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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
<ifs'? I tell thee they have done so ! " Then raising his
voice to a shriller tone, he added, f " What, if by thine
own practices, William, I be brought to destruction. And
that I will make good on thy body-— traitor ! "
He struck his hand violently on the oaken council-board
before him. At that sound, as if it were a preconcerted
signal, the cry of "Traitor " was re-echoed in a shout of
many voices on the White Tower staircase .% The council-
chamber door was burst open, and the room suddenly
filled, fuller than it could well hold, with armed warriors,
led by sir Thomas Howard. §
* At the commands of Gloucester, marquis of Dorset, then in sanctuary
sir Thomas Howard invaded Jane with the queen his mother. Shore,
Shore's house, after the murder of the goldsmith, her citizen husband,
Hastings, seized all her goods, to died about the same time, and Lyman,
the value of three thousand marks, the usurper's solicitor-general, was
and dragged her before the Star on the eve of marriage with Jane,
chamber, where the Protector charged but a thundering letter from Richard
her with decaying his body by witch- III. and Star chamber, forbade the
craft, and conspiring with Hastings lawyer to think of such a match.
to assassinate him. Assuredly a very ( White Kennetfs Complete History.')
superfluous trouble, if she could effect Whensoever Jane was busy it was to
the first. The poor woman was. sent gain partisans for the house of York.
to one of the Tower prisons, under , ^ , , ~ ., . ,,"
, . , A , ,. ■ a -. • j ■ t Polydore Vergil. % More,
charge of witchcraft. After doing
penance in a white sheet with a § This fact leads to the supposition
lighted wax taper in her hand, that lord Howard, his father, had been
before the cross, near her hus- re-invested with the supreme com-
band's door, a goldsmith's ibhop mand of the Tower as lord constable.
in the city, Richard's Star chamber Brakenbury had been made lieu-
charged her with fascinating the tenant, a very different office.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 151
In the crowding and confusion that ensued, one of the
intruding men at arms aimed a murderous blow at the
head of lord Stanley, who expecting mischief from his
dream, was not altogether unprepared. He shrunk
under the stout oaken council table, which received
the fury of the blow, yet he was wounded. His head
bled profusely, but he was not slain. Every one
who had attended the privy council, that could get
out, rushed into the adjacent apartments,* and they
could have been no other than the royal chambers, and
the king's chapel.
The Protector turned to the astonished Hastings, say
ing, " Traitor, I arrest thee." " What me, my lord ? " ex-
claimed Hastings in the full confidence of favour. " Yea,
thee, traitor I" replied Gloucester. " By St. Paul, I will not
dine till I see thy head off ! " It was in vain that Hastings
demanded " Why ? " The men-at-arms, in whose custody
Gloucester left him, only advised him to make short
shrift, as my Lord Protector was impatient for his dinner.
However long the preparation for death might be requi-
site for a partisan- chief, who had fought through all the
battles of the victorious White Eose, Hastings had no
choice. He took a priest, the first that came to hand,
and when his confession was done, he was hurried forth
to the green, before the church at the Tower of St. Peter's.
Opposite to it, lying on the green, was a felled tree, on the
trunk of which he was made to bow down his head.
He was decapitated at one blow, and before night his
body was sent off to Windsor Castle, where it was
buried at the feet of his beloved master, Edward IV.
Probably this was his last request to the priest of the
Tower — and the Lord Protector was very courteous in
having his victims' wishes of that kind duly observed, f
* Speed ; Holinshed. the superstition of the period, for the
f Sir Harris Nicolas* Excerpta. repose of his soul, having ordered
Hastings, in his will, made a few " that a thousand priests should say
months previously to his tragic death , and sing a thousand placehos and
had provided largely, according to diriges, and a thousand masses, for his
152 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
And where was the young king, during this hasty
tragedy ? It is certain he might have witnessed it from
his private chapel, or from its staircase, or from his walk on
the leads of the White Tower, or from either of the small
mirador towers, which are at each corner. When correct
dates are collated with facts, it will be found that the king
was not that day in the Tower. He had been previously
taken by his uncle to Ely House, to be out of the way,
while the preconcerted drama was played in the Tower
council room. For he is mentioned as there soon after,
waiting to receive his brother Richard, duke of York.
Strenuous efforts were then making at Westminster
Abbey, for inducing the queen-mother to surrender her
youngest son, under the pretence of walking at the
coronation.
The bishop of Ely was detained at the Tower, among
the numerous prisoners captured that day, for the Tower
prisons were filled with the unfortunate members of
that notable privy council, among whom may be reckoned
the wounded lord Stanley.*
Richard excused the murder of Hastings by publishing
a proclamation two hours afterwards, setting forth that
Hastings had conspired with others to have slain him and
Buckingham that morning while sitting in council, and
then to have taken upon themselves to rule the king and
realm at their pleasure. But the document, it was ob-
served, was so fairly written that it must have been
previously prepared, f
Sir Thomas Howard, heir to the dukedom of Norfolk,
had, with his men-at-arms, been exceedingly busy in the
execution of Hastings. Certainly, he and his father had
soul, each priest to receive sixpence was finally quit with like manner of
for his reward." Truly, he expected death. Would God that such kind
them to do a great deal of hard work of examples might once be a learn-
for a very little money. He, ob- ing for them who think it lawful to
serves Polydore Vergil impressively, do whatsoever liketh them. ,,
" was one of the smiters of prince * More ; Hall ; Holinshed.
Edward, King Henry VI. 's son, who f Sir T. More.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 153
been ungratefully wronged by Edward IV., and the
queen's party, although it was not chivalric to wreak his
vengeance on the young princes ; yet he knew full well
there was small chance of the Norfolk dukedom going to
its legal owners, while Edward V. or his brother reigned
in prosperity.
Another privy council — and this time formed of Glou-
cester's partisans — was summoned next day or the day
afterwards, to meet in the Star chamber in the immediate
vicinity of the queen's retreat. Like a scene in some grand
tragedy, Westminster Hall was the neutral ground where
the negotiators passed to and fro with messages from the
Jerusalem chamber to the Star chamber, in which the con-
troversy was warm as to whether the heir-presumptive
should not be dragged out by main force from the arms
of the widow -queen, his desolate mother.* Cardinal
Bourchier wished to avoid such an outrage on the
church privileges, and he and lord Howard, sir Thomas
Howard, and various other councillors, went into the
Jerusalem chamber and argued with the queen. The
controversy lasted more than two days. Among other
reasons, it was urged on the queen that Edward V.
needed his brother as a playfellow. She replied,
" Troweth the Protector (ah ! pray God that he prove a
protector) that the king doth need a play-fellow ? Can
none be found to play with the king but only his brother,
who hath no wish to play because of sickness ? As though
princes, young as they be, could not play without their
peers ; or children could not play but with their kindred,
with whom, for the most part, they agree worse than with
strangers. "f Sending for her son Richard, duke of York,
she took him by the hand, saying, " Lo, here is this gentle-
man, whom I doubt not would be safely kept by me, were I
permitted. The desire of a crown knoweth no kindred.
Brothers have been brothers' bane, therefore may nephews
be sure of the uncle ? Each of the children are safe while
* Sir T. More. f Polydore Vergil.
154 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
they be asunder. Notwithstanding, I here deliver him,
and his brother the king's life with him, and of ye I shall
require them before God and man. Faithful ye be, I wot
well, and power ye have if ye list to keep both safe !
But if ye think I fear too much, beware that ye fear not
too little." And therewithal she continued to the child,
" Farewell, mine own sweet son ! God send you good
keeping ! Let me kiss you once more ere you go, for
God knoweth when we shall ever kiss again ! " And
therewith she kissed and blessed him, then turned her
back and wept, leaving the innocent child weeping as fast
as herself.*
Cardinal Bourchier and lord Howard led away the
hapless boy from his woeful mother f into Westminster
Hall, in the midst of which waited and watched
the duke of Buckingham. The' Lord Protector was
planted at the Star chamber door, J expecting his prey.
That remarkable historical room opened into West-
minster Hall, as expressly noted by a contemporary.
Gloucester received his little kinsman with many loving
words, and tender embraces. " Now welcome, my lord/'
he exclaimed, "with all my heart." The poor little
victim was taken by the false Protector to Edward V.,
who was expecting him, at Ely House, Holborn. But,
according to contemporary authorities^ he was lodged
in the Tower the same night, in order to be a comfort to
* Sir T. More. He speaks of her f Sir T. More.
eloquence. No wonder. His father, + simon Stmworth , s letter , dated
who .was then sitting m Westminster Monda June 23rd U83 . Sir H .
Hall, must have been eye witness, it *;
. .. /i ., . /» i JNicoias JiiXcerpta.
not ear witness of this scene ot real r
life, which, though omitted by Shakes- § Written June 2 1st, 1483. The
peare, could scarcely have been im- testimony of this important witness
proved even by his genius. At the is so little known that we here quote
same time the queen surrendered his brief notice of what he saw—
the great seal of her late husband, "On Monday last, June 16th, was
left with her by the archbishop of great press of armed men at West-
York, according to sir Thomas More, minster, when was the delivery of the
and a lord chancellor ought to be good duke of York to my lord cardinal,
authority concerning a great seal. my lord chancellor, and many other, '
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 155
the king. It is probable, then, that the procession called
at Ely House for the young king, for it is certain they
were in the Tower five days afterwards.
On the evening of the memorable June 16, proclama-
tion was made that Edward V.'s coronation was put off*
— it might have added for ever.
