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II.

disdain. The violent duchess scolded her young queen, and roused the mortified Dudley to forsake her chamber of repose, and to vow that he would accept no title but the regal honor." The timid Jane of the preceding day was now so completely transformed into the determined queen, that she sent the two nobles, whom she had already selected to be her trusted messengers, to him, to persuade him not to go to Sion House to imbibe the resentments of his parent, but to come back friendlily to her. 48

A proclamation was immediately printed, and affixed in the most public places, to which she attached her name. In this Edward's last appointment was recited, with his disqualification of Mary and Elizabeth, for their asserted illegitimacy, for their being only half-blood to Edward,50 and from the possibility of their marrying a foreigner. On these grounds she desired their obedience to her as 'their natural liege queen and lady,' and promised to shew herself a most gracious and benign sovereign to all.' The French ambassador directed

51

47 Jane's lett. p. 357.

48 Ib. 'Otherwise I knew that the next morning he would have gone off to Sion.' Jane's lett. 357. She adds, and thus I was in truth deluded by the duke and the council, and ill treated by my husband and his mother.' ib.

49 It was printed by Grafton in 1553; and in French, by Vertot, among the Ambassades de Noailles, 2062, as this minister sent it immediately to his sovereign; and since by Mr. Nicolas, in his Memoir, p. 41-7.

50 This legal point would have been effectual, if it had concerned only Edward's freehold estate as a private individual, and if a previous settlement had not so entailed it on the princesses, that it did not descend, as his own heritable land, to his next legal heir; for in this case, his two half sisters, being by different mothers, would not have taken it as an inheritance from him as his heirs by the common law of the country.

She promised to the uttermost of our power we shall preserve and maintain God's most Holy Word, Christian polity, and the good laws, customs and liberties of these our realms and dominions.' ib.

52

XI.

his sovereign to be informed that she was crowned CHAP. the next day with great ceremonies; a fact that is not mentioned in the other documents which have reached us.

54

That almost all the nobility of England accompanied her state procession to the Tower, 53 and swore, within that fortress, to maintain her reign, were their public pledges to the people and to her, that this revolution of the succession was their work, and would receive their support. But it was remarked, that tho 'the concourse of the people was great, their acclamations were few.' 55 The change was received with unexpected tranquillity. 56 Mary had escaped the arrest which was awaiting her, it was obvious that force must now decide the question between the fair competitors; and the new queen and her creators became as active as the crisis demanded. She issued her royal letters to the lord lieutenants of the counties, requiring them to exert themselves to the uttermost of their power to

As

52 On 11 July, avec grandes ceremonies.' Amb. Noaill. p. 56. Stowe mentions that on the 10th she was received as queen at the Tower, and proclaimed; but he does not mention her coronation. p. 610. And the Frenchman's note calls it rather peculiarly, Le couronnement du roy, successeur du feu roy Edward.' ib.

536

By almost all the peers of the realm." Godwin, p. 264.

54 Ibi accepto clam universæ fere precipuæ nobilitatis jurejurando.' Sanders's Schis. p. 322.

55 As if the strangeness of some new spectacle had drawn them together, rather than any intent of gratulation; which Mary's friends, hitherto distrustful more of success than of the cause, accepted of as an happy omen, and were encouraged to assist her as occasion should invite them.' Godw. ap. 265.

56 Sans tumulte ni emotion du peuple; chose qui étoit inopinée à un chacun.' Noaill. P 56. Only one person was noticed for expressing dislike, a vintner's boy; and he, upon the accusation of his own master, was taken up: his ears were cruelly nailed to a pillar, and then cut off. Stowe, 610. It was an uncharitable satisfaction to many, that the informer, on his return home by water, was drowned the same evening by an accidental upsetting of the boat. ib. Sanders, 323.

II.

BOOK defend her title, and to assert her possession, and to resist the untrue claim of the lady Mary." This princess, as resolute to recover her usurped crown, ordered the authorities at Norwich to proclaim her as their queen. They hesitated on the first day, from a doubt of its prudence; 5 but obeyed her on the ensuing one, when their feelings had become more excited, or their loyalty more safe, and even sent her both men and munitions.59

58

All things thus far favored the bold undertaking. The government, revenue, fortresses, and army of the country, were in the hands of Jane's upholders. The populace of the nation exhibited no opposition. The emperor was too much embarrassed to send any counteracting succours to the excluded princess;' and the French sovereign, from hostility to him, did not then chuse to interfere on her behalf. The usurpation seemed complete; and Ridley, one of

60

57 One of these, to the marquis of Northampton, is printed by Ellis, First Series, v. 2. p. 183. We will hope that Jane did not read before she signed it, the degrading epithet which it attached to the princess, of bastard daughter.' p. 185. A similar letter is in the MS. Lansd. in the B. Museum, No 1236.

