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A.D. 1553.]

PROCLAMATION OF LADY JANE GREY.

was overwhelmed with grief and terror, and declared herself a most unfit person for a sovereign. She was but a girl of sixteen, and was especially fond of retirement and study.

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he alone was the man for the purpose. They moreover so excited the fears of Lady Jane that she entreated in tears that her father might remain with her. "Whereupon," says Stow, "the Council persuaded the Duke of Northumberland to take that voyage upon himself, saying that no man was so fit therefor, because he had achieved the victory in Norfolk once already, and was so feared there that none durst lift up their weapons against him; besides, that he was the best man of war in the realm, as well for the ordering of his camp and soldiers, both in battle and in their tents, as also by experience, knowledge, and wisdom, he could animate his army with witty persuasions, and also pacify and allay his enemies'

That afternoon she was conveyed by water to the Tower, according to the usual custom on the accession of a new sovereign, and preparatory to the coronation. She arrived there in state about three o'clock. On her entrance, her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, bore her train. The Lord Treasurer presented to her the Crown, and her assembled relatives saluted her on their knees. The unhappy victim of this fatal enterprise had opposed, the prosecution of the plan with all her energy in private, and amid many tears and fears. She was far from think-pride with his stout courage, or else dissuade them, if ing it either just or likely to succeed, but all her efforts were fruitless against her aspiring connections. Her old schoolmaster, Roger Ascham, describes her as a most amiable and excellent young woman, pleasing in her person, if not regularly beautiful, fond of domestic life and literature, and accustomed to read Plato in Greek.

At six o'clock that evening, proclamation was made in London of the death of King Edward, and the succession of Queen Jane by his will; and a long announcement of the reasons which had led to this, signed by the new queen, was made public. Those reasons were of the most flimsy and superficial kind. They admitted that the succession was settled by the 35th of Henry VIII. in favour of Mary and Elizabeth, but pleaded that that was rendered void by a previous statute, which declared their illegitimacy, being unrepealed. It asserted that even had they been born in lawful wedlock, they could not inherit from the late king, being only his sisters in half-blood, as though they did not already inherit from their father, Henry, or as though Edward, their brother, supposing them legitimate, could not bequeath the Crown just as fully to them as to the Lady Jane. Various other reasons, all as frivolous, were added, the only valid one being the danger of the realm, in case of the succession of Mary, being brought again under the Papal dominion. To this proclamation there was no cordial response, the people listening in ominous silence.

On the following morning, whilst Lady Jane's party were feeling the chill of this inauspicious beginning, the messenger of Mary arrived, commanding the Council to see that she was duly proclaimed, and warning them to desist from their treasonable purposes. Scarcely had they returned their uncourteous refusal, when news came pouring in that Mary had taken possession of the castle of Framlingham, and that the nobility, gentry, and people of Suffolk were flocking to her standard.

need were, from their enterprise. Finally, they said, this is the short and long, the queen will in no wise grant that her father should take it upon him."

Northumberland consented, though with many misgivings. He equally distrusted the Council and the citizens. On the 13th of July he set out, urging on the Council at his departure fidelity to the trust reposed in them, and received from them the most earnest protestations of zeal and attachment. If these assurances did not inspire him with confidence, far less did the aspect of the people as he marched out of the city with his little army, so that he could not help remarking to Sir John Gates, "The people come to look at us, but not one exclaims, God speed you!" The people, in fact, now regarded him as a desperate adventurer. They said,' they now saw through him and all his actions; that he had incited Somerset to put to death his own brother, and then he had got Somerset executed, so that the young king might be stripped of his nearest relatives, his natural protectors, and left in his own hands; and that now he had poisoned him to make way for his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane, and thus too for his son.

