in the Latin tougue 12. That all such holy-dayes and fasting-dayes be observed and kept as were observed and kept in the latter time of King Henry the 8. h. 13. That the laudable and honest Ceremonies which were wont to be used frequented and observed in the Church be hereafter frequented used and observed and that children be Christned by the Priest and confirmed by the Bishop as heretoâ—â—â—e hath been accustoâ—ed and used 14. Touching such persons as were heretofore promoted to any Orders after the new sort and 〈◊〉 of Oâ—ders considering they were not Ordered in very deed the Bishop of the Diocesse finding otherwise sufficient ability in these men may supply that thing which wanted in them before then according to his discretion admit them to minister 15. That by the Bishop of the Diocesse an uniform doctrine be set forth by Homâ—lies or otherwise for the good instruction and teaching of all people And that the said Bishop and other persons aforesaid do compel the parishioners to come to their several Churches and there devoutly to hear divine Service as of reason they ought 16. That they examine all Schoolmasters and Teachers of children and finding them suspect in any wise to remove them and place Catholick men in their rooms with a special commandment to instruct their children so as they may be able to answer the Priest at the Masse and so help the Priest at Masse as hath been accustomed 17. That the said Bishops and all other the persons aforesaid have such regard respect and consideration of and for the setting forth of the premises with all kind of vertue godly living and good example with repressing also or keeping under of vicâ— and unthriftinesse as they and every of them may be seen to favour the restitution of 〈◊〉 Religion and also to make and honest account and reckoning of their office and câ—re to the honour of God Our good contentation and profit of this Our Realm and the Dominions of the same The generality of the people not being well pleased before with the Queen's proceedings were startled more than ever at the noise of these Articles none more exasperated than those whose either hands or hearts had been joyned with Wiat. But not being able to prevail by open army a new device is found out to befool the people and bring them to a misconceit of the present government A young maid called Elizabeth Crofts about the age of eighteen years was tutored to counterfeit certain speeches in the wall of a house not far from Aldersgate where she was heard of many but seen of none and that her voice might be conceived to have somewhat in it more than ordinary a strange whistle was devised for her out of which her words proceeded in such a tone as seemed to have nothing mortal in it And thereupon it was affirmed by some of the people great multitudes whereof resorted dayly to the place that it was an Angel or at least a voice from Heaven by others that it could be nothing but the Holy Ghost but generally she pass'd by the name of the Spirit in the wall For the interpreting of whose words there wanted not some of the confederates who mingled themselves by turns amongst the rest of the people and taking on them to expound what the Spirit said delivered many dangerous and seditious words against the Queen her mariage with the Prince of Spain the Mass Confession and the like The practice was first set on foot on the 14th of March which was within ten days after the publishing of the Articles and for a while it went on fortunately enough according to the purpose of the chief contrivers But the abuse being searched into and the plot discovered the wench was ordered to stand upon a scaffold neer St Paul's Cross on the 15th of July there to abide during the time of the Sermon and that being done to make a publick declaration of that lewd imposture Let not the Papists be from henceforth charged with Elizabeth Barton whom they called the Holy made of Kent since now the Zuinglian Gospellers for I cannot but consider this as a plot of theirs have raised up their Elizabeth Crofts whom they called the Spirit in the wall to draw aside the people from their due Allegiance Wiat's Rebellion being quenched and the Realm in a condition capable of holding a Parliament the Queen Convenes her Lords and Commons on the 2d of April in which Session the Queens mariage with the Prince of Spain being offered unto consideration was finally concluded and agreed unto upon these conditions that is to say That Philip should not advance any to any publick office or dignity in England but such as were Natives of the Realm and the Queens subjects That he should admit of a set number of English in his houshold whom he should use respectively and not suffer them to be injured by foreiners That he should not transport the Queen out of England but at her intreaty nor any of the issue begotten by her who should have their education in this Realm and should not be suffered but upon necessity and good reasons to go out of the same not then neither but with the consent of the English That the Queen deceasing without children Philip should not make any claim to the Kingdom but should leave it freely to him to whom of right it should belong That he should not change any thing in the Lawes either publick or private nor the immunities and customes of the Realm but should be bound by oath to confirm and keep them That he should not transport any Jewels nor any part of the Wardrobe nor alienate any of the revenues of the Crown That he should preserve our Shipping Ordnance and Muâ—ition and keep the Castles Forts and Block Houses in good repair and well maned Lastly That this Match should not any way derogate from the League lately concluded between the Queen and the King of France but that the peace between the English and the French should remain firm and inviolate For the clearer carrying on this great business and to encourage them for the performance of such further services as her occasions might require the Queen was pleased to increase the number of her Barons In pursuance whereof she advanced the Lord William Howard Cosen German to Thomas Duke of Norfolk to the Title of Lord Howard of Essingham on the 11th of March and elected him into the Order of the Garter within few months after whose son called Charls being Lord Admiral of England and of no small renown for his success at the Isle of Gades was by Queen Elizabeth created Earl of Nottingham Anno 1589. Next to him followed Sir John Williams created Lord Williams of Tame on the 5th of April who dying without Issue Male left his Estate though not his Honors betwixt two daughters the eldest of whom called Margaret was married to Sir Henry Norris whom Queen Elizabeth created Lord Norris of
towards London where he was Proclaimed King with all due Solemnities He made his Royal Entry into the Tower on the last of January Into which He was conducted by Sir John Gage as the Constable of it and there received by all the Lords of the Council who with great Duty and Affection did attend His comings and waiting on Him into the Chamber of Presence did very chearfully swear Allegiance to him The next day by the general consent of all the Council the Earl of Hartford the King's Uncle was chosen Governour of His Person and Protectour of His Kingdomes till He should come unto the Age of eighteen years and was Proclaimed for such in all parts of London Esteemed most fit for this high Office in regard that he was the King's Uncle by the Mothers side very near unto Him in Blood but yet of no capacity to succeed in the Crown by reason whereof his Natural Affâ—ction and Duty was less easie to be over-carried by Ambition Upon which Gâ—ound of civil Prudence it was both piously and prudently Ordained by Solon in the State of Athens That no man should be made the Guardian unto any Orphan to whom the Inheritance might fall by the Death of his Ward For the first Handselling of his Office he Knighted the young King on the sixth of February Who being now in a capacity of conferring that Order bestowed it first on Henry Hoble-Thorn Lord Mayor of London and presently after on Mr. William Portman one of the Justices of the Bench being both dubbed with the same Sword with which He had received the Order of Knighthood at the hands of His Vncle. These first Solemnities being thus passed over the next care was for the Interment of the Old King and the Coronation of the New In order to which last it was thought expedient to advance some Confidents and Principal Ministers of State to higher Dignities and Titles then before they had the better to oblige them to a care of the State the safety of the King's Person and the preservation of the Power of the Lord Protectour who chiefly moved in the Design Yet so far did self-Interest prevail above all other Obligations and tyes of State that some of these men thus advanced proved his greatest Enemies the rest forsaking him when he had most need to make use of their Friendship In the first place having resigned the Office of Lord High Chamberlain he caused himself to be created Lord Seimour and Duke of Somerset Which last Title â—ppâ—rtaining to the King's Progenitours of the House of Lancaster and since the expiring of the Beauforts conferred on none but Henry the Natural Son of the King decealed was afterwards charged upon him as an Argument of his aspiring to the Crown which past all doubt he never aimed at His own turn being thus unhappily served the Lord William Parr Brother of Queen Katherinâ— Parr the Relict of the King deceased who formerly in the thirty fifth of the said King's Reign had been created Earl of Essex with reference to Ann his Wife Daughter and Heir of Henry Bâ—urchier the last Earl of Essex of that House was now made Marquess of Northampton in reference to her Extraction from the Bohunes once the Earls thereof John Dudly Viscount L'isle and Knight of the Garter having resigned his Office of Lord Admiral to gâ—â—tifie the Lord Protectour who desired to confer that place of Power and Trust on his younger Brother was in Exchange created Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Warwick Which Title he affected in regard of his Discent from the Beauchamps who for long time had worn that Honour from whom he also did derive the Title of Viscount L'isle as being the Son of Edmond Sutton alias Dudley and of Elizabeth his Wife Sister and Heir of John Gray Viscount L'isle discended by the Lord John Talbot Viscount L'isle from Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Dame Elizabeth hisâ— Wife the direct Heir of Waren Lord L'isle the last of the Male Issue of that Noble Family In the next place comes Sir Thomas Wriothsley a man of a very new Nobility as being Son of William Wriothsley and Grand-Child of John Wriothsley both of them in their Times advanced no higher then to the Office of an Herald the Father by the Title of York the Grand-father by that of Garter King at Arms. But this man being planted in a warmer Sun grew up so fast in the esteem of King Henry the Eight that he was first made Principal Secretary afterwards created Baron of Tichfield advanced not long after to the Office of Lord Chancellour And finally by the said King installed Knight of the Garter An. 1545. For an addition to which Honours he was now dignified with the Title of the Earl of South-hampton enjoyed to this day by his Posterity These men being thus advanced to the highest Titles Sir Thomas Seimour the new Lord Admiral is Honoured with the Stile of Lord Seimour of Sudeley and in the beginning of the next year made Knight of the Garter prepared by this accumulation of Honours for his following Marriage which he had now projected and soon after compassed With no less Ceremony though not upon such lofty Aims Sir Richard Rich another of the twelve which were appointed for Subsidiaries to the great Council of Estate by the King deceased was prefered unto the Dignity of Lord Rich of Leez in Essex the Grand-father of that Robert Lord Rich who by King James was dignified with the Title of Earl of Warwick Anno 1618. In the third place came Sir William Willoughby discended from a younger Branch of the House of Eresby created Lord Willoughby of Parham in the County of Sussex And in the Rear Sir Edmond Sheffield advanced unto the Title of Lord Sheffield of Butterwick in the County of Lincoln from whom the Earls of Moulgrave do derive themselves All which Creations were performed with the accustomed Solemnities on the seventeenth of February and all given out to be designed by King Henry before his death the better to take off the Envy from the Lord Protectour whom otherwise all understanding people must needs have thought to be too prodigal of those Honours of which the greatest Kings of England had been so sparing For when great Honours are conferred on persons of no great Estates it raiseth commonly a suspicion amongst the people That either some proportionable Revenue must be given them also to the impoverishing of the King or else some way left open for them to enrich themselves out of the purses of the Subject These Preparations being dispatched they next proceed unto the Coronation of the King performed with the accustomed Rites on the twentieth of the same Moneth by Arch-Bishop Cranmer The Form whereof we finde exemplified in a Book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury in the year 1610. In which there is nothing more observable then this following Passage The King saith he being brought
to the great Troubles in the Court began in the Destruction of the Duke of Sommerset but ending in the untimely death of this Hopeful King so signified as it was thought upon the Post-Fact by two strange Presages within the compass of this year and one which followed in the next The first of this year was a great and terrible Earthquake which happened on the twenty fifth of May at Croydon and some other Villages thereabouts in the County of Surrey This was conceived to have Prognosticated those Concussions which afterwards happened â—n the Court to the fall of the Great Duke of Sommerset and divers Gentlemen of Note and Quality who perished in the same ruin with him The last was of six Dolphins taken up in the Thames three of them at Queen Borough and three near Grenwich the least as big as any Horse The Rarity whereof occasioned some Grave men to dispence with their Prudence and some Great Persons also to put off their State that they might behold a Spectacle so unusual to them Their coming up so far beheld by Mariners as a Presage of foul weather at Sea but afterwards by States-Men of those Storms and Tempests which afterwards befell this Nation in the Death of King Edward and the Tempestuous Times of Queen Marie's Reign But the most sad Presage of all was the Breaking out of a Disease called the Sweating Sickness appearing first at Shrewsbury on the fifteenth of April and after spreading by degrees over all the Kingdom ending its Progress in the North about the beginning of October Described by a very Learned Man to be a new strange and violent Disease wherewith if any man were attached he dyed or escaped within nine hours of ten at most if he slept as most men desired to do he dyed within six hours if he took cold he dyed in three It was observed to Rage chiefly amongst men of strongest Constitution and years few aged Men or Women or young Children being either subject to it or dying of it Of which last sort those of most Eminent Rank were two of the Sons of Chaâ—ls Brandon both dying at Cambridg both Dukes of Suffolk as their Father had been before but the youngest following his dead Brother so close at the Heels that he onely out-lived him long enough to enjoy that Title And that which was yet most strange of all no Foreigner which was then in England four hundred French attending here in the Hottest of it on that King's Ambassadours did perish by it The English being singled out tainted and dying of it in all other Countries without any danger to the Natives called therefore in most Latine Writers by the name of Sudor Anglicus or The English Sweat First known amongst us in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh and then beheld as a Presage of that troublesom and Laborious Reign which after followed the King being for the most part in continual Action and the Subjects either sweating out their Blood or Treasure Not then so violent and extreme as it was at the present such infinite Multitudes being at this time swept away by it that there died eight hundred in one week in London onely These being looked on as Presages we will next take a view of those sad Events which were supposed to be prognosticated by them beginning first with the Concussions of the Court by open Factions and ending in a Sweating Sickness which drew out some of the best Blood and most Vital Spirits of the Kingdom The Factions Headed by the Duke of Sommerset and the Earl of Warwick whose reconciliation on the Earl's part was but feigned and counterfeit though he had both given and taken Pledges for a faster Friendship The good success he found in his first attempt against the Duke when he degraded him from the Office of Lord Protectour emboldened him to make some further trial of his Fortune to which there could not be a stronger Temptation then the Servility of some Great Men about the Court in prostituting their affection to his Pride and Tyranny Grown absolute in the Court but more by the weakness of others then any virtue of his own he thought it no impossible matter to make that Weakness an improvement of his strength and Power And passing from one Imagination to another he fixed at last upon a Fancy of transferring the Imperial Crown of this Realm from the Royal Family of the Tudors unto that of the Dudlies This to be done by Marrying one of his Sons to the Lady Jane the eldest Daughter of Henry Lord Marquess Dorset and of the Lady Francis his Wife one of the Daughters and co-Heirs of Charls Brandon the late Duke of Suffolk by Mary Dowager of France and the beâ—t-beloved Sister of King Henry the Eighth In order whereunto he must first oblige the Marquess by some signal favour advance himself to such a Greatness as might render any of his Sons an agreeable match for either of the Marquess's Daughters and finally devise some means by which the Duke of Sommerset might be took out of the way whose life he looked on as the principal Obstacle to his great Aspirings By this Design he should not onely satisfie his Ambition but also sacrifice to Revenge The Execution of his Father in the first year of the Reign of the late King Henry would not out of his mind and by this means he might have opportunity to execute his just vengeance on the King's Posterity for the unjust Murther as he esteem'd it of his innocent Father Confirmed in these Resolves by Sir John Gates Lieutenant of the Band of Pensioners who was reported afterwards to have put this Plot into his Head at the first as he stood to him in the prosecution of it to the very last The Privy Council of his own thoughts having thus advised the Privy Council of the King was in the next place to be made sure to him either obliged by Favours or gained by Flatteries those of most Power to be most Courted through a smooth Countenance fair Language and other thriving Acts of insinuation to be made to all Of the Lord Treasurer Paulet he was sure enough whom he had found to have so much of the Willow in him that he could bend him how he pleased And being sure of him he thought himself as sure of the Publick Treasure as if it were in his own Pockets The Marquess of North-hampton was Captain of the Band of Pensioners encreased in Power though not in Place by ranging under his Command as well the Light-Horse as the Men at Arms which had served at Bulloign With him the Earl had peeced before drew him into his first Design for bringing down the Lord Protectour to a lower Level but made him faster then before by doing so many good Offices to Sir William Herbert who had Married his Sister Which Herbert being son of Richard Herbert of Ewias one of the Bastards of William Lord Herbert of Ragland the first
Her Reign but of nine Days and no more Her Life not twice so many years as She Reigned days Such was the end of all the Projects of the two great Dukes for Her Advancement to the Crown and their own in Hers. To which as She was raised without any Blows so She might have been deposed without any Blows if the Ax had not been more cruel on the Scaffold then the Sword in the Field The Sword had never been unsheathed but when the Scaffold was once Erected and the Ax once sharpened there followed so many Executions after one another till the Death of that Queen that as Her Reign began in the Blood of those who took upon them the Puâ—suit of this Lady's Title so was it stained more fouly in the Blood of 〈◊〉 as were Maâ—tyred in all parts for Her Religion To the Relation of which 〈◊〉 Deaths and Martyrdoms and other the Calamities of that Tragical and unpâ—â—â—perous Reign we must next proceed The Parentage Birth and first Fortunes of the Princesse ELIZABETH The second Daughter of King Henry the Eighth before her coming to the CROWN With a true Narrative of the first Loves of King Henry the Eighth to Queen Anne Bollen The Reasons of his alienating of his first affections and the true causes of her woful and calamitous death ELIZABETH the youngest daughter of King Henry the 8th was born at Greenwich on the 7th of September being the Eve of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary 1533. begotten on the body of Queen Anne Bollen the eldest daughter of Thomas Bollen Earl of Wiltshire and of Elâ—zabeth his wife one of the daughters of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England The Family of the Bollens before this time neither great nor antient but highly raised in reputation by the marriage of the Lady Anne and the subsequent birth of Queen Elizabeth the first rise thereof comming out of the City in the person of Sir Geofrey Bollen Lord Mayor of London Anno 1457. which Geofrey being son of one Geofrey Bollen of Sulle in Norfolk was father of Sir William Bollen of Blickling in the said County who took to wife the Lady Margaret daughter and one of the heirs of Thomas Butler Earl of Ormond brother and heir of James Butler Earl of Wiltshire Of this marriage came Sir Thomas Bollen above mentioned imployed in several Embassies by King Henry the Eighth to whom he was Treasurer of the Houshold and by that name enrolled amongst the Knights of the Garter Anno 1523. advanced about two years after being the seventeenth of that King to the style and title of Viscount Rochfort and finally in reference to his mothers extraction created Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond 1529. But dying without issue male surviving the title of Ormond was restored to the next heir male of the Butlers in Ireland and that of Wiltshire given by King Edward the 6th to Sir William Paules being then great Master of the Houshold And as for that of Viscount Rochfort it lay dormant after his decease till the 6th of July Anno 1621. when conferred by King James on Henry Cary Lord Hunsâ—on the son of John and Grandchild of Henry Cary whom Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her Reign made Lord Cary of Hunsdon he being the son and heir of Sir William Cary one of the Esquires of the body to King Henry the 8th by the Lady Mary Bâ—llen his wife the youngest daughter and one of the Coheirs of the said Thomas Bollen Viscount Rochfort and Earl of Wiltshire Such being the estate of that Family which became afterwards so fortunate in the production of this Princess to the Realm of England we must in the next place enquire more particularly into the life and story of Queen Anne her Mother Who in her tender years attending on Mary the French Queen to the Court of France was by her Father after the return of the said Queen placed in the retinue of the Dutchess of Alanzone the beloved sister of King Francis where she not only learnt the language but made her self an exact Mistriss both of the Gaities and Garb of the great French Ladies She carried such a stock of natural graces as render'd her superlatively the most admired beauty in the Court of France and returned thence with all those advantages which the civilities of France could add to an English beauty For so it hapned that her Father being sent with Sir Anthony Brown Anno 1527. to take the oath of the French King to a solemn league not long before concluded betwixt the Crowns resolved to bring back his daughter with him to see what fortunes God would send her in the Court of England Where being Treasurer of the houshold it was no hard matter for him to prefer her to Queen Katherines service on whom she waited in the nature of a Maid of Honour which gave the King the opportunity of taking more than ordinary notice of her parts and person Nor was it long before the excellency of her beauty adorned with such a gracefulness of behaviour appeared before his eyes with so many charms that not able to resist the assaults of Love he gave himself over to be governed by those affections which he found himself unable to Master But he found no such easie task of it as he had done before in bringing Mrs Elizabeth Blunt and others to be the subjects of his lusts all his temptations being repelled by this vertuous Lady like arrows shot in vain at a rock of Adamants She was not to be told of the Kings loose love to several Ladies and knew that nothing could be gained by yielding unto such desires but contempt and infamy though for a while disguised and palliated by the plausible name and Courtly Title of a Princes Mistriss The humble and modest opposition of the Lady Gray to the inordinate affections of King Edward the 4th advanced her to his bed as a lawful wife which otherwise she had been possessed of by no better title than that of Jane Shore and his other Concubines By whose example Mistriss Bollâ—n is resolved to steer her courses and not to yield him any further favours than what the honour of a Lady and the modesty of a virgin might inoffensively permit to so great a King But so it chanced that before her coming back from the Court of France the King began to be touched in conscience about his marriage with the Queen upon occasion of some doubts which had been cast in the way both by the Ministers of the Emperour and the French King as touching the legitimation of his daughter Mary Which doubts being started at a time when he stood on no good terms with the Emperour and was upon the point of breaking with him was secretly fomented by such of the Court as had advanced the party of Francis and sought alwaies to alienate him from the friendship of Charles Amongst which none more forward than Cardinal Wolsie who
no Sermon was preached at St. Paul's Cross or any publick place in London till the Easter following At what time the Sermons which were to be preached in the Spittle according to the antient custom were performed by Doctor Bill the Almoner to the Queen and afterwards the first Dean of Westminster of the Queens foundation Doctor Richard Cox formerly Dean of Westminster preferred in short time after to the See of Ely and Mr. Robert Horn of whom mention hath been made before at the troubles of Franckfort advanced not long after to the See of Winchester The Rehearsal Sermon accustomably preached at St. Pauls Crosse on the Sunday following was undertook by Doctor Thomas Sampson then newly returned from beyond the Seas and after most unhappily made Dean of Christ-church But so it chanced that when he was to go into the Pulpit the dore was locked and the key thereof not to be found so that a Smith was sent for to break open the dore and that being done the like necessity was found of cleansing and making sweet the place which by a long disuse had contracted so much filth and nastiness as rendred it unfit for another Preacher By the other Proclamation which was published on the 30th of December â—t was enjoyned That no man of what quality or degree soever should presume to alter any thing in the state of Religion or innovate in any of the rites and ceremonies thereunto belonging but that all such rites and ceremonies should be observed in all Parish Churches of the Kingdom as were then used and retained in her Majesties Chapel until some further order should be taken in it Onely it was permitted and withall required that the Letany the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should be said in the English tongue and that the Epistle and the Gospel at the time of the High Mass should be read in English which was accordingly done in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after being New-years day and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom also Further than this she thought it not convenient to proceed at the present but that she had commanded the Priest or Bishop for some say it was the one and some the other who officiated at the Altar in the Chapel-Royal not to make any Elevation of the Sacrament the better to prevent that adoration which was given unto it and which she could not suffer to be done in her sight without a most apparent wrong to her judgment and conscience Which being made known in other places and all other Churches being commanded to conform themselves to the example of the Chapel the elevation was forborn also in most other places to the great discontent and trouble of the Popish party And though there was no further progress toward a Reformation by any publick Act or Edict yet secretly a Reformation in the form of Worship and consequently in point of Doctrine was both intended and projected For making none acquainted with her secret purposes but the Lord Marquis of Northampton Francis Earl of Bedford Sir John Gray of Pergo one of the late Duke of Suffolk's brothers and Sir William Cecil she committed the reviewing of the former Litutgy to the care of Doctor Parker Doctor Gryndal Doctor Cox Doctor Pilkington Doctor Bill Doctor May and Mr. Whitehead together with Sir Thomas Smith Doctor of the Laws a very learned moderate and judicious Gentleman But what they did and what preferments they attained to on the doing of it we shall see anon wheu we shall find the Book reviewed confirmed by Act of Parliament and executed in all parts of the Kingdom as that Act required But first some publick Acts of State and great Solemnities of Court are to be performed The Funeral of the Queen deceased solemnised on the 13th of December at the Abbey of Westminster and the Sermon preached by Doctor White then Bishop of Winchester seemed onely as a preamble to the like Solemnity performed at the said place about ten days after in the Obsequies of Charls the 5th which mighty Emperor having first left the world by resigning his Kingdoms and retiring himself into a Monastery as before was said did after leave his life also in September last and now upon the 24th of this present December a solemn Obsequie was kept for him in the wonted form a rich Hearse being set up for him in the Church of Westminster magnificently covered with a Pall of gold his own Embassador serving as the principal Mourner and all the great Lords and Officers about the Court attending on the same in their rancks and orders And yet both these though stately and majestical in their several kinds came infinitely short of those Pomps and Triumphs which were prepared and reserved for the Coronation As a Preparation whereunto she passed from Westminster to the Tower on the 12th of January attended by the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and other Citizens in their Barges with the Banners and Escutcheons of their several Companies loud Musick sounding all the way and the next day she restored some unto their old and advanced others to new honors according to her own fancy and their deservings The Marquis of Northampton who had lain under an Attaindure ever since the first beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary she restored in blood with all his Titles and Estates The Lord Edward Seimer eldest son to the late Duke of Somerset was by her reconfirmed in the Titles of Viscount Beaâ—châ—mp and Earl of Hertford which had been formerly entayled upon him by Act of Parliament The Lord Thomas Howard second son of Thomas the late Duke of Norfolk and brother to Henry Earl of Surrey beheaded in the last days of King Henry the Eighth she advanced to the Title of Viscount Howard of Bindâ—n She also preferred Sir Oliver St. Johns who derived himself from the Lady Maâ—garet daughter of John Duke of Somerset from whom the Queen her self descended to the dignity of Lord St. John of Bletso and Sir Henry Carte son of Sir William Carie Knight and of Mary Bollen his wife the onely sister of Queen Anne Bollen she promoted to the honor and degree of Lord Carie of Hansdon The ordinary acts of grace and favour being thus dispatched she prepares the next morning for a triumphant passage through London to her Palace at Westminster But first before she takes her Chariot she is said to have lifted up her eyes to heaven and to have used some words to this or the like effect O Lord Almigâ—â—y and everâ—iving 〈◊〉 I give thee most hearty thanks that thou hast been so mercifu unto me as to spare me to see this joyful day And I acknowledge that thou hast dealt as wonderfully and aâ— mercifully with me as thou didst with thy true and faithful servant Daniel thy Prophet whom thou deliveredst out of the den from the cruelty of the raging greedy Lyons even so was I overwhelmed and only by
