The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (247 page)

All the English historians dwell with pleasure on the excellent qualities of this young prince; whom the flattering promises of hope, joined to many real virtues, had made an object of tender affection to the public. He possessed mildness of disposition, application to study and business, a capacity to learn and judge, and an attachment to equity and justice. He seems only to have contracted, from his education and from the PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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genius of the age in which he lived, too much of a narrow prepossession in matters of religion, which made him incline somewhat to bigotry and persecution: But as the bigotry of protestants, less governed by priests, lies under more restraints than that of catholics, the effects of this malignant quality were the less to be apprehended, if a longer life had been granted to young Edward.

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XXXVI

MARY

Lady Jane Gray proclaimed queen — Deserted by the people — The queen
proclaimed and acknowledged — Northumberland executed — Catholic religion
restored — A parliament — Deliberations with regard to the queen’s marriage —

Queen’s marriage with Philip — Wyat’s insurrection — Suppressed — Execution of
Lady Jane Gray — A parliament — Philip’s arrival in England
The title of the princess Mary, after the demise of her brother, 1553.

was not exposed to any considerable difficulty; and the

objections, started by the lady Jane’s partizans, were new and unheard-of by the nation. Though all the protestants, and even many of the catholics, believed the marriage of Henry VIII. with Catherine of Arragon to be unlawful and invalid; yet, as it had been contracted by the parties without any criminal intention, had been avowed by their parents, recognized by the nation, and seemingly founded on those principles of law and religion, which then prevailed, few imagined, that their issue ought on that account to be regarded as illegitimate. A declaration to that purpose had indeed been extorted from parliament by the usual violence and caprice of Henry; but as that monarch had afterwards been induced to restore his daughter to the right of succession, her title was now become as legal and parliamentary as it was ever esteemed just and natural. The public had long been familiarized to these sentiments: During all the reign of Edward, the princess was regarded as his lawful successor: And though the protestants dreaded the effects of her prejudices, the extreme hatred,

universally entertained against the Dudleys,n
who, men foresaw, would, under the name of Jane, be the real sovereigns, was more than sufficient to counterbalance, even with that party, the attachment to religion. This last attempt, to violate the order of succession, had displayed Northumberland’s ambition and injustice in a full light; and when the people reflected on the long train of fraud, iniquity, and cruelty by which that project had been conducted; that the lives of the two Seymours, as well as the title of the princesses, had been sacrificed to it; they were moved by indignation to exert themselves in opposition to such criminal enterprizes. The general veneration also, paid to the memory of Henry VIII. prompted the nation to defend the rights of his posterity; and the miseries of the ancient civil wars were not so entirely forgotten, that men were willing, by a departure from the lawful heir, to incur the danger of like bloodshed and confusion.

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

London.q

Northumberland found that farther dissimulation was fruitless: He went to Sion-

house,r
accompanied by the duke of Suffolk, the earl of Pembroke, and others of the nobility; and he approached the lady Jane, who resided there, with all the respect usually paid to the sovereign. Jane was, in a great measure, ignorant of these transactions; and it was with equal grief and surprize, that she received intelligence of

them.s

She was a lady of an amiable person, an engaging disposition, Lady Jane Gray

accomplished parts; and being of an equal age with the late king, proclaimed queen.

she had received all her education with him, and seemed even to possess greater facility in acquiring every part of manly and polite literature. She had attained a familiar knowledge of the Roman and Greek languages, besides modern tongues; had passed most of her time in an application to learning; and expressed a great indifference for other occupations and amusements, usual with her sex and station. Roger Ascham, tutor to the lady Elizabeth, having one day paid her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato, while the rest of the family were engaged in a party of hunting in the park; and on his admiring the singularity of her choice, she told him, that she received more pleasure from that author than the others could reap from

all their sport and gaiety.t
Her heart, full of this passion for literature and the elegant arts, and of tenderness towards her husband, who was deserving of her affections, had never opened itself to the flattering allurements of ambition; and the intelligence of her elevation to the throne was no-wise agreeable to her. She even refused to accept of the present; pleaded the preferable title of the two princesses; expressed her dread of the consequences attending an enterprize so dangerous, not to say so criminal; and desired to remain in the private station, in which she was born. Overcome at last by the entreaties, rather than the reasons, of her father and father-in-law, and above all of her husband, she submitted to their will, and was prevailed on to relinquish her own judgment. It was then usual for the kings of England, after their accession, to pass the first days in the Tower; and Northumberland immediately conveyed thither the new sovereign. All the counsellors were obliged to attend her to that fortress; and by this means became, in reality, prisoners in the hands of Northumberland; whose will they were necessitated to obey. Orders were given by the council to proclaim Jane throughout the kingdom; but these orders were executed only in London, and the neighbourhood. No applause ensued: The people heard the proclamation with silence and concern: Some even expressed their scorn and contempt: and one Pot, a vintner’s apprentice, was severely punished for this offence. The protestant teachers PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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themselves, who were employed to convince the people of Jane’s title, found their eloquence fruitless; and Ridley, bishop of London, who preached a sermon to that purpose, wrought no effect upon his audience.

