364. An Expedition against France pag. 365. Many strange Accidents ibid. A Treaty of Peace pag. 366. The Battel of Graveling ibid. Many Protestants in France ibid. Dolphin marries the Queen of Scots pag. 367. A Convention of Estates in Scotland ibid. A Parliament in England pag. 368. The Queens Sickness and Death pag. 369. Cardinal Pool dies ibid. His Character ibid. The Queens Character pag. 370. BOOK III. Of the Settlement of the Reformation of Religion in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign QVeen Elizabeth succeeds pag. 373. And comes to London pag. 374. She sends a Dispatch to Rome ibid. But to no effect ibid. King Philip Courts her pag. 375. The Queens Council ibid. A Consultation about the Change of Religion pag. 376. A Method proposed for it pag. 377. Many forward to Reform pag. 378. Parker named to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ibid. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper pag. 380. The Queens Coronation ibid. The Parliament meets pag. 381. The Treaty at Cambray pag. 382. A Peace agreed on with France ibid. The Proceedings of the Parliament pag. 383. An Address to the Queen to marry pag. 384. Her Answer to it ibid. They Recognise her Title pag. 385. Acts concerning Religion ibid. The Bishops against the Supremacy pag. 386. The beginning of the High Commission pag. 387. A Conference at Westminster pag. 388. Arguments for the Latin Service pag. 389. Arguments against it pag. 390. The Conference breaks up pag. 391. The Liturgy corrected and explained pag. 392. Debates about the Act of Vniformity pag. 393. Arguments for the Changes then made pag. 394. Bills proposed but rejected pag. 395. The Bishops refuse the Oath of Supremacy pag. 396. The Queens gentleness to them ibid. Injunctions for a Visitation pag. 397. The Queen desires to have Images retained ibid. Reasons brought against it ibid. The Heads of the Injunctions pag. 398. Reflections made on them pag. 399. The first High Commission pag. 400. Parkers unwillingness to accept of the Archbishoprick of Canterbury pag. 401. His Consecration pag. 402. The Fable of the Nags-head confuted pag. 403. The Articles of Religion prepared pag. 405. An Explanation of the Presence in the Sacrament ibid. The Translation of the Bible pag. 406. The beginnings of the Divisions pag. 407. The Reformation in Scotland ibid. Mills Martyrdome pag. 408. It occasions great discontents pag. 409. A Revolt at St. Johnstoun pag. 410. The French King intends to grant them liberty of Religion pag. 411. But is killed ibid. A Truce agreed to ibid. The Queen Regent is deposed pag. 412. The Scots implore the Queen of England's Aid ibid. Leith besieged by the English ibid. The Queen Regent dies pag. 413. A Peace is concluded ibid. The Reformation setled by Parliament ibid. Francis the second dies ibid. The Civil Wars of France pag. 415. The Wars of the Netherlands pag. 416. The misfortunes of the Queen of Scotland pag. 417. Queen Elizabeth deposed by the Pope pag. 418. Sir Fr. Walsinghams Letter concerning the Queens proceeding with Papists and Puritans ibid. The Conclusion pag. 421. FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS AND Original Papers WITH OTHER INSTRUMENTS Referred to in the SECOND PART OF THE History of the Reformation OF THE Church of England LONDON Printed by J.D. for Richard Chiswell 1680. The Journal of King EDWARD'S Reign written with his own Hand The Original is in the Cotton Library Nero C. 10. THe Year of our Lord 1537 was a Prince born to King Henry the 8th by Jane Seimour then Queen who within few days after the Birth of her Son died and was buried at the Castle of Windsor This Child was Christned by the Duke of Norfolk the Duke of Suffolk and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Afterwards was brought up till he came to six Years old among the Women At the sixth Year of his Age he was brought up in Learning by Master Doctor Cox who was after his Almoner and John Cheeke Master of Arts two well-learned Men who sought to bring him up in learning of Tongues of the Scripture of Philosophy and all Liberal Sciences Also John Bellmaine Frenchman did teach him the French Language The tenth Year not yet ended it was appointed he should be created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Count Palatine of Chester At which time being the Year of our Lord 1547 the said King died of a Dropsie as it was thought After whose Death incontinent came Edward Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse to convoy this Prince to Enfield where the Earl of Hartford declared to him and his younger Sister Elizabeth the Death of their Father Here he begins anew again AFter the Death of King Henry the 8th his Son Edward Prince of Wales was come to at Hartford by the Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse for whom before was made great preparation that he might be created Prince of Wales and afterward was brought to Enfield where the Death of his Father was first shewed him and the same day the Death of his Father was shewed in London where was great lamentation and weeping and suddenly he proclaimed King The next day being the _____ of _____ He was brought to the Tower of London where he tarried the space of three weeks and in the mean season the Council sat every day for the performance of the Will and at length thought best that the Earl of Hartford should be made Duke of Somerset Sir Thomas Seimour Lord Sudley the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton and divers Knights should be made Barons as the Lord Sheffield with divers others Also they thought best to chuse the Duke of Somerset to be Protector of the Realm and Governour of the King's Person during his Minority to which all the Gentlemen and Lords did agree because he was the King's Uncle on his Mothers side Also in this time the late King was buried at Windsor with much solemnity and the Officers broke their Staves hurling them into the Grave but they were restored to them again when they came to the Tower The Lord Lisle was made Earl of Warwick and the Lord Great Chamberlainship was given to him and the Lord Sudley made Admiral of England all these things were done the King being in the Tower Afterwards all things being prepared for the Coronation the King being then but nine Years old passed through the City of London as heretofore hath been used and came to the Palace of Westminster and the next day came into Westminster-Hall And it was asked the People Whether they would have him to be their King Who answered Yea yea Then he was crowned King of England France and Ireland by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the rest of the Clergy and Nobles and Anointed with all such Ceremonies as were accustomed and took his Oath and gave a General Pardon and so was brought to the Hall to Dinner on Shrove-sunday where he sat with the Crown on his Head with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury
but by the Advice and Consent of the other Executors according to the Will of the late King Then they all went to take their Oaths but it was proposed that it should be delayed till the next day that so they might do it upon better consideration More was not done that day save that the Lord Chancellor was ordered to deliver up the Seals to the King and to receive them again from his Hands for King Henry's Seal was to be made use of either till a new one was made or till the King was Crowned He was also ordered to renew the Commissions of the Judges the Justices of Peace the Presidents of the North and of Wales and of some other Officers This was the issue of the first Council-day under this King In which the so easie advancement of the Earl of Hartford to so high a Dignity gave great occasion to censure it seeming to be a change of what King Henry had designed But the Kings great kindness to his Unkle made it pass so smoothly For the rest of the Executors not being of the Ancient Nobility but Courtiers were drawn in easily to comply with that which was so acceptable to their young King Only the Lord Chancellor who had chiefly opposed it was to expect small favour at the new Protectors hands It was soon apparent what emulation there was between them And the Nation being then divided between those who loved the old Superstition and those who desired a more complete Reformation The Protector set himself at the Head of the one and the Lord Chancellor at the Head of the other Party The next day the Executors met again Which is declared in Council and first took their Oaths most solemnly for their faithful executing the Will They also ordered all those who were by the late King named Privy-Councellors to come into the Kings Presence and there they declared to the King the choice they had made of his Unkle who gave his Assent to it It was also signified to the Lords of the Council who likewise with one voice gave their Consent to it And Dispatches were ordered to be sent to the Emperour the French King and the Regent of Flanders giving notice of the Kings Death and of the Constitution of the Council and the Nomination of the Protector during the Minority of their young King All Dispatches were ordered to be Signed only by the Protector and all the Temporal Lords with all the Bishops about the Town were commanded to come and swear Allegiance to the King On the 2d of Feb. Feb. 2. the Protector was declared Lord Treasurer and Earl Marshal these Places having been designed for him by the late King upon the Duke of Norfolks Attainder Letters were also sent to Callice Bulloigne Ireland the Marches of Scotland and most of the Counties of England giving notice of the Kings Succession and of the order now setled The Will was also ordered to be Enrolled and every of the Executors was to have an Exemplification of it under the Great Seal and the Clerks of Council were also ordered to give to every of them an account of all things done in Council under their Hands and Seals The Bishops take out Commissions for their Bishopricks And the Bishops were required to take out new Commissions of the same form with those they had taken out in King Henry's time for which see Page 267. of the former Part only with this difference That there is no mention made of a Vicar-General in these Commissions as was in the former there being none after Cromwel advanced to that Dignity Two of these Commissions are yet extant one taken out by Cranmer the other taken out by Bonner But this was only done by reason of the present juncture because the Bishops being generally addicted to the former Superstition it was thought necessary to keep them under so arbitrary a Power as that subjected them to for they hereby held their Bishopricks only during the Kings pleasure and were to exercise them as his Delegates in his Name and by his Authority Cranmer set an Example to the rest Collection Number 2. and took out his Commission which is in the Collection But this was afterwards judged too heavy a Yoak and therefore the new Bishops that were made by this King were not put under it and so Ridley when made Bishop of London in Bonners room was not required to take out any such Commission but they were to hold their Bishopricks during life The reason of the new Creation of many Noblemen There was a Clause in the Kings Will requiring his Executors to make good all that he had promised in any manner of ways Whereupon Sir William Paget Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert were required to declare what they knew of the Kings Intentions and Promises the former being the Secretary whom he had trusted most and the other two those that attended on him in his Bed-Chamber during his sickness though they were called Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber for the Service of the Gentlemen of the Bed-Chamber was not then set up Paget declared That when the Evidence appeared against the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey the King who used to talk oft in private with him alone told him that he intended to bestow their Lands liberally and since by Attainders and other ways the Nobility were much decayed he intended to create some Peers and ordered him to write a Book of such as he thought meetest who thereupon proposed the Earl of Hartford to be a Duke the Earl of Essex to be a Marquess the Viscount Lisle to be an Earl the Lords St. John Russel and Wriothesley to be Earls and Sir Tho. Seimour Sir Thom. Cheyney Sir Richard Rich Sir William Willoughby Sir Tho. Arundel Sir Edmund Sheffield Sir Jo. St. Leiger Sir _____ Wymbish Sir _____ Vernon of the Peak and Sir Christopher Danby to be Barons Paget also proposed a distribution of the Duke of Norfolk's Estate But the King liked it not and made Mr. Gates bring him the Books of that Estate which being done he ordered Paget to tot upon the Earl of Hartford these are the words of his Deposition a Thousand Merks on the Lord Lisle St. John and Russel 200 Pounds a year to the Lord Wriothesley 100 and for Sir Tho. Seimour 300 Pounds a year But Paget said it was too little and stood long arguing it with him yet the King ordered him to propose it to the Persons concerned and see how they liked it And he putting the King in mind of Denny who had been oft a Suiter for him but he had never yet in lieu of that obtained any thing for Denny the King ordered 200 Pounds for him and 400 Marks for Sir William Herbert and remembred some others likewise But Paget having according to the Kings Commands spoken to these who were to be advanced found that many of them desired to continue in their former
Ranks and thought the Lands the King intended to give were not sufficient for the maintenance of the Honour to be conferred on them which he reported to the best advantage he could for every Man and endeavoured to raise the Kings favour to them as high as he could But while this was in consultation the Duke of Norfolk very prudently apprehending the ruin of his Posterity if his Lands were divided into many Hands out of which he could not so easily recover them whereas if they continued in the Crown some turn of Affairs might again establish his Family and intending also to oblige the King by so unusual a Complement sent a desire to him that he would be pleased to settle all his Lands on the Prince the now King and not give them away for said he according to the Phrase of that Time They are good and stately Gear This wrought so far on the King that he resolved to reserve them for himself and to reward his Servants some other way Whereupon Paget pressed him once to resolve on the Honours he would bestow and what he would give with them and they should afterwards consider of the way how to give it The King growing still worse said to him That if ought came to him but good as he thought he could not long endure he intended to place them all about his Son as Men whom he trusted and loved above all other and that therefore he would consider them the more So after many Consultations he ordered the Book to be thus filled up The Earl of Hartford to be Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer and to be Duke of Somerset Exeter or Hartford and his Son to be Earl of Wiltshire with 800 l. a year of Land and 300 l. a year out of the next Bishops Land that fell void the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Essex the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Coventry the Lord Wriothesly to be Earl of Winchester Sir Tho. Seimour to be a Baron and Lord Admiral Sir Richard Rich Sir Jo. St. Leiger Sir William Willoughby Sir Ed. Sheffield and Sir Christopher Danby to be Barons with yearly Revenues to them and several other Persons And having at the Suit of Sir Edw. North promised to give the Earl of Hartford six of the best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral except Deanries and Treasurerships at his suit he agreed that a Deanry and a Treasurership should be in stead of two of the six Prebendaries And thus all this being written as the King had ordered it the King took the Book and put it in his Pocket and gave the Secretary order to let every one know what he had determined for them But before these things took effect the King died Yet being on his Death-bed put in mind of what he had promised he ordered it to be put in his Will that his Executors should perform every thing that should appear to have been promised by him All this Denny and Herbert confirmed for they then waited in his Chamber and when the Secretary went out the King