men that the danger might have proved far greater the disease incurable For so it hapned that the Carews conceiving that the deferring of the execution of the plot thus laid might prove destructive to that cause or otherwise fatally thrust on by their own ill destiny began to leavy men in Cornwal which could not be so closely carried but that their purpose was discovered and the chief of them forced to flye the Kingdom The news whereof gave such an allarum to the confederates that they shewed themselves in several places before the people were prepared and made ready for them Insomuch that the Duke of Suffolk together with the Lord Thomas Gray and the Lord Leonard Gray having made Proclamation in divers places on the 25th of that month against the Queens intended mariage with the Prince of Spain and finding that the people came not in so fast unto them as they did expect were forced to dismiss their slender company and shift for themselves upon the first news that the Earl of Huntington was coming toward them with 300 horse An action very unfortunate to himself and to all his family For first The Queen finding that she was to expect no peace or quiet as long as the Lady Jane was suffered to remain alive caused her and the Lord Guilford Dudley to be openly executed on the 12th of February then next following His daughter Katherineâ—ormerly â—ormerly maried to Henry Lord Herbert eldest son to the Earl of Pembrook but the mariage by reason of her tender years not coming unto a Consummation by carnal knowlege was by him repudiated and cast off and a mariage presently made betwixt him and another Katherine a daughter of George Earl of Shrewsbury His brothers John and Thomas committed prisoners to the Tower of which two Thomas suffered death about two months after And for himself being compelled to hide his head in the house of one Underwood whom he had preferred unto the keeping of one of his Parks he was by him most basely and treacherously betrayed to the said Earl of Huntington on the 11th of February Arrained on the 17th of the same month and beheaded on the 23d Nor fared it better with the rest though they of Kent conducted by Sir Thomas Wiat the chief contriver of the plot were suddenly grown considerable for their number and quickly formidable for their power The newes of whose rising being swiftly posted to the Court the Duke of Norfolk was appointed to go against him attended with few more than the Queen 's ordinary Guards and followed by 500 Londoners newly raised and sent by water to Graves End under the charge of Captain Alexander Bret. With which few forces he intended to assault the Rebels who had put themselves into Rochester Castle and fortified the bridge with some pieces of Canon But being ready to fall on Bret with his Londoners fell off to Wiat and so necessitated the old Duke to return to London in great haste accompanied by the Earl of Arundel and Sir Henry Gerningham with some few of their horse leaving their foot eight pieces of Canon and all their ammunition belonging to them in the power of the enemy This brings the Queen to the Guild Hall in London on the first of February where she finds the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and many of the chief Citizens in their several Liveries To whom she signified That she never did intend to marry but on such conditions as in the judgement of her Council should be found honourable to the Realm and profitable ble to her subjects that therefore they should give no credit to those many calumnies which Wiat and his accomplices who according to the guise of Rebels had purposely dispersed to defame both her and her government but rather that they should contribute their best assistance for the suppressing of those who contrary to their duty were in arms against her And though she had as good as she brought that is to say fair promises for her gracious words yet understanding that many in the City held intelligence with the Kentish Rebels she appointed the Lord William Howard whom afterwards she created Lord Howard of Effingham to be Lieutenant of the City and Pembrook General of the field The event shewed that she followed that Counsel which proved best for her preservation For had she trusted to the City she had been betrayed Incouraged with his success and confident of a strong party amongst the Londâ—ners on the 3d. day of February he entreth Southwark where he and his were finely feasted by the people But when he hoped to have found the way open to the rest of the City he found the draw-Bridge to be cut down the bridge-Gate to be shut and the Ordinance of the Tower to be bent against him by the appointment and direction of the Lord Lieutenant Two dayes he trifled out in Southwark to no purpose at all more than the sacking of Winchester House and the defacing of the Bishops Library there unless it were to leave a document to posterity that God infatuates the Counsels of those wretched men who traiterously take up arms against their Princes And having liberally bestowed these two dayes upon the Queen the better to enable her to provide for her safety he wheels about on Sunday the 6th of the same month to Kingston bridge And though the bridge was broken down before his coming and that the opposite shore was guarded by 200. men yet did he use such diligence that he removed away those forces repaired the bridge past over both his men and Canon and might in probability have surprised both the Court and City in the dead of the night if the same spirit of infatuation had not rested on him For having marched beyond Brainford in the way towards London without giving or taking the allarum it hapned that one of his great piecs was dismounted by the breach of its wheels In the mending and mounting whereof he obstinately wasted so much time notwithstanding all the perswasions which his friends could make unto him that many of his men slipped from him and some gave notice to the Court not only of his near approach but also what his purpose was and what had hindred him from putting it in execution On this Advertisment the Earl of Pembrook arms and draws out his men to attend the motion of the Rebels who about 10 of the clock came to Chearing Cross and without falling on the Court which was then in a very great amazement turn up the Sâ—rand to Temple Bar and so toward Ludgate the Earl of Pembrook following and cutting him off in the arreir upon every turn Coming to London when it was too late for his intendments he found the Gates fast shut against him and the Lord William Howard in as great a readiness to oppose him there as when he was before in Southwark So that being hemmed in on both sides without hope of relief he yields himself to Sir Morris Berkley is
Queens Progenitours but that we may the better understand the State of that Family which was to Act so great a part on the Stage of England Know then that Queen Jane Seimour was Daughter of S. John Seimour of Wolf-Hall in the County of Wilts Descended from that William de S. Mauro contractedly afterwards called Seimour who by the Aide of Gilbert Lord Mareshall Earle of Pembrooke recovered Wendy aud Penhow now parts of Monmouth shire from the hands of the Welsh Anno. 1240. being the two and twentieth yeare of King Henry the thirds Reign which William as he descended lineally from the 〈…〉 d' Sancto Mauro whose name we find in the Roll of Battle Abbey amongst those Noble Families which came in with the Conquerour so was he one of the Progenitours of that S. Roger S. Maur or Seimour Knight who marryed one of the daughters and Heires of John Beauchamp of Hach a right Noble Baron who brought his Pedigree from Sybill one of the five daughters and Heires of William Mareshall the famous and most puissant Earle of Pembrooke married to William de Herrares Earle of Herrars and Darby as also from Hugh d' Vivon and William Mallet men in times past most Renowned for Estate and Chivalry which goodly Patrimony was afterwards very much augmented by the mariage of one of this Noble Family with the Daughter and Heire of the Esturmies Lords of Wolf-Hall not far from Marleborough in the County of Wilts who bare for Armes Argent 3. Dâ—mie Lions Gules And from the time of King Henry the second were by right of inheritance the Bayliffes and Guardians of the Forrest of Sarernaâ—k lying hard by which is of great note for plenty of Good Game and for a kind of Ferne there that yieldeth a most pleasant savour In remembrance whereof their Hunters Horne of a mighty bigness and tipt with silver is kept by the Earles of Hartford unto this day as a Monument of their Descent from such Noble Ancestors Out of which house came Sir John Seimour of Wolfe-Hall the Father of this Excellent Queen as also of three sons Edward Henry and Thomas of which we shall speak somewhat severally in the way of Preamble the first and last being Principal Actors on the Publique Theatre of King Edwards Reigne And first Sir Edward Seymour the Eldest son received the Order of Knighthood at the hands of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and brother in law to King Henry the Eighth In the fifteenth yeare of whose Reign he Commanded a Right puissant Army in a War with France where he took the Town of Mont Dedier and other pieces of Importance On this foundation he began the rise of his following Fortunes exceedingly improved by the Mariage of the King with his only sister from whom on Tuesday in Whitson week Anno 1536. he received the Title of Viscount Beauchamp with reference to his Descent from the Lord John Beauchamp above mentioned and on the eighteenth of October in the yeare next following he was created Earle of Hartford A man obierved by Sir John Haywood in his History of K. Edward the sixth to be of little esteem for Wisdom Personage or Courage in Armes but found withall not onely to be very faithfull but exceeding fortunate as long as he served under the more Powerfull Plannet of King Henry the eighth About five yeares before the end of whose Reign He being then Warden of the Marches against Scotland the invasion of K. James the fifth was by his direction encountred and broken at Solâ—me Mosse where divers of the Scottish Nobility were taken Prisoners In the next yeare after accompanied with Sir John Dudly Viscount Lisle Created afterwards Earle of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland by king Edward the sixth with a handfull of men he fired Lieth and Edinborough and returned by a leisurely March 44. miles thorough the body of Scotlanâ— And in the year following he invaded the Scottish Borders wasted Tive dale and the Marches defacing all those Parts with spoyle and ruine As fortunate in his undertakings against the French as against the Scoâ—s for being appointed by the King to view the Fortifications upon the Marches of Callice he did not onely perform that service to the Kings contentment but with the hardy approach of 7000. English men raised an Army of 21000. French Encamped over the River before Bolloine won their Ordinance Carriage Treasure aâ—d Tents with the loss only of one man winning in his return from thence the Caâ—tle of Ouling commonly called the Red Pile within shot and rescue of the Town of Ardes And finally in the yeare ensuing being the last of that Kings Reign he began the Fortresses of New Haven Blackness and Bullingberg in which he plyed his worke so well that before his departure from those places he had made them tenable Such were hâ—s Actings in the time of King Henry the Eighth against whose Powerfull Genius there was no withstanding In all whose time he never rose to any haughtiness in himselfe or contempt of others but still remained curteous and affable towards all choosing a course least subject to envy between stâ—ffe stubbornness and servile flattery without aspiring any further then to hold a second place in the Kings good Grace But being left unto himself and either overwhelmed by the Greatness of that Authority which was cast upon him in the Minority of King Edward or undermined by the practises of his cunning and malicious Enemies he suddenly became according to the usuall Disports of Fortune a calamitous ruine as being in himselfe of an easie nature apt to be wrought upon by more subtle heads and wholly Governed by his last wife of which more hereafter In the mean time we are to know that having married one of the daughters and Co-heires of William Hilol of Woodlands in the County of Dorset he had by her amongst other children a son called Edward from whom descends Sir Edward Seimâ—ure of Berrie Pomerie in the County of Devon Knight and Barron After whose death he married Ann the daughter of Sir Edward Stanhop by whom he had a soâ— called Edward also on whom he was prevailed with to entaile both his Lands and Honours the children of the former bed being pretermitted Concerning which there goes a stoâ—y that the Earle having been formerly â—mployed in France did there acquaint himselfe with a Learned man supposed to have great skill in Magick of whom he obtained by great rewards and importunities to let him see by the help of some Magicall perspective in what Estate all his Relations stood at home In which impertinent curiosity he was so â—arr satisfied as to behold a Gentleman of his acquaintance in a more familiar posture with his wife then was agreeable to the Honour of either Party To which Diabollicall Illusion he is said to have given so much credit that he did not only estrange himselfe from her society at his coming home but furnished his next wife with an excellent opportunity
of his Dominions and caused the sentence of his Deprivation to be posted up at the Townes of Bruges Taurney and Dunkiâ—ke in Flanders at Bolloigne and Diepe in France and St. Andrewes in Scotland effâ—cting nothing by the unadviâ—edness of that desperate Counsell but that the King became more fixed in his Resolutions and more averse from all the thoughts of Reconciliation with the See of Rome The surrenderies of the former year cofirmed by Act of Parliament in the beginning of this drew after it the finall dissolution of all the rest none daring to oppose that violent Torrent which seemed to carry all before it but the Abbots of Colchester Reading and Glastenbury quarrelled for which they were severally condemned and executed under colour of denying the Kings Supremacy and their rich Abbeys seized upon as confiscations to the use of the King which brought him into such a suspition of separating from the Communion of the Church of Rome that for the better vindicating of his integrity as to the particulars he passed in the same Parliament the terrible Statute of the six Articles which drew so much good blood from his Protestant Subjects And being further doubtfull in himselfe what course to steere he marries at the same time with the Lady Ann sister unto the Duke of Cleve whom not long after he divorseth Advanceth his Great Minister Cromwell by whom he had made so much havock of Religious houâ—es in all parts of the Realm to the Earldome of Essex and sends him headlesse to his Grave within three moneths after takes to his bed the Lady Katharine Howard a Neece of Thomas Duke of Norfolk and in short time found cause enough to cut off her head not being either the richer in children by so many wives nor much improved in his Revenue by such horrible Rapines In the middest of which confusions he sets the wheele of Reformation once more going by moderating the extreme severity of the said Statute touching the six Articles abolishing the Superstitious usages accustomedly observed on St. Nicholas day and causing the English Bible of the Larger vollumne to be set up in all and every Parish Church within the Kingdome for such as were Religiously minded to Resort unto it The Prince had now but newly finished the first yeare of his age when a fit wife was thought of for him upon this occasion The Pope incensed against King Henry had not long since sententially deprived him of his Kingdom as before was said And having so done he made an offer of it to King James the fifth then King of the Scots the only Son of Margaret his eldest sister wife of James the fourth To whom he sent a Breve to this effect viz. That he would assist him against King Henry whom in his Consistory he had pronounced to be an Heretick a Scismatick a manifest Adulterer a publique Murtherer a committer of Sacriledge a Rebell and convict of Lesae Majestatis for that he had risen against his Lord and therefore that he had justly deprived him of his Kingdom and would dispose the same to him and other Princes so as they would assist him in the recovery of it This could not be so closely carried but that the King had notice of it who from thenceforth began to have a watchfull eye upon the Actions of his Nephew sometimes alluring him unto his party by offering him great hopes and favours and practising at other times to weaken and distract him by animating and maintaining his owne Subjects against him At last to set all right between them an enterview was appointed to be held at York proposed by Henry and condescended to by James But when the day appointed came the Scots King failed being deterred from making his appeareance there by some Popish Prelates who put into his head a fear of being detained a Prisoner as James the first had been by King Henry the fourth Upon this breach the King makes ready for a Warr sets out a manifest of the Reasons which induced him to it amongst which he insists especially on the neglect of performing that Homage which anciently had been done and still of Right ought to be done to the Kings of England In prosecuting of which Warr the Duke of Norfolk entred Scotland with an Army October 21. Anno 1542. waâ—ts and spoyles all the Country followed not long after by an Army of Scots consisting of 15000. men which in like manner entred England but were discomfited by the valour and good fortune of Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir William Mâ—sgrave with the help of some few Borderers only the Scots upon some discontent making little resistance In which fight besides many of the Scottish Nobility were taken eight hundred Prisoners of inferiour note twenty foure peeces of Ordinance some cart loadâ— of Armes and other booty On the 19 of December the Scottish Lords and other of the Principall Prisoners to the number of 20. or thereabouts were brought into London followed on the third day after with the newes of the death of King James and the birth of the young Queen his daughter This put King Henry on some thoughts of uniting the two Crowns in a firme and everlasting League by the Marriage of this infant Queen with his Son Prince Edward In pursuance whereof he sent for the inprisoned Lords feasted them royally at White Hall and dealt so effectually with them by himselfe and his Ministers that they all severally and joyntly engaged themselves to promote this Match Dismist into their own Country upon these promises and the leaving of Hostages they followed the Negotation with such care and diligence that on the 29th of June in the yeare ensuing notwithstanding the great opposition made against them by the Queen Dowager Cardâ—nall Beton and divers others who adhered to the Faction of France they brought the businesse at the last to this Conclusion viz. 1. That the Lords of Scotland shall have the Education of the Princess for a time yet so as it might be Lawfull for our King to send thitâ—er a Noble man and his wife with a Family under twenty Persons to waâ—te on her 2. That at ten yeares of Age she should be brought into England the contract being first finished by a Proxie in Scotland 3. That within two moneths after the date heâ—eof six Noble Scâ—ts should be given as Hostages for the performance of the Conditions on their Part And that if any of them dyed their number should be supâ—lyed 4. And furthermore it was agreed upon that the Realme of Scotland by that name should preserve it's Lawes and Rights and that Peace should be made for as long time as was desired the French being excluded But though these Capitulations thus agreed on were sent into â—ngland signed and â—ealed in the August following yet the Cardinall and his Party grew so strong that the whâ—le Treaty câ—me to nothing the Noble Men who had been Prâ—soners falsifying their Faith
with the suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches as either lay â—urthest off or might best be spared In reference whereunto it was concluded in a Chapter held at Westminster by the Knights of the Garter That from thenceforth the said most noble Order of the Garter should be no longer entâ—tuled by the Name of St. George but that it should be called the Oâ—der of the Garter onely and that the Feast of the said Order should be celebrated upon Whitson-Eve Whitson-day and Whitson-Monday and not on St. George's day as before it was And to what end was this concluded and what else was to follow upon this Conclusion but the dissolving of the Free-Chapel of St. George in the Castle of Windsor and the transferring of the Order to the Chapel of King HENRY the Seventh in the Abbey of Westminster Which had undoubtedly been done and all the Lands thereof converted to some powerful Courtiers under pretence of laying them to the Crown if the King's Death which happened within four Moneths after had not prevented the Design and thereby respited that Ruin which was then intended The like preservation happened at the same time also in the Church of Durham as liberally endowed as the most and more amply priviledged then the best in the King's Dominions The Bishops hereof by Charter and long Prescription enjoyed and exercised all the Rights of a County Palatine in that large Tract of Ground which lyes between the Tees and the Tine best known in those Parts by the Name of the Bishoprick the Diocess containing also all Northumberland of which the Bishops and the Percies had the greatest shares No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower which was on the Twentieth of December 1551. but presently an Eye was cast upon his Possessions Which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks if one more powerful then the rest had not preserved it from being parcelled out as the others were on a â—â—rong Confidence of getting it all unto himself The Family of the Percies was then reduced to such a point that it seemed to have been quite expired a Family which first came in with the Norman Conquerour by whom enriched with most of the forfeited Estates of Morchar Gospatrick and Waltheof the three last Earls of Northumberland of the Saxon Race But this Line ending in the latter times of King HENRY the First Josseline of Lorain descended from the Emperour CHARLES the Great and one of the younger Brothers of Adeliza the last Wife of the King enrich'd himself by Marriage with the Heir-General of this House upon condition that keeping to himself the Arms of his own Family he should assume the Name of Percy to remain always afterward unto his Posterity Advanced in that respect by the Power and Favour of John of Gaunt to the Rank and Title of the Earls of Northumberland at the Coronation of King Richard the Second They held the same with great Power and Honour the short interposing of the Marquess Mountacute excepted onely till toward the latter end of King Henry the Eighth At what time it happened that Henry Lord Peircy the sixth Earl of this House had incurred the heavy displeasure of that King First for an old affection to the Lady Ann Bollein when the King began first to be enamoured of her excellent Beauties and afterwards for denying to confess a Precontract to have been formerly made between them when the King now as weary of her as before he was fond was seeking some fair Pretences to divorce himself from her before she was to lose her Head He had no Children of his own and Thâ—mas his Brother and next Heir was to his greater grief attainted of Treason for being thought to have a chief hand iâ— the Northern Rebellion Anno 1536. In both respects he found himself at such a loss and the whole Family without hope of a Restitution to its antient splendour that to preserve himself from running into further danger he gave unto the King the greatest part of that fair Inheritance and dying not long after left his Titles also to the King 's disposing The Lands and Titles being thus fallen into the Crown continued undisposed of till the falling of the Duke of Somerset when Dudley Earl of Warwick having some projections in his Head beyond the greatness of a Subject advanced himself unto the Title of Duke of Northumberland not doubting but he should be able to possess himself in short time also of all the Landâ— of that Family which were then remaining in the Crown To which Estate the Bishoprick of Duâ—ham and all the Lands belonging to it could not but be beheld as a fair Addition if at the least it might be called an addition which was of more value then the Patrimony to which it was to have been added He had long Reigned without a Crown suffering the King for some years to enjoy that Title which was to be transferred if all Contrivances had held good upon one of his Sons whom He designed in Marriage to the eldest Daughter of the House of Suffolk And then how easie was it for him having a King of his own begetting a Queen of his own making the Lords of the Council at his beck and a Parliament to serve his turn for all occasions to incorporate both the Lands of the Peircies and the Patrimony of that Church into one Estate with all the Rights and Privileges of a County Palatine Count Palatine of Durham Prince Palatine of Northumberland or what else he pleased must be the least he could have aimed at in that happy Conjuncture happy to him had the Even been answerable unto his Projections but miserable enough to all the rest of the Kingdom who should not servilely submit to this Glorious Upstart Upon which Grounds as the Bishoprick of Durham was dissolved by Act of Parliament under pretence of patching up the King's Revenue so the greatest part of the Lands thereof had been kept together that they might serve for a Revenue to the future Palatine But all these Projects failing in the death of the King and his own Attaindure not long after the Peircies were restored by Queen Mary to their Lands and Honours as the Bishop was unto his Liberty and to most of his Lands it being almost impossible that such a fair Estate should fall into the hands of the Courtiers and no part of it be left sticking in those Glutinous Fingers For to begin the Year withall the King was taken with a very strong Cough in the Moneth of January which at last ended in a Consumption of the Lungs the Seeds of which Malignity were generally supposed to have been sown in the last Summer's Progress by some over-heatings of himself in his Sports and Exercises But they that looked more narrowly into the matter observed some kind of decayings in him from the time that Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of Northumberland was admitted into a place
of ordinary attendance about his Person which was on the same Day when his Father was created Duke For whereas most men gave themselves no improbable hopes that betwixt the Spring time of his life the Growing season of the year and such Medicinal applications as were made unto him the disease would wear it self away by little and little yet they found the contrary It rather grew so fast upon him that when the Parliament was to begin on the first of March the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were Commanded to attend him at White-Hall instead of waiting on him from thence to Westminster in the usual manner Where being come they found a Sermon ready for them the Preacher being the Bishop of London which otherwise was to have been Preached in the Abby-Church and the Great Chamber of the Court accomodated for an House of Peers to begin the Session For the opening whereof the King then sitting under the Cloth of State and all the Lords according to their Ranks and Orders he declared by the Lord Chancellor Goodrick the causes of his calling them to the present Parliament and so dismist them for that time A Parliament which began and ended in the Month of March that the Commissions might the sooner be dispatched to their several Circuits for the speedier gathering up of such of the Plate Copes Vestments and other Furnitures of which the Church was to be spoyled in the time of his sickness Yet in the midst of these disorders there was some care taken for advancing both the honour and the interest of the English-Nation by furnishing Sebastian Cabol for some new discoveries Which Sebastian the Son of John Cabol a Venetian born attended on his first imployment under Henry the seventh Anno 1497. At what time they discovered the Barralaos and the Coasts of Caenada now called New-France even to the 67½ degree of Northern Latitude Bending his Course more toward the South and discovering a great part of the shoars of Florida he returned for England bringing with him three of the Natives of that Country to which the name of New-Found-Land hath been since appropriated But finding the KING unhappily Embroyled in a War with Scotland and no present Encouragements to be given for a further Voiage he betook himself into the service of the KING of SPAIN and after fourty years and more upon some distast abandoned SPAIN and offered his service to this KING By whom being made Grand Pilot of England in the year 1549. he animated the English-Merchants to the finding out of a passage by the North-East Seas to Cathay and China first enterprised under the Conduct of Sr. Hugh Willoughby who unfortunately Perished in the Action himself and all his Company being Frozen to Death all the particulars of his Voiage being since committed to Writing as was certified by the Adventures in the year next following It was upon the twentith of May in this present year that this Voiage was first undertaken three great Ships being well manned and fitted for the Expedition which afterwards was followed by Chancelour Burrought Jackman Jenkinson and other noble Adventurers in the times Succeding Who though they failed of their Attempt in finding out a shorter way to Cathay and China yet did they open a fair Passage to the Bay of S. Nicholas and thereby layd the first foundation of a Wealthy Trade betwixt us and the Muscovites But the KING'S Sickness still encreasing who was to live no longer then might well stand with the designs of the DVKE of Northumber-land some Marriages are resolved on for the Daughters of the DVKE of Suffolk in which the KING appeared as forward as if he had been one of the Principalls in the Plot against him And so the matter was Contrived that the Lady IANE the eldest Daughter to that DVKE should be Married to the Lord Guilford Dudly the fourth Son then living of Northumberland all the three Elder Sons having Wives before that Katherine the second Daughter of Suffolk should be Married to the Lord Henry Herbert the Eldest Son of the Earl of Pembrock whom Dudly had made privy to all his Counsels and the third Daughter named Mary being Crook-Backed and otherwise not very taking affianced to Martin Keys the KING'S Gentleman-Porter Which Marriages together with that of the Lady Katherine one of the Daughters of Duke Dudly to Henry Lord Hastings Eldest Son of the Earl of Huntington were celebrated in the end of May or the beginning of June for I finde our Writers differing in the time thereof with as much Splendour and solemnity as the KING' 's weak Estate and the sad Condition of the Court could be thought to bear These Marriages all solemnized at Dâ—rham House in the Strand of which Northumberland had then took possession in the name of the Rest upon a Confidence of being Master very shortly of the whole Estate The noise of these Marriages bred such Amazement in the Hearts of the common People apt enough in themselves to speak the worst of Northumberland's Actions That there was nothing left unsaid which might serve to shew their hatred against him or express their Pity toward the KING But the DVKE was so little troubled at it that on the contrary he resolved to Dissemble no longer but openly to play his Game according to the Plot and Project which he had been Hammering ever â—ince the Fall of the DVKE of Somerset whose Death he had Contrived on no other Ground but for laying the way more plain and open to these vast ambitions The KING was now grown weak in Body and his Spirits much decaied by a languishing Sickness which Rendred him more apprehensive of such fears and Dangers as were to be presented to him then otherwise he could have been in a time of strength In which Estate Duke Dudly so prevailed upon him that he conâ—ented at the last to a transposition of the Crown from his natural sisters to the Children of the Dutchess of Suffolk Confirming it by Letters Patents to the Heirs Males of the Body of the said Dutchess And for want of such Heirs Males to be Born in the lifetime of the KING the Crown immediately to descend on the Lady IANE the eldest Daughter of that House and the Heirs of her Body and so with several Remainders to the rest of that Family The carriage of which Business and the Rubs it met with in the way shall be reserved to the particular story of the Lady IANE when she is brought unwilling upon the Stage there on to Act the part of a Queen of England It sufficeth in this place to note that the KING had no sooner caused these Leters Patents to passe the Seal but his Weakeness more visibly encreased then it did before And as the KING'S Weakeness did encrease so did the Northumberland's Diligence about him for he was little absent from him and had alwaies some well-assured to Epy how the State of his Health changed every Hour And the more joyful he
a Mercy had advanced Her to That Therefore She should chearfully take upon Her the Name Title and Estate of Queen of England France and Ireland with all the Royalties and Preheminencies to the same belonging Receiving at their hands the First-Fruits of the Humble Duty now tendred by them on their Knees which shortly was to be payed to Her by the rest of the Kingdom This Speech being ended the poor Lady found Her Self in a great Perplexity not knowing whether she Should more lament the Death of the King or Her Adoption to the Kingdom the first Loss not to be repaired the next Care possible to be avoided She looked upon the Crown as a great Temptation to resist which She stood in need of all the Helps which both Philosophy and Divinity could suggest unto Her And She knew also that such Fortunes seldom knocked twice for entrance at the same Man's Gate but that if once refused they are gone for ever Taking some time therefore of Deliberation She summoned a Council of Her purest Thoughts by whose Advice half drownned in Tears either as sorrowing for the King's Death or fore-seeing Her own She returned an Answer in these Words or to this Effect That The Laws of the Kingdom and Natural Right standing for the King's Sister She would beware of burthening Her weak Conscience with a Yoke which did belong to them That She understood the Infamy of those who had permitted the violation of Right to gain a Scepter That it were to mock God and deride Justice to scruple at the stealing of a Shilling and not at the Vsurpation of a Crown Besides said She I am not so young nor so little read in the Guils of Fortune to suffer my self to be taken by them If she inrich any it is but to make them the Subject of her Spoil If she raise others it is but to pleasure her Self with their Ruins What shâ— adored but yesterday is to day her Pastime And if I now permit her to adorn and Crown me I must to Morrow suffer her to crush and tear me in pieces Nay with what Crown doth she Present me A Crown which hath been Violently and Shamefully wrested from Katharine of Arragon made more unfortunate by the Punishment of Ann Bulloign and others that wore it after Her And why then would you have me add my Blood to theirs and to be the third Victime from whom this Fatal Crown may be ravished with the Head that wears it But in Case it should not prove Fatal unto me and that all its Venom were consumed if Fortune should give me Warranties of her Constancy Should I be well advised to take upon me these Thorns which would dilacerate though not kill me outright to burthen my self with a Yoke which would not fail to torment me though I were assured not to be strangled with it My Liberty is better then the Chain you proffer me with what pretious stones soever it be adorned or of what Gold soever framed I will not exchange my Peace for Honourable and pretious Jealousies for Magnificent and Glorious Letters And if you love me sincerely and in good earnest you will rather wish me a secure and quiet Fortune though mean then an exalted Condition exposed to the Wind and followed by some dismal Fall It had been happy for Her self Her Fathers and their several Families if they had suffered themselves to be overcome by such powerfull Arguments which were not onely persuasive but might seem convincing had they not all been fatally hurried unto their own Destruction But the Ambition of the two Dukes was too Strong and Violent to be kept down by any such prudent Considerations So that being wearied at the last with their Importunities and overcome by the entreaties of Her Husband whom She dearly loved She submitted unto that necessity which She could not vanquish yielding her Head with more unwillingness to the Ravishing Glories of a Crown then afterwards She did to the Stroak of the Ax. The Point being thus concluded on the two Dukes with all the rest of the Lords of the Council swore Allegeance to her And on the same day about five of the Clock in the afternoon they caused Her Solemnly to be Proclaimed Queen of England France and Ireland c. in many of the principal Streets in London and after by Degrees in most of the Chief Cities Towns and Places of greatest Concourse and Resort of People In which Proclamation it was signified That by the Letters Patents of the late King Edward bearing Date the twenty first of June last past the Lady Jane Gray Eldest Daughter to the Duchess of Suffolk had been declared His true and lawfull Successour to the Crown of England the same to be enjoyed after Her Decease the Heirs of Her Body c. as in the said Letters Patents more especially did at large appear Which Proclamation though it was published in the City with all due Solemnities and that the Concourse of People was exceeding great yet their Acclamations were but few which served as a sufficient Argument to the Friends and Followers of the Princess Mary that they were rather drawn together out of Curiosity to behold some unusual Spectacle then out of any purpose to congratulate at the Queen's Advancement And so far some of of them declared their dislike thereof that the next Day one Gilbert Pot was set on the Pâ—llory in Cheâ—pside his Ears first nailed and afterwards cut off for certain words which he had spoken at the Publishing of the Proclamation a Trumpet sounding at the Time of the Execution and an Herald in his Coat of Arms publickly noting his Offence in a Form prescribed A Severity neither safe nor necessary the party being of no better Condition then a Vintner's Boy as the Case then stood For the next day the Lords received Advertisement from divers hands that many persons of Quality were drawn together at Kenning-Hallâ—Castle in Norfolk to offer their Service and assistance to the Princess Mary who finding by the Answer which She had received from the Lords of the Council that no good was otherwise to be be done resolved not to be wanting to Her own Pretensions and to that end gave chearfull Entertainment to all comers which either favoured Her Title or embraced Her Religion Amongst such Gentlemen as were certified to the Lords of the Council I finde the names of the Earl of Bath Sir Thomas Wharton son to the Lord Wharton Sir John Mordant Son to the Lord Mordant Sir William Drury Sir John Shelton Sir Henry Bedingfield Mr. Henry Jenningham Mr. John Sulierd Mr. Richard Higham of Lincoln's-Inn It was advertised also that the Earl of Sussex and Mr. Henry Ratcliff his Son were coming towards Her with their Forces which last Advertisement gave the Business some appearance of Danger for what else was to be expected but that the Countenance and Encouragement of so great a Person might draw many more unto the side who otherwise would have
