there was such an attempt of Nature that not only England but the World has reason to lament his being so early snatched away How truly was it said of such extraordinary Persons That their Lives are short and seldom do they come to be old He gave us an Essay of Vertue though he did not live to give a Pattern of it When the gravity of a King was needful he carried himself like an Old Man and yet he was always affable and gentle as became his Age. He played on the Lute he medled in Affairs of State and for Bounty he did in that emulate his Father though he even when he endeavoured to be too good might appear to have been bad but there was no ground of suspecting any such thing in the Son whose mind was cultivated by the study of Philosophy It has been said in the end of his Fathers Life A desiâ—n to create him Prince of Wales that he then designed to create him Prince of Wales For though he was called so as the Heirs of this Crown are yet he was not by a formal Creation invested with that dignity This pretence was made use of to hasten forward the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk since he had many Offices for life which the King intended to dispose of and desired to have them speedily filled in order to the creating of his Son Prince of Wales King Henry dies In the mean time his Father died and the Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown were sent by the Council to give him notice of it being then at Hartford and to bring him to the Tower of London and having brought him to Enfield with his Sister the Lady Elizabeth they let him know of his Fathers death and that he was now their King On the 31st of January Jan. 31. the Kings Death was published in London and he Proclaimed King At the Tower his Fathers Executors King Edward came to the Tower with the rest of the Privy-Council received him with the respects due to their King So tempering their sorrow for the death of their late Master with their joy for his Sons happy succeeding him that by an excess of joy they might not seem to have forgot the one so soon nor to bode ill to the other by an extreme grief The first thing they did was the opening King Henry's Will King Henry's Will opened by which they found he had nominated sixteen Persons to be his Executors and Governours to his Son and to the Kingdom till his Son was eighteen years of age These were the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesley Lord Chancellor the Lord St. John Great Master the Lord Russel Lord Privy-Seal the Earl of Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain the Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall Bishop of Duresme Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse Sir William Paget Secretary of State Sir Edward North Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations Sir Edward Montague Lord chief-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber Sir Edward Wotton Treasurer of Callice and Dr. Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York These or the major part of them were to execute his Will and to administer the Affairs of the Kingdom By their consent were the King and his Sisters to be disposed of in Marriage But with this difference that it was only ordered That the King should marry by their Advice but the two Sisters were so limited in their Marriage that they were to forfeit their Right of Succession if they married without their consent it being of far greater importance to the Peace and Interest of the Nation who should be their Husbands if the Crown did devolve on them than who should be the Kings Wife And by the Act passed in the 35th Year of King Henry he was empowered to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit To the Executors the King added by his Will a Privy-Council who should be assisting to them These were the Earls of Arundel and Essex Sir Thom. Cheyney Treasurer of the Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Petre Secretary of State Sir Richard Rich Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thom. Seimour Sir Richard Sowthwell and Sir Edmund Peckham The King also ordered That if any of the Executors should die the Survivors without giving them a Power of substituting others should continue to administer Affairs He also charged them to pay all his Debts and the Legacies he left and to perfect any Grants he had begun and to make good every thing that he had promised The Will being opened and read all the Executors Judge Bromley and the two Wottons only excepted were present and did resolve to execute the Will in all points and to take an Oath for their faithful discharge of that Trust Debate about choosing a Protector But it was also proposed That for the speedier dispatch of things and for a more certain order and direction of all Affairs there should be one chosen to be Head of the rest to whom Ambassadors and others might address themselves It was added to caution this That the Person to be raised to that Dignity should do nothing of any sort without the Advice and Consent of the greater part of the rest But this was opposed by the Lord Chancellour who thought that the Dignity of his Office setting him next the Arch-bishop of Canterbury who did not much follow Secular Affairs he should have the chief stroke in