years together for before two years elapsed there was a War proclaimed against France and when overtures were made for a Peace it appears by the Treaty-Rolls that the Earl of Worcester was sent over Ambassador And when the Kings sister was sent over to Lewis the French King though Sir Thomas Boleyn went over with her he was not then so much considered as to be made an Ambassador For in the Commission that was given to many persons of Quality to deliver her to her Husband King Lewis the 12 Sir Thomas Boleyn is not named The persons in the Commission are the Duke of Norfolk the Marquess of Dorchester the Bishop of Duresm the Earls of Surrey and Worcester the Prior of St. Iohns and Doctor West Dean of Windsor A year after that Sir Thomas Boleyn was made Ambassador but then it was too late for Anne Boleyn to be yet unborn much less could it be as Sanders says that she was born two years after it But the Learned Camden whose Study and Profession led him to a more particular knowledg of these things gives us another account of her birth He says that she was born in the year 1507. which was two years before the King came to the Crown And if it be suggested that then the Prince to enjoy her Mother prevailed with his Father to send her Husband beyond Sea that must be done when the Prince himself was not 14 years of Age so they must make him to have corrupted other mens wives at that Age when yet they will not allow his Brother no not when he was 2 years older to have known his own wife But now I leave this foul Fiction and go to deliver certain Truths· Anne Boleyn's Mother was Daughter to the Duke of Norfolk and Sister to the Duke that was at the time of the Divorce Lord Treasurer Her Fathers Mother was one of the Daughters and heirs to the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond and her great Grand-Father Sir Geofry Boleyn who had been Lord Major of London Married one of the Daughters and Heirs of the Lord Hastings and their Family as they had mixed with so much great Blood so had Married their Daughters to very Noble Families She being but seven years old was carried over to France with the Kings Sister which shews she could have none of those deformities in her person since such are not brought into the Courts and Families of Queens And though upon the French Kings Death the Queen Dowager came soon back to England yet she was so liked in the French Court that the next King Francis his Queen kept her about her self for some years and after her death the Kings Sister the Dutchess of Alenson kept her in her Court all the while she was in France which as it shews there was somewhat extraordinary in her person so those Princesses being much celebrated for their vertues it is not to be imagined that any person so notoriously defamed as Sanders would represent her was entertained in their Courts When she came into England is not so clear it is said that in the year 1522. when War was made on France her Father who was then Ambassador was recalled and brought her over with him which is not improbable but if she came then she did not stay long in England for Camden says that she served Queen Claudia of France till her death which was in Iuly 1524 and after that she was taken into service by K Francis his Sister How long she continued in that service I do not find but it is probable that she returned out of France with her Father from his Embassy in the year 1527. when as Stow says he brought with him the Picture of her Mistress who was offered in Marriage to this King If she came out of France before as those Authors before-mentioned say it appears that the King had no design upon her then because he suffered her to return and when one Mistress died to take another in France but if she stayed there all this while then it is probable he had not seen her till now at last when she came out of the Princess of Alenson's service but whensoever it was that she came to the Court of England it is certain that she was much considered in it And though the Queen who had taken her to be one of her Maids of Honour had afterwards just cause to be displeased with her as her Rival yet she carried her self so that in the whole Progress of the Sute I never find the Queen her self or any of her Agents fix the least ill Character on her which would most certainly have been done had there been any just cause or good colour for it And so far was this Lady at least for some time from any thoughts of Marrying the King that she had consented to Marry the Lord Piercy the Earl of Northumberland's eldest Son whom his Father by a strange compliance with the Cardinals vanity had placed in his Court and made him one of his servants The thing is considerable and clears many things that belong to this History and the Relator of it was an Ear-witness of the Discourse upon it as himself informs us The Cardinal hearing that the Lord Piercy was making addresses to Anne Boleyn one day as he came from the Court called for him before his servants before us all says the Relator including himself and chid him for it pretending at first that it was unworthy of him to match so meanly but he justified his choice and reckoned up her birth and Quality which he said was not inferior to his own And the Cardinal insisting fiercely to make him lay down his pretensions he told him he would willingly submit to the King and him but that he had gone so far before many witnesses that he could not forsake it and knew not how to discharge his conscience and therefore he entreated the Cardinal would procure him the Kings favour in it Upon that the Cardinal in great rage said why thinkest thou that the King and I know not what we have to do in so weighty a matter yes I warrant you but I can see in thee no submission at all to the purpose and said you have matched your self with such a one as neither the King nor yet your Father will agree to it and therefore I will send for thy Father who at his coming shall either make thee break this unadvised bargain or disinherit thee for ever To which the Lord Piercy replyed That he would submit himself to him if his Conscience were discharged of the weighty burden that lay upon it and soon after his Father coming to Court he was diverted another way Had that Writer told us in what year this was done it had given a great light to direct us but by this relation we see that she was so far from thinking of the King at that time that she had
Cardinal to oppose the Match with England since they looked for ruine if it succeeded The Queen being a sister of Guise and bred in the French Court was wholly for their Interests and all that had been obliged by that Court or depended on it were quickly drawn into the Party It was also said to every body that it was much more the Interest of Scotland to match with France than with England If they were united to France they might expect an easie Government For the French being at such distance from them and knowing how easily they might throw themselves into the Armes of England would certainly rule them gently and avoid giving them great Provocations But if they were united to England they had no remedy but must look for an heavier yoke to be laid on them This meeting with the rooted Antipathy that by a long continuance of War was grown up among them to a savage hatred of the English Nation and being inflamed by the considerations of Religion raised an universal dislike of the Match with England in the greatest part of the whole Nation only a few men of greater Probity who were weary of the depredations and Wars in the Borders and had a liking to the Reformation of the Church were still for it The French Court struck in vigorously with their Party in Scotland and sent over the Earl of Lenox who as he was next in blood to the Crown after the Earl of Arran so was of the same family of the Stewarts which had endeared him to the late King He was to lead the Queens party against the Hamiltons Yet they employed another Tool which was Iohn Hamilton base Brother to the Governor who was afterwards Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews He had great power over his Brother who being then not above four and twenty years of age and having been the only lawful Son of his Father in his old age was never bred abroad and so understood not the Policies and arts of Courts and was easily abused by his base Brother He assured him that if he went about to destroy Religion by matching the Queen to an Heretical Prince they would depose him from his Government and declare him Illegitimate There could be indeed nothing clearer than his Fathers Divorce from his first Wife For it had been formerly proved that she had been married to the Lord Yesters Son before he married her who claimed her as his Wife upon which her Marriage with the Earl of Arran was declared Null in the year 1507. And it was ten years after that the Earl of Arran did Marry the Governors Mother Of which things the Original Instruments are yet extant Yet it was now said that that Precontract with the Lord Yesters Son was but a forgery to dissolve that Marriage and if the Earl of Lenox who was next to the Crown in case the Earl of Arran was Illegitimated should by the assistance of France procure a review of that Process from Rome and obtain a Revocation of that Sentence by which his Fathers first Marriage was annulled then it was plain that the second marriage with the issue by it would be of no force All this wrought on the Governor much and at length drew him off from the Match with England and brought him over to the French Interests Which being effected there was no further use of the Eaâ—l of Lâ—nnox so he finding himself neglected by the Queen and the Cardinal and abandoned by the Crown of France fled into England where he was very kindly received by the King who gave him in marriage his Neece Lady Margaret Dowglass whom the Queen of