Tower And is not Mr. Varillas a fit person to undertake the writing of History who does not know the most Publick and the most Important transactions of those times LVI The next time that Mr. Varillas returns to English Affairs he tells us that Dudley Earl of Warwick made head against the Duke of Somerset and threw him out of the Government clapt him in prison and cut off his Head according to form Now I lookt over and over again to see if there was an a linea here because there was an Interval of two years between for the Duke of Somerset came again into a share in the Government with the rest and was not beheaded before Ianuary 1552. above two year after this Mr. Varillas had excused the like Error in another place by telling me that he had begun a linea And so by that I should have known that there was an Interval of two years but that being omitted here I hope he will forgive my taking notice of it LVII After this he gives a long Negotiation between Dudley now Duke of Northumberland and the Court of France which I must conclude to be all a Fiction for I never saw the least mark of any thing like it in all the Papers of that time There is in this a lovely dash of a Pen in the character of Mr. de Novailles which no doubt Mr. Varillas hopes will draw him some Recompence from his Heirs It is the greatest that can possibly be given but it is certain that it is as true as the other things that our Author gives out so liberally he says that his foresight went so far that the first advance that those who treated with him made was sufficient to make him discover that which lay hid in their Intentions what care soever they took to disguise them But I allow him to go on in such excessive praises only I wish he were a little less excessive in something else that I will not name LVIII He pretends here That both King Edward 's Sisters Elisabeth as well as Mary made open Profession of the Catholick Religion The contrary to this is so well known that tho it was often objected to Queen Elisabeth that she had dissembled her Religion in her Sister Queen Mary's time it was never so much as once objected to her that she had professed Popery in King Edward's time LIX After a series of things that are equally true and pertinent he tells us that when the D. of Northumberland got the Marriage of Jean Grey for his Son Guilford her two Sisters were married to the Earles of Pembrok and Huntington But I have warned him not to medle with Genealogies yet nothing will prevail upon him The Duke of Northumberland married his second Daughter to the Earl of Huntington his eldest having married to Sidney the Earl of Leicester's Ancestor in whose Arms King Edward dyed Lady Iean Gray's second Sister was indeed marryed to the Earl of Pembrok's eldest Son and her third Sister that was crooked was married to one Keyes an ordinary Gentleman LX. He says upon this nothing remained for the Duke of Northumberland to do but to forge a Testament for King Edward by which both his Sisters and the Queen of Scotland were excluded from the Succession his Sisters as being both Bastards and the Queen of Scotland because born out of the Kingdom so that the Succession came to the Dutchess of Suffolk's Daughters All this with all the other particulars mentioned by Mr. Varillas which are too many to be set down are all false In the Declaration that King Edward made there is no special exclusion of his Sisters or of the Queen of Scots tho they are in effect excluded the Daughters of Suffolk being declared the next Heirs 2. This was not done by a Testament but by a Declaration made in Council all writ with the King 's own Hand upon which an Act of Council was also signed by all the Board and then Letters Patents were passed under the Seal conform to it 3. There was no possibility of Forgery here for it was done too solemnly to admit of that and here I will publish the discovery that I have made in that matter since I writ my History The Original Paper all writ with K. Edward's own Hand and the original Act of Council signed by all the Council have come into my Hands and as I kept them long enough by me to shew them to many persons so I have thought fit to publish them here as Papers that are extremely curious and I would gladly do somewhat that may be a better entertainment to the Reader than the constant discovery of a series of Errors which come so thick one upon another that there is not any one part sound K. EDWARD'S Device for the Succession FOr lack of Issue Male of my Body to the Issue Male coming of the Issue female as I have after declared to the Lady Francis's Heirs Males if She have any for lack of such Issue before my death to the L. Iane and her Heir's Males to the L. Katherine's Heir 's Males to the L. Marie's Heir 's Males to the Heirs Males of the Daughters which She shall have hereafter then to the L. Marget's Heir 's Males for lack of such Issue to the Heir's