sceptre over Normandy was at last gratified. Eobert becoming suddenly infected with the epidemic fever for crusading, with which the exhortations of Pope Urban II. had inspired an enthusiastic company of the princes of the West, took the cross and declared his intention of assisting in the liberation of Jerusalem. Destitute, however, of the necessary funds for undertaking this romantic 62 WILLIAM RUFUS. expedition, lie requested "William to assist him with a loan, to enable him to accomplish his desire. " Go to your friend, the king of France/' was William's sarcastic reply. On this repulse Robert applied to prince Henry, who lent him a thousand marks ; then William, not to be outdone by his younger brother, offered to advance ten thousand marks, on condition of his surrendering the duchy of Normandy and his other appanages, as pledges for the repayment of that sum, at the end of five years. Robert eagerly closed with these terms. William, in order to raise the money, imposed so heavy an impost on his clergy, that they came to the court in a body, headed by the bishops and abbots, to protest against it, declaring the impossibility of raising what was demanded, without ruining their tenants, reducing their husbandmen to beggary, and driving them away altogether. The king's rapacious treasurer, Ralph Flambard, replied, " Have you not shrines adorned with gold and silver, full of dead men's bones ? " The churchmen wisely preferred the alternative of sacrificing these useless decorations, and melting their plate, to rack-renting their poor tenants. The nobles and gentry, who had no such resources, found themselves under the necessity of oppressing their vassals and underlings, in order to make up the money demanded by the crown. Intent only on securing the extension of his dominions, William sailed for Normandy early in September, and received a formal surrender of Robert's dominions, in return for the money which had cost both his English and Anglo-Norman subjects so dear. Maine was included by Robert as a part of his pledge, but it was no longer in his power to transfer. His title having been from the first most illegal, and only substantiated by the weight of his conquering father's arms, the patriotic Manceaux had taken advantage WILLIAM RUFUS. 63 of the distracted state of Normandy, to throw off his yoke, and the earldom was now in the possession of the brave and chivalric Helie de la Fleche, the nephew of Hubert, the last earl of their ancient here- ditary line,* which he had, for several years, defended valiantly against his Norman adversaries. So well established did he consider himself, that when the pope exhorted him to imitate Robert's example by joining the crusade in 1096, he publicly took the cross. On the arrival of William Rufus in Normandy, to take possession of his brother's dominions, Helie presented himself at his court at Rouen, and thus addressed him : " Most noble king of England, I have, in obedience to the pope, taken the cross and devoted myself, with many illustrious pilgrims, to the service of Grod, with intent to share in the expedition to Jerusalem. I therefore request your friendship and alliance, that I may undertake this journey in peace." " Go where you please," replied Rufus, bluntly. " I have no wish to prevent you ; but yield up to me the city of Mans, with the whole of the earldom, which my father and my brother held."f " I hold my earldom and its appurtenances by in- * Hubert, earl of Maine, left three Helie de la Fleche animated the sisters— namely, Gersede, who was Manceaux to resistance, and per- married to the marquis of Liguria ; suaded them to invite his cousin of Margaret, who was betrothed to Liguria to reign over them. They Robert of Normandy ; and Paula, did so, but the eldest son preferred the wife of the count de la Fleche, retaining his paternal inheritance, and mother of Helie. Though and made over his claims on the earl- Margaret died before her marriage dom of Maine to Hugh, his younger was completed, Robert claimed the brother, a prince of an indolent tem- inheritance as her widower, and by per, who, perceiving there would be the aid of his victorious father, sue- much hard fighting required to estab- ceeded in seizing the earldom, to the lish his rights, voluntarily sold them manifest wrong of the sons of the to Helie for a thousand crowns, and marchioness of Liguria and the left Maine for ever. Helie, the countess de la Fleche. On the death darling of the people, was unani- of William the Conqueror, young mously called to the earldom. f Ordericus Vitalis. 64 WILLIAM RUFUS. heritance from my ancestors," said Helie ; " and by God's help I will bequeath it to my children as freely as I now possess it. If you choose to challenge my right, I am ready to submit my claims to the judgment of a legal assembly of kings, princes, and prelates, and to abide by their decision."* " My pleadings with you shall be with swords, spears, and showers of arrows," was the fierce rejoinder. " It was my desire to fight against the pagans, in the Lord's name," said Helie undauntedly, " but it appears I must have a conflict nearer home with the foes of Christ, for every one who resists the right, and commits injustice, proves himself to be the enemy of the God of truth and justice, who is truth itself, and the Sun of Kighteousness. He has been pleased to invest me with the government of Maine, and I ought not lightly to resign it, lest the people whom he has committed to my charge, become the prey of robbers, like sheep abandoned of their shepherd." Then addressing himself to the peers of England and Normandy, by whom his potent adversary was surrounded, he thus continued: " Listen then, ye lords here present, while I declare the reso- lution with which Heaven inspires me. I will not relinquish the cross I have accepted, though, for the present, I am prevented from fulfilling the vow I have made, to join the pilgrim princes who are about to fight for it in the Holy Land; I will place this holy symbol on my helmet, my shield, my saddle, and my bridle. Under the protection of this cognizance, I will encounter the enemies of peace and justice, in the defence of the christian country of Maine, and those who fight with me will combat a soldier of Christ." " Go where you will, and do what you like," retorted Eufus, "lam not willing to make war on those who have taken the cross ; but I will not give up a city which my * Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. 65 father held to the day of his death. Lose no time, there- fore, in repairing your fortifications ; summon all the masons and stone cutters you can raise money to hire, in order to build up the old breaches in your wall ; for I will not leave you in possession of my inheritance. It is my intention to visit the citizens of Mans, at the head of a hundred thousand lances ; I shall cause waggons, drawn by oxen, loaded with arrows, bolts, and other weapons of war, to proceed thither with the utmost speed ; yet I and my men at arms will arrive at your gates before them, and show you and all who are in league with you, that I speak sooth."* The vassal princes and great peers who witnessed this scene admired the frankness and intrepid demeanour i of Helie, but were in too much fear of his powerful antagonist to manifest the sympathy they felt. Bufus however, permitted his chivalric foe to depart ; and instead of fulfilling his threat of attacking Maine, turned his whole force against the king of France, of whom he demanded the surrender of the Vexin, as part of the ancient appanage of Normandy.f Military adven- turers, from every part of Europe, resorted to him, attracted by the large pay and liberal patronage he accorded to those who followed his banner and distin- guished themselves by daring deeds. " At the head of such troops," observes the contemporary chronicler, Ordericus Yitalis, "if Julius Csesar himself, with his Italian legions, had offered him any affront, William Bufus would not have hesitated to try the mettle of his troops against the boasted prowess of the Boman." The French, how- ever, greatly exceeded him in numbers, and being aided by the earls of Anjou and Bretagne, resisted his ambi- tious demands. William, in the course of this campaign, built the strong fortress of Gisors, which served as an arsenal, and head quarters, for his troops in that hostile country, where they got more hard knocks than plun- * Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. 66 WILLIAM RUFUS. der, did much damage, and reaped very little profit. Many prisoners were made on both sides. Rufus promptly ransomed his followers, as soon as he learned they had fallen into the hands of the enemy, while the king of France left his captive knights and nobles to apply to their personal resources for the means of liberation. Many of them, in consequence of this neglect on the part of their sovereign, made their own terms with the victorious king of England, and purchased their freedom by transferring their allegiance to him, and entering his service. He penetrated as far as Pontoise, but lost a great many men and almost all his horses, in this campaign, so that many of his knights, who had crossed 1 the frontier on gallant chargers, had to return on foot.* No sooner did Rufus arrive in England, in the autumn of 1097, than a fresh quarrel broke out between him and his primate, who was pertinacious in his demands of the restoration of certain portions of the tempo- ralities of his diocese, which nothing could prevail on the king to resign. At last, Anselm, weary of the contest, solicited permission to go to Rome to consult the pope on his spiritual affairs, for the good of his soul. The king angrily replied, " Swear on the gospels neither to visit Rome nor yet to address appeals to the Roman see on any pretence whatsoever, and you may then attend to your own business unmolested, and retain your position as the first noble in the . land ; but if you persist in your ill-advised resolution I will strip you of everything, and you shall never return to England again. Besides, I do not understand your motives for this foolish journey, for I cannot believe you can have been guilty of any crime which requires the pope's particular absolution; and as for consulting him on spiritual doubts or difficulties, I think you are every whit as well able to give the pope advice as he to instruct you." f * Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid, Eadmer. WILLIAM RUFUS. 67 Neither fair words, threats, persuasions, nor flattery, could prevail with Anselm to give up his purpose. Strange to say, the other prelates sided with the king, and the majority of the nobles with Anselm. Notwithstanding his dispute with "William Rufus, Anselm professed a great affection for him, and a desire to part in peace. He came to the court purposely to announce his intended departure to the continent, and to take a personal farewell of the offended monarch, whose pleasure he was wilfully opposing. " Sir," said he to the king, " I am now going, I wish it were with your permission, as it would have been more satisfactory both to ourselves and the people ; but though it is unfor- tunately otherwise, not knowing when we may meet again, if ever, I now come, as your spiritual father and archbishop, to offer you my good wishes; and — unless you reject it, my blessing." Eufus eagerly replied that he did not reject it. The archbishop rose and made the sign of the cross over the king's head, who, touched by the solemnity of his manner, humbly bowed himself to receive the pastoral benediction. Anselm bade him farewell, and instantly retired, leaving both the king and nobles deeply impressed with the intrepidity of his behaviour. Eufus even expressed his admiration openly of the firmness and equanimity displayed by the primate on this occasion.* Unfortunately, all his good impressions were of an evanescent nature, and he was easily induced, by persons who represented that Anselm was carrying great treasures out of the realm, to send orders to search his baggage at Dover. William de Warenwast, one of the courtiers, undertook this ungra- cious office, which he performed with peculiar brutality, for, finding neither money, plate, nor jewels, he followed the archbishop to the beach, and as Anselm was on the point of embarkation with his secretary and friend, Eadmer, the historian, laid hands upon him in the king's name, * Eadmer; Lingard 68 WILLIAM RUFUS. and subjected him to the indignity of a personal search, turning both his pockets and sleeves of his robe inside out, to the great scandal of the people.* Anselm had his revenge ; he was accompanied by his friend, Eadmer, the chronicler, who has written a very eloquent historical biography of him, and a history of his own times, in which the Red King makes, of course, a remarkably sorry figure. And his • record has been copied by all the chroniclers and historians who have written the reign of William Rufus,from that time to this. The self- exiled archbishop did not content himself with referring his cause to the judgment of posterity. He addressed from Lyons a letter to Pope Urban, in which he thus states the causes of his rupture with the sove- reign of England : "The king would not restore to my church those lands pertaining to it, which he had given away after the death of my predecessor, and persisted in alienating more, notwithstanding my opposition. He required of me grievous services, such as had not been required of my predecessors. He annulled the law of Grod and the apostolical and canonical decisions, by customs of his own creation. I could not acquiesce in such conduct, without the loss of my own soul. To plead against him in his own court was impossible, for no one dared to assist or advise me. My object in coming to you is to beg you to free me from the bondage of the episcopal dignity, and to beseech you to allow me to serve Grod again in the tranquillity of my cell, and that you would provide for the English churches,- according to your wisdom and the authority of your position. "f The pope invited Anselm to Rome, received him with unwonted honours, lodged him and his two faithful companions, Eadmer and Baldwin, in his own palace, commanded all the English who came to Eome to kiss his toe, and promised to support him with all his power in his disputes with the king of England. Urban also wrote to William, enjoining him to restore all he had taken from the archbishop, and to recall him to his see. * Eadmer ; Hoveden ; Wendover. f Eadmer. WILLIAM RUFUS. 69 It was with great difficulty that William could be induced to receive and read the letter, and when he learned that it was brought by a servant of Anselm, he swore, by his favourite oath, " the crucifix at Lucca, that if he did not depart from England immediately, he would have his eyes torn out/' At this formidable threat the terrified messenger fled without waiting for an answer. William, however, did not fail to send one, which deserves quotation, as a rich specimen of the laconic and uncere- monious character of the epistolary style -royal adopted by our Bachelor King, to the acknowledged head of his church. Letter of William Rufus to Pope "Cuban II. 11 1 am much, surprised how it came into your head to inter- cede for the restoration of Anselm. Before he left my kingdom I warned him I would seize all the revenues of his see as soon as he departed. I have done what I threatened, and what I had a right to do, and you are in the wrong to blame me."* Urban would have excommunicated the haughty Anglo- Norman sovereign, had it not been that, checked by an anti-pope, he was not in a position to provoke the enmity of so powerful a prince. Anselm took up his abode at Lyons, where he and his reverend friends avenged themselves with dreaming evil dreams, predicting a violent death, and a doom of everlasting perdition to his royal foe.f Rufus, meantime, rejoicing in the self-inflicted exile of his uncompromising primate, continued to enjoy the rich temporalities of the * Eadmer. f He was recalled to England on advanced age, and on the credit of the death of Rufus, but agreed even several alleged miracles, was canon- worse with the new king, Henry I., ized, nearly four centuries after his whom he was about to excommu- death, at the intercession of the nicate for his aggressions on church Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, property, but was mollified by the Morton, in the reign of Henry VII. mediation of Adela, countess of Blois, He originated that mischievous sister to that monarch, and Henry's statute prohibiting the marriage of submission. He died at a very priests in England. 70 WILLIAM RUFUS. archiepiscopal see of Canterbury unchecked by his complaints and admonitions. William of Malmesbury, who is undoubtedly one of the most luminous writers of the period, gives the following solution for the Red King's insatiable rapacity : " In the beginning of his reign, when, in consequence of the alarming insurrection that ensued, he assembled soldiers, he denied them nothing, and promised to increase their pay hereafter, so that when he had exhausted his royal father's treasures, he knew not how to retrench his expenses, for the spirit of giving, which had, by habit, become second nature, remained, though the* power of gratifying it having failed, he resorted to unlawful means of increasing his revenues, by appropriating those of the church."* The suggestions of his unprincipled minister Ealph Flambard, led him into many evil practices and unpopular courses. Eufus used facetiously to observe of him " that he was the only man he ever knew, who was willing to incur universal hatred for the sake of pleasing his king." The hatred, however, which this man's pro- ceedings had provoked was not of a nature to excite mirth. A desperate attempt was at last made for his destruction, soon after his elevation to the office of lord chancellor, which he had held in addition to his anomalous offices of treasurer and chaplain to the king. One day he was walking in his garden with his secretary, and one or two other attendants, on the banks of the Thames, when Gerald, a person who had once been in his service, but was now acting agent of the confederacy, came in a boat with some other persons in the livery of the bishop of London, whose secretary Ealph had formerly been, and told him "that the right reverend prelate, their lord, who was then lying sick at his palace by the river side, earnestly desired to see and speak to him, and being now almost at the last gasp, prayed him to lose no time, but return with them * William of Malmesbury. WILLIAM RTJFUS. 71 iu the boat he had seut for him." Ralph, suspecting no danger, stepped into the boat, with one or two of his attendants only; but Gerald and his accomplices instead of landing him at the bishop's palace, pushed stoutly down the river. . Ralph called out lustily to know whither they were carrying him, seeing they were long past the landing place, but receiving only a deceptive answer, perceived, to his great dismay, that they were approaching a vessel, that was lying at anchor in the midst of the stream. In spite of all his anger, remonstrances, and resistance, they forced him on board the suspected ship, a light sailing barque, which was full of armed men, and immediately put out to sea with favouring wind and tide. Giving himself up for lost, he cast his signet ring into the deep waters, and bade his secretary do the same with the great seal, lest any improper use should be made of either by his foes.* Gerald, not wishing to shed inno- cent blood, set the secretary and Ralph's other attendants on shore, having first bound them by a solemn oath not to disclose the abduction of their master. This done, the vessel got fairly out to sea, crowded her sails, and took a southward course. Ralph Flambard, who was seated pensively in the forepart of the ship, had next the pleasant amusement of listening to a debate among the seamen, touching the manner in which he was to be put to death, whether by flinging him alive into the sea or dashing his brains out first. Before they had settled that point, a furious contention arose about the division of his garments, all coveting his cloak, which was larger and of richer material than the rest of his clothes. Meantime, a violent gale sprung up from the south, and began to toss the barque. The heavens grew black with clouds, and so terrific a tempest arose that the mast was shivered, the cable broken, the waves swept the deck, and every one expected to perish. This proved a favour- * Sim Dunelm. 72 WILLIAM RUFUS. able crisis for Ralph Flambard, for the person next in authority to Gerald expressed aloud his repentance of the murderous scheme in which he had engaged, prayed his forgiveness, and offered to assist him to defend himself. Then Flambard, who had not lost his presence of mind, boldly turning to Gerald, said, " Gerald, thou wert my man, and still owest faith to me ; what art thou thinking of? Call back thy mind from this wicked design, and tell me what thou dost require of me, for I am he that can give more than thou canst demand." Gerald, not so much allured by these promises as conscience-stricken and intimidated by the storm, and also accustomed to the authority of the man, consented to preserve his life, and the ship being soon after driven on the shore, assisted him to land. The enemies of Flambard, in the meanwhile, rejoicing in the success of their treacherous enter- prise for his destruction, flattered themselves they were now entirely quit of him ; but on the third day, to their infinite consternation, he made his appearance at court in his accustomed place, and related the tale of the treacherous attempt to spirit him away, to the king, together with the particulars of his marvellous escape from the malice of his enemies, "which had been pro- voked," he said, "by his zeal for the service of his royal master."* Rufus declared "that he would make him a good compensation for all he had suffered for his devo- tion to his interests," and appointed him to the vacant bishopric of Durham. He was, however, compelled to pay a thousand pounds in return for his nomination to that wealthy see. A thousand pounds appears to have been the usual sum demanded by William Rufus as the price of a bishopric. Such had been the price paid to him by another of his corrupt favourites, Herbert, abbot of Ramsay, surnamed Losing, or Losinga, the Flatterer, for the bishopric of Thetford, then the metropolitan see of the East Angles.f * Sim Dimelm ; Knyghton ; Lingard ; Stow. f Sim Dunelm. WILLIAM EtXTFUS. 73 A very remarkable incident, illustrative of the manners and customs of the era of our first Bachelor King, occurred, in connexion with this appointment. On the death of Herford, bishop of Thetford, an ecclesiastic of great learning and piety, named William, had been elected as his successor ; but when the dean and chap- ter proceeded to inquire into his future prospects, by the divination of opening the Bible — a heathenish super- stition then usually practised on such occasions — they lighted on the last verse of the 18th of St. John, "Not this man, but Barabbas: now Barabbas was a robber/' This evil augury appeared to be awfully fulfilled by the sudden death of the hopeful designate, William, before his enthronization, and the nomination of the king's profligate Italian favourite, Herbert Losinga, to the bishopric ; for Herbert had amassed a large fortune by the traffic in livings and other simoniacal practices, so that his name was considered a word of infamy and a reproach to the church. " Was this a man," the East Anglians indignantly asked, "to fill the chair of holy St. Felix ? " * Never, since the aggressions of the pagan Mercians and the persecuting Danes, together with the incursions of the devouring waves, had compelled the East Anglian converts to translate their metropolitan see from the ruins of their once stately city of Dunwich to Elmham, and finally to Thetford, had such a calamity befallen them as the imposition of so evil a man as Herbert Losinga for their diocesan. The dean and chapter sat disconsolate and sore dismayed, when, sup- ported by a band of Norman men-at-arms, he presented himself before them as the king's designate, and required them to proceed to his enthronization. They protested, but in vain, against the illegality of a nomination, obtained, not through the suffrages of the church, but purchased * The Burgundian missionary who founded the christian church among first planted the cross on the heather a barbarous race, and fixed the episco- coast of Suffolk, preached the gospel, pal see of the East Angles at Dunwich. 74 WILLIAM RUFUS. of a reprobate sovereign for money. Then they informed him of the awful divination by the Bible, which had foreshown the death of his short-lived predecessor, and his own unhallowed intrusion, under the appropriate figure of Barabbas. Herbert, perhaps suspecting a pious fraud, insisted on trying the divination for himself, before the whole assembly. The passage at which he opened was Matthew xxvi, verse 50, being the reproachful query of our blessed Lord to Judas, " Friend, wherefore art thou come?" The intrusive designate trembled. His own con- science, witnessing with the solemn words of Scripture, convicted him of having been, like Barabbas, a robber ; but his robbery had been of a darker dye : it had been sacrilege, and now he was asked, as the traitor Judas had been of yore, by his gracious Saviour, him whom he was about to betray for money, " Friend, wherefore art thou come ? " Was he not intruding himself into a bishop's office uncalled by the Holy Spirit, having been serving mammon instead of God, and stained with the wages of unrighteousness ? Should he harden his heart, like Judas, after the double warning he had received ? Not so ; there was place for repentance, and forgiveness on amendment of life. Herbert Losinga went to Rome, confessed to the pope the illegality of his proceedings, and resigned the episcopal ring and crozier he had purchased of his profli- gate sovereign. The pope absolved him, and returned the symbols of his investiture, solemnly confirming him as the bishop of Thetford, and giving him leave to translate the' see, from that decayed and impoverished town, to the populous and thriving city of Norwich. Losinga returned inspired with holy resolutions, a regenerate man; he expended his ill-gotten wealth in the erection of the fair cathedral of Norwich, and in works of charity, and became one of the most eminent church reformers, as well as one of the most graceful ecclesiastical architects of his period.* * He was the first bishop of still be seen in the chancel of the Norwich. His tomb, with his recum- nobler monument he erected for bent effigy, lacking a nose, may himself. WILLIAM RUMS. 75 The Red King was one day enjoying the pleasures of the chase in the New Forest, with a numerous retinue of his nobles, when he encountered Amalgise, the trusty courier of Robert de Belesme, his deputy in Normandy, who had just arrived from over seas, and was posting in hot haste to his royal hunting lodge at Clarendon, in quest of him. " What news of Mans ?" shouted Rufus, while yet afar off. " How goes the siege ? " " Sire," replied the messenger, " Mans has been sur- prised. Helie and his quens have entered it ; but the citadel still holds out, defended by your valiant Normans. They implore your succour/' " They shall have it," exclaimed the king. "We will come to their aid ; and by St. Luke's face, those who have entered the town shall find their conquest dearly purchased. Return with all speed to my loyal friends, tell them I will come to their aid, in person, and trust, within eight days, to enter Mans myself." Then turning to the nobles who surrounded him, he said, "Come, let us cross over to Normandy without delay, to support our brave friends there."* His great state officers and the lords of his council represented that such an expedition as he proposed required many preliminary arrangements, and inquired "how he imagined an army was to be levied at such brief notice ?" " I think," replied Rufus, " if I know anything of the temper of my young English subjects, I shall have no lack of brave soldiers to partake my fortunes." Then wheeling his fiery steed about, and rousing his mettle with whip and spur, the impetuous monarch looked round on his astonished company, exclaiming, " Let all who love me follow me." Dashing off at headlong speed to the coast, he reached Southampton in a storm of wind and rain, and, without tarrying to hold council, or perform * Wace gives a most spirited version of this stirring episode in the Life of the Red King. — See Roman de Rou. 76 WILLIAM RUFTJS. any of the ceremonies required by royal etiquette, previous to leaving the realm, he flung himself on board the only ship in the harbour, a sorry trading vessel, scarcely sea- worthy, and ordered the master to hoist his sails forthwith and steer for the coast of Normandy. The master and his experienced mariners stood aghast at the royal com- mand, prayed him to take patience, and wait for more favourable weather, and not expose himself to the perils of the voyage, with such tempestuous gales on that rough sea.* " Tush/' replied Rufus, " didst thou ever hear of a king being drowned? Weigh anchor, without a moment's delay, and crowd all thy sails for Normandy. I know that all things, even wjnds and waves, are accustomed to obey nie."f One of the chroniclers, who reports this trait of Rufus's characteristic presumption, quaintly observes, " that the master of the vessel, to whom he addressed his scornful question, ' Didst ever hear of a king being drowned ? ' might, had he not lacked the courage, have replied, 'Yea, King Pharaoh!'" But the reckless Nor- man's hour had not yet come ; a favouring gale sprang up, and he performed his venturous voyage, so speedily, that he reached the port of Tonque early on the follow- ing morning. Several persons, of various degrees, were loitering about the harbour, and seeing the little vessel coming in, under such press of sail, from England, were eager to learn if she brought any tidings. Their first inquiries were about the king. Rufus laughed heartily, as he gave replies they little expected to their questions, and enjoyed their surprise when he told them " he was there in person, to give a true account of himself." J He was welcomed with acclamations, for his frank facetious manners and fearless courage rendered him a general favourite. His whimsical disregard of the * Wace ; Roger of Wendover ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. X W. Gemeticensis ; William of Malmesbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 77 pompous ceremonials that surrounded regality also amused and pleased the people. Instead of waiting for. a stately white charger, meet for a sovereign's use, trapped with crimson velvet, and emblazoned with his royal achievements, to be brought for him, he gaily mounted a humble mare, belonging to a priest, who happened to be among the spectators -of his arrival, and attended by all the population of the place, proceeded to Bonneville- sur-Tonque, amidst their acclamations. Bonneville-sur- Tonque, was one of the palatial residences of the dukes of Normandy, situated about a quarter of a league from the port, and there he rested, while he issued his summonses to his trusty quens to rally round him. He soon found himself at the head of a powerful army, and proceeded by hasty marches to attack his opponent. The unexpected news of his arrival filled the hostile party with consternation. Count Helie evacuated Mans, which he had no means of defending against so formi- dable a foe, at the head of an hourly increasing puissance ; but before he withdrew his troops he set fire to the city, to prevent the Normans from taking posses- sion of it.* Eufus arrived under the walls of the castle of Maiet on a Friday, and summoned the garrison to surrender. On their refusal, he encamped for the night, and gave orders for storming it next day ; but in compliance with the advice of his counsellors, who besought him, " for the glory of God, to shew proper respect to the days of our Lord's burial and resurrection," he granted a truce to the enemy till the Monday. The assault was made on the Monday, when the besieged threw down vessels of hot coals, and firebrands, on the assailants, and thus ignited and presently burned to ashes, the heaps of wood and bushes, with which Eufus had caused the ditch to be filled up, in preparation for scaling the walls. While the king was raging at finding all his efforts, * Ordericus Vitalis. 78 WILLIAM RUFUS. to reduce Maiet frustrated, by the skill and courage of the besieged, one of the garrison hurled a large stone at. him, from the top of a turret, which, though it did not strike him, crushed the head of a soldier who was standing near him, so that he was bespattered with his brains. Peals of insulting laughter burst from the garrison at this sight, and they united in the savage cry, " Fresh meat for the king of England ! take it to the fire to be cooked for his supper ! "* Rufus was so much disconcerted at this incident, that he called a council of his principal nobles, to consider what course it would be best to adopt ; and they having demonstrated the folly of continuing to assail, without shelter for themselves, a place strongly fortified, and defended by so resolute a garrison, he agreed to retire at break of day toward Luce le Grand. He and his troops took the disgraceful vengeance of rooting up the vines and fruit-trees, and devastating, with fire and sword, the rich country through which they retreated to Mans. At last Helie de la Fleche, the gallant antagonist who had caused Rufus so much trouble, having incautiously entered a wood, on some adventurous expedition, attended only by seven horsemen, fell into an ambush, and was captured by Robert de Belesme, by whom he was conducted to Rouen, and presented to the king. " Ha, ha ! " exclaimed Rufus, in a jocular tone, " I have you then at last, master ! " "Aye," replied Helie, undauntedly, "my evil stars have allowed me to be surprised and thrown into your power ; but an' I could escape, I would show you that I could do somewhat yet." " You would ?" exclaimed Rufus, grasping him by the arm. " Well, then, begone ! and do your worst. I give you leave to depart, and by the holy crucifix at Lucca, if you capture me, I will ask no return for the grace I * Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. 70 now accord to yon." He then presented Helie with a safe conduct, ordered him to be supplied with a horse, and allowed him to go, whithersoever he pleased, unmolested,* a trait of manly generosity, worthy of admiration in a military sovereign bearing a better name than William Rufus. When Rufus marched to the relief of his garrison, at Ballon, the people, who were besieged by his adversary, Fulk, count of Anjou, joyfully threw open their gates and admitted him. The garrison had a few days pre- vious made a sortie on Fulk, while he and his army were at dinner, surprised and taken a hundred and forty knights and barons, of the highest rank, whom they had lodged in the castle. Immediately the acclamations which announced the entrance of Rufus within the castle had subsided, these prisoners raised the supplica- tory cry : " Noble King William, give us our liberty." When the circumstances w^ere explained to him he generously ordered them all to be released from their fetters, and invited them to share a plentiful repast with, his own followers, in the court of the castle, telling them " after they had eaten they should be released on their parole of honour." f The Norman nobles, surprised at the magnanimity and courtesy of the king's proceedings, and perhaps afraid of losing the rich ransoms of their captives, raised objections, and reminded hfm that it would be difficult to prevent the prisoners from making their escape. " Far be it from me," replied Rufus, with a burst of generous feeling, "to suspect any valiant knight of being capable of violating his word. If such there be, he would become a branded outcast for the rest of his life." t The result was, the Red King won golden opinions from his former enemies, the citizens of Mans sub- mitted to his authority, and without more bloodshed the * Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. J Ibid. 80 WILLIAM RTJFUS. royal standard of England was displayed on all the towers of that city.* The king returned to England at Easter, 1099, and on the Whitsun festival kept court, for the first time, in Westminster Hall, which was then finished for the meet- ing of the great council of nobles, appointed to be annually held there. Several of the prelates, aware of the misery that had been caused by raising the money which had been expended in erecting it, observed re- proachfully that " it was unreasonably large." "Tut," replied Rufus, scornfully, looking round, " this is but a bed-chamber in comparison to the palace I intend to build." The dimensions of "Westminster Hall were 270 feet in length and 74 in breadth, but it was his intention to have extended it from the Thames to King Street. The king was recalled to Normandy that summer, by a fresh revolt in Maine, Helie having retaken several places of importance, but was again, for a time, put down by his powerful antagonist, who returned, after a short brilliant campaign, to England, where he kept his court with great splendour on Christmas Day at Win- chester, at Easter at Windsor, and at Whitsuntide in Westminster, to meet his peers in council, wearing his robes and royal circlet, and afterwards making them great banquets. f A new and brilliant prospect was unfolded to Eufus in the spring of 1100. William, count of Poictiers, being desirous of emulating the renown won by the crusaders in the Holy Land, determined to undertake an expedi- tion thither. An army of three hundred thousand volunteers, from Acquitaine, Grascony, and other provinces of the south, had enlisted under his banner, but he was wholly destitute of the necessary funds. In this predicament he dispatched envoys to the king of England, offering to imitate the example of Robert duke of Normandy, and pledge his dominions to him for * Ordericus Vitalis. f Aunalsof Waverley; Book of St. Albans. WILLIAM RUFUS. 81 a sum of money sufficient for his purpose. Rufus eagerly- closed with this proposal, which would enable him to extend his sway over the fair duchy of Acquitaine, even to the banks of the Garonne. He gave orders for fresh taxes to be raised to enable him to pay the sum for which the count had stipulated to put him in possession of the territories he so eagerly desired to possess.* In the month of July, while the king's fleet was fit- ting out with every circumstance of royal pomp for the expedition, which, according to his calculation, was to place him at the summit of earthly greatness, by adding Poictiers and Acquitaine to his now widely extended dominions, he proceeded to "Winchester to wile away the time in field sports, till his preparations should be com- plete. His brother Robert, who had covered himself with glory in the crusade, and might, if it had so pleased him, have worn the crown of Jerusalem, which his illustrious comrades considered the just meed of his valour, had now wedded, though late in life, the fair and noble lady Sibylla, daughter of Geoffrey, Marquis of Conversana, with whom he had received a marriage portion, large enough to redeem his inheritance, by paying off the sum for which he had mortgaged his dominions to Rufus, an arrangement by no means acceptable to the Red King, who desired to retain Normandy in his own hands. Many fearful signs and portents were at this time rife in England ; meteoric phenomena in the heavens, storms, inundations, and alleged supernatural appearances ; "but the most dreadful of all," says William of Malmesbury, " the devil appeared in a frightful shape to many Nor- mans, in the woods and secret places, and made awful communications to them respecting the king, Ralph Flambard, and others in his confidence."! It is easy to conjecture that these were either priestly * Ordericus Yitalis. f See also Hoyeden ; Florence of Worcester ; and others of the Norman Chroniclers. 82 WILLIAM RUFUS. or political tricks, audaciously got up to bring the king and his unpopular minister into further disrepute, and also, if possible, to intimidate them and their partisans. A sovereign who was at open variance with the church was sure to be represented as in close alliance with the powers of darkness, and considered accountable for all the calamities that befel England in his reign. Several of these were, of a startling character: an earthquake, a terrific hurricane that blew down six hundred houses in London, and the roof off Bow church, a fire that consumed the greater part of the metropolis in the following year, a famine, a pestilence, the submersion of earl Godwin's lands and the great inundation of the Thames, with numerous other disastrous occurrences, besides the appearance of a blazing star with double beard, which seemed to occasion strange commotions among other stars, and sorely dismayed the hearts of men.* William of Malmesbury, after summing up the mar- vellous catalogue of the many sudden and sorrowful accidents that happened in the time of the Red Xing, says : " A fountain at Finchhampstead, in the county of Bucks, so plentifully flowed with blood, for fifteen whole days, that it wholly discoloured „a neighbouring pool. "When the king heard of it he laughed; neither did he care for his own dreams, nor for what others dreamed concerning him." An indubitable proof that he pos- sessed much stronger powers of reason than the prejudiced monastic writers, who turn to his reproach his absence from the superstitious follies of the dark ages. " This Will le Rous," says the chronicler of St. Albans, "was a proud and wonder contrarious man to God and holy church. At last he became so con- trarious that all things that pleased God displeased him, and all things that God loved he hated deadly." The day before his tragical death Rufus was in high spirits, and full of ambitious projects. On being * William of Malmesbury ; Saxon Chronicle ; Eoger of "Wendover. WILLIAM RUFUS. 83 asked by those about liim where he thought to spend his Christmas, he replied, with his usual presumption, " At Poictiers, for the earl intendeth to bouno him toward Jerusalem, and I will essay to get his earldom, for well I wot he will have to pawn it to raise the money to perform the journey."* That night the king had a dream, which, notwith- standing his habitual contempt for everything in the shape of omens and prognostics of coming ill, troubled him. It was, that having been let blood by a surgeon, the stream which burst forth reached to the heavens, clouded the light, and darkened the day. He awoke in mortal terror, and calling on the Blessed Virgin and lately despised saints for protection, commanded a light to be brought, and forbade his attendants to leave him, telling them " that he had a great dread, supposing that his vision portended some great mis- chance impending over him."f They watched beside him till daylight, when, just as it began to dawn, Eobert Fitz-Hamon, one of his greatest nobles, craved an audience, in great perturbation. His errand was to recount a frightful dream concerning the king, which a foreign monk had come from far to communicate, and entreat him "to make it known to his royal master without delay, as he feared it betided ill to him." It was, "that he saw his majesty enter a certain church with a haughty step and menacing gestures, looking contemptuously on the congregation, as he strode up the aisle ; then rudely seizing the crucifix, he began to gnaw its arms with his teeth and tear its legs in very impious and sacrilegious fashion ; but at length the insulted image raised its foot, and gave the king so vengeful a kick in the face, that he fell backwards to the ground, and as he lay prostrate, a volume of flame issued from his mouth, mingled with smoke, that touched the very stars." J * Fabyan's Chronicle, f William of Malmesbury ; Book of St. Albans. X Robert of Gloucester ; William of Malmesbury ; Book of St. Albans. 84 WILLIAM RUFUS. Instead of being dismayed at this appalling recital, "William laughed heartily, appeared highly tickled, and exclaimed, " He is a monk, and dreams for money, as monks will. Give him a hundred shillings, lest he should say he has dreamed bootless ; but bid him dream better dreams of me for the time to come."* Next came a visit from the abbot of "Winchester, whom the king had summoned in his first alarm about his dream. The holy man assured him "it was a warning of God's displeasure," and earnestly exhorted him " to pacify the Divine wrath by prayer, penance, and amendment of life, to fast, give alms to the poor, and refrain from hunting and profane sports on a Friday, for the rest of his life." This making the king somewhat pensive, he determined not to hunt that day, at least, for it was the fast of St. Peter, ad vinculo,. He kept his resolution till after dinner, a meal which he partook at the usual early hour in the forenoon, with some of his familiar companions. Among these, sir Walter Tirel, lord of Poix and Pontoise, who had just arrived from France to pay his court to him, was a most special favourite, being a brave soldier, a keen sportsman, and a boon companion. After eating, drinking, and joking with him, the excitable spirits of the king returned, and he swore " that no man should let or hinder him of his disport, for, come what would, he would hunt the hart that day in his New Forest," for so he called the extensive chase added by the late king, his father, to the forest of Ytene, which derives its name from the river Itchin, and was an ancient royal hunting ground in the days of the Saxon monarchs. William the Conqueror expelled a number of settlers who had established them- selves there, and they made no less complaint of their expulsion than if they had been the lawful owners of the land. More than thirty villages were, .however, destroyed by that prince, to form his great deer park ; and both he * "William of Malmesbury ; Matthew of Westminster. WILLIAM RUFUS. 85 and his son Rufus enforced the game laws with great severity, though it would be a great historical blunder to repeat the vulgar error that those laws originated with the Norman conquest, since they were bitterly com- plained of during the Danish reigns of terror, and were probably among the tyrannical impositions of the Romans. The revival of these statutes was greatly complained of by the English, and with reason, for heavy fines were inflicted on gentlemen who presumed to slay either deer or wild boars ; loss of hands, or eyes, or ears ; forfeiture of liberty on free persons of humbler degree, and forfeiture of life on slaves who were guilty of this trespass. It was sarcastically said of William the Conqueror, that he loved the tall deer as if he were their father, and William Rufus was nick- named the " Wild-beast-herd " and the "Forest Keeper."* While his attendants were lacing on the king's boots, and he was laughing and joking with his nobles, an armourer craved permission to present him with six new arrows. The king received them with great satisfaction, praised the work and the temper of the steel, kept four for his own use, and gave two to Tirel, with these com- plimentary words, "The sharpest arrows for the best marksman." At the moment of departure, Rufus was delayed by the approach of a monk of St. Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, who presented him with a letter from the venerable abbot, Serlo, which he earnestly entreated him to read, as it deeply concerned him. Rufus, who was now impatient to be off to the forest in pursuit of his sylvan sport, would fain have excused himself, but the urgency of the messenger prevailing over his reluct- ance, he opened the abbot's letter and read : " A certain monk of good repute and holy life in St. Peter's Abbey, at Gloucester, has dreamed that he saw the Lord Jesus seated on a lofty throne, and the glorious host of heaven, * Saxon Chronicle. 86 WILLIAM RUFUS. with the blessed company of saints standing round, when a virgin, resplendent in light, but bathed in tears and full of sorrow, representing the afflicted church of this land, cast herself at" his feet, exclaiming, ' Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of mankind, look with an eye of compassion on thy people, now groaning under the yoke of William, and take vengeance upon him for his wickedness.' And the Lord replied, 'Be patient, for the time is at hand ! ' "* Having read the letter, which concluded with an earnest exhortation from the abbot, for him "to give heed to this solemn warning, and forsake the evil courses into which he had fallen/' Rufus burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, and exclaimed, "I wonder what has induced my lord Serlo to write to me in this strain, for I really believe he is a worthy abbot, and a good old man. Lo, now, he considers it necessary to communicate this folly to me, who have something besides to attend to than the dreams of his snoring monks, and he even takes the trouble of committing them to writing, and sending all this distance. Does he think I am become like the English, who will defer a journey, or fear to undertake their business, because some dozing old woman happens to dream or sneeze ? Come, Walter de Poix, to horse ! " f Attended by his brother Henry and a jocund company of nobles, eager for the sport, the Red King galloped off to his favourite hunting ground, laughing at the dreams and prognostics which had ushered in the morning of that bright summer day. It was the 2nd of August, rather warm weather for the chase, but the season for hunting or shooting the buck was from Easter to Michaelmas, being what is termed the time of grace, or fatness. The king and his favoured companion, sir Walter Tirel, and a few attendants, proceeded to Choringham, in the forest of Ytene, where they took their station apart from the others, who were hunting in a separate glade. It was the custom, * Ordericus Vitalis ; Knyghton. f Ordericus Vitalis. WILLIAM RUFUS. 87 on sucli occasions, for some of the huntsmen and servants, with their dogs, to sweep the deer from all directions towards the royal station, in order to drive them before the king and his party, that he might, with the greater convenience, take deliberate aim as they passed. Rufus and Tirel now stood, with their bows ' in their hands, eagerly watching for the first appearance of the game. They waited for some time in vain. At last, just as the sun began to decline, a noble stag rushed past. The king shot, but only wounding it slightly, it fled with the arrow in its side. Anxious to see in which direction it went, the king held up his hand to shade his eyes from the slanting rays of the sun, as he looked after the wounded animal, and being greatly excited, shouted impatiently to his companion, " Shoot, Walter de Poix ! Shoot as if it were at the devil!"* Tirel, who had marked another stag approaching within proper distance for a shot, launched his shaft, and unwittingly lodged it in the broad bosom of his royal friend. Rufus made an impulsive effort to draw the arrow out, but in the attempt broke it off close to the barb, and, falling on his face, expired without uttering a single word. One of the numerous chroniclers who has recorded this event, states that the king had suddenly moved from his original station, and thus unluckily placed himself between Tirel and his quarry at the moment he shot.f This appears extremely probable, for we find he had the sun full in his face, and would naturally move to avoid it, without perceiving the danger he was incurring from intercepting the aim his fellow-sportsman was taking at the second stag, of whose appearance and vicinity he was evidently unaware, his whole attention being fixed on the one he had himself wounded. £ * Ordericus Yitalis ; Knyghton ; Thierry. f Ordericus Yitalis. J William of Malmesbury ; II. Knyghton ; Roger of Wendover ; Roger Hoveden ; Henry of Huntingdon ; Florence of Worcester. OO WILLIAM RUFUS. The circumstances have been thus quaintly, but not unpoetically versified by old Robert of Gloucester, in his rhyming chronicle: " But after meat, when he had eaten and y drunken well, He called one of his privy mates, cleped Walter Tyrrel, And a few oders of his men, and would ne long abide, But he wolde to his game, i tide what wolde betide ; ' For he was something fain, as his head was best, To wend him forth a hunting in the New Forest, So that he soon found a harte, he shot it himself anon, And the harte, forthe with the arrow, fast away was gone. He pricked forth fast enow, towards the west right ; His hand he held before his eyen, because of the sunlight ; So that Walter Tyrrel there beside was nigh, Wolde shoot another harte, that as he said he sey (saw or did see J, He shot the king in the breast, that never more he spake, But the shaft that was within him, griesly in him break ; For on his face he fell, and died without speche, Without shrift or housel, and there was Grod's wretch." Shakespeare seems to have had this last powerful line in his mind, when making the ghost in Hamlet describe the horror of his condition in consequence of having been suddenly sent to his great account, with all his sins upon his head, " unhouseled, unanealed;" in other words, with- out the sacramental rites then deemed necessary to mitigate the penal fires incurred by a life of sin, and unrepentant death. The historians of William Eufus being churchmen, almost unanimously consign him to a lot of everlasting misery, which more than one of the learned fraternity assures us was pronounced upon him before his departure from this life. Anselm, the exiled archbishop of Canterbury, who happened to be at Marcennial, on the 1st of August, on a visit to Odo, abbot of Cluny, was told by that eccle- siastic that " he had dreamed the preceding night he saw William, king of England, summoned before the tribunal of Grod, and sentenced to everlasting perdition, for his misdeeds." The following day Anselm returned WILLIAM RUFUS. 89 to Lyons, and the same night, after the last service had been ehaunted, a, young man, simply dressed, and of a mild countenance, stood by the bedside of one of his clerks, and calling him by name, said, " Adam, are you asleep ? " " No," replied the clerk. " Do you wish to hear some news?" inquired the other. "By all means," replied Adam, who was probably very dull. " Then," said the stranger, " be assured that the quarrel between the archbishop and King William is now terminated." At this the clerk looked up in surprise, but saw no one. The next night another of the monks was standing in his usual place, chaunting the service, when some one held out to him a small slip of paper, on which he read the words, " King William is dead." He immediately looked round, but saw no one.* It was also pretended, "that Anselm in a dream beheld all the English saints addressing their complaints to the Most High against the tyranny of King William, who was destroying his churches, and that the answer was, * Let Alban, the proto-martyr of England, come hither/ At the same time, an arrow, that was on fire, was given to Alban, with these words, ' Behold the death of the man, of whom you complain.' Then the blessed Alban, receiving the arrow, said, ' I will give it to a wicked spirit, an avenger of sins/ and with these words threw it down towards the earth, and it flew blazing through the air, with a long flaming train like a comet ; and the archbishop Anselm perceived in the spirit that the king was then shot by an arrow and slain. Under this impression, which he declared to those about him, he rose at the dawn of day, and after celebrating mass, ordered his books, vestments, and other moveables, to be packed up, and commenced his journey towards England."f These stories, though solemnly recorded by contem- porary chroniclers, were of course invented after the * Eoger of Wendover ; 'William of Malmesbary. f Matthew of Westminster. 90 WILLIAM RUFUS. occurrence of a tragedy that was calculated to make a powerful impression on the minds of cloistered dreamers ; but it is certain that, the day before William's death, Fulcherd, an eloquent and popular preacher, addressed a sermon to a crowded congregation, in St. Peter's Abbey church, at Gloucester, on the word " Salvation," in which, after denouncing the crying sins of the present generation in England, "from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot," he, as if moved with a prophetic spirit, wound up his discourse with these words : " A sudden change of affairs is threatened. The libertine shall not always bear rule. The Lord God will enter into judgment with the open enemies of his spouse. The bow of Divine vengeance is bent on the reprobate, and the swift arrow is taken from the quiver ready to wound. The blow will soon be struck."* In consequence of these coincidences, some have inclined to the supposition that the death of the Red King was not the result of accident, but an assassi- nation, plotted by his brother Henry, who was of the memorable hunting party, where he was cut off, and who was saluted as king, by a weird woman, whom he encountered in the forest about the same time the fatal accident occurred. But a similar fate had, a few months before, befallen their nephew, Richard, son to Robert, duke of Normandy, nearly on the same spot, whom there could be no sinister motive for destroying, seeing his birth was illegitimate. Yet the knight by whose erring shaft he fell was so alarmed that he fled to a monastery, and instantly took the cowl, to secure himself from the risk of punishment for his unskilful archery. Tirel, on finding, to his consternation, that the king was dead, leaped on his horse, rode in fiery haste to the nearest port, and took shipping for France ; but * Ordericus Vitalis. Fulcherd, who was a Norman monk, from the Monas- tery of LuZj was afterwards abbot of Shrewsbury. WILLIAM RUFUS. 91 as he was the wealthiest and most powerful baron on the Vexin, he did not consider it expedient to profess him- self a monk, though he afterwards made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Suger, and one or two modern historians, have stated " that Tirel not only denied that he was the cause of the king's death, but affirmed that he was at another part of the forest at the time," an assertion that might be dictated by prudential motives, lest he should be brought into trouble on that account, and robbed of his vast possessions, either by the king of France or duke of Normandy, to whom the assassination of the king of England might have formed a feasible pretext ; therefore, the alleged sayings of the unlucky archer, in denial, cannot be allowed any weight in dis- proving an historical statement, which is supported by the testimony of all the Anglo-Norman chroniclers,* and is corroborated by local traditions of contemporary date. A stream near Christchurch bears the name of " Tirell's Ford/' from his crossing it in making his way to the coast, f The following charming illustration of the fate of the royal Nimrod of English history is from the pen of sir Walter Scott : — " Ytene's oaks, beneath, whose shade Their theme the merry minstrels made Of Ascapart and Bevis Bold, And that Red King who, while of old, Through Boldrewood the chase he led, By his loved archer's arrow bled. "J Pope less gracefully describes the wounded king's attempt to withdraw the arrow in this rugged couplet : " See Eufus tugging at the deadly dart, Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart." * Knyghton gives the most minute the heart." Gemeticensis, Annals of account of Eufus's death. Eadmer "Waverley, and Walsingham, also only says " he was shot through relate the facts. f Gough's Camden's Britannica, vol. 1, page 186. J Marmion. 92 WILLIAM RUFUS. The spot on which Rufus fell was the site of an ancient church, which had been sacrilegiously demolished by his royal father, and the ruins were stained with his heart's blood.* Great confusion took place among the assistants at the royal hunt, when the astounding fact of the tragic death, of the king transpired. The forest resounded with cries, not of grief, but excitement, to proclaim what had occurred, and to call the scattered nobles together. Then every one went his own way, intent only on pro- viding for his own interest, while the lifeless remains of the king lay disregarded on the bare earth, f At length, some of the menial servants, enveloping them in a mean covering, placed them on the rough black cart of Purkiss, the charcoal burner, $ the only conveyance that was at hand, " which cart," says the chronicler, "was drawn by one sely lean beast, through a very foul and filthy way, where, in consequence of the roughness of the road, it broke, and the royal corpse was upset into a slough, where it was pitifully bemired, and lay for a while an image of the vanity of all earthly glory." § Robert of Gloucester briefly commemorates, in a couplet characterised with great power and singular rhythmical beauty, the removal of the bleeding remains to the place of interment : " To Winchester they bore him, al midst his green wound, And ever as he lay, the blood welled to ground." Ordericus Vitalis, in scarcely less poetic prose, records * Leland says " there was a chapel built on the spot," probably a chantry for the repose of the soul of tbe Red King. f Ordericus Yitalis. X Purkiss, in reward for the service small freehold of about three acres, he performed, by conveying the where his descendants have resided remains of the deceased sovereign to ever since, carrying on the same hum- Winchester, received the grant of a ble craft.— Gouglis Camden's Britan. § Stow ; Spud. WILLIAM RUFUS. 93 u that some of tlio servants wrapt the bloody corpse of the king in a mean covering, and brought it like a wild boar, pierced by the hunters, to the city of Winchester." The tidings of the tragic event, had already reached that town. The clergy, the monks, the citizens, and the poor widows and mendicants, came forth in procession, with due diligence, to meet the body, and convey it to the cathedral, where it was buried early the next morning, in the middle of the choir, opposite the high altar, under the central tower. A great concourse of people assembled at these hasty obsequies, without any demon- strations of grief. There were many assistants at the ceremony, but few tears. Fitz- Stephen, the chronicler of London, speaking of this monarch by his familiar cognomen of " Will le Rous," pithily adds, " at whose funeral men could not weep for joy." The Red King was, however, much lamented by the soldiers, a class of men with whom he was very popular. They were infuriated against Walter Tirel, and sought for him everywhere, threatening to tear him in pieces, for their royal master's death, a fact that sufficiently accounts for his denying being so much as present on that occasion. Rufus is supposed to have been the monarch prefigured in the mystical prophecies, traditionally attributed to Merlin, of the kings of England, as " the red dragon slain by a murderous dart." He perished in the forty-first year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign. There is no evidence that he ever made an effort to improve his life, by entering the holy pale of wedlock ; nevertheless, if he had not been cut off so suddenly, it is not impossible but he might have followed the example of his brother Robert, who, though several years older, and of equally irregular habits, had forsaken his evil ways, and married one of the most beautiful and charming princesses of the age. William Rufus left two sons* by some obscure * Chronicle of "W. Thome ; Baker. 94 WILLIAM RUFUS. woman. The name of only one of them, Berstrand, has survived. There were many reasons for his being treated as reprobate, during his life, and especially after his death, by the monastic writers, and at that time it would have been difficult to find any other. He had driven the primate of England into exile, and seized his temporalities ; he had, besides, three bishoprics and twelve vacant abbeys in his own hands, at the time of his death. He made all taxes fall witK tenfold weight on the clergy, and compelled them to strip their shrines and sell their plate to pay his military imposts. He had defied the orthodox pope without allying himself with his rival Clement, the anti-pope, manifesting thereby a thorough contempt for both, a peculiarly dangerous example to other monarchs ; and he had forbidden his subjects to pay Rome-scot, wishing to have the benefit himself of all the taxes that could be raised in his dominions. Hence he was so thoroughly the object of clerical hostility, that in many churches they would not allow the bells to be tolled for him, or prayers to be used for the benefit of his soul; and when about a year after his death, . the tower of Winchester Cathedral was struck with lightning, and hurled down upon his grave, it was regarded as a manifest indication of the Divine displeasure, for his having been interred in so holy a place. Honest "William of Malmesbury is, however, candid enough to intimate the possi- bility that the building might have fallen through imperfect construction, even though this much vitupe- rated prince had never been buried there. The original tomb of William Eufus was doubtless destroyed by the fall of the tower ; that by which it was replaced is of a very unroyal appearance, of the class of monument familiarly termed " dos d'dne." It was broken open by the parliamentary troopers in the time of the civil wars, when a large gold thumb ring, set with WILLIAM RUFUS. 95 rubies, valued at five hundred pounds, some of the remnants of cloth of gold in which he had been buried, and a small silver challis, were found in his coffin. His bones, and those of some of his royal predecessors, which had been rudely exhumed, were afterwards collected by bishop Fox, and carefully enclosed in a grey marble chest, with thpse of King Canute and Queen Emma, a singular violation of royal etiquette, if not of propriety, to intrude the bones of our pro- fligate Bachelor King into the last resting place of so respectable a couple, especially as Emma, after her triumphant acquittal from her son's scandalous accu- sation, by the ordeal of walking unharmed over the nine red - hot ploughshares, made some claim to the dignity of a saint. But so it is, and these ill-assorted relics of the royal dead, male and female, saint and sinner, remain packed up together in the same marble chest, placed on the low wall which separates the north side of the chancel of Winchester Cathedral from the aisle, in company with sundry other marble chests of the same fashion, containing the bones of Egbert and other Anglo-Saxon kings and prelates, suspended as it were between earth and heaven, a marvel and a moral to all beholders. When Charles II., more than five centuries and a half later, visited the spot, the oak, pointed out by local tradition as that beneath which Eufus was slain by Tirel's arrow, was still standing, and was said "to bud and bear leaves miraculously every year on Christmas day in the morning, which withered and fell before night."* Charles ordered this ancient royal oak to be paled round, in order to preserve it from wanton aggres- sions, but no vestige of it remained when Gough, who relates this circumstance in his valuable additions to Camden, wrote. Its place was marked by John Richard, earl of Delawar, in the year 1745, by a triangular stone * Camden's Britannica, Gough's Additions. 96 WILLIAM RUFUS. obelisk, about five feet in height, bearing the following inscription on each side : — IEEE STOOD THE OAK ON WHICH AN" AEHOW, JSHOT BY SIB, WALTEE TYRRELL AT A STAG, GLANCED AND STRUCK KING WILLIAM II., STJENAMED ETJFUS, ON THE BREAST, OE WHICH HE INSTANTLY DIED ON THE 2ND OF AUGUST, A.D. 1100. This stone is in the parish of Minsted, near the pales of Malwood park. It was visited by George III. and Queen Charlotte in 1789. The oaks of the New Forest, planted by William Rufus, proved of inestimable value to his successors in process of time. The produce of the extensive plantation which he was wont facetiously to style, "My great garden," supplied for several centuries the timber of which the " wooden walls of Old England," the foun- dation of English greatness, were built. Therefore, the first Bachelor King of England, with all his faults, possesses lasting claims on the gratitude of this nation. That great navy-building monarch, Charles II., sensible of the importance of keeping up these stores, ordered three hundred acres of waste land to be added to the New Forest, and planted with a nursery of young oaks, to assist in supplying the exhaustion of those planted by the Red King* A curious portrait of William Rufus appears in a quaint rhyming black letter chronicle, of " All the Kings of England from the Flood of Noe to Queen Elizabeth," in the first year of whose reign it is imprinted. He is there represented broad -faced and bold -looking, with short beard and moustache. The rare work of which it forms a portion is in the valuable library of the earl of Spencer, at Althorp. The illustrative rhymes appended * Camden's Britannica, Gough's Additions. WILLIAM RUFUS. 97 are very inferior to those of Robert of Gloucester, or Piers Langtoft. The following may serve as a specimen : " The mlxxxvii year of our Lord, William Rous, his son, next king did ensue, A wilfull, prowde man, as chroniclers do recorde ; When the Scots their rebellion did renewe, And the Welshmen, but he did them subdue, Vanquished them in battle, and slew their king, Called Rice : according to stories true, There was never king since that time reigning.' ' Rys ap Tewdwr, the last king of South Wales, was slain in battle, near Brecknock Castle, against William's victorious general, and great part of the district over which he reigned was granted to the wardens of the Marches, and such of the Welsh chiefs who were willing to swear fealty to the Norman sovereign. Wales was subsequently governed by a prince. Neither the brilliant military exploits performed by William Rufus, nor the great public works for which England was indebted to him, have been properly appre- ciated. The calumnies of the monkish chroniclers — who considered it part and parcel of their duty to pourtray so notorious an aggressor of the church in the blackest colours — have been adopted by modern historians, and repeated with parrot-like fatuity. Honest William of Malmesbury, alone, unfettered by the prejudices of his order, has, in a few impressive words, given the following impartial estimate of our first Bachelor King: "He would doubtless have been a prince incomparable in our time, had not his father's greatness outshone him, and the fates cut short his life too soon for time to correct, in maturer years, the errors contracted in the impetuosity of youth and the licentiousness of power." On his coins, which are very rare, William Rufus is shown in full face, with a closed crown, surmounted with one arch, ornamented with pearls, and a row of pearls 7 98 WILLIAM RUFUS, across the forehead. On the reverse is a cross, enclosed between four curved lines. William Rufus is represented on his Great Seal, crowned with a garland- shaped diadem, formed of a jewelled circlet, terminating in five points, each sur- mounted with a ball. He wears his regal mantle, clasped at the throat with a collar of pearls. In his right hand he elevates the sword; in his left, the orb of empire. On the reverse he is on horseback, clad in a close fitting shirt of scaled armour, with a conical helmet on his head ; holding a long lance, adorned with a swallow-tailed pennon, in his right hand, and bearing a small circular shield or buckler on his left arm. The legend round the seal is " Willelmus Dei Gratia Rex Anglorum" on the reverse, " Willelmus Dei Gratia Dux Normanorum" An evident proof that this seal was not designed till the year 1096, when, having obtained possession of Robert's dominions on mortgage, Rufus assumed the style of duke of Normandy. Equestrian Effigy of William II., designed from his Great Seal. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 6 v///y/^/ //// J ^//V/ EDWABD THE FIFTH, CHAPTER I. A Boy Bachelor King — Misfortunes of his parents— Flight of Edward IV. — Distress of the queen — Their eldest son born in Westminster Sanctuary — His humble baptism — Given his father's name — Triumphant return of Edward IV.— Removal of prince Edward and the queen to Westminster Palace — Edward IV.'s victories and homicides — Whitsuntide festival at Westminster Palace — Young Edward created prince of Wales — Vaughan made his chamberlain — Carries him on his arm after the king — Birth of Richard of York — Caxton's dedications to the prince of Wales — His illuminated portrait at Lambeth — His brother betrothed — Edward IV.'s plans for the prince's education — Scarcity of princesses — Prince of Wales disengaged — Sent to Ludlow Castle— His uncle, lord Rivers, his governor — Educational routine — His readings at refec- tion, translated by lord Rivers — No abuse of ladies permitted — Prince of Wales betrothed — His court at Ludlow — Queen surrounds her son with her relatives — Names of his household officers — Excellent government of Wales in his name — His Welsh Seal and banner respected — Description of both — His equestrian effigy — (Tailpiece.) Full three hundred and seventy years intervened be- tween the death of William Eufus and the birth of the second Bachelor King of England, Edward V. The disreputable life and unlamented death of the reckless Norman, whose unrefined nature had disposed him to scorn holy matrimony, warned the next fourteen sove- reigns, who successively occupied the throne, of the expediency of providing themselves with queens, as indispensable to the happiness and respectability of their courts. Henry L, Edward L, and Richard II. married twice.* Edward IV. unfortunately, before * See "Lives of Queens of England," by Agnes Strickland, vols, i, ii, iii. 102 EDWARD THE FIFTH. circumstances allowed him to wed, rashly entered into promises with more than one lady, which subsequently caused objections to be raised against the validity of his romantic marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, the fair widow of sir John Gray, and served as a pretext to impugn the legitimacy of their offspring. Of all inheritances a disputed sceptre is the most woeful ; and if that woe can be aggravated, it is when it falls to the grasp of a child. Our boy bachelor king presents one of the most noted instances of both cala- mities that chroniclers record. No one could say that he was born in the purple ; for his birth-place was scarcely more reputable than a gaol. The Yorkist king, Edward IV., had reigned vigorously over England for nearly ten years. In the summer of 1470, his king-making kinsman and subject, the earl of Warwick, thought fit to give a turn to the revolu- tionary wheel, which sent the fortunes of the rival line of Lancaster uppermost. Edward IV. fled from his kingdom, leaving his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and' their three infant daughters, to shift for them- selves. Elizabeth had already taken her chamber in the pala- tial apartments of the queens of England in the White Tower,* in expectation of adding a fourth child to the royal family. Sick in body and sad at heart, she gave way to sudden panic, at the approach of the earl of Warwick to London. She was then mourning the deaths of her father and eldest brother, lawlessly beheaded by Warwick's faction. She knew herself to be an object of peculiar hostility to Warwick, and had every reason to dread his first attack would be on her place of shelter, for in the Wakefield Tower, within view of her apartments, lived, as a prisoner, the Lancastrian king, Henry VI., her * These rooms are now destroyed ; communicated by a gallery called they abutted on the east of the the Queen's Gallery. White Tower, with which they EDWARD THE FIFTH. 103 former master.* Such, indeed, proved to be Warwick's first movement. The quaint stateliness and decorous order of all things about a queen of England, who had taken to her chamber, were so completely broken up, meantime, that Elizabeth had at last only two ladies of all her numerous train, to assist her in her helpless condition. These were her faithful attendant, lady Scrope, and her own mother, Jaquetta of Luxemburgh, duchess of Bedford, the mourn- ing widow of the earl of Eivers, recently murdered by Warwick. Jaquetta was deeply compromised ; her former patrons of the house of Lancaster were her enemies since her daughter's royalty. Warwick had branded her with the stigma of sorcery ; and she was, withal, the most unpo- pular woman in England. She had no place of shelter, excepting with her daughter ; and the unfortunate queen had none better than the ecclesiastical fortress, which Edward the Confessor had built and endowed as a species of city of refuge for the outlaws, male and female, of the city of Westminster. Thither any one might fly from instant vengeance, if conscious of offence, civil or political, and there wait in security until the fury of the enemy was abated, or until terms could be made for surrender to trial. Thither did fly (such were the abuses of the institution), not only the helpless and unfortunate, but the thief, the homicide, and the murderer. Surrounded by the demesne of Westminster Abbey, no one had hitherto dared violate its high privileges of sanctuary. The queen, in the beginning of October, 1470, having fresh alarm at the approach of Warwick, entered the royal barge at the water gate of the Tower with her three little daughters, her mother, and lady Scrope, and ordered ♦Hall's Chronicle of York and proved the fact; which is also as- Lancaster. The queen of Edward serted by one of the most popular IV. had been lady of honour to English historians. See "Life of Margaret of Anjou. Royal com- Elizabeth Woodville," for full par- potuses and other manuscripts, ticulars, "Lives of the Queens of besides foreign chronicles, have England." 104 EDWATtD THE FIFTH. her bargemen to row her up the Thames to "Westminster, where she landed at St. Edward's bridge, a sort of jetty, so called then, and after taking her way to the J adjacent Sanctuary, she entered herself and her three daughters, with her mother and lady Scrope, as sanctuary women.* In immediate contiguity to Westminster Abbey, occu- pying the ground still known by the name of the Broad Sanctuary, extending from St. Margaret's churchyard nearly to the great west door of the abbey, opposite to the present hospital, stood this privileged refuge for misery and guilt, a massive structure of strength sufficient to stand a siege. The lower rooms presented a rude blockhouse, constructed of enormous masses of Caen stone, so massive that when destroyed in the last century, great force was obliged to be used in blasting to rend them apart. f Over it was built a church for the use of the sanctuary refugees, in form of a cross. To the west was very conveniently situated the Almonry, where the alms of Westminster Abbey were distributed. Most of the poor sanctuary folk, the queen's companions in misery, had no other sustenance ; starvation was their chief dread. It might have proved the queen's greatest danger ; if a butcher, John Grould, faithful to the fortunes of the line of York, had not given her majesty credit "for half a beef and two muttons every week,"J the whole party must have been starved into speedy surrender. No man, excepting the royal physician, Dr. Serigo, is men- tioned as attending the distressed queen, and he possibly belonged to the adjacent abbey. Yet, doubtless, her lower attendants and servitors followed her, because her mother, lady Scrope, and the three little princesses, could not have devoured half an ox and two sheep * Archseologia — documents from f Dr. Stukeley, the antiquary, Cottonian MSS. Fleetwood's Chro- who had seen this curious place nicle mentions the same very briefly. while standing. t Cottonian MSS. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 105 every week. The boatmen of the royal barge, very important retainers in those days, must have proved rue to her, and possibly their English appetites made great consumption in John Gould's muttons and beeves. All the queen's host of nurses, rockers, and bed-chamber women having been dispersed by the Lancastrian tempest, so suddenly raised by the king -making propensities of Warwick, she was reduced to alarming deprivations of professional aid. There was, however, one humble official who attended such of the womenkind in sanctuary as added to their other troubles the distresses and sufferings of maternity under difficulties; and to her had the queen of England to turn for assistance when the hour of her peril and agony drew near. Mother Cobb,* for so she was called, proved to be an excellent creature. She ran no little risk in these ferocious succession wars by assisting the Yorkist queen; yet she acted with pure good will, not only the part of midwife, but nurse, when, on All-saints-day, November 1st, 1470, the long-hoped-for heir-male of Edward IV. made his entry into this world of woe, within the gloomy walls of Westminster Sanc- tuary, f Speedy baptism was needful, for many reasons ; £ but the perplexing question occurred, what was to be done for sponsors? Who would dare present the new-born outlaw heir-apparent of the fugitive Yorkist sovereign, at the font, when his rival, the Lancastrian prince of Wales, a full-grown knight and warrior, was expected to arrive in England with every favourable wind ? § Thomas Milling, the abbot of Westminster, charitably settled this difficulty. The infant Yorkist prince was carried into the abbey * Fleetwood's Chronicle. f Cottonian MSS. — of grants and Tudor, " Lives of the Queens of rewards from Edward IV. to this Scotland/ ' etc., by Agnes Stricb:- woman for aid given. land; vol. 1, edition 3rd, page J See Life of Queen Margaret 121. § Sir Thomas More. 106 EDWARD THE FIFTH. with no more pomp or procession than if he had been the son of some humble artisan of Westminster. The abbot stood godfather ; duchess Jaquetta and lady Scrope were his godmothers ; and the sub-priest of Westminster performed the ceremony,* which gave him his renowned father's name, Edward. No child could be born under more disastrous circum- stances, yet his birth had no small share in rectifying his father's adverse fortunes. Hitherto, the English had seen none but female heirs spring from the imprudent love-match of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, and the prospect of the sceptre falling to the distaff side was viewed with supreme indignation. Love for the line of Plantagenet had made them set aside the lineal claims of the female heir of Edward III.'s third son Lionel, and elect the line of Lancaster, bearing the royal name, although only the stem of the fourth son. Nor was it until the claims of Mortimer were blended with the great Plantagenet name, and the reigning sovereign had been long childless, that England remembered the better title of York, or Mortimer -Plantagenet. The three beautiful little girls of Edward IY. reminded the nation once more that the son of Henry YI. had grown up, was called Plantagenet, and might prove a valiant leader, while fair -faced Elizabeth or Cicely of York would lose the name of Plantagenet, by marrying, and possibly bring the land under a foreign yoke. The trembling refugees passed the winter of 1470-1 in the grim asylum of Westminster Sanctuary. Early in March, Edward IY. landed on that mysterious promon- tory Ravenspur, near Burlington in Yorkshire, from whence more than one revolutionary storm has spread * This last link in the incidents bey, printed in the reign of Charles of the events of Edward V.'s II., and put into our hands by birth, is from a curious anony- the late Mr. Glover, the queen's mous history of Westminster Ab- librarian. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 107 itself over England. No one need search the map of England for this famous Ravenspur; it is now gone. Like the city of Dunwich, it lies low, beneath the waves of the German Ocean. The victorious Yorkist king fought his way up the northern road to London with incredible celerity. Pass- ing the Lancastrian army, in his eagerness to see his wife and new-born son, he pressed forward and thundered for admittance at Bishopgate, which responded promptly by giving entrance to him, as king of England. The same afternoon, Holy Thursday, he came to the Sanctuary, where his queen, "whom all praised and lauded forbearing her misforturfes so womanly/' presented his heir to him.* Edward immediately transferred his family to West- minster Palace, where a great festival was kept, to which the populace were admitted. Much delight was mani- fested by the citizens and the poorer classes at the tender caresses the king bestowed on his infant heir, his wife, and little daughters. Brief space, however, had the king for such indulgence ; Warwick was at hand, and England's sceptre had to be fought for in a pitched battle. Edward kept Good Friday at Westminster. f On Saturday he marched, and on Easter Sunday he defeated and slew Warwick on Barnet heath. That fatal day of the Yorkist victory, landed Margaret of Anjou, and Edward of Lancaster, prince of Wales, at Weymouth. Edward IY. instantly marched to give them battle. His victory of Tewksbury ensued, and the slaughter of the Lancastrian prince of Wales, the rival of his infant heir, Edward of the Sanctuary. The party of Lancaster had respected the rights of Westminster Sanctuary; for of course it would have been an easy work for Henry YI. and Warwick to have ordered the Yorkist queen and her little ones to be dragged out, at any time during the winter of 1471. But the same mercy was not shewn by Edward IY. * Fleetwood's Chronicle. f Ibid. 108 EDWARD THE FIFTH. The sanctuary at Beaulieu did not save Margaret of Anjou from harsh incarceration; nor the altar at Tewksbury, her general, Somerset, from the axe. The murder of Henry VI. followed the day after the arrival of the Yorkist princes and army in London. He had been brought back to the "Wakefield Tower, his old prison ; but was found a corpse the morning after Bichard, duke of Gloucester, and his northern cavalry, were quartered at the Tower of London. No evidence exists that Richard personally did the deed ; but his words, preserved by one of the retainers of his family,* prove that it was very agreeable to him. "Now," he said, "we of the family of iTork are the only heirs-male remaining of Edward III." An immense despatch of homicidal business had been speeded forward by the brothers of York, from Easter Sunday to Whit-Sunday, 1471. With scarcely time to cleanse the sanguine stains from his person, Edward IV. held a gorgeous festival at Westminster Palace, on the same Whit-Sunday. There he formally presented to the surviving peers and gentlemen of his court, his sanctuary- born son, recognising him as heir of England, and duke of Cornwall by birth, at the same time creating him prince of Wales. f This recognition formed the ground for the following spirited scene of Shakespeare, which we quote as the evidence of one of the nearest literary contemporaries of Edward V. It is, however, strange that our mighty dramatist has never alluded, in his chronicle-plays of Henry VI., to a circumstance so poetical as the birth of the heir of York in sanctuary. * Hall, the chronicler, though of Wales. His father and grand- a citizen and recorder of London, father were officers of Richard was a cadet of the warlike marcher duke of York, in his French line of that name, belonging to regency and struggles for the Eng- and still flourishing on the borders lish crown. f Ibid. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 109 " scene: a state-room in the palace. King Edward is discovered sitting on the throne ; Queen Elizabeth, with the infant prince in her arms ; the king's brothers, duke of Clarence, duke of Glostee, and lord chamberlain Hastings, tcith the court near him. King Edward. Once more we sit in England's royal throne, Ke-pur chased with the blood of enemies. What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn, Have we mowed down, in top of all their pride ? Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renowned For hardy and undoubted champions : Two Cliffords, as the father and the son ; And two ^"orthumberlands ; two braver men Ne'er spurred their coursers at the trumpet's sound ; With them the two brave bears, Warwick and Montague, That in their chains fettered the kingly lion, And made the forest tremble when they roared. Thus have we swept suspicion from our seat, And made our footstool of security. — Come hither, Bess, and let me kiss my boy : Young Ned, for thee, thine uncles, and myself, Have in our armours watched the winter's night ; Went all afoot in summer's scalding heat, That thou might' st repossess the crown in peace ; And of our labours thou shalt reap the gain. Clarence and Gloucester, love my lovely queen, And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both* Clarence. The duty that I owe unto your majesty, I seal upon the lips of this sweet babe. King Edward. Thanks, noble Clarence ; worthy brother, thanks ! Gloster. And, that I love the tree from whence thou sprang' st, Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit. King Edward. Now am I seated as my soul delights, Having my country's peace, and brothers' loves." Ominous precedents, nevertheless, were the Tewksbury and Tower murders for the beautiful infant, who, at six months old, was smiling among the folds of the ermine mantle, and looking up curiously at the golden 110 ED WARD THE FIFTH. circlet of Wales, held above his baby brow. To guard against all reciprocity of party violence, the Yorkist prince of Wales was given into the care of sir Thomas Vaughan,* who had, from his youth upwards, existed in broil and battle. In his youth on the Welsh marches, then in the regent York's French wars, and lastly in the wars of the Roses, from St. Alban's to Tewksbury. This soldier was deeply devoted to his feudal chief, as the representative of the Mortimers. As the most trusty of body guards and of personal attendants, Vaughan was appointed chamberlain to the prince of Wales. Wheresoever the doating father went, there followed stout Vaughan, carrying the prince of Wales on his war- like arm, just as the heroic earl of Warwick is depicted dandling the infant king, Henry VI. f So the lord of Grauthuse,J when the guest of Edward IV., at Windsor Castle, describes the infant as "a most fair prince," always carried after the king by master Vaughan, whether taking morning walks in the woods of Windsor, or at courtly banquets and processions of Garter knights. The lord of Grauthuse it was who had assisted Edward IV., when landed in the utmost distress, after his flight from the eastern coast of his kingdom, and to whose friendship the whole royal family owed the prosperity it enjoyed. The gratitude of the king was exceedingly earnest towards his Flemish friend. The infant prince was required to give him his hand and lisp his thanks, though scarcely two years old ; and of course the heroic marchman, who performed the duties of his nursery maid, was responsible for the correct behaviour of the prince of Wales on this important occasion. Many a name, familiar to the readers of English history as connected with the mysterious incidents of the poor babe's eventful life, crosses us in the Flemish narrative : * Vaughan is the name of a J Archseologia, where his con- fierce clan of Welsh marchmen. temporary journal is printed. — See f Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. " Lives of Queens of England," by — Beauchamp MS., British Museum. Agnes Strickland. EDWARD THE FIFTH. Ill we see tliem move and hear them speak in its pages. Lord Hastings was even then lord chamberlain to the king, and was the principal agent in entertaining the foreign guests with luxury and elegance, scarcely to be expected in that homicidal court. No one can lay ingratitude to the charge of Edward IV. ; but if his friends were munificently rewarded, his enemies were at the same time inexorably crushed. So far from enduring any of those gibings and mockeries, the most unerring arrows in the hands of revolutionists at every era, used for bringing down into the dirt all above political levellers — the victorious Yorkist king made short work with any unfortunate joker. For some one among his functionaries, called vice -constables of England, settled any untoward gibes by certain domiciliary visits, the result of which was the suspension of the poor witling before his own dwelling. Hard measures for the perpe- tration of bad puns ! A vintner, whose public hung out the sign of the Crown (so near Westminster Abbey, that it abutted on the site where now stands Henry VII. 's chapel), made a sneering boast "that he would de- clare his son heir to the crown."* Of course he asserted he only meant his own tavern the Crown. But the Yorkist conqueror was not disposed to have scorn cast on his declaration in behalf of his heir born in the Sanctuary, which stood within sight of this malcontent Lancastrian's hostel. The vice- constable called at the Crown one morning, and without troubling either judge or jury with so slight an affair, the landlord was soon seen swinging on his own sign-post. Edward IV. appointed his youngest brother, Richard, duke of Gloucester, as commander on the Scottish border. The real truth of history is that he seldom left his northern government. He chiefly lived where he * Stowe's London. Our chrono- Edward IV. in his twentieth year logy of this incident differs from our neither would nor could have corn- authority, but we do it designedly. mitted this outrage. 112 EDWARD THE FIFTH. had been brought up, at Middleham Castle, having married its heiress Anne, widow of the Lancastrian prince of Wales, by what means has been told elsewhere.* Unfortunately for young Edward of York, his uncle Richard had an heir, another Edward Plantagenet, whose existence excited the ambition of this formidable warrior. The throne of Edward IV. was strengthened by the birth of a second son in 1474, f at Shrewsbury, whither the king had gone, in progress, with his consort. The royal visit to the borders of Wales was for the pur- pose of superintending preparations at Ludlow Castle, for the reception of the heir of England, and his educational establishment. The new-born prince was named Richard. He was afterwards that hapless sharer in imprisonment and death, over whose calamities many a reader of English history has saddened and pondered. The child, Richard, was left in his mother's care entirely, an indulgence which made her less exacting, regarding her maternal rights over the prince of Wales. The nobility of England murmured at the conduct of the queen, whose egotistical fondness they considered was spoiling their future monarch, nor did some of them scruple afterwards to remind her of it 4 Great festivals were held at the creation of the infant Richard as duke of York. The only remarkable circum- stance is that James Tyrrel, who was subsequently so deeply implicated in his murder, distinguish^, himself as the most valiant squire, at the passage of arms, in the lists held in honour of the second son of England. The mighty demesnes of the Mowbray, dukes of Nor- folk, had devolved on a female infant, whose tiny hand * Life of Anne of Warwick, rians say 1472. Sir Thomas More, queen consort of Richard III, " Lives Hall, Ferrers, Thomas Hey wood, and of the Queens of England," by all who wrote from immediate recol- Agnes Strickland. lection, mention considerable differ- f Sir Harris Nicolas and Sharon ence of age between Edward's two Turner give this date; other histo- sons. t Sir Thomas More. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 113 claimed by hereditary right the office of wielding the mighty baton of earl marshal of England. To this highly dowered little one, Edward IV. determined to wed his boy, Richard, duke of York. The pretty pageant of this infant marriage took place at St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster Palace.* The prince of Wales led the bride, about three years old. The queen led her darling son Richard, who was still younger ; and a train of lovely, fair princesses, from ten to two years of age, the offspring of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, attended as bridesmaids, f The unswerving Yorkist champions, John lord Howard, and his heir sir Thomas Howard, were the nearest of kin to Anne Mowbray, the little bride of the infant duke of York. They saw with dismay the heir-presumptive of the prince of Wales created duke of Norfolk, earl of Surrey and of Nottingham, with several other of their family titles, and, above all, recognised as earl marshal of England. In case of the death of the infant duchess of Norfolk, the patent of creation secured these titles and great estates to Richard, duke of York, and his heirs. £ A downright robbery of the property and claims of the staunchest adherents of the line of York through every reverse of fortune, in the long succession struggles of the White Rose. It was during "the glorious summer of the house of York," wh^i no one foresaw the train that selfishness was getting ready for explosion and sudden downfall, that patronage for the first book printed in England was claimed from the young prince of Wales. The claim was appropriate enough, as the infant printiug press sprang to birth within a few feet of the spot where young Edward of the Sanctuary first saw the light. It has been * Sandford's Genealogical History t Northcote's charming historical of England; Ancient Palace of picture of this child -marriage places Westminster and late House of the group before the shrine of St. Commons, by Brayley and Britton. Edward, in the Abbey. X Sharon Turner. 8 114 EDWARD THE FIFTH. mentioned that the Almonry of Westminster Abbey almost abutted on the Sanctuary, and in this building had the abbot of Westminster given Caxton, the goldsmith, leave to set up his printing presses, and work them when the distribution of alms was not going forward. Possibly the first sounds that fell on the ear of the royal child of the Sanctuary, was the working of that press which was the precursor of all his country's subsequent literature. The early promise of' the young prince of Wales, in his sixth year, is testified by Caxton in his prologue to his translation of the "Historie of Jason,"* by the learned Le Fevre, in which he says : " I intend, by the license and supportation of our most redoubted and liege lady and most excellent princess the queen (Elizabeth. Woodville), to present this said book unto the most fair, and my most redoubted young lord, my lord Prynce of Wales, our to-coming sovereign lord, whom I pray God save and increase in virtue, and bring him unto as much worship and good renown as ever had any of his noble progenitors, to the intent that he may begin to learn read English ; not for any beauty or good inditing of our English tongue that is therein, but for the novelty of the histories, which, as I suppose, hath not be had before the translation hereof. Most humbling beseeching my said most dread sovereign and natural liege lord the king, and also the queen, to pardon me so presuming. And my said to-coming sovereign lord, my lord the Prynce, to receive it in gree and thank of me his humble subject and servant, and to pardon me of this my simple and rude translation, and all other that luste to read or hear it to correct whereas they shall find default." Caxton concludes his book with the following aspira- tion : — " Praying my said lord prince to accept and take it in gree of me, his indigne serviteur, whom I beseech God Almighty to save and increase in vertu, now in his tender iougth, that he may come unto his perfect age, to his honour and worship, that his renown may be perpetually remembered among the most worthy. And after this present, everlasting life in heaven, who grant him and us that bought us with his blood, blesshed Jesus. Amen." * Typographical Antiquities, by Joseph Ames, augmented by W. Herbert, in 3 vols,, London. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 115 In the proheme of his edition of Godfrey of Boulogne, Caxton makes loyal and affectionate allusion to Edward, proposes the histories of his royal ancestors, especially the renowned Arthur, as studies for his imitation and improvement, that so he may fit himself for the high vocation to which it may be the will of God to call him. Caxton likewise mentions Edward's younger brother, Richard. His words prove that at that time he had espoused Anne, the youthful duchess, the inheritrix of the semi-royal house of Norfolk. " I beseech. Almighty God," he says, " to graunt and attroye to our said sovereign lord or one of his noble progeny, I mean my lord prince and my lord Eichard due of Yorke and Norfolk, to whom I humbly beseech at their leisure and pleasure to see and hear read this simple book, by which they may be encouraged to deserve laud and honour, and that their name and renown may en crease and remain perpetual, and after this life, short and transitory, all we may attain and come to the everlasting life in heaven, where is joy and rest without end. Amen." Little did honest Caxton suspect how brief was to be the portion of these princely objects of his pious aspirations, in the splendour and prosperity to which they were then the goodly heirs-apparent and presump- tive. There is a beautiful illumination among the Lambeth MSS. of earl Rivers presenting a book and Caxton the printer to Edward IV. The king, wearing his crown and royal robes, is seated on the throne, with his sceptre in his left hand, which rests on the globe he supports on his knee, while receiving the clasped and ornamentally bound folio from the earl with his right. The queen is seated by the king's side, but a little in the background, and the little prince of Wales stands before her, beside his father. He wears an ermine-faced cap of estate and flowing robes, richly trimmed with ermine ; he grace- fully gathers up his robe with one hand. He is very 116 EDWARD THE FIFTH. pretty, with a sweet thoughtful expression, rather infantine in features. His age is apparently about six years.* In the Lambeth illumination, old Caxton,f attired in a black gown and deep cape edged with white, is kneel- ing on both knees before the king, a little in the rear of his accomplished patron, Rivers, who only kneels on one. One of Edward IY.'s brothers, probably Clarence, who was also the patron of Caxton, stands on the other side of Rivers, wearing his ermine - trimmed robes and cap of estate ; three others, two of whom are shaven priests, stand to the right of the king, and several attendants appear looking in at the door. "Whilst his brother York, at the age of two years, had been provided with an heiress-bride of immense wealth and power, the young prince of Wales, at the more dignified age of seven, remained perforce a bachelor. No princesses of rank high enough to wed with the heir of England were in the royal marriage mart. Louis XL, and his homely queen, Charlotte of Savoy, were the parents of two princesses ; the eldest, wife of Peter de Bourbon, duke of Beaujeu, was a married woman of mature age ; and her little sister, Jeanne of France, * Walpole lias engraved it for f The father of the British press his "Roy aland Noble Authors." He did not live to see the woeful termi- declares that Vertue, in his "Heads of nation of the lives for which he had the Kings of England," has taken his fervently invoked a bright career in beautiful portrait of Edward Y. from the above dedication. He did not this the only authenticated portrait survive 1478, as shewn by an entry of that fair young bachelor king, in the records of St. Margaret's whom he has engraved with the church, Westminster, which speaks crown above his head,bearing a strong of mass, torches, and tapers at the resemblance to the king his father, funeral of William Caxton, in that but as Vertue was an excellent anti- year. Thus Caxton was buried with- quary, he, probably, worked from in sound of his own printing press, a maturer portrait of Edward, of Another entry, dated 1491, speaks of which it is likely there might be a soul -mass for William Caxton. A several painted under the auspices of tablet has been raised to his memory in the earl of Rivers. this century by the Roxburgh Club. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 117 dwarfish and very crooked, was betrothed to the heir- presumptive of France. Isabel of Castille was but recently wedded to Ferdinand of Arragon. She had considered herself jilted by Edward IV., and by no means kept a dignified silence concerning her wrongs. But she was an elective queen, no more firmly settled on the throne of Castille than Edward of York on that of England. Thus the scarcity of princesses caused the hand of Edward of the Sanctuary, prince of Wales, to remain undisposed of, contrary to the custom of infantine wedlock prevalent in Europe at that era. It cannot be denied that this promising child required education more than a wife. His father, whose great abilities in government were conspicuous, in every depart- ment excepting self-government, had formed plans for bringing up his heir, the excellence of which could scarcely be surpassed. At the same time the king removed young Edward from the pernicious indulgence of the queen* and the corruptions of his own court, he determined that the boy should be made the ostensible instru- ment of carrying civilization into a district which was seldom approached by the royalty of England, excepting at the head of an army with banners dis- played. The miserable state of anarchy in which Wales had been for three centuries, was first rectified by the vigorous intellect of Edward IV. He abrogated the old tyrannical court of the Lords Marchers, and organised a presidential government at Ludlow, in Shropshire, one of the most beautiful districts in our island, which was at the same time the chief town of the Welsh marches. There he had built a palace for his heir, the exquisite remains of which attract all tourists at the present day. Here the young prince had resided occasionally with his mother's renowned brother, Anthony Woodville, lord * Sir T. More. 118 EDWARD THE FIFTH. Rivers, at least, since 1476.* But the king did not invest the heir- apparent with the authority of his ancestral dignity of earl of March till 1479.f Ludlow Castle is about three minutes' walk from the town, most grandly situated, with its circular church, its massive walls and towers, its grassy courts and terraces, above the bright river. There is a beautiful and exquisite specimen of an ancient hostelry in the town, called "The Feathers," from the prince of Wales' plume, with embossed ceilings, antique court and gallery, which, possibly, was a building of more dignified occupation in the days of the White Rose. J At Ludlow Castle the prince of Wales and his court were established on the grandest style of royal magnificence. Although personally removed from the queen, his mother, her family influence followed her eldest son into his educational vice-royalty. The Yorkist aristocracy sur- rounding the throne of Edward IY. were indignant, yet in these days it would be thought that few persons could object to the earl of Rivers, who was at once the literary star of his era, and the most accom- plished chevalier at lists and tourneys. He had fought intrepidly by land, and especially by sea, in most of those tremendous conflicts which made stable the throne of York. It is to be feared that he loved the revel, much in the style of his friend and brother-in-law on the English throne, and to this fault we shall show may be attributed his fall, at a moment when events were so nicely balanced as to require the coolest possession of his * The Preface of lord Elvers' two years are lost throughout the hook, "Dictes of Philosophers/ ' annals of the York reigus. proves that such must have been tne case - I Toone. Arthur, prince of Wales, f Our annalists and chronologists son of Henry VII., Mary Tudor, will not allow that this prince com- then acknowledged heiress of Henry menced his vice-royalty in Wales VIII., successively kept court at until the year 1482. But sir Harris Ludlow, to the great benefit of the Nicolas has proved that one or people. EDWAKD THE FIFTH. 119 intellect. Nevertheless, when Edward IV. made this brilliant noble lord president of the Welsh marches, and consigned his heir-apparent to his hand for education, he contrived effectually that his former boon companion should perforce lead a more regular life. Such may be ascertained by the following disposal of the time of the royal pupil at Ludlow, and of his uncle and governor, lord Rivers, drawn up by the hands of the mighty sovereign Edward IV. himself. Even at that time the kingly warrior felt that his death doom had gone forth, and that the banquet by day, and the revel by night, had made more havoc with his own gigantic strength than his almost super-human exertions in winning the regal garland. And the heir- apparent, with his gay and gallant governor, had to live in the asceticism prescribed by the royal reveller on the English throne,* as the best antidote for averting the approach of death and decay at the early age of forty- two. Every day, at Ludlow, the prince of Wales was roused early in the morning, and till he was dressed no one was suffered to enter his sleeping room, excepting the earl Rivers, his chamberlain Vaughan, and his right reverend uncle, Dr. Lionel Woodville, then his chaplain, who sung his matins. From his chamber, the prince, thus attended, entered his closet, the gallery-pew, which in palatial residences, generally opened direct by the side of the altar of the private chapel. Mass was then sung. If the day happened to be a festival of the church, a sermon was preached. He had two or three bishops in his household; the famous orator, Dr. Alcock, bishop of Worcester, was his tutor. After mass, he was given a light breakfast, and then two hours' close study in school before meat. His dinner was early, probably at half-past ten. His dishes, carried in " by worshipful folk in our livery," prescribes the royal parent,f " and no man is to sit at table with * Sloane MS. British Museum, 3479. f Ibid. 120 EDWARD THE FIFTH. the prince, excepting lord Rivers, or such as he do allow ; and noble stories are to be read aloud to him at dinner, such as it behoveth a young prince to understand. All virtue, honour, knowledge, and of worshipful deeds, and of nothing that shall move him to vice. After dinner, for eschewing of idleness, two hours of school. Then instruc- tion and practice in exercises of all kinds which his state requires him to have experience in." The prince was always punctually at evensong, or vesper service; after which, the day concluded with "such honest disports as were devised expressly for his recrea- tion." At nine o'clock, his traverse-curtain— that which parted the alcove sleeping place from the rest of his chamber — was drawn inexorably, and the prince within, attended by his uncle Rivers, and his chamberlain, Yaughan, who had the room cleared of all who were not on especial duty, and they were .to be very discreet persons indeed. Such alone were permitted to approach the heir-apparent, from his arising to his retirement behind the night traverse of the alcove. Watch was then set,* and a sure and trusty guard kept on all sides, patrolling the Norman mount of Ludlow, and upon the warder's tower of its embattled donjon. Lord Rivers had made suitable provision for the " noble stories " which his royal master insisted were to regale the soul of the prince of Wales, while the temperate dinners at the educational palace of the Marches re- freshed his body. Rivers had prepared himself for his high office by European travel and study. His own account is extant of how he came to translate from the French, certain "dictes" of philosophers in the English edition of the same work, which Caxton printed for him in 1477. f Speaking of the French edition, said to be the first book published by Caxton, Rivers says : " A gentle- * Sloane .MS., British Museum, evident that the Ludlow establish- 3179. ment was several years earlier than t From which preface it is most chronicle history allows. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 121 man lent it to me when I embarked for Spain,* in 1473, at Southampton, to divert the thoughts of sea- sickness, and greatly edified was I." Rivers affirms that after his dread lord, Edward IV., commanded him to Ludlow, to attend the prince of Wales, "he had great leisure, which he employed in rendering into English these Dictes, or Sayings, of the Philosophers." No wonder he had leisure to employ himself thus virtuously, for his royal lord had laid down the law that he was personally to attend the levee and coucher, and all meals of his important charge. Lord Rivers was too completely preux chevalier to endure that his royal pupil should receive from any work that had passed under his pen, prejudices against women. Accordingly, he carefully expunged all evil stories and epigrams to the disparagement of the ladies, with which the original French work of " The Notable Wise Dictes of Philosophers," abounded. His publisher Caxton inter- fered to a degree hardly credible in these days. For he gathered together passages his author had rejected, and published them en masse at the end of the volume — a process not likely to decrease their effect. Moreover, Caxton indited a preface, in which he thus discusses the proceedings of his author, noble as he was, and brother- in-law to the sovereign receiving the presentation copy : " I find," says Caxton, in this preface, " that my lord Rivers hath left out certain conclusions touching women, whereof I marvelled that my said lord hath not writ them. But I suppose that some fair lady hath desired him to leave it out of his hook, or else for the very affection, love, and goodwill that he hath unto all ladies, he thought Socrates spared the sooth (left untold the truth), which I cannot . think so true a man and nohle a philosopher as Socrates could. But I perceive that my said lord knoweth verily, that such defaults he not found in women born and dwelling in these regions. I wot * To undertake the fashionable tion. Douglas, when he carried the pilgrimage of St. James of Compos- heart of Bruce on the same journey, tenella. Killing a few Moors by the had evidently given in to this prac- way was considered a godly prepara- tice. 122 EDWARD THE FIFTH. well of whatsoever condition women be in Greece, the women of this country (of England) be right good, wise, pleasant, humble, discreet, sober, chaste, obedient to their husbands, true, secret, stedfast, ever busy, never idle, temperate in speech and virtuous in all their works, — or at least should be so ! " The year before the death of Edward IV., a contract of marriage was agreed upon between the prince of Wales and Anne of Bret ague.* If there was a happy and well governed corner of the earth in the sorely tormented fifteenth century, it was, according to our chronicler Hall, the small kingdom of South Wales. Under the sceptre of Edward of the Sanctuary, guided and supported by his heroic and learned uncle, the woes of Ancient Britain ceased. The excellent jurisdiction was continued long after the brave band of gentlemen who established it, with their innocent prince, met lawless and violent deaths. There was scarcely an office in the full splendour of Edward IV. 's court, but what was to be found duplicated in his son's Ludlow palace. More than one name f familiar to the reader of English history, startles us when met there. Sir William Stanley, for instance, beheaded by Henry VII. for merely saying "that if he thought Perkin was one of Edward IV. 's sons, he would never draw sword against him."J Sir William Stanley was domes- ticated with young Edward at Ludlow : he was the lord steward of the household. Sir Richard Croft, the fierce marchman, who had formerly been governor, to their great tribulation, of Edward IV. and his brother princes of the house of York, who were partly edu- cated at Ludlow, and complained by letter now extant of his " odious rule :"§ he was now the prince of Wales's treasurer. The president of his council was the celebrated * Anne became sovereign duchess f Sharon Turner, of Bretagne, which she united to % Lord Bacon's History of Henry France by her marriage with Charles VII. VIII. and subsequently with Louis § Sir H. Ellis's "Historical Let- XII. ters," vol. 1, series 1. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 123 preacher, Dr. Alcock, bishop of 'Worcester, and another prelate, the bishop of St. David's, was chancellor. Sir Thomas Yaughan, the guardian of his infant days, was still the prince's chamberlain, and never left him by night or day. As for the rest of the numerous staff of household officers, the queen had literally built around her eldest son a wall of her own kindred and connections. Besides her brother Anthony, earl of Eivers, deservedly first in authority, there was her younger brother, his chaplain, Dr. Lionel Woodville ; her second son, lord Eichard Gray, who was comptroller ; two other brothers, sir Edward and sir Eichard Woodville, councillors ; sir Eichard Haut (of the old Kentish family), who had married the queen's eldest sister, Jane Woodville ; and lord Lyle, brother of the queen's first husband,* was his master of the horse. Malcontent as were the old nobility at this formidable constellation of maternal influences around the rising sun, no one could deny that good was effected. For the first time since its subjugation, Wales was wisely and benefi- cently ruled : " Insomuch," observes Hall, emphatically — and that chronicler, descended of Marcher race, is ex- cellent authority — " the banner and seal of this infant prince of Wales were more respected than those of the haughtiest of his warlike ancestors. The Welsh forthwith began to enjoy the blessings of peace and good order."f These admirable results were of course owing to the worth and ability of lord Eivers, who governed in the name of his nephew. As to young Edward's seal, for which the Cambrian chieftainry testified «so much respect, a charter has been found bearing its impress. The veritable effigy of young Edward actually is thereupon, riding like a gallant chevalier ; but as Ms charter is in Welsh, we refer those who can read it to our authority. J The words * Sir Harris Xicolas' Excerpta. f Hall's Chronicle, Union of York J Arcbseologia, vol. xxx, page 8. and Lancaster. — See page 125 of this chapter, (1.) 124 EDWARD THE FIFTH. " Sud Wallia " appear on the parchment to which, it is fastened. The young royal chevalier is represented on his seal as prince of Wales, entirely enclosed in the plate armour of his era. Certainly, it contrasts unfavourably when com- pared with that of William Rufus, who is clad in the shirt of mail used by the lightly armed Norman cheva- liers who conquered England, or held her in restraint. The coat of mail of Rufus, which gave way to every agile movement of its wearer, is preferable to a lobster-like enclosure, more adapted for security than attack ; and the barefaced conical helm, which admitted the free air, to the stifling basnet here depicted, which gives the idea of two butter boats, the smaller turned downward within the other. It works with an upward hinge, like many of the period still to be seen in the Tower, and has a little lion dominant as crest. Edward Plantagenet rides with unbent knees, like Rufus ; but, unlike him, he is com- fortably seated in a saddle guarded en croupe with plate, to prevent his bearing backward in the tilt, while Rufus stands in his stirrups, supported by a small high block intervening between his person and his steed. So much is it wanting in breadth and width that the skirts of his coat of mail conceal it. However, the mechanism of this important piece of horse gear is entirely revealed in the great seals of his successors, who, wearing short jackets of mail, show the saddle. The height of some of them is remarkable. Thanks to the courtesy of Mr. Ready, who permitted us to view his beautiful sulphur impressions of the great seals of England at the British Museum, we obtained more infor- mation concerning this important accessory to Anglo- Norman horsemanship than could reasonably be expected. The seal from which Edward's effigy is taken is the same which the chronicler Hall declares was so much respected by the fierce Welsh chieftains, although only representing the person of a boy of remarkably tall EDWARD THE FIFTH. 125 and manly proportions. As for the banner he men- tions, that is displayed on the reverse. It merely shows the three lioncels, or leopards, passant, of the well- known English royal blazon, but without quartering the French fleur-de-lis, as our readers may observe is the case with the housings and shield of the figure herewith. The supporters are very curious. A gigantic ostrich feather on each size of the blazonry forms them ; round the stem of each feather is the prince of Wales' mot or battle cry, Ich dien, I serve. Two pigmy lions, half- crouching beneath, back to back, are each employed in holding one of these feathers in his paw. EDWARD THE FIFTH. CHAPTER II. Accession of Edward V. — He keeps Garter festival at Ludlow — Sets out for London — Gloucester and Buckingham meet and delude Rivers at North- ampton — King rests at Stoney Stratford — His progress Londonward inter- cepted by the dukes — His brother lord Gray arrested with Yaughan — King pleads for them fruitlessly — Dukes bring him to Northampton — Bucking- ham arrests the king's nncle Rivers there — King's anguish— Gloucester proclaims himself Protector — Disperses or arrests the king's household officers — Alarm of the king's mother — Carries her son Richard into sanctuary — King's progress resumed — Lord mayor meets the king at Hornsey — King enters London — Reverence paid him by Gloucester — King lodged in bishop's palace at St. Paul's — Conspiracy of Gloucester and Buckingham — Duke of York sent for from sanctuary— As companion for the king— Denied by the queen— Regal acts of Edward Y. at the Tower — Gloucester appointed Lord Protector by privy council — Hastings' fidelity to Edward Y. tested by Catesby — Preparations for coronation, June 23rd — Stormy scene in Tower council room — Death of Hastings — King at Ely House — Surrender of Richard of York — Edward V. afflicted by the child's demands for the queen — Buckingham proceeds to raise Gloucester to the throne — Sermon of Dr. Shaw against the young king — Richard III. elected king— March of northern army on London — Edward Y/s friends executed at Pontefract — Popular predictions — Richard III. proclaimed king, June 26th — Payments made to Edward Y.'s tradesmen — Coronation of Richard III. The halcyon days of the Arcadian court at Ludlow Castle were suddenly terminated by a letter from the queen to her brother Rivers, announcing the death of her royal husband, Edward IV., April 9, 1483, and the consequent accession of her eldest son as Edward V. The widowed queen, who wrote immediately the breath had left her husband's body,* charged her brother to levy a strong veteran band of the Welsh marchers, to guard the * Sir Thomas More. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 127 young monarch on his way, and hurry him to London instantly. Well it would have been if the queen had continued firm to her first resolution ; but as soon as one messenger could succeed another, the first order was superseded. The lord chamberlain Hastings, and several of the old nobility of the party adverse to the queen's family, had browbeaten the unfortunate mother at the first council she held, sneered at her orders for the levy and march of the Welsh militia in time of profound peace, and tauntingly demanded,* " Who was the queen's army to fight ? " " Not them surely who had supported the throne of York with their best blood ? Not the king's valiant uncle, Gloucester, who had just returned from the conquest of Edinburgh, and proclaimed his grace so dutifully at York?" Hastings concluded with the stinging assertion " that the valiant marchmen of Wales were called out to support the queen's kindred in the power, under Edward V., which they had long illegally exercised under Edward IV." Goaded by these taunts, and deluded by the appointment of the 4th of May for the coronation of the young king, the queen-mother was induced to counter- order the Welsh army, which, under the com- mand of a general like Elvers, who had twice turned fortune in favour of the house of York,f might have established her boy's throne in peace. Eichard, duke of Gloucester, had proclaimed her son in the northern metropolis, where he was all-powerful. For in York, Eichard was commander of an army not yet disbanded, wherewith he had half conquered Scot- land. At the same fatal council the queen received a letter from him, written with such profound respect to herself, and loyalty to Edward V., that she was persuaded that the expense and trouble of the Welsh army would * More, Hall, t At the sea-fight with Warwick storming of the Tower of London hy and Clarence, 1470; and at the Falconbridge, May, 1471. 128 EDWARD THE FIFTH. be superfluous. She ordered her brother to bring up her son for his coronation, with no other guard than the lords and gentlemen who composed his court at Ludlow.* Meantime, there was an adversary, nearly connected with the queen's family, more quiet at council than Hastings, but scarcely less to be dreaded than Glou- cester. This was the queen's brother-in-law, the young ambitious Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, a prince of the blood royal, who was, by female descent, the representative of Thomas, duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. How is it possible to comprehend the motives of men's actions, without knowing their previous lives and connections? Take the career of Buckingham, for instance. His father fell fighting for Lancaster at the first battle of St. Alban's ; his grand- father at Northampton in the same cause. The young heir of Stafford was given in his minority, by the victo- rious Edward IV., to his haughty sister, the duchess of Exeter, in wardship, "to be brought up in love to the line of York."f One may well imagine the injurious treatment the young Lancastrian received from this pernicious woman, who only succeeded in making her ward or prisoner a most deadly enemy to the family of her royal brother. The marriage of Henry Stafford with the queen's portionless sister Katherine did not sooth his discontent. J He had received the high title of Buck- ingham, but not the great inheritance of the co-heiress of the Bohuns, earls of Hereford, § which he claimed when the heirs of Lancaster were cut off. [f His marriage was the result of a private treaty be- tween the queen and her proud and avaricious sister-in- law, the duchess of Exeter. It took place in his boyhood. * More, Hall. broke, afterwards Henry IV., mar- f Sharon Turner. T ^ two sisters, co-heiresses of the + w-iv e w 4. Bohuns, earls of Hereford. J William or Wyrcestre. ' § Thomas duke of Gloucester, || Edward of Lancaster, prince of and his nephew, Henry of Boling- Wales, and Henry, duke of Exeter. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 129 Buckingham had been for some time out of favour at the court of Edward TV. ; he was malcontent at the appro- priation of his rights of inheritance. The king either would not or could not restore them, for he had dowered the queen on the spoils of Lancaster, and the moiety of the Bohuns' fiefs were part and parcel of them. Of course, here was sufficient cause of hatred to the queen ; and though the word "brother," according to the custom of the times, was constantly exchanged between the queen, the earl of Rivers, and Buckingham, because he was the husband of their sister, Katherine Woodville, yet subsequent events proved that the confraternity, on the duke's part at least, was not better than that of Cain. Another injustice, worse, because it was withal flagrant ingratitude, had changed the hearts of lord Howard and his heir. The little duke of York was still duke of Norfolk and earl marshal, although his infant bride, Anne Mowbray, the heiress of both fiefs, had died the pre- ceding year.* The Howards, by law as well as by justice, ought to have succeeded as her rightful heirs. To add outrage to these injuries, the queen prevailed upon her royal husband, a few months before his death, to take the command of the Tower of London from their old and tried friend John lord Howard, f in order to vest that important trust in the weak hands of her eldest son, Dorset, who was not twenty-one, and by no means remarkable either for precocious valour, wisdom, or in- tegrity. Such were the adverse elements which the unconscious boy-monarch set out to encounter, when, at the age of twelve years and five months, he was summoned to take possession of his regal inheritance, by the title of King Edward V. He for ever left his beautiful palatial castle at Ludlow, which crowns that sweet landscape called by the loving natives the Golden Valley, not to be matched perhaps in this island. He left his happy * Sharon Turner. f Sir T. More. 9 130 EDWARD THE FIFTH. principality of Wales, which doubtless he believed that he himself governed, and in an evil hour commenced his progress to his English throne. Lord Eivers had delayed him, that the festival of St. George might be celebrated at Ludlow with the splendour befitting a king who is sovereign of the Garter order. The '24th of April, the day after the festival of St. George, Edward V., and his cavalcade of nobles, gentlemen, and yeomen, moved forward. All were attired in the deepest mourning, excepting the young king, who wore Ms blue velvet robe of the Garter over his sable garb. So passed Edward V., in peaceful progress, through the fair mid-counties of England, which were never to behold his return. No sooner had Hastings circumvented the queen's cautionary order of calling out the Welsh marchmen to guard her son on his way to the throne, than Buckingham sent Ms favourite agent, one Percival, to communicate the news to Eichard, duke of Gloucester. He urged him instantly to march. from York with such cavalry as he could depend upon; two thousand men would secure his mastery in the kingdom ; and, for his own part, if his cousin Gloucester brought one thousand, he would join him at Northampton at the head of as many of his own retainers, wearing "Stafford knots."* Gloucester acted on this suggestion ; nor must we omit to remind the reader that his principal counsellor, afterwards his notorious minister, lord Lovell, was the son of Buckingham's mother by her first husband. It was on the 29th of April that the progress ol Edward V. reached Stoney Stratford, on the very after- noon that the junction took place of the forces of Gloucester and Buckingham, at the town of Northampton, about twelve miles to the north of the young king's har- bourage for the night. Historians blame lord Rivers, declaring that he sent his royal charge forward to Stoney Stratford, while he lingered behind at Northampton ; but * More - t Hall. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 131 that was not the case, for the king's train pursued the road from Wales, which the Holyhead mails used to travel, and ^Northampton did not intersect that route, but Stoney Stratford did. It is evident that Rivers, who rested his young royal charge for the night at Stoney Stratford, had heard of the squadrons that were filling the northern road, and of the arrival of Gloucester and Buckingham, with their military array. He therefore diverged, for the purpose of ascertaining what this army meant, and it is quite evident that he had given lord Richard Gray and sir Thomas Vaughan orders to speed London- ward with the young king, without waiting for him in the morning. When lord Rivers entered Northampton, he found it swarming with the duke of Gloucester's northern cavalry, besides nine hundred retainers of Buckingham, each wearing the well-known badge of the Stafford knot. There were three inns in Northampton market place, joining each other. Gloucester and Buckingham had just taken up their quarters at two, the inns situated at each extremity, leaving the middle one vacant, like an empty trap, set for the nonce, in which Rivers secured his lodging for that night.* Immediately afterwards, his brother-in-law, Buckingham, visited him in his quarters, entering with open arms, and the exclamation of " Well met, good brother Scales. "f And withal "he wept." The fraternal embracings between Rivers and the husband of his sister Katherine were scarcely over, when Gloucester entered from the other inn. His greeting was as hearty: "Welcome, good cousin out of Wales," and then followed some moralising congratulations, in Glou- cester's peculiar style, on the happiness he felt at the * Baldwin's Mirrour for Magis- Woodville, when Buckingham first trates, supported by the nearly became his brotler-in-law. Bivers contemporary chronicler, Hall. was lord Scales in right of his f This was the title of Anthony wife. 132 EDWARD THE FIFTH. peace and good will whieh pervaded the times and people in general. Rivers was utterly deceived by the apparent frankness and condescension of these great princes of the blood, whom he had expected to find rudely repulsive.* Gloucester invited Rivers to supper at his quarters. After the meal, the cups passed ' quickly and merrily, and all assumed the semblance of a revel in the old military times of Edward IV. Ever as the cup was pushed to Gloucester, he pledged Rivers, saying, "I drink to you, good coz."f The two dukes kept their wits in working order, but Rivers was so overcome that at the end of the revel he was led to his inn between both his boon com- panions. The dukes J left him in his bedroom, wishing him many and affectionate good-nights. There is no doubt but they had extracted information from him sufficient to guide their manoeuvres for the morrow. Certainly, the conduct of Rivers, considering the precious charge he had, was inexcusable. The moment Rivers was asleep, the two dukes called for the keys of his inn, locked the gates, and, appointing sentinels, forbade any one to enter or depart. The rest of the night was spent by them in arrangements of military strategy. They stationed on the high road from Northampton to Stoney Stratford, at certain inter- vals, men-at-arms, forming a lane. Many country people remembered, for scores of years, how the troopers blocked up the highway to Northampton, and turned them back from market. The two dukes were early as any one on the road to Stoney Stratford. There they were joined by a third person, who, notorious carouser as he was, had certainly kept back from the orgie of the preceding night. This third making up their triumvirate, had hitherto worked successfully for their plans. He and Rivers were most deadly enemies. He came to enjoy the overthrow of the i man he hated, and to take official charge of his * Sir T. More ; Hall. f Mirrour for Magistrates. J Sir Thomas More. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 133 young royal master. This third person in the plot was lord Hastings, the king's lord chamberlain.* Early as the dukes and their coadjutor were at Stonoy Stratford in the morning, the young king and his caval- cade had nearly got the start of them, for they were all mounted and moving down the hill towards London when Gloucester and Buckingham galloped up. Alighting and kneeling before the king in homage, they greeted him with professions of loyal love and veneration, adding, that " They had hastened to meet him on his journey, for the purpose of attending him, and doing him dutiful service by the way." Rising from his homage, Buckingham gave the word, in a loud tone of command, " Gentlemen and yeomen, keep your places, and march forward !"f The royal progress again pursued the London road; but before they had well cleared the little town of Stoney Stratford, one or other of the leaders of this formidable addition to the party contrived "to pick a loud quarrel " with lord Richard Gray, the king's half-brother .J Either Buckingham or Gloucester, or both, accused him of con- spiring with his brother Dorset and his uncle Rivers to rule the king and realm during the ensuing minority, "bringing, withal, a special charge against his brother * HalPs Chronicle, and Mirrour that the term "brother," constantly for Magistrates. We must not de- used by Buckingham, betokened the spise the Mirrour because it is in connection by the marriage of Ka- verse. Almost all chronicles written therine Woodville. The Mirrour says, in English, until Fabyan's, were in speaking in Hastings' person : verse. The principal contributor to ' ti . .. . , ,,. ,, .. r „ \ . . , . . . "To meet the king in mourning dress this collection or metrical biographies , was lord Sackville, Queen Elizabeth's With q*"^ and with wily Buck . near kinsman, whose father was a con- in°-hame." temporary, and his mother knew all the traditions of the royal family. Again The ease and mtimacy with which «i helped the Boar and Buck to cap- he gives the dialogue between Rivers tivate and the two dukes shows he knew, Lord Rivers, Gray, sir Thomas Vaughan, what few at the present day could tell, and Haute." t Sir T. More. % Ibid ; Hall ; Mirrour ; Holinshed. 134 EDWARD THE FIFTH. Dorset, as governor of the Tower, of shipping the late king's treasure from the Tower wharf."* The young monarch, with tears, endeavoured to compose the strife, which raged the higher the more earnestly he pleaded for his brother. " I cannot tell," said he, "what my brother Dorset has done at the Tower of London ; but, in good faith, I can well answer for my uncle Eivers and my brother Richard here."f But the dukes arrested lord Richard on the spot, sir Richard Haut was made prisoner at the same time, together with the faithful Vaughan, who had never before been parted from his royal charge. Thus Edward V. suffered all the agonies of losing, at one blow, parent, nurse, and personal protector. Back the whole party were instantly countermanded to Northampton by the evil ones, who had thus crossed the young king's peaceful line of march. Deep sorrow sat on the fair features of the boy-king; tears fell from time to time from his eyes when he saw led as captives his best beloved brother, lord Richard Gray, and that faithful chamberlain, sir Thomas Vaughan, in whose arms he had been cradled. $ While the cavalcade was approaching Northampton, the servants of lord Rivers began to stir for the morning, and found that the inn was locked, and all within were prisoners, closely guarded. They woke their master — whose sleep was heavy after his revel — by coming to his bedside with exclamations of alarm, telling him "the dukes had gone their way, and, taking the keys of his inn, had left him prisoner." So completely was Rivers deceived, that he supposed his princely boon companions * Sir T. More. f Ibid ; Hall. X Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, etc., by Miss Agnes Sf rickland,vo1. vice-chamberlain of James V. of 1, 3rd edition, pp. 169 — 172. The lord Scotland, gives a curious account of of Grauthuse, in his journal, notes just his duties. See Life of Queen Mar- the same of sir Thomas Vaughan' s garet Tudor, u Queens of Scotland/' attendance on his young charge. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 135 were playing out a jest,* and had taken this method of ensuring their earlier arrival at Stoney Stratford. By the time he was dressed, Gloucester and Bucking- ham returned. They were desirous of acting out their parts as speedily as possible, and therefore admitted Rivers to their presence. " Brother,'' exclaimed he, merrily, to Buckingham, "is this how you serve me?" The reply was in a different tone. Indeed, according to the poetical chronicler — Buckingham, " stern in evil sadness, Cried, ' I arrest thee, traitor, for thy badness.' " f "Arrest," said Rivers, " why, where is your commission ? " Buckingham instantly flashed out his sword, and all his party did the same. Oppressed by numbers, Rivers sur- rendered without further resistance, J and was forthwith put under guard in a separate chamber from the prisoners previously seized at Stoney Stratford. Hastings was doubtless present at this transaction, and took possession of his young royal lord, while Gloucester proceeded to his next manoeuvre, which was to arrest all Edward V.'s household officers likely to be dangerous, and disperse the rest. A new household was next packed out of the con- federates of the triumvirate, and instantly put on duty. " Whereat the king wept."§ Can it be doubted that lord chamberlain Hastings was at the head of this unwelcome company of superseders in the royal service ? Then proclamation was made in the streets of Northampton that the king's uncle, Richard, duke of Gloucester, was appointed Lord Protector of his grace's person and realm. [| * More ; Hall. ings, observing that neither the king f Mirrour for Magistrates. or queen elected him as such. No J Ibid ; Hall. parliament was then sitting, as sir § Sir T. More. Thomas More observes, nor had || Mirrour for Magistrates, which Edward IV. left any will providing alone preserves this tradition as for the government of his sons' part of the Northampton proceed- minority. 136 EDWARD THE FIFTH. By the time this great press of business was dispatched, the dinner hour arrived, and the king was served with as much state and punctilio as the inns at Northampton could arrange. The royal youth had dried his streaming tears, but a settled gloom sat on his countenance; he neither ate nor spoke. Something in his silent displeasure perhaps recalled Edward IV. in his dangerous moods, for it had more effect on his self-appointed protector than the most passionate demonstrations of his anguish in the morning. Gloucester took the readiest means of dispelling the cloud on the royal brow, by sending a kind message to lord Rivers, with a. dish full of dainties, desiring him "to be of good cheer, for he was his good friend, and all now would be well/' Rivers requested the bearer of the viands and message to deliver both to his nephew, lord Richard Gray : "For he is young/' said he, "and unused to change of fortune ; but I have seen too much of it to care one whit for these ups and downs ."* Gloucester sent off the brave but too careless veteran into confinement in his own stronghold of Sheriff Hutton, in Yorkshire. The other captive friends and servants of the young king were incarcerated at different jails in the north, until in due time they met at fatal Pontefract.f That very evening, news was brought to the queen at Westminster Palace of the sinister proceedings at Northampton. Struck with terror at her own imprudence, in having countermanded the army of Welsh marchmen for the young king's escort to London, the queen antici- pated the worst. That night she took sanctuary, not as before in the building so called, but in the abbot's resi- dence in Westminster Abbey. Here she gathered her five young daughters and the heir-presumptive, her son, Richard, duke of York, a child of nine years, and entered * Hall ; the Mirrour has the same incident, f Sharon Turner : sir Harris Nicolas. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 187 herself and them as sanctuary refugees. The object of the queen's' alarm was neither Gloucester nor even her brother-in-law, Buckingham, but her husband's late favourite, the lord chamberlain Hastings. When she found that her eldest son was in his charge, her terror knew no bounds. For a fierce quarrel* between her brother Rivers and Hastings had taken place a few years previously. Hastings had narrowly escaped the block, and actually underwent a sharp dose of imprisonment in the Tower. Although the strong affection borne to Hastings by the king carried him safely through these dangers, the queen knew Hastings had vowed vengeance against her brother Rivers and all his connections. Great jealousy among the English nobility had been excited against her brother Rivers by her prevailing on her royal lord to load him with trusts and favours. He was the governor of the prince of Wales, custodian of his person, and ruler of his principality. The young earl of War- wick had been, since the mysterious murder of his father Clarence, given as ward to Rivers. The queen herself had possession of her second son Richard. Thus strengthened, with the aid of her valiant brother, Eliza- beth meant to govern England during Edward V.'s minority. The capture of Rivers, and the transfer of the young king into the hands of the mortal enemy of her house, the lord chamberlain Hastings, paralysed her mind, Throwing up all chances in her terror, she fled to the protection of the church, conceiving that the man who would have laid down his life for her children, and who actually did so, was their principal foe. The lord chan- cellor was then Dr. John Scott, also called Rotherham, archbishop of York, a great and good man. He could answer for Hastings' loyalty to the heirs of his late master, yet deeply suspected their real enemies. He followed the terrified queen into the precincts of West- minster Abbey, and had an interview with her in the * Sir T. More ; Hall. 138 EDWARD THE FIFTH. abbot's ball,* wbere " sbe sat a-low on tbe rushes, all desolate and dismayed,"f wbile ber people were, witb mucb rumble and clatter, bringing in from Westminster Palace furniture for her use. After consoling tbe bapless royal widow, tbe chan- cellor - arcbbisbop said, " He bad bad a message from lord chamberlain Hastings, on whose fidelity she might depend, as the devoted friend of ber husband's children." "Ah, woe worth him!" passionately exclaimed the queen- mother, " he thinks of nought but to destroy me and my kindred." Then the archbishop gave her the great seal, and bade ber " Be of good cheer, for while she kept her second son with her in sanctuary, Edward V. would be safe," adding, "that if any other but the young king were to be crowned, be would crown young Richard of York king, in the abbey, tbe next day." In a few hours, Dorset, instead of making efforts to assist them, threw up his important command at the Tower of London, and, like the craven that he was, took refuge with tbe queen, his mother, in Westminster Abbey. J He was soon followed by ber younger brother, Dr. Lionel Woodville, who, we have seen, was the young king's chaplain. § He bad either escaped at Stoney Stratford from the fate of his relatives, or tbe Protector dared not touch an ecclesiastic. It was May 4th before tbe royal progress drew near to London. Meantime, the duke of Gloucester behaved with the greatest attention to bis dejected nephew. Yet when- ever he had an opportunity, he lamented tbe perverse designs of Rivers and the queen's relatives to murder him. His attendants shewed to tbe crowds of common people, who flocked to see him, certain barrels || of ammu- nition, provided for that purpose, and declared "it would be charity to the nation to bang up such con- * Now the school-room of the Westminster scholars, f Sir T. More. J Sir Harris Nicolas' Life of Elizabeth of York. § Sharon Turner. || More's Edward V. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 130 spirators. At Hornsey Park, the royal cavalcade was met by tlio lord mayor, Edmund Shaw, goldsmith, who, with the aldermen in their robes of office, and five hundred of the principal citizens, clad in violet colour, conducted the young king with infinite reverence to Bishopgate. The loyalty of the duke of Gloucester edified all beholders, for he rode bareheaded before the king, bowing cap in hand, and with the other hand pointing him out, exclaiming, from time to time, in a loud voice to the sur- rounding crowds, " Behold your prince and sovereign ! " The young monarch was conspicuous not only by riding his white jennet in the midst of his sable-clad cavalcade, and wearing the blue velvet mantle of the Garter, but for his beauty, and the sorrow that sat on his fair features. The lord mayor accompanied his sovereign to the palace of the bishop of London, at St. Paul's, where he was left to repose until his uncles had matured their schemes. Meantime, Edward V. was treated with all the respect due to an English sovereign. A residence at the London episcopal palace, and a visit to the shrine of St. Erkenwald, in Old St. Paul's, was always preliminary to keeping court at the Tower of London, on the eve of a coronation. The royal magnificence that surrounded the young sovereign of England at the palace of St. Paul's had not effaced from his memory his early friends and true protectors. Buckingham, from some change of policy, sought to make himself agreeable to Edward, and paid him the most obsequious attentions. Lowering looks, and ever and anon a threat • of vengeance for the part he had played at Northampton, were the best return the treach- erous courtier obtained from the young royal Plantagenet.* Well the boy knew that all sorts of calamities impended over the beloved uncle Rivers, the dear brother Richard * Sir T. More. 140 EDWARD THE FIFTH. Gray, and the faithful Vaughan, on whose warlike arm he had been brought up from infancy, and wiio was doubtless the dearest of the three. The young king's imprudence has been blamed, yet a very small amount of worldly wisdom is brought by twelve or thirteen summers. The royal child was like a newly-fledged bird, surrounded by the limed snares of the fowler, which could neither ruffle a feather or flutter a wing without hastening its destruction. Then the self-appointed Protector was observed to insidiously condole with Buckingham on the evident aversion thus manifested to him by the king. And he was heard to put the leading questions, of " Had he not gone too far ? What was now to be done ? Would the young king ever forget the grief inflicted on him at Northampton ? "* Gloucester summoned the privy council, and presided over its sittings, directly he brought the king to London. It was found that no one among its members objected to his assumption of the regency. Every person seemed to consider the king's brother had more right to it than the queen's relatives. Steps were taken for confirming him in the administration of the government. The coronation, which had at first been appointed to take place on the 4th of May, was now put off till the 22nd of June,f and a new parliament was summoned in the young king's name, to be holden at Westminster, June 25th. J Notes of an address prepared for opening the sessions are in existence, but much defaced by fire. This curious document has betrayed some historians into the error of asserting that the young king did certainly take his seat on the throne, and open his parliament in person ; but the writer clearly shows this address was not to be * Sir T. More. f Continuator of the Chronicle of J The writ of summons addressed Croyland ; Sharon Turner's History to the archbishop of Canterbury, is of England, Edward V. dated May 13th. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 141 spoken by the king, but read by the chancellor, for he says, " My mind is, that this should be the word of the king, and by me to be spoken at this time, ' God hath called mo at my tender age to be your sovereign.'"* The appeal to parliament for supplies was prepared in these words: "Who can suppose but that they that see the most toward and virtuous disposition of our sovereign lord that now is, his gentle wit and ripe understanding, far passing the nature of his youth — who can think but the lords and commons of this land will not agreeably purvey for the sure maintenance of his high estate as any of their predecessors have done to any other king of England afore ? " There is also the proposition of con- ferring the office of protector on the king's uncle, the duke of Gloucester, introduced with great laudations of the noble qualities of that prince, " in whose great prudence, wisdom, and fortunes, resteth at this season the defence of this realm; as well against the open enemies as against the subtil and feigned friends of the same."f Gloucester complained exceedingly, in council, of the queen's perversity in keeping the second prince of the crown with her in sanctuary ; as if this royal child of tender years could be a criminal. He proposed the plan of taking him out by force. However, cardinal Bourchier, the archbishop of Canterbury, himself a prince of the house of York, X and a great courtier, undertook to negotiate with the queen, for the purpose of' inducing her to deliver up her youngest son, in order that he might cheer his brother Edward V. with his company. The queen was impene- trable to all the courtier cardinal could urge, and con- * Cottonian MSS, Vitellius, 10. That the young king met and was in- f Ibid. These are clearly only the troduced to the privy council, and notes or rough draught of the ad- S aye his assent to hls uncle ' s P rotec " dress intended to be read by the torate > 1S P robable - chancellor on this important occasion ; J Son of Isabel Plantagenet, aunt but no parliament assembled till of Edward IV., Clarence, and Glou- seven months after Edward's murder. cester, etc. 142 EDWARD THE FIFTH. tinued to keep, sedulously, both the little duke of York, as well as the great seal, which had been consigned to her by the lord chancellor. Great blame was cast by the council on that prelate : and a new seal was prepared for Edward V. After waiting in vain the arrival of his brother, for some days, the young king was con- ducted in state to the Tower of London, where he was attended in the regal suite of apartments with all the homage that had been offered to his predecessors. No one can doubt that he was in the personal care of his lord chamberlain, Hastings, and, while that was con- tinued, the king was safe enough, although there is every reason to suppose he approved of Hastings as little as he did of Buckingham. It was discussed in the privy council whether the king could not abide in some more suitable place than the bishop's palace. On this opinions differed, some named Westminster, others the priory of St. John's, Clerkenwell, but Buckingham proposed the Tower, which being con- sidered the most proper, he was removed thither, but not immediately, as the date of some of his grants prove he was at the bishop's palace on the 9th of May.* He was settled at the Tower ten days after, as proved by the first of a series of documents signed with the autograph of Edward V., countersigned by his uncle, and bearing the notice that the king acted by his advice as his defender and protector. The earliest is dated from . " Our Tower of London, May 19, 1483, first year of our reign."f It is to the effect, that it was the king's pleasure "that Edmund Halt be discharged from his office of keeper of our gaol at Nottingham, and Eobert Ligh appointed in his place." From the name of Edward Halt, or Haut, there is * Continuator of Croyland Chronicle* f This autograph is under a show- the English sovereigns. It belongs to case in the British Museum, in its the Vitellius division of the Cottonian chronological order, among those of collection. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 14'3 reason to surmise that the young king was made to displace his own friends, and fill up their places with his enemies. But while performing these acts of formal regality, no one must suppose that he was not surrounded with all the pomp and service belong- ing to an English monarch. Two of his warrants are dated at TTestniinster Palace,* proving that he held state there occasionally. Although so near, no trace can be found that he was permitted to have an interview with his mother, then at Westminster Abbey. The duke of Gloucester was proclaimed protector to his nephew, Edward Y., by order of the privy council, May 27, 1483. f It is probable that the young king had to appear in regal state at the privy council, and ratify the appoint- ment of his uncle to the regency. The day that was actually fixed for Edward Y.'s coro- nation is mentioned in the royal letters issued in his name by the Protector, addressed to fifty persons by name, among whom were lord Ormonde, lord Staunton, the son and heir of lord Bergavenny, (one of the Nevilles, his cousins,) lord Grey de Euthen, the son and heir of lord Cobham, Henry Gold, alderman of London, and Otes Gilbert, esquire, to this effect : — " Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well, and by the advice of our dearest uncle, the due of Gloucester, protector of this our royaume during our young age, and of the lords of our council, we write unto you at this time willingly, nathelesse, charging you to prepare and furnish yourself to receive the noble order of knighthood at our coronation, which by God's grace we intend shall be solemnised, the 22nd day of this present month, at our palace of Westminster, * Sharon Turner. f Toone's Chronology. It is added the archbishop committed to one of that sir Robert Brackenbury was the prison fortresses of the Tower about that time made lieutenant of of London. He likewise arrested the Tower. The office of lord chan- Edward IY.'s late secretary, Oliver cellor was taken from the archbishop King, a most unpopular person, and of York and given to the bishop sent him to the same kind of du- of Lincoln by Gloucester, who had ranee. 144 EDWARD THE FIFTH. commanding you to be here at our Toure of London, four days afore our said coronation, to have communication with our commissioners concerning that matter, not failing hereof in any wise as ye intend to please us, and as ye will answer. " Given the vth day of June."* These young heirs of nobles and gentles were for the minor king's little knights of the Bath, to be dubbed at the Tower, probably by his hand. It was the etiquette for a youthful sovereign to have his knights of the Bath about his own age. His henchmen and pages were all boys. The Protector now exercised his high authority with legality. Hitherto he had gained the objects of his ambition with wonderful facility. He had wrested all power from the hands of the queen-mother and her brothers, and had a prospect of reigning during the minority of his royal nephew,, for some years. His- torians have given Gloucester, who was at this period only thirty years of age, credit for more forecast and farsightedness than he possessed. Had he aimed at the crown from the first moment of Edward IV. 's death, it is scarcely possible that he would have put such impediments in his own way as proclaiming Edward V. at York, and personally showing him as king at his public entry of London, likewise causing him to per- form many acts of regality. The regency evidently was, at first, the sole aim of Gloucester's desires. The regency soon gained with wonderful ease by Bucking- ham's unscrupulous activity, Gloucester now wanted more. Hitherto all had been transacted by Buckingham's bold genius for political intrigue, without any need of the Protector coming prominently forward. If the same clever diplomacy could contrive to force the crown of England from Edward Y., Eichard found himself desirous of receiving it. About this time he succeeded * Letter addressed to Otes Gilbert, page 147, from the original docu- esq. , printed by sir Henry Ellis, ment MS., Harleian,British Museum, second series of Royal Letters, vol. 1, 433, fol. 227. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 145 in making his cousin understand his wishes. The pair soon after agreed as to terms. As soon as Bucking- ham had overthrown Edward V. and lifted Richard of Gloucester to the English throne, he was to receive a large sum (from the treasure, which the late king had hoarded in the Tower), in payment for the arrears of the earldom of Hereford, and he was to be invested with that fief at the earliest possibility. Last and dearest to the pride of Buckingham, his daughter was to be married to the young son of Richard — was to become princess of Wales, and in due process of time, queen consort of England.* Buckingham soon began his machinations for the ruin of Edward Y., with the same daring celerity which secured to Gloucester the regency of England. Yet the young monarch was in the personal keeping of a great military leader. Hastings was the rival in arms of earl Rivers, the most successful general and powerful champion of his time. Hastings had shared in many a terrible battle by the side of the warrior king, Edward IY. He knew how to manage and rule the turbulent citizens of London. A dangerous insurrection had been raised since the over- throw of the queen's party, which Hastings had vigor- ously and speedily suppressed, f Buckingham's first move was to know if this formidable statesman- warrior had a price, and what it was he required ? Hastings had patronized at the court of Edward IY. a young law student, Catesby by name, who was looked up to as one of the most rising statesmen of the day. The lord chamberlain greatly loved Catesby as a friend, left all his affairs in his hand, and confided to him entirely his thoughts and plans. Buckingham soon found that Catesby had a price, and that he was willing to be turned to any use the established government pleased. * Sir T. More. niclers mention it as arising from •f Polydore Vergil ; Continuator of the queen's retreat to saactuary, but Croyland. Toone and the city chro- vaguely as to date. 10 146 EDWARD THE FIFTH. Buckingham bade him ascertain whether his patron would consent to the deposition of Edward V. and the accession of the duke of Gloucester. Catesby took an early oppor- tunity of tempting Hastings, whose answer was that of the most uncompromising fidelity to the heirs of his be- loved master, Edward IV. The trial had been made so artfully that no suspicion arose in Hastings' mind of the originators. He only supposed that his favorite, Catesby, was arguing on the aspect of affairs for his future benefit. Catesby reported to his new employers that Hastings was impracticable, completely devoted to the cause of Edward V.