Scotland had born to the Earl of Angus her second Husband From which Marriage issued the Lord Darnly Father to King Iames. When the Lords of the French Faction had carried things to their mind in Scotland it was next considered what they should do to redeem the Hostages whom the Lords who were Prisoners in England had left behind them And for this no other Remedy could be found but to let them take their hazard and leave them to the King of England's mercy To this they all agreed only the Earl of Cassilis had too much Honour and Vertue to do so mean a thing Therefore after he had done all he could for maintaining the Treaty about the Match he went into England and offered himself again to be a Prisoner But as generous actions are a reward to themselves so they often meet with that entertainment which they deserve And upon this occasion the King was not wanting to express a very great value for that Lord. He called him another Regulus but used him better For he both gave him his Liberty and made him noble Presents and sent him and his Hostages back being resolved to have a severer reparation for the injury done him All which I have opened more fully because this will give a great light to the affairs of that Kingdom which will be found in the Reigns of the succeeding Princes to have a great intermixture with the affairs of this Kingdom Nor are they justly represented by any who write of these times and having seen some Original Papers relating to Scotland at that time I have done it upon more certain information The King of England made War next upon France The grounds of this War are recited by the Lord Herbert One of these is proper for me to repeat That the French King had not deserted the Bishop of Rome and consented to a Reformation as he had once Promised The rest related to other things such as the seizing our Ships The detaining the yearly Pension due to the King The Fortifying Ardres to the prejudice of the English pale The revealing the Kings secrets to the Emperor The having given first his Daughter and then the Duke of Guises Sister in Marriage to his Enemy the King of Scotland and his confederating himself with the Turk And Satisfaction not being given in these particulars a War is declared In Iuly the King married Katharine Parre who had been formerly married to Nevil Lord Latimer She was a secret Favourer of the Reformation yet could not divert a storm which at this time fell on some in Windsor For that being a place to which the King did oft retire it was thought fit to make some examples there And now the League with the Emperour gave the Popish Faction a greater interest in the Kings Counsels There was at this time a Society at Windsor that favoured the Reformation Anthony Person a Priest Robert Testwood and Iohn Marbeck Singing Men and Henry Filmer of the Town of Windsor were the chief of them But those were much favoured by Sir Philip Hâ—bby and his Lady and several others of the Kings Family During Crâ—â—â—els power none questioned them but after his fall they were looked on with an ill eye Doctor Londâ—n who had by the most servile Flatteries insinuated himself into Cromâ—el and was much employed
advantages a man of his temper would draw from it Warham was Lord Chancellour the first seven years of the Kings Reign but retired to give place to this aspiring favourite who had a mind to the great Seal that there might be no interfering between the Legantine and Chancery Courts And perhaps it wrought somewhat on his vanity that even after he was Cardinal Warham as Lord Chancellour took place of him as appears from the Entries made in the Journals of the House of Peers in the Parliament held the 7th year of the Kings Reign and afterwards gave him place as appears on many occasions particularly in the Letter written to the Pope 1530 set down by the Lord Herbert which the Cardinal subscribed before Warham We have nothing on record to shew what a Speaker he was for all the Journals of Parliament from the 7th to the 25th year of this King are lost but it is like he spoke as his Predecessor in that Office Warham did whose speeches as they are entred in the Journals are Sermons begun with a Text of Scripture which he expounded and applyed to the business they were to go upon stuffing them with the most fulsome flattery of the King that was possible The next in favour and Power was the Lord Treasurer restored to his Fathers honour of Duke of Norfolk to whom his Son succeeded in that Office as well as in his hereditary honours and managed his Interest with the King so dexterously that he stood in all the Changes that followed and continued Lord Treasurer during the Reign of this King till near the end of it when he fell through Jealousie rather than guilt this shewed how dexterous a man he was that could stand so long in that imployment under such a King But the chief Favourite in the Kings pleasures was Charles Brandon a Gallant graceful Person one of the strongest men of the Age and so a fit match for the King at his Justs and Tiltings which was the manly diversion of that time and the King taking much pleasure in it being of a robust Body and singularly expert at it he who was so able to second him in these Courses grew mightily in his favour so that he made him first Viscount Lisle and some Months after Duke of Suffolk Nor was he less in the Ladies favours than the Kings for his Sister the Lady Mary liked him and being but so long Married to King Lewis of France as to make her Queen Dowager of France she resolved to choose her second Husband her self and cast her eye on the Duke of Suffolk who was then sent over to the Court of France Her Brother had designed the Marriage between them yet would not openly give his Consent to it but she by a strange kind of Wooing prefixed him the Term of four days to gain her Consent in which she told him if he did not prevail he should for ever lose all his hopes of having her though after such a Declaration he was like to meet with no great difficulty from her So they were Married and the King was easily pacified and received them into favour neither did his favour die with her for it continued all his life but he never medled much in business and by all that appears was a better Courtier than States-Man Little needs be said of any other Person more than will afterwards occur The King loved to raise mean Persons and upon the least distaste to throw them down and falling into disgrace he spared not to sacrifice them to publick discontents His Court was magnificent and his Expence vast he indulged himself in his pleasures and the hopes of Children besides the Lady Mary failing by the Queen he who of all things desired issue most kept one Elizabeth Blunt by whom he had Henry Fitzroy whom in the 17th year of his Reign he created Earl of Nottingham and the same day made him Duke of Richmond and Sommerset and intended afterwards to have put him in the Succession of the Crown after his other Children but his death prevented it As for his Parliaments he took great care to keep a good understanding with them and chiefly with the House of Commons by which means he seldom failed to carry Matters as he pleased among them only in the Parliament held in the 14th and 15th of his Reign the Demand of the Subsidy towards the War with France being so high as 800000 lib. the 5th of mens goods and lands to be paid in Four years and the Cardinal being much hated there was great Opposition made to it for which the Cardinal blamed Sir Thomas More much who was then Speaker of the House of Commons and finding that which was offered was not above the half of what was asked went himself to the House of Commons and desired to hear the reasons of those who opposed his Demands that he might answer them but he was told the Order of their House was to reason only among themselves and so went away much dissatisfied It was with great difficulty that they obtained a Subsidy of 3 s. in the lib. to be paid in four years This disappointment it seems did so offend the Cardinal that as no Parliament had been called for Seven years before so there was none summoned for Seven years after And thus stood the Civil Government of England in the 19th year of the Kings Reign when the Matter of the Divorce was first moved But I shall next open the State of Affairs in Reference to Religious and Spiritual Concerns King Henry was bred with more care than had been usually bestowed on the Education of Princes for many Ages who had been only trained up to those Exercises that prepared them to War and if they could read and write more was not expected of them But learning began now to flourish and as the House of Medici in Florence had great honour by the Protection it gave to learned men so other Princes every-where cherished the Muses King Henry the 7th though illiterate himself yet took care to have his Children instructed in good letters And it generally passes current that he bred his second Son a Scholar having designed him to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but that has no foundation for the Writers of that time tell that his Elder Brother Prince Arthur was also bred a Scholar And all the Instruction King Henry had in Learning must have been after his Brother was dead when that Design had vanished with his life For he being born the 18th of Iune 1491. and Prince Arthur dying the Second of April 1502. he was not full eleven years of Age when he became Prince of Wales at which Age Princes have seldom made any great progress in Learning But King Henry the 7th judging either that it would make his Sons Greater Princes and fitter for the Management of their Affairs or being jealous of their looking too early into business or their pretending to the Crown
