The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (245 page)

About the same time a treaty was made with Gustavus Ericson, king of Sweden, by which it was stipulated, that, if he sent bullion into England, he might export English commodities without paying custom; that he should carry bullion to no other prince; PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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that if he sent ozimus, steel, copper, &c. he should pay custom for English commodities as an Englishman; and that, if he sent other merchandize, he should have free intercourse, paying custom as a stranger.
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The bullion sent over by Sweden, though it could not be in great quantity, set the mint at work: Good specie was coined: And much of the base metal, formerly issued, was recalled: A circumstance which tended extremely to the encouragement of commerce.

But all these schemes for promoting industry were likely to Warwic created duke

prove abortive, by the fear of domestic convulsions, arising from of Northumberland.

the ambition of Warwic. That nobleman, not contented with the station which he had attained, carried farther his pretensions, and had gained partizans, who were disposed to second him in every enterprize. The last earl of Northumberland died without issue; and as Sir Thomas Piercy, his brother, had been attainted on account of the share, which he had in the Yorkshire insurrection during the late reign, the title was at present extinct, and the estate was vested in the crown.

Warwic now procured to himself a grant of those ample possessions, which lay chiefly in the North, the most warlike part of the kingdom; and he was dignified with the title of duke of Northumberland. His friend, Paulet, lord St. John, the treasurer, was created, first, earl of Wiltshire, then marquis of Winchester: Sir William Herbert obtained the title of earl of Pembroke.

But the ambition of Northumberland made him regard all

His ambition.

encrease of possessions and titles, either to himself or his partizans, as steps only to farther acquisitions. Finding that Somerset, though degraded from his dignity, and even lessened in the public opinion by his spiritless conduct, still enjoyed a considerable share of popularity, he determined to ruin the man, whom he regarded as the chief obstacle to the attainment of his hopes. The alliance, which had been contracted between the families, had produced no cordial union, and only enabled Northumberland to compass with more certainty the destruction of his rival. He secretly gained many of the friends and servants of that unhappy nobleman: He sometimes terrified him by the appearance of danger: Sometimes provoked him by ill usage. The unguarded Somerset often broke out into menacing expressions against Northumberland: At other times, he formed rash projects, which he immediately abandoned: His treacherous confidents carried to his enemy every passionate word, which dropped from him: They revealed the schemes,

which they themselves had first suggested:s
And Northumberland, thinking that the proper season was now come, began to act in an open manner against him.

In one night, the duke of Somerset, lord Grey, David and John 16th Octob.

Seymour, Hammond and Neudigate, two of the duke’s servants, Sir Ralph Vane and Sir Thomas Palmer, were arrested and committed to custody.

Next day, the dutchess of Somerset, with her favourites, Crane and his wife, Sir Miles Partridge, Sir Michael Stanhope, Bannister, and others, was thrown into prison. Sir Thomas Palmer, who had all along acted as a spy upon Somerset, accused him of having formed a design to raise an insurrection in the north, to attack the gens d’armes on a muster day, to secure the Tower, and to raise a rebellion in London: But, what was the only probable accusation, he asserted, that Somerset had once laid a project for murdering Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke at a banquet, which was PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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to be given them by lord Paget. Crane and his wife confirmed Palmer’s testimony with regard to this last design; and it appears that some rash scheme of that nature had really been mentioned; though no regular conspiracy had been formed, or means prepared for its execution. Hammond confessed, that the duke had armed men to guard him one night in his house at Greenwich.

Somerset was brought to his trial before the marquis of

Trial of Somerset.

Winchester, created high steward. Twenty-seven peers composed the jury, among whom were Northumberland, Pembroke, and Northampton, whom decency should have hindered from acting as judges in the trial of a man, that appeared to be their capital enemy. Somerset was accused of high treason on account of the projected insurrections, and of felony in laying a design to murder privy-counsellors.

We have a very imperfect account of all state trials during that age, which is a sensible defect in our history: But it appears, that some more regularity was observed in the management of this prosecution than had usually been employed in like cases.

The witnesses were at least examined by the privy-council; and 1st Decemb.

though they were neither produced in court, nor confronted with the prisoner (circumstances required by the strict principles of equity) their depositions were given in to the jury. The proof seems to have been lame with regard to the treasonable part of the charge; and Somerset’s defence was so satisfactory, that the peers gave verdict in his favour: The intention alone of assaulting the privy counsellors was supported by tolerable evidence; and the jury brought him in guilty of felony. The prisoner himself confessed, that he had expressed his intention of murdering Northumberland and the other lords; but had not formed any resolution on that head: And when he received sentence, he asked pardon of those peers for the designs, which he had hearkened to against them. The people, by whom Somerset was beloved, hearing the first part of his sentence, by which he was acquitted from treason, expressed their joy by loud acclamations: But their satisfaction was suddenly damped, on finding that he was condemned to death for felony.
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Care had been taken by Northumberland’s emissaries, to

1552.

prepossess the young king against his uncle; and lest he should relent, no access was given to any of Somerset’s friends, and the prince was kept from reflection by a continued series of occupations and amusements.