told them the substance of what had passed between them and made Denny read the Book over again to him whereupon Herbert observed that the Secretary had remembred all but himself to which the King answered He should not forget him and ordered Denny to write 400 l. a year for him All these things being thus declared upon Oath and the greatest part of them having been formerly signified to some of them and the whole matter being well known and spread abroad the Executors both out of Conscience to the Kings Will and for their own Honours resolved to fulfil what the King had intended but was hindred by death to accomplish But being apprehensive both of Wars with the Emperour and French King they resolved not to lessen the Kings Treasure nor Revenue nor to sell his Jewels or Plate but to find some other ways to pay them and this put them afterwards on selling the Chantry Lands The Affairs of Scotland The business of Scotland was then so pressing that Balnaves who was Agent for those that had shut themselves within the Castle of St. Andrews had this day 1180 l. ordered to be carried to them for an half years pay to the Soldiers of that Garrison There were also Pensions appointed for the most leading Men in that Business The Earl of Rothes eldest Son had 280 Pound Sir James Kircaldy had 200 and many others had smaller Pensions allowed them for their amity as it is expressed in the Council Books 1547. Feb. 6. the King Knighted That day the Lord Protector Knighted the King being authorized to do it by Letters Pattents So it seems that as the Laws of Chivalry required that the King should receive Knighthood from the Hand of some other Knight so it was judged too great a presumption for his own Subject to give it without a Warrant under the Great Seal The King at the same time Knighted Sir John Hublethorn the Lord Major of London When it was known abroad what a distribution of Honour and Wealth the Council had resolved on it was much censured many saying that it was not enough for them to have drained the dead King of all his Treasure but that the first step of their proceedings in their new Trust was to provide Honour and Estates for themselves whereas it had been a more decent way for them to have reserved their Pretensions till the King had come to be of Age. Another thing in the Attestations seemed much to lessen the credit of the Kings Will which was said to be Signed the 30th of Decemb. and so did bear date whereas this Narration insinuates that it was made a very little while before he died not being able to accomplish his design in these things which he had projected but it was well known that he was not so ill on the 30th of December Secular Men had their Ecclesiastical Dignities It may perhaps seem strange that the Earl of Hartford had six good Prebends promised him two of these being afterwards converted into a Deanry and a Treasurership But it was ordinary at that time The Lord Cromwell had been Dean of Wells and many other Secular Men had these Ecclesiastical Benefices without Cure conferred on them For which there being no charge of Souls annexed to them this might seem to be an excuse Yet even those had a sacred charge incumbent on them in the Cathedrals and were just and necessary encouragements either for such as by Age or other defects were not fit for a Parochial Charge and yet might be otherwise capable to do eminent service in the Church or for the support of such as in their Parochial labours did serve so well as to merit preferment and yet perhaps were so meanly provided for as to need some farther help for their subsistence But certainly they were never intended for the enriching of such lazy and sensual Men who having given themselves up
was in great straits and intended to have returned back to England without hazarding an Engagement But the Scots thought they were so much superior to the English and that they had them now at such a disadvantage that they resolved to fall upon them next day And that the fair offers made by the Protector might not raise division among them the Governour having communicated these to a few whom he trusted was by their advice perswaded to suppress them but he sent a Trumpeter to the English Army with an Offer to suffer them to return without falling upon them Rejected by them which the Protector had reason to reject knowing that so mean an Action in the beginning of his Administration would have quite ruined his Reputation But to this another that came with the Trumpeter added a Message from the Earl of Huntley That the Protector and he with ten or twenty of a side or singly should decide the Quarrel by their Personal Valour The Protector said This was no private Quarrel and the Trust he was in obliged him not to expose himself in such a way and therefore he was to fight no other way but at the Head of his Army But the Earl of Warwick offered to accept the Challenge The Earl of Huntley sent no such Challenge as he afterwards purged himself when he heard of it For as it was unreasonable for him to expect the Protector should have answered it so it had been an affronting the Governour of Scotland to have taken it off of his hands since he was the only Person that might have challenged the Protector on equal terms The truth of the matter was a Gentleman that went along with the Trumpeter made him do it without Warrant fancying the Answer to it would have taken up some time in which he might have viewed the Enemies Camp Sept. 10. The Baâ—tel of Pinkey near Musselburgh On the 10th of September the two Armies drew out and fought in the Field of Pinkey near Musselburgh The English had the advantage of the Ground And in the beginning of the Action a Canon Ball from one of the English Ships killed the Lord Grames eldest Son and 25 Men more which put the Earl of Argiles Highlanders into such a fright that they could not be held in order But after a Charge given by the Earl of Angus in which the English lost some few Men the Scots gave ground and the English observing that and breaking in furiously upon them the Scots threw down their Arms and fled The English pursued hard and slew them without mercy A great defeat given the Scots There were reckoned to be killed about 14000 and 1500 taken Prisoners among whom was the Earl of Huntley and 500 Gentlemen and all the Artillery was taken This loss quite disheartned the Scots so that they all retir'd to Strivling and left the whole Country to the Protectors mercy Who the next day went and took Lieth and the Soldiers in the Ships burnt some of the Sea-Towns of Fife and re-took some English Ships that had been taken by the Scots and burnt the rest They also put a Garrison in the Isle of St. Columba in the Frith of about 200 Soldiers and left two Ships to wait on them He also sent the Earl of Warwick's Brother Sir Ambrose Dudley to take Broughty a Castle in the Mouth of Tay in which he put 200 Soldiers He wasted Edenburgh and uncovered the Abbey of Holyrood-house and carried away the Lead and the Bells belonging to it But he neither took the Castle of Edenburgh nor did he go on to Strivling where the Queen with the straglers of the Army lay And it was thought that in the consternation wherein the late defeat had put them every Place would have yielded to him But he had some private reasons that pressed his return and made him let go the advantages that were now in his hands and so gave the Scots time to bring Succours out of France whereas he might easily have made an end of the War now at once if he had followed his success vigorously The Earl of Warwick who had a great share in the Honour of the Victory but knew that the errors in conduct would much diminish the Protectors glory which had been otherwise raised to an unmeasurable height was not displeased at it So on the 18th of September Sept. 18. the Protector drew his Army back into England and having received a Message from the Queen and the Governour of Scotland offering a Treaty he ordered them to send Commissioners to Berwick to treat with those he should appoint As he returned through the Merch and Teviotdale all the chief Men in these Counties came in to him and took an Oath to King Edward the Form whereof will be sound in the Collection Collection Number 11. and delivered into his hands all the Places of strength in their Counties He left a Garrison of 200 in Home Castle under the Command of Sir Edw. Dudley and fortified Roxburgh where for encouraging the rest he wrought two hours with his own hands and put 300 Soldiers and 200 Pioneers into it giving Sir Ralph Bulmer the Command At the same time the Earl of Lennox and the Lord Wharton made an in-road by the West Marches but with little effect On the 29th of September the Protector returned into England Sept. 29. The Protector returned to England full of Honour having in all that Expedition lost not above 60 Men as one that then writ the account of it says The Scotch Writers say he lost between 2 and 300. He had taken 80 Piece of Canon and bridled the two chief Rivers of the Kingdom by the Garrisons he left in them and had left many Garrisons in the strong Places on the Frontier And now it may be easily imagined how much this raised his reputation in England since Men commonly make Auguries of the Fortune of their Rulers from the Successes of the first Designs they undertake So now they remembred what he had done formerly in Scotland and how he had in France with 7000 Men raised the French Army of 20000 that was set down before Bulloigne and had forced them to leave their Ordnance Baggage and Tents with the loss of one Man only in the year 1544 and that next year he had fallen into Picardy and built New-haven with two other Forts there So that they all expected great success under his Government And indeed if the breach between his Brother and him with some other errors had not lost him the advantages he now had this prosperous Action had laid the foundation of great Fortunes to him He left the Earl of Warwick to treat with those that should be sent from Scotland But none came for that Proposition had been made only to gain time The Queen Mother there was not ill pleased to see the interest of the Governour so much impaired by that misfortune and perswaded the chief Men of that
they continued still in that mind that they could not be offered by them as Mediators yet they ordered them to impart them unto the Emperor as News and carefully to observe his looks and behaviour upon their opening of every one of them But now the Kings death broke off this Negotiation The Kings sickness together with all his other Affairs He had last year first the Measels and then the Small-Pox of which he was perfectly recovered In his Progress he had been sometimes violent in his Exercises which had cast him into great Colds but these went off and he seemed to be well after it But in the beginning of January this year he was seized with a deep Cough and all Medicines that were used did rather encrease than lessen it upon which a suspition was taken up and spread over all the World so that it is mentioned by most of the Historians of that Age that some lingering Poison had been given him but more than Rumours and some ill-favoured Circumstances I could never discover concerning this He was so ill when the Parliament met that he was not able to go to Westminster but ordered their first meeting and the Sermon to be at White-hall In the time of his sickness Bishop Ridley preached before him and took occasion to run out much on Works of Charity and the obligation that lay on Men of high Condition to be eminent in good Works This touched the King to the quick So that presently after Sermon he sent for the Bishop His care of the Relief of the Poor And after he had commanded him to sit down by him and be covered he resumed most of the Heads of the Sermon and said he looked on himself as chiefly touched by it he desired him as he had already given him the Exhortation in general so to direct him how to do his duty in that Particular The Bishop astonished at this tenderness in so young a Prince burst forth in Tears expressing how much he was overjoyed to see such inclinations in him but told him he must take time to think on it and craved leave to consult with the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen So the King writ by him to them to consult speedily how the Poor should be relieved They considered there were three sorts of Poor such as were so by natural infirmity or folly as impotent Persons and Mad-men or Ideots such as were so by accident as sick or maimed Persons and such as by their idleness did cast themselves into poverty So the King ordered the Gray-friars Church near Newgate with the Revenues belonging to it to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomews near Smith-field to be an Hospital and gave his own House of Bridewell to be a Place of Correction and Work for such as were wilfully idle He also confirmed and enlarged the Grant for the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark which he had erected and endowed in August last And when he set his Hand to these Foundations which was not done before the 26th of June this Year He thanked God that had prolonged his Life till he had finished that design So he was the first Founder of those Houses which by many great Additions since that time have risen to be among the Noblest in Europe He expressed in the whole course of his sickness great submission to the Will of God and seemed glad at the approaches of death only the consideration of Religion and the Church touched him much and upon that account he said he was desirous of Life About the end of May Several Marriages or beginning of June the Duke of Suffolks three Daughters were married The eldest Lady Jane to the Lord Guilford Dudley the fourth Son of the Duke of Northumberland who was the only Son whom he had yet unmarried The second the Lady Katharine to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son the Lord Herbert The third the Lady Mary who was crooked to the Kings Groom-Porter Martin Keys The Duke of Northumberland married his two Daughters the eldest to Sir Henry Sidney Son to Sir William Sidney that had been Steward to the King when he was Prince the other was married to the Lord Hastings Son to the Earl of Huntington The People were mightily inflamed against this insolent Duke for it was generally given out that he was sacrificing the King to his own extravagant ambition He seemed little to regard their Censures but attended on the King most constantly and expressed all the care and concern about him that was possible And finding that nothing went so near his Heart as the ruine of Religion which he apprehended would follow upon his death when his Sister Mary should come to the Crown He is perswaded to leave the Crown to the Lady Jane Upon that he and his Party took advantage to propose to him to settle the Crown by his Letters Patents on the Lady Jane Gray How they prevailed with him to pass by his Sister Elizabeth who had been always much in his favour I do not so well understand But the King being wrought over to this the Dutchess of Suffolk who was next in King Henry's Will was ready to devolve her Right on her Daughter even though she should come afterwards to have Sons So on the 11th of June Mountague that was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Baker and Bromley two Judges Which the Judges at first opposed with the Kings Attorney and Solicitor were commanded to come to Council There they found the King with some Privy-Councellors about him The King told them he did now apprehend the danger the Kingdom might be in if upon his death his Sister Mary should succeed who might marry a Stranger and so change the Laws and the Religion of the Realm So he ordered some Articles to be read to them of the way in which he would have the Crown to descend They objected that the Act of Succession being an Act of Parliament could not be taken away by any such device yet the King required them to take the Articles and draw a Book according to them they asked a little time to consider of it So having examined the Statute of the first Year of this Reign concerning Treasons they found that it was Treason not only after the Kings death but even in his Life to change the Succession Secretary Petre in the mean while pressed them to make hast When they came again to the Council they declared they could not do any such thing for it was Treason and all the Lords should be guilty of Treason if they went on in it Upon which the Duke of Northumberland who was not then in the Council-Chamber being advertised of this came in great fury calling Mountague a Traitor and threatned all the Judges so that they thought he would have beaten them But the Judges stood to their Opinion They were again sent for and came with Gosnold added to them on the 15th of June The King was
