ар the king's warrant. Henry and Catherine were con- CHA P. verfing amicably in the garden, when the chancellor ap- XXXIII. peared with forty of the purfuivants. The king spoke to him at fome distance from her; and feemed to expoftulate 1546. with him in the feverest manner: She even over-heard the terms of knave, fool, and beaft, which he very liberally bestowed upon that magiftrate; and then ordered him to depart his prefence. She afterwards interpofed to mitigate his anger: He faid to her, "Poor foul! you know "not how little intitled this man is to your good offices." From thenceforth, the queen, having narrowly escaped fo great a danger, was careful not to offend Henry's humour by any contradiction; and Gardiner, whofe malice had endeavoured to widen the breach, could never afterwards recover his favour and good opinion *. BUT Henry's tyrannical difpofition, foured by ill health, burft out foon after to the deftruction of a man, who poffeffed a much fuperior rank to that of Gardiner. The duke of Norfolk and his father, during this whole reign, and even a great part of the foregoing, had been regarded as the greateft fubjects in the kingdom, and had rendered very confiderable fervices to the crown. The duke himfelf had in his youth distinguished himself by naval enterprizes: He had much contributed to the victory over the Scots at Flouden: He had fuppreffed a dangerous rebellion in the North: And he had always done his part with honour in all the expeditions against France. Fortune feemed to confpire with his own industry, in raising him to the highest elevation. By the favours heaped on him from the crown, he had acquired an immenfe eftate: The king had been fucceffively married to two of his nieces; and the king's natural fon, the duke of Richmond, had married his daughter: Befides his descent from the antient family of the Moubrays, by which he was allied to the throne, he had efpoufed a daughter of the duke of Buckingham, who was defcended by a female from Edward the third: And as he was believed ftill to adhere fecretly to the antient religion, he was regarded, abroad and at home, as the head of the catholic party. But all these circumstances, in proportion as they exalted the duke, provoked the jealousy of Henry; and VOL. IV. Q he GBurnet, vol. i. p. 344. Herbert, p. 560. Speed, p. 780. Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 58. CHAP. he forefaw danger, during his fon's minority, both to XXXIII. to the public tranquillity, and the new ecclefiaftical fyftem, from the attempts of fo potent a subject. But no1546. thing tended more to expofe Norfolk to the king's vengeance, than the prejudices, which Henry had entertained against the earl of Surrey, fon to that nobleman. SURREY was a young man of the most promifing hopes, and had diftinguished himself by every accomplishment, which became a fcholar, a courtier and a foldier. He excelled in all the military exercises, which were then in request: He encouraged the fine arts by his patronage and example: he had made some fuccessful attempts in poetry; and being fmit with the romantic galIantry of that age, he celebrated the praifes of his mistress, by his pen and his lance, in every mafque and tourna ment. His fpirit and ambition were equal to his talents and his quality; and he did not always regulate his conduct by that caution and referve, which his fituation required. He had been left governor of Boulogne, when that town was taken by Henry; but though his perfonal bravery was unquestioned, he had been unfortunate in fome rencounters with the French. The king, fomewhat displeased with his conduct, had fent over Hertford to command in his place; and Surrey was fo imprudent as to drop fome menacing expreffions against the ministers, on account of this affront, which was put upon him. And as he had refused to marry Hertford's daughter, and even waved every other proposal of marriage; Henry imagined, that he had entertained views of eipoufing the lady Mary; and he was inftantly determined to repress, by the most severe expedients, fo dangerous an ambition. ACTUATED by all these motives, and perhaps too influenced by that old disgust, with which the ill conduct of Catherine Howard had inspired him against her whole family, he gave private orders to arrest Norfolk and Surrey; and they were on the fame day confined in the tower. Surrey being a commoner, his trial was the more expeditious; and as to proofs, neither parliaments 1547. nor juries feem ever to have given the least attention to them in any caufe of the crown, during this whole reign. Execution He was accused, that he had entertained in his family of the ear fome Italians who were fufpected to be fpies; a fervant of of Surrey. his had paid a vifit to cardinal Pole in Italy, whence he 12th of Decemb. was 1547. was fufpected of entertained a correfpondence with that CHA P. obnoxious prelate; he had quartered the arms of Edward XXXIII. the Confeffor on his fcutcheon, which made him be fufpected of afpiring to the crown, though both he and his ancestors had openly, during the courfe of many years, maintained that practice, and the heralds had even juftified it by their authority. Thefe were the crimes, for which a jury, notwithstanding his eloquent and spirited defence, condemned this nobleman for high treasons and their fentence was foon after executed upon him. THE innocence of the duke of Norfolk was ftill, if Attainder poffible, more apparent than that of his fon; as his fer- of the duke vices to the crown had been much greater. His dutchefs, of Norfolk. with whom he lived on bad terms, had been so base as to carry intelligence to his enemies of all the knew against him: Elizabeth Holland, a mistress of his, had been equally fubiervient to the defigns of the court: Yet with all thefe advantages his accufers difcovered no greater crime, than his once faying, that the king was fickly, and could not hold out long; and the kingdom was likely to fall into diforders, through the diverfity of