Northumberland to confess a Contract between him and her But he took his Oath before the Two Arch-Bishops that there was no Contract nor promise of Marriage ever between them and received the Sacrament upon it before the Duke of Norfolk and others of the Kings Privy Council wishing it might be to his Damnation if there was any such thing concerning which I have seen the Original Declaration under his own hand Nor could they draw any Confession from the Queen before the Sentence for certainly if they could have done that the Divorce had gone before the Tryal and then she must have been tryed only as Marchioness of Pembroke But now she lying under so terrible a Sentence it is most probable that either some hopes of Life were given her or at least she was wrought on by the Assurances of mitigating that cruel part of her judgment of being Burnt into the milder part of the Sentence of Having her head cut off so that she confessed a Pre-contract and on the 17th of May was brought to Lambeth and in Court the afflicted Arch-Bishop sitting Judge some persons of Quality being present she confessed some just and lawful impediments by which it was evident that her Marriage with the King was not valid Upon which Confession the Marriage between the King and her was judged to have been null and void The Record of the Sentence is burnt but these particulars are repeated in the Act that passed in the next Parliament touching the Succession to the Crown It seems this was secretly done for Spelman writes of it thus It was said there was a Divorce made between the King and her upon her confessing a Precontract with another before her Marriage with the King so then it was then only talkt of but not generally known The two Sentences that were past upon the Queen the one of Attaindor for Adultery the other of Divorce because of a Precontract did so contradict one another that it was apparent one if not both of them must be unjust for if the Marriage between the King and her was null from the beginning then since she was not the Kings wedded Wife there could be no Adultery and her Marriage to the King was either a true Marriage or not if it was true then the annulling of it was unjust and if it was no true Marriage then the Attainder was unjust for there could be no breach of that Faith which was never 〈…〉 So that it is plain the King was resolved to be rid of her and 〈…〉 her Daughter and in that transport of his fury did not 〈◊〉 that the very method he took discovered the unjustice of his â—â—â—â—eedings against her Two days after this she was ordered to be Executed in the Green on Tower-Hill How she received these tidings and how stedfast she continued in the protestations of her Innocence will best appear by the following circumstances The day before she suffered upon a strict search of her past Life she called to mind that she had played the Step-Mother too severely to Lady Mary and had done her many injuries Upon which she made the Lieutenant of the Tower's Lady sit down in the Chair of State which the other after some Ceremony doing she fell down on her knees and with many tears charged the Lady as she would answer it to God to go in her name and do as she had done to the Lady Mary and ask her forgiveness for the wrongs she had done her And she said she had no quiet in her Conscience till she had done that But though she did in this what became a Christian the Lady Mary could not so easily pardon these injuries but retained the resentments of them her whole life This ingenuity and tenderness of Conscience about lesser matters is a great presumption that if she had been guilty of more eminent faults she had not continued to the last denying them and making protestations of her Innocency For that same night she sent her last message to the King and acknowledged her self much obliged to him that had continued still to advance her She said he had from a private Gentlewoman first made her a Marchioness and then a Queen and now since he could raise her no higher was sending her to be a Saint in Heaven She protested her Innocence and recommended her Daughter to his care And her carriage that day she died will appear from the following Letter writ by the Lieutenant of the Tower copied from the Original which I insert because the Copier imployed by the Lord Herbert has not writ it out faithfully for I cannot think that any part of it was left out on design Sir These shall be to advertise you I have received your Letter wherein you would have strangers conveyed out of the Tower and so they be by the means of Richard Gressum and William Cooke and Wytspoll But the number of strangers past not thirty and not many of those and the Ambassador of the Emperor had a Servant there and honestly put out Sir If we have not an hour certain as it may be known in London I think here will be but few and I think a reasonable number were best for I suppose she will declare her self to be a good woman for all men but for the King at the hour of her death For this morning she sent for me that I might be with her at such time as she received the Good Lord to the intent I should hear her speak as touching her Innocency alway to be clear And in the writing of this she sent for me and at my coming she said Mr. Kingston I hear say I shall not die aforenoon and I am very sorry therefore for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain I told her it should be no pain it was so sottel And then she said I heard say the Executioner was very good and I have a little Neck ANNA BVLLEN REGINA ANGLIAE ELIZABETHAE REGINAE MATER Nata Ano. 1507 Nupsit An o 1532 Nov 14 Elix Filian peperit An o 1533 Sept. 7 Capite plexa Ano. 1536 May 19. Printed for Rich Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church yard and put her hands about it laughing heartily I have seen many men and also women Executed and that they have been in great sorrow and to my knowledge this Lady has much joy and pleasure in death Sir her Almoner is continually with her and had been since two a Clock after midnight This is the effect of any thing that is here at this time and thus Fare you well Yours William Kingston A little before Noon being the 19th of May she was brought to the Scaffold where she made a short Speech to a great company that came to look on the last Scene of this fatal Tragedy The chief of whom were the Dukes of Suffolk and Richmond the Lord Chancellor and Secretary Cromwell with the Lord Mayor the Sheriffs
of them than to direct their belief by them The King leaned neither to the right nor to the left hand neither to the one nor the other Party but set the pure and sincere Doctrine of the Christian Faith only before his eyes And therefore was now resolved to have this set forth to his Subjects without any corrupt mixtures and to have such decent Ceremonies continued and the true use of them taught by which all abuses might be cut off and Disputes about the Exposition of the Scriptures cease that so all his Subjects might be well instructed in their Faith and directed in the reverent worship of God and resolved to punish severely all transgressors of what sort or side soever they were The King was resolved That Christ That the Gospel of Christ and the truth should have the victory And therefore had appointed some Bishops and Divines to draw up an Exposition of those things that were necessary for the Institution of a Christian-man Who were the two Arch-Bishops the Bishop of London Duresm Winchester Rochester Hereford and St. Davids and Doctors Thirleby Robertson Cox Day Oglethorp Redmayn Edgeworth Crayford Symonds Robins and Tresham He had also appointed others to examine what Ceremonies should be retained and what was the true use of them who were the Bishops of Bath and Wells Ely Sarum Chichester Worcester and Landaff The King had also commanded the Judges and other Justices of the Peace and persons commissioned for the Execution of the Act formerly passed to proceed against all transgressors and punish them according to Law And he Concluded with an high Commendation of the King whose due praises he said a man of far greater Eloquence than himself was could not fully set forth The Lords approved of this Nomination and ordered that these Committees should sit constantly on Mundays Wedensdays and Fridays and no other days they were to sit in the afternoon But their Proceedings will require so full a Relation that I shall first open the other Affairs that passed in this Session and leave these to the last On the 14th of April the King created Cromwel Earl of Essex the Male line of the Bourchiers that had carryed that Title being extinguished This shews that the true Causes of Cromwels fall must be found in some other thing than his making up the Kings Marriage who had never thus raised his Title if he had intended so soon to pull him down On the 22d of April a Bill was brought in for Suppressing the Knights of St. Iohn of Ierusalem Their first Foundation was to be a Guard to the Pilgrims that went to the Holy Land For some Ages that was extolled as the highest expression of devotion and reverence to our Saviour to go and view the places of his abode and chiefly the places where he was Crucified Buried and ascended to Heaven Upon which many entred into a Religious Knighthood who were to defend the Holy Land and conduct the Pilgrims Those were of two sorts The Knights-Templars and Hospitallers The former were the greater and richer but the other were also very considerable The Popes and their Clergy did every-where animate all Princes and great persons to undertake expeditions into these parts Which were very costly and dangerous and proved fatal to almost all the Princes that made them Yet the belief of the pains of Purgatory from which all were delivered by the Popes Power who went on this Expedition such as dyed in it being also reckoned Martyrs wrought wonderfully on a blind and Superstitious Age. But such as could not go were perswaded That if on their death-beds they vowed to go upon their recovery and left some