time To those Sir Thomas Cheney Warden of the Cinque-Ports and Sir John Mason with the two Secretaries came over It was said that the French and Spanish Ambassadors had desired an Audience in some Place in the City and it was proposed to give it in the Earl of Pembrooks House who being the least suspected it was agreed to by the Duke of Suffolk that they should be suffered to go from the Tower thither They also pretended that since the Duke of Northumberland had writ so earnestly for new Forces they must go and treat with my Lord Mayor and the City of London about it But as soon as they were got out the Earl of Arundel pressed them to declare for Queen Mary And to perswade them to it he laid open all the Cruelty of Northumberland under whose Tyranny they must resolve to be enslaved if they would not now shake it off The other consenting readily to it they sent for the Lord Mayor with the Recorder and the Aldermen and having declared their Resolutions to them they rode together into Cheapside And proclaimed her Queen and there proclaimed Queen Mary on the 19th of July From thence they went to Saint Pauls where Te Deum was sung An Order was sent to the Tower to require the Duke of Suffolk to deliver up that Place and to acknowledg Queen Mary and that the Lady Jane should lay down the Title of Queen To this as her Father submitted tamely so she expressed no sort of Concern in losing that imaginary Glory which now had for nine days been rather a Burden than any Matter of Joy to her They also sent Orders to the Duke of Northumberland to disband his Forces and to carry himself as became an Obedient Subject to the Queen And the Earl of Arundel with the Lord Paget were sent to give her an account of it who continued still at Framingham in Suffolk The Duke of Northumberland had retired back to Cambridg The Duke of Northumberland submits and is taken to stay for new Men from London but hearing how Matters went there before ever the Councils Orders came to him he dismist his Forces and went to the Market-place and proclaimed the Queen flinging up his own Hat for joy and crying God save Queen Mary But the Earl of Arundel being sent by the Queen to apprehend him it is said That when he saw him he fell abjectly at his Feet to beg his favour This was like him it being not more unusual for such Insolent Persons to be most basely sunk with their Misfortunes than to be out of measure blown up with success He was on the 25th of July sent to the Tower with the Earl of Warwick his eldest Son With many more Prisoners who were sent to the Tower of London Ambrose and Henry two of his other Sons Some other of his Friends were made Prisoners among whom was Sir Thomas Palmer the wicked Instrument of the Duke of Somerset's fall who was become his most intimate Confident and Dr. Sands the Vicechancellor of Cambridg Now did all People go to the Queen to implore her Mercy She received them all very favourably except the Marquess of Northampton Dr Ridley and Lord Robert Dudley The first of these had been a submissive fawner on the Duke of Northumberland the second had incurred her displeasure by his Sermon and she gladly laid hold on any colour to be more severe to him that way might be made for bringing Bonner to London again the third had followed his Father's Fortunes On the 27th the Lords Chief Justices Cholmley and Montague were sent to the Tower and the day after the Duke of Suffolk and Sir John Cheek went after them the Lady Jane and her Husband being still detained in the Tower Three days after an Order came to set the Duke of Suffolk at liberty upon engagement to return to Prison when the Queen required it for it was generally known that he had been driven on by Dudley and as it was believed that he had not been faulty out of Malice so his great weakness made them little apprehensive of any Dangers from him and therefore the Queen being willing to express a signal Act of Clemency at her first coming to the Crown it was thought best to let it fall on him Now did the Queen come towards London being met on the way by her Sister Elizabeth The Queen enters London with a thousand Horse who had gathered about her to shew their Zeal to maintain both their Titles which in this late contest had been linked together She made her entry to London on the third of August with great solemnity and pomp When she came to the Tower the Duke of Norfolk who had been almost seven Years in it Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester that had been five Years there the Dutchess of Somerset that had been kept there near two Years and the Lord Courtney whom she made afterwards Earl of Devonshire that was Son to the Marquess of Exeter and had been kept there ever since his Father was Attainted had their Liberty granted them So now she was peaceably setled in the Throne without any effusion of Blood having broke through a Confederacy against her which seemed to be so strong that if he that was the Head of it had not been universally odious to the Nation it could not have been so easily dissipated She was naturally pious and devout even to superstition had a generous disposition of Mind but much corrupted by Melancholy which was partly natural in her but much increased by the cross Accidents of her Life both before and after her Advancement so that she was very peevish and splenetick towards the end of her Life When the Differences became irreconcilable between her Father and Mother She had been in danger in her Father's Time she followed her Mothers Interests they being indeed her own and for a great while could not be perswaded to submit to the King who being impatient of contradiction from any but especially from his own Child was resolved to strike a terror in all his People by putting her openly to death Which her Mother coming to know writ her a Letter of a very devout strain which will be found in the Collections Coll. Numb 2. In which She encouraged her to suffer chearfully to trust to God and keep her heart clean She charged her in all things to obey the King's Commands except in the Matters of Religion She sent her two Latin Books the one of the Life of Christ which was perhaps the famous Book of Thomas a Kempis and the other St. Jerom's Letter She bid her divert her self at the Virginals or Lute but above all things to keep her self pure and to enter into no treaty of Marriage till these ill times should pass over of which her Mother seemed to retain still good hopes This Letter should have been in my former Volumn if I had then seen it but it is no improper
the Souldiers should return to their Mansions and the Mayor of London had charge to look through all the Wards to take them and send them to their Countries The Debt of 30000 l. and odd Money was put over an Year and there was bought 2500 Cinquetales of Powder 11. Proclamation was made That all Wooll-winders should take an Oath that they would make good Cloth there as the Lord Chancellor would appoint them according to an Act of Parliament made by Edward the Third 7. The Lord Cobham the Secretary Petre and Sir John Mason came to the French King to Amiens going on his Journey where they were received of all the Nobles and so brought to their Lodgings which were well dressed 10. The French King took the Oath for the Acceptation of the Treaty 12. Our Ambassadors departed from the French Court leaving Sir John Mason as Legier 14. The Duke of Somerset was taken into the Privy-Chamber and likewise was the Lord Admiral 15. It was appointed that all the Light-Horsemen of Bollein and the Men of Arms should be payed their Wages and be led by the Lord Marquess of Northampton Captain of the Pensioners and all the Guard of Bollein under the Lord Admiral Also that the chiefest Captains should be sent with 600 with them to the strengthning of the Frontiers of Scotland The comprehension of Peace with Scotland was accepted so far as the League went and Sealed 16. The Master of Ayrskin departed into France 17. Removing from Westminster to Greenwich 18. The French King came to Bollein to visit the Pieces lately delivered to him and to appoint an Order and staying things there which done he departed 19. Peter Vane went as Ambassador to Venice and departed from the Court with his Instructions 20. The Lord Cobham and Sir William Petre came home from their Journey delivering both the Oath and the Testimonial of the Oath witnessed by divers Noblemen of France and also the Treaty sealed with the Great Seal of France and in the Oath was confessed That I was Supream Head of the Church of England and Ireland and also King of Ireland 23. Monsieur Chastilion and Mortier and Boucherel accompanied with the Rhinegrave Dandelot the Constable's second Son and Chenault the Legier came to Duresm Place where in their Journey they were met by Mr. Treasurer and sixty Gentlemen at Woollwich and also saluted with great Peals at Woollwich Debtford and the Tower 24. The Ambassador came to me presenting the Legier and also delivering Letters of Credence from the French King 25. The Ambassadour 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 the one side were the Duke of Suffolk the Vicedam the Lord Lisle and seven other Gentlemen apparallel'd in Yellow On the other the Lord Strange Monsieur Hennadoy and the eight other in blew 26. The Ambassador saw the baiting of the Bears and Bulls 27. The Ambassadors after they had hunted sat with me at Supper 28. The same went to see Hampton-Court where they did Hunt and the same night return'd to Duresm-place 25. One that by way of Marriage had thought to assemble the People and so to make an Insurrection in Kent was taken by the Gentlemen of the Shire and afterward punished 29. The Ambassadors had a fair Supper made them by the Duke of Somerset and afterward went into the Thames and saw both the Bear hunted in the River and also Wild-fire cast out of Boats and many pretty Conceits 30. The Ambassadors took their leave and the next day departed June 3. The King came to Shein where was a Marriage made between the Lord Lisle the Earl of Warwick's Son and the Lady Ann Daughter to the Duke of Somerset which done and a fair Dinner made and Dancing finished the King and the Ladies went into two Anti-Chambers made of Boughs where first he saw six Gentlemen of one side and six of another run the course of the Field twice over Their names here do follow The Lord Edward Sir John Apleby c. And afterwards came three Masters of one side and two of another which ran four Courses apiece Their Names be Last of all came the Count of Regunete with three Italians who ran with all the Gentlemen four Courses and afterwards fought at Tournay and so after Supper he returned to Westminster 4. Sir Robert Dudley third Son to the Earl of Warwick married Sir John Robsarts Daughter after which Marriage there were certain Gentlemen that did strive who should first take away a Gooses Head which was hanged alive on two cross Posts 5. There was Tilt and Tournay on foot with as great Staves as they run withal on Horseback 6. Removing to Greenwich 8. The Gests of My Progress were set forth which were these From Greenwich to Westminster from Westminster to Hampton-Court from Hampton-Court to Windsor from Windsor to Guilford from Guilford to Oatland from Oatland to Richmond c. Also the Vicedam made a great Supper for the Duke of Somerset and the Marquess of Northampton with divers Masques and other Conceits 9. The Duke of Somerset Marquess of Northampton Lord Treasurer Bedford and the Secretary Petre went to the Bishop of Winchester to know to what he would stick He made answer That he would obey and set forth all things set forth by Me and my Parliament and if he were troubled in Conscience he would reveal it to the Council and not reason openly against it The first Payment of the Frenchmen was laid up in the Tower for all Chances 10. The Books of my Proceedings were sent to the Bishop of Winchester to see whether he would set his Hand to it or promise to set it forth to the People 11. Order was given for Fortifying and Victualling Cales for four months and also Sir Henry Palmer and Sir Alce were sent to the Frontiers of Scotland to take a view of all the Forts there and to report to the Council where they thought best to fortify 12. The Marquess de Means came from Scotland in Post and went his way into France 13. Commissions were signed to Sir William Herbert and thirty other to Intreat of certain Matters in Wales and also Instructions to the same how to behave himself in the Presidentship 14. The Surveyor of Calais was sent to Calais first to raze the Walls of Risbank toward the Sand-hills and after to make the Wall massy again and the round Bullwark to change to a pointed one which should run twenty foot into the Sea to beat the Sand-hills and to raze the Mount Secondly To view Maubeug to make an high Bullwark in the midst with Flankers to beat through all the streight and also four Sluces to make Calais Haven better Afterwards he was bid to go to Guisnes where first he should take away the three-corn'd Bullwark to make the outward Wall of the
had 32 Gallies 19. The French Ambassador sent this News also That the Turks had taken Tripoly 20. The Secretary Cecil and Sir Philip Hobbey sent to London to help the Lord Treasurer c. in the Matters of the Bishops of Chichester Worcester and Duresme and examination of my Sisters Men. 18. Removing to Windsor 20. The Lords at London having tryed all kinds of Stamping both of the Fineness of 9 8 6 4 and 3 proved that without any loss but sufferable the Coin might be brought to eleven ounces fine For whereas it was thought before that the Testourn was through ill Officers and Ministers corrupted it was tried that it had the valuation just by eight sundry kinds of melting and 400 l. of Sterling Mony a Testourn being but Six-pence made 400 l. 11 ounces fine of Mony Sterling 22. Whereupon they reported the same and then it was concluded that the Testourn should be eleven ounces fine the proportion of the Pences according to the Gold so that five Shillings of Silver should be worth five of Gold 23. Removing to Oatlands 24. Agreed that the Stamp of the Shilling and Six-pence should be on one side a King painted to the Shoulders in Parliament-Robes with a Chain of the Order Five Shillings of Silver and half five Shillings should be a King on Horse-back armed with a naked Sword hard to his Breast Also that York's Mint and Throgmorton's in the Tower should go and work the fine Standard In the City of York and Canterbury should the small Mony be wrought of a baser State Officers for the same were appointed A piece of Barwick Wall fell because the Foundation was shaken by working of a Bullwark 28. The Lord Marquess of Dorset grieved much with the disorder of the Marches toward Scotland surrendered the Wardenship thereof to bestow where I would 27. The Wardenship of the North given to the Earl of Warwick Removing to Hampton-Court 28. Commissioners appointed for sitting on the Bishop of Chichester and Worcester three Lawyers and three Civilians 10. The Imperialists took the Suburbs of Heading and burnt them 26. The Passport of the Dowager of Scotland was made for a longer time till Christmass and also if she were driven to pass quietly by Land into Scotland 20. Monsieur d' Angoulesme was born and the Duke of Vendosme had a Son by the Princes of Navarr his Wife 30. The Feast of Michaelmass was kept by Me in the Robes of the Order October 1. The Commission for the making of five Shillings half five Shillings Groats and Six-pences eleven ounces fine and Pence with Half-pence and Farthings four ounces fine was followed and signed 5. Jarnac came in Post for declaration of two things the one that the Queen had a third Son of which she was delivered called Le Duc d' Angoulesme of which the King prayed Me to be God-father I answered I was glad of the News and that I thanked him for that I should be God-father which was a token of good Will he bare me Also that I would dispatch for the accomplishment thereof the Lord Clinton the Lord Admiral of England He said he came also to tell a second Point of the good success of his Masters Wars He told how the last month in Shampaign beside Sedan 1000 Horse Imperialists with divers Hungarians Martin Vanrossy being their Captain and Leader entred the Country and the Alarm came the Skirmish began so hot that the French Horse about two or three hundred Men of Arms came out and took Vanrossy's Brother and slew divers Also how in Piedmont since the taking of the last four Towns three other were taken Monrechia Saluges and the Town of Burges The Turks had come to Naples and spoiled the Country and taken Ostium in the Mouth of Tyberis Also in Sicily he had taken a good Haven and a Town 6. Jarnac departed having lying in the Court under my Lodging The Night before the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester were deposed for Contempts 7. There were appointed to go with the Lord Admiral Mr. Nevil Mr. Barnabie Gentlemen of the Chamber Sir William Stafford Sir Adrian Poinings Sir John Norton Sir John Teri Knights and Mr. Brook 8. Letters directed to the Captains of Gandarms that they should muster the 8th of November being the Sunday after Hallow-Eve day 11. Henry Marquess of Dorset created Duke of Suffolk John Earl of Warwick created Duke of Northumberland William Earl of Wiltshire created Marquess of Winchester Sir William Herbert created Earl of Pembrook and Lord of Cardiff Mr. Sidney Mr. Nevil Mr. Cheek all three of the Privy-Chamber made Knights also Mr. Cecil one of the two Secretaries 13. Proclamation signed touching the calling in of Testourns and Groats that they that list might come to the Mint and have fine Silver of Twelve-pence for two Testourns 3. Prior de Capna departed the French King's Service and went to his Order of Knights in Malta partly for displeasure to the Count Villars the Constable's Brother-in-Law partly for that Malta was assailed often by the Turks 7. 