The people of Suffolk, meanwhile, paid their attendance on Mary. As they were much attached to the reformed communion, they could not forbear, amidst their tenders of duty, expressing apprehensions for their religion; but when she assured them, that she never meant to change the laws of Edward, they enlisted themselves in her cause with zeal and affection. The nobility and gentry daily flocked to her, and brought her reinforcement. The earls of Bath and Sussex, the eldest sons of lord Wharton and lord Mordaunt, Sir William Drury, Sir Henry Benningfield, Sir Henry Jernegan, persons whose interest lay in the neighbourhood, appeared at the head of their tenants and

retainers.u
Sir Edward Hastings, brother to the earl of Huntingdon, having received a commission from the council to make levies for the lady Jane in Buckinghamshire, carried over his troops, which amounted to four thousand men, and joined Mary. Even a fleet, which had been sent by Northumberland to lie off the coast of Suffolk, being forced into Yarmouth by a storm, was engaged to declare for that princess.

Northumberland, hitherto blinded by ambition, saw at last the danger gather round him, and knew not to what hand to turn himself. He had levied forces, which were assembled at London; but dreading the cabals of the courtiers and counsellors, whose compliance, he knew, had been entirely the result of fear or artifice, he was resolved to keep near the person of the lady Jane, and send Suffolk to command the army. But the counsellors, who wished to remove him,
w
working on the filial tenderness of Jane, magnified to her the danger, to which her father would be exposed; and represented, that Northumberland, who had gained reputation by formerly suppressing a rebellion in those parts, was more proper to command in that enterprize. The duke himself, who knew the slender capacity of Suffolk, began to think, that none but himself was able to encounter the present danger; and he agreed to take on him the command of the troops. The counsellors attended on him at his departure with the highest protestations of attachment, and none more than Arundel, his mortal enemy.
x

As he went along, he remarked the disaffection of the people, which foreboded a fatal issue to his ambitious hopes. “Many,” said he to lord Gray, “come out to look at us, but I find not one who cries,
God speed you.”y

The duke had no sooner reached St. Edmond’s-bury, than he found his army which did not exceed six thousand men, too weak to encounter the Queen’s,
z
which amounted to double the number. He wrote to the council, desiring them to send him a reinforcement; and the counsellors immediately laid hold of the opportunity to free themselves from confinement. They left the Tower, as if they meant to execute Northumberland’s commands;

but being assembled in Baynard’s castle, a house belonging to Lady Jane deserted by

Pembroke, they deliberated concerning the method of shaking the people.

off his usurped tyranny. Arundel began the conference, by representing the injustice and cruelty of Northumberland, the exorbitancy of his ambition, the criminal enterprize which he had projected, and the guilt in which he had involved the whole council; and he affirmed, that the only method of making atonement for their past offences, was by a speedy return to the duty, which they PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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owed to their lawful sovereign.a
This motion was seconded by Pembroke, who, clapping his hand to his sword, swore he was ready to fight any man that expressed himself of a contrary sentiment. The mayor and aldermen of London were immediately sent for, who discovered great alacrity in obeying the orders they received to proclaim Mary. The people expressed their approbation by shouts of applause. Even Suffolk, who commanded in the Tower, finding resistance fruitless, opened the gates, and declared for the queen. The lady Jane, after the vain pageantry of wearing a crown during ten days, returned to a private life with more satisfaction than she felt when the royalty was tendered to her.
b
And the messengers, who were sent to Northumberland, with order to lay down his arms, found that he had despaired of success,

was deserted by all his followers, and had already proclaimed the The queen proclaimed

queen, with exterior marks of joy and satisfaction.c
The people and acknowledged.

every where, on the queen’s approach to London, gave sensible expressions of their loyalty and attachment. And the lady Elizabeth met her at the head of a thousand horse, which that princess had levied in order to support their joint title against the usurper.
d

The queen gave orders for taking into custody the duke of Northumberland, who fell on his knees to the earl of Arundel that arrested him, and abjectly begged his life.
e
At the same time were committed the earl of Warwic his eldest son, lord Ambrose and lord Henry Dudley, two of his younger sons, Sir Andrew Dudley, his brother, the marquis of Northampton, the earl of Huntingdon, Sir Thomas Palmer, and Sir John Gates. The queen afterwards confined the duke of Suffolk, lady Jane Grey, and lord Guilford Dudley. But Mary was desirous, in the beginning of her reign, to acquire popularity by the appearance of clemency; and because the counsellors pleaded constraint as an excuse for their treason, she extended her pardon to most of them.

Suffolk himself recovered his liberty; and he owed this indulgence, in a great measure, to the contempt entertained of his capacity. But the guilt of Northumberland was too great, as well as his ambition and courage too dangerous, to permit him to entertain any reasonable hopes of life. When brought to his trial, he only desired permission to ask two questions of the peers, appointed to sit on his jury; whether a man could be guilty of treason that obeyed orders given him by the council under the great seal? and whether those who were involved in the same guilt with himself, could sit as his judges? Being told, that the great seal of an usurper was no authority, and that persons, not lying under any sentence of attainder, were still innocent in the eye of the law, and might be admitted on any jury;
f
he acquiesced, and pleaded guilty.