Wheresoever the royal children first met, it is certain
that they were almost, if not complete, strangers to each
other. Little York was no playfellow or companion for
his highly educated brother ; and, indeed, if the only
authority that mentions them in this part of their history
speaks true, he must have been a considerable plague to
him. The poor child was ill, and had always been much
spoiled by his mother. He distracted the young king with
his demands for her. There was full four years difference
between their ages. Yet all traditions, whether dramatic
or metrical, join in affirming that the hapless child was
treated with tenderness by Edward V., who is represented
by lord Sackvillef as speaking thus : —
" Now little York, in vain lamenting, wept
That from our mother's presence he was kept ;
Oft, woeful child, thus hast thou questioned me —
* Where is my mother ? ' and when 1 for woe
Have turned my back, and could not answer thee,
With tears again thou wouldest ask to know !
Saying, ' I would unto my mother go !
But woe, alas ! what comfort could I give thee ?
When of all means, our uncle did deprive me."
The signs of the times spoke in a peculiar language
to the young king, who, with his precocity of intellect,
could not fail to understand it correctly. The natural
lords' temporal. The duke of York Tower, where he is. Blessed be
was met by the duke of Buckingham mercy ! " Continuator of Croyland
in the midst of Westminster Hall. likewise mentions the armed bands
The duke of Gloucester received him and the lodgment in the Tower the
at the Star chamber door with many same night.
loving words. And so departed with * Speed ; Hall.
him and my lord cardinal to the f Mirrour for Magistrates.
156 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
result of the arrests and imprisonments of most of those
who were authorised to do him service at his coronation,
was this, that such panic seized those remaining about
him, that every day some attendant or other absconded
from his duty, until the king and his brother, though
still in the royal apartments of the White Tower, were
left almost alone.* While the misfortunes of Edward Y.
were approaching this climax, his protector was playing
out the rest of his game on the arena of London city.
Richard of Gloucester had no hereditary claims ; he
was the youngest branch of the stem of York. Bucking-
ham, however, resolved that what was needed in right
should be made up by popular election. He busied
himself among the citizens, whom he hoped, by the sure
means of calumny, he could induce to reject the young
king, and raise Eichard by public outcry to the throne.
The London citizens were much led by popular
preachers. The favourite of that day was an afternoon
lecturer at St. Paul's Cross, Dr. Shaw, brother to the
reigning lord mayor, sir Edmund Shaw, who was a great
partisan of the Gloucester revolution. Dr. Shaw had
been confessor to Edward IY., he was newly appointed to
the care of the Protector's conscience,! and truly it may''
be said that neither of Dr. Shaw's preferments were
sinecures. To this political preacher was confided the task
of publicly impugning the title of the young monarch,
Edward Y., in his open air pulpit. It is well known that
Dr. Shaw took for his text a proverb from the Yulgate,
as usual in Latin, which he explained in English, to his
audience, as meaning " Bastard slips take no deep root."
He then proceeded to attack the legitimacy of the children
of Edward IY., reminding his hearers of the late king's
marriage (in childhood), with lady Eleanor Butler, J which
* Sir Thomas More.
f Thomas Heywood, City Remem- J In the curious Friar's Genealogy,
brancer, who wrote within memory it names him as married at six or
of man. seven years old.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 157
had not even then been dissolved. Likewise, his broken
troth-plight with lady Elizabeth Lacy, before he wedded
Elizabeth AVoodville. Like an advocate at the bar, the
earnest confessor thought he could not do too much for
his client. Whether out of spite to her person, or
ignorance of the secret alliance between Richard of
Gloucester and his duchess-mother, the popular preacher
proceeded to attack the legitimacy of Edward IV., and
the duke of Clarence. The late king, he declared, was
always called in his own family the son of an archer ;
Clarence was no better ; Eichard of Gloucester was the
only son of the three that resembled the late duke of
York, for he was little in stature, with a short face. No
great personal compliment to that princely warrior. The
citizens, however they might listen eagerly to this mass
of court scandal (which was not much wickeder than
most other political sermons), were indignant at the attack
on their young sovereign's title, and manifested their dis-
pleasure in such terms, that Dr. Shaw took refuge in his
convent of St. Bartholomew,* from whence he never
again shewed his face, for he was withal bitterly re-
proached by his own party, for his attack on the honour
of Cicely, duchess of York. The vexation of his blunder
and failure affected his health ; he became hypochon-
driacal, imagining that the spectre of his learned tutor,
father Anselm, of St. Bartholomew, always at meals
stood by his side, holding a lighted torch, and forbidding
him to eat. Thus Dr. Shaw, in a very short time, starved
him self to death. f
The tissue of mistakes and malice that Dr. Shaw pro-
nounced as a sermon, at St. Paul's Cross, proved after all
Richard's stepping stone to the throne. Worldly persons,
both in court and city, now could tell what this unpro-
tecting Protector would be at. For this uncle, this
defender, as his hapless victim had to term him under
* Heywood. Shaw had been appointed confessor to
t Hall; Hey wood declares Dr. Richard.
158 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
autograph, had kept slyly observant, with much humility,
in the back ground, leaving Buckingham to do all the
dirty work of impugning the title of the young kin^
and superseding him.
Very dirty work it was, for, after all Buckingham's lon^
speeches at Crosby House and Guildhall, recommending
unanimity in lifting Richard to the throne, by the farce
of free election; the London citizens were slow and
sullen.* Their lord mayor, sir Edmund Shaw, Gloucester's
great partisan, however, pronounced them quiescent, and
their election not only free, but without minority. Of
course, it was free ; not a spur jingled on the pavement ;
neither sword nor armour clanked on the causeways.
Yet the Londoners well knew there was an army, not
far off, composed of the late ferocious invaders of Scotland.
These bands, recently commanded by Gloucester, it was
commonly current, had turned their faces southward,
ready to perform martial law, and seize and sack if the
city was malcontent.
Sir Eichard Eatcliffe was one of the leaders of the
northern army, a vice- constable of England, on commission
for executing persons at the dictation of any dictator
strong enough to command his services. Thus were the
murders done at Pontefract, on the commencement
of his southern march, June the 23rd or 24th, f without
judge or jury, or even accusation. Lord Sackville has
given the scene in his fine metrical chronicle : J lord Rivers
is supposed to speak —
'''"We closely were conveyed
From jail to jail, northward, we knew not whither :
After awhile we had asunder staid,
"We met at fatal Pontefract together.
My nephew, Eichard, §. would not be content
To leave his life, because he wist not why.
* Sir T. More, Hall, Holinshed J Mirrour for Magistrates.
f Sharon Turner ; sir Harris
Nicolas' Excerpta ; lord Rivers' will § Lord Richard Gray, half brother
is dated 23rd Juue, 1483. to Edward Y.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 159
Good gentlemen, he never harm had meant,
Therefore, he asked, ' Wherefore he should die ? '
The priest, his ghostly father did reply,
With streaming tears, ' I know one woeful cause,
This realm hath neither righteous lord nor laws.'
Sir Thomas Yaughan chafing, cried still,
1 This tyrant Gloucester is the graceless G
That will his brother's children beastly kill.' "
The faithful chamberlain here mentions one of the
mysterious sayings that had agitated the interior of the
English court for more than half that century. It is
familiar to all readers of Shakespeare in his Richard III.
But it was a prophecy that had disturbed the peace of
two branches of the Plantagenets. It had first been
promulgated by Henry V., who, next to Edward IV., was
the greatest magic seeker that ever sat on the English
throne. Whosoever had thrown this ball of discord into
the 15th century had endowed it with ambiguity worthy
of the ancient oracles. No one could agree whether the
guilty initial Gr., brother to one king and uncle to another,
meant to indicate name or title. Humphrey, duke of
Gloucester, had in his time suffered much inconvenience
from the saying, during the minor reign of his nephew,
Henry VI. Yet as duke Humphrey was not the killing, but
the killed, Edward IV., without any great exercise of logic
in his deductions, came to the conclusion that G — indi-
cated somebody else. Edward IV. deeply pondered on
the case, in a -book of "reason," as the literature of this
most unreasonable study was then called. He was once
standing in an oriel window at Westminster Palace, in-
tent on his magical calculations ; his little son Edward
was playing near with his sisters. Suddenly the king
came to some conclusion, for he lifted his daughter Eliza-
beth on the dais, and showing her to his courtiers, said,
" It will not be my boy Edward, but this fair and gracious
girl, that will wear the crown of England."* Yet he
* Song of the lady Bessey.
160 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
was at most times very solicitous for the prosperous
succession of his sons, and some magician at his court,
perhaps Hogan, revived the prophecy that they would
be destroyed by an uncle whose name began with Gr.
Edward IV.'s health broke up, and he knew his son would
have a long minority. Both his brothers were afflicted
with this alarming initial. The christian name of George
of Clarence began with it, and the title of Gloucester.
George had played an inimical and most ungrateful part
against his royal brother. Gloucester was a title which
Edward IV. himself had given to his younger brother
Richard, who had always proved most loyal to him.
Therefore, Edward IV.'s vengeance fell upon George, who
was, as he truly pleaded, innocent of the doings of his
sponsors. But the queen, Rivers, and all her family, had
a more reasonable hatred to Clarence, for the homicide
committed by his partisans on their father, the first earl
of Rivers. Such was the influence that a little lame
prediction exercised on political history, 1483.
The avant couriers of the northern army brought to
the Star chamber, where sat the king- elect, Richard of
Gloucester, in council, the news of its approach. Doubt-
less, the important tidings of the executions at Ponte-
fract, by sir Richard Ratcliffe, formed part of the tidings.