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 weighed an ounce to be delivered to Jarnac and so to receive as much whereupon in my Lords Garden he declared a Conspiracy How at St. George's day last my Lord of Somerset who then was going to the North if the Master of the Horse Sir William Herbert had not assured him on his Honour that he should have no hurt went to raise the People and the Lord Gray went before to know who were his Friends Afterward a Device was made to call the Earl of Warwick to a Banquet with the Marquess of Northampton and divers others and to cut off their Heads Also he found a bare Company about them by the way to set upon them 11. He declared also that Mr. Vane had 2000 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 Apprentices of London Seymour and Hammond should wait upon him and all the Horse of the Gandarms should be slain 13. Removing to Westminster because it was thought this Matter might easilier and surelier be dispatched there and likewise all other 14. The Duke sent for the Secretary Cecil to tell him he suspected some ill Mr. Cecil answered That if he were not guilty he might be of good courage if he were he had nothing to say but to lament him Whereupon the Duke sent him a Letter of Defiance and called Palmer who after denial made of his Declaration was let go 16. 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 Palmer on the Tarras walking there Hammond passing by Mr. Vice-chamberlain's Door was called in by John Piers to
make a match at Shooting and so taken Nudegates was called for as from my Lord his Master and taken likewise were John Seimour and David Seimour Arundel also was taken and the Lord Gray coming out of the Country Vane 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 17. The Dutches Crane and his Wife with the Chamber-keeper were sent to the Tower for devising these Treasons James Wingfield also for casting of Bills seditiously also Mr. Partridge was attaqued and Sir James Holcroft 18. Mr. Banister and Mr. Vaughan were attaqued and sent to the Tower and so was Mr. Stanhope 19. Sir Thomas Palmer confessed that the Gandarms on the Muster-day should be assaulted by 2000 Footmen of Mr. Vane's and my Lord 's hundred Horse besides his Friends which stood by and the idle People which took his part If he were overthrown he would run through London and cry Liberty Liberty to raise the Apprentices and R if he could he would go to the Isle of Wight or to Pool 22. The Dowager of Scotland was by Tempest driven to Land at Portsmouth and so she sent word she would take the benefit of the safe Conduct to go by Land and to see Me. 23. She came from Portsmouth to Mr. Whites House 24. The Lords sat in the Star-Chamber and there declared the Matters and Accusations laid against the Duke meaning to stay the minds of the People 25. Certain German Princes in the beginning of this month desired Aid in Cause of Religion 400000 Dollars if they should be driven to make shift by necessity and offered the like also if I entred into any War for them whereupon I called the Lords and considered as appeareth by a Scroll in the Board at Westminster and thereupon appointed that the Secretary Petre and Sir William Cecil another Secretary should talk with the Messenger to know the matter precisely and the Names of those would enter the Confederacy 28. The Dowager came to Sir Richard Cotton's House 29. She came from Sir Richard Cotton's to the Earl of Arundel to Dinner and brought to Mr. Brown's House where met her the Gentlemen of Sussex 30. She came and was conveied by the same Gentlemen to Guilford where the Lord William Howard and the Gentlemen of Surrey met her All this month the Frenchmen continued spoiling of the Emperor's Frontiers and in a Skirmish at Ast they slew 100 Spaniards 31. A Letter directed to Sir Arthur Darcy to take the charge of the Tower and to discharge Sir John Markham upon this that without making any of the Council privy he suffered the Duke to walk abroad and certain Letters to be sent and answered between David Seimour and Mrs. Poinings with other divers Suspicions 17. There were Letters sent to all Emperors Kings Ambassadors Noblemen Men and Chief Men into Countries of the late Conspiracy 31. She came to Hampton-Court conveied by the same Lords and Gentlemen aforesaid and two miles and an half from thence in a Valley there met her the Lord Marquess of Northampton accompanied with the Earl of Wiltshire Son and Heir to the Lord High Treasurer Marquess of Winchester the Lord Fitzwater Son to the Earl of Sussex The Lord Evers the Lord Bray the Lord Robert Dudley the Lord Garet Sir Nicholas Throgmorton Sir Edward Rogers and divers other Gentlemen besides all the Gentlemen Pensioners Men of Arms and Ushers Sewers and Carvers to the number of 120 Gentlemen and so she was brought to Hampton-Court At the Gate thereof met her the Lady Marquess of Northampton the Countess of Pembrook and divers other Ladies and Gentlewomen to the number of sixty and so she was brought to her Lodging on the Queen-side which was all hanged with Arras and so was the Hall and all the other Lodgings of Mine in the House very finely dressed and for this night and the next day all was spent in Dancing and Pastime as though it were a Court and great presence of Gentlemen resorted thither 26. Letters were written for because of this Business to defer the Musters of Gendarmory till the day of December November 1. The Dowager perused the House of Hampton-Court and saw some coursing of Deer 2. She came to the Bishop's Palace at London and there she lay and all her Train lodged about her 3. The Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Warwick Wiltshire and many other Lords and Gentlemen were sent to her to welcome her and to say on My behalf That if she lacked any thing she should have it for her better Furniture and also I would willingly see her the day following The 26th of October Crane confessed the most part even as Palmer did before and more also how that the place where the Nobles should have been banqueted and their Heads striken off was the Lord Paget's House and how the Earl of Arundel knew of the Matter as well as he by Stanhop who was a Messenger between them also some part how he went to London to get Friends once in August last feigning himself sick Hammond also confessed the Watch he kept in his Chamber at Night Bren also confessed much of this matter The Lord Strange confessed how the Duke willed him to stir 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 spoke secretly with Me this he confessed of himself November 4. The Duke of Suffolk the Lord Fitzwater the Lord Bray and divers other Lords and Gentlemen accompanied with his Wife the Lady Francis the Lady Margaret the Dutchesses of Richmond and of Northumberland the Lady Jane Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk the Marquess of Northampton and Winchester the Countesses of Arundel Bedford Huntington and Rutland with 100 other Ladies and Gentlewomen went to her and brought her through London to Westminster At the Gate there received her the Duke of Northumberland Great Master and the Treasurer and Comptroller and the Earl of Pembrook with all the Sewers and Carvers and Cup-bearers to the number of thirty In the Hall I met her with all the rest of the Lords of my Council as the Lord Treasurer the Marquess of Northampton c. 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 Servingmen the Presence-Chamber Great-Chamber and her Presence-Chamber of Gentlemen And so having brought her to her Chamber I retired to Mine I went to her to Dinner she dined under the same Cloth of State at my left Hand at her rereward dined my Cousin Francis and
used to bless of which I never met with any thing before I saw this Letter but since I understand the Office of Blessing of these Rings is extant as it was prepared for Queen Maries use as shall be told in her Reign It must be left to conjecture whether he did it as a practice of former Kings or whether upon his being made Supream Head he thought fit to take on him as the Pope did to consecrate such things and send them about Where to be sure Fancy and Flattery would raise many Stories of the wonderful effects of what he had so blessed and perhaps these might have been as true as the Reports made of the Vertues of Agnus Deis touched Beads blessed Peebles with such other goodly Ware which the Friars were wont to carry about and distribute to their Benefactors as things highly sanctified This I set down more fully and have laid some things together that fell not out till some months after this being the first step that was made towards a Reformation in this Reign Upon this occasion it is not unlikely that the Council wrote their Letteâ—s to all the Justices of Peace of England 1547. Feb. 12. The Commission of the Justices of the Peace on the 12th of Feb. letting them know that they had sent down new Commissions to them for keeping the Peace ordering them to assemble together and first to call earnestly on God for his Grace to discharge their Duties faithfully according to the Oaths which they were to take and that they should impartially without corruption or sinister affection execute their Office so that it might appear that they had God and the good of their King and Country before their Eyes and that they should divide themselves into the several Hundreds and see to the publick Peace and that all Vagabonds and disturbers of the Peace should be duly punished and that once every six weeks they should write to the Lord Protector and Council the state in which the County was till they were otherwise commanded That which was sent into the County of Norfolk will be found in the Collection Collection Number 3. But now the Funeral of the deceased King and the Coronation of his Son were to be dispatched In the Coronation-Ceremonies that had been formerly used there were some things that did not agree with the present Laws of the Land as the Promise made to the Abbots for maintaining their Lands and Dignities They were also so tedious that a new Form was ordered to be drawn which the Reader will find in the Collection The most material thing in it is the first Ceremony Collection Number 4. whereby the King being shewed to the People at the four Corners of the Stage the Arch-bishop was to demand their Consent to it and yet in such terms as should demonstrate he was no Elective Prince for he being declared the rightful and undoubted Heir both by the Laws of God and Man they were desired to give their good Wills and Assents to the same as by their Duty of Allegiance they were bound to do This being agreed on the 13th of Feb. on the day following King Henry's Body was with all the pomp of a Royal Funeral removed to Sheen in the way to Windsor 1547. Feb. 13. King Henry buried There great observation was made on a thing that was no extraordinary matter He had been extreme corpulent and dying of a Dropsie or some thing like it it was no wonder if a fortnight after upon so long a motion some putrid Matter might run thorough the Coffin But Sheen having been a House of Religious Women it was called a signal Mark of the displeasure of Heaven that some of his Blood and Fat droped through the Lead in the night and to make this work mightily on weak People it was said that the Dogs licked it next morning This was much magnified in Commendation of Friar Peto afterwards made Cardinal who as was told Page 151. of the former Part had threatned him in a Sermon at Greenwich That the Dogs should lick his Blood Though to consider things more equally it had been a Wonder indeed if it had been otherwise But having met with this Observation in a MS. written near that time I would not envy the World the Pleasure of it Next day he was brought to Windsor and interred in St. George's Chappel And he having by his Will left that Church 600 l. a year for ever for two Priests to say Mass at his Tomb daily for four Obits yearly and a Sermon at every Obit with 10 l. to the Poor and for a Sermon every Sunday together with the maintenance of thirteen poor Knights The Judges were consulted how this should be well setled in Law Who advised that the Lands which the King had given should be made over to that Colledge by Indentures Tripartite the King being one Party the Protector and the other Executors a second and the Dean and Chapter of Windsor a third Party These were to be Signed with the Kings Hand and the Great Seal put to them with the Hands and Seals of all the rest and then Patents were to be given for the Lands founded on the Kings Testament and the Indentures Tripartite Soul-Masses examined But the Pomp of this Business ministred an occasion of enquiring into the use and lawfulness of Soul-Masses and Obits which came to be among the first things that were reformed Christ had instituted the Sacrament to be celebrated in remembrance of his Death and it was a Sacrament only to those who did participate in it but that the consecrating the Sacrament could be of any use to departed Souls seemed a thing not easie to be conceived For if they are the Prayers of the Living that profit the Dead then these would have done as well without a Mass But the People would not have esteemed bare Prayers so much nor have payed so dear for them So that the true original of Soul-Masses was thought to have been only to encrease the Esteem and Wealth of the Clergy It is true in the Primitive Church there was a Commemoration of the Saints departed in the Daily Sacrifice so they termed the Communion and such as had given any offence at their death were not remembred in it So that for so slight an offence as the leaving a Priest Tutor to ones Children which might distract them from their Spiritual care ones Name was to be left out of that Commemoration in Cyprians time which was a very disproportioned punishment to that offence if such Commemorations had been thought useful or necessary to the Souls departed But all this was nothing to the private Masses for them and was indeed nothing at first but an honourable mention of such as had died in the Faith And they believing then generally that there was a Glorious Thousand Years to be on Earth and that the Saints should rise some sooner and some later to have their part in it they