the Government therefore he pressed That they might not depart from the Kings Will in any particular neither by adding to it nor taking from it It was plain the late King intended they should be all alike in the Administration and the raising one to a Title or Degree above the rest was a great change from what he had ordered And whereas it was now said that the Person to be thus nominated was to have no manner of Power over the rest that was only to exalt him into an high Dignity with the less envy or apprehension of danger for it was certain great Titles always make way for high Power But the Earl of Hartford had so great a Party among them that it was agreed to the Lord Chancellor himself consenting when he saw his opposition was without effect The Earl of Hartford chosen that one should be raised over the rest in Title to be called the Protector of the Kings Realms and the Governour of his Person The next Point held no long debate who should be nominated to this high Trust for they unanimously agreed That the Earl of Hartford by reason of his nearness of Blood to the King and the great experience he had in Affairs was the fittest Person So he was declared Protector of the Realm and Governour to the Kings Person but with that special and express Condition that he should not do any Act
the Earl of Shrewsbury Sir Tho. Cheyney Sir John Gage Sir Ralph Sadler and the Lord chief-Chief-Justice Montague joyned with them Then they wrote to the King a Letter Collection Number 41. which is in the Collection full of expressions of their duty and care of his Person complaining of the Duke of Somerset's not listening to their Councils and of his gathering a Force about him for maintaining his wilful doings they owned that they had caused Secretary Petre to stay with them and in it they endeavoured to perswade the King that they were careful of nothing so much as of his preservation They also wrote to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and to Sir William Paget to see to the Kings Person and that his own Servants should attend on him and not those that belonged to the Duke of Somerset But the Protector hearing of this disorder had removed the King to Windsor in all hast and had taken down all the Armour that was either there or at Hampton-Court and had armed such as he could gather about him for his preservation The Council at London complained much of this that the King should be carried to a Place where there were no Provisions fit for him So they ordered all things that he might need to be sent to him from London And on the 8th of October they went to Guild-hall when they gave an account of their Proceedings to the Common-Council of the City and assured them they had no thoughts of altering the Religion as was given out by their Enemies but intended only the safety of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom and for these ends desired their assistance The City of London joyns with them The whole Common-Council with one Voice declared they thanked God for the good intentions they had expressed and assured them they would stand by them with their Lives and Goods At Windsor when the Protector understood that not only the City but the Lieutenant of the Tower of whom he had held himself assured had forsaken him he resolved to struggle no longer and though it is not improbable that he who was chiefly accused for his protecting the Commons might have easily gathered a great Body of Men for his own preservation yet he resolved rather to give way to the Tide that was now against him So he protested before the King and the few Councellors then about him that he had no design against any of the Lords and that the Force he had gathered was only to preserve himself from any violent attempt that might be made on his Person he declared that he was willing to submit himself The Protector offers to treat and submit and therefore proposed that two of those Lords should be sent from London and they with two of those that were yet about the King should consider what might be done in whose determination he would acquiesce and desired that whatsoever was agreed on should be confirmed in Parliament Hereupon there was sent to London a Warrant under the Kings Hand for any two of the Lords of the Council that were there to come to Windsor with twenty Servants a-piece who had the Kings Faith for their safety in coming and going and Cranmer Paget and Smith wrote to them to dispose them to end the matter peaceably and not follow cruel Councils nor to be misled by them who meant otherwise than they professed of which they knew more than they would then mention This seemed to point at the Earl of Southampton On the 9th of October the Council at London encreased by the accession of the Lord Russel the Lord Wentworth Sir Anthony Brown Sir Ant. Wingfield and Sir John Baker the Speaker of the House of Commons For now those who had stood off a while seeing the Protector was resolved to yield came and united themselves with the prevailing Party so that they were in all two and twenty They were informed that the Protector had said that if they intended to put him to death the King should die first and if they would famish him they should famish the King first and that he had armed his own Men and set them next to the