Lands to maintain a Knight that should go thither and fight against the Infidels it would do as well Upon this great and vast Endowments were made But there were many Complaints made of the Templars for betraying and robbing the Pilgrims and other horrid abuses which may reasonably be believed to have been true though other Writers of that Age lay the blame rather on the Covetousness of the King of France and the Popes malice to them Yet in a General Council the whole Order was Condemned and Suppressed and such of them as could be taken were cruelly put to death The Order of the Hospitallers stood yet did not grow much after that They were beaten out of the Holy-Land by the Sultans and lately out of the Isle of Rhodes and were at this time in Malta Their great Master depended on the Pope and the Emperor so it was not thought fit to let a House that was subject to a Forreign Power stand longer And it seems they would not willingly Surrender up their House as others had done Therefore it was necessary to force them out of it by an Act of Parliament which on the 22d of April was read the first time and on the 26th the 2d time and on the 29th the third time by which both their House in England and another they had in Kilmainam in Ireland were suppressed great pensions being reserved by the Act to the Priors a 1000 lib. to him of St. Iohns near London and 500 Marks to the other with very considerable allowances for the Knights which in all amounted near to 3000 lib. yearly But on the 14th of May the Parliament was Prorogued to the 25th and a vote passed that their Bills should remain in the State they were in Upon their next mâ—eting as they were going on in their business a great Change of Court broke out For on the 13th of Iune at the Council Table the Duke of Norfolk in the Kings name challenged the Lord Cromwel of high Treason and Arresting him sent him Prisoner to the Tower He had many Enemies among all sorts of persons The Nobility despised him and thought it lessened the greatness of their Titles to see the Son of a Black-Smith raised so many degrees above them His aspiring to the Order of the Garter was thought inexcusable vanity and his having so many places heaped on him as Lord Privy Seal Lord Chamberlain of England and Lord Vice-gerent with the Mastership of the Rolls with which he had but lately parted drew much envy on him All the Popish party hated him out of measure The Suppression of the Abbies was laid wholly at his door The Attaindors and all other severe proceedings were imputed to his Counsels He was also thought to be the person that had kept the King and the Emperor at such distance And therefore the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner beside private Animosities hated him on that account And they did not think it impossible if he were out of the way to bring on a Treaty with the Emperor which they hoped would open the way for one with the Pope But other more secret reasons wrought his ruin with the King The fear he was in of a Conjunction between the Emperor and France did now abate For he understood that it went no further
than Complements And though he clearly discovered having sent over the Duke of Norfolk to Francis that he was not to depend much on his friendship yet at the same time he knew that the Emperor would not yield up the Dutchy of Milan to him upon which his heart was much set So he saw they could come to no agreement Therefore he made no great account of the loss of France since he knew the Emperor would willingly make an Alliance with him The hopes of which made him more indifferent whether the German Princes were pleased with what he did or not since he had now attained the end he had proposed to himself in all his Negotiations with them which was to secure himself from any trouble the Emperor might give him Therefore Cromwels Counsels were now disliked for he had always enclined the King to favour those Princes against the Emperor Another secret cause was that as the King had an unconquerable aversion to his Queen so he was taken with the Beauty and behaviour of Mistress Katharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard a Brother of the Duke of Norfolks And as this designed Match raised the credit of her Uncle so the ill consequences of the former drew him down who had been the chief Counsellor in it The King also found his Government was grown uneasie and therefore judged it was no ill Policy to cast over all that had been done amiss upon a Minister who had great Power with him and being now in disgrace all the blame of these things would be taken off from the King and laid on him and his Ruin would much appease discontents and make them more moderate in censuring the King or his Proceedings It is said that other Particulars were charged on him which lost him the Kings favour If this be true it is like they related to the encouragement he was said to have given to some Reformers in the opposition they made to the six Articles Upon the Execution of which the King was now much set His fall was so secretly carryed that though he had often before looked for it knowing the Kings uneasie and jealous temper yet at that time he had no apprehensions of it till the Storm broke upon him In his fall he had the common fate of all disgraced Ministers to be forsaken by his Friends and insulted over by his Enemies Only Cranmer retained still so much of his former simplicity that he could never learn these Court Arts. Therefore he wrote to the King about him next day He much magnified his diligence in the Kings service and preservation and discovering all Plots as soon as they were made That he had always loved the King above all things and served him with great fidelity and success That he thought no King of England had ever such a servant upon that account he had loved him as one that loved the King above all others But if he was a Traytor he was glad it was discovered But he prayed God earnestly to send the King such a Councellor in his stead who could and would serve him as he had done This shews both the firmness of Cranmers friendship to him and that he had a great Soul not turned by the changes of mens fortunes to like or dislike them as they stood or declined from their greatness And had not the Kings kindness for Cranmer been deeply rooted this Letter had ruined him For he was the most impatient of Contradiction in such cases that could be Cromwels ruin was now Decreed and he who had so servily complyed with the Kings pleasure in procuring some to be Attainted the year before without being brought to make their answer fell now under the same severity For whether it was that his Enemies knew That if he were brought to the Bar he would so justifie himself that they would find great difficulties in the Process or whether it was that they blindly resolved to follow that injustifiable Precedent of passing over so necessary a Rule to all Courts of giving the Party accused an hearing the Bill of Attaindor was brought in to the House of Lords Cranmer being absent that day as appears by the Journal on the 17th of Iune and read the first time and on the 19th was read the second and third time and sent down to the Commons By which it appears how few friends he had in that House when a Bill of that nature went on so hastily But it seems he found in the House of Commons somewhat of the same measure which ten years before he had dealt to the Cardinal though not with the same success For his matter stuck ten days there At length a new Bill of Attaindor was brought up conceived in the House of Commons with a Proviso annexed to it They also sent back the Bill which the Lords sent to them But it is not clear from the Journals what they meant by these two Bills It seems they rejected the Lords Bill and yet sent it up with their own either in respect to the Lords or that they left it to their choice which of the two Bills they would offer to the Royal Assent But though this be an unparliamentary way of proceeding I know no other sense which the words of the Journal can bear which I shall set down in the Margent that the Reader may Judge better concerning it * And that very day the King assented to it as appears by the Letter written the next day by Cromwel to the King The Act said that the King having raised Thomas Cromwel from a base degree to great Dignities and high Trusts yet he had now by a great number of Witnesses persons of honour found him to be the most Corrupt Traitor and deceiver of the King and the Crown that had ever been known in his whole Reign He had taken upon him to set at liberty divers persons put in Prison for misprision of Treason and others that were suspected of it He had also received several bribes and for them granted Licenses to carry Money Corn Horses and other things out of the Kingdom contrary to the Kings Proclamations He had also given out many Commissions without the Kings knowledg and being but of a base Birth had said That he was sure of the King He had granted many Passports both to the Kings Subjects and Forreigners for passing the Seas without search He being also an Heretick had dispersed many Erroneous Books among the Kings Subjects particularly some that were contrary to the Belief of the Sacrament And when some had informed him of this and had shewed him these Heresies in Books Printed in England he said they were good and that he found no fault in them and said It was as Lawful for every Christian man to be the Minister of that Sacrament as a Priest And whereas the King had constituted him Vice-gerent for the Spiritual affairs of the Church he had under the Seal of that