Males of the Lady Ianes Daughters to the Heirs Males of the L. Katherin's Daughters and so forth till you come to the L. Marget's Heir 's Males 2. If after my death the Heir Male be entred into 18. year old then he to have the whole Rule and Governance thereof 3. But if he be under 18. then his Mother to be Governess till he enter 18. year old but to do nothing without the Advice and Agreement of six parcel of a Council to be pointed by my Last Will to the number of twenty 4. If the Mother dye before the Heir enter into 18. the Realm to be governed by the Council provided that after he be 14. year all great matters of importance be opened to him 5. If I died without Issue and there were none Heir Male then the Lady Francis to be Governess Regent for lack of her her eldest Daughters and for lack of them the L. Marget to be Governess after as is aforesaid till some Heir Male be born and then the Mother of that Child to be Governess 6. And if during the Rule of the Governess there dye four of the Council then shall She by her Letters call an Assembly of the Council within one month following and choose four more wherein She shall have three Voices but after her death the 16. shall choose among themselves till the Heir come to 14. year old and then he by their Advise shall choose them The Order of King EDWARD the Sixth and of his Privy Council concerning the Succession to the Crown EDWARD WE whose Hands are underwritten having heretofore many times heard the Kings Majesty our most gracious
he made Cromwel Great Chamberlain and created him Earl of Essex and made his Son a Lord. But this is so false that the King from the time he saw Anne of Cleve had an aversion for her and intended once to have sent her away without Marrying her and after he had married her he told Cromwel how much he disliked her and that he believed She was no Maid and that her person was loathsom so that he believed he should never be able to consummate the Marriage so that Cromwel had rather reason to apprehend that this proving so unhappy it would be his Ruin He was not made Earl of Essex till the April following so that as this Marriage was too unlucky to do him any service it seems it did not hurt him much neither XXII He shews us how well he understands our Constitutions when he says That the Subsidy granted the King was a Tenth and the Fourth part of a fifteenth whereas it was a Tenth and Four Fifteenths XXIII He says That Cromwel having met with some Opposition by three members of Parliament who were the Bishop of Chichester Dr. Wilson and Frammer a Merchant he charged some false Crimes on them and put them in prison but he proceeded more severely against John Nevil Knight of the Garter for he subordned false Witnesses against him so that he was beheaded 1. The Bishop of Chichester comply'd with every thing that was done in Parliament as appears by the Journal of the House of Lords but some Correspondence that he held with the Court of Rome being discovered about this time he was put in prison but upon his submission he was set at Liberty 2. Wilson being a Clergy-man could not be of the House of Commons and he was no Bishop so that he could not be a Member of either House but he was clapt up as a Compsice of the Bishop of Chichester's and likewise set at liberty with him Frammer is not named there is indeed one Grunceter a Merchant named who was condemned of Treason a year before this 3. There was one Sr. Edward Nevil a Knight tho not of the Garter who was indeed condemned and executed a year before this but it was for being in a Confederacy with Cardinal Pool and more particularly for having said that the King was a Beast and worst than a Beast God only knows whether the Witnesses swore true or false against him XXIV He tells us That Câ—omwel to fill up the measure of his Iniquities got a Law to be made by which he might easily dispatch all those who should oppose his Designs which was that any man condemned in absence without being heard to justify himself either in person or by proxy should be esteemed as justly condemned as if it had been done in the common form Here is indeed the great blemish of of King Henry's Reign and of Cromwel's Ministry but it is told in such a manner by Mr. Varillas that it appears to be no extraordinary thing as he relates it 1. There was no Law made about this it was only practised by the Parliament as the Legislative Body without giving the common Courts of Judicature the power of using it 2. The Condemning men in Absence has been always practised by our Law when the Absence was wilful and if Mr. Varillas accuses the putting men to death upon such a Sentence it may probably be supposed to be an effect of his aversion to the King of England and put here on design to aggravate the Execution of Sr. Thomas Armstrong and the Duke of Monmouth who were the two last that suffered being condemned in absence 3. The Heinousness of