religious opinions. He wrote a most pathetic letter to the king, pleading his paft fervices, and protesting his innocence: Soon after he embraced a more proper expedient for appeafing Henry, by making a fubmiffion and confeffion, fuch as his enemies required: But nothing could mollify the unrelenting temper of the king. He affembled the par- 14th Jan. liament, as the fureft and most expeditious inftrument of his tyranny; and the house of peers, without examining the prisoner, without trial or evidence, paffed a bill of attainder against him, and fent it down to the commons. Cranmer, though engaged for many years in an oppofite party to Norfolk, and though he had received many and great injuries from him, would have no hand in fo unjust a profecution; and he retired to his feat at Croydon H, The king was now approaching faft towards his end; and fearing left Norfolk fhould efcape him, he fent a message to the commons, by which he defired them to haften the bill, on pretence, that Norfolk enjoyed the dignity of earl marshal, and it was necessary to appoint another, who might officiate at the enfuing ceremony of inftalling his fon prince of Wales. The obfequicus commons obeyed Q 2 Burnet, vol. i. p. 348. Fex. CHA P. obeyed his directions, though founded on fo frivolous a XXXIII. pretence; and the king, having affixed the royal affent to the bill by commiffioners, iffued orders for the execution 1547. of Norfolk on the morning of the twenty-ninth of January. But news being carried to the tower, that the king himself had expired that night, the lieutenant deferred obeying the warrant; and it was not thought adviseable by the council to begin a new reign by the death of the greatest nobleman in the kingdom, who had been condemned by a sentence fo unjust and tyrannical. THE king's health had been long in a declining state; but for feveral days all. thofe near him plainly faw his end approaching. He was become fo froward, that no one durft inform him of his condition; and as fome perfons, during this reign, had undergone the punishment of traitors for foretelling the king's death, every one was afraid, left, in the tranfports of his fury, he might, on this pretence, inflict death on the author of fuch friendly intelligence. At last, Sir Anthony Denny ventured to difclofe to him the fatal fecret, and exhorted him to prepare for the fate which was awaiting him. He expreffed his refignation; and defired that Cranmer might be fent for: But before that prelate arrived, he was fpeechlefs, though he fill feemed to retain his fenfes. Cranmer defired him to give fome fign of dying in the faith of Chrift: He squeezed the prelate's hand, and immediately expired, after a reign of thirty-feven years and nine months and in the fixty-fixth year of his age. THE king had made his will near a month before his decease; in which the confirmed the deftination of parliament, by leaving the crown first to prince Edward, then to the lady Mary, next to the lady Elizabeth: The two princeffes he obliged, under penalty of forfeiting their title to the crown, not to marry without the consent of the council, which he appointed for the government of his minor fon. After his own children, he fettled the fucceffion on Frances Brandon, marchioness of Dorfet, eldest daughter to his fifter, the French queen; then on Eleanor, countess of Cumberland, the fecond daughter. In paffing over the pofterity of the queen of Scots, his eldeft fifter, he made ufe of the power obtained from parliament; but as he subjoined, that, after the failure of Lanquet's Epitome of chronicles in the year 1541. the 1547. the French queen's pofterity, the crown should defcend C H A P. to the next lawful heir, it afterwards became a question, XXXIII. whether these words could be applied to the Scottish line. It was thought, that these princes were not the next heirs after the house of Suffolk, but before that houfe; and that Henry, by expreffing himself in this manner, meant entirely to exclude them. The late injuries which he had received from the Scots, had irritated him extremely against that nation; and he maintained to the last that character of violence and caprice, by which his life had been so much diftinguished. Another circumftance of his will may fuggest the fame reflection with regard to the ftrange contrarieties of his temper and conduct: He left money for maffes to be faid for delivering his foul from purgatory; and though he destroyed all thofe institutions, eftablished by his ancestors and others, for the benefit of their fouls; and had even left the doctrine of purgatory doubtful in all the articles of faith, which he promulgated during his latter years; he was yet determined, when matters came to the laft, to take care, at least, of his own future repose, and to adhere to the safer fide of the question K. IT is difficult to give a juft fummary of this prince's His chaqualities: He was fo different from himself in different racer. parts of his reign, that, as is well remarked by lord. Herbert, his history is his best chara&er and description. The abfolute, uncontrouled authority which he maintained at home, and the regard which he acquired among foreign nations, are circumstances, which entitle him to the appellation of a great prince; while his tyranny and cruelty exclude him from the character of a good one. He poffeffed, indeed, great vigour of mind, which qualified him for exercifing dominion over men; courage, intrepidity, vigilance, inflexibility: And though thefe qualities lay not always under the guidance of a regular and folid judgment, they were accompanied with good parts, and an extensive capacity; and every one dreaded a contest with a man, who was known never to yield or to forgive, and who, in every controversy, was determined, either to ruin himself or his antagonist. A catalogue of his vices would comprehend many of the worst qualities * See his will in Fuller, Heyler, and Rymer, p. 110. There is no reasonable ground to fufpect its authenticity. |