Senior Fellow sufficiently known to be of Popish inclinations though for the saving of his place he had conformed as others did to the present time No sooner was he in this power but he retrives some old superstitious hymns which formerly had been sung on several Festivals in the times of Popery prohibiting the use of such as had been introduced by Gervase the late Warden there This gave incouragement and opportunity to the Popish party to insult over the rest especially over all those of the younger sort who had not been trained up in their Popish principles so that it seemed a penal matter to be thought a Protestant Notice whereof being given to Archbishop Parker the Ordinary Visitour of that College in the Right of his See he summoneth Hall on the 20th of May to appear before him and caused the Citation to be fastned to the Gate of the College But his authority in that case was so little regarded that the seal of the Citation was torn off by some of that party Hereupon followed a solemn visitation of the College by the said Archbishop The result whereof was briefly this that all were generally examined Man confirmed Warden Hall justly expelled his party publickly admonished the young scholars relieved the Papists curbed and suppressed and Protestants countenanced and incouraged in the whole University But this was only the Essay of those greater commotions which were to have insued upon it though withall it proved a prognostick of their ill success which constantly attended the designs of the Romish faction For presently on the neck of this a far more dangerous conspiracy declared it self in some chief Leaders of that party The present sitting of the Council the practices of some forein Ministers and the Queens countenancing the French Hugoâ—ots then being in Arms against their King might serve both as encouragements and exasperations to put that party upon dangerous and destructive projects And it is possible enough that somewhat might be aimed at by them in favour of the Title of the Queen of Scots or of some other of the Race of King Henry the 7th by Margaret his eldest daughter married to James the 4th of Scotland which may the rather be supposed because I find the Lady Margaret Countess of Lenox daughter of the said Queen Margaret by her second husband and mother of Henry Lord Dâ—rnley who was after married to Queen Mary of Scotland to have been confined unto her House with the Earl her husband upon suspition of some practice against the Queen Certain it is that many strange whispers were abroad and no small hopes conceived by those of the Popish faction for suppressing the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom and setting up their own Religion as in former times a matter neither to be entertained without strong temptations nor compassed without stronger forces than they could raise amongst themselves but by intelligence supply from some forein Princes On which account amongst some others which were found to be of the Plot Arthur Pole granchild of Margaret Countess of Salisbury by Geofry her third son the younger brother unto Reâ—gnald Pole the late Cardinal Legat was apprehended and arraigned together with his brother Geofry Fortescue who had married his sister divers others The substance of their Chaâ—ge as it is generally in all Treasons was a design of levying war against the Queen and otherwise entertaining many dangerous counsels against the peace and safety of her Dominions with a particular intention of advancing the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England and Polâ— himself unto the Title of Duke of Clarence All which they confessed upon the Indictment and did all receive the sentence of death but were all afterwards pardoned by the Queens great clemency out of that great respect which she carried to their Royal extraction And yet it may be possible that there was something in it of State-craft as well as clemency which might induce the Queen to spare them from the stroke of the Ax which was to keep them for a ballance to the House of Suffolk of whom she now began to conceive some jealousies The Lady Katharine Gray one of the younger daughters of Henry Duke of Suffolk and sister to the late Queen Jane had been marryed to the Lord Henry Herbert son and heir to the Earl of Pembrock at such time as the said Queen Jane was married to the Lord Guilford Dudley at Durham-House But the old Earl seasonably apprehending how unsafe it was to marry into that Family which had given so much trouble to the Queen took the advantage of the time and found some means to procure a sentence of Divorce almost upon the very insâ—ant of the Consummation And knowing how well Queen Maâ—yâ—â—ood â—â—ood affected to the Earl of Shrewsbury he presently clapt up a marriage for his son with another Katherine one of the daughters of that Earl who dying about the begining of the Reign of this Queen he married him as â—peedily to Mary Sâ—dâ—ey the daughter of Sir Henry Sidney and of Mary his wife one of the daughters of John Dudley the late Duke of Northumberland in which last marriage he as much endeavoured to ingratiate himself with Sir Robert Dâ—dleâ— who at that time began to grow Lord Paramount in all Court-favours as by the first Match to insinuate into old Duke Dudley who did then predominate In the mean time the Lady Katherine Gray languisheth long under the disgrace of this rejection none daring to make any particular addresses to her for fear of being involved in the like calamities as had befallen her father and the rest of that Family But at the last the young Earl of Hertford contracts himself privately unto her and having consummated the marriage with her gets leave to travail into France But long he had not left the Kingdom when the Lady was found to be with child being imprisoned in the Tower she makes known her marriage till then kept secret by agreement the Earl is thereupon called home and standing honestly to the Marriage for which he could produce no sufficient witnesse is committed prisoner also The Queen exceeding jealous of all Competitors refers the cognisance of the cause to the Archbishop of Canterbury and some other Delegates by whom a certain time is set for the bringing in of Witnesses to prove the Marriage and on default thereof a sentence of unlawful copulation is pronounced against them during which troubles and disquiets the Lady is delivered of the Lord Edward Seâ—mer her eldest son in the Tower of London and conceived after of another by some sâ—oln meetings which she had with the Earl her husband their Keepers on both sides being corrupted to give way unto it Which practice so incensed the Queen that hurried on with jealousie and transported with passion she caused a fine of five thousand pounds to be set upon him in the Star-chamber and kept him close prisoner for the space of nine years at the
person which was the Marquis of Winchester Lord Treasurer of England the other twelve being two Earls six Lords and four Knights the sacred part thereof performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishops of London and Rochester the funeral Sermon being pâ—eached by the Bishop of London which tended much unto the praise and commendation of that famous Emperor By which solemnity as she did no small honor to the dead so she gave great contentment to the living also the people being generally much delighted with such glorious pomps and the Church of England thereby held in estimation with all forein Princes Nothing else memorable in this year but the comming out of certain books and the death of Caâ—vin Dorman an English fugitive first publisheth a book for proof of certain of the Articles denyed in Bishop Jewel's challenge encountred first by Alexander Nowel Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul who first appeared in print against those of Lovain and is replyed upon by Dorman in a book entituled A Discovery of Mr. Nowel's untruths not published till the year next following But of more consequence to this Church was the death of Calvin by whose authority so much disorder and confusion was to be brought upon it in the times succeeding a name much reverenced not onely by those of his own party and perswasions but by many grave and moderate men who did not look at first into the dangers which ensued upon it His platform at Geneva made the onely pattern by which all reformed Churches were to frame their Government his Writings made the onely rule by which all Students in Divinity were to square their Judgments What Peter Lombart was esteemed to be in the Schools of Rome the same was Calvin reckoned in all those Churches which were reformed according to the Zuinglian doctrine in the point of the Sacrament But Hic Magister non tenetur as the saying was he was not so esteemed in England nor was there any reason why it should be so for though some zealous brethren of the Presbyteterian or Puritan faction appeared exceeding ambitious to wear his Livery and thought no name so honorable as that of Calvinist yet the sounder members of the Church the Royal and Prelatical Divines as the others called them conceived otherwise of him And the right learned Adrian Sararia though by birth a Dutch-man yet being once preferred in the Church of England he stomached nothing more than to be called Calvinian Anno Reg. Eliz. 7. A. D. 1564 1565. WE shall begin this year with the concernments of the Kirk of Scotland where Queen Eâ—izabeth kept a Stock still going the Returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots was young poffessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this first married to the Daulphin of France and sued to after his decease in behalf of Charls the younger son of the Emperor Maximilian as also of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Bavaria But Queen Elizabeth had found so much trouble and danger from her first alliance with the French that she was against all Marriages which might breed the like or any way advance the power of that Competitor But on the contrary she commended to her the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those eminent honors to make him in some fort capable of a Queens affection Which proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining that unequal offer and Leicester dealing underhand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that averseness He had foolishly given himself some hopes of marrying with Elizabeth his own dread Mistress interpreting all her favours to him to proceed from affection and was not willing that any Proposition for that purpose with the Queen of Scots should be entertained During these various thoughts on both sides the English began to be divided in opinion concerning the next heir to the Crown Imperial of this Realm One Hales had writ a discourse in favour of the House of Suffolk but more particularly in defence of the late marriage between the Earl of Hertford and the Lady Katherine for which he was apprehended and committed prisoner The Romish party were at the same time sub-divided some standing for the Queen of Scots as the next heir apparent though an alien born others for Henry Lord Darnlie eldest son to the Earl of Lenox born in the Realm and lineally descended from the eldest daughter of King Henry the 7th from whom the Queen of Scots also did derive her claim The Queen of Scots also at the same time grown jealous of the practices of the Lord James her bastard-brother whom she had not long before made Earl of Murrey and being over-powered by those of the Congregation was at some loss within her self for finding a fit person upon whose integrity she might depend in point of counsel and on whose power she might rely in point of safety After a long deliberation nothing seemed more conducible to her ends and purposes than the recalling of Matthew Earl of Lenox to his native Country from whence he had been forced by the Hamiltonians in the time of King Henry Being of great power in the West of Scotland from the Kings whereof he was extracted Henry conceived that some good use might be made of him for advancing the so much desired marriage between his onely son Prince Edward and the Infant-Queen The more to gain him to his side he bestowes upon him in marriage the Lady Margaret Dowglas daughter of Queen Margaret his eldest sister by Archibald Dowglas Earl of Angus her second husband of which marriage were born Henry Lord Darnly of whom more anone and Charls the second son whom King James created Earl of Lenox father of Arabella before remembred And that they might support themselves in the nobler equipage he bestowes upon him also the Mannor of Setrington with other good Lands adjoyning in the County of Yoâ—k passing since by the name of Lenox his Lands in the style of the people In England he remained above twenty years but keptâ— himself constant in all changes to the Church of Rome which made him the more estimable both with his own Queen and the English Papists Being returned into his Country he found that Queen so gracious to him and such a handsome correspondence with the chief Nobility that he sends for his two sons to come thither to him but leaves his wife behind in the Court of England lest otherwise Queen Elizabeth might take some umbrage or displeasure at it if they should all remove at once It was about the middle of February that the Lord Darnly came to the Court of Scotland Who being not full twenty years old of lovely person sweet behaviour and a most ingenuous disposition exceedingly prevailed in short time on the Queens affection She had now met with such a
Women wherein she laid before him these her last requests viz. My most dear Lord King and Husband for so she called him THe hour of my death now approaching I cannot chuse but out of the love I bear you advise you of your souls health which you ought to prefer before all considerations of the world or flesh whatsoever For which yet you have cast me into many calamities and your self into many troublâ—s But I for give you all and pray God to do so likewise For the rest I commend unto you Mary our daughâ—er beseeching you to be a good Father unto her as I have heretofore desired I must enâ—reat you also to respect my Maids and give them in Marriage which is not much they being but three And to all my other Servants a yeaâ—s pay besides their due lest otherwise they should be unprovided for Lastly I make this Vow That mine Eyes have desired you above aâ—l things Farewell Within few days after the writing of which Letter that is to say on the 8 th of January then next following she yielded her pious Soul to God at the King's Mannor-house of Kimbolton in the County of Huâ—tingâ—on and was solemnly interred not long after in the Abbey of Peterborough The reading of her Letter drew some tears from the King which could not but be much encreased by the news of her death Moved by them both to such a measure of commiseration of her sad condition that he caused the greatest part of her goods amounting to 5000 Marks to be expended on her Funerall and in the recompencing of such of her servants as had best deserved it Never so kind to her in the time of her life as when he had rendred her incapable of receiving a kindnesse The Princesse Mary is now left wholly to her self declared illegitimate by her Father deprived of the comfort of her Mother and in a manner forsaken by all her friends whom the severe proceedings against Moor and Fisher had so deterred that few durst pay her any offices of Love or Duty Of any proceedings in the Match with the Duke of Orleance we hear no more news all further prosecution of it being at a stand by the misfortunes of her Mother nor was she sought in Marriage by any other Prince in the life of her Father buâ— onely by James the 5 th of Scotland but finding himself deluded in it by King Henry he thought it best to strengthen himself by a Match with France where he was first married to Madam Magdaleene the first daughter of K. Francis and afterwards to Mary daughter of Claude of Lorrain Duke of Guise by whom he had one onely daughter called Mary also In which condition the poor Princesse had no greater comfort than what she could gather from her Books in which she had been carefully instructed by Doctor John Voisie aliâs Harman appointed her Tutor by the King and for his good performance in that place of trust advanced by him to the Sea of Exon An. 1529. and afterwards made Lord President of Wales which sell out better for the Tutor than it did for the Pupill Who being left destitute of the counsell of so grave a Man began to give way more and more to her grief and passions which brought her at the last to such an aversenesse from the King and such a manifest disaffection to his Person and Government that he was once upon the point of sending her prisoner to the Tower and had so done if Cranmer had not interposed some powerfull reasons to disswade him from it During which time of her aversenesse the King sent certain of the Lords to remove her to Hatfield who having no authority to treat her by the name of Princesse but onely to execute the King's commands gave her occasion thus to signifie her discontentments My Lords said she as touching my removing to Hatfield I will obey his Grace as my duty is or to any other place that his Grace will appoint me But I protest before you and all other that be here present that my conscience will in no wise suffer me to take any other than my self for Princesse or for the King's Daughter born in lawfull Matrimony and that I will never wittingly or willingly say or do whereby any person might take occasion to think that I agree to the contrary Nor say I this out of any ambition or proud mind as God is my Judge but that if I should do otherwise I should in my conscience slander the Deed of our Mother the holy Church and the Pope who is the Judge in this matter and none other and also should dishonour the King my Father the Queen my Mother and falsly confesse my self a Bastard which God defend that I should do since the Pope hath not so declared it by his Sentence definitive to whose finall Judgment I submit my self In pursuance of which claim to the Title of Princesse together with the Priviledges and Preheminences thereunto belonging she writes this following Letter to the King her Father on a like occasion IN most humble wise I beseech your Grace of your daily blâ—ssing Pleaseth it the same to be advertised that this morning my Chamberlain came and shewed me that he had received a Letter from Sir William Paulet Controller of your House the effect whereof was that I should with all diligence remove unto the Castle of Hertford Whereupon I desired him to see the same Letter which he shewed me wherein was written That the Lady Mary the King's Daughter should remove to the place before-said leaving out in the same the name of Princesse Which when I heard I could not a little marvail trusting verily that your Grace was not privy to the same Letter as concerning the leaving out of the name of Princesse for asmuch as I doubt not in your goodnesse but that your Grace doth take me for your lawfull Daughter born in true Matrimony Wherefore if I should agree to the contrary I should in my conscience run into the displeasure of God which I hope assuredly that your Grace would not that I so should And in all other things your Grace shall have me always as humble an obedient Daughter and Handmaid as ever was child to thâ— father which my duâ—y biâ—doth 〈◊〉 to as knoweth â—ur Lord Who have your Grace in his most holy tuiâ—ion with much honor and long life to his pleasure From your Mannor of 〈◊〉 Octob. 2 By your most humble Daughter MARY Princess And on these tearms she stood from the Divorce of her Mother till the Attaindure of Queen Anne Bollen against whom she thought it did concern her to bear up to the highest as she did accordingly But growing into better hopes by the death of the â—aid Queen Anne the Annulling of the Marriage also and the Bastardiâ—ing of the Princesse Elizabeth her onely daughter she began to cast about again writes her submissive Letters to the King her father and humbly craves some testimonies
of his love and goodnesse Which so prevailed that the Duke of Norfolk is sent to treat with her upon certain Instructions so neâ—essary to the knowledge of her affairs in this Conjuncture that they deserve a place here and are these that follow Certain Articles and Injunctions given by the King's Highness to his right Trusty and right entirely beloved Cousen and Counsellor the Duke of Norfolk whom with certain others in his company His Majesty sendeth to the Lady Mary his Daughter for the Purposes ensuing FIrst whereas the said Lady Mary hath sundry ways with long continuance shewed her self so obstinate towards the King's Majâ—sty her Soveraign Lord and Father and so disobedient to his Laws conceived and â—ade upon most just vertuâ—â—s and godly grounds that as the wilfull disobedience thereof seemeth a monster in Nature so unlesse the mercy of his Highnesse had been most abundantly extended unto hâ—r by the course of his Grace's Laws and the force of his Justice shâ— endâ—â—gâ—red her self so far that it was greatly tâ— his Highnesse's regret and hearty sorrow to see and perceive how little 〈◊〉 esteâ—meth the same extending to the losse of his favour the losse of her honour the losse of her life and undoubâ—edly to the indignation of Almighty God For that she neither obeyeth her Father and Soveraign nor his just and vertuous Laws aforesaid And that of late neverthelesse calling to remembrance her transgressions and offences in this pâ—rt towards God her Father and Soveraign Lord the King's Highnesse she hath writtâ—n to the same three suâ—dâ—y Letters containing a declaration of her repentance conceived for the Premises with such an humble and simple submission as she appeareth not onely to submit hâ—r sâ—lfwholly and without exception especially by the last Letter to the Laws but also for her state and condition to put her self onely to his Grace's mercy nothing desiring but mercy and forgivenesse for her offences with a reconciliation to his Grace's favour Albeit his Majesty hath been so ingrately handled and used by her as is aforâ— declared that the like would enforce any private person tâ— abâ—ndon for ever such an unkind and inobedient child from their grace and favour yet such is his Majesties gracious and divine nature such is his clemency and pitty such his mercifull inclination and Princely heart that as he hath been ever ready to take pitty and compâ—ssiâ—n of all offenders repentantly calling and crying for the same So in case he may throughly parceive the same to be in the said Lady Mary's heart which she hath put in pen and writing his Highnesse considering the imbecillity of her sex being the same is frail inconstant and easie to he perswaded by simple counsell can be right well contented to remit unto her part of his said displeasure And therefore hath 〈◊〉 this time for the certain knowledge of her heart and stomack sâ—â—t unto her his said Cousen with others to demand and enquire of her certain Questions Her Answeâ—s whereunto his pleasure is they shall require and note in writing which sâ—all throughly decipher whether she be indeed the person she pretendeth or for any respect hath with generall words laboured to cloak the speciall matter which is repugnant and contrary to that which his Majesty hath gathered and conceived of the same 1. And first after their Accesse and Declaration of the Premises they shall for their first Question demand of her Whether she doth recognise and knowledge the King's Highnesse for her Soveraign Lord and King in the Emperiall Crown of this Realm of England and will and doth submit her self unto his Highnesse and to all and singuâ—ar the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as becommeth every true and faithfull Subject to do 2. Also whether she will with all her power and qualities that God hath endu'd her withall not onâ—ly obey keep and observe all and singular Laws and Statutes of this Realm but also set forth advance and maintain the same to the utmost of her power according to her bounden duty 3. Also whether she will recognise accept take and repute the King's Highnesse to be supream Head in Earth under Christ of the Church of England and utterly refuse the Bishop of Rome's pretended Power and Jurisdiction heretofore usurped in this Realm according to the Laws and Statutes of the same made and ordained in the behalf of all the King 's true Subjects humbly received admitted obeyed kept and observed And also will and do renounce and utterly forsake all manner of Remedy Interesse and Advantage by the said Bishop of Rome's Laws Processe or Jurisdiction to her in any wise appertaining or that hereafter may by any Title Colour or Mean belong grow succeed or appertain or in any case may follow or ensue 4. And whether she will and doth of her Duty and Obedience towards God her Alleigance towards the King's Highnesse and the Laws of this Realm and also of the sincere love and zeal that she beareth towards the Truth freely and franckly recognize and knowledge without any other respect both by Goâ—'s Law and Man's Law the Marriage heretofore had between his Majesty and her Mother to be unlawfull 5. Also Be she enquired or examined For what cause and by whose motion and means she hath continued and remained in her obstinacy so long and who did eâ—bold or animate her thereto with other circumstances thereof appertaining 6. Also What is the cause that she at this present time rather then at any other heretofore doth submit her selfe To these six Articles she was required to give a plain and positive answer Which plainly shews the doubtfulnesse and uncertainty of her present condition in being either forced to confesse her selfe to be illegitimate or running on the last hazzard of the Kings displeasure if she should do otherwise But wisely considering in her selfe whom she had to deal with she thought it safest to strike sale and to submit her selfe to him with whom it was not lawfull for her to dispute that point if she had been able She therefore makes a cleer acknowledgement of the four first Articles by the subscribing of her name but craved leave to demur on the two last because some persons were concern'd in them whom she was not willing to discover And by this means she gain'd so far upon the King that from that time forwards he held her in the same ranck with the rest of his children gave her her turn in the succession of the Kingdome assigned her portion of ten thousand pounds to be paid at her marriage and in the interim three thousand pounds per annum for her personal maintenance And more then this he did not do for his daughter Elizabeth notwithstanding the esteem and affection which he bare to her mother for bringâ—â—g whom into his bed he had cancelled all the bonds of his former marriage Little or nothing more occurreth of her in the time of King Henry because there was little or nothing altered in
slackned by degrees his accustomed diligence in labouring be perswasions to work on one who was resolved before hand not to be perswaded So that being weary of the Court and the court of her she was permitted for a time to remain at Hunâ—sdon in the County of Hartford To which place being in the Diocesse of London Bishop Ridley had recourse unto her and at first was kindly entertained But having staid dinner at her request he made an offer of his service to preach before her on the Sunday following to which she answered That the doors of the Parish Church adjoining should be open for him that hâ— might preach there if he liâ—ted but that neither she nâ—r any of her sâ—rvants would bâ—â—her◠〈◊〉 hear him Madam said he I hope you will not refuse to hear Gods word To which she answered That she could not tell what they called Gods word that which was now called thâ—â—â—rd of God 〈◊〉 having been accounted such in the â—â—yes of her father After which falling into many different expressions against the Religion then established she â—ismissed him thus My Lord said she For your gentlenesse to come and see me I thank you but for your offer to preach before me I thank 〈◊〉 nâ—t Which said he was conducted by Sir Thâ—mas Wâ—arton one of her principall Officerâ— to the place where they dined by whom he was presented with a cup of wine which having drank and looking very sadly on it Surely said he 〈…〉 Which words he spake with such a vehemency of spirit aâ— made the hair of some of those which were present to stand an end as themselves afterwardâ— confessed Of this behaviour of the Princesse aâ— the Bishop much complained in other pâ—aâ—es so most especially in a Sermon preached at St Paul's Crosse on the sixteenth of July in which he was appointed by the Lords of the Council to set forth the title of Queen Jane to whom the sâ—ccession of the Crown had been transferred by King Edward at the solicitation and procurement of the Duke of Nâ—rthâ—mbeâ—land who served himself of nothing more than of her obstinate aversnesse from the reformed Religion then by law established The cunning contrivance of which plot and all that had been done in pursuance of it hath been laid down at large in the Appendix to the former book Suffice in this place to know that being secretly advertised of her brothers death she dispatched her letters of the ninth of July to the Lords of Council requiring them not only to acknowledge her just title to the Crown of this Realm but to cause proâ—lamation of it to be made in the usual form which though it was denied by them as the case then stood yet she was gratified therein by the Mayor of Norwich who firsâ— proclaimed her Queen on the fourth day after as afterwards was done in some other places by those who did prefer the interest of King Henry's children before that of the Dudâ—y's But hearing of the great preparations which were made against her and finding her condition in a manner desperate when she first put her self into Framâ—ngham Castle she faithfully assureu the Gentry and other inhabitants of the County of Suffolk that she would not alter the Religion which had been setled and confirmed in the Reign of her brother On which assurance there was such a confluence to her from those parts of the Kingdom that in short space she had an army of fourteen thousand fighting men to maintain her quarrel The newes whereof together with the risings of the people in other places on the same account wrought such an alteration in the Lords of the Council whom she had before solicited in vain to allow her title that on the nineteenth of July she was solemnly proclaimed Queen at Cheapside Crosse not only by their general and joint consent but by the joyful acclamations of all sorts of people But as Mariners seldome pay those vows which they make in a tempest when once they are delivered from the danger of it so Mary once established in the Royal Throne forgot the services which she received from those of Suffolk together with the promises which she made unto them in the case of Religion Insomuch that afterwards being petitioned by them in that behalf it was answered with more churlishnesse than could be rationally expected in a green Estate That members must obey their Head and not look to rule it And that she might no more be troubled with the like Petitions she caused one Dobb a Gentlemen on Windham side who had presumed to put her in remembrance of her former promise to be punished by standing in the Pillory three dayes together to be a gazing stock to all men But such is the condition of our humane nature that we are far more ready to require a favour when we stand in need of it than willing to acknowledge or requite it when our turn is served Of which we cannot easily meet with a cleerer evidence than the example of this Queen who was so far from gartifying those who had been most aiding to her in the time of her trouble that she persecuted them and all others of the same perswasions with fire and faggot as by the sequel of her story will at large appear The Life and Reign of QUEEN MARY An. Reg. Mar. 1. A. D. 1553. 1554. THe interposings in behalf of the Lady Jane being disrelished generally in most parts of the Kingdome Mâ—ry the eldest sister of King Edward the sixt is proclaimed Queen by the Lords of the Council assiâ—â—ed by the Lord Mayor of London and such of the Nobility as were then resident about that City on Wednesday the nineteenth day of July Annâ— 1553. The Proclamation published at the Crosse in Cheâ—p with all sâ—lemnities accustomed on the like occasions and entertained with joyfull acclamations by all sorts of people who feared nothing more than the pride and tyranny of the Duke of Northumberland To carry which news to the Queen at Framingham the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget are dispatched immediately by the rest of the Council and Letters are speedily posted by some private friends to the Duke at Cambridgâ— Who understanding how things went without expecting any order from the Lords at London dismist the remnant of his Army and presently repairing into the Market place proclaimed the Queen crying God save Queen Mary as loud as any and flinging up his cap for joy as the others did Which service he had scarce performed when Rose a Pouâ—suivant of Arms comes to him with instructions from the Lords of the Council subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor Goodrick the Lord Treasurer Paulet the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Bedford Shrewsbury and Pembrook the Lord Darsie Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Peter and Sir William Cecil the two principall Secretaries Sir John Cheeck Tutor to the last King Sir John Baker Chancellor of the tenths and first fruits