and Temporalty did without compulsion give their assent he remembers her what opposition the stiff-necked Papists gave him and what Rebellions they raised against him which he wonders how she came so soon to forget Adding that death had prevented him before he had finished these Godly Orders which he had designed and that no kind of Religion was perfected at his death but all was left so uncertain that it must inevitably bring on great disorders if God did not help them and that himself and many others could witness what regret their late Master had when he saw he must die before he had finished what he intended He wond'red that she who had been well bred and was learned should esteem true Religion and the knowledge of the Scriptures Newfangledness or Fantasie He desired she would turn the Leaf and look on the other side and would with an humble Spirit and by the assistance of the Grace of God consider the matter better Thus things went on till the Parliament met The Parliament meets which was summoned to meet the fourth of November The day before it met Novemb. 3. the Protector gave too publick an instance how much his prosperous success had lifted him up For by a Patent under the Great Seal Rot. Pat. 1. Reg. 7. Part. he was warranted to sit in Parliament on the Right Hand of the Throne under the Cloath of State and was to have all the Honours and Priviledges that at any time any of the Unkles of the Kings of England whether by the Fathers or Mothers side had enjoyed with a Non obstante to the Statute of Precedence The Lord Rich had been made Lord Chancellor on the 24th of October but whether the Protector or he opened the Parliament by any Speech does not appear from the Journal of the Lords House On the 10th of Decemb. Decemb. 10. a Bill was brought in for the repealing several Statutes It was read the second time on the 12th and the third time on the 16th day On the 19th 19. some Provisoes were added to it and it was sent down to the Commons who sent it up the 23d of December 23. Dec. to which the Royal Assent was given The Commons had formed a new Bill for repealing these Statutes which upon some Conferences they were willing to let fall only some Provisoes were added to the old one upon which the Bishops of London Duresme Ely Hereford and Chichester dissented An Act repealing former severe Laws The Preamble of it sets forth That nothing made a Government happier than when the Prince governed with much clemency and the Subjects obeyed out of love Yet the late King and some of his Progenitors being provoked by the unruliness of some of their People had made severe Laws but they judging it necessary now to recommend the Kings Government to the affections of the People repealed all Laws that made any thing to be Treason but what was in the Act of 25 of Edw. the 3d as also two of the Statutes about Lollardies together with the Act of the six Articles and the other Acts that followed in explanation of that All Acts in King Henry the 8th's time declaring any thing to be Felony that was not so declared before were also repealed together with the Acts that made the Kings Proclamations of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament It was also Enacted That all who denied the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes in words should for the first offence forfeit their Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during pleasure For the second offence should incur the Pain of Praemunire and for the third offence be attainted of Treason But if any did in Writing Printing or by any overt Act or Deed endeavour to deprive the King of his Estate or Titles particularly of his Supremacy or to confer them on any other after the first of March next he was to be adjudged guilty of High Treason and if any of the Heirs of the Crown should usurp upon another or did endeavour to break the Succession of the Crown it was declared high Treason in them their Aiders and Abettors And all were to enjoy the Benefit of Clergy and the Priviledge of Sanctuary as they had it before King Henry the 8th's Reign excepting only such as were guilty of Murder Poisoning Burglary Robbing on the High-way the stealing of Cattel or stealing out of Churches or Chappels Poisoners were to suffer as other Murderers None were to be accused of Words but within a Month after they were spoken And those who called the French King by the Title of King of France were not to be esteemed guilty of the Pains of translating the Kings Authority or Titles on any other In Ch. Coll. Camb. among Parkers Papers This Act was occasioned by a Speech that Arch-bishop Cranmer had in Convocation in which he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves much to the study of the Scripture and to consider seriously what things were in the Church that needed Reformation that so they might throw out all the Popish trash that was not yet cast out Upon this some intimated to him that as long as the six Articles stood in force it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By it the Subjects were delivered from many fears they were under and had good hopes of a mild Government when in stead of procuring new severe Law the old ones were let fall The Council did also free the Nation of the jealousies they might have of them by such an abridgment of their own Power But others judged it had been more for the interest of the Government to have kept up these Laws still in force but to have restrained the execution of them This Repeal drew on another which was sent from the Commons on the 20th of December and was agreed to by the Lords on the 21st It was of an Act in the 28th year of the last King by which all Laws made while his Son was under 24 years of Age might be by his Letters Patents after he attained that Age annulled as if they had never been Which they altered thus That the King after that Age might by his Letters Patents void any Act of Parliament for the future but could not so void it from the beginning as to annul all things done upon it between the making and annulling of it which were still to be lawful Deeds The next Bill of a publick nature was concerning the Sacrament Act about the Communion Which was brought in and read the first time on the 12th of Novemb. the second time on the 15th and was twice read on the 17th And on the 24th a Bill was brought in for the Communion to be received in both kinds on the third of December it was read the second time and given to the Protector on the 5th read again and given to two
It was long argued at first and at the passing the Bill it was again argued but at last the Commons agreed to it The Preamble of it is a long Accusation of the Duke of Somerset for involving the King in Wars wasting his Treasure engaging him in much Debt embasing the Coin and having given occasion to a most terrible Rebellion In fine considering the great Debt the King was left in by his Father the loss he put himself to in the reforming the Coin and they finding his temper to be set wholly on the good of his Subjects and not on enriching himself therefore they give him two Tenths and two Fifteenths with one Subsidy for two years Whether the debate in the House of Commons was against the Subsidies in this Act or against the Preamble cannot be certainly known but it is probable the Debate at the engrossing the Bill was about the Preamble which the Duke of Northumberland and his Party were the more earnestly set on to let the King see how acceptable they were and how hateful the Duke of Somerset had been The Clergy did also for an expression of their affection and duty give the King six Shillings in the Pound of their Benefices There was also a Bill sent down from the Lords That none might hold any Spiritual Promotion unless he were either Priest or Deacon But after the third reading it was cast out The reason of it was because many Noblemen and Gentlemens Sons had Prebends given them on this pretence that they intended to fit themselves by Study for entring into Orders but they kept these and never advanced in their Studies upon which the Bishops prevailed to have the Bill agreed to by the Lords but could carry it no further Another Act passed for the suppressing the Bishoprick of Duresme The Bishoprick of Duresme suppressed and two new ones appon ed. which is so strangely mis-represented by those who never read more than the Title of it that I shall therefore give a more full account of it It is set forth in the Preamble That that Bishoprick being then void of a Prelate so that the Gift thereof was in the Kings pleasure and the compass of it being so large extending to so many Shires so far distant that it could not be sufficiently served by one Bishop and since the King according to his godly disposition was desirous to have Gods Holy Word preached in these Parts which were wild and barbarous for lack of good Preaching and good Learning therefore he intended to have two Bishopricks for that Diocess the one at Duresme which should have 2000 Marks Revenue and another at Newcastle which should have 1000 Marks Revenue and also to Found a Cathedral Church at Newcastle with a Deanry and Chapter out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick therefore the Bishoprick of Duresme is utterly extinguished and dissolved and Authority is given for Letters Patents to erect the two new Bishopricks together with the Deanry and Chapter at Newcastle with a Proviso that the Rights of the Deanry Chapter and Cathedral of Duresme should suffer nothing by this Act. When this Bill is considered that dissolution that was designed by it will not appear to be so sacrilegious a thing as some Writers have represented it For whosoever understands the value of old Rents especially such as these were near the Marches of an Enemy where the Service of the Tenants in the War made their Lands be set at very low rates will know that 3000 Marks of Rent being reserved besides the endowing of the Cathedral which could hardly be done under another thousand Marks there could not be so great a Prey of that Bishoprick as has been imagined Ridley as himself writes in one of his Letters was named to be Bishop of Duresme being one of the Natives of that Country but the thing never took effect For in May and no sooner was the Temporalty of the Bishoprick turned into a County-Palatine and given to the Duke of Northumberland But the Kings sickness and soon after his death made that and all the rest of these designs prove abortive How Tonstall was deprived I cannot understand It was for misprision of Treason and done by Secular Men. For Cranmer refused to meddle in it I have seen the Commission given by Queen Mary to some Delegates to examine it in which it is said That the Sentence was given only by Lay-men and that Tonstal being kept Prisoner long in the Tower was brought to his Trial in which he had neither Counsel assigned him nor convenient time given him for clearing himself and that after divers Protestations they had notwithstanding his Appeal deprived him of his Bishoprick He was not only turned out but kept Prisoner till Queen Mary set him at liberty At the end of this Parliament the King granted a free Pardon concerning which this is only remarkable That whereas it goes for a Maxime that the Acts of Pardon must be passed without changing any thing in them the Commons when they sent up this Act of Pardon to the Lords desired that some words might be amended in it but it is not clear what was done for that same day the Acts were passed and the Parliament was dissolved In it the Duke of Northumberland had carried this Point That the Nation made a publick Declaration of their dislike of the Duke of Somersets Proceedings which was the more necessary because the King had let fall words concerning his death by which he seemed to reflect on it with some concern and look'd on it as Northumberlands deed But the Act had passed with such difficulty that either the Duke did not think the Parliament well enough disposed for him or else he resolved totally to vary from the Measures of the Duke of Somerset who continued the same Parliament long whereas this that was opened on the first was dissolved on the last day of March. A Visitation for the Plate in the Churches Visitors were soon after appointed to examine what Church-plate Jewels and other Furniture was in all Cathedrals and Churches and to compare their account with the Inventories made in former Visitations and to see what was embezeled and how it was done And because the King was resolved to have Churches and Chappels furnished with that that was comely and convenient for the Administration of the Sacraments they were to give one or two Chalices of Silver or more to every Church Chappel or Cathedral as their discretions should direct them and to distribute comely Furniture for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to sell the rest of the Linen and give it to the Poor and to sell Copes and Altar-Cloaths and deliver all the rest of the Plate and Jewels to the Kings Treasurer Sir Edm. Pecham This is spitefully urged by one of our Writers who would have his Reader infer from it that the King was ill principled as to the matters of the Church because when this Order was given by
of vertue and that it was an encouragement for sensual Persons to practise by false allegations that they might be separated from their Wives rather then a Precedent to induce People to live with their Wives in a godly sort thereupon the Act was repealed and declared void and of no effect In this it seems the Arguments that were against it in the House of Commons had so moderated the Stile of it that it was not repealed as an Act sinful in it self but it was only declared that in that particular case the Divorce was unlawfully made for it is reasonable to believe that the Bishops had puâ— in the first draught of the Bill a simple repeal of it and of all such Divorces founded on the indissolubleness of the Marriage Bond. And the Duke of Norfolks Attainder The other Act was about the Duke of Norfolk for declaring his Attainder void The Patentees that had purchased some parts of his Estate from the Crown desired to be heard to plead against it But the Session of the Parliament being near at an end the Duke came down himself to the House of Commons on the 4th of December and desired them earnestly to pass his Bill and said that the difference between him and the Patentees was referred to Arbiters and if they could not agree it he would refer it to the Queen It was long argued after that but in the end it was agreed to It sets forth that the Act by which he was Attainted had no special matter in it but only Treasons in general and a pretence that out of the Parliaments care for the King and his Son the Prince it was necessary to attaint him That the Reasons they pretended were his using Coats of Arms which he and his Ancestors had and might lawfully use It further says That the King died the next night after the Commission was given for passing the Bill and that it did not appear that the King had given his Assent to it That the Commission was not signed by the King's hand but only by his Stamp and that was put to the neather end and not to the upper part of the Bill which shewed it was done in disorder and that it did not appear that these commissioned for it had given the Royal Assent to it Upon which Considerations that pretended Act is declared void and null by the common Laws of the Land And it is further declared That the Law was and ever hath been that the Royal Assent should be given either by the King being present or in his absence by a Commission under the Great Seal signed with his hand and publickly notified to the Lords and Commons The last Act of which I shall give an account was the Confirmation of the Attainders that had been made On the 3d of November Cranmer and others attainted Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Lord Guilford Dudley and the Lady Jane his Wife with two other Sons of the Duke of Northumberland which were all except the Lord Robert who was reserved for greater Fortunes were brought to their Trial. These all confessed their Endictments Only Cranmer appealed to those that judged him how unwillingly he had consented to the exclusion of the Queen that he had not done it till those whose profession it was to know the Law had signed it upon which he submitted himself to the Queen's Mercy But they were all attainted of High-Treason for levying War against the Queen and conspiring to set up another in her room So these Judgments with those that had passed before were now confirmed by Act of Parliament And now Cranmer was legally devested of his Arch-Bishoprick But the See of Canterbury is not declared void which was hereupon void in Law since a Man that is attainted can have no right to any Church-Benefice his Life was also