Before noon, Richard crossed Westminster Hall, and took
his seat, "meekly," on the King's Bench, from whence he
made his first royal speech, promising the lawyers halcyon
days under his ensuing reign* Hogan, the conjuror, had
crept out of Sanctuary to see what was going on in the
hall ; he was discovered and seized upon. Although
Richard was his great enemy, he shook hands with him
and: spoke to him in a friendly manner. t Possibly
* Sir T. More. His father the Hogan was probably one of the queen's
judge was there. suite in sanctuary ; after all, perhaps,
fHall. Sir T. More calls him a spy of Richard's — his disrespecta-
Hog, another Fag. Sharon Turner ble profession, and this piece of act-
gives his right name and profession. ing looks like it.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 1G1
to secure a good prediction for his reign. From
Westminster Hall Richard walked with great humility
in his aspect to Westminster Abbey, bowing low to
every one he met. To be sure, he had not far to
go. The abbot met him with St. Edward's sceptre.
Richard offered at the altar and held the sceptre while
the choir sung the Te Deum. It was chanted very
faintly. The mother of Edward V., then guest in the
'abbot's apartments adjacent, was only too likely to be
witness of the whole proceeding. The same afternoon the
usurper was formally proclaimed at Baynard's Castle, (his
mother's residence,) as Richard III., king of England and
France, and lord of Ireland. Edward V. must have heard,
in the demesne of the Tower, his uncle thus proclaimed,
which announced to him his own deposition.
The new king's army from the north, amounting to
nine thousand foot soldiers, poured into London, through
Bishopsgate, June 27th, escorting Richard III.'s queen
and only son, Edward of Gloucester, a boy of eight or
nine years of age, rival to the unfortunate Edward V.
The citizens were extremely disgusted with these northern
bands. They declared them to be the most ill-behaved,
ill-looking, and what is still more displeasing to the
English, the most ill-dressed set of vagabonds they ever
saw.
Every preparation, excepting some cookery, was ready
for the coronation, only the name and person of the prin-
cipal performer on the grand scene was changed, and
there were the popular additions of a queen and prince of
Wales. The coronation robes, long and ample as they
were, served for the uncle as well as the deposed nephew.
A shallow historical doubter,* who, out of sheer con-
tradiction, advocates the character of Richard III. on
the strength of a tailor's bill, has ventured to assert
that young Edward V. was so kindly treated by his
uncle, that he actually walked at his coronation.
* Walpole in his "Historic Doubts/ '
11
162 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
In the Wardrobe accounts for 1483, is an entry to the
following effect : —
" Lobd Edward, son to the late King Edward IV., for his
Apparel and Array.
u A short gown of crimson cloth of gold lined with black velvet,
a long gown of crimson cloth of gold lined with green damask, a
donblet and stomacher of black satin, a bonnet of purple velvet, nine
horse harnesses and nine saddle housings of blue velvet, and magni-
ficent apparel for his henchmen and pages."
Nothing is proved by the above account, excepting that
certain clothes had been made for Edward of York some-
time in the spring of 1483. Though Edward V.'s uncle
was wicked enough to kill him and seize his kingdom, he
was not so ungentlemanlike as to wrong the tailor who
worked for him of his bill, but passed it with the usual
accounts, especially as the court tailor was not imprudent
enough to give offence by ascribing royalty to his deposed
employer. Richard of Gloucester did not displace the
officers of the Wardrobe at his accession. Piers Curteys,
master of the Wardrobe to Edward IV. and Edward V.,
still dominated over the royal robes, cassocks, and other
garmenture of English royalty, lineal or elective, and the
yeomen of the Wardrobe performed their stitchery under
his jurisdiction and inspection. The very predominance of
black among these garments proves that they were not
for coronation wear by a king or any one else. The kings
of England wore mourning very sparingly, and only in
household dress. We have shown that at Edward V.'s
London entry he was robed in blue velvet,* when his
household officers and relatives were in the depth of their
mourning for his royal sire. No one dared appear in a
robe lined with black velvet, a black satin doublet, and
stomacher at Eichard III/s coronation. As for the Ward-
robe accounts, Piers Curteys has made a charge for alter-
* The ancient colour of the Garter, It was changed at the revolution
blue, was the beautiful azure, the of 1688 to the present colour,
colour of the royal robes of France.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 163
ing the garments provided for the young king's little
pages and henchmen into larger ones for Richard IIL's
full grown attendants.*
The usurper not only paid this bill for clothes
supplied to his deposed nephew, but he liquidated the cost
incurred for game provided by the royal purveyor and
intended to be eaten at Edward's coronation; so very
near was that ceremony brought on. The base poulterer
gave it in as incurred by " Edward, bastard son of the
late king."f
The accession of Richard III. is reckoned from June
26th. From Westminster Palace, July 4th, Richard III.
embarked on the Thames at the palace stairs, often called
" St. Edward's bridge," with his wife and son, in grand
water procession to the Tower. The day after, he created
his son prince of Wales, and dubbed seventeen knights of
the Bath. John, lord Howard, was created, or rather
received as his right, the dukedom of Norfolk ; his son,
Thomas Howard, was entitled earl of Surrey. J The same
afternoon, of July 5th, Richard made his solemn pro-
cession through the city to Westminster. Buckingham
declared himself sick, and unable to join it. ■ The story
went that he had already fallen out with the new-elected
king.
A politic move, worthy of notice, was played by
Richard III. Many of those who had to perform feudal
service at his nephew's coronation, had been caught and
caged in the circling fortresses of the Tower, on the fatal
council day, June 13th. Every one whom he thought
loved their lives and lands better than Edward V. were
* Still extant in the Harleian col- Thomas Carter, wax chandler, John
lection, British Museum. MS. No. Short, butcher, and other of London
433, fol. 57, B., is an entry of a aforesaid, the sum of £200 for vitail,
writ of privy seal, directed to John spended in the house of Edward V.
Hayes, commanding him "to content pretending to be king"
John Lomplorn of London, grocer ; f Dr. Milles ; Archseologia.
J Sir T. More. »
164 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
brought with their insignia of service to his own coronation
procession, when it was forming at Westminster Hall, and
told to take their proper places. So the ceremony went on,
and the bewildered prisoners, who had been kept in igno-
rance, performed their devoirs by surprise, and took their
oaths without protesting against the change of kings.*
Richard III. gained by previous treaty, the lord steward
Stanley, though scarcely healed from the bitter blow
luckily shared by the old oak council-table in the Tower.
Likewise Edward V/s master of the horse, lord Lyle.f
The usurper still kept Morton, bishop of Ely, in re-
straint ; but he gave him into keeping of his confederate,
Buckingham, in whose conduct a great change was per-
ceptible, almost from the hour he became the bishop's
custodian.
Buckingham took his place at Richard's III/s coronation,
but it was observed he turned away his face when the
crown was set on the head of his partner in iniquity.
The king and he had already quarrelled, Buckingham
having demanded the dukedom of Lancaster as well
as the earldom of Hereford. Richard had already paid
him an immense sum from Edward IV/s ill-gotten
hoards, for his aid, with which cash Buckingham had
decked his person in the richest robe at the ceremony,
worked all over with golden wheels, and his retainers with
" Stafford knot " badges, swarmed in the abbey likewise,
very gaily attired. J
• So closed the reign of Edward of the Sanctuary.
" Short is the step," observed one of his unfortunate
successors, " between the deposition of a monarch and
his grave." Edward V., the child of early promise, the
pupil and relative of one of our early authors and patrons
of literature, had not listened in vain to the "dictes," and
" faites," the readings with which his temperate dinners
* Sir T. More dates the liberation f Ibid. Brother to Queen Eliza-
of lord Stanley from June 28, the day beth Woodville's first husband,
the northern army entered London. J Hall ; sir T. More.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 165
had been seasoned at Ludlow. The royal boy anticipated
the above historical aphorism. For he pathetically ob-
served, in reply to the announcement of the coronation of
Richard III., "My uncle might take my crown if he
would leave us our lives. "*
The autograph of Edward V., from one of his privy
seal documents, executed at the Tower, countersigned
by his false protector, we present beneath. It is en-
graved from the specimen exhibited to the public among
the autographs of our sovereigns, with those called
choice MSS., under glass frames in the British Museum.
* Sir T. More ; Hall.
See page 142.
EDWAED THE FIFTH.
CHAPTER III.
Edward V.'s place of detention after deposition — Popular tradition confirmed
by recent discovery — Imprisonment in the Wakefield Tower — Depression
of the young king — Richard III. on progress at "Warwick — Sends from
thence John Greene to order his nephews' murder— Sir R. Brakenbury's
refusal— Richard's interview in the pallet chamber at Warwick Castle with
his master-of-horse, sir J. Tyrell — Richard gives Tyrell command of the
Tower — Tyrell leaves Warwick Castle with his assistants, Forest and
Dighton— Scene from Heywood, of Edward's life in the Tower — Deaths of
Edward V. and young duke of York — Burial— Richard III. informed
of the murders — His satisfaction — Objects to unhallowed burial — Corpses
raised — Delivered to priest of the Tower — He inters them — Dies day
after — Memory of place of interment lost— Queen-mother informed of
their deaths — Her agonies and maledictions — Death of Richard III.'s only
son — Enormous grants to sir J. Tyrell, Forest, etc. — Grief of Elizabeth of
York for deaths of her brothers— Her reported speech after the fall of
her uncle at Bos worth — Her kindness to Edward V.'s nurse — Pictorial
relics of Edward V. — Description of his portrait — Accidental discovery
of the remains of the murdered princes — Their burial by Charles II.' s
commands in Westminster Abbey — Monument and inscription — Present
state of the royal apartments in the Tower — Wakefield Tower — (Tail-
piece).