her than Philip Prince of Spain A Prince in the verdure of his years and eldest son to the most Mighty Emperour Charles the 5th by whom the Netherlands being laid to England and both secured by the assistance and power of Spain this nation might be render'd more considerable both by sea and land than any people in the world To this last Match the Queen was carefully sollicited by the Bishop of Winchester who neither loved the person of Pole nor desired his company for fear of growing less in power and reputation by coming under the command of a Cardinal Legate To which end he encouraged Charles the Emperour to go on with this mariage for his son not without some secret intimation on his Advice for not suffering Pole to come into England if he were suffered to come at all till the Treaty were concluded and the Match agreed on According whereunto the Lord Lamoralle Earl of Edgmond Charles Earl of Lalain and John 〈◊〉 Mount Morency Earl of Horn arrived in England as Ambassadors from the Emperour In the beginning of January they began to treat upon the mariage which they found so well prepared before their coming that in short time it was accorded upon these conditions 1. That it should be lawful for Philip to assume the Title of all the Kingdoms and Provinces belonging to his wife and should be joint Governour with her over those Kingdoms the Privileges and Customes thereof always preserved inviolate and the full and free distribution of Bishopricks Benefices Favours and Offices alwayes remaining intire in the Queen 2. That the Queen should also carry the Titles of all those Realms into which Philip either then was or should be afterwards invested 3. That if the Queen survived Philip 60 thousand pounds per annum should be assigned to her for her joynture as had been formerly assigned to the Lady Margaret Sister to King Edward the 4th and Wife to Charles Duke of Burgundy 4. That the Issue begotten by this mariage should succeed in all the Queens Dominions as also in the Dukedom and County of Burgundy and all those Provinces in the Neatherlands of which the Emperour was possessed 5. That if none but daughters should proceed from this mariage the eldest should succeed in all the said Provinces of the Neatherlands provided that by the Counsel and consent of Charles the son of Philip by Mary of Portugal his first wife she should make choice of a husband out of England or the Neatherlands or otherwise to be deprived of her right in the succession in the said estates and Charles to be invested in them and in that cafe convenient portions to be made for her and the rest of the daughters 6. And finally That if the said Charles should depart this life without lawful issue that then the Heir surviving of this mariage though female only should succeed in all the Kingdoms of Spain together with all the Dominions and Estates of Italy thereunto belonging Conditions fair and large enough and more to the advantage of the Realm of England than the Crown of Spain But so it was not understood by the generality of the people of England many of which out of a restless disposition or otherwise desirous to restore the reformed Religion had caused it to be noised abroad that the Spaniards were by this accord to become the absolute Lords of all the Kingdom that they were to have the managing of all affairs and that abolishing all the ancient Laws of the Realm they would impose upon the land a most intolerable yoke of servitude as a conquered Nation Which either being certainly known or probably suspected by the Queen and the Council it was thought fit that the Lord Chancelor should make a true and perfect declaration of all the points of the Agreement not only in the Presence Chamber to such Lords and Gentlemen as were at that time about the Court and the City of London but also to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and certain of the chief Commoners of that City purposely sent for to the Court upon the occasion Which services he perform'd on the 14th and 15th days of January And having summarily reported all the Articles of the capitulation he shewed unto them how much they were bound to thank God That such a Noble Worthy and Famous Prince would vonchsafe so to humble himself as in this mariage to take upon him rather as a subject than otherwise Considering that the Queen and her Council were to Rule and Govern all things as they did before and that none of the Spaniards or other strangers were to be of the Council nor to have the custody of any Castles Forts c. nor to have any office in the Queen's house or elsewhere throughout the Kingdom In which respect it was the Queens request to the Lords and Gentlemen That for her sake they would most lovingly receive the said Prince with â—oy and honour and to the Lord Mayor and the Citizens That they would behave themselves to be good subjects with all humility and rejoycing Which declaration notwithstanding the subjects were not easily satisfied in those fears and jealousies which cunningly had been infused into them by some popular spirits who greedily affected a change of Government and to that end sowed divers other discontents amongst the people To some they secretly complained That the Queen had broke her promise to the Suffolk men in suppressing the Religion setled by King Edward the 6th to others That the mariage with the Prince of Spain was but the introduction to a second vassalage to the Popes of Rome sometimes they pitied the calamity of the Lady Jane not only forcibly deposed but barbarously condemned to a cruel death and sometimes magnified the eminent vertues of the Princess Elizabeth as the only blessing of the Kingdom and by those Articles prepared the people in most places for the act of Rebellion And that it might succeed the better nothing must be pretended but the preservation and defence of their Civil Liberties which they knew was generally like to take both with Papists and Protestants but so that they had many engines to draw such others to the side as either were considerable for power or quality The Duke of Suffolk was hooked in upon the promise of re-establishing his daughter in the Royal throne the Carews and other Gentlemen of Devonshire upon assurance of marying the Lord Courtney to the Princess Elizabeth and setting the Crown upon their heads and all they that wished well to the Reformation upon the like hopes of restoring that Religion which had been setled by the care and piety of the good King Edward but now suppressed contrary to all faith the promise by the Queeâ— and her Ministers By means of which suggestions and subtil practices the contagion was so generally diffused over all the Kingdom that if it had not accidently broke out before the time appointed by them it was conceived by many wise and knowing
he was not able to resist and thereby gained so much displeasure from the Cardinal Legate that before the end of the next year Anno 1557. he was outed of his Deanry of Windsor and all his other Ecclesiastical promotions upon an information of his being taken in the act of adultery which otherwise perhaps might have been pardoned or connived at in him as in many others But willing or unwilling he had first surrender'd the Church of Westminster which the Queen stocked with a new Convent of Benâ—dictines consisting of an Abbot and fourteen Monks which with their officers were as many as the Lands then left unto it could well maintain And for the first Abbot she made choice of Dr John Fecknam a learned grave and moderate man whom she had formerly made Dean of St Paul's in the place of Dr William May and now made choice of Dr Henry Cole Arch-Deacon of Ely and Prolocutor of the Convocation Anno 1555. to succeed him in it It was upon the 21 of November that the new Abbot and his Monks entred on the possession of their ancient Convent which they held not fully out three years when it was once again dissolved by Act of Parliament of which more hereafter Which fate befel the rest of her foundations also two of which cost her little more than this at Westminster A Convent of Observants being a reformed Order of Franciscan Friers had been founded by King Henry the 7th neer the Mannor of Greenwich and was the first which felt the fury of King Henry the 8th by reason of some open opposition made by some of the Friers in favour of Queen Katherine the mother of the Queen now reigning Which moved her in a pious gratitude to re-edifie that ruined house and to restore as many as could be found of that Order to their old habitations making up their Corporation with some new Observants to a competent number She gathered together also a new Convent of Dominicans or black Friers for whom she provided an house in Smithfield in the City of London â—itting the same with all conveniences both for divine Offices and other necessary uses And having done this she was at no more charges with either of them for both the Observants and Dominicans being begging Fryers might be resembled not unfitly to a swarm of Bees which being provided of an hive are left to make their combs and raise themselves a livelyhood by their natural industry But so she went not off in her other foundations which were to be provided of some proportionable endowment out of the revenues of the Crown towards their support Aâ— Sion nere Brentford in the Country of Middlesex there had been anciently a house of religious women Nuns of the Order of St Bridget dissolv'd as were all teh rest by King Henry the 8th Most of the old ones dead and the younger maried Yet out of such of the old Nuns as remained alive and the addition of some others who were willing to embrace that course of life a competent number was made up for a new Plantation but seated as before at Sion which the Queen repaired and laid unto it a sufficient estate in Lands for their future maintenance Which house being afterwards dissolved also by Queen Elizabeth came first to the possession of Sir Thomas Perrot who gave it to his wife the Lady Dorothy one of the daughters of Walter Divereux Earl of Essex by whom being after married to Henry Lord Percy Earl of Northumberland it was left for a retiring house to that Noble Family who do still enjoy it At Sheen on the other side of the water there had been anciently another religious house not far from a mansion of the Kings to which they much resorted till the building of Richmond This house she stock'd with a new Convent of Carthusians corruptly called the Charter-hoâ—se-Moncks which she endowed with a revenue great enough to maintain that Order which profest more abstemiousness in diet and sparingness of expence in all other things than any others which embraced a Monastical life And the next year having closed up the West end of the Quire or Chancel of the Church of St Johns neer Smithfield which was all the Protector Sommerset had left standing of it she restored the same to the Hospitalry of Knights of St John to whom it formerly belonged assigning a liberal endowment to it for their more honourable subsistence Over whom she placed Sir Thomas Treshaâ—â— for the first Lord Prior a Gentleman of an ancient Family and one that had deserv'd exceeding well of her in defence of her claim against Queen Jane who on the 30th of November 1557. received the Order of the Crosse at Westminster and took possession of his place which having scarce warmed he was taken from it by the stroke of death and left it by the Queen to be disposed of to Sir Râ—chard Shellie the last great Master of that Order in the Realm of England But this expiring with the rest within two years after there remained nothing of all Queen Mary's foundations but her new Hoâ—pital in the Savoy An Hospital had formerly been founded in thaâ— House by her Grandfather King Henry the seventh for the relief of such pilgrims as either went on their Devotions to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury or any other eminent Shrine or Saint in those parts of the Kingdom On a suggestion made to King Edward the sixth that it served onely for a recepracle of vagrant persons it was surrendred to him in the last year of his Reign by the Master and Brethren of the same out of the Lands whereof he assigned the yearly Rent of seven hundred Marks for the maintenance of his new working house of Bridewel which he had given for ever to the Lord Mayor and City of London as hath been signified before in the life of that King together with all the beds bedding and other furniture which were found in this Hospital And though this Grant bare date on the 26 of June in the last year of his Reign Anno 1553. yet the Lord Mayor and Aldermen entred not on the possession of it till the month of February now last past Anno 1555. But having took possession of it and so much of the Lands of this Hospital being setled on it the Hospital in the Savoy could not be restored to its first condition but by a new Endowment from such other Lands belonging to Religious Houses which were remaining in the Crown But the Queen was so resolved upon it that she might add some works of Charity unto those of Piety or else in honour of her Grandfather whose foundation she restored at Greenwich also the Hospital was again refounded on the third of November and a convenient yearly Rent allotted to the Master and Brethren for the entertainment of the Poor according to the tenour and effect of the first Institution Which Prince-like Act so wrought upon the Maids of Honor and other Ladies
Trimming as agreeable as my hands could give it And next I am to let thee know that in the whole Carriage of this Work I have assumed unto my Self the Freedom of a Just Historian concealing nothing out of Fear nor speaking any thing for Favour delivering nothing for a Truth without good Authority but so delivering that Truth as to witness for me that I am neither byassed by Love or Hatred nor over-swayed by Partiality and corrupt Affections If I seem â—art at any time as sometimes I may it is but in such Cases onely and on such occasions in which there is no good to be done by Lenitives and where the Tumour is so putrified as to need a Lancing For in this Case a true Historian must have somewhat in him of the good Samaritan in using Wine or Vineger to cleanse the Wound as well as Oyl to qualifie the Grief of the Inflammation I know it is impossible even in a Work of this Nature to please all Parties though I have made it my Endeavour to dissatisfie none but those that hate to be reformed in the Psalmist's Language or otherwise are so tenaciously wedded to their own Opinions that neither Reason nor Authority can divorce them from it And thus good Reader I commend thee to the Blessings of God whom I beseech to guide thee in the way to Eternal Life amongst those intricate Windings and uncertain Turnings those Crooked Lanes and Dangerous Precipices which are round about thee And so fare thee well From Westminster October the 20th 1660. An Advertisement to the Reader THe Reader is to be informed of a mistake occuring in the first part of this History folio 126 where it is said that no care had been taken for translating the English Liturgy into the Irish tongue for the use of that Church from that day to this Whereas it hath been since translated into that language and recommended to the people for Gods publique service though not so generally made use of as it ought to be Neither the Bible nor the book of Homilies being yet translated which makes the Liturgy imperfect and the whole service of the Church defective in the maine parts of it The Reader also is to know that since these sheets were upon the Presse the Lord Marquesse of Hartford mentioned part 1 folio 5. was made Duke of Somerset and Doctor William Juxon Bishop of London mentioned part 2 folio 84 is preferred to Canterbury Such other things as stand in neede of any correction are summed up in the following Errataes The Errata of the Preface Folio 1 line 1 for variel reade variety p. 4. l. 13. f. reduced r. and reduced p. 4. l. 24. f. contriving r. contending l. 20. f. by the by r on the By. p. 6. l. 2. f. first r. fift The Errata of the first part P. 3. l. 29. f. Baron r. Baronet p. 10. l. 13. f. mary wife r. maâ—quise p. 17. l. 13. f. imposed r. debased p. 54. l. 40. f. advancing r. abandoning p. 61. l. 14. f. Duke all r. Dukes fall p. 119. l. 24. Goodwine r. Goodrith p. 130. l. 30. f. Campden r. Camden p. 131. for keeping him both beforehand c. r. for keeping him from being both beforehand c. p. 134. l. 28. f. allwaise r. all or p. 135. l. 48. f. Lorain r. Lovain p. 137. l. 21. f. Cabol r. Cabot ibidem l. 23. Darralaos r. Daccalaos and f. Caenada r. Canada p. 138. l. 39. f. Epy r. Spie p. 140. l. 39. for on the Church r. in the Church p. 141. l. 44. f. redemption r. exception p. 150. l. 34. f. venturer r. ventes p. 151. l. 6. for vertues r. his vertues p. 152. l. 31. for thus r. these p. 152 l. 43. for Gale r. Gates p. 154. l. 4. for pay r. play p. 155. l. 32. for hands r. Bands p. 158. l. 35. for rules r. Rule p. 160. l. 6. for letters r. fetters l. 28. for the heires r. by the heires l. 41. for Jenningham r. Jerningham p. 165. l. 23. deâ—e possibly p. 168. l. 46. for blowes in the second place r. blood Errata on the second part P. 8. l. 15. for bayden r. bugden p. 20. l. 39. for lending r according p. 20. l. 40. for poyner r. poynet p. 25. l. 12. for Poyner r. Poynet p. 27. l. 4. for 300. r. 800. p. 36. l. 24. for alienis r. alternis p. 38. l. 24. for impudence r. imprudence p. 49. l. 15. for there r. thereof p. 54. l. 23. for prejudiced r. premised p. 74. l. 32. for Artanasdes r. Artavasdes p. 79. l. 25. for Fanim r. hames p. 81. l. 1. de 1559. p. 82. l. 13. for presented r. persecuted p. 83. l. 40. for purefew r. parfew p. 103. l. 39. for petite r. petie p. 109. l. 7. for a pover r. that is to say a pover p. 121. l. 44. for Dale r. vale p. 121. l. 30. for any of r. any two of p. 122. l. 2. for zeal r. weale p. 124. l. 13. for Oxon r. Exon. p. 126. l. 15. for with Knox. p. 173. l. 16. for fail r. failer 156. l. 46. for Bishop r. Bishop of Bristow p. 165. l. 13. d. as they all did p. 179. col 1. for one substance r. of one substance p. 181. col 1. art 8. for fur from God â— fargon THE PARENTAGE BIRTH and FIRST FORTUNES of PRINCE EDWARD The onely surviving Son of King HENRY the Eighth before his coming to the CROWN VVith the Condition of Affaires both in Church and State at his first Coming to the same PRINCE Edward the onely surviving son of King Henry the Eighth was born at the Royall Palace of Hampton Court on the twelfth day of October Anno 1537. Descended from his Father by the united Families of York and Lancaster by his Grandfather King Henry the seventh from the old Royall Line of the Kings of Wales by his Grand-Mother Queen Elizabeth the eldest daughter of King Edward the fourth from a long continued Race of Kings descending from the Loynes of the Norman Conqueror and finally by Maud the wife of King Henry the first from Edmond sirnamed Iron-side the last unquestionable King as to the Right of his Succession of the Saxon Race so that all Titles seemed to be Concentred in the Person of this Infant Prince which Might assure the Subjects of a Peaceable and un-troubled Reigne so much the more because his Mothers Marriage was not subject unto any Dispute as were those of the two former Queens whereby the Legitimation of her Issue might be called in question An happinesse which recompensed all defects that might be otherwise pretended against her Birth not answerable unto that of so Great a Monarch and short in some respects of that of her Predecessor in the Kings affections though of a Family truely Noble and of great Antiquity Concerning which it will be necessary to Premise somewhat in this place not only for the setting forth of this
for pressing him to the disinheriting of his foâ—mer children But whether this were so or not certain it is that his last wife being a proud imperious woman and one that was resolved to gain her own ends upon him never leâ—t plying him with one suspition after anoâ—her till in the end she had prevâ—iled to have the greatest part of his lands and all his Honourable Titles setled on her eldest son And that she might make sure work of it she caused him to obtaine a private Act of Parliament in the 32. yeare of Henry the Eighth Anno 1540. for entailing the same on this last Edward and the Heires male of his body So easie was he to be wrought on by those that knew on which side he did lie most open to assaults and batteries Of a farr different temper was his brother Thomas the youngest sonne of Sir John Seimour of a daring and enterprising nature arrogant in himselfe a dispiser of others and a Contemner of all Counsells which were not first forged in his own brain Following his sister to the Court he received the Order of Knighthood from the hands of the King at such time as his brother was made Earle of Hartford and on May day in the thirtieth yeare of the Kings Reign he was one of the Challengers at the Magnificent Justs maintained by him and others against all comers in the Pallace of Westminster in which together with the rest he behaved himselfe so highly to the Kings contentment and their own great Honoâ—r that they were all severally rewarded with the Grant of 100. Marks of yearely rent and a convenient house for habitation thereunto belonging out of the late dissolved order of Saint John oâ— Iâ—rusalem Which being the first foundation of his following greatness proved not sufficient to support the building which was raised upon it the Gentleman and almost all the rest of the challengers coming within few yeares after to unfortunate ends For being made Lord Seimour of Sudley and Lord High Admirall of England by King Edward the sixth he would not satisfie his ambition with a lower marriage then the widow of his deceased Soveraign aspiring after her death to the bed of the Princes of Elizabeth the second daughter of the King Which wrought such Jealousies and distrusts in the Head of his brother then being Lord Protector of the King and Kingdom that he was thereupon Arraigned Condemned and Executed of which more anon to the great joy of such as practised to â—ubvert them both As for the Barrony of Sudley denominated from a goodly Mannor in the County of Glâ—câ—ster it wasâ— ancâ—ently the Patrimony of Harrold the eldest Son of Ralph d' Mont. the son of 〈◊〉 Medantinuâ— or d' Mount and of Goda his wife one of the daughters of Ethilred and sister of Edmond sirnamed â—roâ—side Kings of England whose Posterity taking to themselves the name of Sudley continued in possession of it till the time of John the last Baron of this name and Famiâ—y VVhose daugâ—ter Joane conveyed the whole estate in marriage to Sir William Botteler of the Family of Wemm in Shropshire From whom deâ—cended Ralph Lord Botteleâ— of Sudley Castle Chamberlain of the Houshold to King Henry the sixth by whom he was created Knight of the Garter and Lord High Treasurer of England And though the greatest part of this Inheritance being devided between the sisters and co-heires came to other Families yet the Castle and Barony of Sudley remained unto a male of this house untill the latter end of the Reign â—f King Henry the eighth to whom it was escheated by the Attainder of the last Lord Botteller whose greatest Crime was thought to be this goodly Mannor which some greedy Courtiers had an eye on And being fallen unto the Crown it was no hard matter for the Lord Protector to estate the same upon his brother who was scarce warmed in his new Honour when it fell into the Crown again Where it continued all the rest of King Edwards Reign and by Queen Mary was conferred on Sir John Bruges who derived his Pedigree from one of the said sisters and co-heires of Ralph Lord Botteler whom she ennobled by the Title of Lord Chaundos of Sudley As for Sir Henry Seimour the second son of Sir John Seimour he was not found to be of so fine a metall as to make a Courtier and was therefore left unto the life of a Country Gentleman Advanced by the Power and favour of his elder Brother to the oâ—der of Knighthood and afterwards Estated in the Mannours of Marvell and Twyford in the County of Southhampton dismembred in those broken times from the see of Winchester To each of these belonged a Park that of the first containing no less then foure miles that of the last but two in compass the first being also Honoured with a goodly Mancion house belonging anciently to those Bishops and little inferiour to the best of the Wealthy Bishopricks There goes a story that the Priest Officiating at the Altar in the Church of Ouslebury of which Parish Marvell was a part after the Mass had been abolished by the Kings Authority was violently dragged thence by this Sir Henry beaten and most reproachfully handled by him his servants universally refusing to serve him as the instruments of his Rage and Fury and that the poore Priest having after an opportunity to get into the Church did openly curse the said Sir Henry and his posterity with Bell Book and Candle according to the use observed in the Church of Rome Which whether it were so or not or that the maine foundation of this Estate being laid on Sacrilidge could promise no long blessing to it Certain it is that his posterity are brought beneath the degree of poverty For having three Nephewes by Sir John Seâ—mour his only Son that is to say Edward the eldest Henry and Thomas younger sons besides severall daughters there remaines not to any of them one foot of Land or so much as a penny of money to supply their necessities but what they have from the Munificence of the Marquesse of Hartford or the charity of other well disposed people which have affection or Relation to them But the great ornament of thisâ— house was their sister Jane the only daughter of her father by whose care she was preferred to the Court and service of Queen Ann Bollen where she outâ—shined all the other Ladies and in short time had gained exceeding much on the King a great admirer of Fresh Beauties and such as could pretend unto no command on his own affections Some Ladies who had seen the pictures of both Queenes at White Hall Gallery have entertained no small dispute to which of the two they were to give Preheminence in point of beauty each of them having such a plentifull measure of Perfections as to Entitle either of them to a Superiority If Queen Ann seemed to have the more lively countenance Queen Jane was thought to carry it in the exact
Appellation had been so entituled Which appeares more plainly by a particular of the Robes and Ornaments which were preparing for the day of this Solemnity as they are entred on Record in the book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury where it appeares also that they were prepared only but never used by reason of the Kings death which prevented the Sollemnities of it The ground of this Error I conceive first to be taken from John Stow who finding a creation of some Noble men and the making of many Knights to relate to the 18 day of October supposed it to have been done with reference to the Creation of a Prince of Wales whereas if I might take the liberty of putting in my own conjecture I should conceive rather that it was done with Reference to the Princes Christning as in like manner we find a creation of three Earles and five to inferiour Titles at the Christning of the Princesse Mary born to King James after his coming into England and Christened upon Sunday the fifth of May. 1604. And I conceive withall that Sir Edward Seimour Vicount Beauchamp the Queenes elder brother was then created Earle of Hartford to make him more capable of being one of the Godfathers or a Deputy-Godfather at the least to the Royall Infant the Court not being then in a condition by reason of the mournfull accident of the late Queenes death to show it selfe in any extraordinary splendour as the occasion had required at another time Among which persons so advanced to the Dignity and degree of Knighthood I find Mr. Thomas Seimour the Queenes youngest brother to be one of the number of whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak more fully and particularly in the course of this History No other alteration made in the face of the Court but that Sir William Pawlet was made Treasurer and Sir John Russell Comptroller of his Majesties Houshold on the said 18th day of October which I conceive to be the day of the Princes Christning both of them being principall Actors in the Afâ—aires and troubles of the following times But in the face of the Church there appeared some lines which looked directly towards a Reformation For besides the surrendring of divers Monasteries and the executing of some Abbots and other Religious Persons for their stiffenesse if I may not call it a perversenesse in opposing the Kings desires there are two things of speciall note which concurred this year as the Prognosticks or â—ore-runners of those great events which after followed in his Reign For it appeares by a Memoriall of the Famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton that Grafton now made known to Cromwell the finishing of the English Bible of which he had printed 1500. at his own proper charges amounting in the totall to 500. p. desiring stoppage of a surreptitions Edition in a lesse Letter which else would tend to his undoing the suit endeared by Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at whose request Cromwell presents one of the Bibles to the King and procures the same to be allowed by his Authority to be read publiquely without comptrole in all his Dominions and for so doing he receives a letter of thanks from the said Arch-Bishop dated August the 13th of this present year Nor were the Bishops and Clergy wanting to advance the work by publishing a certain book in the English Tongue which they entituled The Institution of a Christian Man in which the Doctrine of the Sacraments the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments were opened and expounded more perspicuously and lesse abhorrent from the truth then in former times By which clear light of Holy Scripture and the principall duties of Religion so laid opâ—n to them the people were the better able to discerne the errors and corruptionâ— of the Church of Rome From which by the piety of this Prince they were fully Freed And for a preamble thereunto the Rood of Boxley commonly called the Rood of Grace so Artificially contrived by reason of some secret wires in the body or concavities of it that it could move the eyes the lips c. to the great wonder and astonishment of the common people was openly discovered for a lewd imposture and broke in pieces at St. Pauls Cross on Sunday the 24. of February the Rood of Bermondsey Abby in South-work following the same fortune also within six dayes The next year brings an end to almost all the Monasteries and Religious houses in the Realme of England surrendered into the Kings hands by publâ—que instruments under the seales of all the severall and respective Convents and those surrenderies ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament And this occasionally conduced to the future peace and quiet of this young Prince by removing out of the way some Great Pretenders who otherwise might have created to him no small disturbance For so it happened that Henry Earle of Devâ—nshire and Mary wife of Exceter descended from a daughter of King Edward the fâ—urth and Henry Pole Lord Mountacute descended from a daughter of George Duke of Clarence the second brother of that Edward under colour of preventing or revenging the Dissolution of so many famous Abbyes and religious houses associated themselves with Sir Edward Nâ—vill and Sir Nicholas Carew in a dangerous practise against the person of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom By whose endictment it appeares that it was their purpose and designe to destroy the King and advance Reginald Pole one of the younger brothers of the said Lord Mountacute of whom we shall hear more in the course of this History to the Regalâ— Throne Which how it could consist with the Pretensions of the Marquisse of Exceter or the Ambition of the Lord Mountacute the elder brother of this Reginald it is hard to say But having the Chronicle of John Speed to justifie me in the truth hereof in this particular I shall not take upon me to dispute the point The dangerous practise of which Persons did not so much retard the worke of Reformation as their execution did advance it to this year also appertaineth the suppressing of Pilgrimages the defacing of the costly and magnâ—ficent shrines of our Lady of Walsingham Ipswich Worcester c and more particularly of Thomas Becket once Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This last so rich in Jewells of most inestimable value that two great chests were filled with the spoyles thereoâ— so heavy and capacious as is affirmed by Bishop â—oodwin that each of them required no fewer then eight men to carry them out of the Church nothing inferiour unto Gold being charged within them More modestly in this then Sanders that malitious Sycophant who will have no lesse then twenty six waine load of silver Gold and precious stones to be seised into the Kings hands by the spoyle of that Monument Which proceedings so exasperated the Pope then being that without more delay by his Bull of January 1. he deprived the King