At last the prisoner was brought to the scaffold on Tower-hill, His execution. 22d

amidst great crowds of spectators, who bore him such sincere Jan.

kindness, that they entertained, to the last moment, the fond hopes of his pardon.
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Many of them rushed in to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood, which they long preserved as a precious relique; and some of them soon after, when Northumberland met with a like doom, upbraided him with this cruelty, and displayed to him these symbols of his crime. Somerset indeed, though many actions of his life were exceptionable, seems, in general, to have merited a better fate; and the faults, which he committed, were owing to weakness, not to any bad intention. His virtues were better calculated for private than for public life; and by his want of penetration and firmness, he was ill-fitted to extricate himself from those cabals and violences, to which that age was so much addicted. Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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Miles Partridge, and Sir Ralph Vane, all of them Somerset’s friends, were brought to their trial, condemned and executed: Great injustice seems to have been used in their prosecution. Lord Paget, chancellor of the dutchy, was, on some pretence, tried in the star-chamber, and condemned in a fine of 6000 pounds, with the loss of his office. To mortify him the more, he was degraded from the order of the garter; as unworthy, on account of his mean birth, to share that honour.
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Lord Rich, chancellor, was also compelled to resign his office, on the discovery of some marks of friendship, which he had shown to Somerset.

The day after the execution of Somerset, a session of parliament 22d Jan. A was held, in which farther advances were made towards the parliament.

establishment of the reformation. The new liturgy was

authorised; and penalties were enacted against all those who absented themselves

from public worship.x
To use the mass had already been prohibited under severe penalties; so that the reformers, it appears, whatever scope they had given to their own private judgement, in disputing the tenets of the ancient religion, were resolved not to allow the same privilege to others; and the practice, nay the very doctrine of toleration, was, at that time, equally unknown to all sects and parties. To dissent from the religion of the magistrate, was universally conceived to be as criminal as to question his title, or rebel against his authority.

A law was enacted against usury; that is, against taking any interest for money.
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This act was the remains of ancient superstition; but being found extremely iniquitous in itself, as well as prejudicial to commerce, it was afterwards repealed in the twelfth of Elizabeth. The common rate of interest, notwithstanding the law, was at this time 14

per cent.
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A bill was introduced by the ministry into the house of lords, renewing those rigorous statutes of treason, which had been abrogated in the beginning of this reign; and though the peers, by their high station, stood most exposed to these tempests of state, yet had they so little regard to public security, or even to their own true interest, that

they passed the bill with only one dissenting voice.a
But the commons rejected it, and prepared a new bill, that passed into a law, by which it was enacted, that whoever should call the king or any of his heirs, named in the statute of the 35th of the last reign, heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper of the crown, should forfeit, for the first offence, their goods and chattels, and be imprisoned during pleasure; for the second, should incur a
praemunire;
for the third, should be attainted for treason. But if any should unadvisedly utter such a slander in writing, printing, painting, carving, or graving, he was, for the first offence, to be held a traitor.
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It may be worthy of notice, that the king and his next heir, the lady Mary, were professedly of different religions; and religions, which threw on each other the imputation of heresy, schism, idolatry, profaneness, blasphemy, wickedness, and all the opprobrious epithets that religious zeal has invented. It was almost impossible, therefore, for the people, if they spoke at all on these subjects, not to fall into the crime, so severely punished by the statute; and the jealousy of the commons for liberty, though it led them to reject the bill of treasons, sent to them by the lords, appears not to have been very active, vigilant, or clear-sighted.

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The commons annexed to this bill a clause which was of more importance than the bill itself, that no one should be convicted of any kind of treason, unless the crime were proved by the oaths of two witnesses, confronted with the prisoner. The lords, for some time, scrupled to pass this clause; though conformable to the most obvious principles of equity. But the members of that house trusted for protection to their present personal interest and power, and neglected the noblest and most permanent security, that of laws.

The house of peers passed a bill, whose object was making a provision for the poor; but the commons, not chusing that a money-bill should begin in the upper-house, framed a new act to the same purpose. By this act, the church-wardens were empowered to collect charitable contributions; and if any refused to give, or dissuaded others from that charity, the bishop of the diocese was impowered to proceed against them. Such large discretionary powers, entrusted to the prelates, seem as proper an object of jealousy as the authority assumed by the peers.
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There was another occasion, in which the parliament reposed an unusual confidence in the bishops. They impowered them to proceed against such as neglected the

Sundays and holidays.d
But these were unguarded concessions granted to the church: The general humour of the age rather led men to bereave the ecclesiastics of all power, and even to pillage them of their property: Many clergymen, about this time, were obliged for a subsistence to turn carpenters or taylors, and some kept alehouses.
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The bishops themselves were generally reduced to poverty, and held both their revenues and spiritual office by a very precarious and uncertain tenure.

Tonstal, bishop of Durham, was one of the most eminent prelates of that age, still less for the dignity of his see, than for his own personal merit; his learning, moderation, humanity, and beneficence. He had opposed, by his vote and authority, all innovations in religion; but as soon as they were enacted, he had always submitted, and had conformed to every theological system, which had been established. His known probity had made this compliance be ascribed, not to an interested or time-serving spirit, but to a sense of duty, which led him to think, that all private opinion ought to be sacrificed to the great concern of public peace and tranquillity. The general regard, paid to his character, had protected him from any severe treatment during the administration of Somerset; but when Northumberland gained the ascendant, he was thrown into prison; and as that rapacious nobleman had formed a design of seizing the revenues of the see of Durham, and of acquiring to himself a principality in the northern counties, he was resolved, in order to effect his purpose, to deprive Tonstal of his bishopric. A bill of attainder, therefore, on pretence of misprision of treason, was introduced into the house of peers against the prelate; and it passed with the opposition only of lord Stourton, a zealous catholic, and of Cranmer, who always bore a cordial and sincere friendship to the bishop of Durham. But when the bill was sent down to the commons, they required, that witnesses should be examined, that Tonstal should be allowed to defend himself, and that he should be confronted with his accusers: And when these demands were refused, they rejected the bill.