Kings Person and was designing to carry him out of Windsor and as some reported out of the Kingdom upon which they concluded that he was no more fit to be Protector But of those words no proofs being mentioned in the Council-Books they look like the forgeries of his Enemies to make him odious to the People The Council ordered a Proclamation of their Proceedings to be printed and writ to the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth acquainting them with what they had done They also wrote to the King as will be found in the Collection acknowledging the many bonds that lay on them in gratitude both for his Fathers goodness to them and his own to take care of him Collection Number 4â— They desired he would consider they were his whole Council except one or two and were those whom his Father had trusted with the Government that the Protector was not raised to that Power by his Fathers Will but by their choice with that condition that he should do all things by their advice which he had not observed so that they now judged him most unworthy of these Honours therefore they earnestly desired they might be admitted to the Kings Presence to do their duties about him and that the Forces gathered about his Person might be sent away and the Duke of Somerset might submit himself to the Order of Council They also wrote to the Arch-bishop and Sir William Paget which is in the Collection charging them as they would answer it Collection Number 43. that the Kings Person might be well looked to that he should not be removed from Windsor and that he should be no longer guarded by the Duke of Somersets Men as they said he had been of which they complained severely but by his own sworn Servants and they required them to concur in advancing the desire they had signified by their Letter to the King protesting that they would do with the Duke of Somerset as they would desire to be done by and with as much moderation and favour as in honour they could so that there was no reason to apprehend from them such cruelty as they had mentioned in their Letters These were sent by Sir Philip Hobbey who was returned from Flanders and had been sent by the King to London on the day before Upon this Cranmer and Paget as is entred in the Council-Book perswaded both the King and the Protector to grant their desire The Protectors Servants were dismissed and the Kings were set about his Person And Cranmer Paget and Smith wrote to the Council at London that all they had proposed should be granted They desired to know whether the King should be brought to London or stay at Windsor and that three of the Lords might be sent thither who should see all things done according to their
have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil Doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of this Realm may punish Christian Men with Death c. the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and Ireland The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Civil Magistrate is ordained and approved by God and therefore is to be obeyed not only for fear of Wrath but for Conscience-sake Civil or Temporal Laws may punish Christian Men with Death for heinous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and to serve in the Wars XXXVII The Goods of Christians are not common The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common as touching the Right Title and Possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every Man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the Poor according to his Ability XXXVIII It is lawful for a Christian to take an Oath As we confess that vain and rash Swearing is forbidden Christian Men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his Apostle so we judg that Christian Religion doth not prohibit but that a Man may swear when the Magistrate requireth in a Cause of Faith and Charity so it be done according to the Prophet's teaching in Justice Judgment and Truth These Articles were left out in Queen Elizabeth's Time XXXIX The Resurrection of the Dead is not past already The Resurrection of the Dead is not past already as if it belonged only to the Soul which by the Grace of Christ is raised from the Death of Sin but is to be expected by all Men in the last Day for at that time as the Scripture doth most apparently testify the Dead shall be restored to their own Bodies Flesh and Bones to the end that Man according as either righteously or wickedly he hath passed this Life may according to his Works receive Rewards or Punishments XL. The Souls of Men deceased do neither perish with their Bodies They who maintain that the Souls of Men deceased do either sleep without any manner of sense to the Day of Judgment or affirm that they die together with the Body and shall be raised therewith at the last Day do wholly differ from the Right Faith and Orthodox Belief which is delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures XLI Of the Millenarians They who endeavour to revive the Fable of the Millenarians are therein contrary to the Holy Scriptures and cast themselves down headlong into Jewish Dotages XLII All Men not to be saved at last They also deserve to be condemned who endeavour to restore that pernicious Opinion That all Men though never so ungodly shall at last