Performers of Our last Will and Testament Willing Commanding and Praying them to take upon them the occupation and performances of the same as Executours that is to say The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Chancellour of England the Lord St John Great Master of Oar House the Earl of Hartford Great Chamberlain the Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal the Viscount L'isle Lord High Admiral of England the Bishop Tonstal of Duresme Sir Anthony Brown Knight Master of Our Horses Sir Edward Mountague Knight chief Judge of the Common Pleas Justice Bromly Sir Edward North Knight Chancellour of the Augmentations Sir William Paget Kniâ—ht Our chief Secretary Sir Anthony Denny Sir William Herbert Knight chief Gentlemen of Our Privy Chamber Sir Edward Wotton Knight and Mr. Dr. Wotten his Brother And all these We will to be Our Executours and Councellours of the Privy Council with Our said Son Prince Edward in all matters both concerning His Private affairs and the Publick affairs of the Realm Willing and charging them and every of them as they must and shall answer at the day of Judgement wholly and fully to see this My last Will and Testament performed in all things with as much speed and diligence as may be and that none of them presume to medâ—le with any of Our Treasure or to do any thing appointed by Our said Will alone unless the most part of the whole number of the Co-Executours do consent and by writing agree to the same And wâ—ll that Our said Executours or the most part of them may lawfully do what they shall think most convenient for the execution of this Our Will without being troubled by Our said Son or any other for the same After which having taken Order about the payment of His Debts He proceeds as followeth Further according to the Laws of Almighty God and for the Fatherly Love which We bear to Our Son Prince Edward and this Our Realm We declare Him according to Justice Equity and Conscience to be Our lawfull Heir and do give and bequeath unto Him the Succession of Our Realms of England and Ireland with Our Title of France and all Our Dominions both on this side the Seas and beyond A convenient portion for Our will and Testament to be reserved Also we give unto Him all Our Plate Stuff of Houshold Artillery Ordnance Ammunition Ships Cables and all other things and implements to them belonging and Money also and Jewels saving such portions as shall satisfie this Our Last Will and Testament Charging and commanding Him on pain of Our curse seeing He hath so Loving a Father of Vs and that Our chief Labour and Study in this world is to establish him in the Crown Imperial of this Realm after Our â—â—cease in such sort as may be pleasing to God and to the health of this Realm that He be Ordered and Ruled both in His Marriage and also in ordering the Affairs of the Realm as well outward as inward and also in all His own private Affairs and in giving of Offices of Charge by the Advice and Counsel of Our Right-entirely beloved Councellours the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Chancellour of England the Lord St. John Master of Our Horse the Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal the Earl of Hartford Great Chamberlain of England the Viscount L'isle High Admiral of England the Bishop Tonstal of Dureâ—me Sir Anthony Brown Knight Master of Our Horses Sir William Paget Our chief Secretary Sir Anthony Denny Sir William Herbert Justice Mountague and Bromely Sir Edward Wotton Mr. â—octour Wotton and Sir Edward North Whom we Ordain name and appoint and by these Presents Signed with Our hand do make and constitute Our Privy Council with Our said Son and will that they have the Governance of Our most dear Son Prince Edward and of all Our Realms Dominions and Subjects and of all the Affairs publick and private untill He shall have fully compleated the eighteenth year of His Age. And for because the variety and number of things affairs and matters are and may be such as We not knowing the certainty of them before cannot conveniently prescribe a certain â—rder or Rule unto Our said Councellours for their behaviours and proceedings in this charge which we have now and do appoint unto them about Our said Son during the time of His minority aforesaid We therefore for the special Trust and Confidence which We have in them will and by these Presents do give and grant full Power and Authority unto Our said Councelours that they all or the most part of them being assembled together in Council or if any of them fortune to dye the more part of them which shall be for the time living being assembled in Council together shall and may make devise and ordain whatsoever things they or the more part of them as afore-said shall during the Minority of Our said Son think meet necessary and convenient for the Benefit Honour and Surety of the Weal Profit and Commodity of Our said Son His Realms Dominions or Subjects or the Discharge of Our Conscience And the same things made ordained and devised by them or the more part of them as afore-said shall and may lawfully do execute and accomplish or cause to be done executed or accomplished by their Discretions or the Discretions of the more part of them as afore-said in as large and ample manner as if We had or did express unto them by a more special Commission under Our Great Seal of England every particular cause that may chance or occurr during the time of Our said Son's Minority and the self-same manner of Proceeding which they shall from time to time think meet to use and follow Willing and charging Our said Son and all others which shall hereafter be Councellours to Our said Son that they never charge molest trouble or disquiet Our afore-said Councellours nor any of them for the devising or doing nor any other person or persons for doing that they shall devise or the more part of them devise or do assembled as is afore-said And We do charge expresly the same Our entirely-beloved Councellours and Executours that they shall take upon them the Rule and Charge of Our said Son and Heir in all His Causes and Affairs and of the whole Realm doing nevertheless all things as under Him and in His name untill Our said Son and Heir shall be bestowed and married by their advice and that the eighteenth year be expired Willing dâ—siring furthermore Our said Trusty Councellours and then all Our Trusty and Assured Servants and Thirdly all other Our Loving Subjects to aid and assist Our fore-named Councellours in the Execution of the Premisses during the afore-said time not doubting but that they will in all things deal so truly and uprightly as they shall have cause to think them well chosen for the Charge committed unto them Streightly charging our said Councellours and Executours and in God's Name exhorting them for the singular Trust and
the Lord Protectour with whom she might enjoy all Content and Happiness which a vertuous Lady could desire And that they might appear in the greater Splendour he took into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Bath and Wells which being by him much Enlarged and Beautified came afterwards to the Possession of the Earls of Arundel best known of late Times by the name of Arundel-House And so far all things went on smoothly betwixt him and his Bâ—other though afterwards there were some distrust between them but this last Practice gave such an hot Alarum to the Duchess of Sommerset that nothâ—ng could content her but his absolute Ruin For what hope could she have of Disputing the Precedence with any of King Henâ—â—e's Daughters who if they were not married out of the Realm might Create many Troubles and Disturbances in it Nor was the Lord Prâ—tectâ—ur so insensible of his own Condition as not to fear the utmost Danger which the Effecting of so great an Enterprise might bring upon him so that the Rupture which before had began to close became more open then before made widâ—r by the Artifices of the Earl of Warwick who secretly playing with both hands exasperated each of them against the other that so he might be able to destroy them both The Plot being so far carried on the Admiral was committed to the Tower on the sixteenth of January but never called unto his Answer it being thought safer to Attaint him by Act of Parliament where Power and Faction might prevail then put him over to his Peers in a Legal way And if he were guilty of the Crimes which I finde charged upon him in the Bill of Attainder he could not but deserve as great a Punishment as was laid upon him For in that Act he stands condemned for Attempting to get into his Custody the Person of the King and the Government of the Realm for obtaining many Offices retaining many Men into his Service for making great Provision for Money and Victuals for endeavouring to marry the Lady Elizabeth the King's Sister and for perswading the King in His Tender Age to take upon Him the Rule and Order of Himself But Parliaments being Governed by a â—allible Spirit the Business still remaineth under such a Cloud that he may seem rather to have fallen a Sacrifice to the Private Malice of a Woman then the Publick Justice of the State For the Bill of Attainder passing at the End of the Parliament which was on the fourteenth day of March he was beheaded at Tower-Hill on the sixth day after the Warrant for his Execution coming under the hand oâ— his own Brother at what time he took it on his Death That he had never committed or meant any Treason against King or Kingdom Thus as it is affâ—â—med of the Emperour Valentinian that by causing the right Noble Aetius to be put to Death he had cut off his Right Hand with his Left so might it be affirmed of the Lord Protectour that when he signed that unhappy Warrant he had with his Right Hand robbed himself of his greatest Strength For as long as the two Brothers stood together they were good support unto one another but now the one being taken away the other proved not Subâ—tantive enough to stand by himself but fell into his Enemies hands within few Moneths after Comparing them together we may finde the Admiral to be Fierce in Courage Courtly in Fashion in Personage Stately in Voice Magnificent the Duke to be Mild Affable Free and Open more easie to be wrought upon and no way Malicious the Admiral generally more esteemed amongst the Nobles the Duke Honoured by the Common People the Lord Protectour to be more desired for a Friend the Lord Admiral to be more feared for an Enemy Betwixt them both they might have made one excellent man if the Defects of each being taken away the Virtues onely had remained The Protectour having thus thrown away the chief Prop of his House hopes to repair that Ruin by erecting a Magnificent Palace He had been bought out of his purpose for building on the Deanery and Close of Westminster and casts his Eye upon a piece of Ground in the Strand on which stood three Episcopal Houses and one Parish-Church the Parish-Church Dedicated to the Virgin Mary the Houses belonging to the Bishops of Worcester Lichfield and Landaff All these he takes into his Hands the Owners not daring to oppose and therefore willingly consenting to it Having cleared the place and projected the intended Fabrick the Workmen found that more Materials would be wanting to go thorough with it then the Demolished Church and Houses could afford unto them He thereupon resolves for taking down the Parish-Church of Saint Marâ—arets in Westminster and turning the Parishioners for the celebrating of all Divine Offices into some part of the Nave or main Body of the Abby-Church which should be marked out for that purpose But the Workmen had no sooner advanced their Scafâ—olds when the Parishioners gathered together in great Multitudes with Bows and Arrows Staâ—es and Clubs and other such offensive Weapons which so terrified the Workmen that they ran away in great Amazement and never could be brought again upon that Imployment In the next place he is informed of some superfluous or rather Superstitious Buildings on the North-side of Saint Paul's that is to say a goodly Cloyster environing a goodly piece of Ground called Pardon-Church-Yard with a Chapel in the midst thereof and beautified with a piece of most curious Workmanship called the Dance of Death together with a fair Charnel-House on the South-side of the Church and a Chapel thereunto belonging This was conceived to be the safer undertaking the Bishop then standing on his good Behaviour and the Dean and Chapter of that Church as of all the rest being no better in a manner by reason of the late Act of Parliament then Tenant at Will of their great Landlords And upon this he sets his Workmen on the tenth of April takes it all down converts the Stone Timber Lead and Iron to the use of his intended Palace and leaves the Bones of the dead Bodies to be buried in the Fields in unhallowed Ground But all this not sufficing to compleat the Work the Steeple and most parts of the Church of Saint John's of Jerusalem not far from Smithfield most beautifully built not long before by Dockwray a late Priour thereof was blown up with Gunpowder and all the Stone thereof imployed to that purpose also Such was the Ground and such were the Materials of the Duke 's New Palace called Sommerset-House which either he lived not to finish or else it must be very strange that having pulled down two Churches two Chapels and three Episcopal Houses each of which may be probably supposed to have had their Oratories to finde Materials for this Fabrick there should be no room purposely erected for Religious Offices According unto this Beginning all the
there excepteth against Commemoration of the Dead which he acknowledgeth however to be very Antient as also against Chrism and Extreme Vnction the last of which being rather allowed of then required by the Rules of that Book which said he maketh it his Advice that all these Ceremonies should be abrogated and that withall he should go forwards to Reform the Church without fear or wit without regard of Peace at home or Correspondency abroad such Considerations being onely to be had in Civil Matters but not in Matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be Exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in the managing whereof there is not any thing more distastfull in the eyâ— of God then Worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his Will revealed In the next place he gives a touch on the Book of Homilies which Bucer as it appears by his Epistle to the Church of England had right-well approved of These very faintly he permits for a season onely but by no means allows of them for a long continuance or to be looked on as a Rule of the Church or constantly to serve for the instruction of the People and thereby gave the hint to the Zuinglian Gospellers who ever since almost have declaimed against them And whereas some Disputes had grown by his setting on or the Pragmatick Humour of some Agents which he had amongst us about the Ceremonies of the Church then by Law established he must needs trouble the Protectour in that business also To whom he writes to this effect That the Papists would grow insolenter every day then other unless the differences were composed about the Ceremonies But how not by reducing the Opponents to Conformity but by encouraging them rather in their Opposition which cannot but appear most plainly to be all he aimed at by soliciting the Duke of Sommerset in behalf of Hooper who was then fallen into some troubles upon that of which more hereafter Now in the Heat of these Imployments both in Church and State the French and Scots lay hold on the Opportunity for the Recovering of some Forts and Peeces of Consequence which had been taken from them by the English in the former War The last year Bulloign-Siege was attempted by some of the French in hope to take it by Surprize and were couragiously repulsed by the English Garison But now they are resolved to go more openly to work and therefore send an Herald to defy the King according to the Noble manner of those Times in proclaiming War before they entred into Action against one another The Herald did his Office on the eighth of August and preâ—ently the French with a considerable Army invade the Territory of Bulloign In less then three weeks they possess themselves of Blackness Hamiltue and New-Haven with all the Ordnance Ammunition and Victuals in them Few of the Souldiers escaped with Life but onely the Governour of New-Haven a Bastard Son of the Lord Sturton's who was believed to have betrayed that Fort unto them because he did put himself immediatly into the Service of the French But they sped worse in their Designs by Sea then they did by Land for giving themselves no small Hopes in those broken Times for taking in the Islands of Guerâ—sey and Jersey they made toward them with a great number of Gallies but they were so manfully encountred with the King's Navy which lay then hovering on those Coasts that with the loss of a Thousand men and great spoil of their Gallies they were forced to retire into France and desist from their purpose Nor were the Scotâ— in the mean time negligent in preparing for their own Defence against whom some considerable Forces had been prepared in the Beginning of this Summer but most unhappily diverted though very fortunately imployed for the Relief of Exeter and the taking of Norwich So that no Succours being sent for the Relief of those Garisons which then remained unto the English the Scots about the middle of November following couragiously assault the strong Fort of Bouticrage take it by Storm put all the Souldiers to the Sword except the Captain and him they spared not out of any Pity or Humane Compassion but because they would not lose the Hope of so great a Benefit as they expected for his Ransom Nothing now left unto the English of all their late Purchases and Acquists in Scotland but the strong Fort of Aymouth and the Town of Rox-borough The loss of so many Peeces in France one after another was very sad News to all the Court but the Earl of Warwick Who purposely had delayed the sending of such Forces as were prepared against the French that the Forts above-mentioned might be lost that upon the loss thereof he might project the Ruin of the Lord Protectour He had long cast an envious Eye at his Power and Greatness and looked upon himself as a man of other parts both for Camp and Counsel fitter in all Respects to Protect the Kingdom then he that did enjoy the Title He looked upon him also as a man exposed to the Blows of Fortune in being so fatally deprived of his greatest strength by the Death of his Brother after which he had little left unto him but the worst half of himself feared by the Lords and not so well beloved by the Common People as he had been formerly There goes a Story that Earl Godwine having treacherously slain Prince Alfred the Brother of Edward the Confessour was afterwards present with the King when his Cup-bearer stumbling with one foot recovered himself by the Help of the other One Brother helps another said Earl Godwine merrily And so replyed the King as tartly My Brother might have been useful unto me if you had pleased to spare his Life for my present Comfort The like might have been said to Earl Dudly of Warwick That if he had not lent an helping hand to the Death of the Admiral he could not so easily have tripp'd up the Heels of the Lord Protectour Having before so luckily taken in the Out-Works he now resolves to plant his Battery for the Fort it self To which end he begins to muster up his Strengths and make ready his Forces knowing which way to work upon the Lords of the Court many of which began to stagger in their good Affections and some openly to declare themselves the Protectour's Enemies And he so well applyed himself to their several Humours that in short time his Return from Norfolk with Success and Honour he had drawn unto his side the Lord Chancellour Rich the Lord Saint-John Lord Great Master the Marquess of North-hampton the Earl of Arundel Lord Chamberlain the Earl of South-hampton Sir Thomas Cheny Treasurer of the Houshould Sir John Gage Constable of the Tower Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Edward Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Sir Edward North Sir Ralph Sadlier Sir John Baker Sir
thought fit to nominate to that imployment And afterwards appointed a Sub-Committee of eight Persons to prepare the Work make it ready for the rest that it might be dispatched with the more expedition which said eight persons were the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Doctour Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Elâ— Doctour Richard Cox the King's Almoner and Peter Martyr Doctour in Divinity William May and Rowland Taylour Doctours of the Laws John Lucas and Richard Goodrick Esquires By whom the Work was undertaken and digested fashioned according to the Method of the Romane Decretals and called by the Name of Reformatiâ— Legum Ecclesiasticarum c. But not being Commissionated hereunto till the eleventh of November in the year 1551 they either wanted time to communicate it to the chief Commissioners by whom it was to be presented to the Kâ—ng or found the King encumbred with more weighty matters then to attend the peâ—â—sal of it And so the King dying as he did before he had given life unto it by his Royal Signature the Design miscarried never thought fit to be resumed in the following Times by any of those who had the Government of the Chuâ—ch or were concerned in the Honour and Safety of it There also passed another Act in Order to the Peace of the Common-Wealth but especially procuâ—ed by the Agents of the Duke of Sommerset the better to secure him from all Attempts and Practices for the Times ensuing by which his Life might be illegally endangered The purport of which Act was to make it High Treason for any twelve Persons or above assembled together to kill or imprison any of the King's Council or alter any Laws or continue together the space of an hour being Commanded to return by any Justice of the Peace Mayour Sheriff c. Which Act intended by his Friends for his Preservation was afterwards made use of by his Enemies for the onely means of his Destruction deferred a while but still resolved upon when occasion served It wâ—s not long before Earl Dudly might perceive that he had served other mens Turâ—s against the Duke as well as his own and that having served their Turns therein he â—ound no such forwardness in them for raising him unto the Place They were all willing enough to unhorse the Duke but had no mind that such a rank Rider as the Earl should get into the Saddle Besides he was not â—o be told that there was nothing to be charged against the Duke which could touch his life that so many men of dâ—fferent Humours were not like to hold â—ong in a Plot together now their Turns were served that the Dukâ—'s Friends could not be so dull as not to see the emptiness of the Practice which was forged against him nor the King so forgetfull of his Uncle when the Truth was known as not to raise him up again to his former height it therefore would be fittest for his ends and purposes to close up the Breach to set the Duâ—e at Liberty from his Imprisonment but so to order the Affair that the Benefit should be acknowledged to proceed from himself alone But first the Duke must so acknowlege his Offences that his Adversaries might come off with Honour In Order whereunto he is first Articled against for many Crimes and Misdemeanours rather imputed to him then proved against him And unto all these he must be laboured to subscribe acknowledging the Offences contained in them to beg the Favour of the Lords and cast himself upon his Knees for his Majestie 's Mercy All which he very poorly did subscribing his Confession on the twenty third of December Which he subjoyned unto the Articles and so returned it to the Lords Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 4 o. An. Dom. 1549 1550. THe Lords thus furnished with sufficient matter for a Legal Proceeding condemned him by a Sentence passed in the House of Peers unto the Loss of all his Offices of Earl Marshal Lord Treasurer and Lord Protectour as also to â—he Forfeiture of all his Goods and near two thousand pounds of good yearly Rents Which being signified unto him he acknowledged himself in his Letter of the second of February to be highly â—avoured by their Lordships in that they brought his Cause to be Finable Which Fine though it was to him almost unsupportable yet he did never purpose to contend with them nor once to justifie himself in any Action He confess'd That being none of the wisest he might easily err that it was hardly possible for any man in Eminent place so to carry himself that all his Actings should be blameless in the eye of Justice He therefore submitted himself wholly to the King's Mercy and to their Discretions for some Moderation desiring them to conceive of what he did amiss as rather done through Rudeness and want of Judgment then through any malicious Meaning and that he was ready both to do and suffer what they should appoint And finally he did again most humbly upon his Knees intreat Pardon and Favour and they should ever finde him so lowly to their Honours and Obedient to their Orders as he would thereby make Amends for his former Follies By which Submission it may be called an Abjectedness rather as he gave much secret Pleasure to the most of his Adversaries so he gained so far upon the King that he was released of his Imprisonment on the fourth day after And by his Majestie 's Grace and Favour he was discharged of his Fine his Goods and Lands being again restored unto him except such as had been given away either the malice of his Enemies being somewhat appeased or wanting power and credit to make Resistance This great Oak being thus shrewdly shaken there is no doubt but there will be some gathering up of the Sticks which were broken from him and somewhat must be done as well to gratifie those men which had served the Turn as to inclinâ— others to the like Propensions And therefore upon Candlemasâ—-Day being the dâ—y on which he had made his humble Submission before-mentioned William Lord St. John Lord Great Master and President of the Council is made Lord Treasurer John Dudley Earl of Warwick Lord High Chamberlain is preferred to the Office of Lord Great Master the Marquess of North-hampton created Lord High Chamberlain Sir Anthony Wingfield Captain of the Guard is made Comptroller of the King's House in the place of Sir William Paget of whom more anon and Sir Thomas Darcie advanced to the Office of Vice-Chamberlain and Captain of his Majestie 's Guard And though the Earls of Arundel and Souâ—â—-hampton had been as forward as any of the rest in the Duke's destruction yet now upon some Court-displeasures they were commanded to their Houses and dismissed from their Attendance at the Council-Table the Office of Lord Chamberlain of his Majestie 's Houshold being taken from the Earl of Arundel and bestowed on Wentworth ennobled by the Title of Lord Wentworth in the first year of the King Some Honours
had been given before between the time of the Duke's Acknowledgment and the Sentence passed on him by the Lords and so disposed that none of the Factions might have any ground for a Complaint One of each side being taken out for these Advancements For on the nineteenth day of January William Lord St. John a most affectionate Servant to the Earl of Warwick was preferred unto the Title of Earl of Wiltshire the Lord Russell who had made himself the Head of those which were engaged on neither side was made Earl of Bedford and Sir William Paget Comptroller of his Majestie 's Houshold who had persisted faithfull to the Lord Protectour advanced to the Dignity of a Baron and not long after to the Chancellour-ship of the Dutchy of Lancaster Furnished with Offices and Honours it is to be presumed that they would finde some way to provide themselves of sufficient Means to maintain their Dignities The Lord Wentworth being a younger Branch of the Wentworths of Yorkshire had brought some Estate with him to the Court though not enough to keep him up in Equipage with so great a Title The want whereof was supplied in part by the Office of Lord Chamberlain now conferred upon him but more by the goodly Manours of Stebunâ—th commonly called Stepney and Hackney bestowed upon him by the King in consideration of the Good and Faithfull Services before performed For so it happened that the Dâ—an and Chapter of St. Paul's lying at the Mercy of the Times as before was said conveyed over to the King the said two Manours on the twelfth day after Christmâ—ss now last past with all the Members and Appertenances thereunto belonging Of which the last named was valued at the yearly rent of 41. pounds 9. â— 4 d. The other at 140. pounds 8 â— 11. â— ob And being thus vested in the King they were by Letters Patents bearing Date the sixteenth of April then next following transferred upon the said Lord VVâ—ntworth By means whereof he was possessed of a goodly Territory extending on the Thames from St. Katharine's near the Tower of London to the Borders of Essex near Black-wall from thence along the River Leâ— to Stratford le Bow and fetching a great compass on that side of the City contains in all no fewer then six and twenty Town-ships Streets and Hamlets besides such Rows of Building as have since been added in these later Times The like provision was made by the new Lord Pâ—get a Londoner by Birth but by good Fortune mixed with Merit preferred by degrees to be one of the Principal Secretaries to the late King Henry by whom he was employed in many Embassies and Negotiations Being thus raised and able to set up for himself he had his share in the division of the Lands of Chantery Free-Chapels c. and got into his hands the Episcopal House belonging to the Bishop of Exeter by him enlarged and beautified and called Paget-House sold afterwards to Robert Earl of Leicester from whom it came to the late Earls of Essex and from them took the name of Essex-House by which it is now best known But being a great House is noâ— able to keep it self he played his Game so well that he got into his possession the Manour of Beau-desart of which he was created Baron and many other fair Estates in the County of Stafford belonging partly to the Bishop and partly to the Dean and Chaâ—ter of Lichfield neither of which was able to contend with so great a Courtier who held the See and had the Ear of the Protectour and the King 's to boot What other Course he toâ—k to improve his Fortunes we shall see hereafter when we come to the last part of the Tragedy of the Duke of Sommerset For Sommerset having gained his Liberty and thereby being put into a Capacity of making use of his Friends found Means to be admitted to the King's Presence by whom he was not onely welcomed with all the kind Expressions of a Gracious Prince and made to sit down at his own Table but the same day the eighth of April he was again sworn one of the Lords of the Privy Council This was enough to make Earl Dudly look about him and to pretend a Reconciliation with him for the present whom he meant first to make secure and afterwards strike the last blow at him when he least look'd for it And that the knot of Amity might be tyed the faster and last the longer a True-Loves-Knot it must be thought or else nothing worth a Marriage was nâ—gotiated between John Lord Viscount L'isle the Earl's Eldest Son and the Lady Ann Seimour one of the Daughters of the Duke which Marriage was joyfully solemnized on the third of June at the King's Mannour-House of Shâ—â—e the King himself gracing the Nuptials with his Presence And now who could imagine but that upon the giving of such Hostages unto one another a most inviolable League of Friendship had been made between them and that all Animosities and Displeasures being quite forgotten they would more powerfully Co-operate to the publick Good But leaving them and their Adâ—erents to the dark Contrivances of the Court we must leave England for a time and see how our Affairs succeeded on the other side of the Sea Where in the middle of the former Dissensions the French had put us to the Worst in the way of Arms and after got the Better in a Treaty of Peace They had the last year taken in all the Out-works which seemed the strongest Ramparâ—s of the Town of Bulloign but had not strength enough to venture on the Town it self provided plentifully of all necessaries to endure a Siege and bravely Garisoned by men of too much Courage and Resolution to give it up upon a Summons Besides they came to understand that the English were then Practicing with Charles the Emperour to associate with them in the War according to some former Capitulations made between those Crowns And if they found such Dâ—ffiâ—ulties in maintaining the War against either of them when they fought singly by themselves there was no hope of any good Success against them should they unite and poure their Forces into France Most true it is that after such time as the French had bid Defiance to the King and that the King by reason of the Troubles and Embroilments at home was not in a Condition to attend the Affairs of France Sir William Paget was sent Ambassadour to Charles the Fifth to desire Succour of Him and to lay before Him the Infancy and several Necessities of the young King being then in the twelfth year of His Age. This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought Him that he would at the least be pleased to take into His Hands the keeping of the Town of Bulloign and that for no longer time then untill King EDVVARD could make an End of the Troubles of His Subjects at home and compose the Discords of the Court which
