spiracies which held England in chronic agita- CH. 7. tion for three quarters of a century. The inno- A.D. 1533. cent Saint at Bugden was the forerunner of the November. prisoner at Fotheringay; and the Observant friars, with their chain girdles and shirts of hair, were the antitypes of Parsons and Campion. The scheme, in the form which it had so far assumed, was rather an appeal to fanaticism than a plot which could have laid hold of the deeper mind of the country; but as an indication of the unrest which was stealing over the minds of men, it assumed an importance which it would not have received from its intrinsic character. The guilt of the principal offenders admitted of no doubt. As soon as the commissioners were satisfied that there was nothing further to be discovered, the Nun, with the monks, was brought The Nun to trial before the Star Chamber; and conviction and the followed as a matter of course.* The unhappy girl finding herself at this conclusion, after seven years of vanity, in which she had played with popes, and queens, and princesses, and archbishops, now, when the dream was thus rudely broken, in the revulsion of feeling could see nothing in herself but a convicted impostor. We need not refuse to pity her. The misfortunes of her sickness had exposed her to temptations far beyond the strength of an ordinary woman; and the guilt which she passionately claimed for herself rested far more truly with the *HALL. five monks brought to trial. A.D. 1533. CH. 7. knavery of the Christ Church monks and the incredible folly of Archbishop Warham.* But December. the times were too stern to admit of nice distinctions. No immediate sentence was pronounced, but it was thought desirable for the satisfaction of the people that a confession should be made in public by the Nun and her companions. The They make Sunday following their trial they were placed on fessions at a raised platform at Paul's Cross by the side of St. Paul's. the pulpit, and when the sermon was over they one by one delivered their 'bills' to the preacher, which by him were read to the crowd.† their con After an acknowledgment of their imposture the prisoners were remanded to the Tower, and their ultimate fate reserved for the consideration of parliament, which was to meet in the middle of January. The chief offenders being thus disposed of, the council resolved next that peremptory measures should be taken with respect to the Princess Mary. ‡ The house. Her establishment was broken up, and she was Princess sent to reside as the Lady Mary in the household of the Princess Elizabeth-a hard but not unwholesome discipline. § As soon as this was hold of the Mary is broken up. * 'I, dame Elizabeth Barton,' she said, 'do confess that I, most miserable and wretched person, have been the original of all this mischief, and by my falsehood I have deceived all these persons (the monks who were her accomplices), and many more; whereby I have most grievously offended Almighty God, and my most noble sovereign the King's Grace. Wherefore I humbly, and with heart most sorrowful, desire you State Papers, vol. i. p. 415. § A curious trait in Mary's character may be mentioned in Nun's A.D. 1533. The inquiry is The prosecuted in further. Countess of done, being satisfied that the leading shoot of CH. 7. the conspiracy was broken, and that no immediate danger was now to be feared, they proceeded leisurely to follow the clue of the confession, and to extend their inquiries. Countess of Salisbury was mentioned as one of The the persons with whom the woman had been correspondence. This lady was the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV. Her mother was a Neville, a child of Richard the king-maker, the famous Earl of Warwick, and her only brother had been murdered to secure the shaking throne of Henry VII. Margaret Plantagenet, in recompense for the lost honours of the house, was made Countess of Salisbury in her own right. The title descended from her grandfather, who was Earl of Salisbury and Warwick; but the prouder title had been dropped as suggestive of dangerous associations. The Earldom of Warwick remained in abeyance, and the castle and the estates attached to it were forfeited to the Crown. The countess was married. after her brother's death to a Sir Richard Pole, a supporter and relation* of the king; and when left a widow she received from Henry VIII. the respectful honour which was due to the most nobly born of his subjects, the only remaining Planta connexion with this transfer. chamber.'-Statement of the ex- *He is called frater consobrinus. See FULLER'S Worthies, vol. iii. p. 128. A.D. 1533. CH. 7. genet of unblemished descent. In his kindness to her children the king had attempted to obliDecember. terate the recollection of her brother's wrongs, and she had been herself selected to preside over the household of the Princess Mary. During the first twenty years of Henry's reign the countess seems to have acknowledged his attentions with loyal regard, and if she had not forgotten her birth and her childhood, she never connected herself with the attempts which during that time were made to revive the feuds of the houses. Richard de la Pole, nephew of Edward IV.,* and called while he lived 'the White Rose,' had more than once endeavoured to excite an insurrection in the eastern counties; but Lady Salisbury was never suspected of holding intercourse with him; she remained aloof from political disputes, and in lofty retirement she was contented to forget her greatness for the sake of the Princess Mary, to whom she and her family were deeply attached. Her relations with the king had thus continued undisturbed until his second marriage. As the representative of the House of York she was the object of the hopes and affections of the remnants of their party, but she had betrayed no disposition to abuse her influence, or to disturb the quiet of the nation for personal ambition of her own. If it be lawful to interpret symptoms in themselves trifling by the light of later events, it would seem as if her attitude now underwent a Reginald material change. Her son Reginald had already Pole. He was killed at the battle of Pavia. quarrelled with the king upon the divorce. He CH. 7. was in suspicious connexion with the pope, and A.D. 1533. having been required to return home upon his December. allegiance, had refused obedience. His mother, and his mother's attached friend, the Marchioness of Exeter, we now find among those to whom the Nun of Kent communicated her prophecies and her plans. It does not seem that the countess thought at any time of reviving her own pretensions; it does seem that she was ready to build a throne for the Princess Mary out of the ruined supporters of her father's family. The power which she could wield might at any moment become formidable. She had two sons in England, Lord Montague and Sir Geoffrey Pole. Her cousin, the Marquis of Exeter, a grandson himself of The Edward IV.,* was, with the exception of the Marquis Duke of Norfolk, the most powerful nobleman in the realm; and he, to judge by events, was beginning to look coldly on the king. We find her surrounded also by the representatives of her mother's family.-Lord Abergavenny, who had been under suspicion when the Duke of Buckingham was executed, Sir Edward Neville, after- The wards executed, Lord Latimer, Sir George and Sir William Neville, all of them were her near connexions, all collateral heirs of the king-maker, inheriting the pride of their birth, and resentfully conscious of their fallen fortunes. The support party so composed would have added for *Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, married Catherine, daughter of Edward. VOL. II. N of Exeter. Nevilles. |