58

Alleging that they were not certain of the king's death. Stowe, 610. 59 Stowe, ib.

For

60 Sanders has put this fact satisfactorily. "Charles the Cæsar, from whom alone Mary could expect assistance, was at this time so pressed by attacks upon him, that he could scarcely maintain himself. tho he had, in preceding years, subdued all Germany, and carried prisoners into Flanders the electors of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, the heads of the Protestants; yet this very success so roused the minds of other princes against him, that Henry, the late king of France, tho a maximus hostis hæreticorum, yet signed himself the Protector of the Liberties of Germany, and the avenger of the captives. With this sovereign, Maurice of Saxony, deserting the emperor, conspired; and the ruler of Brandenburg and other German princes joining them, the French king was not only enabled to take from Charles the three amplissimos bishoprics of Toul, Verdun and Metz; but Maurice, by an unexpected attack on the city of Enipontina, had nearly made the emperor himself a prisoner.' De Schis. p. 324.

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our worthiest and most respected reformers, and CHAP. then bishop of London, unhappily mingling party politics with his religious sincerity, degraded himself, and gave a triumph to his enemies, by preaching to the people, amid many others of the clergy, in support of this unrightful change of dynasty." When will this sacred order of society, whom every well-taught mind and good heart desire to revere, leave worldly things to worldly combatants; and cease to unite what our Greatest Legislator has so truly declared to be for ever incompatible?

The throne of Jane would have stood unsubverted, if the feelings of the people had corresponded with those of the leading aristocracy; but on no occasion has public opinion more signally manifested its overwhelming power than on this experiment. Law, government, army, magistracy, nobility, the clergy, the metropolis, every fortress and actual possession, were on the side of Jane. Mary was a fugitive, and alone; and that she might not escape abroad, and excite invasions with an imperial force, a fleet was sent to Yarmouth, to intercept her flight.2

But the feelings of the gentry of England were almost unanimous for the daughter of their undiminished favorite, Henry VIII. Her attachment to the popery they had rejected, would have determined

6 Stowe, 611. Bishop Godwin, who justly says, I wish he had not erred in this matter, remarks with truth its ill effect: Neither were the people made any thing the more inclinable by public impugning queen Mary's right in the pulpit, a course wherein Northumberland engaged many a preacher.' Ann. p. 267. Ridley's sermon was the more unfortunate for himself, in its worldly effects, as injudicious in the time of his uttering it; for it was preached on 16th July, when the popular feeling had turned the scale against queen Jane. Stowe, 611.

62 Godw. 268.

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63

BOOK them to oppose her; but the remembrance and popularity of her father, led them to resolve that she should be their queen, and Protestants as well as Catholics armed zealously for her. Sir Edward Hastings, altho the brother of one of the lords most active for Jane, and who had been sent by Northumberland to raise four thousand foot for her support, obeyed her appeal to him, and was among the first to raise the standard of loyalty to Mary, by marching instantaneously to her retreat in Norfolk the forces he had rapidly collected. This decided conduct removed all fear from those who desired to imitate. Her castle, embosomed in a wood of difficult access, was made more secure by its few defenders cutting down trees to block up the paths that led to it; “ and when the place of retreat was known, knights and gentlemen, and some peers, levying their tenants and dependents, with zealous speed, and taking what money, provisions, and munitions they had by them, hastened to offer her their devoted assistance 65 with such rapid alacrity, as to reach her retirement within six days after Edward's death." She proceeded to Framlingham Castle, the chief seat of the Norfolk

63 Godw. 268. For this early declaration and timely aid, Mary created him baron of Lowborough. ib.; and made him one of her confidential ministers. To take with him the treasure which he had of Edward's in his hands, as M. Noailles intimates, (p. 71,) seems irreconcileable with personal honor.

64 Castello chiuso da un bosco inaccessibile, sbarrate che sieno con arbori certe vie strette e guardate da poca gente.' Lett. Prin. 137.

65 The nobles were the earls of Bath and Sussex, and the two heirs of lords Wharton and Mordaunt. Godw. 267. The law serjeant, Morgan, was also so alert as to be promoted to be one of the chief judges of the kingdom. ib. 268.

66 Stowe says, that on 12 July the account of these arrivals at Kenninghall was brought to the council at London. p. 610.