the Army was ill advised so his giving a Commissâ—on to Oliver Sinclar â—hat was his Minion to command in Chief did extreamly disgust the Nobility They loved not to be commanded by any but their King and were already weary of the insolence of that Favourite who being but of ordinary birth was despised by them so that they were beginning to separate And when they were upon that occasion in great disorder a small body of English not above 500 Horse appeared But they apprehending it was the Duke of Norfolks Army refused to fight and fell in confusion Many Prisoners were taken the chief of whom were the Earls of Glencairn and Cassillis the Lords Maxwell Sommervell Oliphant Gray and Oliver Sinclar and about 200 Gentlemen and 800 souldiers and all the Ordnance and Baggage was also taken The news of this being brought to the King of Scotland encreased his former disorders and some few days after he dyed leaving an infant Daughter but newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken Prisoners were brought to London where after they had been charged in Council how unkindly they had used the King they were put in the keeping of some of the greatest quality about Court But the Earl of Cassillis had the best luck of them all For being sent to Lambâ—th where he was a Prisoner upon his parole Cranmer studied to free him from the darkness and fetters of Popery in which he was so successful that the other was afterwards a great Promoter of the Reformation in Scotland The Scots had been hitherto possessed with most extraordinary prejudices against the Changes that had been made in England which concurring with the ancient Animosities between the two Nations had raised a wonderful ill opinion of the Kings proceedings And though the Bishop of St. Davids Barlow had been sent into Scotland with the Book of the Institution of a Christian Man to clear these ill impressions yet his endeavours were unsuccessful The Pope at the instance of the French King and to make that Kingdom sure made David Beaton Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews a Cardinal which gave him great Authority in the Kingdom so he with the rest of the Clergy diverted the King from any correspondence with England and assured him of Victory if he would make War on such an Heretical Prince The Clergy also offered the King 50000 Crowns a-year towards a War with England and possessed all the Nation with very ill thoughts of the Court and Clergy there But the Lords that were now Prisoners chiefly the Earl of Cassillis who was best instructed by his Religious Host conceived a better opinion of the Reformation and carried home with them those seeds of knowledg which produced afterwards a very fruitful Harvest On all these things I have dwelt the longer that it might appear whence the inclination of the Scotish Nobility to Reform did take its first rise though there was afterwards in the Methods by which it was advanced too great a mixture of the heat and forwardness that is natural to the Genius of that Countrey When the news of the King of Scotlands death and of the young Queens birth that succeeded him came to the Court the King thought this a very favourable conjuncture to unite and settle the whole Island But that unfortunate Princess was not born under such happy Stars though she was Mother to him in whom this long-desired Union took effect The Lords that were then Prisoners began the motion and that being told the King he called for them to Hampton-Court in the Christmas-time and said now an opportunity was put in their hands to quiet all troubles that had been between these two Crowns by the Marriage of the Prince of Wales to their young Queen In which he desired their assistance and gave them their Liberty they leaving hostages for the performance of what was then offered by them They all promised their Concurrence and seemed much taken with the greatness of the English Court which the King always kept up not without affectation they also said they thought God was better served there than in their own Countrey So on New-years-day they took their journey towards Scotland but the sequel of this will appear afterwards A Parliament was summoned to meet the two and twentieth of Ianuary which sate to the 12th of May. So the Session begun in the 34th and ended in the 35th year of the Kings Reign from whence it is called in the Records the Parliament of the 34th and 35th year Here both the Temporality and Spirituality gave great Subsidies to the King of six shillings in the Pound to be paid in three years They set forth in their Preambles The expence the King had been at in his War with Scotland and for his other great and urgent occasions by which was meant a War with France which broke out the following Summer But with these there passed other two Acts of great importance to Religion The Title of the first was An Act for the advancement of True Religion and abolishment of the contrary The King was now entring upon a War so it seemed reasonable to qualifie the severity of the late Acts about Religion that all might be quiet at home Cranmer moved it first and was faintly seconded by the Bishops of Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester who had promised to stick to him in it At this time a League was almost finished between the King and the Emperour which did again raise the Spirits of the Popish Faction They had been much cast down ever since the last Queens fall But now that the Emperor was like to have an Interest in English Councils they took heart again and Gardiner opposed the Arch-Bishops motion with all possible earnestness And that whole Faction fell so upon it that the timorous Bishops not only forsook Cranmer but Heath of Rochester and Skip of Hereford were very earnest with him to stay for a better opportunity But he generously preferred his Conscience to those arts of Policy which he would never practise and said he would push it as far as it would go So he plied the King and the other Lords so earnestly that at length the Bill passed though clogg'd with many Provisoes and very much short of what he had designed The Preamble set forth that there being many dissensions about Religion the Scriptures which the King had put into the hands of his People were abused by many seditious persons in their Sermons Books Playes Rithmes and Songs from which great Inconveniences were like to arise For preventing these it was necessary to establish a Form of sincere Doctrine conformable to that which was taught by the Apostles Therefore all the Books of the Old and New Testament of Tindals Translation which is called Crafty False and Vntrue are forbidden to be kept oâ— used in the Kings Dominions with all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth in the year 1540. with
durst adventure on making any complaints against her Yet the Kings distempers encreasing and his peevishness growing with them he became more uneasie and whereas she had frequently used to talk to him of Religion and defend the Opinions of the Reformers in which he would sometimes pleasantly maintain the Argument now becoming more impatient he took it ill at her hands And she had sometimes in the heat of discourse gone very far So one night after she had left him the King being displeased vented it to the Bishop of Winchester that stood by And he craftily and maliciously struck in with the Kings anger and said all that he could devise against the Queen to drive his resentments higher and took in the Lord Chancellor into the design to assist him They filled the Kings head with many stories of the Queen and some of her Ladies and said They had favoured Anne Askew and had Heretical Books amongst them and he perswaded the King that they were Traitors as well as Hereticks The matter went so far that Articles were drawn against her which the King Sigâ—ed for without that it was not safe for any to Impeach the Queen But the Lord Chancellor putting up that Paper carelesly it dropt from him And being taken up by one of the Queens Party was carryed to her Whether the King had really designed her ruin or not is differently represented by the Writers who lived near that time But she seeing his hand to such a Paper had reason to conclude her self lost Yet by advice of one of her Friends she went to see the King who receiving her kindly set on a Discourse about Religion But she answered that women by their first Creation were made subject to men and they being made after the Image of God as the Women were after their Image ought to instruct their Wives who were to learn of them and she much more was to be taught by his Majesty who was a Prince of such excellent Learning and Wisdom Not so by St. Mary said the King you are become a Doctor able to Instruct us and not to be Instructed by us To which she answered That it seemed he had much mistaken the freedom she had taken to argue with him since she did it partly to engage him in discourse and so put over the time and make him forget his pain and partly to receive Instructions from him by which she had profited much And is it even so said the King then we are friends again So he embraced her with great affection and sent her away with very tender assurances of his constant Love to her But the next day had been appointed for carrying her and some of her Ladies to the Tower The day being fair the King went to take a little air in the Garden and sent for her to bear him company As they were together the Lord Chancellor came in having about forty of the Guard with him to have arrested the Queen But the King stept aside to him and after a little discourse he was heard to call him Knave Fool and Beast and he bade him get him out of his Sight The Innocent Queen who understood not that her danger was so near studied to mitigate the Kings displeasure and interceded for the Lord Chancellor But the King told her she had no reason to plead for him So this design miscarried which as it absolutely disheartned the Papists so it did totally alienate the King from them and in particular from the Bishop of Winchester whose sight he could never after this endure But he made an humble Submission