* While these secret springs and snares were at work, the public attention was wholly bent on the approaching coronation, preparations for which seemed constantly progressing, yet never completed. The word went among the citizens that one council sat at Baynard's Castle for the forwarding of the coronation ; and another at Crosby House, the residence of the Protector, in Bishopsgate, for retarding it.f In truth, the Court of Requests, for coro- nation service, presided over by lord chamberlain Hastings, assisted by lord Stanley, who was lord steward of the household, sat every morning at Baynard's Castle, the dower palace of Cicely, duchess of York, mother of the Protector and grandmother of Edward V., and in fact, one of the greatest enemies the young king had. J The Court of Requests was removed from its usual place, the Painted Chamber, under the pretence that it was too near the forlorn court of Elizabeth Woodville, in sanctuary. Indeed, nothing could have been more dangerous for Gloucester than a thorough understanding taking place between Hastings and the queen-mother. Jane Shore, her husband's late mistress, whom that king had thrust * Sir T. More ; Hall. prove lie wrote to his mother, in- T , . , forming her of his ambitious progress day by day. We believe she insti- X Letters of Gloucester, extant, gated his crimes. Archseologia. 4 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 147 on his wife as one of her attendants,* had, since his death, lived with Hastings, it seems. Jane Shore must have had sufficient intercourse with the queen, to excite the Protector's rage. It is probable too that Gloucester, by his vengeful hatred to Jane, dreaded that she would reconcile the queen and Hastings, and this was the motive for the sudden and impetuous blow that soon fell on them.f The principal officers who held places in the young king's household, and many others who owed feudal service to the crown, obeyed a summons for a privy council, June 13th, and attended betimes that morn- ing in the gloomy council chamber of the Tower. It was the nature of their employments that they should perform various special services at the corona- tion. Among other requisites, Edward V.'s coronation ser- mon was prepared; it was to be preached after the bidding of the beads, now called "the bidding prayer," and generally used in cathedrals. In the prayer for royalty, which had been certainly used ever since the demise of his father, this form of petition occurs : "Ye shall pray for our new prince of the best hope and sweetest disposition, our dread king Edward V., and the lady queen Elizabeth, his mother, and all the royal offspring.":!: There is in the Tower of London a remarkable apart- ment, belonging to the suite formerly inhabited by our Anglo Norman and Plantagenet sovereigns. It extends the whole length of one side of the White Tower, and is furnished with a long oaken table, gloomily lighted by a * Thomas Heywood ; Hall. that the fury of Gloucester was ex- f " Historie of England," by Poly- cited by a secret meeting lord Hast- dore Vergil, who, from his ac- i^gs held in St. Paul's church with quaintance with Margaret Beau- the friends of the young king, fort, the wife of lord Stanley, had J-The MS., both of prayer and means of knowing the truth, if that sermon, are in the British Museum politic lady chose to reveal it, declares at present. 148 EDWARD THE FIFTH. single window at the upper end. Such is the famous council room of the Tower, declared by the traditions of that place to be nearly in the same state at present as on the eventful morning of June 13th, 1483. Lord Hastings, as lord chamberlain, was the great man of the day. He had probably been at the Court of Requests in Baynard Castle, on business, that morning. He was in high spirits, and as he rode down Tower Street, or Tower Wharf, as it was called at that time, he was joined by sir Thomas Howard, whom he usually considered an enemy. However, this noble, greeting him pleasantly, told him the news current at the Protector's court, that lord Rivers, lord Richard Gray, vice- chamberlain Vaughan, and sir Richard Haut were about that time suffering death under the hands of the executioner, at Pontefract Castle.* Hastings expressed the utmost exultation, but was rebuked by his friend, the lord steward Stanley, who, from neigh- bourhood in the north, knew more of the regent Protector's character than Hastings did. Stanley, who had been ill, told an ominous dream of warning against Gloucester, at which the jovial lord chamberlain was inclined to laugh.f At nine o'clock, the Protector entered the Tower council room, rather hurriedly, yet with a smiling countenance, saying to those assembled, "I have played the sluggard, my lords and gentlemen, this morning." Turning to Morton, the bishop of Ely, he said, merrily, "My lord bishop, you have good straw- berries in your garden, at Holborn ; I pray you let us have a mess of them." " Gladly, my lord," replied the bishop ; " would to God I had some better thing to plea- sure you ; "J and, forthwith, he despatched his servant, for a mess of the strawberries, to Ely House. Then the * This was false, though it is cur- f Mirrour for Magistrates ; Hall, rent in history ; they survived Hast- J Sir T. More ; Hall ; Speed, be- ings many days. Sharon Turner. sides Shakespeare. EDWARD THE FIFTH. 149 Protector, seeing the lords engaged in business, prayed them to excuse him for a little time, and left the council room. It was nearly eleven before he returned. A strange change had taken place in his manner and countenance. He re-entered the council chamber frown- ing, knitting his brows, and gnawing his under-lip. So demeaning himself, and wonderfully sour and angry in aspect, he sat him down in his place at the board. "Much were the lords dismayed, sore did they marvel at his change of cheer, nor could they surmise what did him ail ? "* Gloucester sat silent, until the attention of the whole council was centred on his portentous countenance, and then demanded, in a tone which corresponded with it, "AVhat are they worthy to be done to, that compass the destruction of me — near as I am in blood to the king, and Protector of his realm and royal person ? " The lords all sat silent and astonished, wondering at whom the question pointed, each knowing well his own innocence. Lord Hastings, doubting nothing of the high favour he was in, took up the word, in order to restore the Protector's good humour. He answered, " Worthy of heinous punishment, whosoever they be ! " " Yonder sorceress, my brother's wife, and others with her, be they! " snarled my Lord Protector. Many nobles present, who wished her well, for their young monarch's sake, shrank back aghast when they heard the queen- mother thus hostilely alluded to. But Hastings, whom it was notorious she hated and dreaded more than any one in the kingdom, and who had acted all along most inimically to her, kept up the myste- rious conversation, when Gloucester thus proceeded to open his grievances. " Ye shall all see how that sorceress, Elizabeth TToodville, and that other witch, her confede- rate, Shore's wife, have by their witchcraft wasted my body." And, therewith, he plucked up his doublet sleeve * Ibid ; Speed. 150 EDWARD THE FIFTH. to the elbow, and shewed his left arm which was withered small and wearish; but every one knew that it always was so. Hastings, who would have listened with all the malicious satisfaction of a political opponent, to any calumny, however improbable, against the unfortunate queen, was startled at hearing the name of his own mistress, Jane Shore,* thus linked with the accusation. " Certes," stammered he in reply, " they be worthy of heinous punishment, if so they have done ! " "If! " re-echoed the Protector, "batest thou me with > fi „+ D ,.}>iiw The two godfathers, Cranmer, archbishop of Canteibury anl ne duke of Norfolk, uncle to the late murdered • ueen Anne Boleyn, were followed by her contempt* e Sler' who degraded himself and her memory by conde- Iceninl to b'ecome one of the actors at the pompous chtistenfng show of the son of her triumphant riva , by chnstening s ^ & tQwel about ^ b n :r g Th S tlhilg sight of all was the young Iterless Elizabeth, who carried the crysom She was v • +>,* arms of the new queen's brother, Edward tzz who w «-* " ea to the r age by ^Tt'uriouB contemporary drawing of this scene pre- I ;rrTcoUe« of Arms, shows that the royal infant MSSF Z Sy -tress or governess walked be Itte noble hearer of the prince, and rs represented inte tawing carefully holding him by he tee te prCT ent his eliding off the cushion on which he* h«m£ His nurse and the queen's midwife walk on either siae EDWARD THE SIXTH. 197 his train bearers. Next after the canopy came his eldest sister, the princess Mary, the lacly godmother, her train borne by lady Kingston, heading the procession of the great ladies and noble gentlewomen, who followed according to their degree. Near the font a traverse of crimson damask had been prepared in which the prince was to be made ready for the font by disrobing him of his ermine and pall, and stripping him for the reception of the holy rite, which was performed after the ancient custom of the church by immersion. Among the furniture of the traverse are enumerated pans of coals burning sweet perfumes, basins and chafers (chafing-dishes) of silver gilt, with water, to wash the prince if necessary, and of this water " sure assayes were to be taken," lest poison, or any thing of a noxious nature to the precious infant, should haply have been infused by some maliciously dis- posed person. The royal infant was presented at the baptismal font by his eldest sister, the princess Mary, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, and the duke of Norfolk, his sponsors, and received the popular and truly English name of Edward. Then the torches were all lighted, and Garter, principal king at arms, proclaimed his style and title in these prayerful words, " God, of his almighty and infinite grace, give and grant good life and long to the right high, right excellent, and noble prince, prince Edward, duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester, most dear intirely beloved son to our most dread and gracious lord king Henry VIII. Largess ! largess !" While the newly baptised prince was making ready in his traverse for his home-bearing, Te Beum was sung, after which napkins were handed to the princess Mary, the officiating bishop, and the two godfathers, in preparation for serving them with spice (the ancient name for comfits and bon-bons), wafers, and the christening cup. This curious interlude in the solemnity was performed with great pomp and ceremony by noblemen duly appointed, 198 EDWARD THE SIXTH. who reverentially served the princess Mary and her infant sister, Elizabeth, with spice, wafers and wine. The godfathers and bishop, and the duke of Suffolk, who acted as godfather at the confirmation, were served with the spice, wafers and cup, by knights appointed by the lord chamberlain. It is particularly noticed that all " other estates and gentils within the church and court were served with spice and ypocras ; and to all other, that is, the loving spectators of low degree, were given bread and sweet wine." In the returning procession the christening gifts of the sponsors were borne before the princely neophyte. His sister and godmother, the princess Mary, presented him with a large golden cup ; his god- fathers, Cranmer and Norfolk, each three great bowls and two pots of silver gilt ; and the duke of Suffolk, two great flagons, and two great pots of silver gilt. The prince was borne back to the queen, his mother's, chamber with great state, preceded, accompanied, and followed, by the long procession of gentlemen, knights, heralds, and sergeants at arms, bearing maces and lighted torches, the trumpets sounding all the way ; and when he was brought to the queen's chamber the trumpeters and others, minstrels — of course, a full band — stood in the courts below, within the gates, blowing and playing, " which was a melodious thing to hear," says our authority,* but in reality the clamorous precursor of his royal mother's knell. She, notwithstanding the weakness incidental to her condition, the third day after a dangerous child-birth, had to comply with the royal etiquette, which required a queen of England, on such occasions, to perform a public part, by being removed from her bed to the state pallet, a sort of large couch or sofa, surmounted with the crown, there to recline propped on cushions of cloth of gold, en- * Christening of prince Edward, in Appendix of Literary Remains from additional MSS., British Mu- of king Edward VI., by J. G. seura. MS. College of Arms cited Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 199 veloped in her mantle of crimson velvet and ermine, to receive, embrace, and bestow her maternal blessing on her babe after his return from his christening, in the presence of those who had been assisting at the solemnity, and probably to return her thanks to the sponsors and bishop for the good service they had performed. King Henry had remained with the queen, seated by her pallet during the baptismal service, which was not over till mid- night, when, all things being accomplished in due form, the prince was borne to the king and queen, "and had," says our record, "the blessing of Almighty God, our Lady, and St. George, and his father and mother."* The natural consequence of this unseasonable excitement and fatigue to the queen was, that fever and inflammation ensued, and on the 24th of October she expired. The bed in which Edward Tudor was born and the queen his mother died was seen by Hentzner, the German traveller, when he visited Hampton Court Palace, fifty years later. It was probably swept away, or sold among other relics of ancient English royalty, by Oliver Cromwell, on taking up his abode in the old Tudor palace. The departure of queen Jane was, we are assured by a contemporary, " as heavy to the king as ever was heard tell of."f Nevertheless, in the letter which officially announced his bereavement to his ambassadors at the court of France, they were especially exhorted, by the royal widower's desire, to report which of the French princesses they thought would be most suitable to supply his loss. J Conjugal grief, indeed, appeared to have been wholly forgotten in the paternal rapture at the birth and hopeful promise of his boy, and the pleasing excitement of looking out for a new wife. One of king Henry's flattering courtiers, sir Richard Morysine, who afterwards filled several important diplo- matic offices at foreign courts, published a long, elaborate • Ibid. f Herald's Journal. % State Paper Office MSS., French correspondence, No. 84. 200 EDWAKD THE SIXTH. essay, entitled " Comfortable Consolation, wherein People may see how far Greater Causes they have to be glad for the Joyful Birth of Prince Edward than sorry for the Death of Queen Jane."* The birth of prince Edward, and the death of the queen, his mother, were commemorated in elegant Latin lines, in allusion to her father's crest, a phoenix in flames within a crown. The following is the transla- tion, probably intended for the epitaph of the royal mother : " Here lies the Phoenix, lady Jane, ^Whose death a Phoenix bare, Oh, grief! two Phoenixes one time Together never were."f Under the fostering care of the good gentlewoman who acted as his wet nurse, and whom, in his first lisping accents, he subsequently called " mother Jak," the new- born heir of England throve well, and, as Mr. Secretary Wriothesley, in his despatch announcing the death of the queen, gravely enjoins lord William Howard to testify at the court of France, " sucked like a child of puissance." A regular household and establishment were appointed for this puissant prince by his august sire, of whom mother Jak and his four rockers were doubtless the most interesting functionaries to his grace, though he had sir William Sidney, the cousin of the king's brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, and progenitor of the accomplished sir Philip Sidney, for his chamberlain, sir John Cornwallis for the steward of his household, with numerous other gentlemen of ancient name and good reckoning, in his muster roll. Regulations to be observed in the royal household, for the safety and preservation of the infant prince, were drawn up by Henry himself with great minuteness, prefaced by a declaration that, " even as God himself had * Harleian Collection, vol. i. f Speed's Chronicle. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 201 the devil repugnant to him, and Christ his antichrist and persecutor, so doubtless the prince's grace, for all his nobility and innocence (albeit, he had never offended any one), yet by all likelihood he lacked not envy and adversaries, who either for their ambition, or otherwise to fulfil their malicious perverse mind, would perchance, if they saw opportunity, which God forbid, procure his grace displeasure/' to prevent which it was enjoined that no person of whatsoever rank or degree should approach the cradle without an order under the king's hand. The material of his clothing was to be carefully tested, examined, and considered, lest it might contain any substance of a quality injurious to his grace's health. His linen was to be washed by his own servants, and none other persons were to touch it, and nothing of any kind for his use brought into the nursery till it had been carefully washed and perfumed, the use of perfumes being, by-the-bye, anything but a sanitary practice, for an infant, especially of so tender an age as the new-born heir of England. " His food was to be elaborately tested and assayed to avert the danger of poison. The chamberlain or vice-chamberlain was to be present morn- ing and evening, when his grace was washed and dressed, and no unauthorised person was to have access to his apartments, above all, pages and boys were to be excluded, for fear of inconveniences or accidents resulting from their thoughtlessness. No member of his establish- ment was permitted to approach London during unhealthy seasons, lest they should be the means of conveying infection to his grace ; and if any beggar should presume to draw nearer the gates than was appointed for the reception of alms he was to be grievously punished for ah example to others."* The beauty of the royal infant is thus testified by lady Lisle, in a letter to her husband from Hampton Court. " His grace the prince is the goodliest babe that ever I * Hall's MSS, * 202 EDWARD THE SIXTH. set mine eyen upon. I pray God to make him an old man. . I think I should never weary with looking upon him/' To Margaret, lady Bryan, the daughter of Humphrey Bourchier, lord Berners, and widow of sir Thomas Bryan, was assigned the office of lady mistress or governess to the. young prince, she having faithfully and wisely presided over the early education and conduct of the two princesses, his sisters.* Her letters prove her to have been a benevolent, conscientious, and judicious person ; and perhaps the amiable and noble qualities which so eminently adorned the character of our young bachelor king were the result of the good seeds im- planted by this excellent lady, his earliest preceptress. The sylvan palace of Havering-bower was chosen for the nursery establishment of the young prince/ and lady Bryan duly communicated the most minute particulars connected with him. In one of her letters, apparently in answer to an intimation she had received from Cromwell that she would have to exhibit her princely charge to the lord chancellor and other lords of the council, who had received licence from the king to visit and pay their duty to him, and that the king desired her to set him forth to the best advantage, she complains of the unsuitable state of the prince's wardrobe, although she promises " to do her best to accomplish the king's command, with such things as she has to do it with, which," pursues her lady- . ship, " are but very bare for sucli a time." According to the following pitiful statement we find that although Henry VIII. vied with the king of dia- monds in his own dress and elaborate decorations, he was not very liberal in distributing rich array and jewellery to his children. " The best coat my lord prince hath," continues lady Bryan, "is tinsel, and that he shall have to wear at that time, with never a good jewel to set on his cap ; but I shall order all things the best I can for my lord's honour, so as I trust the king's grace shall * Strype's Memorials ; Ellis ; Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 203 be contented withal ; and also master vice-chamberlain, and master cofferer, I am sure will do the best diligence that lieth in them in all causes." She communicates in conclusion this pleasing intelligence of the progress of the infant heir of England. "My lord prince is in good health, and now his grace hath four teeth, three full cut and the fourth appeareth."* My lord prince was blessed not only with excellent health and precocious intelligence, but a remark- ably sweet temper. How well he had thriven under the fostering nurture of "mother Jak," and the early training of his lady mistress, appears by the official report of the lord chancellor, who, with the other lords of the council, came early in the month of September to see and pay their duties by the king's licence to the royal nursling at Havering-bower. Edward, who was then only in the eleventh month of his age, instead of , exhibiting either terror or displeasure at the unwonted approach of so many strange men, gave his visitors a most gracious reception,' to their " rejoice and comfort," as their secretary quaintly informs Cromwell, Henry's prime minister. " And I assure your lordship," continues he, " I never saw so goodly a child of his age ; so merry, so pleasant, so good and loving countenance, and so earnest an eye, as it were [exercising] a sage judgment towards every person that repaireth to his grace, and as it seemeth to me, thanks be to our Lord, his grace encreaseth well in the air that he is in. And, albeit a little his grace's flesh decayeth [meaning that he was losing a little of his infantine fatness] yet he shootet.h out in length, and waxeth firm and stiff, and can steadfastly stand, and would advance himself to move and go, if they would suffer him, but as meseemeth they do the * The readers of the "Lives of the dition of the princess Elizabeth's Queens of England,'' will doubtless wardrobe, not only for lack of robes remember a previous letter of lady of state, but even of linen and cloth- Bryan, describing the destitute con- ing of all kinds. 204 EDWARD THE SIXTH. best, considering his grace is yet tender, that he should not strain himself, as his own courage would serve him till he come above a year of age." From the same authority we learn that the king was about to remove the prince and his nursery establishment from Havering, considering it too cold a house for his winter residence, in which opinion the lord chancellor and council express their concurrence. Their scribe concludes their report of the royal infant in these words, "I cannot comprehend nor describe the goodly towardly qualities that be in my lord prince's grace. He is sent of Almighty God for all our comforts. My daily and continual prayer is and shall be for his good and prosperous preservation, and to make his grace an old prince."* Edward remained at Havering - bower till he had completed his first year, at which period he was weaned, and a gentlewoman of the name of Sibilla Penne, sister to lady Sidney, the wife of his chamberlain, obtained the appointment of dry nurse to his little grace, after repeated and earnest solicitation in her behalf, by her good brother-in-law, sir William Sidney, to the source whence all preferment flowed, Cromwell. f In reply to the premier's inquiry as to the capability of mistress Sibilla Penne, and her fitness for the office to which she aspired, Sidney writes : " I do not only perceive that your lordship's good pleasure is that I should signify unto you the good ability of my wife's sis- ter for the room of my lord prince's good grace's dry novrice, but also that I should weigh the great charge that shall be committed unto her, with the like consideration of the king's majesty, as well towards your good lordship for the motion and instance of my poor suit therein, as also unto me for commencement, and attempting of the same, so that if I thought the thing meet for the taking upon her, I should so write plainly unto you. My lord to declare the truth in this behalf, I doubt not but that she is and shall be found, both for her wisdom, honest demeanour, and faithful- * Letter in State Paper Office, from Berechurch, near Colchester, Sept. 8th, 1538. f State Paper Office, MS. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 205 ness every way, an apt woman for the same, in whom I dare well justify there shall be found no laek of good will, truth, and diligence towards the good administration of that which unto her office and duty shall appertain at all times as knoweth Jesu."* Mistress Sibilla, who was the wife of king Henry's barber surgeon, had the good fortune to obtain the situation she sought, and went with her royal charge to Hunsdon, where prince Edward spent the winter.f "While at Hunsdon, we find mistress Sibilla employing herself one Sunday in inditing, by her amanuensis, a letter to Cromwell, earnestly soliciting the grant of the monastery of Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which she finally obtained, together with the manor of Breamond.J The princess Mary, who seems to have been very fond of her baby brother, and innocent superseder in the royal succession, presented Mrs. Sibilla Penne with five yards of yellow satin, at seven and sixpence a yard, for a new year's gift, probably to make a cloak. Mary also gave his four rockers each a gilt spoon, which cost her forty- three shillings, and to his physician, Dr. Owen, a satin doublet, costing twenty-four shillings. § When the prince was about fourteen months old Hol- bein, the court painter, was permitted to take a slight sketch of his head in crayons, as a study for the fine portrait which, as the most acceptable new year's gift he could offer to his royal patron, he presented to king Henry in 1538-9. The crayon sketch, which is among the Holbein heads at Windsor, is in full face, fat, fair, and placid, in a close fitting plain cambric baby cap. The portrait is a beautiful work of art,|| a whole length, richly robed in crimson velvet, faced with gold, and with * This letter is dated from Haver- J Privy Purse Expenses of the ing-of-the-boore, the 3rd day of princess Mary, edited by sir F. October. Literary Remains of King .^Madden. Edward VI., by Nichols ; printed for , «.. , the Roxburgh Club. f Nichols' Literary Remains of || In the collection of the earl of Edward VI. Yarborough, Arlington street. J_ 206 EDWARD THE SIXTH. full sleeves of cloth of gold, holding a rattle in his hand. Over his lawn baby cap he wears a hat of crimson velvet, with a short drooping ostrich feather. The establishment of the infant heir of England in- cluded a band of minstrels and musicians, in whose performances he manifested great delight at a very tender period of his age, as his lady mistress testifies in a very pretty letter to Cromwell, reporting the health and flourishing progress of her royal charge, then about eighteen or twenty months old : "My lord prince is in good health and merry, as wold to God the king's grace and your lordship had seen him yester night, for his grace was marvellous pleasantly disposed. The minstrels played, and his grace daunced and played so wantonly that he could not stand still, and was as full of pretty toyes (toying) as ever I saw child in my life."* The following new year's day a magnificent present of silver gilt plate was sent by king Henry to his son. The princess Mary, moved probably by the naive complaints of lady Bryan of the scanty and unsuitable state of her little brother's wardrobe for the reception of state visits, presented him with a coat of crimson satin, embroidered with gold and pansies of pearls, sleeves of tinsel, and four aglettes of gold, also a cap which cost her sixty-five shillings, f The young Elizabeth gave him at the same time a cambric shirt of her own making. In the early part of the ensuing summer the little prince was brought to the palace at Westminster for a little while, and one day in the early part of July, 1539, Henry VIII., in a more gracious mood than ordi- nary, withdrew himself from his ominous theological labours of framing the six articles, and sought the nursery of his blooming boy; "and there," says our * State Paper Office MS. f Privy Purse Expenses of the lady Mary, edited by sir Frederick Madden. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 207 authority,* "hath solaced with him all the day, with much mirth, and with dallying with him in his arms a long space, and so holding him in a window to the sight and great comfort of all the people." Beautiful and animated as he was, the motherless little prince was doubtless an object of very tender interest to all persons of warm hearts and natural sensibility; it must, besides, have been gratifying to them to observe one human trait manifested by their ruthless sovereign, who had, in the course of the last five years, consigned so many of the good, the learned, and the noble of the land on frivolous pretences to the axe, the halter, or the stake. During the years 1540 — 41, while Henry was occu- pied with wooing, wedding, and ridding himself of his fourth and fifth wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, we hear little of his infant son. In October, 1542, when the king was again a widower, the hope- ful heir -apparent is once more rendered an object of attention to his future subjects, and after the great Irish chieftain, Con O'Xiel, had been created earl of Tyrone, he and his attendants, sir Dale and sir Arthur Guineys, with the bishop of Clogher, were conducted by Wlatt and Bryan Tuke into the presence of the little prince, to see and perform their duties to his grace. f Schemes for extension of his dominions by a marriage between prince Edward and Mary queen of Scots, occu- pied the mind of Henry VIII. , from the moment he received the announcement, in the name of the new- born inheritrix, of the decease of his nephew, king James V., in December, 1542, and of her accession to the throne of Scotland. Before Mary was six weeks old he made a formal demand of her hand in behalf of the bachelor heir of England, who had just completed his * Richard Cromwell to lord Cromwell, State Paper Office MS., second series, toI. vii., p. 188. f Privy Council Register. 208 EDWARD THE SIXTH. fifth year. The intrigues, threats, and cruel hostilities with which this premature wooing of the infant maiden sovereign was carried on, have been related in a previous series of royal biographies,* to which the reader is referred. The following summer the prince was removed to Ashridge, where he and his establishment were located in the house which had been the monastery of a frater- nity of monks, called the Bonhommes, in order to be near the king his father, who was residing for a time at his royal manor of Ampthill in Bedfordshire.! Henry entered into the bonds of wedlock, for the sixth time, by espousing, in July, 1543, Katharine Parr, the widow of lord Latimer, by which marriage the little prince, then in his fifth year, acquired a third stepmother, one whom he entirely loved and greatly venerated. It has been conjectured that Edward's early education, while, to use his own expression, he was brought up among the women, was conducted by Katharine Parr, and that his love for study, and zeal for the principles of the reformation, were implanted by her influence — an influence which she undoubtedly retained to the end of her life. Soon after the king's sixth nuptials had been celebrated, the matrimonial prospects of prince Edward assumed so favourable an aspect, that the articles of marriage between him and their infant queen were settled by the ruling powers in Scotland, and a treaty of peace and contract of betrothal was signed and sealed by the regent and Henry's ambassador, sir Ralph Sadler, in the abbey of Holyrood, with great solemnity. By the conditions of this treaty it was agreed that the royal bride should be sent to England as soon as she had completed her tenth * "Lives of the Queens of Scot- Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and land and English Princesses con- London. nected with the Regal Succession," f Literary Eemains of King by Agnes Strickland, Life of Edward VI. by Nichols, printed Mary Stuart, vol. iii., 3rd edition. by the Roxburgh Club. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 209 year, to complete her education, an arrangement that would have afforded Edward the society of his affianced consort, and an opportunity of cultivating her regard. But the arrangement, being contrary to the wishes of her people, and against the consent of the queen mother, Mary of Lorraine, was broken within a fortnight of the ratification of the treaty.* The prince, after the marriage between his father and Katharine Parr was frequently residing with the royal pair, with whom the two princesses, his sisters, were now domesticated, for it appears to have been Katharine's desire to render herself a bond of union between the king and his children by his first three wives. In this she suc- ceeded in a manner scarcely credible, when the antagon- ism of the deceased queens, from whom Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward respectively derived their existence, is con- sidered. When the king determined on his expedition to France, and invested Katharine with the regency of the realm in his absence, the guardianship of prince Edward, and the princesses, his sisters, was also confided to her. A total change was at this period effected in Edward's establishment and routine of life, by the order of his father, who ordained that he should be removed to Hampton Court, and commanded the lord chancellor and the earl of Hertford, with others of the council, to proceed thither with his warrant the next day, and discharge all the ladies and gentlewomen out of the prince's house. f Brief and unceremonious warning this, for severing the silken ties of love which united the motherless heir of England to those from whom he had received all the tender attentions his bereaved infancy required, and by whom he had been so happily trained that he was regarded as a child of the fairest promise. Perhaps * Life of Mary Stuart, "Lives of Strickland, vol. iii., page 15, 16, the Queens of Scotland," by Agnes for very curious particulars, f State Papers. 14 210 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Henry thought the ladies were making his son too good, too gentle, too conscientious to fit him to play his part successfully in the arena of life — in a word, bringing him up more for heaven than earth — and therefore determined to cut the connexion effectually, by thrusting them all out of the prince's house, and placing him, as he was near the completion of his sixth year, under the tuition of men of eminent learning. Dr. Cox was appointed as his almoner and preceptor, assisted in the department of schoolmaster for his instruc- tion in Latin and Greek, by Mr. Cheke. John Belmayne was . his French master ; and sir Anthony Cooke, of Giddes -Hall, was to teach him manners, and all obser- vances of princely courtesy. He had also a German master, named Randolph, While Edward was residing either at Ashridge or Ampthill, a little girl about his own age, named Jane Dormer the granddaughter of sir William Sidney, was sometimes admitted to the honour of associating with him, her paternal grandfather, sir William Dormer, being steward of the royal manor of Ampthill, which was only a short distance from his own mansion at Ascot. The prince had, therefore, frequent opportunities of seeing her when she was brought to pay her duty to sir William and lady Sidney. "He took particular pleasure in her conversation, and greatly desiring her company, she was occasionally sent over with her governess"* to amuse the lonely royal child, "passing her time with him either in reading, playing, or dancing,, and such like pastimes answerable to their spirits and innocency of years. "f That infantine courtship on the part of the prince, and a spice of early coyness or coquetry on that of the little maiden, were sometimes enacted between the pretty twain, may be inferred from the * MSS. Memoirs of Jane Dormer, Literary Kemains of King Edward duchess de Feria, cited by Mr. VI., printed for the Roxburgh Club, Nichols in his valuable work, f Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 211 speech Edward was wont to use to her at cards, when the fortunes of the game so befell, " Now, Jane, your king is gone, I shall be good enough for you," and would call her "my Jane," their natural dispositions were so correspondent to each other.* The same authority whence the above pretty anecdote of the infancy of our last bachelor king is derived, bears testimony that his natural disposition was of " great towardness to all virtuous parts and princely qualities : a marvellous sweet child, of very mild and generous conditions." Under the tutelage of the learned doctors, whom the king had chosen to conduct the education of this promis- ing young prince, and the select number of children of gentle birth and breeding, who were chosen to share his studies and his pastimes, Edward entered upon a new era of life, and his progress in his education is thus described by his tutor, Dr. Cox, in a letter to some person in the court, evidently intended for the sove- reign's eye, because of the fulsome doses of flattery to that monarch, with which it is interlarded par paren-. thesis. " As concerning my lord and dear scholar," he writes, "it is kindly done of you to desire so greatly to hear from him, and of his proceedings in his valiant conquests. He can now read, and, God be thanked, sufficiently. And as he (God) hath prospered the king's majesty in his travails at Boulogne, surely, in like manner, thanks be unto God, my lord is not much behind on his part. He hath expugned and utterly conquered a great many of the captains of ignorance. The eight parts of speech he hath made his subjects and servants, and can decline any manner of Latin noun, and conjugate a verb perfectly, unless it be anomalum. These parts beaten down and conquered, be beginneth to build them up again and frame them after his purpose, with due order of construction, like as the king's majesty framed up Boulogne, after he had beaten it down. He understandeth and can frame well three concords of grammar, and hath made already forty or fifty pretty Latin verses, and can answer well favouredly to the parts, and is now ready to enter into * Ibid. 212 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Cato, to some proper and profitable fables of iEsop, and other wholesome and godly lessons that shall be devised for him. Every day in the mass time, he readeth a portion of Solomon's Proverbs, for the exercise of his reading, wherein he delighteth mnch, and learneth there how good it is to give ear unto discipline, to fear Grod, to keep God's commandments, to beware of strange women, to be obedient to father and mother, and to be thankful to him that telleth him of his faults." The next paragraph certifies the fact that the little prince, gracious and docile as he was, was not entirely a perfect model of submission to his preceptor, but had manifested a sample of the determinative spirit of a royal Tudor. There had evidently been a struggle for the mastery between him and his pedagogue, in which the latter had found it necessary to inflict corporal chastise- ment on his precious charge, which is thus delicately alluded to in the following allegory, worthy of Dr. Fenning himself : " Captain Will was an ungracious fellow, whom to conquer I was almost in despair. I went upon him with fair means, and foul means, that is with menacing from time to time, so long that he took such courage, he thought utterly my meaning to be nothing but dalliance quid multa f Before we came from Sutton upon a day I took my morice pike, and at Will I went, and gave him ' such a wound that he wist not what to do, but picked him privately out of the place, that I never saw him since. Methought it the luckiest day that ever I had in battle. I think that only wound shall be enough for me to daunt both Will and all his fellows. How- beit, there is another cumbrous captain, that appeareth out of his pavilion, called Oblivion, who by labour and continuance of exercise, shall be easily chased away. He is a vessel most apt to receive all goodness and learning, witty, sharp, and pleasant." Dr. Cox was one of the greatest scholars in that age of learning. He had incurred persecution and censure for honestly declaring in favour of some of Luther's opinions, and had been stripped of his preferments and imprisoned under suspicion of heresy. After his release he became head master of Eton College, which was observed to flourish, remarkably under his judicious care. The selection of Dr. Cox for almoner and head preceptor EDWARD THE SIXTH. 213 of the young heir of England was peculiarly happy, for he presently engaged the affections of his royal pupil, whom he not only brought very forward in his studies, but imbued with sound principles of religion, and formed his tender mind to an early sense of the duties both of a Christian and a king. It must indeed have been an extraordinary case of contumacy which could have prompted so affectionately disposed and venerative a pedagogue, as Dr. Cox, to resort to the exercise of his "morris pike," as he delicately termed his birchen argument, on the sacred person of the heir-apparent of the realm. It was an infringement on the royal etiquette withal, which prescribed that when the prince was considered deserving of stripes they should be inflicted on a substitute. Fuller affirms that " Barnaby Fitz-Patrick was prince Edward's proxy for correction, though we may presume seldom suffering in that kind — such was the prince's general innocency and ingenuity to learn his book. Yet, when execution was done, as Fitz-Patrick was beaten for the prince, the prince was beaten in Fitz-Patrick, so great an affection did he bear his servant" Samuel Rowly, who wrote, about fifty years after the death of Edward VI., an historical play, called Henry VIII., introduces the prince and his whipping boy, not the royally descended Milesian youth, Fitz- Patrick,* but Edward Brown, one of the children of the chapel royal, who, after having suffered a severe * Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, who is created baron of Cowchill or Castle- sometimes called in the Zurich let- ton, and have the lands of Upper ters " the earl of Ireland," was the Ossory secured to him at the annual eldest son of Barnaby or Brian Mc quit rent to the crown of three Gill Patrick, chief of Upper Ossory, pounds. He married lady Margaret, and head of a family descended from the eldest daughter of Pierce Butler, the first Milesian king of Ireland. earl of Ormonde, by which alliance His father, on making his submission he became a distant connexion of in 1517, to the king's commissioners queen Elizabeth, through the Bo- for the settlement of Ireland, did so leyns. This lady was the mother of on the stipulation that he should be Barnaby, 214 EDWARD THE SIXTH. flogging, because the prince chose to play at tennis, instead of learning his Greek lesson, while he is still smarting from the effect of this cruelty and injustice, encounters his highness returning from the tennis court, who thus addresses him — " Why how now, Brown, what's the matter ? Brown. Your grace loiters and will not learn your book, and your tutors have whipt me for it. Prince. Alas, poor Ned, I am sorry for it, I'll take the more pains and entreat my tutors for thee : yet, in truth, the lectures they read me last night out of Yirgil and Ovid, I am perfect in, only I confess I am something behind in my Greek authors. * * * * In truth I pity thee, and inwardly I feel the stripes that thou bearest, and for thy sake I'll ply my book the faster. In the meantime thou shalt not say but the prince of Wales will honourably reward thy service. Come, Brown, kneel down. Will Somers (the court fool.) What will thou knight him, Ned? Prince. I will : my father has knighted many a one that never shed a drop of blood for him, but he has often for me." The senseless and most unjust system of inflicting a disgraceful corporeal punishment on the innocent for the faults committed, or duties neglected, by a boy of such high degree that he was to be considered by his schoolmasters as noli me tangere, appears to have originated with Henry VIII.'s regulations for the education of his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Eichmond, who was brought up at Sheriff Hutton,'with other boys of gentle lineage, under the tutelage of Dr. Croke. The manly conduct of Cotton, the gentleman usher of the duke, in rescuing sundry substitutes selected at different times by the pedagogue to receive the stripes the tergiversations of the demi-royal pupil had merited, was considered so impertinent by Croke that he addressed a EDWARD THE SIXTH. 215 formal complaint to tlie premier, Cardinal Wolsey, of the insubordination caused by the unauthorised interference of Cotton, in withdrawing the boys by whose punishment it was necessary to intimidate the duke.* The excellent abilities and steady application [of prince Edward to his studies, in which he took great delight, caused him to make such rapid progress in his learning, that before he was eight years old he was able to write Latin letters in a beautiful hand. The earliest of these that has been preserved is a short billet in Latin to Dr. Cox, with rather a waggish apology for its brevity, in a classical quotation, which he applies very cleverly : — " I send to you a short letter, my dearest almoner, because I know short letters are to you as acceptable as long ones. For I am well aware that you have read in Cato's first book, twentieth verse, 'When a poor friend gives you a little present accept it kindly, and remember to praise it amply.' Though my letter is short, it wanteth not good will. I pray Grod to preserve you safe and in health. " Edwaed the Prince." "At Hertford, 11th 3farch, 1545."t In the following June, the same year, Edward wrote a dutiful epistle in Latin to his godfather, archbishop Cranmer, from Ampthill, where he was then sojourning * This Tudor system was un- uncle, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, doubtedly an innovation on the good finally, with great spirit, protested in old English custom of bringing up council against the chastisements the children of our Plantagenet that were inflicted upon him as sovereigns. We have already shown unreasonable and derogatory to his in a previous series of royal biogra- position, and obtained redress, being phies,that the governess of Henry VI., then in his eleventh year. See Life of Dame Alice Boteler, was empowered Katherine of France, " Lives of the by the privy council, in letters issued Queens of England," by Agnes in his own regal name, " to give Us Strickland, vol. ii, page 147, reasonable chastisement, from time to Library edition, also Acts of Privy time, as the case may require." The Council, like liberty was granted to his governor, the earl of Warwick, when f MS. Harleian. A translation the little monarch was in his seventh has been published by J. 0. Halli- year placed under masculine control ; well in his valuable collection of and so severely was it exercised, that Letters of the Kings of England, vol. his majesty, by the advice of his ii, page 5. 216 EDWARD THE SIXTH. with his establishment, and zealously pursuing his studies.* Edward was at Hunsdon in the autumn of 1545, whence he writes a dutiful epistle in Latin to his maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, and early in the new year to his sister Mary, of whom he was then • very fond : — "It is so long since I wrote to yon, my very dear sister, that it may chance yon may think I have entirely forgotten you, but affection ever holds the chief place in my heart, both for you and my dearest mother. I hope soon to see you, and to tell you in truth how much and how greatly I esteem you. "Edwaed P."t " From Hunsdon, this 11th of January ." This letter was not the first he had written to Mary, as it contains a graceful apology for not having written for so long a time, thus certifying the fact that he was accus- tomed to correspond with her more punctually. The following letter to his learned step-mother, Katharine Parr, contains in like manner conclusive evidence that it was one of a series he had previously addressed to her : — "Most honourable and entirely beloved mother, I most humbly commend me to your grace, with my thanks, both for that your grace did so gently accept my simple and rude letters, and also that it pleased your grace to vouchsafe to direct unto me your loving and tender letters, which do give me much comfort and courage to .go forward in such things wherein your grace beareth me in hand that I am already entered. I pray God I may be able in part to satisfy the good expectations of the king's majesty, my father, and of your grace, whom God have ever in his most blessed keeping. "Your loving son, "E. Prince." Edward was again at Hertford in January 1545 — 6, whence his almoner, Cox, writes the following pleasant account of him to Cranmer : — * Foxe's Acts and Monuments, f Halliwell's Letters of Kings of England, vol. ii. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 217 "My Lord's Grace, "Your godson is merry and in health, and of such towardness in learning, godliness, gentleness, and all honest equali- ties, that both you and I and all the realm ought to think him and take him for a singular gift soul of God, an impe worthy of such a father. * * * He hath learned almost four books of Cato to construe, and to say without book. And of his own courage now in the latter book he will needs have at one time thirteen verses, which he konneth pleasantly and perfectly, besides things of the Bible, Satellitium Vices* Esop's fables, and Latin making, whereof he hath sent your grace a little taste. "f A brief yet elaborate Latin epistle, more interesting to the parties concerned than it will prove to the readers of the " Bachelor Kings of England/' The archbishop, as in duty bound, returned a complimentary letter, replete with all good wishes, in the same learned language. Edward remained at Hertford till the spring of that year, and wrote several very ornate letters in Latin to Dr. Cox, who was absent from him about two months. His education was, however, progressing in much the same style, under the no less erudite Dr. Cheke. It was about this time that the learned Walter Haddon, then fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and subse- quently master of Magdalen College, had been given a letter from his friend, Dr. Cox, to the prince, which, being too modest to present himself, he delivered to Cheke, who not only handed it to the prince, but placed Haddon where he might enjoy the opportunity of seeing and speaking to his highness. Edward graciously addressed a few words to him, and inquired most kindly and very sweetly after his beloved almoner, and then passed on. The courtesy of the princely boy made so agreeable an impression on Haddon, that he wrote a very complimentary Latin acrostic on his name and title. Leland, the celebrated antiquary, also visited the prince when at Amp thill. * A collection of 214 mottoes, with f Literary Remains of King Edward commentaries, by the learned man, VI., Nichols. Printed for the Eox- Ludovico Vives. burgh Club. , 218 EDWARD THE SIXTH. In May, 1546, the princely student and his household were once more removed to Hunsdon, whence he addresses the following quaint but loving letter to his sister Mary : " Although. I do not frequently write to you, my dearest sister, yet I would not have you suppose me to be ungrateful and forgetful of you. For I love you quite as well as if I had sent letters to you more frequently, and I like you ever as a brother ought to like a sister who hath within herself all the embellishments of virtue and honourable station. For in the same manner as I put on my best garments very seldom, yet these I like better than the others, even so I write to you very seldom yet I love you most. Moreover, I am glad that you have got well, for I have heard that you had been sick, and this I do from the brotherly love I owe you, and from my good will towards you. I wish you uninterrupted health both of body and mind. Farewell in Christ, dearest sister. "Edward the Prince."* "Hunsdon, 8th of May." Four days later the learned but simple boy, who had not yet completed his ninth year, wrote in great alarm to his royal stepmother, queen Katharine, on a subject which evidently caused him great uneasiness, connected not with the gloom and bigotry of the princess Mary, but with her unwonted fun and friskiness, of which an ill- natured and exaggerated report had evidently been con- veyed to him, in his scholastic seclusion, to prejudice his mind against her, for he says : " Preserve, therefore, I pray you, my dear sister Mary, from all the wiles and enchantments of the evil one, and beseech her to attend no longer to foreign dances and merriments, which do not become a most christian princess, and so putting my trust in God for you to take this exhortation in good part, I commend you to his most gracious keeping, "f Edward wrote again to the queen on the 24th of May, a few lines, but without any further allusion to Mary and her dancing, merely alleging by way of excuse for troubling her majesty with another letter so soon, that having got a * From the Latin. Letters of the f Hunsdon, this 12th of May. Kings of England, collected by J. 0. Ibid. Halliwell. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 219 suitable messenger he could not help sending a letter to testify his respect and affection to her.* On the 2nd and the 10th of June also he writes to the king his father, formal and declamatory Latin letters, so evidently the composition of his pedagogue that it is impossible not to pity the poor child the labour and weary woe of transcribing, in his fairest penmanship, such inflated farragoes of unnatural fustian. f Edward wrote a highly complimentary and philo- sophical Latin letter to the queen, his stepmother, on the 10th of June, but there is a tone of genuine affection in the commencement, for which we look in vain in his epistles to his father : " Although, all your letters are sweet to me, yet these last were pleasing beyond the rest, most noble queen and most kind mother, for which I return you exceeding thanks. But truly by these I perceive that you have given your attention to the Roman charac- ters, so that my preceptor could not be persuaded but that your secretary wrote them, till he observed your name written equally well. I also was much surprised. I hear too that your highness is progressing in the Latin tongue and in the Belles Lettres. "Wherefore 1 feel no little joy, for lettres are lasting, but other things that seem so perish. Literature also conduces to virtuous conduct, but ignorance thereof leads to vice. And just as the sun is the light of the world so is learning the light of the mind.' , Henry YIIL had just returned home in triumph from his victorious but expensive French campaign, after the capture of Boulogne, and the prince |was naturally de- sirous of receiving an invitation to court, to see and pay his duty to his royal father, and witness the rejoicing for the peace. Henry, however, contented himself for the present with sending a gracious message to him, ^ ji • j " Sweet, sweet Father, "i learn to decline substantives t How much more pleasing is and ad J ectives - Give me 7°" blessing, the naive billet, in which Charles '' i tuank yon for my best man. T , u c xv * our loving son, I., when a boy, of the same a«:e, ' "York announces to his fond parent his « To my father the kino-/' initiation into the mysteries of gram- _ Halliwell . g Letters of the Kings mar : — of England. 220 EDWARD THE SIXTH. intimating that he intended to send for him soon. The bearer of this message was a favourite musician in Henry's service, named Philip Van Wilder, to whom he had given the appointment of lute master to the prince. Edward acknowledged this paternal attention in the following discreetly worded letter : " Most noble king and most revered father, I thank yon that you have deigned to send me Philip, your servant, who is both eminent in music and a gentleman. For you have sent him to me that I may be more expert in striking the lute ; herein your love to me appeareth to be very great. Moreover, it hath brought some degree of joy to my mind, in that I have heard that I am to visit your majesty, for nature inclines me very much to this. Since this is true, I now obtain my second wish. My first was that you and your kingdom might have peace ; and secondly, that I might see you. These done, and I shall be happy. Farewell, most noble king, and father most illustrious ! I pray you bestow your blessing on me. "Edwaed the Peince."* " At Hunsdon, Uh July, 1546." It was probably during Edward's visit to his royal father on this occasion, that the celebrated painting of Henry VIII. and his united family, now at Hampton Court, was designed by Hans Holbein, where the young prince is represented wearing his cap and plume, standing at the king's right hand, who has his hand on his shoulder in a caressing attitude. f There is a very interesting whole length painting of * MS. Harleian, 5087, f. 7. From the face of Jane Seymour in her the Latin. Halliwell's Letters of the pointed head dress, superseded Kings of England. that of Katharine Parr, who must f This large and very elaborate have been dead before that laborious family picture, of which a vignette work of art was completed. This and description has already been valuable national picture was sold by given in my Life of Katharine Parr, Oliver Cromwell to Colonel "Well, "Lives of the Queens of England/' the 27th of October, 1649, for fifteen though begun in the life time of pounds, but was fortunately recovered Henry VIII, was not finished till the after the restoration of the royal reign of Edward VI., when, out of family, and is one of the great compliment to the young sovereign, attractions of the historical gallery or his uncle the protector Somerset, at Hampton Court Palace. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 221 Edward, by Holbein, representing him before his acces- sion to the throne, among the earl of Denbigh's valuable collection of historical portraits at Newnhani. The young prince is apparently about nine years old ; his countenance is mild, thoughtful, and intellectual ; his features and complexion of almost feminine delicacy. He wears his flat velvet cap, with a short white ostrich feather drooping over the left temple, and is attired in a closely fitting russet coat, buttoned tightly up to the throat, and belted to his waist, with square flaps descending to his knees. His sleeves are slashed with small puffs of muslin, and over this dress he has a short full robe with hanging sleeves of scarlet damask, laced with gold, and turned back with a broad ermine collar with long ends. He holds a dagger in one hand, and a large green silk purse in the other. The pride and pleasure Henry took in his beautiful and hopeful son was testified by the number of presents for the decoration of his person, which he lavished upon him at this time. These are gratefully acknowledged by the prince in a reverential Latin letter, in which he says, "I also thank you that you have given me great and costly gifts, as chains, rings, jewelled buttons, neck-chains and breast pins, and necklaces, garments, and many other things, in which things and gifts your fatherly affection towards me is conspicuous, for if you did not love me you would not give me those fine gifts of jewellery."* He writes to queen Katharine a few days afterwards, apologising " for not having written to her before, having barely had time to write to the king's majesty, thanks her for her kind behaviour to him when he was with her at Westminster, and assures her that although this gentle behaviour could not but excite his grateful affection, it was impossible for him to love her better than he already did." A subject of no ordinary importance occupied the * MS. Harleian, 5087, August 14th, 1546. 222 EDWARD THE SIXTH. thoughts of the young heir of England at this time. It was the intention of his royal father to introduce him into public life, by mounting him on horseback and placing him at the head of the cavalcade of nobles, knights, and gentlemen appointed to meet and welcome Claude Annebaut, the great admiral of France and am- bassador extraordinary from Francis I., for the ratification of the treaty of peace just concluded between the lately warring realms. Naturally desirous, both for his own credit and the honour of England, to acquit himself properly on this occasion, Edward, who had not yet completed his ninth year, anxiously entreats his friendly stepmother, in this confidential letter, to " inform him whether the admiral understood Latin well, for if he does/' con- tinues the young royal student, " I should wish to learn further what I may say to him when I come to meet him. 5 '* The momentous day soon arrived, the ambassador and his fellow commissioners landed at the Tower stairs, on the 21st of August, and having rested at the bishop of London's palace two nights, were invited to the king's presence, at Hampton Court, on the 23rd. They came in state with a numerous escort, and were met at Houn- slow, by the beautiful young heir of England at the head of five hundred horsemen, attired in gorgeous but quaint array, having velvet coats with sleeves of cloth of gold, counterchanged with sleeves of velvet, richly embroidered, one side of the coats being embroidered velvet, coun- terchanged in like manner with cloth of gold on the other, f The prince, who was attended by the archbishop of York, his maternal uncle the earl of Hertford, and the young earl of Huntingdon, his school-fellow and * Letter of prince Edward to Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of queen Katharine, August 12th, 1546. England, vol. ii. t Stow. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 223 kinsman, saluted and embraced the admiral of France, and welcomed him with winning grace, in such courteous and honourable manner that the beholders greatly rejoiced, and marvelled at his audacity and ready wit.* " Then, the admiral having duly responded to these civilities, the prince brought him on to Hampton Court, the admiral giving him the upper hand as they rode.f They were received at the great entrance gate by the lord chancellor and the king's council, by whom the ambassador was conducted to his lodgings. "J Ten days of royal festivities and amusements followed, and these were the last gaieties that ever took place in the court of Henry VIII. § The queen soon after had a narrow escape of losing her head, for venturing to expostulate with her capricious tyrant for prohibiting the translation of the New Testament, put forth by Tindal and Coverdale, which he had previously licensed, from being read, and also from having expressed opinions at variance with his, on matters where he desired to be considered infallible. || He had remorselessly sent her kinswoman, the beauti- ful, the learned, and heroic Anne Askew, and other martyrs of the reformed faith, to the stake, unconscious, meantime, that similar principles had been, through the salutary influence of that royal nursing mother of the reformation, Katharine Parr, infused into the tender mind of the young prince, his only son, to whom was reserved the glory of establishing the Anglican Church, which Henry had vainly opposed with fire and sword.^[ * Hall f Stow. by an eloquent modern writer, but X Ibid. facts are stubborn things. The § See Life of Queen Katharine annals of the last sixteen years Parr, "Lives of the Queens of Eng- of his reign are written in blood, land," by Agnes Strickland, vol. and fully justify the assertion of iii., library edition. sir Walter Raleigh, "that if all || Herbert's Henry VIII. Fox, the patterns of a merciless prince Burnet, Rapin. had been lost in the world, they IT Henry has recently been made might have been found in this one the subject of a paradoxical eulogium king." 224 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Edward was at Hatfield in September, whence lie writes an affectionate letter to his " dearest preceptor," Dr. Richard Cox, congratulating him on his recovery from a dangerous illness, concluding in these words, " Do then take diligent care of your health, that you may soon return to me, for I greatly desire to see you. My dearest almoner, farewell.* From Hatfield also on the 27th of the same month, he addresses a dutiful and reverential letter to his royal father, and a most affectionate one to his sister Mary, to thank her for having written lovingly to him.f Edward took his first lessons in French while at Hatfield, which is certified by a letter, dated Oct. 12, from his tutor Cox to the secretary of state Paget, thanking him for the great care and pains he was then taking for the honourable establishment of the prince's house, who, continues he, "this day beginneth to learn French with a great facility, even at his first entre." The date of one of Edward's letters to his uncle the earl of Hertford proves that he was at Hunsdon on the 8th of November, and it is probable it was there he was sojourning when he enjoyed the pleasure of his sister Elizabeth's company, } who was permitted to visit and spend a few days with him in the autumn. He was very much attached to her, and laments their separation very feelingly in the following pretty letter : — " Change of place did not vex me so much, dearest sister, as your going from me. Now, however, nothing can happen more agreeable to me than a letter from you, especially as you were the first to send one to me, and have challenged me to write ; wherefore I thank you both for your good will and despatch. I will strive to my utmost power if not to surpass, at least to equal you in good will and zeal. But this is some comfort to my grief that I hope to visit you shortly, if no accident intervene with either me or you, as my chamberlain has reported to me. Farewell, dearest sister. " Edwaed the Pkince. \ " 5th December, 1546." * Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of England, f Ibid. } Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 225 The changes which had afflicted the young prince ■ must have been the removal of his dearly beloved sister, Elizabeth, from Hunsdon to Enfield, and himself and his establishment to Hertford, where he was settled in January, when he wrote both to his sister Mary and the queen to thank them for their letters and new year's gifts. To Mary, he says : — " This one letter, my dearest sister, serves for two purposes, the one to return you thanks for your new year's gift, the other to satisfy my desire of writing to you. Your new year's gift was of that kind that I needs must set a very high value on it, on account of its great heauty, and much prize it because of the love of the giver. My fondness for writing to you is so great, that although I hope to visit you shortly, yet as I have leisure I can scarcely he satisfied with myself, unless I write to you, for T cannot but love ardently one by whom I find myself so much beloved. May the Lord Jesus keep you in^safety. " Your most loving brother, " Edwaed the Peince. " At Hertford , the tenth of January" * His royal stepmother, queen Katharine, sent him for a new year's gift, the united miniatures of the king his father and her own, probably enclosed in a jewelled locket, opening each way according to the fashion of the period. The young prince responds in a tone which proves both the delicacy of his mind and the pleasure with which he had received this token of her regard. " And this love," he says, " you have manifested to me by many kindnesses, and especially by the new year's gift which you have lately sent to me, wherein the king's majesty's image and your own is contained, expressed to the life. For it delighted me much to gaze upon your likenesses, though absent, whom, with the greatest pleasure, I would see present, and to whom I am bounden as well as by nature as by duty. Wherefore, I give you greater thanks for this new year's gift, than if you had sent me costly garments or embossed gold or any other costly thing. May God keep in safety and health your highness, whom I hope to visit shortly. | 11 Dated at Hatfield, Uth January, 1546." * Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of England. f Ibid. 15 226 EDWARD THE SIXTH. He writes from Hertford on the 24th, to Cranmer, whom he calls "most loving godfather/' to thank him for a cup with an inscription, wishing him many happy years. He acknowledges also his last letter in praise of litera- ture, which he assures the archbishop "had been of great use to him, as an incentive to acquire polite literature, so necessary to be learned by him."* Edward having attained the age of nine years in the preceding October, preparations were now made for creating him prince of Wales, earl of Chester, and earl of Flint. The following robes and regalia were pro- vided for that investiture. " A robe of purple velvet having in it about eighteen ells, garnished about with a fringe of gold and lined with ermine. A surcoat or inner gown, haying in it about fourteen yards of velvet of the like colour. Fringe, fur, laces, and tassels. Ornaments made of purple silk and gold. A girdle of silk to gird his under gown. A sword with a scabbard made of purple silk and gold garnished with the girdle ; he is girt withal, thereby showing him to be duke of Cornwall by birth, not by creation. A cap of the same velvet that his robe is of, furred with ermine, with laces and a button and tassels on the crown thereof, made of Yenice gold, (probably the delicate filigree gold for which Yenice is so much celebrated.) A garland or a little coronet of gold, to be put on his head, together with his cap. A ring of gold also to be put on the third finger of his left hand, to signify his marriage with equity and justice."f The sickness of the king his father, who had thus strangely delayed creating the rightful heir of England prince of Wales, rendered these tardy preparations for his investiture unavailing. The reason of Henry VIII. making up his mind, at last, to prepare for investing Edward with his rightful dignity of prince of Wales can only be attributed to the fact that he was now convinced that no other son would be born to him, whom he might, peradventure, have felt disposed to appoint as his successor, in preference to prince * Letters of the Kings of England, f Heylyn, p. 14. Mille's Catalogue of Honour. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 227 Edward, in like manner as lie had superseded his eldest daughter in favour of her younger sister, and postponed both princesses to imaginary female issue by Katharine Parr, "or any future queen or queens it might please him to marry." Fortunately for his sixth consort, and the legitimate rights of his existing offspring, the royal wife-slayer was summoned to his great account, January 28th, 1546. He expired without creating his son prince of Wales, being the only sovereign of England since the annexation of the principality who ever left that duty unperformed. Silver font and arrangements in the chapel royal at Hamptpn Court for the christen- ing of Edward VI. — From the original drawing in the College of Arms. — See page 195. EDWAED THE SIXTH, CHAPTER II. Edward's acccession to the throne— Commission and council of regency— His uncle Hertford's intrigues to obtain the protectorship— Gets possession of the young king— Carries him from Hertford to Enfield— Announces the death of king Henry to him and his sister, Elizabeth— Grief of the royal children — Edward's public entry into London — His first homage as king-Conducted to the Tower— His proclamation— His first exercise of regality — His uncle makes him a knight — Edward knights the lord mayor— His uncle Hertford made lord protector— Edward creates him duke of Somerset, and creates a batch of other peers— Rides in state through the city to Westminster— Pageants, processions, and loyal songs— His coronation in Westminster Abbey — Eoyal festivities — Edward's personal and mental endowments— He learns to swear of an ill-disposed play-fellow — His instructor whipped, and himself admonished — His opinion of his tutors— His attention to sermons — Prayers read in English— Mary, queen of Scots, sought in marriage for Edward— Is refused— War with Scotland— Intrigues of his uncle, the lord admiral- Secret communications between him and Edward — Jealousy of Somerset— Quaint dialogue between the king and Fowler about the lord admiral's marriage-Lord admiral asks Edward to plead his suit to queen dowager, Katharine Parr — Edward's letter to her -Her private marriage with his uncle-Edward's journal of Scotch campaign— —His letter to Somerset on winning the battle of Pinkie-Fac simile of Edward's autograph. Prince Edward was at Hertford when his royal father breathed his last, between two and three in the morning of Friday, January 28th, 1547, at Whitehall. Though this event had been long expected, and parliament was sitting, the ministers and council of the deceased king thought proper to conceal his death nearly three days * King Henry had in his will appointed sixteen executors, to whom he consigned the guardianship and tuition of * Strype, Ellis, Tytler, Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 229 the person of the young prince, and the government of the realm, during the minority of the crown. They were all invested with equal powers, and were to be assisted by the advice of a council of twelve persons, also appointed by himself. At the head of the list of the executors stood the name of the godfather of the young prince, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, followed by those of the lord chancellor Wriothesley ; lord St. John, the great master ; the earl of Hertford, the eldest maternal uncle of the prince ; the lord Russell, privy seal ; the viscount Lisle, afterwards earl of Warwick and duke of Northumberland ; sir Anthony Brown, master of the horse ; sir Edward Montague, chief justice of the court of Common Pleas ; Mr. Justice Bromley ; sir Edward North ; sir William Paget, chief secretary ; sir Anthony Denny ; sir William Herbert ; sir Edward Wotton ; and Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury and York. Notwith- standing his near relationship to the young royal suc- cessor, the earl of Hertford had no greater power confided to him than to any other of the co-executors ; but before the breath was out of the body of the august testator, he devised a plan by which he effectually frus- trated Henry's intentions, and with the assistance of one of his colleagues, sir William Paget, with whom he held a secret conference in the private gallery at Whitehall, near the chamber of the dying king, and arranged mea- sures for that purpose, contrived to get the supreme authority of the realm into his own hands. As the first step in his game was to possess himself of the person of the young sovereign, as soon as king Henry expired, he, without difficulty, caused the rest of the co-executors to depute him, with sir Anthony Brown, the master of the horse, to proceed to Hertford, where Edward then was, to announce to his highness the death of his royal father, and his own accession to the crown. This commission he did not fulfil at Hertford, though he rested there all night, as appears by his writing from 230 EDWARD THE SIXTH. thence a confidential letter to sir William Paget, the secretary of state, dated January 29th, between three and four in the morning, in reply to a secret letter he had received from that statesman, his confederate, between one and two that morning, touching the will of the late king, which he had locked up before he left London, on the preceding day, to prevent its being opened, and the fact known before he should have taken his measures effectually for the accomplishment of his ambitious purpose. He now sent the key of the depository in which he had locked up the will to Paget, in compli- ance with his request, and in order that this important document might be produced when the death of the king should be announced, though only such parts as they two deemed suitable to be published should be read. Hert- ford endorsed this letter with the following exordium to the messenger : " Haste, post haste ! Haste with all diligence ! For thy life, for thy life." * The next morning the earl and sir Anthony Brown conveyed the young king very quietly, and without giving him the slightest intimation of the important change that had taken place in his position, to Enfield, where his beloved sister, the princess Elizabeth, then was, and there in her presence first acquainted his highness with the death of the king, his father. The royal children received the tidings with a burst of grief, and to use the pretty and almost poetic language of sir John Hay ward, "it plainly appeared that good Nature did work in them beyond all other respects. Never was sorrow more sweetly set forth, their faces seeming rather to beautify their sorrow than their sorrow to cloud the beauty of their faces. Their young years, their excellent beauties, their lovely and lively interchange of complaints, in such sort graced their grief as the most iron eyes at that time present were drawn thereby into society of their tears." * State Paper Office MS. Printed in Tytler's Edward and Mary. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 231 The remainder of that day, and all the next, Sunday, January 30th, young Edward was allowed to remain quietly with his sister at Enfield, a sweet solace and indulgence doubtless to them both. The same even- ing his uncle Hertford writes to the council in London, " We intend the king's majesty shall be a horsbak to- morrow, by eleven of the clock to-morrow, so that by three we trust his grace shall be at the Tower." * The demise of king Henry was communicated by the lord chancellor Wriothesley to the house of lords and commons, and the parliament was dissolved on the morning of Monday, January 31st. The proclamation of his son, by the title of Edward VI., was made immediately after- wards, by the heralds, in the palace yard of Westminster Hall, to a multitude of people there assembled, who all cried "God save king Edward." f In the afternoon, Edward entered the city at Aldgate, on horseback, with his uncle Hertford and sir Anthony Brown, at the head of a numerous cavalcade of his loving lieges, who had gone out to meet him and attend him into London. ^The natural sorrow he had felt and ex- pressed at the news of his royal father's death appears to have been forgotten amidst the excitement of the scene, in which the juvenile monarch found himself the centre of all eyes, and the object of universal acclamations. The journey, the exhilarating exercise in the open air, recalled the elastic spirits of childhood, and the firing of the guns as he approached the Tower, both from that fortress and the gaily decorated ships in the river, gave him infinite delight. :£ He entered at the Red Bulwarks, where he was received by sir John Gage, the constable of the Tower, and the lieutenant of the Tower, on horse- back, the earl of Hertford riding before the king, and sir Anthony Brown after him. § On his arrival, he was met * u Dated at Enfield, this Sunday night, at 11 of the clock." State Paper Office, MS. Domestic. f Strype. % Strype, Stow. § Ibid. 232 EDWARD THE SIXTH. and welcomed by the lord chancellor, the archbishop of Canterbury, and his principal officers and nobles of state, who conducted him to his lodgings in the Tower. These were all richly hung and garnished with costly arras and cloth of gold. Having placed their young sovereign under the cloth of estate or regal canopy, in his presence chamber, the lord chancellor read the late king's will, and the sixteen executors being all assembled swore to fulfil every article *of the same, according to the utmost of their power. On the morrow, the earl of Hertford having secured a majority among the sixteen commissioners, to whom the custody of the person of the young king, and the government of the realm during his nonage had been assigned by the will of Henry VIII., induced them, not- withstanding the angry protestations of the lord chancellor, to violate the oaths they had sworn on the preceding day, by vesting the supreme power in his hands, and consti- tuting him the protector of the king his nephew, and governor of the kingdom, till his majesty should attain the age of eighteen years. In the afternoon* Edward was conducted by his two uncles, Hertford and sir Thomas Sey- mour, the lord admiral, into his presence chamber, and placed beneath the royal canopy, before his chair of state, where all his prelates and peers were assembled to receive and offer him their homage. Each approached according to precedence of rank, knelt and kissed the hand of the youthful sovereign in turn, crying, " Grod save your grace ! " Then the lord chancellor explained the will of the late king, and the resolution of the rest of the executors to confide the protectorship, both of the king and his realm, to the earl of Hertford. " There is none so meet in all the realm for it as he," responded the lords * Hertford returned his acknowledgments in a suitable speech, and the lords promised they would be ready at all times, with all their might and power, for * MS. College of Arms, Lingard, Nichols, Burnet, Strype, Stow. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 233 the defence of the realm and the king, concluding with the unanimous acclamation of " God save the noble king Edward.'' The monarch of nine years old responded to this enthusiastic burst of loyal affection with ready grace and intelligence by raising his cap, and saying, " We heartily thank y6u, my lords all, and hereafter in all ye shall have to do with us, in any suit or causes, ye shall be heartily welcome."* Edward's first essay in the regal office having been thus successfully accomplished, to the admiration of his court, the peers temporal attended at the Star Chamber the next morning, and took their oaths of allegiance to their fair young sovereign. On the following Sunday, February 6th, his uncle, the protector, being authorized by the privy council, the king's letters patent under the great seal, to do so, knighted the young king with great solemnity, in the presence of his nobles, officers of state, judges, Serjeants of law, and the lord mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen of the city of London, a special court being held for that purpose, to which they had all been summoned, to kiss his majesty's hand. At their humble petition, he confirmed all their charters and ancient privileges. Then standing up under the royal canopy, Edward took the sword with which he had just received the accolade of honour from his uncle, the lord protector, and knighted the lord mayor, Henry Hubble- thorne, with his own hand, and afterwards William Portman, one of the judges of the King's Bench, and after receiving their thanks touched his cap in acknow- ledgment, and retired to his privy chamber, f Edward's next occupation was to write a letter to his widowed stepmother, queen Katharine, condoling with hereon their mutual cause of grief, the death of his royal father and her husband, their most illustrious sovereign." This letter being written in Latin, and made up of declamatory eulogiums on the virtuous, holy, and * Stow. t Kegister of the Privy Council ; Stowe ; Nichols. 234 EDWARD THE SIXTH. learned life and righteous government of the defunct king, must be regarded as the composition of his tutors, rather than the natural effusion of a young warm-hearted boy, little more than nine years of age. He requests her, however, "to moderate her sorrow in the certainty of the everlasting happiness at present enjoyed by his noble father in heaven," and tells her "that his grateful remem- brance of the many benefits he has received from her renders it his duty to offer her all the comfort he can." This letter is dated " From the Tower, 7th of February, 1546 (7)," and signed, " Edward the King."* He writes to his sister Mary on the 8th, in a similar strain, and also to Elizabeth, in reply to one she had written to him, expressive of "her resignation for the bereavement they had both sustained," coinciding in the same pious senti- ments.f The funeral of the deceased king was solemnised on the 14th of February, with unwonted splendour, after the remains had lain in state for several days, during which prayers for the repose of his soul had been loudly demanded of all passers by the heralds ; but joy for the accession of the fair and hopeful young prince, his son, was the prevailing sentiment of the people. Henry VIII. was interred in St. George's chapel, at Windsor, by the body of his favourite queen, Jane Seymour, Edward's mother. After the officers of state had broken their staves £ and hurled them into the grave, Garter king at arms proclaimed the new sovereign with a loud voice, and was answered by the simultaneous shout of the assistant heralds, and poursuivants, " Vive le noble roy Edward VI. ! " in which the spectators enthusiastically joined, and the trumpet sounded with great courage and melody, to the comfort of all present.§ * Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of England. f Nichols. X In his journal Edward naively § Stowe. MS. College of Arms, adds, when describing this ceremonial, printed in Literary Remains of li But they had others given them/' King Edward VI. by Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 235 Four days after the funeral of his royal father had been solemnized Edward was required to exercise his regal power, by personally elevating his uncle, the protector, to the dignity of duke of Somerset ; the queen dowager's brother, William Parr, earl of Essex, to that of marquis of Northampton ; John Dudley, viscount Lisle, to that of earl of Warwick, and to make the lord chan- cellor, Wriothesley, earl of Southampton ; sir Richard Rich, sir William Willoughby, and sir Edward Sheffield, barons. At the same time he created his uncle, sir Thomas Seymour, baron Seymour of Sudeley, and deli- vered to him a patent by which he conferred upon him the office of lord high admiral of England. The juvenile monarch invested all these peers with their mantles, girded them with their swords, and placed their coronets on their heads with his own hands, aided by his uncle the protector, who, as soon as he had received his patent and insignia from his majesty and returned thanks, stood beside him to render his assistance in the accom- plishment of this unwonted labour. The king also delivered the patent and white staff of great chamber- lain of England, and restored the staves of their offices to the lord St. John, great master of the household, sir Thomas Cheyne, lord warden of the same, and sir John Gage, comptroller. This done, his little majesty withdrew to his privy chamber, and the newly created peers and their assistants proceeded in great state to dinner in the council chamber, with the trumpets blowing before them. At the second course the Somerset herald proclaimed all their titles, because Garter king of arms was hoarse. After dinner they waited on the king to kiss his hand, and thank him for the honours he had conferred. The same afternoon, about three o'clock, the king held a chapter of the Garter in his closet with the knights of the order, into which he was himself received that day as the sovereign of the order ; the newly made duke of Somerset, his uncle, investing him with the 236 EDWARD THE SIXTH. mantle, collar, ribband, and George, and buckling the garter about his majesty's leg. Edward's other uncle the lord admiral, and several new knights, were admitted into the fraternity the same day.* The next day, Saturday, February 19th, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the young sovereign, more fortunate than the last king of his name who had lodged within those ominous walls, left the Tower to make his state procession through the city to his coronation at Westminster. He was arrayed in a gown of cloth of silver, embroidered and damasked with gold, having a girdle of white velvet wrought with Venice silver, the delicate frosted silver filigree work, for the manufacture of which Venice has has always been famed. This appears to have been the setting of the diamonds and rubies and true-love knots of pearls, with which the girdle was encircled. His doublet was also of white velvet, decorated in like manner with Venice silver, diamonds, rubies, and true-love knots of pearls, a white velvet cap to correspond, and white velvet buskins on his legs. His horse was caparisoned with crimson satin, embroi- dered with pearls and damasked with gold. A state canopy, supported by six knights, accompanied him, but he rode a little before it, that the people might see him the better. A lovely and touching spectacle, that beautiful and gracious boy, in whom the hopes of Eng- land were centred, decked at his tender age in the glitter- ing trappings of regality, and on his way to the abbey where he was on the morrow to be consecrated to the sacred office of Grod's vicegerent, and sworn to fulfil the duties and responsibilities attached to that high vocation. His uncle, the protector Somerset, rode at the king's left hand, a step in the rear. The streets had been carefully cleansed, swept, and strewn with fresh gravel, to prevent the horses from slipping, we are told, which, as * College of Arms, MS. printed valuable compilation, Literary Re- , and collated by J. G-. Nichols, in his mains of King Edward VI. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 2^7 it was the 19tli of February, indicates that it was snowy and frosty weather, not unfrequent at that season of tlio year. The line by which the royal procession was to pass was railed off, on one side, from Gracechurch street to the little conduit in Cheapside. At the conduit in Cornhill there was a goodly pageant hung with arras, and a fountain which played with sweet wine. Round it was stationed a band of vocal and instru- mental music, and two fair children richly arrayed, who recited in turn a poetical address to the king. The first four lines may serve as a specimen : " Hail, noble Edward, our king and soveraigne ! Hail, the chief comfort of our commonalty, Hail, redolent rose, whose sweetness to retain Is unto us such great eomodity." * More worthy of attention, * though the numbers be rude, is the chorus song which followed, and is sup- posed to be the original of our national lyric, " Grod save the king." 11 King Edward, king Edward ! God save king Edward ! God save king Edward ! And long to continue In grace and vertu, Unto God's pleasure, His Commons to rejoice, Whom we ought to honour, To love and to dread. Good Lord, in heaven to thee we sing, Grant our noble king to reign and spring, Whom God preserve in peace and war, And safely to keep him from danger." t « As the royal procession passed through Cheapside, in * MS. College of Arms, printed in Nichols' Appendix. f Ibid. 238 EDWARD THE SIXTH. goodly order, the young king's attention was called to the pageant at the great conduit there, at the entrance of which stood two persons, representing Valentine and Orson, Orson being dressed in moss and leaves, with a great club of yew tree for his weapon, and Yalentine clad in armour as a knight, both addressed loyal rhymes to Edward, promising to defend him from all rebels. At one end of the conduit the imitation of a rock had been erected, garnished with gilliflowers, and other kinds of flowers, artificial of course, as it was mid winter. On the rock was a sumptuous fountain surmounted with a crown imperial of gold, richly decorated with imitations of pearls and gems. Under this were springs, out of which flowed abundance of red wine and claret, descending through pipes into the street among the people, who, for the space of six hours, fetched it away with great diligence. Near the fountain stood four children, richly adorned, person- ating Grace, Nature, Fortune, and Charity. Each of these addressed the king in turn, in complimentary verses. Beyond them stood Sapience, with the seven liberal sciences, all represented by richly apparelled ladies, who addressed goodly speeches to the young monarch in turn. The last speaker, Astronomy, explained to him in rhyme the device at the other end of the conduit, where there rose two scaffolds, one above the other, hung with cloth of gold, silk, and rich arras. The upper represented heaven, with the sun, stars, and clouds "very naturally." From these clouds another lesser cloud of white, fringed with silk, and surrounded with stars, and beams of gold spread abroad, out of which descended a phoenix, the emblem of the king's mother, Jane Seymour, down to the nether scaffold, where, as she seated herself upon a mount, there spread forth roses white and red, gilliflowers, and hawthorn boughs. Then came a lion of gold crowned, making semblance of amity to the phoenix, moving his head and bowing to her sundry times, after which EDWARD THE SIXTH. 239 familiarity came forth a young lion, which had an im- perial crown brought him, as if from heaven above, by two angels, who set it upon his head. Then the old lion and the phoenix vanished away, leaving the young lion crowned and alone. These are the only lines worthy of quotation in the metrical explanation of this quaint allegory : 1 ' For the phoenix bright, That down taketh her flight From the clouds above, Is for to behold That lion of gold, Who long was her love. And also for to see Your kingly majesty, Prosperously to reign, From the throne celestial, With diadem imperial, Is she come hither again. To have your highness crowned, Her most dearly beloved ; And then to ascend upright, From whence she came, above, To Christ her special love, Where is no darkness but light. " On the nether scaffold was a child about the king's age, royally robed, to represent him, seated on a sump- tuous throne, which was upheld by four other children, personifying Eegality, Justice, Truth, and Mercy, who each addressed an appropriate sentiment to the youthful monarch as he passed. Towards the Chepe, behind the throne, the golden fleece, one of the sources of English wealth, was kept by two bulls and a serpent, casting flames out of their mouths ; six children richly apparelled playing on regals, sung with great melody divers goodly songs. At the standard at the Chepe, which was richly hung and decorated, were trumpets blowing melodiously, 240 EDWARD THE SIXTH. and a person, it does not say whether lady or gentleman, intended to represent England, prepared to recite a speech, recommending the young king to' imitate the example of his royal father, Henry VIII., and tread in his steps, but because his grace past too speedily to hear it, in which he certainly had no loss, printed copies were set upon the hangings, and cast abroad among the pro- cession. A little beyond the cross in Cheapside, the lord mayor and aldermen of the city of London, in their seemly apparel, were waiting to receive the king, to whom they made a loyal address, by master Broke their recorder, and presented his grace with a purse containing a thousand marks in gold, which he graciously received, and gave them thanks. On the other side stood priests with their assistant clerks, holding their crosses and censers, to cense the king as he passed, and on both sides the way the windows and walls were hung with arras, tapestry, and cloth of gold and tissue, and garnished with flags and streamers, as richly as might be devised. The next station for music and pageantry was the little conduit in Chepe, which was hung with arras, gar- nished with a target of St. George, the king's arms, six great streamers, and twenty banners. The waits stood playing in a tower which had been erected above it, and there, in a chair of state, apparelled in gown of cloth of gold, with a crown upon his head, a sceptre in his right hand, and in his left an orb with a cross, sat a representation of Edward the Confessor, who was Regarded as the king's patron saint. But the young king, either because he began to get tired, or was inspired with a desire of discountenancing the veneration of saints, vouch- safed no attention to him, and passed on too speedily to listen, either to his verses or to a florid address , St. George, on horseback, was prepared to recite to him first in Latin, and then in halting English heroics, con- cluding with these lines : EDWARD THE SIXTH. 241 " I shall in field for thy defence set forth my banner, And deliver thee from hurt, damage, or any danger, Against thy foes which shall stir debate or strife, And thus farewell, king Edward, God send thee long life." * "Howbeit," pursues the quaint chronicler of those faites and gestes, which the good city of London had prepared to delight her juvenile sovereign, "there was a song whereof the ditty was thus : " Sing up heart, sing up heart ! and sing no more down, But joy in king Edward that weareth the crown ; When he waxeth wight, and to manhood doth spring, He shall then straight be of fourf realms the king. " Ye children of England, for honour of the same, Take bow shaft in hand, and learn shootage to frame ; That you another day, may so do your parts, To serve your good king well, with hands and with hearts. " Ye children that be toward, sing up and not down, And never play the coward to him that weareth the crown ; But always do your care his pleasure to fulfil, Then you shall keep right safe the honour of England still." To a right merry tune this national lyric, however rugged in metre, might have had a lively and inspiriting effect. The spectacle which appeared to interest the royal boy more than all the classical, allegorical, and historical pageants which had been at such great expense prepared for his edification, was the performance of a Spanish rope-dancer, who, when his majesty entered St. Paul's churchyard on the south side, descended from a rope which was stretched from the spire of the cathedral down to the deanery gate, and there made fast to an anchor, * Ibid. f England, Ireland, France, and of Scotland, for Edward's union with Scotland, the third of course only the infant sovereign of Scotland, titular, the last claimed under pre- Mary Stuart. See lt Lives of the tence of the matrimonial treaty that Queens of Scotland,'* by Agnes had been concluded in 1543, by the Strickland, vol. iii, Life of Mary late king, his father, and the regent Stuart. 16 242 EDWARD THE SIXTH. and without using apparently either hands or legs, glided down on his breast like an arrow from a bow, and when he reached the ground he came to the king, and kissed his majesty's foot, and after addressing a compliment to him, departed and went up the rope again, and played a variety of feats, to the great delight of the king, who tarried with all his train a good while to behold them.* At Fleet Street, Temple Bar, and all the convenient places along the line of the procession, pageants and music were stationed, till the king arrived at his royal palace at Westminster, where all the nobles who had pre- ceded him in goodly order having already arrived, stood ready to receive him when he alighted, and at the hall door he took his leave of the foreign ambassadors, who had paid him the compliment of accompanying the procession, giving them thanks for their pains. f It is supposed that Edward slept that night at White- hall, because he came the next morning to Westminster Hall by water, accompanied by his uncle, the "lord pro- tector, and others of his council and privy chamber, with three barges full of noblemen, and about nine in the morning landed at the privy stairs, where the pensioners, apparelled in red damask, holding their poll-axes, and the guard, in their rich coats, with their halberds, were stand- ing on either side, forming a lane for him to pass through. Then, with all his nobles preceding him, he was brought into the Court of Augmentations, and arrayed in his parliamentary robes, having a black velvet cap on his head. The great hall at Westminster had been newly painted and glazed, well strewn with fresh green rushes for the occasion, and hung with rich arras, the upper end, above the stairs, well incarpeted, and all the way from the king's seat-royal in the hall, unto the mount where his throne was placed in the abbey, was spread with blue say cloth, which had been brought from his great wardrobe. * Stow. f Nichols' Appendix. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 243 The crown was borne in the procession before the king by the duke of Somerset, the orb by the duke of Suffolk, the sceptre by the marquis of Dorset. The king walked under a goodly carjopy borne by the barons of the Cinque-Portes. The earl of Shrewsbury walked on his right hand, and the bishop of Durham on his left, his train being borne by the earl of Warwick, assisted by queen Katharine's brother, Parr, marquis of Northampton, and lord Seymour of Sudeley. While the procession of regalia bearers was forming, the young king desired an explanation of the three swords of state that were to be borne before him. They told him "the pointless sword, called Curtana, was the sword of mercy, and the other two were the swords of justice, one for the temporal, the other for the spiritual estate/' "That," replied Edward, "should be represented by the Bible, which is the sword of the spirit."* The abbey had been prepared for the solemnity with a raised stage built before the altar, on which was placed the throne, a great white chair, approached by seven richly carpeted stairs, and covered with fine baudekin, damask, and gold, with two cushions, one of black velvet, richly embroidered with gold, the other of cloth of tissue. The said chair had two pillars, and at the back two gold lions, and in the centre a turret with a flower de luce of gold. The choir of the abbey was hung with rich arras and well strewn with rushes. The royal procession entered between ten and eleven o'clock, and the king was conducted to St. Edward's chair, where, after he had reposed a little, he was seated by his lords in a light portable chair, covered with rich cloth of tissue, wherein he was elevated by his four gentlemen ushers and carried to the four sides of the stage, that he might be seen by the people, to whom the archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, standing beside the chair, presented him in these words : — * Bale's Life of King Edward VI ; Planche's Chapters on Coronations. 244 EDWARD THE SIXTH. " Sirs, here present is Edward, rightful and undoubted inheritor by the laws of God and man of the crown and royal dignity of this realm, wherefore ye shall understand that this day is prefixed and appointed by all the peers of this realm for the consecration, inunction, and corona- tion of the said tnost excellent prince Edward. Will ye serve at this time and give your wills and assents to the same ? " "Yea, yea, yea! Glod save king Edward! "was the unanimous response of the people in a loud voice. Then the king was conveyed in the said chair by the gentlemen ushers before the high altar, where he offered up his pall of baudekin and twenty shillings ; after that he was laid prostrate on a velvet cushion before the altar, while certain orisons were said over him, and the sacra- ments were displayed ; then the coronation oath was administered to him, and again he prostrated himself before the altar while Veni Creator was sung. After he was anointed by the archbishop, and the regalia conse- crated, he was placed in Edward the Confessor's chair before the high altar. "• The archbishop crowned him, placing first the ancient diadem of Edward the Confessor on his head ; then, after removing that, the richly jewelled crown of the realm ; and, thirdly, a crown which had been made of a suitable size for .him to wear.* Between each remove the trumpets flourished; then Te Deum was sung, the coronation ring was placed on his marriage finger ; the bracelets, spurs, sceptres, and orb were delivered, and the enthronization took place. Edward had probably been over fatigued on the pre- ceding day, for great care was taken to spare him from personal exertion by having him borne by his four ushers in a chair whenever it was necessary for him to change * This interesting relic of the old gold, together with the crown first protestant king of England of Edward the Confessor, and the was remorselessly broken np and time - honoured robes and regalia sold by the commissioners of the of the kings and queens of Eng- puritan parliament for the price of land. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 245 his place. The coronation service had been considerably abridged and modified by Cranmer, both on account of the tender age of the king and also to meet the more enlightened views which had taken place in England since the days of Edward the Confessor. The mass was, however, retained, and Cranmer himself, who crowned his royal godson, officiated at the altar. The truly objection- able ceremony of kissing the pax was retained, the image being handed to the young king for that purpose, who, in complying, acted of course according to the instructions he received. Moreover, the peers' homage was prefaced by the slavish and humiliating act of kissing the king's foot.* If this were not indeed a modern interpolation in the solemnity, it certainly ought to have been abrogated among other observances which were considered as savouring of idolatry. It is only right to quote the " After all the lords had kneeled down and kissed his grace's right foot, and after held their hands between his grace's hands, and kissed his grace's left cheek, and so did their homage, then began a mass of the Holy Ghost by my lord of Canterbury, with good singing in the choir and organs playing. Then at offering time his grace offered at the altar a pound of gold, a loaf of bread, and a chalice of wine."f Instead of a sermon, Cranmer delivered an exhortation to the young king, chiefly against the assumptions of the pope, denying his authority over the sovereigns of England, and requiring his majesty " like Josiah to see God truly worshipped and idolatry destroyed, the tyranny of the bishop of Rome banished, and images destroyed." He was also required " to administer justice impartially, reward virtue, and punish vice. "J A general pardon was proclaimed to all offenders, with only six exceptions. The duke of Norfolk, cardinal Pole, * Strype's Memorials of archbishop Cranmer, yol. i, p. 203. f Ibid, X Ibid. 246 EDWARD THE SIXTH. the earl of Devonshire son of the unfortunate marquis of Exeter, were the most important. Medals were struck and distributed for the first time at the coronation of Edward VI, When the royal solemnity was accomplished, the king, wearing his purple robes furred with miniver, and his crown, left the abbey with his train, having his canopy of state borne over him as before, and so passed into the old palace of Westminster, where he reposed a little in the Chamber of Augmentations; "and so/' records the juvenile monarch in his journal of the events of that memorable day, " was brought to the hall to dinner on Shrove Sunday, where he sat with the crown on his head, with the archbishop of Canterbury and the lord protector ; and all the lords sat at boards in the hall beneath, and the lord marshal deputy for my lord of Somerset was lord marshal, and rode about the hall to make room. Then came in sir John Dymock, champion, and made his challenge, and so the king drunk to him, and he had the cup. At night the king returned to his palace at Whestmuster, where there were jousts and barriers, and afterwards order was taken, for all his servants being with his father and ■ him being prince, and the ordinary and unordinary were appointed/'* The coronation of our young bachelor king lacked that great attraction, the presence of ladies, and was in con- sequence not so beneficial to trade, as the purchase and preparation of dresses for the use and decoration of the female aristocracy would have rendered it to the mercers, jewellers, embroiderers, sempstresses, and tailors of London. The exclusion of the fair sex was the more remark - * This interesting document is pre- Reformation, and by Nichols, with served among the choice MSS., British very valuable motes, in his Liter- Museum, under glass case. Has been ary Remains of King Edward VI. printed in Burnett's History of the Printed by the Roxburgh Club. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 247 able, as all the heirs in the line of the regal succes- sion were females, with the exception of the infant son of. the lady Margaret countess of Lennox, Henry lord Darnley, the young king and he being the only men children of the royal blood of Tudor. But neither the king's sisters, his cousins, the lady Margaret countess of Lennox, the lady Frances marchioness of Dorset, nor the other princesses of the Suffolk line of Tudor, were permitted to appear, although they would have formed a goodly procession. There were also the two royal widows of the late king, the queen dowager Katharine Parr, and Edward's other step-mother the lady Anne of Cleves ; the duchess of Somerset, wife of the lord protector, his uncle ; and several of his maternal aunts, sisters of the late queen his mother, Jane Seymour, who might have been expected to walk on this occasion. Perhaps the difficulty of settling their claims of precedency baffled the protector and privy council, and it was considered most prudent to dis- pense with their presence altogether ; as they did not appear, no other ladies could, without disrespect to them. Garter king of arms, with his assistants, presented themselves before the king's table while he was at dinner, and with loud voice made proclamation of "the most high, most puissant, and most excellent prince, and victorious king, Edward, by the grace of God king of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, supreme head of the Church of England, and sovereign of the most noble order of the Garter," finishing with the customary cry, "Largess, largess, largess." After making proclamation in two other places in the hall, they partook of the dinner that had been prepared for them at the upper end of the hall. When the king had dined, wafers and hippocras were brought to him ; then the surnap was drawn, and the table, which was a board on tressels, taken up, and 248 EDWARD THE SIXTH. water was brought for his hands. Edward having performed his ablutions standing, walked into the centre of the hall, and stood there with the archbishop, the duke of Somerset, and all his nobles about him. Then was brought to his highness a goodly voyde* of spices and confections, of which he partook. The lord mayor brought wine to the king in a golden cup, from which his majesty drank, and then gave him the cup. Lastly, the young sovereign knighted forty-one noblemen and gentlemen, who were nominated to receive the order of the Bath-*; but because the time would not admit of their going through all the ceremonies requisite for that purpose, received this honour in lieu thereof. Edward then withdrew into the Court of Augmentation, and was relieved from his regal trappings. The nobles having also put off their robes, mounted their horses, and conveyed their young sovereign in goodly order to his palace of Whitehall, where was great feasting and goodly cheer that night. On the morrow, Monday, February 21st, royal jousts were held, the king's uncle, the lord admiral, being the principal of the six challengers, and the marquis of Northampton of the twenty-four defenders. The jousts began at one o'clock in the afternoon, and the king, with the lord protector, and other noblemen, were in the gallery to see the same, which was right nobly done, without any accident either to horse or man. At night they had a goodly supper at the lord admiral's house. The following day being Shrove Tuesday, the king dubbed sixty knights in the morning ; in the afternoon he witnessed a renewal of the tourney, and ordained a goodly banquet at the court, at which both challengers and defenders were feasted ; and after the festivities were over, " there was a goodly interlude played in the palace hall, on a raised stage, with the story of Orpheus, right * A large tray, still called in some parts of England a voider. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 249 cunningly composed. At which play, the king, with many of his nobles and gentlemen, were present/'* The solemn fast of Ash Wednesday occurring next day, caused a suspension of these exciting scenes of royal pageantry and pleasure. The young king attended divine service on the morning of that day, according to the usual custom, and reverently bowed his head to receive the shower of ashes with which the officiating prelate, Ridley, besprinkled him, pronouncing as he did so the admonitory words to the recently anointed monarch, Memento homo quia cinis est et in cinirum reverteris — " Remember, man, that of ashes thou art come, and to ashes shalt thou retui , n.' , f t With the exception of Henry VI. , Edward was the youngest prince ever crowned king of England, being at that time only nine years four months and eight days of age ; but his acquirements were, as has been shown, most extraordinary. These, observes one of the most eloquent of his numerous historians, "were exceedingly enriched and enlarged by many excellent endowments of nature ; for in disposition he was mild, gracious, and pleasant ; of a heavenly wit ; in body beautiful, but especially in his eyes, which seemed to have a starry liveliness and lustre in them. "J The love for learning, which commenced at a very early period of Edward's life, did not diminish after he found himself a crowned and anointed king ; but steadily pur- suing the scholastic career he had so successfully entered, he made it a rule to sequester himself from his playmates and fellow-students, and retire, in order to avoid all temptation to inattention, into some chamber or gallery to learn his lessons without book, with great alacrity * MS. College of Arms, printed in Nichols* Appendix. f This was the last time the office J Sir John Hayward's Life and of ashes, as it was termed, was Reign of King Edward VI. ; "White administered, for it was abolished in Kennet's Complete History of Eng- the second year of Edward's reign. land. 250 EDWARD THE SIXTH. and cheerfulness. If he spent more time in play than he considered expedient, he would say, "We forgot ourselves : we should not lose the substantia for the accident."* One day, when he was essaying to get something from a shelf in his playroom, which he was not tall enough to reach, one of his young associates proffered him a large Bible, with thick brass bosses on the covers, to stand on, but Edward sternly reproved him for treating that sacred book, which contained the precious word of God, with such irreverence as to put it to so unworthy a use as trampling it under foot. Then, raising it from the ground, he wiped away the dust with his robe, kissed it, and placed it on a velvet cushion near his chair of state, f William Thomas, afterwards clerk of the council, and employed in preparing the replies delivered by the young king to addresses on matters of business, speaks of him in the most enthusiastic terms of admiration. " If ye knew," he says, " the towardness of that young prince, your heart would melt to hear him named and your stomach abhor the malice of them that wold him ill, the beauteousest creature that liveth under the sun ; the wittiest, the most amiable, and the gentlest thing of all the world. Such a spirit of capacity, learning the things taught him by his schoolmasters, that it is a wonder to hear say. And, finally, he hath such a grace of port, and gesture in gravity, when he cometh into any presence, that it should seem he were already a father, and yet passeth he not the age of ten years. A thing undoubtedly much rather to be seen than believed/'^ In short, the good-boyism of the young king appears to have been almost supernatural, considering whose son he was, and the flattering homage with which he had been * Foxe. f Fuller's Church History; Burnet; Foxe. X MS. Cotton Vespasian, d. xviii, Edward VI. Printed for the Rox~ f. 19. Literary Remains of King burgh Club. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 251 surrounded from his cradle. Yet the following fact, which has been recorded by an impartial witness, the ambassador of the duke of Cleves,* goes far to prove that Edward was a genuine Tudor, and by no means exempt from the faults incidental to children of his age. Very soon after his accession to the throne, he was persuaded by one of his playfellows that swearing was suitable to the dignity of a crowned head, probably calling to his recollection, as a case in point, how much the late king, his father, was addicted to that practice. So on every opposition to his royal will, the juvenile monarch startled his attendants and companions by the utterance of thundering oaths and angry expletives. When required by his preceptors to explain how he had acquired such sinful and profane language, he confessed the truth, and the culprit being sent for, received a severe whipping in his majesty's presence, who was duly admonished by his preceptor that he deserved a similar infliction as the punishment of the offence of which he had been guilty. The learned Roger Ascham, schoolmaster to the princess Elizabeth, and a friend of Mr. Cheke, was occa- sionally employed to give Edward lessons in writing, not we should suppose the mechanical art of penmanship, which the royal youth had acquired at a very tender age, as his letters offer good proof, but in the higher and more important department of English composition. "Many a time/' says Ascham, "by mine especial good master Mr. Cheke's means I have been called to teach the king to write in his privy chamber, at which times his grace would oft most gently promise me 'one day to do me good/ and I would say, ' Nay, your majesty soon will forget me when I shall be absent from you/ ' which thing/ he said, 'he would never do.'"f Edward would say of his tutors, "that Randolph ♦Conrad Heresbach, ambassador to the Court of England, 1547. f Letter of Roger Ascham to sir Nichols in his Biographical Memoir William Cecil ; cited by J. G. of King Edward VI. 252 EDWARD THE SIXTH. the German spake honestly, sir John Cheke talked merrily, Dr. Cox solidly, and sir Anthony Cooke, wittingly."* Of Ascham he gives no opinion, yet he evidently was grateful for his instructions, and took pleasure in his company. In the court and council of the young king the favourers of the reformation were decidedly in the majority, but the lord chancellor Wriothesley headed a strong party, who were determined to uphold the Church of Rome, to which the king's eldest sister, the princess Mary, the heiress pre- sumptive of the crown, adhered. Wriothesley was, how- ever, for a breach of etiquette in performing the duties of his office, deprived of the seals and imprisoned. Gardiner bishop of Winchester, and Bonner bishop of London, were also suspended and imprisoned for resisting some of the alterations, which were gradually and very cautiously introduced by Cranmer into the church. All Lent, the young king attended the services of the church punctually, and listened with edifying attention to the sermons preached by his chaplains, taking notes of such passages as particularly pleased him. He was at Greenwich, on Palm Sunday, Passion week, and Easter, and performed the accustomed ceremonies on Maunday Thursday of washing the feet of twelve poor old men, to each of whom he gave a gown and tenpence in a purse. On the Easter Monday he sent for them again, and gave them each twenty shillings in a purse to redeem the gown he wore at the Maunday, which should have been given amongst them. As his majesty was but a little fellow, we fancy the old men were well compensated for the loss of his gown. At Easter, evening prayers were said or sung in English for the first time. A petition was soon after added to the bidding prayer, directing people to pray "that it would please God to accomplish a marriage between king Edward and the young queen of Scotland, * Fuller. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 253 for the happy union of their realms" The royal bride, who was thus earnestly desired for our young bachelor king, had only just completed her fourth year.* But while these aspirations for the premature wedlock of our fair young bachelor king in his tenth year, with his cousin the maiden sovereign of Scotland, Mary Stuart,f were presented to his loyal lieges in every parish church in England, his assistance was earnestly sought by his uncle, Thomas Seymour, the lord admiral, to smooth the difficulties of the matrimonial engagement he had presumed to contract with the queen dowager, Katharine Parr. The shortness of the time since king Henry's death, and the jealousy of Seymour's eldest brother, the protector . Somerset, of queen Katharine's well known influence with her royal stepson, prescribed great caution in de- claring the marriage. The once familiar intercourse between the king and Katharine had been barred by Somerset, so that she had no opportunity of interesting his kind young heart in her love affairs, in order to induce him to recommend her to bestow the fourth reversion of her hand on his handsome uncle, with whom she had been on the point of marriage at the time that king Henry signi- fied his intention of making her his queen. £ All private access to his royal nephew being in like manner denied to the lord admiral, he resorted to the expedient of carrying on a secret communication by means of John Fowler, one of his personal attendants. The admiral had apartments in St. James's Palace, and one day, while Edward was residing there, in April or May, called Fowler into his chamber and said, " Now, Mr. Fowler, how doth the king's majesty?" "Well, thanks to God," was the * See Life of Mary Stuart, " Lives Strickland, vol. iii; and Life of of the Queens of Scotland," by Mary of Lorraine, vol. ii. Agnes Strickland, vol. iii, 3rd % ^ife °f 0< uee n Katharine Parr, edition. "Lives of Queens of England," by f See Life of Mary Stuart, " Lives Agnes Strickland, vol. iii, Library of Queens of Scotland," by Agnes edition. 254 EDWARD THE SIXTH. reply. " Doth his highness lack anything ? " asked the admiral. Fowler said, "Nothing." Then the admiral inquired "whether the king asked for him in his absence." Fowler said "his highness sometimes did." "But doth he ask questions about me?" demanded the admiral. " Why, what questions should his majesty ask about you ?" said Fowler. " Nay, nothing," rejoined the admiral, "only sometimes his highness would ask why I married not." " I never heard him ask any such questions," returned Fowler. The admiral, after a brief pause, said, " Mr. Fowler, I pray you if you have any communication with the king's majesty soon or to-morrow, ask his grace whether he could be content I should marry, or not, and if he says he will be content, I pray you ask his grace whom he would have to be my wife!"* That night Fowler, whom the admiral had pro- pitiated with a present, being alone with the king, said to him, "An' please your grace, I marvel my lord admiral marrieth not." Edward making no rejoinder to this remark, Fowler put the question direct, " Could your grace be contented he should marry ? " " Yea, very well," replied Edward. "Whom would your grace like him to marry ? " inquired Fowler. The royal boy in the unsuspicious innocence of his heart, named, "My lady Anne of Cleves."f Then after a thoughtful pause, with equal simplicity amended his proposition, by saying, "Nay, nay y wot you what? I would he married my sister Mary, to turn her opinions," and there the conference ended. The next day the lord admiral waylaid Fowler in the gallery of St. James's Palace, and inquired if he had sounded the king on his matrimonial purposes, and what had been the result, when Fowler repeated what the * MS. Harleian, 249, f. 26. time. See her Life in " Lives of f Anne of Cleyes was only three- Queens of England," by Agnes and-thirty years of age at that Strickland, vol. iii, Library edition- EDWARD THE SIXTH. 255 young king had said. The admiral laughed, as well he might, at the choice of wives offered by his royal nephew, so near and yet so wide of the mark at which he aimed. "I pray you, Mr. Fowler," said he, after he had recovered his gravity, " ask his grace if he could be contented I should marry the queen, and in case I be a suitor to his highness for his letter to the queen, whether his majesty would write for me or not."* Fowler fulfilled the lord admiral's desire, and obtained, as it appears, a secret interview between the uncle and nephew the next day. The details of the conference in which the admiral disclosed his passion for the still lovely queen dowager to her royal step-son, and solicited his good offices in overcoming the alleged reluctance of her majesty to enter for the fourth time into the holy pale of matrimony, would doubtless have sup- plied a racy page to the personal history of the juvenile monarch ; but as it was strictly private, the sayings of neither uncle nor nephew are on record. The result however is well known. The admiral, though he had been for some weeks clandestinely married to Katharine, appealed so successfully to the kindly feelings of the amiable little king, who perhaps had never before been made the confidant in a love affair, that he beguiled his majesty into writing a letter in his behalf to the queen to plead his cause, requesting her to smile upon his suit. Neither this letter, nor Katharine's answer, signifying her compliance with his royal will, have been discovered ; but Edward's rejoinder to her acquiescent epistle, which is not in Latin, but his own genuine writing, is very natural and pretty. 11 ~We thank you heartily, not only for your gentle acceptation of our suit moved unto you, but also for your loving accomplishing of the same, wherein you have declared not only a desire to gra- tify us, but also moved us to declare the good will likewise that we bear to you in all your requests. Wherefore ye shall not need to fear any grief to come, or to suspect lack of aid in need, seeing * Ibid. 256 EDWARD THE SIXTH. that he being mine uncle is of so good a nature that he will not be troublesome by any means to you, and I of that mind, that of divers just causes I must favour you. But even as without cause you merely require help against him, whom you have put in trust with the carriage of those letters ; so may I merely return the same request unto you to provide that he may live with you also without grief, which hath given him wholly unto you." * In the last paragraph Edward alludes to his uncle's supposed devotion to queen Katharine, and then, with no small notion of his own royal power, graciously proceeds to promise his protection to the secretly wedded lovers in case of their requiring it : " And I will so provide for you both that hereafter if any grief befall I shall be sufficient succour in your godly or praiseable enterprises. Fare ye well, with much encrease of honour and virtue in Christ. From sainte James, the nfe and twenty day of June. . "Edward. " To the queene's grace."t The marriage between the lord admiral and the queen dowager was not made public till the end of June, yet that it took place in May is thus certified by Edward's own pen in his record of the current events of that month: "The lord Seimour of Sudley, married the queue, whos nam was Katarine, with which marriage the lord protector was much offended.''^ * Strype. Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. ii, book 1. f It was afterwards brought in the and require the said queen to marry articles of accusation against the lord with you/' admiral, both that he married the J The curious document in which widowed queen so soon after the late this entry appears is now called King king's death that the birth of their Edward's Journal — a title applied child, had it occurred a little earlier to it by Burnet. Edward himself than it did, might have imperilled entitled it " A Chronicle." He has and perplexed the royal succession, not written it in the form of a journal and also article 21 :" It is objected or diary, but as a record of the occur- and laid to your charge that you first rences of his reign : sometimes these married the queen privately, and did notations are made from memory, dissemble and keep close the same, and chasms of days, weeks, and even insomuch that a good space after you months intervene, between his jot- had married her you made labour to tings down. It occupies 68 pages of the king's majesty, and obtained a a folio, which is preserved among the letter of his majesty's hand to move choice MSS. of the Cotton collection. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 257 Somerset's displeasure was, for the present, harmless, for, on the unfavourable termination of the negotiations with the regent of Scotland, for the union of the realms by the marriage of the young bachelor king of England with Mary queen of Scots, he renewed the war, and took the field in person. King Edward's own pen has given a brief, but animated record of the Scotch campaign and victorious career of Somerset, including a terse narrative of the battle of Pinkie, near Musselborough. The terrible pre- ponderance of the loss on the enemy's side is related by the royal boy with evident exultation. " There was great preparation made to go into Scot- land, and the lord protector, the earl of Warwick, the lord Dacres, the lord Gray, and Mr. Bryan went with a great number of nobles and gentlemen to Berwick, where, the first day after his coming, he mustered all his company, which were to the number of 13,000 footmen and 5,000 horsemen. The next day he marched on into Scotland, and so passed the Pease.* " Then he burnt two castles in Scotland,! and so passed a strait of a bridge, where 300 Scotch light horsemen set upon him behind him, who were discomfited. So he passed to Musselborough, where the first day after he came he went up the hill and saw the Scots, think- ing them, as they were, indeed, at least 36,000 men; and my lord Warwick was almost taken, chasing the earl of Huntley, by an ambush. But he was rescued by one Bertiville, with twelve hagbutters on horse- back, and the ambush ran away. " The 7th of September the lord protector thought to get the hill, which the Scots seeing, passed the bridge over the river of Musselborough, and strove for the higher ground and almost got it. But our horsemen set * The wild pass of Cockburn, or Peats, since softened into " The pass Coldbrand's path, anciently called the of Pease." f Somerset burned the castles of Dunglass and Thornton and Anderwick. 17 258 EDWARD THE SIXTH. upon them, who, though they stayed them, yet were put to flight and gathered together by the duke of Somerset, lord protector, and the earl of Warwick, and ready to give a new onset. The Scots being amazed with this fled their ways, some to Edin- burgh, some to the sea, and some to Dalkeith, and there were slain 10,000 of them. But of the English- men, 51 horsemen, which were almost all gentlemen, and but one footman. Prisoners were taken, the lord Huntley, chancellor of Scotland, and divers other gen- tlemen, and slain of lairds, 1,000/'* The earl of Huntley, on being asked by Somerset how he could like of the marriage between king Edward and the queen of Scots, drily replied, " The marriage may be weel enough, but I dinna like the manner of the wooing/' Somerset had pursued the same cruel and destructive system of warfare with which he had desolated Scotland in his previous campaign, and provoked national hatred that rendered all hopes of a happy union between the realms, by the marriage of their fair young sovereigns, formed, as they appeared to be, by heaven for each other, impracticable, f Edward makes no allusion in his journal to the cause of the war, or the probability of winning a bride, but in his letters to his uncle Somerset, appears to anticipate, with great satisfaction, the conquest of Scotland, and the extirpation of monks and friars from that realm. It is from his letter to Somerset, from Oatlands, Sept. 18th, on the occasion of the victory at Pinkie, that the fac simile of his autograph is taken : "Deakest Uncle, " We have at length understanded to our great comfort, the good success it hath pleased God to grant us against the Scots, for your good courage and wise conduct, for the which we give unto you, * King Edward's Journal, f See Life of Mary of Lorraine, iii, "Lives of Queens of Scotland/' vol. ii, and Life of Mary Stuart, vol. by Agnes Stbickland, 3rd edition. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 259 good uncle, our most hearty thanks ; praying you to thank most heartily, in our name, our good cousin the earl of Warwick, and all the others of the noblemen, gentlemen, and others that have served in this journey, of whose services they shall be well assured we will not show ourselves unmindful, but be ready ever to consider the same as any occasion shall arrive." yom mi WW * Royal Autograph ; Choice MSS., British Museum. EDWAED THE SIXTH. CHAPTER III. King Edward's new favourite, Throckmorton — Romp-royal at knighting him— Bids him present his wife — Reproaches Throckmorton for her mean dress— Gives them a royal grant — Somerset's return puts an end to the young king's fun — Edward straitened for pocket money — His uncle, the lord admiral, supplies him privately — Edward meets his first parliament —Liturgy in English established — Lord admiral asks Edward to write to the lords in his behalf — Edward refuses — Complains of his uncle Somerset's hard dealing — His discontent fomented by lord admiral— King obtains sums of money from admiral — "Way in which he expends it — King's love for his sister Elizabeth — Servile homage paid to him — Latimer preaches before him on the choice of a wife — King wishes to reward him — Obtains the money from lord admiral for that purpose — Their clandestine correspondence — King's small notes — Death of queen Katharine Parr — Injurious reports of lord admiral — His courtship of princess Elizabeth— Scandals about them — Schemes for marrying the king to lady Jane Gray, and for abducting the king — Wrath of Somerset — lord admiral threatened with the Tower — His rash attempt to enter king's chamber at midnight — Door defended by king's dog — Admiral kills the dog — Is sent to the Tower — Condemned to die— King leaves him to his fate — Latimer preaches against him before the king — King Edward writes a book against the pope — His want of information about pro- ceedings in his own court — Woes of royal minors. One of the post-haste letters, announcing the success of his arms in Scotland, was brought to the king by Nicholas Throckmorton, a young courtier, who, having greatly distinguished himself by his valour, during the campaign, was especially recommended by Somerset to his royal nephew for preferment in the household. As Throck- morton was a favourite cousin of queen Katharine Parr, and had been her cup-bearer during the last year of the life of king Henry VIII., he was not unknown to Edward, and the lord admiral, though opposed to EDWARD THE SIXTH. 261 Somerset, on most occasions, warmly backed his recom- mendation on this, so that the king was induced to appoint him one of the gentlemen of his privy chamber. The new chamberer had formerly been page to Edward's illegitimate brother, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, and accustomed to conform himself, with due subserviency, to the violent temper of this sinistral scion of the royal stem of Tudor, as we learn from the following quaint lines on the subject in the metrical chronicle of the life of sir Nicholas Throckmorton :* " A brother fourth, and far from hope of land, By parent's hest I served as a page To Richmond's duke, and waited still at hand, For fear of blows that happened in his rage." The amiable young king was a master of a very different disposition from his brother Richmond, for his greatest pleasure was to contribute to the happi- ness of those about him, and no instance of his giving way to uncontrolled passion has ever been recorded. He took a great fancy to Nicholas Throckmorton, with whom, it appears, the juvenile monarch occasion- ally relaxed the over -bent -bow of premature regal dignity, learned labour, and theological studies, to enjoy a little fun : " For lo, the king's affection was such That he would jest with me most merrily, And though thereat my betters still did grutch, Yet, ne'ertheless, he'd use my company. He wearied much with lords and others mo, Alone with me into some place would go. * By his nephew, sir Thomas Coughton Court, to our mutual Throckmorton. The family copy of friend, the lamented Jane Porter, this curious historical document author of M Thaddeus of Warsaw," was kindly presented by his descen- and by her given to me as a contri- dant and representative, the late bution to my historical collections for sir Charles Throckmorton, bart., of the Life of Katharine Parr. — A. S. 262 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Let Sidney, Nevil, and the rest that were In privy chamber, then but tell the truth, If they have seen his liking any where, Such as to me, who never felt his wrath."* The Sidney to whom Throckmorton alludes was Henry, eldest son of sir William Sidney, the comptroller of Edward's household when prince, one of his most favour- ite companions from his childhood, so much so, that he generally had the honour of sharing his bed. On Edward's accession to the throne, Henry Sidney being about nineteen years of age, was appointed first gentle- man of the household to his young royal friend, who subsequently knighted him.f Edward appears to have taken especial pleasure in exercising this chivalric function of his regal office. Once, when in his privy chamber, unfettered by the restraining presence of his uncle, the protector, Cranmer, or any other grave member of his council, he offered to knight his new favourite Nicholas Throckmorton; but Throckmorton, being more experienced in the stately etiquettes of a court than his juvenile sovereign, and probably appre- hending that he should be brought into trouble if he availed himself, without express leave from the protector or the council, of the proffered honour his majesty desired to confer upon him, treated the matter as a joke, ran off into the back stairs lobby, and hid himself behind a piece of furniture there. The young king gave chase with a drawn sword in his hand. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and all the philosophers of old, and, more than that, the grave theologians, pedants, and pedagogues of his school room, were forgotten in the moment of mirthful excitement, when he tracked Throckmorton to * Ibid. He was in Elizabeth's reign made first fin 1549 Edward knighted Henry president of Wales, and afterwards Sidney and sent him ambassador to lord deputy of Ireland. Sir Henry was France, when only two and twenty the father of the immortal sir Philip years of age, and in 1550 constituted Sidney, the author of the Arcadia him his chief cup-bearer for life. and the hero of Zutphen. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 263 his hiding place, and strove to pull him out. A romp- royal ensued, for a boy in his tenth year, even if subjected to regal fetters, will sometimes act according to nature. Finding he could not succeed in dragging the military courtier, who had so well earned his spurs at Pinkie field, from his entrenchment, the young king, who, Tudor like, was bent on accomplishing his royal will, bestowed the accolade of honour upon him then and there, to the scandal of some who were present, and murmured. The incident is thus quaintly versified in the Throckmorton MSS. — " And on a time when I should knighted be, The king said * Kneel/ yet then I went my way ; But straight himself ran forth and spied me Behind a chest, in lobby where I lay. And there against my will he dubbed me knight, Which was an eyesore unto some men's sight." The new knight had been for some time a married man, but having no living, kept his wife in retirement, till encouraged by the favour of his young royal master, he confided the fact to him, and received his commands to present lady Throckmorton to him. The result is thus related in the metrical chronicle of Throckmorton's life: " "When to the king my wife was showed, new brought To court, who for the nonce was meanly clad, He told her l that I was a husband naught, Because he saw her courtly robes so bad ; ' But she excused the fault, with ' poverty, Which me enforced to keep her beggarly. 7 * l And I replied, ' For her it was no way, To bear the merchant's stock upon her back, Unless I knew some means it to repay, Or us to save from ruin, or from wrack.' He answered, ' Dost thou want, and blush to crave ? Of right the tongue-tied man should nothing have. 264 EDWARD THE SIXTH. " ' But we are well contented for to give Something of profit, which, thou shalt espy, Whereby thou shalt be able for to live, If that before some further help we die. Eightly of us, thou never shalt complain, That travail was thy sole reward for pain.' " As the marquis of Northampton, and the earl of Pembroke, the brother and brother-in-law of Throckmor- ton's royal patroness and kinswoman, queen Katharine, were the leading men in the government, during the absence of the protector Somerset, king Edward found no difficulty in gratifying his kind wish of enriching his new favourite with the church lands of Pauler Perry. After this liberal endowment, his majesty gave Throck- morton leave of absence from his duty in the privy chamber that he might carry his wife down to Coughton Court, to pay his father a dutiful visit, and, lest he should be taken by surprise, Throckmorton wrote to announce his intention to the old knight. The landless martlet, who had migrated from the paternal nest, where there was no inheritance for him, and returned a prosperous courtier, rich in fame, wealth, and honours self- acquired, flattered himself that he should be warmly welcomed ; but, though he had escaped a Star Chamber fine for the irregular manner in which his knighthood had been thrust upon him, by the frolicsome boy who represented the majesty of England, the clownish old Staffordshire knight, his father, took umbrage at his having been qualified by king Edward's favour to take precedence of his elder brother, who had no claim to obtain the like dis- tinction. The old man had construed sir Nicholas' intimation of the intended visit of himself and his lady into a hint that he had expected the fatted calf to be killed on his account. The mortifying nature of his reception is thus commemorated in the metrical chronicle of his life : EDWARD THE SIXTH. 265 " He thumpt me on the breast and thus began, ' Sir knight, sir knave ! a foolish boy art thon ; And yet thou think' st thyself a goodly man. Why shouldst thou scorn thy father's daily fare, Or send me word when I should see thee here, As who should say I should provide good cheer ? " ' Too base for thee thou deem'st thy father's food, But since 'tis so I tell thee in good truth, My carter's meat I think is far too good For such a one, that bring' st so dainty tooth. I see thou grow'st into disdain of me, Wherefore, know this, I careless am of thee/ " These taunting terms did trouble much my mind, But I did sound the cause of all this grief ; The sore once seen, a plaister I did find, And after that my stay was very brief. He thought to him some injury was done, That I was knight before his eldest son." Sir Nicholas accordingly, through, his favour with the young king, obtained the like honour that had been vouchsafed to himself, only in a more regular manner, for his eldest brother, and places in the household for others of the family.* The return of the lord protector Somerset from Scot- land, far, earlier in the autumn than was anticipated, put an end to all undignified indulgence in frolic and fun on the part of the boy-king, and further clipped his wings, by limiting his expenses to his regular allowance. Edward, whose delight was to give, found the means of gratifying his royal munificence cut off : his pocket money being inadequate to the rewards it was his pleasure to bestow on his servants, minstrels, and those persons in humble life, who brought him little offerings. His uncle, the lord admiral, perceiving his vexation, offered to assist him with money for these purposes, and told him to apply to him whenever he was * Throckmorton MS. 266 EDWARD THE SIXTH. in need of a supply, taking care, at the same time, to insinuate "that his majesty was hardly treated by Somerset, and ought to be given more money and allowed more liberty."* The secret information Somerset had received of the intrigues of his younger brother to supplant him in the custody of their royal nephew's person, and to obtain a share in the government, had induced him, instead of improving his victory, to hasten home from Scotland before the meeting of parliament, which had been summoned to assemble at Westminster on the 4th of November. Edward, who had just com- pleted his tenth year, took his seat on the throne, the peers being ranged on each side, and the commons standing below the bar. He then commanded the clerk of parliament to read the commission appointing the lord protector's seat.f Then the parliament was opened by the new lord chancellor. A solemn mass on this occasion was said by Cranmer, for the last time : it was in English. The wholesome changes in public worship effected by the reformation had already commenced, and were steadily progressing; for though the ritual of the Church of Rome was still used, the prayers were read in English ; so also were the epistle and gospel. Processions and images were gradually abolished ; fasting was no longer enjoined to be practised, even in Lent, but people were allowed to act according to the dictates of their own consciences, both in regard to that and the use of auricular confession. The communion service was soon after solemnized in English, * Haynes' State Papers. tne canopy or cloth of estate, and to have all the honours and privileges f In the patent under the great ever enjoyed by a king's uncle, seal, which conceded to Somerset, in whether by the mother's side or the the name of his royal nephew, the father's, a piece of presumption twofold offices of protector of king w^hich could not fail of displeasing all Edward's person and the government who boasted a share of the royal blood. of his realm, it was also provided He moreover assumed the regal pro- that he was to sit in parliament on noun " We," both in public circulars the right hand of the throne, under and his private- letters. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 267 and administered in both kinds, to the great joy of the people, the laity having been deprived for many centuries of the cup. Erasmus's paraphrase on the New Testament was ordered to be provided for the use of every parish, and the Book of Homilies was prepared by Cranmer for the use of such of the clergy as lacked the power of compounding sermons for themselves. The young king was generally believed to be the deviser of all the salutary enactments which were promulgated by his authority, insomuch that Coverdale calls him " the high and chief admiral of the great navy of the Lord of Hosts, principal captain and governor of all us under him, the most noble ruler of his ship, even our most comfortable Noah."* A grant was made to the king by this parlia- ment of the endowments of all chauntries and colleges, without even excepting the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. These were preserved by the powerful inter- cession of Edward's honest and right-minded tutor, Dr. Cox, who had just been elected chancellor of Oxford, f the epistle to the Eomans. He it was * Strype 11, 65. to whom, when sir Christopher Hatton f Biographia Britannica, Life of endeavoured to deprive him of his epis- Cox. On the accession of Edward copal mansion and gardens on Holborn VI. Cox was elected chancellor of hill, the virgin queen wrote that cele- Oxford and made dean of Westminster. brated laconic epistle, commencing When an act was passed for giving all " Proud Prelate," threatening to de- chauntries and colleges to the king, prive him of his bishopric, if he re- his powerful intercession with his sisted her royal will, and confirming royal pupil preserved the universities her menace with an oath. Another of both of Oxford and Cambridge from the greedy courtiers, lord North, fixed the sweeping plunder meditated. He his affections on the two best manors was one of the assistants in framing of his see, Somersham and Down- the liturgy, which, when in exile for ham park, and threatened him with conscience' sake at Frankfort, he the queen's wrath if he refused to fearlessly supported and maintained yield it. Cox manfully defended his against the assaults of Knox and the temporalities against both, till har- Puritans, who, finding themselves assed by the long chancery suit insti- defeated, retired to Basle and Geneva. tuted against him by Hatton, and On Elizabeth's accession he was made oppressed by the burden of 80 years, bishop of Ely, and in the new trans- he petitioned the queen to permit lation of the Bible undertook the four him to resign his benefice. There gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and was so much difficulty in finding a 268 EDWARD THE SIXTH. During the sitting of this short sessions of parliament, Edward's uncle, the lord admiral, brought a paper to sir John Cheke, and requested him to get it signed by his royal pupil. It was to this effect : " My lords, I pray you favour my lord admiral, mine uncle, in the suit which he will make to you." Cheke replied " that lord Paget, the secretary of state, had expressly enjoined him not to allow the king to sign any paper unless it were countersigned by him ; therefore he dared not cause his majesty to set his hand to it." The admiral replied, " You may do it well enough, seeing the king's majesty hath promised it, and although I am but an ill speaker myself, yet if I have that paper to show, I am sure the best speakers in the house will help me to prefer it." Cheke, aware of the danger such a proceeding would incur, refused to gratify him. The admiral then sought a secret inter- view with the king, and asked him to write somewhat to the parliament for him.* Edward asked him " what it was?" "No ill thing," replied the admiral; "it is for the queen." "If it be good," observed the young king, " the lords will allow it ; if ill, I will not write about it."f The admiral, however, continued his importunity to his royal nephew to use his influence, till at last Edward, aware that he was tempting him to take a most improper step, desired him sharply to let him alone. When he was gone, Cheke, said impressively to his illustrious pupil, "Ye were best not to write. "J The suit for which the lord admiral desired to obtain the king's unconstitutional interference with the peers, was, pro- bably, the dispute between the protector and the queen dowager, touching his detention of her jewels as the proper successor, that he departed * State Paper Office MS., sir John this life before the matter was accom- Cheke' s confession. plished. He was buried in Ely . ._. ^, ,, ^ f lL , , , , . . . .,, v- f King Edward s Deposition. cathedral, where his tomb with his ' , ° r Latin epitaph, written by himself, ^ P > • and punning on his name, may still + -r-, • i be seen. + EDWARD THE SIXTH. 2G9 property of the crown, which she claimed as the personal gifts of the late king her husband to herself, even her wedding ring being withheld from her, a manifest insult as well as injustice, and the more offensive to the royal widow, because the duchess of Somerset presumptuously disputed her precedence in the court of Edward VI., with injurious observations on the validity of her marriage with Henry VIII. The young king loved not his uncle the protector, and ill brooked the restraints to which he found him- self subjected. To persons in his confidence he some- times "made his moan" in these words, "My uncle of Somerset dealeth very hardly with me, and keepeth me so strait that I cannot have money at my will. But my lord admiral both sends me money and gives me money."* The admiral, taking advantage of the discontent of the royal boy, said to him, " Your grace is too bashful in your own matters. Why do ye not speak to bear rule as other kings do?" Edward's natural good sense, warning him that he might be drawn into a dangerous position, cut short the conference by rejoining, "It needeth not, I am well enough."! Somerset's patent of lord protector invested him with full powers to govern in the king's name till his majesty should have completed his eighteenth year, but as it only had been conferred by the privy council, under the great seal, it required the sanction of parliament to render his appointment legal. His brother, the lord admiral, being at the head of a strong party against him, though he did not venture to propose depriving him of the protectorate, contrived that the important alteration should be made by parliament in the patent, that instead of the time fixed by the privy council till the king completed his eighteenth year, the words "or * Deposition of the marquis of f Confession of king Edward, in Doiset ; Haynes, 75. Haynes, 76. 270 EDWARD THE SIXTH. during his majesty's pleasure/' should be added. The admiral had certainly laboured to effect this, in conse- quence of a secret understanding with his royal nephew, for the next time they met Edward thanked him for it.* "Ye must take upon yourself to rule," said the kindred tempter to the young sovereign, at one of their stolen conferences, " for ye shall be able enough as other kings, and then ye may give your men somewhat. Ye are but a beggarly king now ; ye have not to play nor to give your servants." " Mr. Stanhope hath for me,"f replied Edward. But this was money for every penny of which account would have to be rendered to the protector, for Stanhope was the duchess of Somerset's brother. Edward desired pocket money for gratuities and other purposes, for which he liked not to be checked by his compotus ; so the admiral offered him unlimited access to his purse, and bade him let him know through Fowler whenever he wanted money, and he should have it.* How innocent the uses were to which the boy-king applied the sums thus obtained of his uncle, the lord admiral, is apparent from the account kept by Fowler of the same. It appears withal that his schoolmaster, Cheke, was deeply involved in the intrigue — at any rate, the first fruits of it, twenty pounds, were bestowed on him by the royal pupil. Belmaine, the king's French master, was recipient of five pounds, given to him by his majesty's commandment at two different times. Five pounds were delivered to the king, which he gave to John Ashley at sundry times, after receiving lessons on the virginals from him. Forty shillings to Garrard of the guard, for a book he gave the king at St. James's. The like gratuity to the lord privy seal's trumpeter, when the king skirmished in the garden at Hampton Court, at four sundry times. Also, "to a trumpeter which * Hayne's State Papers. f Confessions of king Edward. % Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 271 sometime was my lord Braye's servant, for playing on the Thames opposite the palace at Greenwich ; " and at Greenwich, "to certain tumblers that played, his grace looking out upon them."* To Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, the king's favourite young friend, two pounds were sent twice by his majesty's command. According to the king's subsequent confes- sion, when called to account in his own council chamber for all these contraband proceedings, he " employed his French master, Belmaine, to pay a small sum, the amount of which had escaped his memory, to a book- binder," whom he had privily honoured with his royal patronage, f When the parliament was up, and the admiral was going to Hanworth with his royal consort, the queen dowager, being prevented from seeing the king, he in- structed Fowler to ask his majesty " to write some little friendly communication to him with his own hand, as it would comfort the queen." Fowler did as requested, saying to the king, " Your grace ought to thank the lord admiral for the gentleness he hath shown to you and for his money." Edward wrote as usual in a very laconic strain, not forgetting to include a petition for more money in his royal billet, which only contained these words : " My lord, I recommend me to you and the quene, praying you to send me such money as ye think good to give away, as Fowler doth write in his letter." Fowler in his letter to the admiral says, "The king hath sent you, herein inclosed, commendations to the queen and to your lordship, with his own hand, praying your lordship also to send him some money as you shall think good, for his majesty will give Mr. Howard, because he is going to Scotland.''^ The admiral, in reply, sent Fowler an order on the queen's receiver in London, "to deliver forty pounds for * Harleian MS. 249, f. 46. f Haynes, 74. J Haynes. 272 EDWARD THE SIXTH. the king's use." West, the bearer of this missive, came again to Hampton Court, a fortnight or three weeks after, and inquired of Fowler if he had anything for the lord admiral, who had a post of his own ready at all times to convey letters privately to him from the court. It was three days before Fowler had an opportunity of asking the king if he wished to send anything to the admiral. " Nothing/' replied Edward. " If it were your grace's pleasure to write some recommendations with thanks for his gentleness it were well done," observed Fowler, and retired, not supposing, by Edward's manner, he would. The young king, however, who had not yet thanked his uncle for the last disbursement, acted on Fowler's hint ; but the difficulty he had to find an opportunity of doing so may be conjectured, from the furtive manner of his pro- ceedings, for when he saw Fowler again he told him "to go into the little house, within his dining room, and take the writing that lay under the carpet in the window there, and send it to the lord admiral with his commendations."* The scrap of paper the royal boy had secreted there, con- tained only these two lines, without address or signature. " My lord, I recommend me unto you and the queen, thanking you always for your remembrance." Fowler, as before, enclosed this stealthily written missive in his letter, telling the admiral " the king was in health, and had him in memory as much as any nobleman in England." With- in a fortnight the admiral wrote again to Fowler, referring him to "Mr. Locke of London, who had forty pounds in hand against it should be required, which could be had for the sending for." Edward was enabled to gratify his love of giving at Christmas and new year's tide, from this source. Both his sisters, from whom he had been long sepa- rated, were permitted to visit the young king at this season. His affection for Elizabeth is prettily mentioned by one of the eloquent memorialists of her court, * Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 273 who says, "She was his, and one of the darlings of fortune ; for besides the considerations of blood, there was between these two princes a concurrency and sym- pathy in their natures and affections, together with the celestial bond, conformity in religion, which made them one and friends. The king ever called her his sweetest and dearest sister."