at the Queen's Mercy But it being now designed to restore the Ecclesiastical Exemption and Dignity to what it had been anciently it was resolved that he should be still esteemed Archbishop till he were solemnly degraded according to the Canon Law The Queen was also inclined to give him his Life at this time reckoning that thereby she was acquitted of all the Obligations she had to him and was resolved to have him proceeded against for Heresy that so it might appear she did not act out of revenge or on any personal account So all that followed on this against Cranmer was a Sequestration of all the Fruits of his Arch-Bishoprick himself was still kept in Prison Nor were the other Prisoners proceeded against at this time The Queen was desirous to seem willing to pardon Injuries done against her self but was so heated in the Matters of Religion that she was always inexorable on that Head Having given this Account of Publick Transactions I must relate next what were more secretly carried on but breaking out at this time occasioned the sudden Dissolution of the Parliament Cardinal Dandino The Queen treats about a Reconciliation with Rome that was then the Pope's Legate at the Emperor's Court sent over Commendone afterwards a Cardinal to bring him a certain Account of the Queen's Intentions concerning Religion he gave him in charge to endeavour to speak with her in private and to persuade her to reconcile her Kingdom to the Apostolick See This was to be managed with great secrecy for they did not know whom to trust in so important a Negotiation It seems they neither confided in Gardiner nor in any of the other Bishops Commendone being thus instructed went to Newport where he gave himself out to be the Nephew of a Merchant that was lately dead at London and hired two Servants to whom he was unknown and so he came over unsuspected to London There he was so much a Stranger that he did not know to whom he should address himself By accident he met with one Lee a Servant of the Queen's that had fled beyond Sea during the former Reign and had been then known to him so he trusted him with the Secret of his Business in England He procured him a secret Audience of the Queen in which she freely owned to him her Resolution of reconciling her Kingdom to the See of Rome and so of bringing all things back to the state in which they had been before the Breach made by her Father but she said It was absolutely necessary to manage that Design with great Prudence and Secresy lest in that Confusion of Affairs the discovery of it might much disturb her Government and obstruct her Design She writ by him to the Pope giving him assurance of her filial Obedience and so sent Commendone to Rome She also writ by him to Cardinal Pool and ordered Commendone to move the Pope that he might be sent over with a Legatine Power Yet he that writ that Cardinal's Life insinuates that the Queen had another design in desiring that Pool might be sent over for she ask'd him Whether the Pope might not dispence with the
but in vain At this time the Nation was in expectation of the Queen's Delivery And on the third of May the Bishop of Norwich writ a Letter to the Earl of Sussex of which I have seen the Original that news was brought him from London that the Queen had brought forth a Noble Prince for which he had Te Deum solemnly sung in his Cathedral and in the other Churches thereabout He adds in the Postscript that the News was confirmed by two other Hands But tho this was without any ground the Queen continued still in her opinion that she was with Child and on the 29th of May Letters were written by the Council to the Lord Treasurer to have Money in readiness that those who were appointed to carry the joyful news of the Queens happy Delivery might be speedily dispatched In the beginning of June she was believed to be in Labour and it flew over London again that she had brought forth a Son The Priests had setled all their hopes on that so they did every where sing Te Deum and were transported into no small Extasies of Joy One more officious than the rest made a Sermon about it and described all the lineaments of their young Prince but they soon found they were abused It was said that they had been deceived and that the Queen had no great Belly But Melvil in his Memoirs says he was assured from some of her Women that she did cast forth at several times some Moles and unformed pieces of flesh So now there was small hopes of any Issue from her This encreased the sowrness of her temper and King Philip being so much younger than she growing out of conceit with her did not much care for her but left her some months after He saw no hope of Children and finding that it was not possible for him to get England in his hands without that gave over all his Designs about it so having lived with her about fifteen months after their first Marriage he found it necessary to look more after his Hereditary Crown and less after his Matrimonial one and henceforth he considered England rather as a sure Ally that was to adhere firmly to his Interests than as a Nation which he could ever hope to add to his other Crowns All these things concurred to encrease the Queen's Melancholy Humours and did cast her into an ill state of Health so that it was not probable she could live long Gardiner upon that set himself much to have the Lady Elizabeth put out of the way but as it was formerly said King Philip preserved her Proceedings against Hereticks And thus Affairs went on as to Civil matters till the meeting of the next Parliament in October following But I now return to the Proceedings against the poor men called Hereticks who were again after a short intermission brought to new Sufferings John Cardmaker 1555. that had been Divinity-Reader at S. Pauls and a Prebendary at Bath and John Warne an Upholster in London were both burnt in Smithfield on the 30th of May for denying the Corporal presence being proceeded against ex Officio On the 4th of June there was a piece of Pageantry acted on the Body of one Tooly who being executed for a Robbery did at his death say something that savoured of Heresy upon which the Council writ to Bonner to enquire into it and to proceed according to the Ecclesiastical Laws He thereupon form'd a Process cited the dead Body to answer the Points objected to him but he to be sure neither appearing nor answering was condemned and burnt After this on the 10th of June Thomas Hawkes a Gentleman in Essex who had lived much in the Court was also burnt at Coxhall and on the same day John Simpson and John Ardeley two Husbandmen were also burnt in Essex Thomas Watts a Linen-Draper was burnt at Chelmsford On the 9th Nicholas Chamberlain a Weaver was burnt at Colchester and on the 15th Thomas Osmond a Fuller was burnt at Manning-tree and the same day William Bamford a Weaver was burnt at Harwich These with several others had been sent up by the Earl of Oxford to Bonner because they had not received the Sacrament the last Easter and were suspected of Heresie and Articles being given to them they were upon their Answers condemned and sent to be burnt in the places where they had lived But upon this occasion The Council writ to the Lords in Essex to gather the Gentry and assist at these Burnings the Council fearing some Tumult or violent Rescue writ to the Earl of Oxford and the Lord Rich to gather the Country and to see the Hereticks burnt The Earl of Oxford being some way indisposed could only send his People to the Lord Rich who went and obeyed the Orders that had been sent him for which Letters of Thanks were written to him and the Council understanding that some Gentlemen had come to the burning at Colchester that had not been writ to but as the words of the Letter have it had honestly and of themselves gone thither writ to the Lord Rich to give them the Council's thanks for their Zeal I find in the Council Books many Entries made of Letters writ to several Counties to the Nobility and Gentry to assist at these Executions and such as made excuses were always after that looked on with an ill eye and were still under great jealousy After these followed the Execution of Bradford in July Bradford's Martyrdome He had been condemned among the first but was not burnt till now He had been a Prebendary of St. Pauls and a celebrated Preacher in the end of King Edwards days He had preserved Bourn in the tumult at Pauls-Cross and that afternoon preaching at Bow-Church he severely reproved the people for the disorder at Pauls but three days after was put in Prison where he lay removed from one Prison to another near three years where-ever he came he gained so much on the Keepers that they suffered Preach and give the Sacrament to his Fellow Prisoners He was one of those that were carried before the Council on the 22d of January where Bonner accused him of the Tumult at Pauls though all he pretended to prove it by was that his way of speaking to the People shewed he thought he had some Authority over them and was a presumption that he had set on the Sedition Bradford appealed to God that saw his Innocency and how unworthily he was requited for saving his Enemies who rendered him evil for good At last refusing to conform himself to the Laws he was condemned with the rest on the 31. of Jan. where that Rescue was again laid to his Charge together with many Letters he had written over England which as the Earl of Darby informed the Parliament had done more hurt than he could have done if he had been at liberty to Preach He said since he understood that they acted by a Commission which was derived from
and Queen and be obedient to their Superiors both Spiritual and Temporal according to their duties It is plain this was so contrived that they might have Signed it without either prevaricating or dissembling their Opinions for it is not said That they were to be subject to the Church of Rome but to the Church of Christ and they were to be obedient to their Superiors according to their duties which was a good reserve for their Consciences I stand the longer on this that it may appear how willing the Cardinal was to accept of any shew of submission from them and to stop Bonners rage Upon this they were set at liberty But Bonner got three Men and two Women presented to him in London in January and after he had allowed them a little more time than he had granted others they standing still firm to their Faith were burnt at Smithfield on the 12th of April After that White the new Bishop of Winchester condemned three who were burnt on the third of May in Southwark one of these Stephen Gratwick being of the Diocess of Chichester appealed from him to his own Ordinary whether he expected more favour from him or did it only to gain time I know not but they brought in a Counterfeit who was pretended to be the Bishop of Chichester as Fox has printed it from the account written with the Man 's own Hand and so condemned him On the seventh of May three were burnt a Bristol On the 18th of June two Men and five Women were burnt at Maidston and on the 19th three Men and four Women were burnt at Canterbury fourteen being thus in two days destroyed by Thornton and Harpsfield in which it may seem strange that the Cardinal had less influence to stop the Proceedings in his own Diocess than in London but he was now under the Popes disgrace as shall be afterwards shewn On the 22d of June six Men and four Women were burnt at Lewis in Sussex condemned by White for Christopherson Bishop Elect of Chichester was not yet consecrated On the 13th of July two were burnt at Norwich On the second of August ten were burnt at Colchester six in the Morning and four in the Afternoon they were some of those who had been formerly discharged by the Cardinals Orders but the Priests in the Country complained that the mercy shewed to them had occasioned great disorders among them Hereticks and the favourers of them growing insolent upon it and those who searched after them being disheartned so now Bonner being under no more restraints from the Cardinal new Complaints being made that they came not to Church condemned them upon their Answers to the Articles which he objected to them At this time one George Eagle a Taylor who used to go about from place to place and to meet with those who stood for the Reformation where he prayed and discoursed with them about Religion and from his indefatigable diligence was nicknamed Trudge-over was taken near Colchester and was condemned of Treason for gathering the Queens Subjects together though it was not proved that he had ever stirred them up to Rebellion but did it only as himself always protested to encourage them to continue stedfast in the Faith he suffered as a Traitor On the fifth of August one was burnt at Norwich and on the 20th a Man and a Woman more were burnt at Rochester One was also burnt at Litchfield in August but the day is not named The same Month a Complaint was brought to the Council of the Magistrates of Bristol that they came seldom to the Sermons at the Cathedral so that the Dean and Chapter used to go to their Houses in Procession with their Cross carried before them and to fetch them from thence upon which a Letter was written to them requiring them to conform themselves more willingly to the Orders of the Church to frequent the Sermons and go thither of their own accord On the 17th of September three Men and one Woman were burnt at Islington near London and on the same day two Women were burnt at Colchester On the 20th a Man was burnt at Northampton and in the same Month one was burnt at Laxefield in Suffolk On the 23d a Woman was burnt at Norwich There were seventeen burnt in the Diocess of Chichester about this time one was a Priest thirteen were Lay-men and three Women but the day is not marked On the 18th of November three were burnt in Smithfield On the 12d of December John Rough a Scotchman was burnt whose suffering was on this occasion On the 12th of December there was a private Meeting of such as continued to Worship God according to the Service set out by King Edward at Islington where he was to have administred the Sacrament according to the Order of that Book The new Inquisitors had corrupted one of this Congregation to betray his Brethren so that they were apprehended as they were going to the Communion But Rough being a Stranger it was considered by the Council whether he should be tried as a Native He had a Benefice in York-shire in King Edwards days so it was resolved and signified to the Bishop of London that he should be proceeded against as a Subject Thereupon Bonner objected to him his condemning the Doctrine of the Church and setting out the Heresies of Cranmer and Ridley concerning the Sacrament and his using the Service set out by King Edward that he had lived much with those who for their Heresies had fled beyond Sea that he had spoken reproachfully of the Pope and Cardinals saying That when he was at Rome he had seen a Bull of the Popes that licensed Stews and a Cardinal riding openly with his Whore with him with several other Articles The greatest part of them he confessed and thereupon he with a Woman that was one of the Congregation was burnt in Smithfield And thus ended the Burnings this Year seventy nine in all being burnt These severities against the Hereticks made the Queen shew less pity to the Lord Stourton The Lord Stourton hanged for Murder than perhaps might have been otherwise expected He had been all King Edwards time a most zealous Papist and did constantly dissent in Parliament from the Laws then made about Religion But he had the former Year murdered one Argall and his Son with whom he had been long at variance and after he had knock'd them down with Clubs and cut their Throats he buried them fifteen Foot under ground thinking thereby to conceal the Fact but it breaking out both he and four of his Servants were taken and indicted for it He was found guilty of Felony and condemned to be hanged with his Servants in Wilt-shire where the Murder was committed On the sixth of March they were hanged at Salisbury All the difference that was made in their Deaths being only thus That whereas his Servants were hanged in common Halters one of Silk was bestowed on their Lord. It seemed an indecent thing