The question has often been eagerly asked by the readers
of history, yet not quite so readily answered, " Where
were the disinherited sons of Edward IV. while the revo-
lution that raised their uncle to the throne was in course
of accomplishment? Where were they when Richard
III. came in state to the Tower of London, creating
his son prince of Wales, his friend duke of Norfolk, and
dubbing knights of the Bath ? "
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 167
The White palatial tower does not cover a very exten-
sive ground plot, nor does it present in its upper floors
wide ranges of chambers. The Red King had built his
Norman donjon more as a bridle to his turbulent Lon-
doners, when incensed at the imposition of taxes for
foreign military sovereigns, than as a pleasure palace to
disport himself withal. The king's lodging rooms at the
Tower of London must have been small indeed for such
an influx of court officials as Richard III. had about
him, when the above high ceremonials were performed.
It is utterly impossible to suppose that Richard shared
the alcoves that mark the whereabouts of his Norman
predecessor's bedchamber, with such conscience-stirring
partners. Dangerous, too, would have been the presence
of the deposed young monarch with some of his late
lieges, who, so far from participating in his deposition,
had only just been let out of the durance incurred through
their love for him. That Edward Y. and little York were
cleared out of the royal lodging suite at the Tower to
make room for the state sojourn of their false uncle,
previous to his city procession towards Westminster, no
one can doubt ; but who has ever answered the natural
query — where were they conveyed ? *
* That they were not slain before by partiality to Henry VII., are
the coronation of their uncle, Eichard surely not aware of the fact how
III. , a most efficient witness testifies. highly he offended that prince by
Sir Thomas More wrote his chronicle opposing the demand of a subsidy
Lives of Edward V. and Eichard III. and three-fifteenths for the marriage
only twenty-five years after the of his eldest daughter to the king of
events. He was in existence when Scotland, by pronouncing it to be
they happened. His father, sir John * ' exorbitant/' and with such strength
More, was a leading man in the realm of reasoning that it was negatived,
at the very period, one of the judges More was little more than one and
of the court of King's Bench, and he twenty years old when he gave this
himself gives us the depositions of instance — almost the first on record —
those who did the homicides. The of independent conduct in parlia-
paradoxical authors who have at- ment, in opposition to the sovereign,
tempted to impugn the historical When Mr. Tyler, one of the king's
testimony of sir Thomas More, under privy council, hastened to report to
the absurd idea that it was biassed the sovereign " that all his purpose
168
EDWARD THE FIFTH.
All chroniclers mention the fact that Edward "V. and
his brother were together for some time at Ely House ;
none agree as to time. But the irrefragable dates on state
documents, concealed from them but open to us, prove that
the hapless boys could not have met, at the very earliest,
until June 16th. Then sir Thomas More and Hall affirm
that Edward V; was at Ely House/awaiting his brother.
Yet the master of it, Morton, bishop of Ely, had been
arrested June 13th (when Hastings was executed), and
was incarcerated in one of the Tower prisons. His house,
therefore, was vacant, and at the usurper's disposal.
Let us consider how singularly well Ely House, Holborn,
was adapted as a place of detention for the hapless boys
during the coronation of their uncle. It was a strong
castellated palace outside the western London wall, situ-
ated on the present site of Ely Place, Hatton Garden. It
was lonely and isolated, embosomed in rich groves and
gardens, which sloped down the eastern side of Holborn
Hill to the river Flete. And that river was navigable
for ships as well as boats, up to Holborn Bars.* Embark-
ation could take place in boats or barges, at the bishop's
own garden gate, on the river Flete, and a few strokes of
the oar sent passengers into the silent highway of the
broad flowing Thames, whether bound for Westminster
Palace on the right hand, or to the ominous destination of
Traitor's Gate, Tower of London, on the left. From close
had been defeated by a beardless England altogether, so much bad bis
boy," Henry was so exasperated that opposition to the king's wishes marred
he ordered sir John More, the un~ his fortunes. How, then, can it be
offending father of the conscientious pretended that a man who gave so
young burgess, to be arrested and many noble evidences of his honesty,
sent to the Tower, on some frivolous both in life and death, would conde-
pretext, and kept him there till he scend to violate the sacred duties of
was fain to purchase his liberty by an historian ?
submitting to an illegal fine of £100. * See Knight's u London." As
Young More receiving a hint that his late as the reign of Charles II. there
life was in danger, retired for a are engravings, showing the stream
while from the public arena, and of the Flete open, with ships upon
even entertained thoughts of leaving it, and four bridges beyond.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 169
study of the case wo como to the conclusion that the
captive children were carefully guarded at Ely House,
Holborn, during the pageant of their uncle's state visit
at the Tower. And that after King Richard and his
train left the Tower for the coronation at Westminster,
Edward V. and little York were privately brought back,
under shadow of night/ landed at the Water or Traitor's
Gate, and forthwith enclosed in the adjacent Wakefield
Tower,* a prison used both before and afterwards for
detaining unfortunate individuals connected with the royal
family of England.
The Wakefield Tower and its adjacent fortifications,
had been strengthened and improved with great cost and
care, by Edward IV. Within its walls, he had permitted,
if not ordered, the last Lancastrian king to be butchered.
It was now a cage for the hopeless incarceration of his
own heirs. Skelton, a poet of wonderful but rugged
power, whose youth was contemporary with the last year
of this warrior king, thus makes him exclaim : —
1 1 1 made the Tower strong, I wist not why,
Knew not for whom."
These words occur in a monologue of uncommon
grandeur, which the poet represents the fourth Edward
as addressing to himself, when his soul, after death, was
enlightened as to the results of his deeds in the flesh.
The oral tradition of the people has clung with
tenacity to this locality as the scene of the murders
"of the young princes in the Tower." The Portcullis
gateway, under which all visitors to the Tower of London
are obliged to pass, is still called the Bloody Tower;
although it is not a tower in form. Yet it is an adjunct
to the Wakefield Tower, which is built against it, and
which deserved and received that sanguine epithet, before
the deaths of the hapless sons of the fourth Edward, f
* Old Chronicle, edited by Hut- f Sir Harris Nicolas, with whom
ton, in his " History of Bosworth we have often discussed these curious
Field." points.
170 EDWATtD THE FIFTH.
In the two last centuries great perplexity existed in
regard to this tradition, because the interior of the Port-
cullis gateway seemed perfectly isolated from all com-
munication with its mysterious neighbour ; and its two
or three rooms, evidently meant for the occupation of
some confidential officer of the captain of the royal
guard in charge of the Portcullis, were too public and
full of business in the feudal eras to be adapted for
imprisonment and secret murders. Nevertheless, the
Londoners are right enough in their tradition concerning
this locality, for the Portcullis gateway may be considered
as portico and part of the real prison, where the sanguine
deeds were done. For a gothic doorway, at present
bricked up, has been found connected with the secret
passage communicating between the Portcullis archway
and the cellars or dungeons of the "Wakefield Tower, and
from thence with its sleeping-rooms.*
" For a little time," says a near contemporary, " Ed-
ward V. and his brother were well treated. At last, every
one of the few persons that waited on them went away.
Then they were closely imprisoned. A fellow, one called
Black Will — named (or perhaps surnamed) Slaughter, was
alone appointed to attend them.f Four others guarded
* Thanks are due to the courtesy wooden excrescences like pigeon-
of colonel Whimper, who has most houses. The wooden structures were
kindly used his authority for the elu- picturesque on paper, but sordid and
cidation of this historical mystery, squalid in fact,
as the gothic door was shewn by him
to our artist, bricked up in the cellar f Hall. This man was evidently
or dungeon of the Wakefield Tower, the regular warder of the Portcullis
which gave secret admission from the Tower, for we shall soon see that he
Portcullis gateway, to the prison showed the secret way, now bricked
chambers within its neighbouring up, which led from the gateway into
fortress. The tailpiece at the end of the prison sleeping rooms of the
this Life presents the Portcullis gate- Wakefield Tower. His sobriquet
way, and Wakefield Tower, according of Slaughter shows that it was his
to the recent restoration, giving the office to carry into execution all the
reader a much better idea of the irregular death warrants with which
death-scene of Henry VI., Edward Edward IV. charged his captain of
V., and the little duke of York, the, guard, but he had no further
than as lately seen with modern hand in this murder.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 171
them, among whom was Miles Forest.* After wliich
Edward never tied his points, or took care of himself, but
with the young babe, his brother, lingered in thought and
heaviness." Expressions which would lead to the supposi-
tion that little Richard of York was several years younger
than even the corrected datef of his birth implies, and
such is not unlikely to be the fact ; for dates are difficult
to ascertain in that century. We can find no trace of the
duke of York's educational establishment, and it was an
invariable rule, not likely to be infringed in that warlike
age, for all English princes to be transferred to masculine
government at seven years of age. The petting and
cherishing of this little one by his mother, the frequent
application of the term " babe " to him by near contem-
poraries, leads to the idea that the little duke of York
was nearer five than nine years of age.
A splendid progress was commenced by King Richard
soon after his coronation, which was shared by his queen
and son. He staid at Gloucester some days, and here he
gave Buckingham a final audience regarding the honours
and rewards for which this pair of confederates had
bargained. As to the marriage of Buckingham's daughter
with the new prince of "Wales, that bubble had just
burst ; for an ambassador had arrived from Isabel of
Castille, offering Richard's boy the hand of a little princess
of Spain, which the usurper eagerly accepted. J The
complete success attending the machinations of Bucking-
ham made that politician imagine that he deserved a
great deal more, rather than a great deal less, than his
bargain with King Richard. Nevertheless, according to
his own imputed words,§ "I took leave of him at
* He only took this office a few who died young, yet a mistake may
hours on the 3rd or 4th of August, occur between the identity of the
as he was TyrelPs squire, and rode second and third prince,
with him from Warwickshire. J Continuator of Croyland Chro-
f By sir Harris Nicolas, the usual nicle ; Eous of Warwick,
date (Toone) is 1472. There was a § Sir T. More's Conference of
third son born to Edward IV., and Buckingham with bishop Morton.