* Sometimes too he gave her the pet name of "his sweet sister Temperance." It was in reply to his affectionate request for her portrait, that she wrote her celebrated metaphorical letter, beginning " Like as the rich man gathereth riches to riches." The excessive homage with which the juvenile monarch was treated in his court, and which certainly was an innovation on the customs observed in previous reigns, savoured of the slavish prostrations with which Chinese etiquette prescribes the approaches to the celestial emperor. No one was permitted to address him, not even his sisters, without kneeling to him. "I have seen," says TJbaldini, "the princess Elizabeth drop on one knee five times before her brother, before she took her place. At dinner, if either of his sisters were permitted to eat with him, she sat on a stool at a distance beyond the limits of the royal dais."f His dinner, even on ordinary days, was brought up by a procession of lords and gentlemen, bareheaded, who knelt down before they placed them on the table. This was considered a barbarism by the French ambassador and his suite, for in France these offices, except at royal marriages and coronations, were performed by pages, who only bowed instead of kneeling.:}: Edward kept his Shrovetide festival at Greenwich this year. Jousts and martial feats took place in the park on the Monday and Tuesday. " A castle or fort was built up of turf, which was besieged, stormed, and defended, to show his majesty some passages in the art of war, * Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia. f Von Raumer, vol. ii., page 70. } Memoirs de Vielleville, 18 274 EDWARD THE SIXTH. wherein he took great delight.* Edward, in his journal, calls this chivalric entertainment " a triumph, where," says he, " six gentlemen did challenge all comers at barriers, jousts, and tournay, and also that they would keep a fortress with thirty of them against an hundred." On the first Friday in Lent, Latimer, the most popular preacher of that day, preached before the young king for the first time. In anticipation of the eager concourse who thronged to listen to his animated eloquence, a pulpit had been erected for him in the privy gardens, at Whitehall, where four times more people could enjoy the opportunity of hearing him than in the chapel royal, f The pulpit was so placed that the king and the protector Somerset, and other great personages, might hear him from the balcony of the palace, where they sat at ease, the rest of the voluntary congregation, who had assem- bled themselves to listen, stood below, while many females, among whom weYe mingled ladies of wealth and title, sat round the foot of the pulpit or clustered on the stairs. The zealous preacher, in this his first sermon, thought proper to favour the young bachelor king, his sovereign, with some wholesome matrimonial advice, for after des- canting on "the evil inclinations and weakness of women, and the difficulty husbands found in ruling one wife rightly," he earnestly exhorted his majesty "not to marry more than one at a time, and to take heed that he made a proper choice, and that she was of the household of faith. Yea," continued he, "let all estates be no less cir- cumspect in choosing her, taking great deliberation, and then shall not need divorcements, and such like mischiefs, to the evil examples and great slanders of our realm. And that she may be such a one as the king can find in his heart to love, and lead his life in pure and chaste espousage, and then shall he be more prone and ready to i * Stow's Chronicle. f Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 275 advance God's glory. Therefore, we ought to make a continual prayer unto God for to grant our king's grace such a mate, as may knit his heart and hers according to God's ordinance and law, and not to consider and cleave only to a politic matter, or conjunction for the enlargement of his dominions, for surety and defence of countries, setting apart the institution and ordinance of God. * * * " The fear of the Lord is the fountain of wisdom. I would God this sentence were always printed in the heart of the king, in chusing his wife."* The little royal bachelor, in his eleventh year, was so well pleased with the sermon, which, however, embraced many other topics, that although every divine who preached before him received a gratuity of twenty shillings, he desired to testify his high sense of Latimer's merit by a royal gift from his own privy purse ; but as this was, as usual, empty, he sent a note, by Fowler, to his uncle, the admiral, stating his desire of making a pecuniary compliment to Latimer, and inquired how much he ought to give. The admiral sent him forty pounds, but said, " Twenty pounds, methinks, will be a good reward for Latimer, and the king's majesty can use the other twenty pounds as he will."f Once when preaching before king Edward in the royal banqueting hall, Latimer complained of the noise of some of the people who walked about while he was preaching, instead of standing reverently like the devout portion of his congregation to listen. " Surely," exclaimed he, " it is an ill misorder that folks shall be walking up and down in sermon time, as I have seen in this place this Lent, and there shall be such a hussing and buzzing in the preacher's ears that it maketh him often to forget his matter. let us consider the king's goodness. This place was prepared for banqueting of the body, and his majesty * Latimer's Sermons. t Haynes' State Papers. 276 EDWARD THE SIXTH. hath made it a place for the comfort of the soul. Consider what the king's majesty hath done for you : he alloweth you all to hear with him ; consider where ye be. First ye ought to have a reverence of God's word, and though it be preached by poor men, yet it is the same word our Saviour spoke. Consider also the presence of the king's majesty, God's high vicar on earth. Having a respect to his personage, ye ought to have reverence to it, and con- sider that he is God's high minister, and yet alloweth ye all to be partakers with him of the hearing of God's word."* Previously to his leaving London this summer, Edward wrote his credence to the lord admiral for Fowler in these laconic terms : — "I commende me to you my lord, and pray you to credit this writer. "EDWAKD."f Beneath this royal autograph Fowler wrote : — u This shall serve to certify you that the king's majesty is in good health, thanks be given to Glod ; and has been heartily recommended to the queen's grace and to your good lordship. And his grace willed me to write to your lordship, declaring to me ' that his mind and love, notwithstanding your absence, is towards your lordship, as much as to any man within England.' Also, his grace willed me to write to your lordship, desiring you, as your lordship has willed him to do, if he lack any money, to send to your lordship. His grace desires you, if you conveniently may, to let him have some money. I asked his grace what sum I should write to your lordship for. His grace would name no sum, but as it pleased your lordship to send him, for he determines to give it away, but to whom he will not tell me as yet. I am not able to send your lordship no news, but that my lord of Winchester (Gardiner) preaches before the king upon St. Peter's day at Westminster. His grace is now at St. James's, and my lord protector is there every night, but he dines at Westminster. I will send your lordship the bishop's sermon, God willing, the next time I write unto your lordship, and if any news come then I will satisfy your lordship. The king's majesty desires your lordship to send him this money as shortly as you can, and because your lordship may credit me the better, his grace has written in the beginning of the * Latimer's Sermons. f Haynes' State Papers. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 277 letter himself. And thus making an end I commit your lordship to almighty God, to whom my daily prayer is to preserve the queen's grace and yourself, with all yours, to his godly pleasure. Written in haste at St. James's, the 26th of June. I desire your lordship to hum my letter." The sermon anticipated by Fowler with such lively- interest from bishop Gardiner, was required by the council in the name of the king from that prelate, on his recent enfranchisement from prison, as a test of his submission to the changes lately enacted by their authority in public worship, and the abrogation of superstitious ceremonies. Cranmer, to save him from all trouble, had obligingly written the heads and skeleton of the sermon he was required to preach on this occasion, but Gardiner declared " he did not possess the faculty of preaching any one's sermons but his own." Mr. secretary Cecil reminded him that he had on a former occasion observed, "that a king was as much of a king at one year old as at a hundred," and told him "that if he enlarged a little on that theme he thought it would be well taken." Gardiner replied that "he was happy to be required to speak on that subject, because he thought he could say somewhat on it as well as any one, having been formerly required by the late king to enter into that matter in defence of the authority of the infant queen of Scots in regard to the treaty of marriage between her and king Edward when prince." Cecil then warned him not to touch on transubstantiation, or to say anything about the mass, and showed him some of the king's MS. notes of sermons to which he had listened, proving that it was the custom of the youthful sovereign to jot down every notable sentence he heard from the pulpit, especially if it concerned a king.* Thus primed and warned, it was expected that Gardiner, who had given up the dogmas of the papal supremacy, and in various other points conformed his creed to the royal model in the reign of Henry VIII. would go a few steps * Nichols ; Strype ; Burnet ; Foxe ; Lingard. 278 EDWARD THE SIXTH. further to save his benefice, and sail with the tide of popular opinion. Expectation was on tiptoe when St. Peter's-day arrived, and Gardiner entered the pulpit, so lately occupied by Latimer, under the blue canopy of heaven. The preco- ciously learned young sovereign, note book in hand, was seated at an open window in the gallery to listen, with his tutor Dr. Cheke standing by his side, together with Dr. Cox, his almoner. The lord protector Somerset, and almost all the members of the cabinet and council, were also pre- sent to hear and sit in judgment on the discourse, while in the pulpit itself was stationed Nicholas TJdal, officially employed in taking notes of the sermon. It offended all the auditory, from the highest to the lowest, present ; for not only did the perverse bishop leave unsaid the things he was requested to say, but said those on which he was forbidden to speak, by entering into a warm defence of the old worship, and condemning the doctrines of the refor- mation ; and so far from magnifying the king's authority in his young age, he rather depreciated it than otherwise. The earl of Bedford declared "that the bishop used him- self very evil in his said sermon in the hearing of the king's majesty and his council, so evil indeed, that if his majesty and his council had not been present, his lordship verily thought the people would have pulled him out of the pulpit, they were so much offended with him." The next day the perverse bishop was arrested and lodged in the Tower by order of the king and council — an arbitrary but effectual measure for preventing further controversy and opposition to the progress of the reformed religion. Meantime the young king, who had been deprived for a long time of the society of his young Irish 'playmate and fellow student, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, having suc- ceeded in obtaining his uncle the protector's permission for him to be domesticated with him once more, wrote a EDWARD THE SIXTH. 279 simple and affectionate little letter to announce the welcome fact to Fitz-Patrick. The letter is addressed: 11 Edward VI. to his dearest and most beloved Barnaby. " I give thee great thanks, my dearest Mr. Barnaby, because thou hast written to me. Though I have scarcely time to do so, yet, lest I should appear ungrateful I write these letters unto thee, to let thee know that I have asked my uncle to send for thee, and he desires thee to be here to-morrow. Salute D. 0. and D. B., and say I have not time to write to them. Farewell. The 9th of May, Wednesday? eight o'clock in the evening, the second day of the new moon. " Thy most loving, "E. Rex."* Edward was perhaps indulged with the company of his young friend Barnaby to amuse him and divert his thoughts from his discontent at being restrained from all intercourse with his uncle, the lord admiral, and the queen dowager. A secret correspondence was, however, carried on through Fowler, but this was done with great difficulty, so vigilantly was he watched. "And whereas," writes Fowler to the admiral, "in my last letter to your lordship, I wrote unto you that if his grace could get any spare time he would write a letter to the queen's grace and to you, his highness desires your lordship to pardon him, for his grace is not half- a- quarter of an hour alone. But such leisure as he had, he hath written, here inclosed, his recommendations to the queen's grace, and to your lordship, that he is so much bound to you that he must needs remember you always, and as his grace may have time you shall well perceive such small lines of recommendation with his own hand."f The small torn fragments of shabby paper on which his majesty's stealthily scrawled missives enclosed in this letter were penned, indicate that his stock of stationery was at a low ebb, and not of the choicest description. The first of these royal autograph billets contains a brief request for money : * Harwell's Letters of the Kings + State Paper Office MS., July of England. 29th, 1548. 280 EDWARD THE SIXTH. " My Lokd, " Send me for Latimer as much as ye think good, and deliver it to Fowler. "Edwaed. " To my lord admiral." In the second he merely says, " My lord, I thank you, and pray you to have me commended to the queen/'* The juvenile monarch enjoyed the pleasure this summer of an aquatic excursion to Woolwich, to visit the largest ship in his navy, the " Harry Grace a Dieu," commonly called the " Great Harry," a vessel of 1,000 tons burden, carrying 301 mariners, 349 soldiers, and 50 gunners, 19 brass guns, and 102 iron pieces. The lord admiral, in virtue of his office, did the honours of the " Great Harry" to his royal nephew, and afterwards banqueted him at Deptford, and as a matter of course brought him back to his palace at Greenwich, omitting nothing that was likely to delight him and his company. It is possible, from the close* proximity of the places, that this attractive expedition might be undertaken by Edward, without the cognizance of Somerset, through the indulgence of the lord chamberlain, the earl of Arundel, a Roman Catholic nobleman, for we find the sum of " four- teen shillings and fourpence, the hire of two boats for one day for this purpose, was paid by him, and that Philip Mainwaring, one of the king's gentlemen ushers, two grooms of the chamber, one groom of the wardrobe, and one groom porter, were employed to make ready," and there are no evidences of its being a state visit. The excessive jealousy with which Somerset strove to prevent private intercourse between his younger brother and their royal nephew, was not without reason, for the admiral was taking determined measures for supplanting him in his office, and that undoubtedly with the full know- ledge of the young king, whose feeling towards his eldest uncle is testified by the following revelation from his own lips, when subsequently confessing the particulars of a * State Paper Office MS. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 281 secret discourse between the lord admiral and himself, in the course of which the admiral had said, " Your uncle is old and not likely to live long." " I answered," deposed Edward, "it were better that he should die."* A rejoinder which proves that "our young Josiah," as it was the fashion to term him, had inherited enough of the fierce Tudor blood to render him dangerous to any one who presumed to apply the bridle and the curb too tightly. Among all his studies the royal science of history must have been neglected, or he would have been aware of the frightful construction too often placed on such words from the lips of royalty ; but although no immediate murder followed the startling avowal of the boy-king that he desired the death of his uncle Somerset, the fact was duly noted and acted upon by a rival more wily and more unscrupulous than the rash unthinking man to whom they were spoken. The admiral had among his other imprudent speeches said, "My brother is wondrous hot in helping every man to his right, saving me. He maketh it a great matter to let me have the queen's jewels, which, by the opinion of all the lawyers, ought to belong to me, and all under pretence i that the king should not lose so much/ as if it were a loss to the king to let me have mine own. But he maketh nothing of the loss the king hath by him in his court of first fruits and tenths, where his revenue is abated, as I heard say, almost ten thousand pounds a year. Then they" (meaning Somerset and his cabinet) " are at this point, there can neither bishoprick, deanery, nor prebend fall void, but one or other of them will have a fleece of it. But it will all come in again when the king cometh to his years, as he beginneth to grow lustily. I would not," added he, with a deep oath, "be in some of their coats for five marks, when he shall hear of these matters."f * Confession of King Edward ; Haynes' State Papers, f Haynes' State Papers, p. 16. 282 EDWARD THE SIXTH. It is scarcely to be supposed that he was silent on these subjects, in his clandestine interviews with his royal nephew, or that the juvenile sovereign did not occasionally drop hints on the abuses of Somerset's government, when fretting at the state of control and want of money in which he was kept. The admiral at last committed him- self so seriously in his intrigues that he was threatened by the council with the Tower, and proceedings on the charge of treason, in consequence ' of which he conde- scended to make submissions, received a large endowment of church property, was reconciled to his brother, and returned to Sudeley Castle, to await the accouchement of his royal consort, the queen dowager. Katharine gave birth to a daughter, and died seven days afterwards of puerperal fever. Though the admiral, to whom her life was for many reasons of the greatest importance, both on account of her rich jointure and her well-known influence with her royal stepson, and the Protestant party, behaved to her during her fatal illness with more tender- ness than might have been expected from, a man of his rough reckless nature,* he was accused immediately by his enemies of hastening her death by poison, in order to marry the princess Elizabeth. The improper freedom of his behaviour to the royal maiden, during her visits to the queen dowager at Seymour place, Hanworth, and Chelsea, had not only excited Katharine's jealousy, but given cause for scandal, f This was, of course, corroborated by the indecorous precipitation with which he sought to enter into a matrimonial engagement with Elizabeth, immediately after his wife's funeral. When the admiral came to pay his court to his royal nephew at Hampton Court, previous to the meeting of the parliament in November, while walking with him in the gallery one night, he found the opportunity * See Life of Katharine Parr, by Agnes Strickland, vol. iii, Li- " Lives of the Queens of England," brary edition. f Life of Elizabeth. Ibid, vol. iv, for full particulars. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 283 of addressing these flattering words to the boy-king : " Since I saw your grace last, you have grown to be a goodly gentleman, and I trust within three or four years you shall be the ruler of your own affairs." To which Edward prudently replied, "Nay." "I marvel at your grace," observed the admiral, "for within these four years your grace shall be sixteen years old, and I trust by that time your grace shall help your men yourself with such things as fall in your grace's gift." But Edward, who now probably began to understand the selfish feelings which prompted these suggestions, or had heard more than he liked of his uncle's proceedings in regard to the princess Elizabeth, could not be induced to make the slightest rejoinder.* The admiral observed also to the earl of Eutland " that the king would be a man three years before any other of his age, and would of course desire to have more liberty and the honour of his own things, and if his highness desired him to make a motion to that effect to the lord protector or the council, he would undertake to do so." Somerset, being duly informed by his spies of the admiral's designs, sent a mutual friend to warn him "that he would bring himself into great trouble by his audacious courtship of the princess Elizabeth ; that the consent of the council was necessary for the marriage of either of the king's sisters, which would never be given to one so nearly allied in blood to his majesty, as it would be to the manifest peril of his majesty and his realm ; that his pretensions and conduct were cause of great disparage- ment to her grace, and if he ever presumed to resort to her again, he should be clapped up in the Tower."f The duchess of Somerset also sent word to Elizabeth's governess, Mrs. Katharine Astley, who had allowed her young royal pupil to be out late of an evening on the Thames with this perilous wooer, " that she was not fit to * Letter of the lord admiral to the protector, Somerset, from the Tower, f Hayne's State Papers. 284 EDWARD THE SIXTH. have the charge of a king's daughter." Greater caution therefore became necessary, and for fear of the ill consequences with which he was menaced, the admiral pretended to have given up all thoughts of this lofty marriage. He continued, however, to pursue other schemes no less dangerous and displeasing to his brother the protector. He had gained over the marquis and mar- chioness of Dorset to his party, by engaging to marry their daughter, lady Jane Gray, to the king, and with this favourite project in view, he had persuaded them to confide her to his keeping. This they had not scrupled to do during the life of the queen dowager, but after her decease they were desirous of reclaiming lady Jane. The lord admiral, however, obliged the lord marquis with a loan of <£2,000, which he had himself been under the necessity of borrowing of his confederate, sir William Sherrington, the master of the mint at Bristol. His project of marrying the king* to his learned and charming cousin, lady Jane Gray, offended and crossed the policy of the duke of Somerset in two of the favourite objects of his ambition, for, in the first place, he intended his own daughter, lady Jane Seymour, for the king's wife, and was educating her for that express purpose ; and in the next he meant to marry his son, the earl of Hertford, to the lady Jane Gray.f Among other wild schemes, the admiral had plotted to get possession of the king's person and carry him off to his castle of Holt in Denbighshire, which he had victualled and garrisoned in readiness, if necessary, to stand a siege. He had devised, through his confederate Fowler and others of the king's privy chamber, for his royal nephew to be brought by night through the gallery into his apartments, whence, as he possessed a master key to all the locks in the privy gardens, he fancied it would not be difficult to abduct and carry him to Holt Castle. His accomplice Sherrington had promised to advance £10,000, which * Ibid. f Depositions in Haynes' State Papers. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 285 he had coined in light money for that purpose to pay the wages, at the rate of sixpence per day, for each man of the military force, the admiral had secretly pre- pared to assist in his enterprise.* The admiral had formed an extensive confederacy among the nobility, and expected, as soon as he had got possession of the king's person, so that he might have the sanction of the royal name, to be joined by a formidable army of malcontents in several of the counties of England, which were then on the verge of revolt against the authority of the protector Somerset. The game for life and power between the ^brothers was closely fought ; but Somerset being in actual possession of the authority and resources of the crown, struck the first blow by arresting the lord admiral and committing him to the Tower on the 19th of January, 1549. The immediate cause which led to this sudden resolve, and not only broke the secret alliance between the young king and his best loved uncle, but for ever alienated his affection, by affording a strange though deceptive corroboration of the denunciations of his fraternal foe, "that the lord admiral had clandestinely wooed the princess Elizabeth, and raised troops for the purpose of dethroning his royal sovereign and seizing the crown as her husband," appears not on the surface of history, but is clearly enough explained by the following incident which had the night previously occurred in the palace. The admiral, who had in the course of the day received a hint "that his brother the protector, having penetrated his daring design, intended to arrest and commit him to the Tower forthwith," sought a secret conference with Edward in his bed-chamber at midnight on the 18th of January, either to devise with him some plan whereby he might circumvent Somerset's intention, or perhaps to persuade his royal nephew to put himself into his hands, by stealing away from the palace with him under cover of darkness, and fleeing with him into * Ibid. 286 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Wales, where lie had got everything ready for his recep- tion at Holt Castle. By means of his master key, the admiral entered the gallery leading to the royal bed- chamber, which was, as is usual in all palatial abodes, approached by double doors, having a space between them for two of the gentlemen of the body guard to stand with crossed partizans to defend the entrance. Now it happened that on this eventful night, for some unexplained reason, neither guards, exons, or gentlemen of the privy chamber were on duty, and the young king, finding himself deserted by his attendants, had endeavoured to supply their place, by locking his favourite little spaniel between the two doors, and bolting the innermost, a very unusual thing. When the admiral, who was accom- panied by several of his confederates, opened the outer door with his master key, the faithful little animal barked violently and attacked him. The admiral, infuriated at this unexpected opposition and the danger it involved, instantly gave him his quietus by killing him on the spot; but the noise had already alarmed one of the attendants, who, having summoned the guards, and finding the admiral at the door of the royal bed- chamber, which being bolted within defied his efforts to open it, sternly demanded, " What business he had there at the dead of night ?" He answered, in some con- fusion, that he had come to see whether his majesty were safely guarded at nights. The 'next morning he was sent to the Tower.* The construction placed on this mysterious nocturnal visit, and the slaughter of his faithful little dog, together with the expose that immediately followed in regard to the princess Elizabeth, and the injurious reports that were industriously circulated that the late queen, Katharine Parr, for whom Edward cherished a filial regard, had not come fairly by her death, may well explain the * John Burcher to Henry Buliin- ters, published by the Parker So- ger, Feb. 15, 1549. Original Let- ciety, vol. ii, 648. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 287 reason why he made no effort to save the life of this his favourite uncle, but desired that justice might take its course. The inexperienced young monarch must have been taught to regard him as the most profligate and un- principled of men, who had dared to use unlicensed personal freedoms with his young royal sister, the princess Elizabeth, while he was a married man, and she living under the protection of his wife, whose death he was said to have hastened in order to remove so inconvenient an obstacle to his marriage with her royal step-daughter. Then, almost before she was cold in her grave, he had pursued his presumptuous and indeed illegal courtship, to the great scandal and disparagement of Elizabeth ; and when compelled by the council and protector to desist, had raised troops and coined money for trea- sonable purposes — it was alleged for the deposition and murder of his lawful sovereign, and the usurpation of the crown, as the husband of his sister the princess Elizabeth. Moreover, he had sworn with a deep and profane oath, "that he would make the present the blackest parliament that ever sat in England if his presumptuous desires were thwarted. 5 ' The protector and council having drawn up thirty-three articles against the lord admiral, among which were accusations of his "having abused his high office at the admiralty by going shares with pirates in their unlawful gains, and by denying justice to the foreign merchants when they had been plundered, injuring commerce, and risking embroiling the king in wars with other nations," with many other charges equally disgraceful to him, required him to answer thereto ; but he refused to answer to the commissioners who went to examine him, and demanded an open trial. This suited not the policy of the protector and his party. They decided on proceeding by the more convenient progress of a bill of attainder ; and child though he were, to implicate the poor little king 288 EDWARD THE SIXTH. in the transaction, by obtaining, if possible, bis personal assent to their vindictive and unconstitutional proceedings for shedding his uncle's blood. Accordingly, the lord protector and his supporters in the council waited on his majesty on the 24th of February, immediately after he had taken his dinner, and having formally recited to him the startling list of treasons, felonies, and other misde- meanours, they had prepared against the lord admiral, together with his contumacious refusal to reply to any of the questions they had deputed their commissioners to administer to him on the preceding day, they required his majesty's permission to proceed against him according to justice. Then the lords of the council declared their opinions of the lord admiral's guilt, and the protector, as the last speaker, observed, "that it was a sorrowful case to him, but being more bound to regard his duty to his sovereign and the crown of England than the case of either his own brother or son, weighing his allegiance more than his blood, therefore he could not in conscience oppose the opinions and request of the other lords ; but if his majesty would consent he should be content ; for if he himself were to commit such offences against his majesty he should not consider himself worthy of life." The young king having listened attentively, promptly re- plied, " We do perceive that there are great things which are objected and laid to my lord admiral mine uncle, and that they tend to treason ; and we perceive that you require but justice to be done. We think it reasonable, and we will that you proceed according to your request."* Having anticipated some trouble from the supposed affection of the young king to the uncle from whom he had received so many clandestine indulgences, they over- whelmed the royal boy with laudations for giving him up to their tender mercies, f and proceeded to bring an act of attainder against him through both houses of parliament. It passed without opposition, and received the royal * Register of the Privy Council. f Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 289 assent on the 10th of March, for Edward, being now- persuaded that the admiral was the most unscrupulous of traitors, and the worst of men, made no opposition to his doom. It would probably have been perfectly unavailing if he had. The admiral, who had vainly demanded the privilege of a trial, had no opportunity of disproving the crimes, treasons, and felonies, laid to his charge by his fraternal rival, and they were established by the hardihood of assertion. He appears to have been a dangerous and unprincipled man, but if there had been substantial evi- dence of his guilt, there can be no doubt that he would have been arraigned and tried by his peers. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, on the 20th of March, protesting against the injustice and illegality of his sentence. The verbal accusations and insinuations that were poured into the ear of the young king against the lord admiral, were, of course, far worse than the written articles on which he had been condemned, and so con- trived as to force a strange analogy between his alleged doings and those of the usurping uncle and murderer of Edward V., Eichard of Gloucester, even to the alleged poisoning of his consort, for the purpose of making a title to the throne by an illegal marriage with the sister of his royal victims. The midnight attempt of the admiral to enter his bed chamber, and the slaughter of the faithful little dog that had defended it, were coincidences only too well calculated to corroborate the idea that the like doom which had precipitated his young royal kinsman and pre- decessor, Edward V., from a throne into a nameless grave had been intended for him. The tragedy was not, as now, obscured by the oblivious shadows of nearly four centuries, nor partially discredited by the paradoxical plausibilities of Historic Doubts. It was of too recent date to have lost any portion of its startling reality. Scarcely sixty-seven years had elapsed since the cry of vengeance, for the blood of her fair young king and his infant brother, had rung through England 19 290 EDWARD THE SIXTH* against their murderer. The confessions of sir James Tyrell, and the assistant ruffians, Dighton and Forest, were fresh in remembrance. The contemporary chronicler of that thrilling portion of English history, the venerable Polydore Vergil, who had gathered his narrative from the lips of cardinal Morton and other competent witnesses, was still in existence, though now bending under the weight of upwards of fourscore years. The king had seen and spoken with him face to face, guerdoned him liberally for his valuable historic labours, and granted him permission to retire to his own native Italy, where he desired to lay his bones, after devoting the strength, the eloquence, the learning, and the experience of youth, manhood, and ripened age, to record the events that ended in the extinction of the male line of Plantagenet, and the elevation of the house of Tudor to the throne of England. The particulars of the aged chronicler's conversation with the royal grandson of Henry of Richmond, and Elizabeth of York, have not been preserved ; but who can doubt that Edward VI. availed himself of the opportunity of eliciting all the particulars he could of the last royal minor of his name who succeeded to the fatal heritage of the English crown. Care had been taken, immediately after the arrest of the lord admiral, to occupy the attention of the boy king, on the preparations for a masque to be performed by six young persons of his own age and stature, in which he was to take a part and maintain his incognito till it was either developed by the action of the piece, or penetrated by the spectators. Sir Michael Stanhope thus announces the projected entertainment, and gives orders for the dances to the master of the revels. " Gentle Mb.. Ca warden, " My lord protector's pleasure is that you shall cause garments to be made for six masks, whereof the king's majesty shall be one and the residue of his stature. Send six other garments of like bigness, for torch-bearers, with convenient diligence, so the EDWARD THE SIXTH. 291 same be in readiness against Sunday next, at the uttermost, for which purpose his grace has commanded me to write these my letters to you accordingly. From Westminster, the 5th day of February. 11 Your loving friend, "Mychaell Stanhope."* No doubt the dresses, music, dancing, speeches, and scenery were well got up, and with frequent rehearsals answered the purpose of diverting the mind of the prin- cipal actor in the pantomimic display from reflecting on the tragedy of his unfortunate uncle. Edward has briefly noted the fact, not the circumstances of Seymour's execution, in his journal, as a sort of addendum to the events of the second year of his reign. " Also the lord Sudeley, admiral of England, was condemned to death, and died the March ensuing/ 5 Latimer, when preaching before the young king, which was only two days after the consummation of the tragedy, had the ill taste to allude to the unfortunate admiral, in a manner which respect for the feelings of the royal nephew, who sat publicly in the presence of his court and people to hear it, ought to have precluded. The following week he entered more fully into the subject, and declared "that the man died very dangerously, irksomely, and horribly," adding, "God had left him to himself. He had clean forsaken him. Surely, he was a very wicked man; the realm is well rid of him." To the like denunciations of his unhappy uncle, inter- spersed with discreditable anecdotes of his life and death, was the youthful sovereign compelled to listen, seated in state, in the presence of his court and people, week after week, till Latimer had delivered his series of sermons for that season, and the public penance, for such it must have been, to which Edward was pitilessly subjected, was brought to a close. Was it possible for him to forget from what source the funds for the pecuniary presents * Losely MS. 292 EDWARD THE SIXTH. with which he had guerdoned the preacher, in the pi ceding Lents, had been derived ? Latimer introduced the following passage, touching the unfortunate lord admiral, into the sermon he preacher before the king and court on the 5th of April : "He wouL have had the governance of the king's majesty. And wot you why ? He said ' he would not in his minority have him brought up like a ward/ I am sure he hath been brought up so godly, with such schoolmasters, as never king was in England, and so has prospered under them as never none did. I wot not what he meant by his bringing up like a ward, unless he would have him not go to his book, and learn as he doth. Now wo worth him ! — yet I will not say so neither ; but, I pray God amend him, or else send him short life, that would have my sovereign not to be brought up in learn- ing, and would pluck him from his book." Edward had been occupied during the winter and early spring, in writing a treatise against the Supremacy of the Pope in French, having in the preceding year collected and translated into French "Passages of Scripture against Idolatry," and " Passages of Scripture on Faith." These appear to have been done for exercises in that language, and had given him great facility in writing it. His treatise against the Pope's Supremacy is of a more ambitious character, and claims the importance of an original composition, by no means devoid of genius. Some of his arguments are indeed very forcible, but he indulges in a strain of vituperation of a most energetic character, according to the abusive fashion of the period, denouncing the pope as " antichrist, the man of sin," "the son of the devil," and an " old thief." Then in his zeal to prove that Peter was not the chief of the apostles, he makes him out a very sorry fellow, not many degrees better than Judas. The most lively passage in the work is the fol- lowing sarcastic contrast between the ever blessed Son of God, and him who assumes to be his vicar on earth. For EDWARD THE SIXTH. 293 theologian under twelve years of age, it is very sharp, id the antithesis cleverly drawn. q "Jesus wore a crown of thorns and an empurpled j\obe, and was set at nought by man ; but the pope has p triple crown, and is honoured by kings, princes, em- perors, and all degrees of men. Jesus washed the feet of his apostles, but the pope has his feet kissed by kings. Jesus paid tribute, but the pope receives all and pays nothing. Jesus preached, but the pope reposes in his castle of St. Angelo. Jesus healed the sick, but the pope rejoices in bloodshed. Christ bore his cross, but the pope is carried. Christ came in poverty to bring peace into the world, the pope's greatest plea- sure is to spread discord among the kings and princes of the earth. Christ is a lamb, but the pope is a wolf. Christ was lowly, but the pope desires to have all the realms of Christendom under his authority. Christ ascended into heaven, but the pope will be cast into hen." In his vehemence against the pope, Edward actually reproaches him with the promulgation of the six bloody articles, not being aware that they were framed and enforced by his own father, long after he had thrown off the papal yoke, and asserted his own supremacy as king and pontiff too, under the title of defender of the faith ; but the young royal theologian, who had certainly been kept in profound ignorance of this fact, says, " In the time of the late king, my father, when the name of the pope was put out of our ritual, he stopped the mouths of Christians with his six articles as with six fists. Seeing then that the pope is the minister of Lucifer, I entertain a strong hope, that as Lucifer fell from heaven into hell, so the pope his vicar, will fall from the glory of his papacy into utter contempt." Edward commenced this treatise on the 13th of Decem- ber, and finished it March 14th, 1549, just six days before the decapitation of his uncle, the lord admiral of England 294 EDWARD THE SIXTH. on Tower Hill. This remarkable specimen of juvenile royal authorship, is " dedicated to his dear and well beloved uncle, Edward, duke of Somerset, lord protector of his person, and defender of his realm." The MS. in his own hand writing is preserved in the British Museum.* Among the MSS. preserved in the university of Cam- bridge is a miniature bijou volume, with richly illumi- nated borderings and initials, being an English translation of "Paleario's Treatise of the Benefit of the Death of Christ." On the title page, which is wholly written in gold, is the date 1548, and there is this touching auto- graph inscription by the unfortunate Edward Courtney, earl of Devonshire, the son of the murdered marquis of Exeter, and one of the six persons excepted from the act of grace published at Edward's coronation : "To the right virtuous lady and gracious princess, Anne, duchess of Somerset, Edward Courtney, the sor- rowful captive, wisheth all honour and felicity." The translation and illumination were probably both executed by him, to wile away the tedium of his prison hours. The duchess had evidently sent the book to the young king, perhaps from an amiable desire of calling his attention to the hard case of his unfortunate young kins- man, who had been cruelly incarcerated in the Tower, under sentence of death, ever since the year 1541, for no other crime than being the grandson of the princess Catharine Plantagenet, daughter of Edward IV. f But, * It has been printed by J. G-. Henry VIII. that summer : *' The Nichols, in the original French, in king, before his setting out, be- the Literary Remains of King Ed- headed the mother of our country- ward VI. man the cardinal (the venerable countess of Salisbury) with two f Richard Hilles, the reformer, others of our oldest nobility. I do in his letter to Bullinger, of Septem- not hear that any of the royal race ber 18th, 1541, mentions the cruel are left except the nephew of the incarceration of Courtney and his cardinal and another boy, the son of cousin Pole, at the end of the follow- the marquis of Exeter. They are ing list of the sultanic doings of both children and in prison, and EDWARD THE SIXTH. 295 if so, it produced no beneficial effect on the fate of the luckless Courtney, although his royal cousin has written on the same page an edifying text, addressed to the duchess : — " Faith is dead if it be without workes. " Your loving nevew, " Edward." And also on the last leaf of the book : — " Live to die, and die to live again. " Your nevew, " Edward." What a pleasing page it would have made in the biography of the young king, if he had exerted his royal influence with his council to obtain the liberation of the hapless victim of his ruthless father's cruelty and injustice. But the appanages of the noble and wealthy house of Courtney had been parcelled out among the unprincipled accomplices of the tyranny of Henry VIII., who were too much interested in detaining them to allow their ingenuous young sovereign to become acquainted with the real state of the case, lest they should be compelled to restore his lawful inheritance to the despoiled heir. Precocious in his attainments as Edward was, he lacked the means of obtaining correct information in regard to the proceedings of his council, and like other royal minors was under the fatal necessity of seeing through the eyes of those who made him the unconscious instrument of their own selfish policy. Even in the present age of journalism, this difficulty was perceived by the younger sister of a youthful queen regnant, then in her girl- hood, who, impressed with the responsibility of her position, was endeavouring to elicit information on a subject of public importance from one of the great ladies of her household. The princess, perceiving that the condemned, I know not why, except their kinsman the cardinal." Origi- that it is said that their fathers had nal Letters, printed by the Parker sent letters to the Pope, and to Society, vol. i, p- 220. 296 EDWARD THE SIXTH. earnest questions of her royal sister were either evaded or equivocally answered, exclaimed indignantly, "Why do you ask her, madam ? Are not you aware that no word of truth is ever suffered to reach the ear of princes while in their minority p" Poor Edward VI., learned and virtuous as he was, was not exempted from the sad penalty of juvenile regality. Statue of King Edward VI. in Christ Church Passage, Grey Friars, London. Erected by the loyal alderman, sir Robert Clayton, in 1682. EDWAED THE SIXTH. CHAPTER IV. Book of Common Prayer established— Edward's theological tastes — His skill on the lute — Gracious behaviour to literary and religious men — Affection for his sister Mary — Agricultural distress in England — Peasants in revolt — Insurrection in the Eastern Counties suppressed by Warwick — Somerset's difficulties — Strong party against him — He takes the king to Hampton Court — Brings him into the base court to address the rabble — [See tail- piece to chapter) — Carries the king off to Windsor in the night — King takes cold — His querulousness and discontent — Arrest of Somerset — His foes wait on the king — Edward receives them graciously — Somerset sent to the Tower, forsaken by his creatures — His humiliation and fines- Edward opposed to persecution — Objects to sign Joan Boucher's death- warrant — His reluctance and tears — Somerset released, visits the king — Peace with France and Scotland— Magnificent fetes to French ambas- sadors and hostages — Edward crowns Garter king of arms — Holds festivals of the Garter at Greenwich — His questions and remarks on St. George — Wishes to depose him from the order — His scheme for altering statutes of the Garter — His courtesy to the duke d'Aumale — Hospitable treatment of French hostages — Edward graces the bridal of Somerset's daughter and Warwick's son — He removes to Greenwich — Goes to a naval fete at Deptford — Death of his grandmother, lady Seymour— Court mourning forbidden— Martin Bucer presents his book to Edward — Edward's statis- tical essays — Greek and Latin orations — Manly sports, archery, and tilting. Previously to the tragic episode of passing the bill for the attainder of the lord admiral, the attention of the youthful sovereign and his parliament had been engaged on the more important subject of establishing the refor- mation in England, by giving a legal sanction to the Book of Common Prayer, and rendering its use in public worship part and parcel of the law of the land. While this momentous question was yet pending, a discussion on the respective merits of the tenets of the old church 298 EDWARD THE SIXTH. and the reformed church took place in Westminster Hall, between four prelates, Cranmer, archbishop of Canter- bury, and Farrar, bishop of St. David's, who supported the doctrines of the reformation against Heath, bishop of Worcester, and Thirlby, bishop of Westminster, who maintained those of the Church of Borne. The king and his uncle, the lord protector Somerset, were present at the controversy, which lasted four days, and ended as it began. When the disputants, finding it impossible to convince each other, broke up the conference, the duke of Somerset, who had anticipated a different result, turning to his royal nephew, exclaimed, "How much the bishop of Westminster has deceived my expecta- tions. 5 ' " Your expectations he might deceive," rejoined Edward, " but not mine, for I expected nothing else but that he, who had been so long time resident ambassador at the emperor's court, should smell of the Interim."* This bon mot from a youth in his thirteenth year, was considered very brilliant. Any other boy of that age would, doubtless, have found himself ineffably bored with listening to a four days' dose of controversy, but Edward had been reared on a hotbed of theology, had acquired a taste for it almost in his infancy, and all his faculties had been attracted to that direction. " We have a king," writes Bartholomew Traheron, "learned and pious beyond his age. If ever there existed a Josiah, it is certainly he ; a more holy dispo- sition has nowhere existed in our time. He alone seems to sustain the gospel by his incredible piety and most holy manners and prudence, altogether that of an old man."f After so persecuting and sensual a tyrant as * This curious term was applied to could be called to settle certaiu a temporary creed, based on the points which the spirit of reform articles of the Church of Eome, but in Germany appeared to render ex- in a more modified form to suit the pedient. temper of the times, and authorised f Traheron to Bullinger, Sept. 28, for general use, by the emperor 1548. Printed ia the Original Let- Charles Y., till a general council ters of the Parker Society. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 299 Henry VIII., some allowance may be made for the enthusiastic feelings of the reformers towards the gracious young king his son. Thomas Sternhold, whose name is so familiarly con- nected with the earliest English metrical version of the psalms of David, was a courtier, holding the office of groom of the robes* to Edward VI., who patronized and encouraged him in his learned labour of love. Sternhold, no mean poet, versified forty of the psalms, which may readily be distinguished by their superiority to those paraphrased by John Hopkins, "William "Whittingham, and his other coadjutors, but the whole collection was edited by him, and dedicated to king Edward. It appears from a passage in his dedication, that Stern- hold was accustomed to sing these sacred lyrics to his young royal master, for he says, " Seeing further that your tender and godly zeal doth more delight in the holy songs of verity than in any figured rhymes of vanity, I am encouraged to travail further in the said book of psalms, trusting that as your grace taketh pleasure to hear them sung sometimes of me, so ye will also delight not only to sing and read them yourself, but also to command them to be sung to you of others. "f Dr. Christopher Tye, the master of the children of the chapel royal, and one of the earliest composers of English sacred music, stimulated, probably, by the young sove- reign's approbation of Sternhold's psalmody, commenced a metrical version of the Acts of the apostles, and actually proceeded as far as the first fourteen chapters, with musical notes appended to each chapter, arranged to be sung to the lute. This rare performance he printed and dedicated to king Edward, being intended for the especial edification of the youthful majesty of England to exercise * He had filled the same office under Henry VIII. Nichols' Literary Kemains of king Edward VI. f Sternhold died the same year this edition was published. Ibid. 300 EDWARD THE SIXTH. his skill on the lute, as he modestly informs him, in the following rhymes : " That such good things your grace might move, Your lute, when you assay, Instead of songs of wanton love These stories then to play." In Rowley's play of Henry VIII., young Edward is thus made to compliment Dr. Tye, his music master : " Doctor, I thank you, and commend your cunning. I oft have heard my father merrily speak In your high praise ; and thus his highness saith, ' England, one God, one truth, one doctor hath For music's art, and that is Dr. Tye,* Admired for skill in music's harmony. 7 " Thomas Tallis, William JBirde, and Richard Farrant, were also among the gentlemen of Edward VI. 's chapel royal. The musical establishment of that youthful sovereign consisted of no less than 114 persons, besides boy choristers. The young king possessed several choice lutes, which were sent for him from Venice, where it seems the best instruments of the kind were made. A very costly lute, principally constructed of ivory, cost him one hundred crowns. He was very curious in his books, and a liberal patron, as far as his means permitted, of authors of other nations as well as his own. Cranmer invited many of the most learned professors of languages and divinity from foreign universities, to visit England, where he appointed them to livings and professorships. Among the rest, the celebrated Paul Fagius, who was presented at the court of Edward on the 5th of May, has given the following pleasing account in a letter to a friend, of the courtesy and intelligence of the juvenile monarch : * Of Tye it is related that one the verger to tell him " that he was day playing more scientifically than playing out of tune." " Tell her melodiously, on the organ in queen majesty," retorted the indignant Elizabeth's chapel royal, she got composer, "it is her ears that are weary of his elaborations, and sent out of tune." EDWARD THE SIXTH. 301 "Access to the king was granted immediately after dinner. I cannot express with what kindness wo were received by him, as well as by the lord protector and others of the nobility, and how he congratulated us on our arrival. This indeed exhilarated us beyond measure. Though he is still very young and very handsome, he gives, for his age, such wonderful proofs of his piety that the whole kingdom and all godly persons entertain the greatest hopes of him. May our good and gracious God preserve him in safety many years, that he may be able to govern his kingdom long and happily, and at the same time to advance the kingdom of Christ, which we all of us ought to entreat for him from God with earnest prayers/'* The young king, wise beyond his years, contem- plated a most important undertaking, in which he was desirous of obtaining the assistance of the most erudite scholars of the age, and forthwith availed himself of the visit of Fagius to secure his co-operation. "For it seemed good to his majesty, the lord pro- tector, and the archbishop/' continues the learned foreigner, "that we should translate the Holy Scrip- tures from the original into Latin, with some brief explanation of the difficult passages in each chapter, and the addition of summaries and parallel places. All which they wish afterwards translated into English for the use of the preachers and people."f It was settled that Fagius, who was professor of Hebrew, was to have taken the Old Testament, and Bucer the New ; but this most useful enterprise was prevented by the death of Fagius. The first edition of the Book of Common Prayer, since called King Edward's Liturgy, was delivered for general use on Whitsunday, this spring, 1549, and the mass * Dated Croydon, May 7, 1549. Original Letters, published by the Parker Society. f Ibid. 302 EDWARD THE SIXTH. was ordered to be discontinued.* Numbers of the people, however, disobeyed the act of parliament and the royal edict, requiring uniformity of worship, and clung pertinaciously to the rites of the Romish Church, and the creed in which they had been educated. Foremost among these stood Edward's eldest sister, the princess Mary, whose name and example, as the heiress-presumptive of the realm, infinitely encouraged the recusants, although she carefully abstained from anything in the shape of a factious or political demon- stration, contenting herself with refusing to give up the mass, which in spite of all remonstrances from the privy council and the protector Somerset, and the letters signed by her royal brother, she continued to use in her own chapel. This was, of course, repre- sented to the boy -king as a contumacious defiance of his royal authority, and a serious cause of offence. f An estrangement had taken place between Edward and his darling sister, Elizabeth, ever since the encourage- ment she was alleged to have given to the unauthorised addresses of his late uncle, the lord admiral. Scandal had been busy with her name, and she remained under a cloud for the residue of his reign, although nothing either of treason or impropriety had been proved against her, £ but it suited well the jealous policy of the protector to keep all whom the king loved best at a distance. In regard to Mary, one who knew her well,§ and had also the best possible means of information touching the real feelings of the young king, has testified that, " notwith- standing the political and religious differences which divided them, Edward was really very much attached . * Strype ; Fuller ; Burnet ; Foxe ; it will only be necessary to refer the Heylin. reader to that work, vol. iii, Library Edition. f As the particulars have already , „ _._ \ _ __. , A , v n j- il T-* «v 1 See Life of Queen Elizabeth, been related m the Life of Mary, m ?_ . ^ our first series of Eoyal Biographies, l > vo ' 1V * " Lives of the Queens of England," § Jane Dormer, duchess de Feria. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 303 to her, and took great pleasure in lier company and con- versation, and would ask her many questions, promising her secrecy, and carrying himself with no less reverence and respect to her than if she had been his mother, while she in her discourse showed great affection and sisterly care of him. The young king would sometimes weep and lament € that things could not be according to his wish, for that his uncle did use her with too much straitness and want of liberty, and besought her to have patience until he had more years, and then he would remedy all.' When she was to take her leave he always appeared very sorry and loth to part from her, kissed her and called for some jewels to present to her, and complained they gave him no better for that pur- pose. This being noticed by his tutors, order was taken that her visits should be very rare, because they made the king pensive and melancholy."* The truth of this statement has, strange to say, been questioned, as if it were impossible for the royal boy to feel the natural instincts of affection towards a sister from whom he had experienced nothing but tenderness and indulgence from his earliest recollection. The person by whom it is avouched being no other than the grand- daughter of sir "William Sidney, comptroller of his household, the great niece of his nurse, Sibilla Penne, and the niece of his bedfellow, sir Henry Sidney, his own dear familiar playmate, Jane Dormer, " My Jane," as he used fondly to call her, before the kindly impulses of his young warm heart were crushed by the jealous control of hard - natured worldly men, who at last succeeded in converting one of the fairest and noblest works of God into the puppet of their selfish policy. The excitement caused by the divided state of the public mind on the alterations in public worship com- * Excerpt from the Autobiography of Jane, duchess de Feria, in Literary Remains of king Edward VI., by J. G. Nichols, printed by the Roxburgh Club. 304 EDWARD THE SIXTH. bined with the miseries caused by the long expensive wars with Scotland, together with the evils resulting from & debased currency and a starving agricultural population, led to a formidable insurrection of the work- ing classes in the month of May. On WhitMonday the counties of Wiltshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Somer- setshire, and Oxfordshire were in arms with banners displayed against the government, though professing the greatest loyalty to the person of their young king, and calling on him for redress of their grievances from the oppression of their rulers.* The enclosure of commons, in which cottagers consi- dered they had equal and unalienable rights, the selfish appropriation of church lands and hospital endowments, by courtiers, peers, and ministers of state and their dependents, had deprived the labouring classes in their districts of employment, and the sick and aged of relief, while the act for the suppression of vagrancy by inflicting brands, whipping, chains, and slavery on the home- less wanderers, whom the consolidation of small agri- cultural farms into great sheep walks, had turned out upon the wide world to starve, had goaded the spirit of the people to desperation. Ascham, in one of his epistles, speaking of the national troubles and insub- ordination, has this eloquent passage : " Who are the real authors ? Those who have everywhere in Eng- land got the farms of the monasteries, and are striving to increase their profits by immoderate rents. Hence the exaggerated prices of things. These men plunder the whole realm. Hence so many families dispersed, so many houses ruined. Hence the honour, and strength of Eng- land, the noble yeomanry, are broken up and destroyed." Latimer, the most energetic of popular preachers, thun- dered from the pulpit against this system, and those that" practised it ; and Somerset sent commissioners on his own * Hayward's History of Edward Scory's sermons ; Latimer's ser- VI. ; Sharon Turner ; Strype ; bishop mons. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 305 authority to level the enclosures ; but this being resisted by the impropriators, led to scenes of violence and blood. For this emergency he called home the bands of foreign mercenaries, who had been employed in desolating Scot- land, to crush the insurgents. Martial law was proclaimed and executed in a very summary manner. Sir Anthony Kyngstone, the provost of the western army, aggravated the cruelty of arbitrary sentences by the facetious mockery with which they were accompanied. On entering the town of Bodmin in Cornwall, he told the mayor he intended to dine with him, and desired him to have a strong pair of gallows erected in front of his house. The mayor obeyed, and after dinner informed his guest that the gallows were ready. " Are they strong enough ? " inquired sir Anthony. " Yea, I think so/' replied the mayor. "Go up and try," said his guest, "they are intended for your own use," and forthwith caused him to be hanged. On another occasion, a miller having fled from the terror of his approach, sir Anthony ordered his man to the gallows, and when he complained of the injustice, bade him " be content, as the best service he could perform for his master, was to be hanged in his stead."* The most determined stand was made by the Norfolk insurgents, under the command of Ket the tanner. He assumed the title*, of king of Norfolk and Suffolk, planted his standard on the summit of Moushold hill, above the city of Norwich, and in imitation of the ancient East Anglian monarchs, ordered his regal seat to be placed under a spreading oak, and established courts of Chancery, King's Bench, and Common Pleas, and sat there to listen to causes and dispense justice. He called his sylvan canopy the "Oak of Eeformation,"f not meaning the' protestant reformation, which he and his Roman Catholic muster denounced as the cause of all the miseries of the people ; but a tribunal for the reform of abuses, and the redress * Speed; Hayward. f Blomfield's History of Norwich. 20 306 EDWARD THE SIXTH. of the grievances of the peasants and mechanics, who had flocked to his banner, inspired with hopes of success, by the encouragement they received from the tradi- tionary quatrain belonging to that locality, which they regarded as a prediction and converted into a war- song — ' ' The country hnuffs (knaves) Hob, Dick and Hick, With clubs and clouted shoon, Shall nil the vale of Dussindale "With slaughtered bodies soon."* What they might have done had they possessed arms, and an experienced military leader, is not so easy to decide; but they were a wild, undisciplined rabble, unable to maintain a contest with the veteran bands who had learned the art of war in Scotland, and were well equipped and weaponed, and led by so experienced a captain as the earl of Warwick, when he took the field against them, after the disgraceful defeat they had given the marquis of Northampton in the streets of Norwich. Ket, at the head of 20,000 men, while he occupied his impregnable position on Moushold, defied king Edward's authority, and issued proclamations demanding the dis- missal of the present council, the restoration of the ancient mode of worship, and many other matters which belong to general history ; but when want of provisions compelled him to descend into the valley of Dussindale, he was defeated with great slaughter by the royal troops. On the offer of a general pardon to all but the ringleaders, they all surrendered. Ket was hanged on Norwich Castle, his brother William on the Tower of Wymondham church, and nine others on the branches of the Oak of Reformation, f King Edward has chronicled the leading events of the insurrection in his journal, from the first outbreak in * Hay ward ; Speed ; Blomfield's Norwich. f Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 307 Wiltshire, to its suppression in Norfolk. A report of his death having been circulated in the midst pf these public disturbances, he rode in state from the duke of Suffolk's mansion in Southwark to his own palace of Whitehall, to shew himself to the people on the 24th of July. This circumstance he thus briefly notes : " In the mean season, because there was a rumour that I was dead, I passed through London." The false report was traced to the astrological calculations of Robert Allen, who had cast the king's nativity, and was in consequence sent to the Tower, where he suffered a long imprisonment for his offence. The protector Somerset had, in the first instance, announced his intention of taking the field in person, to suppress the insurrection, but for some reason — probably his jealous apprehensions of fresh intrigues to supplant him during his absence — he decided on remaining near the metropolis, to keep possession of the person of the young sovereign, and to issue with greater effect his letters, proclamations, and summonses in the royal name. This course, though politically wise, was personally injuri- ous to him. The victorious earl of Warwick became the popular hero of the day, for the skill and valour he had shown in the defeat of the Norfolk rebels, the moderation with which he had behaved to the vanquished, and his address in calming the excitement in the Eastern Counties, and restoring order, won golden opinions from all men, and encouraged him to enter the lists successfully as a rival to Somerset for the government of the realm. Somerset's position was one of unparalleled difficulty. The king of France had taken advantage of the domestic disturbances in England to break the peace and endeavour to recover Boulogne, that dearly purchased and proudly vaunted conquest of Henry VIII. Somerset was wholly destitute of the means of defending it, embarrassed as he was with the ruinous Scottish wars, an empty exche- quer, and a heavy foreign debt. His suggestion that 308 EDWARD THE SIXTH. " surrendering it to the king of France for a pecuniary consideration, would spare an unavailing loss of Eng- lish blood and English treasure," raised a storm of disapprobation in the council, and reports were indus- triously circulated of his treasonable inclination to sell the honour of his king and country in exchange for foreign gold. It was indignantly observed, that during all the time of public distress he was spending a hundred pounds a day on the magnificent palace he was erecting for himself in the Strand, having pulled down the London mansions of the bishops of Worcester, Lichfield, and Llandaff, and the parish church of St. Mary, at Strand bridge, to furnish the sites and a portion of the materials for his own mansion ; when these were found insufficient to complete the undertaking he had announced his intention of taking down St. Margaret's Church, West- minster, for the same purpose, but the parishioners gathered themselves together in great numbers, armed with bows,- arrows, staves, clubs, and stones, and so man- fully defended their church, that his workmen fled in terror, and never could be induced to return to the work of destruction.* He then appropriated and pulled down, for the sake of the stones, the steeple and part of the beautiful church of St. John of Jerusalem, near Smithfield, the north cloister of St. Paul's cathedral, two chapels, and the charnel house, towards the completion of his new buildings in the Strand, where Somerset House, so called in memory of him, now stands ; broke the tombs and monuments up, and carted the bones of the dead into Finsbury fields ; and so deeply interested was he in the progress of his buildings, that he deserted the public preachings to look after his masons, which neglect of sermons was affirmed both by Bradford and John Knox to have provoked the judgments of God against him.f Unfortunately for Somerset, his temper was so irritable * Fuller. f Hayward; Fuller; Heylin; " Letter to the Godly in London." Knox's Works, Wodrow edition, vol. iii. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 309 and violent that on the slightest opposition to his opinion in the council chamber, he gave way to such haughty ebullitions of anger as disgusted every one. After the removal of his fraternal rival, the lord admiral, he does not appear to have felt the necessity of controlling this morbid excitability, which was aggravated by the diffi- culties of his position. His friend, sir William Paget, perceiving the enmities he was daily incurring by his overbearing manners, entreated him, in a most sensible and friendly letter, "to alter his demeanour, and listen with patience to those who happened to differ from him in the council, and not to give way to such choleric fashions ; for that formerly, if either king or cardinal had spoken to him in that way he would scarcely have borne it, and that from a subject, however high his position in the realm might be, it would not long be tolerated."* Who can doubt that the young king's dislike of uncle Somerset was provoked by the offensive and impe- rious manner in which the latter, at times, enforced his authority, and essayed to curb the high spirit of the royal boy, who was accustomed to the most slavish homage from every other creature in his court? Towards the end of September, Somerset, perceiving that a confederacy was formed against him, for the pur- pose of superseding him in the government of the realm and the protectorship of the king, withdrew to Hampton Court, taking his royal nephew with him, and published proclamations in the name of king Edward, calling on all the gentlemen in the neighbourhood, and adjacent shires, to raise forces and come to the defence of their king. No one of any consequence appeared in answer to these summonses, but a gaping rabble gathered round the pur- lieus of the palace. Somerset, on this, so far compromised the dignity of the crown and his own high office as to lead the young sovereign to the great gates in the base court of the palace, and make him address these supplicatory * Strype's Memorials. Also in Tytler's Edward and Mary. 310 EDWARD THE SIXTH. words to the populace congregated on the green without : "Pray, my masters, be good unto us and our uncle!" Then Somerset harangued them in a long passionate speech, declaring the danger he was in from the treason- able and murderous designs of his enemies. "But," continued he, still holding the king by the hand and directing their attention to the royal boy, "this is the mark they shoot at, and if I die this is he shall die before me," words which naturally gave deep offence to his royal nephew, and were afterwards brought as some of the counts in the indictment against him.* Being informed that the lords of the council were coming to Hampton Court the next morning, he armed his own servants and those belonging to the king, and about five hundred per- sons who had assembled in compliance with the letters of summons, and departed hastily to Windsor the same night, carrying the king with him. Edward's brief record of these events is worthy of attention, and proves that his opinion of his uncle was not very favourable : " The council, abou.t nineteen of them, were gathered in London, thinking to meet with the lord protector, and to make him amend some of his disorders. He, fearing his state, caused the secretary in my name to be sent to the lords to know for what cause they gathered their powers together, and, if they meant to talk with him, that they should come in peaceable manner. The next morning, being the 6th of October, and Sunday, he commanded the armour to be brought down out of the armoury of Hamp- ton Court, about five hundred harnesses, to arm both his and my men withal, the gates of the house to be ram- pired, and people to be raised. People came abundantly to the house. That night, with all the people, at nine or ten o'clock at night, I went to Windsor, and there was watch and ward kept every night. " The lords sat in open places in London, calling for * See Tytler's Edward and Mary ; Stow's Chronicle; Nichols; and Trial of the duke of Somerset. Howell's State Trials. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 311 gentlemen before them, and declaring tlio causes of accu- sation of the lord protector. After which few came to Windsor, but only mine own men of the guard, whom the lords willed, fearing the rage of the people so lately quieted."* Edward wrote a letter from Windsor on the 8th of October to the lords of the council, expressing his "regret at hearing of their assemblies, and the opinion they had conceived of his dearest uncle, the lord protector. For answer whereunto," continues the youthful sovereign, " we let you wit that as far as our age can understand, the rather moved by the visage that we see of our said uncle and council, and others our servants presently with us, we do lament our present estate being in such imminent danger. * * * * Each man hath his faults, he his, and you yours ; and if we shall hereafter as rigorously weigh yours as we hear that you intend with cruelty to purge his, which of you shall be able to stand before us ? In our person we verily believe, and so do you, we dare say, he mindeth no hurt. If in government he hath not so discreetly used himself as in your opinions he might have done, we think the extremity in such a case is not to be required at his hand. Yet," adds the royal writer impressively, reminding them of the power of his prerogative in its noblest attribute of mercy, "lieth it in us to remit it, for he is our uncle, whom you know we dearly love, and therefore the more to be considered at your hand."f If this letter, which is of much greater length, were, as we are willing to hope, the genuine act and deed of the king, it may be regarded as a pleasing evidence of his desire to save his uncle ; but it was openly treated by Warwick and his party as the dictation of the protector, and their only reply to it was a letter to Cranmer, Paget, and Smith, members of the council with the king at Windsor, declaring "their resolution of removing Somerset * King Edward's Journal. f State Paper Office MS. 312 EDWARD THE SIXTH. from the office of protector," and requiring him "to dis- perse his force, leave the king, and surrender himself into their hands, to be ordered according to justice and rea- son,"* terms which had proved sufficiently ominous in regard to his unfortunate brother, the late lord admiral. Unfortunately for Somerset, the king, who had very deli- cate lungs, was suffering from a severe cold at the time of their precipitate departure from Hampton Court, and this was much increased by his long ride to Windsor on a damp autumnal night, when he ought rather to have been in bed and under his physician's care. His hoarseness and tendency to inflammation of the chest were further aggra- vated by the sharpness of the air and elevated situation of Windsor Castle. He was, withal, much discontented with his change of abode, and the seclusion from the usual gay resort of company and out-of-door amusements to which he was accustomed at Hampton Court, Greenwich, or Whitehall. With the querulousness of an invalid and spoiled child, he constantly exclaimed, " Methinks I am in prison ! Here be no galleries nor no gardens to walk in,"f nnd showed great impatience to be gone. Suspicions that his uncle the protector designed to make as evil a use of the power he had acquired as Richard, duke of Gloucester, had done in regard to the last royal minor, Edward V., had evidently been instilled into the mind of the boy king, for when Cranmer, Paget, and Wingfield arrived at Windsor Castle, armed with full power and force from the predominant faction to arrest Somerset, whom they removed from the room he had hitherto occupied next to the king's bed-chamber, and placed in a prison-lodging at the top of the high tower adjoining the gateway, under a strtmg guard, he seemed to regard them in the light of friends and deliverers. Nay, more, an almost instantaneous change * See the whole correspondence in f Letter of Cranmer, Paget, and Tytler's England under Edward and Wingfield to the council, Oct. 11th, Mary. State Paper Office MS. 1 559, MS. Privy Council book. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 313 took place in his health and spirits for the better, at least, so testifies the letter to the privy council of those who did the deed, with Cranmer at their head.* " The king's majesty, thanks be to the living God, is in good health and merry, and this clay, after breakfast, came forth to Mr. vice chamberlain, sir Anthony Wing- field, and the rest of the gentlemen, whom I promise your lordships he bade welcome with a merry countenance and a loud voice ; asking ' how your lordships did ? when he should see you ? and that you should be welcome when- soever you came.' The gentlemen kissed his highness's hands, every one much to their comfort, "f On the morrow, October 12th, the earl of Warwick and his partisans came in a body to wait on the king, and humbly on their knees explained the occasion and order of their doings. Edward accepted their explanation most graciously, and returned them thanks. They had, of course, no difficulty in making out a plausible case to their young sovereign, who only completed his twelfth year that day. On the morrow, Somerset was carried to London, under a strong guard, and lodged in the Beau- champ Tower. The following is the pithy retrospect of these events, commencing from the time of his arrival at Windsor, recorded by the young king in his journal : — " Then began the protector to treat by letters, sending Sir Philip Hoby, lately come from his ambassade in Flanders to see his family, who brought on his return a letter to the protector, very gentle, which he delivered to him, another to me, another to my house (the members of the royal household), to declare ' his faults, ambition, and vain glory, entering into rash wars in mine youth, negligent looking on Newhaven, enriching of himself of my treasure, following his own opinion, and doing all by his own authority ; ' which letters were opened, read, and * Privy Council Records of the f Ibid. Ty tier's Edward and Reign of Edward VI. Mary. 314 EDWARD THE SIXTH. immediately the lords came to Windsor, they took him, and brought him through Holborn to the Tower." No symptom of incredulity is here expressed as to the truth of these charges by Edward ; no word of sympathy or care for the arrest, imprisonment, and imminent peril in which his uncle stood. The natural inference is that Somerset had no friends about his royal nephew, and that it was no difficult matter for his ill-willers in that court to persuade the royal boy to believe all that was alleged against him. "Afterwards," continues Edward, "I came to Hampton Court, where they appointed by my consent six lords of the council to be attendant on me, at least two, and four knights. Lords, the marquis Northampton, the earls of Warwick and Arundel, lords Eussel, St. John, and Wentworth; knights, sir Andrew, sir Edward Rogers, sir Thomas Davey, sir Thomas Wroth."