this matter which our Author shews he understood not consists in this that men who were in prison were condemned upon the examination of Witnesses against them without confronting them with their Witnesses or bringing them to answer for themselves now tho this was taken from the Holy Courts of Inquisition and was only put in practise by the Parliament it self yet I will not go about to soften much less to justify a practice so contrary to the most Indispensable Rules of Equity and Morality XXV He says K. Henry being sooner disgusted at Anne of Cleve than he had been of his other Wives dissolved the Marriage for two reasons the one was that she was Incapable of having children and the other was her Heresy to which the English Writers that favour Henry add two others the one that those of the League of Smalcald would not receive the English into their Vnion and the other that K. Henry's Interests were then changed to these four reasons he adds a fifth that She had not that engaging Temper that was necessary to charm Henry 1. It is a strange thing to see an Historian mistake every thing and that there should not be one single part of his work sound The sentence annulling the K's Marriage with Anne of Cleve is printed according to the Record yet extant in which as there is not one of all the reasons mentioned by Mr. Varillas so there are other Reasons that would have given him much better grounds to have censured this Action than those he sets up chiefly the second which is that K. Henry had not given an inward clear perfect and entire consent to the Marriage which I had laid open with the Indignation that so unjust a practice ought to raise in an Historian since here a ground was laid down by which all Faith and Commerce among men is quite destroyed so ill instructed was Mr. Varillas that tho he had a mind to write a Satyr against K. Henry he did not know where to take the true Advantages that a man better Informed would have found if he writes Panegyricks as he does Satyrs Mr. Varillas will still be Mr. Varillas XXVI He pretends that Cromwell would not so far comply with the King's aversion to Anne of Cleves as to concur with him in the Divorce which drew on him his Ruin His testimony was the fullest proof that the King made use of for obtaining the Divoce but whether he consented to it or not it cannot be known if he refused to do it he was so much the worthier man XXVII He tells us a long story of the different Interests to which K. Henry was leaning at last he says that Cromwellsigned a League in the Kings name with the German Princes which some say he did without the Kings knowledge thâ— others say the contrary upon which the Emperours Ambassadours reproached the King with it but the King denying it the discovery was made and after a dressing up of the scene with more of his Visions it ends in this That Cromwell was put in Prison yet he hoped to have justified himself for this Treaty if he had been brought to make his Defence but many other things besides this were laid to his charge and the Law that he had procured to be passed three moneths before this of
Soveraign Lord's earnest Desire and express Commandment touch-the Limitation of the Succession in the Imperial Crown of this Realm and others his Majesties Realms and Dominions and having seen His Majesty's own Devise touching the said Succession first wholy written with His most Gracious Hand and after copied out in His Majesty's presence by His most high Commandment and confirmed with the Subscription of His Majesties own Hand and by His Highness delivered to certain Judges and other learned men to be written in full order do by His Majesty's special and absolute Commandment eftsoons given us agree and by these presents signed with our Hands and sealed with our Seales promise by our Oaths and Honours to observe fully perform and keep all and every Article Clause Branch and Matter contained in the said Writing delivered to the Judges and others and superscribed with His Majesty's Hand in six several places and all such other matter as His Majesty by his Last Will shall appoint declare or command touching or concerning the Limitation of the Succession of the said Imperial Crown And we do further promise by His Majesty's said Commandment never to vary or swerve during our lives from the said Limitation of the Succession but the same shall to the uttermost of our powers defend and maintain And if any of us or any other shall at any time hereafter which God forbid vary from this Agreement or any part thereof We and every of us do assent to take use and repute him for a Breaker of the Common Concord Peace and Unity of this Realm and to do our uttermost to see him or them so varying or swearving punished with most sharp punishments according to their deserts T. Cant. T. Ely Cane Winchester Northumberland I. Bedford H. Suffolk W. Northâ— F. Shrewsbury F. Huntington Pembroke