be saved when for a certain time appointed by the Divine Justice they have endured punishment for their Sins committed Number 56. Instructions given by the King's Highness to his right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor Francis Earl of Salop and Lord President of his Grace's Council resident in the North Parts and to all others hereafter named and appointed by his Highness to be of his said Council to be observed by the said Counsellors and every of them according as the same hereafter is declared FIrst Ex MS. Dr. Johnson His Majesty much desiring the Quietness and good Governance of the People and Inhabitants in the North Parts of this Realm of England and for the good speedy and indifferent administration of Justice to be there had betwixt Party and Party intendeth to continue in the same North Parts his Right Honourable Council called The King's Majesty's Council in the North Parts And his Highness knowing the approved Wisdom and Experience of his said Cousin _____ with his assured discretion and dexterity in the Execution of Justice hath appointed him to be Lord President of the said Council and by these Presents doth give unto him the Name of Lord President of the said Council with Power and Authority to call together all such as be or hereafter shall be named and appointed to be of the said Council at all times when he shall think expedient And otherwise by his Letters to appoint them and every of them to do such things for the Advancement of Justice and for the repression and punishment of Malefactors as by the Advice of such of the said Council as then shall be present with him he shall think meet for the furtherance of his Grace's Affairs and for the due Administration of Justice between his Highness Subjects And further his Majesty giveth unto the said Lord President by these Presents a Voice Negative in all Councils where things shall be debated at length for the bringing forth of a most perfect Truth or Sentence which his Highness would have observed in all Cases that may abide Advisement and Consultation to the intent that doubtful Matters should as well be maturely consulted upon as also that the same should not pass without the consent and order of the said Lord President And his Highness willeth and commandeth that all and every of the said Councellors named and to be named hereafter shall exhibit and use to the said Lord President all such Honour Reverend Behaviour and Obedience as to their Duty appertaineth and shall receive and execute in like sort all the Precepts and Commandments to them or any of them for any Matter touching his Majesty to be addressed or any Process to be done or served in his Grace's Name And his Highness Pleasure is That the said Lord President shall have the keeping of his Graces Signet therewith to Seal Letters Processes and all such other things as shall be thought convenient by the said Lord President or by two of the Council being bound by those Articles to daily attendance upon the said Lord President with his assent thereunto And to the intent the said Lord President thus established for the above-said Purposes may be furnished with such Numbers and Assistants as be of Wisdom Experience Gravity and Truth meet to have the Name of his Grace's Councellors his Majesty upon good advisement and deliberation hath elected those Persons whose Names ensue hereafter to be his Counsellors joined in the said Council in the North Parts with the said Lord President that is to say The right Trusty and well-beloved Cousins Henry Earl of Westmoreland Henry Earl of Cumberland his right Trusty and well-beloved Cuthbert Bishop of Duresme William Lord Dacres of the North John Lord Conyers Thomas Lord Wharton John Hind Kt. one of his Majesty's Justices of the Common-Pleas Edmond Moleneux Kt. Serjeant at Law Henry Savel Kt. Robert Bowes Kt. Nicholas Fairfax Kt. George Conyers Kt. Leonard Becquith Kt. William Babthorp Kt.
Triumphs would follow him but it was below him to be second to any So he engaged him to quarrel in every thing with the Protector all whose wary motions were ascribed to fear or dullness To others he said What friendship could any expect from a Man who had no pity on his own Brother But that which provoked the Nobility most Complaints against the Protector was the partiality the Protector had for the Commons in the Insurrections that had been this Summer He had also given great Grounds of jealousie by entertaining Forreign Troops in the Kings Wars which though it was not objected to him because the Council had consented to it yet it was whispered about that he had extorted that Consent But the noble Palace he was raising in the Strand which yet carries his Name out of the ruines of some Bishops Houses and Churches drew as publick an envy on him as any thing he had done It was said that when the King was engaged in such Wars and when London was much disordered by the Plague that had been in it for some Months he was then bringing Architects from Italy and designing such a Palace as had not been seen in England It was also said That many Bishops and Cathedrals had resigned many Mannours to him for obtaining his favour Though this was not done without leave obtained from the King for in a Grant of some Lands made to him by the King on the 11th