* These four gentle- men of the king's privy chamber had their original salaries of fifty pounds a year increased to a hundred, in considera- tion of the additional care and travail they should have about his majesty's person. f On the 17th of October Edward rode in state through the city of London to his palace in Southwark, then called Suffolk place, where he dined, and after dinner made -master John York, one of the sheriffs of London, a knight. He proceeded to his palace at Westminster in the afternoon. He had new robes and trappings for his horse, of cloth of gold, and silk, expressly for this occasion. J Warwick, who appears to have acquired a singular influ- ence over the mind of the young king, was now the dictator of all affairs of state. Somerset was forsaken of Cranmer, Paget, Cecil, and all his fair-weather friends. Twenty- nine articles, many of them amounting to high treason, were drawn up against him. Intent only on preserving * King Edward's Journal. f Council Book, t Stow's Chronicle. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 315 his life, which ho was aware was in great peril, he pleaded guilty, consented to make a full submission on his knees, and resigned without a struggle the protectorate, and all the great and lucrative offices he had monopolized." " The lord protector, by his own agreement and submission," records his royal nephew, " lost his protectorship, treasury- ship, marshalship, all his moveables, and near 2,000 pound land by act of parliament. "f Edward's estimate is far too small, for he does not mention the 200 manors which were seized at the same time, but afterwards restored to him . Somerset's imprisonment was shared by his brother- in-law, sir Michael Stanhope, first gentleman of the privy chamber, but evidently no favourite of the young king, on whose words and actions he was probably a spy, sir Thomas Smith, and two or three others who clung to his fallen fortunes. The Roman Catholic faction had laboured actively to promote the downfall of Somerset, under the notion that he was the great enemy of their cause, and they should be greatly bettered by 'the government passing into the hands of the earl of Warwick. This was far from being the case, for Warwick exceeded Somerset in the intolerance of his proceedings. He not only supplanted Somerset in the temporal power, but as the head of the ultra-protestant party. Hooper, after mentioning " his recovery by the blessing of God from a long illness " in April, enthusiasti- cally adds : " To tell the truth, England cannot do with- out him. He is a most holy and fearless instrument of the word of God."J Soon after Christmas the lord chamberlain was ordered to confine himself to his own house, and was heavily fined for some peccadilloes in his office, which are thus naively recorded by his young royal master : — " The earl of Arundel committed to his house for certain crimes of * Hay ward; Stow; Tytler. % Hooper to Bullinger; Original f King Edward's Journal. Letters, Parker Society. 316 EDWARD THE SIXTH. suspicion against him, as plucking down of bolts and locks at Westminster, giving of my stuff away, etc., and put on a fine of 12,000 pounds, to be paid a 1,000 pound yearly, of which he was after released." * The duke of Somerset was restored to liberty on the 6th of February, and all his property which had not previously been granted away to his enemies, or bestowed on their partisans, was restored to him ; but he was generally regarded as a ruined man, having been deprived of all his power and two-thirds of his possessions. He still retained, however, too much for his personal security. That eminent reformer, Hooper, was chosen to preach several of the Lent sermons before the king this season. He was highly pleased with the demeanour of the youthful sovereign on these occasions. Edward fixed his attention on the sermons that were preached before him, by taking notes of the most remarkable points they contained, and kept a book in which he afterwards entered his notes in the Greek character. This volume has disappeared from the royal library, where it was seen by bishop Montague in the reign of James I. He also kept a book in which he wrote the characters, according to report, of all the chief men of the nation, such as judges, lord lieutenants, and justices of peace throughout England, their way of living, and religions. This volume is also lost. Hooper writes in these enthusiastic terms to Bullinger of the young king : — " You have never seen in the world for three thousand years so much erudition united with piety and sweetness of disposition. Should he live to grow up with these virtues, he will be a terror to all the sovereigns of the earth. He receives with his own hand a copy of every sermon he hears, and most diligently requires an account of them every day after dinner from those who study with him. Many of the boys and youths that are his companions in study, are well and faithfully instructed in the fear of Glod, and in good learning. Master Coxe is no longer the king's tutor. He still remains his almoner. f * King Edward's Journal. f Original Letter -s, printed by the Parker Society. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 317 Iii another letter Hooper tells Bullinger " that he should have presented his book to the king had it not been for- bidden by the laws to lay anything before the sovereign from foreign parts without previously making it known to the council, until the king should have arrived at the steadi- ness of mature age." However, the marquis of Northamp- ton, Katharine Parr's brother, undertook to present both letter and book to Edward, by whom they were received with the greatest courtesy. He not only returned his thanks for the attention, but desired the marquis to send the author a royal present, in token of his good will and gracious acceptation. But' as he was assured by Hooper that Bullinger was forbidden by the municipal laws of his country from receiving presents from foreign princes, or anyone else, Edward desired to be commended to him with thanks for the book, and entreated his prayers both for himself and his realm.* Edward received in March, 1550, the present of two beautiful Spanish horses from the emperor Charles. The same day a German Lutheran sent to sir John Cheke a book that had lately been put forth against the sacra- mentarians and anabaptists ; and gave it to the king to read, but it no wise pleased him.f The gentle, refined, and truly Christian nature of the young king was greatly opposed to the horrible system prevalent in that period, of persecuting to the death on the score of differences in religious opinions. " Insomuch," says Foxe the martyrologist, " that when Joane Boucher should have been burned, all the council could not move him to put to his hand, but were fain to get Dr. Cranmer to persuade with him, and yet neither could he with much labour induce the king so to do, (his majesty) saying, ' What, my lord, will ye have me send her quick to the devil in her error ? ' So that Dr. Cranmer himself confessed ' that he never had so much to do in all his life, as to cause * Hooper to Bullinger, Original Letters printed by the Parker Society, f Ibid. 318 EDWARD THE SIXTH. the king to put to his hand/ (his majesty) saying, ' that he would lay all the charge on Cranmer before God.' " Strype and some other historians have disputed the fact, but it seems that the conscientious repugnance of the young king to authorising the cruel sentence of this unhappy woman had deferred its execution for eleven months ; and when he did at last set his hand to the fatal paper, it was with floods of tears.* It has been asserted by two of our erudite contemporaries, "that the signatures of the council would have been sufficient without that of the king ; " but the council, as in regard to their proceedings for the deaths of both his uncles, chose to have the royal assent for their own iniquities whenever they had a deed of peculiar turpitude to accomplish. Articles of peace between England and France were concluded this spring, one of the principal conditions being the restoration of Boulogne to the king of France for the pecuniary consideration of 400,000 crowns, a transaction which afforded the precedent for Charles the Second's sale of Dunkirk, to obviate the ruinous expense and loss of blood in the vain attempt of preserving so useless an acquisition. A peace with Scotland was also arranged and proclaimed in London, together with the pacification with France, March 30th, 1550, for which general thanksgivings were offered up throughout the realm. Edward removed from Westminster to Greenwich on the 5th of April. He received his uncle, the duke of Somerset, with great cordiality at his court, and invited him to become a resident in his palace once more. On the 10th, Somerset was again admitted into the privy council, and a reconciliation was effected between him and the earl of Warwick, to be cemented by a marriage between the heir of Warwick and the eldest daughter of Somerset. Six young noblemen of the highest rank were * Her error was asserting that virgin, but his nature was wholly Christ took not flesh of the blessed divine, without any humanity. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 319 exchanged by England and France, as hostages for the fulfilment of the treaty, as regarded the articles for the surrender of Boulogne by England, and the payment of the sum covenanted by Franco in return.* As the marquis de Maine, brother of the queen mother of Scotland, the duke d'Enghien, the vidame of Chartres, M. de Montmorenci, the son of the constable of France, M. de Tremouille, and M. de Henaudiere, were some of them of princely degree, Edward treated them with the greatest distinction, and commissioned the earl of Rutland, lord Gray of Wilton, and lord Braye, with twenty other gentlemen, to meet them, with a retinue of 100 men, at Blackheath, and conduct them to London, where separate residences were appointed for each of them to keep house, and every kind of honour paid them. They were brought to the court at Greenwich, where Edward received them most courteously, and made them dine with him. They were entertained with music during the repast, f They also enjoyed the pleasure of witnessing the solemnities of the chapter of the order of the Garter, which Edward held for the purpose of promoting Gilbert Dethicke, who had previously held the office of Nbrroy king of arms, to the higher dignity of Garter king of arms, to supply the vacancy left by the death of the herald in chief. Edward complied with the ancient custom, which re- quired the sovereign of the order to crown and invest the Garter king-elect with his own hand. This ceremonial he performed on the 20th of April, the Sunday before St. George's day, in the following manner 4 The king's sword being holden on the Bible, Dethicke knelt before his majesty, and laid his hand on the sword and book, while Clarenceux read the words of the oath. Then the said Dethicke, Garter - desig- nate, kissed both the book and sword, and after * Hayward, Heylin, Lingard, f King Edward's Journal. Privy Burnet, Sharon Turner. Council Book. X Anstys' Register of the Garter ; Sir Harris Nichols' Orders of Knighthood. 320 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Clarenceux had read the letters patent of the office, a bowl of wine was handed to the king, who poured it on the head of the said designate, and named him Garter principal king of arms. Then his majesty invested him with his coat of arms, put his collar of SS about his neck, and placed the crown on his head. The festival of the Garter being kept with the usual solemnities on St. George's day, king Edward said to his uncle Somerset and the other knights when he returned into the presence chamber from hearing the sermon and assist- ing at the religious services in the chapel royal, " I pray you, my lords, who is St. George that we so honour him?" The lords were too much taken by surprise at this ques- tion to be able to deliver an extempore biography of the tutelary saint of their order, for the information of their learned young sovereign, whom they probably suspected of affecting ignorance on the subject for some sly reason of his own. The marquis of Winchester, finding the rest silent, took upon him to reply, "If it please your majesty, I did never read in any history of St. George, but only in Legenda Aurea, where it is thus set down that St. George out with his sword and ran the dragon through with his spear." The juvenile sovereign of the order was much tickled at the blunder of his pompous lord treasurer, and indulged in a hearty and prolonged fit of laughter. As soon as he could conquer his risi- bility sufficiently to speak, he merrily rejoined, " Prythee, my lord, what did he with his sword the while ? n The marquis, not perceiving the jest, gravely replied, " That I cannot tell your majesty."* Edward had so little respect for the national saint, that in the scheme he drew up "for purifying the order of Popish ceremonies and observances," he went so far as to propose superseding the image of St. George on the jewel by the figure of a king bearing a drawn sword and the Bible.f That the order should be for * Foxe's Acts and Monuments, f Nichols' Literary Remains of Edward VI. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 321 the future simply called that of the Garter, without any mention of St. George, and the festival to be no more kept on his day, but its commemoration transferred to some day in the early part of December, or else to Whitsuntide.* An addition was also proposed to the oaths of the knights, by which they were to engage them- selves " to put down men's wicked traditions, encourage learning, refuse the bishop of Rome's authority, and fight against his erroneous and pestilent heresies." The royal scheme was never acted upon. The death of Claud duke de Guise, the father of the marquis de Maine, occurring a few days after the arrival of the noble French hostages, the young mar- quis obtained the courteous permission of king Edward to pass into Scotland to comfort the queen-mother, Mary of Lorraine, for the death of their father, and he was sent thither honourably escorted at the king's expense. Claud duke d'Aumale, another of the Guise brethren, who, a few days afterwards, accompanied the French ambassador to England, was much pleased with the young English sovereign, and bore honourable testi- mony of his courtesy. The regard appears to have been reciprocal, for Edward promised to give him his portrait, a promise of which d'Aumale reminded the English ambassador in Paris, who wrote word to the council " that he thought it would be well bestowed." Our young bachelor king, who, up to this period, con- tinued to claim the little queen of Scotland as his * The learned editor of the Lite- iner having cited that custom in rary Eemains of king Edward VI., defence of the use of images and conjectures, with great appearance of saintly commemorations, by asking probability, that the unchivalric triumphantly in a letter to Eidley, desire of tbe juvenile sovereign of "If images be forbidden, why doth the order to banish the effigies of St. the king wear St. George on his George from the jewel of the Garter, breast ? but he weareth St. George on and transfer the festival from the his breast, ergo, images be not forbid- day on which he is commemorated, den. If saints be not to be venerated, was in consequence of bishop Gard- why keep we St. George's feast ? ' ' 21 322 EDWARD THE SIXTH. affianced consort, in virtue of the treaty of betrothal which had been ratified between the late king his father and the regent Arran in her name, paid .these friendly attentions to her uncles, not only as a matter of courteous hospitality, but with a view of promoting his marriage with her and the union of their realms. A splendid ambassade of French princes and nobles, conducting M. de Chenault, who was appointed the resi- dent ambassador to the court of England, arrived on the 23rd of May. "The king sent his galley, called the Subtle, royally fitted up with plate, tapestry, and all things proper for the occasion, and two pinnaces, to meet and receive them at the Nore, with an honourable banquet on board, and so conduct them to Durham Place, the nmnsion appointed for their lodging. The lord warden of the Cinque Ports, with sixty barges, met and bade them welcome on the water with every demonstration of respect. The next day, the two secretaries of state waited upon them with a message froni king Edward, inquiring whether they wanted anything, and when would be the most agreeable time for them to be brought to his presence. They named the same afternoon for their reception. They were accordingly conducted in state to Whitehall, where Edward was in his presence chamber ready to receive them, which he did with much grace, embracing them all in turn, according to their degree, read their letters of credence, and used them with such good words and countenance as gave them great satisfaction. The next day, "Whitsunday, being assigned for taking the oath of ratification, the marquises of Dorset and Northampton, the lord privy seal, and lord Paget went again with barges to conduct them to the court."* The noble young English hostages having been restored, the court was very fully and magnificently attended, both by French and English nobles. The king's majesty, after the communion and service in the * Mason's Letter Book ; State Paper Office MS. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 323 chapel beneath, in the presence of M. de Chatillon, his colleagues, the privy council, and other spectators, read the oath and subscribed it. That day the French com- missioners, with the resident ambassador, dined with the king, and were by him most cordially entertained.* Edward's own account of that day's proceedings is thus tersely told: — "The ambassadors came to the court, where they saw me take the oath for the acceptation of the treaty and afterwards dined with me, and after dinner saw a pastime of ten against ten at the ring, whereof on one side were the duke of Suffolk, the Vidame, the lord Lisle, and seven other gentlemen, apparelled in yellow ; on the other, the lord Strange, Monsieur Henaudiere, and eight others in blue."f The following day, being Monday, 26th, their excel- lencies invited the duke of Somerset and others of the court to dine with them at Durham Place, " where," pur- sues our authority, £ " they feasted us as the market would serve, very honourably; and that afternoon they saw the pastime of our bear-baiting and bull-baiting" — barbar- isms in which we are happy to observe our young learned king took no part. On Tuesday, Edward invited them to hunt with him in Hyde Park, and that night they supped with him in his privy chamber. They went to see Hampton Court on the Wednesday, where they dined, hunted, and returned the same night to Durham Place. Edward quaintly notes on the " 29th. The ambassadors had a fair supper made them by the duke of Somerset, and went on the Thames, and saw both the bear hunted in the river, and also wildfire cast out of boats, and many pretty conceits. 30th. The ambassadors took their leave and departed ;" not empty handed, for the king, who loved to make presents, and was not now restricted in the means of doing so, caused rich and goodly presents to be sent to the chief of them before they departed. * Mason's Letter Book, State Paper Office MS. f King Edward's Journal. X Narrative addressed to sir John Mason. 324 EDWARD THE SIXTH. The next gay doing of Edward's court this festive spring was the bridal of his fair and learned cousin, lady Anne Seymour, eldest daughter of his uncle Somerset, and viscount Lisle, the heir of the earl of Warwick, which was solemnised at Sheen on the 3rd of June. Edward honoured these nuptials with his presence, of which he has given the following particulars in his journal: " There was a fair dinner and dancing, after which the king and the ladies went into two chambers made of boughs, where they saw twelve gentlemen, six on each side, run the course of the field twice over, and afterwards came three on one side, and two on the other, which ran four courses each. Last of all came the count of Ragonne, (a young Italian nobleman in the king's service,) with three Italians, who ran with all the gentle- men four courses, and afterwards fought at tourney. After supper, the king returned to Westminster" — rather a long ride for him after a fatiguing day of pleasure, for though he does not condescend to mention his exertions in that way, he must have trod a measure with the bride, and possibly with others of the fair and noble ladies present. His opportunities for entering into female society or dancing were so few, that this is almost the only entertairgnent in which that amusement is mentioned during his reign. The next day, sir Robert Dudley,* third son of the earl of Warwick, was married to the daughter of sir John Robsarte. The young king was present at this bridal also, and mentions the following barbarous pastimes which were practised on that occasion, instead of dancing, riding, running at the ring, or any of the chivalric demonstrations of the preceding day : — " There were cer- tain gentlemen that did strive who should first take away a goose's head, which was hanged alive on two cross * Afterwards so greatly celebrated the earl of Leicester, and rendered in the annals of royal favouritism yet more famous by the pen of sir in the reign of queen Elizabeth as Walter Scott, in " Kenilworth." EDWARD THE SIXTH. 325 posts." It does not appear that the young sovereign joined in this detestable amusement. Edward removed to his palace at Greenwich on the 6th of June, and on the 19th gives the following account of an aquatic naval and military pageant, at which he was present, having a few days previously conferred the office of lord admiral of England on lord Clinton : " I went to Deptford, being bidden to supper by the lord Clinton, where before supper I saw certain stand upon the end of a boat, without hold of anything, and run one at another till one was cast into the water. At supper, Messieurs Vidame and Henaday supped with me. After supper was there a fort made, upon a great lighter on the Temps (Thames), which had three walls and a watch tower in the midst, of which Mr. Winter was captain, with forty or fifty other soldiers in yellow and black. To the fort also appertained a galley of yellow colour, with men and munitions in it for the defence of the castle. "Whereupon there came four pinnaces, with their men in white, handsomely dressed, which intending to give assault to the castle, first drove away the yellow pinnace, and after, with clods, squibs, canes of fire, darts made for the nonce, and bombards, assaulted the castle ; and at length came with their pieces and burst the outer walls of the castle, beating them of the castle into the second ward, who after issued out and drove away the pinnaces, sinking one of them, out of which all the men in it, being more than twenty, leaped out and swam in the Temps, Then came the admiral of the navy, with three other pinnaces, and won the castle by assault, and burst the top of it down, and took the captain and under- captain. Then the admiral went forth to take the yellow ship, and at length clasped (grappled) with her, took her and assaulted also her top, and won it by composition, and so returned home."* In the month of July this year, Edward, who must * King Edward's Journal. 326 EDWARD THE SIXTH. now have been in vigorous health to be capable of such an exertion, rode from London to "Windsor in one day, resting for a little while at the duke of Somerset's man- sion of Sion at Isleworth, where he dined. The exhila- rating exercise in the open air, and the recreation and lively society he had enjoyed with the young French princes and nobles, had been more beneficial to a delicate growing boy of thirteen, than poring over his classic studies and writing polemic essays. Edward gave to the German refugee reformers this summer the house of Austin Friars, in the city, for a church, " for the avoiding," he says,. " of all sects of anabaptists, and such like." The celebrated John Alasco was appointed their minister. John Hooper, who had pleased the young king very much by his last sermon, was in July nominated to the bishopric of Gloucester. There was great opposition among Edward's hierarchy to the elevation of Hooper to the prelacy on account of his dislike of the dress and ceremonials of the English episcopal church, and some peculiar notions which did not agree with the opinions of the most orthodox of the reformers ; but the duke of Somerset carried it against the other prelates. Hooper scrupled at the wording of the oath, and, indeed, the young king, when it was read in his presence, took immediate alarm at the manner in which, according to the old formula, the saints were included in the pledge. " What wickedness is here, Hooper ? " exclaimed he in great excitement, " are these offices ordained in the name of the saints, or of God ? " and immediately with his own hand erased the objectional expression from the oath."* This summer Edward varied his residences from Greenwich to his royal manors of Nonsuch, Oatlands, and Eichmond. He returned to Whitehall on the 16th of October. In that month his maternal grandmother, lady Seymour, died, and there was a long discussion in the * John Ab Ulmins to Bullinger, from Oxford, August 22nd, 1550. Original letters, Parker Society. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 327 privy council whether mourning should be worn for her or not, by his majesty and the court, in order to testify respect for the memory of his majesty's mother, queen Jane. This was negatived for several considerations by the lords. ' 'First, ''they said, " because doole and such outward demonstration of mourning worn at all, did not at all profit the dead, but rather serveth to induce diffidence of a better life won to the departed in God, by changing of this transitory state ; secondly, because the wiser sort, weighing the impertinent charges bestowed upon black cloth and funeral pomps, might worthily find fault with the expenses thereof; and lastly, the great dislike sove- reign princes have to look on black, and everything reminding them of death,' seeing that their late sovereign lord king Henry would not only dispense with all doole, but be ready to pluck the black apparel from the backs of such men as presumed to wear it in his presence, for a king being the life and head of the commonwealth, his gladsome presence ought not to be dimmed with doleful tokens." * Then the duke of Somerset, who had intro- duced the question by the announcement "of the departure to God of his majesty's dearest grandmother," prayed the lords "to decide for him whether, under these con- siderations, it would not be more proper for himself to abstain from wearing mourning for the deceased lady his mother." The lords decided "that it would be more reasonable for private men to reserve the display of their private sorrows to their own houses, than to dim the gladsome presence of their prince with the sight of mourning," but referred the matter to the king's majesty, how the duke was to comport himself on that occasion. , Edward, doubtless acting by the advice of Somerset's rival replied, "that having ripely weighed the matter, he did * The above is from a curious MS. proceedings of that sederunt -which minute of Council in possession of sir are stated in a different manner in Thos. Phillipps, bart., of Middlehill, the Eegister, as if Somerset only from Harbin's collections, doubtless spoke of his own mourning, not of the original and true report of the a court mourning. 328 EDWARD THE SIXTH. especially dispense with the duke and his family wearing doole, such observance tending rather to pomp than to edifying." No mourning was in consequence worn for Edward's grandmother,* neither does he mention her death in his journal. There is no reason to believe they had ever met. Her nephew, lord Wentworth, was Edward's lord chamberlain at the time of her death ; he survived her about five months. He died in office, leaving sixteen children, a fact that is recorded by the king in his journal, but without any allusion to the relationship of this numerous family party to himself. Edward also records the fact " that sir Clement Smith was chidden for hearing mass;" but does not say that the offender was his uncle by marriage, being the husband of his mother's sister, Dorothy Seymour. Martin Bucer presented a book of his own composition to the young king as a new year's gift, on the 1st of January, 1550 ; entitled, " Concerning the Kingdom of Ghrist," setting forth "the miseries which had been brought on some of the German states by their sins and want of religious discipline, and recommending his majesty to take warning by their punishment, and to bestow his attention on remedying the like evils in his own realm, the enactment of such statutes as might be devised for the better government both of church and state." The death of Bucer, which occurred a few weeks after- wards, was calculated to add greater weight to his advice, but, Edward had already endeavoured to act upon it, by commencing a religious and statistical paper, noticing the various evils and abuses that had provoked the late insurrection, which he desired to bring under the con- sideration of the parliament then sitting.f It is, though only in a rough, fragmentary state, a very remarkable production for a boy of his age, and gives abundant * She was a lady of gentle birth. ter of sir John Wentworth of Net- and honourable descent, the daugh- tlestead Hall, in Suffolk. f King Edward's Literary Remains, printed for the Roxburgh Club. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 329 proofs of deep thought and a living interest in the comfort and happiness of the people committed to his charge. The young royal author commences his essay in these words : — "The governance of this realm is divided into two parts, the one ecclesiastical the other temporal. The ecclesiastical consisteth in setting forth the word of God, continuing the people in prayer and the discipline. The setting forth of the word of God consisteth in the good discreet doctrine and example of the teachers and spiritual officers. For as the good husbandman maketh his ground good and plentiful, so doth the true preacher with doctrine and example print and graffe in the people's mind the word of God, that they at length become plentiful." He then, after alluding to a careful revision of the liturgy then in process, and the benefit its general use when thus perfected might produce on the lives of his people, recommends "that his preachers were to be selected not only for their learning but their good conduct, and that such men, by being rewarded and promoted in the church, would be an encouragement to others to follow their good examples." The temporal state he compares " to the constitution of the human body, in which every part has its peculiar and separate offices, none interfering with that of another." He objects greatly " to his subjects carrying on two trades at once," and speaks with some contempt of "farming gentlemen and clerking knights." The mischievous practice of under-letting lands at an enormous profit, which has been regarded as the cause of many of the miseries in Ireland, we find from this curious statistical paper then prevailed to a great degree in England, and is thus indignantly reprobated by the youthful sovereign: — "The husbandmen and farmers take their ground at a small rent, and dwell not on it, but let it to poor men for treble the rent they took it for." The evil to the rural population of large farms, which he had heard so often denounced from the pulpit by Latimer, is 330 EDWARD THE SIXTH. also mentioned by Edward with a sarcastic allusion to the assumption of agricultural pursuits by persons whose natural vocations were in a different line. " The gentleman constrained by necessity and poverty becometh a farmer, a grazier, a sheep master ; the grazier, the farmer, the mer- chant, become landed men, and call themselves gentlemen, though they be churls. Yea, the farmer will have ten farms, some twenty, and will be a pedlar merchant ; the artificer will leave the town, and for his mere pastime will live in the country ; yea, and more than that, will be a justice of the peace, and will think scorn to have it denied him, so lordly be they now-a-days. For now they are not content with 2,000 sheep, but they must have 20,000, or else they think themselves not well ; they must [have] 20 mile square of their own land or full of their farms ; and four or five crafts to live by is too little, such hell hounds be they." Edward censures the mal-practices of the lawyers and judges with stern sincerity, and notices with deserved displeasure the scarcity and dearness of provisions caused by tradesman and mer- chants forestalling the markets, and buying up the necessaries of life to sell them again at an exorbitant profit. " What shall I say, then," continues he, "of those that buy and sell offices of trust, that impropriate benefices, that destroy timber, that not considering the sustaining men with corn, turn till-ground to pasture, that use excess in apparel, in diet, building, and in enclosure of wastes and commons." After a further recapitulation of these national abuses, the youthful sovereign proceeds to suggest the remedies to which he considered it expedient to have recourse. "These sores must be cured with these medicines or plaisters : lj good education; 2, devising of good laws; 3, executing the laws justly without respect of persons; 4, example of rulers ; 5, punishing of vagabonds and idle persons ; 6, encouraging the good ; 7, ordering well the customers," meaning, apparently, that unfair and fraudulent practices EDWARD THE SIXTH. 331 between buyers and sellers should be prevented by statutes for that purpose. After an appropriate quotation from Horace, Edward adds these golden rules for the improvement of the weal and happiness of his subjects : " Youth must be brought up, some in husbandry, some in working, graving, gilding, joining, printing, making of clothes, even from their tenderest age to the intent they may not when they come to man's estate, loiter as they do now-a-days, and neglect but think their travail sweet and honest, and for this purpose wold I wish that artificers and other were either commanded to bring up their sons in like trade, or else have some places appointed them in every good town where they should be 'prentices and bound to certain kind of conditions. Also that these vagabonds that take children and teach them to beg, should according to their demerits be worthily punished." Placing such children in an establishment under the control of the government, the boys to be brought up for soldiers or seamen, and the girls to be instructed in some useful handicraft, or the duties of service, would have been an excellent and paternal addition to the latter clause ; but Edward being only in his fourteenth year, had not matured his royal schemes for the amelioration of the evils he had witnessed during the four years of his infant reign. Instead of criticising the natural imperfections to be found in the writings of a boy of his age, we must admire the precocious wisdom and virtue of such a mind. " Devising of good laws," pursues the young king, " I have shown my opinion heretofore what statutes I think most necessary to be enacted this sessions. Nevertheless, I would wish that beside them hereafter, when time shall serve, the superfluous and tedious were brought into one sum together, and made more plain and short, to the intent that men might the better understand them, which thing shall much help to advance the profit of the commonwealth." 332 EDWARD THE SIXTH. How often has a wish for the consolidation and simplifying of the statutes of the realm been echoed, for the last three centuries, by the lights of the bench and the bar without being aware that the first suggestion of the expediency of such a measure emanated from the sound sense and premature judgment of a juvenile sovereign who had only just entered his teens. The persevering attempts of Edward's council to deprive his sister Mary, the heiress-presumptive to the crown, of the religious rites which she had been taught to regard as essential, and her determined resistance to the repeated interference in the form of her domestic worship, have been too fully detailed in our biography of that princess to require recapitulation here.* It is, however, necessary to mention that Edward received a visit from her at White- hall on the 17th of March, 1551, when, after their long separation, the royal brother and sister met in his presence chamber. She remained with him about two hours, and after partaking of a goodly banquet ^% .rtimmoned into the council chamber, "where," says 'the young king, " was declared how long I had suffered her mass against my will, in hope of her reconciliation, and how now being no hope, which I perceived by her letters, except I saw some short amendment, I could, not bear it ! She answered, ' that her soul was God's, and her faith she would not change, nor dissemble her opinion with contrary doings.' It was said, ' I constrained not her faith but willed her, not as a king to rule, but as a subject to obey, and that her example might breed too much inconvenience.' " Such are the words in which Edward has recorded the proceedings in the council chamber ; but it is to be noted, especially, that he has struck through the words " against my will " with his pen, and that he carefully abstains from speaking in the first person, or even the second, indicating thereby that the declaration he mentions, though made in his * " Lives of the Queens of England," by Agnes Strickland, vol. iii. Library Edition. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 333 name, was not uttered by his lips. It does not even appear that lie was present on this occasion. The same guarded and impersonal style may be traced throughout Edward's journal, whenever he records the harsh messages sent to Mary. This confirms her constant assertion that " he, good sweet king," as she fondly termed her royal brother, had nothing to do with the unkind and intolerant treat- ment to which she was subjected, first from the protector Somerset, and subsequently from Northumberland, who, from the time he succeeded in supplanting Somerset, fixed his ambitious regards on the throne, and did his utmost to irritate the lawful heiress of the crown into heading a Roman Catholic revolt, in the hope of bringing her to the block. The only wonder was that he did not provoke a war with the emperor, who took the part of Mary with a high hand, and had privately commissioned his Flemish admiral, Scipperus, to effect a landing in England to carry her off. Mary was too cautious to be dragged into the snares of eitfeffffcgd or foe. She was fully aware that her royal browj nd no intention of annoying her. She always kissevl ^B fcters, and openly declared "that any- thing offensive cJHreied in them proceeded not from him but his council, wjjj^interest it was to estrange him from her." The testimca^ipf a contemporary witness, so inti- mately acquainted with both Edward and Mary as Jane Dormer, satisfactorily corroborates these assertions, and throws a new and deeply interesting light on Edward's character. His opinions on the subject of his religion were very decided, and he knew well how to give his reasons for them ; but he was too amiable a youth, too good a christian, to be a persecutor. The cruel constraint that was put on his conscience, in regard to burning Joan Boucher, proves he was not his own master. A folio volume of king Edward's Greek and Latin orations, all transcribed by his own hand, is preserved in the British Museum. It is impossible to look on these, his Latin letter book and French essays, without the 334 EDWARD THE SIXTH. melancholy conviction that the enormous amount of severe literary labour and study to which the royal boy was doomed by his well-meaning but injudicious tutors, was the cause of his early death. Exercise and recreation are so necessary for the young that it is a positive refreshment to meet with such entries as these in his journal. " March 31. A challenge made by me, that I with 16 of my chamber should run at base, shoot, and run at ring with any 17 of my servants, gen- tlemen in the court." Better still on the morrow to see in his own royal autograph : "April 1. The first day of the challenge at base or running, the king won," and again on 5th, " I lost the challenge of shooting at rounds and won at rovers."* It was while Edward was holding his court in his palace at Greenwich, in the merry month of May, that the most important part of the challenge, that of running at the ring, took place in the park, between the young sovereign and the defenders, who were led by his cousin the earl of Hertford, one of the English hostages just returned home from France. The following account of their costumes and doings is from Edward's own pen : "May 3. The challenge at the ring performed, at the which first came the king, 16 footmen and 10 horsemen, in black silk coats, pulled (puffed) out with white taffeta ; then all lords, having their men likewise apparelled, and all gentlemen, their footmen in white fustian pulled out with black taffeta. The tother side came in all in yellow tafta. At length the yellow band tainted (?) often, which was counted as nothing, and took never, which seemed * Shooting at the rounds is shoot- place of their fall, with regard to ing at a target or any similar object the mark, determines the merit of circumscribed with circles, but at the shot. The person who wins has Rovers the mark may be a tree, a a right to propose the next mark, gate, or any other object agreed by so that the term seems to be de- the umpires ; the distance is greater, rived from the roving of the shooters and the arrows being discharged from one mark to another. — Pegge's with a considerable elevation, the Cueialia. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 335 very strange, and so the prize was of my side lost. After that tourney, followed between six of my band and six of theirs. "* The tournay, we find from a contemporary account of " The triumph in Greenwich park," was fought with swords. f Gateway at Hamptou Court Palace. Page 310. ' King Edward's Journal. f Machyn's Diary, page 5. EDWAED THE SIXTH. CHAPTER V. King Edward holds a chapter of the Garter at Greenwich — Sends the order of the Garter to king of France — Efforts of the young bachelor king to obtain a wife — Elected a knight of the order of St. Michael — French ambassadors sent to invest him — Poverty of his exchequer — Debt with foreign bankers — Festive day in Greenwich Park — Edward rides at the ring on Blackheath — Goes to a ship-launch at Deptford — — Entertains French ambassadors — His investiture as knight of St. Michael — Courses and shoots with French ambassadors — Plays on the lute to mareschal St. Andre: gives him a diamond ring — Negociations for Edward's marriage with Elizabeth of France — Haggling about her portion — Edward sends her a ring in token of his love — Invited to be godfather to her new-born brother — His costly christening gifts — Influence gained by earl of Warwick over Edward's mind — "Warwick made duke of Northumberland — Somerset arrested and sent to the Tower — Grave charges brought against him — Arrival of queen-mother of Scotland — Edward's hospitable arrangements for her reception — She comes to dine with him at "Whitehall — He kisses her and her ladies — He tries to persuade her to let him marry her daughter, Mary, queen of Scots — Their conference on the subject — His presents to his royal guest — Somerset brought to trial and condemned — Edward's letters to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick— Barnaby's reply — Splendid Christmas entertainments and masques devised to amuse Edward — Plays and interludes at his court— His love for horses — Present of rare horses sent him for his own riding by king of France — Tail-piece to the chapter, king Edward in his tilting armour. Notwithstanding the onslaught the young sovereign of the Garter had been encouraged by the puritanical party in his council to make, in the preceding year, on the patron saint of the order, he held a chapter on St. George's day at Greenwich this spring, with all due solemnities, for the purpose of nourishing amity between his realm and France, by electing king Henry II. a knight. He commissioned, at the same time, the marquis EDWARD THE SIXTH. 337 of Northampton, with other nobles, to proceed to France, with the robes and decorations to invest his royal brother. Business of personal import to Edward was connected with this ambassade. Our young bachelor king, now in his fourteenth year, having nearly arrived at the age at which his renowned ancestor and namesake, Edward III., entered the holy estate of matrimony, was desirous of obtaining a consort. He might have made a happy and suitable choice at home, having fair and virtuous maiden cousins, both of the paternal and maternal lineage, who had been educated expressly for the purpose of qualifying them for that honour, and were almost as learned, as deeply versed in theology, and as much opposed to popery as himself. There were the peerless lady Jane Gray* and her sister Katharine, cousins by the royal Tudor blood, and the ladies Jane and Margaret Seymour, the daughters of his uncle Somerset, who corresponded with him in Latin, and had already acquired literary and scholastic distinction by their verses on the death of Margaret, queen of Navarre. There was also a third Jane, the beloved companion of his early childhood, whom he fondly distinguished from those of loftier birth bearing that name, by calling her "his Jane," who, though she boasted no royal descent, was equal in birth to his own mother, or the late queen, his step-mother. But Edward would none of these ; for, like his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, his heart was too high to think of marrying with a subject. No, his desire was to wed a foreign princess, with an ample dower, and " suitably stuffed and * Speaking of lady Jane Gray, quence, that this most noble virgin John Ab Ulmins, in a letter from is to be betrothed and given in mar- London, written about March, 1551, riage to the king's majesty. Oh, if notices a very natural rumour then that event should take place, how in circulation, of a matrimonial al- happy would be the union, and liance in prospect between her and how beneficial to the church ! " — her royal kinsman, Edward YI. " A Original Letters of the English Re- report has prevailed, and has begun formation. Printed for the Parker to be talked of by persons of conse- Society. 22 338 EDWARD THE SIXTH. jewelled/' papist though she might be. Very pertina- ciously did he assert his right to the hand of the only female sovereign in Europe, Mary Stuart ; " claim- ing," his representative said, "both the daughter of Scotland and her realm," in virtue of the matrimonial treaty ratified by the regent Arran, in her name, in the first year of her life and reign, although that treaty had been repudiated by her mother and natural guardian, who sent the little queen to France for refuge from such rough wooing. Edward insisted on the validity of the contract, and instructed his ambassadors, the marquis of Northampton, and the other nobles whom he had com- missioned to invest the king of France with the order of the Garter, to require that sovereign "to send the queen of Scotland to England for the consummation of the marriage;" but, in case of an unfavourable reply from that monarch, whose intention of marrying her to his son the dauphin was well known, our young bachelor king, being determined to secure a consort at all events, further instructed Northampton to open a negotiation for a marriage between himself and Madame Elizabeth of France. Edward having, in the meantime, been elected by king Henry and his fraternity a knight of the royal French order of St. Michael, the mareschal de St. Andre, and other nobles of the highest rank, were despatched to the English court, to invest him with the insignia. Great preparations were made, Edward states in his journal, for the reception and entertainment of these dis- tinguished foreigners. It was a time of great difficulty, for not only was the exchequer empty, but the country in great distress from scarcity of provision, and the reduction of the value of the silver currency, the shilling having been lowered by proclamation to tenpence, the sixpence to fourpence, and the groat to threepence, and an enormous and monthly increasing debt was incurred in Flanders with the house of Fuggers, the EDWARD THE SIXTH. 339 wealthiest merchants, bankers, and money-lenders then in Europe. We are indebted to the young king's indefatigable pen for the following specimen of their way of doing business with him : " A bargain made with the Fulcare for about 60,000 pounds, that in May and August should be paid, for the deferring of it. First, that the Fulcare should put it off for ten in the hundred ; secondly, that I should buy 12,000 more weight at six shillings the ounce, to be delivered at Antwerp, and so conveyed over; thirdly, I should pay 100,000 crowns for a very fair jewel of his, four rubies, marvellous big, one orient and great diamond, and one great pearl. " Sir Thomas Gresham, in the following year, acting under Edward's commission, succeeded in extricating him from these usurious snares, and obtaining money without the accommodation being burdened with the condition of heavy and inconvenient purchases of costly jewels, of which he had enough of his own. The presents which Edward was expected, for the honour of England, to make to the French nobles who were coming to bring him the order of St. Michael, were, however, obtained on credit of the Fuggers, for he notes : " Provision made in Flanders for silver and gold plate and chains, to be given to these strangers." Preparations were also made for a new dis- play of plate, to be used in his palace at Westminster, for the entertainments he had to give on the occasion of this visit; but these, he states, "were made of church stuff, as mitres, golden missals, primers, crosses, and relics."* Previous to the arrival of their excellencies, the youthful sovereign enjoyed a day of great pleasure and festivity, which is thus described in the journal of a contemporary : — " The 6th day of July, the king's grace rode through Greenwich Park unto Blackheath, and my lord Derby, my lord of Warwick, my lord admiral Clinton, and sir * King Edward's Journal. 340 EDWARD THE SIXTH. William Herbert, the trumpeters playing and all the guards in their doublets, and those with bows and arrows and halberts, two and two together, and the king's grace rode in the midst. And there the king's grace rode at the ring on Blackheath with lords and knights. The earl of Warwick met the king there with a hundred men of arms and great horses, and gentlemen in cloth embroidered. And the same night the king supped at Deptford, in a ship, with my lord admiral and the lords of the council, with many gentlemen." * The king's record of this festive summer day is very brief, omitting his own pastimes on Blackheath, but mentioning an event of far greater importance, the launch of the two new ships of war which were that day added to. his royal navy. "I was banqueted, "writes he, "by the lord Clinton at Deptford, where I saw the Primrose and the Mary Willoughby launched."! The latter was a ship of 140 tons carrying 160 men and 23 guns. Edward removed from his sylvan palace at Greenwich to Westminster on the 7th, but only tarried there four days, on account of that terrible epidemic, the sweating sickness, which, after an interval of three -and-twenty years, revisited the metropolis this summer. "At this time," notes the young sovereign, " came the sweat into London, which was more vehement than the old sweat ; for if one took cold, he died within three hours, and if he escaped, it held him but nine hours or ten at the most. Also if he slept the first six hours, as he should be very desirous to do, then he raved and should die raving. It grew so much in London the tenth day, there died 70 in the liberties, and this day (the 11th of July) 120, and also one of my gentlemen, another of my grooms fell sick and died, that I removed to Ampton Court with few with me." As Edward generally omits the H in writing Hampton Court, we may surmise that it was not the fashion to aspirate it at that period, for we can * Machyn's Diary. f King Edward's Journal. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 341 scarcely suspect our accomplished young sovereign of using cockneyfied pronunciation, as his manner of spelling the name of this royal residence would seem to imply. " The same night/' continues Edward, " came the mareschal, who was saluted with all my ships lying in the Temps (Thames) fifty and odd, all with shot well furnished and so with the ordinance of the Toure. He was met by the lord Clinton, lord admiral, with forty gentlemen at Gravesend, and so brought to Durham Place. " 13th. Because of the infection at London, he came this day to Richmond, where he lay with a great band of gentlemen, at least 400, as it was by divers esteemed, where that night he hunted." We should do our readers great injustice if .we did not relate the particulars of the reception of the French ambassador and his royal entertainment in the very words in which they are chronicled by the pen of the youthful sovereign in his fourteenth year. " 14th of July. The mareschal St. Andre came to me at Ampton Court at nine of the clock, being met by the duke of Somerset at the wall end, and so conveyed first to me, where after his master's recommendations and letters, he went to his chamber on the queen's side, all hanged with cloth of arras, and so was the hall and all my lodging. He dined with me also. After dinner being brought into an inner chamber, % he told me he was come not only for delivery of the order, but also to declare the great friendship the king his master bore me, which he desired I would think to be such to me as a father beareth to his son or brother. And although there were divers persuasions, as he thought, to dissuade me from the king his master's friendship, and witless men made divers rumours, yet he trusted I would not believe them. Furthermore, as good ministers on the frontiers do great good, so do ill much harm ; for which cause he desired no innovation should be made on things that had been long in controversy by handstrokes, but rather by com- 342 EDWARD THE SIXTH. missioned talk/ I answered him ' that I thanked him for his order (the order of St. Michael, of which he was the bearer), and also his love, and I would show like love in all points. For rumours, they were not always to be believed; and that I did sometimes provide for the worst, but never did any harm upon their hearing. For ministers,' I said, 'I would rather appease their contro- versies with words, than do anything by force.' So, after, he was conveyed to Eichmond again."* The investiture of our fair young English king as a knight of the royal French order of St. Michael took place on the 17th of July at Hampton Court Palace, on which day the resident French ambassador, Boisdaul- phin, accompanied by the ambassadors extraordinary, the mareschals St. Andre and de Gye and others of their suite, came to the king in his privy chamber about ten o'clock, preceded by the French king of arms, bearing the robes of the order wrapped in blue velvet, followed by the provost of St. Michael, bearing the collar of the order on a cushion of cloth of silver. Their obeisance done, the proposition being made to the king by one of the French gentlemen, he returned his answers to the ambassadors. Then the French king of arms and the provost of the order came to king Edward, and took off his gown and his jacket. The gown was of cloth of silver tissue, furred with black jennets, with three dozen buttons and aglets of gold, which gown and jacket, with his sword and dagger, were the perquisites of the provost, f After this, the two mareschals arrayed the king in a coat of silver with small fringe of gold, and over this the mantle, hood, tippet, and collar. After these ceremonies, the French king of arms, and Garter in his coat of arms, and the provost with the sword going before the king, who walked between the two mareschals, they proceeded to the chapel, which had been especially dressed, and prepared for this occasion; " where," records the young * King Edward's Journal. f Additional MSS. British Museum, p. 297, f. 7. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 343 royal knight of St. Michael, " after the communion celebrated, each of them kissed my cheek. After, they dined with me, and talked after dinner, and saw some pastime, and so went home again/'* The mareschal St. Andre and the other envoys supped with the king the same day he was invested, and as this meal was served several hours earlier than our modern dinners are, they witnessed several matches at coursing, afterwards in the cool of a lovely July evening in the park. " The next morning," records Edward, " he came to see mine arraying, and saw my bedchamber, and went a hunting with hounds, and saw me shoot, and saw all my guard shoot together. He dined with me, heard me play on the lute, came to me in my study, supped with me, and so departed to Richmond." f "M. le Marechal came to me, July 23rd," notes Edward, " declaring the king his master's well taking my readiness to this treaty, and how much his master was bent that way. He presented Mons. Boisdaulphin to be ambassador here, as my lord marcus, the 19th day, did present Mr. Pickering. 26th. M. le Mareschal dined with me. After dinner, saw the strength of the English archers ; after he had so done, at his departure I gave him a diamond from my finger, worth by estimation £150, both for [his] pains and also for my memory. Then he took his leave. 27th. He came to me a hunting to tell me the news, and show the letter his master had sent him, and doubles (copies) of Mons. Terme's letter and Marillac's letters, being ambassador with the emperor. 28th. M. le Mareschal came to dinner in Hyde Park, where there was a fair house made for him, and he saw the cursing [coursing, Edward means] there. "$ The fair house in Hyde Park, of which king Edward here speaks, and also another in Marybonne Park, now the Regent's Park, had both been erected by his especial command, against the arrival of mareschal St. Andre and * King Edward's Journal. f Ibid. J Ibid. 344 EDWARD THE SIXTH. his company, at an expense of £169 7s. 8d., of timber, brick, and lime ; painted, decorated, and garnished with boughs and flowers. The carpenters and bricklayers were paid a penny an hour for their work, the labourers a half-penny an hour, the plaisterers eleven pence a day ; but the painters received the extraordinary wages of seven and sixpence per day. The windows were of basket work. The banqueting house in Hyde Park was 57 feet in length and 60 in breadth, supported with six turned pillars and surmounted with an ornamented turret. There were additional charges for cutting boughs in the wood in Hyde Park for trimming the banqueting house, and gathering rushes, flags, and ivy. Besides these banqueting houses, there were six stands of timber, garnished with flags and flowers, for beholding the sports.* Meantime, king Edward's ambassadors extraordinary to the court of France, having invested king Henry II. with the order of the garter, opened the matrimonial negotia- tions in behalf of the young royal bachelor their master, by demanding that " the queen of Scotland should be sent to England for the consummation of her marriage with king Edward," offering at the same time to produce the documentary proofs of the contract and treaty, in virtue of which he claimed her for his wife.f The king of France referred the decision of this delicate affair to commissioners. The following conversation then took place between them and the English ambassador in reply to this demand of the queen of Scots : £ " By my troth," quoth the constable, "to be plain and frank with you, seeing you require us so to be, the matter hath cost us both much riches and no little blood ; and so much doth the honour of France hang thereupon, as we * Kemp's Losely MSS. Northampton and the other ambassa- f Letter of the Marquis of Nor- dors for the marriage, from Chateau^ thampton. briand. State Paper Office MS., J Report of the Marquis of 20th of June, 1551. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 345 cannot toll how to talk with you therein, the marriage being already concluded between her and the dauphin." The marquis of Northampton replied, " that although the king his master thought the marriage with Scotland might best have been brought to pass through the friendly offices of the king of France, for besides the promise made by her whole realm, he also had spent for her both blood and riches, yet as he preferred the amity of his said good brother before any other consideration, he had given commission, if the other request pleased not, to demand in marriage the lady Elizabeth, eldest daughter to the king of France, whereunto he was moved first by the good affec- tion of his majesty towards him ; and secondly, by the good report of the likelihood and towardness of the young lady." The overture was most eagerly embraced, with many complimentary observations in regard to the noble qualities of king Edward, and the puissance of his realm. The condensed report of the negotiations is thus chronicled by Edward's own pen : * " The cardinals of Lorraine and Chastillon, the constable, and the duke of Ghiise were appointed commissioners on the part of France, who absolutely denied the first motion for the Scottish queen, saying, ' both they had taken too much pains and spent too many lives for her, also a conclusion was made for her marriage to the dolphin.' Then was proposed the marriage of the lady Elizabeth, the French king's eldest daughter, to which they did most cheerfully assent. So after, they agreed neither party to be bound in conscience nor honour till she were twelve years of age and upwards. Then they came to the dote which was first asked, 1,500,000 scutes (crowns) of France, at which they made a mock.f After for donatia propter * King Edward's Journal. the persuading them to think this sum reasonable." Letter of Marquis f Ml Frankly demanded!' quoth of Northampton and the other am- they, laughing. ¥e alleged such rea- bassadors to the lords of the council, sons as we thought might serve for State Paper Office MS. 346 EDWARD THE SIXTH. nuptias, they agreed that it should be as great as hath been given by the king my father to any wife he had." It is impossible to forbear from smiling at the quaint manner in which the young royal bachelor, who was so painfully aware of the insolvent state of his exchequer, and perhaps reckoned on the large portion he hoped to receive with his bride as part of the ways and means of paying off some of his debt to the Flemish bankers, details the progressive deductions made by his matrimonial commissioners in their demands of the dowry of Elizabeth of France. " Our commissioners came to 1,400,000 of crowns, which they, the French commissioners refused ; then to a million, which they denied ; then to 800,000 crowns, which they said they would not agree to." The result of the third day's negotiation was even more morti- fying ; as indicative of the fact that our sixth Edward, with all his beauty, learning, wisdom, and virtue, con- tinued at discount in the matrimonial market, for on his procurators, ashamed of continuing to abate from their demands, asking the French commissioners in plain words what they would give with their princess. "First," re- cords his majesty, "they offered 100,000 crowns, then 200,000, which they said was the most and more than was ever given. Then followed great reasonings and showings of precedents."* As this sum, about £50,000, was the utmost that could be obtained, king Edward condescended to signify that he would accept it, provided the young princess, who was only six years old, should be transported to England three months before she completed her twelfth year, at the expense of the king, her father, with a suitable wardrobe, or, to use the homely expression of the royal bridegroom-elect, "sufficiently stuffed- and jewelled. "f There was an attempt at the same time to dispose of Edward's sister, the princess Mary, in a mar- riage with the brother of the king of France, but it came to nothing. * King Edward's Journal. f Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 347 A picture of the princess Elizabeth of France had been procured by the earl of Warwick, for his young royal master, to show mareschal St. Andre at his house, in token of the tender affection he had conceived for his intended consort. The petite madame Elizabeth was a beautiful, precocious child, receiving a learned education with her royal sister-in-law the queen of Scots, who about this time began writing to her almost every day a letter in French and Latin, full of sage advice.* This was probably intended to perfect Mary in her Latin, and to initiate Elizabeth into a course of study that would qualify her to become a suitable consort to so accomplished a prince as the young king of England. Barbaro, the Venetian ambassador's simple, unvar- nished report of Edward's characteristics, is perhaps more deserving of quotation then the laudations of the Zurich professors of divinity, whose gratitude for the patronage and presents of the learned young sovereign made them represent him as a sinless piece of perfection, adorned with graces incompatible with the fallibilities of frail humanity. " He is," writes the noble Yenetian, " of good disposition, and fills the country with the best expectations, because he is handsome, graceful, of proper size, shows an inclination to generosity, and begins to wish to understand what is going on. In the exercise of the mind and the study of languages, he appears to excel his companions. He is fourteen years of age."f Edward removed to the castle of Farnham, the episcopal palace of the bishop of Winchester, on the 10th of Sep- tember, of which he had taken possession, and remained there till the 18th, when he proceeded to Windsor, and from- thence to Hampton Court on the 27th. While there, he kept the festival of the royal French order of St. Michael, on Michaelmas day, and dined in the robes * See Life of Mary Stuart, in Agnes Stuickland, vol. iii., 3rd " Lives of Queens of Scotland," by edition. f MS. at Greystoke Castle. 348 EDWAKD THE SIXTH. of the order, having invited the French ambassador to dine with him, whom he entertained, we are told, "to his great contentation,"* no doubt, if he regaled him with the orthodox English fare of roast goose and apple sauce, for the commemoration of the festival of St. Michael and all Angels. The next incident of interest that occurred during Edward's sojourn at Hampton Court, was the arrival of M. de Jarnac, a French nobleman of high rank, who was commissioned by the king of France to announce " that the queen, Catherine de Medicis, had been happily delivered of a third son, the duke d'Angoulesme, of whom the king prayed his royal brother of England to be godfather." Edward graciously accepted the office, and deputed the new lord admiral of England, Henry lord Clinton, to act as his representative at the christening of the infant French prince, also to bear his commendations to his affianced lady Madame Elizabeth of France, and the present of a fair diamond ring as a token of his love. Edward sent his young favourite Barnaby Fitz-Patrick as an attache with Clinton on his mission. Clinton was attacked with so severe an intermittent fever on his arrival at Fontain- bleau that he was unable to perform the long journey to Blois, where the little princess was residing, to deliver the commendations and token from the young bachelor king his master, and wrote in great perplexity to require in- structions from the council as to what were best to be done, to which the following reply was given.f "And for that your lordship moves us to know our opinions whether it were best for yourself to go with the king's majesty's token to the lady Elizabeth, who is at Blois, distant from Fontainbleau the space of sixty miles ; we think if your lordship's estate for your sickness might commodiously suffer you to do so, the same were very necessary, consider- ing what she is now to the king's majesty, our master, and * King Edward's Journal. f Letter of the council to Sir William Pickering, Sept. 29th, 1551, State Paper Office MS. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 349 what soever your lordship shall do to her grace, the same shall redound to his majesty's good contentation." According to king Edward's journal, "the lord admiral (Clinton) christened the French king's child, Dec. 5th, and called him by the king's commandment Edward Alexander."* The christening gifts presented by our young protestant king to his popish godson, were a pair of pots of gold, fair wrought and enamelled, weighing 145 ounces ; a pair of flagons of gold, wrought according to the same pots, 145 ounces ; also a bowl of gold, wrought with devices of astronomy and phismanys (?), weighing 18 ounces ; value one thousand three hundred and sixteen pounds five shillings. f Two hundred, four score, and twelve French crowns were distributed by the noble proxy, in rewards to the governor, nurse, and other ministers about the French king's youngest son.f " All that day," continues the young royal chronicler, in his journal, "there was music, dancing, and triumph in the court ; but the lord admiral was sick of a double quartan. Yet he presented Barnabe % to the French king, who took him to his chamber." " Sir William Pickering," notes the young royal bachelor, "delivered to the lady Elizabeth a fair diamond."§ No particulars, either of the ceremony of the presenta- tion, or of the manner of the reception of this offering, are recorded; it was probably intended for a ring of betrothal, as the treaty had been ratified by the contract- ing parties. Pickering, when he returned to the court of France, from the performance of this mission, being kindly reproached by Henry II. for having made himself so long a stranger, gaily replied, " I crave your majesty's pardon, but it has been caused by my long * This prince, who after the death other than Henry III. of indifferent of his young royal English god- memory, father, took the name of Henry at f State Paper Office MS. his confirmation, succeeded on the J Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, Edward' s death of his two elder brothers to favourite. the throne of France, being no § King Edward's Journal. 350 EDWARD THE SIXTH. abode at Blois, for the doing my duty to the queen, my mistress." The king of France spoke to the ambassador with unfeigned admiration of a portrait of Edward, which M. de Jarnac had brought with him from England, observing " that it was very excellent, and yet he was persuaded that the natural much exceeded the artificial." It was only of the beautiful external that the French sovereign spoke, but Roger Ascham, one who knew him well, has given the following high testimonial of his mental endowments : " Our most illustrious king, Edward, alike in ability, industry, perseverance, and acquirements, far exceeds what is usually expected from his years. It is from no fond reports, but from my own frequent obser- vation, which I regard as the sweetest incident of my life, that I have contemplated the whole band of virtues taking up their residence in his breast." Edward was now addressed by the king of France as " our very dear and well-beloved good brother and son;" and Edward, in like manner, acknowledged the family alliance in perspective, by styling Henry " our very dear and well-beloved good father, brother, and cousin." The earl of Warwick had been two years at the head of the government of the realm, and during that period had exercised his power so adroitly as to obtain un- bounded influence over the mind of the youthful sove- reign. This was increased by the marriage of his daughter with Henry Sidney, one of the earliest and dearest of Edward's companions, and the introduction of his son, lord Robert Dudley, into the royal household. The deaths of the two young dukes of Suffolk enabled him to con- ciliate their sister, the lady Frances, and the marquis of Dorset her husband, by persuading the king to bestow that title on the marquis. He obtained, at the same time, his own elevation to the dukedom of Northum- berland, and gratified his adherents by causing the earl EDWARD THE SIXTH. 351 of Wiltshire to be created marquis of Winchester, and sir William Herbert earl of Pembroke, and inducing the king to knight Henry Sidney and Cecil, and his schoolmaster, Dr. Cheke. Cecil, having forsaken Somer- set in his adversity, was now secretary of state. Somerset, who had been dispossessed of his authority as the chief person of the realm, imprisoned, degraded, stripped of two-thirds of his wealth, by Warwick's suc- cessful intrigues, and reduced to a comparative cipher in the court, assisted at these creations,* and dined with the new dukes and marquis ; but it must have been with a swelling heart and painfully suppressed feelings of mortification. He had reason to suspect further evil was intended against him, notwithstanding the family alliance into which he had recently entered with his rival by the marriage between their children. He wrote to his former confidential servant, Cecil, now the principal adviser of Northumberland, to request his advice. Cecil coolly replied : " If you are innocent, you have no cause for apprehension ; if you are guilty, I can only lament your case."f Somerset, yielding to indignation, wrote a contemptuous letter of defiance to the ungrateful politician, which pro- bably precipitated his own fate. He was arrested on the 16th of October, and committed to the Tower, as he had been just two years before, but on much more serious charges. These, together with the manner in which they were made known, are thus detailed by the pen of his royal nephew, eight days before the arrest took place : " [October] 7th. Sir Thomas Palmer came to the earl of Warwick, since that time duke of Northumberland, to deliver him his chain, being a very fair one, for every link * The creation of the two dukes, and through the great chamber, into etc., took place at nine o'clock on the chamber of presence, where the the Sunday morning, when they were king stood under his cloth of estate, brought through the gallery, which surrounded with his nobles.— Council was strewn with fresh green rushes. Book. t King Edward's Journal. 352 EDWARD THE SIXTH- weighed an ounce, to be delivered to Jarnac* Where- upon in my lord's garden he declared a conspiracy. How, at St. George's day last, my lord of Somerset (who was then going to the north, if the master of the horse, sir William Herbert, had not assured him on his honour he should have no hurt), went to raise the people, and the lord Gray to know who were his friends. After- ward a device was made to call the earl of Warwick to a banquet, with the marquis of Northampton and divers others, and to cut off their heads. Also, if he found a bare company about them by the way, to set upon them. He declared also, that Mr. Vane had 2,000 men in readiness. Sir Thomas Arundel had assured my lord that the Tower was safe ; Mr. Partridge should raise London and take the great seal, with the 'prentices of London, Seymour and Hammond should wait upon him, and all the horse of the gendarmerie should be slain." The childish manner in which these high and horrible designs whereof his uncle was accused, are recited, plainly verifies the originality of the authorship of the passage, and indicates that the young king was in too great a state of excitement to attend either to his grammar, or the probabilities of the story, in jotting down what had been declared to him. Edward's next entry in his journal is for the 15th. " Eemoving to Westminster, because it was thought this matter might easlier and surelier be despatched there, and likewise all other." He enters into the circumstances, treacherous enough, under which the persons of all the parties accused of implication in this wild and improbable plot, were secured on the 16th. " This morning none was at Westminster of the conspirators. The first was the duke, who came later than he was wont of himself. After dinner he was apprehended. Sir Thomas Paulmer, on the terrace, walking there. Hammond passing by * The noble French, envoy who had brought the invitation for the king to be godfather to the new-born prince of France. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 353 Mr. Vice Chamberlain's door, was called in by John Piers to make a match at shooting, and so taken. Nidegates (Francis Newdigate), steward of the duke of Somerset's household, was called for as from my lord his master, and taken. Likewise were John Seymour and Davy Seymour, Arundel, and the lord Gray coming out of the country. Yane, upon two sendings of my lord in the morning, fled at the first sending ; he said, ' My lord was not stout, and if he could get home, he cared for none of them all, he was so strong.' But after he was found by John Piers in a stable of his man's at Lambeth under the straw. These went with the duke to the Tower this night, saving Palmer, Arundel, and Vane, who were kept in chambers here apart."* The next day Edward records the arrest of the duchess of Somerset with her attendants, Crane and his wife, who were all sent to the Tower, under the accusation of devising these treasons ; but he does not mention, and it is to be hoped he was ignorant of it, the insulting treatment to which she and the young ladies, his cousins, were subjected, both from sir John Gates, the vice chamberlain, and Somerset's false servants, in their scramble to get possession of the plate and jewels, by breaking into lady Jane Seymour's chamber at five o'clock in the morning, and tearing from her, and her sister lady Margaret, eight gold spoons, a piece of unicorn's horn, and several gold bracelets and other valuables, the personal property of the poor young ladies, which for security they had hastily pocketed, together with a fair diamond, which lady Margaret Seymour, who was engaged to become the wife of the king's young friend and com- panion, lord Strange, declared she had purchased of Mr. Dudley, and even named the price, when called to account by an official examination for her attempt to secrete it.f Every drop of Seymour blood in Edward Tudor's veins would surely have boiled with indignation against Northumberland and his myrmidons if this story had * King Edward's Journal. f Additional MSS., 5486, f. 25. 23 354 EDWARD THE SIXTH. ever reached his ears, as it well might have done, had lord Strange acted with the courage and fidelity of a man of honour in regard to his betrothed and her family. This young nobleman, however, who was in the country with his father, the earl of Derby, when the second storm- broke over Somerset, on being summoned by the council to give his attendance on the king, perceiving how matters were going, not only broke his plight with lady Margaret, but basely did his utmost to aggravate the mind of the boy-king against the unfortunate duke. "The lord Strange/' records Edward, " confessed how the duke willed him to sturre me to marry his third daughter, the lady Jane, and willed him to be his spie in all matters of my doings and sayings, and to know when some of my council spake secretly with me. This he confessed of himself."* These statements were probably true, but they came with a peculiarly ill grace from one who, having been treated with the familiar confidence of a son, had been trusted without reserve by the unfortunate duke. Sub- sequently, lord Strange came forward to depose the same against Somerset at his trial in Westminster Hall, and apparently with very prejudicial effect, for the marquis of Winchester, who presided on the occasion as lord steward, observes : " Indeed it is true that the said lord Strange had done so, and that since the last treaty for marriage with the French king, although altogether in vain ; and yet thereby the said duke hath showed him- self not only presumptuous but also of little consideration for the king's honour and good meaning towards the weal of the realm."f Somerset's trial took not place till the first of December, and in the meantime the advent of the queen-mother of Scotland and her ladies occurred, involving so many duties of royal hospitality on the part of the young bachelor sovereign, as appears to * King Edward's Journal, t Letter of the marquis of Winchester to lord Clinton. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 355 have rendered him forgetful of the perilous predicament in which his unfortunate uncle stood as a woful prisoner in the Tower, with an indictment in preparation against him that was intended to bring him to the block. Circumstances of a romantic nature were connected with the visit of the queen -mother of Scotland. The emperor Charles V. out of hostility to the king of France, at whose court she had been sojourning with her royal daughter, had very ungallantly sent out ships to inter- cept and capture her on her homeward voyage,* while Edward, to whom she had applied for a safe conduct and permission to land in England if necessary, had both complied with her request and promised her his protection, in the tone of apreux chevalier. f Her fears of falling into the hands of the hostile squadron caused her, nevertheless, to remain so long at Dieppe, that, her presence being much required in her daughter's realm, she intended to pursue her voyage to Scotland direct, when she succeeded in slippin'g out of port, but encountering foul weather at sea, she found herself under the necessity, on the 22nd of October, of availing herself of king Edward's invita- tion. " The dowager of Scotland," writes he, " on that day, was, by tempest driven to land at Portsmouth ; and so she sent me word that she would take the benefit of the safe conduct to go by land and to see me/'J King Edward's considerate arrangements for the pro- gress of his royal guest from Portsmouth to Hampton Court, and her stately reception and entertainment there in his absence, have already been related in our biography of that queen. § He appointed her lodgings in his metropolis, in the episcopal palace of the first protestant bishop of London, Dr. Ridley, perhaps in the * September 3rd, 1551. " Further- ambassador that * the dowager should more he sent a dozen ships, which in all my parts be defended from bragged they would take the dow- enemies and tempest.' " Ibid, ager of Scotland, which thiDg staid + Ibid. her so long at Dieppe." King § Life of Mary of Lorraine, Edward's Journal. " Lives of Queens of Scotland," by f " It was answered to the French Agnes Strickland, vol. ii. 356 EDWARD THE SIXTH. hope of her deriving spiritual benefit from the conversa- tion of that enlightened prelate. The duke of Northum- berland and a distinguished party met and conducted her and her train to the bishop's palace in St. Paul's ; and there, by the king's command, all the great ladies of his court, headed by his cousin Margaret, countess of Lennox, and Frances, duchess of Suffolk, and lady Jane Gray, were waiting with divers of the city ladies, the duke of Suffolk, and others of the nobility, to receive and salute her majesty. The next day Edward sent a deputa- tion to bid her welcome, to inquire whether she lacked anything, and to invite her to visit him on the morrow.* It is an indubitable proof of the estrangement between Edward and his sisters, that neither Mary nor Elizabeth, whose places would naturally have been by his side, were present at the splendid court he held at Whitehall, on the 4th of November, for the reception of his royal guest. On that day the king sent the duke of Suffolk, lord Braye, and divers other lords and gentlemen, with his cousins, Margaret, countess of Lennox, Frances, duchess of Suffolk, lady Jane Gray, the duchesses of Richmond and Northum- berland, and 100 other ladies of the highest rank, to attend the queen-mother of Scotland on her state progress through London to Westminster, and bring her to his presence. All the pensioners, guards, and officers of the household were standing on either side when she entered the court, and at the gates the duke of Northumberland ' and the earl of Pembroke were waiting to receive and introduce her into the hall, at the upper end of which stood the youthful sovereign and his council. He greeted her with winning grace, kissed, embraced and welcomed her ; then, taking her by the hand, he led her into his chamber of presence, and from thence into the queen's presence chamber, where her ladies were presented to him, and he kissed them all."f Our young bachelor king does * See Life of Mary of Lorraine, Agnes Strickland, vol. ii, p. 153 — "Lives of Queens of Scotland," by 159. f Stow, Strype, Anderson's MS., History of Scotland. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 357 not chronicle this portion of the ceremonial in his record of the proceedings of that important day, the only one on which he was so fortunate as to. receive a queen within his palace, and exercise so agreeable a privilege as saluting her and all her ladies. His account of the visit must not, however, be omitted. " At the gate there received her the duke of Northumberland, great master and comptroller, and the earl of Pembroke, with all the sewars, and carvers, and cup bearers, to the number of thirty. In the hall I met her, with the rest of the lords of my council, as the lord treasurer, the marquis of Northampton, etc., and from the outer gate up to the presence chamber on both sides stood the guard. The court, the hall, and the stairs, were full of serving men ; the presence chamber, the great chamber and her presence chamber of gentle- men ; and so having brought her to her chamber, I re- tired to mine She dined under the same cloth of estate at my left hand. At her rereward dined my cousin Fraunces and my cousin Margret. At mine sat the French ambassador. We were served with two services, two sewars, cup-bearers, carvers, and gentlemen. Her maistre cV hotel came before her services, and mine officers before mine. There were two cupboards, one of gold, four stages high ; another of massy silver, six stages. In her great chamber dined at three boards the ladies only. After dinner, when she had heard some music, I brought her to the hall, and she went away."* But not till he had led her through his galleries and shewn her his gardens, f the beautiful gardens which originally graced the palace of Whitehall, descending in terraces down to the river Thames. Of these, however, all vestiges have passed away, the names of Privy Gardens and Whitehall Place alone preserving a shadowy memory of the locality of that great and glorious palace of cardinal Wolsey and our Tudor and Stuart sovereigns. It must have been during this tete-a-tete promenade of * King Edward's Journal. f Stow's Chronicle. 358 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Edward VI. with Mary of Lorraine, that the youthful monarch, who had probably been somewhat inspirited by the wines of Burgundy or Bordeaux with which he had pledged his royal guest and the French ambassador at the banquet, made a bold attempt, in defiance of the matrimonial treaty he had just contracted with the eldest daughter of France, to persuade her majesty to bestow the young queen of Scotland, her daughter, upon him in marriage, for the peaceful union of their realms ; an alliance which appeared as if designed by heaven itself to prevent further effusion of Christian blood. This interesting conversation was introduced by Edward asking the queen-mother of Scotland "how she liked England ?" "I like it passing well," she replied ; "but of all I have seen therein, I am best pleased with its king." "Yet ye would not have me to be your son/' rejoined Edward, reproachfully. The queen-mother cour- teously observed, "that if the question had not been moved till she had seen him, the result might haply have been different ; but the marriage had been sought in such uncivil fashion as highly to com move the people of Scotland against it, for the barbarities committed by the duke of Somerset, and others of the English commanders, in devastating her realm with fire and sword, had not only made the idea of English rule hateful to Scottish men, but had compelled her to seek aid from France, and had also enforced them to send their young queen there for refuge. Such fashion of wooing," she repeated, was not the way to win a lady and a sovereign princess in marriage, who should rather be sought by humane and gentle courtship than by rigorous, cruel, and extreme pursuit."* Nor did the royal widow forget to add, " that if they had commenced by seeking her good will, who was the mother of the infant queen, instead of dealing underhand with her false traitors, and using such un- friendly compulsory measures to obtain her, she might * Lesley's History of Scotland, and Scotch Historical Traditions. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 359 have shown herself more favourable in the matter ; but now, unfortunately, matters had proceeded so far, in the purpose of the queen of Scotland's marriage with the dauphin, that the engagement between them could not be broken." Edward, in the determinative spirit of a royal Tudor, continued to urge the matter, in the vain hope of prevailing, by personal importunity, on the mother of Mary Stuart to relinquish the French marriage for her daughter in his favour, maintaining "that his was the prior right, in virtue of the solemn treaty whereby he claimed her for his wife," adding, in a sterner tone, " I assure you that whosoever marrieth her shall not have her with kindness from me, but I shall be enemy to him in all times coming."* The queen dowager, seeing the fair young English sovereign thus " commoved, was fain to pacify him by promising to use her influence with the king of France and her kindred, to bring, if it were possible, his desire to pass." Probably she regretted, now it was too late, that the marriage between Edward and the queen, her daughter, could not take place ; for so high an estimate did she form of his character, that she frankly declared to her own nobles " that she found more wisdom and solid judgment in the young king of England than she would have looked for in any three princes of full age that were then in Europe."f Elng Edward kissed his royal guest at parting, when he had led her by the hand to the foot of the stairs into the entrance hall, and so took his leave, with all princely demonstrations of courtesy and good will. J The next day he sent her, by the duke of Northumberland and a deputation of his nobles, two valuable diamond rings, as tokens of his regard, § and a present of two nags, * Lesley's History of Scotland. sent by Edward to his affianced con~ f Knox's History of the Eefor- sort, Elizabeth of France, were once mation in Scotland. the property of his royal step-mother, X Stow's Chronicle. queen Katharine Parr, having been § These rings,like the one previously seized among the rest of her jewels 360 EDWARD THE SIXTH. or palfreys, richly caparisoned, for her own use on the journey. The nags were delivered to her by the earl of Pembroke, master of the horse, who had previously received from the king's wardrobe stores, by the royal warrant, " fifteen yards of russet cloth of gold, for making the trappings and headstalls of the two horses given by the king to the Scottish queen, and fifteen yards and a half of yellow Bruges satin, to line the same."* The departure of his royal guest from his metropolis on the 6th of November, is duly chronicled by the young king in his journal, with an account of the great ladies and nobles by whom she was escorted through the city to Shoreditch.f The storm that blew Mary of Lorraine on the English shore, just at the critical juncture when the fate of the duke of Somerset hung, as it were, suspended on a balance, may be regarded as one of those mysterious causes which turned the scale against him. It has generally been considered that the festivities of which her arrival was the signal, the arrangements made for her comfort, and, above all, the unwonted excitement of receiving and entertaining, for the first time, a queen and all her fair ladies, so occupied the attention of our young royal and costly plenishings, at Sudeley at Sudeley, in the countie of Glouces- Castle, on the attainder of her luck- tre, were nyne rynges of gold, sett less widower, the lord admiral. These with nyne diamountes, of divers sizes, of right pertained to her orphan whereof vii are table diamountes and daughter and representative, the lady two are lozenged (side note). One Mary Seymour; but in consequence of these ix rynges, sett with a Ion of the disgraceful act of parliament, diamounte, cutt full of squares, and procured through the lord protector's one other of the same rynges, sett influence, for disinheriting his infant with a fayer table diamounte, was niece, they had fallen, with her other given by the king to the Skotish spoils, into his rapacious hands, and quene at her being here, as appereth when the hour of retribution arrived, by his highness' warrant." — Inven- had been in turn torn from his wife tory. MSS., Society of Antiquarians and daughters, and brought into Cat., cxxix. the royal jewel house, " Among the * Note in Literary Remains of quene's juels and other stuffe which King Edward VI., by J. G. Nichols, came from the late admyralle's house f King Edward's Journal. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 361 bachelor, as to divert his mind entirely from the case of .his unfortunate uncle. But there was more in it than this : Edward as we have seen, had so fixed his heart and soul on the union of England and Scotland, by a marriage with the fair young sovereign of Scotland, that, could he have prevailed on the queen her mother to bestow her on him, he would cheerfully have paid the forfeit of the 100,000 crowns to which he would, by breaking his matrimonial treaty with France, have ren- dered himself liable ; but the royal widow had availed herself of their confidential conference to explain to him the painful fact, that this eagerly- coveted bride had been lost to him in consequence of the atrocities perpetrated in his name on her subjects by his uncle. The details of these doings, which had never reached his ears before, when disclosed by the lips of the mother of Mary Stuart, with the passionate eloquence of an eye-witness, suffering from the reckless barbarity whereof Somerset had been guilty, were, indeed, only too well calculated to render him an object of horror and detestation to his young royal nephew. The duke of Northumberland, who had been, when earl of Warwick, Somerset's second in command in Scotland, was well able to corroborate the assertions of Mary of Lorraine, and to furnish even docu- mentary evidence of his rival's remorseless cruelty during their last murderous campaign in that desolated realm, till Edward was probably taught to regard his uncle as a monster, capable of any villany, deserving of a thousand deaths, one whom it would be a crime on his part to shield from punishment. Although Somerset always enjoyed great popularity with the lower classes, from whom he had received the flattering appellation of " the good duke," there were those, especially among the aristocracy, with whom the death of his brother weighed heavily against him ; and now, in the time of his adversity, a cry which had previously been suppressed by the terror of his despotic 362 EDWARD THE SIXTH. power, was revived against him, " calling him a blood- sucker, a murderer, and a fratricide, declaring withal, that it was not meet for the king to remain under the care of such a ravenous wolf."* Observations that were doubt- less brought to the ear of the young sovereign by the Dudley party, with assurances that the lord admiral was innocent of the charges for which he was brought to the block; for it suited well the policy of Northumberland to persuade Edward, over whom he, at that time, possessed unbounded influence, that his majesty had been deceived by calumnious stories invented by Somer- set, foi* the purpose of poisoning his mind against the unfortunate lord admiral. If previously to that illegal deed, to which himself had, in his childish inexperience, been rendered instrumental, the royal boy declared, " it were better that Somerset should die," it is not likely that his feelings towards him had become of a more affectionate character after the consummation of that revolting tragedy. Notwithstanding all that bishop Latimer had said in his sermons, the spring in which the lord admiral had suffered, to persuade both king and people of the expediency of his execution, the cir- cumstance had produced a most unpleasant impression against Somerset, even with the ultra-protestant party ; so much so, that when he was arrested, and sent to the Tower for the second time, a " certain godly and honourable lady of this country, with whom I am ac- quainted," writes Burgoyne to Calvin, " is said to have exclaimed upon that occasion, ' Where is thy brother ? lo, his blood crieth against thee unto God from the ground ! ' " Somerset was brought to an open trial before his peers in Westminster Hall on the 1st of December, being indicted on the pretended confession of sir Thomas Palmer, who acted in this instance as the base tool of the Dudley faction. He vainly demanded, when the depositions against him were read, to be con- * Hayward's "Life of Edward VI." EDWARD THE SIXTH. 363 fronted with the witnesses, and when that justice was denied him, he objected to Palmer's evidence being received, on account of the badness of his character ; but to this objection the court replied, "that the worse Palmer was, the better he was suited to his purpose." Edward has written a brief account of the trial in his journal of the proceedings of that day, and also in a letter to his absent friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick. Both are couched in terms which prove that he was fully per- suaded of his uncle's guilt, and felt neither love, rever- ence, nor sympathy for him in his distress. His letter to his absent friend is, perhaps, most worthy of attention. It commences in the style royal : — U To OUR WELL BELOVED SERVANT, BaRNABY FlTZ-PATRICKE, ONE OE the Gentlemen of our Chamber, " Edward, " Little hath been done since you went, but the duke of Somerset's arraignment for felonious treason, and the musters of the new-erected gendarmery. The duke, the hrst of this month, was brought to Westminster Hall, where sat as judge, or high steward, my lord treasurer ; 26 lords of the parliament were on his trial. Indict- ments were read, which were several, some for treason, some for traitorous felony. The lawyers read how Sir Thomas Palmer had confessed ' that the duke once minded, and made him privy, to raise the North, and after to call the duke of Northumberland, the mar- quis of Northampton, and the earl of Pembroke to a feast, and so to have slain them.' And to do this thing, as it was thought, had levied men 100 at his house at London, which was scanned to be treason, because unlawful assemblies for such purposes was treason, by an act made last sessions. Also how the duke of Somerset minded to stay the horses of the gendarmery, and to raise London. Crane con- fessed also the murdering of the lords in a banquet. Sir Miles Partridge confessed the raising of London. Hamman, his man, having a watch at Greenwich, of 20 weaponed men to resist, if he had been arrested, and this confessed both Partridge and Palmer. He answered ' that when he levied men at his house, he meant no such thing, but only to defend himself.' The rest very barely answered. After debating the matter from 9 of the clock till three, the lords went together, and there weighing ' that the matter seemed only to touch their lives, although afterward more inconvenience might have followed, and that men might think they did it of 364 EDWARD THE SIXTH. malice,' acquitted him of high treason, and condemned him of felony, which he seemed to have confessed. He, hearing the judg- ment, fell down on his knees, and thanked them for his open trial. After he asked pardon of the duke of Northumberland, the marquis, etc., etc., whom he confessed he meant to destroy, although before he swore vehemently to the contrary. The next day after he confessed how he had promised Bertiville* to deliver him out of prison, if he would kill the duke of Northumberland." . This letter, is dated Westminster, December 20th, 1551.f Edward had, on the departure of Barnaby to France as an attache to the embassy of Lord Clinton, taken the trouble of drawing up a very curious code of private instructions and advice for the personal use of his friend, some portions of which are amusing, considering the fact that the young Milesian was several years older than his royal monitor. He directs Barnaby "to enter the French king's service and accompany him on his cam- paigns, by which means opportunities would be obtained of learning the French art of war, and information of all passing events ; " and the young volunteer is advised to get all he can in the way of pay or pension in reward of his services from the French sovereign. "At his setting forth," continues king Edward, "he shall carry with him four servants, and if the wages amount to any great sum more than I give him, that the French king giveth him to live there, after that proportion, to advertise me of the same." The sum of fifty pounds had been disbursed by his majesty's orders to Barnaby, to supply funds for his personal expenses, and this he was in some measure' to earn by becoming a private reporter of the manners, customs, and news of the French court. " Also, this winter," pursues Edward, "he shall study the tongue and see the manner of the court, and advertise me of the * Bertiville was a renegade f Literary Kemains of King Ed- French officer, in the band of for- ward VI, by J. G-. Nichols. Prin- eign mercenaries, who had served ted by the Roxburgh Club. Printed under Somerset, in the Scotch cam- also by Horace Walpole, and in paign. Fuller's Church History. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 365 occurrences he shall hear ; and if he bo desirous to see any place notable, or town, he may go thither, asking leave of the king, and shall behave himself honestly, more following the company of gentlemen than pressing into the company of ladies there, and his chief pastime shall be hunting and riding." Another letter of the same date as that relating the trial and condemnation of the duke of Somerset, was addressed by the young king to Barnaby, which, though written like the other in the style royal, is of a personal and more familiar character, and intended, as appears by a note from Cecil which accompanies it, to be used as a sort of credential at the French court, if necessary. It is too characteristic of the royal writer to be omitted here : — " Edward. " We have received your letters of the eighth of this present month, whereby we understand how you are well entertained, for which we are right glad, and also how you have been once to go on pilgrimage ; for which cause we have thought good to advertise you that hereafter, if any such chance happen, you shall desire leave to go to Mr. Pickering or to Paris for your business, and if that will not serve, to declare to some man of estimation with whom you are best acquainted, that as you are loth to offend the French king, because you have been so favourably used, so with safe conscience you cannot do any such thing, being brought up with me and bound to obey my laws. Also that you had commandment from me to the contrary. Yet, if you be vehemently procured, you may go, as waiting on the king, not as consenting to the abuse, nor willingly seeing the cere- monies, and so you look not on the mass. But, in the meantime, regard the Scriptures, or some good book, and give no reverence to the mass at all: Furthermore, remember, when you may conveniently be absent from the court, to tarry with sir William Pickering, to be instructed by him how to use yourself. For women, as far forth as you may avoid their company ; yet, if the French king command you, you may sometimes dance, so measure be your mean ; else apply yourself to riding, shooting, tennis, or such honest games, not forget- ting, sometimes, when you have leisure, your learning, chiefly reading of the Scriptures. This I write, not doubting you would have done though I had not written, but to spur you on. Your exchange of 1200 crowns you shall receive, either monthly or quar- terly, by Bartholomew Campaigners, factor, in Paris. He hath warrant 366 EDWARD THE SIXTH. to receive it here, and hath, written to his factors to deliver it you there. "We have signed your bill for wages of the chamber which Fitz-Williams hath ; likewise we have sent a letter before hand to our deputy, that he shall take surrender of your father's lands, and to make again other letters patent, that these lands shall be to him, you, and your heirs lawfully begotten, for ever, adjoining thereunto two religious houses you spake for. Thus, fare you well. From "Westminster, the 20th of December, 1551."* To this Mr. secretary Cecil adds a friendly official letter, briefly but discreetly commending the king's letter, which he very truly terms, " Fatherly of a child, comfortable as written by his sovereign lord, and most wisely of so young a prince." Further, the minister advises the youthful courtier to carry it about with him as a thing much to his advantage and honour, " being the letter of his sovereign lord, with whom he had been bred up in learning and manners, and as a proof of what the prince with whom he had been brought up was."f The young Milesian's reply to his loving sovereign is somewhat more amusing than the boy -king's edifying string of precepts : — " To the King's Majesty. " According to my bounden duty, I most humbly thank your highness for your gracious letter of the 20th of December, lamenting nothing, but that I am not able by any means nor cannot deserve any thing of the goodness your highness hath showed towards me. And as for avoiding the company of the ladies, I will assure your highness I will not come into their company unless 1 do wait upon the French king. As for the letter your majesty hath granted my father for the assurance of his lands, I thank your highness, most humbly confessing myself as much bound to you as a subject to his sovereign for the same. As for such simple news as is here I think good to certify to your majesty. It did happen that a certain saint standing in a blind corner of the street where my lord admiral lay, was broken in the night time when my lord was here ; which, the Frenchmen did think to have been done by the Englishmen, and the Englishmen did think it to have been done by some Frenchmen out of spite, because the Englishmen lay in that street, and now since that time they have prepared another saint, which they call " Our • Fuller's Worthies, p. 179. f Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 367 Ladie of Silver," because the French king, that dead is, made her once of clear silver, which afterwards was stolen, as she hath been divers times both stolen and broken in the same place ; which, ladie was at this present Sunday, being- the 27th of this month, set up with a solemn procession, in the which procession came first in the morning divers priests of divers churches, with crosses and banners, and passed by the place where she should stand. Then afterwards, about 1 1 of the clock, came the legate of Rome, in whose company came first afore him sixty black canons of our lady's church ; then came after them one that carried the legate's hat in such sort as they carry the great seal in England. Then came the master of Paris next to the cardinal, which carried the image that should be set up ; then came the legate himself, all in red, with a white surplice, still blessing, accompanied with the bishop of Caers ; and after him came the four presidents of the town, with all the council of the town ; also there went before and came behind divers of the officers of the town with tipstaves ; and so they have set her up with great solemnity, and defended her with a double grate to the intent she should be no more stolen nor broken, and the poor people do still lie in the foul street worshipping her. Further, as I am credibly informed, the legate that liveth here doth give pardons and bulls daily, and one of the king's treasurers standeth by and receiveth the money to the king's use. Other news I have none. December 28th. The meanest and most obliged of your subjects, " Bak:n t aby Fitz-Pateick." Northumberland and tlie triumphant party that had effected the fall and procured the condemnation of Somerset, effectually prevented any appeal in his favour from reaching the royal ear. Care was taken to occupy his thoughts and attention with a varied round of amuse- ... . u»** ments, and the Christmas festivities, which were .usually brilliant, this year were, we are told by a contemporary chronicler, " contrived for the especial purpose of recre- ating and refreshing the mind of the young king, who seemed to take the trouble of his uncle somewhat heavily. "* Of this Edward left no documentary proof, at least none that was allowed to survive him ; and it must be remembered that all his papers fell into the hands of the astute junta by whom Somerset was pursued to the block. Notwithstanding the alleged apathy of the king, he was * Grafton's Chronicle. 368 EDWAttD THE SIXTH. pensive, and " it was considered necessary to have some thing done for diverting his mind from taking thought ; and to that end one George Ferrers, a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, was appointed to be lord of misrule at Christmas, who so carried himself, that he gave great delight to many and some to the king, but nothing in proportion to his heaviness."* The office of lord of misrule was well known in the olden time, and now revived by Northumberland's especial desire for the diversion of the young sovereign, and also to amuse the people ; for the lord of misrule, in full costume, attended by his mimic court, jesters, and minstrels, came down the Thames in his barge, gaily decor- ated, and so proceeded from Westminster to Greenwich on Christmas eve, and landed at the palace stairs.f The king had removed to Greenwich on the 23rd of December, to keep his Christmas there with open hall, the public being admitted to witness his sports and festivities. These were of a very quaint and amusing character, to judge from the provision demanded by George Ferrers of sir Thomas Cawarden, the master of the revels, for carrying out his devices. There was to be a masque of bagpipers, with six counterfeit apes, covered with grey coney skins, to sit on the top of them, like minstrels, as though they did play. Six and eight-pence were paid for six great tails of wicker being furred for a masque of cats, the actors thereof to be covered all over with cats tails, no less than thirty dozen cats tails being required for this purpose, and the cats were to be martially arrayed with helmets, foiled, silvered and garnished, with counterfeit pearls. A masque of Greek worthies, and a masque of medyoxes, imaginary monsters, being half oxen and half men, with deaths' heads bearing torches. There were also charges made for " the hire of beards, hairs, and devil's apparel.'' Venus and Cupid made their appearance for the first time at the court of the fair young bachelor king, and were graciously received, and the performers received a handsome reward.^ * Baker's Chronicle. f Losely MSS. J Ibid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 369 Challenges which had been made for tilting and run- ning, between four of the young lords of the court and eighteen defenders, came off at Greenwich on the 3rd of January and the 6th. On the night of the 6th, a play was performed, and after that an interlude, called u Riches and Youth/' A poetic contest, as to which of the two was the most to be desired.* "After some pretty reason- ing," notes the young sovereign, "there came in six champions on either side. On Youth's side came my lord Fitzwater, my lord Ambrose [Dudley, Northumberland's son], sir Anthony Brown, Mr. Cary Warcop. On Riches' side, my lord Fitzwarren, sir Robert Stafford, Mr. Court- ney, Digby Hopton, Hungerford. All these fought two to two. Then came in two apparelled like Almaines, the earl of Ormond and Jacques Granada ; and two came in like friars, but the Almaines would not suffer them to pass till they had fought. The friars were Mr. Drury and Thomas Cobham. After this followed two masques, one of men and another of women. Then a banquet of 120 dishes. This was the end of Christmas. 7th of [January.] I went to Deptford to dine there, and brake up the hall."f King Edward retained in his service eight players of in- terludes, each of whom received an annual fee of five marks, and five nobles for livery. J The authorship of the interlude of Youth and Riches is attributed to sir Thomas Chaloner, one of the lite- rary ornaments of the court of Edward VI. The English drama was then in its infancy. Imitations of Greek tragedies and original humorous farces in this reign began to supply the place of the interdicted miracle plays, mysteries, and moralities, of the mediaeval period. Edwardes, the master of the children of the king's chapel, dramatized the classic story of Damon and Pythias, * King Edward's Journal. f Ibid. X Note to king Edward's Journal, by J. G. Nichols. 24 370 EDWARD THE SIXTH. probably for the children to perform ; and a very dull and sleepy performance it would have been, had he not thought proper to enliven his solemn Greek tragedy by introducing into it a comic English interlude, founded on an incident he had himself witnessed at the kitchen gates of his young royal master's palace, which was so highly relished both by the court and commons that his popularity became unbounded. Nor is his " Grimm, the Collier," wholly forgotten to this day, although few are aware that Grimm was not a black diamond of Durham or New- castle, but the charbonnier or coal purveyor to the palace of the gracious monarchs, Henry VIII. and Edward YI. The comic portion of Edwardes' play, as illustrative of the bouche of court, and the morale and manners of the servitors at Hampton Court or St James's in the days of the young Tudor king, is not an unworthy fore- shadowing of Shakespeare's humourous characters of low degree. The scene in Damon and Pythias, by what magic transferred from Sicily it lists not to define, repre- sents a kitchen gateway at St. James's Palace, where Goodman Grimm, a purveyor of coals from one of the king's country palaces, is kept impatiently waiting with his coal-sacks, knocking and calling to rouse the lazy London varlets pertaining to the kitchen-porter's office. At last, he commences vociferously a cry, " For the king's own mouth," hoping that the expectation of something good to eat would rouse the sleepers. Forth- with Jack and Will, the porter's varlets, unclose the gates, and Grimm brings in his sacks of coals for the day's consumption at the palace of St. James's. Much disap- pointed with his wares, the varlets vent their spleen by finding fault with the cry that broke their sleep so early : " Was it you that cried so loud, I trow, And bade us ' take in coals for the king's own mouth' just now ? Gktmm. 'Twas I, indeed ! EDWARD THE SIXTH. 371 Jack. Why, sir, how dare you speak such treason ? Doth our young king eat coals at any season ? Grimm. Here's a gay world ! Boys now set old men to school. I said well enough. What, Jack sauce,* thinkest me a fool? At bake-house here, at buttery-hatch, kitchen and cellar, Do not they cry i For the king's own mouth ? ' Will. What then, good master collier ? Grimm. What then ? how without coals can they make the meat Fit for the king's mouth ? Does he eat it raw ? Therefore still I cry, ' Coals for the king's mouth,' Though coals he does not eat. Jack. St. James ! came ever from a collier's lips Answer so trim ? You're learned father Grimm ! Grimm. I'm not learned, yet the king's collier, This forty year have I been king's servitor. The morsel of flattery administered by the porter - varlets opens the old man's heart, and induces him to favour them with various particulars of his personal history, as the account of the money he has hoarded, and the extreme care he takes of his savings, investing them in benters,f by which we verily believe he means deben- tures, and these "benters" he declares that he always carries about him. One of the porter-varlets instantly rushes to the buttery hatch for a supply of very strong drink, and the other insinuates to Grimm that he would appear a handsome man, and be much looked upon in the streets of London and Westminster, if he would permit them to shear his elf-locks, shave his ragged beard, and wash his blackened face ; in short, that it was not proper for a man of his substance and long standing as a court official, to appear as if he was only a common collier Grimm, whereas he had a right to the title of esquire. * There is a herb used in old English Cookery called Jack by the hedge, or Sauce alone. f So printed in GifFord's edition of Old Plays. 372 EDWARD THE SIXTH. On the arrival of "Will with the flagons of strong drink from the king's buttery hatch, Grimm, after powerfully refreshing himself, submits his toilet to the arrangement of his two new varlet friends. He then, with the king's strong drink in his head, executes a pas de seul to an ancient air, the burden of which is, " Too nidden, too nidden, Too nidden, too nidden, too loodle nidden, And was not Grimm the collier finely sheared ? " In the course of his gyrations, poor Grimm falls down stupified, when his pocket is picked by the two false varlets of his whole fortune in " debentures/' to the infinite delight of all the young king's noble attendants, and the confusion of all the lackeys and varlets peeping at the play in the bye corners of the palace, theatre, or cockpit* Edward's delight in horses was very great. In December he says : " I saw the musters of the new band of men of arms ; the horses all fair and great, the least would not have been given for less than £20 ; " an enormous sum, considering the scarcity of money in his reign. " There was none," continues he, " under fourteen handfall, and fourteen and a-half for the most part, and almost all horses. They passed twice about St. James's field "— now the park and royal gardens. He had sent, in the preceding autumn, a present of six fine English hackneys to the king of France, and received in return from that prince " three Spanish horses, one Turk," probably an Arabian, " one Barbary, and two little mules."f The youthful monarch, who delighted in equestrian exercises, and was excessively fond of horses, mentions the arrival of this offering with great satisfaction. The horses he usually rode were Spanish * This play was acted before queen Elizabeth in 1566, and the author Richard Edwardes, was appointed master of the children of the Chapel Royal. f King Edward's Journal. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 373 jennets. His favourite white jennet he named Belfioky.* This peerless steed, together with his choice ivory lute inlaid with precious stones, was after his death given by queen Mary to their young cousin, Henry, lord Darnley.f None among the effigies of our regal warriors arranged by Sir Samuel Merrick at the Tower, presents a more martial attitude than this of the boy-Tudor-sovereign ruling the lists in his tilt yard. Instead of the tilting spear, he holds in his right hand a lance-headed truncheon. The armour is of the most exquisite work- manship, evidently too full and large for the slender stripling, although his high spirit impelled him to inhabit this beautiful suit, perhaps to the injury of his own health. Its haughty plumed helm, in good proportion, gives the best idea of poetic chivalry, which is usually somewhat dis- composed by the odd basnets surmounted by the queerest of imps, the heraldic animals, which were proudly borne as crests by our latter Plantagenets. The horse, however, of young Edward is still more disfigured than in the preceding age by defensive armour. The steel mask is worth observing, with its frightful barred apertures, which leave not even the poor animal's eyes at liberty. It is connected with a plated guard which puts over the mane. The very severe bit and snaffle are linked to a plated band by way of bridle, which has a rest, leaving the bridle hand occasionally free. All these clumsy defences are attached to a sort of plated petticoat, fastened to a clasping saddle as difficult to be thrown out of as to get into. The poor horse must have been ill at ease in this monstrous gear, and little able to bound on his native earth for attack or defence ; just as the iron -plated frigates, which our neighbours are contriving to compete with English nautical skill and courage, will be unable to triumph over the breakers of a wave-guarded island. All these heavy impediments to the impetuous movements of man, horse, and ship have been tried before, * State Paper Office MS,, from Domestic Papers, 1560, No. 46, f Ibid. 374 EDWARD THE SIXTH. and cast away. The wild rider on the pampas, scarcely clothed, with his bare-backed steed and his lasso, would have made terrible havoc among the lobster -plated chivalry, man and horse, if he had been permitted a career in the tilt yard of Greenwich or Westminster.. Edward VI. in tilting armour. From the Equestrian Effigies at the Tower, arranged by Sir Samuel Merrick. EDWARD THE SIXTH. CHAPTER VI. Close of the Christmas festivities at Greenwich— King Edward returns to Whitehall — Duke of Somerset beheaded— Mrs. Huggons' disloyal speech of the king— King Edward's lively letter to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick — Anecdote of king Edward and sir John Perrot— King Edward's statistical essays — Falls sick of the small pox and measles— His recovery — Visited by his sister Mary at Greenwich — His summer progress— His conference with Cardano the astronomer — Cardano's high opinion of his character and attainments — First poor rate in England — Misery and destitution in the metropolis — King Edward desires to provide remedies — His conference with bishop Ridley— He founds Christ Church school and St. Thomas's hospital. — Gives his palace of Bridewell for a reformatory prison (Description of portrait and the vignette, from Holbien's painting of king Edward granting the charter of Bridewell) King Edward's melancholy and self- reproach for his uncle's death — Falls ill of consumptive cough— Goes to Greenwich for change of air — Knights sir George Barne in his sick chamber — Dangerous symptoms of his malady — He is placed under a female quack — He grows worse — General suspicions of poison — Exciting pageant at Greenwich during Edward's illness — His temporary rally — Gives audience to sir George Barne — Grants endowments for his charitable institutions — Confers with sir Thomas Gresham in his sick chamber — His grant to his sister Mary — His devise for securing a protestant succession— Sets aside both his sisters, and appoints lady Jane Gray his successor — The judges and lawyers remonstrate — Edward carries his point — His legacies to his sisters— Death-bed words to sir Henry Sidney — His prayer and holy death — His obsequies and funeral— Buried before high altar in Henry VII.'s chapel— Description of the altar— (See tail piece to this chapter.) The last of the pastimes played before king Edward at this merry Christmastide, was a tilting match between twelve of the gallants of his court, six of a side. This was performed on the 17th of January.* That day the sports and festivities at Greenwich closed. The plays, the masques, the comic interludes, were over, and now a • King Edward's Journal. 376 EDWARD THE SIXTH. tragedy was to be enacted. During all these faites and gestes, which had kept the usually grave, reflective young king in a whirl of pleasurable excitement, his uncle, the duke of Somerset, was lying under sentence of death in his woful prison lodgings in the Tower, appa- rently forgotten by all the world. But no ! his hour was at hand. A council was holden on the 19th of January jat this same palace of Placentia, as Greenwich was anciently called, where the marquis of Winchester, who presided, read to the other lords of the council a paper, which he told them " he had just received in the inner privy chamber from the king's own hand," being a memorandum, or list, entitled " Certain points of weighty matters to be immediately concluded on by my council." The third of these points was : " The matter for the duke of Somerset and his confederates, to be considered as appertaineth to our surety and the quietness of our realm, that by their punishment and execution according to the laws, example may be shown to others." On the back of this paper the following endorsement is inscribed by the hand of Cecil, one of the time-serving instruments in the destruction of his late master : " These remembrances, within written, were delivered by the king's majesty to his privy council, at Greenwich, in his majesty's inner privy chamber, the 19th of January, 1551 — 2, Ao. 5 of his majesty's reign. They were written with his majesty's own hands, and received of his majesty's own hands by the marquis of "Winchester." A list of the lords of the council present is subjoined. This startling historical document is still in existence.* Edward removed from Greenwich to Westminster on the 21st, with his court and council. The next day, January 22nd, his uncle suffered. The youthful sovereign has recorded the fact in these words : "22. The duke of * Cottonian MSS., British Mu- of Somerset is printed, with strong seum. Printed in Ty tier's Edward arguments in favour of his innocence and Mary, where a copious collection of the charge for which he was con- of documents connected with the fall demned. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 377 Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower Hill, between eight and nine in the morning." The fact that Edward was persuaded by those about him, as he had previously been in the case of his favourite uncle, the lord admiral, that it was an act of regnal duty to allow justice to take its course, can scarcely excuse the insensibility manifested by him on an occasion so awful as the blood of another uncle being shed by the hand of the executioner. But the indignant conviction that Somerset had, by false witness, rendered him instrumental to the illegal slaughter of the unfortunate lord admiral, may well account for his regarding him as a fratricide, capable of any villany that self-interest, jealousy, or ambition might suggest. The very terms in which the young sovereign ordered the banner and achievements of his recently decapitated uncle to be taken down from St. George's Chapel at Windsor, afford convincing proof of his persuasion of the unworthiness of that unhappy man : — "Whereas the hatchments of the late duke of Somerset, attainted and put to execution duly for his offence, do remain yet within our chapel of Windsor untaken down ; our pleasure is, in respect of his said offence, through the which his hatchments deserve not to be in so honourable place among the rest of the knights of our order, you shall repair to Windsor, immediately upon receipt of these our letters, and in your presence cause the said hatchments of the said late duke to be taken down."* Edward had another uncle of the maternal side, Henry Seymour, a happier, and probably a better man than either of the two aspiring brethren whose blood has brought reproach on the annals of his juvenile reign ; for Henry, eschewing the serpentine paths of greatness, preferred the life of a quiet country gentleman, passed his days on his own demesne, and died with his head on his shoulders. The only occasion on which he ever appears to have visited the court was to see the coronation of the king, * Howard's Letters. From an original in the king's own hand, dated " At our palace of Westminster, the 8th of February, in the sixth year of our reign." 378 EDWARD THE SIXTH. his nephew, by whom he was made a knight of the Bath, a distinction, probably, rather thrust upon him by the desire of his eldest brother, the protector, than sought by himself, for he attained no higher promotion. His portion as a younger brother was, of course, small, but an estate was allotted to him out of the episcopal lands of Winchester.* The heartless conduct of Somerset to the orphan daughter of his brother, the lord admiral, by the late queen dowager, Katharine Parr, was in some measure visited on his own young family after his tragic fate. His sons were all disinherited, and rendered incapable of succeeding to his honours and demesnes. Of these four sons, three, strangely enough, bore the Christian name of Edward. The eldest, sir Edward Seymour, by Somerset's first wife, Catharine Fillol, had previously been most unjustly superseded, to please his step-mother, the haughty Anne Stanhope, in favour of her first-born son, to whom Somerset, in compliance with her unjust desire, gave the name of Edward and the title of Hertford, to the manifest wrong of his eldest son; and, as if this were not enough, endowed him with the lands derived from Catharine Fillol. A patent was, however, granted by Edward VI., to restore these, as far as it was possible, and to make compensation for those which had been sold out of the estates settled on the heirs of Anne Stanhope ; but the title of Hertford was never restored to him, though his usurping brother was, for a time, dis- possessed of it by act of parliament. There was a third brother, Edward, Somerset's youngest boy, the god-son of king Edward, then about four years old. The sum of two thousand four hundred pounds out of their father's forfeited estates was accorded for their maintenance, and they were consigned to the guardianship of the marquis of Winchester. The young king, their cousin, made no exceptions in the favour either of his infant godson * Heylin; J. G. Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 379 Edward, or his favourite young kinsman, Edward, carl of Hertford, who had been educated with him, accustomed to share his sports at barriers, shooting, riding, and run- ning at the ring, and with whom he corresponded in Latin, addressing him as "Most sweet kinsman.'' So evanescent, alas ! is the favour of princes. The daughters of Somerset, six in number, were even more pitiable than his sons ; the eldest, lady Anne, was mar- ried to Northumberland's eldest son, the earl of Warwick, and though not involved in poverty like her younger sisters, was in constant domestication with the man who had brought her father to the block. Lady Margaret, who had been betrothed, with her royal cousin's appro- bation, to lord Strange, was not only forsaken by him in that fearful shipwreck of their fortunes, when both her parents and her uncle Stanhope were arrested and sent to the Tower, but she had the anguish of learning that he had become a voluntary witness against her unfortunate father, by betraying Somerset's natural wish that the king should marry her sister, lady Jane. As for poor lady Jane, instead of being selected to share her. royal kinsman's throne, she, as well as lady Margaret, was insulted by the king's officials, and subjected to the indignity of personal search for such trinkets and toys as they had naturally accounted their own personal property. These young ladies, with their two little sisters, Maria and Catharine, were sent to their aunt Cromwell, who was most reluctant to allow them house-room and food in their destitution, and, to judge by the tone in which she mentions them in her hard, unnatural letter to the council,* gave them neither sympathy nor comfort in their sore distress. The council granted lady Cromwell fifty pounds per annum for each of these unfortunate children, and finally increased it to one hundred. There was also an infant girl, Elizabeth, only in her second year, to whom the king's aunt, lady Smith, widow of sir Clement Smith, of Badow Hall, • Strype. 380 , EDWARD THE SIXTH. Essex, accorded a shelter, receiving 100 marks a-year for her maintenance. The widowed duchess, mother of these unfortunate young ladies, remained a prisoner in the Tower till after king Edward's death.* Edward's conduct in regard to his uncle Somerset was very indignantly commented upon by Mistress Elizabeth Huggons, lately in the service of the duchess of Somerset, the wife of William Huggons, a gentlemen in the duke's service, who said : " The king was an unnatural nephew, and that she wished she had the jerking of him." For this disloyal observation she was committed to the Tower by the council ; and also because she had, one night, at the house of sir William Stafford, when told, " that my lord Guildford Dudley should marry my lord of Cumberland's daughter, and that the king's majesty should devise the marriage," exclaimed, with reference to the supposed policy of Northumberland in seeking an alliance with a lady in the line of the royal succession, " Have at the crown, with your leave !"f As the information was given by sir William Stafford himself, it was probably true, and Mrs. Huggons suffered a long imprisonment in the Tower, for the natural but imprudent licence she had given her tongue on this occasion. The very day after Somerset's execution, king Edward wrote the following familiar, chatty letter to his absent friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, without making the slightest allusion to the tragic event of the preceding day — an instance of reserve or caution almost unparalleled in a youth of the usually frank age of fourteen. A letter written by him at such a time must be regarded as a very curious historical document : — * Somerset's great estates were Russell, the first earl of Bedford, parcelled out among the greedy di- his treacherous colleague and pre- plomatic cabal whose successful ma- tended friend, and remain in the chinations effected his fall. Covent possession of the representatives Garden and the Seven Acres, called of that fortunate family to this day. Long Acre, became the prey of John f MS. Harleian. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 381 " Edward, " We have received your letters of the 28th of December, whereby we perceive your constancy both in avoiding all kinds of vices, and also in following all things of activity or otherwise that be honest and meet for a gentleman, of the which we are not a little glad, nothing doubting of your continuance therein. We understand, also, by certain letters you sent to the earl of Pembroke and Mr. Yice Chamberlain, that you have some lack of muletts, and that you desire to have some sent to you of ours, whereupon we have considered that our muletts being old and lame, will do you but little service, at least than good ones bought there. For which cause, we have willed Bartholomew Champaigne, to deliver you 300 crowns by exchange, for the buying of you two muletts over and besides your former allowance. I ( Here we have little news at this present, but only that the challenge you heard of before your going was very well accomplished. At tilt there came eighteen defendants ; at tournay, twenty ; at barriers they fought eight to eight on Twelfth night. This Christmas hath been well and merrily past. Afterward there was a match at tilt, six to six, which was very well run. Also because of the lord Rich's sickness, the bishop of Ely was made chancellor of England during the parliament. " Of late there hath been such a tide as hath overflown all meadows and marshes. All the Isle of Dogges, all Plumsted Marsh, all Sheppey, Foulness in Essex, and all the sea coast, was quite drowned. We hear that it hath done no less harm in Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, but much more, for towns and cities have there been drowned. We are advertised out of Almaine, that duke Morice is turned from the Emperor, and he with the protestants levieth men to deliver the old duke of Sax, and the landgrave out of prison. II The cause of our slowness in writing this letter hath been lack of messengers, else we had written before time. Now shortly we will prove how you have profited in the French tongue, for within a while we will write to you in French. " Thus we make an end, wishing you as much good as ourselves. At Westminster, the 23rd of January, 1551.* Somerset's brother-in-law, sir Michael Stanhope, sir Miles Partridge, sir Thomas Arundel, who had married the sister of the unfortunate queen Catherine Howard, and sir Ealph Yane, all suffered death for their alleged share in offences for which the duke, their patron, was * Printed in Fuller's Worthies, also in Literary Remains of king Edward. 382 EDWARD THE SIXTH. beheaded. The young king, who, of course, only repeated what he was told by his ministers and council, notes : "January 27th, sir Ealph Vane was condemned for felony in treason, answering like a ruffian.*" Sir Ealph Vane, like the other three, protested his innocence of either practising against the life of the king or any of the lords of his council, and observed that his blood would make Northumberland's pillow uneasy to him."f A few weeks later, Somerset's friend, lord Paget, was deprived of his stall among the knights of the Garter, and the reason for this mortifying treatment is thus naively explained by the young sovereign in his record of the 22nd of April : " The lord Paget was degraded from the order of the Grarter for divers his offences, and chiefly because he was no gentleman of the blood, neither of father's side nor mother's side." Paget, being then a prisoner in the Tower, very meekly resigned his George when Garter king of arms came to demand it of him in the king's name. J Among the courtly gallants who had distinguished themselves in the chivalric exercises in which Edward so greatly delighted, was sir John Perrot, the reputed nephew of his Greek master. Perrot had been placed in Edward's household, shortly before his death, by Henry VIII. whose illegitimate son he is generally supposed to have been, from the strong resemblance between him and that monarch both in person and character. He was knighted * King Edward's Journal. of William Paget, one of the ser- f Foxe. geants-at-mace of the city of Lon- J It was restored to him shortly don. "He lived to build not boast a after Edward's death, by queen generous race," and surely objections Mary, and he was solemnly re-in- on the score of lineage came with a vested, as the record shows, in bad grace from Northumberland, the which his previous degradation is son of the extortioner sir John attributed to the malice of North- Dudley, who, with his colleague umberland — on whose son, the earl of Empson, had suffered on the scaffold "Warwick, the garter thus vacated for his public offence in the first year was conferred — not the arrogance of of Henry VIII.'s reign. — Stow's the young king, or the alleged defect Chronicle. Ashmoles' Eegister of in Paget' s pedigree. He was the son the Order of the Garter. ul EDWARD THE SIXTH. 383 at Edward's coronation, and Perrot's fine person, superior stature, strength, and skill in all manly games and chivalrie exercises, always excited the admiration of the young king, while the pliancy with which he conformed himself to all his tastes and inclinations, gained him a distinguished place in the royal favour. It was in consequence of the confidential friendship subsisting between him and Edward that sir John Perrot was appointed to attend the marquis of Northampton on his late embassy "to the court of Henry II. of France, to open a treaty of marriage between the young bachelor sovereign of England and Elizabeth of France. While at that court, Perrot acquitted him- self brilliantly at all the jousts, tilts, and tourneys, given for the entertainment of the English ambassador, but more particularly during a great hunting match, by stepping before a gentleman who was in imminent peril of his life from the attack of an infuriated boar, and dex- terously striking off the head of the formidable animal with his broad sword. The king of France, who had seen the exploit, exclaimed, " Beanfoile /" and, in the excite- ment of the moment, honoured the gallant English knight with a hearty embrace. Sir John Perrot, not under- standing French manners, and imagining Henry was challenging him to a trial of strength, unceremoniously cast his nervous arms about his most christian majesty's waist, and lifted him a considerable height from the ground, Henry, far from being offended at so great a violation of courtly etiquette, laughed heartily, and invited him to enter his service, promising to give him good preferment and a handsome pension, if he could be induced to do so. Sir John, after making suitable acknowledgments for his majesty's flattering offer, said "that he possessed ample means of support in his own country, and that his services were devoted till death to the king of England, his own beloved and gracious sovereign, a prince too liberal and considerate ever to allow him to want for anything." * * Biographia Britannica. 384 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Sir John Perrot, thus courted and admired at the French court, launched into so magnificent a course of living, in entertaining his foreign friends, that he was obliged to mortgage his estates, and on his return to England, found himself overwhelmed with debts to the amount of seven or eight thousand pounds, an enormous sum in those days. Being without any apparent means of extricating himself from those embarrassments, he took the following ingenious method of acquainting his generous young sovereign with his pecuniary distress, without making a direct appeal to his compassion. Proceeding to a sequestered spot in one of the royal gardens, at the hour he knew Edward was accustomed to take a solitary walk there to study his lessons, he began to bewail himself most passionately with sorrowful exclamations, in the way of a soliloquy on his own inconsiderate folly for having wasted his time, and spent all his property fruitlessly in the royal service. "Alas ! " cried he, " and am I to be the man to bring an ancient house to ruin, that hath continued so many years in credit and prosperity. Better that I had never been born, than to have wasted in so few years the inheritance that my ancestors have been centuries in acquiring. Woe is me, what am I to do to recover my estate ? Shall I continue at court, or shall I go to the wars, and try to obtain some command whereby I may win a fortune to make up for my losses ? If I con- tinue at court it will be but a vain hope, for, though the king may be graciously pleased to grant me somewhat, out of his liberal favour in recompence for my past services, yet, being young and under government, the privy council might gainsay it, and I should, by re- maining here, only run myself into further expenses, and complete my ruin." So skilfully did the usually blunt Perrot act his part, by blending his soliloquy with the most passionate demonstrations of grief, that his guileless young sovereign, EDWARD THE SIXTH. 385 who had, as he anticipated, arrived meantime, attracted by his favourite knight's sorrowful gesticulations and lamentations, came softly behind him to listen, and having overheard what was especially intended for his royal ear, came forward, and addressing him with kindly sympathy, cried, " How now, sir John, what hath befallen you that you make this heavy moan ? " "I did not think your highness had been so near ? " exclaimed sir John Perrot, in well counterfeited confusion and surprise : " belike," continued he, " your grace may have overheard somewhat of my foolish complaints ? " " Yes, we heard you well enough," said Edward : " and have you," he compassionately added, " spent your estate in our service ? and is the king so young and under government that he cannot give you anything in recom- pense of your services ? Find out somewhat to make suit for, and you shall see whether the king has not power to bestow it upon you."* Sir John humbly thanked his gracious young sovereign, and availing himself of this opening, mentioned a " con- cealment," as it was termed, an undeclared portion of the property of a nobleman whose estates had been escheated in the preceding reign ; and this being (in consequence of his information) claimed by the crown, was bestowed upon him at the desire of the king. This grant enabled him to pay his debts, and to live in ease and affluence during the residue of Edward's reign, with whom he enjoyed unbounded favour, t * Biographia Britannica. f Although the reputed son of a mar- was in some trouble in consequence riage between Thomas Perrot of Har- of having been wounded by one of oldston and Mary, the granddaughter the yeomen of the guard in a dis- of Maurice, lord Berkeley, there is rea- graceful fray. The king, instead of son to believe sir John Perrot derived reproving, commended him for his his paternity from Henry VIII. spirit and courage, promised him pre- Henry's first introduction to the ferment and favour, and placed him young man took place at the house of in the household of prince Edward, the marquis of Winchester, when he Perrot took care not to neglect so 25 386 EDWARD THE SIXTH. During the rest of the winter of 1551-2, the young monarch occupied his ever- active pen in drawing up various papers on subjects to which he desired to call the attention of his council and parliament. One of these was entitled, " Reasons for establishing a mart in Eng- land," in rivalry to Antwerp, then the world's fair.* He names Southampton as the most desirable place for the great seat of commercial greatness which he desired to be the means of founding in England, and says much on the subject well worthy of admiration from a prince of his immature age and slight experience in such matters. Among the acts Edward was desirous of having passed in the parliament then sitting, as he has certified in his own hand, was one to prevent the injurious practice to the church, then shamelessly pursued by lay impropria- tors of ecclesiastical endowments, of doling out a scanty stipend to such unlearned and inefficient persons as could, for the performance of the duty, be induced to undertake it on the lowest terms, while they grasped the lion's share themselves. This measure, which the failing health of the young royal deviser rendered abortive, is briefly fair an opening. Not only Edward orders both of queen and council, and VI., but lUary and Elizabeth treated using very disrespectful expressions sir John Perrot with remarkable con- regarding the queen. On his recall sideration, for, though he displeased he was committed to the Tower, tried Mary by his zeal for the reformed by a special commission of the religion, he boldly presented a peti- crown ministers, found guilty, and tion to her for the gift of the castle sentenced to death. When he was and lordship of Carew; and, notwith- informed by the lieutenant of the standing her austere looks, came so Tower, Perrot used these remark- unceremoniously close to her as to able words, ' Will the queen indeed tread on her train. She granted his sacrifice her own brother to please petition, and allowed him to live in the his skipping adversary ? " meaning castle during her reign. By Elizabeth Hatton, the lord chancellor. The he was treated with distinguished queen reprieved him during pleasure, favour, and was appointed in the but he died of a. broken heart. — year 1583, lord deputy of Ireland, Life of sir John Perrot. Coxe'sHis- which office he filled five years, tory of Ireland. Naunton's Nuguae carrying matters with so high a hand Antiquse. Biographia Britannica as to disregard, in many instances, the Camden's Elizabeth. * Kin«: Edward's Literarv Remains. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 387 described by him, as " An act that no patron shall give less to the parson than the whole benefice, nor reserve thereof any commodity to himself." Edward also sketched a scheme for a bill "for restraining excess in apparel/ ' which he desired to have carried through parliament this sessions, being a vain attempt at reviving the sumptuary laws of the mediaeval sovereigns: "And," observes Strype, "the king's own royal pen drew it up after the example of his noble father, who used to draw up many bills to be enacted in parliament, and to super- vise, correct, and interline many more." Much misery might undoubtedly be prevented, if persons of humble position and narrow means were precluded from incurring the ruinous expenses so often criminally indulged in, by vain and presumptuous attempts to ape the dress of those in a more elevated station ; and it is no slight proof of young Edward's legislative wisdom, that he had perceived the evil, and desired to devise a remedy ; but his regula- tions suited not the temper of the times in which he lived, far less could they be acted upon in our own. After a long list of the expensive articles of dress his majesty thought proper to prohibit to persons under a certain rank, he proposes to enforce his regulations in these terms : — " The forfeiture is, to all that be gentlemen, the loss of the apparel and the value thereof. To all other, it is the loss .of the apparel, and sitting five days in the stocks. In the court the usher may seize the apparel, and if he commence not his action within fifteen days, then the lord chamberlain. Likewise on the queen's side, her ushers and chamberlain. Any man to seize apparel worn out of the court."* We may imagine the tragi- comic scenes attempts to act on the suggestions of our young royal bachelor for the restraint of unsuitable finery would have caused, especially among the female portion of his over-dressed subjects. He does not, however, appear to • Ibid. 388 EDWARD THE SIXTH. anticipate the possibility of resistance to his august will, but with all the decisive energy of a true Tudor sovereign has written, " The act to take place after Whitsuntide." The establishment of the revised edition of the liturgy in English was an easy matter in comparison. The majority of his subjects consented to worship after the manner prescribed by the authority of king Edward, his council, and parliament ; but to conform their dress to the regulations his majesty wished to impose, was an infringement on their liberty of taste to which no Englishman, much less Englishwoman, would submit. So the national excess in apparel continued unrestrained, even by the national distress caused by the high price of food, and the repeated reductions in the value of the currency. Early in the spring this year Edward took the infection of the measles, which was followed by an attack of small pox. He mentions this in his journal of 2nd of April, 1552, in the following brief notation : " I fell sick of the measles and small pox." On the 15th of the same month he adds : " The parliament brake up, and because I was sick and not able to go well abroad, I signed a bill con- taining the names of the acts I would have pass, which bill was read in the house. Also I gave commission to the lord chancellor, two archbishops, two bishops, two earls, and two barons, to dissolve wholly this parliament." It has been generally affirmed that Edward never regained his health after this double illness, but in a long letter written by him to his absent friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, dated the 3rd of May, he speaks of himself as perfectly recovered: "We have," he says, "a little been troubled with the small pox, which hath letted us to write hitherto, but now have we shaken that quite away.' 5 Nine days after the date of the above letter to his young friend, Edward appears to have recovered his health, strength, and activity, for he rode on horseback through EDWARD THE SIXTH. 389 Greenwich Park with his guard, to see them practise their archery, they being in their jerkins and doublets with their bows and arrows. The same day his grace ran at the ring with some of his young lords and knights,* and on the 16th of May he rode again in Greenwich Park to see the grand muster of his men-at-arms, and those furnished by his nobles, f The malady must therefore have laid but a gentle hand upon him, and there is no reason to believe it left any disfiguring traces to mar the beauty of his features and complexion. His preceptor, sir John Cheke, fell dangerously ill about this time. Edward, who was much attached to him, sent every day to inquire after him with comfortable and sympathising messages. At last his physicians assured the king they had no longer any hope of his life, and had given him up as a dead man. "No," replied Edward, "he will not die at this time, for this morning I begged his life from God in my prayers, and feel assured they have been heard." As sir John Cheke, to the astonishment of every one, began to amend rapidly, and presently regained his health and strength, his royal pupil obtained the credit from his enthusiastic admirers of having worked a miracle by his superior holiness. £ Cheke wrote a noble and manly letter of advice to his royal pupil dated, " Out of my death bed."§ Edward remained at his pleasant palace of Green- wich till the latter end of June. AVhile there he received a visit from his sister Mary, who came in her barge from the Tower wharf, landed at his palace stairs at Greenwich, and stayed with him till six in the evening. He removed to Hampton Court on the 27th of June, * Machyn's Diary. he was induced, by fear of death, to t Ibid. sign a recantation, and became a { Fuller. nominal member of the Church of § It would have been well for the Rome. He died broken-hearted soon reputation of this good and learned after this compulsory change of creed. man had he died then, for after the His daughter, Maria Cheke, was the death of his royal pupil, and the first wife of Sir William Cecil, the marriage of queen Mary to Philip II., celebrated lord Burleigh. 390 EDWARD THE SIXTH. going by water as far as Putney, and there took his horse for Hampton Court. After a brief sojourn there, he commenced his summer progress on the 7th of July, by removing to Oatlands and other places, accompanied by his council and many of his household, and attended by his guards and heralds. Garter king of arms received ten shillings a day for his pay, Clarenceux and Norroy each a mark. Ulster, the king of arms for Ireland, whose office had only just before been created, had the like allowance ; Somerset, four shillings ; Rouge, Dragon, and Bluemantle, two.* Edward remarks, "that it was necessary to retrench the number of his followers, because the train was thought to be near 4,000 horse ; which were enough," he says, " to eat up the country, for there was little meadow nor hay all the way as I went."f Whilst riding from Lichfield to Southampton, the king lost the large pear pearl from the central jewel of his golden carcanet, a very great and rich diamond, with a great ruby enclosed in a flower, gold enamelled, from which depended the said costly pearl. It was, however, found several months after, and in the following May delivered through sir John Gates, vice-chamberlain, to the lord treasurer, J at a time when the young royal owner was past caring for any of the glittering toys of the temporal kingdom from which he was departing. While Edward was resting at Christchurch, near the New Forest, he wrote to his absent favourite, Barnaby Fitzpatrick, giving the following lively and business- like history of his movements up to that point. His progress had been diversified with field sports, though the time of year must have been warm for hunting. * The Lancaster Herald and Port- money by giving arms to rich men cullis were at that time in prison, of low degree. King Edward's degraded from their honourable Journal, offices, and in imminent danger of f Ibid. being hanged, for having forged J Note to King Edward's Literary Clarenceux's seal, in order to get Remains, by Nichols- EDWARD THE SIXTH. 391 Barnaby was then attending the king of France on his campaign : — u Being now almost in the midst of our journey, which We have undertaken this summer, We have thought good to advertize you since our last letters dated at Greenwich, We departed from thence towards a thing far contrary to that wherein, as we perceive hy your diligent advertisement, you and all the country you are in are occupied ; for whereas you all have been occupied in killing of your enemies, in long marchings, in painful journies, in extreme heat, in sore skirmishings, and divers assaults, We have been occu- pied in killing of wilde beasts, in pleasant journies, in good fare, in viewing of fair countries, and rather have sought how to fortifie our own, than to spoil another man's. And being thus determined came to Guildford, from thence to Petworth, and .so to Cowdray, a goodly house of sir Anthony Browne's, where we were marvellously, yea, rather excessively banqueted. From thence we went to Havenaker, a pretty house beside Chichester. From thence we went to Warb- lington, a faire house of sir Richard Cottons ; and so to Waltham, a faire great old house, in times past the bishop of Winchester's, and now my lord treasurer's house. In all these places we had both good hunting and good cheer. From thence we went to Ports- mouth town, and there viewed, not only the town itself and the haven, but also divers bulwarks, as Chattertons, Waselford, with other, in viewing of which we find the bulwarks chargeable, massy, well-rampirecl, but ill- fashioned, ill-flanked, and set in unmeet places, the town weake in comparison of that it ought to be, too huge great, for within the walls are faire and large closes and much vacant room ; the Haven notable, great, and standing by nature, easy to be fortified. And for the more strength thereof, We have devised two strong castles at the mouth thereof ; for at the mouth the haven is not past ten score — over, but in the middle almost a mile over, and in length for a mile and a-half able to bear the greatest ship in Christendom. From thence we went to Lichfield, the earl of Southampton's house, and so to Southampton town. The citizens had bestowed for our coming great cost in painting and repairing and rampiring of their walls. The town is handsome, and for the bigness of it as fair houses as be at London. The citizens made great cheer, and many of them kept costly tables. From South Hampton we came to Bewly, a little village in the middle of the jSew Forest, and so to Christ- church, another little town where we now be, and in the New Forest. And having advertised you of all this, We think it but good to trouble you any farther with news of this country, not 392 EDWARD THE SIXTH. only that at this time the most part of England (thanks be to God) is clear of any dangerous or infections sickness."* Edward's next move was to Salisbury, where lie arrived on the 24th of August. He was received by the mayor and aldermen in their robes on horseback, and was pre- sented with a silver gilt cup, value ten pounds, containing twenty pounds in gold. During his four days' sojourn in that neighbourhood, while engaged in hunting, the young sovereign was lost by his courtiers, but they found him again in Falston lane, near Bower Chalk, in the parish of Bishopstone. "Old good wife Dew," as she was called, of Braid Chalk, who lived to complete her 103rd year, told Aubrey, the antiquarian, that she remembered seeing king Edward on that occasion, being then a girl of fifteen. She died in 1649.f Edward came to Wilton on the 28th, where he was entertained by the earl of Pembroke, the widower of queen Katharine Parr's sister, Anne Parr. J He reached Winchester, Sept. 5th, where he received very graciously a book of loyal and laudatory Latin verses, composed by the Winchester scholars in honour of his visit. That by Thomas Stapleton illustrates the king's progress from his palatial castle of Greenwich to their city, with pretty notices of all the places where he had halted. § Edward rested two nights on his homeward tour at Doddington Castle, once the abode of the father of Eng- lish poetry, Chaucer, which had descended by the marriage of his grand-daughter and heiress, Alice Chaucer, the favourite friend of Margaret of Anjou, to William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and had been, on the fall of that family, granted to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, * King Edward's Letter to Barnaby f Natural History of Wiltshire. Fitz-Patrick, dated Christ Church, J Edward records the countess of Aug. 22, printed in Fuller's Church Pembroke's death in his Journal, History. Feb. 20, 1551—2. § Printed in Literary Remains of King Edward VI., edited by J. G. Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 393 whose son-in-law, Henry Gray, duke of Suffolk, was now the possessor. The young king was probably enter- tained by this nobleman and the lady Frances, and ' enjoyed the opportunity of seeing and conversing with his lovely and accomplished cousins, lady Jane Gray and her sister Katharine. From Doddington Castle, beside the town of Newbury, Edward came on to Reading. There he was received by the mayor, accompanied by the principal inhabitants of the town at Colby Cross, all being on foot. The mayor on his knee humbly welcomed his grace, and having first kissed the mace, presented it to him. The fair young king most gently stayed his horse to receive it, and graciously returned it to the mayor; the mayor then remounted his horse, and conducted his grace through the town to the ancient palace, called the king's place, and as it was his first visit to the town, complied with the ancient custom on such occasions, by presenting him with two yoke of oxen, which cost fifteen pounds, all the town being rated to defray the expense of the civic offering to royalty.* Edward arrived safely at Windsor, Sept. 15, after his pleasant excursion through the midland counties. Notwithstanding Edward's treaty for his matrimonial alliance with France, the policy of Henry II., in leaguing with the Sultan to bring the invading force of the Turks against the empire of Germany, so greatly shocked our young Christian sovereign that he determined to oppose it. The subject was brought before his council, Sept. 19th. " After long reasoning it was determined," notes the royal chronicler, " and a letter sent in all haste to Mr. Morysine, willing him to declare to the emperor, that I, having pity, as all other Christian princes should have, on the invasion of Christendom by the Turk, would will- ingly join with the emperor and other states of the empire, if the emperor could bring it to pass in some league against the Turk and his confederates, but not * Nichols' Notes to kin^ Edward's Journal. 394 EDWARD THE SIXTH. to let it be a-known of the French king ; but if the emperor would send a man into England he should know more. The reasonings be in my desk."* This chivalric feeling for the defence of Christians does the youthful monarch honour. He immediately recalled his absent friend Barnaby, who was at that time serving in the French army, and further manifested his own sen- timents on the subject by composing an essay in Greek on repelling the Turks. He had previously written one in Latin on the same exciting theme. f After Edward's return to Whitehall, he granted an audience to the celebrated Milanese physician and astro- nomer, Griralmo Cardano, who was desirous of presenting, personally, his learned books, "De Rerum Varietate," which were dedicated by permission to his majesty. Edward, who always treated literary men with great attention, received Cardano in his gallery, and having graciously accepted the volumes, inquired " on what subjects they treated ?" "On many, as their titles inti- mate,''' replied Cardano; "but in the first chapter I show the long-hidden and vainly sought after nature of comets." "And what is the cause ?" asked Edward, with deep interest. "The concourse and meeting of the lights of the erratic stars," replied the purblind astron- omer of the sixteenth century. The young king, who had studied celestial science attentively with his pre- ceptor, Dr. Cheke, and was a deep thinker, rejoined: " But, seeing that the planets are moved with several motions, how cometh it to pass that the comet doth not either dissolve and scatter with their motion?" J " It moves, indeed," observed Cardano, " but with a far swifter motion than the planets, by reason of the diversity of the aspect, as we see in crystal, and the sun, when a rainbow reboundeth upon a wall, for a little * King Edward's Journal. f King Edward's Literary Remains. J Cardanus Lib. de Genitioris. See also Godwin's Annals of King Edward's Life. EDWARD THE SIXTH. o95 change maketh a great difference of the place." " But how," objected Edward, " can that be done without a subject? for the wall is the subject to the rainbow." To which Cardano answered : " As in the galaxia, or milky- way, and as the reflection of lights where many lighted candles are set near one another, they do produce a certain lucid and bright mean." " You may know the lion by his paw, as they say," observes our eloquent author, after recording the sub- stance of his conference with the royal youth; "his ingenuous nature and sweet conditions rendered him great in the expectations of all, whether good or learned men. He began to favour learning before he could know it, and he knew it before he knew what use to make of it. Oh, how true is the saying, ' Precocious growths are short lived, and rarely arrive at maturity.' This prince could give you a taste of his virtues, not an example. He was stored with graces, for, being yet a child, he spake many languages, his native English, Latin, French, and, as I hear, was also skilled in Greek, Italian, and Spanish. He wanted neither the rudiments of logic, the principles of philosophy, nor music. He was full of humanity, had the highest sense of morality, and displayed the gravity befitting royalty of hopes like his. A child of so great wit and promise could not be born without a kind of miracle of nature. I write not this," continues our author, " hyperbolically, for to speak the truth were to say far more." Cardano lodged with his friend and brother astronomer, sir John Cheke, and cast both his nativity and that of the young king. He predicted that il Edward would always suffer from delicate health, though he might possibly live to be fifty-five years old." When he was afterwards twitted with the blundering prediction he had made, he said " he had omitted in his calculations the middle hour, and therefore his scheme was imperfect ; but even if he had perceived the dark shadow in the house of life, he 396 EDWARD THE SIXTH. should not have dared to make it known ; and perceiving, as he did, without the aid of astrology, how everything in England lay at the mercy of Northumberland, he was glad to escape out of the realm in safety." An astrolabe and a quadrant were made for king Edward's use, adorned with a fac-simile of his signature in Latin, Edivardus Rex, and the initials of his tutors. Nicholas Cratzer, a Bavarian, who was accustomed to lecture on astronomy at Oxford, was Edward's master in that science, with a quarterly fee of a hundred shillings. The royal tyro wrote a Latin declamation in praise of astronomy. Eobert Eecord, who was the first in England to adopt the Copernican system, dedicated the second edition of his " Ground of Artes" to our young learned king. A very elaborate catalogue of Edward's library has been printed by the erudite editor of his Literary Remains in that work. The celebrated Scotch reformer, John Knox, after his liberation from the French galleys, came to England, and occasionally preached before king Edward. It has been commonly said that he was one of the royal chaplains ; but there is no evidence of this, and his undisguised hostility . to the English liturgy renders it improbable. He was, however, highly favoured by Northumberland, the leader of the puritan party, who expressed a fervent desire "that it might please the king to appoint Mr. Knocks to the bishopric of Rochester;" but neither would Edward, who loved not those who opposed his liturgy, appoint a bishop of that fashion, nor would Knox depart from his principles to receive a bishopric. He had estab- lished a numerous presbyterian congregation at New- castle, whither resorted great numbers of the Scotch to hear his stormy eloquence. This being quite opposed to Edward's statutes of uniformity of worship, threatened to be a source of great inconvenience ; and Northumberland vainly endeavoured, by offers of rich livings and benefices, EDWARD THE SIXTH. 397 to draw the intractable northern Boanerges to a more southern district and a milder ministry. At last, just as he had learned to spell Knox's name properly, and to understand his temper, he dissolved the connexion by declaring to Cecil, "that he loved not to have any- thing to do with men that were neither grateful nor pleaseable."* The first poor-rate on record in England was gathered this year. " In the month of August," says our authority,! "began the great provision for the poor in London, towards the which every man was contributory, and gave certain money in hand, and covenanted to give a certain sum weekly." How necessary this arrangement was, let the following passage in a sermon preached before the king in the preceding Lent, by Lever, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, from the text, " So the men sat dow r n in number about five thousand " (John vi, 10), testify : " merciful Lord, what a number of poor, feeble, halt, blind, lame, sickly ; yea, with idle vagabonds, and dissembling caitiffs mixed among them, lie and creep, begging in the miry streets of London and Westminster. It is too great pity afore the world, and too utter damnation before God, to see these begging as they use to do in the streets : for there is never a one of them," continued the preacher, addressing himself pointedly to the king, " but he lacketh either thy charitable alms to relieve his need, or else thy due correction to punish his fault. These silly souls have been neglected throughout all England, and especially in London and Westminster. But now I trust that a good overseer, a godly bishop I mean, will see that they in those two cities shall have their needs relieved, and their faults corrected, to the good example of all other towns and cities. Take heed that there be such grass to sit down there as ye " — again addressing the * Letters from Northumberland to Cecil. Life and Works of J, Knox, edited by David Laing, Esq. f S:ow. 398 EDWARD THE SIXTH. king — " command the people to sit down; that there be sufficient housing and other provision for the people there, as ye command them to be quiet." The earnestness of the preacher, and the personal manner in which he brought the condition of his people home to the young king, who appears always to have felt and understood the responsibility of his position as a legislator, made a deep impression. Soon after, Ridley, bishop of London, " preaching before his majesty at Westminster, on the excellence of charity, made a fruitful and godly exhorta- tion to the rich to be merciful to the poor ; above all, that such as were in authority should travail to comfort and relieve such as were in sickness, sorrow, or any other adversity." Edward's tender heart was touched at the picture of the sins and sorrows of such as he was told were swarming in London and Westminster, without any good order or care taken of them. Acting on the gene- rous impulse of the moment, he sent the bishop a message when the sermon was ended, desiring him not to depart till he had spoken with him. The bishop being shown into a private gallery where two chairs were placed, the young king came to him, made him sit down beside him, and be covered, and having given him* hearty thanks for his sermon, proceeded to discuss several points, which, according to his usual practice, he had noted for especial consideration, and spoke so admirably on them all, that Ridley, when relating the particulars of this interest- ing conversation with his youthful sovereign, observed: " Truly, truly, I could never have thought that excel- lency to have been in his grace that I beheld and heard in him."t "My lord," said Edward, after adverting to the bishop's exhortation in behalf of the poor, "you willed such as are in authority to devise some good order for their relief; wherein I think you mean me, for I am in highest place, and therefore am the first that * Grafton's Chronicle. f Grafton's Chronicle; Trollope's History of Christ's Hospital. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 399 must make answer to God for my negligence, if I should not be careful therein, knowing it to be the express commandment of Almighty God to have compassion of his poor, needy members, for whom we must make an account unto him. And truly, my lord, I am, before all things else, most willing to travail that way, and doubting nothing of your approved wisdom and learning, who have such good zeal as wisheth help unto them : also you have had conference with others what ways are best to be taken therein, the which I am desirous to understand ; I pray you, therefore, to say your mind/' Ridley was so taken by surprise at the earnest, straight- forward manner in which the youthful sovereign came to the point, that for a moment he wist not how to reply. At length he observed, "that the city of London, on account of its abundant population, and the destitute condition of the poor, appeared the most desirable field for the exercise of the royal benevolence, and advised that letters should be addressed to the lord mayor, requiring him to consult with such assistance as he might think most meet to advise with on the matter." Edward wrote the letter on the instant, and Ridley delivered it the same evening, and the result of the deliberation was presently laid before his majesty,* " That the poor of London might be delivered into three classes. The poor by impotency : such as young fatherless children, the decayed, the crippled, and the old. The poor by casualty : as the maimed, the sick, and the diseased. Thriftless poor, whom idleness and vice had reduced to indigence and want." It was proposed to provide a suitable asylum for each of these classes. Three were accordingly founded : Christ's Church school, from the magnificent monastery of the Gray Friars, for the education of poor children ; St. Thomas's Hospital, for the relief of the sick and diseased ; and Bridewell, for the correction and amendment of the idle and vagabonds. For the latter purpose * Ibid. 400 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Edward gave his royal palace so called. In the old chapel, which was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, a portrait of the king was fixed near the pulpit, with the following inscription beneath it in the characters of the period : — " This Edward of fair memory the Sext, In whom with greatness, goodness was commix't, Grave this Bridewell, a palace in old times, For a chastising house of vagrant crimes.' , Fortunately, Holbein's noble historical painting of the young king, presenting the charter of Bridewell to the lord mayor, sir George Barne, in the great hall, has been preserved. It is from that picture the vignette on the title page of this volume has been taken, and also our portrait of king Edward in his chair of state, detached from the group of courtiers and citizens, by whom he is surrounded in the original painting. He wears his cap of estate of ruby velvet, surrounded with a regal coronal of gems. His parliamentary robe of crimson velvet is lined and furred with miniver, with a small round cape of miniver, over which is the collar of the Garter, formed of large round blue enamel medallions, with red roses in the centre, linked with true love knots, and the George depending from the centre.. His doublet is of tawny damask, brocaded with gold, and a border of gold beset with gems. He has short, full trunk hose, like what are now called " knickerbockers/ 5 but of purple velvet, striped with gold. His sleeves are tight from the elbow to the wrist, finished with muslin ruffles, and a small partlet collar open in front. He has hazel eyes and a fair complexion; his countenance is sweet, intellectual, and reflective, with rather a pensive cast, but bearing a striking resemblance, both in contour and features, to his royal cousin, Mary, queen of Scots. A lovely couple they would have made ; and if Edward had survived her short-lived concort, Francis II., she would doubtless have accepted him with joy. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 401 There is also a fine painting by Holbein in the hospital hall at Christ Church school, representing king Edward granting the charter of that beneficent and truly-royal institution, which was originally intended for orphan children, girls as well as boys. Why the intention of the young royal founder should have been frustrated in this matter is not so easy to explain. The girls and their mistress are represented in this picture dressed in the russet livery in which king Edward's orphan scholars were clad at the opening of the school, when nearly four hundred children, boys and girls, were assembled. There is another portrait of king Edward in the possession of Frederick Barne, esq., of Dunwich Priory, and Sotterley Hall, in the county of Suffolk, the de- scendant and representative of sir George Barne, the philanthropic lord mayor, which was probably presented to sir George by the young king. He is there represented as more healthy, manly, and vigorous than in Holbein's portraits of him, having also more shade in the face, so that we are disposed to regard it as the work of Edward's Flemish artist, Guillaume Stretes. He appears there about fifteen years of age, with a nobly developed benevolent brow, intellectual eyes, and energetic expression of countenance ; his features are regular and beautiful, the contour of his face a fine oval. His dress is a loose short gown of crimson brocade, laced with gold and furred with ermine, thrown open to show his rich doublet, which is girt to his waist with a black velvet girdle ; his trunk hose of white satin are striped with purple velvet ; he has short full velvet sleeves, puffed from the shoulder, and tight white satin ones below the elbow to the wrist, finished with white ruffles; his hands are very small and delicate. He wears a black velvet cap, turned up with a roll of the same material, above which are four pointed leaves of gold, jewelled. His attitude is spirited, and he holds a regal staff. It has every trait of being an original likeness taken before he fell into 26 402 EDWARD THE SIXTH. ill health the and languor which characterises his portrait in the Hall at Bridewell. Gruillaume Stretes, a Dutchman, was paid fifty marks for painting the young king in 1551-2. Anthony Toto, sergeant painter, Baretemew Penn, painter, and maistress Levyn Terling, paintrix, were all regularly salaried artists in the royal household, as well as Nicholas Lyzarde, and Nicholas Modena, carver. It is to be observed that maistress Levyn Terling is the first female artist ever mentioned in England. The new service book, or the revised edition of king Edward's Liturgy,* from which everything that could be considered of a superstitious tendency had been carefully expunged, was used on the 1st of November, this year, in St. Paul's cathedral, and in all the churches in London, Bishop Ridley performed the service in the morning at St. Paul's in his rochet only, and in the afternoon he preached at St. Paul's Cross a sermon explaining the liturgy, and the alterations that had been made, which sermon lasted till five o'clock in the evening. The lord mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, and companies, who attended in their best robes, went home by torchlight, and were unable to attend the evening service in the cathedral. From that day copes and vestments were prohibited to the prebendaries, and the bishops left off their crosses. f In the month of November, this year, Edward brings his chronicle or journal, as it is now called, abruptly to a close. His last entry is — " 28. The lord Paget was put to his fine £6000 and £2000 diminished, to pay it with the space of years, at days limited — " Thus we lose this curious and valuable guide for the residue of his life and reign. The remarkable brevity with which Edward expresses himself, has perhaps prevented him from telling his mind : in some instances, notes exist in the State Paper office, in a different hand, of various passages which were afterwards copied by him into this record, * See Appendix. f Stow's Chronicle. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 403 of the events of his reign. Possibly the entries of the execution of his two uncles were thus prepared. Hayward tells us that, although king Edward at first betrayed no displeasure at the death of Somerset, yet, soon after, he grew pensive and heavy, and upon speech of him he would sigh : and often his tears might be seen to fall. Sometimes he would passionately exclaim : 11 Ah ! how unfortunate have I been, to those of my blood ! My mother I slew at my very birth, and since have made away with two of her brothers, and haply to make way for the purposes of others against myself. Was it ever known before that a king's uncle did lose his head for felony — a felony not clear in law, and but weakly proved. Alas ! how falsely have I been abused, how little was I master over my own judgment, and how weakly was I carried, that both his death and the envy [desire] thereof must be laid to my charge."* Edward is also said to have manifested the indignant misgiving he occasionally felt on this subject in regard to Northumber- land. One day when engaged with his courtiers in shooting at the butts, Northumberland, who never lost an opportunity of flattering, exclaimed, " Well shot, my liege!" "But you shot closer to the mark, my lord, when you shot off my good uncle Somerset's head," retorted Edward bitterly, f Due diligence being, as usual, exerted to amuse the * Strype, without producing either truth, and that with the candour of authority or reason for attempting an impartial historian. He lived so to impugn sir John Hayward's narra- close to the period, that he might well tive of this touching burst of self- have recorded these pathetic words reproach on the part of the ingenu- from the lips of some of Edward's ous young monarch, sneeringly ob- young companions, who heard him serves " a good speech made for the give utterance to them, in moments king, but not by him." But unless when the excitement of pastimes, cause had been shewn for the ob- pageantry, and business was succeeded jection he has thus insinuated, we by the dejection of sickness, and its are decidedly of opinion that sir necessary seclusion from pleasure and John Hayward has related the society. f Fuller's Church History. 404 EDWARD THE SIXTH. youthful sovereign, that Christmas he kept open hall again at Greenwich palace, and thither came, as on the preceding year, by water, George Ferrers, the lord of misrule, and his mirthful coadjutors. It does not appear that the entertainments were either so magnificent or elaborate as before, but perhaps they were of a more refined character, for we are told " that Ferrers was lord of all the Christmas disports for twelve days, and so pleasantly and wisely behaved himself, that the king had great delight in his pastimes;"! also, "that he gave him a liberal reward." During the Christmas holidays it unfortunately hap- pened that king Edward, after overheating himself in the tennis court, drank a copious draught of cold water, which brought on a sudden and dangerous attack of illness from the chill it occasioned. " His siokness," says Hay ward, " did more apparently shew itself by the symptoms of a tough, strong, straining cough. All the medicines and diet that could be prescribed were unavailing to abate his grief, which, so far from abating, daily increased by dangerous degrees." The famous " apostle of the North," Bernard Gilpin, was appointed to preach before the court at Greenwich on the first Sunday after the Epiphany; but Edward was not well enough to appear, and his council took the oppor- tunity of absenting themselves also on this occasion. The preacher being much disappointed, and not under- standing the serious cause which prevented the attendance of his heavenly-minded young sovereign, introduced the following reproachful passage into his sermon : " I am come this day to preach to the king, and to those which be in authority under him. I am very sorry they should be absent which ought to give example, and encourage others to the hearing of God's word, and I am the more sorry that other preachers before me complain much of their absence. But you will say they have weighty * Stow; Loseley MSS. ; Nichols. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 405 affairs in hand. Alas ! hath God any greater business than this ? If I should cry with the voice of Stentor, I would, if I could, make them hear in their chambers; but in their absence I will speak to their seats as if they were present. I will call upon you, noble prince, as Christ's anointed." Poor Edward, whose greatest delight was listening to sermons, would have required no Stentorian voice to summon him to the signal treat of listening to so good and eloquent a preacher of practical holiness as Bernard Gilpin, if the severe tearing cough which had seized him, had allowed him to be present without dis- turbing others. He made a temporary rally soon after, and returned to Whitehall, but relapsed. "It was not only the violence of the cough that did infest him, but therewith a weakness and faintness of spirit which showed plainly that his vital parts were strongly and strangely as- saulted,* and in consequence a report began to be circulated that he was suffering from the effects of a slow working poison that had been administered to him." Some said, "by the papists;" but as they had no access to his privy chamber, the more prevailing opinion was by Northumberland, at that time recognized as the head of the ultra-protestant party in England. The agent pointed at, by popular suspicion, as the administrator of deadly successive doses, which it was pretended were gra- dually given, was no other than lord Robert Dudley, Northumberland's third son, the last appointed lord of the bed-chamber to king Edward. Though the reputa- tion of this favourite of fortune became notorious as a poisoner in the reign of Elizabeth, there was no apparent reason why that stigma should have been attached to him at this period. "A nosegay of sweet flowers had been presented to the young king as a most choice offering on new year's day," and as his illness com- menced immediately afterwards, it was said that a subtle * Hay ward. 406 EDWARD THE SIXTH. poison had been introduced through, that medium, which had implanted the seeds of wasting decay and death.* These reports were in accordance with the spirit of the times, which invariably attributed the deaths of sove- reigns to unfair means. Edward received a visit from his sister Mary, on the 10th of February. She rode in great state from her house in Clerkenwell, through Fleet street to Whitehall, attended by a great number of nobles, knights, and gen- tlemen, and all the great ladies of the court. She was received at the outer gate of Whitehall by Northum- berland, Suffolk, and the great officers of the royal household, who conducted her to the presence chamber, and there Edward himself met and saluted her. It must have been evident from his altered appearance, and the incessant cough that harassed him, that his young life was hastening prematurely to a close. It does not appear that any opportunity for private con- versation between the royal brother and sister was allowed by Northumberland and his creatures, by whom the king was surrounded. The new parliament, which had been summoned to meet on the 1st of March, assembled in the king's great chamber at Whitehall, to spare him the fatigue of going to Westminster. He assumed, however, his parliamen- tary robes, and proceeded with his peers to attend divine service in the chapel, with the sword of state borne before him, and his train, supported by his lord chamber- lain, assisted by sir Andrew Dudley, Northumberland's brother. A sermon was preached by Ridley, bishop of London, on this occasion, and the young sovereign par- took of the holy communion with several of the lords ; after which he proceeded to his great chamber, where he took his place under his royal canopy, and the parliament was opened in his presence by his lord chancellor, who " delivered a proposition in his name," which would now * Hay ward : Heylin. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 407 be called a speech ; which, says the record, was done because the king was sickly.* Edward gave audience to the Commons on the 4th of March on his throne, in the same chamber, and again on the last day of that month received the Speaker's address, announcing the concession of the subsidy, gave his royal assent to seventeen acts which had been passed, and dissolved the parliament after this short ses- sions, in which all that was required by the great dictator Northumberland had been done. Edward's Irish friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, returned from France this month, and received proof that his sovereign had not been unmindful of his pecuniary in- terests in his absence, having endowed him with two rich abbeys, and confirmed to him the grant of the crown lands held by his father as tenant in capito.f King Edward's school at Christ Church, was so well established this spring, that on Easter Monday, between three and four hundred boys, clothed in russet coats with red caps, walked in procession to St. Mary's, Spital Fields, with their masters, to hear the sermon ; also a goodly show of maiden children, clad in the same livery, with white kerchiefs on their heads, with their matrons, took their places on a high stage that had been built up for them, which was regarded as a fair sight.J * Nichols' Literary Remains of king Edward VI. f After the death of his young royal ing any pecuniary rewards except master, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick es- one hundred pounds, which he dis- poused the cause of queen Mary, and tributed as rewards among his follow- distinguished himself in the sup- ers. Elizabeth created him baron of pression of the Wyat insurrection. Upper Ossory, and gave him finally a He was knighted by the duke of pension for his services. He married Norfolk for his exploits at the siege Joan, the daughter of sir Roland of Leith. He supported the cause Eustace, viscount Baltinglass, by of queen Elizabeth against the native whom he had one only daughter, Irish chiefs, in a manner that won Margaret, first wife of James, lord the warmest eulogiums from the lord Dunboyne, He died in 1581. deputy Sidney. He declined receiv- % Stow. 408 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Edward sent for the benevolent lord mayor, George Barne, whose exertions had so ably seconded his own good intentions in carrying out his philanthropic plans for the good of the city of London ; and after thanking him warmly for all he had done, bestowed the well- deserved honour of knighthood upon him.* The same afternoon, Edward left Whitehall for Greenwich, perform- ing this his last remove in life by water. The royal barge was saluted by a general salvo from all the Tower guns, and the ships in the river all the • way to Ratcliff ; the four new ships that were rigging there, to go to Newfoundland, shot off guns and chambers a great many, as he passed. f The change from the bustle and noise of Whitehall to the green quiet glades of his favourite palace of "Placentia," appeared, at first, to produce a beneficial influence on the health and spirits of the royal invalid, and he made a brief rally. The duke of Northumber- land wrote to Cecil, "that their sovereign lord began very joyfully to amend, and the physicians entertained no doubt of his recovery, the more so because he had promised to follow their advice for the future. " This was all deceptive, for, as early as the beginning of February, perceiving that the king's cough and illness augmented every hour, Northumberland had called a consultation of the most eminent physicians in England, including Dr. Owen and Dr. Wendy, who had been in attendance on Edward from his birth, and having sworn them to secrecy, to every one but himself, demanded their real opinion as to the state of his majesty's health. They replied, after their consultation, " that the king was sick of a consumption; that his disease was incurable, and would end in death, but they thought he might survive till September." * Machyn's Diary. Sir George Barne was the last knight Edward VI. ever made. f Tbid. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 409 Northumberland's first stop, after ho had acquired this information, was to ally himself with the royal family, by getting the dying king to consent to a marriage between his only unmarried son, lord Guildford Dudley, with lady Jane Gray, the eldest daughter of Henry Gray, duke of Suffolk, and lady Frances, daughter of Mary Tudor, youngest daughter of Henry VII. and queen- dowager of France, by her second marriage with Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, on whose posterity the crown had been most unjustly entailed by Henry VIII. to the exclusion of the lineage of Margaret Tudor, queen of Scotland, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. Not to dwell here on the injury the tyrannical dictation of Henry VIII. was calculated to inflict on his realm, by endeavour- ing to defeat his wiser father's enlightened prediction of the peaceful union of England and Scotland through the posterity of his daughter Margaret and James IV. in- heriting the crown in the event of the male line of Tudor failing ; suffice it to say, that nothing but civil strife could result from trying to invert the legitimate order of the regal succession. Northumberland had not, in the first place, ventured openly to solicit the king's consent to the marriage of his youngest cadet with the first princess of the blood royal. No ; he contented himself, before the death of Somerset had cleared the field of a rival power, with endeavouring to obtain the hand of her young cousin, lady Margaret Clifford, the daughter of Eleanor Brandon, the younger sister of lady Frances, for his son Guildford ; and even this was regarded as presumption allied to treason. "Have at the crown, by your leave," had been the shrewd comment elicited by the first rumour of this marriage, from one who intuitively penetrated Northum- berland.^ ambitious policy. He had, however, obtained the king's consent to this union, derogatory as it was to a princess of the royal blood ; but as lady Margaret was not only the junior in the line of the royal succession, but 410 EDWARD THE SIXTH. of too tender age to answer the purpose of setting her up as a puppet queen, to the exclusion of the king's sisters, the queen of Scotland, Margaret, countess of Lennox, and her English-born son, Henry, lord Darnley, Frances, duchess of Suffolk, and her three daughters, he suddenly changed his tack, and, during the king's mortal sickness, deluded that weak man, the duke of Suffolk, into accepting his only unmarried son, lord Guildford Dudley, as a husband for his eldest daughter, lady Jane Gray; the settlement he offered to make on the bride being no less than the crown of England for her and her heirs, and failing these, to be successively inherited by her sisters and their heirs. The flattering bait was eagerly swal- lowed. The duchess Frances, though still young enough to bear sons, as, indeed, she actually did after her second marriage, submitted to waive her rights in favour of her daughter. Northumberland succeeded in obtaining the king's consent to this matrimonial alliance, and the mar- riages of lady Katharine Gray with lord Herbert, the eldest son of the earl of Pembroke by Anne Parr, sister of the late queen Katharine; and the earl of Huntingdon, who was the representative of George, duke of Clarence, and therefore in the second line of Plantagenet in the royal succession, to his youngest daughter, lady Katha- rine Dudley. He obtained, moreover, the king's signature to a warrant addressed to his brother, sir Andrew Dudley, keeper of the royal wardrobe, for endowing the said brides and bridegrooms with dresses and decorations for their wedding from the jewels and gold and silver stuffs, formerly the property of the late duke and the duchess of Somerset. The plenishing for the lady Margaret Clifford, whose hand the great dictator now intended to transfer to his brother, sir Andrew Dudley, was also to be supplied from the same plunder.* As the poor young * MS. Reg. 18, cxxiv. f. 340, Cited in Literary Remains of king Edward VI. Roxburgh Club Book. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 411 king lay dangerously ill at Greenwich at the time these marriages were celebrated at Durham house, we may conscientiously acquit him of any share in the application of the spoils of the unfortunate -Seymour family to this disgraceful purpose. His signature, it is true, appears to the warrant directing sir Andrew Dudley to deliver the jewels and costly stuffs to be devoted as described above ; but this was easily procured by Northumberland, without putting the dying prince to the trouble of reading the paper he was required to sign. Edward was at that time so ill, that his physicians had unanimously declared his case to be hopeless. A certain gentlewoman, however, presented herself before his council, and confidently en- gaged to cure him if he might be wholly given up to her care, and his physicians dismissed. Northumberland having induced the council to accede to her proposition, his physicians were removed, and she was admitted to attend and prescribe according to her own devices. The means employed by this female quack, instead of relieving the young royal patient, produced the worst possible effects. His legs swelled, his complexion altered to a livid sallow tint, his hair fell off, and his symptoms as- sumed so perilous an aspect, that his physicians were recalled. The laundress who washed his shirts lost her nails and the skin off her fingers, which gave rise to a suspicion that drugs of a very deleterious nature had been employed, and these reports were strangely corro- borated by the circumstance of his apothecary hanging himself.* Youth, however, struggled hard for life. Another deceit- ful rally took place, and it was confidently said, in the middle of May, that he was recovering. Noailles, the new French ambassador, gives the following account of the royal invalid to his sovereign : " You have been heard that the illness of the king, your good son and brother, was so serious, that little hope of his recovery was * Heylin's History of the Reformation. Hay ward ; Nichols. 412 EDWARD THE SIXTH. expressed by his doctors, and still less hy the great per- sonages, about him. But God, perceiving the trouble that would result from his death, has been pleased so far to restore him, that he is now out of danger, though in a great state of debility, with a cough that harasses him ; but the expectoration is not of a pulmonary character, as far as we could judge yesterday, when he was pleased to grant us audience ; but it was very brief, merely to receive me and take leave of my predecessor, the lords of his council having previously entreated us not to make him read the letters, nor yet to enter further into discourse with him than was absolutely necessary, but to wait till a further improvement in his strength allowed him to receive us again."* The flattering reports of the king's amended health elicited a letter of congratulation from the princess Mary, on the 16th of May, to her royal brother ; and he testified a kindly feeling towards her by the present of a fair table diamond with a pendant pearl, f It was pretended, at this time, by Northumberland and his emissaries, that the king was so well amended as to be able to take the air every day in the gardens of the palace ; but as no one ever saw him, this did not long deceive his anxious and sorrowful people. The exciting event of a great naval pageant occurred at Greenwich on the 20th of May, one of such peculiar interest, too, to the enlarged mind of the young sovereign, that if anything could have drawn him beyond the pre- cincts of his sick chamber once more, this would have done so. In consequence of the encouragement of the veteran voyager, Sebastian Cabot, whom king Edward had patro- nized and pensioned — nay, more, talked of creating for him the honourable and suitable office of Grand Pilot of England — a company of merchant adventurers, headed by the patriotic lord mayor, sir George Barne, had fitted out three great vessels, under the command of sir Hugh * Noaille's Despatches, May 1 8th, 1553. f Strype. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 41 o Willoughby, for the purposo of discovering a North- eastern passage tlirough the Arctic regions, for trading with the unknown parts of Moscovy and Cathay.* These gallant ships, which had saluted king Edward's barge as he took his last voyage from Whitehall, being now ready for sea, "were towed down the Thames by boats manned with stout mariners apparelled in watchet or sky blue cloth, who rowed amain, and made way with diligence." When they approached Greenwich, the courtiers ran out to view the brave spectacle, and the common people nocked from all quarters and thronged the shore. The privy council looked out from the win- dows, and others of the household ran up to the tops of the towers. The ships, as soon as they came opposite the palace, began to discharge their ordnance and shoot off their pieces, to salute the sovereign ; so that the Kentish hills resounded, the valleys and the waters gave an echo, and the mariners shouted in such a sort, that the sky rang again with the noise thereof. * * " To be short/' con- tinues our authority, " it was a very triumph, after a sort, to all beholders ; but, alas ! the good king Edward, in respect of whom principally all this was prepared, he only, by reason of his sickness, was absent from this show."f * Stow. These ships were built and made their way into Russian at the cost of three thousand pounds, Lapland, and were frozen to death, by the enterprising company of but their fate was never satisfactorily Merchant Adventurers, for the pur- elucidated. Challoner, more fortu- pose of discovering the north-east nate, discovered the entrance of the passage to China and India. They "White Sea, and wintered at Arch- sailed from the Nore the same day angel. He traversed Russia in the they had saluted king Edward's the spring, and made his way to palace at Greenwich, but sir Hugh Moscow, where he was favourably Willoughby and his consort ship were received by the Czar, Ivan Vasili- separated from the one commanded gevitch, who gave him a letter at by Challoner, by a violent storm parting, addressed " to the king of off the northern extremity of Nor- England." It was, of course, meant way ; the last time he and his crew for the royal flower, who, long before were heard of was at Nova Zembla, it was written, had been " laid in whence it is believed they landed, his morning freshness in the tomb." f Hakluyt's Voyages, vol 1, page 245. 414 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Again a temporary amendent took place in the symptoms of the royal invalid. On the 6th of June he was able to receive the lord mayor, sir George Barne, once more, in order to confirm the charters of his three charitable foundations, and to secure the funds for their maintenance. A blank having been left in the patent for the sum of yearly value in the endowment, he called for pen and ink, and with his own hand, filled up the space with these words, "Four thousand marks by year;" and as soon as he had written these words, he raised his eyes to heaven, and fervently exclaimed, " Lord God, I yield thee most hearty thanks that thou hast given me life thus long to finish this work to the glory of thy name."f Thirty-nine free schools and several hospitals were founded during the brief reign of Edward VI., the majority of them through the personal influence and munificence of this accomplished young sovereign. The following particulars regarding the fluctuations of his flattering malady, are supplied by the letter of a foreign contemporary: — " We have no news, except that the king, who had lately been in the most imminent danger from a most severe cough, which had already attacked his inside even to the very vitals, is now somewhat better, though it is hardly possible that his health will be entirely restored during the whole of this summer. Meanwhile, however, he has always been most favourably disposed toward religion, and is so at this time more than ever. May God preserve him to his church.":); In the middle of June, the fast sinking king struggled with the weakness of his fatal malady, so far as to vouch- safe an audience to the prince of English merchants, sir Thomas Gresham, who had been for the two preceding years his confidential agent in Flanders, for carrying out f Speed's Chronicle. X John TTtennovis to Bullinger, Letters printed by the Parker So- London, June 7th, 1553. Original ciety. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 41 some of his favourite schemes for the improvement of the woollen trade and the extension of commerce. So deeply interested had the youthful monarch been in the progress of these undertakings, that, not choosing to trust to the reports of subordinates, he had sent for Gresham by an express, to repair to him from Antwerp, and held personal conferences with him very many times. This was their last meeting, under deeply affecting circumstances, at which poor Edward, " ever generous and just, out of consideration of my great losses and charges and travails taken by me in these causes," says Gresham, " it pleased the king's majesty to give unto me one hundred pounds [a year] to me and my heirs for ever, three weeks before his death, and promised me, with his own mouth, that he would hereafter see me rewarded better, saying, " I should know that I served a king ; and so I did find him, for whose soul to God I daily pray."* It was at this period, when Edward was setting his house in order, and earnestly intent on giving stability to the infant reformation, to which he had proved so true a nursing father, that he was persuaded by Northumber- land, seconded by the instances of the influential clique of the sons and sons-in-law of that ambitious statesman by whom he was surrounded day and night, that it was his duty to appoint a protestant successor to the throne. That he did not do this by superseding the Roman Catholic heiress-presumptive, Mary, in favour of his other sister, Elizabeth, who made so strong a profession of his own creed, has always been regarded as an inscrutable mystery ; but the estrangement that had been created between the royal brother and sister on account of Elizabeth's encouragement of the addresses of the lord admiral, and all the ugly stories circulated at that time, had evidently never been removed. He had recently testified remarks of brotherly affection and care for Mary, * Memorial by sir Thomas Gresham, in Burgon's Life of sir Thomas Gresham, 416 EDWARD THE SIXTH. by settling upon her the royal castle and domain of Hertford and its appurtenances,* but there are no such evidences of his love and respect for Elizabeth. Once, and once only, had she been received at court since the delicate investigations that had taken place about her and the lord admiral, and that was not till after the fall of Somerset. The duke of Northumberland had since torn her mansion of Durham place from her, though she had defended her rights with a high hand, and protested her determination " to come and see the king her brother at Candlemas ; " but Northumberland traversed her inten- tion. Perhaps if she had courted, instead of defying this all powerful dictator, she would have had the offer of one of his sons for a consort and the regal succession, instead of his choosing lady Jane Gray, for the shadow under whose name he intended to reign over England. Edward was, however, induced to set aside the zealous protestant, Elizabeth, as well as the obstinate papist, Mary. A paper in his own autograph, written during the last stage of his fatal malady at Greenwich, is still in existence, entitled, " My device for the succession to the crown," June, 1553, f showing, that it was his desire to settle the crown on the Tudor line of Brandon, to the exclusion of his own sisters, and in direct contradiction of the king, his father's will, which had, in default of Edward's heirs direct, appointed Mary to succeed him, and in default* of her heirs, Elizabeth. Edward, in his device for the succession, first named lady " Frances, duchess of Suffolk, and her heirs male, provided they were born before his death ; " but Northumberland induced him to substitute " the lady Jane Gray and her heirs male, and failing these, the heirs male of her sisters and their heirs male, and after them, lady Margaret Clifford and her heirs male." In default of heirs male from any of these ladies, then the crown was to pass in the female line, going back {o the female posterity of lady Jane ; but so * Strype, 520. f MS. Petyt; Inner Temple Library, vol. 47, f. 3:7. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 417 bent was the king on the succession of males in preference to females, that a son of one of the younger sisters of Lady Jane, or even of lady Eleanor Clifford, was to have the priority before a daughter of lady Jane herself. A fruitful source this Tudor salique law would have proved for civil wars, if the line of Gray had been established on the throne. But the " king's device " was too shadowy a pretence for the exclusion of the right heirs to the succession, therefore Northumberland per- suaded his majesty to have it, as far as possible, legalized by a solemn document, drawn by the judges of the realm and other great law officers of the crown. " This device, first wholly written with his most gracious hand, was after copied out in his majesty's presence by his most high commandment, and confirmed with the subscription of his majesty's own hand, which was attached in six several places ; and then, by his highness, delivered to certain judges and other learned men, to be written in full order."* The narrative of sir Edward Montague, chief justice of Common Pleas, supplies the following particulars, the more interesting, because it introduces us into the presence of the dying sovereign for the last time. Mon- tague received a letter from the council on the 11th of June, " commanding him to attend his majesty at Green- wich the next day, and to bring with him sir John Baker, the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Justice Bromley, the attorney general, Griffin, and the solicitor general, Gosnold."f When they arrived, they were introduced into the presence of the king, with whom were the lord treasurer, the marquis of Northampton, sir John Gates, and one or two others of the council. The king then declared with his own lips, "how in his sickness he had considered the state of their lives, realm, and succession, * Literary Remains of king Ed- f Burnet's History of the Refor- ward VI. Printed for the Roxburgh mation. Sharon Turner's History of Club. Burnet; Turner; Tytler. England. 27 418 EDWARD THE SIXTH. which if he should depart without heirs of his body, would go to the lady Mary, who was unmarried, and might marry a stranger born, whereby the laws of this country and his proceedings in religion might be altered ; where- fore it was his pleasure that the crown should go to such persons as he had now appointed, in a bill of articles, signed with his own hand," which were then read, and his majesty commanded them "to make a book thereof with speed," (meaning to engross them in proper form on parchment.) Sir Edward Montague, and the other great law officials, made divers objections, " both to the uncertainty of the articles, and also, because his majesty's device was against the act of succession, which, being an unrepealed act of parliament, could not thus be set aside." Edward, however, in a peremptory tone, told them "it was his pleasure that they should draw the bill according to his device." This he bade them "take away with them, and make speed."* The lawyers, on consultation, proceeded to Ely house, where they told sir William Petre, principal secretary of state, in the presence of the council, " that not only would the execution of the device be treason after the king's death, but that the very drawing it during his life would be treason." The duke of Northumberland on being in- formed of their answer, burst into the council chamber in a great fury, called sir Edward Montague " traitor," and said " he would fight with any man in his shirt in that quarrel." The lawyers, standing to their opinion, were dismissed, but departed in great fear of their lives." Sir. Edward Montague and the other lawyers were then summoned to appear before the council at Greenwich, on the 15th of June. They were, on their arrival, conveyed into a chamber behind the dining room, where all the lords looked at them with strange countenances, for the purpose of intimidating them, and finally they were * Narrative of sir Edward Montague. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 419 brought before the king himself, the whole council being present.* The sick king, who had evidently been tutored and goaded by Northumberland, demanded with sharp words and angry countenance, "why they had not made his book according to his commandment ? " Sir Edward firmly, but respectfully, explained their reasons, as he had previously done to the council at Ely Place — adding, " that if the writings were made they would be of no force after his majesty's decease, while the statute of succession would remain in full force, because it could only be abro- gated by the same authority whereby it was established, that of parliament." " We mind to have a parliament shortly," replied the dying sovereign. "If that be your majesty's intention," rejoined Montague, "this may be deferred to the parliament, and all perils and dangers saved." " I will have it done now, and afterwards ratified by parliament," said the king, and sternly ordered them, in the tone of a genuine royal Tudor, " on their allegiance to obey his order." The chief justice and his learned brethren of the law actually trembled at the anger of the beardless stripling, whom they saw hovering on the threshold of eternity, and, " with sorrowful hearts and weeping eyes, promised compliance, f on condition of his granting them a full and ample pardon, under his great seal, for the offence against the statutes of the realm they should incur by their obedience." Then the king turned to Bromley, and asked what he would do ? Bromley promised to obey. "And what say you, sir John Baker?" enquired his majesty, turning to his chancellor of the exchequer," for you have said never a word to day." He, of course, succumbed to the royal will. Griffin, the attorney general, did not make his appearance. He had perceived that Edward's term of life was fast drawing to * Narrative of sir Edward Montague of the causes which induced him and his Law Brethren to draw the Patents altering the Royal Succession. f Ibid. 420 EDWARD THE SIXTH. a close, and hastened to the lawful inheritrix of the crown, to aid her with his information and advice at this momentous crisis. The ebbing sands of the dying king must have been rudely shaken by the excitement of the contest. Nothing, of course, could fee more injurious to an invalid in the last stage of pulmonary consumption, than to rouse him from the repose of a sick bed, and bring him into a crowded room to speak of state affairs with dissentient parties, where he was provoked to raise his voice in angry dis- cussion in order to enforce obedience to his will. His state is thus described by Noailles, the French ambas- sador, in a letter to his sovereign, dated June 16th, the day after the agitating scene just described : — " The illness of the king is such, that they have no more hopes ; but this is kept very secret. People think that he is every day mending and taking his walks in the garden, gallery, and park." * * * "I have learned from one of his physicians that he will never get beyond the month of August." Sir Edward Montague and the other great law officers having completed the document, or, as the king termed it, "the book," for settling the succession, were again summoned to Greenwich palace on the 21st of June, when it had passed the great seal and received the royal sign manual and the signatures of the council, and those of no less than nineteen peers and members of parliament.* Cranmer desired to be excused from signing, because this instrument was opposed to the will of Henry VIII., to which he had previously sworn. He doubted, moreover, whether Edward were not acting under constraint, and required to see him in private ; but this was not permitted, and, after some hesitation, he signed. f The day after the execution of this instrument, that vigilant reporter of the fluctuations of the dying king's malady, Noailles, communicates the following intelligence * Sir Edward Montague's. Narrative. f Strype. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 421 to his sovereign : " They really thought of losing the king last Tuesday or Wednesday, yet it is now pre- tended that his fever has left him, and he is going on favourably. " This rumour was only to deceive the king's sisters and to gain time, for he was now rapidly sinking. In the notes for his will, Edward left " to each of his sisters a thousand pounds a-year, in addition to their incomes ; and also, in the event of their marry- ing with the consent of the majority of his executors, ten thousand pounds apiece towards their nuptial portion.''* The last fatal change took place on the 6th of July. The morning of that day was ushered in by the most dreadful thunderstorm that had passed over Europe in the memory of man. England had its full share of it. The turbid state of the atmosphere probably hastened the young king's death. A few hours before he expired, darkness, as at midnight, came down upon the earth at noonday, the thunder crashed and lightnings blazed, trees were torn up by the roots, and bridges were swept away by the torrents. f But the fury of the storm disturbed not the tran- quillity of Edward's departing spirit. Dr. Owen, the physician who had been present at his birth, and two of his favourite gentlemen in waiting, sir Henry Sidney and sir Thomas Wroth, were the sole watchers beside the deathbed of this fairest and most promising of England's royal hopes. In that solemn hour, when hovering on the verge of eternity, the dying sovereign explained to Sidney, "that his zeal for the permanent establishment of the true religion of the Gospel in England, and hib desire to prevent a relapse into Popery, was the reason of his electing the lady Jane Gray to succeed him, in preference, to his sister Mary, not any personal ill-will * Strype. t Zurich Letter ; Julius de Rentianus to John ab Ulmins. 422 EDWARD THE SIXTH. or spleen unto that princess ; but out of pure love to his subjects, desiring that they might live and die in the Lord as he did."* Exhausted, perhaps, by this discourse, the royal youth long remained silent and motionless, with closed eyes, as if unconscious. At length he gave utter- ance to the following prayer: — " Lord God, free me, I beseech thee, out of this miserable and calamitous life, and receive me among the number of thine elect, if so it be thy pleasure, although not mine, but thine, be done. To thee, O Lord, do I commend my spirit. Thou knowest, Lord, how happy I shall be may I live with thee for ever, yet would I might live and be well for thine elect's sake, that I might faithfully serve thee. Lord God, bless thy people, and save thine inheritance ! Lord God, save thy people of England, defend the kingdom from Popery, and preserve thy true religion in it, that I and my people may bless thy holy name for thy son, Jesus Christ." f Then opening his eyes, which had previously been closed, and seeing Dr. Owen, his physician, (from whose report we have this 'prayer,) sitting by, he said, " Are you there ? I had not thought you had been so near." " Yea," replied the physician, " I heard your highness speak." " Indeed," said Edward, " I was making my prayer to God." About three hours after he suddenly exclaimed : "I am faint ; Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me, and receive my soul ! " Then, sinking on the bosom of sir Henry Sidney, who was tenderly supporting him, he gently breathed his last sigh, with those words on his lips. He expired about six o'clock in the evening, in the midst of the storm, aged fifteen years, eight months, and eight days. " This young prince/' records Sidney, in his Memories touching king Edward's death, "who died within my * Sir Henry Sidney's " Memories touching King Edward's Death." f Bishop Godwin's Annals of England, p. 150. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 423 arms, had almost caused death to penetrate his dart even into my own soul, for to behold him and how lamb- like he departed this life, and when his voice failed him, still he erected his eyes to heaven. "• Knox, who rarely speaks well of royalty, calls Edward VI. " the most godly and virtuous king that ever reigned in England, or elsewhere, these many years bypast, who departed the misery of this life the vith of July, 1553. The death of this prince," says he, "was lamented of all godly within Europe, for the graces given him of God, as well of nature as of erudition and godliness, passed the measure that accustomably useth to be given to other princes in their greatest perfection, and yet exceeded he not sixteen years of age. What gravity above age, what wisdom passing all expectation of man, and what dex- terity in answering all things proposed, were into that excellent prince, the ambassadors of all countries, yea, some that were mortal enemies of his realm, (among whom the queen dowager of Scotland was not the least,) can and did testify."f Two days after the king's death, the lords of the privy council sent for the lord mayor of London, sir George Barne, to come to Greenwich, and bring with him six or eight of his brethren the aldermen, and twelve merchants ; and when they arrived in the afternoon, acquainted them secretly " that the king died two days before, and whom he had appointed by his letters patent to succeed him in the government of the kingdom. £ " The body of king Edward remained unburied at * Clarendon MSS., British Mu- against the person of Edward nor seum, additional 9797, f. 142. Note invaded his realm ; all she did was to Literary Remains of Edward VI., to defend her daughter from the Roxburgh Club Book. unjust pursuit of those who strove t Mary of Lorraine. This princess to tear her from her arms, under was no enemy, either to Edward VI. pretence of wedding her to her little or to England. She neither plotted cousin. % Strype's Notes on sir John Hay ward's Life and Reign of King Edward VI. 424 EDWARD THE SIXTH. Greenwich during the ephemeral reign of his unfortu- nate successor, lady Jane Gray, and till his sister Mary was firmly established on the throne. Meantime, he was not forgotten by his loving subjects of the reformed faith, by whom his death was passionately deplored, and regarded as a punishment for the sins of the nation. Among others, the general opinion prevailed that his death had been caused by poison ; and one of the foreign divines then in England repeats the following marvellous fiction connected with his decease : — " That monster of a man, the duke of Northumberland, has been committing a horrible and portentous crime. A writer worthy of credit informs me ' that our excellent king has been most shamefully taken off by poison. His nails and hair fell off before his death ; so handsome as he was, he entirely lost all his good looks. The perpetrators of the murder were ashamed of showing the body of the deceased king to lie in state and be seen by the public, as is usual ; wherefore they buried him privately in a paddock adjoin- ing the palace, and substituted in his place, to be seen by the people, a youth not very unlike him whom they had murdered. One of the sons of the duke of Northumber- land acknowledges the fact.' "* This story was utterly devoid of truth. Two years afterwards, an impostor, or lunatic, named Edward Fetherstone, was taken into custody at Hampton Court, and committed to the Mar- shalsea, for giving himself out to be Edward VI. He was condemned to the pillory, f The long-delayed obsequies of the lamented young sovereign commenced on the 8th of August, just one month and two days after his death. "A majesty was set up for him in the chapel at Whitehall, and another at Westminster Abbey. His corpse was drawn in a chariot covered with cloth of gold, whereon lay his * John Bonrcher to Henry Bullinger. Original Letters, printed by the Parker Society, t Privy Council Records, EDWARD THE SIXTH. 425 effigies, with a crown of gold and a great collar, his sceptre in his hand, covered with his robes, the Garter about his leg, and his coat with embroidery of gold. The marquis of Winchester was chief mourner, and next him went twelve other great lords, mourners, six earls and six barons, going two and two. Archbishop Cranmer performed the office of burial according to the reformed way, and Day, bishop of Chichester, preached the funeral sermon."* While these rites were proceeding in Henry the Seventh's chapel, Westminster Abbey, queen Mary, with her ladies and Roman Catholic prelates and choir, were assisting in a solemn dirge for the repose of Edward's soul in the Chapel Eoyal within the Tower of London, with the usual ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Prayers for his soul were, by her desire, repeated during the whole of her reign, at the high altar in Henry the Seventh's chapel before which he was buried. This beautiful altar, of which we give an engraving from the drawing preserved of it in Sandford, was mistaken by that author, as well as Fuller and several other writers, for Edward's monument.! " He was interred," says Strype, "at the head of his grandfather, Henry VII., and resteth under an altar monument of brass gilt, curi- ously wrought, but without any inscription, though he well deserved it." Edward really never had a monu- ment erected for him ; but the design of the splendid altar of his grandfather's mortuary chapel, which was sur- mounted by the escutcheon of the first Tudor sovereign, with the Merlin dragon, J and Plantagenet lion supporting * Strype' 8 Notes to sir John he was buried (I will not say sacri- Hayward's Life and Reign of King ficed with an untimely death by the Edward VI., in White Kennet treachery of others), did formerly f " Pity it is," observes Fuller, supply the place of his tomb, which " that he who deserved best, should is since abolished, under the notion have no monument erected to his of superstition." memory. Indeed, a brass altar, of J The colours and emblems of excellent workmanship, under which English royalty had been somewhat 426 EDWARD THE SIXTH. the crown of England, might easily, after a few years, have led to that notion. Beyond the supporters were the two angels at the Holy sepulchre, one holding by the temple pillar, on which tradition affirms stood the cock St. Peter heard crow, the other grasps a cross of Calvary. The subject of the altar piece being the resurrection of our blessed Lord. The fact, that prayers had been fondly offered for the repose of Edward's soul by the order of his royal sister, queen Mary, during her short reign, afforded a ready excuse for Cromwell's puritan destructives, nearly a century later, to tear down and hurry into the melting pot, for the value of the metal, the only memorial that marked the resting place of the mortal remains of our first protestant king.* Sandford, the worthy illustrator of regal antiquities, changed since the accession of the Tudor dynasty, or, as Edward VI' s grandfather, Henry VII, perpetually averred, u the . restoration of the ancient British monarchy/' The glare of scarlet which we constantly note in the historical illuminations pertain- ing to the Plantagenets, was softened hy the Tudor colours of white and green, worn by these sovereigns at all court festivals and other pub- lic occassions, although scarlet was still the state colour in corona- tions and high national solemnities. As to the English supporters, one of the lions had to vacate his warder- ship on the side of the armorial scutcheon, being superseded by the dragon of Merlin, and, occasionally, the white greyhound of the Tudors. But a lion was usually predominant as a royal crest, when the crown was not placed there, and was often placed over the crown. The elegant Plantagenista, the bonny broom of the Plantagenets,had to give way to a stiff heraldic flower, called the " Tudor rose," composed of a red rose of only four leaves, within it was placed a smaller of white, which thus indicated the party badges of York and Lancaster united in the persons of the Tudor monarchs. As to the Plantagenet roses; the white, at least, were represented as wild single roses in the beautiful illumi- nated royal MS. Chronicle, once the property of Edward IV. * The design of this altar is attri- buted to the celebrated Torregiano, the contemporary of Michael Angelo, who designed the beautiful monument of Elizabeth of York, the consort of Henry VII., and came to England to complete his work under the superintendence of that king. This altar, of the same materials with the magnificent screen to the tomb, was in exquisite harmony with the whole. EDWARD THE SIXTH. 427 has preserved the design of this elegant work of art. Thus giving a practical exemplification of the classical apothegm, " And monuments themselves memorials need." Bronze Altar formerly in Henry VII. 's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, before which Edward VI. was buried. From Sandford. APPENDIX. LITURGIES OF EDWARD VI. To prevent, in future, diversity of practice, to enable the people at large to understand the public service, and more especially to suppress unscriptural tenets, and to introduce a purer formulary of worship, the king and council resolved that one Public Liturgy should be composed in English, by commissioners selected from the clergy, and that it should be ratified by parliament. The duties of the commissioners were, not to innovate, but to remove innovations. Whatever was sanctioned by Scripture and by primitive usage was to be retained, and nothing was to be rejected but that which savoured of superstition, or tended to encourage erroneous notions either of doctrine or religious worship : and it may here be remarked, that the greater part of all our Books of Common Prayer was composed from the very words of Scripture, and the entire of them founded upon Scripture. (1 Stephens, English Books of Common Prayer, Intro d. xliv.) The result of the labours of the Commissioners was embodied in Stat. 2 & 3 Edward VI, c. 1, which, after premising, that there had been several forms of service, and that of late there had been great difference in the administration of the sacraments, and other parts of divine worship ; and noticing, that in order to there being one uniform way over all the kingdom, the king, by the advice of the lord protector and his council, had appointed the archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet bishops, and other learned men, to consider and ponder upon the premises : and thereupon, having as well eye as respect to the most sincere and pure Christian religion taught by the Scripture, as to the usages in the primitive church, should " draw and make" one convenient order of common and open prayer and administration of the Sacraments to be used in England and Wales ; and that they, " by the aid of the Holy Ghost, had, with an uniform agreement " [of the compilers], concluded on, and set forth such order, in a book intituled, " The Book of the Common Prayer, and Administration of 430 APPENDIX. the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the use of the Church of England ;" wherefore, the lords spiritual and temporal and commons, having considered this hook, and the things that were altered or retained in it, enacted that all ministers in any cathedral or parish church should he hound "to say, and use the mattens, eyen song, celebration of the Lord's Supper, commonly called the mass, and administration of each of the sacraments, and all their common and open prayer, in such order and form as is mentioned in the same hook, and none other or otherwise.' ' The principal differences between the Prayer Book that was issued under this Statute, and the one that is now in use under Statute 13 & 14 Car. II., c. 4, are as follow : 1. The Morning and Evening Service began with the Lord's Prayer ; and the prayers for the king, royal family, and clergy, etc., were wanting at the end of it. The Litany was not ordered to be used on Sundays, and contained a petition to be delivered from the tyranny of the bishop of Rome. 2. Each Communion Service began with an introit, or psalm, sung as the officiating ministers were proceeding to the altar, a custom resembling that which is now observed in cathedral churches. In the praise given for the saints, the name of the Yirgin was especially mentioned. The sign of the .cross was used in the consecration of the elements ; and there was a prayer for sanctification with the Spirit and "Word of Cod. The words at the delivery of the elements were only the first clause of those now used; and water was be mixed with the wine. This service varied much from the one at present in use, and the Decalogue formed no part of it. 3. In the Baptismal Service, a form of exorcism, in order to expel the evil spirit from the child, was still used. The child was anointed, and invested with a white garment, or chrisom, to denote the inno- cency of the profession into which it was now admitted. The baptismal water was consecrated once a month, and the minister was directed to dip the child thrice. 4. The Catechism formed a part of the Office for Confirmation, and wanted the explanation of the sacraments at the end. 5. The Office for Confirmation consisted merely in the laying on of hands with prayers, without any promise on the part of the person confirmed, with which it now begins. The sign of the cross was still used in it. 6. In Matrimony, the sign of the cross was still retained, and money was given with the ring to the bride. 7. In the Yisitation of the Sick, allusion was made, from the Apocrypha, to Tobias and Sara, k prayer was added in case the sick person desired to be anointed, and he was then to be signed APPENDIX. 431 with the cross. And it was further directed, that the same form of absolution then used should be used in all private confessions. 8. In the Burial of the Dead, there were prayers for the person buried, and for the dead generally. A particular service was added for the celebration of the eucharist at funerals. 9. With regard to dresses, priests were ordered to wear the surplice in parish churches, and to add the hood when they offici- ated in cathedrals and colleges, or preached. And in the communion, the bishop was directed to wear, besides his rochet, a surplice or albe, with a cope or vestment, and to have a pastoral staff borne by himself or his chaplain. The officiating priest* was to wear a white albe, plain, with a ve'stment or cope, and the assisting ministers were to appear in albes with tunicles. 10. "With regard to Ceremonies used by the people, the following rubric occurred, but has been subsequently omittted: " As touching kneeling, crossing, holding up of hands, knocking upon the breast, and other gestures, they may be used or left, as every man's devotion serveth, without blame ;" and it may be observed, that the reasons there drawn up " why some ceremonies were abolished and some retained," and which were then placed at the end of the Prayer Book, now stand as a preface. (2 Short, Hist, of the Church, 310. 1 Stephens, English Book of Common Prayer ; Introd. liii — v.) The Second Peayee Book of Edwaed YI. was annexed and joined to Stat. 5 & 6, Edward YI., c. 1, and the principal alterations which were made by that Statute in the Prayer Book of 1549, were as follow : — The sentences, exhortation, confession, and absolution were now first appointed to be read in the beginning of morning and evening prayer. The versicles after the Lord's Prayer were put in the plural number, and Allelujah, appointed in the former book to be said from Easter to Trinity Sunday, was omitted. Some psalms after the lessons, some occasional prayers at the end of the litany, and various rubrics, were added. The Litany itself was now first removed from the end of the Communion Service, and appointed to be used on Sunday, as well as on Wednesday and Eriday. The people being observed to approach the Lord's table, without due solemnity and . preparation, the ten commandments were appointed to be read after the collect, in the beginning of the Communion Service, and a short petition to follow each, as a means, till discipline could be restored, of pre- paring the congregation to partake worthily of the holy sacrament. The words, " militant here in earth," were annexed to the preface of the prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church; and a new exhortation was composed to be used, when the people were negli- gent in coming to the Holy Communion. The offices of Ordination, 432 APPENDIX. likewise, which had been drawn up in 1550, were, with some few mutations, annexed to the Book. The next material alterations were the removal of a few ceremonies and usages retained in the First Book, some of which appear to have been at least superfluous. Such, in the office of Baptism were, the sign of the Cross made on the child's breast, the Exorcism, or the form of Abjuration, commanding the unclean and cursed spirit to depart ; the repetition of Immersion, first dipping the right side, then the ^left, then the face toward the font ; the putting upon the child his (or her) white vesture, commonly called the chrisom, with the address to the child on the occasion ; and the Anointing of the Child, with the Prayer for the Unction of the Holy Spirit. Such, likewise, were the sign of the cross in Confirmation, and extreme Unction at the Visitation of the Sick. In the Churching of Women, the part of the last Rubric, concerning the chrisom, was omitted, . and the former title, Purification of Women, was abandoned. Prayers for the dead, both in the Communion and Burial Offices, were expunged. The Order of the Communion Office, in general, was much altered ; and the arrangement of some parts of it was changed. In the title, the words ' ' commonly called the Mass " were expunged ; and the conclusion of the prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church, in which praise and thanks were given for the wonderful grace declared in the blessed Virgin and all the Saints, was omitted. In the prayer of Consecration, the petition for the sanctification of the Elements was probably thought capable of a construction favourable to the doctrine of transubstantiation ; and on this account the words, " Hear us merciful Father, we beseech thee ; and with thy Holy Spirit and Word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy most dearly-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who in the same night," etc., were changed into " Hear us, merciful Father, we beseech Thee ; and grant that we, receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy Institu- tion, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood, who in the same night," etc. The crossings made over the elements, at the repetition of the words li bless and sanctify," were laid aside. The rubric in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick> enjoining the indicative form of absolution to be used in private confessions, was left out, as was also that directing a little pure and clean water to be put to the wine in the chalice. In the First Book, the words spoken by the priest at the delivery of the bread are, " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was APPENDIX. 133 given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." In the Second Book the words are, "Take and eat this, in remem- brance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving." Again, when the cup is presented, the form in the First Book is, " The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life ;" but in the Second, " Drink this, in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful." The introit which was in the First Book of Edward VI. was rejected in the second, and it is not easy to assign either the true or % a good reason for the omission. If some additional prayers and occasional forms be excepted, no essential difference exists between the Prayer Books of 1552 and 1662. (1 Stephens, English Book of Common Prayer, Introd. Ixxvi — lxxxii.) The Manuscript Books of Common Prayer that were attached to Stat. 2 & 3, Edw. VI., c. 1, and Stat. 5 &6, Edw. VI. , c. 1, are not in existence. Mr. Stephens, Q,.C, likewise states that the Prayer Books which were annexed to Stat. 1, Eliz., c. 2, and Stat. 13 & 14, Car. II, c. 4, cannot be found among the Parliamentary Ptecords, and that the only Manuscript Book of Common Prayer which is known to be in existence, is the Manuscript Book belonging to the Irish Statute of Uniformity, 17 & 18 Car. II., e. 6. (1 Stephens, English Book of Common Prayer, Introd. clxxiv.) M, BURTON AND CO., PRINTERS IPSWICH. U 7k7 J 020 684 428