threatned more Danger then the other To which Request He did not onely refuse to hearken except the King would promise to restore the Catholick Religion as He called it in all His Dominions but expresly commanded that neither His Men noâ— Ammunition should go to the Assistance of the English An Ingratitude not easie to be marked with a fitting Epithete considering what fast Friends the Kings of England had alwaies been to the House of Burgundy the Rights whereof remained in the person of Charles with what sums of Money they had helped them and what sundry Wayâ— they had made for them both in the Nether-Lands to maintain their Authority and in the Realm of France it self to increase their Power For from the Marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austriâ— with the Lady Mary of Burgundy which happened in the year 1478. unto the Death of Henry the Eight which fell in the year 1546 are just threescore and eight years In which time onely it was found on a just account that it had cost the Kings of England at the least six Millions of Pounds in the meer Quarrels of that House But the French being more assured that the English held some secret Practice with the Emperour then certain what the Issue thereof might be resolved upon a Peace with EDVVARD in hope of getting more by Treaty then he could by Force To this end one Guidolti a Florentine is sent for England by whom many Overtures were made to the Lords of the Council not as from the King but from the Constable of France And spying with a nimble Eye that all Affairs were governed by the Earl of Warwick he resolved to buy him to the French at what price soever and so well did he ply the Business that at the last it was agreed that four Ambassadours should be sent to France from the King of England to treat with so many others of that Kingdom about a Peace between the Crowns but that the Treaty it self should be held in Guisnes a Town belonging to the English in the Marches of Calice In pursuance whereof the Earl of Bedford the new Lord Paget Sir William Peter Principal Secretary of Estate and Sir John Mason Clerk of the Council were on the twenty first of January dispatched for France But no sooner were they come to Calice when Guidolâ—i brings a Letter to them from Mounsieur d' Rochpot one of the four which were appointed for that Treaty in behalf of the French In which it was desired that the English Ambassadours would repair to the Town of Bulloign without putting the French to the Charge and Trouble of so long a Journey as to come to Guisnes Which being demurred on by the English and a Post sent unto the Court to know the pleasure of the Council in that particular they received word for so the Oracle had directed that they should not stand upon Punctilioes so they gained the point nor hazard the Substance of the Work to preserve the Circumstances According whereunto the Ambassadours removed to Bulloign and pitch'd their Tents without the Town as had been desired for the Reception of the French that so they might enter on the Treaty for which they came But then a new Dâ—fficulty appeared for the French would not cross the Water and put themselves under the Command of Bulloign but desired rather that the English would come over to them and fall upon the Treaty in an House which they were then preparing for their Entertainment Which being also yielded to after some Disputes the French grew confident that after so many Condescensions on the part of the English they might obtain from them what they liâ—ted in the main of the Business For though it cannot otherwise be but that in all Treaties of this Nature there must be some Condescendings made by the one or the other yet he that yields the first inch of Ground gives the other Party a strong Hope of obtaining the rest These Preparations being made the Commissioners on both sides begin the Treaty where after some Expostulations touching the Justice or Injustice of the War on either side they came to particular Demands The English required the payment of all Debts and Pensions concluded on between the two Kings deceased and that the Queen of Scots should either be delivered to their Hands or sent back to Her Kingdom But unto this the French replyed That the Queen of Scots was designed in Marriage to the Daulphin of France and that She looked upon it as an high Dishonour that their King should be esteemed a Pensioner or Tributary to the Crown of England The French on the other side propounded That all Arrears of Debts and Pensions being thrown aside as not likely to be ever paid they should either put the higher Price on the Town of Bulloign or else prepare themselves to keep it as well as they could From which Proposals when the French could not be removed the Oracle was again consulted by whose Direction it was ordered in the Council of England That the Commissioners should conclude the Peace upon such Articles and Instructions as were sent unto them Most of them ordinary and accustomed at the winding up of all such Treaties But that of most Concernment was That all Titles and Claims on the one side and Defences on the other remaining to either Party as they were before the Town of Bulloign with all the Ordnance found there at the taking of it should be delivered to the French for the Sum of four hundred thousand Crowns of the Sun Of which four hundred thousand Crowns each Crown being valued at the Price of six Shillings and six Pence one Moity was to be paid within three days after the Town should be delivered and the other at the end of six Moneths after Hostages to be given in the mean time for the payment of it It was agreed also in relation to the Realm of Scotland That if the Scots razed Lowder and Dowglass the English should raze Rox-borough and Aymouth and no Fortification in any of those places to be afterwards made Which Agreement being signed by the Commissioners of each side and Hostages mutually delivered for performance of Covenants Peace was Proclaimed between the Kings on the last of March and the Town of Bulloign with all the Forts depending on it delivered into the power of the French on the twenty fifth day of April then next following But they must thank the Earl of Warwick for letting them go away with that commodity at so cheap a Rate for which the two last Kings had bargained for no less then two Millions of the same Crowns to be paid unto the King of England at the end of eight years the Towns and Territory in the mean time to remain with the English Nor was young Edward backward in rewarding his Care and Diligence in expenditing the Affair Which was so represented to him and the extraordinary Merit of the Service so highly magnified
unto that Honour by the King's Letters Patenâ—s As for Ridley we have spoke before and as for Poynet he is affirmed to have been a Man of verâ— good Learning with Reference to his Age and the Time he lived in well studied in the Greek Tongue and of no small Eminence in the Arts and Mathematical Sciences A Change was also made in Cambridg by the Death of Bucer which I finde placed by Fâ—x on the twenty third of December by others with more Truth on the nineteenth of January both in the Compass of this year and by some others with less Reaâ—â—n on the tenth of March But at whâ—t time sover he died certain it is that he was most Solemnly Interred in Saint Marie's Church attended to Fu his â—rave by all the Heads and most of the Graduates in that Vniversity his neâ—al Sermon Preached by Dâ—ctâ—ur Parâ—er â—he first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in Queen Elizâ—beth'â— Time the Panegyrick made by one of the Haddons a Man of a moâ—â— Fluenâ— and Rhetorical Sâ—yle all that pretended to the Muses in both Vniverâ—ities setting forth his great Worth and their own Loss in him with the best of their Poetry Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 5 o. An. Dom. 1550 1551. WE must begin this year with the Deprivation of Bishop Gardiner whom we left committed to the Tower the last of June in the year 1548. There he remained almost two years without being pressed to any particular Point the yielding unto which might procure his Liberty or the Refusal justifie such a long Imprisonment On the tenth of June this year the Publick Liturgie now being generally executed in all Parts of the Kingdom was offered to his Consideration that some Experiment might be made whether he would put his Hand unto it and promise to advance the Service Upon the fourth day after the Duke of Sommerset with five other of the Lords of the Council was sent unto the Tower to receive his Answer Which he returned to this effect That he had deliberately considered of all the Offices contained in the Common-Prayer-Book and all the several Branches of it That Though he could not have made it in that Manner had the Matter been referred unto him yet that he found such things therein as did very well satisfie his Conscience and therefore that he would not onely execute it in his own Person but cause the same to be Officiated by all those of his Diocess But this was not the Answer which the Courtiers looked for It was their Hope they should have found him more averse from the King's Proceedings that making a Report of his Perversness he might be lifted out of that Wealthy Bishoprick which if it either were kept Vacant or filled with a more Tractable Person might give them opportunity to enrich themselves by the Spoil thereof Therefore to put him further to it the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick Sir William Herbert Master of the Horse and Mr. Secretary Petre are sent upon the ninth of July with certain Articles which for that end were Signed by the King and the Lords of the Council According to the Tenour hereof he was not onely to testifie his Consent to the Establishing of the Holy-Days and Fasting-Days by the King's Authority the Allowance of the Publick Liturgie and the Abrogating of the Statute for the Six Articles c. but to Subscribe to the Confession of his Fault in his former Obstinacy after such Form and Manner as was there required To which Articles he Subscribed without any great Hesitancy but refused to put his Hand to the said Confession There being no reason as he thought and so he answered those which came unto him from the Court on the Morrow after that he should yield to the Confâ—ssion of a Guilt when he knew himself Innocent He is now faln into the Toil out of which he finds but Little Hope of being set free For presently on the neck of this a Book of Articles is drawn up containing all the Alteration made by the King and His Father as well by Acts of Parliament as their own Injunctions from the first Suppression of the Monasteries to the coming out of the late Form for the Consecration of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Of all which Doings he is required to signifie his Approbation to make Confession of his Fault with an Acknowledgment that he had deserved the Punishment which was aid upon him Which Articles being tendered to him by the Bishop of London the Master of the Horse Mr. Secretary Petre and Goodrick a Counsellour at Law appeared to him to be of such an hard Digestion that he desir'd first to be set at Liberty before he should be pressed to make a particular Answer This being taken for a Refusal and that Refusal taken for a Contempt the Profits of his Bishoprick are Sequestered from him for three Moneths by an Order of the Council-Table bearing date the nineteenth of the Moneth the said Profits in the mean time to be collected or received by such Person or Persons as the King should thereunto appoint with this Intimation in the Close that if he did not tender his Submission at the end of that Term he should be taken for an Incorrigible Person and unmeet Minister of this Church and Finally to be procceeded against to a Deprivation The Term expired and no such humble Submission or Acknowledgment made as had been required at his Hands a Commission is directed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Ely and Lincoln Sir William Peter c. authorised thereby to proceed against him upon certain Articles in the same contained Convented before whom at Lambeth on the fifteenth of December he received his Charge Which being received he used so many Shifts and found so many Evasions to elude the Business that having appeared six Days before them without coming to a plain and Positive Answer he was upon the fourteenth of February Sentenced to a Deprivation and so remitted to the Tower But Gardiner did not mean to die so tamely and therefore had no sooner heard the Definitive Sentence but presently he Protesteth against the same makes his Appeal unto the King and causeth both his said Appeal and Protestation to be Registred in the Acts of that Court. Of all which he will finde a time to serve himself in the Alâ—eration of Affairs It was presumed that the Report of this Severity against a Man so eminent for his Parts and Place would either bring such other Bishops as had yet stood out to a fit Conformity or otherwise expose both them and their Estates to the like Condemnation But some there were so stiff in their old Opinions that neither Terrour nor Perswasion could prevail upon them either to give their Approbation of the King's Proceedings or otherwise to advance the Service And some there were who though they outwardly complyed with the King's Commands yet was it done so coldly and with such Reluctancy as laâ—'d them open to the
old Age with the Trouble of Business and to take that Burthen on his Shoulders which he had long before thrown off with such great Alacrity And possible enough it is that finding his Abilities more proper for the Pulpit then they were for the Consistory he might desire to exercise himself in that Imployment in which he might appear most serviceable both to God and his Church For both before and after this we finde him frequent in the Pulpit before the King and have been told of his Diligent and Constant Preaching in other places His Sermons for the most part as the use then was upon the Gospels of the Day by which he had the Opportunity of Opening and Expounding a greater Portion of the Word of God then if he had confined his Meditations to a single Text. His Entertainment generally with Arch-Bishop Cranmer where he found all necessary Accommodation and so extreamly honoured by all sorts of People that he never lost the Name of Lord and was still looked on as a Bishop though without a Bishoptick But notwithstanding the Remove of so many Bishops there still remained one Rub in the Way which did as much retard the Progress of the Reformation as any of the rest if not altogether The Princess Mary having been bred up from Her Infancy in the Romish Religion could not be won by any Arguments and perswasions to change Her Minde or permit that any Alteration should be made in those Publick Offices to which She had so long been used The King had writ many Letters to Her in hope to take Her off from those Affections which She carried to the Church of Rome The like done also by the Lords of the Council and with like Success For besides that She conceived Her Judgment built on so good a Foundation as could not easily be subverted there were some Politick Considerations which possibly might prevail more with Her then all other Arguments She was not to be told That by the Religion of the Protestants Her Mother's Marriage was Condemned That by the same She was declared to be Illigitimate and Consequently made uncapable to succeed in the Crown in Case She should survive Her Brother All which She must acknowledge to be legally and justly determined Upon these Grounds She holds Her self to Her first Resolution keeps up the Mass with all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to it and suffers divers Persons besides her own Domestick Servants to be present at it The Emperour had so far mediated in Her behalf that Her Chaplains were permitted to Celebrate the Mass in Her Presence but with this Cautioâ— and Restriction That they should Celebrate the same in Her Presence onely For the transgressing of which Bounds Mallet and Barkley Her two Chaplains were Committed Prisoners in December last of which She makes Complaint to the Lords of the Council but finds as cold Return from Them as they did from Her A Plot is thereupon contrived for conveying Her out of the Realm by Stealth to transport Her from Essex where She then lay to the Court of the Queen Regent in Flanders some of Her Servants sent before Flemish Ships ready to receive Her and a Commotion to be raised in that County that in the Heat and Tumult of it She might make Her Escape The King is secretly advertised of this Design and presently dispatcheth certain Forces under Sir John Gates then newly made Lievtenant of the Band of Pensioners to prevent the Practice secures His Coasts orders His Ships to be in Readiness and speeds away the Lord Chancellour Rich with Sir William Peter to bring the Princess to the Court. Which being effected at the last though not without extream Unwillingness on Her part to begin the Journey Inglesfield Walgrave and Rochester being all of Principall place about Her on the thirtieth of October were commiâ—ted to Custody which adds a new Affliction to Her but there was no Remedy The Lords of the Council being commanded by the King to attend upon Her declared in the name of His Highness how long He had permitted Her the Mass that finding how unmoveable She was from Her former Courses He resolved not to endure it longer unless He might perceive some hope of Her Conformity within short time after To which the Princess Answered That Her Soul was Goa's and for Her Faith that as She could not change so She would not dâ—ssemble it The Council thereunto rejoyn That the King intended not to Constrain Her Faith but to restrain Her in the outward Profession of it in regard of those many dangers and inconveniences which might ensue on the Example Which enterchange of words being passed She is appointed for the present to remain with the King but neither Mallâ—t nor any other of Her Chaplains permitted to have speech with Her or access unto Her The Emperour being certified how all things passed sends an Ambassadour to the King with a Threatning Message even to the Denouncing of a Wâ—r in case his Cousin the Princess Mary were not permitted to enjoy the exercise of Her own Religion To Gratifie whom in His desires the Lords of the Council generally seemed to be very inclinable they well considered of the Prejudice whâ—ch must fall upon the English Merchants if they should lose their Trade in Flâ—â—ders where they had a whole year's cloth beside other Goods And they knew well what inconvenience must befall the King who had there 500. Quintals of Powder and good store of Armour which would be seised into the Emperour's hands and imployed against Him if any Breach should grow between them The King is therefore moved with the joynt Consent of â—he whole Board to grant the Emperour's Request and to dispence with the utmost Rigour of the Law in that particular for fear of drawing upon Himself a greater mischief But they found Him so well Studied in the Grounds and Principles of His Religion that no Consideration drawn from any Reason of State could induce Him to it It was thereupon thought fit to send the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London being both Members of that Body to try what they could do upon Him in the way of Argument By them the Point being brought unto such an Issue as might give them some hopes of being admited it was Propounded to Him as their Opinion after some Progress made in the Disputation that Though it were a sin to give Licence to sin yet a connivance of it might be allowed in case it neither were too long nor without some probable hope of a Reformation With which Nicety the young King was so unsatisfied that he declared a Resolution rather to venture Life and all things else which were dear unto Him then to give way to any thing which He knew to be against the Truth Upon which words the King expressed His inward Trouble by a flood of Tears and the Bishops on the sight thereof wept as fast as He the King conceiving Himself wronged in being
Earl of Pembroke of that House was of himself a Man of a daring Nature Boisterously bold and upon that account much favoured by King â—enry the Eighth growing into â—ore Credit with the King in regard of the Lady Ann his Wife the Sister of Queen Katâ—â—in Par and having mightily raised hâ—msâ—lf in the fall of Abbies he was made chief Gentleman of the Privy-Chamber and by that Title raâ—ked amongst the Executours of the King 's last Will and then appointed to be one of the Council to the King now Reigning Being found by Dudly a fit man to advance his ends he is by his Procurement gratâ—fiâ—d for I know not what Service unless it were for furthering the Sale of Bulloign with some of the King's Lands amounting to five hundred pounds in yearly Rents and made Lord Prâ—sident of Wales promoted afterwards to the place of Master of the Horse that he might be as considerabâ—e in the Court as he was in the Country It was to be presumed that he would not be wanting unto him who had so preferred him By these three all Affairs of Court were carried plotâ—ed by Dudley smoothed by the Courtship of the Marquess and executed by the bold hand of the new Lord President Being thus fortified he revives his former Quarrel with the Duke of Sommerset not that he had any just ground for it but that he looked upon him as the onely Block which lay in the way of his Aspirings and â—herefore was to be removed by what means soever Plots are lai'd therefore to entrap him Snares to catch him Reports raised him as a Proud and Ambitious Person of whose Aspirings there would be no other end then the Crown it self and common Rumours spread abroad that some of his Followers had Proclaimed him King in several places onely to finde how well the People stood affected to it His Doors are watched and Notice took of all that went in and out his Words observed made much worse by telling and aggravated with all odious Circumstances to his Disadvantage No way untravailed in the Arts of Treachery and Fraud whâ—ch might bring him into Suspicion with the King and Obloquie with the common People The Duke's Friends were not ignorant of all these Practises and could not but perceive but that his Ruin and their own was projected by them The Law of Nature bound them to preserve themselves but their Adversaries were too cunning for them at the Weapon of Wit and had too much Strength in their own Hands to be easily overmastered in the way of Power Some dangerous Counsels were thereupon infused into him more likely by his Wife then by any other to invite these Lords unto a Banquet and either to kill them as they sate or violently to drag them from the Table and cut of their Heads the Banquet to be made at the Lord Pageâ—'s Hoâ—se near Saint Clement's Church and one hundred stout Men to be lodged in Sommerset-Place not far off for the Execution of that Mâ—rther This Plot confessed if any Credit may be given to such Confessions by one Crane and his Wife both great in the Favour of the Duchess and with her committed And after justâ—fied by Sir Thomas Palmer who was committed with the Duke in his Examination taken by the Lords of the Council There were said to be some Consultations also for raising the Forces in the North for setting upon the Gens'd arms which served in the Nature of a Life-Guard as before was said upon some day of General-Muster two thousand Foot and one hundred Horse of the Duke's being designed unto that Service and that being done to raise the City by Proclaiming Liberty To which it was added by Hammond one of the Duke 's false Servants That his Chamber at Greenwich had been strongly guarded by Night to prevent the Surprisal of his Person How much of this is true or whether any of it be true or not it is not easie to determâ—ne though possibly enough it is that all this Smoak could not be without some Fire which whosoever kindled first there is no doubt but that Earl Dudly blew the Coals and made it seem greater then it was Of all these Practises and Designs if such they were the Earl is conâ—tantly advertised by his Espials whom he had amongâ—â— them and gave them as much Linâ— and Leisure as they could desire till he had made all things ready for the Executing of his own Projectments But first there must be a great day of bestowing Honours as well for gaining the more Credit unto him and his Followers as by the jollity of the Time to take away all Fear of Danger from the Opposite Party In Pursuit whereof Henry Lord Gray Marquess of Dorset descended from Elizabeth Wife of King Edward the Fourth by Her former Husband is made Duke of Suffolk to which he might pretend some Claim in Right of the Lady Frances his Wife the eldest Daughter of Charls Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Sister of Henry anâ— Charls the two late Dukes thereof who dyed a few Moneths since at Cambridg of the Sweating Sickness The Earl himself for some Reasons very well known to himself and not unknown to many others is made Duke of Northumberland which Title had lain Dormant ever since the Death of Henry Lord Percy the sixth Earl of that Family who dyed in the year 1537. or thereabouts of whom more anon The Lord Treasurer Pawlet being then Earl of Wiltshire is made Marquess of Winchester Sir William Herbert created at the same time Lord Herbert of Cardiff and Eâ—rl of Pembroke Some make Sir Thomas Darcie Captain of the Guard to be advanced unto the Title of Lord Darcy of Chich on the same day also which others place perhaps more rightly on the fifth of April The Solemnity of which Creations being passed over the Order of Knighthood is conferred on William Cecil Esquire one of the Secretaries of Estate John Cheek Tutour or Schole-Master to the King Henry Dudley and Henry Nevil Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber At or about which time Sir Robert Dudley the third Son of the new Duke of Nâ—rthumberland but one which had more of the Father in hâ—m then all the rest is sworn of the Bedâ—Chamber to the King which was a place of greatest Trust and Nearness to His Majestie 's Person The Triumphs of this Day being the eleventh day of October were but a Porlogue to the Tragedy which began on the fifth day after At what time the Duke of Sommerset the Lord Gray Sir Thomas Palmer Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Arundel together with Hammond Newdigate and two of the Seimours were seised on and committed to Custody all of them except Palmer Vane and Arundel being sent to the Tower And these three kept in several Chambers to attend the pleasure of the Council for their Examinations The Duchess of Sommerset Crane and his Wife above-mentioned and one of the Gentlewomen of her Chamber were sent unto the Tower on the morrow
next followed not long after by Sir Thomas Holdcroft Sir Miles Partridg Sir Michael Stanhop Wingfield Banister and Vaughan with certain others for whose Commitment there was neither cause known nor afterwards discovered Onely the greater Number raised the greater Noise increas'd the Apprehension of the present Danger and served to make the Duke more Criminal in the Eyes of the People for drawing so many of all sorts into the Conspiracy Much time was spent in the Examination of such of the Prisoners as either had before discovered the Practice if any such Practice were intended or were now fitted and instructed to betray the Duke into the Power and Malice of his Enemies The Confessions which seemed of most importance were those of Palmer Crane and Hammond though the Truth and Reality of the Depositions may be justly questioned For neither were they brought face to face before the Duke at the time of his Trial as in ordinary course they should have been nor suffered loss of Life or Goods as some others did who were no more guilty then themselves And yet the Business stai d not here the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget and two of the Earl of Arundel's Servants being sent Prisoners after the rest upon Crane's detection It was further added by Palmer that on the last St. George's-Day the Duke of Sommerset being upon a journey into the North would have raised the People if he had not been assured by Sir William Herbert that no Danger was intended to him Six Weeks there passed between the Commitment of the Prisoners and the Duke's Arraignment which might have given the King more then leisure enough to finde the depth of the Design if either he had not been directed by such as the new Duke of Northumberland had placed about him or taken by a Solemnity which served fiâ—ly for it For so it happened that the Queen Regent of Scotland having been in France to see Her Daughter and being unwilling to return by Sea in that cold time of the year obtained leave of the King by the mediation of the French Ambassadour to take Her journey through England Which leave being granted She put Her self into the Bay of Portsmouth where She was Honourably received and conveyed towards London From Hampton-Court She passed by Water on the second day of November to St. Paul's Wharf From whence She rode accompanied with divers Noble Men and Ladies of England besides Her own Train of Scotland to the Bishop's-Palace Presented at Her first coming thither in the name of the City with Muttons Beefs Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for Her Entertainment even to Bread and Fewel Having reposed Her self two days She was conveyed in a Chariot to the Court at White-Hall accompanied with the Lady Margaret Douglass Daughter of Margaret Queen of Scots by Her second Husband together with the Duchesses of Richmond Suffolk and Northumberland besides many other Ladies of both Kingdoms which followed after in the Train At the Court-Gate She was received by the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Lord High-Treasurer the Guard standing on both sides as She went along and being brought unto the King whom She found standing at the end of the Great Hall She cast Her self upon Her knees but was presently taken up and Saluted by Him according to the Free Custom of the English Nation Leading Her by the Hand to the Queen's Chamber of Presence He Saluted in like manner all the Ladies of Scotland and so departed for a while Dinner being ready the King conducted Her to the Table prepared for them where they dined together but had their Services apart The Ladies of both Kingdomes were feaâ—ted in the Queen 's Great Chamber where they were most Sumptuously Served Dinner being done that Her Attendants might have time to partake of the Entertainment the King shewed Her His Gardens Galleries c. and about four of the clock He brought Her down by the Hand into the Hall where He Saluted Her and so She departed to the Bishop's-Paâ—ace as before Departing towards Scotland on the sixth of that Moneth She rode through all the Principal Streets of London betwixt the Bishop's House and the Church in Shore-ditch attended by divers Noble Men and Women all the way She went But more particularly the Duke of Northumberland shewed himself with one hundred Horse each having his Javelin in his hand and fourty of them apparelled in Black Velvet Guarded with White and Velvet Caps and White Feathers and Chains of Gold about their Necks Next to these stood one hundred and twenty Horsemen of the Earl of Pembroke's with black Javelins Hats and Feathers Next to them one hundred of the Treasurer's Gentlemen and Yeomen with Javelins These ranks of Horsemen reaching from the Cross in Cheap-side to the end of Birching-Lane in Cornhill Brought as far as Shoreditch-Church She was committed to the care of the Sheriffs of London by whom She was attended as far as Walâ—ham Conducted in like manner by the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which She passed till She came unto the Borders of Scotland Her Entertainment being provided by the King's appointment at the Charge of the Counties Which Passages not being otherwise Material in the Course of this History I have adventured to lay down the better to express the Gallantry and Glory of the English Nation before Puritanism and the Humour of Parity occasioned the neglect of all the laudable Solemnities which antiently had been observed both in Church and State The Discourse raised on this Magnificent Reception of the Scotish Queen so filled all Mouths and entertained so many Pens that the Danger of the Duke of Sommerset seemed for a time to be forgotten but it was onely for a time For on the first of December the Duke being brought by water to Westminster-Hall found all things there prepared for his Arraignment The Lord High-Steward for the time was the Marquess of Winchester who took his place under a Cloath of Estate raised three steps higher then the rest of the Scaffold The Peers to the number of twenty seven sitting one step lower Amongst these were the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess of North-hampton and the Earl of Pembroke who being Parties to the Charge ought in all Honesty and Honour to have excused themselves from sitting in Judgment on him at the time of his Trial. But no Challenge or Objection being made or allowed against them they took place with the rest The Court being sate and the Prisoner brought unto the Bar the Charge against him was divided into five Particulars viz. Firâ—â— His design of Raising men in the North Parts of the Realm and of assembling men at his House to kill the Duke of Northumberland 2. A resolution to assist his Attachment 3. The Plot for killing the Gens d' Arms. 4. His intent for raising London 5. His purpose of assaulting the Lords and devising their Deaths The whole Impeachment managed in the
more inclinable to the Lutheran but where his profit was concerned in the spoil of Images then thâ—â— Zuinglian Doctrines so well beloved in general by the Common People that divers dipt their Handkerchiefs in his Blood to keep them in perpetual Remembrance of him One of which being a sprightly Dame about two years after when the Duke of Northumberland was led through the City for his opposing the Title of Queen Mary ran to him in the Streets and shaking out her bloody Handkerchief before him Behold said she the Blood of that worthy man that good Vncle of that Excellent King which shed by thy malicious Practice doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee The like Opinion also was conceived of the business by the most understanding men in the Court and Kingdom though the King seemed for the present to be satisfied in it In which opinion they were exceedingly confirmed by the Enlargment of the Earl of Arundel and restoring of Crane and his Wife to their former Liberty but most especially by the great Endearments which afterwards appeared between the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Thomas Palmer and the great confidence which the Duke placed in him for the Advancement of his Projects in behalf of the Duke of Suffolk of which more hereafter But the Malice of his Enemies stayed not here extending also to his Friends and Children after his Decease but chiefly to the eldest Son by the second Wife in favour of whom an Act of Parliament had been passed in the thirty second year of the late King Henry for the entailing on his Person all such Lands Estates and Honours as had been or should be purchasâ—d by his Father from the twenty fifth day of May then next foregoing Which Act they caused to be repealed at the end of the next Session of Parliament which began on the morrow after the Death of the Duke whereby they strip'd the young Gentleman being then about thirteen years of Age of his Lands and Titles to which he was in part restored by Queen Elizabeth who in pity of his Father's Suffâ—rings and his own Misfortunes created him â—arl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp c. Nor did the Duke's Fall end it self in no other ruin then that of his own house and the Death of the four Knights which suffered on the same account but drew along with it the â—emoval of the Lord Rich from the Place and Office of Lord Chancellour For so it happened that the Lord Chancellour commiserating the Condition of the Duke of Sommerset though formerly he had shewed himself against him dispatched a Letter to him concerning some Proceedings of the Lords of the Council which he thought fit for him to know Which Letter being hastily superscribed To the Duke with no other Title he gave to one of his Servants to be carried to him By whom for want of a more particular direction it was delivered to the hands of the Duke of Norfolk But the Mistake being presently found the Lord Chancellour knowing into what hands he was like to fall makes his Address unto the King the next morning betimes and humbly prays that in regard of his great Age he might be discharged of the Great Seal and Office of Chancellour Which being granted by the King though with no small difficulty the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke forward enough to go upon such an Errand are sent on the twenty first of December to receive the Seal committed on the morrow after to Doctour Thomas Goodwin Bishop of Ely and one of the Lords of the Privy Council Who afterwards that is to say on the two and twentieth of January was sworn Lord Chancellour the Lord Treasurer Paulet giving him the Oath in the Court of Chancery Next followed the Losses and Disgraces suffered by the Lord Paget on the Duke's account To whom he had continued faithfull in all his Troubles when Sir William Cecil who had received greater Benefits from him and most of the Dependants on him had either deserted or betrayed him His House designed to be the place in which the Duke of Northumberland and the rest of the Lords were to be murthered at a Banquet if any credit may be given to the Informations for which Committed to the Tower as before is said But having no sufficient Proof to warrant any further Proceeding to his Condemnation an Enquiry is made not long after into all his Actions In the return whereof it was suggested That he had sold the King's Lands and Woods without Commission That he had taken great Fines for the King's Lands and applyed them to his proper use and That he had made Leases in Reversion for more then one and twenty years Which Spoyl is to be understood of the Lands and Woods of the Dutchy of Lancaster of the which he was Chancellour and for committing whereof he was not onely forced to resign that Office but condemned in a fine of six thousand pounds not otherwise to be excused but by paying of four thousand pounds within the year This Punishment was accompanied with a Disgrace no less grievous to him then the loss both of his Place and Money He had been chosen into the Society of the Garter An. 1548. when the Duke of Sommerset was in Power and so continued till the fifteenth of April in the year next following Anno 1552. At what time Garter King of Aâ—ms was sent to his Lodging in the Tower to take from him the Garter and the George belonging to him as a Knight of that most Noble Order Which he suffered willingly to be done because it was His Majestie 's Pleasure that it should so be More sensible of the Affront without all question then otherwise he would have been because the said George and Garter were presently afâ—er sent by the King to John Earl of Warwick the Duke of Northumberland's eldest Son Admitted thereupon into that Society So prevalent are the Passions of some Great Persons that they can neither put a measure upon their Hatred nor an end to their Malice Which two last Passages though more properly belonging to the following year I have thought fit to place in this because of that dependance which they have on the Fall of Sommerset The like Ill-Fortune happened at the same time also to Doctour Robert Farrar Bishop of St. David's who as he had his Preferments by him so he suffered also in his Fall not because Guilty of the Practice or Conspiracy with him as the Lord Paget and the rest were given out to be but because he wanted his Support and Countenance against his Adversaries A Man he was of an unsociable disposition rigidly self-willed and one who looked for more Observance then his place required which drew him into a great dislâ—ke with most of his Clergy with none more then the Canons of his own Cathedral The Faction headed amongst others by Doctour Thomas Young then being the Chantour of that Church and afterwards advanced by Queen