that would be too little if the Danes and Swedes which they were afraid of should joyn against them There was also great want of Ammunition and Ordnance of which they had lost vast quantities in Calais and Guisnes All this would rise to above 520000 l. and they doubted much whether the People would endure such Impositions who were now grown stubborn and talked very loosely So they did not see how they could possibly enter into any Action this Year One Reason among the rest was suggested by the Bishops they saw a War would oblige them to a greater moderation in their Proceedings at home they had not done their Work which they hoped a little more time would perfect whereas a slack'ning in that would raise the drooping Spirits of those whom they were now pursuing So they desired another Year to prosecute them in which time they hoped so to clear the Kingdom of them that with less danger they might engage in a War the Year after Nor did they think it would be easie to bring new raised Men to the hardships of so early a Campagne and they thought the French would certainly work so hard in repairing the breaches that they would be in a good condition to endure a strait and long Siege All this they wrote over to the King on the first of February as appears from their Letter which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 37. A Parliament is called The Parliament was opened on the 20th of January where the Convocation to be a good Example to the two Houses granted a Subsidy of eight Shillings in the Pound to be paid in four Years In the House of Peers the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem took their Places according to their Writs Tresham that had given great assistance to the Queen upon her first coming to the Crown was now made Prior. But how much was done towards the endowing of that House which had been formerly among the richest of England I do not know On the 24th of January the Lords sent a Message to the Commons desiring that the Speaker with ten or twelve of that House should meet with a Committeâ— of the Lords which being granted the Lords proposed that the Commons would consider of the defence of the Kingdom What was at first demanded does not appear but after several days arguing about it they agreed to give one Subsidy a Fifteenth and a Tenth and ordered the Speaker to let the Queen know what they had concluded who sent them her hearty Thanks for it Then Complaints being made of some French-men that were not Denizens it was carried that they should go out of the Kingdom and not return during the War The Abbot of Westminster finding the Revenues of his House were much impaired thought that if the old Priviledges of the Sanctuary were confirmed it would bring him in a good Revenue from those that fled to it so he pressed for an Act to confirm it He brought a great many ancient Grants of the Kings of England which the Queen had confirmed by her Letters Patents but they did not prevail with the House who proceeded no further in it In this Parliament the Procurers of wilful Murder were denied the Benefit of Clergy which was carried in the House of Lords by the greater number as it is in their Journals The Bishops did certainly oppose it though none of them entred their dissent Sir Ambrose and Sir Robert Dudley two Sons of the late Duke of Northumberland were restored in Blood The Countess of Sussex's Joynture was taken from her for her living in Adultery so publickly as was formerly mentioned In the end of the Session a Bill was put in for the confirming of the Queens Letters Patents It was designed chiefly for confirming the Religious Foundations she had made As this went through the House of Commons one Coxley said He did not approve such a general Confirmation of those she had given or might give lest this might be a colour for her to dispose of the Crown from the right Inheritors The House was much offended at this and expressed such dislike at the imagination that the Queen would alienate the Crown that they both shewed their esteem for the Queen and their resolution to have the Crown descend after her death to her Sister Coxley was made to withdraw and voted guilty of great irreverence to the Queen He asked pardon and desired it might be imputed to his youth yet he was kept in the Serjeants Hands till they had sent to the Queen to desire her to forgive his offence She sent them word that at their sute she forgave it but wished them to examine him from whence that motion sprung There is no more entred about it in the Journal so that it seems to have been let fall The Parliament was on the seventh of March prorogued to the seventh of November Soon after this the King of Sweden sent a Message secretly to the Lady Elizabeth The King of Sweden treats a Marriage with the Lady Elizabeth who was then at Hatfield to propose Marriage to her King Philip had once designed to marry her to the Duke of Savoy when he was in hope of Children by the Queen but that hope vanishing he broke it off and intended to reserve her for himself How far she entertained that motion I do not know but for this from Sweden she rejected it since it came not to her by the Queens direction But to that it was answered the King of Sweden would have them begin with her self judging that fit for him as he was a Gentleman and her good liking being obtained he would next as a King address himself to the Queen But she said as she was to entertain no such Propositions unless the Queen sent them to her so if she were left to her self she assured them she would not change her state of Life Upon this the Queen sent Sir Tho. Pope to her in April to let her know how well she approved of the Answer she had made to them but they had now delivered their Letters and made the Proposition to her in which she desired to know her mind She thanked the Queen for her favour to her but bade Pope tell her that there had been one or two noble Propositions made for her in her Brother King Edwards time and she had then desired to continue in the state she was in which of all others pleased her best and she thought there was no state of Life comparable to it She had never before heard of that King and she desired never to hear of that Motion more She would see his Messenger no more since he had presumed to come to her without the Queens leave Then Pope said he did believe if the Queen offered her some Honourable Marriage she would not be averse to it She answered What she might do afterwards she did not know but protested solemnly that as
to meet and consider of the Book of Service In the mean while the People were to be restrained from Innovating without Authority and the Queen to give some hope of a Reformation might appoint the Communion to be given in both kinds The Persons that were thought fit to be trusted with the Secret of these Consultations were the Marquess of Northampton the Earls of Bedford and Pembroke and the Lord John Gray The Place that was thought most convenient for the Divines to meet in was Sir Thomas Smiths House in Channon-Row where an Allowance was to be given for their Entertainment The forwardness in many to the Reformation As soon as the News of the Queens coming to the Crown was known beyond Sea all those who had fled thither for shelter did return into England and those who had lived in Corners during the late Persecution now appeared with no small assurance and these having notice of the Queens Intentions could not contain themselves but in many Places begun to make Changes to set up King Edwards Service to pull down Images and to affront the Priests Upon this the Queen to make some discovery of her own Inclinations gave order that the Gospels and Epistles and the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and the Ten Commandements should be read in English and that the Letany should be also used in English and she forbade the Priests to Elevate the Host at Mass Having done this on the 27th of December she set out a Proclamation against all Innovations requiring her Subjects to use no other Forms of Worship than those she had in her Chappel till it should be otherwise appointed by the Parliament which she had summoned to meet on the 23d of January The Writs were issued out by Bacon into whose Hands she had delivered the Great Seal On the fifth of December she performed her Sisters Funeral Rites with great Magnificence at Westminster The Bishop of Winchester being appointed to preach the Sermon did so mightily extoll her and her Government and so severely taxed the disorders which he thought the Innovators were guilty of not without reflections on the Queen that he was thereupon confined to his House till the Parliament met Parker designed to be Archbishop of Canterbury One of the chief things under consultation was to provide Men fit to be put into the Sees that were now vacant or that might fall to be so afterwards if the Bishops should continue intractable Those now vacant were the Sees of Canterbury Hereford Bristol and Bangor and in the beginning of the next Year the Bishops of Norwich and Glocester died so that as Cambden hath it there were but fourteen Bishops living when the Parliament met It was of great importance to find Men able to serve in these Imployments chiefly in the See of Canterbury For this Dr. Parker was soon thought on Whether others had the offer of it before him or not I cannot tell but he was writ to by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the ninth of December to come up to London and afterwards on the 30th of December by Sir William Cecil and again by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the fourth of January He understood that it was for some high preferment and being a Man of an humble Temper distrustful of himself that loved privacy and was much disabled by sickness he declined coming up all he could he begged he might not be thought of for any publick Imployment but that some Prebend might be assigned him where he might be free both from Care and Government since the Infirmities which he had contracted by his flying about in the Nights in Queen Maries time had disabled him from a more publick station That to which he pretended shews how moderate his desires were for he professed an Imployment of twenty Nobles a year would be more acceptable to him than one of two hundred Pound He had been Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen and had received a special charge from her a little before she died to look well to the Instruction of her Daughter in the Principles of the Christian Religion and now the Queen had a grateful Remembrance of those Services This joyned with the high Esteem that Sir Nicholas Bacon had of him soon made her resolve to raise him to that great Dignity And since such high Preferments are generally if not greedily sought after yet very willingly undertaken by most Men it will be no unfit thing to lay open a modern Precedent which indeed savours more of the Ancient than the latter Times for then in stead of that Ambitus which has given such offence to the World in the latter Ages it was ordinary for Men to fly from the offer of great Preferments Some run away when they understood they were to be Ordained or had been Elected to great Sees and fled to a Wilderness This shewed they had a great sense of the Care of Souls and were more apprehensive of that weighty Charge than desirous to raise or enrich themselves or their Families It hath been shewed before that Cranmer was very unwillingly engaged in the See of Canterbury and now he that succeeded him in that See with the same designs was drawn into it with such unwillingness that it was almost a whole year before he could be prevailed upon to accept of it The account of this will appear in the Series of Letters both written to him and by him on that Head which were communicated to me by the present most Worthy and most Reverend Primate of this Church I cannot mention him in this place without taking notice that as in his other great Vertues and Learning he has gone in the steps of those most eminent Arch-bishops that went before him so the whole Nation is witness how far he was from aspiring to high Preferment how he withdrew from all those opportunities that might be steps to it how much he was surprized with his unlooked-for advancement how unwillingly he was raised and how humble and affable he continues in that high Station he is now in but this is a Subject that I must leave for them to enlarge on that shall write the History of this present Age. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper In the beginning of the next Year the Queen having found that Heath Arch-bishop of York then Lord Chancellor would not go along with her as he had done in the Reigns of her Father and Brother and having therefore taken the Seals from him and put them into Sir Nicholas Bacon's Hand did now by Patent create him Lord Keeper Formerly those that were Keepers of the Seal had no Dignity nor Authority annexed to their Office they did not hear Causes nor preside in the House of Lords but were only to put the Seals to such Writs or Patents as went in course and so it was only put in the Hands of a Keeper but for some short Interval But now Bacon was the first Lord Keeper that had all the Dignity and Authority of
the North and Mr. Herbert President of Wales and the one had granted to him 1000 Marks Land the other 500 and Lord Warwick 100 Horsemen at the King's Charge 9. Licences signed for the whole Council and certain of the Privy Chamber to keep among them 2340 Retainers 10. My Lord Somerset taken into the Council Guidotti the beginner of the talk for Peace recompensed with Knightdom 1000 Crowns Reward 1000 Crowns Pension and his Son with 250 Crowns Pension Certain Prisoners for light Matters dismissed agreed for delivery of French Prisoners taken in the Wars Peter Vane sent Ambassador to Venice Letters directed to certain Irish Nobles to take a blind Legat coming from the Pope calling himself Bishop of Armagh Commissions for the delivery of Bulloin Lauder and Dunglass 6. The Flemings Men of War would have passed our Ships without vailing Bonet which they seeing shot at them and drove them at length to vail Bonet and so depart 11. Monsieur Trimaul Monsieur Vicedam de Char and Monsieur Henaudie came to Dover the rest tarried at Calais till they had leave 13. Order taken that whosoever had Benefices given them should preach before the King in or out of Lent and every Sunday there should be a Sermon 16. The three Hostages aforesaid came to London being met at Debtford by the Lord Gray of Wilton Lord Bray with divers other Gentlemen to the number of 20 and Servingmen an 100 and so brought into the City and lodged there and kept Houses every Man by himself 18. Mr. Sidney and Mr. Nevel made Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Commission given to the Lord Cobham Deputy of Calais William Petre chief Secretary and Sir John Mason French Secretary to see the French King take his Oath with certain Instruction and that Sir John Mason should be Ambassador Leigier Commission to Sir John Davies and Sir VVilliam Sharington to receive the first Paiment and deliver the Quittance 19. Sir John Mason taken into the Privy Council and VVilliam Thomas made Clerk of the same Whereas the Emperors Ambassador desired leave by Letters Patents that my Lady Mary might have Mass it was denied him And where he said we broke the League with him by making Peace with Scotland it was answered That the French King and not I did comprehend them saving that I might not invade them without occasion 10. Lauther being besieged of the Scots the Captain hearing that the Peace was Proclaimed in England delivered it as the Peace did will him taking Sureties that all the Bargains of the Peace should be kept 18. Monsieur de Guise died 20. Order taken for the Chamber that three of the Outer Privy-Chamber Gentlemen should always be here and two lie in the Palace and fill the Room of one of the four Knights that the Squires should be diligent in their Office and five Grooms should be always present of which one to watch in the Bed-Chamber 21. The Marquess de Means the Duke de Anguien and the Constable's Son arrived at Dover 23. Monsieur Trimoville and the Vicedam of Chartres and Monsieur Henaudy came to the Court and saw the Order of the Garter and the Knights with their Sovereign receive the Communion 24. Certain Articles touching a streighter Amity in Merchandize sent to the King of Sweeden being these First If the King of Sweden sent Bullion he should have our Commodities and pay no Toll Secondly He should bring Bullion to none other Prince Thirdly If he brought Ozymus and Steel and Copper c. he should have our Commodities and pay