to the King which though it preserved him from further punishment yet could not restore him to the Kings favour But the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey fell under a deeper Misfortune The Duke of Norfolk had been long Lord Treasurer of England He had done great services to the Crown on many signal Occasions and success had always accompanied him His Son the Earl of Surrey was also a brave and noble person Witty and Learned to an high degree but did not command Armies with such Success He was much provoked at the Earl of Hertfords being sent over to France in his room and upon that had said That within a little-while they should smart for it with some other expressions that savoured of Revenge and a dislike of the King and a hatred of the Counsellors The Duke of Norfolk had endeavoured to ally himself to the Earl of Hertford and to his Brother Sir Thomas Seimour perceiving how much they were in the Kings favour and how great an Interest they were like to have under the succeeding Prince And therefore would have engaged his Son being then a Widower to Marry that Earls Daughter And pressed his Daughter the Dutchess of Richmond Widow to the Kings Natural Son to Marry Sir Thomas Seimour But though the Earl of Surrey advised his Sister to the Marriage projected for her yet he would not consent to that designed for himself nor did the Proposition about his Sister take effect The Seimours could not but see the Enmity the Earl of Surrey bore them and they might well be jealous of the Greatness of that Family which was not only too big for a Subject of it self but was raised so high by the dependence of the whole Popish Party both at home and abroad that they were like to be very dangerous Competitors for the chief Government of Affairs if the King were once out of the way whose disease was now growing so fast upon him that he could not live many weeks Nor is it unlikely that they perswaded the King that if the Earl of Surrey should marry the Lady Mary it might embroil his Sons Government and perhaps ruine him And it was suggested That he had some such high project in his thoughts both by his continuing unmarried and by his using the Armes of Edward the Confessor which of late he had given in his Coat without a Diminution But to compleat the Duke of Norfolks ruin his Dutchess who had complained of his using her ill and had been separated from him about four years turned Informer against him His Son and Daughter were also in ill terms together So the Sister Informed all that she could against her Brother And one Mrs Holland for whom the Duke was believed to have an unlawful affection discovered all she knew but all amounted to no more than some passionate Expressions of the Son and some Complaints of the Father who thought he was not beloved by the King and his Councellors and that he was ill used in not being trusted with the secret of affairs And all persons being encouraged to bring Informations against them Sr. Richard Southwell charged the Earl of Surreâ— in some points that were of a higher nature which the Earl denied and desired to be admitted according to the Martial Law to fight in his shirt with Southwel But that not being granted he and his
questioned for Heresie But Cranmers carriage in this matter was suitable to the other parts of his Life for he withdrew to Croydon and would not so much as be present in Parliament when so unjust an Act was passed and his absence at this time was the more considerable since the King was so dangerously ill that it must be concluded it could be no slight Cause that made him withdraw at such a time But the Duke of Norfolk had been his constant Enemy therefore he would not so much as be near the publick Councils when so strange an Act was passing But at the same time the Bishop of Winchester was officiously hanging on in the Court and though he was forbid to come to Council yet always when the Councellors went into the Kings Bed-Chamber he went with them to the door to make the World believe he was still one of the number and staying at the door till the rest came out he returned with them But he was absolutely lost in the Kings Opinion There is but one other step of Forreign business in this Reign which was an Embassy sent over by the Duke of Saxony to let the King know of the League between the Pope and the Emperor for the Extirpation of Heresie And that the Emperor was making War on him and the other Princes in pursuance of that League Therefore he desired the Kings Assistance But at the same time the Emperor did by his Agents every-where disown that the War was made upon a Religious Account And said it was only to maintain the Rights of the Empire which those Princes had affronted So the King answered that as soon as it did appear to him that Religion was the cause of the War he would Assist them But that which made this so involved was That though at Rome the Pope declared it was a Holy War and ordered Prayers and Processions to be made for Success yet the Emperor in all his Declarations took no notice of Religion He had also divided the Protestant Party so that some of them joyned with him and others were Neutrals And when in Germany it self this matter was so little understood it was easie to abuse Strangers by giving them a wrong Account of it The King was now overgrown with corpulency and fatness so that he became more and more unwieldy He could not go up or down stairs but as he was raised up or let down by an Engine And an old sore in his Leg became very uneasie to him so that all the humors in his Body sinking down into his Leg he was much pained and became exceeding froward and intractable to which his inexcusable severity to the Duke of Norfolk and his Son may be in a great measure imputed His Servants durst scarce speak to him to put him in mind of his approaching end And an Act of Parliament which was made for the security of the Kings Life had some words in it against the Foretelling of his death which made every one afraid to speak to him of it lest he in his angry and imperious humors should have Ordered them to be Endicted upon that Statute But he felt nature declining apace and so made the Will that he had left behind him at his last going into France be written over again with â—his only difference That Gardiner Bishop of Winchester whom he had appointed one of the Executors of his Will and of the Councellors to his Son till he came of Age was now left out Of which when Sir Anthony Brown put the King in mind apprehending it was only an Omission he answered That he knew Gardiners temper well enough and though he could Govern him yet none of them would be able to do it and that he would give them much trouble And when Brown at another time repeated the motion to the King he told him if he spake more of that he would strike him out of his Will too The Will was said to be Signed the 30th of December It is Printed at large by Fuller and the most Material parts of it by Heylin So I need say little of it only the most signal Clause in it was That he excluded the Line of Scotland out of the Succession and preferred the two Daughters of the French Queen by Charles Brandon to them And this leads me to discover several things concerning this Will which have been hitherto unknown I draw them from a Letter written to Sir William Cecil then Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth afterwards Lord Burleigh by William Maitland of Leithingtoun Secretary of State to the Queen of Scotland This Maitland was accounted a man of the greatest parts of any in his Nation at that time though his Treachery in turning over to the Party that was against the Queen very much blemished his other Qualities but he expiated his fault by a real Repentance which appeared in his returning to his duty and losing all afterwards in her quarrel His Letter will be found in the Collection The Substance and design of it is to clear the Right his Mistress had to the Crown of England in case the Queen should die without Heirs of her Body Therein after he had answered other Objections he comes to this of the Will To it he says That according to the Act of Parliament the Kings Will was to be Signed with his own hand but this Will was only Signed by the Stamp Then the King never Ordered the Stamp to be put to it He had been oft desired to Sign it but had always put it off but when they saw his death approaching one William Clark servant to Thomas Hennage put the Stamp to it and some Gentlemen that were waiting without were called in to Sign it as Witnesses For this he appeal'd to the deposition of the Lord Paget and desired the Marquess of Winchester and Northampton the Earl of Pembroke Sir William Petre Sir Henry Nâ—vil Sir Maurice Berkley Sir Anthony Denny Doctor Buts and some others might be examined and that their Depositions might be entred in the Chancery He also appealed to the Original Will by which it would appear That it was not Signed but only Stamped and that not being according to the Act of Parliament which in such extraordinary things must be strictly taken the Will was of no force Thus it appears what vulgar Errors pass upon the World And though for seventy five years the Scotish Race has enjoyed the Crown of England and after so long a possession it is very superfluous to clear a Title which is universally acknowledged yet the Reader will not be ill pleased to see how ill-grounded that pretence was which some managed very seditiously during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth for excluding that Line But if this Will was not signed by the King other Grantâ— was certainly made by him on his death-bed one was to the City of London of 500 Marks a year for endowing an Hospital which was called Christs