for dispatch of Business to which he lai'd such Farms and Tenements in the Town and elsewhere as had been vested in the Brother-hood of the Holy-Cross before remembred and committed the Care and Governance of the whole Revenue to a Corporation of twelve Persons by the Name of the Master and Governours of the Hospital of Christ in Abindon All which he fortified and assured to the Town for ever by Virtue of this His Majestie 's Letters Patents â—earing Date the nineteenth of May in the seventh and last Year of His Reigne Anno 1553. And so I conclude the Reign of King Edward the Sixth sufficiently remarkable for the Progress of the Reformation but otherwise tumultuous in it self and defamed by Sacrilege and so distracted into Sides and Factions that in the end the King Himself became a Prey to the strongest Party which could not otherwise be safe but in His Destruction contrived on Purpose as it was generally supposed to smooth the Way to the Advancement of the Lady Jane Grey to the Royal Throne Of whose short Reign Religious Disposition and Calamitous Death We are next to speak AN APPENDIX TO THE FORMER BOOK Touching the Interposings made in Behalf of the Lady JANE GRAY Publickly Proclaimed QUEEN of ENGLAND Together with the History of Her Admirable Life Short Reign and most Deplorable Death Prov. xxxi 29. Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all Vell. Paterc lib. 2. Genere Probitate Formâ Romanorum Eminentissima per omnia Deis quám hominibus similior Foemina Cambd. in Reliquiis Miraris Janam Graio Sermone loquutam Quo primùm nata est tempore Graia fuit LONDON Printed Anno Dom. 1660. THE LIFE and REIGN OF QUEEN JANE Anno Domini 1553. THE Lady IANE GRAY whom King EDWARD had Declared for His next Successour was Eldest Daughter of HENRY Lord GRAY Duke of Suffolk and Marquess Dorset descended from THOMAS Lord GRAY Marquess Dorset the Eldest Son of Queen ELIZABETH the onely Wife of EDWARD the Fourth by Sir IOHN GRAY Her former Husband Her Mother was the Lady Frances's Daughter and in fine one of the Co-Heirs of Charls Brandon the late Duke of Suffolk by Mary His Wife Queen Dowager to Lewis the Twelfth of France and youngest Daughter of King HENRY the Seventh Grandfather to King EDWARD now Deceased Her High Descent and the great Care of King HENRY the Eighth to see Her happily and well bestowed in Marriage Commended Her unto the Bed of Henry Lord Marquess Dorset before-remembred A man of known Nobility and of Large Revenues possess'd not onely of the Patrimony of the Grays of Groby but of the whole Estate of the Lord Harrington and Bonvile which descended on him in the Right of his Grand-Mother the Wife of the first Marquess of Dorset of this Name and Family And it is little to be doubted but that the Fortunes of the House had been much increased by the especial Providence and Bounty of the said Queen Elizabeth who cannot be supposed to have neglected any Advantage in the Times of Her Glory and Prosperity for the Advancement of Her Children by Her former Husband In these Respects more then for any Personal Abilities which he had in himself he held a very fair Esteem amongst the Peers of the Realm rather Beloved then Reverenced by the Common People For as he had few Commendable Qualities which might produce any High Opinion of his Parts and Merit so was he guilty of no Vices which might blunt the Edg of that Affection in the Vulgar sort which commonly is born to Persons of that Eminent Rank His Wâ—fe as of an Higher Birth was of greater Spirit but one that could accommodate it to the will of Her Husband Pretermitted in the Succession to the Crown by the last Will and Testament of King Henry the Eighth not out of any Disrespect which that King had of Her but because he was not willing to think it probable that either She or the Lady Ellanor Her younger Sister whom he had pretermitted also in that Designation could live so long as to Survive His own three Children and such as in the course of Nature should be issued from them Of this Marriage there were born three Daughters that is to say Jane Katharine and Mary Of which the Eldest being but some Moneths older then the late King Edward may be presumed to have took the name of Jane from the Queen Jane Seimour as Katharine from Queen Katharine Howard or Queen Katharine Parr and Mary from the Princess Mary the eldest Daughter of King Henry or in Relation to Her Grand-Mother His youngest Sister But the great Glory of this Family was the Lady Jane who seemed to have been born with those Attractions which seat a Sovereignty in the face of most beautifull Persons yet was Her mind endued with more Excellent Charms then the Attractions of Her face Modest and Mild of Disposition Courteous of Carriage and of such Affable Deportment as might Entitle Her to the Name of Queen of Hearts before She was Designed for Queen over any Subjects Which Native and Obliging Graces were accompanied with some more profitable ones of Her own Acquiring which set an higher Valew on them and much encreased the same both in Worth and Lustre Having attained unto that Age in which other young Ladies used to apply themselves to the Sports and Exercises of their Sex She wholly gave Her mind to good Arts and Sciences much furthered in that pursuit by the care and diligence of one Mr. Elmer who was appointed for Her Tutour the same if my Conjecture deceive me not who afterwards was deservedly Advanced by Queen Elizabeth to the See of London Under his charge She came to such a large Proficiency that She spake the Latine and Greek Tongues with as sweet a fluency as if they had been Natural and Native to Her Exactly skilled in the Liberal Sciences and perfectly well Studied in both kinds of Philosophy For Proof whereof there goes a Story that Mr. Râ—ger Ascham being then Tutour to the Princess Elizabeth came to attend 〈◊〉 once at Broadgates a House of Her Father's neighbouring to the Town of Leicester where he found Her in Her Chamber reading Phaedon Platonis in Greek with as much delight as some Gentlemen would have read a Merry Tale in Geoffery Chaâ—cer The Duke Her Father the Duchess and all the rest of the Houshould were at that time hunting in the Park which moved him to put this Question to Her How She could find in Her Heart to loose such Excellent Pastimes To which She very chearfully returned this Answer That all the Pastimes in the Park were a Shadow onely of the Pleasure and Contentment which She found in that Book adding moreover That one of the greatest blessings God ever gave Her was in sending Her sharp Parents and a gentle Schole-Master which made Her take delight in nothing so much as in Her Study By which agreeableness of Disposition and eminent
added from the Holy Scripture where Solomon is found to be preferred unto the Throne by David before Adonijah the youngest Son before the eldest a Childe before a Man experienced and well grown in years And some Examples also might be had of the like Transpositions in the Realm of Scotland in Hungary Naples and else where enough to shew that nothing had been done in this great Transaction which was not to be presidented in other Places Upon all which Considerations it was thought most agreeable to the Rules of Polity that the King by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England should so dispose of the Possession of the Crown with such Remainders and Reversions as to him seemed best as might prevent such Inconveniencies and Emergent Mischiefs as might otherwise happen which could not better be effected then by setting the Crown on the Head of the Lady Jane a Lady of a Royal Blood born in the Realm brought up in the Religion now by Law established Married already to a Person of Desert and Honour and such an one in whom all those Graces were concentred which were sufficient to adorn all the rest of Her Sex Thus Reason being thus prepared the next Care was to have the Instrument so contrived in due form of Law that nothing might be wanting in the Stile and Legalities of it which might make it any way obnoxious to Disputes and Questions For the doing whereof it was thought necessary to call in the Assistance of some of the Judges and others of His Majesties Council learned in the Laws of this Realm by whose Authority it might be thought more passable amongst the People Of all which Rank none was thought fitter to be taken into the Consultation then Sir Edward Montague not onely as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and very well experienced in His own Profession But because he being one of the Executours of the King deceased his concurrence with the rest of the Council seemed the more considerable A Letter is therefore sent unto him on the eleventh of June subscribed by the Lord Treasurer the Duke of Northumberland the Earls of Shrewsbury Bedford and Pembroke the Lord Admiral Clinton the Lord Darcie Sir John Gale Sir William Peter Sir William Cecil and Sir John Cheek By the Tenour whereof he was commanded to attend upon their Lordships the next day in the Afternoon and to bring with him Sir John Baker Chancellour of the first-Fruits and Tenths Master Justice Bromeley together with the Attorney and Sollicitour General Being brought into the King's Presence at the time appointed whom they found attended by the Lord Treasurer and some others of those who had subscribed the former Letter the King declared Himself with a weak Voice to this Effect viz. That He had considered in His Sickness of the Estate of His Realm which if it should descend on the Lady Mary who was then unmarried it might so happen that She might marry a Stranger born whereby not onely the Laws of the Realm might be changed and altered but all His own Proceedings in Religion might be also reversed That it was His Pleasure therefore that the Crown should Descend after His Decease unto such Persons aâ—d in such Form as was contained in certain Articles then ready to be shewed unto them to be by them digested and disposed of in due Form of Law These Articles when they had Perused and Considered of they signified unto the King that they conceâ—ved them to be contrary to the Act of Succession which being made in Parliament could not be Frustrated or made Ineffectual but by Parliaments onely Which Answer notwithstanding the King without allowing further time or deliberation commanded them to take the Articles along with them and give the Business a Dispatch with all speed as might be But finding greater Difficulties in it then had appeared unto their Lordships they made a Report unto them at their next Attendance that they had Considered of the King's Articles and the Act of Succession whereby it appeared manâ—festly that if they should make any Book concerning the King's Commandment they should not onely be in danger of Treason but their Lordships also The sum of which Report being cerâ—ifiâ—d to the Duke of Northumberland who though absent was not out of Call he came in great Rage and Fury to the Council-Chamber called the Chief Justice Traitour affirmed that he would fight in his Shirt in that Quarrel against any man living and behaved himself in such an outragious manner as put both Mountague and Justice Bromely in a very great fear that he would have struck them Calâ—ed to the Court again by a Letter of the fourteenth of the same Moneth they found the King more earnest in it then He was before requiring them with a sharp Voice and a displeased Countenance to dispatch the Book according to the Articles delivered to them and telling them that He would have a Parliament shortly to Confirm the same When nothing else would serve the turn Answer was made That His Câ—mmandment should be obeyed upon Condition that they might be Commissionated so to do by His Majestie 's Warrant under the Great Seal of England and have a General Pardon for it when the Deed was done Not daring longer to resist and having made as good Provision as they could for their own Indemnâ—ty they betook themselves unto the Work digested it in form oâ— Law caused â—t to be Engrossed in Parchment and so dispatched it for the Seal to the Lord Chancellour Goodrick sufficiently prepared before-hand not to stick upon it Bâ—t then appeared another Difficulty amongst the Lords of the Council some of whâ—ch not well satisfied with these Proceedings appeared as backward in Subscribing to the Instrument before it went unto the Seal as the Great Lawyers had done at the first in being brought to the Employment But such was the Authority which Dudley and his Party had gained amongst them that some for fear and some for favour did Subscribe at last a Zeal to the Reformed Religion prevailing in it upon some a doubt of loosing their Church-Lands more powerfully over-swaying others and all in fear of getting the displeasure of that Mighty Tyrant who by his Power and Practices carried all before him The last that stood it out was Arch-Bishop Cranmer Who being sent for to the Court when all the Lords of the Council and most of the Judges of the Realm had subscribed the Instrument refused to put his hand unto it or to consent to the Disherison of the late King's Daughters After much Reasoning of the Case he requires a longer time of deliberation consults about it with some of the most Learned Lawyers and is finally sent for by the King who having fully set his heart upon the Business did use so many Reasons to him in behalf of Religion and plyed him with such strong Perswasions in pursuance of them that at the last he suffered himself to be overcome by His Importunities
Noble Men Work the best Nevertheless We are not ignorant of Your Consultations to Vndo the Provisions made for Our Preferment nor of the Great Hands and Provisions forcible wherewith You be Assembled and Prepared by whom and to what end God and You know and Nature cannot but fear some Evil. But be it that some Consideration Politick or whatsoever thing else hath moved You thereto yet doubt ye not My Lords but We can take all these Your doings in Gratious Part being also Right-Ready to remit and fully Pardon the same and that to Eschew Bloodshed and Vengeance against all those that can or will intend the same trusting also assuredly that Ye will take and accept this Grace and Vertue in Good Part as appertaineth and that We shall not be Enforced to use the Service of other Our True Subjects and Friends which in this Our Just and Right Cause Goâ— in whom all Our affiance is shall send Vs. Wherefore My Lords We require You and charge you and every of You of Your Allegiance which You ow to God and Vs and to none other for Our Honour and the Surety of Our Person onely imploy Your Selves and forthwith upon receipt hereof cause Our Right and Title to the Crown and Governance of this Realm to be Proclaimed in Our City of London and other places as to your Wisdoms shall seem Good and as to this Case appertaineth not failing hereof as Our very Trust is in You. And this Our Letter Signed with Our Hand shall be your sufficient Warrant in that behalf Given under Our Signet at Our Mannour of Kenning-Hall the ninth of July 1553. This Letter seemed to give their Lordships no other trouble then the returning of an Answer For well they knew that She could do no less then put up Her Claim and they conceived that She was not in a condition for doing more Onely it was thought fit to let Her know what She was to trust to the better to prevent such Inconveniencies as might otherwise happen And to that end an Answer was presently dispatched under the Hands of the Archâ—Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellour Goodrich Bishop of Ely the Dukes of Northhumberland and Suffâ—lk the Marquesses of Winchester and North-hampton the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Huntington Bedford and Pembroke the Lords Cobham and Darcie Sir Thomas Cheny Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Peter Sir William Cecil Sir John Cheek Sir John Mason Sir Edward North Sir Robert Bows The Tenour whereof was as followeth MADAM WE have received Your Letters the ninth of this Instant Declaring Your Supposed Title which You Judg Your Self to have to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and all the Dâ—minions thereunto belonging For Answer whereof this is to Advertise You that for as much as Our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane is after the Death of Our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth a Prince of most Noble Memory Invested and Possessed with the just and Right Title in the Imperial Crown of this Realm not onely by Good Order of Old Antient Laws of this Realm but also by Our late Sovereign Lord's Letters Patents Signed with His Own Hand and Sealed with the Great Seal of England in presence of most part of the Nobles Counsellours Judges with divers others Grave and Sage Personages Assenting and Subscribing the same We must therefore as of most Bound Duty and Allegiance and Assent unto Her said Grace and to none other except we should which Faithfull Subjects cannot fall into grievous and unspeakable Enormities Wherefore We can no less do both for the quiet of the Realm and You also to advertise you that for as much as the Divorce made between the King of Famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and the Lady Katharine Your Mother was necessary to be had both by the Everlasting Laws of God and also by the Ecclesiastical Laws and the most part of the Noble and Learned Vniversities in Christenaâ—m and Confirmed also by the sundry Acts of Parliaments remaining yet in Force and thereby You justly made Illegitimate and Vn-heritable to the Crown Imperial of this Realm and the Rules and Dominions and Possessions of the same You will upon just consideration hereof and of divers other Causes Lawfull to be Alledged for the same and for the just Inheritance of the Right Line and Godly Order taken by the late King Our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth and agreed upon by the Nobles and Greatest Personages aforesaid Surcease by any pretents to vex or molest any of Our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane Her Subjects from their True Faith and Allegiance due unto Her Grace assuring You that if you will for Respect shew Your Self Quiet and Obedient as You ought You shall find Vs all and several ready to do You any Service that We with Duty may and be glad with Your quietness to preserve the Common State of this Realm wherein You may be otherwise grievous Vs to Your Self and to them And thus We bid You most Heartily well to fare c. These Letters being thus dispatched and no further danger seeming to be feared on that side all things are put in Readiness against the coming of the Queen who the same day about three of the Clock in the Afternoon was brought by water to the Tower attended by a Noble Train of both Sexes from Durham House in the Strand where She had been entertained as a part of Dudley's Family ever since Her Marriage She could not be ignorant of that which had been done in Order unto Her Advancement to the Royal Throne and could not but conceive that Her being Conducted to the Tower in that Solemn manner did portend somewhat which looked toward a Coronation But still She hoped that either She should hear some Good News of the King's Recovery or of the Altering of His Purpose and that She might be suffered to enjoy those Divine Contentments which she had found in the Repose of a Studious Life But when She came into the presence of the two Dukes Her Father and Her Father-in-Law She observed their Behaviour towards Her to be very different from that which they had used before To put Her out of which Amazement it was signified to Her by the Duke of Northumberland That The King was Dead and that He had Declared Her for His next Successour in the Crown Imperial That This Declaration was Approved by all the Lords of the Council most of the Peers and all the Judges of the Land which they had Testified by the Subscription of their Names and all this Ratified and Confirmed by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England That The Lord Mayour the Aldermen and some of the Principal Citizens had been spoke withall by whom they were assured of the Fidelity of the rest of the City That There was nothing wanting but Her Gratefull Acceptance of the High Estate which God Almighty the Sovereign Disposer of all Crowns and Scepters never sufficiently to be thanked by Her for so great
for almost twenty years together had governed his affairs with such power and prudence The Emperor had disgusted the ambitious Prelate not only by crossing him in his sute for the Popedome but by denying him the Archbishoprick of Toledo of which he had once given him no small hopes And now the Cardinal is resolved to cry quits for both thinking himself as much affronted in the sailer of his expectations as if he had been disgracefully deprived of some present possession No way more open to his ends than by working on that scruple of Conscience which had been raised unto his hand to the advance whereof the reservedness of the Queens behaviour and the inequality of her years which render'd her the less agreeable to his conversation gave no small advantage In which conjuncture it was no hard matter to perswade him unto any way which might give satisfaction to his conscience or content to his fancy especially iâ— it came accompanied with such a change as promised him the hopes of a son and heir or at the least of a more lawful and unquestioned issue And then what fitter wife could be found out for him than Madam Rheene one of the daughters of King Lewis the 12th and sister to the wife of the King then Reigning By which alliance he might be able to justifie his separation from the bed of Katherine not only against Charls her Nephew but against all Kings and Emperors in the Christian world taking the Pope into the reckoning A proposition so agreeable to the Kings own thoughts who began to grow weary of his Queen that he resolved to buy the amity of Francis at any rate to which end he not only made a league with him against the Emperour when the condition of the French was almost desperate but remitted unto Francis a very vast debt to the value of 500000 Crowns partly accruing unto him by some former contracts and parâ—ly for the payment of forfeiture incurred by Charles with which the French had charged himself by the capitulations And so far matters went on smoothly to the Cardinals wish and possibly might have succeeded in all particulars had not the plot miscaried by the return of Viscount Rochfort and the planting of Anne Bollen in the Court The admirable attractions of which young Lady had drawn the King so fast unto her that in short time he gave her an absolute soverainty over all his thoughts But so long he concealed his affections from her that a great league and entercourse was contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Percy the eldest son of Henry Lord Percy the 5th Earl of Northumberland of that Name and Family who being brought up in the Cardinals service had many opportunities of confirming an acquaintance with her when either his own pleasure or his Lords affairs occasioned his waiting at the Court But these compliances on both sides neither were nor probably could be so closely caried as not to come unto the knowledge of the jealous King impatient of a Rival in his new affections and yet resolved to carry the business in such a manner as to give no distaste to her whom he so much loved The Cardinal is therefore dealt with to remove that obstacle to which he readily condescended not looking further at the present into the design but that the King intended to appropriate the young Lady to his private pleasures as he had done many others in the times foregoing A messenger is thereupon dispatched to the Earl of Northumberland who at his coming to the Court is informed by the Cardinal how unadvisedly the Lord Percy had entred himself into the affections of Mrs Bollen one of the daughters of Viscount Rochfort not only without his fathers privity but against the express will of the King who was resolved to dispose otherwise of her And this he urged upon the strength of an old prerogative both then and after exercised by the Kings of England in not permitting any of the Nobility to contract mariages and make alliances with one another but by their consents The old Earl startled at the newes and fearing nothing more than the Kings displeasure calls for his son and presenâ—ly schools him in this manner Son quoth he even as thou art and ever haste been a proud disdainful and very unthtifty Master so haste thou now declared thy self Wherefore what joy what pleasure what comfort or what solace can I conceive in thee that thus without discretion hast abused thy self having neither regard to me thy natural father nor to thy natural Soverain Lord the King to whom all honest and loyal subjects bear faithful obedience nor yet to the prosperity of thy own estate but hast so unadvisedly ensâ—ared thy self to her for whom thou hast purchased the Kings high displeasure intolerable for any subject to sustain And but that the King doth consider the lightness of thy head and wilful quality of thy person his displeasure and indignation were sufficient to cast me and all my posterity into utter ruine and destruction But he being my singular good Lord and favourable Prince and my Lord Cardinal my very good friend hath and doth clearly excuse me in thy lewdness and doth rather lament thy folly than malign thee and hath advised an order to be taken for thee to whom both I and you are more bound than we conceive of I pray to God that this may be sufficient admonition to thee to use thy self more wisely hereafter For assure thy self if thou dost not amend thy prodigality thou wilt be the last Earl of our house For thy natural inclination thou art masterful and prodigal to consume all that thy progenitors have with so great travail gathered and kept together with honour But having the Kings Majesty my singular good Lord I trust I assure thee so to order my succession that thou shalt consume thereof but a little For I do not intend I tell thee truly to make thee heir for thanks be to God I have more boys that I trust will use themselves much better and prove more like to be wise and honest men of whom I will chuse the most likely to succeed me So said the much offended father and yet not thinking he had done enough for his own security a marriage is presently concluded for him to the Kings good liking with the Lady Mary one of the daughters of George Lord 〈◊〉 Earl of Shrewsbury Mrs Anne Bollen in the mean time is removed by her father from the Court to her no small trouble who knowing nothing of the Kings had willingly admitted the Lord Percy into her affections And understanding by him what had past betwixt him and his father she conceived such a mortal grudge against the Cardinal whom she looked on as the only cause of this separation that she contributed her best assistance to his final ruine It was about the time when the Kings cause was to be agitated in the Leganâ—ine Court that he caused her to be sent
proceed upon The Lord Rochfort her own brother having some sute to obtain by her of the King was found whispering to her on her bed when she was in it which was interpreted for an act of some great dishonor done or intended to the King as if she had permitted him some farther liberties than were consistent with the innocent familiarity between brothers and sisters In the aggravating whereof with all odious circumstances none was more forward than the Lady Rochfort her self whether out of any jealousie which she had of her husband or whether out of some inveterate hatred which she had to the Queen according to the peccant humor of most sisters in law is not clearly known It was observed also that Sir Henry Norris Groom of the Stool unto the King had entertained a very dear affection for her not without giving himself some hopes of succeeding in the King's bed as Sir Thomas Seimer after did if she chanced to survive him And it appears that she had given him opportunity to make known his affection and to acquaint her with his hopes which she expressed by twitting him in a frolick humor with â—ooking after dead mens shoos Weston and Bâ—eerton both Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were observed also to be very diligent in their services and addresses to her which were construed rather to proceed from love than duty though no reciprocation could be found to proceed from her but what was agreeable to that affability and general debonairness which she shewed to all men Out of these premises weak and imperfect though they were the King resolves to come to a conclusion of his aims and wishes A solemn Tilting was maintained at Greenwich on the first of May at which the King and Queen were present the Lord Rochfort and Sir Henry Norris being principal Challengers The Queen by chance let fall her handkerchief which was taken up by one of her supposed favourits who stood under the window whom the King perceived to wipe his face with it This taken by the King to be done of purpose and thereupon he leaves the Queen and all the rest to behold the Sports and goeâ—h immediately in great haste to Westmâ—â—ster to the no small amazement of all the company but the Queen especially Rochfort and Norris are committed to the Tower on the morrow after to which unfortunate place the Queen her self on the same day was conducted by Sir Thomas Audeley Lord Chancellor the Duke of Norfolk Cromwel then Master of the Rolls and principal Secretary and Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower Informed by them upon the way of the Kings suspitions she is said to have fallen upon her knees and with dire imprecations to have disavowed the crime whatsoever it were wherewith she was charged beseeching God so to regard her as the justness of her cause required After which William Breerton Esquire and Sir Francis Westâ—n of the King 's Privy Chamber together with Mark Smeton one of the King's Musicians were committed on the same occasion These persons being thus committed and the cause made known the next care was to find sufficient Evidence for their condemnation It was objected that thâ— Queen growing out of hope of having any issue male by the King had used the company of the Lord Râ—chfort Norris Bâ—eerton and Weston and possibly of Smeton also involving her at onâ—e in no smaller crimes than those of Adultery and Incest For proof whereof there was no waâ—t of any artifices in sifting canvasing and intangling not onely the Prisoners themselves but all such Wiâ—nesses of either sex as were thought fit to be examined by the Kingâ— Commissioners from none of which they were able to get any thing by all their Arts which might give any ground for her conviction but that Maâ—k Smeton had been wrought on to make some confession of himself to her dishonor out of a vain hope to save his own life by the loss of hers Concerning which Cromwel thus writes unto the King after the Prisoners had been throughly examined in the Tower by the Lords of the Council Many things saith hâ— have been objected but nothing confessed onely some circumstances have been a knowledged by Mark. To which effect and other the particulars before remembred take here a Letter written by Sir Eâ—ward Baynâ—on to Sir William Fitswilâ—iams being then Treasurer of the Household and not long after raised unto the style and Title of Earl of Southampâ—on Mr. Treasurer THis shall be to advertise you that here is much communication that no man will confess any thing against her at all but onely Mark of any actual thing Wherefore in my foolish conceit it should much touch the Kings honor if it should no further appear And I cannot believe but that the other two be as far culpable as ever was he and I think assuredly the one keepeth the others counsel as many conâ—ectures in my mind causeth me to think and especially of the communication that was last between the Queen Mr. Norres Mr. Amner and me as I would if I might speak with Mr. Secretary and you together more plainly expresse my mind If the case be that they have confessed like witnesses aâ—l things as they â—â—ould do then the matter is at a point I have mused much at the manner of Mistresse Margery which hath used her self so strangely towards me of late being her friend so much as I have been But no doubt it cannot be chosen but she must be of counsell therewith for there hath been great friendship between the Queen and her of â—aâ—e I hear further that the Queen standeth stifly in her opinion that she will die in it which I think is in the trust that she hath of the other two But if your businesse be such as you cannot come I would gladly come and wait on you if you think it requisite In appears also by a Letter of Sir William Kingstons that he had much communication with her when she was his prisoner in which her language seemed to be broken and distressed betwixt tears and laughter out of which nothing could be gathered but that she exclaimed against Norris as if he had accused her It was further signified in that Letter that she named some others who had obsequiously applied themselves to her love and service acknowledging such passages though not sufficient to condemn her as shewed she had made use of the utmost liberty which could be honestly allowed her Most true it is as far as any truth can be collected from common and credible reports that Norris being much favoured by the King was offered pardon for his life if he would confess the crimes which he was accused of To which he made this generous answer That in his conscience he thought her guiltlesse of the crimes objected but whether she were or no he could not accuse her of any thing and that he had rather undergo a thousand deaths than betray the innocent So that upon the point