of July in the second year of his Reign it is said That these Lands were given him as a Reward of his Services in Scotland Rot. Pat. 4. Par. 2. Reg. for which he was offered greater Rewards but that he refusing to accept of such Grants as might too much impoverish the Crown had taken a Licence to the Bishop of Bath and Wells for his alienating some of the Lands of that Bishoprick to him he is in that Patent called by the Grace of God Duke of Somerset which had not of late years been ascribed to any but Sovereign Princes It was also said That many of the Chantry Lands had been sold to his Friends at easie rates for which they concluded he had great Presents and a course of unusual greatness had raised him up too high so that he did not carry himself towards the Nobility with that equality that they expected from him All these things concurred to beget him many Enemies and he had very few Friends for none stuck firmly to him but Paget and Secretary Smith and especially Cranmer who never forsook his Friend All that favoured the old Superstition were his Enemies and seeing the Earl of Southampton heading the Party against him they all run in to it And of the Bishops that were for the Reformation Goodrich of Ely likewise joyned to them He had attended on the Admiral in his Preparations for death from whom it seems he drank in ill impressions of the Protector All his Enemies saw and he likewise saw it himself that the continuance of the War must needs destroy him and that a Peace would confirm him in his Power and give him time and leisure to break thorough the Faction that was now so strong against him that it was not probable he could master it without the help of some time So in the Council his Adversaries delivered their Opinions against all motions for Peace and though upon Pagets return from Flanders it appeared to be very unreasonable to carry on the War yet they said Paget had secret Instructions to procure such an Answer that it might give a colour to so base a Project The Officers that came over from these Places that the French had taken pretended as is common for all Men in such Circumstances that they wanted things necessary for a Siege and though in truth it was quite contrary as we read in Thuanus yet their Complaints were cherished and spread about among the People The Protector had also against the Mind of the Council ordered the Garrison to be drawn out of Hadingtoun and was going notwithstanding all their opposition to make Peace with France and did in many things act by his own Authority without asking thâ—ir advice and often against it This was the assuming a Regal Power and seemed not to be endured by those who thought they were in all Points his equals It was also said That when contrary to the late Kings Will he was chosen Protector it was with that special condition that he should do nothing without their consent and though by the Patent he had for his Office his Power was more enlarged which was of greater force in Law than a private Agreement at the Council Table yet even that was objected to him as an high presumption in him to pretend to such a vast Power Thus all the Month of September there were great Heats among them several Persons interposed to mediate but to no effect for the Faction against him was now so strong that they resolved to strip him of his exorbitant Power and reduce him to an equality with themselves The King was then at Hampton-Court where also the Protector was with some of his own Retainers and Servants about him which encreased the Jealousies for it was given out that he intended to carry away the King So on the 6th of October some of the Council met at Ely House the Lord St. John President Most of the Council separate from him the Earls of Warwick Arundel and Southampton Sir Edw. North Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmund Pecham Sir Edw. Wotton and Dr. Wotton and Secretary Petre being sent to them in the Kings Name to ask what they met for joyned himself likewise to them They sate as the Kings Council and entred their Proceedings in the Council-Book from whence I draw the account of this Transaction These being met together and considering the disorders that had been lately in England the losses in Scotland and France laid the blame of all on the Protector who they said was given up to other Councils so obstinately that he would not hearken to the advises they had given him both at the Board and in private and they declared that having intended that day to have gone to Hampton-Court for a friendly communication with him he had raised many of the Commons to have destroyed them and had made the King set his Hand to the Letters he had sent for raising Men and had also dispersed seditious Bills against them therefore they intended to see to the safety of the King and the Kingdom So they sent for the Lord Major and Aldermen of London and required them to obey no Letters sent them by the Protector but only such as came from themselves They also writ many Letters to the Nobility and Gentry over England giving them an account of their Designs and Motives and requiring their assistance They also sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower and he submitted to their Orders Next day the Lord Chancellor the Marquess of Northampton