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To remove these impressions as much as possible, he now sent for the most eminent preachers, and especially Ridley, and exhorted them to disabuse the people in their sermons whilst he was away. Accordingly, Ridley preached on the following Sunday at St. Paul's Cross, before the lord mayor, aldermen, and a great concourso of the people. In his sermon he drew a striking contrast betwixt the daughters of Henry VIII., and especially Mary, and the Lady Jane. He represented that not only the illegitimacy of the two princesses had induced their brother Edward to omit them from the succession, but the certain prospect of destruction to the reformed religion if Mary succeeded, and the equally certain prospect of its maintenance if the amiable, able, and pious Northumberland saw that no time was to be lost. It Lady Jane was queen. On the one hand, there were the was necessary that forces should be instantly dispatched bigoted Spanish connections of Mary, the supporters of to check the growth of Mary's army, and to disperse it the Inquisition, and most probably a prince of that altogether. But who should command it? There was despotic house as her husband; on the other hand, there no one so proper as himself; but he suspected the fidelity would be a noble Protestant queen surrounded by the of the Council, and was unwilling to remove himself to a prelates and councillors who had so stoutly combated for distance from them; he therefore recommended the Duke the pure faith. To satisfy them of the determined Popery of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane, to the command of Mary, he related a personal interview which he had of the expedition. The Council, who were anxious to get with her before the late king's death. He had ridden rid of Northumberland in order that they might them-over in September from his house at Hadlam to her resiselves escape to Mary's camp, represented privately that Suffolk was a general of no reputation, that everything depended on decisive proceedings in the outset, and that

dence at Hunsdon, to pay his respects to her. She had invited him to stay and dine, and after dinner he informed her that he intended on Sunday to come as her diocesan

and preach before her. Mary replied that certainly the parish church would be open to him, but that he must not calculate on seeing her or her household there. He had answered that he hoped she would not refuse God's word. She answered that she did not know what they called God's word now, but certainly it was not the same as in her father's time. "God's word," rejoined Ridley, "was the same at all times, but had been better understood and practised in some ages than others." She replied, that he durst not have avowed his present faith in her father's lifetime, and asked if he were of the Council. He said he was not; and on his retiring, she thanked him for coming to see her, but not at all for his proposal to preach before her.

But not all the eloquence of Ridley, nor the terrors of Mary's bigotry, could move the people, who had a simple, strong conviction that a deed of flagrant wrong was attempted. Northumberland meantime was pursuing his melancholy march towards Framlingham. He was accompanied by his son, the Earl of Warwick, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of Huntingdon, and Lord Grey. His army amounted only to 8,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, but it was so superior in discipline and military supplies, that under ordinary circumstances, with the same vigour and address which he had formerly shown in Scotland and in Norfolk, the superior number of the enemy would have availed nothing against him. Here the circumstances were significantly different. He was no longer battling against a national foe, with a bold heart, and the hope of glory and advancement; he was fighting against his true sovereign, and everything around him or which reached his ears made him feel, moreover, that he was fighting against the convictions of the nation. Instead of the animation of the conqueror, the terrors of the traitor fell over him. At every step some expectation was falsified, or some disastrous news met him. The promised reinforcements did not arrive, but he heard of them taking the way to the camp of Mary instead of his own. He heard of the defection of the fleet; and lastly, a prostrating blow, of the Council having gone over to Queen Mary. Struck with dismay at this accumulation of evil tidings, he retreated from Bury St. Edmunds, which he had reached, to Cambridge, and there betrayed the most pitiable indecision.

Scarcely had he left London before the Council, whilst outwardly professing much activity for the interests of Queen Jane, was really at work to terminate as soon as possible the perilous farce of her Royalty. On the very evening of Sunday the 16th, on which Ridley had preached to the people, the Lord Treasurer left the Tower and made a visit to his own house, contrary to the positive order of Northumberland, who had strictly enjoined Suffolk to keep the whole Council within its walls. On the 19th the Lord Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal, the Earls of Arundel, Shrewsbury, and Pembroke, Sir Thomas Cheney, and Sir John Mason, left the Tower on the plea that it was necessary to levy forces, and to receive the French ambassador, and that Baynard's Castle, the residence of the Earl of Pembroke, was a much more convenient place for these purposes. As they professed to be actuated by zeal for the cause of his daughter, Suffolk, a very weak person, was easily duped. No sooner had they reached Baynard's Castle, than they unanimously de

clared for Queen Mary. They sent for the lord mayor and the aldermen, and the Earl of Arundel announced to them that the Council had resolved to proclaim Queen Mary, denouncing the opposition in no measured terms. The Earl of Pembroke starting up as he finished, and drawing his sword, exclaimed, "If the arguments of my Lord Arundel do not persuade you, this sword shall make Mary queen, or I will die in her quarrel." Shouts of applause echoed his declaration, and they all forthwith rode to St. Paul's Cross, where the garter king-at-arms, arrayed in his heraldic coat, blew his trumpet and proclaimed Mary Queen of England, France, and Ireland. This time there was no gloomy silence, but triumphant acclamations; and the whole body of nobles and civic gentlemen went in procession to St. Paul's, and together sung "Te Deum." Beer, wine, and money were distributed amongst the people, and the day was finished amid the blaze of bonfires, illuminations, and loud rejoicings.