E. Clynton T. Darcy G. Cobham R. Ryche T. Chene Iohn Gate William Petre. Iohn Cheek W. Cecil Edward Mountague Iohn Baker Edward Gryffin Iohn Lucas Iohn Gosnald By these Evidences it will appear that what Faults soever may be charged on the Memory of the Duke of Northumberland this of forging King Edward's Testament is none of them LXI He says the D. of Northumberland obliged all Mary and Elisabeth 's Friends to abandon them and made them be kept as close Prisoners in Hunsden-Castle as if they had been Criminals But these two Sisters were never so good Friends as to live together 2. They were both so free with their Families that Princess Mary was on her way to see King Edward and on the road she met the news of his Death LXII He says It was five moneths past from the time of Northumberland 's Son's marrying L. Jean Gray when K. Edward died on the sixth of Iuly There was but five weeks past for they were married in the beginning of Iune but on what day of Iune it is not certain for ought I know LXIII He tells us that Northumberland concealed King Edwards death as long as he could and that some days after that Jean Gray made a magnificent Entry thro London and then came on the War with Queen Mary But this whole business lasted only nine dayes from whence it is thought that the English Proverb of a Nine days wonder took its beginning So he ought to manage this time a little better Indeed this Phantasm of Lady Iean Gray as it disappeared soon so it never had force enough to pretend to any Magnificence two dayes after King Edward's Death she was conveyed secretly to the Tower of London out of which she never came for after a weeks Pageantry of her Queenship she was kept there till her Head was cut off LXIV Mr. Varillas who will always discover the secretest springs of mens thoughts pretends to tell us that the ground of the hatred that the Nation bore to the Duke of Northumberland was his rendring of Bulloigne to the French And here he tells us in his way that is with an equal measure of Ignorance and Presumption the various Reflections that the English made on that â—â—tter But as for the rendring of â—â—lloigne it was indeed necessary since 〈◊〉 Forts that covered it had been taâ—â—n and this having fallen out during â—â—merset's Ministry the blame of this â—â—ss was laid wholly on him 2. There â—â—ere several Sessions of Parliament afâ—â—r that rendition which fell out imâ—ediately upon the Duke of Somerset's all and a new one was called in the â—â—d of this Reign yet no complaint â—as ever made in Parliament upon â—â—at head 3. The Duke of Northumâ—erland was less guilty of it than any of 〈◊〉 Ministry for when the Emperour â—â—efused to assist them the Ministry 〈◊〉 that a War with France and Scotâ—â—nd was too great a load upon them 〈◊〉 a Minority in which their only â—onsiderable Ally failed them so that â—hey resolved to make a Peace by the endring of Bulloigne yet tho the Duke â—f Northumberland saw this could not â—e opposed he absented himself for â—ome days from Council and so did not â—â—gn the Peace with the other Privy Councellors who signed it and of which the Original Order was long in my Hands For the Original Couâ—â—cil-Book in which all the most Impoâ—â—tant Resolutions were signed by tâ—â— whole Board had fallen into privaâ—â— hands and was presented to me bâ—â— I delivered it in to the Clerks of tâ—â— Privy Council to be preserved by theâ— with the care that is due to the moâ—â— Authentical Remain of the last Agâ— 4. But as Mr. Varillas tells a faâ—â— ground of the Aversion that the Eâ—â—glish had to the Duke of Northumbeâ—â—land so he did not know the true one tho they are mentioned by all our Aâ—thors He was excessively haughty aâ—â—violent he was believed to be a man 〈◊〉 no Religion It was generally though that he had destroyed the Duke of Sâ—â—merset by false Witnesses he had noâ— excluded the right Heirs of the Crowâ— to set up his own Son and which wâ—â— beyond all the rest in the spirits of thâ— people it was generally believed thâ—â— King Edward was poisoned by his dâ—â—rections and here are grounds of a general dislike that were a little betteâ— founded than that feigned one for thâ— delivering up of Bulloigne three yeaâ— before but a man that will needs bâ— Writer of History in spite of so proâ—â—nd an Ignorance must ramble about 〈◊〉 conjectures and if he has as little â—â—dgment as sincerity he must make â—â—ch as Mr. Varillas does LXV He tells us that immediatly â—â—n King Edward's death â—orthumberland sent a body 〈◊〉 Horse to seise on Queen â—ary But here his Memory failed â—n too soon for he had but six paâ—s before said that both She and her â—â—ster Elisabeth were kept close prisoâ—â—rs in Hunsden so there was no ocâ—sion for seising on her person LXVI He tells us that Petre Seâ—â—tary to the D. of Northumâ—â—rland who was a Catholick â—â—he had pretended to be a Calâ—â—nist that so he might