172 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
Gloucester with a merry countenance, but despiteful
heart." Yet there must have been some expression on
Buckingham's merry aspect that betrayed the spite-
fulness within. For the new king was forthwith inspired
with a vehement desire of destroying Edward V. and
little York immediately, lest his late ally, who had
announced his retirement to his castle of Brecon, should
only withdraw to plot the restoration of the young king.
"While the hapless princes breathed the vital air, of
course Richard felt that his dearly bought crown was
only a vexatious incumbrance. " Therefore," says our
chronicler, " he thought without delay to rid them, as
though killing of his kinsmen would make him kindly
king." *
Instead of going to bed, Richard III., summoned John
Greene, a confidential squire, belonging to his chamber,
and bade him instantly depart for the Tower of London,
and tell sir Robert Brakenbury, his new lieutenant there,
to kill his prisoners, young Edward and Richard, forth-
with.
Robert Brakenbury had been one of Richard's northern
champions, knight-banneret in the Scotch campaign with
sir James Tyrell, Ratcliffe, and other destructives commis-
sioned as vice-constables of England. He had been put
into his present preferment when Dorset threw up the
command of the grim fortress of London Tower and
fled to his mother in sanctuary. However, Sir Robert
Brakenbury was troubled with a conscience, a very
awkward appendage it must be owned for any functionary
who lived under the dictatorship of either Edward IV.,
Louis XL, or Richard III. It so happened that sir
Robert Brakenbury was paying his devotions before
"our Lady's altar," in the royal chapel f of the White
* Ibid. Kindly king means king have disdained so much as he ought
next of kindred to the crown. The to have done.
illustrious lord chancellor here in- f It seems from the latest inquirer
dulges in an alliterative string of into the Tower antiquities that the
puns such as Shakespeare would not royal chapel in the White Tower
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 173
Tower, when Jolin Grcono arrived at the Tower gate.
Thither the royal messenger was directed. He ascended
and delivered Richard III.'s murderous message in the
sacred place. The Tower lieutenant answered firmly, " I
will never put them to death, though I die therefore."
With which reply, John Greene departed instantly to his
employer.*
The royal progress had proceeded to Warwick Castle
before John Greene arrived to report his fruitless errand,
which was as usual done at the hour of " royal coucher,"
in Richard's most private apartment. When he heard
Brakenbury's refusal, he exclaimed angrily : " Oh ! whom
shall a man trust ? they that I have brought up myself ;
they that I thought would have most surely served me ;
even these fail me, and will do nothing at my command-
ment !"f
Richard III. had a favourite page J of the highest rank
then attending on his person, and who of course heard,
and it seems well understood, the gist of these lamenta-
tions.
" Sir," quoth this page, " there lieth one in the pallet
chamber without, that I dare well say will do your grace's
pleasure. The thing were right hard that he would
refuse."§
The sarcastic young noble alluded to sir James Tyrell,
the handsomest and one of the most fearless among
Richard's military bravos, who had recently won his spurs
was accessible to all within the walls J More ; Hall. It is but a sur-
of the demesne who were not pri- mise, yet we think this boy was John
soners, for it was ascended by a stair- De la Pole, his favourite nephew, the
case then outside the White Tower, eldest son of Elizabeth duchess of
As the royal chambers had likewise Suffolk, whom Richard proclaimed
access to it, and no one in Roman heir of England, after the death of
catholic countries shuts up a place of Edward of Gloucester, prince of
worship, here was reason good why Wales. The English viewed the
the young king was not confined in De la Poles with little less hatred
the White Tower. than they did Richard himself.
* Sir T. More. § Ibid.
f Ibid.
174 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
as knight-banneret in the bloody Scotch campaign. He
had been lately appointed to the high office of master of
the horse. Absent on some secret behest of the usurper's,
the handsome Tyrell did not figure at the recent coro-
nation in that distinguished place, but his brother Thomas
Tyrell acted as his deputy.* However, sir James had
now returned to his duty, and according to the ancient
functions of the master of the horse, f had taken up his
lodging for the night on a pallet or sofa-bed in the ante-
chamber to the royal sleeping room in Warwick Castle.
It was customary to call the apartment opening into the
bed-room, wheresoever the king might sleep, the pallet
chamber, because often, if danger was expected, many
pallets or mattresses were spread on which slept gentle-
men of the bed-chamber, and even men at arms, according
to the exigencies of the times.
Acting promptly on the suggestion of his page, king
Eichard left his apartment and entered the antechamber.
* To this conclusion the learned His grandfather, sir John Tyrell,
researches of Dr. Milles, Sharon of the ancient Norman family in
Turner, and sir Harris Nicolas all Essex, descended from the " loved
arrive. Hall's Chronicle declares archer of Rufus," and, as such, a cadet
that James Tyrell was remarkahle for of one of our most ancient families,
heauty and bravery, and withal was was treasurer to Henry VI., a great
recklessly unprincipled, but that his officer of the crown, and of course took
brother Thomas bore an excellent very high rank in England. Unfor-
character. tunately, times became so bad for
f All these honours render a little holy Henry, that he had no treasure
contradictory various passages in to keep, and the family of this trea-
chronicle, which represents sir James surer went down in the world, or, as
Tyrell, at the very time he was the above, he " became decayed in state."
master of the horse, and sleeping in One of the younger sons of the
the king of England's antechamber, Lancasterian treasurer established
as little higher in degree than a himself at Gipping in Suffolk.
Spanish spadasin, hired to stab an Thomas and James Tyrell were his
enemy by a blind wall. The Mirrour sons, and James, as we have seen,
for Magistrates, usually minutely became an unscrupulous Yorkist
correct, thus mentions him : — soldier of fortune on the avowed
"Tyrell by name, a man decayed in principle, as chronicles truly tell, that
state, nothing should impede his advance-
Was prone to act this deed, in hopes ment to more than the original high
of better fate." fortunes of his race.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 175
He advanced directly to the pallet where sir James
Tyrell and his brother Thomas were sleeping together.
" What," cried the king merrily, " are you already a-
bed, gentlemen P " Sir James Tyrell sprang from his
couch, and soon made himself ready to receive the orders
of his master. Richard took him as usual into the most
private recess of his tiring room and opened the affair of
the murders he required. Sir James Tyrell was willing to
do all he ordered, but required full commission, and to do it
according to his own plan. King Richard then wrote to
sir Robert Brakenbury his orders to deliver the Tower, its
keys, and all its appurtenances, for one night, into the
hands of sir James Tyrell, that he might execute his
royal pleasure.* Sir James Tyrell declared his intention
of departing for London instantly, and doing the deed the
very next night. He requested the aid of his brother,
Tom Tyrell, and met with a refusal. f Sir James then
selected from five followers, who were his practical
executioners, two whom he thought particularly adapted
for the work in hand — Miles Forest, " a fellow," according
to the graphic words of sir Thomas More, " flesh bred in
murder aforetime, and to him he joined John Dighton, his
own horse keeper, a big, broad, square, strong knave."£
Thus provided, and thus commissioned, sir James Tyrell
took his way from Warwick Castle, it is supposed about
the 3rd or 4th of August.
Before the depth of that fearful night wholly enveloped
the Tower and its circling prison-holds, let us take the
view of the innocent victims incarcerated therein afforded
by a famous dramatist and historian who wrote within
their century. Thomas Heywood's plays of Edward IV.
and V. were so popular and well known, that Shakespeare,
who wrote some years after him, has carefully abstained
* Hall's Chronicle and sir T. f Ibid. The fact rather is implied
More ; from the Confessions of sir than asserted by our chronicles, yet
James Tyrell in the reign of Henry their meaning is plain, by the praises
VII. they bestow on Tom Tyrell.
} Sir Thomas More.
176 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
I
from drawing any scene in Richard III. that Heywood
has depicted.
a SCENE : A CHAMBER IN" THE TOWER.
The two young 'princes Edward and Richard in their nightdresses.
Richard.
How does your grace ?
Edward.
Why well, good brother Richard,
How does yourself? you told me your head ached.
Richard.
Indeed it does, my lord. Feel with your hands.
How hot it is !
Edward.
Indeed, you have caught cold
With sitting yesternight to hear me read.
I pray thee go to bed, sweet Dick :
Poor little heart !
Richard.
You'll give me leave to wait upon your grace ?
Edward.
Brother, I have more need to wait on you,
Seeing that you are ill and J am not.
Richard.
Oh ! Lord, methinks this going to our beds
How like it is to going to our graves !
Edward.
I pray thee do not speak of graves, sweet heart.
Richard.
Why, my lord brother, did not our tutor teach us
That when at night we went unto our bed
We ever should be ready for the grave ?
Edward.
Yes, that is true, as every christian ought
To be prepared to die at any hour. —
Richard, I'm heavy.
Richard.
Indeed, and so am I.
Edward.
Then let us pray, and so lie down and sleep.
They kneel and pray — solemn music is heard through the Tower
chambers.
Richard.
How ! bleeds your grace ?
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 177
Edward.
Aye, two drops and no more.
Richard.
God bless ns both !
Edward.