Immediately after proclaiming the new queen, the Council sent to summon the Duke of Suffolk to surrender the Tower, which he did with all alacrity, and, proceeding to Baynard's Castle, signed the proclamations which the Council were issuing. Poor Lady Jane resigned her uneasy and unblessed crown of nine days with unfeigned joy, and the next morning returned to Sion House. This brief period of queenship, which had been thrust upon her against her own wishes and better judgment, had been embittered not only by her own sense of injustice towards her kinswoman, the Princess Mary, and by apprehension of the consequences to herself and all her friends, but still more by the harshness and insatiate ambition of her husband and his mother. In Lady Jane's own letter to Mary from the Tower, we find that whilst in that Royal fortress, her husband, Lord Guildford, insisted on being crowned with her, which she did not think it advisable at once to accede to. A very warm altercation ensued, and she then thought she could give him the crown by Act of Parliament. On reflection, however, she felt it best to waive this question, which so much incensed her husband that he refused to go near her. His mother then upbraided her so severely that she became very ill, and imagined from her sensations that they had given her poison. In the Italian version of her own account, as preserved by Pollini and Rosso, she says that the duchess treated her very ill, "molto malamente," and with the most angry disdain. It was clearly to her a deep and bitter baptism of misery.

The Council dispatched a letter to Northumberland by Richard Rose, the herald, commanding him to disband his army and return to his allegiance to Queen Mary, under penalty of being declared a traitor. But before this reached him he had submitted himself, and in a manner the least heroic and dignified possible. On the Sunday he had induced Dr. Sandys, the vice-chancellor of the university, to preach a sermon against the title and religion of Mary. The very next day the news of the revolution at London arrived, and Northumberland proceeding to the market-place proclaimed the woman ba had thus denounced, and flung up his cap as if in joy at the event, whilst the tears of grief and chagrin streamed down his face. Turning to Dr. Sandys, who was again with him, he said, "Queen Mary was a merciful woman,

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and that, doubtless, all would receive the benefit of her general pardon." But Sandys, who could not help despising him, bade him "not flatter himself with that; for if the queen were ever so inclined to pardon, those who ruled her would destroy him, whoever else were spared."

Immediately after, Sir John Gates, one of his oldest and most obsequious instruments, arrested him when he had his boots half-drawn on, so that he could not help himself; and, on the following morning, the Earl of Arundel arriving with a body of troops, took possession of Northumberland, his captor, Gates, and Dr. Sandys, and sent them off to the Tower. The conduct of the duke on his arrest by Arundel was equally destitute of greatness as his proclamation of the queen; he fell on his knees before the earl, who had a great hatred of him, and abjectly begged for life. The arrest of Northumberland was the signal for the leaders of his party to hasten to the queen at Framlingham, and to endeavour to make their peace. Amongst these were the Marquis of Northampton, Lord Robert Dudley, and Bishop Ridley. They were all sent to the Tower; Ridley's great crime being the vehement sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross against the queen at the instance of Northumberland.

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face was well-formed, and when young she must have been good-looking. Her voice was thick and loud like a man's, and when she spoke she was heard a good way off. She was then about forty years of age; was dressed in violet velvet, and rode a small white, ambling nag, with housings fringed with gold. Elizabeth was about half her age, still in the bloom of youth, with a countenance more pleasing than handsome; a tall and portly figure, large blue eyes, and hands the elegant symmetry of which she was proud to display."