that Commotion were severely handled It was by their means that the discontents were chiefly fomented they had taken all the Oaths that were enjoyned them and yet continued to be still practising against the State which as it was highly contrary to the peaceable Doctrines of the Christian Religion so it was in a special manner contrary to the Rules which they professed that obliged them to forsake the World and to follow a Religious and Spiritual course of Life The next Example of justice was a year after this of one Forrâ—st an Observant Frier he had been as Sanders says Confessor to Queen Katharine but it seems departed from her interests for he insinuated himself so into the King that he recovered his good Opinion Being an ignorant and lewd man he was accounted by the better sort of that House to which he belonged in Greenwich a Reproach to their Order concerning this I have seen a large account in an Original Letter written by a Brother of the same House Having regained the Kings good Opinion he put all those who had favoured the Divorce under great fears for he proceeded cruelly against them And one Rainscroft being suspected to have given secret Intelligence of what was done among them was shut up and so hardly used that he dyed in their hands which was as that Letter relates done by Frier Forrests means This Frier was found to have denyed the Kings Supremacy for though he himself had sworn it yet he had infused it into many in Confession that the King was not the Supream Head of the Church Being questioned for these practices which were so contrary to the Oath that he had taken he answered that he took that Oath with his outward man but his inward man had never consented to it Being brought to his Tryal and accused of several Heretical opinions that he held he submitted himself to the Church Upon this he had more freedom allowed him in the Prison but some coming to him diverted him from the Submission he had offered so that when the Paper of Abjuration was brought him he refused to set his hand to it upon which he was judged an Obstinate Heretick The Records of these Proceedings are lost but the Books of that time say that he denyed the Gospel it is like it was upon that pretence that without the determination of the Church it had no Authority upon which several writers of the Roman Communion have said undecent and scandalous things of the holy Scriptures He was brought to Smithfield where were present the Lords of the Council to offer him his pardon if he would abjure Latimer made a Sermon against his errors and studyed to perswade him to recant but he continued in his former opinions so he was put to death in a most severe manner He was hanged in a chain about his middle and the great Image that was brought out of Walâ—s was broken to pieces and served for fewel to burn him He shewed great unquietness of mind and ended his Life in an ungodly manner as Hall says who adds this Character of him that he had little knowledg of God and his sincere truth and less trust in him at his ending In Winter that year a correspondence was discovered with Cardinal Pole who was barefaced in his Treasonable designs against the King His Brother Sir Geofrey Pole discovered the whole Plot. For which the Marquess of Exceter that was the Kings Cousin-german by his Mother who was Edward the 4ths Daughter the Lord Montacute the Cardinals Brother Sir Geofrey Pole and Sir Edward Nevill were sent to the Tower in the beginning of November They were accused for having maintained a correspondence with the Cardinal and for expressing an hatred of the King with a dislike of his proceedings and a readiness to rise upon any good opportunity that might offer it self The special matter brought against the Lord Montacute and the Marquis of Excetâ—r who were tryed by their Peers on the 2d and 3d of December in the 30th year of this Reign is that whereas Cardinal Pole and others had cast off their Alleageance to the King and gone and submitted themselves to the Pope the Kings mortal enemy the Lord Montacute did on the 24th of Iuly in the 28th year of the Kings Reign a few months before the Rebellion broke out say that he liked well the proceedings of his Brother the Cardinal but did not like the proceedings of the Realm and said I trust to see a change of this World I trust to have a fair day upon those Knaves that rule about the King and I trust to see a merry World one day Words to the same purpose were also charged on the Marquess the Lord Montacute further said I would I were over the Sea with my Brother for this World will one day come to stripes it must needs so come to pass and I fear we shall lack nothing so much as honest men he also said he had dreamed that the King was dead and though he was not yet dead he would die suddenly one day his Leg will kill him and then we shall have jolly stirring saying also that he had never loved him from his childhood and that Cardinal Wolsey would have been an honest man if he had had an honest Master And the King having said to the Lords he woulâ—â—eave them one day having some apprehensions he might shortly die that Lord said if he will serve us so we shall be happily rid a time will come I fear we shall not tarry the time we shall do well enough He had also said he was sorry the Lord Abâ—rgâ—â—â—â—y was dead for he could have made ten thousand men and for his part he would go and live in the West where the Marquess of Excâ—ter was strong and had also said upon the breaking of the Northern Rebellion that the Lord Darcy played the fool for he went to pluck away the Council but he should have begun with the head first but I beshrew him for leaving off so soon These were the Words charged on those Lords as clear discoveries of their Treasonable designs and that they knew of the Rebellion that brake out and only intended to have kept it off to a fitter opportunity they were also accused of Correspondence with Cardinal Polâ— that was the Kings declared Enemy Upon these points the Lords pleaded not Guilty but were found Guilty by their Peers and so Judgment was given On the 4th of December were Indicted Sir Geofrey Polâ— for holding Correspondence with his Brother the Cardinal and saying that he approved of his proceedings but not of the Kings Sir Edâ—ard Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergaveny for saying the King was a Beast and worse than a Beast George Crofts Chancellor of the Cathedral of Chichester for saying the King was not bâ—t the Pope was Supream head of the Church and Iohn Collins for saying the King would hang in Hâ—ll one day for the plucking down of
Abbeys All those Sir Edward Nevill only excepted pleaded Guilty and so they were condemned but Sir Geofrey Pole was the only person of the number that was not Executed for he had discovered the matter At the same time also Cardinal Pole Michael Throgmorton Gentleman Iohn Hilliard and Thomas Goldwell Clerks and William Pâ—â—to a Franciscan of the Observance were Attainted in Absence because they had cast off their duty to the King and had subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome Pole being made Cardinal by him and for writing Treasonable Letters and sending them into England On the 4th of February following Sir Nicholas Carew that was both Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter was Arraigned for being an adherent to the Marquess of Exeter and having spoke of his Attaindor as unjust and cruel he was also Attainted and Executed upon the 3d of March When he was brought to the Scaffold he openly acknowledged the errors and superstition in which he had formerly lived and blessed God for his Imprisonment for he then began to relish the Life and sweetness of Gods holy Word which was brought him by his Keeper one Phillips who followed the Reformation and had formerly suffered for it After these Executions followed the Parliament in the year 15â—9 in which not only these Attaindors that were already passed were confirmed but new ones of a strange and unheard-of nature were Enacted It is a blemish never to be washed off and which cannot be enough condemned and was a breach of the most sacred and unalterable Rules of Justice which is capable of no excuse it was the Attainting of some persons whom they held in custody without bringing them to a Tryal Concerning which I shall add what the great Lord Chief Justice Cook writes although I question not the Power of the Parliament for without question the Attaindor stands of force in Law yet this I say of the manner of proceeding Aâ—ferat Oblivio si potest si non utrumque silentium tegat For the more high and absolute the Jurisdiction of the Court is the more just and honourable it ought to be in the proceedings and to give Example of Justice to inferior Courts The chief of these were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum The special matter charged on the former is her confederating her self to Sir Nicolas Carew in his Treasons to which is added that she had committed divers other abominable Treasons The latter is said to have confederated her self with her Son the Cardinal with other aggravating words It does not appear by the Journal that any Witnesses were examined only that day that the Bills were read the third time in the House of Lords Cromwell shewed them a Coat of white silk which the Lord Admiral had found among the Countess of Sarums Cloaths in which the Arms of England were wrought on the one side and the Standard that was carryed before the Rebels was on the other side This was brought as an evidence that she approved of the Rebellion Three Irish Priests were also Attainted for carrying Letters out of Ireland to the Pope and Cardinal Pole as also Sir Adrian Fortescue for endeavouring to raise Rebellion Thomas Dingley a Knight of St. Iohn of Ierusalem and Robert Granceter Merchant for going to several Forreign Princes and perswading them to make War upon the King and assist the Lords Darcy and Hussie in the Rebellion they had raised Two Gentlemen a Dominican Frier and