Brother, see here what holy David says,
' Lord, in thee I trust, although I die ! '
Exeunt into bed-chamber.
Enter sir James Tyrell, who had been listening.
Tyrell.
Go lay ye down, but never more to rise !"*
According to the metrical chronicle by Queen Eliza-
beth's kinsman Sackville, which we have often quoted,
the murder was done in a manner peculiarly horrible to
human nature. The children were asleep at midnight in
profound darkness, when Miles Forest and the burly
ruffian Dighton crept on the bed,f and, as if they had been
two tangible nightmares, each bodily oppressed the child
he had selected to murder. It is probable that the horse-
tamer, strong Dighton, took the young king. Whether
the .children ever awoke to the reality of their situation,
or suffered more than in a fearful fit of nightmare, is
doubtful, but who need suffer more either in body or soul ?
While Tyrell waited during the awful minutes of the
children's death struggle, Heywood represents him as
uttering the following soliloquy : —
" The very senseless stones here in the walls
Break out in tears but to behold the fact.
Methinks the bodies lying dead in graves
Should rise and cry against us !
A noise is heard within.
Oh, hark ! hark !
For mandrakes' shrieks are music to their cries.
The very night is frighted — and the stars
Do drop like torches to behold this deed;
The very centre of the earth doth shake.
-Methinks the Tower should rend down from the top
To let the heavens frown on this murderous deed."
* T. Heywood. . f Mirrour for Magistrates.
12
178 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
Our chroniclers differ very little from each other in
their narrative of this appalling event, all following sir
Thomas More's digest of the depositions by the actual
assassins. Yet Hall adds somewhat, for he says, " Will
Slaughter* opened the way to the bed of the sleeping
children. " These are the words of this chronicler, and
they imply either that the victims were confined in some
secret chamber, or that their lodgings had some way of
access only known to the warder, whose name is neither
met with on the list of rewards in the reign of Richard or
of punishments in that of his successor. " Then," says sir
Thomas More, " all others being removed from the Tower,
Miles Forest and John Dighton, about midnight, came
into their chamber, and suddenly wrapped them up
amongst the bed-clothes, keeping down by force the
feather bed and pillows hard upon their mouths. "Within
a while they smothered and stifled them, and their breaths
failing, they gave up to God their innocent souls into the
joys of heaven, leaving to their tormentors their bodies
dead in bed. After which, the wretches laid them out upon
the bed, and fetched sir James Tyrell to see them ; and
when he was satisfied of their deaths, he caused the
murderers to bury them at the stair-foot, metely deep in
m the ground, under a great heap of stones."
Shakespeare's celebrated soliloquy of Tyrell is sup-
posed to occur when he was waiting to report the
homicidal transaction to Richard III., which interview it
has been shown really took place at Warwick Castle.
The royal progress, however, is not recognised in the
Richard III. of our great dramatist : —
"Tyeell.
The tyrannous and bloody act is done ;
The most arch deed of piteous massacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of.
Dighton and Forest, whom I did suborn
To do this piece of ruthless butchery,
* This ruffian was not examined in Tyrell and his servants. Perhaps he
the Star Chamber inquisition with was dead.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 179
Albeit they were fleshed villains, bloody dogs,
Melting with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like two children, in this death's sad story.
* 0, thus,' quoth Dighton, ' lay the gentle babes — '
1 Thus, thus,' quoth Forest, l girdling one another
"Within their alabaster, innocent arms :
Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
Which in their summer beauty kissed each other.
A book of prayers on their pillow lay ; '
* Which once,' quoth Forest, i almost changed my mind
But, oh ! the devil ' — there the villain stopped ;
When Dighton thus told on, ' We smothered
The most replenished sweet work of nature,
That, from the prime creation, e'er she framed.'
Hence both are gone ; with conscience and remorse,
They could not speak ; and so I left them both,
To bear these tidings to the bloody king."
The manner of burial was the only part of the transac-
tion that displeased the head murderer, who was still at
"Warwick Castle when sir James Tyrell returned, and
reported what had been done. Richard declared himself
wonderfully contented with the deed, but ordered that the
bodies of his nephews might be disinterred from the
sordid hole in their prison lodging, and buried by a priest
in consecrated ground. This was done, as the assassins
afterwards deposed. The corpses of the murdered children
were raised and delivered to the old priest of the Tower,
sir Eobert Brakenbury's chaplain, who interred them in
consecrated ground ; but where no one could tell, for he
himself died a day or two afterwards, and the secret died
with him.
The murders of Edward V. and his brother were not
generally known until the whole island was startled and
astonished by a second coronation of Richard III., which
took place at York the beginning of September, 1483.
The purpose of the usurper was evidently that he might
receive the repetition of the oaths of his baronage after
the deaths of Edward V. and his heir-presumptive. For
he himself had caused his nephew to be proclaimed in the
180 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
northern metropolis, and oaths of allegiance to the young
monarch had been taken, at least by every man exercising
authority in the country. Just after the re-coronation,*
the deaths of Edward V. and little York were generally
made known. "But when," says sir T. More, "the news
was brought to the unfortunate queen-mother, she being
yet in sanctuary, that her two princely sons were mur-
dered, it struck to her heart like the sharp dart of death.
Suddenly amazed, she swooned and fell to the ground,
and there lay in great agony, but like to a dead corpse.
After she was revived and came to memory again, she
sobbed, she wept, and with pitiful shrieks filled the whole
mansion : her fair hair she tore and pulled to pieces, and,
calling by name her sweet babes, accounted herself mad
when she delivered her younger son out of sanctuary for
his uncle to put him to death. After long lamentation,
she kneeled down and cried to God for vengeance."
Scarcely four months passed, before Richard III. lost his
only son by " an unhappy death,f sudden and violent."
For this boy's advancement^ the usurper had steeped his
soul in crime. And he could feel that, with Edward V.
and his brother, he had exterminated his own heirs, and,
more than that, had destroyed healthy representatives of
the name of Plantagenet ; for of that name, so adored by
him, the imbecile son of his brother Clarence, young
Warwick, and his own deformed person, were the sole
survivors.
The apartments of the abbot of Westminster, the Jeru-
salem Chamber, its adjoining suite of rooms, the great
hall below them, now the refectory of the Westminster
* King John was thus re-crowned, J It is . strange that Shakespeare
after the murder of his elder brother's has not even mentioned the son of
son, Arthur. Richard III. The loss of him by
f Rous' Latin Chronicle. Rous, some terrible unrevealed fate is an
who was the priest of Warwick awful stroke of retributive justice,
Castle, was on the spot when Tyrell often presented by biographical
departed to murder Edward V., and history, never heeded by political
came back with the tidings. historians.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 181
scholars, arc at present nearly in the same state as when the
shrieks of Queen Elizabeth Woodville rang through them.
For they were the real locale where the agonies of
bereaved maternity racked the soul of the unfortunate
queen, mother of three sons murdered within six weeks,
Edward V., Richard duke of York, and Richard Gray,
It is a mellowed grief rather than the strong anguish,
" sharp as the dart of death," which thus flows in
Shakespeare's beautiful words, attributed by him to
Elizabeth :
" Ah, my poor princes ! ah, my tender "babes !
My unblown flowers, my new appearing sweets !
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air,
And be not fixed in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings
And hear your mother's lamentations."
Willy Shakespeare is a mere "Will of the Wisp in
regard to history. His readers must banish from their
minds all his fascinations when they approach the well-
spring of truth, if his genius wantonly chooses to trouble
it. His most astounding misrepresentation of fact is
the conduct of Cicely, duchess of York, who was the
certain confidante, if not the actual inciter of her son
Richard's usurpation.
Among the enormous list of rewards bestowed by
Richard III. on the subordinate agents of his crime,
historical research has brought to light a startling one.*
Miles Forest was, after the deaths of his victims, ma<J£
keeper of the wardrobe to Cicely, duchess of York, at
Baynard's Castle. Passing strange, indeed, it is that the
actual murderer of Edward V. and his brother should be
promoted to the superintendence of their grand-dam's
robes, cloaks, and petticoats. The fact is horribly ludi-
crous. The usurper was sore pressed by the poverty
occasioned by the enormous bribes and other expenses
* Sharon Turner.
182 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
his exaltation required. So he had to seize on every
vacant place as it fell, and bestow it, fit or unfit, on his
agents in this terrific child-murder. No brief history-
can find space to recount the showers of rewards that
fell on sir James Tyrell, Miles Forest, and John Dighton,
as blood money, on sir Robert Brakenbury and Greene,
as hush money. Sir James Tyrell performed his func-
tions as master of horse at Richard III.'s coronation at
York; he was appointed too captain of Guisnes, near
Calais.* He was given August 30th, 1483, three rich
stewardships in the Marches of Wales and of New-
port ; his rewards were enormous from Buckingham's
subsequent spoils. His agent, Dighton, was made
bailiff of Aiton, Staffordshire, with an ample salary
for life. Greene was given the receivership of the Isle
of Wight. Ample pardons (of which Dighton's is
extant) were executed by Richard, f exonerating his
ruffians from every species of crime human wickedness
can perpetrate. All these are dated near or about the
time of the regicidal child-murders in the Tower.