there was no evidence against her but the confession of Smeton and the calumnies of the Lady Rochfort of which the one was fooled into that confession by the hope of life which notwithstanding was not pardoned and the other most deservedly lost her head within few years after for being accessary to the Adulteries of Queen Katherine Howard And yet upon this Evidence she was arraigned in the great Hall of the Tower of London on the 15th of May and pronounced guilty by her Peers of which her own father which I cannot but behold as an act of the highest tyranny was compelled to be one The Lord Rochfort and the rest of the prisoners were found guilty also and suffered death on the 17th day of the same month all of them standing stoutly to the Queens and their own integrity as it was thought that Smeton also would have done but that he still flattered himself with the hopes of life till the loss of his head disabled him from making the retractation The like death suffered by the Queen on the second day after some few permitted to be present rather as witnesses than spectators of her final end And it was so ordered by the advice of Sir William Kingston who signified in his Letters to one of the Council that he conceived it best that a reasonable number onely should be present at the Execution because he found by some discourse which he had had with her that she would declare her self to be a good woman for all men but for the King at the hour of death Which declaration she made good going with great cheerfulness to the Scaffold praying most heartily for the King and standing constantly on her innocence to the very last So dyed this great and gallant Lady one of the most remarkable mockeries and disports of fortune which these last ages have produced raised from the quality of a privat Lady to the bed of a King crowned on the Throne and executed on the Scaffold the fabrick of her power and glories being six years at the least in building but cast down in an instant the splendor and magnificence of her Coronation seeming to have no other end but to make her the more glorious Sacrifice at the next alteration of the Kings affections But her death was not the onely mark which the King did aim at If she had onely lost her head though with the loss of her honor it would have been no bar to her daughter Elizabeth from succeeding her father in the Throne and he must have his bed left free from all such pretensions the better to draw on the following mariage It was thought necessary therefore that she should be separated from his bed by some other means than the Axe or Sword and to be legally divorced from her in a Court of Judicature when the sentence of death might seem to have deprived her of all means as well as of all manner of desire to dispute the point Upon which ground Norris is practised with to confess the Adultery and the Lord Percy now Earl of Northumberland who was known to have made love unto her in her former times to acknowledge a Contract But as Norris gallantly denyed the one so the Lord Percy could not be induced though much laboured to it to confess the other For proof whereof we have this Letter of his own hand writing directed to Secretary Cromwel in these following words Mr Secretary THis shall be to signifie unto you that I perceive by Sir Raynald Carnaby that there is supposed to be a pre-contract between the Queen and me Whereupon I was not only examined upon my oath before the Archbishops of Canterbury and York but also received the blessed Sacrament upon the same before the Duke of Norfolk and others of the Kings Highnesse Council learned in the spiritual Law assuring You Mr Secretary by the said oath and blessed body which afore I received and hereafter mean to receive that the same may be to my damnation if ever there were any contract or promise of mariage betwixt her and me At Newington Green the 13th of May in the 28th year of the reign of Our Soverain Lord King Henry the 8th Yours assured H. Northumberland But notwithstanding these denyals and that neither the Adultery was confessed not the Contract proved some other ground was found out to dissolve the mariage though what it was doth not appear upon Record All which occurs in reference to it is a solemn instrument under the seal of Archbishop Cranmer by which the mariage is declared on good and valuable reasons to be null and void no reason being exprest particularly for the ground thereof Which sentence was pronounced at Lambeth on the 17th of May in the presence of Sir Thomas Hadly Lord Chancellor Charles Duke of Suffolk John Earl of Oxon Robert Earl of Sussex William Lord Sandys Lord Chancellor of his Majesties houshold Thomas Cromwel Master of the Rolls and principal Secretary then newly put into the office of Vicar General Sir William Fitzwilliams Treasurer and Sir William Paulet Controller of the Kings houshold Thomas Bedil Arch-Deacon of Cornwal and John Trigunwel Dr of the Lawes all being of the Privy Council Besides which there were present also John Oliver Dean of Kings College in Oxon Richard Guent Arch-Deacon of London and Dean of the Aâ—ches Edmund Bonner Arch-Deacon of Leicester Richard Leighton Arch Deacon of Buckingham and Thomas Lee Doctor of the Lawes as also Dr Richard Sampson Dean of the Chapel Royal who appeared as Proctor for the King together with Doctor Nicholas Wotton and Doctor John Barbour appointed Proctors for the Queen By the authority of which great appearance more than for any thing contain'd particularly in the act or instrument the said sentence of Divorce was approved by the Prelates and Clergy assembled in their Convocation on the ninth of June and being so confirmed by them it received the like approbation by Act of Parliament within few dayes after in which Act there also passed a clause which declared the Lady Elizabeth the only issue of this mariage to be illegitimate What else concerns this unfortunate Lady together with some proof of divers things before delivered cannot be more pathetically expressed than by her self bemoaning her misfortunes to the King in this following Letter Sir YOur Graces displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange unto me as what to write or what to excuse I am altogether ignorant Whereas you send unto me willing me to confesse a truth and so obtain your favour by such a one whom you know to be my antâ—ent professed enemy I no sooner received this message than I rightly conceived your meaning And if as you say confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety I shall with all willingness and duty perform your commands but let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fauâ—t where not so much as a thought ever proceeded And
conformity as to believe that she was catholickly affected But the Queen was not the onely one who believed so of her though she behaved her self so warily as not to come within the danger of the Laws for acting any thing in opposition unto that Religion which was then established Concerning which there goes a story that when a Popish Priest had urged her very earnestly to declare her judgment touching the Presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament she very cautelously resolved the point in these following Verses 'T was God the word that spake it He took the bread and bâ—ake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it But all this caution notwithstanding her aversness from the Church of Rome was known sufficiently not to be altered while she lived and therefore she to live no longer to be the occasion of continual fears and jealousies to the Catholick party The times were then both sharp and bloody and a great persecution was designed against the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom At what time Bishop Gardiner was heard to say That it was to no purpose to cut off the boughs and branches if they did not also lay the Ax to the root of the Tree More plainly the Lord Paget in the hearing of some of the Spaniaâ—ds That the King should never have a quiet Government in England if her â—â—ad were not stricken off from her shoulders With which the King being made acquainted he resolved to use his best endeavour not onely to preserve her life but obtain her liberty For he considered with himself that if the Princess should be taken away the right of the Succession would remain in the Queen of Scots who being married to the Daulphin of Frâ—â—ce would be a means of joyning this Kingdom unto that and thereby gain unto the French the Soveraignty or supream command above all other Kings in Europe He considered also with himself that the Queen was noâ— very healthy supposed at that â—ime to be with child but thought by others of more judgment not to be like to bring him any children to succeed in the Crown and hoped by such a signall favour to oblige the Princess to accept him for her husband on the Queens decease by means whereof he might still continue Master of the treasures and strength of England in all his wars against the French or any other Nation which maligned the greatness of the Austrian Family Upon which grounds he dealt so effectually with the Queen that order was given about a fortnight after Easter to the Lord Williams and Sir Henry Bedingfield to bring their prisoner to the Court which command was not more cheerfully executed by the one than stomach'd and repin'd at by the other Being brought to Hampton Court where the Queen then lay she was conducted by a back way to the Prince's Lodgings where she continued a fortnight and more without being seen or sent to by any body Bedingfield and his guards being still about her so that she seemed to have changed the place but not the Prison and to be so much nearer danger by how much she was nearer unto those who had power to work it At last a visit was bestowed upon her but not without her earnest sute in that behalf by the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor the Earls of Arundel and Shrewsbery and Sir William Peter whom she right joyfully received desiring them to be a means unto the Queen that she might be freed from that restraint under which she had been kept so long together Which being said the Bishop of Winchester kneeling down besought her to submit her self to the Queen that being as he said the onely probable expedient to effect her liberty To whom she answered as before that rather than she would betray her innocence by such submission she would be content to lie in prison all the days of her life For by so doing said she I must confess my self to be an offender which I never was against her Majesty in thought word or deed and where no just offence is given there needs no submission Some other Overtures being made to the same effect but all unto as little purpose she is at last brought before the Queen whom she had not seen in more than one year before about ten of the clock at night before whom falling on her knees she desired God to preserve her Malesty not doubting as she said but that she should prove her self to be as good a Subject to her Majesty as any other whosoever Being first dealt with by the Queen to confess some offence against her self and afterwards to acknowledge her imprisonment not to be unjust she absolutely refused the one and very handsomely declined the other So that no good being to be gotten on her on either hand she was dismissed with some uncomfortable words from the present Enterview and about a week after was discharged of Bedingfield and his guard of soldiers It was reported that King Philip stood behind the Hangings and hearkned unto every word which passed between them to the end that if the Queen should grow into any extremity he might come in to pacifie her displeasures and calm her passions He knew full well how passionately this Princess was beloved by the English Nation and that he could not at the present more endear himself to the whole body of the people than by effecting her enlargment which shortly after being obtained she was permitted to retire to her own houses in the Country remaining sometimes in one and sometimes in another but never without fear of being remanded unto prison till the death of Gardiner which hapned on the 12th of November then next following Some speech there was and it was earnestly endeavoured by the Popish Party of marrying her to Emanuel Philebert Duke of Savoy as being a Prince that lived far off and where she could give no encouragement to any male-contented party in the Realm of England Against which none so much opposed as the King who had a designe on her for himself as before is said and rather for himself than for Charls his son though it be so affirmed by Cambden the Princess being then in the twenty second year of her age whereas the young Prince was not above seven or eight So that a resolution being finally fixed of keeping her within the Kingdom she lived afterwards for the most part with less vexations but not without many watchfull eyes upon all her actions till it pleased God to call her to the Crown of England She had much profited by the Pedagogie of Ascham and the rest of her Schoolmasters but never improved her self so much as in the School of Affliction by which she learned the miseries incident to Subjects when they groan under the displeasure of offended Princes that the displeasures of some Princes are both made and cherished by the art of their Ministers to the undoing of too many innocent persons
the change and to assure those Princes of the Queens desire to maintain all former leagues between them and the Crown of England but more particular instructions were directed to her Agent in the Court of Spain to whom it was given in charge to represent unto the King the dear remembrance which she kept of those many humanities received from him in the time of her troubles Instructions are sent also to Sir Edward Karn the late Queens Agent with the Pope and now confirmed by her in the same imployment to make his Holiness acquainted with the death of Queen Mary and her succession to the Crown not without out some desire that all good offices might be reciprocally exchanged between them But the Pope answered hereunto according to his accustomed rigour That the Kingdom of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being illegitimate that he could not contradict the declarations of Clement the 7th and Paul the 3d. that it was a great boldness to assume the name and government of it without him yet being desirous to shew a fatherly affection if she will renounce her pretensions and refer her self wholly to his free disposition he will do whatsoever may be done with the honour of the Apostolick See To the making of which sudden answer though there needed no other instigation of his own rough nature yet many thought that he was put upon it by some Ministers of the Court of France who fearing nothing more than that Philip will endeavour by a second mariage to assure himself of the possession of the Realm of England and to that end sollicit for a dispensation to make way unto it thought it expedient to prevent those practices in the first beginning by putting the Pope upon such counsels as would be sure to dash all his hopes that way But the new Queen having perform'd this office of civility to him as she did to others expected not the coming back of any answer not took much thought of it when she heard it She knew full well that her legitimation and the Popes supremacy could not stand together and that she could not possibly maintain the one without a discarding of the other But in this case it concerned her to walk very warily and not to unmask her self too much at once for fear of giving an alarum to the Papal party before she had put her self into a posture of ability to make good her actions Many who were imprisoned for the cause of Religion she restored to liberty at her first coming to the Crown Which occasioned Rainsford a Buffonly Gentleman of the Court to make a sute to her in the behalf of Mathew Mark Luke and John who had been long imprisoned in a Latine Translation that they also might be restored to liberty and walk abroad as formerly in the English Toung To whom she presently made answer That he should first endeavour to know the minds of the Prisoners who perhaps desired no such liberty as was demanded Which notwithstanding upon a serious debate of all particulars she was resolved to proceed to a reformation as the times should serve In order whereunto she constitutes her Privy Council which she compounds of such ingredients as might neither give encouragement to any of those who wish'd well to the Church of Rome or alienate their affections from her whose hearts were more inclined to the Reformation Of such as had been of the Coâ—ncil to the Quen her sister she retained the Lord Archbishop of York the Lord Marquess of Winchester the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Darby and Pembrock the Lords Clynton and Effingham Sir Thomas Cheiney Sir William Petice Sir John Mason Sir Richard Sackvile and Doctor Wotton To whom she added of her own the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Bedford Sir Thomas Parre Sir Edward Roâ—ers Sir Ambrose Care Sir William Cecil and Sir Nicholas Bâ—câ—n To which last being then Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster and one that had been much employed by her in some former services which had relation to the Law she committed the custody of the Great Seal on the 22 of December the Title of Lord Chancellor remaining to Archbishop Heath as before it did and that of the Lord keeper being given to Bacon Which being a new Title and consequently subject unto some disputes an Act was passed in the second Parliament of her Reign for investing the said new Lord Keeper and all that should from thenceforth enjoy that Office with all the Powers Privileges and Preheminences which antiently had been exercised and enjoyed by the Lord Chancellor of England and for confirming of all sentences and decrees in Chancery which had or should be made by the said Lord Keepers in all times to come The like mixture she also caused to be made amongst other her subordinate Ministers in adding such new Commissioners for the Peace in every County as either were known to be of the Reformed Religion or to wish well to it The preferring of so many of the Protestant party as well to places of employment in their several Countries as to the ranck and dignity of Privy Counsellors and the refusal of her hand to Bishop Bonner at her very first comming to the Crown were taken to be strong presumptions as indeed they were that she intended to restore the Reformed Religion And as the Papists in the first beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary hoping thereby the better to obtain her favour began to build new Altars and set up the Mass before they were required so to do by any publick Authority so fared it now with many unadvised Zelots amongst the Protestants who measuring the Queens affections by their own or else presuming that their errors would be taken for an honest zeal employed themselves as busily in the demolishing of Altars and defacing of Images as if they had been licenced and commanded to it by some legal warrant It hapned also that some of the Ministers which remained at home and others which returned in great numbers from beyond the Seas had put themselves into the Pulpits and bitterly inveighed against the superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome The Popish Preachers did the like and were not sparing of invectives against the others whom they accused of Heresies Schisms and Innovation in the Worship of God For the suppressing of which disorders on the one side and those common disturbances on the other the Queen set out two Proclamations much about one time by one of which it was commanded that no man of what perswasion soever he was in the points of Religion should be suffered from thenceforth to preach in publick but onely such as should be licensed by her authority and that all such as were so licensed or appointed should forbear preaching upon any point which was matter of Controversie and might conduce rather to exasperate than to calm mens passions Which Proclamation was observed with such care and strictness that
thee delivereâ— to thee only be thanks honour and praâ—se for ever Amen Which said she mounted into her Chariot with so cleer a spirit as if she had been made for that dayes solemnity Entertained all the way she went with the joyful shouts and acclamations of God save the Queen which she repaid with such a modest affability and so good a grace that it drew tears of joy from the eyes of some with infinite prayers and thanksgiving from the hearts of all but nothing more indeared her to them than the accepting of an English Bible richly gilt which was let down unto her from one of the Pageants by a child representing Truth At the sight whereof she first kissed both her hands with both her hands she received the book which first she kiss'd and after laid unto her bosome as the nearest place unto her heart giving the City greater thanks for that excellent Gift than for all the rest which plentifully had been that day bestowed upon her and promised to be diligent in the reading of it By which and many other acts of a popular piety with which she passed away that day she did not only gain the hearts of all them that saw her but they that saw her did so magnifie her most eminent Graces that they procured the like affections in the hearts of all others also On the next morning with like magnificence and splendor she is attended to the Church of St Peter in Westminster where she was crowned according to the Order of the Roman Pontifical by Dr Owen Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle the only man among all the Bishops who could be wrought on by her to perform that office Whether it were that they saw some alteration coming to which they were resolved not to yield conformity so that they could not be in a worse case upon this refusal than they should be otherwise or that they feared the Popes displeasure if they should do an act so contrary unto his pretensions without leave first granted or that they had their own particular animosities and spleens against her as the Archbishop of York particularly for his being deprived of the seal is not certainly known None more condemned for the refusal than the Bishop of Ely as one that had received his first preferments from the King her father and who complyed so far in the time of King Edward as to assist in the composing of the publick Liturgy and otherwise appeared as forward in the reformation as any other of that Order So that no reason can be given either for his denial now to perform that service or afterwards for his not complying with the Queens proceedings but that he had been one of those which were sent to Rome to tender the submission of the Kingdom to the Pope still living and could not now appear with honour in any such action as seemed to carry with it a repugnancy if not a manifest inconsistency with the said ingagement It cannot be denyed but that there were three Bishops living of King Edward's making all of them zealously affected to the reformation And possibly it may seem strange that the Queen received not the Crown rather from one of their hands than to put her self unto the hazard of so many denyals as had been given her by the others But unto this it may be answered that the said Bishops at that time were deprived of their Sees but whether justly or unjustly could not then be questioned and therefore not in a capacity to perform that service Besides there being at that time no other form established for a Coronation than that which had much in it of the Ceremonies and superstitions of the Church of Rome she was not sure that any of the said three Bishops would have acted in it without such alterations and omissions in the whole course of that Order as might have render'd the whole action questionable amongst captious men and therefore finally she thought it more conducible to her reputation amongst forein Princes to be Crowned by the hands of a Catholick Bishop or one at least which was accounted to be such than if it had been done by any of the other Religion And now the Parliament draws on summoned to begin on the 25th of that month being the Anniversary day of St Paul's conversion a day which seemed to carry some good Omen in it in reference to that great work of the Reformation which was therein to be established The Parliament opened with an eloquent and learned Sermon preached by Dr Cox a man of good credit with the Queen and of no less esteem with the Lords and Commons who caried any good affection to the memory of King Edward the 6th The chusing of which man to perform that service was able of it self to give some intimation of the Queens design to most of the Auditors though to say truth the Bishops refusing to perform the Ceremony of the Coronation had made themselves uncapable of a further trust Nor could the Queens design be so closely caried but that such Lords and Gentlemen as had the managing of elections in their several Countries retained such men for Members of the House of Commons as they conceived most likely to comply with their intentions for a Reformation Amongst which none appeared more active than Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk whom the Queen had taken into her Council Henry Fitz-allen Earl of Arundel whom she continued in the Office of Lord Steward and Sir William Coecil whom she had restored to the place of Secretary to which he had been raised by King Edward the 6th Besides the Queen was young unmaried and like enough to entertain some thoughts of an husband so that it can be no great marvel not only if many of the Nobility but some even of the Gentry also flattered themselves with possibilities of being the man whom she might chuse to be her partner in the Regal Diadem Which hopes much smoothed the way to the accomplishment of her desires which otherwise might have proved more rugged and unpassable than it did at the present Yet notwithstanding all their care there wanted not some rough and furious spirits in the House of Commons who eagerly opposed all propositions which seemed to tend unto the prejudice of the Church of Rome Of which number none so violent as Story Dr. of the Lawes and a great instrument of Bonner's butcheries in the former Reign Who being questioned for the cruelty of his executions appeared so far from being sensible of any errour which he then committed as to declare himself to be sorry for nothing more than that instead of lopping off some few boughs and branches he did not lay his axe to the root of the tree and though it was not hard to guess at how high a mark the wretches malice seemed to aim and what he meant by laying his axe to the root of the tree yet passed he unpunished for the present though divine vengeance brought him in
City of Cambray in which all differences were concluded also between France and Spain all other Articles being accorded the restitution of Calais to the Queen of England seemed the onely obstacle by which the general peace of Christendom was at the point to have been hindred But the Queen either preferring the publick good before private interest or fearing to be left alone if she should stand too obstinately upon that particular came at the last to this agreement viz. That Calais should remain for the tearm of eight years then next following in the hands of the French that at the end of the said tearm it should be deliveâ—ed unto the English or otherwise the French King should pay unto the Queen the sum of 500000 Crowns According unto which Agreement Peace was proclaimed in London on the 7th of April between the Queens Majesty on the one part and the French King on the other as also between her and the King Dolphin with his wife the Queen of Scots and all the Subjects and Dominions of the said four Princes The Proclamation published by Garter and Norrey Kings at Arms accompanied with three other Heralds and five Trumpeters the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns being present on horseback But long the French King lived not to enjoy the benefit of this general Peace unfortunately wounded in Paris at a Tilt or Tournament by Count Monâ—gomery of which wound he shortly after died on the 10th of July leaving be hind him four sons Francis Charls Henry and another Francis of which the three first according to their seniority enjoyed that Kingdom And though she had just cause to be offended with the young King Francis for causing the Queen of Scots his wife to take upon her self the Title and Arms of England yet she resolved to bestow a royal Obsequy on the King deceased which was performed in St. Paul's Church on the 8th and 9th of September in most solemn manner with a rich Hearse made like an Imperial Crown sustained with eight pillars and covered with black Velvet with a Valence fringed with gold and richly hanged with Scâ—tcheous Pennons and Banners of the French Kings Arms the principal mourner for the first day was the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester assisted with ten other Lords Mourners with all the Heralds in black and their Coat-Armours uppermost The divine Offices performed by Doctor Matthew Parker Lord elect of Canterbury Doctor William Barlow Lord elect of Chichester and Doctor Iâ—hn Scory Lord elect of Hereford all sitting in the Throne of the Bishop of London no otherwise at that time than in hoods and Surplices by whom the Derige was executed at that time in the English toung The Funeral Sermon preached the next morning by the Lord of Hereford and a Communion celebrated by the Bishops then attired in Copes upon their Surplices At which time six of the chief mourners received the Sacrament and so departed with the rest to the Bishops Palace where a very liberal Entertainment was provided for them By which magnificency and the like this prudent Queen not onely kept â—er own reputation at the highest amongst forein Princes but caused the greater estimation to be had by the Catholick party of the Religion here established Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. A. D. 1559 1560. WE must begin this year with the Consecration of such new Bishops as were elected to succeed in the place of those which had been deprived the first of which was that of the most reverend Doctor Matthew Parker elected to the See of Canterbury on the first of August but not consecrated till the 17th of December following That Dignity had first been offered as is said by some to Doctor Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York who grown in years and still a well-willer to the Pope desired to be excused from undertaking of a charge so weighty And some say it was offered unto Whitehead also who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queen's mother but he returned the like refusal though on other grounds as more inclined by reason of his long abode in Calvin's Churches to the Presbyterians than the Episcopal form of Government and it was happy for the Church might have been betrayed by his dissaffection that he did refuse it The Chair being better filled by Parker another of Queen Bollen's Chaplains but better principled and of a far more solid judgment in affairs of moment The Congeâ—d ' sleiur which opened him the way to this eminent Dignity bears date on the 18th day of July within few days after the deprivation of the former Bishops to satisfie the world in the Queens intention of preserving the Episcopal Government And therefore why the consecration was deferred so long maybe made a question some think it was that she might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops others conceive that she was so enamoured with the power and title of Supream Governess that she could not deny her self that contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded For what are Titles without Power and what pleasure can be took in Power if no use be made of it And it is possible enough that both or either of these considerations might have some influence upon her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found else-where An Act had passed in the late Parliament which never had the confidence to appear in print in the Preamble whereof it was declared That by dissolution of Religious Houses in the time of the late King her Majesties father many Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen being a Lady of a tender conscience thought not fit to hold nor could conveniently dismember from it without compensation in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her comming to it And thereupon it was enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the Great Seal for taking a survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the said Episcopal Sees belonging or appertaining and on the return of such surveys to take into her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops or Bishops as much annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tithes and portions of Tithes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church Lands certified according to the antient Rents without consideration of the Casualties and other Perqâ—isites of Court which belonged unto them the Retribution made in Pensions Tithes and portions of Tithes extended at the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act not being to take effect