a Yeoman were by the same Act Attainted for saying that that venemous Serpent the Bishop of Rome was Supream Head of the Church of England Another Gentleman two Priests and a Yeoman are Attainted for Treason in general no particular crime being specified Thus sixteen persons were in this manner Attainted and if there was any Examination of Witnesses for convicting them it was either in the Star-Chamber or before the Privy Council for there is no mention of any evidence that was brought in the Journals There was also much haste made in the passing this Bill it being brought in the 10th of May was read that day for the first and second time and the 11th of May for the third time The Commons kept it five days before they sent it back and added some more to those that were in the Bill at first but how many were named in the Bill Originally and how many were afterwards added cannot be known Fortescue and Dingley suffered the 10th of Iuly As for the Countess of Sarum the Lord Herbert saw in a Record that Bulls from the Pope were found in her House that she kept correspondence with her Son and that she forbade her Tenants to have the new Testament in English or any other of the Books that had been published by the Kings Authority She was then about seventy years of Age but shewed by the answers she made that she had a vigorous and masculine mind She was kept two years Prisoner in the Tower after the Act had passed the King by that reprieve designing to oblige her Son to a better behaviour but upon a fresh provocation by a new Rebellion in the North she was beheaded and in her the name and line of Plantagenet determined The Marchioness of Exceter died a natural death In November this year were the Abbots of Reading Glossenbury and Colechester Attainted of Treason of which mention was made formerly In the Parliament that sate in the year 1540 they went on to follow that strange precedent which they had made the former year By the 56th Act Giles Heron was Attainted of Treason no special matter being mentioned By the 57th Act Richard Fetherstoun Thomas Abell and Edward Pole Priests and William Horn a Yeoman were Attainted for denying the Kings Supremacy and adhering to the Bishop of Rome by the same Act the Wife of one Tirrell Esquire was Attainted for refusing her duty of Alleageance and denying Prince Edward to be Prince and heir of the Crown and one Laurence Cook of Doncaster was also Attainted for contriving the Kings death By the 58th Act Gregory Buttolph Adam Damplip and Edward Brindeholm Clerks and Clement Philpot Gentleman were Attainted for adhering to the Bishop of Rome for corresponding with Cardinal Pole and endeavouring to surprize the Town of Callais By the same Act Barnes Gerard and Ierome were Attainted of whose sufferings an account has been already given By the 59th Act William Bird a Priest and Chaplain to the Lord Hungerford was attainted for having said to one that was going to Assist the King against the Rebels in the North I am sorry thou goest seest thou not how the King plucketh down Images and Abbies every day and if the King go thither himself he will never come home again nor any of them all which go with him and in truth it were pity he should ever come home again and at another time upon ones saying O good Lord I ween all the World will be
correspondence with the King fell to the ground with her but he may well cite Cochleus an Author of the same honesty with himself from whose writings we may with the like security make a judgment of Forreign Matters as we may upon Sanders's testimony believe the account he gives of English Affairs 90. He tells us among other things done by the King and picks it out as the only instance he mentions of the King's Injunctions that the People should be taught in Churches the Lord's Prayer the Ave the Creed and the Ten Commandments in English It seems this Author thought the giving these Elements of Religion to the People in the vulgar Tongue a very heinous Crime when this is singled out from all the rest 91. That being done he says there was next a Book published called Articles appointed by the King's Majesty which were the six Articles This shews that he either had no information of English Affairs or was sleeping when he wrote this for the Six Articles were not published soon after the Injunctions as he makes it by the same Parliament and Convocation but three years after by another Parliament They were never put in a Book nor published in the King's Name they were Enacted in Parliament and are neither more nor less than 25 lines in the first Impression of that Act so far short come they of a Book 92. He reckons up very defectively the differences between the Church of Rome and the Doctrine set forth by the King's Authority but in one point he shews his ordinary wit for in the sixth particular he says He retained the Sacrament of Order but appointed a new Form of Consecrating of Bishops This he put in out of malice that he might annul the Ordinations of that time but the thing is false for except that the Bishops instead of their Oaths of Obedience to the Pope which they formerly swore did not swear to the King there was no other change made and that to be sure is no part of the Form of Consecration 93. He resolved once to speak what he thought was Truth tho it be treasonable and impious and says Upon these changes many in Lincolnshire and the Northern parts did rise for Religion and the Faith of Christ. This was indeed the motive by which their Seditious Priests misled them yet he is mistaken in the time for it was not after the six Articles were published but almost three years before it Nor was it for the Faith of Christ which teaches us to be humble subject and obedient but because the King was removing some of the corruptions of that Faith which their false Teachers did impiously call the Faith of Christ. 94. He says The King did promise most faithfully that all these things of which they complained should be amended This is so evidently false that it is plain Sanders resolved dextrously to avoid the speaking of any sort of Truth for the King did fully and formally tell them he would not be directed nor counselled by them in these Points they complained of and did only offer them an Amnesty for what was past 95. Then he reckons up 32 that died for the defence of the Faith They were attainted of Treason for being in actual Rebellion against the King and thus it appears that Rebellion was the Faith in his sense and himself died for it or rather in it having been starved to death in a Wood to which he fled after one of his rebellious Attempts on his Soveraign in which he was the Pope's Nuncio 96. He says The King killed the Earl of Kildare and five of his Uncles By this strange way of expressing a legal Attainder and the execution of a Sentence for manifest Treason and Rebellion he would insinuate on the Reader a fancy that one of Bonner's cruel fits had taken the King and that he had killed those with his own hand The Lord Herbert has fully opened that part of the History from the Records that he saw and shews that a more resolved Rebellion could not be than that was of which the Earl of Kildare and his Uncles were guilty But because they sent to the Pope and Emperor for assistance the Earl desiring to hold the Kingdom of Ireland of the Pope since the King by his Heresie had fallen from his Right to it Sanders must needs have a great kindness for their memory who thus suffered for his Faith 97. He says Queen Iane Seimour being in hard labour of Prince Edward the King ordered her Body to be so opened by Surgeons that she died soon after All this is false for she had a good Delivery as many Original Letters written by her Council that have been since printed do shew but she died two days after of a distemper incident to her Sex 98. He sets down some Passages of Cardinal Pole's Heroical Constancy which being proved by no Evidence and not being told by any other Writer whom I ever saw are to be lookt on as the flourishes of the Poet to set off his Hero 99. He would perswade the World that the Marquess of Exceter the Lord Montacute and the rest that suffered at that time died because they were believed to dislike the King 's wicked Proceedings and that the Countess of Sarum was beheaded on this single account that she was the Mother of such a Son and was sincerely addicted to the Catholick Faith and that she was condemned because she wrote to her Son and for wearing in her Breast the Picture of the five Wounds of Christ. The Marquess of Exceter pretended he was well satisfied with the King's Proceedings and was Lord Stewart when the Lords Darcy and Hussie were tried and he gave judgment against them But it being discovered that he and other Persons approved of Cardinal Pole's proceedings who endeavoured to engage all Christian Princes in a League against the King pursuant to which they had expressed themselves on several occasions resolved when a fit opportunity offered it self to rebel it was no wonder if the King proceeded against them according to Law And for the Countess of Sarum tho the legality of that Sentence passed against her cannot be defended yet she had given great offence not only by her correspondence with her Son but by the Bulls she had received from Rome and by her opposing the King's Injunctions hindring all her Tenants to read the New Testament or any other Books set out by the King's order And for the Picture which was found among her Cloaths it having been the Standard of the Rebellion and the Arms of England being found on the other side of it there was just ground to suspect an ill design in it 100. He says The Images which the King destroyed were by many wonderful Works of God recommended to the Devotion of the Nation All the wonder in these Works was the knavery of some jugling Impostors and the simplicity of a credulous multitude of