A tradition is floating near Gipping, in Suffolk,
that sir James Tyrell in the succeeding reign founded a
chantry, or expiatory chapel, in which mass was sung for
the souls of his two victims, and for his own most guilty
soul. It is certain that a chapel built by sir James
Tyrell is still at Gipping; that it is kept up in good
order from funds provided for the purpose, and that it
is the private chapel to the family mansion.^ Divine
service is still celebrated there by a curate appointed
by the representative of the Tyrell family, although,
of course, prayers for souls have ceased since the
* A most important place of trust. % We have been courteously fa-
We think he was there at the acces- voured with this information by
sion of Henry VII., and during Charles Tyrell, Esq., representative
some years of that reign. of the Gipping branch of this ancient
f Sharon Turner ; White Kennet ; Norman family.
sir Harris Nicolas.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 183
Reformation. Yet sir James Tyrell continues silently
to implore them. Over the vestry door is inscribed
in ancient characters the following words : —
u Pray for the souls of sir James Tyrell and of Dame Anne* his wife."
The two princes are not mentioned. Sir James confessed
their murders when under sentence of death. He sur-
vived his royal victims eighteen years, and was beheaded
in 1502, having favoured the escape of John de la Pole, earl
of Suffolk, the favourite nephew on whom Richard III. had
settled the royal succession. Dighton likewise confessed
the share he had in the crime, and was hung at Calais. f
Forest died soon after the murders ; his widow was
pensioned by Richard III.
It was a point of vital importance to Henry VII.,
the husband of the heiress of these two murdered Plan-
tagenets, that their burial place should be discovered, in
order that the impostor Perkin "Warbeck might be con-
futed. No one could reveal it. All likely to know had
passed away. The priest was dead, and sir Robert
Brakenbury had been slain on Bosworth Field, despe-
rately fighting near the person of his master Richard III.
As to John Dighton, he deposed concerning the first
burial under the stairs of the Wakefield Tower, but he
could not tell where the Tower priest had buried them
the second time.
Although the deaths of the hapless heirs of York
opened the path to the English throne for their sister
Elizabeth, she deeply mourned them when queen. She
cherished their memories to the last days of her life.
"We hope not quite so fiercely as her chronicle bard
makes out in the " Song of the Lady Bessey," which
declares that the lady Elizabeth of York came to
Leicester, directly after the battle of Bosworth was
* Anne Arundell of the ancient nection with his master's office
family of Trehearne in Cornwall. of captain of Guisnes, near Ca-
f This w has certainly some con- lais.
184
EDWARD THE FIFTH.
decided, and witnessed the bringing in of her uncle's
corpse, hanging across the horse in the well-known style
of contumely, from the lost field. Moreover, that she
addressed the poor corpse with the taunting question of
" Uncle ! how like you now,
The murdering of my brethren dear ? "
This is in the old rugged northern edition, by the
Stanley minstrel, the author of that most curious and
spirited of our metrical chronicles.* We pause before we
wholly acquit the Plantagenet heiress of outraging, in her
sisterly agony of bereavement, the feminine softness of
her character. The incident reveals her whereabouts just
then, on which history is provokingly silent. It shews,
with probability, that she was in the care of the Stanley
party, who were in great power after the field of Bosworth.
All was in the gift of the Stanleys, even the English
crown. They used the power well by putting it on the
head of Elizabeth's betrothed husband, and still better
by beheading and hanging at Leicester most of Richard
IIL's band of bravos, who had held England under
military law and dictatorship for three years, upon the
usual pretence of liberty.f Both sir William Stanley,
lord Derby's brother, and his son, young lord Strange,
had been in the service of Edward V., when prince of
Wales, and had lived with him at Ludlow Castle.
It was not unlikely that they shewed some traits of
savageness, when they saw the dead murderer of their
innocent young king, and that their excited feelings
awakened response in the bosom of his loving and loyal
sister.
In the last year of her life, not long before she took to
her chamber, at the Tower of London, Elizabeth of York
* See Life of Elizabeth of York, Sir John Bucke, and many more of
queen of England, " Lives of the Richard's vice-constables, were put
Queens of England," by Agnes to death at Leicester that night and
Strickland. next day. See White Kennet, George
t Sir Richard Radcliffe, Catesby, Buclce, etc.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 185
proved her sisterly loyo in a more ehristian-like mode,
by giving a gratuity to the nurse of " my lord prince,
her grace's most dear brother."* Probably this nurse
was Mother Cobb, who took pity on the royal babe and
his mother, when he first entered a world so adverse to
him, in Westminster Sanctuary. The blind historian and
laureate of England, Bernard Andreas, or Andrews,
whose Latin chronicle forms the chief material of lord
Bacon's elegant but eventless biography of Henry VII.,
mentions the enduring and passionate love Elizabeth
manifested for all her brothers and sisters, especially for
Edward V. It was natural : she was nearly eight years
old when he was born, and she was the sharer of her
mother's distress in the Sanctuary.
Northcote's historical picture, representing the first
burial of the murdered children, in some murky nook
of the Wakefield Tower dungeons, unites appalling
and beautiful traits. The brawny arms of the ruffian
raised to receive the fair princes, so calm in death,
robed in snowy night gear, and lowered down to
the pit by the burly assassin, in steel jack and
helm, on the top of the dungeon stairs, rendered more
gloomy by the glare of a torch, is not only well
imagined, but probably comes almost up to the truth.
Paul de la Roche has rivalled, and perhaps surpassed,
native genius in several passages in our histories. We have
looked long and earnestly on his picture in the Luxem-
bourg, representing the interior of the prison room of the
Tower, containing Edward V. and his brother, just before
the approach of the murderers. The children are seated,
half dressed, on an antiquely carved bedstead. Young
Richard shews alarm and terror in his countenance and
attitude. Edward Y. leans listlessly on his arm, over a
large missal, as if life were not worth a fear. A red
light gleams into the dusk apartment, from under the
door, and a little white spaniel anxiously announces
* Compotus of Elizabeth of York. 1502—3.
186 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
the approach of hostile steps. It is by no means likely
that such a watchful and wakeful companion was left
with them.
In the quaint rhyming black letter chronicle, "Of the
Kings of England from the flood of Noe," are these
verses, under the portrait of Edward V. —
i( This king came never to his coronation ;
For the duke of Gloucester, without compassion,
Called Richard, his uncle and protector,
Caused him and his brother, in cruel fashion,
Secretly to be murdered in London Tower.
But the manner how these princes were dead ?
Some say they were buried quick,* and some tell
That they were smothered under a feather bed.
Some say that they were drowned in a vessel ;
But when they came into the Tower to dwell,
They were never after seen with mannes eye.f
Three months this king reigned, men know well,
But God knoweth where his body doth lye."
He is represented in this rude coloured wood cut in a
flat black beret cap and white plume, with the crown in
small size suspended over his head. He wears a small
frill * or demi-ruff round his neck ; and below that a little
round ermine tippet ; a robe, with cape trimmed with gold
lace, over a scarlet robe, girt to his waist with a sash. As
a popular resemblance of him within eighty years of his
murder, and a popular version of his story, it is not with-
out some slight degree of value. The picture and verses
are printed on a sheet of pasteboard, between the portraits
of Edward IV. and Richard III., with the royal arms of
England and France rudely emblazoned over their heads
within the ribbon of the garter.
The portrait illustrating this Life is from the fine
engraving by Houbraken, after Vandergucht. It is the
most mature in years, and, therefore, represents Edward
V. more as he was when engaged in the tragic incidents
here detailed, than as the beautiful little child in the
* " Quick" means alive. f Nearly the words of Fabyan's Chionicle.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 187
Lambeth collection, to which, it bears a considerable
likeness, as well as to his father's portrait.
Two centuries passed away. The precise spot where
the remains of the innocent victims rested, had long lost
all political importance. A series of tragedies had suc-
ceeded these murders at the Tower. The death of
Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII., in childbed ; then the
executions of Queen Anne Boleyn ; of Queen Katherine
Howard, and of lady Jane Gray ; the severe imprisonments
of Queen Elizabeth, of lady Katherine Gray, and of lady
Arabella Stuart, had cast horror on the Tower of London
as a palatial residence.
The few rags of old hangings had been torn to tatters,
and the remnants of furniture abstracted in the stormy
days of the republic ; nothing remained in the lonely suite
of Anglo-Norman chambers excepting the old oaken
council table. Charles II. wanted a dry roof to cover
great heaps of the national records ; his master of ord-
nance, sir Thomas Chichely, wanted the same for his
stores of artillery. So the deserted city palace was
repaired and destined to these useful purposes. The
vaults and hall thrown into one great gulph, served for
the military stores ; while the forlorn state chamber suite
of Norman royalty, and the beautiful but desecrated
" chapel within the Tower/' were destined to receive the
papers. An open stone staircase led up outside the White
Tower to the chapel. At this time, 1674, it was ruinous and
inaccessible. This staircase was ordered to be repaired
and enclosed within the outer walls. When the workmen
were digging at the foot, they found buried in the earth a
great chest. On opening it, the mouldering remains of
two boys were discovered. Sir Thomas Chichely's exca-
vators had brought to light the long sought sepulchre
of Edward V. and the little duke of York. Thus had
the old priest of the Tower fulfilled the orders of
Richard III. to the very letter, the grave of his
victims was in hallowed ground, for the entrance to
188 EDWARD THE FIFTH.
the approach to the Tower chapel had certainly shared
in the consecration of that place of worship. But
an old priest so near death (if indeed he died by
the visitation of God) could not have carried the
chest and bodies ; he must have had help, and his
helpers certainly spread the description of their doings,
which found a way into chronicle ; for there is described
explicitly " the interment under the stair's foot, under
a heap of stones metely deep in the earth."* Such
was considered illustrative of the unhallowed hole into
which Dighton and Forest first hid the corpses.