Mary dismissed her army, which had never exceeded 15,000, and which had had no occasion to draw a sword, before quitting Wanstead, except 3,000 horsemen in uniforms of green and white, red and white, and blue and white. These, too, she sent back before entering the city gate, thus showing her perfect confidence in the attachment of her capital. From that point her only guard was that of the city, which brought up the rear with bows and javelins. As the royal sisters rode through the crowded streets, they were accompanied by a continuous roar of acclamation; and on entering the court of the Tower they beheld, kneeling on the green before St. Peter's Church, the state prisoners who had been detained there during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. These were Courtenay, the son of the Marquis of Exeter, who was executed in 1538; the old Duke of Norfolk, still under sentence of death; and the Bishops of Durham and Winchester, Tunstall and Gardiner. Gardiner pronounced a congratulation on behalf of the others; and Mary, bursting into tears at the sight, called them to her, exclaiming, "Ye are all my prisoners!" raised them one by one, kissed them, and set them at liberty. To extend the joy of her safe establishment upon the throne of her ancestors, she ordered eighteen pence to be distributed to every poor householder in the city.

The camp at Framlingham broke up on the last day of July, and Mary set forward towards the metropolis, at every step receiving the homage of her now eagerlyflocking subjects. Amongst the very first to hasten to her presence was Cecil, who presented himself at Ipswich, her first resting-place. He made the most plausible excuse for his conduct in assisting to plant a rival on her throne, protesting all the time his heart was not in it; it was all necessity. The account we have of his conduct is one drawn up under his own eye, and found in the State Paper Office by Mr. Tytler, stamping him as a most consummate hypocrite. At the queen's second halting-place, Ingatestone, the seat of Sir William Petre, the Council Arundel had already arrived with Northumberland who had been the supporters of Queen Jane were presented, and the other prisoners from Cambridge, and he now and kissed her hand; Cecil was again the first to pay this was commanded to secure the Duke of Suffolk and Lady homage, and endeavour by every display of assumed Jane Grey, and lodge them in the Tower likewise. This devotion to win her favour. But though he added to his being done, Mary rather seemed to take pleasure in libepolitical pliancy a most sedulous devotion to Popery, rating and pardoning. The moment that Suffolk was as suddenly assumed, Mary was never imposed upon by conveyed to the Tower, his duchess threw herself at the him, and steadily excluded him from the sweets of office. feet of the queen, and implored her forgiveness of him At Wanstead Mary was met by her sister Elizabeth, with many lamentations, telling her that he was very attended by a company of 1,000 horse, by knights, ladies, ill, and would die if shut up in the Tower. Mary gentlemen, and their retainers. Elizabeth had taken no kindly conceded the favour, and within three days active part in the late transactions. She professed to be Suffolk was again at large-"a wonderful instance of suffering indisposition, and so remained quiescent. If mercy," may Bishop Godwin well remark. The Duke she showed no ardent sympathy as a sister, she had of Norfolk, and Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, were boldly stated to the emissaries of Northumberland, restored to their rank and estates. Norfolk soon after when they came to offer her ample lands and pensions, sat as High Steward at the trial of Northumberland. on condition that she resigned her right to the succession, Gertrude, the mother of Courtenay, the Marchioness of that they must agree with Mary first, for during her Exeter, was made lady of the bed-chamber, and admitted lifetime she had no right to resign. Now, on hearing of to such intimacy that she slept with the queen herself. the approach of her sister, she rode forth with this The Duchess of Somerset was set free, and her family, gallant company to meet her, and, on the 3rd of August, restored to its rights and position. Her son, though they proceeded together to London. The Venetian am- not made again Duke of Somerset, which was a Royal bassador, who was present, describes these remarkable title, was acknowledged as Earl of Hertford, and her sisters thus: "The queen," he says, "was of small daughters, who had been subsisting on miserable stature, slender and delicate in person, totally unlike both annuities amongst their relations, were, three of them, her father and mother. She had very lively, piercing appointed maids of honour. The heirs of Partridge, eyes, which inspired not reverence only, but fear. Her Vane, and Stanhope, who had been executed with the

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Protector, were reinstated in their property. All these acts of liberality shown to zealous Protestants were sufficient proofs that Mary had a naturally good heart; and had she not unfortunately become connected with the bigoted Spanish Court, might have left a very different name to posterity from that which this union procured her. Six days after her arrival at the Tower, Mary caused

the funeral of the late king to tako place. The body was removed to Westminster Abbey, and then deposited in the tomb, the service being performed by Dr. Day, Bishop of Chichester, in the Protestant manner; but at the same time she had his obsequies performed in the Tower, the dirge being sung in Latin, and a requiem sung in the presence of herself and ladies. This exercise of the two forms of religion could not, however, long go on quietly side by side. Bourne, a canon of St.

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