Custom as an Englishman Fourthly If he brought any other he should have free entercourse paying Custom as a Stranger c. It was answered to the Duke of Brunswick that whereas he offered Service with 10000 Men of his Land that the War was ended and for the Marriage of my Lady Mary to him there was talk for her Marriage with the Infant of Portugal which being determined he should have answer 25. Lord Clinton Captain of Bulloin having sent away before all his Men saving 1800 and all his Ordnance saving that the Treaty did reserve issued out of the Town with these 1800 delivering it to Monsieur Chastilion receiving of him the six Hostages English an Acquittance for delivery of the Town and safe Conduct to come to Calais whither when he came he placed 1800 in the Emperors Frontiers 27. The Marquess du Means Count d' Anguien and the Constable's Son were received at Black-Heath by my Lord of Rutland my Lord Gray of Wilton my Lord Bray my Lord Lisle and divers Gentlemen with all the Pensionaries to the number of an hundred beside a great number of Servingmen It was granted that my Lord of Somerset should have all his moveable Goods and Leases except those that be already given The King of Sweden's Ambassador departed home to his Master 29. The Count d' Anguien Brother to the Duke of Vendosme and next Heir to the Crown after the King's Children the Marquess de Means Brother to the Scotch Queen and Monsieur Montmorency the Constable's Son came to the Court where they were received with much Musick at Dinner 26. Certain were taken that went about to have an Insurrection in Kent upon May day following and the Priest who was the chief Worker ran away into Essex where he was laid for 30. Dunglass was delivered as the Treaty did require May. 2. Joan Bocher otherways called Joan of Kent was burnt for holding That Christ was not Incarnate of the Virgin Mary being condemned the Year before but kept in hope of Conversion and the 30th of April the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Ely were to perswade her but she withstood them and reviled the Preacher that preached at her Death The first payment was payed at Calais and received by Sir Thomas Dennis and Mr. Sharington 4. The Lord Clinton before Captain of Bollein came to Court where after Thanks he was made Admiral of England upon the Surrender of the Earl of Warwick's Patent He was also taken into the Privy-Council and promised further Reward The Captain also and Officers of the Town were promised Rewards Monsieur de Brisay passed also by the Court to Scotland where at Greenwich he came to the King telling him That the French King would see that if he lacked any Commodity that he had he would give it him and likewise would the Constable of France who then bore all the Swing 5. The Marquess de Means departed to Scotland with Monsieur de Brisay to acquaint the Queen of the death of the Duke of Guise 6. The Master of Ayrskin and Monsieur Morret's Brother came out of Scotland for the Acceptation of the Peace who after had Passport to go into France 7. The Council drew a Book for ever Shire who should be Lieutenants in them and who should tarry with Me but the Lieutenants were appointed to tarry till Chastilions Sarcy and Boucherels coming and then to depart 9. Proclamation was made That
my Cousin Margaret at Mine sat the French Ambassadour We were served by two Services two Sewers Cup-bearers Carvers and Gentlemen Her Master Hostell came before her Service and my Officers before Mine There were two Cup-boards 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 Musick I brought her to the Hall and so she went away 5. The Duke of Northumberland the Lord Treasurer the Lord Marquess of Northampton the Lord Privy-Seal and divers others went to see her and to deliver a Ring with a Diamond and two Nags as a Token from Me. 6. The Duke of Northumberland with his Band of a hundred of which forty were in Black-Velvet white and black Sleeves sixty in Cloth The Earl of Pembrook with his Band and fifty more The Earl of Wiltshire with 58 of his Father's Band all the Pensioners Men of Arms and the Country with divers Ladies as my Cousin Margaret the Dutchesses of Richmond and Northumberland brought the Queen to Shoreditch through Cheap-side and Cornhill and there met her Gentlemen of Middlesex an 100 Horse and so she was conveied out of the Realm met in every Shire with Gentlemen 8. The Earl of Arundel committed to the Tower with Master Stroadly and St. Alban his Men because Crane did more and more confess of him 7. A Frenchman was sent again into France to be delivered again to the eight Frenchmen at the Borders because of a Murder he did at Diep and thereupon he fled hither 14. Answer was given to the Germans which did require 400000 Dollars if need so required for maintenance of Religion First That I was very well inclined to make Peace Amity or Bargain with them I knew to be of mine Religion for because this Messenger was sent only to know my Inclination and Will to enter and not with full Resolution of any Matters Secondly I would know whether they could get unto them any such strength of other Princes as were able to maintain the War and to do the Reciprogue to Me if need should require and therefore willed those three Princes Duke Maurice of Saxon the Duke of Mecklenburgh and the Marquess John of Brandenburgh from which he was sent to open the Matter to the Duke of Prussia and to all Princes about them and somewhat to get the good Will of Hamburgh Lubeck Bremen c. shewing them an inkling of the matter Thirdly I would have the matter of Religion made more plain lest when War should be made for other Quarrels they should say it were Religion Fourthly He should come with more ample Commission from the same States to talk of the sum of Mony and other Appurtenances This Answer was given lest if I assented wholly at the first they would declare mine Intent to the Stadts and whole Senates and so to come abroad whereby I should run into danger of breaking the League with the Emperor 16. The Lord Admiral took his leave to go into France for christening of the French King 's Son 18. Fossey Secretary to the Duke Maurice who was here for matter above-specified 20. A Proclamation appointed to go forth for that there went one before this time that set prices of Beef Oxen and Muttons which was meant to continue but to November when-as the Parliament should have been to abbrogate that and to appoint certain Commissioners to cause the Grasiers to bring to the Market and to sell at prices reasonable And that certain Overseers should be besides to certify of the Justices doings 23. The Lord Treasurer appointed High-Steward for the Arraignment of the Duke of Somerset At this time Duke Maurice began to show himself a Friend to the Protestants who before that time had appeared their Enemy 21. The foresaid Proclamation proclaimed 17. The Earl of Warwick Sir Henry Sidney Sir Henry Nevil and Sir Henry Yates did challenge all Commers at Tilt the third of January and at Tornay the sixth of January and this Challenge was proclaimed 28. News came that Maximilian was coming out of Spain nine of his Galleys with his Stuff and 120 Gennets and his Treasure was taken by the French 24. The Lord Admiral entred France and came to Bulloign 26. The Captain of Portsmouth had word and commandment to bring the Model of the Castle and Place to the intent it might be fortified because Baron de la Gard had seen it having an Engineer with him and as it was thought had the Plott of it 30. 22 Peers and Nobles besides the Council heard Sir Thomas Palmer Mr. Hammond Mr. Crane and Nudigate swear that their Confessions were true and they did say that that was said without any kind of Compulsion Force Envy or Displeasure but as favourably to the Duke as they could swear to with safe Consciences 24. The Lord Admiral came to Paris December 1. The Duke of Somerset came to his Trial at Westminster-Hall The Lord-Treasurer sat as High-Steward of England under the Cloth of State on a Bench between two Posts three degrees high All the Lords to the number of 26 viz. Dukes Suffolk Northumberland Marquess Northampton Earls Derby Bedford Huntingdon Rutland Bath Sussex Worcester Pembrook Vis Hereford Barons Burgaveny Audley Wharton Evers Latimer Bourough Souch Stafford Wentworth Darcy Sturton Windsor Cromwell Cobham Bray These sat a degree under and heard the Matter debated First After the Indictments were read five in number the Learned Counsel laid to my Lord of Somerset Palmer's Confession To which he answered That he never minded to raise the North and declared all the ill he could devise of Palmer but he was afraid for Bruites and that moved him to send to Sir William Herbert Replied it was again that the worse Palmer was the more he served his purpose For the Banquet he swore it was untrue and required more Witnesses Whence Crane's Confession was read He would have had him come Face to Face For London he meant nothing for hurt of any Lord but for his own Defence For the Gendarmoury it were but a mad matter for him to enterprise with his 100 against 900. For having Men in his Chamber at Greenwich confessed by Partridg it seemed he meant no harm because when he could have done harm he did it not My Lord Strange's Confession he swore it was untrue and the Lord Strange took his Oath it was true Nudigate's Hammond's and Alexander Seimour 's Confessions he denied because they were his Men. The Lawyers rehearsed how to raise Men at his House for an ill Intent as to kill the Duke of Northumberland was Treason by an Act Anno tertio of my Reign against Unlawful Assemblies for to devise the Death of the Lords was Felony To mind resisting his Attachment was Felony To Raise London was Treason and to Assault the Lords was Felony He answered He did not intend to raise London and swore that the Witnesses were not there His assembling of
when they were proceeding so severely against Men for their Opinions to spare one that was guilty of so foul a Murder killing both Father and Son at the same time But it is strange that neither his Quality nor his former zeal for Popery could procure a change of the Sentence from the more infamous way of hanging to beheading which had been generally used to Persons of his Quality It has been said and it passes for a Maxim of Law That though in Judgments of Treason the King can order the Execution to be by cutting off the Head since it being a part of the Sentence that the Head shall be severed from the Body the King may in that Case remit all the other parts of the Sentence except that yet in Felonies the Sentence must be Executed in the way prescribed by Law and that if the King should order beheading in stead of hanging it would be Murder in the Sheriff and those that Execute it So that in such a Case they must have a Pardon under the Great Seal for killing a Man unlawfully But this seems to be taken up without good Grounds and against clear Precedents For in the former Reign the Duke of Somerset though condemned for Felony yet was beheaded And in the Reign of King Charles the first the Lord Audley being likewise condemned for Felony all the Judges delivered their Opinons that the King might change the Execution from hanging to beheading which was done and was not afterwards questioned So it seems the hanging the Lord Stourton flowed not from any scruple as to the Queens Power of doing it lawfully but that on this occasion she resolved to give a publick Demonstration of her Justice and Horror at so cruel a Murder and therefore she left him to the Law without taking any further care of him On the last of February he was sent from London with a Letter to the Sheriff of Wilt-shire to receive his Body and execute the Sentence given against him and his Servants which was accordingly done as has been already shewn Upon this the Papists took great advantage to commend the strictness and impartiality of the Queens Justice that would not spare so zealous a Catholick when guilty of so foul a Murder It was also said That the killing of Mens Bodies was a much less crime than the killing of Souls which was done by the Propagators of Heresie and therefore if the Queen did thus execute Justice on a Friend for that which was a lesser degree of Murder they who were her Enemies and guilty of higher Crimes were to look for no mercy Indeed as the Poor Protestants looked for none so they met with very little but what the Cardinal shewed them and he was now brought under trouble himself for favouring them too much it being that which the Pope made use of to cover his malice against him Now the War had again broken out between France and Spain and the King studied to engage the English to his assistance The Queen had often complained to the French Court that the Fugitives who left her Kingdom had been well entertained in France She understood that the practises of Wiat and of her other rebellious Subjects were encouraged from thence particularly of Ashton who went often between the two Kingdoms and had made use of the Lady Elizabeths Name to raise Seditions as will appear by a Letter that is in the Collection Collection Number 34. which some of the Council writ to one that attended that Princess She was indeed the more strictly kept and worse used upon that occasion But besides it so happened that this Year one Stafford had gone into France and gathered some of the English Fugitives together and with Money and Ships that were secretly given him by that Court had come and seized on the Castle of Scarborough from whence he published a Manifesto against the Queen that by bringing in the Spaniards she had fallen from her Right to the Kingdom of which he declared himself Protector The Earl of Westmorland took the Castle on the last of April and Stafford with three of his Complices being taken suffered as Traitors on the 28th of May. The Queen becomes jealous of the French His coming out of France added much to the Jealousie though the French King disowned that he had given him any assistance But Dr. Wotton who was then Ambassador there resolved to give the Queen a more certain discovery of the inclinations of the French that so he might engage her in the War as was desired by Philip He therefore caused a Nephew of his own to come out of England whom when he had secretly instructed he ordered him to desire to be admitted to speak with the French King pretending that he was sent from some that were discontented in England and desired the French Protection But the King would not see him till he had first spoken with the Constable So Wotton was brought to the Constable and Melvill from whose Memoirs I draw this was called to interpret The young man first offered him the Service of many in England that partly upon the account of Religion partly for the hatred they bore the Spaniards were ready if assisted by France to make stirs there The Constable received and answered this but coldly and said He did not see what Service they could do his Master in it Upon which he replied They would put Calais into his Hands The Constable not suspecting a Trick started at that and shewed great joy at the Proposition but desired to know how it might be effected Young Wotton told him there were a thousand Protestants in it and gave him a long formal Project of the way of taking it with which the Constable seemed pleased and had much discourse with him about it he promised him great Rewards and gave him directions how to proceed in the Design So the Ambassador having found out what he had designed to discover sent his Nephew over to the Queen who was thereupon satisfied that the French were resolved to begin with her if they found an opportunity Her Husband King Philip finding it was not so easie by Letters or Messages to draw her into the War came over himself about the 20th of May and stayed with her till the beginning of July And denounces War In that time he prevailed so far with her and the Council that she sent over a Herauld with a formal Denunciation of War who made it at Rhemes where the King then was on the seventh of June Soon after she sent over 8000 Men under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke to joyn the Spanish Army that consisting of near 50000 Men sate down before St. Quintin The Constable was sent to raise the Siege with a great Force and all the chief Nobility of France When the two Armies were in view of one another The great defeat given the French at St. Quintin the Constable intended to draw back his Army but by