A more appropriate resting place was in the fulness
of time assigned to the earthly remains of our young
bachelor king of England, and the little widower, his
brother, Richard, duke of York. Charles II., the repre-
sentative of their eldest sister and heiress, Elizabeth of
York, caused the bones of these murdered princes to
be collected and enclosed in a marble urn, and deposited
in a royal vault at the upper end of the north aisle of
Henry the Seventh's chapel in Westminster Abbey,
where a fair white marble tablet, sacred to their memory,
is affixed to the wall, recording their mournful story in
a brief Latin inscription, of which the following is the
translation : —
"Here lie the relies of Edward V., king of England, and
Richard, duke of York, who, being confined in the Tower, and
there stifled with pillows, were privately and meanly buried,
by order of their perfidious uncle Richard, the usurper. Their
bones, long inquired after and wished for, after lying 201
years in the rubbish of the stairs (those lately leading to the
White Tower) were on the 7th of July, 1674, by undoubted proofs,
* Harrison, in his " Survey of the secrets of the grave well, nor was
London," as well as Toone, mentions it the only time an arm chest has
the important fact that the remains of been used as a coffin after a Tower
the two children were enclosed in a murder. See Life of Anne Boleyn,
chest. Arm chests were always ready *'Live3 of the Queens of England,"
at hand in the great national arsenal ; by Agnes Strickland, vol. 3, Li-
air tight and water tight, they kept brary Edition.
EDWARD THE FIFTH. 189
discovered, being buried deep in that place. Charles II., pitying their
unhappy fate, ordered these unfortunate princes to be laid amongst the
relics of their predecessors in the year 1678, and the 20th of his
reign."
To mark the spot where the bones were discovered,
either sir Thomas Chichely, master of the ordnance,
or Charles II., had a mulberry tree planted. It grew
for about a century and a half, according to the habits
of that long lasting fruit-tree, and was cut down so
recently that the last topographer of the Tower affirms*
that its dry trunk is still to be seen standing in a
corner at the entrance of the stairs leading to the
upper apartments and chapel, now called the Record
Office.f
Four stormy minorities had previously occurred among
the reigns of our Plant agenet monarchs. In that of
Henry III., his mother, Isabel of Angouleme, at first
made some faint efforts to rule in her son's name after
the custom of her native land of France, which usually
gave the delegated sceptre to the nearest female relative.
Isabel, the she-wolf of France, boldly seized the regency
of her minor son, Edward III., murdering his father and
afterwards his uncle, the earl of Kent. The English
oligarchy, headed by the young king's nearest male
relative, deposed her. In the woeful minorities of
Richard II. and Henry VI., the royal mothers with-
drew from competition. Thus repeated precedents were
afforded for the preference given by Edward V.'s council
♦ Vol. 2, Knight's "London." The their Norman costume, as a practical
lt Tower," by Mr. J. Saunders. lesson on our domestic history to
the numerous Tower visitors, far
f All the beautiful Norman chapel more interesting to them than the
and alcove chamber floor, are most Hotel de Cluny at Paris is to the
provokingly encumbered with high French. For the Tower of London,
deal frames full of papers. When both as palace and prison, has witnes-
they are removed to her majesty's sed either the beginning or ending
new Record Office, the royal suite of of most of the tragedies occurring
apartments ought to be restored to in our national annals.
190
EDWARD THE FIFTH.
to his uncle Gloucester, over his mother. Not that the
uncles of his predecessors enjoyed their high privileges
very peacefully. Edward III., Richard II., and Henry
VI. had each an uncle murdered, the results either of
the factions in their minorities or those which arose
from them. Even the most prosperous of the minor
sovereigns might have envied the happier fate of Edward
V., who, with the " young babe, his brother/' was early
put to rest under the shadow of the White Tower.
Wakefield Tower and Portcullis Gateway. — See page 170.
EDWARD THE SIXTH.
' V///Y/U/ ///r j//.s'/7t y
EDWARD THE SIXTH.
CHAPTEE I.
Edward VI. the third bachelor king of England— His parentage — Birth —
Rejoicings — Arrangements for his christening in Hampton Court chapel
— Splendid font and canopy (see tailpiece to this chapter) — Christening
solemnity — Edward's sister, princess Mary, godmother — Death of the
queen his mother — His beauty, strength, and promise— King Henry's rules
for his nursery — His nurse, mother Jak — His lady mistress, her reports
of his infant progress — Complaints of his shabby dress — Edward visited by
lord chancellor and privy council — Their favourable reports of him — His
dry nurse, Sibilla Penne — His infant portrait, by Holbein — His new
year's gifts — Fondness for his royal stepmother, Katharine Parr — His
infant establishment broken up — His learned education commences in his
sixth year — His schoolmasters — Edward's love for his little playfellow,
Jane Dormer — His charming qualities — Edward's rapid progress in
latin — His' proxy for correction, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick — His early
letters to queen Katharine, his sister Mary, and the king his father
— Presents of jewellery from the king his father — His first public appear-
ance — Heads the cavalcade of nobles sent to meet French ambassador —
— Shares in festivities at Hampton Court — His portraits at nine years old
— He returns to Hatfield, begins to learn French — His affectionate letters
— Preparations for creating him prince of Wales— Death of the king
his father.
The third and last Bachelor King of England was Edward
Tudor, the son of Henry VIII. , by his third queen, Jane
Seymour. This prince, to whom the Church of England
is indebted for the inestimable boons of her liturgy, offices,
and catechism, was born at the palace of Hampton Court,
about two o'clock in the morning of Friday, October 12th,
1537, being the feast of St. Wilfred and the vigil of the
royal English saint Edward the Confessor,* a very high
day in the Eomish Calendar.
* Appendix to Literary Ptemains of Edward "VI., by J". G. Nichols.
Printed for the Roxburgh Club.
13
194 EDWARD THE SIXTH.
A report "that the queen had been happily brought to
bed of a prince," was in circulation five days before that
eagerly anticipated event occurred, and is mentioned by
lord Maltravers in a letter to Cromwell, Henry's prime
minister, dated Croydon, October 7th* When, however,
the auspicious birth actually took place, it was triumphantly
proclaimed to the whole realm in a circular put forth in
the name of the queen, under her privy seal, as had been
done at the birth of Elizabeth by the ill-fated Anne
Boleyn.
" Te Deum was sung in the cathedral church of bt.
Paul right solemnly," we are told, " and in all the other
churches in the city ; bonfires were made in every street,
and so continued with banqueting, triumphing, and
shooting of guns, all day and night, in the goodliest
manner that might be desired ; and messengers were sent
to all estates and cities in the realm, of these most joyful
and comfortable tidings, to whom were given great and
large gifts, and over all Te Deum was sung, with ringing
of bells, and bonfires made in praise of God, and rejoicing
of all Englishmen."t Among other demonstrations of
loyal affection in the town of Leicester on this memora-
ble occasion, nuts and apples were given at the rejoicings
for the birth of the prince, as appears by the corporation
records, and rewards and refreshments were bestowed on
the royal messengers' who brought the news.J
The universal joy which pervaded England, at the
nativity of an heir of the realm born of an undisputed
marriage, was only alloyed by the fact that the^lague
was at that time raging in the metropolis and its pur-
lieus, and the king had established very stringent regula-
tions to prevent the access of any of his loyal lieges at
Hampton Court, lest they should communicate the infec-
tion to his sacred person, or that of the new-born prince
The marchioness of Dorset, to whom the distinction of
* Howard's Letters. t Additional MSS., British Museum, 6113, lxvi.
X Chamberlain's Accounts.
EDWARD THE SIXTH. 195
bearing the royal infant in the christening procession
had been assigned, received a peremptory order from the
king not to come to Hampton Court, for the performance
of this duty, as he had heard that three or four persons
were ill at Croydon, where she resided, and it was possible
their malady might be the plague.*
The grand solemnity of the christening of the infant
prince was appointed to take place in the chapel royal
of Hampton Court, on the evening of Monday, October
15th, the third day after his birth. A large porch had
been erected at the chapel door, covered with cloth of
gold and costly arras, and richly carpeted. The whole of
the body of the chapel was hung with the like, and in
the midst of the chapel a high stage or mount, as it is
called, was raised, eight feet square, in the centre of which
a rich font of silver gilt was placed, having a magnificent
canopy, covered with cloth of gold and fringed with gold,
suspended over it, the barriers which surrounded it being
also covered with cloth of gold. The font, which was
large enough to allow the baptism to be performed by
immersion, was elevated on four steps, on every side
covered with rich carpeting. On these steps the officiating
bishop, priests, and knights in aprons with towels, who
were to guard the font, and all the assistants and robe
officials, were to stand awaiting the coming of the princely
neophyte, and his godmother, the princess Mary, the
raised platform on which the font stood being approached
by three flights of stairs. This splendid font and canopy,
with all the arrangements for the solemnity in the chapel
royal, are represented in the tailpiece of this chapter,
from a curious contemporary drawing of the scene, pre-
served in the College of Arms.
This procession was formed in the prince's lodgings,
whence it passed through the council chamber, and the
king's great chamber, into the gallery communicating
with the chapel ; passing the whole way between barriers
* State Papers and Letters.
19 g EDWAKD THE SIXTH.
or rails covered with crimson cloth, the path between
he barriers being strewn with fresh green rushes F »t
walked gentlemen esquires and knights, two and two,
Tat being a torch in his hand, which was not to be
Sited till the baptismal rite had been accomphshed.
Tien came the king's chaplains, followed by abbots
and bishops; after them, the king's council; the nobles
raied ace rding to their degree, the foreign ambas-
sadors lord chamberlains, the lord chancellor coupled
wlh the prime minister, lord Cromwell, whose son
21 to the queen's sister, Elizabeth Seymour,
was married to tne ^uwu. => > 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.
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